Story: Little Children Like Moths to a Flame 3/3
Title: Little Children Like Moths to a Flame
Author: kage_no_kodoku
Rating: R
Warnings: un-beta-ed, some mature concepts
Genre: AU, supernatural, drama, fluff (this never disappears, does it?)
Pairing: Nao x Saga
Prompt/s: "Fireworks Blooming" and "And finally, everything was quiet."
Summary: The smallest movements of lips. The slightest change in pace of breath. The tiniest quickenings of pulse. Every little synapse of the brain sends out a vibration, a ripple into the world that grows larger and larger until it could be heard. A noise not so white and not so pleasant that normality turns a deaf ear towards it. But you are not so normal; and from him, you learned the beauty of silence.
Disclaimer: I own no one. LJ cut taken from "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake.
Notes: written for aliceinfiction week 9 and tragic_ennui prompt 15.
***
Hidden by the fir and ginkgo that stood behind the Institution's main building lies a garden of flowers. He took you there, after sneaking under the noses of the men in whitewashed clothes that cast their sharp eyes around like eagles after prey. You tremble at the very thought of getting caught.
"Don't worry, they won't find us," he assured as the tree trunks begin to close in on the narrow trail you two tread. "Flowers don't tell the secrets they hear."
He continued to lead the way in silence, every so often casting sidelong glances and sloppy smiles at you. The surprisingly cool wind lifted up a few petals and the rustling of leaves that followed accompanied the crunching of grass and twigs underfoot. The rhythmic sound soon took you away into another world. You see the lines of a colorful symphony. The trees are musicians. The conductor, the wind. Wouldn't that be very pleasant? A forest orchestra.
"Ne, can you still hear the voices from here?"
His voice shook you out of your reverie. It was only then that you realized you've reached your destination. Various flowers surrounded you with a spectrum of colors. Hydrangeas, lilies, foxgloves and heather. Bird-like blossoms of yellow, blue and red-orange. An iris kissed your cheek for a short moment as you moved towards the center of the throng in admiration.
"It's so beautiful!" You spun around to face the one who brought you here, who raised his brows at the expression on your face. Then he looked away and coughed at his fist before rubbing the back of his head. You began to wonder if you've done something out of the ordinary.
"You haven't answered my question," he said, still without looking at you. You were standing a little distance from him, but you could distinctly see his ears blend with the red roses behind him. Interesting.
"It's peaceful here. I can actually hear the birds chirping!"
You gave him your best beam, which was a notch shy of the midday sun in brilliance. He returned the gesture, but somehow there seemed to be something off. He still would not look at your eyes.
"But you're really something, aren't you? Hearing emotions..." he trailed off for a moment, then took a quick glance at you and shrugged. "Mine's not so cool."
"Don't say that! I could only hear this kind of quiet when I'm with you."
"Well if it's like that..."
He sort of shrugged again and turned towards a group of odd-looking roses. They didn't look like real roses and they glowed a translucent hue of blue. Gently, he cupped one and brought it close to his face. It absorbed all of his attention, and he absorbed all of yours. You tried to decipher the seeming melancholic air about his usual cheerful demeanor through closely observing his face, especially those large obsidian orbs. But even his eyes tell you nothing of his thoughts. Maybe flowers are really the only ones that know of his secrets.
"Frozen tears bloom into roses."
"What?"
His words were lost to the wind and the great booming sound that reverberated through the whole area. Almost immediately, you searched the skies for the source.
"Fireworks?"
"Happy birthday, Saga!"
Dumbfounded, you stared at Nao for his preposterous comment. He merely raised his brows as if questioning whether something's wrong.
"Nao, my birthday was last month."
"I know."
And he does. The return of his mischievous grin proved that. It was as if the gloom about his aura a while ago simply disappeared into thin air.
"You planned this, didn't you?"
For some reason you could not quite grasp, he laughed at you. But there was no malice or insulting intent there. Even if you can't hear his emotions, you know. You know because he took you into his arms and laughed some more. Pure, mirthful laughter that overpowered the din of fireworks in the background.
"You caught me!" He paused for a moment and took in the positions both of you were in, and chuckled. "Or I caught you, rather."
"I don't get you at all."
"Think of it this way: something died in us when we first came to this place, but now... don't you think it's like something new is born?"
Death and birth. When you first came to this place, you felt as if you were forcibly torn away from everything familiar and exiled to an alien place of whitewashed walls that failed to mask the truth of the happenings within. White as your pale skin, you blended with the background and no one noticed your existence until Nao called you from his perch up the fir tree.
The petals got stuck in your hair and the red orange of the blossoms got stuck in your memory. It marked a beginning for you, and it seemed to mark a beginning for Nao as well. For someone so placeless and alone because of a uniqueness that is seen as accursed and necessary for correction, you finally found a place to call home.
You tugged at his shirt and pulled him closer to you.
"A birthday, huh?"
You could feel his warmth through the thin clothes typical of summer. You were more aware of it than the Sun-king's rays that slipped through his overcast veil of white and gray. When he whispered his reply, you were more aware of it than the booms of fireworks over your little heads.
"Yeah, it's our birthday."
~*~
Summer. The heat is intense during the day, but at night you still find yourself hiding under the covers. Shadows dance against the wall and in the dead of night, you could hear them more clearly than before. The voices, they never stop. The pains that never were your own, they scar you over and over again. You scream beyond the limit of your little lungs, but would anyone take heed and listen?
A cool arm wraps around your waist from behind, and brushing against your ear, whispers of hushed consolation. He may never understand it wholly, but you know that at least he tries.
Life has always been filled with noise and pain, but you fall asleep in the peace found in his warmth.
Finally, everything is quiet.
-->END
***
Random End Notes: Death is always knocking, it doesn't matter which door. I was terrified that she might be knocking at a door so close to me that I began to tremble in fear and despair. If it weren't for the loving support and concern of my dear friends and loved ones, I might have lost hope. This was a few weeks ago, some days after the 20th of May.
My grandmother is still in the hospital now, but no longer in the ICU. She's on the road to recovery, and we, her family, will always be there to support. If I had lost hope then, I might have hindered my family in this struggle instead of helping out.
*shrugs* This story is not a retelling of my family life drama. I just felt the need to say that.
By the way, I own the concept of the translucent blue roses there. They're called Frost Roses, and refer to an original short story I wrote a few years back. Maybe I'll post it here sometime if anyone's interested...
Comments and criticisms are always welcome. Volunteering to be my beta-reader would also be very much welcome. I still have no beta and I still use Notepad.
Author: kage_no_kodoku
Rating: R
Warnings: un-beta-ed, some mature concepts
Genre: AU, supernatural, drama, fluff (this never disappears, does it?)
Pairing: Nao x Saga
Prompt/s: "Fireworks Blooming" and "And finally, everything was quiet."
Summary: The smallest movements of lips. The slightest change in pace of breath. The tiniest quickenings of pulse. Every little synapse of the brain sends out a vibration, a ripple into the world that grows larger and larger until it could be heard. A noise not so white and not so pleasant that normality turns a deaf ear towards it. But you are not so normal; and from him, you learned the beauty of silence.
Disclaimer: I own no one. LJ cut taken from "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake.
Notes: written for aliceinfiction week 9 and tragic_ennui prompt 15.
***
Hidden by the fir and ginkgo that stood behind the Institution's main building lies a garden of flowers. He took you there, after sneaking under the noses of the men in whitewashed clothes that cast their sharp eyes around like eagles after prey. You tremble at the very thought of getting caught.
"Don't worry, they won't find us," he assured as the tree trunks begin to close in on the narrow trail you two tread. "Flowers don't tell the secrets they hear."
He continued to lead the way in silence, every so often casting sidelong glances and sloppy smiles at you. The surprisingly cool wind lifted up a few petals and the rustling of leaves that followed accompanied the crunching of grass and twigs underfoot. The rhythmic sound soon took you away into another world. You see the lines of a colorful symphony. The trees are musicians. The conductor, the wind. Wouldn't that be very pleasant? A forest orchestra.
"Ne, can you still hear the voices from here?"
His voice shook you out of your reverie. It was only then that you realized you've reached your destination. Various flowers surrounded you with a spectrum of colors. Hydrangeas, lilies, foxgloves and heather. Bird-like blossoms of yellow, blue and red-orange. An iris kissed your cheek for a short moment as you moved towards the center of the throng in admiration.
"It's so beautiful!" You spun around to face the one who brought you here, who raised his brows at the expression on your face. Then he looked away and coughed at his fist before rubbing the back of his head. You began to wonder if you've done something out of the ordinary.
"You haven't answered my question," he said, still without looking at you. You were standing a little distance from him, but you could distinctly see his ears blend with the red roses behind him. Interesting.
"It's peaceful here. I can actually hear the birds chirping!"
You gave him your best beam, which was a notch shy of the midday sun in brilliance. He returned the gesture, but somehow there seemed to be something off. He still would not look at your eyes.
"But you're really something, aren't you? Hearing emotions..." he trailed off for a moment, then took a quick glance at you and shrugged. "Mine's not so cool."
"Don't say that! I could only hear this kind of quiet when I'm with you."
"Well if it's like that..."
He sort of shrugged again and turned towards a group of odd-looking roses. They didn't look like real roses and they glowed a translucent hue of blue. Gently, he cupped one and brought it close to his face. It absorbed all of his attention, and he absorbed all of yours. You tried to decipher the seeming melancholic air about his usual cheerful demeanor through closely observing his face, especially those large obsidian orbs. But even his eyes tell you nothing of his thoughts. Maybe flowers are really the only ones that know of his secrets.
"Frozen tears bloom into roses."
"What?"
His words were lost to the wind and the great booming sound that reverberated through the whole area. Almost immediately, you searched the skies for the source.
"Fireworks?"
"Happy birthday, Saga!"
Dumbfounded, you stared at Nao for his preposterous comment. He merely raised his brows as if questioning whether something's wrong.
"Nao, my birthday was last month."
"I know."
And he does. The return of his mischievous grin proved that. It was as if the gloom about his aura a while ago simply disappeared into thin air.
"You planned this, didn't you?"
For some reason you could not quite grasp, he laughed at you. But there was no malice or insulting intent there. Even if you can't hear his emotions, you know. You know because he took you into his arms and laughed some more. Pure, mirthful laughter that overpowered the din of fireworks in the background.
"You caught me!" He paused for a moment and took in the positions both of you were in, and chuckled. "Or I caught you, rather."
"I don't get you at all."
"Think of it this way: something died in us when we first came to this place, but now... don't you think it's like something new is born?"
Death and birth. When you first came to this place, you felt as if you were forcibly torn away from everything familiar and exiled to an alien place of whitewashed walls that failed to mask the truth of the happenings within. White as your pale skin, you blended with the background and no one noticed your existence until Nao called you from his perch up the fir tree.
The petals got stuck in your hair and the red orange of the blossoms got stuck in your memory. It marked a beginning for you, and it seemed to mark a beginning for Nao as well. For someone so placeless and alone because of a uniqueness that is seen as accursed and necessary for correction, you finally found a place to call home.
You tugged at his shirt and pulled him closer to you.
"A birthday, huh?"
You could feel his warmth through the thin clothes typical of summer. You were more aware of it than the Sun-king's rays that slipped through his overcast veil of white and gray. When he whispered his reply, you were more aware of it than the booms of fireworks over your little heads.
"Yeah, it's our birthday."
~*~
Summer. The heat is intense during the day, but at night you still find yourself hiding under the covers. Shadows dance against the wall and in the dead of night, you could hear them more clearly than before. The voices, they never stop. The pains that never were your own, they scar you over and over again. You scream beyond the limit of your little lungs, but would anyone take heed and listen?
A cool arm wraps around your waist from behind, and brushing against your ear, whispers of hushed consolation. He may never understand it wholly, but you know that at least he tries.
Life has always been filled with noise and pain, but you fall asleep in the peace found in his warmth.
Finally, everything is quiet.
-->END
***
Random End Notes: Death is always knocking, it doesn't matter which door. I was terrified that she might be knocking at a door so close to me that I began to tremble in fear and despair. If it weren't for the loving support and concern of my dear friends and loved ones, I might have lost hope. This was a few weeks ago, some days after the 20th of May.
My grandmother is still in the hospital now, but no longer in the ICU. She's on the road to recovery, and we, her family, will always be there to support. If I had lost hope then, I might have hindered my family in this struggle instead of helping out.
*shrugs* This story is not a retelling of my family life drama. I just felt the need to say that.
By the way, I own the concept of the translucent blue roses there. They're called Frost Roses, and refer to an original short story I wrote a few years back. Maybe I'll post it here sometime if anyone's interested...
Comments and criticisms are always welcome. Volunteering to be my beta-reader would also be very much welcome. I still have no beta and I still use Notepad.