Fic: Memory (S&S)
Title: Memory
Author:
lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 862
Characters/Pairings: Ruby, Lead, Copper
Warnings None.
Summary: He thinks of her every time he hears the song…
Prompt 15: lead & ruby & copper - Confession of love & Timeloops
***
He thinks of her every time he hears the song. He wants that moment back more than any other - and that song, the song that was playing, the song that stole her attention - it won’t let him go.
Every time he hears the song, he thinks of her.
*
“You’ve got that thing in pieces - and it’s still playing?”
Copper does not glance up from his careful deconstruction of the radio. “Yes.”
Lead gives a laugh.
“Something else is playing the song through its speakers,” Copper adds.
“You can still stop it, though? I know you can, Copper.”
“I can take everything apart,” Copper says, “but if it isn’t the source of the problem -”
Ruby is suddenly with them again. “The source is a human. A memory.”
*
He knows now what he would have said, what he should have said, what he has said over and over as he replays the scene in his head.
Every time he hears the song.
Every time.
He hears the song.
*
“Find him,” says Ruby, to Lead. “He’s here somewhere - and where he is, that’s where it will be.”
“I’ll hunt them out, don’t worry.” Lead grins at her and shares none of the alarm the other two are displaying. He only puts a hand to her shoulder before he goes and a fleeting smile crosses her face.
Then Ruby crouches down, pushing a long curl out of her face. “Copper.”
Copper pauses in his efforts to disable the radio and looks at her, raising an eyebrow in query.
“You can’t stop the song if the problem isn’t in the machine,” she says, “but could you use it to play something else instead?”
Copper considers the proposition. Then he looks back down at the components lying around him and gives a slow smile. “Yes. I should be able to do that.”
“On my word then, Copper,” says Ruby and there’s an amused glint in her eyes.
*
He hears the song and the words run through his head. He has a feeling this has happened over and over since he walked in here. And now she’s here. He doesn’t know how, but she’s standing in front of him in the empty building, just as she had all that time before when everything had been different.
“She isn’t real,” says someone else, someone who’s suddenly standing beside him. “Something else is wearing her face, using your memories.”
He breathes in shakily, but he can see the void in her eyes. It’s not quite right; it’s not her.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” he tries to say.
The stranger is closer now, and she puts a hand on his arm. “I don’t think that’s quite true, is it? You believed in this one enough to make her appear.”
“I -” He cannot explain what it is that drew him here, what made him think of her. He can still hear the song, somewhere.
She moves her hand to take his now. “Say it,” she says, as if he had managed to tell her. “What you wanted to say. Break this endless circle.”
He doesn’t want to, not in front of the stranger, not in this unreal situation, but the song starts again.
He thinks of all the things he could have said, but what emerges from his mouth isn’t any of those, only the blunt truth. He loved her. He always had. He didn’t want her to go. He’d think of her every time he heard that song.
“Yes,” says the stranger and releases his hand.
The song is drowned out by something else, music he doesn’t really recognise - something old fashioned, some classical waltz, not his sort of thing - and the memory fades away. Now he can’t hear it, he starts and looks about him, unsure why he’s even here.
“A song played over and over,” the unfamiliar woman in red says, “taking you back to a moment in time. The same moment, over and over. A trigger - potentially a very powerful one.”
“There was something - someone - here -”
“It’s gone now.”
He shakes his head to clear it and moves away. It’s gone and he should go, too. He doesn’t know what brought him here. Snatches of a song, but all he can hear now is that blasted waltz. It was nothing; it doesn’t matter.
“Yes,” she says, the stranger. “Yes.”
And then the music stops and finally there is silence.
*
Lead?
I got it, he tells her. Nothing left of it by the time you’d finished. Just a shadow in the corner. Faded right away in front of me.
Disappointed, are you? Ruby says. Not enough of a challenge for you? Is anything, Lead?
Lead’s laughter echoes through her mind and Ruby grins. She likes the way that feels.
“That was satisfactory?” Copper asks from the other side of the room where he’s busy reassembling the radio. “Yes?”
Ruby moves across lightly, and then drops a kiss on his head, something that earns her a distracted frown from the technician. “It was perfect, Copper.”
“The human?”
“He’s already forgotten,” Ruby says with a shrug. “Memory is a strange thing, after all.”
***
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
Author:
lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 862
Characters/Pairings: Ruby, Lead, Copper
Warnings None.
Summary: He thinks of her every time he hears the song…
Prompt 15: lead & ruby & copper - Confession of love & Timeloops
***
He thinks of her every time he hears the song. He wants that moment back more than any other - and that song, the song that was playing, the song that stole her attention - it won’t let him go.
Every time he hears the song, he thinks of her.
*
“You’ve got that thing in pieces - and it’s still playing?”
Copper does not glance up from his careful deconstruction of the radio. “Yes.”
Lead gives a laugh.
“Something else is playing the song through its speakers,” Copper adds.
“You can still stop it, though? I know you can, Copper.”
“I can take everything apart,” Copper says, “but if it isn’t the source of the problem -”
Ruby is suddenly with them again. “The source is a human. A memory.”
*
He knows now what he would have said, what he should have said, what he has said over and over as he replays the scene in his head.
Every time he hears the song.
Every time.
He hears the song.
*
“Find him,” says Ruby, to Lead. “He’s here somewhere - and where he is, that’s where it will be.”
“I’ll hunt them out, don’t worry.” Lead grins at her and shares none of the alarm the other two are displaying. He only puts a hand to her shoulder before he goes and a fleeting smile crosses her face.
Then Ruby crouches down, pushing a long curl out of her face. “Copper.”
Copper pauses in his efforts to disable the radio and looks at her, raising an eyebrow in query.
“You can’t stop the song if the problem isn’t in the machine,” she says, “but could you use it to play something else instead?”
Copper considers the proposition. Then he looks back down at the components lying around him and gives a slow smile. “Yes. I should be able to do that.”
“On my word then, Copper,” says Ruby and there’s an amused glint in her eyes.
*
He hears the song and the words run through his head. He has a feeling this has happened over and over since he walked in here. And now she’s here. He doesn’t know how, but she’s standing in front of him in the empty building, just as she had all that time before when everything had been different.
“She isn’t real,” says someone else, someone who’s suddenly standing beside him. “Something else is wearing her face, using your memories.”
He breathes in shakily, but he can see the void in her eyes. It’s not quite right; it’s not her.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” he tries to say.
The stranger is closer now, and she puts a hand on his arm. “I don’t think that’s quite true, is it? You believed in this one enough to make her appear.”
“I -” He cannot explain what it is that drew him here, what made him think of her. He can still hear the song, somewhere.
She moves her hand to take his now. “Say it,” she says, as if he had managed to tell her. “What you wanted to say. Break this endless circle.”
He doesn’t want to, not in front of the stranger, not in this unreal situation, but the song starts again.
He thinks of all the things he could have said, but what emerges from his mouth isn’t any of those, only the blunt truth. He loved her. He always had. He didn’t want her to go. He’d think of her every time he heard that song.
“Yes,” says the stranger and releases his hand.
The song is drowned out by something else, music he doesn’t really recognise - something old fashioned, some classical waltz, not his sort of thing - and the memory fades away. Now he can’t hear it, he starts and looks about him, unsure why he’s even here.
“A song played over and over,” the unfamiliar woman in red says, “taking you back to a moment in time. The same moment, over and over. A trigger - potentially a very powerful one.”
“There was something - someone - here -”
“It’s gone now.”
He shakes his head to clear it and moves away. It’s gone and he should go, too. He doesn’t know what brought him here. Snatches of a song, but all he can hear now is that blasted waltz. It was nothing; it doesn’t matter.
“Yes,” she says, the stranger. “Yes.”
And then the music stops and finally there is silence.
*
Lead?
I got it, he tells her. Nothing left of it by the time you’d finished. Just a shadow in the corner. Faded right away in front of me.
Disappointed, are you? Ruby says. Not enough of a challenge for you? Is anything, Lead?
Lead’s laughter echoes through her mind and Ruby grins. She likes the way that feels.
“That was satisfactory?” Copper asks from the other side of the room where he’s busy reassembling the radio. “Yes?”
Ruby moves across lightly, and then drops a kiss on his head, something that earns her a distracted frown from the technician. “It was perfect, Copper.”
“The human?”
“He’s already forgotten,” Ruby says with a shrug. “Memory is a strange thing, after all.”
***
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: