Stars in the Sky
Title: Stars in the Sky
Author: kittyknighton
Characters: Brandi; mention of Mary/Raph
Rating: G/Everyone
Spoilers: End of season one
Disclaimer: I don't own IPS or the characters. I just love them
Summary: Brandi ruminates on the roof.
Author's Note: Dedicated to lunar_penguin , who once dedicated a wonderful fic to me, and for whom the muses are willing to whisper in my ear. Draws inspiration from the song "Too Many Stars" by Let's Go Sailing. Takes place after the events of the season one finale.
Brandi propped the ladder against the side of her sister’s house in the gathering dusk and paused to light a cigarette she’d taken from her mother’s purse. Stuffing the lighter back in her pocket, she climbed the ladder with the lit cigarette clamped between her lips. She settled on the roof and stared into the nearly-finished-setting sun, ignoring conventional wisdom as she mulled over her present situation.
Chuck was dead and gone. She knew he had been bad for her, had used her for his own ends and had gotten her sister kidnapped and nearly killed; she hated him, but the void he left behind filled her with loneliness all the same, an emptiness that ached to be filled by the presence of someone special in her life.
She had felt like she had found that someone in Raphael, even before Chuck had met his end. Chico - so she called him to forestall suspicion that her interest in him was anything but casual, a misdirect at which she had not been wholly successful - had seemed like a kind of kindred spirit. They had so many things in common. The difficulty lay in the nature of their shared interests.
Mary. Raphael was with her sister, and that put him off limits no matter how badly she wanted his companionship. Mary was constantly paranoid of a sexual liaison between them, but the truth was that Brandi liked Raph for who he was, and for how she felt when she was with him. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t have turned down sex, but that wasn’t all there was to it. Raphael had made a part of her come alive, a part of her that yearned to be more than she was, which had withered and died in Chuck’s care.
But he was with her sister. They were completely wrong together, even a blind person would have been able to see that, but it was what it was, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She flicked dead ash from the cigarette’s end and watched the smoke curl up into the darkening sky. One lone star appeared above her.
“Starlight, star bright,” she whispered softly, “first star I see tonight… is there anyone out there for me?”
As the night deepened around her, a second star appeared near the first. She watched as more and more appeared on the blue-black canvas above her, filling her eyes with their light.
“Plenty of stars in the sky.” She laughed softly. “Good to know, I guess.”
The cigarette’s cherry glowed brightly in the night. Brandi sat on the roof a little longer, watching the stars dance above her as the song of crickets filled her ears. She let her mind drift from the people residing in the house below her to the people her future might hold.
When at last she did come down, stubbing out the cigarette and putting the ladder away, she couldn’t help but smile.
Author: kittyknighton
Characters: Brandi; mention of Mary/Raph
Rating: G/Everyone
Spoilers: End of season one
Disclaimer: I don't own IPS or the characters. I just love them
Summary: Brandi ruminates on the roof.
Author's Note: Dedicated to lunar_penguin , who once dedicated a wonderful fic to me, and for whom the muses are willing to whisper in my ear. Draws inspiration from the song "Too Many Stars" by Let's Go Sailing. Takes place after the events of the season one finale.
Brandi propped the ladder against the side of her sister’s house in the gathering dusk and paused to light a cigarette she’d taken from her mother’s purse. Stuffing the lighter back in her pocket, she climbed the ladder with the lit cigarette clamped between her lips. She settled on the roof and stared into the nearly-finished-setting sun, ignoring conventional wisdom as she mulled over her present situation.
Chuck was dead and gone. She knew he had been bad for her, had used her for his own ends and had gotten her sister kidnapped and nearly killed; she hated him, but the void he left behind filled her with loneliness all the same, an emptiness that ached to be filled by the presence of someone special in her life.
She had felt like she had found that someone in Raphael, even before Chuck had met his end. Chico - so she called him to forestall suspicion that her interest in him was anything but casual, a misdirect at which she had not been wholly successful - had seemed like a kind of kindred spirit. They had so many things in common. The difficulty lay in the nature of their shared interests.
Mary. Raphael was with her sister, and that put him off limits no matter how badly she wanted his companionship. Mary was constantly paranoid of a sexual liaison between them, but the truth was that Brandi liked Raph for who he was, and for how she felt when she was with him. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t have turned down sex, but that wasn’t all there was to it. Raphael had made a part of her come alive, a part of her that yearned to be more than she was, which had withered and died in Chuck’s care.
But he was with her sister. They were completely wrong together, even a blind person would have been able to see that, but it was what it was, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She flicked dead ash from the cigarette’s end and watched the smoke curl up into the darkening sky. One lone star appeared above her.
“Starlight, star bright,” she whispered softly, “first star I see tonight… is there anyone out there for me?”
As the night deepened around her, a second star appeared near the first. She watched as more and more appeared on the blue-black canvas above her, filling her eyes with their light.
“Plenty of stars in the sky.” She laughed softly. “Good to know, I guess.”
The cigarette’s cherry glowed brightly in the night. Brandi sat on the roof a little longer, watching the stars dance above her as the song of crickets filled her ears. She let her mind drift from the people residing in the house below her to the people her future might hold.
When at last she did come down, stubbing out the cigarette and putting the ladder away, she couldn’t help but smile.