Advent Calendar Day 7
Seeing as it is after midnight here and I'd probably forget to post tomorrow before work, let's open this window now, shall we?
Title: World So Cold
Pairing, Characters: Stephen, cameo by Jack
Rating: G
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: Not mine, never has been, never will be.
Length: 344 words
Author's Note: Sadly rather short and plotless, as RL has been keeping me busy for weeks now, and unmerry, for which I blame my player prompting me with Three Days Grace's World So Cold (and that was one of the happier songs it suggested).
World So Cold
Breath escaped his mouth in white mist, immediately dissolving in the cold air that bit his lungs with every inhale, leaching more warmth from his body. He hugged himself closer, absentmindedly wondering if he'd know when his hands ceased to merely be clenched and were frozen into fists instead. Tiny crystals rode the wind, clinking in a silent, endless song he thought he heard echoed with every blink of his ice-crusted lashes.
This was not his world, this vast, frozen desert, this numbing white darkness. Life was said to exist everywhere, in one form or another. Some life did exist here. But looking at it now, the cold emptiness, it was hard to believe anything could live here. He certainly didn't. He came from a world of bright light and warmth, thrived surrounded not by vastness void of colour but by the hum and thrum of life.
This lack gnawed at him, more than it reasonably should. He could not stand the frozen nothingness, could not help but keep looking for something, anything, until his eyes burned and he thought he saw things out of the corner of his eye, and if he just kept still a little while longer, they'd move into his field of vision. Like now, when he felt something draw closer, could almost feel press against his arm, could feel… its touch on his face. Warm, he assumed, if he weren't too numb to register.
He found himself turned around, his coat creaking with the movement, releasing small avalanches, feet moving with the sound of breaking ice as the big, bright presence, alive, steered him towards a rectangle of light, murmuring softly of soup and blankets, thawing the shell of ice that had formed around him with comforting promises and talk of favourable winds, dew point, breaking of the ice. He let himself be led, but still could not help but wait, just that little while longer, and then there it was, right in front of him. Life, warmth, shining golden. He raised his face and welcomed the touch of the sun.
Title: World So Cold
Pairing, Characters: Stephen, cameo by Jack
Rating: G
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: Not mine, never has been, never will be.
Length: 344 words
Author's Note: Sadly rather short and plotless, as RL has been keeping me busy for weeks now, and unmerry, for which I blame my player prompting me with Three Days Grace's World So Cold (and that was one of the happier songs it suggested).
World So Cold
Breath escaped his mouth in white mist, immediately dissolving in the cold air that bit his lungs with every inhale, leaching more warmth from his body. He hugged himself closer, absentmindedly wondering if he'd know when his hands ceased to merely be clenched and were frozen into fists instead. Tiny crystals rode the wind, clinking in a silent, endless song he thought he heard echoed with every blink of his ice-crusted lashes.
This was not his world, this vast, frozen desert, this numbing white darkness. Life was said to exist everywhere, in one form or another. Some life did exist here. But looking at it now, the cold emptiness, it was hard to believe anything could live here. He certainly didn't. He came from a world of bright light and warmth, thrived surrounded not by vastness void of colour but by the hum and thrum of life.
This lack gnawed at him, more than it reasonably should. He could not stand the frozen nothingness, could not help but keep looking for something, anything, until his eyes burned and he thought he saw things out of the corner of his eye, and if he just kept still a little while longer, they'd move into his field of vision. Like now, when he felt something draw closer, could almost feel press against his arm, could feel… its touch on his face. Warm, he assumed, if he weren't too numb to register.
He found himself turned around, his coat creaking with the movement, releasing small avalanches, feet moving with the sound of breaking ice as the big, bright presence, alive, steered him towards a rectangle of light, murmuring softly of soup and blankets, thawing the shell of ice that had formed around him with comforting promises and talk of favourable winds, dew point, breaking of the ice. He let himself be led, but still could not help but wait, just that little while longer, and then there it was, right in front of him. Life, warmth, shining golden. He raised his face and welcomed the touch of the sun.