AtS and Star Wars mini ficlets plus meme

[selenak]

I had a completely draining day involving a lot of mail. But my good twin artaxastra asked for drabbles, and lo, two came forth. (Well, very short ficlets slightly over 100 words, to be precise.) They start with sentences of hers, for she has reactivated the first line meme, which we did last year.

No spoilers beyond the third season of...

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[penknife]

XMM Rogue, at some hand-wavy future point that will probably be made impossible by X3:

Grieving Process

Last night I got the news that my grandfather had died. It's not like it's really a shock. He was old, and as long as I can remember he took pills for his blood pressure.

It makes me glad I finally called Mama and gave her a cell phone number. She still doesn't know I live at the mansion, but at least she knows I'm alive. At least she had somewhere to call.

And now it's early morning, and the mansion is real quiet with the light just turning gray outside, and I'm thinking that I have to tell somebody so they can go with me to the funeral. I kind of wish it could be Logan, but I can't see him in a suit eating cold chicken and deviled eggs and making nice to little old ladies.

Better if it's Bobby, sweating in a suit the way I'm going to be sweating in gloves, and shaking hands with my uncles, and saying the food is real nice, and getting asked about fifty times where his people come from and if he's related to anybody we know. It's weirdly comforting to think about. It'll be almost like normal, except for the gloves.

And the sun is rising, and I'm looking at my gloves, and I know I'm just pretending. Nobody will want to shake Bobby's hand. Nobody will want to get that close to us. They all know what I did. We'll go to the funeral and sit in the back, and when it's time to go out to the cemetary everyone will get in their cars, and we'll be standing out on the sidewalk by the church and no one will ask if we want to ride along with them.

And we'll go eat fast food for lunch and then get back on the highway, and I'll cry in the car and Bobby will say You must really miss him, and I'll nod and pretend that's what I'm crying about, and we'll drive north until we're tired and the highway is a blur.

I'm tired already, but the sun is up, and there's nothing to do but start the day.

[selenak]

Beautiful. The sadness, and the weariness, and her being aware (correctly or not) that this invisible barrier will always be there.