Late night, in Thirteen's world
It was 4am; Sunshine's body knew it before she was even awake. It was time to get up and make cinnamon rolls. What she didn't know in those first few moment was where she was, or why she couldn't feel her house wards protecting the apartment; there was no comforting mental background hum of a safe wall between her and the night outside.
A full thirty seconds passed in sleep-dulled confusion before she remembered. She was visiting Thirteen's home. There were no wards because there was no magic. No protection because no such protection was needed. There was nothing out there to protect against, aside from everyday human evils.
Sunshine lay there in the dark, looking around the room that seemed as bright as day to her benighted eyes. She knew she wasn't going to get back to sleep in her current state. Moving quietly, she got up and went to the kitchen for a glass of water.
For once, she was able to be glad of her dark sight for the reason she had figured it would be good for. Seeing in the dark really did mean not tripping over things (no toppling over the sleeping figure of Thirteen, sprawled out on the couch) or misjudging distances when going for a glass of water at night.
The glass was refreshingly cold against her hand, the beads of condensation throwing little sparkling shadows against her hand. Sipping the water, Sunshine looked out the kitchen window. The night outside the window was quiet; nothing interrupted the dark but the occasional flash of light from a passing car. There was no danger out there but mundane human danger, the night barely more dangerous than the day.
It was hard to imagine, but it was a pretty picture.
It was a world without the Others, without the tensions and dangers of tenuous inter-species peace. This world had no discrimination against full and partblood Others, had no Others to discriminate against for that matter, hadn't known the devastation of the Wars, didn't have to know the limits of the human race's ability to resist the downward pull of dread.
Didn't have to always push the knowledge away, just to keep functioning like everything was all right.
Didn't have to remind itself not to think about it.
Think about what?
Don't think about it.
Focus. This world didn't know any of that. It could ignore the beauty of the sunrise because living through another night wasn't that big of a deal to it. The sunrise lost its symbolism, yet would be just as bright.
She could be grateful for a sunrise even in a world that took it for granted. She could be grateful even for a sunrise that didn't necessarily herald an end to the perils of the night. Could soak in daylight that was not automatically the enemy of the night. She could enjoy that, and push the rest of everything away for a while.
She thought she could, at least. Was reasonably certain she could.
Rae quietly finished her glass of water. Leaving the glass in the sink, she crept back to bed, to sleep until dawn woke her.
A full thirty seconds passed in sleep-dulled confusion before she remembered. She was visiting Thirteen's home. There were no wards because there was no magic. No protection because no such protection was needed. There was nothing out there to protect against, aside from everyday human evils.
Sunshine lay there in the dark, looking around the room that seemed as bright as day to her benighted eyes. She knew she wasn't going to get back to sleep in her current state. Moving quietly, she got up and went to the kitchen for a glass of water.
For once, she was able to be glad of her dark sight for the reason she had figured it would be good for. Seeing in the dark really did mean not tripping over things (no toppling over the sleeping figure of Thirteen, sprawled out on the couch) or misjudging distances when going for a glass of water at night.
The glass was refreshingly cold against her hand, the beads of condensation throwing little sparkling shadows against her hand. Sipping the water, Sunshine looked out the kitchen window. The night outside the window was quiet; nothing interrupted the dark but the occasional flash of light from a passing car. There was no danger out there but mundane human danger, the night barely more dangerous than the day.
It was hard to imagine, but it was a pretty picture.
It was a world without the Others, without the tensions and dangers of tenuous inter-species peace. This world had no discrimination against full and partblood Others, had no Others to discriminate against for that matter, hadn't known the devastation of the Wars, didn't have to know the limits of the human race's ability to resist the downward pull of dread.
Didn't have to always push the knowledge away, just to keep functioning like everything was all right.
Didn't have to remind itself not to think about it.
Think about what?
Don't think about it.
Focus. This world didn't know any of that. It could ignore the beauty of the sunrise because living through another night wasn't that big of a deal to it. The sunrise lost its symbolism, yet would be just as bright.
She could be grateful for a sunrise even in a world that took it for granted. She could be grateful even for a sunrise that didn't necessarily herald an end to the perils of the night. Could soak in daylight that was not automatically the enemy of the night. She could enjoy that, and push the rest of everything away for a while.
She thought she could, at least. Was reasonably certain she could.
Rae quietly finished her glass of water. Leaving the glass in the sink, she crept back to bed, to sleep until dawn woke her.