(no subject)
On the scale of Bad Ways for People to Disappear, finding Edward in Winry's abandoned treehouse really hardly even ranked. She hadn't disappeared in a flash of light leaving people thinking she was dead. She hadn't actually died and left a gaping hole in her family's lives where she'd been (all right, so Ed and Al definitely had the hole, but Winry still wasn't dead). Dairine had lost the one really good girl friend she'd ever had in her life, but that was small, right? In the grand scheme of the universe, and all that.
All the same, she's avoided going up to the treehouse. It feels like intruding, if she runs into Edward there, and anyway, she isn't ready. But the telescope has been coming along, and she's been up on the roof of the compound with a how-to manual and Spot reading off equations. The one thing she hasn't got is the lenses, because Winry was making those along with her windows.
"Wait here," she tells Spot, climbing down from the roof, "I'll be right back." The roof is too hot during the day to go barefoot, and once she's down the sand is annoyingly insistent about getting into her shoes. She reaches the treehouse, tilting her head back to look up at it--you can't tell from the outside that someone doesn't live there anymore, and Dairine half expects the flash of that light to start going off before she can come up.
It doesn't, of course, and up she climbs, letting herself in--she can't tell if Ed has already been through some of the stuff, but he hasn't got through all of it, and Dairine rummages around for a minute to find what she's looking for--two smooth, round discs of curved glass, wrapped in an old t-shirt and tucked in a cubby beneath one window.
Her telescope lenses. Perfect.
She's just reached the ground again when it hits her, the emptiness of the place--the way everything looks just as if the owner is going to come back any moment, because it always looks like that. Somebody dies, somebody disappears, but their things stay to remind you, or sometimes taunt you, as if you're just supposed to look after it for a minute--Here, watch this for me, I'll be right back. One hand brushes across the dull, dormant Sunstone at her throat.
The reality of it, the stark and utterly unfair reality, washes over her, makes her shake with fury in a way that once made full-grown wizards look around for cover. Dairine lets out a frustrated, angry noise and aims a solid kick at the trunk of the tree--NOTFAIR! Her hand clenches with the tension in her body and the thinner of the lenses shatters right in her hand, broken shards digging into her palm.
"...Shit." She hadn't meant to do that, and she's staring at it, unsure if it's supposed to start hurting yet, just standing under the tree with little streams of blood running over her hand.
[Kind of messed-up wizard looking for friends, new or old. (It's actually a perfectly okay time to meet her.) I'm running out for a teensy bit, so immediate slowtime, but will be back soon. Am back! ST and late tags fine. ♥]
All the same, she's avoided going up to the treehouse. It feels like intruding, if she runs into Edward there, and anyway, she isn't ready. But the telescope has been coming along, and she's been up on the roof of the compound with a how-to manual and Spot reading off equations. The one thing she hasn't got is the lenses, because Winry was making those along with her windows.
"Wait here," she tells Spot, climbing down from the roof, "I'll be right back." The roof is too hot during the day to go barefoot, and once she's down the sand is annoyingly insistent about getting into her shoes. She reaches the treehouse, tilting her head back to look up at it--you can't tell from the outside that someone doesn't live there anymore, and Dairine half expects the flash of that light to start going off before she can come up.
It doesn't, of course, and up she climbs, letting herself in--she can't tell if Ed has already been through some of the stuff, but he hasn't got through all of it, and Dairine rummages around for a minute to find what she's looking for--two smooth, round discs of curved glass, wrapped in an old t-shirt and tucked in a cubby beneath one window.
Her telescope lenses. Perfect.
She's just reached the ground again when it hits her, the emptiness of the place--the way everything looks just as if the owner is going to come back any moment, because it always looks like that. Somebody dies, somebody disappears, but their things stay to remind you, or sometimes taunt you, as if you're just supposed to look after it for a minute--Here, watch this for me, I'll be right back. One hand brushes across the dull, dormant Sunstone at her throat.
The reality of it, the stark and utterly unfair reality, washes over her, makes her shake with fury in a way that once made full-grown wizards look around for cover. Dairine lets out a frustrated, angry noise and aims a solid kick at the trunk of the tree--NOTFAIR! Her hand clenches with the tension in her body and the thinner of the lenses shatters right in her hand, broken shards digging into her palm.
"...Shit." She hadn't meant to do that, and she's staring at it, unsure if it's supposed to start hurting yet, just standing under the tree with little streams of blood running over her hand.
[Kind of messed-up wizard looking for friends, new or old. (It's actually a perfectly okay time to meet her.) I'm running out for a teensy bit, so immediate slowtime, but will be back soon. Am back! ST and late tags fine. ♥]