Fic: Tailspin
One of two (!!!) new fics I've pumped out, courtesy of my new guilty pleasure, Harvest Moon. Am so addicted to this game, who knew that trying to raise cattle would be so much fun?
Anyways, Kate is a rather nasty child through the story, and I couldn't stand her. So what better way to open yourself up to a character than to write about them, Hmmm? So here is my attempt at getting to know poor little Kate. And to be honest, it worked. Her mother left her at a young age, and her father is clinging to the end of his rope after the loss of his wife, and she's just a poor little girl stuck in the middle.
___
Title: Tailspin
Word Count: [One-shot] 1,782
Fandom: Harvest Moon (DS cute)
Characters: Grant, Kate
Rating: PG
Summary: Their world slips, and she starts to fall.
Warning(s): Mild language, alcoholism, general angst
It's still dark when her mom wakes her up, and Kate can't tell if it's early morning or late night. Whatever it is, she's too sleepy to deal with this, and she grumbles without opening her eyes.
Her mom presses a kiss to her forehead and trails her fingers down Kate's cheek, and Kate thinks she hears a hitch in her breathing.
"Mom's gotta run out for a bit," she says, her voice oddly tight, "I'll be back before you're awake."
Kate pushes her mom's hand away with a huff. "Ger'off," she grumbles, rolling over and pulling the covers over her head.
Her mom doesn't come back.
(It's not your fault)
(what do you know, anyways. shut up)
___
Their world slips, and they start to fall.
It's not a slow process, and Kate's glad for it.
She thinks it's far better to spin wildly out of control. Who wants to see the ground before they hit it?
___
Her father stops going to work and starts going to the bar, and Kate is left at home trying to teach herself long division.
___
Kate is woken late one night to the front door banging open. She hears her father howling--with laughter or tears, she can't tell--and a loud crash as something is knocked over.
"Will you knock that off! You'll wake your daughter if you don't cut that racket out." Muffy's voice echoes through the house, and her dad quiets. She hears some bustling around as Muffy moves through the kitchen, and then the sound of the tap running.
"I'm going to fix you up some tea," Muffy says with a sigh, "I want you to drink it and go right up to bed. Don't you have work in the morning?"
She hears her father scoff, but he doesn't reply.
A few minutes later, there is the distinct tinkling sound of a spoon being stirred in a cup, followed by the light thunk of it being set on the table.
"You drink that up and get to bed. And I don't want to see you at that bar tomorrow night, Grant. I know you're hurtin' but you gotta daughter to take care of, too."
The front door closes as Muffy leaves, and Grant stumbles up the stairs, ignoring Muffy's cup of tea. He makes his way across the room to her bed, and Kate presses her eyes shut tight and feigns sleep.
There is a long moment as he stands over her, and her heart pounds so hard in her chest she thinks he can hear it.
(How long did she stand over you like this before she woke you up?)
She doesn't open her eyes again until she hears him crawl into his own bed.
___
Muffy's tea is still on the table a week later.
Kate refuses to clean it and her father doesn't even acknowledge it's there. It's not until a thin layer of fuzz has started to grow in it that Kate finally throws it at the wall as hard as she can.
___
At school, she hears the kids talk about her.
During recess time, Sally Hansen asks Kate if it's true her mom left cause she hated her so much. Kate fumes silently, but when Hugh calls Sally a cow, she boils over. She pushes Hugh over forcefully and spits as she towers over him.
"I don't need a stupid boy to stick up for me!" She screeches, and then turns on her heel, stomping towards the picnic tables.
"You're a right loony, Kate," Hugh calls back to her as he stands, "it's no wonder your mom left you."
___
Her dad starts going back to work, but that doesn't stop him from picking up some alcohol on his way back home. He starts drinking at dinner time and doesn't stop until he's sobbing over old wedding photos.
It's not even 6 PM and he's already started on a new bottle, hiccuping into his drink as they eat dinner. Kate refuses to look up from her pork chop because she knows if she does, the sight of him gripping that bottle like a lifeline will send her into a fury.
He's pathetic, she thinks, and she hates him for it. If he hadn't been such a crybaby maybe her mom wouldn't have left. Maybe she needed a real man in her life. Kate's grip tightens around her fork at the thought, and she focuses all her energy in imaging someone else sitting across the table. Marlin or Kai or Griffin. She's almost succeeded, too, when he opens his big stupid mouth and distracts her.
"I got a call from your teacher," he says, "she says you've been getting into fights."
Kate scowls at her plate and refuses to look up at him. "It's not my fault they're all morons. Maybe they should learn to keep their stupid mouths closed."
They sit in silence for a while longer, and it just makes her madder. A real father would have scolded her.
"Why don't you try to get along with them?"
Kate finally looks up at him and narrows her eyes. "Maybe I'll try to get along with them when you try to go a night without crying," she says, and she gets up from the table without waiting to be excused.
___
She is spinning, crashing, burning.
___
Kate finds a photo of her mother tucked under Grant's pillow on a Saturday afternoon.
She's wearing a bright yellow sundress and standing on the beach, and she looks so happy that it actually makes Kate's stomach turn.
She rips it up until the pieces are too tiny to tear anymore, and then throws them into the river.
The next day, when Grant is tearing the house apart looking for it, Kate just sits at the table and does her homework.
She's finally mastered long division.
___
A week before Yule, a letter comes for them. There's no return address, but Samantha's--Samantha's, not her mother's, thankyouverymuch--elegant, loopy handwriting is unmistakable. She speaks of her new home as if Kate cares and the audacity of it makes her see red.
Her fury makes it hard to concentrate, but she catches snippets as she skims it.
hope you understand
I had to find myself
new apartment in the city
Halfway into reading it, Kate is blindingly mad, and she tears the letter in two.
(she may not send another one, you know)
(good, who needs her, anyways)
Grant rescues the letter from further harm, and chastises her for damaging it.
"I don't know why you even bother," Kate says scathingly as she heads toward the front door, "She's not coming back, and why would she want to? We're pathetic."
(you said we)
(no, I didn't, shut. up.)
___
Kate has found that it's so much easier to rage than cry. When you cry, people try to comfort you, and if you let them do that then sure enough, they just leave you in the end. If you rage, they just leave you the hell alone.
___
Some new girl moves into the dilapidated ranch.
She brings her chocolate one day, while Grant is gone at work, and she tries to "share feelings" and "talk." Kate just stares out the window while the farmer girl--Jill--prattles on about whatever. Kate doesn't know and she doesn't care. But Jill catches her attention when she mentions inheriting the farm after her father's death, and Kate finally turns to look at her.
"Did you like him?" She asks quietly.
Jill looks puzzled. "Of course I liked him, silly. He was my dad."
Kate glares at the chocolate bar in front of her and digs her nails into her palm. "I hate my dad."
Farmer-girl frowns sadly, "Oh, you won't say that when he's gone," she says.
Kate turns her glare onto Jill. "Yeah, well, I loved my mom and you see where that got me."
___
"You look so much like your mother," Grant says one night, after half a glass of liquor. They're sitting at the table together, the bottle of rum in between them.
She sneers at him before turning back to her homework. "I wouldn't know," she retorts, "I've never seen myself from the back."
He ignores her. "Her hair is darker, of course."
Kate slaps the bottle and sends it flying to the floor.
"Just go to bed," she snaps, "before you start crying again."
___
Kate finally hits the ground and it hurts far more than she ever could have imagined.
She checks the mail on her birthday and finds a package from Samantha. She's glad her father is at work, otherwise he'd just be hovering over her, and he'd probably start crying again and Goddess knows, she just can't deal with that right now.
There are chocolates inside, and pictures.
A cute red house with a white picket fence, and a dog, and some man with a bushy beard, and a baby and her vision has gone so blurry that it's hard to read the attached letter, but she picks up words like married and little brother and come visit.
She shrieks--she thinks no sound like that has ever come from a human before--and decides that this package isn't even good enough for the river so instead she throws it into the wastebasket and lights it on fire, and it's not until the smoke alarm is going off that she realizes her vision is blurry from the tears.
When her father comes home, he asks why the house smells like smoke and she tells him she burnt the birthday cake she was trying to make.
He gets a weird look on his face, then pulls a present out of his briefcase. "Your mother was better at planning this type of stuff," he admits, but he helps her bake a cake and he doesn't take a drink all night.
___
The nice thing about crashing, Kate learns, is you're finally on the ground again. She's battered and bruised, but the ground is constant and solid and maybe now she can find her feet.
___
It's been a year--
(has it, really?)
(yes.)
--and they're not better. But they're getting there.
Kate comes home from school to find Grant sitting at the table, sipping a drink--milk, not alcohol.
"You're home early," Kate says, setting down her rucksack and sliding into the chair across from him.
He runs a hand over his face and smiles at her ruefully. "Yeah," he says softly, "I thought we could go to the city. Maybe get you a new dress."
Kate looks at him for a long while before nodding her head. "Okay. I have homework, though, so I can't be--"
Grant reaches across the table, grabbing her hand and squeezing it gently. It's enough to startle her into silence.
"Kate," he says, his words heavy, "It's not our fault."
She looks at him for a long time before nodding her head.
"I know."
___
Anyways, Kate is a rather nasty child through the story, and I couldn't stand her. So what better way to open yourself up to a character than to write about them, Hmmm? So here is my attempt at getting to know poor little Kate. And to be honest, it worked. Her mother left her at a young age, and her father is clinging to the end of his rope after the loss of his wife, and she's just a poor little girl stuck in the middle.
___
Title: Tailspin
Word Count: [One-shot] 1,782
Fandom: Harvest Moon (DS cute)
Characters: Grant, Kate
Rating: PG
Summary: Their world slips, and she starts to fall.
Warning(s): Mild language, alcoholism, general angst
It's still dark when her mom wakes her up, and Kate can't tell if it's early morning or late night. Whatever it is, she's too sleepy to deal with this, and she grumbles without opening her eyes.
Her mom presses a kiss to her forehead and trails her fingers down Kate's cheek, and Kate thinks she hears a hitch in her breathing.
"Mom's gotta run out for a bit," she says, her voice oddly tight, "I'll be back before you're awake."
Kate pushes her mom's hand away with a huff. "Ger'off," she grumbles, rolling over and pulling the covers over her head.
Her mom doesn't come back.
(It's not your fault)
(what do you know, anyways. shut up)
___
Their world slips, and they start to fall.
It's not a slow process, and Kate's glad for it.
She thinks it's far better to spin wildly out of control. Who wants to see the ground before they hit it?
___
Her father stops going to work and starts going to the bar, and Kate is left at home trying to teach herself long division.
___
Kate is woken late one night to the front door banging open. She hears her father howling--with laughter or tears, she can't tell--and a loud crash as something is knocked over.
"Will you knock that off! You'll wake your daughter if you don't cut that racket out." Muffy's voice echoes through the house, and her dad quiets. She hears some bustling around as Muffy moves through the kitchen, and then the sound of the tap running.
"I'm going to fix you up some tea," Muffy says with a sigh, "I want you to drink it and go right up to bed. Don't you have work in the morning?"
She hears her father scoff, but he doesn't reply.
A few minutes later, there is the distinct tinkling sound of a spoon being stirred in a cup, followed by the light thunk of it being set on the table.
"You drink that up and get to bed. And I don't want to see you at that bar tomorrow night, Grant. I know you're hurtin' but you gotta daughter to take care of, too."
The front door closes as Muffy leaves, and Grant stumbles up the stairs, ignoring Muffy's cup of tea. He makes his way across the room to her bed, and Kate presses her eyes shut tight and feigns sleep.
There is a long moment as he stands over her, and her heart pounds so hard in her chest she thinks he can hear it.
(How long did she stand over you like this before she woke you up?)
She doesn't open her eyes again until she hears him crawl into his own bed.
___
Muffy's tea is still on the table a week later.
Kate refuses to clean it and her father doesn't even acknowledge it's there. It's not until a thin layer of fuzz has started to grow in it that Kate finally throws it at the wall as hard as she can.
___
At school, she hears the kids talk about her.
During recess time, Sally Hansen asks Kate if it's true her mom left cause she hated her so much. Kate fumes silently, but when Hugh calls Sally a cow, she boils over. She pushes Hugh over forcefully and spits as she towers over him.
"I don't need a stupid boy to stick up for me!" She screeches, and then turns on her heel, stomping towards the picnic tables.
"You're a right loony, Kate," Hugh calls back to her as he stands, "it's no wonder your mom left you."
___
Her dad starts going back to work, but that doesn't stop him from picking up some alcohol on his way back home. He starts drinking at dinner time and doesn't stop until he's sobbing over old wedding photos.
It's not even 6 PM and he's already started on a new bottle, hiccuping into his drink as they eat dinner. Kate refuses to look up from her pork chop because she knows if she does, the sight of him gripping that bottle like a lifeline will send her into a fury.
He's pathetic, she thinks, and she hates him for it. If he hadn't been such a crybaby maybe her mom wouldn't have left. Maybe she needed a real man in her life. Kate's grip tightens around her fork at the thought, and she focuses all her energy in imaging someone else sitting across the table. Marlin or Kai or Griffin. She's almost succeeded, too, when he opens his big stupid mouth and distracts her.
"I got a call from your teacher," he says, "she says you've been getting into fights."
Kate scowls at her plate and refuses to look up at him. "It's not my fault they're all morons. Maybe they should learn to keep their stupid mouths closed."
They sit in silence for a while longer, and it just makes her madder. A real father would have scolded her.
"Why don't you try to get along with them?"
Kate finally looks up at him and narrows her eyes. "Maybe I'll try to get along with them when you try to go a night without crying," she says, and she gets up from the table without waiting to be excused.
___
She is spinning, crashing, burning.
___
Kate finds a photo of her mother tucked under Grant's pillow on a Saturday afternoon.
She's wearing a bright yellow sundress and standing on the beach, and she looks so happy that it actually makes Kate's stomach turn.
She rips it up until the pieces are too tiny to tear anymore, and then throws them into the river.
The next day, when Grant is tearing the house apart looking for it, Kate just sits at the table and does her homework.
She's finally mastered long division.
___
A week before Yule, a letter comes for them. There's no return address, but Samantha's--Samantha's, not her mother's, thankyouverymuch--elegant, loopy handwriting is unmistakable. She speaks of her new home as if Kate cares and the audacity of it makes her see red.
Her fury makes it hard to concentrate, but she catches snippets as she skims it.
hope you understand
I had to find myself
new apartment in the city
Halfway into reading it, Kate is blindingly mad, and she tears the letter in two.
(she may not send another one, you know)
(good, who needs her, anyways)
Grant rescues the letter from further harm, and chastises her for damaging it.
"I don't know why you even bother," Kate says scathingly as she heads toward the front door, "She's not coming back, and why would she want to? We're pathetic."
(you said we)
(no, I didn't, shut. up.)
___
Kate has found that it's so much easier to rage than cry. When you cry, people try to comfort you, and if you let them do that then sure enough, they just leave you in the end. If you rage, they just leave you the hell alone.
___
Some new girl moves into the dilapidated ranch.
She brings her chocolate one day, while Grant is gone at work, and she tries to "share feelings" and "talk." Kate just stares out the window while the farmer girl--Jill--prattles on about whatever. Kate doesn't know and she doesn't care. But Jill catches her attention when she mentions inheriting the farm after her father's death, and Kate finally turns to look at her.
"Did you like him?" She asks quietly.
Jill looks puzzled. "Of course I liked him, silly. He was my dad."
Kate glares at the chocolate bar in front of her and digs her nails into her palm. "I hate my dad."
Farmer-girl frowns sadly, "Oh, you won't say that when he's gone," she says.
Kate turns her glare onto Jill. "Yeah, well, I loved my mom and you see where that got me."
___
"You look so much like your mother," Grant says one night, after half a glass of liquor. They're sitting at the table together, the bottle of rum in between them.
She sneers at him before turning back to her homework. "I wouldn't know," she retorts, "I've never seen myself from the back."
He ignores her. "Her hair is darker, of course."
Kate slaps the bottle and sends it flying to the floor.
"Just go to bed," she snaps, "before you start crying again."
___
Kate finally hits the ground and it hurts far more than she ever could have imagined.
She checks the mail on her birthday and finds a package from Samantha. She's glad her father is at work, otherwise he'd just be hovering over her, and he'd probably start crying again and Goddess knows, she just can't deal with that right now.
There are chocolates inside, and pictures.
A cute red house with a white picket fence, and a dog, and some man with a bushy beard, and a baby and her vision has gone so blurry that it's hard to read the attached letter, but she picks up words like married and little brother and come visit.
She shrieks--she thinks no sound like that has ever come from a human before--and decides that this package isn't even good enough for the river so instead she throws it into the wastebasket and lights it on fire, and it's not until the smoke alarm is going off that she realizes her vision is blurry from the tears.
When her father comes home, he asks why the house smells like smoke and she tells him she burnt the birthday cake she was trying to make.
He gets a weird look on his face, then pulls a present out of his briefcase. "Your mother was better at planning this type of stuff," he admits, but he helps her bake a cake and he doesn't take a drink all night.
___
The nice thing about crashing, Kate learns, is you're finally on the ground again. She's battered and bruised, but the ground is constant and solid and maybe now she can find her feet.
___
It's been a year--
(has it, really?)
(yes.)
--and they're not better. But they're getting there.
Kate comes home from school to find Grant sitting at the table, sipping a drink--milk, not alcohol.
"You're home early," Kate says, setting down her rucksack and sliding into the chair across from him.
He runs a hand over his face and smiles at her ruefully. "Yeah," he says softly, "I thought we could go to the city. Maybe get you a new dress."
Kate looks at him for a long while before nodding her head. "Okay. I have homework, though, so I can't be--"
Grant reaches across the table, grabbing her hand and squeezing it gently. It's enough to startle her into silence.
"Kate," he says, his words heavy, "It's not our fault."
She looks at him for a long time before nodding her head.
"I know."
___