Ficmix - Until We Bleed
Cut back on the caffeine, kids. This is what insomnia will do to you.
Title: Until We Bleed
Pairing: Jack/Claire
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jack doesn't remember. She stands inert at the window, two fingers pattering on the glass, a nonsense rhythm, her favorite song. It's a song about stars and rainy days and it suits her perfectly, Jack thinks.
Warnings: Deliberately vague Post-S5 AU (surprise!). Incest.
Notes: For5_loves, black and white, and30_wounds, Black and blue. Art + ficlet + zip after the cut.
+
lyrics:
01. veins (charlotte martin)
are you ready for the power of god
are you waiting for the saints to all nod
at the girl who should've been raised from the dead
at the demons who've been forced from my head
02. lust (the raveonettes)
i fell out of heaven to be with you in hell
my sins not quite seven
nothing much to tell
03. fools (the dodos)
his son is his prize, he tells a few lies
he's got his father's eyes, it's in his father's eyes
and he thinks in his mind that he's just getting by
04. running up that hill (placebo)
you don't wanna hurt me
let's see how deep the bullet lies
unaware that i'm tearing you asunder
and there's the thunder in our hearts, baby
05. evening on the ground (iron & wine)
our garden wall of eden
full of spiderbites and all your lovers
we were born to fuck each other
one way or another
06. weight of the world (black rebel motorcycle club)
this is stranger than love or loss
turning backwards you face the dawning
no excuse for a wasted life
falling backwards through a whisper of sky
07. until we bleed (mikael karlsson feat. lykke li)
doors slam, lights black
you're gone, come back
stay gone, stay clean
i need you to need me
.zip
+
The autumn breeze is cold, dry, harsh, a warning of imminent sundown. Her hair flies into her mouth and she giggles, smoothing her white loose skirt down over her hips. The ocean roars behind them, eating up the remnants of the last tide. He breathes shallowly, through his nose, lets the salt coat his lungs, thickening his voice. "You need some help with that?"
She sticks out her tongue. "Shut up, Jack." He smiles. She is happy. This is all he wanted.
Her voice is high on the wind, her mouth a ribbon of red laughter. "Aaron. Sweetheart. Let's make a sandcastle, Aaron!" Her voice rasps a little, sometimes, when she sings and when she cries. She smoked, before, before she got pregnant, before she left Australia, before she ran into him on the sidewalk and he asked for her name, not her number, before he hopped on a plane and followed her home, before she had the baby three years ago, before everything changed. She never told him this, but he knows--he recognizes the signs. Aaron toddles from Jack's arms to hers, windswept big blue eyes blinking. Claire laughs again.
She is beautiful--blond, and breakable. (She looks nothing like her, you know. Nothing like her.) She is too young for him. (His father is dead. She reminds him of himself. He has always wanted a sister.)
+
It feels like hiding, like a secret, like something too good to be true, too terrible to be spoken of. They make love in corners and beneath the stairs and sometimes on the floor, but never in bed, even when the curtains are shut tight and Aaron is fast asleep in his crib two doors down the hall, a storybook tucked beneath his arm. They don't question it because it's a habit and it's a habit because they don't question it.
She always reaches for the light switch, first. He'll never ask why.
+
She still reads her horoscope, every evening with her tea. Sometimes she reads his, too. It worries him, and he wonders, but he knows better than to say what he means.
+
The night comes more quickly on the other side of the world. She stands inert at the window, two fingers pattering on the glass, a nonsense rhythm, her favorite song. It's a song about stars and rainy days and it suits her perfectly, Jack thinks. White traffic lights make her hair glow neon, ultraviolet, her lashes dark against her cheek. The radio hums quietly on the countertop and he puts the last dish away, shutting the cupboard. A murderer has been caught, somewhere in the States--sentenced to death. He doesn't want to know.
He turns the volume down and walks up behind Claire, leaning down, his hands on her abdomen, her head falling back against his chest, a reflex. Something has changed in her eyes. Her skin is cold. "Hey," he says, quiet, afraid of something he doesn't understand. "What's going on?" What the hell is going on here? She smiles absently, exhausted. He bites his lower lip and rubs her arms.
She sighs, and moves back a little, her heels atop his toes, grounding him there, the city's eyes wide and blank on them both.
"I don't want to die," she whispers, her tapping fingers stilling against the glass. She has never sounded more far away.
+
Title: Until We Bleed
Pairing: Jack/Claire
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jack doesn't remember. She stands inert at the window, two fingers pattering on the glass, a nonsense rhythm, her favorite song. It's a song about stars and rainy days and it suits her perfectly, Jack thinks.
Warnings: Deliberately vague Post-S5 AU (surprise!). Incest.
Notes: For5_loves, black and white, and30_wounds, Black and blue. Art + ficlet + zip after the cut.
+
lyrics:
01. veins (charlotte martin)
are you ready for the power of god
are you waiting for the saints to all nod
at the girl who should've been raised from the dead
at the demons who've been forced from my head
02. lust (the raveonettes)
i fell out of heaven to be with you in hell
my sins not quite seven
nothing much to tell
03. fools (the dodos)
his son is his prize, he tells a few lies
he's got his father's eyes, it's in his father's eyes
and he thinks in his mind that he's just getting by
04. running up that hill (placebo)
you don't wanna hurt me
let's see how deep the bullet lies
unaware that i'm tearing you asunder
and there's the thunder in our hearts, baby
05. evening on the ground (iron & wine)
our garden wall of eden
full of spiderbites and all your lovers
we were born to fuck each other
one way or another
06. weight of the world (black rebel motorcycle club)
this is stranger than love or loss
turning backwards you face the dawning
no excuse for a wasted life
falling backwards through a whisper of sky
07. until we bleed (mikael karlsson feat. lykke li)
doors slam, lights black
you're gone, come back
stay gone, stay clean
i need you to need me
.zip
+
The autumn breeze is cold, dry, harsh, a warning of imminent sundown. Her hair flies into her mouth and she giggles, smoothing her white loose skirt down over her hips. The ocean roars behind them, eating up the remnants of the last tide. He breathes shallowly, through his nose, lets the salt coat his lungs, thickening his voice. "You need some help with that?"
She sticks out her tongue. "Shut up, Jack." He smiles. She is happy. This is all he wanted.
Her voice is high on the wind, her mouth a ribbon of red laughter. "Aaron. Sweetheart. Let's make a sandcastle, Aaron!" Her voice rasps a little, sometimes, when she sings and when she cries. She smoked, before, before she got pregnant, before she left Australia, before she ran into him on the sidewalk and he asked for her name, not her number, before he hopped on a plane and followed her home, before she had the baby three years ago, before everything changed. She never told him this, but he knows--he recognizes the signs. Aaron toddles from Jack's arms to hers, windswept big blue eyes blinking. Claire laughs again.
She is beautiful--blond, and breakable. (She looks nothing like her, you know. Nothing like her.) She is too young for him. (His father is dead. She reminds him of himself. He has always wanted a sister.)
+
It feels like hiding, like a secret, like something too good to be true, too terrible to be spoken of. They make love in corners and beneath the stairs and sometimes on the floor, but never in bed, even when the curtains are shut tight and Aaron is fast asleep in his crib two doors down the hall, a storybook tucked beneath his arm. They don't question it because it's a habit and it's a habit because they don't question it.
She always reaches for the light switch, first. He'll never ask why.
+
She still reads her horoscope, every evening with her tea. Sometimes she reads his, too. It worries him, and he wonders, but he knows better than to say what he means.
+
The night comes more quickly on the other side of the world. She stands inert at the window, two fingers pattering on the glass, a nonsense rhythm, her favorite song. It's a song about stars and rainy days and it suits her perfectly, Jack thinks. White traffic lights make her hair glow neon, ultraviolet, her lashes dark against her cheek. The radio hums quietly on the countertop and he puts the last dish away, shutting the cupboard. A murderer has been caught, somewhere in the States--sentenced to death. He doesn't want to know.
He turns the volume down and walks up behind Claire, leaning down, his hands on her abdomen, her head falling back against his chest, a reflex. Something has changed in her eyes. Her skin is cold. "Hey," he says, quiet, afraid of something he doesn't understand. "What's going on?" What the hell is going on here? She smiles absently, exhausted. He bites his lower lip and rubs her arms.
She sighs, and moves back a little, her heels atop his toes, grounding him there, the city's eyes wide and blank on them both.
"I don't want to die," she whispers, her tapping fingers stilling against the glass. She has never sounded more far away.
+