The Rain Makes the Pain Grow Stronger
Title: The Rain Makes the Pain Grow Stronger
Fandom: Heroes
Rating/Genre: PG/femslash
Characters/Pairing: Elle Bishop/Angela Petrelli (one-sided)
Summary: Angela thinks that Elle, as she’s growing up and isn’t a child anymore, needs a mother figure more than ever. Elle has something else in mind.
Word count: 1 588
Spoilers/Warnings: No.
Notes: Written for oneshot challenge #19 (picture prompt; raindrops) at heroes_contest. (Edited February 17th 2011.)
It started raining again. Looking out the window, Angela could see raindrops falling in the big pool of water that had assembled there after days and nights of almost constant raining. She sighed, restless and bored.
Perhaps she could go and see Bob and Elle? She wasn't sure. Elle had been looking at her in a funny way lately. Somehow it reminded her of the way that Nathan and Peter looked at her, and perhaps it wasn’t so strange. Elle was getting older. The age when, Angela supposed, most girls would need a mother.
Too bad that I'm not the motherly kind, Angela thought. My own boys - they’re different. Caring for them is biology, it’s the blood that talks.
She went to see the girl anyway. Bob was out somewhere but Elle seemed glad to see her. Angela looked at Elle and was suddenly surprised at the sight of her.
"When was the last time I saw you?" she asked.
Elle shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. A while ago, I guess. Why?"
"Oh, nothing..."
It is an odd thing to watch a girl grow up, Angela thought. It's like the rain. Everything is happening slowly at first. The body is getting taller, she starts paying attention to the way she dresses and brushes her hair, the breasts are growing and it's like raindrops falling into a pool of water. You can count the drops and see the circles spreading on the water. But suddenly, the raindrops are falling down so fast and it's impossible to separate one from another; if you look at one drop as it hits the water, a hundred of others have already fallen down beside it and you haven't had time to notice.
That's what it's like when a girl is becoming a woman, too.
"How are you doing?" she asked.
"Just fine", Elle said, and added in a lower tone of voice as she looked out of the window:
"Except that I..."
"Yes, what?" Angela hesitaded. "Is something bothering you? You can tell me about it if you don’t want to talk to your dad."
Angela regretted her words almost as soon as she said them. She shouldn’t have said that, not when she wasn’t convinced that she could do anything for the girl.
"My hands hurt", Elle said. "I mean, sometimes... I feel this ache..."
Angela tried not to show that Elle's words worried her. Elle controlled a lot of power with her hands and if she felt pain, then clearly something was wrong with her. Too many tests? She tried to think, but she didn't know of anyone with a similar ability that had reported hurting hands.
"You should tell Bob", she said, but Elle interrupted,
"No, it's not... I mean, it has nothing to do with my ability. It's not that kind of pain - look, I'm fine, and I'll still be useful to the Company..."
Elle made small blue electric flames dance on the palm of her hands, letting them grow in intensity for a moment before she made them fade.
"Then I don't understand", Angela said.
"Sometimes when I look out of the window," Elle said, "and when I think about the world outside, then I feel this peculiar pain in the palm of my hands. Especially when it rains, like today. I don't know why, but the rain makes the pain grow stronger. And my cheeks are burning as if I had a fever, except that I don't, and..."
Elle stretched her arms out, toward Angela, but didn't walk any closer. Her eyes seemed bigger than usual, questioning, and she searched for words.
"I guess I feel as if I'd like to... I don't know, I press my hands against the window, and I see my own reflection in the glass and then I feel lonely. It makes me think that I'd like to... touch someone else’s hands, I suppose."
Elle took one step closer to Angela. She grabbed Angela’s left hand and pressed her palm against it, made their fingers become intertwined.
"Like this, maybe..." she said slowly.
Angela gently freed her hand, and said:
“I understand, Elle. It’s perfectly natural, you know. You are a young woman now and like any young woman, you have needs. This is nothing dangerous. It’s simply your body’s way of telling your mind what it needs.”
“Oh, I know that, Angela. I have been living within the walls of this building for almost all my life, but that doesn’t mean that I’m born yesterday. I’m not asking you what it means, I’m asking you what I should do about it.”
Angela sighed inwardly. She felt unprepared for this conversation.
The girl looked at her as if she held the secret key to all answers. She wasn’t sure about what to say to her, the eighteen-year-old who was not a child anymore but in need of a mother figure.
Angela did not want to take on that role, although she was the mother of two sons. Where did this sudden urge to turn around and walk away come from? Bob should make sure that his own daughter had what she needed; she had never interfered with his way of raising Elle before.
The raindrops were beating even harder on the window as if they were playing some obscure and inflammatory, heady music.
“Oh, come here!”, she said, and Elle immediately fell into her open arms.
“Don’t worry, everything will be fine”, Angela said, as she tried to comfortingly caress the young woman’s blonde hair. “Be strong, Elle. One day, you’ll see…”
Angela stopped to think. One day, what? ‘One day you’ll fall in love, have sex, get married and have a family like normal people…’ But Elle wasn’t like normal people. She lived within the Company’s walls and she was practically Company property…
“I know that I can never be like you”, Elle said, “and maybe that’s why I’ve always admired you so much. I’ve never told you, but you’re wise and strong and elegant and…”
“Very well, dear. You don’t have to idolize me.”
Angela tried to escape the embrace but Elle clutched at her.
“No, don’t go away. Please, just hold me. Hold me.”
Elle’s grip tightened. Angela felt the girl’s soft but a little dry lips against her neck and then on her cheek. The second before Elle’s lips reached hers, she turned her head away.
“Child, what on earth are you doing?”
Elle’s breath was hot against Angela’s face as she whispered:
“Angela, kiss me!”
Angela took a step back, realizing that she must have misread the signs. The peculiar look in Elle’s eyes lately couldn’t mean anything other than that Elle was attracted to her. Or at least lonely and confused enough to believe that she was.
“No”, she said, “that wouldn’t be right.”
Elle stared at her with the pout of a teenage girl but the eyes of a woman, the desire of a woman. Small blue sparks began to jump uncontrollably from her fingertips.
“But I want you to do it”, she persisted, and one little electric spark came a little too close to Angela. “I really need you to kiss me!”
I suppose that she really thinks that she does, Angela thought, and said as she moved to the other side of the room:
“Stop that immediately or I won’t come any closer. You can’t ask people to kiss you and then zap them before they do.”
Elle gulped and tried visibly to control her agitation. Her breathing was shaky and a little too heavy. She looked down at her hands, clenching them, and she got her power under control.
“Are you calm now?”
Elle looked up again, her eyes sad as rainy skies, but hopeful. She nodded.
“Come here then.”
Angela didn’t smile and she realized that she didn’t sound very inviting. Elle, nonetheless, walked up to her as if Angela’s summon was irresistible. She stopped right in front of her, one small step away, but Angela grabbed her waist and pulled her closer.
It would never have occurred to Angela that she could kiss Elle Bishop. She had never been attracted to the girl but right there and then she decided that there was nothing much that spoke against it and she kissed the girl she held in her arms. Elle’s hungry mouth met hers and responded immediately. Angela allowed Elle to press her body eagerly against hers. Angela held her close, ran her fingers through her hair, and kissed her even deeper.
Then she pulled away and stepped back.
Elle raised her arms to try to get hold of her again, but then she let her hands fall down.
Angela smiled a little and reached out her hand to caress the girl’s blushing face.
“Now you know what that feels like.”
“Yes”, Elle replied, “but I want more…”
Angela shook her head resolutely.
“No”, she said with her most serious tone of voice. “Life is unfair like that, you see. We don’t always get everything we want. That’s just the way it is.”
Elle sighed and nodded.
Angela wondered if it would have been better if she had denied Elle her kiss but decided that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t going to happen again.
Angela left the building and walked away. The whole episode had taken her by surprise but it didn’t cost her much to commit a small act of kindness. And it had stopped raining. Looking up, she saw a crack in the grey clouds and a hint of blue sky, finally.
.
Fandom: Heroes
Rating/Genre: PG/femslash
Characters/Pairing: Elle Bishop/Angela Petrelli (one-sided)
Summary: Angela thinks that Elle, as she’s growing up and isn’t a child anymore, needs a mother figure more than ever. Elle has something else in mind.
Word count: 1 588
Spoilers/Warnings: No.
Notes: Written for oneshot challenge #19 (picture prompt; raindrops) at heroes_contest. (Edited February 17th 2011.)
It started raining again. Looking out the window, Angela could see raindrops falling in the big pool of water that had assembled there after days and nights of almost constant raining. She sighed, restless and bored.
Perhaps she could go and see Bob and Elle? She wasn't sure. Elle had been looking at her in a funny way lately. Somehow it reminded her of the way that Nathan and Peter looked at her, and perhaps it wasn’t so strange. Elle was getting older. The age when, Angela supposed, most girls would need a mother.
Too bad that I'm not the motherly kind, Angela thought. My own boys - they’re different. Caring for them is biology, it’s the blood that talks.
She went to see the girl anyway. Bob was out somewhere but Elle seemed glad to see her. Angela looked at Elle and was suddenly surprised at the sight of her.
"When was the last time I saw you?" she asked.
Elle shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. A while ago, I guess. Why?"
"Oh, nothing..."
It is an odd thing to watch a girl grow up, Angela thought. It's like the rain. Everything is happening slowly at first. The body is getting taller, she starts paying attention to the way she dresses and brushes her hair, the breasts are growing and it's like raindrops falling into a pool of water. You can count the drops and see the circles spreading on the water. But suddenly, the raindrops are falling down so fast and it's impossible to separate one from another; if you look at one drop as it hits the water, a hundred of others have already fallen down beside it and you haven't had time to notice.
That's what it's like when a girl is becoming a woman, too.
"How are you doing?" she asked.
"Just fine", Elle said, and added in a lower tone of voice as she looked out of the window:
"Except that I..."
"Yes, what?" Angela hesitaded. "Is something bothering you? You can tell me about it if you don’t want to talk to your dad."
Angela regretted her words almost as soon as she said them. She shouldn’t have said that, not when she wasn’t convinced that she could do anything for the girl.
"My hands hurt", Elle said. "I mean, sometimes... I feel this ache..."
Angela tried not to show that Elle's words worried her. Elle controlled a lot of power with her hands and if she felt pain, then clearly something was wrong with her. Too many tests? She tried to think, but she didn't know of anyone with a similar ability that had reported hurting hands.
"You should tell Bob", she said, but Elle interrupted,
"No, it's not... I mean, it has nothing to do with my ability. It's not that kind of pain - look, I'm fine, and I'll still be useful to the Company..."
Elle made small blue electric flames dance on the palm of her hands, letting them grow in intensity for a moment before she made them fade.
"Then I don't understand", Angela said.
"Sometimes when I look out of the window," Elle said, "and when I think about the world outside, then I feel this peculiar pain in the palm of my hands. Especially when it rains, like today. I don't know why, but the rain makes the pain grow stronger. And my cheeks are burning as if I had a fever, except that I don't, and..."
Elle stretched her arms out, toward Angela, but didn't walk any closer. Her eyes seemed bigger than usual, questioning, and she searched for words.
"I guess I feel as if I'd like to... I don't know, I press my hands against the window, and I see my own reflection in the glass and then I feel lonely. It makes me think that I'd like to... touch someone else’s hands, I suppose."
Elle took one step closer to Angela. She grabbed Angela’s left hand and pressed her palm against it, made their fingers become intertwined.
"Like this, maybe..." she said slowly.
Angela gently freed her hand, and said:
“I understand, Elle. It’s perfectly natural, you know. You are a young woman now and like any young woman, you have needs. This is nothing dangerous. It’s simply your body’s way of telling your mind what it needs.”
“Oh, I know that, Angela. I have been living within the walls of this building for almost all my life, but that doesn’t mean that I’m born yesterday. I’m not asking you what it means, I’m asking you what I should do about it.”
Angela sighed inwardly. She felt unprepared for this conversation.
The girl looked at her as if she held the secret key to all answers. She wasn’t sure about what to say to her, the eighteen-year-old who was not a child anymore but in need of a mother figure.
Angela did not want to take on that role, although she was the mother of two sons. Where did this sudden urge to turn around and walk away come from? Bob should make sure that his own daughter had what she needed; she had never interfered with his way of raising Elle before.
The raindrops were beating even harder on the window as if they were playing some obscure and inflammatory, heady music.
“Oh, come here!”, she said, and Elle immediately fell into her open arms.
“Don’t worry, everything will be fine”, Angela said, as she tried to comfortingly caress the young woman’s blonde hair. “Be strong, Elle. One day, you’ll see…”
Angela stopped to think. One day, what? ‘One day you’ll fall in love, have sex, get married and have a family like normal people…’ But Elle wasn’t like normal people. She lived within the Company’s walls and she was practically Company property…
“I know that I can never be like you”, Elle said, “and maybe that’s why I’ve always admired you so much. I’ve never told you, but you’re wise and strong and elegant and…”
“Very well, dear. You don’t have to idolize me.”
Angela tried to escape the embrace but Elle clutched at her.
“No, don’t go away. Please, just hold me. Hold me.”
Elle’s grip tightened. Angela felt the girl’s soft but a little dry lips against her neck and then on her cheek. The second before Elle’s lips reached hers, she turned her head away.
“Child, what on earth are you doing?”
Elle’s breath was hot against Angela’s face as she whispered:
“Angela, kiss me!”
Angela took a step back, realizing that she must have misread the signs. The peculiar look in Elle’s eyes lately couldn’t mean anything other than that Elle was attracted to her. Or at least lonely and confused enough to believe that she was.
“No”, she said, “that wouldn’t be right.”
Elle stared at her with the pout of a teenage girl but the eyes of a woman, the desire of a woman. Small blue sparks began to jump uncontrollably from her fingertips.
“But I want you to do it”, she persisted, and one little electric spark came a little too close to Angela. “I really need you to kiss me!”
I suppose that she really thinks that she does, Angela thought, and said as she moved to the other side of the room:
“Stop that immediately or I won’t come any closer. You can’t ask people to kiss you and then zap them before they do.”
Elle gulped and tried visibly to control her agitation. Her breathing was shaky and a little too heavy. She looked down at her hands, clenching them, and she got her power under control.
“Are you calm now?”
Elle looked up again, her eyes sad as rainy skies, but hopeful. She nodded.
“Come here then.”
Angela didn’t smile and she realized that she didn’t sound very inviting. Elle, nonetheless, walked up to her as if Angela’s summon was irresistible. She stopped right in front of her, one small step away, but Angela grabbed her waist and pulled her closer.
It would never have occurred to Angela that she could kiss Elle Bishop. She had never been attracted to the girl but right there and then she decided that there was nothing much that spoke against it and she kissed the girl she held in her arms. Elle’s hungry mouth met hers and responded immediately. Angela allowed Elle to press her body eagerly against hers. Angela held her close, ran her fingers through her hair, and kissed her even deeper.
Then she pulled away and stepped back.
Elle raised her arms to try to get hold of her again, but then she let her hands fall down.
Angela smiled a little and reached out her hand to caress the girl’s blushing face.
“Now you know what that feels like.”
“Yes”, Elle replied, “but I want more…”
Angela shook her head resolutely.
“No”, she said with her most serious tone of voice. “Life is unfair like that, you see. We don’t always get everything we want. That’s just the way it is.”
Elle sighed and nodded.
Angela wondered if it would have been better if she had denied Elle her kiss but decided that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t going to happen again.
Angela left the building and walked away. The whole episode had taken her by surprise but it didn’t cost her much to commit a small act of kindness. And it had stopped raining. Looking up, she saw a crack in the grey clouds and a hint of blue sky, finally.
.