X-Men: Butterfly
Title: Butterfly
Author: arliddian
Rating: PG
Fandom: X-Men movieverse
Characters/Pairing: Bobby/Rogue
Summary: If you try to hold a butterfly tightly in your hand, it will die. You have to let it go.
Word Count: 514
Author's Note: Prompt - Butterfly. Inspired by a butterfly-related quote from an episode of Daria (The Lane Miserables).
Warnings: Nil.
Disclaimer: Don't own it; don't sue me.
A long time ago, when Bobby was still going to a regular school with regular kids, he had a friend, Adam, whose mother was something of a hippy.
Once he had gone over to Adam's house after school, and overheard his mother on the phone to one of her friends.
"If you try to hold a butterfly tightly in your hand, it will die," she had said earnestly. "You have to let it go. And if it comes back, it is truly yours. But if it doesn't, it never really was."
Even back then, young as he was, Bobby had scoffed and thought it was ridiculous advice. If you want to keep something, why not try to hold onto it?
* * * * *
He meets a girl one afternoon, a girl who calls herself Rogue. She's beautiful and mysterious and tentative, and he's captivated immediately.
He pursues her, not aggressively, because there is very little about him that is aggressive, but persistently, patiently. He refuses to give up: not when she starts inexplicably avoiding him (he later discovers it's because someone stole his face and his voice and fed her lies); not when she kisses him and he feels his life begin to drain away; not when she disappears and then turns up again without her gloves or the voices inside her head.
As they lie in his bed one evening, dozing off in each other's arms, he knows that he has never wanted to hold onto anything as much as he wants to hold onto her.
* * * * *
He watches her grow restless with increasing dread. He knows that she's ready to run. It's in the way she avoids the cafeteria so she can eat by herself; the way she purses her lips and looks away whenever anyone uses their powers; the way she wanders the grounds alone whenever he has a training session.
He tries finding small ways to convince her to stay, spending every minute he's not in class or in the Danger Room with her, taking her out on surprise dates, organising picnics and movie outings with all of their friends. It's not enough.
She knocks on his bedroom door late one evening, an overstuffed duffel bag on her shoulder, sorrow in her eyes, an apology on her lips.
The words of Adam's mother come back to him, unbidden.
If you try to hold a butterfly tightly in your hand, it will die.
He lets her go. And as he watches her walk away, he pretends he doesn't hope that she'll come back.
* * * * *
Months later, she shows up at the front gate of the mansion, biting her lip and trying not to meet his eyes.
"I made a mistake," she finally blurts out, bare fingers tentatively reaching out to touch the bars of the gate. They slip between the metal and hesitantly brush against his jacket. "I missed you."
He opens the gate. And as he steps back to let her walk inside, he catches a glimpse of a butterfly behind her, riding a soft breeze over the wall and into the grounds.
He smiles.
Fin
Author: arliddian
Rating: PG
Fandom: X-Men movieverse
Characters/Pairing: Bobby/Rogue
Summary: If you try to hold a butterfly tightly in your hand, it will die. You have to let it go.
Word Count: 514
Author's Note: Prompt - Butterfly. Inspired by a butterfly-related quote from an episode of Daria (The Lane Miserables).
Warnings: Nil.
Disclaimer: Don't own it; don't sue me.
A long time ago, when Bobby was still going to a regular school with regular kids, he had a friend, Adam, whose mother was something of a hippy.
Once he had gone over to Adam's house after school, and overheard his mother on the phone to one of her friends.
"If you try to hold a butterfly tightly in your hand, it will die," she had said earnestly. "You have to let it go. And if it comes back, it is truly yours. But if it doesn't, it never really was."
Even back then, young as he was, Bobby had scoffed and thought it was ridiculous advice. If you want to keep something, why not try to hold onto it?
* * * * *
He meets a girl one afternoon, a girl who calls herself Rogue. She's beautiful and mysterious and tentative, and he's captivated immediately.
He pursues her, not aggressively, because there is very little about him that is aggressive, but persistently, patiently. He refuses to give up: not when she starts inexplicably avoiding him (he later discovers it's because someone stole his face and his voice and fed her lies); not when she kisses him and he feels his life begin to drain away; not when she disappears and then turns up again without her gloves or the voices inside her head.
As they lie in his bed one evening, dozing off in each other's arms, he knows that he has never wanted to hold onto anything as much as he wants to hold onto her.
* * * * *
He watches her grow restless with increasing dread. He knows that she's ready to run. It's in the way she avoids the cafeteria so she can eat by herself; the way she purses her lips and looks away whenever anyone uses their powers; the way she wanders the grounds alone whenever he has a training session.
He tries finding small ways to convince her to stay, spending every minute he's not in class or in the Danger Room with her, taking her out on surprise dates, organising picnics and movie outings with all of their friends. It's not enough.
She knocks on his bedroom door late one evening, an overstuffed duffel bag on her shoulder, sorrow in her eyes, an apology on her lips.
The words of Adam's mother come back to him, unbidden.
If you try to hold a butterfly tightly in your hand, it will die.
He lets her go. And as he watches her walk away, he pretends he doesn't hope that she'll come back.
* * * * *
Months later, she shows up at the front gate of the mansion, biting her lip and trying not to meet his eyes.
"I made a mistake," she finally blurts out, bare fingers tentatively reaching out to touch the bars of the gate. They slip between the metal and hesitantly brush against his jacket. "I missed you."
He opens the gate. And as he steps back to let her walk inside, he catches a glimpse of a butterfly behind her, riding a soft breeze over the wall and into the grounds.
He smiles.
Fin