Going Nowhere
Challenge: Gingerbread 30 - true love's kiss
Story: Colours Don't Run
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 668
Summary: Nick and his useless arranged marriage goes up the spout.
Let's start with a story.
Here is how things are supposed to be: Nick is supposed to be in love with Ute. Ute is supposed to be in love with Nick. They'll be married; the houses will be joined. They will be very happy together. Children will be born, bloodlines continued. Things aren't supposed to change. Nobody rocks the boat, because this boat wasn't built for rocking.
They did a good job to begin with, pretending that this was going to work. Sometimes they think that, if they're pushed, it will work - outwardly if nothing else. Nick has always seen Ute as his older sister, and Ute has always liked girls. The boat fucking sank when no one was paying enough attention, and now they're sitting inside a paper one and hoping nobody looks too closely.
So, Nick isn't in love with Ute. A lot of people seem to think he loves Teresa instead. They spend a lot of time together, maybe her country charm does something for him, although they can't understand it themselves. If Teresa heard that idea she'd laugh so hard she chokes. Nick thinks it's pretty funny too - even though he used to think they might manage it.
And some people spread little whispers that it's all because he wants the Irish boy; and there may be some truth to that. Nick wonders if he's gay sometimes now, because he does warm to Adrian a lot. He feels protective, in a way he's not experienced before.
Isaac wishes he had Nick's love. He thought he had it once, and that's what makes it hurt so much more. He thought it only took that hazy, warm night together to make it all right, to make it all work. Everything fell into place in his head that night, and he doesn't understand why Nick couldn't see it. He's grown up a little since then. He knows there are bridges that cannot be crossed. He's waiting for it to be burnt to cinders.
The person there is no confusion over is Samil. Samil makes perfect sense. Nick is in love with him, and knows it, from his core and from his youth. Some things never change. His cousin is tall and blond and beautiful and kind and everything Nick could never be. Sam smiles sadly at him, now, when he sees him - because he cannot help him. Nick wants something from him which he cannot give. Visiting him is starting to hurt; the conversations are stilted and painful, and this will go nowhere.
Nick doesn't believe in true love. People think he says that because he is cynical and bitter and he is bored of life before his has really begun. People think he wouldn't know love if it danced in front of him and dangled all his dreams in front of his long nose.
Nick doesn't believe in true love, because he doesn't understand why it should all belong to one person. He doesn't see why he can't love everyone all at once, all the same amount, and be done with it. He doesn't understand picking favourites. That's what he hates about Isaac. He doesn't want to be anyone's favourite. It's fucking creepy. People don't belong to other people.
But if he did entertain the thought - if there were someone you could call his true love, his true love's kiss - then it would be a more hopeless cause than all the others. The one Nick loves, and loves him in return, is that silly, crazy, beautiful, wise, and useless angel girl who isn't a girl at all. She hasn't come to him in a while now, not since he had a seal painted across his skin. She didn't exist in the first place, Nick tells himself, except for flying into his dreams and teaching him all the things he couldn't have known otherwise. And he shouldn't miss her.
And he certainly didn't kiss her. So that's another theory up the spout.
Story Index | Character Guide
Story: Colours Don't Run
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 668
Summary: Nick and his useless arranged marriage goes up the spout.
Let's start with a story.
Here is how things are supposed to be: Nick is supposed to be in love with Ute. Ute is supposed to be in love with Nick. They'll be married; the houses will be joined. They will be very happy together. Children will be born, bloodlines continued. Things aren't supposed to change. Nobody rocks the boat, because this boat wasn't built for rocking.
They did a good job to begin with, pretending that this was going to work. Sometimes they think that, if they're pushed, it will work - outwardly if nothing else. Nick has always seen Ute as his older sister, and Ute has always liked girls. The boat fucking sank when no one was paying enough attention, and now they're sitting inside a paper one and hoping nobody looks too closely.
So, Nick isn't in love with Ute. A lot of people seem to think he loves Teresa instead. They spend a lot of time together, maybe her country charm does something for him, although they can't understand it themselves. If Teresa heard that idea she'd laugh so hard she chokes. Nick thinks it's pretty funny too - even though he used to think they might manage it.
And some people spread little whispers that it's all because he wants the Irish boy; and there may be some truth to that. Nick wonders if he's gay sometimes now, because he does warm to Adrian a lot. He feels protective, in a way he's not experienced before.
Isaac wishes he had Nick's love. He thought he had it once, and that's what makes it hurt so much more. He thought it only took that hazy, warm night together to make it all right, to make it all work. Everything fell into place in his head that night, and he doesn't understand why Nick couldn't see it. He's grown up a little since then. He knows there are bridges that cannot be crossed. He's waiting for it to be burnt to cinders.
The person there is no confusion over is Samil. Samil makes perfect sense. Nick is in love with him, and knows it, from his core and from his youth. Some things never change. His cousin is tall and blond and beautiful and kind and everything Nick could never be. Sam smiles sadly at him, now, when he sees him - because he cannot help him. Nick wants something from him which he cannot give. Visiting him is starting to hurt; the conversations are stilted and painful, and this will go nowhere.
Nick doesn't believe in true love. People think he says that because he is cynical and bitter and he is bored of life before his has really begun. People think he wouldn't know love if it danced in front of him and dangled all his dreams in front of his long nose.
Nick doesn't believe in true love, because he doesn't understand why it should all belong to one person. He doesn't see why he can't love everyone all at once, all the same amount, and be done with it. He doesn't understand picking favourites. That's what he hates about Isaac. He doesn't want to be anyone's favourite. It's fucking creepy. People don't belong to other people.
But if he did entertain the thought - if there were someone you could call his true love, his true love's kiss - then it would be a more hopeless cause than all the others. The one Nick loves, and loves him in return, is that silly, crazy, beautiful, wise, and useless angel girl who isn't a girl at all. She hasn't come to him in a while now, not since he had a seal painted across his skin. She didn't exist in the first place, Nick tells himself, except for flying into his dreams and teaching him all the things he couldn't have known otherwise. And he shouldn't miss her.
And he certainly didn't kiss her. So that's another theory up the spout.
Story Index | Character Guide