Pineapple 18, Pomegranate 18, Papaya 8
Author: Casey
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: Pineapple 18 (hindsight is 20/20), Pomegranate 18 (homicide), Papaya 8 (you'll never get away with this!)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel (superCaramel), Hot Fudge, Malt (Truth or Dare from Nina: Leigh/Flame as a child), Pocky Chain
Word Count: 1000
Rating: PG (warning: off-screen character death)
Summary: Leigh’s love of fire started early.
Notes: I got more Leigh specific prompts than anything else so I figured I’d tackle this one. This turned out to be more important to Leigh’s mental state than I thought! Thanks, Nina! One last Hot Fudge before we return to the good guys :P
“Look, John, look, look at the baby,” Teresa hissed. John lowered his paper and his eyes widened at the sight of his almost year old daughter who had pulled herself up, plainly using the leg of the table. As her parents watched, she seemed to sway with the flame of the candle perched on the small end table.
“What is she doing?” John asked.
“Look at her, she’s watching the flame.”
Just then, the baby reached out towards it. “Leigh, no!” she said, darting forward and pulling the child back.
Leigh blinked at her mother and then burst into tears.
**
A year later, she again was reaching for the flame when her mother noticed. “Leigh, I’ve told you no!”
The small child scowled at her. “Yes, Mama,” she argued, stretching her hand out further.
“Leigh Miranda Parker,” John snapped.
Leigh stomped her foot. “Want, Dada, want,” she said insistently.
“The fire will burn you, child. It will hurt,” her grandmother said, from her position in the armchair across the room. Her knitting needles never stopped clacking.
“Hurt?” Leigh repeated.
“Like when you scrapped your knee earlier this week.”
“Booboo,” the toddler said and frowned, eyeing the candle longingly.
“Yes, booboo.”
**
“Child, come here.”
The little girl approached her grandmother. “Yes, Gramma?”
Miranda Parker reached out, plucking the candle down off the shelf where it as kept out of Leigh’s reach after her continued attempts to burn herself. “What have we told you about fire?”
“It is bad and will hurt me and I will get a big bubble called a blister where it burns me and I am not to touch the candles or matches ever or else Daddy will be very mad and I will be in trouble.”
Miranda lit the candle. “Do you still want to try, Leigh?”
**
Leigh discovered that all the threats were true. If you did hold your hand too long in the flame, it would hurt and turn red and puff up and get all white and icky looking. She also learned, though, that it did not have to happen that way. If she was quick, if she did not let her finger linger in the flame, but skitter through like it was scared, then it did not burn. That was when it tickled.
That tickle made her fingers itch for more, even when her father discovered the burn and punished her for it.
**
She was not sure what her grandmother had intended, but what the test with the candle did was only make Leigh more determined to test out her ability to time it just right so as not to burn. However, her first attempt was disastrous. She burned herself, candle slipping from her fingers into the grass - the dead, late summer grass.
Instantly flames burst from the grass, spreading rapidly. Leigh, now six, yelped and pounced on them, jumping and stamping at the blades.
She got it out, but her dress was singed and her shoes ruined. Her grandmother was her savior.
**
Her grandmother became her secret assistant in her desire to get close to fire and learn to control it. When Miranda sat her down to tell her, she looked Leigh right in the face. “I am doing this for one reason, Leigh. If you are going to play with fire, you need to know how to control it. And it doesn’t appear that anything can stop you.”
“I can control it.”
“That is why you burned your shoes past repair? That was just risky for no good reason, child. I will not accept such blatant stupidity out of my grandchild.”
**
She was a quick study and good at hiding the lessons from her parents. Teresa sometimes looked at her sidelong, as if suspecting there was something her daughter wasn’t telling her, but she said nothing. Miranda taught the girl her lessons anyway, so just included a quick lesson on control and patience at the same time, sometimes with and sometimes without fire.
Leigh started to grow and, as she did, she got steadily better and burned herself and other things less, although there were definite accidents at times. She was never sure if what happened was her fault or not.
**
Leigh turned ten with the usual fanfare that accompanied double digits in her town. She was, really, a perfectly normal child and stuck rigorously to her grandmother’s schedule regarding fire. It was that evening, after the guests had all gone home, that she and Miranda retreated to the barn for a special birthday present. Her grandmother lit a candle and then looked gravely at her only granddaughter. “Leigh. I understand where you get it from. It comes from me. Don’t squander it, okay? If you’re going to use it, use it to help people.”
“How?”
“You’ll know when it’s time.”
**
Worn out from her birthday celebrations, Leigh fell asleep in the reassuring flicker of the candle, curled up with Miranda. Next think she knew, pain flared up her arm and she jerked away from the familiar feeling of being burned. Her eyes opened and were almost consumed by the orange and red that danced across her vision.
“Child,” that was Miranda, as implacably calm as ever. “It is time to leave.”
“Gramma?”
“This is your final test. Remember what I taught you.”
Leigh did as ordered, keeping low. It was only once out that she realized Miranda had not followed.
**
Her mistake, and where she found fault in herself later, was that she just stood, watching the barn be consumed by the roaring flames. Her arm stung fiercely from the bite of the fire. Then, she saw her grandmother, or maybe she imagined it, she was never certain. Miranda was sitting in the middle of the barn, surrounded by licking flames. Her eyes were closed, a peaceful expression on her face.
Only then did Leigh run for the house, screaming for her parents. By the time they got out, it was too late. The barn and her grandmother were gone.
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: Pineapple 18 (hindsight is 20/20), Pomegranate 18 (homicide), Papaya 8 (you'll never get away with this!)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel (superCaramel), Hot Fudge, Malt (Truth or Dare from Nina: Leigh/Flame as a child), Pocky Chain
Word Count: 1000
Rating: PG (warning: off-screen character death)
Summary: Leigh’s love of fire started early.
Notes: I got more Leigh specific prompts than anything else so I figured I’d tackle this one. This turned out to be more important to Leigh’s mental state than I thought! Thanks, Nina! One last Hot Fudge before we return to the good guys :P
“Look, John, look, look at the baby,” Teresa hissed. John lowered his paper and his eyes widened at the sight of his almost year old daughter who had pulled herself up, plainly using the leg of the table. As her parents watched, she seemed to sway with the flame of the candle perched on the small end table.
“What is she doing?” John asked.
“Look at her, she’s watching the flame.”
Just then, the baby reached out towards it. “Leigh, no!” she said, darting forward and pulling the child back.
Leigh blinked at her mother and then burst into tears.
**
A year later, she again was reaching for the flame when her mother noticed. “Leigh, I’ve told you no!”
The small child scowled at her. “Yes, Mama,” she argued, stretching her hand out further.
“Leigh Miranda Parker,” John snapped.
Leigh stomped her foot. “Want, Dada, want,” she said insistently.
“The fire will burn you, child. It will hurt,” her grandmother said, from her position in the armchair across the room. Her knitting needles never stopped clacking.
“Hurt?” Leigh repeated.
“Like when you scrapped your knee earlier this week.”
“Booboo,” the toddler said and frowned, eyeing the candle longingly.
“Yes, booboo.”
**
“Child, come here.”
The little girl approached her grandmother. “Yes, Gramma?”
Miranda Parker reached out, plucking the candle down off the shelf where it as kept out of Leigh’s reach after her continued attempts to burn herself. “What have we told you about fire?”
“It is bad and will hurt me and I will get a big bubble called a blister where it burns me and I am not to touch the candles or matches ever or else Daddy will be very mad and I will be in trouble.”
Miranda lit the candle. “Do you still want to try, Leigh?”
**
Leigh discovered that all the threats were true. If you did hold your hand too long in the flame, it would hurt and turn red and puff up and get all white and icky looking. She also learned, though, that it did not have to happen that way. If she was quick, if she did not let her finger linger in the flame, but skitter through like it was scared, then it did not burn. That was when it tickled.
That tickle made her fingers itch for more, even when her father discovered the burn and punished her for it.
**
She was not sure what her grandmother had intended, but what the test with the candle did was only make Leigh more determined to test out her ability to time it just right so as not to burn. However, her first attempt was disastrous. She burned herself, candle slipping from her fingers into the grass - the dead, late summer grass.
Instantly flames burst from the grass, spreading rapidly. Leigh, now six, yelped and pounced on them, jumping and stamping at the blades.
She got it out, but her dress was singed and her shoes ruined. Her grandmother was her savior.
**
Her grandmother became her secret assistant in her desire to get close to fire and learn to control it. When Miranda sat her down to tell her, she looked Leigh right in the face. “I am doing this for one reason, Leigh. If you are going to play with fire, you need to know how to control it. And it doesn’t appear that anything can stop you.”
“I can control it.”
“That is why you burned your shoes past repair? That was just risky for no good reason, child. I will not accept such blatant stupidity out of my grandchild.”
**
She was a quick study and good at hiding the lessons from her parents. Teresa sometimes looked at her sidelong, as if suspecting there was something her daughter wasn’t telling her, but she said nothing. Miranda taught the girl her lessons anyway, so just included a quick lesson on control and patience at the same time, sometimes with and sometimes without fire.
Leigh started to grow and, as she did, she got steadily better and burned herself and other things less, although there were definite accidents at times. She was never sure if what happened was her fault or not.
**
Leigh turned ten with the usual fanfare that accompanied double digits in her town. She was, really, a perfectly normal child and stuck rigorously to her grandmother’s schedule regarding fire. It was that evening, after the guests had all gone home, that she and Miranda retreated to the barn for a special birthday present. Her grandmother lit a candle and then looked gravely at her only granddaughter. “Leigh. I understand where you get it from. It comes from me. Don’t squander it, okay? If you’re going to use it, use it to help people.”
“How?”
“You’ll know when it’s time.”
**
Worn out from her birthday celebrations, Leigh fell asleep in the reassuring flicker of the candle, curled up with Miranda. Next think she knew, pain flared up her arm and she jerked away from the familiar feeling of being burned. Her eyes opened and were almost consumed by the orange and red that danced across her vision.
“Child,” that was Miranda, as implacably calm as ever. “It is time to leave.”
“Gramma?”
“This is your final test. Remember what I taught you.”
Leigh did as ordered, keeping low. It was only once out that she realized Miranda had not followed.
**
Her mistake, and where she found fault in herself later, was that she just stood, watching the barn be consumed by the roaring flames. Her arm stung fiercely from the bite of the fire. Then, she saw her grandmother, or maybe she imagined it, she was never certain. Miranda was sitting in the middle of the barn, surrounded by licking flames. Her eyes were closed, a peaceful expression on her face.
Only then did Leigh run for the house, screaming for her parents. By the time they got out, it was too late. The barn and her grandmother were gone.