Commandments
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Sneaking out to meet a lover under starlight, the stuff of romance novels and Shakespeare plays: they rarely meet at night, for the sake of academics and personal safety.
It's dangerous to be a mutant at night, now, more so for them than the people who fear the lurking image of a crazed mutant.
It is two o'clock, on the day of an assembly, that she fabricates an excuse to quickly visit the ladies' room and he, simply, 'ports out; it is Saturday, when she has unwanted gifts to buy for an unwanted cousin; it is any moment of daylight that they can grab without being seen by anyone who might know her parents' decree:
Thou Shalt Not Date Freaks.
In less words, of course, she knows her parents too well to expect them to be so callous, but it is the essence that carries through in their carefully worded lectures and requested laws; she smiles through those speeches and wonders that her parents could have changed.
Pictures of civil rights parades, Mom and Dad photographed in sterling black-and-white perched on the bookshelf in the study, and the brief discussion after a news special on channel nine (Fight or Flight: the Secret Menace of Mutants) home of quality information.
"Nothin' wrong with it," said Mom in her elegant accent, and Dad had expounded on the similarities with the black rights movement. Neither had been quite so willing to maintain friendliness after Kurt's exposure.
Kurt was not surprised - nor disappointed, but sad in that peculiar, private melancholy of his. Yellow eyes gleaming away at some point, blue limbs tucked in close to his abdomen where he crouched in the shadowed tree: "I'm used to this sort of thing," he had said softly, his own faint accent tainting the words deeply. "It is...frequent, that people don't like me as I am."
She worries that he always cuts himself down, as though culture was slowly bleeding a fierce self-hatred within him.
"I do," she protests in memory, smiling gently, brown face tilting up as she leans against the tree. "I don't care what anyone else thinks - my parents, our friends, anybody. We've talked about this before, right? They'll come around," she smiles, as he looks down at her, yellow eyes gleaming like spokes of light from the dappled green shadows. "It's in their heritage; they fought for equal rights before."
He smiles sadly back at her, before thunking his slender fist on the image inducer and slides down the trunk to offer a quick kiss to her cheek. She knows he does not believe, but rather hopes.
Her heritage, and his heritage; she wants to avoid the struggle that will establish his eternally, but she knows to avoid the struggle - to try and bypass all the hardships and tests that will come: marches to capitals, parades and speeches, and martyrs who will die for the cause - to do so would be impossible. And Amanda knows just as deeply that she has no other choice but to stand beside Kurt, knows that the thought of not doing so is sickening to her.
-
Before her parents changed, before she began to realize fighting for one cause did not mean fighting for the next for all people, she had been taught one other decree:
Thou Shalt Embrace Love - For Better, For Worse.
And she will.
She does.
--
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End
-
Feedback: It's delicious! And, trust me, I'll be immensely appreciative.
Continuity: More or less directly following 'The Toad, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.' Any canon screw-ups are, well, my fault. No excuses on my part, babeh!
Disclaimer: Can't say I own 'em. I just wait for the day they become public domain.
Notes: That this features something other than Kurtty coming from me should alone be astounding. :D
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Sneaking out to meet a lover under starlight, the stuff of romance novels and Shakespeare plays: they rarely meet at night, for the sake of academics and personal safety.
It's dangerous to be a mutant at night, now, more so for them than the people who fear the lurking image of a crazed mutant.
It is two o'clock, on the day of an assembly, that she fabricates an excuse to quickly visit the ladies' room and he, simply, 'ports out; it is Saturday, when she has unwanted gifts to buy for an unwanted cousin; it is any moment of daylight that they can grab without being seen by anyone who might know her parents' decree:
Thou Shalt Not Date Freaks.
In less words, of course, she knows her parents too well to expect them to be so callous, but it is the essence that carries through in their carefully worded lectures and requested laws; she smiles through those speeches and wonders that her parents could have changed.
Pictures of civil rights parades, Mom and Dad photographed in sterling black-and-white perched on the bookshelf in the study, and the brief discussion after a news special on channel nine (Fight or Flight: the Secret Menace of Mutants) home of quality information.
"Nothin' wrong with it," said Mom in her elegant accent, and Dad had expounded on the similarities with the black rights movement. Neither had been quite so willing to maintain friendliness after Kurt's exposure.
Kurt was not surprised - nor disappointed, but sad in that peculiar, private melancholy of his. Yellow eyes gleaming away at some point, blue limbs tucked in close to his abdomen where he crouched in the shadowed tree: "I'm used to this sort of thing," he had said softly, his own faint accent tainting the words deeply. "It is...frequent, that people don't like me as I am."
She worries that he always cuts himself down, as though culture was slowly bleeding a fierce self-hatred within him.
"I do," she protests in memory, smiling gently, brown face tilting up as she leans against the tree. "I don't care what anyone else thinks - my parents, our friends, anybody. We've talked about this before, right? They'll come around," she smiles, as he looks down at her, yellow eyes gleaming like spokes of light from the dappled green shadows. "It's in their heritage; they fought for equal rights before."
He smiles sadly back at her, before thunking his slender fist on the image inducer and slides down the trunk to offer a quick kiss to her cheek. She knows he does not believe, but rather hopes.
Her heritage, and his heritage; she wants to avoid the struggle that will establish his eternally, but she knows to avoid the struggle - to try and bypass all the hardships and tests that will come: marches to capitals, parades and speeches, and martyrs who will die for the cause - to do so would be impossible. And Amanda knows just as deeply that she has no other choice but to stand beside Kurt, knows that the thought of not doing so is sickening to her.
-
Before her parents changed, before she began to realize fighting for one cause did not mean fighting for the next for all people, she had been taught one other decree:
Thou Shalt Embrace Love - For Better, For Worse.
And she will.
She does.
--
-
End
-
Feedback: It's delicious! And, trust me, I'll be immensely appreciative.
Continuity: More or less directly following 'The Toad, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.' Any canon screw-ups are, well, my fault. No excuses on my part, babeh!
Disclaimer: Can't say I own 'em. I just wait for the day they become public domain.
Notes: That this features something other than Kurtty coming from me should alone be astounding. :D