Had We All The World Below
over the clouds.
Over the clouds, a ship flew. Its deck, stained in all the shades of pink and violet, a permanent sunset around them. Two figures, on the deck.
"Are you sure?" the young girl asked.
The older, taller boy rubbed at his recently shaved head.
"What choice do I have?" he asked, and shouldered on his rucksack.
The ship passed through a bank of clouds, coating the view in fog. When the ship burst out from it, a vista of clouds spread out beyond them, like the hills and valleys of land - not that either had seen land since they were born.
"Fuel?" the girl asked. "Food? Water?"
"No, sarah," the boy said. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."
"You're all the family i have!" Sarah said, and clung to her brother. "Please, Noah, please, don't leave me!"
"It's Puck, remember," Puck said, his eyes narrowed. "You'll be fine. Mom actually likes you."
All was still but for the steady thump-thump-thump of the propellers and the hiss of the steam engine below.
And the world was spread out before him.
Sarah looked up from her hug. "...Beautiful," she gasped. She buried her head into puck's chest again.
"Yes," Puck said. "I know...Mom can be restrictive...but this is the world that i want to make my way in." He wrapped his arms around his sister.
They breathed together, in the thin air of the heights.
"Don't die," she said, finally.
Puck smirked. "As if death could catch me."
Sarah favored him with a glare.
"Is that any way to treat your favorite brother?" Puck asked, slowly disentangling Sarah's arms from around him.
"You're my only brother," Sarah shot back.
"True," Puck said, and stepped free.
"Please don't die," Sarah said. "I'm serious. there're pirates...and it's a rough world, Noah."
"Puck," Puck said, and closed his eyes. "I know, Sarah. Be a good girl, now."
His boots were tightly laced; on the coarse deck, he turned sharply, and faced to the end of the deck and the end of his childhood and the end of this life.
"Goodbye," Puck said, and ran.
He spread his arms wide to the permanent sunset sky, to the grandiose sun, and copper wires snapped out of his rucksack and bound themselves to his wrists. gears grinded into action all along the wire and formed the familiar gauntlets around his hands.
He clenched his fists at his sides and a column of flame burst from the edge of the gauntlet and his feet left the ground and he landed again and he was running
- and he shrugged his shoulders like he could flap angel's wings and clockwork expanded from his shoulders and a blaze of flame lifted him off the deck and Sarah was waving and he landed again and he was running
and running
And the edge of the deck was close. close enough that he could see the huge expanse of cloud below him.
-and he flung his arms wide open and he leapt off the airship and he dived.
"Fare well, Noah," Sarah said to the thin air, and turned to go belowdecks. She could hear her mother's drunken shrieking from three floors up, and miles away.
fall, fall, fall.
Puck spiralled down, punching through the clouds as the gears whirred on his command to give him goggles, but the air whipped through his body until he could see the vaguest dots of the forests below and he clenched his fists and shrugged his shoulders and he was FLYING -
and the world was open before him, like a blanket over grass.
"No," Kurt said. "I won't. I won't do it."
"You don't have a choice, Porcelain," captain sylvester said. "Now get on your dainty little ballerina feet. You said you had talent, in Kinley. I want to see it."
"I didn't mean for you to take me away from my family!"
"Tough luck, m'boy. I'm Captain Sue Sylvester, and I am the most feared pirate in all of the world, God help the manjack or wench who disagrees -"
"Yes, Captain," chorused her pirate gang.
"Actually, no, there is no God. At least not after I'm done with them."
Kurt whimpered.
"Now dance, Porcelain!"
"Cap'n!"
Through the porthole, one of her minions flared her gauntlets and moved up into Captain Sylvester's line of vision.
"What is it this time?" Captain Sylvester said. "Can't you see I'm busy doing fun things?"
"The Schuester airship is within firing distance! Their engines have stopped working!"
Captain Sylvester slowly swivelled her head to the minion outside.
"Fine work, Santana," Captain Sylvester said. "You may have top priority for the hot showers facilities now...after me, of course."
"Thank you, Cap'n!" Santana called back.
"Man the guns!" Captain Sylvester roared. "Let's make those Schuesters regret they ever crossed Captain Sue Sylvester!"
She favored Kurt with a glare. "You've gotten a temporary reprieve, boyo. But I'll be back very soon."
Kurt curled up into a corner of the room, and rocked slowly, his eyes dry. He would not let her see him cry.
Not one tear. Not even after the Schuesters, who had taken him in, were gone.
"Hey, Finn, do you know what happened to that kurt boy?"
Finn sighed, and scrubbed harder at one of the tables, where the beer stain was particularly deep.
"He got taken away by Sylvester," he said, quietly, putting his entire body into the movement.
"Oh, no," the barmaid said. "I...liked him, you know?"
"I know, Mercedes," Finn said. "I liked him, too."
"You seemed to act like he was your little brother, or something."
"I always wanted a little brother," the big man said. "And he was nice."
"Yeah," Mercedes said. "He was...nice."
They were silent for a while, with only the clink of Mercedes rearranging the glassware on her shelves and the sound of Finn's scrubbing interrupting their silence. Sounds from outside filtered in; the hustle and bustle of a floating city, marketeering and rockets flaring and talking.
Finn scrubbed harder at the stain. It didn't seem to come out. Harder. Harder. Harder.
"FIGGING HEIL!" Finn slapped the cloth down and took a step back, breathing hard. "I wish we didn't all live in fear that Sylvester would get us! We're a figgin' floating City! And we're all scared of her!"
"Shh, shh," Mercedes said. "Calm down, big man. You know what they say - she has ears everywhere. I like you well enough that I don't want to see you carted off into one of her torture rooms, okay? Calm down, Finn."
"...Fine," Finn said. "You can open up again. I'm okay."
"That's good to hear. You take care of yourself, y'hear?"
"Thanks, Mercedes."
"You're the best informal bouncer I've got. You make me money, big man. That's why I care so much about ya."
"Ha, thanks anyway, 'Cedes."
"You're welcome, buddy. Go home, alright? I can manage without you for just this one night. You need to separate yourself from that boy."
"I got it, I got it," Finn said, heading for the door, his head down.
He snapped his arms out to the side and the wires teased out, gears unfolding.
Finn flung himself off the precipice two feet away from Mercedes' front door, and clenched his fists and shrugged his shoulders, and his gauntlets and wings' rockets ignited.
He dodged another flyer, and headed across town to where he lived alone.