Author's Note: Hi again! I'm back! Ok so this is kinda like the last one in that it's really truly a fragment of something. The bigger story is there somewhere, around, before the beginning and after the ending. But this... well, this is the creamy center of the Little Debbie snack. Yum.
Again, no specific Newsie in mind, so feel free to insert whichever ink-stained fella your little heart beats for. Yay!
So yeah, enjoy and feedback is ultra fantastic! Not the bad kind... the good kind... ok, and maybe the constructive bad kind too.
Disclaimer: I only own my new addiction to raspberry iced teas. Newsies belongs to Disney... the Little Debbie snacks belong to Little Debbie... and the song, on which the premise and title of this fragment is based, belongs to Paramore.
Shout Outs:
A great big whopping mess of gooey thanks goes to my Reviewers of Excellence: ChocolateCoveredJockey, Purple Rhapsody, Garen Ruy Maxwell, WinchesterOneOhOne, Tiny Timb, and Gryffindor's Newsie.
Fragments
tower
The way is littered with nightmares. They take form in the darkened alleyways and in the halos of street lamps. They are crawling and creeping. Little nasty things; echoing footfalls of words and deeds and tears. They tear at her fleeing feet, trying to dig in and find purchase. Trying to drag her back and hold her to their torment.
But she runs through their attempts. She lets salty tears burn her cheeks and sobs weaken her lungs. Against the chill and the fear she shudders.
She doesn't think she'll get to him. But she does.
Familiar smells and familiar sounds: sleeping newsboys, creaking mattresses, old wooden floors.
She trails through the shadows and dull moonlight. She crawls in beside him.
- - -
He feels the mattress dip and a warmth curl against his side.
He knows the smell of her before he has a moment to wonder. The sweet way it stings his insides and thumps his heart and numbs his fingers. He swears it's the most unforgettable scent in the world. And his favorite.
Her head rests against his chest, her hair billowing out in fragrant waves. He takes a deep breath, inhaling her, pushing his sleepy lungs a little further from sleep. He unlaces his fingers and pulls his arm free. His hand moves down a stray lock of her hair, past a bare shoulder, and slips comfortably around her waist.
- - -
Immediately her fingers are through his, gripping tightly, pulling his embrace taut.
She needs his strength, all the shelter he can offer.
She feels as though she's breaking apart. She needs him to hold her together.
- - -
He knows she only pulls so close when something has happened.
Tonight, she's not allowing an empty space between them. Tonight, she is close.
He knows what it means and his thoughts turn dark and red. Violent retribution pools into his imagination. Deserving deeds. Then -a deep calming breath- and his blood cools. He relaxes, focusing on her.
He tilts toward her and onto his side. He releases his other hand, placing it on along her jaw, hoping she'll have no cause to use it.
Not again...
It is a silent prayer.
It is a futile hope.
Her hand touches his –shaking and cold- and tugs his fingers up her cheek.
There is heat beneath his fingertips. Pain. A bruise: broken blood stretching and swelling under her pale skin.
His fingers move away. Gently. He circles the affliction, sweeping outward in a wide arch down her chin and over sticky trails of drying tears. They follow the bridge of her nose to the gap between her dry, quaking lips. He pauses there, brushing them softly with his thumb. Then he sweeps his arm over her, around her, pulling her to him.
He kisses her forehead. She burrows into him and she cries.
- - -
The monsters slink away, defeated. Their hungry eyes fade and disappear.
Here she is sheltered. Here she is safe.
He is her tower and she's climbed up and locked herself in.
- - -
Later there would be time enough for words and actions.
Later there would be time enough for anger and promises.
But for now, tonight, he is holding her to him... with him... away from...
Tonight, he is her tower.
A/N: So yeah... sappy kinda. The layout is not what I wanted. I was hoping to right align and left align and then center the last part, but the formatting didn't stick. Oh well, I'll survive. Anyway, plain old plain works I guess.
I haven't any cookies today, but I'm hoping you dear wonderful readers will review anyway cause you're wonderful and fantastic and super-ultra-mega nice!
Ok, maybe I can scrounge up some cookies... gosh...