TITLE: Something More Than This
AUTHOR: foggynite
E-MAIL: foggynite@hotmail.com
SITE:
RATING: G
STATUS: complete
PAIRING: Hannah+Blaise vibes SUMMARY: Hannah wants to make up her own mind.
NOTES: I experimented with a new style here, kinda vague, kinda metaphorical. Let me know if it works at all.
She bought two birds when she moved out on her own, into his house. Two birds because one would be just lonely and she knew that birds like company.
It seemed wrong to keep them confined, their tiny bodies in a tiny cage when their brethren had the whole sky, and she wanted.
She knew that if she let them go, let them fly out the tiny sliding door, out an open window, that they would die. Their wings were clipped. They didn't have enough energy in them to fly away from danger.
The thought that she might kill them, might be responsible for their deaths, made her heart beat loudly in her chest. She couldn't let them go, so she told herself they were happier in their blue wire cage, happy with their plastic feeders and little swing.
At night, she listened to them chirp back and forth, one higher pitched than the other. She wondered if, if she could just..
She wondered if they would have been friends, would have been mates if they had met out in the bright open skies. Would they have stayed together for so long, in such a tiny place, if they could fly away?
Would they make new friends, new mates, if they could choose?
She could pretend it was an accident. She could clean the cage one day and forget to completely shut the latch. She could forget to replace the screens after winter and open all the windows to let the spring in.
She wondered if they would come back, if they would survive to land on her window sill, wanting to be let back in because the world was just too big to fly in.
She was relieved when the little brown female died, because then she didn't have to think about it any more and she could maybe sleep at night again. But the other bird kept chirping, like the first wasn't even gone, and it kept her awake. The colorful little male didn't realize he was alone.
After a few weeks, though, he stopped talking. When she passed his cage, he would stare silently at her, and in her mind it was a bit accusing. Unblinking little brown eyes, waiting for his destiny but unsure how to find it in blue coated wires and plastic furniture.
So she put him near the window when she moved into her own place, put him in the shade where he could see the world, and when she forgot to latch the door one day, he didn't show up on her window.
So she went out another day, and brought home a cat from the shelter, because it was black and feral and wouldn't let anyone touch it. She wasn't sure if she liked it, because it growled and hissed and spit and tore up her furniture, but it kept her from being lonely. It took over her bedroom and destroyed her bedspread nightly, so she just left bowls of food on the kitchen floor and started sleeping on the clawed-up couch.
And she went out one day, and met an old friend. So she brought her home, brought her in because she and the cat were getting lonely. The cat hated ~her~ too, and she hated the cat, but she wanted them to sleep in the bed, so she set about making the cat people friendly. And the war for space on the bed really was horrendous, but both she and the cat stayed in the end, and it was just the three of them and the furniture survived.
So she threw out the old bird cage, and decided she really was a cat person after all.
AUTHOR: foggynite
E-MAIL: foggynite@hotmail.com
SITE:
RATING: G
STATUS: complete
PAIRING: Hannah+Blaise vibes SUMMARY: Hannah wants to make up her own mind.
NOTES: I experimented with a new style here, kinda vague, kinda metaphorical. Let me know if it works at all.
She bought two birds when she moved out on her own, into his house. Two birds because one would be just lonely and she knew that birds like company.
It seemed wrong to keep them confined, their tiny bodies in a tiny cage when their brethren had the whole sky, and she wanted.
She knew that if she let them go, let them fly out the tiny sliding door, out an open window, that they would die. Their wings were clipped. They didn't have enough energy in them to fly away from danger.
The thought that she might kill them, might be responsible for their deaths, made her heart beat loudly in her chest. She couldn't let them go, so she told herself they were happier in their blue wire cage, happy with their plastic feeders and little swing.
At night, she listened to them chirp back and forth, one higher pitched than the other. She wondered if, if she could just..
She wondered if they would have been friends, would have been mates if they had met out in the bright open skies. Would they have stayed together for so long, in such a tiny place, if they could fly away?
Would they make new friends, new mates, if they could choose?
She could pretend it was an accident. She could clean the cage one day and forget to completely shut the latch. She could forget to replace the screens after winter and open all the windows to let the spring in.
She wondered if they would come back, if they would survive to land on her window sill, wanting to be let back in because the world was just too big to fly in.
She was relieved when the little brown female died, because then she didn't have to think about it any more and she could maybe sleep at night again. But the other bird kept chirping, like the first wasn't even gone, and it kept her awake. The colorful little male didn't realize he was alone.
After a few weeks, though, he stopped talking. When she passed his cage, he would stare silently at her, and in her mind it was a bit accusing. Unblinking little brown eyes, waiting for his destiny but unsure how to find it in blue coated wires and plastic furniture.
So she put him near the window when she moved into her own place, put him in the shade where he could see the world, and when she forgot to latch the door one day, he didn't show up on her window.
So she went out another day, and brought home a cat from the shelter, because it was black and feral and wouldn't let anyone touch it. She wasn't sure if she liked it, because it growled and hissed and spit and tore up her furniture, but it kept her from being lonely. It took over her bedroom and destroyed her bedspread nightly, so she just left bowls of food on the kitchen floor and started sleeping on the clawed-up couch.
And she went out one day, and met an old friend. So she brought her home, brought her in because she and the cat were getting lonely. The cat hated ~her~ too, and she hated the cat, but she wanted them to sleep in the bed, so she set about making the cat people friendly. And the war for space on the bed really was horrendous, but both she and the cat stayed in the end, and it was just the three of them and the furniture survived.
So she threw out the old bird cage, and decided she really was a cat person after all.