Prompt: 2 a.m.
Pairing: Smellershot (Longerbee)
Rating: T for Teen
Spoilers: If you haven't seen Lake Laogai, I guess
Title: Deepness of Nighttime
Possum Chicken Soup for the Longerbee Soul
by TwiggyBlack
Original prompts by 64damnpromts on LJ. Much thanks.
Part Two – Deepness of Nighttime
(Rated T for Teen)
It is deep in the night.
Smellerbee is eight, Longshot ten, and both in their room in the tree houses. They had shared a room since Smellerbee's arrival a few months before, and Longshot was the only one that knew her secret. It was a bit hard to hide it from him. He also knew more about her past than anyone else, her having mumbled about it in her sleep on countless occasions.
Even still, he is surprised when she lies down next to him and curls up.
It is deep in the night.
Smellerbee is thirteen, Longshot fifteen, and they are lying on the ground next to a campfire. She is sore with a tightened pain in her middle, and angry at him for being to close. He knows, but she is still shy about being herself. They usually sleep near each other, out of habit, but now she is far away from everyone, which doesn't bother them, because she has been biting their heads off all day. Then, scarily enough, she apologizes. Longshot, too, has been keeping his distance.
He excuses her, because of the hormones, when she wraps her arms around his middle and falls asleep.
It is deep in the night.
Smellerbee is fourteen, Longshot sixteen, and they have reached Ba Sing Se and have seen a friend fall. Both are still awake, and unaware of the other. They stay with their own thoughts, asking what could have happened. If they could have saved him. Of course, the answer is no, but at different times in the night, they blame themselves. Smellerbee cries, only two tears, for her lost friend. The leader. She didn't know what she was doing without him, and when he is lost, so is she. Longshot glares down at his hands, willing them to have shot an arrow or personally ripped the head of the Dai Li's head off.
Neither thing happens, but when he finally lies down, he finds her sleeping in his bed, and doesn't have the will to move her.
It is deep in the night.
Smellerbee is sixteen, Longshot eighteen, and their dull house in Ba Sing Se has turned more into a home. Smellerbee found tree branches somewhere, and Longshot is afraid to ask. She had hung them up, to look more like the home they had known in the past. Only in this home, there are wandering hands and glances that tease, but not in the way they did before. Not in the way that covers up the throwing of a leechi nut.
She just falls on top of him, exhausted from the day, and Longshot wonders if she remembers the night so long ago, when she first needed his warmth.
Want some more Possum Chicken Soup?
A new drabble will be out either tomorrow or later tonight.
If you hadn't guessed, this takes place over different periods of time, as shown in the ages. Stages of development for them, I suppose. This is my first drabble. It is not very long. (455 words, I believe.) I do hope I got a story across.
Twiggie