Coin Toss
By icecreamlova
Side B: Light
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Seduction
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There is nothing better than learning she's the center of someone's world.
(The back of his hand brushing the line of her jaw; ah, his skin is not smooth, but if she inhales, she can almost taste the tang of his skin, sharply addictive.)
There is nothing worse than being ousted by an inanimate object.
In, out.
In, out.
(Ignore him if he's ignoring you.)
She doesn't want to spend the night alone, as in with no company thank you very much, and he's here, but his attention is focused away from her; down, down, into that swirling dark concoction, lapping against the smooth edges of his cup when he moves. He's not here like she is, and Mia wants to remedy that. Who likes losing out to coffee, anyway?
If she could step outside her body and look, she would see herself rising, with the rippling grace of a jungle cat, the predator that she is. It's strangely easy to let charades drop; sister, heiress, avenger, co-worker... failure. How many months has she been comfortable enough to lick her lips when she closes the distance between them and drapes herself over his shoulder, a hand reaching for the detestable cup of coffee that's been stealing her limelight?
Her pulse pounding in her neck and unfurling in her face, Mia concludes she does not know. It's as exhilarating as it is frightening to become so close to someone; a different feeling of empowerment bursting at what she's capable of as a woman.
He notices her, of course. She would do this with no one else, but there's no straight man who can NOT notice Mia Fey when she's not a professional lawyer, and he leans back into her embrace, head turning until his lips brush the crook of her neck in a surprisingly fiery kiss.
He's not getting away that easily.
Her hand reaches out and plucks his cup out before he knows it, pulling away to stand up straight. He's still reeling, turning on the chair to face her, when she brings it to her lips - she's wondering just how seductive her competition can really be.
She can feel him watching, entranced, as small flecks of light brown foam gather where coffee flows, and her tongue darts out to clean her lips. The evening seems warmer with a burst of mirthful pleasure at his obvious fascination. Sip - then smile, gaze flitting sideways to watch him with coy elegance; learn that this exploration of something so beautiful is starting to heal her heart. (Are you feeling alive yet?)
He chuckles, low and dark, one not-smooth hand reaching for her elbow to pull her closer. "I wondered how long you could ignore it."
She smiles at Diego, not at all like her sharp, calm, daylight self, and, setting the cup away, grins in victory.
"I guess we both win," she murmurs, acknowledging the two-sided seduction, and his low laughter rumbles against the corner of her mouth.
His hand tangles in the long locks of her unbound hair, and she smiles at the taste of bitter coffee on his lips as well as hers. He's certainly here now. I love you, he tells her with his actions when he pulls back and stares at her, awed; when he leans his forehead against hers and they inhale together; when he closes his eyes, relaxed, as she runs fingers through his own strangely shaggy hair. I love you.
There is nothing better than learning she's the center of someone's world.
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Counting Burgers
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Maya eats a burger at every important moment in her life.
It starts when Mother disappears. Sis guides her away from the arguing elders and into their room, where Mia holds her tight. It feels so safe. She is two years old, and falls asleep. When she wakes up, hungry, Mia laughs and brings her to the kitchen, where Maya devours a burger. She learns, then, just how much she loves her sister.
Her first training session as a spirit medium. It is unsafe, but the elders bring her to a river and force her under an icy waterfall. She cries, but no one can tell; afterwards, aunty brings her a burger to cheer her up, and tells her she did excellent. She associates pain with gain, and learns not to tell anyone.
She meets Phoenix. He is such a good person. She doesn't tell him; he might get a big head. She is afraid, at first, to let him see beyond the quirky personality she has, but then he takes her to a fast food restaurant. She watches how he is willing to give up the burgers to make sure she has enough, so she will cheer up. Maya learns from him what it means to truly open her heart-to trust so fully, and go beyond a cheerful, agreeable persona.
Mother is gone, and Pearl is alone. She takes Pearl out to eat-just the two of them-and tears off a bit of her burger before handing the rest to Pearl, when she sees the girl is shivering from cold. Pearl hesitates; Maya stops and asks what's wrong. She lets Pearl talk-pushing away her own pain for Pearl, as she understands now that Mia and Phoenix did for her-and holds her as she cries. She ages another few years that day.
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Savior
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She does not meet Diego there, but she does meet other people.
Her father.
Her aunts.
Her grandparents.
They greet her with more enthusiasm than when she walked among the living.
Death is a sort of absolution, she supposes. It can't get any worse, so it falls on you to make it better.
Her father hugs her, as well as he can, in the afterlife.
Her aunts meet her with smiles.
She has never met her grandparents, but she finds that they are good people.
She does not meet her mother there, but then, she never expected to, and others are there waiting.
Her cousins.
Her uncles.
A sibling she never knew.
But such secrets do not survive death, and the infant smiles at her with unearthly knowledge. He has been dead for years yet.
She finds Terry Fawles, that sad first client of hers, and apologizes.
She finds Gregory Edgeworth, the father of her first opponent, and asks him about his son.
She does not find Diego, and wonders why.
She becomes more used to the afterlife.
Others arrive, who are not as benign.
Redd White. He remembers who unmasked him.
Manfred von Karma. He remembers who taught Wright.
And Dahlia Hawthorne.
No words are enough to describe HER.
They cannot hurt her... not really... but for a timeless moment, she is afraid...
...Spirits, swarming around her. Tormenting. You killed us. You'll pay for eternity...
...And then they crowd around her. The others. Fawles. Cousins. Grandparents. She was their savior.
Now they save her.
She is ready for Diego when he finally arrives.
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Brave New World
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"...it also gave her all the pleasures of miniaturization. A world could be made in five pages... Her passion for tidiness was also satisfied, for an unruly world could be made just so." - Ian McEwan, Atonement
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There is something inherently messy about the phenomenon that is humanity.
Pearl doesn't understand this at first. To her, the world is clean and ordered, sparkling-bright and transparent.
The truth, she knows instinctively, always comes out in the end, no matter what. Lies crumble away like fine sand held in her small palms, she learns. Truth tumbles from honest lips; hers, if no one else's, because she cannot really hold it back.
Drowsing lazily at Mr. Nick's and Maya's workplace, watching Mr. Nick fight for the truth on the other side of the television screen, Pearl thinks she would never want to.
The problem with such childish perceptions is that they fade away, when one grows up, and the shock at watching sacred laws vanish-nearly traceless-bowls over the strongest of people as though they have no weight.
It is a bitterly cold afternoon, ice-cold aching deeply in her bones, when she comes to understand the meaning of 'truth.'
She thinks about Mother's letter, not burnt enough that Mr. Nick couldn't understand it - the letter that twisted the world into distorted shapes and colors.
Mother spoke not a single lie in that letter.
It was horrifying and terrible and awful and any other word Pearl can use, ice sliding around her veins as circumstance pries open her eyelids, and it was NOT the truth...
...but there were no lies.
And suddenly, the world was no longer simple.
What does it mean, she wonders now, to balance on the knife-edge between black and white, truth and lies?
The last trial was like taking a step into the world outside, only to find the terrifying shadows from before were just that-shadows-while real monsters lurk in other places.
Everyone, she discovered then, has a whole world of possibilities hidden away inside them, where truth is subjective to their whims.
It was a terrifying experience.
Her shame at discovering Mother's makes her run, burrowing into the ice and snow at Hazakura.
Pearl is not afraid, except she's miserable, and ashamed, and terrified - fear is too inadequate a word.
She doesn't want to see what awaits her, in this messy world where she must search, and search again, to find that gem of truth in the lies.
She doesn't want to see that Mother had an entire world hidden away, where good is bad, and clean and simple is inverted into a thousand twisting colours.
What sort of twisted place holds hurting Maya as saving Pearl?
In her simple way, she doesn't think anyone can make her stay outside-to make her look at the jumble of ugly thoughts that comes from the complicated phenomenon of people, flooding into her clean white world.
But then Mystic Maya holds out her hand, and smiles at her to show her she is not alone, and Pearl finds the courage to face a brave new world.
There may be darkness in every heart, she knows now to remind herself, but there is also light.
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END
R & R, please