This is a brief one-shot/teaser to bring myself closure on the indebtedness and closeted son of Mayor Prentiss. Should it gain traction, I might pick it up more.
***SPOILERS***
Takes place immediately after the end of the trilogy.
This is written with the same grammatic dialect chosen by the author, Patrick Ness, for the genuine feel and authenticity of the characters.
Viola visits Davy. She stands in the doorway, watching him stare out the bedside window. Davy takes a shaky breath.
"Viola... you gotta understand someth'n that just," Davy shook his head ,"that just don't make no sense. But I gotta try to make sense of it. And I don't know what it is, but maybe you do, and maybe we can fix all this."
Viola walked in, sat on the bed across from Davy, and rested her elbows on her knees. It had been weeks since Todd had saved his life, and finally, nearing the end of his recovery, Davy smothered his frustrations and asked to see Todd, not knowing that shortly after blasting Davy away with his noise, he'd suffered tremendously in a way no man should. Despite being reassured that Todd could be heard in his noise, Davy's mind went heavy and dark with guilt, and it'd taken him another week to pull together and talk to Viola.
"Viola..." his hands worked eachother nervously, "I just-" his voice quivered already, and he took a deep breath. "I just ain't ever had noone do somethin' like that for me." His gaze refused to leave the window. He continued talking, remorseful pictures of Mayor Prentiss with his face all screwed up in anger and disappointment passing through his Noise.
Weighing his thoughts down.
"I never had noone like Ben or Cill' or you who'd-" he wiped his nose.
"I never... Is that what it is, to have people who love you? Is that what made him a man before even me? Even when I..." He hiccuped and held his face together the best he could, but his noise gave it all away. Viola wanted to be polite. "Davy...?"
"Viola?"
"Your noise is all... opened up," She blinked at the surges of information and raw emotion in the room. Davy nodded. This was easier. He hoped she'd understand, but words failed him. So he let his noise rage with her in the room as he lost sight of his emotions underneath the weight of a debt he couldn't repay.
Pictures of Davy and Todd riding horses together.
Davy noticing the way Todd's sandy hair had two spirals in the back and wanting so badly to reach out and touch them.
The way his back tailored into a neat waist that his cotton shirt would stick to in the summer heat.
How his hips would move like a ship over water when he was balancing on Angarahd.
Davy having second thoughts.
The feeling of Todd's skin... Then, suddenly, The Mayor. His noise lurched with pain. The Mayor, always deciding who's who and what's what and never for one moment giving Davy any kind of chance to know who he was before the circle the circle was me I am the circle Viola and Todd and Dad, why, Dad? I never wanted to kill. I never had no Ben no Cillian to show me no different. I never had...
"Davy..."
Where's Todd is Todd okay? The war the war is over Todd ended it and he's gone he left me and he left his Viola it should have been me-
"Davy!"
"Life just ain't ever fair to nobody, Viola." He looked up at her through teary eyes. "Not to the spackle. Not to Todd, or you, or any of those people we done went and killed. I-" he gripped his sheets and Viola stood abruptly.
"Davy Prentiss!" She knelt down in front of him and placed her hands on each side of his face. With all the Noise coming at her, she thought she saw an image flash before her eyes before getting covered up. She ignored it and looked into his eyes. "Davy, now YOU listen to me."
"I'm so sorry, Viola..."
"Todd is gonna wake up."
"Viol-"
"And when he does, who's gonna be sitting there? Me. Do you understand that?" Davy had shown her more than he'd meant to, but she didn't seem angry. Yet.
"... I do."
"And do you know who else? Everyone who's made it. The Spackle, me, you, all the women and kids, and he's gonna wake up to a world where he won't-" she stuttered over the word, "-he won't have to kill no more!" Her eyes filled with grief.
Davy shook his head, "Where we gonna go, Viola?" He whispered.
Viola stood up and walked to the window. Oil lamps lit up the doorways to the temporary homes built last week, all lined up along the main road. Nature had already started doing a good job at clearing the scorched remains, but work still needed done.
"Well," she stood upright. Straightened her shoulders, "I suppose when the sun rises, you'll still be here. Locked away in this room, driving yourself and the ladies 'round here crazy with that sorry noise of yours..."
Davy looked up through his eyebrows at her back. "An' you…?"
Viola smiled.
"I think I'm gonna start in on workin' to make this town new again. Like a new… free, Prentiss... on the ocean. With women, and spackle, and kids, and dogs..."
"And horses,"
"And horses."
"Like Angarahd..."
"Yeah,"
"You sure do dream big, Viola Eade."
She turned to face him and tightened her jaw. He knew what she was gonna say before she even said it. He'd noticed it with Todd, too, on those days out on the field.
Whenever they felt it, whenever they'd speak about eachother or feel the others presence... it radiated goodness. Their noise all yellow and sunshiney. It broke Davy right in two.
"You do too, Davy." she softened.
It was a kindness he didn't deserve.
"We do it for Todd" She reached out her hand. An invitation. A peace offering.
He smiled for her, and his noise turned a soft blue-green. He grasped her hand. It was the one thing they had in common. Their love…
"-For Todd."
