Drabble for Kerne

[feldman]

kernezelda stumped me yesterday with a line from one of my own drabbles. She requested a drabble that answered this question: what if John had been picked up by Aeryn instead of Elack?


Thaw

He's cold to the touch and that makes her angry.

It's the second time she's hauled him out of freefall in space, a speck among debris, but this time there is no burning moon to offer even the semblance of heat, only a newly dead Leviathan that still retains some warmth.

She had ignored the flash at the edge of her sensor range for arns before turning back. If he'd gone back home, that would be the end. It would be clean. It would be irretrievable. In the end she had to know.

It's the second time she's wrestled his dead weight out of his module, but this time his smell is sweet and cold, not iron sharp with bile and blood. His spark flutters and dies as she pulls supplies from her Prowler, cold blood returning to his heart and shocking it still.

She had decided not to board Moya, choosing to pause just inside transmission range only long enough to ask. All she picked up was a small reflective shadow bouncing back an echo of her signal.

It's the second time she's laced her fingers into a ram and battered at his heart, tipped back his head to breathe into his mouth in a parody of a kiss, but this time her heart stops when his begins to pulse.

She and her ship are the best sources of heat to keep him alive, the only things that aren't cooling down to absolute zero. She pulls him into the cockpit and wraps a thermal tarp around them both, forcing herself to hold onto the bitter flesh of his body until he's warm enough to shiver.

Comments

[gigerisgod.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're onto something good. You can keep going, you know :)

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

It could go either way, but I think Thea would beat me since I'm pretty sure I owe the next relay on our joint project.

[(Anonymous)]

Understood :)

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't beat you since I will never, ever turn down Feldfic.

I might cry though.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured.

I need to re-read the file though, feel the shape of the wave in order to ride it through. Must get batteries for the PDA, since I can't in good conscience print it out until it's finished.

I'm thinking in about 2-3 days I should have a sizeable volley for you *g*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

That is most excellent news:)

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

I liked this. It's an intriguing idea, and I love how Aeryn feels stuck having to help him, as she would at this point.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Yes! I wondered if I needed to be more explicit about that sense of being bound, of wanting to be free of it but not ready to decide how permanent that freedom would be; and being snagged back before she even got away.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Oh, break my heart and mend it at the same time, willya?

Lovely.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

*emits evil giggle*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

::is scarred scared::

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

*offers big smile and a mug of hot cocoa*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, you're just trying to lure me back...

In related news, come to my LJ and squee about UR/Kansas/Terra Firma, yes? & :-) Or join the chat about Scorpius and Sikozu!

*beckon*

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, you're just trying to lure me back...

Yeah, and?

In related news, come to my LJ and squee about UR/Kansas/Terra Firma, yes? & :-) Or join the chat about Scorpius and Sikozu!

Soon!

[unwritten-words.livejournal.com]

OMG I love that icon. *faints*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Snag away! jenahna made it. (God, I love Relativity so much.)

[kernezelda]

Have I mentioned lately how lovely and fine I find your writing? This hurts for her sake and his, but it's such a relief when he bgins to breathe, even though the future seems nothing but bleak.

bitter flesh of his body
How the memory must burn.

Thank you.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Kerne--and you're very welcome as well 8 )

[kernezelda]

ever so slightly bummed

*hugs you tight and gives you cocoa and a fuzzy stuffed critter*

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

*sips cocoa and snuggles stuffie*

I feel like a sick five year old today, yet I am neither sick nor five.

[cofax7]

Oooh, very cool. I like.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Thank you 8 )

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

It's the second time she's wrestled his dead weight out of his module, but this time his smell is sweet and cold, not iron sharp with bile and blood.

I really like the parallel you draw here, how familiar this must feel, how much that must hurt and how much she must resent John for making her go through it again--the very thing she left to avoid--and yet how she just keeps coming back.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

*grins* That's it, that's very much it.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

This is... well, you already know that i'm in awe of your phrasing, of your ability to display these threads and strings, these unspoken things.

She doesn't want to go back, and yet it's not a choice. Duty, on so many levels, those threads that tie her to her obligation.

This is such a great line: "His spark flutters and dies as she pulls supplies from her Prowler, cold blood returning to his heart and shocking it still."

His body a machine, something she look at without feeling, and then she stays because again, it's duty. She is the best of his options.

Gah, I would love to see this continue.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

And yet continuing it would make you cry--see how there's no good option there?

but i luuuuv youuuu

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Continue it. You writing always makes me happy - Project 3 or not:)

[kernezelda]

I would love for Thea to cry, not for the sake of it, but because there is new Feldfic.

[mesascaper.livejournal.com]

I love the opening line.
John & aeryn are such great characters and you write them so well. John isn't even awake in this story and he feels right. How do you do that? *g*