![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Untouchable
’Verse/characters: : Wild Roses, Ruadhan Sabaey, (Donel Sabaey)
Prompt: 010: "Years"
Word Count: 353
Rating: PG
It was a plain, serviceable spot by a decent sized lake, half-sheltered by old trees. The big trees made the youngness of the newest tree that much more obvious, its spindly leaves just barely unfurling into breadth.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Ruadhan told the tree, flopping down crosslegged facing it, absently shifting the case on his back to the side to rest on the ground. "I imagined coming home so many times--thought about what I'd say to you, whether I'd hit you or go after you with a table knife again, or if I'd just stare at you until you apologised."
He slumped forward, resting his elbows on his knees, scrubbing one hand half-through his hair. "All these plays in my head, scripts written for you and I both, and they all faded away eventually, the longer I had to stay away. Must've been the last ten years or so, all I've wanted to do was punch you once, hug you once, then shake you by your godsdamned shoulders while I spelled out every one of those three hundred years in exile." The hand in his hair dragged down across his face. "And what do I find, the first time I can come home? --well, after I pick myself back up off the ground--that you're dead, and I've even missed your burial. So I can't hit you, can I? Or shake you by your shoulders or drag you out drinking with me and make you sing with me after you're drunk enough."
A throwing-away gesture with both hands at the tree. "Because you're godsdamned dead, Donel, and all you've left me are two boys too young to have ever met me, a war the players of which are well-adept at hiding, and a boy untried in our sort of battles to keep my back safe, in your place. Damn it . . it should have been me, Brother mine." He'd started crying, but seemed to be ignoring it.
"You were always the better of we two, and I can't bring myself to hate you for it anymore."
’Verse/characters: : Wild Roses, Ruadhan Sabaey, (Donel Sabaey)
Prompt: 010: "Years"
Word Count: 353
Rating: PG
It was a plain, serviceable spot by a decent sized lake, half-sheltered by old trees. The big trees made the youngness of the newest tree that much more obvious, its spindly leaves just barely unfurling into breadth.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Ruadhan told the tree, flopping down crosslegged facing it, absently shifting the case on his back to the side to rest on the ground. "I imagined coming home so many times--thought about what I'd say to you, whether I'd hit you or go after you with a table knife again, or if I'd just stare at you until you apologised."
He slumped forward, resting his elbows on his knees, scrubbing one hand half-through his hair. "All these plays in my head, scripts written for you and I both, and they all faded away eventually, the longer I had to stay away. Must've been the last ten years or so, all I've wanted to do was punch you once, hug you once, then shake you by your godsdamned shoulders while I spelled out every one of those three hundred years in exile." The hand in his hair dragged down across his face. "And what do I find, the first time I can come home? --well, after I pick myself back up off the ground--that you're dead, and I've even missed your burial. So I can't hit you, can I? Or shake you by your shoulders or drag you out drinking with me and make you sing with me after you're drunk enough."
A throwing-away gesture with both hands at the tree. "Because you're godsdamned dead, Donel, and all you've left me are two boys too young to have ever met me, a war the players of which are well-adept at hiding, and a boy untried in our sort of battles to keep my back safe, in your place. Damn it . . it should have been me, Brother mine." He'd started crying, but seemed to be ignoring it.
"You were always the better of we two, and I can't bring myself to hate you for it anymore."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-26 08:38 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-10-26 08:56 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-10-26 09:51 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-10-26 10:07 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 02:49 am (UTC)From:oy. ow.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 03:13 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 03:48 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 04:22 am (UTC)From: