Post by lotrgal55 on Dec 25, 2005 23:43:03 GMT
This is a... well, it WAS a drabble but became a oneshot. Review, please. Angst, well... it wasn't intended to sound 35-ey... , references to character death- whatever. Just read. It's my first decent fanfic for KND fandom, please enjoy.
The funeral 'home', strangely enough, was comfortable, though obviously meant for older customers. Tan wallpaper with roses, and plain white tile gave it a churchly feel, brass fittings and candy dishes seemed to be everywhere. A placard wall announced simply 'Uno, Nigel' in cheap plastic letters, beckoning where to sit for new visitors. The room itself was small and quiet, folding chairs set in neat rows and overpoweringly clean carpet making it no more festive, but still, not solemn enough...
Abby sat silently and blindly looked around the room- so many people, so many adults. Most of them didn't even know Nigel, just there under invitation, no real sentiment... A few older children- she would hesitate to call them teenaged,were crying innocently and puffing up- almost ridiculous, if it was different...
If it was different, that was it. It was. The hot tears that had been waiting, growing behind amber eyes finally escaped, ruining her silent mask and, part of her mind realized, ruining a previously quiet silence with a childish, unceasing wail. 'Come on, it's okay...' a less than reassuring voice said, wrapping a middle-aged arm around her shoulder in an overly paternal way. 'Things like this happen...' Ignoring her father, she stood, tears that had before been a torrent slowing to a mere trickle, and went to seek the others. On the way out the door, her eyes turned away from the self-imposed blind spot- the child-sized casket adorned with flowers. An impressive bouquet from the Sanbans, a blanket embroidered with a beautiful but useless angel, a single poinsettia bush that was isolated in red... she caught the flowers, but not their recipient.
Daubing her eyes on a rough bathroom paper towel, 5 almost grinned in an illogical jolt of good humor. Kuki's little sister- was she still here? In the same fervor of unsprocketed, almost insane glee, she peered around the room, expecting to see the inseparable pair there... and didn't. That stopped that. She slowly walked the carpeted path to the chapel, a modest affair but for the flurry of blossoms there, only to wait and cry again.
-----
Suki was Catholic, but her mother was not. This was generally not discussed around the house, she might tag along with one of the four to a church service but less for the soul and more for free food or a particularly cool youth group program. Still, she found herself praying, on and off random outbursts of murderous tears, waking from a daze in the middle of a near half-rosary of hails. Gently evading a thin, grumpy-looking old man, she darted into the bathroom, climbing to a perch on a soft pink bench nimbly before realizing there was another occupant. Kuki, clad in a dull reddish sundress, looked uncomfortable, but Abby seemed oddly at home there in a dark blue skirt with a lightly glittering black top that left her arms bare. 3 laughed insincerely, lightly. 'Hi, Numbah 5... ' then added, mindlessly, 'Are you okay?' The braided girl responded with a more sincere laugh, though her eyes still glinted with sadness. 'Yeah, think so... I just don't know why. Before I was- I was really bad, but it went away when I left. ' 'Did your dad say when they were going to the church?' She didn't dare say what went unspoken- 'the cemetery-' but 5 responded slowly but peacefully- 'No, but I think it's after lunch.' Silently, the two waited- indeterminately, for nearly half an hour, spreading idle chatter, but it took them a while to get to the thing that first frightened them about this ordeal- 'Why?'
Abby looked up from a matchbook she was absently mangling.
'Why what?'
'I mean, why did he die? He was- he was fine.'
Biting her lip hard, 3 continued. 'He wasn't still sick, was he? He was fine before, they said he had some weird bone thing, like... not enough of something, too much of something...' Abby spoke irritatedly, in a newfound anger.
'Cancer. His parents said he was going to be fine, and he wasn't, okay? That was all that happened.'
'Oh.' Brushing charcoal hair over her shoulders, Kuki stood. 'I think we should go.'
The funeral 'home', strangely enough, was comfortable, though obviously meant for older customers. Tan wallpaper with roses, and plain white tile gave it a churchly feel, brass fittings and candy dishes seemed to be everywhere. A placard wall announced simply 'Uno, Nigel' in cheap plastic letters, beckoning where to sit for new visitors. The room itself was small and quiet, folding chairs set in neat rows and overpoweringly clean carpet making it no more festive, but still, not solemn enough...
Abby sat silently and blindly looked around the room- so many people, so many adults. Most of them didn't even know Nigel, just there under invitation, no real sentiment... A few older children- she would hesitate to call them teenaged,were crying innocently and puffing up- almost ridiculous, if it was different...
If it was different, that was it. It was. The hot tears that had been waiting, growing behind amber eyes finally escaped, ruining her silent mask and, part of her mind realized, ruining a previously quiet silence with a childish, unceasing wail. 'Come on, it's okay...' a less than reassuring voice said, wrapping a middle-aged arm around her shoulder in an overly paternal way. 'Things like this happen...' Ignoring her father, she stood, tears that had before been a torrent slowing to a mere trickle, and went to seek the others. On the way out the door, her eyes turned away from the self-imposed blind spot- the child-sized casket adorned with flowers. An impressive bouquet from the Sanbans, a blanket embroidered with a beautiful but useless angel, a single poinsettia bush that was isolated in red... she caught the flowers, but not their recipient.
Daubing her eyes on a rough bathroom paper towel, 5 almost grinned in an illogical jolt of good humor. Kuki's little sister- was she still here? In the same fervor of unsprocketed, almost insane glee, she peered around the room, expecting to see the inseparable pair there... and didn't. That stopped that. She slowly walked the carpeted path to the chapel, a modest affair but for the flurry of blossoms there, only to wait and cry again.
-----
Suki was Catholic, but her mother was not. This was generally not discussed around the house, she might tag along with one of the four to a church service but less for the soul and more for free food or a particularly cool youth group program. Still, she found herself praying, on and off random outbursts of murderous tears, waking from a daze in the middle of a near half-rosary of hails. Gently evading a thin, grumpy-looking old man, she darted into the bathroom, climbing to a perch on a soft pink bench nimbly before realizing there was another occupant. Kuki, clad in a dull reddish sundress, looked uncomfortable, but Abby seemed oddly at home there in a dark blue skirt with a lightly glittering black top that left her arms bare. 3 laughed insincerely, lightly. 'Hi, Numbah 5... ' then added, mindlessly, 'Are you okay?' The braided girl responded with a more sincere laugh, though her eyes still glinted with sadness. 'Yeah, think so... I just don't know why. Before I was- I was really bad, but it went away when I left. ' 'Did your dad say when they were going to the church?' She didn't dare say what went unspoken- 'the cemetery-' but 5 responded slowly but peacefully- 'No, but I think it's after lunch.' Silently, the two waited- indeterminately, for nearly half an hour, spreading idle chatter, but it took them a while to get to the thing that first frightened them about this ordeal- 'Why?'
Abby looked up from a matchbook she was absently mangling.
'Why what?'
'I mean, why did he die? He was- he was fine.'
Biting her lip hard, 3 continued. 'He wasn't still sick, was he? He was fine before, they said he had some weird bone thing, like... not enough of something, too much of something...' Abby spoke irritatedly, in a newfound anger.
'Cancer. His parents said he was going to be fine, and he wasn't, okay? That was all that happened.'
'Oh.' Brushing charcoal hair over her shoulders, Kuki stood. 'I think we should go.'