Log: Ganymede Orion and Garage Wells
When: sometime this weekend, February 9th
Where: his house
What: an entanglement begins as another ends
Ganymede may not have been the brightest star, but she was a bright girl. She sensed the change in Hamlin before he ever had to say anything. He had been hesitant to begin with because he feared hurting her, although she didn't think it really possible. He was insulating her with distance, pushing her away slowly and surely.
She recognized it as she took a step back from the short-lived rekindling of their physical relationship. Ganymede knew that they wouldn't have that kind of relationship ever again, not once he got his faerie all to himself.
So it was the Ganymede took a long walk. She needed time to think this through, to consider how this was going to work out for her and everyone else involved in this messy situation. She didn't pay much attention to where she walked, only carried on in the quiet fall of evening. She looked up, stopped in front of a house that was terribly familiar.
Of all of the places she expected to show up tonight, it was not this one.
Ganymede had not been to this
house since she learned who lived here. She didn't want to be rude, but she
preferred to avoid that situation altogether. Somehow her feet had led her
here, shining on the darkened doorstep of Garage and Samra Chance. She stood
there for a good long while, shining a bit brighter than she would have liked.
She thought she'd draw too much attention to herself in this sleepy
neighborhood, but no one seemed drawn from their beds save one.
He slipped from his bed when he realized his wife's weight didn't hold the mattress at its usual gentle bend. She'd gone out walking without his notice. Her somnambulant wanderings had grown more frequent in recent weeks and that did not escape his notice. She was fading out of his life, a painfully slow extinguishing. He was ready to gut the flame and savor the burn.
Garage Wells was ready to end this.
He looked at the star for a very long time, blinking slowly in her brilliance. It seemed so strange when she wrapped her arms around him, tears sliding down her face. Her love was gone, had passed out of phase so long ago that her will to hold on astonished her. It was over and Samra would have Hamlin, as it should have been. She'd lose and end up in the arms of the last person she thought possible.
This was their shared pain. Neither was ready to admit what they were about to do. His arms had encircled her body, squeezing tightly, hands clinging to shining flesh so surreal.
They didn't speak as they moved
indoors at his gentle and insistent pulling. She was clinging to him as her
hopes died and her shine faded. He could look at her now that her skin was
merely luminescent and not burning bright; he could see her as a person and not
a star.
It was the strangest moment in Ganymede's life, the darkest she'd ever been. Even for an earth bound star it was something to learn how dark you could become before your shine went out. This was close, far closer than she wanted. Her lips brushed his unconsciously, the desire to reconnect and bring some kind of joy back into her life pushing her to reach out to him.
His eyes closed slowly and he didn't see the effect his touches had on her, how she sparkled here and there when he slid his hand across a certain piece of flesh, when his kisses became more demanding. He stopped thinking about it. He stopped processing what he was doing and began to rely on instinct.
It was the only way he could survive this betrayal and Ganymede sensed it.
He didn't feel the marriage thread break, but that was probably because he'd become numb to it as his cards told him over and over again that this night was coming. He didn't feel the loss until their bodies stilled, Ganymede's arm draped over his frame and her lips pressed squarely between his shoulders.
It wasn't until the instinct had died and that tiny sweetness passed between them. Then he wept as the star held him, their destinies inextricably entwined. She wept with him, her aching intensified by his, her shine shivering on the brink of dying.
Samra didn't come home to find them in bed together. Garage was grateful for that one dignity. She was in the hall, that place he'd never been invited to join her. She was crying on the other side of Hamlin as they cried.
It was done and at the very least Garage Wells didn't have to dwell on it anymore. From here he could move forward and do almost anything he wanted. The universe was wide open to the man who had shared his bed with the star.
Ganymede watched him sleep, surprisingly mild after all of the mourning. She
ran her fingers through his hair so softly that he did not stir. Unsuspecting
and unremorseful; this was the change Ganymede had longed for, the change that
she desperately needed. She smiled quietly with the strangest feeling of peace.
She couldn't claim the power of vision among her gifts, was never able to
properly explain how the magic of stars works to those who asked. Yet she had a
certain, strong awareness that within the week she'd be sharing her quiet,
little house in
She closed her eyes and settled down next to him. For a moment, one peacefully light moment she appeared the brightest she'd ever done, blinding if anyone had actually been around with open eyes to see.
She had come to the right place,
at the right time. She could not deny the significance of that.