by
Anaphalis
Summary: Nibs. Slightly. Some things are better left forgotten. Angst/Psychological. One Shot.
.
Distribution: My site. All others please ask before taking.
Feedback: Much appreciated at [email protected]
Disclaimer: Not mine. Brushes on this page courtesy of Pure Anodyne.
A/N: Misha's Gift One Shot. Because I was really, really inspired.
A/N2: I'm er... not as familiar with Nibs as Slightly other than remembering him as being a bit happy-go-lucky, so I apologize in advance for characterization. It's been far too long since I've read the book. �Adds another thing to list of things I want to do- And, once again, I'm using the darker concept of sirens/mermaids as using both songs that lure, but also songs that reveal things. Generally not things that should be revealed.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
-T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Some days, it always seemed like Peter was gone again. Nibs, as little as he thought to the future and to darker things, knew somewhere in his heart that this was not how things should be. Things were changing, and, in Nibs' slight and half-forgotten experiences, change was Not a Good Thing.
Looking over at Slightly telling the younger boys that 'Ay- that rope is made exactly the way I remember ropes being made,' had made him feel a little better. He didn't want to think about the vague flickering memory that there used to be different boys that Slightly told his stories to, boys a little older who'd laughed at Slightly rather than looking at him with the awe of these listeners. Nibs was one who held to the firm belief that the best way to fight Change was to deny it.
And maybe that's why he asked Slightly to go on an Adventure with him. By themselves.
As much as Slightly sometimes irritated Nibs with an irritation that he couldn't quite understand, Slightly was Familiar. And Slightly didn't Change. Of course, it was thanks to Slightly's inability to change that they were now in this mess. Nibs, or rather a vague and half-recognized voice in the back of Nibs' head, realized that he should probably have known better than to trust Slightly when he said, '-And this is the way to climb down the rocks in the dark. Ay this is the way I rem-'.
The resulting tumble into the seaside cave had probably broken Nibs' arm and obviously hurt Slightly somehow, since he wasn't talking, not even to explain the correct way to doctor the jutting bone. It was particularly bad since they couldn't climb back out now and would have to wait for someone to notice they were gone. The fact that Nibs was scared that no one would notice was conveniently ignored as part of that insidious, creeping Change. Nibs would have said something then but then... then the singing started.
Nibs couldn't say what exactly the mermaids said as they sang. Truthfully, he wasn't even sure that it involved words at all. He wasn't even sure if the singing was meant for him and Slightly, but he couldn't believe that something that reached so deep into his vague and buried mind and made everything so very clear, couldn't be meant for him.
They had crawled right up to the singers before they had even noticed, the singers never stopping, never turning towards them. And Nibs wanted- Nibs wanted something that he didn't have a name for, something that only these singers would give him if they would just look towards him.
And then they did.
Nibs could scarcely breathe as one of them moved towards them, towards the slightly closer Slightly until she was bent over his head, looking down into his face. And Slightly looked up with huge, aching eyes that Nibs had never imagined Slightly to possess. He only closed them when the mermaid brushed her lips against his forehead and Slightly sounded almost broken when he spoke.
"I remember kisses... Ay, that's a kiss."
And Slightly, arrogant, all-knowing Slightly, wept like he'd been broken and could never be fixed again.
Nibs didn't understand, didn't *want* to understand until the mermaid leaned over him and pressed her lips to his own forehead.
fathermotherwarmsafehouselaughterlight
kiss
'Good night, darling.'
He didn't know when his own sobs started, but the screaming in his mind continued long after everything else faded into darkness.
When Nibs awoke back at the house, the din of screeches and yells faded as he looked over at Slightly and rubbed his forehead.
Slightly�s eyes flashed briefly. "Ay, that�s a kiss."
Nibs wondered why that sounded familiar, wondered when he'd broken and set his arm, then shrugged and thought more on the deep, niggling worry in the back of his head.
Peter was gone again and things were changing. All that Nibs really knew was that change was Not a Good Thing.
-End-
Awards Contact Links Extras Main