[identity profile] lipstickcat.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] ds_flashfiction
title: Now Close the Windows
Author: [livejournal.com profile] lipstickcat
Rating: G
Pairing: Fraser/Victoria
Words: 173, excluding poem

***

Now close the windows and hush all the fields:
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.

It will be long ere the marshes resume,
I will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.


- “Now Close the Windows” by Robert Frost

----

The nurse kept opening the window while he was sleeping. He’d wake, hurting inside and out as if someone had torn him open and wrenched out his heart. And then the cool breeze would brush over his face like the tears he couldn’t shed and he’d remember; yes, someone has.

He hated waking to the open window, to the sounds of life going on in the world below his room. The birds sang an unfamiliar tune. All he could hear in their warbles was her voice, sweet, pleading, inviting, loving. He could close his eyes and see her mouth shaping the song-pleas. He could taste the dusky-rich colour of her lipstick, the flavour of her kisses sitting at the back of his throat. The rustle of the trees moving in the wind swept her name like a harsh gasp into the sky.

All he could do once he awoke was count the minutes, count the summons formed on berry-blood lips, until Ray would arrive and shut the window for him. Lock out the gale in his heart.

***END***

Date: 2007-03-09 01:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xtricks.livejournal.com
ooh, very nice.

I always think that Fraser has a somewhat poetic mindset but figuring out how to weave that into what I also see as a very matter-of-fact way of thinking... somehow this bit seems like that to me.

Date: 2007-03-09 03:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] charashi.livejournal.com
I love the "and he'd remember" part, because that's so sadly accurate :( he really does give off the impression of constantly reminded and kind of blown away by what happened during that episode, at least to me.

Date: 2007-03-09 07:10 am (UTC)
ext_3554: dream wolf (Default)
From: [identity profile] keerawa.livejournal.com
Moving. Poor Fraser. I particularly liked this image: taste the dusky-rich colour of her lipstick

Date: 2007-03-09 04:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ruthless1.livejournal.com
Me too! I was just typing that up when I glanced at your comment. It really is quite evocative.

Date: 2007-03-09 07:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kill-claudio.livejournal.com
Gosh, that's so beautiful. I particularly like the idea of the birdsong being unfamiliar, as though the world was a different place after Victoria. But really, the whole thing had a lyrical simplicity I just love. And I'm a Robert Frost fan too, so that made it even better. :)

Date: 2007-03-09 08:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kill-claudio.livejournal.com
Hooray! *friends you back*

I get a bit over-excited about other DS-fen in the UK. It's a sort of, 'wow, someone who doesn't live on the other side of the world!'

Plus, your journal is pretty. And OMG you have a lot of pets.

Date: 2007-03-10 12:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nos4a2no9.livejournal.com
This was very, very nicely done. And quiet haunting, too - something about that Frost poem always evokes WH Auden and "Stop All the Clocks" and it sends me on a twisty little journey of sad, understated death-poems. Your story was the perfect compliment to all that, and I love what you did with the window prompt. That last line is absolutely perfect: "Lock out the gale in his heart." I just...you know how there are lines and then there are lines? And it's something you really wish you were capable of writing? That right there is a closing line that makes me envious. Wonderful little fic. Thanks for posting!

Date: 2007-03-10 02:51 am (UTC)
ext_1611: Isis statue (dead!Bob)
From: [identity profile] isiscolo.livejournal.com
I really liked this!

Date: 2007-03-11 12:43 pm (UTC)
eledhwenlin: (Default)
From: [personal profile] eledhwenlin
Very lovely.

Date: 2007-03-12 04:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spuffyduds.livejournal.com
That was beautiful and wrenching.

Date: 2007-03-13 03:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mergatrude.livejournal.com
This was lovely, hurty, good.

Date: 2007-03-13 04:59 am (UTC)
ext_3190: Red icon with logo "I drink Nozz-a-la- Cola" in cursive. (dS fraser honesty)
From: [identity profile] primroseburrows.livejournal.com
Gorgeous. A perfect description of loss, and the inevitable depression that goes with it. Oh, Fraser.

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