#53: drabbles: you'll see the lights are blinding (coming home)
Title: you'll see the lights are blinding (coming home)
Characters: Ohno Satoshi, Ellen Page
Rating: G
Summary: Written for that music meme that has been circling since the beginning of time. Based on a (rather ridiculous) movie idea illuvium and I once discussed on a whim, involving Ellen's character as a math genius. And lots of snow. Lots and lots and lots of snow. In Hokkaido. With Ohno.
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it’s over. No lingering afterwards!
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
1. I’ve Got You - Tegan and Sara
“I once cried on a bus ride all the way from the airport to my mom’s house,” Ellen tells Ohno. “It was embarrassing. I kept trying to pretend that I was having the flu or something. Blowing my nose quietly and hoping desperately that nobody was looking.
“Then I turned, and realised that nobody was looking.”
Outside the window, the snow falls in little eddies, tossed this way and that by the wind.
2. Himitsu - Ninomiya Kazunari
Ohno doesn’t cycle, not because he can’t, but because a friend of his decided that taking Ohno’s bicycle apart as a summer project was a good idea.
He walks instead, which suits him fine, even when he’s crunching through thick layers of snow on uncleared pathways.
Ellen doesn’t cycle because someone tells her it’s dangerous. Everyone cycles in summer, she’s told, but when the road ices up all hell breaks loose.
“People here don’t look when they turn corners,” says her landlady. “Cyclists and motorists and old women crossing the road.”
That’s precisely how Ohno and Ellen meet; they both turn a corner without looking.
3. Tomorrow - Ryan Adams
There are days when the homesickness gets so great that all Ellen can manage is to sit and stare out the window. On those days she puts aside her equations and her papers and just sits, because you have to savour moments like that.
When she tells Ohno this he doesn’t pretend that he understands. Maybe he does, though; from the way he sometimes joins her, drinking a cup of hot tea in the kitchen. His silence is infinitely comforting.
4. Kiseki - GReeeeN
The stars here are different from the ones in Novia Scotia. Ellen has never kept track of them.
One night she returns to the house to find Ohno lying on top of the roof. It’s hard not to exclaim out loud in surprise because it is so unexpected.
“Are you asleep?” she whispers, clambering up the ladder conveniently placed by the wall.
Ohno is watching the stars. The night sky is somehow a deeper black than Ellen remembers. The stars burn more clearly than she expects.
5. Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“We met at a party,” says Ellen. “Mark and me. There were mutual friends involved and everything before that, but the party was the first time we actually met.”
It had been quiet, that night. People were drinking out of jam jars and more content with sitting languidly on the veranda of the house than anything else. That night had felt magical; in the movie of Ellen’s life it would have been scored with pretty electronic bleeps and ethereal voices.
It is quiet here too; a different sort of quiet. There’s no Mark here, for one. Mark had been the sort who’d fill the gaps in Ellen’s conversation with ease. Now Ellen’s mid-sentence pauses hang awkward and unfinished.
6. Dice - Finley Quaye
She’s seen Ohno dance before, when she and some of the other housemates had gone to see one of his showcases. That had been impressive. The choreography had incorporated moves from capoeira and other martial arts, all grace and power.
This is different. Outside her window is something much gentler but equally beautiful.
Ohno has hooped his arms around this girl, holding her close, breathlessly so. There is something infinitely tender in the way they spin round slowly in the snow; two people caught in the same orbit.
Ellen thinks she might remember this forever.
7. Be Still My Heart - The Postal Service
Ohno writes letters. On weekends Ellen comes into the kitchen to find him seated at the table, pausing mid-line to gaze off into the distance.
“I can help you post them,” Ellen sometimes offers.
The trouble with Ohno is that he doesn’t always finish the letters. Those that he does, though, he fills with doodles - spiky pretty ink drawings spilling out into the margins. It throws off the perfect balance of his lines of writing. Ellen thinks they give those letters character.
8. Stay Out of Trouble - Kings of Convenience
“Has your girlfriend gone home?” asks Ellen.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” says Ohno.
“Oh?” Ellen turns round to stare at him.
“She’s a friend’s girlfriend,” Ohno tells her. “It’s complicated.”
“Well,” says Ellen. “Complicated’s an old friend of mine. Try me.”
Ohno smiles and shrugs. “Maybe another time,” he says.
9. Rocky Took A Lover - Bell X1
This is what Ellen learns - there is a wealth of things two people can experience together without actually falling in love.
Her heart is full of thoughts of home and Mark and the equations and models they once worked on together. Ohno’s, perhaps, is full of that girl he held, all those weeks back, out on the snow-covered porch; full of that girl and the friend he seems to think she should belong to.
It doesn’t stop her from liking him, though; they try funny foods together and wander the streets on their days off.
Once every now and then they climb the roof again and watch the stars.
10. Words - Ryan Adams
“I’m going away.”
This is how it all begins. Mark is the one who says it. Ellen has spent months telling herself that she is prepared for it, but she is not.
“I’m going away,” Mark says again. It stings like rejection, because it is.
“Well,” says Ellen, not entirely on impulse, “so am I.”
And so Ellen goes. She goes far away; crosses a continent and an ocean to get from one snow-covered part of world to another.
End
----
A/N: I was talking about this with yay_box yesterday (? was it yesterday?) and this evening I felt like just writing something - anything - without having to think too hard about it. Cheated a little bit in that I actually amassed a long playlist of about 65 songs as opposed to using my entire library (I have lots of weird stuff on there that I wouldn't want to write fic to). This was harder than I expected and very self-indulgent, but I'm posting it anyway. UNBETA'D. :O
Characters: Ohno Satoshi, Ellen Page
Rating: G
Summary: Written for that music meme that has been circling since the beginning of time. Based on a (rather ridiculous) movie idea illuvium and I once discussed on a whim, involving Ellen's character as a math genius. And lots of snow. Lots and lots and lots of snow. In Hokkaido. With Ohno.
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it’s over. No lingering afterwards!
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
1. I’ve Got You - Tegan and Sara
“I once cried on a bus ride all the way from the airport to my mom’s house,” Ellen tells Ohno. “It was embarrassing. I kept trying to pretend that I was having the flu or something. Blowing my nose quietly and hoping desperately that nobody was looking.
“Then I turned, and realised that nobody was looking.”
Outside the window, the snow falls in little eddies, tossed this way and that by the wind.
2. Himitsu - Ninomiya Kazunari
Ohno doesn’t cycle, not because he can’t, but because a friend of his decided that taking Ohno’s bicycle apart as a summer project was a good idea.
He walks instead, which suits him fine, even when he’s crunching through thick layers of snow on uncleared pathways.
Ellen doesn’t cycle because someone tells her it’s dangerous. Everyone cycles in summer, she’s told, but when the road ices up all hell breaks loose.
“People here don’t look when they turn corners,” says her landlady. “Cyclists and motorists and old women crossing the road.”
That’s precisely how Ohno and Ellen meet; they both turn a corner without looking.
3. Tomorrow - Ryan Adams
There are days when the homesickness gets so great that all Ellen can manage is to sit and stare out the window. On those days she puts aside her equations and her papers and just sits, because you have to savour moments like that.
When she tells Ohno this he doesn’t pretend that he understands. Maybe he does, though; from the way he sometimes joins her, drinking a cup of hot tea in the kitchen. His silence is infinitely comforting.
4. Kiseki - GReeeeN
The stars here are different from the ones in Novia Scotia. Ellen has never kept track of them.
One night she returns to the house to find Ohno lying on top of the roof. It’s hard not to exclaim out loud in surprise because it is so unexpected.
“Are you asleep?” she whispers, clambering up the ladder conveniently placed by the wall.
Ohno is watching the stars. The night sky is somehow a deeper black than Ellen remembers. The stars burn more clearly than she expects.
5. Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“We met at a party,” says Ellen. “Mark and me. There were mutual friends involved and everything before that, but the party was the first time we actually met.”
It had been quiet, that night. People were drinking out of jam jars and more content with sitting languidly on the veranda of the house than anything else. That night had felt magical; in the movie of Ellen’s life it would have been scored with pretty electronic bleeps and ethereal voices.
It is quiet here too; a different sort of quiet. There’s no Mark here, for one. Mark had been the sort who’d fill the gaps in Ellen’s conversation with ease. Now Ellen’s mid-sentence pauses hang awkward and unfinished.
6. Dice - Finley Quaye
She’s seen Ohno dance before, when she and some of the other housemates had gone to see one of his showcases. That had been impressive. The choreography had incorporated moves from capoeira and other martial arts, all grace and power.
This is different. Outside her window is something much gentler but equally beautiful.
Ohno has hooped his arms around this girl, holding her close, breathlessly so. There is something infinitely tender in the way they spin round slowly in the snow; two people caught in the same orbit.
Ellen thinks she might remember this forever.
7. Be Still My Heart - The Postal Service
Ohno writes letters. On weekends Ellen comes into the kitchen to find him seated at the table, pausing mid-line to gaze off into the distance.
“I can help you post them,” Ellen sometimes offers.
The trouble with Ohno is that he doesn’t always finish the letters. Those that he does, though, he fills with doodles - spiky pretty ink drawings spilling out into the margins. It throws off the perfect balance of his lines of writing. Ellen thinks they give those letters character.
8. Stay Out of Trouble - Kings of Convenience
“Has your girlfriend gone home?” asks Ellen.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” says Ohno.
“Oh?” Ellen turns round to stare at him.
“She’s a friend’s girlfriend,” Ohno tells her. “It’s complicated.”
“Well,” says Ellen. “Complicated’s an old friend of mine. Try me.”
Ohno smiles and shrugs. “Maybe another time,” he says.
9. Rocky Took A Lover - Bell X1
This is what Ellen learns - there is a wealth of things two people can experience together without actually falling in love.
Her heart is full of thoughts of home and Mark and the equations and models they once worked on together. Ohno’s, perhaps, is full of that girl he held, all those weeks back, out on the snow-covered porch; full of that girl and the friend he seems to think she should belong to.
It doesn’t stop her from liking him, though; they try funny foods together and wander the streets on their days off.
Once every now and then they climb the roof again and watch the stars.
10. Words - Ryan Adams
“I’m going away.”
This is how it all begins. Mark is the one who says it. Ellen has spent months telling herself that she is prepared for it, but she is not.
“I’m going away,” Mark says again. It stings like rejection, because it is.
“Well,” says Ellen, not entirely on impulse, “so am I.”
And so Ellen goes. She goes far away; crosses a continent and an ocean to get from one snow-covered part of world to another.
End
----
A/N: I was talking about this with yay_box yesterday (? was it yesterday?) and this evening I felt like just writing something - anything - without having to think too hard about it. Cheated a little bit in that I actually amassed a long playlist of about 65 songs as opposed to using my entire library (I have lots of weird stuff on there that I wouldn't want to write fic to). This was harder than I expected and very self-indulgent, but I'm posting it anyway. UNBETA'D. :O