(no subject)
Title: Wild Sage Part III
Pairing: John Darnielle/Conor Oberst, Gillian Welch/David Rawlings/Conor Oberst
Rating: PG
Prompt: Alpha Rats Nest
Summary: When the phone call comes, it's completely unexpected.
Word Count: 823
Disclaimer
Notes: This is the last part of the Wild Sage arc! Have to Explode, however, will continue.
When the phone call comes, it's completely unexpected. But Justin is talking to you and telling you things you don't want to hear, and your chest is tightening up.
---
The way the flowers move, and the long blades of tall grass, you notice all of that and the sound of the wind rushing through everything. Gillian's fingers thread through your hair, twisting strands that have grown too long. The porch swing creaks. She's at one end of it, and you're lying with your head in her lap like always.
"It's coming fast on fall, baby," she says.
You kiss her leg through the cotton of her dress, close to her knee. Lying like you are, you can't see it when she smiles, but you know she does. "It's not that close," you tell her, closing your eyes as her other hand drifts down your side to settle in the dip of it.
Fall is coming, though, with September creeping up faster than it has any right to. You feel like a child denying that school is going to start soon.
"You're welcome to stay," Gillian tells you. "For years, if you want, baby. David adores you, and so do I."
You want to stay for years, but you miss everyone and you tell Gillian as much.
"Well, you gotta do what you wanna do," she says with her easy, warm smile. "You're old enough to make your own choices.
---
"Conor, you need to come home," Justin is telling you. He hasn't sounded so frantically afraid since the year your parents went away, and Matthew broke his arm in a fight with some bully.
You were ten and you all told your parents he'd tripped and fallen down the stairs. The next door neighbour had taken you to the hospital.
You don't want to know what's happened now, who's died, but you need to know.
---
The next time John tries to sleep with you, it's you and him and David and Gillian alone in the kitchen, and you're all drunk. You're dancing on your own to Bob Dylan with your arms over your head and David's spinning Gillian around.
John comes up behind you and presses his mouth to your neck., and you make a small noise, wriggling away.
All night, you've pretended to ignore the tension between David and John, pretended that you didn't hear them yelling at each other on the back porch, John telling David to let you go, to give up on fixing you, that you needed to do it yourself.
And now you're pretending that David hasn't taken his eyes off Gillian, that he hasn't tensed up and, oh, he's definitely not watching to see what happens next.
John moves in to kiss you, and you're caught between his body and the counter, leaning back as much as you can. "John, stop," you murmur, but he leans in again.
David's on him in a heartbeat, pulling him off.
The next morning, the bruise on John's jaw tells the story of the fight in the backyard, whatever happened before David came up to bed to lie with one arm around you, and the other around Gillian.
John murmurs his apology to you, and nothing more is said of it.
You all go about your day like usually, and you write two new songs.
---
Omaha, when you were younger, was this amazing place during the day. The older you got, the more of a vampire you became. You'd go out at seven, eight, eleven at night, and you'd drink till four.
Your friends, they were all vampires, too, and you kissed and drank and fucked, and it was what you did. You painted the town all shades of red.
With Gillian and David, you're not a vampire; you're in bed by four, and usually you're all up by ten. Sometimes you wake up curled around David in the middle of the day, with his breath against your hair and the TV playing the news, Gillian on his other side.
It's not quite the same as curling up with Jenny and Tim.
---
When the phone call comes, it's completely unexpected. But Justin is talking to you and telling you things you don't want to hear, and your chest is tightening up.
"Conor, you need to come home," Justin is telling you. He hasn't sounded so frantically afraid since the year your parents went away, and Matthew broke his arm in a fight with some bully.
You were ten and you all told your parents he'd tripped and fallen down the stairs. The next door neighbour had taken you to the hospital.
You don't want to know what's happened now, who's died, but you need to know.
"What happened?" You ask quietly. Gillian is watching you.
"Conor... Tim's in the hospital." Justin says. Your heart twists in your chest. "His lung collapsed, and he's stable now, just... he's not okay. And everyone's shook up - Matt, Blake, Mike, but Jenny especially - and. We want you here with us."
"I'll come home," you say. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
Pairing: John Darnielle/Conor Oberst, Gillian Welch/David Rawlings/Conor Oberst
Rating: PG
Prompt: Alpha Rats Nest
Summary: When the phone call comes, it's completely unexpected.
Word Count: 823
Disclaimer
Notes: This is the last part of the Wild Sage arc! Have to Explode, however, will continue.
When the phone call comes, it's completely unexpected. But Justin is talking to you and telling you things you don't want to hear, and your chest is tightening up.
---
The way the flowers move, and the long blades of tall grass, you notice all of that and the sound of the wind rushing through everything. Gillian's fingers thread through your hair, twisting strands that have grown too long. The porch swing creaks. She's at one end of it, and you're lying with your head in her lap like always.
"It's coming fast on fall, baby," she says.
You kiss her leg through the cotton of her dress, close to her knee. Lying like you are, you can't see it when she smiles, but you know she does. "It's not that close," you tell her, closing your eyes as her other hand drifts down your side to settle in the dip of it.
Fall is coming, though, with September creeping up faster than it has any right to. You feel like a child denying that school is going to start soon.
"You're welcome to stay," Gillian tells you. "For years, if you want, baby. David adores you, and so do I."
You want to stay for years, but you miss everyone and you tell Gillian as much.
"Well, you gotta do what you wanna do," she says with her easy, warm smile. "You're old enough to make your own choices.
---
"Conor, you need to come home," Justin is telling you. He hasn't sounded so frantically afraid since the year your parents went away, and Matthew broke his arm in a fight with some bully.
You were ten and you all told your parents he'd tripped and fallen down the stairs. The next door neighbour had taken you to the hospital.
You don't want to know what's happened now, who's died, but you need to know.
---
The next time John tries to sleep with you, it's you and him and David and Gillian alone in the kitchen, and you're all drunk. You're dancing on your own to Bob Dylan with your arms over your head and David's spinning Gillian around.
John comes up behind you and presses his mouth to your neck., and you make a small noise, wriggling away.
All night, you've pretended to ignore the tension between David and John, pretended that you didn't hear them yelling at each other on the back porch, John telling David to let you go, to give up on fixing you, that you needed to do it yourself.
And now you're pretending that David hasn't taken his eyes off Gillian, that he hasn't tensed up and, oh, he's definitely not watching to see what happens next.
John moves in to kiss you, and you're caught between his body and the counter, leaning back as much as you can. "John, stop," you murmur, but he leans in again.
David's on him in a heartbeat, pulling him off.
The next morning, the bruise on John's jaw tells the story of the fight in the backyard, whatever happened before David came up to bed to lie with one arm around you, and the other around Gillian.
John murmurs his apology to you, and nothing more is said of it.
You all go about your day like usually, and you write two new songs.
---
Omaha, when you were younger, was this amazing place during the day. The older you got, the more of a vampire you became. You'd go out at seven, eight, eleven at night, and you'd drink till four.
Your friends, they were all vampires, too, and you kissed and drank and fucked, and it was what you did. You painted the town all shades of red.
With Gillian and David, you're not a vampire; you're in bed by four, and usually you're all up by ten. Sometimes you wake up curled around David in the middle of the day, with his breath against your hair and the TV playing the news, Gillian on his other side.
It's not quite the same as curling up with Jenny and Tim.
---
When the phone call comes, it's completely unexpected. But Justin is talking to you and telling you things you don't want to hear, and your chest is tightening up.
"Conor, you need to come home," Justin is telling you. He hasn't sounded so frantically afraid since the year your parents went away, and Matthew broke his arm in a fight with some bully.
You were ten and you all told your parents he'd tripped and fallen down the stairs. The next door neighbour had taken you to the hospital.
You don't want to know what's happened now, who's died, but you need to know.
"What happened?" You ask quietly. Gillian is watching you.
"Conor... Tim's in the hospital." Justin says. Your heart twists in your chest. "His lung collapsed, and he's stable now, just... he's not okay. And everyone's shook up - Matt, Blake, Mike, but Jenny especially - and. We want you here with us."
"I'll come home," you say. "I'll be there as soon as I can."