"the darkness swallowed us once more."
Title: In The Silence of This Room
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Havemercy
Pairings: Rook/Thom
Word Count: 1,675
Summary: Just your usual Room traveling fic. Written for laliandra. (And I hope you appreciate the clever pun in my title. SO WITTY, AMIRIGHT?)
01. Cantate Domino - Thom
Cantate domino canticum novum
Cantate domino omnis terra
At the end of the summer, we crossed the border into Arlemagne.
It was still early in the morning, and, with John was bound to sleep for another few hours, I’d thought to take advantage of the time and write some letters back home.
I opened the window to let in the crisp morning air, and then stopped, startled.
There was music echoing from the open church doors at the end of the street.
Voices rang in the empty air, singing a language foreign to me, carrying a message that I could not understand.
In the stillness of the morning, I listened.
02. Soul Of A Man by Beck - Rook
What makes the soul, the soul of a man?
The town was burning. We stood in the road watching, Hilary and me, as smoke rose up above us.
I could hear the crackling flames, ringing with the screams of the panicking masses.
I could smell the smoke as it rose, heavy and reeking of death.
We stood and watched them all burn.
03. Bones by The Killers - Thom
Without an answer, the thunder speaks for the sky
And on the cold wet dirt I cry
And on the cold wet dirt I cry
Rain poured down around us, turning the dirt road into a muddy slur and darkening the night that had fallen hours before. I could see nothing, could only hear the roar of rain and crash of thunder.
“John!” I yelled, praying to be heard over the scream of the wind. There was no response. “John!”
A sudden flash of lightning answered me, and, in its momentary illumination, I saw John a mere ten feet before me, his skin etched ghostly white. Before the light died, I saw him turn his head, and knew that he had seen me.
The darkness swallowed us once more.
In seconds, I felt a hand press softly against my chest, then felt the rush of warm air next to my ear as John shouted, “What the fuck are we fucking doing out here?!”
“You’re the one who said we should take a shortcut!” I yelled back, as I felt his hand move from my chest to my neck, and then the base of my jaw, as if he were trying to find me and pin me in place.
“I thought it was your damn job to tell me that was a fucking stupid idea!”
“I did! You didn’t listen!”
His fingers were cold against my skin, colder than the rain that had drenched us both. In the blackness and roar of sound, those fingers were our only connection, anchoring each of us to the other.
John gave me no reply, and so we stood there in silence, the midnight storm fighting to consume us.
Without warning, another flash of lightning etched the sky, painting our skin with light. In an instant, John stepped back and pulled his hand away, gesturing for us to move onward up the road.
After a moment’s hesitation, I stepped forward to follow him, the darkness closing in on my footsteps.
04. Set The Fire To The Third Bar by Snow Patrol - Rook
Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me
I was trying to get drunk again. It was all Hilary, all Thom’s fucking fault, and, like the right bastard that he was, he had no fucking idea.
I’d left him upstairs, pouring over the new books he’d picked up today, borrowed off some bleeding heart shopkeep for the night. I had to say, Hilary had some skill when it came to talking people into giving him free things, or at least when those free things were boring-as-hell books in languages I’d never even seen before.
Being Hilary, though, he actually gave them back the morning after.
He’d been wading through some thick volume, with print so small it just looked like a wall of black, when he’d started talking out loud, in that voice he used when he was quoting some dead bastard’s writing.
“Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.”
And then he was silent again. No explanation, no follow up, just that statement ringing in the air.
I don’t know what he’d thought so important that he had to read that line out loud, but from that moment on, it was ringing in my head like one of those church bells they had here, sounding out the same note over and over till I thought I might go mad if didn’t stop.
At least this place had alcohol to aid me in my efforts.
Death wasn’t lucky. Death was the farthest thing from lucky you could imagine. Me, Adamo, Luvander, Ghislain, Balfour- we were the lucky ones. Not the ones that’d been left to burn or get the life crushed out of them by rubble or give it up under the torturer’s knife.
The barman poured me another glass, full of something golden that I couldn’t begin to name but seemed to be doing the trick just the same. I knocked it back, and waited for the sound of Hilary’s voice in my head to die away.
I remembered how many times I’d wanted to die in that cell, begged for death to come take me. I’d made it out, though, in the end.
But I’d been the only one.
05. Shimmering Fields by Matt Costa - Thom
There are your wishes
There are your dreams
In shimmering fields of gold
Fall had been creeping up on us, the leaves changing their colors from green to red and gold. Every day, the dying sunlight lingered on them, caressing the ones that deigned to fall.
I turned back to the road before me, and there was John up ahead, his blonde hair glowing as bright as the leaves we walked on.
In that moment, he took my breath away.
06. Stalker by Louis XIV - Rook
I can stare at you all night and you won't even notice
Still I can't seem to look at you
I can stare at you all night and you won't even notice
. . .
Put my hand on your mouth
Feel your lips on my fingers
Smell your sweat
You look so lovely, my possession
The sound of the match flaring to life brought an orange glow with it, flickering back and forth, even though it was the dead of night and I knew there wasn’t any wind was making it past the shutters on the windows. I lit the candle, and then sat still as a dead man, careful not to make a sound.
The light was just about enough to make out Hilary’s features, but I still might not have realized it was him if I hadn’t already known he was the one sleeping next to me. His skin was darker by candlelight, just like his hair, and that bastion-damned stubbornness he always carried around with him during every waking hour had disappeared in sleep.
I reached out my hand and let my fingers hover right above his lips, so close I could feel the soft touch of his breath going in and out, steady as a pulse.
I swear.
I swear I didn’t touch him.
07. December by Official Secrets Act - Thom
You can find me out in the fields
Just standing still
Just standing still
The words have never come easily
Can’t I be free?
I choose to freeze
The first flakes of snow had just begun to fall by the time I found him. His face was turned upwards, watching the snow as it spun down, twirling gently in the soft breath of the wind.
I opened my mouth to say his name. It came out as a whisper instead, tumbling from my lips like a prayer.
The sound was lost in the delicate whirl of snowflakes between us.
I stood where I was, unable to move, and watched as the snow covered me and him and the ground in between us.
08. Everything Will Be Alright by The Killers - Rook
I never knew, I never knew
But it's alright...
I’d started calling him Thom again.
He never asked me why. It was like he’d expected it or something.
But he started calling me Rook again, too.
09. Brothers On A Hotel Bed by Death Cab For Cutie - Thom
The youthful boy below who turned your way and saw
Something he was not looking for: both a beginning and an end
But now he lives inside someone he does not recognize
When he catches his reflection on accident
I wasn’t a fool. I knew what I wanted from Rook, and I was pretty sure it was along the same lines as what he wanted from me.
There had always been something between us. I’d dismissed it before, thinking it was just some misplaced feeling of connection, one that had been solved by the realization that we were brothers, related by blood.
As in so many other things, I had been wrong.
10. No Time by Randall Thompson - Rook
Oh I really do believe that just before the end of time
We will hear the angels singing in that morning
I woke up to the sound of music.
Thom was standing by the open window, still and silent, listening.
Some of the snow had drifted inside and scattered itself across the floor, but Thom didn’t seem to have noticed as he looked out through the window at something I couldn’t see.
In silence I crossed the room to stand beside him, stepping softly while the echoes of voices covered the sound of my feet on the hard wood floor.
“Thom,” I said softly.
He turned round to gaze at me in the bright winter light, looking like a statue that’d somehow found a soul.
His lips were cold against mine.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Havemercy
Pairings: Rook/Thom
Word Count: 1,675
Summary: Just your usual Room traveling fic. Written for laliandra. (And I hope you appreciate the clever pun in my title. SO WITTY, AMIRIGHT?)
01. Cantate Domino - Thom
Cantate domino canticum novum
Cantate domino omnis terra
At the end of the summer, we crossed the border into Arlemagne.
It was still early in the morning, and, with John was bound to sleep for another few hours, I’d thought to take advantage of the time and write some letters back home.
I opened the window to let in the crisp morning air, and then stopped, startled.
There was music echoing from the open church doors at the end of the street.
Voices rang in the empty air, singing a language foreign to me, carrying a message that I could not understand.
In the stillness of the morning, I listened.
02. Soul Of A Man by Beck - Rook
What makes the soul, the soul of a man?
The town was burning. We stood in the road watching, Hilary and me, as smoke rose up above us.
I could hear the crackling flames, ringing with the screams of the panicking masses.
I could smell the smoke as it rose, heavy and reeking of death.
We stood and watched them all burn.
03. Bones by The Killers - Thom
Without an answer, the thunder speaks for the sky
And on the cold wet dirt I cry
And on the cold wet dirt I cry
Rain poured down around us, turning the dirt road into a muddy slur and darkening the night that had fallen hours before. I could see nothing, could only hear the roar of rain and crash of thunder.
“John!” I yelled, praying to be heard over the scream of the wind. There was no response. “John!”
A sudden flash of lightning answered me, and, in its momentary illumination, I saw John a mere ten feet before me, his skin etched ghostly white. Before the light died, I saw him turn his head, and knew that he had seen me.
The darkness swallowed us once more.
In seconds, I felt a hand press softly against my chest, then felt the rush of warm air next to my ear as John shouted, “What the fuck are we fucking doing out here?!”
“You’re the one who said we should take a shortcut!” I yelled back, as I felt his hand move from my chest to my neck, and then the base of my jaw, as if he were trying to find me and pin me in place.
“I thought it was your damn job to tell me that was a fucking stupid idea!”
“I did! You didn’t listen!”
His fingers were cold against my skin, colder than the rain that had drenched us both. In the blackness and roar of sound, those fingers were our only connection, anchoring each of us to the other.
John gave me no reply, and so we stood there in silence, the midnight storm fighting to consume us.
Without warning, another flash of lightning etched the sky, painting our skin with light. In an instant, John stepped back and pulled his hand away, gesturing for us to move onward up the road.
After a moment’s hesitation, I stepped forward to follow him, the darkness closing in on my footsteps.
04. Set The Fire To The Third Bar by Snow Patrol - Rook
Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me
I was trying to get drunk again. It was all Hilary, all Thom’s fucking fault, and, like the right bastard that he was, he had no fucking idea.
I’d left him upstairs, pouring over the new books he’d picked up today, borrowed off some bleeding heart shopkeep for the night. I had to say, Hilary had some skill when it came to talking people into giving him free things, or at least when those free things were boring-as-hell books in languages I’d never even seen before.
Being Hilary, though, he actually gave them back the morning after.
He’d been wading through some thick volume, with print so small it just looked like a wall of black, when he’d started talking out loud, in that voice he used when he was quoting some dead bastard’s writing.
“Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.”
And then he was silent again. No explanation, no follow up, just that statement ringing in the air.
I don’t know what he’d thought so important that he had to read that line out loud, but from that moment on, it was ringing in my head like one of those church bells they had here, sounding out the same note over and over till I thought I might go mad if didn’t stop.
At least this place had alcohol to aid me in my efforts.
Death wasn’t lucky. Death was the farthest thing from lucky you could imagine. Me, Adamo, Luvander, Ghislain, Balfour- we were the lucky ones. Not the ones that’d been left to burn or get the life crushed out of them by rubble or give it up under the torturer’s knife.
The barman poured me another glass, full of something golden that I couldn’t begin to name but seemed to be doing the trick just the same. I knocked it back, and waited for the sound of Hilary’s voice in my head to die away.
I remembered how many times I’d wanted to die in that cell, begged for death to come take me. I’d made it out, though, in the end.
But I’d been the only one.
05. Shimmering Fields by Matt Costa - Thom
There are your wishes
There are your dreams
In shimmering fields of gold
Fall had been creeping up on us, the leaves changing their colors from green to red and gold. Every day, the dying sunlight lingered on them, caressing the ones that deigned to fall.
I turned back to the road before me, and there was John up ahead, his blonde hair glowing as bright as the leaves we walked on.
In that moment, he took my breath away.
06. Stalker by Louis XIV - Rook
I can stare at you all night and you won't even notice
Still I can't seem to look at you
I can stare at you all night and you won't even notice
. . .
Put my hand on your mouth
Feel your lips on my fingers
Smell your sweat
You look so lovely, my possession
The sound of the match flaring to life brought an orange glow with it, flickering back and forth, even though it was the dead of night and I knew there wasn’t any wind was making it past the shutters on the windows. I lit the candle, and then sat still as a dead man, careful not to make a sound.
The light was just about enough to make out Hilary’s features, but I still might not have realized it was him if I hadn’t already known he was the one sleeping next to me. His skin was darker by candlelight, just like his hair, and that bastion-damned stubbornness he always carried around with him during every waking hour had disappeared in sleep.
I reached out my hand and let my fingers hover right above his lips, so close I could feel the soft touch of his breath going in and out, steady as a pulse.
I swear.
I swear I didn’t touch him.
07. December by Official Secrets Act - Thom
You can find me out in the fields
Just standing still
Just standing still
The words have never come easily
Can’t I be free?
I choose to freeze
The first flakes of snow had just begun to fall by the time I found him. His face was turned upwards, watching the snow as it spun down, twirling gently in the soft breath of the wind.
I opened my mouth to say his name. It came out as a whisper instead, tumbling from my lips like a prayer.
The sound was lost in the delicate whirl of snowflakes between us.
I stood where I was, unable to move, and watched as the snow covered me and him and the ground in between us.
08. Everything Will Be Alright by The Killers - Rook
I never knew, I never knew
But it's alright...
I’d started calling him Thom again.
He never asked me why. It was like he’d expected it or something.
But he started calling me Rook again, too.
09. Brothers On A Hotel Bed by Death Cab For Cutie - Thom
The youthful boy below who turned your way and saw
Something he was not looking for: both a beginning and an end
But now he lives inside someone he does not recognize
When he catches his reflection on accident
I wasn’t a fool. I knew what I wanted from Rook, and I was pretty sure it was along the same lines as what he wanted from me.
There had always been something between us. I’d dismissed it before, thinking it was just some misplaced feeling of connection, one that had been solved by the realization that we were brothers, related by blood.
As in so many other things, I had been wrong.
10. No Time by Randall Thompson - Rook
Oh I really do believe that just before the end of time
We will hear the angels singing in that morning
I woke up to the sound of music.
Thom was standing by the open window, still and silent, listening.
Some of the snow had drifted inside and scattered itself across the floor, but Thom didn’t seem to have noticed as he looked out through the window at something I couldn’t see.
In silence I crossed the room to stand beside him, stepping softly while the echoes of voices covered the sound of my feet on the hard wood floor.
“Thom,” I said softly.
He turned round to gaze at me in the bright winter light, looking like a statue that’d somehow found a soul.
His lips were cold against mine.