FIC: Since We've No Place To Go

[mharific]

Title: Since We've No Place To Go
Fandom: Westmark
Characters/Pairing: Weasel, Sparrow
Rating: G
Warnings: Spoilers for The Kestrel.
Disclaimer: Lloyd Alexander's, not mine. I'll put them back.
Summary: The water rats adjust to domestic life.
Words: 319
Notes: fanfic100 #67, "snow".


Weasel stands before the window, his nose pressed to the glass. His thin hands cling spiderlike to the leading between the panes. "Come away," Sparrow says impatiently, "you'll freeze, standing there." Weasel does not move.

"Haven't you ever seen snow before?" inquires Madam Bertha, coming in behind him with a tray.

"Not when I wasn't in it." He is fascinated by the strangeness of it. Beyond the glass, the falling snowflakes are no more than glints in the darkness, as distant as the stars. They drop past his fingers without touching him.

Sparrow jumps up from her stool by the fireside, and begins to help with setting things out: the little red-rimmed plates, the smooth white cups, the clean napkins that neither she nor Weasel ever remembers to use. Their use is beside the point; she likes the things for themselves, for their weight and texture in her hands.

For her there is no wonder in the snow; it's too old an enemy. She is satisfied not to be out in it. But Weasel has always been a little odd, a little fey and given to fancies. Since the war, he's only grown more so. Sometimes this tendency worries Sparrow; sometimes it merely exasperates her. "You're an idiot. Come sit down."

"Is that a way to talk?" Madam Bertha chides.

"You're always saying children should tell the truth," Sparrow retorts.

Follows a digression on that tongue of hers, where it's liable to lead her, its probable influence on her chances of matrimony or of coming to a good end. Sparrow lets it roll over her like a gust of wind. "Weasel. Eat these biscuits or I'll do it for you."

"You will not!" He tears himself away, scrambling for the table. Madam Bertha steels herself for a brawl, but Sparrow merely subsides with a smirk and reaches for the butter.

Comments

[assimbya.livejournal.com]

I love the little details. This feels very genuine and fits into the world of the book perfectly.

[mharific.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you. ^^ I always worry about that with Westmark, because the books are so seamless.

[assimbya.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know! I talk, or rather think, sometimes, about the things that I choose to write fan fiction about, and it feels like I write fan fiction for things where it seems like there are still stories that need to be told. The thing with Westmark is, while the stories are there, Mr. Alexander has done such a good job of giving little hints to them that I feel that they don't need to be told, which makes it tricky. But you pulled it off wonderfully.

[zopyrus]

Oh, I'm so glad I found your journal--it's so hard to find Westmark fic, and yours is so consistently good! I love Sparrow in this, tough and sharp and just the way Alexander wrote her.

[mharific]

Thank you! I keep meaning to get back into it.