Work Text:
Mirror (got slightly more creative on that one *eye roll*)
by Anne Marsh
danakszoul@yahoo.com
We ducked between the trees, footprints crunching into the frost leaving a meandering trail behind us.
"You realize he'll find us easy." He rolled his eyes at me.
"Well... What do you suggest, then?"
"Ambush?" He offered, eyes lighting up.
Somewhere behind us, his hat had come off, and wintery sunlight filtered down to make his hair look like flame. Spring was creeping slowly into being, but there was still enough chill in the air that his breath was visible.
Behind us, there was hollering, too far to make words out, but along the lines of 'come back here, you' and 'don't think you'll get away with this', and the like.
"No." I said. I was loathe to disappoint, but not in the mood for confrontation, no matter how one-sided it might turn out to be.
"Well, then... up here," He tried to grab hold of a branch. It looked too slight to hold him.
"Bad idea." I warned, but it was too slippery anyway, and he fell, tumbling back into me.
"You suggest something."
I suggested things from time to time, if not a full half the time, and so I picked him up off the ground, and we brushed frost and wet dirt away.
"Down to the lake. Through here, the ground is still hard, but it's not frosty, we won't leave a trail."
"'Kay." He moved in front, his arms out to the side as we skidded down an incline.
We ran full-tilt down it at the start of last summer, until we couldn't stop, until momentum flung us full-force into the icy water... Of course, start of summer, the water warms up quick. Start of spring, not so much, not this far north.
We stopped on the bank. The thaw had come-- and gone, and come, and gone... but the lake wasn't frozen over. Just still, like glass, like a mirror. Clouds slid over the surface like they were floating underwater instead of reflected from overhead, and we shimmered there among them.
I pulled my hat off and stuffed it in a pocket. Watched a breeze ruffle our hair in the second before it reached the water and scattered us through with ripples.
"It looks like we're coming all apart." He tossed a small pebble. It sank through the space between us.
"You always look like you're coming all apart." I retorted, doing the same. Same spot, same splash.
"You should wear your hat."
"I'm not the one who lost mine. Mum'll kill you."
The breeze died down, the lake slowly smoothing out again. He hurled another small stone in a fit of pique. "Help me look?"
"Sure." I turned from the glassy black lake to smile encouragingly at my other mirror. "When d'you think you lost it?"
He tried to frown and failed, mouth naturally curving up same as mine. "When we were running. C'mon, then."