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English
Series:
Part 3 of The King of Hearts
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
Words:
2,234
Chapters:
1/1
Kudos:
5
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1,346

Ruby Lights

Summary:

Summary: Wolverine has some time to think on things… Lets see what he figures out.

Work Text:

Ruby Lights
by Kyrri
kyrrissean@hotmail.com

 

Dawn will be here in less than four hours… My own words echo back at me over the reaches of that very time span – dark and foreboding. I remember telling him that… I remember turning away. Then why does it feel like a lie now?

As I watch the brilliant colour of the dawn play over the landscape, my thoughts pleasantly preoccupied by visions of burning coals and auburn locks, I listen to the shadows of memories. I listen to my own voice telling him to go to bed. My body betraying me – begging with every breath and movement to be allowed to follow. That he would want me to follow.

It is a cruel world where I have to live such lies. Cruel indeed that one touch would spin my mind into the breath of a moment. That eternity can pass over and over again and cause such trivial things as time to turn to falsity.

Four hours to relive the brush of a hand – the sensation of the little bird beating frantically against my chest as I hold the seraph close to me. Forever spun into the fabric of time that hung between four simple movements of one long arm. My words had indeed been a lie. Empires could have risen and fallen in the time it took the sun to rise. Four hours… I snorted in disbelief – four hours of eternity’s worth of thought.

The sky lightened slightly, midnight blue fighting to retain its presence, but steadily falling away before the lighter shades inspired by new beginnings. The right side of my mouth curves upwards in a small, ironical smile at the thought. The circling pathways of my mind had changed during the pre-dawn hours. Things were starting anew.

The sky burned as I gazed upwards, the sun’s climaxing rebirth, gifting fire to the heavens in brilliant shades of yellow and red, even as night fought to retain its hold – a black patch of starlit sky still maintaining its place at the edge of my sight.

Red on black and burning – the wildfire in the sky searing new pathways of thought through my mind. Red on black and causing the demon eyes to dance before my sight again. I could not take this much longer – my desire for the Cajun was driving me insane. He haunted my every waking moment – left me no peace within the privacy of my own mind and things had gotten no better since I had resolved to take what I wanted. Things could only seem to get worse before they got better.

I twisted the card between thumb and index finger – making it spin and flip over in my grasp as I ran my searching digits along it, my other hand lifting my cigar to my lips before I glanced down at it.

It was a curious thing… I don’t know why I kept it – I should have returned it along with the others, shoved securely into one of the pockets of Remy’s trench coat. But I had not – I should have, but I hadn’t. It was here and I was running my fingers along it – studying it as thought it held my very resolve.

My eyes trailed across the red patterned back of the card before I flipped it over again, revealing the kingly, masked figure upon his throne. His crown sitting high upon his brow and delicately painted fingers curled around an ornately decorated scepter. The single red heart in the left corner declaring its reign. Why had I kept it?

It had been a fluke that this card should be the first that I would draw from the packet. It had been nothing but chance – I did not believe in signs or fate. It had been pure coincidence – nothing more… But some little part of me beat against the bars of reality I had wedged firmly into my mind. Some part of me wanted to believe in fate and all the other bits of nonsense that went along with it. Maybe that was why I kept the card – maybe that was the reason that small part of me had started to believe.

I exhaled, sending a puff of smoke towards the fiery sunrise before I continued my scrutiny of the playing card – my mind was made up. I brushed my thumb over the shape in the corner – lightly caressing the small, red heart. I had every intention of getting what I want.

I only wished with all my heart that he would give me what I want – it would make this so much easier, but I could not approach him now in a brass manner. It was time to go against my nature – to fight against my straining being and move slowly, patiently and deliberately. Subtlety was the key to winning this game.

Slowly, I let the smoke fill my lungs again as I inhale, my eyes rising to watch the sunrise again as I gently push the card into one of the pockets of my jean. Remy was hurting – far more than he would ever admit, but I knew… I had seen it and I had felt it.

I had watched his fire waver in the rain and I had held him as his entire body shook with silent tremors. I had seen and felt the silvery tears running down his pale cheeks into the dark fabric of my shirt and upon the stairs their memories still haunted his features in trails of shimmering moonlight. I had seen his efforts to hide what he felt and I had smelt his longing and despair when he could not.

The angel had fallen and lay broken upon the shards of reality – another victim to the terror of misplaced love and hope. Broken and wary of the fall – wary of more heartache, but I would do everything in my power to spare him more grief. I would allow no one to hurt him ever again, but first I had to coax the demon-eyed seraph to trust again. I had to coax him to trust me.

Birdsong invaded my senses as the sun finally rose over the horizon, sending a wash of bright light across the landscape, finally forcing the night to disappear in the final onslaught. My cigar had almost completely burned out and I dropped the stump onto the floor and crushed it beneath my booted foot after I exhaled the last of the smoke.

My gaze dropped to the charred remains of the brown cigar on the floor and my thoughts pulled another memory from the recesses of my mind. Recalling to thought a similar picture and the apprehension it had filled me with. But things would be different now – the angel would be mine. I would protect him from the very things I now feared.

Reality faced me as I glanced upwards at the now light blue sky and the sun stared down at me with its burning visage. The vastness stretched before me – empty of all things save that searing gaze. It would not be easy to achieve the Cajun’s trust and somewhere in the enormity of the blue void that stretched before me lay what I needed to do just that.

Somewhere on the horizon…but in the end I would have to turn my gaze to another place to find what I needed. The horizon stretched on forever and was unreachable, but maybe one needed to strive to reach it to touch the untouchably perfect Remy LeBeau. And I wanted to do far more than simply touch.

Untouchable – the word echoes through my mind and I wonder at it. I had touched him – twice in fact and both moments had been stored for later recall – like precious stones to be taken out and admired, even if one was far less substantial than the other.

I knew I was obsessed – I had known it long before last night or earlier this morning as it is, but to say that I am infatuated is an understatement. I would recall a mere brush of the hand as I handed him back his coat as a fond memory – I would torture myself by thinking that perhaps he had let his fingers linger longer than necessary before pulling them away. And I didn’t say anything – merely turned and walked away… I turned my back on him again – I walked away…

I hadn’t known what to say – so I didn’t say anything. I hadn’t known what to do – so I didn’t do anything. I merely left – turned and left, grinning like an idiot over the brush of a hand. That little voice in my head scolding me no end for it too.

I turned round, tearing my eyes away from the horizon and moved back into the mansion, silently opening and closing the door behind me. The air within the hallway was still, calm and silent. Nothing moved within the mansion – it was so peaceful it seemed a sin to breath, a sin to disturb the early morning air.

Mist drifted in front of me as I exhaled, my hot breath causing the white fog in the cold air and I rubbed my hands together quickly as I realized just how cold it really was. Briefly I wondered whether Iceman was awake and up to his usual tricks, but I immediately discarded that thought. You’d have to put fire to that kid’s bed in order to get him up at this hour and considering his powers he might just freeze himself and roll over anyway.

I moved slowly, watching the dawn light trickle through the windows and throw patches of warm colour on the wooden floor, heading towards the kitchen. A warm cup of coffee could only do me good and I had to do something or my thoughts would spin around in circles again.

I glanced to the side as I entered the kitchen, my eyes focusing on the broom that lay curiously askew against the wall next to the door. Exactly the way I had left it after I cleaned the mess in the hall, for some reason to preoccupied to put it back in its rightful place.

I snorted – some reason – the reason was only to clear to me. My thoughts had not been my own this morning – they belonged firmly and unwaveringly to the auburn-haired thief. There did not seem to be a single thing in the mansion that did not remind me of him in some small way.

I closed my fingers around the handle of the broom, determined to put it away as I glanced down at the coarse bristles. Sunlight danced off of them, surprising me with an array of colour that flashed and glinted – causing rainbows to dance before my eyes.

I tilted the broom upwards, bringing the bristles closer to my face as I studied the small pinpricks of golden light – some of the finer pieces of glass I had cleaned away with the bristles had imbedded themselves there – ranging from a fine silvery powder to more substantial pieces that reflected the early morning sunlight.

It was a beautiful sight – the rainbow lights trickling softly through the rough spikes of fiber. I yearned to touch it – the astonishing sight beckoning me closer as I lifted my hand and trailed my fingertips lightly along the tiny pinpricks – shadows falling to cover the vanishing light. The bristles were wet beneath my fingers and I pulled my hand away, watching the red of my own blood stain the glistening points scarlet, making the play of light’s beauty turn to something ghastly and sickening. I yanked my hand away reflexively and stared as the minute cuts healed instantly – leaving nothing but their memory as a sad reminder.

I sucked at my fingers, removing even the fine red trails of dark memory from my sight and closed my eyes to the crimson lights. I wondered why they would disturb me so – it held no relevance to anything, but in my mind everything turned to take on a different meaning and though I swore to myself that I was not a superstitious person I took the ruby invasion as a warning.

The seraph was broken, hurting and if I were to get close to him I would have to use caution and move slowly or I myself would bare the brunt of the next encounter of lost hope. I would break my own heart by pushing the Cajun to far.

Beautiful but broken – the words spun through my mind.

Wonderful and deadly – I told my yearning heart, hoping to calm the simple burning of want and need that rested there.

I opened my eyes to watch the crimson lights as they danced through my sight, before I lowered the broom again and shoved it back into the closet. Approach with caution – the words echoed through my mind as I grinned. I had my work cut out for me.

But still ruby lights danced before my eyes.
 
 
 

Series TBC

A/N: Just the usual – feedback please! (Sorry if I’m moving real slow with this story – I’m frustrating myself just as much as anyone else – promise. I hope to manage to pick up the pace, but I’ve got a strange feeling that it’s not gonna happen quickly!)

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