bookblather: Michael Wetherby turning back and smiling. (in the heart : michael : michael weather)
bookblather ([personal profile] bookblather) wrote in [community profile] rainbowfic2012-05-28 08:23 pm

Blush 12: Bright

Author: Kat
Title: Bright
Story: In the Heart
Colors: Blush 12 (walking in step) with Isana's paint-by-numbers (Joy adapts to Michael’s disabilities better than he thought she would.)
Supplies and Materials: Miniature collection, frame, novelty beads (this picture), seed beads, fabric (this picture), glitter (Finish the sentence, and expand on it if you can: In my experience...).
Word Count: 600.
Rating: PG.
Summary: He didn't mean for her to hear it.
Warnings: none.
Notes: Last blush.


Theoretically, they're watching a movie, but Joy's half asleep, and having trouble not going all the way, what with her head in Michael's lap and his fingers combing softly through her hair. It doesn't help that it's a quiet movie, some kind of mindbending French romance that she can't quite follow, especially since she's been drifting in and out for the last several minutes.

She's just about to give up and fall properly asleep when Michael's fingers still in her hair. A moment later, he exhales, and says, softly, "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

She freezes.

--

He didn't mean for her to hear it. Not that he minds Joy knowing that; he tells her in little ways all the time, and she isn't unobservant. It's just... saying it out loud. There's something a little embarrassing, a little heartbreaking about it, and he can tell from the way she goes still in his lap that she knows that.

Joy rolls over to look up at him, her blue eyes wide and serious, her head tucked in the crease of his thigh and stomach. "Am I?"

No point denying it now. Michael shrugs. "Yeah. Except for Danny, maybe."

--

"Well, Danny," she says, smiling a little, hoping to ease the mood. It doesn't work, but she wasn't really expecting it to work. She reaches up, cups his cheek, his stubble softly prickly against her palm. "I'd hoped... that you had better things in your life. Not that I'm not fabulous."

That gets her a smile and a little huff of laughter, breathy on her wrist. She smiles broader, reassured, and lets her hand drop, caressing his shoulder and arm along the way.

Michael shifts beneath her, slips a hand under her head. When he finally speaks, it's halting, but sure.

--

"Everyone in my life," he says, choosing words like precious stones, "either they under- or overestimate me. Either they say-- 'no way you're disabled,' or they act like I'll break." Which, to be fair, he will. He revises that. "I mean, they act like I can't take care of myself."

Joy snorts gently, but says nothing, only tucks an arm around his waist and listens.

"You and Danny don't," he says, at last. "I don't know how or why you get it right. But you do. You're... perfect."

He's not talking about Danny now, and he knows she knows it.

--

Joy thinks over what he's said very carefully before she speaks.

"I'm a dancer," she says, when she's got it all straight in her head. "I hurt myself all the time, you know that. And it's not like... what I do, it's not at all like what you live with. I could just stop dancing."

"No, you couldn't," Michael says, and she smiles.

"Well, no, I couldn't, but not like you can't stop. I guess I... when I hurt myself, you ask me what I need, and get it if you can. Why shouldn't I do the same for you?"

--

He bends and kisses her first, because it seems like the most important thing to do, a slow warm kiss, with how much he loves her written bright in each breathless moment. Then he traces the arch of her eyebrow with a fingertip, and says, "You are perfect, and I love you. Do you know that?"

"Yes," Joy says, and then,"You're perfect too," sincerity naked on her face.

"No, I'm not," he says, half laughing, "but I believe that you believe it."

"Exactly," she says, and catches his hand, presses a kiss to his wrist. "Just that."

Yes.

Just that.
isana: Ushio (ushio)

[personal profile] isana 2012-05-29 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love it. I love how sincere and from-the-heart Michael's words to Joy are, and how lovely they are as a couple. The body language is just killer, there.
subluxate: Sophia Bush leaning against a piano (Default)

[personal profile] subluxate 2012-05-29 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
I love your phrasing here--"how much he loves her written bright in each breathless moment" and "choosing words like precious stones", for instance, are beautiful choices. It's such a pretty fic, and so very sweet. And I love Joy and her easy adaptation, and her explanation to Michael. They're so great together.
kay_brooke: Stick drawing of a linked adenine and thymine molecule with text "DNA: my OTP" (Default)

[personal profile] kay_brooke 2012-05-29 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
This is such a sweet scene. Their halting, hesitant conversation is just so realistic, but it's clear through their actions how much they care for each other.
ce_jour_la: (West Wing || Ainsley's Office)

[personal profile] ce_jour_la 2012-05-29 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this, and how much it hurts at the same time. They're perfect here, make such a wonderful couple, and I love how quietly sincere it is.

Well done. Very well done.
clare_dragonfly: woman with green feathery wings, text: stories last longer: but only by becoming only stories (Silly: kissing book)

[personal profile] clare_dragonfly 2012-06-01 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
Awww. ♥

I say stuff like that ("I believe that you believe it") to my fiancé all the time!
shipwreck_light: (Default)

[personal profile] shipwreck_light 2012-06-16 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
some kind of mindbending French romance that she can't quite follow, especially since she's been drifting in and out for the last several minutes.

I have seen that movie!

...I think.

"I'd hoped... that you had better things in your life. Not that I'm not fabulous." SO MANY HEARTS.

HOLY EVERYTHING. How you switched POVs in such a little space and with such finesse. It's just. That. It's beautiful. I adore it. This is so in my Top 10 Fave Things Kat Wrote.