Dogwood Rose 9, Scarlet 8: Release

[bookblather]

Author: Kat
Title: Release
Story: In the Heart - Fairy Tale AU
Colors: Dogwood rose 9 (lavender: enchantment), scarlet 8 (You aren't helpless. Anyone as selfish and determined as you are is never helpless.) with kana's paint-by-numbers (I have a feeling you don't have the words/I found one for you, kiss your cheek, say bye, and walk away)
Supplies and Materials: Eraser (fairy tales AU), miniature collection, sculpture (The Happy Endings We Can Find part 13) , brush (balneology), acrylic (Most of the time), stain (What is life but a series of inspired follies? - George Bernard Shaw), modeling clay (free), glitter (mystery), novelty beads ("i let you leave, i need someone who knows how to stay." - from "The Unbearable Weight of Staying" by Warsan Shire).
Word Count: 259
Rating: PG.
Summary: Sometimes he is angry.
Warnings: none.
Notes: Last scarlet!


Sometimes Nathan is angry with Melanie, for what she did to him. It was so easy to fall in love with her, after all; her curling brown hair and her sea-grey eyes, the air of mystery that hung about her and the warm sound of her laugh. She enchanted him with a glance, then left him,without so much as a flicker of an eye.

Sometimes he thinks she is selfish, for leaving the way she did.

--

Their son has curling brown hair and eyes as grey as his mother's, and if he has no air of mystery, he is just as enchanting. He tries so hard, is so very good, and some nights when he has bad dreams he curls up by his father, warm and present.

He isn't a replacement. Nothing could replace Melanie, and anyway Aaron is a child; Nathan loves him in a completely different way. But he is a piece of his mother, a gift for her leave-taking.

--

He opened the door for her.

It wasn't a betrayal; he hopes she doesn't think of it that way. She might have been selfish, she might have been helpless, but either way there was a sorrow in her days that not even his enchantment could overlook. She was caged, who should always have been free, and so he opened the door for her and let her leave with an easy heart.

Sometimes he is angry. Sometimes he thinks she is selfish.

Sometimes he is only wistful, and serene.

--

Wherever she is, she is happy. And he... he is content.

Comments

[ambersweet]

This is lovely. I love the complicated nature of his loss, how letting her to was the right thing to do but it still hurts.

[bookblather]

Yeah, exactly. He did (and in some ways still does) love Melanie. He just knew that it wasn't going to work, and the best he could do was let her go, because otherwise they'd both break. Thank you.

[rosarum]

But he is a piece of his mother, a gift for her leave-taking.
Love this, but particularly that line; it's very evocative, very fairy tale.

[bookblather]

Thank you very much! I wobbled about that line, so I'm glad it worked.

[isana]

Oh, this is a nice take on the Melusine tale, how Nathan knows, but does it anyway, not for his own sake, but for Melanie's.

[bookblather]

Yes, exactly. I always felt that if a guy was going to open the door to the bathing room after so long, there must have been a reason. Thank you!

[finch]

I feel so bad for Nathan, and yet kind of... pleased? That he was willing and able to understand her and give her what she needed.

[bookblather]

Yeah, exactly. That's sort of a constant in Nathan and Melanie's relationship; she has to learn how to take what she needs, and he has to learn how to give it to her.

Thank you!

[shipwreck_light]

Yes.

THIS.

ALL OF THIS.

With whipped cream.

Thank you for posting!

[bookblather]

Thank you. *blushes and purrs*