![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perfectworrytitle: Found in the Snow: Blue John (1)
verse: rainy city
community:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
writerverse + ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
originalfic100
prompt: Phase #6: Challenge #13: Weekly Quick Fic #4 (in a ray of sunshine) + Table A 076 - Who?
word count: 726
rating: G
summary: When a stranger shows up on the doorstep, Kristopher trusts him immediately. Mariel doesn't.
notes: I've overhauled this 'verse almost completely. The character who used to be known as Jude is now Blue John, and there's a new character, also named Jude. It's complicated. This takes place before Glory's return to the city.
"They call me Blue John," said the stranger.
"Sure they do," said Mariel, and she flicked the ashes out the door in disbelief.
*
The house never changed. No bedroom appeared for Blue John, no tidy little guest room with hints about his personality. Although Kristopher and Jude opted to sleep on the couch in Mariel's shabby little living room, a room appeared upstairs for them: two neat little twin beds with blue comforters, and a window that looked, inexplicably, out on the ocean.
Mariel was used to such strangeness; the house shifted and adapted to make room for new residents, and closed off those spaces when they left. It changed and shifted constantly as people came and went, into and out of her house, into and out of her life.
It stopped bothering her after the first few times. Now she worried that house hadn't changed: same number of rooms in the same layout, same plain wallpaper in the hallway, same claw-footed bathtub with the rusty faucet. She had been hoping for more modern plumbing, because Kristopher had already slipped on the old fashioned bathtub once and bumped his head.
So Blue John slept on Kristopher's sofa the first night, while Kristopher slept in Mariel's bed, and Mariel stayed awake in the kitchen with her feet on the table and a book in her lap, although her gaze flickered often to the stranger asleep on her couch.
*
"I don't know," said Kristopher, early one morning, while Blue John slept on the mattress they found for him and put on the living room floor. "I like him."
Although Mariel hadn't said anything, she did watch Blue John out of the corner of her eye. "Kristopher," she said. "What's the rule about reading people's minds?"
Kristopher frowned. "It's bad manners?"
"It's bad manners," Mariel agreed. "But what were you saying, Kristopher?"
"He makes me feel safe, somehow." Kristopher folded his hands together, fingers entwined and thumbs together. He looked down at his hands, and then back up at Mariel.
Safe was the last thing that Blue John made Mariel feel. He raised the hairs on the back of her neck with his too bright smile and too blue eyes. He hadn't lived in the city long enough to call it home, and his eyes hadn't faded to a soft sky grey like Kristopher's had done over time, like everyone's did, eventually.
"Jude likes him, too," Kristopher added.
Mariel felt Jude's nod of agreement, like a flicker of something just outside the edge of her vision. While she had dug her nails into the palms of her hands every time Blue John smiled, Jude lit up the whole room like a ray of sunshine braving it's way through the ever-present cloud cover that loomed over the city.
"Well," she said, leaning in conspiratorially. "That makes two of you, but I'm keeping my eye on him."
Kristopher nodded and put his finger over his lips. He would keep her secret, although Mariel guessed that Blue John was much keener than he appeared and had already figured out she didn't trust him much further than she could throw him.
"But Mariel," he said. "You don't really trust anyone, do you?"
"I trust you," she said, and she didn't lie. "I trust Jude, too."
I don't trust strangers who give me false names, she thought to herself, but instead she said, "I'm just doing my job, Kristopher."
She protected the city, especially the ones who lived in her house no matter how long they stayed or how soon they left. She defended the borders and the boarders.
Blue John showed up unannounced and unaccounted for, and slept still on the mattress on the living room floor, even as the day grew longer. He slept for most of the day, but when he woke, he played with Kristopher and cooked dinner. He sang in the kitchen and danced around Mariel, somehow avoiding her grasp because he knew. He knew he set her teeth on edge.
Blue John knew that Mariel knew that he had a secret. She would get it out of him eventually, and then she would make a decision. He couldn't sleep on her living room floor forever.
For now, she only drummed her fingers on the table while Kristopher ate his breakfast and read his book.
verse: rainy city
community:
writerverse + originalfic100 prompt: Phase #6: Challenge #13: Weekly Quick Fic #4 (in a ray of sunshine) + Table A 076 - Who?
word count: 726
rating: G
summary: When a stranger shows up on the doorstep, Kristopher trusts him immediately. Mariel doesn't.
notes: I've overhauled this 'verse almost completely. The character who used to be known as Jude is now Blue John, and there's a new character, also named Jude. It's complicated. This takes place before Glory's return to the city.
"They call me Blue John," said the stranger.
"Sure they do," said Mariel, and she flicked the ashes out the door in disbelief.
*
The house never changed. No bedroom appeared for Blue John, no tidy little guest room with hints about his personality. Although Kristopher and Jude opted to sleep on the couch in Mariel's shabby little living room, a room appeared upstairs for them: two neat little twin beds with blue comforters, and a window that looked, inexplicably, out on the ocean.
Mariel was used to such strangeness; the house shifted and adapted to make room for new residents, and closed off those spaces when they left. It changed and shifted constantly as people came and went, into and out of her house, into and out of her life.
It stopped bothering her after the first few times. Now she worried that house hadn't changed: same number of rooms in the same layout, same plain wallpaper in the hallway, same claw-footed bathtub with the rusty faucet. She had been hoping for more modern plumbing, because Kristopher had already slipped on the old fashioned bathtub once and bumped his head.
So Blue John slept on Kristopher's sofa the first night, while Kristopher slept in Mariel's bed, and Mariel stayed awake in the kitchen with her feet on the table and a book in her lap, although her gaze flickered often to the stranger asleep on her couch.
*
"I don't know," said Kristopher, early one morning, while Blue John slept on the mattress they found for him and put on the living room floor. "I like him."
Although Mariel hadn't said anything, she did watch Blue John out of the corner of her eye. "Kristopher," she said. "What's the rule about reading people's minds?"
Kristopher frowned. "It's bad manners?"
"It's bad manners," Mariel agreed. "But what were you saying, Kristopher?"
"He makes me feel safe, somehow." Kristopher folded his hands together, fingers entwined and thumbs together. He looked down at his hands, and then back up at Mariel.
Safe was the last thing that Blue John made Mariel feel. He raised the hairs on the back of her neck with his too bright smile and too blue eyes. He hadn't lived in the city long enough to call it home, and his eyes hadn't faded to a soft sky grey like Kristopher's had done over time, like everyone's did, eventually.
"Jude likes him, too," Kristopher added.
Mariel felt Jude's nod of agreement, like a flicker of something just outside the edge of her vision. While she had dug her nails into the palms of her hands every time Blue John smiled, Jude lit up the whole room like a ray of sunshine braving it's way through the ever-present cloud cover that loomed over the city.
"Well," she said, leaning in conspiratorially. "That makes two of you, but I'm keeping my eye on him."
Kristopher nodded and put his finger over his lips. He would keep her secret, although Mariel guessed that Blue John was much keener than he appeared and had already figured out she didn't trust him much further than she could throw him.
"But Mariel," he said. "You don't really trust anyone, do you?"
"I trust you," she said, and she didn't lie. "I trust Jude, too."
I don't trust strangers who give me false names, she thought to herself, but instead she said, "I'm just doing my job, Kristopher."
She protected the city, especially the ones who lived in her house no matter how long they stayed or how soon they left. She defended the borders and the boarders.
Blue John showed up unannounced and unaccounted for, and slept still on the mattress on the living room floor, even as the day grew longer. He slept for most of the day, but when he woke, he played with Kristopher and cooked dinner. He sang in the kitchen and danced around Mariel, somehow avoiding her grasp because he knew. He knew he set her teeth on edge.
Blue John knew that Mariel knew that he had a secret. She would get it out of him eventually, and then she would make a decision. He couldn't sleep on her living room floor forever.
For now, she only drummed her fingers on the table while Kristopher ate his breakfast and read his book.
