Fall descended upon the sunlit grove of trees like a wildfire in summer, ripping through the formerly green expanse with reds, oranges and yellows. Deep, sunset flames pushed aside the bright, luxuriant greens of summer, looking as though hell itself had ascended to earth, sending everything upon it burning to the sky.
But the flames that danced above in the trees were no match for the living sunrise flames of the young woman's hair as she came running along the well-worn path through the darkly painted trees, dancing and twirling in the chilly autumn breezes twisting their way about her. Laughter rang out pure and happy as she skipped up the steps to the house, its doors open wide for her. Giggles danced forth from her smiling lips like golden light falling from the sun as a warm, happy zephyr swirled its way through her hair, making it tickle her nose. She tossed one of the many bags she was carrying onto the couch after racing into the sun filled room filled with the sweet scent of lilac blossoms.
Pure happiness ran rampant through the house, turning it's once dead, gloomy siding a cool, sun-warmed grey. The chimneys stood tall and proud on either side of the house, adding to it's strength as the walls rose proud and straight to meet it's rust-colored roof. Mists were pierced and destroyed by the rays of bright sunlight that kissed it's shutters and cascaded through the open windows. Nothing measurable, statistical, or logical could be detected in the change upon the house - its doors were still worn oak, its lawn still scrubby and it's garden still overgrown. And yet, anyone with an once of emotion in them, a teaspoon of wonder, a teardrop of hope could sense the difference, see the beauty restored to its once drooping spirals, and notice the dancing flowers about the gardens and yard.
It was happiness, acceptance and contentment, something pure and perfect that no accountant could ever write down on any form. And it nearly flowed out of the house.
Lina ran upstairs to toss her sweater and bags onto her bed, pulling the CD player off the shelf and dragging it back down the stairs. Confusions twisted its way about her and she laughed again, fishing a CD out of her bag and placing it into the CD placer. However, Lina didn't push the play button. Instead, she raced into the kitchen, running back at an excited, breakneck speed into the main room and placing two wineglasses on the coffeetable. She then shoved some chairs and end tables away to the edges of the room and put the stereo up onto a shelf. She grinned into the cloud of confusion slowly twirling about the room, and pulled a bottle of expensive wine out of the air.
She grinned. "Guess who got a raaaaiiise today!" She announced to the empty, but never unoccupied room. Lina poured two glasses full of deep red liquid. "My work, and I quote, is 'Exquisite.'" Lina lifted a full wineglass into the air and grinned. She gulped down a swig of the blood red liquor and gagged. Her eyes teared up but she smiled anyway. "Well, that was interesting." She said cheerfully into the silent laughter that filled the room. "I would have thought with the money people pour into it that it would taste a bit better."
It's an acquired taste, Came the mental tendril. Lina smiled ruefully. "Not one I want to get." She turned back to the table and placed her glass next to it's half filled counterpart. She felt a dry chuckle reverberate through her mind and she smiled, pulling the juice from her bag. "Luckily, I foresaw this little mishap," She announced cheerfully, dumping the rest of her wine into the nearly empty wineglass next to hers and filling hers with the orange liquid. She lifted her glass to the ceiling. "To a year of happiness!" She cried and swallowed it down. Setting it next to the empty glass she grinned at the pure confusion twining about her mind. "I plan on a year of this. I'm getting rich with my paintings,"
Not quite, a rueful emotion danced through her mind and she ignored it.
"As I said, I'm getting rich on my paintings, albeit slowly, and I couldn't be more comfortable. I'm having a great time, and I feel like dancing every moment."
Very poetic, came the laughing thought drifting through the room. Lina grinned, happy to trace full thoughts through the swiftly tilting emotions dancing about the room.
"Well, I do!" she said into the room. "This is all I ever dreamed of heaven. I was miserable every day I lived at home, all right every minute I wandered, but I'm happy every second now." She put her glass down and made her way to the CD player on the shelf.
The room filled with startled confusion as she set the new CD blaring through the speakers. She laughed aloud and began to twist and jump to the beat in a fierce, reckless abandon that one only falls into when they know no one is watching.
Or no one cares. She grinned at the uncertainty spinning through her mind and did a twirl. Softly, hesitantly, a cool breeze snaked about her, rising to soar through her wildly flying hair like a breath of pure oxygen on a flame - tossing it high and pulling it into eddying currents of air.
And Lina danced, secure in the knowledge that while no one danced with her, she was not dancing alone.
Line turned away from the warn sunlight making its slow way into her tightly closed eyes, pushing herself deeper into the plush quilts and reveling in the welcoming feel of the covers pulled over her.
Lina loved fall and winter for this single, solitary reason. She could pile on thick comforters and not die of the heat they locked inside. Nothing, nothing felt better on a cold morning than piling beneath countless blankets and snuggled into a fluff-filled pillow far past noon. Well, maybe a few things, but Lina couldn't think of anything at the moment.
The scent of old books wafted through the room and Lina smiled.
"You're right, Zel," She said softly into the cool morning air, "This is heaven."
You can't sleep all day, the drifting thought whispered through her sleep-fogged mind. She grinned and pulled the covers over her head.
"Oh yes I can," She replied, muffled by the piles of quilts decorating the bed. "And I fully intend to." The room filled with a breathy, silent sigh.
Then I suppose the steaming bath filled with lavender oil will just have to be drained, came the teasing parry, a warm zephyr tugging at her eyelids and pulling at her sheets. Lina clung to the quilts but peeked above the edges. She felt a smug smile filling the air about her. It's a bubble bath... it whispered enticingly through her mind.
"You play dirty," She muttered, relinquishing the blankets and tugging them down on her now vacant bed into a semi-acceptable fold. It helped that with so many blankets the bed looked like a giant pillow, and making it properly wouldn't make it look much better. She grinned and dashed for the adjacent bathroom.
The scent of lavender barraged her like a thousand spring winds, cascading from the tiled sanctuary as soon as she opened the door. Followed by an undertone of lilacs, The warmth and steam drifted about her like a dancing cloud of perfection. Lina smiled into the drifting purity.
"I lied," She said into the smirking emotion behind her, "this is heaven." Silent laughter followed her as he closed the door, removing the soft flannel pajamas that were three sized too big and easing into the steaming chip of paradise that was called a bubble bath.
Lina didn't know how long she lay in the lavender-scented bliss, but she was white and wrinkled as an only lady by the time she finally tore herself from its bubbly embrace. She enveloped herself in a thick, huge towel and pulled a brush through her sunset hair, smiling into the rising steam. If she squinted, she could almost see a smiling face, but it disappeared if she looked too hard. She shrugged. It didn't really matter anyway. She dried off and pulled on a pair of old jeans and a tee-shirt before skipping down the stairs in time to hear the knock on the big oak doors. A gentle breeze sifted through her sunset hair, smoothing the errant strands and dancing across her face. She smiled and started for the door.
Anyone who lacks a doorbell knows that there I a difference in knocks. Some are short and impatient, some slow and lethagaric. This knock had a sense of anger, a feeling of self-righteousness and arrogance, as though the patron didn't believe he should have to knock.
Confused as to who would be here at ten in the morning, Lina opened the door to a barrage of anger, annoyance and questions.
"What the HELL did you think you were doing??" Was the first thing out of his mouth. The green haired youth swept past her and into her house before she could get a word to escape her shell-shocked mouth. He turned to glare at her, and she felt like a small child caught stealing cookies. "Who the hell did you fucking think you were?? We were going to be MARRIED, and you just run off in the middle of the night, without a single word of where you were going! Do you have any idea how long it took before we even had an idea of whether you were alive or dead, you idiot?"
Lina stood at the door, staring at the raging young man in the middle of her living room. What... is he doing here? She thought, panicked, as she shrank beneath the hailstorm of anger and hurtful words. Moron, proud, selfish, annoying... all were thrown at her without care or style, hurting nonetheless. She always felt like this when he was around, even though she would always cover it with her usual flippant façade. But the months of living a life that didn't require her to hide her emotions had left the masks old and rusty, painful to don and not very convincing. The tall, muscular young man brushed his hand angrily though his aqua-green hair every so often, only to have the blue-green strands fall back into his face. It was still dyed that color from the chemistry accident, Lina noticed, ever since she ran too much electricity though the copper above his head, making it explode. She had caught all hell for that one. His angry yellow eyes flashed from place to place about the room, never staying on one thing. Lina pulled back from the angry, hateful names as he continued to attack her with words. Sticks and stones, Lina thought desperately, will break my bones...
But words will break your soul. Lina felt pure anger run up and down her spine, but it wasn't hers. The air nearly crackled with furious energy, twisting about the oblivious youth like a serpent to its prey. Lina felt strength surge through her.
I'm not alone. I'm not alone anymore, and I know I'm right.
"Valgaav." Lina said angrily at the youth who stopped, startled, as his girlfriend interrupted him. "I don't care what everyone wants at home. I don't care if I made you all angry." She said softly into the stunned silence. "What do you want?"
Valgaav pulled his trodden pride up from the floor and glared at her full force, covering the distance between then in two strides and looking down at her.
Back off, moron, before I get mad, the thought danced across Lina's mind and she took comfort in it. Zelgadis didn't like Val any more than she did.
"I came to take you home, brat," Valgaav replied angrily, ignoring the thickening of the air around him and the pure rage filtering towards him. "You're not staying here."
Lina snorted. "I do what I want, Val. You have no say over my actions, and I say I'm staying here." Lina fell easily back into herself. I don't have to pretend. I'm home. I will be MYSELF in my home, and no one can make me wear those horrid masks here.
"I like that!!" Val answered indignantly, his voice rising in pitch and volume. "You're going to marry me, and as my wife you will obey - "
"I will obey no one," Lina shot back, enraged. "I am my own. Get out NOW, Valgaav!" She barely kept herself from attacking him there. He was far bigger than she, and while she knew how to fight dirty, so did he. And she knew he wouldn't pull his punches.
"You will obey ME," Val snarled, snatching her wrist, "And you are coming home, NOW."
A crash rang out from behind the green-haired youth, and he twirled around to see the broken remains of a vase clattering across the hardwood floor. A torrent of rage and fury ripped about him in time with the hurricane wind that started up out of nowhere. Valgaav's eyes opened wide. Only a moron wouldn't realize there was something much stronger than he was in the room, and that he was alive only because Lina didn't want him dead.
"For once, You're going to obey me, Val." Lina's flashing rubies of eyes held fury far greater than one fight, one order, one insult. This was the pain and rage of hundreds of fights, thousands of orders, and countless insults. "And you're going to get OUT, and you're going to do it NOW, before I get MAD. Do you understand?"
Barely controlled anger clear in his eyes, Val did just that. He left.
Lina was breathing hard The comforting breeze that swept by her not helping at all. "Asshole."