Two birthday gifts, a few hours belated.

[pauraque_bk]

For millefiori, a drabble. 100 words exactly. G.



Millefiori

Lily always kept fresh flowers in the house. Remus sees her leaning over the kitchen table to reach the vase, deftly picking out the baby's-breath that had gone dry. Hair falling in light curtains about her face, sunlit.

Part of the house's rear wall still stands, bricks crumbling. Most of the smoke-smell has blown off now, but the debris is still smudged grey with ash. Remus steps carefully, comes round to the back. His breath catches when he sees.

Lily's garden. Crocuses and long grass, sage grown wild and rambling. A thousand flowers sweet and damp in the morning light.

~

And for isiscolo, a drawing of her namesake, sketched from a statue in a museum.

Er... I didn't mean to offer such non-cheery gifts. You have to understand that for me, angst = great love. (Just ask my characters.)

I adore you both.

Comments

[fairy-tale-echo.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that drabble is stuck in my head...in the bestest way possible. I think you really captured the things that stick in our heads after loss, when we're most surprising and somehow most observant. Hard and good. Love it! Thanks :)

[pauraque]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed!

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much!!! It's such a poignant, melancholy scene, and yet it's kind of hopeful too, in that life goes on, and so do our memories of the people we love.

And this: A thousand flowers sweet and damp in the morning light. made me cry. What an exquisite gift! *hugs you*

[pauraque]

*hugsback, offers hankie* ;)

I was going to write something happy, really! But then I decided to do a play on your name, and this was all I could think of. I'm really glad you like it. Happy birthday, my dear.

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful. When I first read it I got so caught up in it--I could *see* Lily bending over, the sunlight in her hair, and it seemed so right that a girl named Lily, with a sister named Petunia, would have an affinity for flowers--that it took a minute for the significance of that last sentence to register. Subtle and elegant, as always!

[pauraque]

You're too kind. Thank you. *smooch*

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks so much. You are a wonderful guy and a great asset to the fandom.

[pauraque]

Aw, you're too kind. Many happy returns of the... er, week!

[spican.livejournal.com]

Hey, Eo. I've been bookmarking a few fics for my Memories and stumbled over this tiny beauty which I hadn't seen before.

Just had to tell you that I felt my breath catch, just like Remus. It's such a wistful miniature, and the scene feels both sweet and haunted. Never thought much about Lily to be honest, but I can see her and feel her through Remus's memory. I seriously got tears in my eyes at the perfection of the last sentence.