Cemetery Buddies
Written for @throneofglassmicrofics, prompt “Petrichor”
So, I wrote this today at the cemetery instead of the chapters I actually have to finish, because it felt too weird to write smut by my grandfather’s grave. I was there the entire afternoon and I kinda conjured this fic on the spot, but I really hope you like it!
Warnings: mentions of death of loved ones, quick mention of death by covid
Words: 888
Aelin’s picnic blanket did a good job of protecting her clothes from the dewy grass, but not from its gentle prickling on the exposed part of her legs. It felt peaceful, though. She got used to the silence, the soft ruffling of leaves and chirping of birds filling her days in the past two years.
Just her and her parents hanging out together, like old times.
The cemetery staff were even kind enough to lend her a beach umbrella in case the rain came back.
A delighted sigh. Don’t you love the smell of petrichor, Mom? Aelin echoed inside her head, because she still thought it was weird to talk to a grave.
She slid her crochet hat over her face and closed her eyes, feeling the nature surrounding her instead of watching this landscape of flowers and white stones she knew so well. Feeling the wind battle against the edges of her blanket and lose it when her weight overpowered its strength. The sunlight peeking from parted post-rain clouds burned in a delicious way the long stretches of skin her overall shorts left exposed.
She lived in Orynth, after all. Aelin and her parents always made a point to make the most out of summer, for however long this freezing city and its climatic crisis allowed them to.
“You okay there?”
Aelin lifted her hat from her face enough to take a peek into the outside world, but she didn’t need it to know it was her cemetery buddy.
Fully sat on the blanket now, she eyed the Heineken six-pack on Rowan’s hand with a smirk.
“Better now that you brought the good shit.”
He gave her a close-lipped smile and unfolded the two chairs provided at the entrance by the staff, since Mr. Fancy Pants preferred it over lying on the grass like Aelin.
To an outside observer, the difference between them is striking. Rowan in his dark suit and tie, brooding with that permanent scowl on his face; right by his side, Aelin’s in denim overall shorts, red top and crochet hat, being her usual fun, dazzling self.
Both hanging out together, sharing beer by their loved ones’ graves. What made them good friends wasn’t their differences, but how similarly they were miserable.
“So.” She cleared her throat and eyed the six-pack. “I guess things didn’t go the way you wanted at work?”
“Lorcan—“
She tilted her head, brows furrowed in confusion.
“The boss’ kiss-ass,” he explained.
“Oh, that guy.” Aelin said with a grimace. She did not like this Lorcan person, even if he had a friendship of sorts with Rowan. “Tell me what he did this time.”
Today, she was loosened up enough by the weather and the beer, and it happened that Rowan was also a little chatty as well. Sometimes they silently sit side by side. Sometimes Aelin doesn’t sit, she kneels on the grass and hums ancient Terrasenian laments, which her buddy raptly listens to. Sometimes Rowan starts venting about his lack of ability to keep his deceased wife’s garden, leaves for the bathroom and comes back with red-rimmed eyes.
It’s getting progressively less dramatic, though. During the majority of the last few months, they’ve been just talking and sharing snacks.
His wife and Aelin’s dad died of COVID at approximately the same time, four years ago—hence why their graves are so close together. Her mom ended up sharing a grave with her husband a while after, but Aelin and Rowan didn’t cross paths at the cemetery until a year and a half ago, when their respective visiting habits finally overlapped.
And at some point during visits to their loved ones’ graves concurrently, they slowly forged a friendship—emphasis on the slow part, and no thanks to Rowan’s closed-off personality.
However, their conversation was cut short when an employee signaled that they were nearing closing time.
“So…” Aelin let out a performative sigh to chase away the awkwardness of goodbye. “Same time next week?”
Instead of answering, Rowan pointed his phone at her face, squinted at the screen for several seconds, then retreated the device.
Aelin tilted her head. Care to explain? she silently asked.
Rowan had a soft smile while he studied whatever was on his screen, for a longer time than expected, then jutted his chin towards her face. “I’m sending my mom a picture.”
During one of the rare occasions Rowan’s mom visited Lyria’s grave with her son, they found Aelin alone under a merciless sun. The older woman was scandalized. She made Aelin stay under her umbrella, forced Rowan to walk the long stretch back to the reception and get another one with the staff, and in the meantime very surreptitiously asked Aelin what her favorite color was.
With a soft chuckle, she took off her crocheted red hat with white daisy patches, handmade especially for her. “Did you tell her how much I love it?”
“Only after the first few times you told me to. The woman’s already too smug.”
“As she should be!”
Aelin still hadn’t got used to it, the sound of Rowan’s laugh. Maybe he was different outside of the cemetery—she wouldn’t know—but now he had a lightness of sorts that showed itself more and more frequently as the days passed, and she could only be happy to witness this change in him.
You can get notified when I update by either turning notifications on for @mariaofdoranelle-fics or entering my (sometimes glitchy) tag list!!
TAG LIST
@aelinchocolatelover
@autumnbabylon
@bookcide
@booksandteaonarainydayislife
@cookiemonsterwholovesbooks
@courtofjurdan
@dreamer-133
@elentiyawhitethorn
@elizarikaallen
@emily-gsh
@empress-ofbloodshed
@fangirlprincess09
@goddess-aelin
@gracie-rosee
@leiawritesstories
@lululululululuop
@renxzs
@rowanaelinn
@s-uppertime
@sarahjswift
@staghorn-mountains
@superspiritfestival
@swankii-art-teacher
@thegreyj
@throneofus7
@violet-mermaid7
@wishfulimaginings
32 notes
·
View notes
06.06.05
Hey Becca
I know it's been a while since we talked properly. Or even seen each other. It's funny, because you'd think, living in the same town, knowing the same people, I see you more, even if it's on accident. I try though, remember when I invited you to the city that weekend, but you said you had other things on?
You were my best friend, and I still think about that. How I showed you that it wasn't that difficult to ride a bike, how we'd make chicken and mayonnaise sandwiches and sit in your living room, playing the wii. You were always better at volleyball, but I could beat you in boxing. How you rolled around in your sleep, and I woke up early. How you almost rolled off the bed once, and I held onto you, not wanting to wake you up. How you couldnt sleep without your bun-bun, and I couldn't sleep without my izzy doll.
How your parents second choice for your name was Stephanie.
How you never forgot your captains badge in year 6.
How you smiled with your braces on, and the small metal suds in your ear.
How you always sat, perfectly in the middle of your seat, soft blonde hair running down your back.
I was never like you.
I was the kid that read while the teacher was talking, liked playing dodgeball with the boys and could never remember my captains badge, or keep my desk tidy.
But I could remember your birthday.
Year after year, happy birthday becca!! Always with an obscene amount of exclamation marks and enthusiasm. Did I think that maybe you'd return it? It's not that much of a big deal, sure. But when the only text history between us is that and me asking how your day was, I can read between the lines. And when you seem to love every other person without hesitation, I can't keep thinking that there's something wrong with me.
So I wanted to tell you (not really though. I doubt that the chance you'd see this would be smaller than me admiting my feelings to you)- to tell you that this is goodbye. Not forever, but I'm going to try. I've got to move on, because it seems like you already have.
So, I'll see you later alligator.
In a while, crocodile.
I love you
1 note
·
View note
Still really hurts how I am chronically unable to read fanfics unless the author either never interacts with the fandom (so they feel "unattainable") or they are trustworthy and loyal to me so I can be 101% sure they won't ditch me. Because for me reading fanfics is something extremely intimate and important, even more than fanart (says a visual artist :/). I don't just gobble the "content", but good fanfics can shape my experience with characters and my vision of them, inspire me, even heal me. As someone who is chronically incapable of being good with words in both of the languages I know, I adore good writing. That's why it is so important that the author feels "safe".
And after like, years of gathering enough courage and trust to read the fanfic about my favorite BB boys of ALL characters, about my favorite topic of ALL things, tailored perfectly forcmy tastes I had to get crashed BY the author in the way I still can't recover from. I just wish it was literally anyone else, because that stuff legit made me hate Edgar for some time (it is good now), and it hurts to never get to learn how the story progressed. Because I just can't still read a fanfic from someone who hurt me in a way so twisted that not even Mx Harrasser and Mrs Ableist could've deviced something THAT vile.
I will never read a fanfic again, unless the author swears their fucking blood and soul that they are SAFE person to approach. I am dead serious. When I get pulled away from an artist whose drawings resonated with me, I could still despair enough to check the stuff in secret once in like, 6 months and "just right-click and save", but writing is different.
9 notes
·
View notes