Well, the weather outside is frightful

[rosestolilies.livejournal.com]

Characters: Everyone!
Date: Midnight the 16th of December
Summary: The inhabitants of the Garden get their reward for making out beneath the mistletoe, in the form of a lights show in the sky.
Warnings: N/A

In the dead of night, the Garden is dead silent. Without the sound of the city or urban life, only the noises of nature pervade the air. Crickets. Rustling leaves. The occasional footsteps of an animal.

However, tonight, at midnight, the silence is broken by a loud pealing of bells, rousing the people of the garden from their sleep. The bells continue ringing for nearly half a minute before falling silent. For a moment, the peacefulness of night returns to the Gardens.

Then the enormous mistletoe plant begins glowing, with a brilliant white light bright enough to be seen from all corners of the Garden. It fizzes, shooting off heatless sparks, and then bursts, shooting up into the sky and breaking into pieces of glowing light, forming various shapes. Above the Orchard, a series of hearts form, burst like fireworks, and reform. Over the Necessities, nymphs made of sparkling light kiss and dance through the sky, winking down at the people below. Over the ruins, flowers of multicolored light pop into existence and disperse. And above the Viridian Pavilion, fiery red phoenixes swoop through the air, burn out dramatically, and are reborn in a new cascade of light.

The show will continue until morning. Fortunately, now that the mistletoe's light has dispersed, it's not so bright that it should keep people awake.

Comments

[headedforhope]

"Mm.....sounds like a cartoon gone wrong, doesn't it?" Mami shifts, settling back - further into Utena's embrace, into the warmth and sense of safety it offers. Maybe it's selfish of her....maybe it's foolish. But she does it anyway, because to talk about this still hurts. Her entire existence, all the choices that led her to this moment, pivoted around Kyuubey's interference. If it wasn't for him, she would have died - that's all there was to it.

Still, part of Mami wishes she had a real choice. She might always wish for that, pointless as the desire is.

"Thanks, Utena-san." A pause. Mami closes her eyes. "Ah....but you shouldn't make it sound like it was easy for me. I almost- ...I wouldn't have been able to accept those things alone." Her voice grows soft in a tired, yet decided way; it's all right to admit her flaws, her mistakes, as long as she never again gives up the fight to change for the better. "I think that everything I've seen, that I've had to do in order to survive....it's done something to me, Utena-san. I'm not innocent anymore - I have weaknesses that could ruin everything if I let them. But, you know? I can't regret that moment with Kyuubey anymore. I have to let it go, because..." Her throat constricts. She swallows, hard. "...because that one thing, at least, is not my fault."

Her voice goes thin; there's an unsteadiness in it. Please, don't tell me that it is. Don't tell me I'm wrong to believe otherwise.

[revolutionized]

"Of course it's not your fault." Utena's answer is a comforting one, and comes immediately. "You were...you were dying." The words come slowly, and awkwardly. The notion of death is an uncomfortable one for Utena, but she feels she needs to talk about it today in order to get her point across. "It makes perfect sense that would've chosen to live in that moment. Besides, if what you said about that Kyuubey thing is true and all -- if he only wants you and the other magical girls to fall into despair, I bet he would've turned a wish for your parents against you anyway. He's the one to blame, not you. I don't think choosing to live is anything to...to regret."

A heavy sigh, and Utena's tone turns thoughtful and a little sad, almost distant. "To want to live at all, after something like that...I think that's brave too."

[headedforhope]

A long, uncertain sort of silence. As if even now Mami can't help but weigh those words in her mind and turn them over to look for holes; accepting things blindly is beyond her now, perhaps forever, no matter how much she aches for what's been offered. But then, at last, Mami sighs - and it's a sound of deep relief. She relaxes in Utena's arms again, allows herself the comfort of being weak just this once.

There have been times when Mami didn't want to live. Her life after Kyuubey was lonely and miserable, nothing to admire, nothing she could look back on with pride. Yet now it's easier to think of those times without flinching, without feeling a fresh wave of shame with every breath. There....was no point in regretting what couldn't be helped....a choice that was never a choice at all.

The unsteadiness is gone from her voice when Mami speaks again, replaced by a quiet sort of peace. "I....think so, too."