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]

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."