dazlious | There's an anchor round my heart, dragging me down

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: On the side of the road somewhere
Current Music: "Halo", Oleander

Entry tags:

There's an anchor round my heart, dragging me down

WHO: James Sunderland, Laura (Silent Hill) and Harmony Cello (OC)
WHERE: On the road.
WHEN: Gravityverse, November.
WHAT: Lost people have a way of finding each other.
RATING: Probably PG.

The first snowflakes of the year were drifting down.

There was a time in his life when he would have been excited about that-- which was a very long time ago.

More recently was the time when he would have regarded it with apathy. Aside from being reminded that he might need to put on a coat, for the past three years, snow hadn't evoked much emotion in him.

But that was gone, too.

Now the sight instilled a flutter of dread in his stomach.

"JAMES! Hurry up, I'm cold!" came Laura's impatient shout from the car door.

"I'm trying, Laura," he muttered through gritted teeth, plunging his head back into the open hood of the car and reaching for the wrench again.

It had stalled on them for the third time this week, and he was starting to get worried.

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Heart slamming in his ribs, Harmony stayed still. If he cried out, even if he pretended to be a bird, the girl (or demon, he didn't know, he couldn't see her) might try and wrassle the cup away.

He'd only known James a few minutes, but from the tone in his voice, the realization that the big man in the green coat was not the one in charge came raining down on him like the moving truck he'd escaped from earlier.

It was a pretty frightening realization.

"Just leave it, Laura. Okay?" It sounded more like pleading than commanding.

Harmony swallowed. He felt like his fate was sitting unseen only a few feet away. Unless shaken or otherwise disturbed, the angel would stay as quiet as he could. It was impossible to stay perfectly still though.

His damp wings made light squeaking sounds as they scraped against the Styrofoam walls of the cup whenever he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. The cramp in his wing was still going strong. He started to fear he'd actually gone and pulled something.

It would be some time before Harmony saw the light of day again. At least he wasn't in danger of suffocating-- the straw provided a convenient pipe of air.

Eventually he would feel the cup jostled as it was removed from the car and brought inside somewhere-- but even then it would be a bit of time before the lid came off.

When it did, the first thing Harmony would see was the probably somewhat-alarming sight of his 'rescuer' staring owlishly down at the contents of the cup.

"Hello?"

Harmony had surprisingly been able to stress-doze during the ride. It wasn't fainting, exactly, but when you're trapped in a cup, there isn't much else you can do besides stare wearily up at the semi-translucent lid to your prison.

However when the car stopped he was wide awake again. He had a gut feeling that wherever they were wasn't 'South' in any sense of the word. Things got still. Things to quiet. Then the lid came away.

The angel instinctively made himself as small as he could when his rescuer peered down at him. The bottom of the cup had been littered with molted feathers and some of them were stuck to the sides from the soda that had dried in there. He made eye-contact with James though.

"...Hi. Again." Harmony steeled himself. "Where am I?"

"In a motel," James said. He sounded weirdly... disappointed? Sitting down on what turned out to be the toilet, he propped his chin on his palm and sighed. "I was kind of hoping you wouldn't turn out to be real."

Or at least that he'd be gone.

Because there was the distinct possibility that he still wasn't real.

Some of the weariness left the angel's face then. He fluffed up his sticky feathers and frowned so that his halo tipped forward.

"Well forgive me for existing."

He thought he understood James's position well enough. It had to be pretty jarring finding a tiny robed person under your car. But that was still rude! Harmony spread his wings and flap-flopped out of the cup and down to the bathroom floor. He swallowed a yelp as he flexed his strained wing. It was better than it had been, but he wasn't going to be seeing any real altitude until he spent some time out of that cramped soda cup.

Harmony looked around the bathroom and dropped his huffy tone. "Thank you for...saving me from possibly being beheaded." He suddenly remembered the child's voice and hushed himself.

"Sorry," James mumbled apologetically for his rudeness.

He set the cup down and sighed again, looking at the tiny angel like one might a stray animal that they just didn't know what to do with.

"Laura doesn't... mean any harm. She's just... um..."

He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment, trying to think of a way to describe Laura that wouldn't make her sound like the Antichrist.

"... She's eight."

"Eight..." he echoed. Eight was a terrifying number. He'd never actually met an eight year old but he'd seen them on television. Mrs. Shirley's grandchildren were even younger and he'd seen them playing running and tumbling and biting games in the neighboring yard.

Harmony puffed a little sigh. He was overtired and frustrated and now that the movement had stopped, he was finally starting to get scared. "I really need to get back down South. The house needs me...I'm supposed to be advising a man named James and without me the whole house could go up in flames!"

Brows creased, James tilted his head.

What a funny coincidence...

"I'm gonna assume you must mean a different James than me..."

There you go. An introduction.

Sort of.

"Wh-- oh! Oh, hah, no. My James is...not as agreeable as you." He dragged his fingers through his hair and puffed out a weak laugh. If he was a better conscience, JW would have been a much kinder person.

"That is kind of funny, though. The James I see over is a James Walter. So that would make you James...?" He gestured vaguely, inviting the man to give up his last name.

"... Walter. Yeah, no I'm-- uh, Sunderland. James Sunderland."

As though by reflex, he extended his hand-- only to look at it, then at Harmony, and then sheepishly put it back down in his lap again.

He coughed.

This whole 'interacting with a tiny person' was going to take awhile to get used to.

It was going to be even harder to get used to once Harmony was able to fly again and perch annoyingly on James's shoulder. He notices the gesture and gives the man a sympathetic grin. He tried!

The angel stuck his hands into his opposite bathrobe sleeves and thought. What was he going to do? He couldn't do much of anything until his wings were in working order. A bath. He could do with a bath. And something to eat. And somewhere to sleep. But James had already taken him in out of the cold and wet, would it be selfish to ask for more?

Harmony chewed his lip. It was for the good of the Host. His homeworld.

"I don't suppose you'd let me stay the night, would you?"

It didn't take much deliberation. James wasn't the sort to throw people out when he'd already technically kidnapped them.

"Sure," he said-- and then, with a ghost of a sheepish smile, he added, "'Sides, I... guess it's not like you take up much space."

Harmony reached up to adjust his halo. "I try not to." His wings lowered to the tile and he heaved a sigh. He owed this man a lot. He resolved not to be a burden. Perhaps, just perhaps, while he was in his company, he could offer him a little advice.

It'd be nice if somebody heeded it for a change.

"what time is it?"

"Around eleven-thirty."

James jerked his thumb over his shoulder to the door that presumably led to the motel room.

"I wanted to wait till Laura was asleep, just in case... y'know..."

The angel nodded grimly. Oh, he knew. He reached up and rubbed his neck, swallowing as he did so. He'd seen...so many mutilated barbies in his day.

"Suppose I should find somewhere to hide for the night." He glanced up at that accursed, sticky cup and suppressed a shudder. He wasn't going back in there, that was for sure!

"Yeah... um..."

He rubbed his neck with a scratchy sound-- hadn't shaved in awhile-- and looked around. There wasn't much in here. They rarely unpacked when they bunkered down for the night, beyond basic toiletries and some snacks.

And on top of that, they had to think of something that Laura wouldn't mess with and discover unwittingly.

"... Hm... hang on a sec."

Getting to his feet, he lumbered out of the room.

Harmony fluttered aside to let James pass and dared to follow him as far as the door frame to lean around and get a better idea of where they were staying. He took in every side table, every dresser, ever electrical outlet his eyes passed over.

You always had to be ready to use anything as a shelter when you were only six inches tall.

The motel room was dark-- a vague lump on one of the two beds was probably where the little girl who accompanied James was, blessedly asleep and unable to pop any heads off of small creatures.

A television at against one wall, still popping quietly as it wound down.

At the far bed, James stood hunched over, fishing through a duffel bag for something. After a couple minutes of shifting its contents around, he seemingly found what he was looking for and started to head back over, literally tiptoeing past the bed where Laura slept.

Edging back into the bathroom, keeping his feet far from the tiny angel as though afraid that he'd somehow step on him even while looking straight at him. He shut the door as quietly as he could before sitting back down on the toilet and holding up what he'd found.

It was a sock.

"I leave these lying on the floor all the time and Laura never touches them. I... figure maybe I could just put this one on the other side of the bed and it could... I don't know, it's kind of like a ... a sleeping bag."

... It had sounded like a good plan in his head but now that the words were coming out of his mouth, it was getting stupider. He looked at Harmony a little sheepishly, as though worried the angel might be offended by the suggestion that he should sleep in a piece of footwear.

"... It's clean, I promise."

The feathers on his shoulders prickled when he spotted the lump that was Laura among all the good hiding places the room had to offer. He wondered if he was judging the kid too hardly. They hadn't technically met. Maybe...maybe if he did slip up and get found out, the girl would be enchanted by him the way other small girls are with things like Tinkerbell...

Oh, Harmony.

When James returned, the little angel was quick to get out of his way. When the man presented the sleeping back, part of Harmony's insides crawled. FEET HAD BEEN IN THAT. GIANT HORRIBLE SWEATY FEET. NO. His eyes briefly flickered to the man's boots and then back to his face. Oh, God. Harmony was a king, damn it, and kings kept their composure. He drew himself up and thanked his host for such a generous offer. He had to be thankful.

"That will be perfect. Thank you."

HE'S DOING HIS BEST HARMONY GOSH.

Even though the tiny angel managed to avoid going into histrionics, James seemed to be aware of the lameness of his offering.

He looked away, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"... Sorry there isn't much else..."

YOUR BEST IS GROSS, SUNDERLAND.

"That will be absolutely fine." Harmony put his game face back on. He wouldn't be with them much longer, right? He'd survive. "Sooner to bed, sooner to rise!"

8( HE TRIED.

Another shaky grin pulled across the green-coated man's face.

"Heh, yeah... uh, good idea. Um... c'mon."

He lowered his hand. It would be rude to make Harmony WALK all the way over to the bed! That was like... a mile to someone so small. :(

Harmony drew himself up to his full height and marched aboard. It was sort of nice having a flat hand offered so generously. In his ears of advising he'd been picked up by his wings, his coat collar, his head, his leg, his shorts.

This James was already a vast improvement over his James.

There would be no further grumbling or questions from Harmony that night. They no doubt had a long day tomorrow and if the angel had his way, he would not be spending it in an old soda cup! He was going to have some decisions to make!

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