Imitating Art
by Merith
Ever notice how there are moments in which life really does imitate art? And these little insights generally strike at the least appropriate times? Or times when you'd like it to just lay low for another five or ten minutes, until you're at a stopping point in the current make-out session with your boyfriend.
I read somewhere once that it was Oscar Wilde who coined the aphorism, and damn if I'm not more aware of how apropos it is than walking back from lunch with Heero. It's early April, so maybe I can blame it on spring. Or maybe it's the way Heero grabs my hand as we leave the sandwich shop, and still holds it in his even though he abhors being stared at by random strangers. Whatever it is that triggers my walk into the absurd, part of me welcomes it, but the other parts? Well, let's just say they haven't picked themselves up off the floor from laughing so hard yet.
It's a Thursday, and like I said, Heero and I had finished lunch at the sub shop and are walking back to the office. The walk is a bit of a stretch, but with parking spaces being few and far between, it's easier to walk it than drive. I'm telling Heero about how I would have won a couple hundred easy while babysitting a witness, and all from my duty partner, the witness and the deputy DA. That is, if we'd been playing with credits instead of pretzels. Heero even laughs when I tell him we had to declare a penalty when the ante was eaten. I grin at him, and his hand comes down and grabs mine; Heero smiles his pleased little smile before he starts walking.
There I am somewhere on the seven hundred block of Bayside Street, Heero's hand holding mine, and I suddenly have the thought that if my life is a sit-com, there would be a song - some sort of sappy love song, peppy and sweet. Or maybe some crooning ballad. And like those half-hour vid shows of old, I would have a Moment. You know, one of those times when everything else around the 'main guy' fades, and he suddenly has these visions. Mostly they're fantasies, but hell, it's a vid-show not a documentary.
So, I imagine I'm a vid-show character having a Moment. My Moment is filled with a song all about 'me for you and you for me, and how perfect the world will be'. And maybe even show me running through one of those fields thick with grass and flowers, and Heero running towards me too, and it's all in slow motion. We meet, and hold each other, spinning around until we're dizzy and collapse on the ground, laughing and smiling.
I start laughing; a full-on belly buster of a laugh, and Heero looks at me like I've just gone crazy. And I have to grin, and shrug. He only cocks an eyebrow, shakes his head, and turns back to watch for the signal to turn green to continue walking. So yeah, it's a vision that's hard to recover from, and each time I peek at Heero, I'm stifling a laugh.
Don't get me wrong. I love the guy, would die for him - would lie for him, and I'm sure he'd do the same. But a field of clover and sappy, peppy music isn't really us either.
Though... when the light changes, and we step off the curb, I squeeze his hand, and somewhere, I hear a distant refrain.
'So happy together...'
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