[Milliways]: First Gestures

[smallgayjew]

Posner can't believe that it's actually here. He can't believe he's finally leaving home (with Dakin) and moving out (with Dakin) and starting at Oxford (with Dakin). He's got all his essentials packed into a trunk and a suitcase, and it feels like too little to encompass his life so far, but it also feels appropriate to be starting a new life without any of the encumbrances of the old.

On the platform, he kisses his mum and hugs his dad and shakes his uncle's hand, and he tries not to look at the tears his mum is holding back, and he tries not to let his own fall. It isn't sad, not really. It's only...a bit frightening.

So he kisses his mum once more, and he lets her fix his hair, and he hugs his dad again, and then he takes a deep breath and lugs his trunk and his suitcase and his whole life onto the train and moves to find a seat by the window so he can wave them off they can wave him off.

And he doesn't sing Gracie Fields this time, but he wants to.

Comments

[smallgayjew]

David tries not to tense up, concentrating on breathing evenly.

[pushtheboatout]

"Relax," Stuart says. "Breathe. Think about that little house."

[smallgayjew]

"Where nobody cares," David murmurs, almost like a mantra.

[pushtheboatout]

"Where they love us for who we are."

[smallgayjew]

"And you see me there?" David asks, trying to banish the image of himself at a desk all alone.

[pushtheboatout]

"It's not my home if you're not there."

[smallgayjew]

"I suppose I'd better be, then."

[pushtheboatout]

"Yes, you'd better."

[smallgayjew]

David nods, but he still doesn't open his eyes.

[pushtheboatout]

"We'll have a garden," Stuart says. "Where we can read to each other."

[smallgayjew]

"What else?" David murmurs.

[pushtheboatout]

"A sitting room with a good stereo," says Dakin. "We dance together there. I look up from the paper and you look up from your book and we just get up and dance."

[smallgayjew]

David's smile deepens, and he shifts to get more comfortable.

"What else?"

[pushtheboatout]

"Our bed," Stuart whispers, "is ridiculous. It's enormous. It's got really soft sheets and really good pillows, and best of it, it doesn't make a sound."

[smallgayjew]

David chuckles softly. "What else?"

[pushtheboatout]

"A tub big enough for two."

[smallgayjew]

After a moment, David ventures, "Could we have a pet?"

[pushtheboatout]

"Sure. Like a dog? A dog we can take for walks and helps us get to know our neighbors, for instance..."

[smallgayjew]

"I've never had a dog," David muses. "What kind would we get?"

[pushtheboatout]

"Not a tiny nervous one," says Stuart. "Not one that's too big, either. Something in-between."

[smallgayjew]

David smirks. "A spaniel, perhaps?"

[pushtheboatout]

Stuart laughs. "We'll name it Scripps."

[smallgayjew]

"Poor Scrippsy," David remarks with a soft giggle.

"We'll have to have him round sometimes."

[pushtheboatout]

"Him and his wife," Stuart murmurs. "There will probably be kids, too. They'll play with the dog."

[smallgayjew]

"D'you reckon? I can't imagine him a father."