nicky is a reminder of home—the good, warm parts of home that adelaide misses. sometimes, when thinking of him doesn’t fill her with worry, she remembers their childhood, how they were a united front against the iron will of their parents, having all kinds of escapades. out here is…so foreign, so alien, and adelaide is dealing with things she never thought herself capable of, and isn’t it good, to know that there’s still a little good to be found, even among the mud and blood? addie tries to find it, but sometimes it’s not there at all. sometimes these battlefields and aid stations are all that she can see.
❝ i like being like this. i like this me. ❞ has she ever, really? adelaide’s confidence in her abilities as a nurse has been hard-won, something she’s not always had. and she has dodgy days, of course, days when it’s all too much and she can’t seem to do anything right…but she’s good at this. if the world had to go to hell, she’s glad she’s doing something good to help heal it. ❝ what d’you reckon they’re doing, mum and dad? bet it’s all red cross parcels and writing letters. i’d have gone mad if i was stuck home doing that. ❞
Memories of home aren’t always warm. Warmer than the present maybe -- but still there’s moments of bitterness that creep in, that he fights off with thoughts of how privileged he must be to still remember such petty resentment while in the middle of a war. Addie is a reminder of the good things, of what it meant to have someone on his side against the rigid structure that their parents forced on them.
( they were always meant to be whatever their parents molded them to be )
Nicky has never been more proud that their paths are molded by themselves -- unfortunately they’re also wrapped in violence, in death. What he wants is to focus on what’s good about their lives -- what’s good about sitting in this moment with her, knowing that she’s alive and as well as she could be. They’re both alive.
❝ You could be worse, ❞ it’s a tease, said with a smile lifting his expression. What he means is that he’s proud of her, that he too, likes how she’s turned out and that she’s doing something important -- something with purpose. But the brotherly tease is meant to lighten the tone, if only a little. Nicholas snorts, thinking of how his parents must be doing. ❝ Selecting every word they say out of a list of appropriate sentiments, ❞ he shakes his head, ❝ They would have suffocated you. --it’s good that you left, regardless of how I’m sure they’re feeling. ❞
stormborns
romaincrisis
2087
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
