🍁 Of dried and crushed leaves 🍁
summary: Madeline reminisces about how she met the love of her life during an autumn afternoon.
• The link to the art used is —> here
A/n: Decided to make an edit and write a Drabble for @nedcanweek prompt: Flowers // Tulips || Day 1, it’s not much but I hope it’s worth a read!
Words: 2,174
Warnings: none.
꧁ Start ꧂
Her mother has always taken her to a quite peaceful park nearby, when the afternoon was warm and the sunlight gentle. Her chubby hands clenching her much taller mother’s dress as they both walked over to the park.
It was closer to their humble abode, so they reach quickly and her mother takes a seat on the bench, starting to knit without any trouble. Her teddy bear clenched tightly against her chest.
Being a young child and having a lot of energy to burn, Madeline runs around the park grounds, crushing dry leaves under her feet and craning her neck up to look at the colorful leaves above her.
She loved moments like this, her father would sometimes take her when he was free and along with them, her cousin sister and her parents would arrive as well.
It was peaceful, quite, the weather was warm with a gentle breeze and she found true happiness. Nothing could go wrong.
So to say she was confused hearing someone cry was understandable.
Madeline was always a sensitive young girl, gentle and calm as her mother was with her. With furrowed brows and puffing her cheeks, she walks over to the sound, insecurities forgotten and brimming with newfound confidence. It’s the right thing to do after all.
Her cousin sister, Amelia, would have done the same. Brave and adventurous as she always was, grabbing her hand and pulling her away to do random stuff. Most of all, she loved to help people, be the ‘heroine’, and truthfully Madeline loved to do so as well.
She pulls her hat down tighter, clenched her fists and made a determined expression, yes she could do this alone and her nervousness of getting lost was non-existent, her mother knew how to find her anyways, growing up in a rural place in Russia, her mother had quite the experience of finding and gathering.
The sniffling is closer now and for a while her steps halt as she considers what to do next, she could be awkward at conversations and didn’t accidentally want to scare off someone with appearing behind them so suddenly! Goodness, that would be really embarrassing.
Sighing, she steps closer to the tree and to her surprise sees a young girl such as herself, huddled up against the tree and trying to wipe her tears desperately. A small frown on her lips and a deep furrowing of her brows, Madeline asks as firm but gentle as she could, just like her mother would,
“Is everything okay? Are you maybe lost?, I could you lead you back!”,
Surprisingly, the young girl didn’t even seem to flinch upon her arrival, and stood up— wow she was tall—, shaking her head and wiping her tears more fiercely now, she stares at Madeline with pretty hazel green eyes.
For a while, all she could do was stare, Madeline could feel the heat pooling in her stomach and didn’t know what to say about it. The girl seemed to be okay, no injuries whatsoever and didn’t even say anything about her being lost or so.
“It’s okay”,
Her stare turned sharp; she could have sworn it made her seem more pretty, Madeline slowly nodded at her words, not knowing what to do really, this was turning so awkward,
“I am not lost”, the girl huffed and crossed her arms tightly against herself, eyes staring sideways and slightly blushing.
A light turned on in Madeline’s head,
“Oh! There’s no need to be embarrassed! Sometimes it’s easy to get lost around these parts and that’s normal if you are new to this place”,
She said with a beaming smile, the girl’s eyes widened at her words and gave a confused look towards her,
“I am not lost, really”, she frowns and once again averted her stare from Madeline’s smiling face, shuffling her fingers and crushing the leaves under her boot.
“Oh”, and that was that.
But Madeline was stubborn, she wanted to help this young girl, she could get kidnapped by Baba Yaga as her mother warned her or a deranged Englishman with thick eyebrows as her father says so; who could be so sure such things don’t exist?
Amelia had cried once when her mother read one of her German fairytales [the censored version! Which was for kids!], and had to be forced to go to the forest with her. It was a nightmare for everyone involved and embarrassing for her cousin too.
“Prove it”, she demands finally, being the opposite of intimidating. She was adorable as always and only got a raised brow in return, the girl maintaining her poker face.
“I don’t have to prove anything to you, why are you so upset?”,
Madeline pouted and frowned deeply, upset at the girl’s defiance, “well I want to help you but you don’t want to be helped…”, she trailed off and shuffled her foot.
The girl hummed and took a deep breath, retorting with a sharp turn of her head,
“Well that’s your problem”,
It seemed as if the whole world crashed around her as Madeline gasped, the audacity and the meanness from this girl, even Amelia wouldn’t be this mean. Here she was being a generous person and this is what she got?
“Then you shouldn’t have been crying, you know!”,
“I don’t see how that concerns you!”,
“It does!”,
“No it does not! You simply heard me crying and that’s all!”
“Who wouldn’t be concerned about that?!?”,
Madeline hated her whiny voice as it tended to come out when she was emotional, just as her father and now was one of those moments, the girl furrowed her brows further,
“It’s none of your business, y’know”,
“I am not trying to earn a profit”,
There was a pause as Madeline gave a proud grin to herself, she had heard that line from one of her neighbors and had memorized it for future use, especially to use it against Amelia.
“Good, I wouldn’t want to waste my money anyways”, a small grin appears on the girl’s face as Madeline’s face turns red with anger and despair. {years later she would spent so much just for her happiness}
“You are so mean…..”, now it was her turn to cross her arms and the girl’s turn to give a small smile, sighing and shrugging her shoulders. {years later, she would’ve simply smiled and giggled at her bluntness}
“You shouldn’t be so stubborn”,
A huff and a grumble,
“……….. but aren’t you being stubborn as well?”,
Madeline subtly smiles as the girl stutters for a while, caught in her own dumbness as she presumed. The girl glares at her and frowns once again,
“You wouldn’t leave me alone, I had no choice but to be stubborn”, she finally retorted and turned away completely.
A silence passes between them, a gentle breeze and the sunlight fading away. Maple leaves continue to fall gently to the ground and both of them stay still for a while, basking in the surrounding around them. {maybe they were thinking of each other the most}
“Do you….. not want to be alone?”,
There’s a sniffle, Madeline gently smiles now, hugging her teddy bear tighter and walks over to the girl. She then sees some crushed flowers on the ground and frowns, bending over to clearly look at them.
“You must have crushed them…..”,
“It’s very stupid…..”,
Madeline shakes her head at the comment and tells her to wait, as she leaves the girl alone for a while, firmly telling her not to go anywhere. A few moments later she arrives, as nervous as ever but nonetheless determined with a new cause and words of encouragements from her dear mother.
“Here you go!”,
Once again those pretty hazel eyes glance at her {years later they would never leave her form and she would find herself getting lost in them}, and stared, rather confused at the bundle of maple leaves arranged together as a bouquet clenched in her hand.
“Those aren’t tulips….”, she frowns and Madeline giggled and nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah silly, they are not, I have some at home but sometimes me and my cousin make maple bouquets when we can! It’s very fun!”,
The bouquet is gently held by the girl now, curious eyes roaming over the maple leaves, and for some reason there’s a tension bursting in Madeline’s chest as she waits for her response. It wasn’t that pretty but she had hopped it was enough….
“It’s very pretty”,
“Eh? It— it is, do you…. really think that it’s, you know, pretty?”,
A lovely smile is directed at her and for some reason she feels happy too, she feels warmer than the sunlight falling upon them and making the leaves shine with thousands of colors. There’s again a faint blush on her cheeks, her eyes shine and it’s something that Madeline wants to stare at forever.
“I love it, it’s…, perfect! thank you”,
She stared so beautifully at the bouquet {years later, it would be her staring at Madeline at the alter}, that makes Madeline not want to her go just yet, to o make this pretty lady stay for a while longer that is.
“Do you want me to stay here, with you?”, she asks in a quite voice and gets a thoughtful look in return, then a nod as the girl softly smiles at her now.
“Sure, yeah I would like you to stay, if you want to, of course”,
She seems rather hesitant and that makes Madeline want to insure her that she could stay forever; if she would like, her father had once whispered the same words to her mother in French, long ago when they were still healing each other. Perhaps they could heal each other now.
And maybe one day, she would tell the same words to her.
“Madeline Bonnefoy-Braginskaya, you can call me Maddy if you would like, I know my name is really long—”, she says with an ever beaming smile, her chubby cheeks puffed out with an adorning blush, there’s a pause as she’s being stared at and then a shy smile, a giggle she would never forget, the girl whispers, a name she would always remember forever and could never forget even if she wanted to.
“I, Karina Maes, take you Madeline Bonnefoy-Braginskaya, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; until death do us part.”
There’s a roar and cheer perhaps, Madeline doesn’t remember, all she knows is that she was being held by her lover and kissed gently, her own hands firmly holding her and she was pretty sure, she had felt a tear or two.
She remembers her father leading her to the altar, whispering to her encouragements and how to say some of her vows in French, which she personally wanted to do so, after finding out how her father had done the same, much to the dismay of the Russian side of the wedding. But her mother had saved the day with saying her vows in Russian, much to the dismay of the French side.
Her mother had held her hand and gave her a peck on the cheek, calling her, her little snowflake and sunflower, her Ukrainian aunt crushing her against her chest and her Belarusian aunt giving her a firm nod. Her American uncle, a proud man, had crushed her in a hug, her aunt scolding him and giving her a strong hug of her own afterwards, almost crushing her just like her husband had done so.
Amelia was her bridesmaid, giving her a beaming smile as her boyfriend, a German just like her mother, bowed and congratulated her. She remembers how she was spun around by Amelia when she announced she was about to be married. They both prepared the wedding and even payed the expenses, Ludwig mostly, maybe to impress her aunt, who knows? Nonetheless she was glad.
‘About damn time’, Amelia had said, in the same country accent as her father and a stern frown which soon turned into a teasing grin and they both danced around in the kitchen, twirling and exaggerated moves.
Her mother and father held her tightly while staying with her throughout the wedding plans and everything else. As they always had, they were so lovely and had been there for her through thick and thin.
And oh, she could also remember how she promised to her lover that she would stay forever as long as she would like and that she did, in delicate French that is. Along with fulfilling the promise with everything she had.
It was so long ago, but she remembers it all as it were a lovely dream she could never let go of.
The maple leaves fall amongst the ground gently, warm sunlight caressing their wrinkled skin as they sat on a bench nearby a lake and watched the day pass by ever so slowly, perhaps thinking of the day they had met or how they were to be there for each other.
Through their window the same sunlight falls gently, pooling over their vows written on a yellowed paper and caressing a dried bouquet of tulips and maple leaves bundled together.
꧁fin꧂