Work Text:
Music was supposed to come so easily to her, but today in particular, Minnie was thoroughly stumped. The notebook she wrote her songs in was filled with scribbles, had words scratched out, and whole pages torn out and crumpled on the floor. She needed a break; see if that would help clear up any writer’s block cluttering her mind.
With a sigh, she pushes herself back from her desk and stands, deciding that some fresh air might do her some good.
When she enters the courtyard, she sees that it’s a bit sparse with it’s occupants.
Brody, Sophie, and Violet had all gone down to the river to fish, Louis, Aasim, and Marlon had gone out hunting, Omar was preparing things for dinner, and Ruby and Tenn were on lookout.
Minnie’s eyes continue to scan over the schoolyard, only stopping when they land on Mitch and Willy sitting on a pair of couches. Mitch appears to be showing Willy how to make a knife of his own, and by the time Minnie gets close enough to see in better detail, Mitch is twirling his newly made knife between his fingers.
“Think you could show me how to do that?”
“Huh?” Mitch starts, having been so engrossed in his work that he hadn’t even heard Minnie walk up. Looking up from his knife carving, he regards her curiously. “Show you how to carve a weapon?”
“No, I mean the knife tricks,” Minnie clarifies, earning a risen eyebrow from Mitch.
“Why?” Mitch asks. “Run out of songs to write?”
Minnie rolls her eyes. “Well, I was writing something , but I needed a break, so…” A beat of silence passes between them before she’s letting out an impatient sigh. “Look, you gonna show me or not?”
Mitch seems to think it over for a moment before letting out a sigh of his own. “Fine. But be careful, will ya? Don’t need Ruby chewing our ears off if you fuck up and get yourself hurt.”
“I know how to be careful, Mitch,” Minnie insists bluntly, but is smiling in anticipation soon enough.
However, she quickly learns that she should just stick with writing lyrics and collaborating musically with Louis.
Mitch makes it look so easy, too.
So, when it’s finally Minnie’s turn, she has herself convinced that it’ll be a piece of cake, despite any nerves that swarm around in her gut.
Two sets of eyes — Mitch and Willy’s — on her isn’t exactly what she’d call ‘helpful’, however, and if nothing else, only proceeds to make the nervous feeling worse.
Still, she wants to impress them, especially when she can feel the two of them judging her with their stares. So, she tries to twirl it around her fingers just as she’d seen Mitch demonstrate before, only to nearly lose a finger in the process.
“Fuck—!” she hisses, dropping the knife on instinct, and moving her wounded finger up to her mouth.
Really, she’s lucky that the wound resembles nothing much more than a papercut, but much like a papercut, it stings. She quickly decides that she’s not gonna let that deter her from trying again, however, and before Mitch can say otherwise, she’s reaching back down to grab the knife again.
“Hey—” he tries, hand reaching out to her as she backs away. “Minnie, c’mon—”
“I got this!” Despite not really believing that she does, Mitch relents — at least for the time being — and lets his hand fall back to his side.
“Jesus, okay . Just— be careful like I told ya!”
Minnie rolls her eyes at him, before situating herself again, gripping the knife in her hand. Her eyes flutter shut for a moment, and she lets out a steadying breath before they open again and she proceeds to try the trick once more.
Somehow, she’s quick to realize, the second time is even more of a failure than the first.
This time, the knife slips out of her hand like before, but it flies upwards.
By the time she realizes what’s happened, blood is already dripping down into her left eye, partially blinding her.
She notices the blood before the pain hits her, and when it finally does, she’s powerless to stop the screech from escaping her.
The noise is enough to garner attention from both Ruby and Tenn from atop the watchtower, and in record speed, Tenn is rushing to her side.
“Minnie—!”
She’ll never forget the way the color drained from his face once he was close enough to really see what had happened; the way he fainted—
“Minerva!”
Suddenly, she’s ripped away from her reverie, realizing with a homesick sort of sadness that it’s all in the past, and that no matter how badly she might want to, she’ll never be able to go back.
Her head snaps back, attention directing itself into the cluster of trees where the voice had come from. She recognizes it all too well.
“Rockingham!” she calls back on instinct, same as she always does.
“Hurry up with that water! We’re leaving soon!” Lilly’s voice booms at her, no nonsense and cold as it always is.
“Yes, Ma’am!” She turns back to grab the buckets of water she’s collected, only to pause, getting caught up in her reflection in the river again— more specifically, the ever present scar on her eyebrow.
It will only ever serve as a reminder of the days she always took for granted and will never get back; the innocence she’s since lost; the monster she’s now become— a disappointment forever trying to prove herself to others. It lets her know that’s all she’ll ever be, regardless of anyone who might try to say otherwise.
Idly, a hand rises to run a finger over the risen skin splitting her eyebrow, and for a moment, she loses herself again. But only for a moment.
She’s got work to do, afterall.