Work Text:
The house was quiet, and Glenn could hear his heart beating and the floor creaking beneath his feet. It was dark outside, the sun set long ago, and so he turns on every light in the house, lighting the candles that sit around the house and flipping the switches on. The house is a beacon of light, and a voice echos through his head.
---
“We’ll be a lighthouse my love; bringing one another in from the storm.” she said, her eyes alight as she runs around flipping every light on, “Can’t go to a dark place when everything is covered in light.”
He smiles at her, watching as she lights candles, and when she returns to his side, he pulls her close, tucking his head into her shoulder.
“A lighthouse, huh?” she hums, her hands never still, running through his hair, making little braids as she goes, “I guess something to keep the dark out isn’t such a bad plan.”
---
His head is clear, the alcohol and weed worn off long ago. He opens the windows, and when he breathes he smells rain. The scent of earth and humidity, what you can only smell when the air nearly drips, plastering hair to your neck. Flowers bloom across the street and drops begin to fall from the sky, clouds covering the stars, replaced by glistening water. There is a crack of thunder, and Glenn backs away, a familiar weight making her home in his chest. He smiles, though he shows no teeth, and his eyes water as he pats his collarbone. There is a ghost of a memory there, nudging at him.
---
Clouds gather in the distance, and he is trying to pull her home, pull her back to their home, their little home, safe from the rain.
She only pulled away, her eyes closed as she breathed in deep, throwing her arms open and looking to the sky. He sighs, knowing it is useless to try to stop her, and instead wraps her in an embrace. She turns, smiling though it does not reach her eyes, eyes that are lost in thought and in memory.
Finally, she speaks, her voice quiet as if she is confessing, giving the deepest part of herself to him.
“When I was little, my grandmother taught me to smell the rain. She would tell me, on long walks, to smell the air for rain.’It smells like earth’ she said ‘like freshly planted flowers, or the hose right before you turn it on.’” she pauses, her mind lost in the haze of nostalgia, “We never went home, though, when I smelled rain coming. We just continued until the first drops fell, and she told me about flowers, made me memorize their names.”
They stand there for a second, and then she taps his collarbone, just above his heart, and turns. She points at a tree, it’s white flowers just beginning to blossom.
“That’s dogwood.”
---
He sits on the floor, criss-cross apple-sauce, and the weight in his chest spreads her arms, forming a little nest of warmth, lighting up the crevices he has long abandoned. Across from him, sits a gold frame, surrounded by vanilla candles. He props the guitar in his lap and the flames flicker in anticipation and she stills for a moment, and then he begins to strum softly, his eyes closed, and there is something that feels like a hum reverberating through his chest. He closes his eyes, and the familiar tune falls from his lips, the soft noise miming the strum of the guitar, and he falls into a part of himself that has been left dark for too long.
He can barely get the first words out, choking on the phrase, before finally pushing it out, sounding broken, but still there.
Hello my old heart, how have you been.
Are you still there, inside my chest?
I’ve been so worried, you’ve been so still.
Barely beating at all.
He pauses and he can almost hear her voice, cresting as he moves to the next line, and it is light and sad and it feels like he is home again.
Oh, don’t leave me here alone,
Don’t tell me how we’ve grown for having loved a little while
Oh, I don’t want to be alone,
I want to find a home, and I want to share it with you
There are quiet tears rolling down his cheeks, and he can hear her voice in the empty space, and she wraps tightly around his heart, and he feels his voice grow stronger.
Hello my old heart, it’s been so long
Since I’ve given you away.
And every day I add another stone
To the walls I built around you
To keep you safe
Oh, don’t leave me here alone,
Don’t tell me that we’ve grown for having loved a little while
Oh, I don’t want to be alone,
I want to find a home, and I want to share it with you
And suddenly she quiets again, and he feels the tears beginning to catch in his throat, and his voice begins to shake, just hoping for her to answer him, please just answer him.
Hello my old heart.
How have you been?
How is it, being locked away?
Well don’t you worry, in there you’re safe
And it’s true, you’ll never beat
But you’ll never break.
There is quiet for a moment, and then he begins to strum again, and he feels her moving, and then she speaks, her voice quiet, and soft, and it sounds like she has spoken for the first time in the long time, but he can hear her.
Nothing lasts forever.
Some things aren’t meant to be.
But you’ll never find the answers
Until you set your old heart free.
Until you set your old heart free.
He sobs, his chest heaving and he whispers as he cries, repeating the same phrase, over and over again as she nestles back in, her voice no longer forming words, indistinct again, but she mimes the melody and he can feel her tapping above his heart.
And then there is silence, and she is gone, the candles snuffed out, and his eyes are dry again. His chest is cold again, the pressure she brought gone again, but there is a spark in a long forgotten corner, and he knows she left it for him.
He needs to call Nick.