Work Text:
MABEL is asleep in a window seat under the light of the moon, in a different and perhaps kinder world than the one we know.
ANNA walks quietly into the room, turning on a lamp that casts soft warm light into the room.
ANNA: [SOFTLY] Mabel?
MABEL starts slightly as she wakes, but after her initial startled movement she pretends she hadn’t moved.
MABEL: I wasn’t really asleep I was just – talking to the moon.
ANNA sits down on the window seat next to MABEL.
ANNA: The moon?
MABEL: She hasn’t said anything back, not yet at least, but I know she listens. To everyone sending thoughts out into the night, not just me. She takes all of these things and ponders them in her heart.
ANNA: And are these things you’re telling her things you can’t tell me?
MABEL: Oh Anna, we mortals who walk on earth must keep some secrets between ourselves and the moon.
ANNA: Then am I a god who walks above the earth?
MABEL: Mm-hm. You walk among the stars, and take the sky with you wherever you step.
ANNA: You should hold onto me, then, I promise I won’t let you fall.
MABEL: There’s nothing to stand on in the sky, being in the sky necessarily implies falling –
ANNA: You fall for me whenever I’m near you? Awww.
MABEL: Give me a break, I was asleep. Or something like it. And because you have caught me – unguarded and sentimental, you don’t need to be in the room for me to fall for you, I’m in love with you all the time, no matter if you’re here or not.
MABEL’s head drops to rest on ANNA’s shoulder, hair tickling her face.
ANNA: [LAUGHS]: I like you like this, nuzzling into my shoulder. You’re like a cat.
MABEL: [DISGRUNTLED CATLIKE SOUND]
ANNA: It seems like it would be terribly lonely, being a god without you. I don’t think I’d like that much.
MABEL: I’d still be here, you could… come in on the wings of the night and carry me off to your island to – cavort with the dryads.
ANNA: And keep you hidden away there all for me?
MABEL: Mm-hm.
ANNA: If I were a god - I could take the stars from the sky and string them into a necklace just for you.
MABEL: Who needs the stars when I can have – no. That’s too much, even for now.
ANNA: Who needs the stars when you can have my eyes? I love you too Mabel.
MABEL: Taking advantage of me in this vulnerable state…
ANNA: Do you want me to take advantage of you?
MABEL: Take any advantage you want, I’m [YAWNS] entirely at your disposal.
ANNA: I would love to, but you’re yawning in the middle of sentences, now.
MABEL: Noticed that, did you.
ANNA: Yep.
MABEL: Hmm.
ANNA: For the record, if I was any kind of – smart, god, I would give up my divinity in a second to live a life with you. I mean first I’d try to get you made a god with me but I wouldn’t want to – live apart from you.
MABEL: Pfft. You’d get tired of me before one millennia. I can be very annoying. When I want to be.
ANNA: It’s too bad then that I only have one human lifetime to prove you wrong. Come on, come to bed with me. You’ll get a crick in your neck sleeping here.
MABEL: But you’re so comfortable…
ANNA: Come on, up,
ANNA pulls a cooperative MABEL up into a standing position, keeping her arm around her as they cross the room. ANNA pauses in the middle, MABEL stopping with her.
ANNA: And if you have any more secrets to tell the moon, whisper them to me and I’ll make sure she knows.
MABEL smiles.
MABEL: Of course, mi reina. Always.
MABEL kisses ANNA. They continue out of the room. Anna turns out the light on the way out, and the room is once again is lit only by the moon shining through the window. And the moon? She keeps her own secrets.