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July Break Bingo: Reincarnation
Prompt: Reincarnation
500 words, Biggles +/ EvS (bittersweet)
The park was brilliant in the sun, filled with flowers and skateboarders, the sky a deep blue bowl above. James bought an ice cream cone from a vendor, and licked it while checking his phone as he walked, reviewing his handful of job applications. He wasn't unhappy that none of them had so much as snagged an interview.
He really didn't know what he wanted to do with himself. He was fresh out of a stint with the RAF that he hadn't much enjoyed, it simply hadn't been what he wanted, even though it had felt like the only thing to do when he was eighteen. And now he was at loose ends, with a pilot's training .... on aeroplanes he couldn't fly in the civilian world. It was very frustrating. Somehow he felt it ought to have been different.
He could get a commercial pilot's license, he thought; he had the training and the flight hours, it was just the necessity to learn on civilian aircraft that he was lacking. He did love the freedom of it, the sky above and below him, as if in some way he had known it for longer than he had been alive. He might be able to enjoy that. It wasn't quite the thing he wanted -- but it almost was, it felt closer than he'd been in a very long time.
When a hand closed on his wrist, jolting him out of his thoughts, he reacted with military training, dropping his ice cream and seizing the other man's arm as their eyes met.
The man staring at him was older, hair shot with grey, eyes bright and wild and stormcloud blue-grey. He wore a suit that was oddly old-fashioned, quite out of place in the park with its skateboarders and teenagers. And his face was filled with a strange excitement, a sense of recognition that jolted James down to his core.
James let go of the other man's wrist before he could break it, and wrenched his arm free. "If you're giving out pamphlets, just hand it to me and go," he said, because what he couldn't quite understand was why that face looked so familiar, when he knew he had never seen it before.
"You won't believe what I'm handing out," the other man said quietly, falling into step with James. He had a neutral accent with something underneath, some hint of other vowels that, for some reason, had James's heart clawing up to try to hear more. "But I've been looking for you for --" He hesitated, as if snipping off some comment at its base, and then went on, "Come get a coffee with me. Let's talk. I think you might be looking for something to do with yourself -- aren't you? I can make you an offer you might like to consider."
James glanced at him. Then he said, "You owe me an ice cream."
A quick sharp smile broke across the austere features, making them very briefly beautiful -- and James thought, for no apparent reason, of a place he'd never been, a wide open expanse of desert with blue sky above and sweeping dunes below. Then the stranger (or was it a stranger?) said, "It is you. Yes, damn you, I'll buy your ice cream. Lead on, choose the place, I'll go with you. Wherever you go."
500 words, Biggles +/ EvS (bittersweet)
The park was brilliant in the sun, filled with flowers and skateboarders, the sky a deep blue bowl above. James bought an ice cream cone from a vendor, and licked it while checking his phone as he walked, reviewing his handful of job applications. He wasn't unhappy that none of them had so much as snagged an interview.
He really didn't know what he wanted to do with himself. He was fresh out of a stint with the RAF that he hadn't much enjoyed, it simply hadn't been what he wanted, even though it had felt like the only thing to do when he was eighteen. And now he was at loose ends, with a pilot's training .... on aeroplanes he couldn't fly in the civilian world. It was very frustrating. Somehow he felt it ought to have been different.
He could get a commercial pilot's license, he thought; he had the training and the flight hours, it was just the necessity to learn on civilian aircraft that he was lacking. He did love the freedom of it, the sky above and below him, as if in some way he had known it for longer than he had been alive. He might be able to enjoy that. It wasn't quite the thing he wanted -- but it almost was, it felt closer than he'd been in a very long time.
When a hand closed on his wrist, jolting him out of his thoughts, he reacted with military training, dropping his ice cream and seizing the other man's arm as their eyes met.
The man staring at him was older, hair shot with grey, eyes bright and wild and stormcloud blue-grey. He wore a suit that was oddly old-fashioned, quite out of place in the park with its skateboarders and teenagers. And his face was filled with a strange excitement, a sense of recognition that jolted James down to his core.
James let go of the other man's wrist before he could break it, and wrenched his arm free. "If you're giving out pamphlets, just hand it to me and go," he said, because what he couldn't quite understand was why that face looked so familiar, when he knew he had never seen it before.
"You won't believe what I'm handing out," the other man said quietly, falling into step with James. He had a neutral accent with something underneath, some hint of other vowels that, for some reason, had James's heart clawing up to try to hear more. "But I've been looking for you for --" He hesitated, as if snipping off some comment at its base, and then went on, "Come get a coffee with me. Let's talk. I think you might be looking for something to do with yourself -- aren't you? I can make you an offer you might like to consider."
James glanced at him. Then he said, "You owe me an ice cream."
A quick sharp smile broke across the austere features, making them very briefly beautiful -- and James thought, for no apparent reason, of a place he'd never been, a wide open expanse of desert with blue sky above and sweeping dunes below. Then the stranger (or was it a stranger?) said, "It is you. Yes, damn you, I'll buy your ice cream. Lead on, choose the place, I'll go with you. Wherever you go."
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Of course he wouldn't fit in the modern RAF, it isn't him. But the sky calls to him...
I love that they find each other. I hope they find Algy and the others too <3333
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The last lines really got me - it's like von Stalhein has launched straight into their 'Looks Back' era 'we have known each other forever so I can be startlingly open with you' relationship, while Biggles only has that shocking sense of familiarity. The combination of Biggles looking at von Stalhein with a stranger's eyes, while still having flashes of their shared past - loved it. Thank you!
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