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crack_van2013-04-02 10:40 am
stars-inthe-sky.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2013-04-02 10:40 am
Entry tags:
"The Truth About Trains" by kyrieanne (PG)
Fandom: THE LIZZIE BENNET DIARIES
Pairing: Lizzie Bennet/William Darcy
Length: ~3K words
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kyrieanne
Author Website: Tumblr
Why this must be read: Kyrie Anne is one of my favorite authors for this fandom--she has incomparable insight into the characters and a smart, lyrical way of writing about them. (And if you like her fic, you should totally check out her LBD meta on Tumblr!) In this story, she draws Lizzie and Darcy together while focusing on their respective relationships with family and friends. In keeping with themes of the series and featuring a healthy dose of Team Figi, this is a pretty wonderful first story to read if you're new to the world of LBD.
ETA: There's now a sequel!
When Lizzie was a girl her father taught her the truth about trains.
“It’s about the connections, Lizzie,” he said, “you’ve got to get them right or the whole thing falls apart.”
He was talking about model trains of course but what he said stuck with Lizzie.
After she left her father to his bridges and tiny trees the words rattled around for a long time and, until Lydia, Lizzie believed she was good at connections. It was what she did. She was a grad student. People. Ideas. Categories. Truths. These were the cards she dealt in every day.
But then Lydia happened and Lizzie realized that knowing and seeing are two different things. The first relies upon facts; the second in connections. Until Lydia, Lizzie had conflated the two and believed herself skilled in the art of knowing. But then she held her baby sister in her arms and they trembled together.
“Why didn’t he love me, Lizzie?”
There was no answer because his love hadn’t been love at all. It was mere shadow where there was supposed to be light. So Lizzie offered the only fact she knew.
“I love you Lydia. I’m sorry I wasn’t there before, but I’m here now. I love you.”
Wrapping her arms around Lydia, tucking her into the concave of her shoulder, tethers sister to sister in a new way. It is Lydia’s tears on the sleeve of Lizzie’s sweatshirt. It is Jane steeping tea at 2:00 a.m. when none of the Bennet sisters can sleep. It is a dozen rounds of Dance, Dance and half a dozen broken dishes to distract Mom. And it is returning to things sisters do together like painting their nails and watching bad reality television even if bigger, more important questions hang in the corners. Right now, the most important thing is to watch Dance Moms and that Housewives show.
These things are fibers in their tentative new connection and suddenly Lizzie doesn’t want Lydia to grow up. She doesn’t want to grow up herself. She wants to stay sisters who make a blanket fort together in the living room and hang twinkle lights inside so they can sleep beneath the stars. She takes that copy of A Party Girl’s Guide to Growing Up still buried in the bottom of her closet and throws it into the outside trash bin. Even though she is alone Lizzie bows to the driveway in dramatic fashion. She feels the importance of the moment.
From Lydia, Lizzie finally begins to learn that you can know the facts of the world, but see little of reality. You’ve got to make the connections to the rest of the story.
The Truth About Trains
Pairing: Lizzie Bennet/William Darcy
Length: ~3K words
Author on LJ:
kyrieanneAuthor Website: Tumblr
Why this must be read: Kyrie Anne is one of my favorite authors for this fandom--she has incomparable insight into the characters and a smart, lyrical way of writing about them. (And if you like her fic, you should totally check out her LBD meta on Tumblr!) In this story, she draws Lizzie and Darcy together while focusing on their respective relationships with family and friends. In keeping with themes of the series and featuring a healthy dose of Team Figi, this is a pretty wonderful first story to read if you're new to the world of LBD.
ETA: There's now a sequel!
When Lizzie was a girl her father taught her the truth about trains.
“It’s about the connections, Lizzie,” he said, “you’ve got to get them right or the whole thing falls apart.”
He was talking about model trains of course but what he said stuck with Lizzie.
After she left her father to his bridges and tiny trees the words rattled around for a long time and, until Lydia, Lizzie believed she was good at connections. It was what she did. She was a grad student. People. Ideas. Categories. Truths. These were the cards she dealt in every day.
But then Lydia happened and Lizzie realized that knowing and seeing are two different things. The first relies upon facts; the second in connections. Until Lydia, Lizzie had conflated the two and believed herself skilled in the art of knowing. But then she held her baby sister in her arms and they trembled together.
“Why didn’t he love me, Lizzie?”
There was no answer because his love hadn’t been love at all. It was mere shadow where there was supposed to be light. So Lizzie offered the only fact she knew.
“I love you Lydia. I’m sorry I wasn’t there before, but I’m here now. I love you.”
Wrapping her arms around Lydia, tucking her into the concave of her shoulder, tethers sister to sister in a new way. It is Lydia’s tears on the sleeve of Lizzie’s sweatshirt. It is Jane steeping tea at 2:00 a.m. when none of the Bennet sisters can sleep. It is a dozen rounds of Dance, Dance and half a dozen broken dishes to distract Mom. And it is returning to things sisters do together like painting their nails and watching bad reality television even if bigger, more important questions hang in the corners. Right now, the most important thing is to watch Dance Moms and that Housewives show.
These things are fibers in their tentative new connection and suddenly Lizzie doesn’t want Lydia to grow up. She doesn’t want to grow up herself. She wants to stay sisters who make a blanket fort together in the living room and hang twinkle lights inside so they can sleep beneath the stars. She takes that copy of A Party Girl’s Guide to Growing Up still buried in the bottom of her closet and throws it into the outside trash bin. Even though she is alone Lizzie bows to the driveway in dramatic fashion. She feels the importance of the moment.
From Lydia, Lizzie finally begins to learn that you can know the facts of the world, but see little of reality. You’ve got to make the connections to the rest of the story.
The Truth About Trains