Request fic: Tin Man

[icarus_chained]

For kseda .

Title:  Hummingbird
Rating:  PG-13
Fandom:  Tin Man
Characters/Pairings:  Glitch, very early on (pre-mini)
Summary:  He's lost his shoe. He's lost his name. He's lost his memory. But maybe ... he can find new ones
Wordcount:  420

He'd lost a shoe. Somewhere. Just now? Most likely. He was sure he'd have noticed if it had been gone awhile. People noticed things like that, didn't they?

Oh well. It didn't really matter. He'd find it again, and at least he wasn't being chased anymore. A shoe was a small price to pay for escaping a Longcoat patrol. Longcoats were far from nice men, and when they had you ... He didn't want to remember that, though. All the holes in his memory, and he wished that those ones were part of them. Only the bad memories left. Only the ones since the Sorceress, and the hurt, and the holes in his head ...

But no! No, don't be like that, now! That's neither here nor there! The world wasn't so bad, and he was still there, wasn't he? Still here, and look around. Look around in the quiet, and the sun. Warm and toasty, that sun. And flowers. He hadn't noticed them, had he, in the chase? No. But they were there for the noticing now, and my! So beautiful. Hanging down, curtains from the trees, flowering vines and sheltering bushes. So many flowers ... Where was he? A pocket of magic, in the forest? A fair place, hid from evil?

A noise startled him, then. A humming, a purring, a little rustle in the leaves. He turned in place, seeking, fingers twitching eagerly, and there! Darting in the flowers. Hovering! Were birds meant to do that? Hummingbird, a little voice in his head whispered. Not magic. Science. Nature. Hovering, flying backwards. He stilled, listening, letting the facts spool forward, letting his mind trip and dance at the sight of the little green bird, letting memories unwind. Hummingbird. He understood them, had maybe studied them, these birds. Once upon a time. And still, even now, in the cracks between the horror in his head. Little facts, like little birds.

And then, all at once, he started smiling. Beaming, even, bouncing slightly in place, his fingers dancing in the air. Hummingbird.

He'd lost his shoe. But he'd find it again. He'd lost his name, but he'd find it again. He'd lost his memory. But he'd find it again. And until then, there was a whole world out there. In here. A world for touching and tasting, for seeing and understanding. A world to make new memories out of, new names. New shoes, even. And despite all the horror and fear, the Longcoats and the Sorceress ... he liked that world.

"Hummingbird," he murmured, and smiled.