Tag: name

And he wouldn’t see him again for some time

“Is this it?”

Henri looked outside to see the circular apartment complex. As broken down as ever. He was oddly grateful to have had this disaster happen in the middle of the month. No bills or rent to miss. He nodded. “This is it.”

The vampire parked at the curb. It seemed almost too easy for Henri to take off his seatbelt, open the door and step out of the car. If anything though, the vampire seemed to just be waiting for him to close the door so he could drive off.

Henri almost did. A thought to return to the life he had had before he had walked into the wrong part of town. The life where the vampires were just those creatures who walked around that he never dealt with. His mother would be horrified.

“What is your name?” Henri asked, all mental faculties still present.

People weren’t supposed to ask vampires their names. That was known.

The vampire looked at him for a moment. Probably determining if Henri was dumb enough to be considered a decent meal that no one would miss. But, against all of Henri’s thoughts, the vampire smiled instead. He looked… younger than Henri had thought.

“Haruki.”

This wasn’t dangerous at all. Henri’s chest hurt from how hard his heart was pounding. His flight instinct threatened to take over. “The offer’s still open. As thanks.”

Then he closed the door and walked away, back home. Behind him, the car drove away.

That seemed to be the end of that.

Her name

Two days later and Lori realized that she had become a little more than obsessed with trying to find the girl.

Perhaps she was just worried for no reason. It had nothing to do with her, after all. The girl could have found another place to be, after all. She might have just been sick, staying home. Many reasons.

No one seemed to know the girl’s name. Lori felt rather badly about that. She had stopped by so often, listened, maybe even once or twice put in some spare bills into that open case. Yet she had never talked to her, not even once. Not to say anything about the music or anything.

What was her name?

“Excuse me? Miss?”

Way to make an introduction

“Your name.”

Vidvan nearly had a heart attack, wheeling about from where he stood at his desk. There was no confusing who stood there in front of him – Tavesh. That was surprising enough, even before Vidvan considered all of the other reasons the man could not have been there.

“Wh-what?” Vidvan didn’t sound nearly as surprised as he felt, but there was still plenty of it.

“Your name,” Tavesh said again. “Is it Vidvan? I’m making an educated guess.”

Vidvan nodded, trying to pull himself together. “You shouldn’t be here. How did you get in here?”

“I’ll leave. But I had to know your name. My apologies.” Tavesh made an exaggerated bow.

He had to know that Vidvan could have him killed for this. Accusing someone of entering the tower when they weren’t invited. Which he could not have been. If he had been, he would be accompanied. No one else was here.

Then he left, before Vidvan could say anything else.

Avoidance only gets you so far

“Did you know what that was short for?”

He looked at his brother-in-law, then back down at his infant child. The new name his husband had insisted upon, the one he had agreed on. Because if finally broke through his husband’s family’s tradition of naming.

Yet his brother-in-law, in a very matter-of-fact way, spoke as though he had missed something. His mind worked quickly.

“No.”

His brother-in-law grinned. “Yep. Welcome to the family, finally. There’s no escaping the naming conventions, even if you try.”

He groaned, face in one hand with his one month old son cradled in arm.

More investment than shown

She fed the beast raw meat, because as far as Toiréasa was concerned, the Gévaudan hound was like a dog. At least, in some ways. There were few similarities she would actually make, but when it came to parts of the care of the hound, she treated the bitch like any other dog.

“Why didn’t you name her?” Saoirse asked her, watching the beast tear into the food with a look of disinterest. Saoirse was the only one Toiréasa had known to show no fear around the canine. Simply caution.

Toiréasa shrugged. “I don’t know. She comes when I whistle. If she didn’t, that’d be fine. I’m not sure why she follows me.”

Saoirse smirked. “Good taste?”

They watched the beast lick all of the juices from the ground and break through the rest of the bone with those teeth.

Goodbye

Ling inhaled the best he could and coughed out the blood that the action brought into his lungs. “Jin?”

The push he felt against the side of his face wasn’t Jin’s hand, but the side of the dragon’s face. Ling brought his hand up, placing it on the nose.

Was this it? Jin said children of the earth didn’t have anything after death. “Jin… can’t worry ‘bout me. Tell ‘im that? Please?”

He could see the look in the dragon’s eyes, despite how dark everything was. The shine, as the marks which made the pupils swirled counterclockwise. Shèn.

Ling couldn’t blink. “Shèn? ’s your name?”

The swirling slowed down. Ling tried to keep his hand there, but it fell off Shèn’s face.

“Thanks, Shèn. For everythin’. Keep th’ others… ‘kay?”

Until you return, Ling.

By the time Jin could make it to where the dragon stood guard, Ling was gone.

The first child

Kyung-soon had printed out the photo and placed it in a frame on the dining room table. Lilah sat down and turned the picture toward her. The child’s hair was short and red and curly, freckles painting their entire face.

This child would be arriving tomorrow.

“What do you think their name is?” Lilah asked when Kyung-soon entered the room behind her. She listened as Kyung-soon stopped right behind her chair, placing her hands on Lilah’s shoulders and looking down upon the face of their child.

“You mean the real name?”

Lilah nodded. “Not what the agency decided to give. That wouldn’t be fair. Unless they like that name.”

“We will have to ask.”

The mystery of a name

“What’s the dragon’s name?” Ling asked Kun one day. Kun chuckled, but before he could say anything Jin spoke up.

“Idiot. You don’t name a dragon.”

Ling pat the dragon on the head. No one told him to stop and the dragon appeared to like it, so he kept going. “Why not?”

“Because.”

As usual, Jin was very helpful. Kun looked up from the dragon’s scales as he cleaned them. “There is much power within a name. A type of magic that dragons are more close to than the rest of us.”

Ling frowned. “Don’t dragons get names?”

“Of course they do,” Jin said. “So why give them another one?”

Something about that didn’t seem right to Ling, who thought names were important. “Can you tell us your name?” he asked the dragon.

“Idiot!” Ling winced, almost as though Jin’s words actually slapped him. “You don’t ask a dragon for their name.”

Ling looked over at Kun, who smiled at him. “I don’t doubt that one day the dragon will tell you, Ling.”

Something about that didn’t make sense to Ling, who thought the dragon should tell him now. Or at least Kun.

Then Shui showed up. “Hey guys, I-”

The dragon closed the barn door. Kun stifled a laugh. Even Jin smirked.

“What the hell, man!” Shui shouted from outside.

If there was one person the dragon wouldn’t tell, Ling decided, it was probably Shui.

The answer is

Hello
I have a name, don’t you? I find that names are like labels, so I don’t use mine.
Do you agree?
I was labeled long ago, but it has yet to stop me.
Never questioning why I had to, but
gee I wish I had known enough to be asked in the first place.
Are you interested? Frightened? Don’t ask me to stop. I don’t like
when people tell me what to do
and neither do
you. We have this
in common
and another thing we have in common is
mightily disliking being told we’re like another person.
Something wrong?
Confused? I’ve been told I
am blunt, yes, but I
rather prefer to think I’m telling
everyone the truth.
Drabble, have I lied yet?