High Mountains and Flowing Water: A Listening Ear

[aroberuka]

Title: A Listening Ear
Author: aroberuka
Word Count/Drabble Type: 100
Character(s)/Ship(s): Madam Lan & her sons
Rating/Warnings: G; no warning needed, just the usual backstory sadness
Summary: It's not easy, getting her sons to open up to her, but a mother has her ways.
Author's Notes: /

***

Sometimes A-Zhan won't use his words, and no amount of playful teasing will make him give an inch; A-Huan is learning much too fast to hide hurt feelings behind the decorum expected of his future station.

Maybe, if things had been different, she could have learned to coax the truth out of them like a mother would, but her own words are few and far between, the remnants of an eloquence long since lost to isolation.

But there is still a language they all share: her hands dance on guzheng strings, asking in her stead for what cannot be spoken.

Comments

[hhimring]

I like that, music being something they share.

[elwendell]

Oh, I love that idea of them communicating through shared music. And your insight on their characters is perfect.

[ranalore]

Oh, that's beautiful and sad. And I have always loved the idea that the Lan brothers get their love and talent for music from their mother, even if musical cultivation is a Lan specialty.