She Used to Be Mine
Shifty Powers x reader
A/N: This one goes out to all my other seasonally depressed baddies 💕 spring will come again and we will feel better. I won't lie, writing this one was basically just for self-indulgent purposes, because I am not vibing with the current weather situation, and also because I'm coming to terms with the fact that I've changed a lot in the past two years - which is fine, but sometimes acknowledging that things are different than you thought they would be can be hard to come to terms with. A huge thank you to @latibvles for helping me realize that I needed a fic centered around "She Used to Be Mine" from Waitress! 😘 (As always, this is written for the fictional depiction from the show -- no disrespect to the real life veterans!) And as always, I hope you all like this💕🕊️
Also, a quick guide to Southern slang: a leaf looker refers to people from warmer climates who come to Appalachia in the early fall to see the colorful leaves. A snowbird refers to people from lower Southern states, such as Florida, who stay in Appalachia for the warm summers, but go back home as soon as the temperatures begin to drop.
Warnings: seasonal depression, some discussions of what are probably the starting signs of PTSD, discussions of war, a brief reference to implied sex
Cold air stinging your nose like pinpricks is the first thing that you notice when you start to wake up. You scrunch your eyes further shut, trying to tune out the world for a few more seconds before the next round of shellings start. After all, a good, deep sleep is a valuable commodity that is hard to come by in this place; who would blame you for enjoying a few more moments undisturbed?
It takes a few moments to realize that you are not in Bastogne. Instead of the hard, frozen ground of your foxhole, you can feel the softness of your mattress and pillows, and the comfort of the blankets that cover you. More importantly, you can feel all the heat generated from the other body in the bed.
Eyes still closed, you slide your hand across the mattress, seeking him out. When you feel his arm, you latch on and maneuver yourself closer to him. He shifts closer to you, and one of his arms falls around you as he lets out a contented sigh.
“You’ve been up.”
Shifty hums in agreement. “I have.”
“You stayed with me.”
“Of course I did.” His gentle hand rubs up and down your arm, like he’s trying to warm you up, even though the temperature under the blankets is perfect – it’s the temperature outside that you’re worried about. “I just like watchin’ you sleep. You look so peaceful.”
“You do, too.” The last clutches of sleep are heavy on your eyelids, but you blink them away so that you can look at him. His smile is like watching the first rays of sun light up the morning sky at dawn. “You’re very handsome.”
He laughs. “Why, thank you.”
You know that he doesn’t quite believe you. Compliments always make him smile and blush, and he often deflects them, or compliments you right back instead of just taking it. Humble, gentle Shifty – even after all the things you two saw and did back in Europe.
“You want breakfast?” You groan as he shifts away from you, but he’s persistent. He plants a kiss on your forehead as he slides out from under the blankets, taking some of the heat as he goes. “Grits and eggs and biscuits and bacon – all the fixin’s!”
It must be Sunday. Any other day Shifty would have been up bright and early, waking you up with a gentle kiss to your forehead and soft good morning, it’s time to get up now’s. He would brew a pot of coffee while you fixed something for breakfast, and then just as quickly as you could manage to get ready, you would part for the day at the doorway, squeezing his hand as he headed for the mechanic shop and you for the school.
But Sundays are special. Sacred, almost. They’re when you get to rest in, neither of you in a rush to be anywhere. When you do decide to get up, Shifty takes the time to mix up the foods that are staples of a good Appalachian breakfast. Maybe later you go to church with his parents. Maybe you don’t – sometimes you’re too busy engaging in other types of worship. But either way, you arrive at their house for lunch in the afternoon to spend time with his family, and then eventually you make your way home, heart feeling warm from a day spent together.
Except the routine has been hard to keep up lately, and you’re not sure why. It’s laid out before you, now broken in, like a good pair of shoes, but the first step in the familiar sequence – on any day, not just Sundays – is hard to take, and then once you finally get going, you sometimes lose momentum or fall off course. Which frustrates you to no end, because the path is right there, so why do you suddenly feel like you can’t stay on it?
--
Writers love to use quilt metaphors to describe Appalachia. In the fall, you can see why. The details of the rolling foothills, distant mountains, crags, and gullies seem to stand out even more than usual as the kaleidoscope of colored leaves highlight the differences in the landscape. All the yellows, crimsons, and oranges are beautiful, especially when the sun first rises, casting the world in a warm glow that seems to set them on fire. No wonder the town is becoming crowded with the yearly leaf lookers already.
There was a time earlier in life, you’re sure, that you loved this time of year and everything it entailed. But ever since the war ended, something about the colder weather has slowed you down and set your emotions on edge, making something in your chest feel heavy. It’s like when you came back to the hospital. You had been so excited as a teenager to learn how to be a nurse, but after being a combat medic, you quit as soon as you got back to the states, instead taking up a position at the school for a change of pace – you were not the girl you once knew, and you needed a change to reflect the new path you were on.
You shiver as a gust of wind rustles the vibrant leaves overhead.
“Hey.” Shifty squeezes your hand as you walk back down the path to the house. “Are you okay?”
“It’s cold,” you admit. There’s more to say, but you’re not sure how to put it into words. How do you express the dread you feel at the thought of the temperature dropping even lower, or feel disgusted each time you imagine waking up to snow coating the ground?
“It is,” Shifty agrees. Then, carefully as he fixes you with a sideways glance, “Does it kind of remind you of Bastogne?”
No, you start to say, but stop. When you first woke up, you had thought you were in that dreaded place. The memory of a cold so deep that it chills you to your bones washes over you, making you shudder again. You have tried so hard not to think of that place or the things that happened there, to leave it all behind, and yet, it has found a way to stay with you. Many times you have confronted the thought that you are not the same person you were before the war – is anyone? – but maybe Bastogne took more from you, changed more of you, than you had cared to admit.
“It does.”
“Me too.” This time Shifty looks at you straight on. His handsome brow is slightly furrowed, and a deep sadness is settled in his eyes. He also survived Bastogne. He also knows what it is like to change.
“I knew it was unrealistic to come home and expect for things to go back to normal. But even so . . . I guess I still held out hope for it.” You scoff at yourself, even though if anyone would understand what you’re trying to say, it’ll be Shifty. “I’m not anything like I used to be. Some days that’s easy to accept, but something about this time of year . . .”
He squeezes your hand again. “It’s hard.”
“It is.”
For a moment, the only sound is that of the fallen leaves crunching underfoot as you walk. Shifty bites his lip, deep in concentration. It’s something he does when he’s particularly focused on something, or when he’s trying to work through a problem; it was one of the first things that you had noticed about him back in Toccoa, when you would steal glances at him and secretly think to yourself that he looked very sweet – if there’s one change the war brought that was decidedly a good thing, it’s that you can openly admire him now.
“It always gets very cold around here in the winter,” he says finally. “We usually get quite a bit of snow. I loved it as a kid.”
“But now?”
He shrugs. “Now, I don’t think I would really mind never seeing it again. Or at least, taking a break from winter until Bastogne is nothing but a distant memory.”
Take a break from winter. That sounds nice. What would that entail? Packing up with all the other snowbirds and heading to the beach until April ushered in the next spring, maybe?
Shifty rubs his thumb along your knuckles, making you shudder again, but in a good way this time. (His hands have wielded weapons that have taken people’s lives, but they’ve never felt anything but gentle.) “I got pulled into the office the other day at work. I was worried that I was in trouble, but instead they offered me a new job.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. The company got some government contract and they need a few people to work for them out in California.”
“California? That’s on the other side of the country!” Besides the few years he spent fighting in Europe, Shifty has always lived in his hometown, surrounded by family. The idea of him leaving them is hard to picture.
As if he can read your mind, Shifty nods and continues, “I thought about that. But I also remember Joe Liebgott talking about San Francisco and how much he missed the weather there. Clear, sun-filled skies. The beach.
“Anyway, I told them I would consider it, but I haven’t given them an answer yet. In the past I would have declined. But now . . .”
“Do you want to go?”
“Do you?” He bites his lip again.
You squeeze his hand. “I would go anywhere with you.”
That makes him smile. A shy blush creeps across his cheeks. “I think it could be good for us. To get away from the cold. Make some new memories.”
California! You can hardly believe it. Never would you have imagined moving so far away. Before the war, anyway. Now that you’re a new person, the promise of warmth, of starting fresh, of having Shifty by your side, all of it, beckons to you. This could be your chance to re-write the ending and make it happier – something daring and exciting that would shock the girl you once were, but that will make the one you are now satisfied.
“I agree.”
Shifty’s smile grows, and you wonder if he’s thinking the same thoughts about the boy that he once was. “I’ll tell the boss tomorrow morning.”
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