Velvet Memories

Velvet Memories

Author: J. Lee. C

Disclaimer: The Smurfs and all Smurfy stuff related belong to Peyo, not me. *sniff(

Warnings: SLASH! Whatever you like to call same-sex love, its there, and with about 99% of the Smurf Village male, how could it not? :P I This is meant to be taken SERIOUSLY, and enjoyed. This is not a spoof humor fic! Sadness, and angst abound! Adult stuff, and sadness. Enjoy. ~_n

*******

"Smurf out!"

"But Brainy."

"OUT!" snapped the bespectacled smurf.

There was a fumbling, stumbling rush to the door, the sound of somebody clambering down the stairs, and the sound of the door to their little hut shut with a frightened slam. Brainy Smurf shook his head, clenching his teeth, and pulling his velvet cloak around him tighter. The drip, drip, drip of the still behind him dropped its two pennies worth into the silence of the hut, and Brainy felt himself trembling with rage. All his careful preparations, and plans, nearly ruined. By the very person he was trying to help! Could that smurf BE anymore clumsy!

Brainy laughed, a bitter sort of sorry sound, adjusted the tap on the still so that the liquid dropped more slowly into the beaker below it, and surveyed the expanse of beakers, test tubes, stills and Bunsen burners that took up most of the bedroom. This little space he had claimed, in the onslaught of the arguing, and tempers and bruising fisticuffs, this room, was his safe haven, and the only place that gave him any comfort anymore these days.

He hadn't expected Papa Smurf to take him aside a few scant years ago and offer to teach him potion brewing and magic. He had been shocked when Papa Smurf had commended his skills, but told him in no short terms he was to do exactly as instructed when potion brewing, to get off his high horse and admit that he was NOT an expert at everything. There was still so much more to be learned.

How much he had changed since then. So many times, when he looked back on his "white pants" days as a young and foundering Smurf, had hssedssed up, bungled, been hated and condemned. How that had changed.. And to think that Clumsy Smurf had been the catalyst to it all.

Pulling his cloak even tighter than before, he turned to look in the mirror. The sight of his burgundy cap made a smile crinkle the corner of his eyes. How he had jumped for joy when he learned that he could wear any colors he wanted to, how he had danced around, and promptly picked the burgundy and royal blue, his two favorite colors, the colors that summed up everything in his life; Order and Passion.

And it had all been thanks to Clumsy Smurf. Clumsy himself had chosen simple colors, soft velvet smoky grays for his pants and hat, and a grass green cloak to cover himself with when cold. Simple really, in all his simple ways. And they had chosen to move into Clumsy's hut out of the need for space, his had been the larger, (who wouldn't give Clumsy as much room as possible to move around in?) But now their little hut with its tattered roof tiles bed and immaculately clean rooms was little comfort. It was a prison, reminding him again and again of the harsh reality of what it meant to be a Smurf,

Smurfs mated for life.

Their relationship, was an odd one, and though many felt that sensible forthright Brainy had been the one to start it, it had actually been the other Smurf himself who had taken Brainy into his arms, and showed him the meaning of love. It had been Clumsy who had lain him down, and did things that Brainy could never thought POSSIBLE for anybody to do in bed with someone. And it had been Clumsy who had held him in the aftermath, nuzzling him quietly and telling him how smart and handsome he was, how he, Clumsy, had been swept up off his feet.

Which was all rather well and good for a little while. After the onslaught of moving in with each other, announcing their teary union to the village, they accepted their new clothing and status as adults as swiftly and smoothly as silk. But they didn't get along at all. Brainy's sensibility and temper often clashed with Clumsy's stumbling apologetic chaos, which had resulted in many heart rending fights and smashing of fists. Finally, 7 months ago, in anger at another potion destroyed by his lover falling over his own two feet, Brainy had marched himself to the center of town, looking for Papa Smurf, and declared to him, before the entire village that he wanted it to END! He wanted OUT! He couldn't take anymore! Three years with Clumsy was just too much to ask!

How wrong he had been! How self-absorbed and arrogant! He hadn't understood then how much pain he had caused his love, but he understood now. Papa Smurf had flashed him an angry look, yelled at him about the honor and integrity of the life-bonding that was part of their ancient and magical blood, and basically tore apart his idiocy and contempt before the entire village. But when that was finished, leaving Brainy tattered and sulking, Papa Smurf had pulled him sympathetically to his hut to talk in a more serious manner. And it was in that small quiet hut, with the smell of potions bubbling, magic brewing, and the old smell of musty books and medicines, that Papa had explained in a manner that Brainy could understand, something that made his heart quake.

"Clumsy Smurf is partially deaf, Brainy. He was smurfed that way, and there's very little, short of a potion that smurfs months and months of brewing, to smurf his loss of balance."

Then Papa had told something that had caused his stomach to lurch. It turned out that Clumsy visited Papa nearly every day to mend up patch, fix this or that bruised limb, and in one serious case a severe scratching along his back and legs from the time he had fallen down a rocky hill while picking thistle berries. The thought of Clumsy being injured, or hurt, for something so simple as a potion that Papa Smurf didn't have HALF the time to make, being the leader of the village, had sunk Brainy into deep depression. But then a new sort of fervor had come over him just as deeply, like when a magician finds his life's calling.

"I'll smurf it."

Now here he was, with his lover's well being dripping quietly into a beaker. 3 drops a day for a month, simple, to alleviate some of the worst symptoms and to help the body to adapt to balancing properly. It wasn't a cure for the partial deafness, that could never be fixed, but it was a way to help give Clumsy some of his balance back permanently. At least this explained now why people often had to repeat themselves around Clumsy and why he spoke so loudly to others.

Still, having more time on his hands than he'd like to admit, Brainy was all but capable of doing the potion himself. Yet it was taking much longer than even Papa Smurf had predicted. It took a week to find the ingredients, then another to boil them all down, and months to allow them to drip perpetually into different beakers, slowly, adding drops of other ingredients just as slowly, allowing things to cool, simmer, and continually move around the stills and tubes. Finally at the end of all THAT, he would have to add a drop of Clumsy's blood as the finisher, so that the potion would be tuned in properly to the drinkers ailment. And it was more trouble than it was worth to have Clumsy following him around, potentially destroying the whole project in one stumbling motion. Brainy had been making at least a month's worth of potion in this 8 months of drip, drip, drip, but Papa had sworn he would only need a week or so worth before the potions effect would take hold. Still.Just in case.

Brainy leaned his head on the window, by the bed, and watched the slow drip of afternoon rain and fog grace the small village with its presence. It channeled down roofs, collecting in rain troughs and sluicing off to the ground, joining the river of water that streamed through the village to finally collect and drain into the ground. It was the collection of his thoughts it seemed, trickling down. And he felt the dull weight of anger from before collecting and draining with it, leaving him hoarse and empty, yet still the anger welled up again, as the rain welled along the edges of mushroomed roofs. He loved Clumsy, he really did, and wanted nothing more than to help him.

But by SMURF sometimes it was so frustrating!! He banged his head on the window angrily and groaned.

I don't know how much more of this I can smurf! Brainy thought. I hope the potion smurfs soon.

His eyes caught sight, through the window, of his lover, who was currently stumbling back to their house, dripping wet. Nothing much to do outside on a rainy day, but Brainy had told Clumsy to get out, and he had. With a pang of guilt, Brainy pulled the curtains open a bit and watched Clumsy disappear beneath the cover of the roof. As if on cue a soft click from the door downstairs signaled that the smurf was back. He pulled himself from the window, and turned to cross the room, apologetic intent in his step. But before he could even open the bedroom door, he heard a clattering of pots and pans from downstairs, and shook his head.

If Clumsy was washing dishes, that meant he wanted to be left alone! So with a dull ache, Brainy turned back to his still, with its constant drip, and watched the fluid make its slow and steady motion around the room. It was all he had left to hope on. He was tired. Tired of the chaos. Tired of the fumbling apologies, even when Clumsy HIMSELF was injured. Tired of the fighting, and heartache.

He wanted to help, and this was the only way he knew how. He shook his head, and was about to go lay down for a rest when an earth shattering scream erupted the silence, quickly followed by the shattering of glass, the clattering of pots and pans, the sound of destruction, and then deadly silence.

"CLUMSY!!"

*******

Clumsy Smurf closed the door with a slight, quiet click, not wanting to disturb his mate anymore than he already had that day. He quickly, and quietly shuffled to the kitchen, and seeing the towering mess of pots, pans and dishes he had let pile up, he grumbled slightly to himself, before going to do them.

Not many Smurfs in the village chose to cook for themselves. Baker, the self proclaimed village cook, was willing to whip up anything for anyone at any time of the day, if they were willing to walk out on a rainy day to get to his kitchens. But Clumsy liked to cook for himself sometimes, and had gotten Handy Smurf to build a little kitchenette where the unused sewing room used to be. It was one of the meager talents that his lover had envied in him. Brainy had little patience for anything other than alchemy, which was sad considering his immense love of sherbet eclairs. Clumsy knew a recipe for then that would make even Baker insanely jealous, and since Brainy often touted himself as lucky to have somebody like Clumsy to cook for him, Clumsy was more than happy to oblige.

A lot of single smurfs had envied them, being mated. Mating, life bonding, was rare. In a village of some 100 odd smurfs, Papa Smurf confided that very few found a life partner to settle down with. Most stayed in their "whites" until they grew beards, which gave them the status of being a mature smurf, taking one their colors of maturity.

But mating. That was something entirely different. There was only about a one out of a hundred percent chance of ever finding the special one. And it had only taken him and Brainy a couple of years to figure it out, which was small beans compared to how old Papa Smurf was.

It was like a pull. A kind of force that settled into the pit of ones stomach and lurched there whenever ones bonded came near, almost clumsily, like himself! And it was affection, and loyalty. Following Brainy around the village on his various exploits had shown Clumsy the smurf that others never saw. The passionate one, the sensible one, the stubborn and articulate smurf, that was Brainy. Watching the dark eyes turn fiery at the mention of his beloved subject (not himself, as many smurfs had thought, but alchemy), Clumsy had learned there was much more than meets the eye beneath the glasses and grammatically correct fundamentalism. There was a drive there, much more than just a pair of glasses and a dead set frame of mind. There was a heart.

Clumsy dropped the pot he has been scrubbing into the disk rack with a chuckle. Brainy would have snarked at hearing his pathetic emotional, "dysphoria" as he called it, and would tell him in no uncertain terms that it was love, plain and simple, the one force that existed solely because.

The one thing in the world that Brainy didn't try to dissect, hypothesize or understand. He just accepted it.

Clumsy was the one who needed to understand. Once he had come to realize his feeling for Brainy, he'd had a heck of a time trying to convince the smurf he felt the same. And he'd had done quite a bit of research on the subject, and asking people, like Smurfette, and Vanity, (who fancied themselves the experts on love) what to do. Finally he had gone to Papa Smurf, who had told him a big story about his youth, and being mated, and all that rot. Finally, it had taken scabs of courage to muster up the impatience to ASK Brainy to be his mate, and the "Yes" had surprised him more than anything else he had ever heard.

So there it was. Love, apparently, was the driving force behind all the stuttering conversations, blushing embarrassing theatrics, and the hot tepid finality of union.

Love was confusing. Even now, being mated. He could understand how the Potions Brainy were working on were important, but he didn't know WHY Brainy wouldn't talk to him about them. And the arguments were enough to make his head spin. Some days he just wanted to curl up in a corner and go completely deaf, just so he couldn't hear his lover scream at him.

But that would be defeating the purpose of trying to talk things over, and that just confused him all the more. Well, nothing to that, he'd just have to let the problem unravel itself, which would have been fine if it hadn't involved sleeping on the couch the last little while so that Brainy could work in peace mis missed his lover! His arms, his skin, the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes that only recently started showing up. He missed Brainy, and how things were BEFORE the whole potion project started! If he had the courage, he would go up there and wreck the whole thing! Except,

He could never hurt Brainy that way. He didn't want his lover to retreat farther from him than he already had, and thinking of that he sighed, turning to top off the last dish on the ever growing stack of clean pots and pans. A cup caught his eye on the kitchen table and he groaned a bit. Missed one!

He went over to the table and lifted the cup. It was Brainy's. The smurf never did remember to put dishes in the sink. Too busy with his alchemy. Clumsy chuckled to himself slightly, and turned back towards the sink.

His world suddenly tipped forward , and he dropped the cup with a crashing of glass, reaching forward to grasp at something to grab onto.

It was a pot handle. He fell onto his back with a crackling of glass underneath him, the pot flew out from the pile of dishes, and he just managed to scram, covering his arms, as the towering pile of dishes fell over, sending his world into total darkness.