❝ except when I read books and dream. . . ❞
[ a marvel fanfiction ]
in which connor harper reunites with a woman he long believed to be dead, only to find out she has no memories of him.
[ full description inside ]
...
CAN YOU HEAR THE TICKING? The countdown has begun. It began the day he was born — the day a baby, silent as the night that greeted him, entered a world that he'd grow to die for. Tick. Tick. Tick. Each second that passes brings us closer to doomsday. Each flickering moment brings us closer to the end.
Listen.
A man approaches. Footsteps drown out the ticking, his boots crunching against the dry earth. Connor Harper isn't a hero yet; not really, anyway. He'd grown up on stories of them — he'd devoured storybooks as a child, devoting hours each evening to reading about Robin Hood, and the Knights of the Round Table, and Sinbad the Sailor. He idolised Inigo Montoya, and Luke Skywalker, and Captain America. For a while, he'd believed them. He'd believed in them. The world was made of heroes.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
He can remember the exact moment his faith in heroes died. June 22nd, 1989. The day his best friend's plane went down in a test flight she was more than capable of completing, and nobody was able to give him any answers. Any closure. He knew there was more to the story than what he was given, but the gaps in the tale could never be closed. Nobody seemed to have the answers he desperately needed. In one fell swoop, he lost his best friend and his faith in heroes.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The seconds trickle into minutes, into hours, into days, into years. The man is six years older now, and a slight crease upon his forehead tells stories of the adventures taken. Still, the death hurt. So many times throughout his life, Connor had had people tell him that time would heal his wounds. They were lying. Time didn't heal, not really. It just allowed him to find more distractions from the emptiness eating him alive. But then he would see a shirt he knew she would have loved, or he would hear a song the pair sang together, or sniff a smell that reminded of her, and all those feelings would come crashing back. Suddenly, he'd be drowning in his grief, because Carol was never coming back. She'd never be able to experience those things. Connor's daughter would never meet her namesake, and Connor's wife would forever have to put up with him still buying christmas presents for his friend, knowing full well she would never open them.
Except now he's stood outside a Blockbuster, two films in his hand, three kids in the back of the car, and a woman he thought he'd never see again standing not ten feet away.
Can you hear it?
The ticking. The countdown. The world is about to change. A man is about to become a hero.
He just has to remember how to believe in them first.
♛
CONNOR HARPER
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Except when I read books and dream, I don't believe in heroes anymore
♛
When I was a little kid Robin Hood patrolled the wood With feats too brave and daring to believe And in the dark of summer nights Sir Gallahad was all I had To show what strength and purity should be
The heroes I read about What a man should be The heroes I dreamed about Were all replaced by me I fought the villains, saved the maids, and turned the tide of war
But now I'm all grown up I don't believe in heroes anymore
