Work Text:
When Noelle was very little, she saw a mouse caught in a trap.
She remembers how she froze. How she could hear its raspy squeaking, its uselessly scrabbling paws, the trap shut wrong slowly strangling it. How light from the hallway fell in one sharp knife over it. Its tiny, helpless eyes staring up at her as it struggled. She took one step forward, and it squeaked like nails on a chalkboard, and she fled.
She looks into Kris's eyes. She can't stop thinking about that mouse.
She can't help wondering what kind of freedom it was begging from her.