Fluff, Relationships, and Traditions
Sep. 22nd, 2013 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scribblemynameSo characters have habits, ways they interact with certain people and situations, things they do and like to do, stories and histories together. I've known a lot of my characters' for a long time but getting them all into fic is interesting, particularly for the ones I don't know that for.
I've got about five novelettes I want to turn out plus a short story, created out of the 5 Things Meme and then the whole Pieter/Ashen dynamic that originally played in my head before I even wrote that first Ashen drabble (and it is awesome to me, but got sidelined drastically with a deluge of other prompts), but, but, but...
I'm on day 265 of my challenge and story count 157 and I'm still plying angles and there's all those little things above that I'm itching to nibble at. Want to help a girl out?
Particularly of interest to me are things like where does Wesley work (not sure actually), and then relationship things that I haven't gotten to like how Justus always recognizes Shift regardless of her current form or demeanor, friendships, sibling relationships, Ilsa and her husband, etc.
Calling for prompts, as promised:
- character(s) and/or canon/fandom
- random word, quote, or other prompt
Oh, and I'll try to keep it short and fluffy or sweet. Try is the operative word. :grins:
Prompts
- Meld, couples, prank war
- Justus + Special Unit
- From thecatisacritic's fluff-fest
- Justus' family + Shift, Rachelle
- dancing, quotes, and not without you
- who is Justus when he's Rachelle's?
- undercover Justus
- more quotes
- From Daily Scribble post 1 AND from previous promptfest
- Ilsa prevents
- the work they do
- finding Justus, about that memory
Ficlets
Seven Days
- Wesley/Lena: Shall We Dance?
- Wesley/Lena: Stubborn
- Wesley/Lena: You are My Photograph
- Wesley/Lena + Angelita: Learning to Tango
- Wesley + Connor: Just Saying
- Wesley + Connor: On Practical Uses for Journals
- Wesley + Connor: A Spaghetti-Flavored Aftermath
- Wesley + Connor: Maybe Next Week
- Wesley + Connor: The Apple Don't Fall Far
- Wesley + Mom: The Joys of Motherhood
- Connor + Ashelynn + dogs: On the Acquisition of Dogs
- Connor + Ashelynn + dogs: Girls
Kingdoms and Thorn
- Shift + Team ensemble: That'll Work
- Shift + Meld: Soon
- Sear + Meld: Bone-Weary Need
- Rachelle + Meld: Between
- Rachelle + Meld: The Leash
- Rachelle + Special Unit: Anywhere But Here
- Rachelle + Heather + Shadow: An Absurdly Dangerous Shadow
- Rachelle + Joseph: What the Emptiness Fills
- Justus + Joseph: Cracking the Ice
- Justus + Team Ensemble: In the Business
- Justus + Larique: The Unsuspecting Suspect
- Shift + Justus: Self-Preservation
- Sear + Justus: Gratitude in an Off Note
- Rachelle/Justus + Heather: Backfire
- Rachelle/Justus + Sophocles: Comfort Objects
- Rachelle/Justus + Sophocles: On the Care and Feeding of Cats
- Rachelle/Justus + Sophocles: The Taste of Coffee
- Rachelle/Justus: Living with Hope
- Rachelle/Justus: Tiny Significant Pieces
- Rachelle/Justus: Side Effects
- Rachelle/Justus: Remind You to Dance
- Rachelle/Justus: Family
- Rachelle/Justus + Red Wolf and Whisper's kids: Cure to All That Ails
- Storm + Red Wolf + Anya: We Can't Have That
- Red Wolf and Whisper's kids: Don’t Forget the Ice Cream
- Red Wolf/Whisper: The Fox and the Wolf
- Red Wolf/Whisper: Taste of Regret
- Red Wolf/Whisper: Business as Usual
- Red Wolf/Whisper + Ashen: A Gift Well-Chosen
- Red Wolf: Rearranging Assets
- Storm + Minder: The Five W’s of Declaring War
- Storm + Minder: Tell Me in the Morning
- Storm + Minder: Moral Support
- Storm + Mirage + Surge: Waiting for Blood
- Hasheni/Ilsa Killinger: Homework
- Hasheni/Ilsa Killinger: Catalyst
- Ilsa Killinger: Linger
- Ilsa Killinger | Special Unit: Reality Check
- Keeper/Brushfire: When Memory Burns
- Anna/Lightsculpt: Dinnertime Distractions
- Anna/Lightsculpt: Needing a Break
- Anna/Lightsculpt: Worth Something
- Anna/Lightsculpt: Working Up the Nerve
- Anna/Lightsculpt: Would That It Were
- Sketch + Team ensemble: Something Other Than Smoke
- Shift/Kilter + Watcher: Wedding Gift
- Shift/Kilter + Elisabeth: You're My Heart
- Shift/Kilter + Elisabeth: The Answer to All Problems
- Shift + Elisabeth: Little Girl Reminders
- Surge + Maker: Embrace of Freedom
- Watcher + Team Ensemble: An Ounce of Protection
Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.
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Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Backfire
Date: 2013-09-30 05:13 pm (UTC)Someone should throw her off (not in a bad way, not necessarily, but then I can't think of her taking being thrown off in a good way, either.)
Oh. I've never heard it that way. It seemed like it was missing a word. Then again, I can't hardly use the dialect of my house. No one would understand, and the explanation would be humiliating for certain parties.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Backfire
Date: 2013-09-30 08:23 pm (UTC)Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Backfire
Date: 2013-09-30 08:41 pm (UTC)I don't know why I just thought maybe pregnancy would, but then she's not the type to let that sneak up on her.
And I'm not sure that would shock her, either.
Hmm...
Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Side Effects
Date: 2013-09-30 09:03 pm (UTC)She didn’t intend on waking him up, but she wasn’t really trying for subtlety when it hit her like a slam in the gut, that sudden taste of genetic material that wasn’t his and wasn’t hers and wasn’t hitting her skin from anything outside.
Whyever on earth hadn’t she gotten sterilized when she first realized her ability was terminal?
Justus woke from his half-doze because the instant it hit her, she was sitting upright and hissing pain between her teeth, even though it wasn’t her body that was hurting. She scrambled out of the bed before he could roll over and reach her and snatched up his shirt to throw it on.
“Database? What’s wrong?” He was awake now, quiet operative voice, but she wasn’t heeding him because she was still dealing with this, pacing like a tiger in a cage, arms crossed over her stomach as she racked her brains over what to do, how was this possible, she’d been on birth control shots since they first started her valentining...
Idiot. She jammed her palms flat on the window and held herself there as she came to grips with the fact that attempt one to get her body on control had ‘healed’ away her temporary infertility.
Justus had gotten out of the bed by now. She heard his light footsteps behind her, felt his hand when it touched her waist, and she closed her eyes and leaned against the window.
“Battery Acid.” Name trailing softly, that tender, sharp handle that allowed her to be harsh and him to love her anyway.
She opened her eyes and looked out at the night. His house was ground-level and she missed the skyscraper view of her own apartment.
It might not go well; it might not last. It was a sad fact of life that most pregnancies died before they got off the ground. But she would know. Her ability to process genetic data took away the option of ignorance.
“I’m pregnant.”
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Side Effects
Date: 2013-09-30 09:10 pm (UTC)Poor baby. :(
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Side Effects
Date: 2013-09-30 09:13 pm (UTC)Now, must find fluffy off-guard to cheer you up.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Side Effects
Date: 2013-09-30 09:19 pm (UTC):(
Of course, I did kind of ask for it/suggest it.
Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Cure to All That Ails
Date: 2013-09-30 10:15 pm (UTC):eyes muse: This is as good as it's gonna get.
“Sunny-Girl” Sunshine Taylor crawled up into Rachelle’s lap, almost entirely displacing the protesting Sophocles.
Rachelle pulled Sunny into her arms with an amused chuckle and kiss under Sunny’s chin. Babysitting for Wolf and Whisper’s baby had its upsides, not least of which was giving Justus the oportunity to snuggle a child—or teach her the fine art of baking indigestible cookies. Rachelle wouldn’t taste Justus’ and Anya’s atrocities for all the gold and silver, real or imagined, they could produce. The girl was a toddler.
Sunny was the happy baby of the two girls, always smiling and singing in her baby babble and waving arms to be picked up and hugging those who did.
“Love you,” Rachelle whispered right against her to soft giggles. “Love you.”
Sunny looked up, big brown eyes suddenly solemn, and put her hands on Rachelle’s face. Then she tried to squirm out of Rachelle’s grip, so she let her and followed the baby’s crawling progress to the kitchen. Sunny sat up when she reached Justus and tugged on his pant leg.
“What you want, Sunny-girl?” he asked, leaning down to pick her up.
She made a protesting sound and held out her hand to Rachelle, who was starting to have a sinking suspicion she knew what Sunny was getting at. She slid one hand to her hip and said exasperated, “I don’t need a hug, Sunny.”
Sunny turned the big browns on Justus. “Hug.”
He had the audacity to laugh.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Cure to All That Ails
Date: 2013-09-30 10:19 pm (UTC)Rachelle needs more of Justus' hugs than she'd ever admit.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Cure to All That Ails
Date: 2013-09-30 10:24 pm (UTC)Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Cure to All That Ails
Date: 2013-09-30 10:33 pm (UTC)They all need lots of hugs to make up for the ones they didn't get before.
Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Bone-Weary Need
Date: 2013-10-04 07:45 pm (UTC)He simply nodded and leaned back in the small, hard hospital chair. He was the only person she had ever seen that didn't look helpless surrounded by all this hospital equipment and illness and human weakness in the face of inexorable nature. Other healers didn't have his strength when she knew he could barely stand.
Sear wasn't close to Meld. She knew how to help others when they needed it. She stood guard over Shift's visits to her daughter. She sutured up Protector's injuries, traded macabre humor with Justus and cleaned weapons beside hm. She made the Database coffee when she was climbing the walls. But Meld…
She sighed and sat in the small, uncomfortable chair next to him. She couldn't anchor him. He'd never given her enough to get himself back through her touch.
She didn't like feeling helpless.
"I'll be fine," Meld said quietly, evenly. Always so strong even when he had barely enough life left in his body to sustain him. Sometimes, Sear thought he was unbreakable.
He didn't have to be here at the hospital, healing where he could and helping where he couldn't heal. No one was forcing Meld to be here. They were free. Free.
She leaned over and hugged him hard, startling both of them. A mess of images—gasping children, wounded limbs, blood, and his life pouring out of him until he was too weak to even stumble away—and that welter of surprise and care, the solidarity of team members.
Sear pulled away. "It would have been easier to sear you," she said because she needed to break it with something normal. She could have seen his feelings just by looking at him the right way.
A small smile caught the edges of his mouth. His fingers brushed her arm. You wouldn't hurt me.
She laughed in an undertone. "Come on. Let's get you out of here." She slung his arm over her shoulders and helped him to his feet.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Bone-Weary Need
Date: 2013-10-04 08:48 pm (UTC)I'm glad he got a hug, even if she didn't plan on giving him one. He needed it.
I need to think of more prompts to get a better sense of Seer, too.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Bone-Weary Need
From:Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Bone-Weary Need
From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Needing a Break
Date: 2013-10-04 08:02 pm (UTC)"It won't bite you know." Click, click. Flash. "Forgot to turn that off," she muttered.
It took a moment for him to realize she was talking to him and referring to what he held.
"Anna," he said in exasperation, knowing that no admonishment would ever stop her from turning around and giving him that unrepentant dimpled smile. "I know it won't bite."
"Then open it, silly." She took one more picture, then set the camera down.
Oh, no. She was coming over. He groaned. He really should have seen that coming.
"I'm not that bad," she said, swatting him playfully, then unexpectedly sat in his lap and plucked the envelope from his fingers. She frowned as she read the delicate scrawl. "Pretty handwriting."
"My letter, madame," Lightsculpt replied with exaggerated patience.
She handed it back and whispered in his ear. "Open it."
"Anna..."
"It can't hurt you," she said. "Come on. Open it. If you don't like them, don't write back."
He gave her a pained look. "They're my parents."
"And they have the right to know what happened to the baby boy they lost two decades ago, okay?" She said it gently, but it still stung.
Lightsculpt had no memory of his birth family or his life before he'd ended up a genetically-modified human in the top-secret military Projects of the Thorn Republic. Why did he have to go back? He set the letter to the side.
Anna watched him. "You wouldn't keep picking it up if you didn't want to read it," she said softly.
"I know."
They looked at each other for a long moment. She set her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him.
"Whether you do or not," she said, "you know I love you, right?"
He couldn't help smiling, though he did try to help it. "You're impossible to be mad at."
She hummed agreement. "You looked like you needed a hug."
He kissed her cheek. "You looked like you needed to stop taking pictures."
That got her up. She huffed at him and headed back to the dining room.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Needing a Break
Date: 2013-10-04 08:54 pm (UTC)Does he end up reading the letters and contacting his family?
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Needing a Break
From:Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Needing a Break
From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Worth Something
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From:Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Worth Something
From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Answer to All Problems
Date: 2013-10-04 08:17 pm (UTC)Kilter stared at her, then asked very slowly, just to be sure he wasn't getting any words wrong, "You're suggesting I hug you instead of fighting?"
Shift lifted the knife long enough gave him an incredulous glare. "We're not sending Lise to the Center," she told him, voice hard. "They're Department." Her demeanor softened in a deliberate gesture. "But hugging her always helps."
He stared at her. He hadn't thought of it and had never seen Shift weak. Oh, he'd seen her bleeding out at fourteen on the ground while Watcher held her until Meld could get there, and all that burned in Shift's eyes was fury and the violent need to deal back bloodshed to the hostiles that had taken her down. He'd heard her screaming every night after that four-day stint in the Blue Room when she was… ten, wasn't it? He'd seen pure panic and horror in her face as she frantically hunted through a foreign military base for a missing team member. But he had never seen her weak or in need of comfort.
She lifted an eyebrow at him, challenge lighting in her eyes.
Kilter didn't feel like fighting her, though he could and had for most of their lives. He turned on his heel and went into Elisabeth's room where their eight-year-old daughter was bent over a keyboard practicing scales.
"Hey," he greeted her softly.
Elisabeth's whole face lit up with that beautiful smile he'd never even seen before a year ago. She turned and launched herself into his arms, and he held her tight enough to hurt, long enough to ease the hurts that went so much deeper. Shift was right, and it took him a little while before he was willing to let her go.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Answer to All Problems
Date: 2013-10-04 09:35 pm (UTC)It makes one want to see it work. I almost thought he should hug Shift, too.
Of course, that is a very crazy idea.
Still, he's good with his daughter, better than he wowuld have seemed in the one where she claimed him as a pillow.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Answer to All Problems
From:Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Answer to All Problems
From:Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Answer to All Problems
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From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Little Girl Reminders
Date: 2013-10-07 07:08 pm (UTC)Elisabeth wandered in from the backyard with a skinned knee and dirt on almost every visible skin surface. She kicked off her sandals just inside the door and tiptoed to peer over the upper kitchen counter.
Shift glanced up from her pad of paper where she was taking down the messages on their comm, but she waited for her daughter to speak first.
The pixie-faced, dark-haired ten-year-old dropped her weight back on her heels again, then clambered up atop the breakfast stool, leaned over the counter, and tossed an apple core in the incinerator. "Mama."
"Yes, Lise?" Shift kept scribbling notes, then clicking over to the next message with one finger.
"Where's Dad?"
It was a simple question, but it didn't have a simple answer. Shift reached and ruffled Elisabeth's hair. "He's on a trip to Myrwick."
Elisabeth frowned. Her fingers curled against the counter, then extended to gently tap out a short beat. "When's he coming back?"
That was easier to answer, and Shift found a truth to tell with a grin on her face. "Next week, in time for a birthday hug."
"It's his birthday?" Elisabeth's face lit up. "He never told me that!"
Shift laughed, leaned forward, and tapped her daughter's nose. "He needs little girls to remind him."
"Mama, you're a big girl."
"No," Shift said, eyes wide in mock solemnity. "I'm a woman."
Elisabeth giggled and Shift reached out and shifted, adding enough height to hug her daughter over the counter, then tickle her. Elisabeth shrieked and streaked down from the counter. Shift chased her until they tumbled into a heap on the living room couch. Elisabeth curled up against her, and Shift held on, smoothing the long brown hair and kissing that precious cheek.
"No matter what, honey, you know that I love you."
Elisabeth craned her neck to see better, worry crinkling her forehead. "I know, Mama."
"And you know," Shift continued, "that your dad is good."
"Mama…" That old protest came right off the ten-year-old's lips. She wanted to be like her mama. She wanted to be like Shift.
"I want you to be like your dad," Shift reminded her.
"But you and Dad don't get along," she protested.
It was perhaps amazing that she had always managed to please both parents, but it was certainly not amazing to her parents. They had never disagreed that their daughter deserved the best life they could give her. They only disagreed on how to give it.
Shift leaned back and relished the child snuggled in her arms. She'd been told she was a good mother, and she did her best because she loved her daughter. She did her best to make a way to bridge the love and hate she felt for Elisabeth's father and never show her violent tendencies to her little girl. She hummed a thoughtful refrain then kissed Elisabeth's head again. "Your dad will be back next week, and it's his birthday so we'll plan him a party, then he's taking you to Vorstahv to see the Lascek Symphony and Orchestra."
"Really?" Elisabeth scrambled up, excited. "Are you coming too?"
"I have Mama's business to attend to." Shift tapped her nose playfully again, earning another giggle. "But I'll see you after that."
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Little Girl Reminders
Date: 2013-10-07 07:25 pm (UTC)It is rather... strangely endearing that she wants her daughter to be like her father.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Little Girl Reminders
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From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Embrace of Freedom
Date: 2013-10-08 04:27 pm (UTC)They bit.
It took her a blinking moment to register the meaning, separate it from the images of ceasefire starting to pour in, and then realize… she was free.
Surge clapped a hand to her mouth. There were details. It would be arduous drafting a treaty, negotiating terms, but…
Hastily, she scrabbled with her free hand to unhook herself from the computer and then flung herself into Maker, holding him tight in a fierce hug.
"Pint-Size. What is it?"
She shook her head and pulled her hand back to her mouth to find that her face was soaking with tears. "It's over, Maker," she whispered. Then louder, she said it again to herself. "We're free."
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Embrace of Freedom
Date: 2013-10-08 06:04 pm (UTC)Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Embrace of Freedom
From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Family
Date: 2013-10-10 03:18 am (UTC)Justus came up behind Rachelle while she was folding laundry and wrapped his arms around her gently, tucking his chin over her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked softly.
A half dozen retorts sprang to mind, but she bit her tongue on all of them and nodded shortly.
She had thirteen of his shirts to fold and several of her own. Justus didn't let go of her, but loosened his grip only as needed.
When she the last white undershirt neatly topped a stack, she bumped his chin with her face. He withdrew enough to let her turn around in his arms. She studied his face intently for several long moments, trailing her fingers up the back of his neck to tangle in his short blonde hair. He waited, studying her back. Usually he was the one who couldn't keep his hands off her hair.
Finally, she hummed thoughtfully to herself and turned, slipping out of his light embrace, to put away the shirts in the drawers and closet.
"What are you thinking?" he asked behind her, not calling by a name. Justus had a habit of choosing the handle that matched her mood best.
Rachelle shook her head, casual shrug, and threw out, "Have you ever thought of contacting them?"
She heard the sharp intake of his breath. There was no wondering between them who she referred to—his birth family. He had reasons for not contacting them, but she had reasons to believe he needed them.
"She's going to be all right," he said suddenly, softly.
She looked amused. "She? What makes you so sure it's a girl?"
His look turned annoyed. "I want it to be a girl."
Rachelle laughed quietly. "Well, you're out of luck. It's a boy with dark brown hair and dimpled cheeks."
At her words, Justus froze, breath caught at the realization that she knew that, and it had never occured to him that she would.
She hung up the last button-up and closed the closet door. "I think we should name him Joseph—after your brother and mine."
For a long time, Justus said nothing. Then at last, before she could slide past him with the laundry basket, he caught her own long hair in his fingers and nodded shortly.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Family
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From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Wedding Gift
Date: 2013-10-14 03:39 am (UTC)She was a bride today, so her name was Jennifer Haller, if for nothing else, for her daughter, Elisabeth Haller, who never, ever dealt with Shift. But a tiny bit of Shift, the one-time child warrior, still peeked out from under her veil as she looked about, scanning the crowd for a certain familiar face she hadn't seen since she was a teenager.
Kilter knew who she was looking for, but he said nothing and allowed her to delay saying their vows until...
There. Shift saw the cloud of black hair floating in the light breeze, the clear greyish eyes that saw so much—that watched.
She waited until after the ceremony to flow through the crowd like her name had once been. Watcher would not linger. It wasn't her way. She was already turning away when Shift caught her and threw herself into the arms of the only mother her childhood memory contained.
For a long moment, Watcher held her back in the warm embrace of family, then drew away and brushed back the auburn hair that kissed Shift's cheeks. She had chosen to look like her birth mother today and a little more like her daughter than her natural coloring allowed.
"You were always meant to marry."
Shift laughed harshly, but she disagreed. "We were always meant to love."
Watcher conceded with a nod. She leaned over and kissed Shift's hair, then hugged her again—briefly. "You were my only daughter, but now you have your own." Then with that look that commanded her to care for others now, Watcher was gone.
Shift lingered as the woman who raised her had not. Eventually, her husband drifted to her side and wrapped one arm around her waist.
"You okay?" he murmured in her ear, below the hearing of Elisabeth just feet away.
Shift answered softly, "No." But she turned and smiled and made her way back into her reception as though she were.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Wedding Gift
From:Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Wedding Gift
From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Tell Me in the Morning
Date: 2013-10-15 09:00 pm (UTC)"Minder—"
She gave him a look. "Your couch is open," she reminded him bitingly. "That's what you said."
He lowered his hand and studied her. She had made herself small, curling up in the thickest, plushest chair he had—it matched the couch—arms wound around herself, leaning heavily on her drawn up knees, and fingers biting into her arms. Her red hair matched the flat wounded anger in her gaze. She sure had picked a h— of a day to need him.
But he put aside himself and settled on the couch, let himself be Refuge, the name she'd given him when they were kids, instead of Rett. "What's wrong?"
Her jerky shrug was abbreviated by her failure to uncurl. She shook her head. It was Minder, not the freely laughing Marcella she had been slowly becoming ever since she met her birth family and took again the name they gave her. She was the brooding woman he remembered from their childhood. (None of them had ever been children.)
He waited a long moment, then took a breath. She wasn't going to talk. He didn't want to talk either, but she needed to. He stood and went in the kitchen, poured himself a glass of water, and drank it. Then he went back in and picked up his briefcase and jacket. "I'm going to change."
She didn't respond and he didn't expect her to.
Later that night, he came out again. He had shed the businesslike persona he wore for work and become simply the big brother his teammates often needed.
Minder was rearranging his couch cushions.
"I come bearing sheets," he offered.
She laughed softly and took them. They made up the couch together. Minder glanced up at him with that knowing look of hers, or rather, that knowing look of women anywhere.
"What's bothering you?" she asked.
Rett shrugged. "Broke up. Into bed." He jostled the sheet.
But Minder just stared at him, then leaned forward and hugged him instead.
"Hey," he said softly, "I'm fine."
She laughed throatily, like there might be tears under there, but stepped away. "No, you're not, but that's okay."
He didn't answer for a long moment. He just gave her that measuring look common to leaders anywhere. "I'm okay, Minder." It wasn't Rett telling her; it was Storm, the man who'd raised her. (They had never been children.)
It was true, too. He'd been beaten, bloodied, lost family, lost a team member, nearly lost that sunshine smile of Red Fox's when it fell from her face and she took the name Whisper to avenge that fallen member. He'd been so dead only his regenerative ability could bring him back again. Losing a relationship, ill-fated from the beginning, was nothing compared to all that.
Rett shook his head. "What's bothering you?"
Minder shook her head. "It's bad enough I showed up in the middle of that."
"Why make it pointless?" He sat down and gestured magnaminously. "I'm all ears." Humor always worked with her. It was one of the only things that did.
She slid between the covers with a sigh. "Goodnight, Storm."
"But you'll tell me in the morning."
"Goodnight!"
He could hear the smile in her voice and smiled himself. That made it worth it. He got up, turned out the lamp, and went to bed.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Tell Me in the Morning
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From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Moral Support
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From:Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Moral Support
From:Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Soon
Date: 2013-10-15 09:13 pm (UTC)He was leaning inside the door frame, quietly, with absolutely no judgment on his face. "You can go get her now."
Her breath faltered. It took a lot to catch Shift flat-footed, but this one hit her harder than she expected. Molecules trembling, she could feel the edges of the weapons she'd buried inside herself. But she shook her head, once, hard. "Not yet." Not until the treaty was implemented and enforced. Anything could happen between the signature and that. She refused to risk her daughter again.
Meld watched her.
She turned around and watched back.
He stepped forward and hugged her, gently, that hesitant offer, and even though she knew it would hurt him, she took it, hugging him fiercely in return with a single promise pounding in her heart. She wouldn't let them down. She would see this through.
Healing poured into her body, renewing all the jagged edges she'd acquired since he healed her last, and that reassurance that came straight from Meld, You'll see her again. She'll be yours. He released her just as gently, pausing briefly to ensure that his work was really done.
Shift had never been able to keep her daughter a secret from him. It would have required a distrust for him she didn't have and the ability to forget her daughter.
"Soon," he said softly.
She nodded back. "Soon."
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