Post by hawksandfeathers on Jan 27, 2013 14:24:53 GMT 10
Rating: G
Prompt: Happily Ever After, #14
Summary: Neal thinks about the Lioness.
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And so, Neal wrote, the fiery lioness saved the lion. He paused. The quill was poised, quivering with ink and loaded thoughts. But things were not happily ever after. He knew it - and in his mind, he acknowledged this, putting it to rest. Things did not need to be. History can always be rewritten.
The Lioness had told him one night at the Swoop that Jonathan had been her lover. And Neal thought, rather hazily after swords practice, that when they parted, a wound had opened. Later - a long while later - it had fused shut, differently. How many emotions were between them? he'd wondered. How many breaths had they shared?
When his hair began to turn grey, Neal decided it was time to decipher people. He built a study and furnished it lovingly, waiting for his clients to wipe their feet on the plush green mat.
"My dear man," Neal would say, intent and cross-legged. "Why are your emotions in turmoil? Untangle them."
The worn traveller, the troubled sailor, or the paranoid knight would each answer in his own way. Neal would listen, deftly straightening the coiled wires of their brains.
Sometimes his wayward thoughts would bring him to his former knight-master, and he'd wrinkle his forehead and think. Why had he never been able to figure her out? An accomplished healer and therapist, he wasn't used to being perplexed. "Perhaps friends are the toughest barriers," he'd said at some point in his career.
The Lioness might be gone, but a life, after death, has much to be mused about.
Neal put on his soft-soled shoes, and made his way to Yuki's chambers.
Thanks heaps, Kris!!
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!