Post by rat on Dec 17, 2010 17:16:05 GMT 10
Title: Meri Kurisumasu
Rating: PG (there's a reference to kissing, but I didn't think that warranted a PG-13 rating)
Card: 1
Bingo: Tradition – ice skating – winter – regret – away from home
Summary: Kel wants to go ice skating with Anders. Piers and Ilane can't help.
“All right.” Piers sounded almost casual, almost amused, as he began, but his mouth was set in a grim line. “What happened? Thank you, my dear.” The last referred to the goblet with a shallow amount of rice wine, which he accepted from his wife. The first could have meant any number of things. When you move to a new country with four small children, one young—very young—lady, and a teenager, things were always happening, usually at the same time.
Ilane hesitated over her drink. It was a split second, but Piers noticed. He noticed the temptation on her face to set down the goblet and keep hold of the bottle. Ilane was a strong woman but that much rice wine would knock anyone flat on her back.
“Kel...”
The name of his youngest child was enough that Piers needed to sit down. She had been invaluable to him over the past few months. He had expected homesickness from his children, though not so many tears. When he expressed as much to Ilane, she had laughed, her actions then telling him that she was not coping well but thoroughly prepared. Kel had accepted their current home, and yes, there were struggles, but she wasn’t unhappy.
There had been no worries about Kel. Until now.
“...asked me when Anders would arrive.”
“Anders?” Piers repeated. He thought back to the words they had used to explain that some of their children would be remaining in Tortall but it wasn’t forever.
Ilane drank deeply. “She wants to go ice skating.”
The copper dropped, for Piers. Winter was setting in, and Anders always took his little sister ice skating. It was their tradition—albeit a tradition of only two years, since Kel was old enough to feel left out when the older children went ice skating. That Avinar had also been too young had not stopped her frustration. Neither Ilane nor Piers considered piggyback ice skating a wise idea, but Anders had never let harm come to his sister.
Missing that tradition had finally made clear the thing that held back the worst of the tears, for Kel. They were not just ‘in the Yamani Isles’. They were away from home.
“Are you beginning to regret this, Ilane?” The obvious unhappiness of their youngest was like the straw that would break the donkey’s back. All the stress of these past months had finally broken.
Ilane shook her head. “I told you from the first how I felt about coming here.” She had her reservations and believed it would be difficult, but Ilane thrived on experience. She had been excited, in a calm and mature sort of way. Yet Piers had had his concerns. A part of him had believed he would need to comfort his wife, hold her and kiss her mouth and brush away tears.
“Neither of us, Piers...” But as she came to him, it was he who needed comfort, her fingers dampened by tears and her lips bearing what little solace the truth could hold. “Neither of us is beginning to regret this.”
Rating: PG (there's a reference to kissing, but I didn't think that warranted a PG-13 rating)
Card: 1
Bingo: Tradition – ice skating – winter – regret – away from home
Summary: Kel wants to go ice skating with Anders. Piers and Ilane can't help.
“All right.” Piers sounded almost casual, almost amused, as he began, but his mouth was set in a grim line. “What happened? Thank you, my dear.” The last referred to the goblet with a shallow amount of rice wine, which he accepted from his wife. The first could have meant any number of things. When you move to a new country with four small children, one young—very young—lady, and a teenager, things were always happening, usually at the same time.
Ilane hesitated over her drink. It was a split second, but Piers noticed. He noticed the temptation on her face to set down the goblet and keep hold of the bottle. Ilane was a strong woman but that much rice wine would knock anyone flat on her back.
“Kel...”
The name of his youngest child was enough that Piers needed to sit down. She had been invaluable to him over the past few months. He had expected homesickness from his children, though not so many tears. When he expressed as much to Ilane, she had laughed, her actions then telling him that she was not coping well but thoroughly prepared. Kel had accepted their current home, and yes, there were struggles, but she wasn’t unhappy.
There had been no worries about Kel. Until now.
“...asked me when Anders would arrive.”
“Anders?” Piers repeated. He thought back to the words they had used to explain that some of their children would be remaining in Tortall but it wasn’t forever.
Ilane drank deeply. “She wants to go ice skating.”
The copper dropped, for Piers. Winter was setting in, and Anders always took his little sister ice skating. It was their tradition—albeit a tradition of only two years, since Kel was old enough to feel left out when the older children went ice skating. That Avinar had also been too young had not stopped her frustration. Neither Ilane nor Piers considered piggyback ice skating a wise idea, but Anders had never let harm come to his sister.
Missing that tradition had finally made clear the thing that held back the worst of the tears, for Kel. They were not just ‘in the Yamani Isles’. They were away from home.
“Are you beginning to regret this, Ilane?” The obvious unhappiness of their youngest was like the straw that would break the donkey’s back. All the stress of these past months had finally broken.
Ilane shook her head. “I told you from the first how I felt about coming here.” She had her reservations and believed it would be difficult, but Ilane thrived on experience. She had been excited, in a calm and mature sort of way. Yet Piers had had his concerns. A part of him had believed he would need to comfort his wife, hold her and kiss her mouth and brush away tears.
“Neither of us, Piers...” But as she came to him, it was he who needed comfort, her fingers dampened by tears and her lips bearing what little solace the truth could hold. “Neither of us is beginning to regret this.”
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!