Post by Shhasow on Feb 24, 2012 14:28:52 GMT 10
To: Elscy
Message: Happy Secret Admirer Gift thingy! Sorry this was posted later, but I hope you enjoy!
From: Shhasow
Title: Unknowledge
Rating: PG – very slight references to alcohol
Words: 870
Wishlist Item: #3: Asexual!Dom/______
Summary: Dom is both more and less clueless than he appears.
Dom remembers her, of course he does. It’s not every day one wins a free meal off a page, after all. He’d made sure to order the biggest, most expensive meal at the Jugged Hare. Lerant had been suitably appalled and impressed. Delicious.
He laughs at the girl. She’s a squire now, of course, but she’s folly to the same vices as any green soldier in the Own, and she eats the turnover with alacrity. When she discovers their mutual acquaintance, her serious eyes acquire a hint of laughter and Dom can understand why Neal has trouble describing Keladry.
Dom grins his crooked smile, and he starts a bit when the girl pauses her long strides to gaze at him. He quickly changes the subject, to Lord Raoul, to Cousin Meathead, to anything. He doesn’t remember what.
The squire impresses him, impresses all of them, with the bandits and her quiet confidence and her usefulness. As does her acceptance of the mad griffin.
Dom wonders if he has impressed her, too. He thinks so, because whenever he turns, the girl appears at his side. Silent. Watchful. Dom tells himself that Kel is observing him to see how he commands (because whatever doubts Dom has, he knows he is a good sergeant), and he ignores the fact that she ought to be following her knight master instead. If that’s why she was his faithful shadow, that is.
But instead, she migrates towards him more often than not. When Third Company stops to repair a village damaged by torrential rain, Dom hears a squelch of mud to his side and can’t help but laugh to see the steady squire with dirt in her teeth. That’s why she laughs at him, too – he knows that.
At the sighting of new tracks during a bandit chase, Dom feels a slight touch on his elbow and hears a soft voice ask for his opinion. It is flattering, yet he tells himself that she is merely searching for knowledge from a friendly face. What else could it be?
It isn’t for quite a while until Dom discovers what else it could be. And discover he does, as he overhears his men discussing loudly the girl’s calf-eyes and their agreement that they’d appreciate her even if their sergeant didn’t. Dom suspected drink was involved. Much drink.
Still, even the suggestion draws him short, and Dom views Kel and himself with different eyes. If true, well, what then?
Nothing, of course. Nothing at all.
It is with mingled relief and disappointment when the red-headed knight – Clown? No, Cleon – sweeps Kel away with his flowery words and tender looks. Her moments of freedom spent with the Own are gone, at least until the knight rides away and leaves Kel briefly despondent.
She soon regains her equilibrium, and her searching eyes follow Dom once more. His skin prickles, he gets jumpy, and his men snicker behind his back. His awareness summons an awkwardness that Dom knows only he feels, since he is determined not to show a hint of his unease to Kel.
Her serious brown eyes fall on him yet again, and he suppresses a shiver. He can feel the weight of her gaze, appraising as it is, and he wonders what she sees. A slender brown-haired sergeant of no great noble family, no incredible skill, nothing but a few silvers to his name.
Did he feel something for Kel?
No, he didn’t think so. Anyway, that was immaterial. Even if she was free and she liked him, Dom wasn’t free. He needed the Own, and he couldn’t be married, and a girl like Kel was too good for anything less.
If he were his cousin, or Cleon, or simply a knight, it might be different. Perhaps. Dom still can’t figure out how he would approach Kel that way, even if he was free. How had Cleon done it? Scratch that, why hadn’t Neal?
Dom shook his head at Neal’s folly. He’d never understand Meathead. After three years in Kel’s company, Dom was beginning to realize what was so easy to miss about the quietly confident girl.
After four years, after their fight with the kraken and the killing machine with the voice of a scared child, Dom is in awe. Conflicted, confused, he waves goodbye and good luck as Kel rides for Corus.
When she returns to Scanra, this time with her shield, something is different. It takes Dom a few days to puzzle it out – Kel has been gone for months, after all – but he finally realizes that he is missing his quiet shadow. Her eyes do not follow him; she does not seek him out.
A strange feeling of loss strikes Dom, and his throat clenches before he knows what has happened. Something has changed. Kel has changed. He doesn’t think he likes it.
Standing mere feet away from her, Dom misses Kel as he hadn’t during their months and miles apart.
When Lord Raoul asks him to leave on a mad mission, it takes but the hint of Kel’s name before he volunteers.
Kel has changed. So has Dom, but it is too late for that now.
He will settle for what he has left.
Message: Happy Secret Admirer Gift thingy! Sorry this was posted later, but I hope you enjoy!
From: Shhasow
Title: Unknowledge
Rating: PG – very slight references to alcohol
Words: 870
Wishlist Item: #3: Asexual!Dom/______
Summary: Dom is both more and less clueless than he appears.
Dom remembers her, of course he does. It’s not every day one wins a free meal off a page, after all. He’d made sure to order the biggest, most expensive meal at the Jugged Hare. Lerant had been suitably appalled and impressed. Delicious.
He laughs at the girl. She’s a squire now, of course, but she’s folly to the same vices as any green soldier in the Own, and she eats the turnover with alacrity. When she discovers their mutual acquaintance, her serious eyes acquire a hint of laughter and Dom can understand why Neal has trouble describing Keladry.
Dom grins his crooked smile, and he starts a bit when the girl pauses her long strides to gaze at him. He quickly changes the subject, to Lord Raoul, to Cousin Meathead, to anything. He doesn’t remember what.
The squire impresses him, impresses all of them, with the bandits and her quiet confidence and her usefulness. As does her acceptance of the mad griffin.
Dom wonders if he has impressed her, too. He thinks so, because whenever he turns, the girl appears at his side. Silent. Watchful. Dom tells himself that Kel is observing him to see how he commands (because whatever doubts Dom has, he knows he is a good sergeant), and he ignores the fact that she ought to be following her knight master instead. If that’s why she was his faithful shadow, that is.
But instead, she migrates towards him more often than not. When Third Company stops to repair a village damaged by torrential rain, Dom hears a squelch of mud to his side and can’t help but laugh to see the steady squire with dirt in her teeth. That’s why she laughs at him, too – he knows that.
At the sighting of new tracks during a bandit chase, Dom feels a slight touch on his elbow and hears a soft voice ask for his opinion. It is flattering, yet he tells himself that she is merely searching for knowledge from a friendly face. What else could it be?
It isn’t for quite a while until Dom discovers what else it could be. And discover he does, as he overhears his men discussing loudly the girl’s calf-eyes and their agreement that they’d appreciate her even if their sergeant didn’t. Dom suspected drink was involved. Much drink.
Still, even the suggestion draws him short, and Dom views Kel and himself with different eyes. If true, well, what then?
Nothing, of course. Nothing at all.
It is with mingled relief and disappointment when the red-headed knight – Clown? No, Cleon – sweeps Kel away with his flowery words and tender looks. Her moments of freedom spent with the Own are gone, at least until the knight rides away and leaves Kel briefly despondent.
She soon regains her equilibrium, and her searching eyes follow Dom once more. His skin prickles, he gets jumpy, and his men snicker behind his back. His awareness summons an awkwardness that Dom knows only he feels, since he is determined not to show a hint of his unease to Kel.
Her serious brown eyes fall on him yet again, and he suppresses a shiver. He can feel the weight of her gaze, appraising as it is, and he wonders what she sees. A slender brown-haired sergeant of no great noble family, no incredible skill, nothing but a few silvers to his name.
Did he feel something for Kel?
No, he didn’t think so. Anyway, that was immaterial. Even if she was free and she liked him, Dom wasn’t free. He needed the Own, and he couldn’t be married, and a girl like Kel was too good for anything less.
If he were his cousin, or Cleon, or simply a knight, it might be different. Perhaps. Dom still can’t figure out how he would approach Kel that way, even if he was free. How had Cleon done it? Scratch that, why hadn’t Neal?
Dom shook his head at Neal’s folly. He’d never understand Meathead. After three years in Kel’s company, Dom was beginning to realize what was so easy to miss about the quietly confident girl.
After four years, after their fight with the kraken and the killing machine with the voice of a scared child, Dom is in awe. Conflicted, confused, he waves goodbye and good luck as Kel rides for Corus.
When she returns to Scanra, this time with her shield, something is different. It takes Dom a few days to puzzle it out – Kel has been gone for months, after all – but he finally realizes that he is missing his quiet shadow. Her eyes do not follow him; she does not seek him out.
A strange feeling of loss strikes Dom, and his throat clenches before he knows what has happened. Something has changed. Kel has changed. He doesn’t think he likes it.
Standing mere feet away from her, Dom misses Kel as he hadn’t during their months and miles apart.
When Lord Raoul asks him to leave on a mad mission, it takes but the hint of Kel’s name before he volunteers.
Kel has changed. So has Dom, but it is too late for that now.
He will settle for what he has left.