Post by Kris11 on Feb 15, 2013 15:56:56 GMT 10
Rating: G
Prompt: Baird/Fanche
Summary: Their entire relationship was based off things they didn't say, and yet for that, it was remarkably, sweetly straight-forward.
Word Count: 1376
Notes: I don't know. Honestly, it just kind of didn't happen and it tried to happen and I tried to make it happen but... it didn't happen? What happened? You did say you wanted something subtle and I am gripping that point tight and sending it to lawyers and such because... boy is it ever. I don't even know what happened. Honestly. I love you, dear EC, and I hope this is... something.
Baird leant back in hischair, his eyes closing on their own accord as he relaxed in the comfort of hisnew favourite chair in his room in New Hope. There was a flu going around the guardsand he had spent the entire day soothing upset stomachs and alleviatingdehydration among his charges. It wasn’t hard work, but it was draining and hewas an old man.
Or at least he felt like it, late into evenings after a longday.
“Are you going to continue this game before I go grey, oram I going to be left waiting until dawn?”
Baird smiled at Fanche without opening his eyes. He knew shewas sitting back in her chair, the one that hadbeen his favourite, before this forceful, confrontational, impossible woman walkedinto his life. It was hard to get her to do something she didn’t want to do,impossible when it was Baird trying to do so politely and without offendinghis... unconventional guest.
He was used to dealing with all sorts of people, but he didso only professionally. In his personal life he dealt almost exclusively withothers of his class. It was not a choice, as much; he had been the palace’shealer for decades. But he had been raised to understand that he was responsiblefor the common people on his lands, to care for their lives and welfare andensure their safety and often – too often – that came along with a sense ofsuperiority even in those who had no sense of entitlement or contempt.
The world had changed. The palace was filled with peopleBaird respected who were not noble-born, and who did not need anyone to tellthem how to run their lives. And he watched the nobles around him try to cometo terms with that, and fail to come to terms with that, sometimes.
In New Hope, the lines were blurred even further and he wasfar from the predictable routes his life had found. New connections had to bemade, and he had found that he didn’t know how to make them. It had beenlonely, to feel apart.
“Are you sleeping?”Fanche asked him. He opened his eyes, startled out of his half-dream musings.Her arms were crossed, her head tilted to one side imperiously. Fanche hadtaken control of the survivors in her village, had saved them with herdetermination and the force of her will. This was not a woman who allowed a difference in class create awkwardness ordistance. Without that barrier between them, Baird had been too tempted by hercompany to let her go. One evening turned into many, turned into teaching herthe strategy of a game she cared nothing about, turned to late nights sittingby the fire and falling asleep in their chairs and enough time spent together toturn silences into companionable rather than awkward and to create jokes onlythey understood and to allow a hand to be held or a shoulder to be rested upon.
She rolled her eyes and huffed when he merely smiled at herindignation. “Your play,” she reminded him, gesturing at the board set betweenthem.
He looked at the board, considering how long he could keepthis game going before he would have to checkmate Fanche and allow theirevening together to come to an end. She didn’t understand the strategy of the gameand he had been getting away with longer and longer matches, but she hadsurprised him more than once. She didn’t understand the strategy of the gamebecause she couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to him when he explained it,most of the time. When she wanted the game to end, she could come up withsurprisingly good tactics for someone who had learned to play a few short weeksago.
He smiled as he considered their unusual companionship. Theyhad known each other for nearly a year, as people who shared a common spacewould. Baird had not ever really appreciated the work she did keeping the otherrefugees safe, and she had seen him as yet another noble who she had neitherthe time nor the inclination to try and comprehend. He had come to appreciateher for so much more than her place in their strange little town. Her strength,her pride, her determination... there was a lot to admire, though he never saidso much aloud. If he caught himself staring just a little too long and if she caught him – which she did – well,they didn’t mention it.
“Baird,” she said, warningly. He made his move withouthesitation and she sighed. Her gaze flicked about the board, her brow furrowingas she considered the pieces and their relationships with each other. Finallyshe leaned back in her chair. “You win the game.”
He smiled at her. “You just want to go to bed.”
She rolled her head to the side, cracking the bones in herneck and ignoring his disapproving look at it. “Neither here nor there. There’sno point in going on if we know the outcome.”
Baird shook his head. He had tried to explain that the gamewas more about how the moves wereplayed than simply about winning or losing, but she honestly didn’t care. Hecould keep her in his company only so long as she gave him her time and nolonger; no matter that he wanted her with him more and more. No matter thatthese comfortable rooms felt a little darker and a little colder without her inthem, or that he couldn’t lose himself in a good book or in crafting a letterthe way he once had. It was boring, unsettling without her there.
And perhaps she felt that hint of restlessness that seemedto have settled into his bones, that flared up in an almost-ache and a twitchof the toes or fingers and a constant need to check over his shoulder when shewasn’t there... maybe she felt that, too, when she wasn’t with him.
It felt like something serious to admit, though. And thefire was flickering warmly and his eyes weredrifting towards closed, so he admitted his victory and allowed the game toend, instead of asking her to see it to the end (to stay).
He caught her hand as she stood to leave. “Thank you forhumouring me,” he said. Her expression slipped, instantly, into something soft.The months of bullying her village into submission, into safety, and a hardlife before that melted into the fondness of a woman who had no interestwhatsoever in chess and who would much rather sleep than sit up into the night,but who did so anyway. She huffed, but twisted her fingers so that she couldhold his hand in return.
“You are a silly man,” she said softly. She shook her headbut didn’t let go of his hand. If it was lonely to be held apart by class, itwas just as lonely to be held apart by a self-imposed leadership. Fanche hadled her village to safety, and had established herself as a leader among thepeople of New Hope. It was easy for her to resolve disputes, to scold those notpulling their weight or creating tensions, and to encourage people through thehard times (of which there were still many), but harder to sit comfortably withthe scolded, to lean on the shoulder of the one who needed encouragement. Shehad stepped forward and had become the leader her village had needed, but itmeant they were all looking at her, setting her apart and that was lonely too.
Don’t thank me, she was saying. I should be thanking you.
The things they didn’t say; it wasn’t because they fearedthe expression, or didn’t know how to put it into words.
It was because there was no need; they both already knew. Theyhad found themselves in the silences between them. Because you didn’t have tosay things aloud to know they were true. A kindred spirit, the joy offriendship, the warmth of love. There were things that didn’t have to bedefined and identified to be true.
I basically wrote married people romance. I don't... I don't know.
Kris, this is everything. That kind of romance works well with Baird, and the way you executed it really made his relationship with Fanche work! Thank you so much!!! 
<3
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!