Post by Cass on Feb 21, 2013 15:04:48 GMT 10
Rating: PG-13
Word count: ~630
Prompt: Zahir/Roald
Summary: They always knew there would be an end date.
A/N: I'm so sorry this is late! Traveling and applications kind of got the best of me
but I really enjoyed writing this pairing! Timeline inaccuracies are... probably existent, since I don't have my books with me up at college.“You’re married now,” Zahir says, andRoald looks at the celebration circling them, the swirls of courtiers and knights and dancing girls and says, “yes.”
-
“I love Shinkokami,” Roald says, hishead tipping back onto Zahir’s shoulder. Zahir is still underneath him, as composed as he can be after threeglasses of very good wine. “She’sexactly what she’s supposed to be.”
“She will be a good queen,” Zahirresponds. It isn’t a lie to make Roaldfeel better, not at all—Princess Shinkokami will one day be the queen Tortallneeds, after the passions of Jon and Thayet. He’s been privy to all of it; some days, he wishes he was in Jesslaw’splace with Wyldon, but that’s still nothing compared to full knighthood andreally, four years under Cavall’s thumb was more than enough. “You’re a lucky man.”
“Well.” Roald’s smile is crooked, his eyes very blue against the dark maroon ofZahir’s shirtsleeve. “It was expected,after all.” He picks up the glass ofwine and takes a sip, then hands it over. Zahir downs the entire thing.
“Easy,” Roald says, but he goes for thewhiskey.
-
They kiss and it’s sloppy, it always is.Zahir prides himself on having more finesse, on being better, butRoald—doesn’t care. Hasn’t. Won’t. Whichever it is, it fills him with some strange feeling he’s too smartto try and name.
Roald isn’t married yet, and if thatdoesn’t make it alright, at least it makes it less wrong.
(He thinks Lord Wyldon still woulddisapprove. There’s something seriouslywrong with how that man has wormed his way into both their heads.)
“You love Shinkokami,” Zahir says,pulling away; it isn’t we can’t but it’s halfway to a reprimand.
Roald grins again. “I have room for you too,” he says.
-
The thing is, he knows Roald used tohate him, during Keladry’s first year of page training. He doesn’t like himself, in retrospect, andhe knows that the only reason he’s serving Jonathan is because Roald turned hisfather down.
(“I don’t want your thanks,” Roald saysto him. It’s dark out, sitting on thebalcony; the gardens are dim in the moonlight below them. “I only want your loyalty.”
“You already have it, your Highness,”Zahir responds, almost unthinking—but it’s true, it’s the truest thing he’sever said, and maybe, unlike Joren, he has a chance of surviving his Ordeal.
“Good,” Roald says.
Their hands brush against each other;that night isn’t the first time they touch, but it’s the one Zahir thinks ofthe most).
-
They’ll stop when the war is over,they’ll stop when the engagement turns into a marriage, and they’ll stop whenthey’re found out — it isn’t hard to think of excuses.
Zahir tells himself he’s an idiot, andthat each day it’ll get harder to move on.
-
“Last chance,” Roald says, “weddingvows, you know—“
“—I don’t think this is the picture ofthe blushing groom most people expected,” Zahir says, gesturing, wristelegant. Roald looks up at him. His mouth is very pink.
“Suppose not,” he responds, tilting hishead. “But tomorrow, when I vow to befaithful, to love and honor her forever—I’d like to mean it. I don’t want to be one of those Contekings.”
“Then you won’t, and we won’t,” Zahirsays, voice decisive. “Start the nightwith good decisions, not bad.”
Roald’s eyes are dark, but he nods, andlater, Zahir will think about what he gave up.
-
“My loyalty, my fealty,” Zahir says, hisvoice quiet in the prince’s ear. “Whatever happens, or has happened, you’ve still got it.”
Roald smiles bright and true, and claspshis hand; in that moment, he exactly looks like his father.
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!