Post by Kit on Apr 21, 2013 4:33:28 GMT 10
Title: Anarchy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 415
Pairing: Kel/Lalasa
Round/Fight: 1/B
Summary: An homage to Meg's brain and also to SMACKDOWNS of yesteryear. Kel feels the ache of full love and forced loyalty.
“Sire, I fell down.”
King Jonathan was looking at her over steepled fingers. There were dark circles under his bright eyes, and an unhappy twist to his mouth. After 15 years serving her King, this was nothing new. Kel knew her own face was impassive. Knew the bile that had risen up and then seemed to seep through her until it lay just under her skin and burned there was a private, tired thing. Alanna, she thought with a mix of quick humour and dull grief, would already be insulting the king. But Alanna could get away with it. Jonathan knew too well where Kel’s sympathies were.
You need to rest. Before you do something stupid.
“Haven’t we done this before, Lady Knight?”
“A body can fall many times, sire.” She did not need to clear her throat. Her skin was cool, her tunic pressed. “I’ve never let it get in the way of duty.”
Jonathan sighed. “But you continue to—”
What, Your Majesty? Kel dared him silently. Sympathise with causes that show how much we still have to do? Fall in love with too many men and the wrong sort of women? Again, the Lioness was just as irascible and painful as memory as she had ever been before her heart had stopped in the night, in the sort of quiet end that never fit any myths. Kel’s eyes burned.
(Lalasa had held her then.)
“Trouble is going to break out around Lalasa Isran.” Jonathan’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You know it as well as I.”
(Lalasa, fierce as she stood outside the Goddess’s Temple, giving free defense lessons in the Square. Lalasa, weeping hot, angry tears after days changing the reason for one girl’s bruises, another boy’s abandonment. Lalasa, sure she was alone and strange even (especially) with Kel at her back, until she saw a crowd had gathered up behind her when she wasn’t looking. A group that had taken her and loved her and looked to find the voice that had been secret in her heart. The voice that said: Sympathy is not enough. Aid is not enough. This person. This city. This Kingdom needs change.)
“Keladry,” said the King (baldly, he said it; badly, he said it). “If there is insurrection, you are not going to be able to help her.”
“Lalasa Isran,” Kel said quietly, “Doesn’t need my protection, sire. Not any more.”
“So, you understand?”
“Yes,” said the Lady Knight. “And I am so proud of her.”
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 415
Pairing: Kel/Lalasa
Round/Fight: 1/B
Summary: An homage to Meg's brain and also to SMACKDOWNS of yesteryear. Kel feels the ache of full love and forced loyalty.
“Sire, I fell down.”
King Jonathan was looking at her over steepled fingers. There were dark circles under his bright eyes, and an unhappy twist to his mouth. After 15 years serving her King, this was nothing new. Kel knew her own face was impassive. Knew the bile that had risen up and then seemed to seep through her until it lay just under her skin and burned there was a private, tired thing. Alanna, she thought with a mix of quick humour and dull grief, would already be insulting the king. But Alanna could get away with it. Jonathan knew too well where Kel’s sympathies were.
You need to rest. Before you do something stupid.
“Haven’t we done this before, Lady Knight?”
“A body can fall many times, sire.” She did not need to clear her throat. Her skin was cool, her tunic pressed. “I’ve never let it get in the way of duty.”
Jonathan sighed. “But you continue to—”
What, Your Majesty? Kel dared him silently. Sympathise with causes that show how much we still have to do? Fall in love with too many men and the wrong sort of women? Again, the Lioness was just as irascible and painful as memory as she had ever been before her heart had stopped in the night, in the sort of quiet end that never fit any myths. Kel’s eyes burned.
(Lalasa had held her then.)
“Trouble is going to break out around Lalasa Isran.” Jonathan’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You know it as well as I.”
(Lalasa, fierce as she stood outside the Goddess’s Temple, giving free defense lessons in the Square. Lalasa, weeping hot, angry tears after days changing the reason for one girl’s bruises, another boy’s abandonment. Lalasa, sure she was alone and strange even (especially) with Kel at her back, until she saw a crowd had gathered up behind her when she wasn’t looking. A group that had taken her and loved her and looked to find the voice that had been secret in her heart. The voice that said: Sympathy is not enough. Aid is not enough. This person. This city. This Kingdom needs change.)
“Keladry,” said the King (baldly, he said it; badly, he said it). “If there is insurrection, you are not going to be able to help her.”
“Lalasa Isran,” Kel said quietly, “Doesn’t need my protection, sire. Not any more.”
“So, you understand?”
“Yes,” said the Lady Knight. “And I am so proud of her.”
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!