Post by Seek on Apr 27, 2013 2:28:13 GMT 10
Title: Protective
Rating: PG
Word Count: 503
Pairing: Beka/Rosto
Round/Fight: 1C
Summary: Reversal!verse. Someone has words with Rosto about Beka.
Warnings: One or two threats with sexual connotations.
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“I see you’ve been taking an interest in young Beka of late,” the man says.
I recognise him immediately. Lanky, and taller than I am, with deep brown eyes and a long, curved nose. He blinks at me, and looks very much like an owl in that instant. Short-cropped hair, greying. He’s older than I am; for all of that, Kora says we are very much alike. Perhaps that is why we are friends, as far as we have an understanding that my business and his don’t mix.
Very often, it does, however, and then we’re left to sort out the pieces. I find Mattes an easy cove to work with, mostly because we’re both exiles in a way, even though we’re on opposite sides of the law. A good Dog knows how fluid the lines can be.
“Yes,” I say, calmly, still trying to get off the apple’s skin in one piece. In the Scanran winter, we dip these in honey and fry them as children’s snacks. I’ve always had a soft spot for these. “What’s it to you, Mattes?”
“Beka’s a good girl,” Mattes says, in that slow, owlish way of his. “Wouldn’t like to see anything bad happen to her.”
I straighten up, almost cut the apple skin in that moment of lost concentration and curse. “I’ve seen her work at Mistress Noll’s pastries.” His eyebrows rise at my choice of words, but he says nothing. Work is a mild way of putting it; Tansy Lofts laid a hand on Beka and swore she could hear her dead son’s voice from the swarming pigeons.
Beka also said she’d remove my hands and ship them back to Scanra if I tried laying hands on her to see if I could hear the voices that way. Aniki laughed on the way home and told me that it was entertaining to see one girl I couldn’t charm.
Traitor.
“You think she’ll be helping you, then?”
I raise my eyebrows at him. “She’s the ghost-eyes and the ghost-sight. That’s more than passing rare. By now, I’ll take any sort of help I can get.”
Mattes laughs. “You’re lucky she’s a soft spot for children. Child-stealers, child-takers…them as harms children, she can’t abide.”
I stare at him, and hold his gaze for a long moment, and smirk. “Why,” I say, “Then we’re all on the same page, aren’t we, Matthias Tunstall?”
“Try me, Rosto the Piper,” he says immediately. “I’ve been working the Rogue ever since you were a tot swaddled at your ma’s teats.”
I say cheerfully, “Probably, old man.”
He ignores that—I know exactly how much he enjoys our little verbal displays of affection—and continues, “I meant what I said about young Beka getting hurt.”
I say, “Beka can take care of herself.” Raise my head in what is most definitely a challenge. “Can’t she?”
Mattes threatens to send my jewels back to Scanra in a sack, still calm, still smiling. And I finally see exactly where Beka gets it from.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 503
Pairing: Beka/Rosto
Round/Fight: 1C
Summary: Reversal!verse. Someone has words with Rosto about Beka.
Warnings: One or two threats with sexual connotations.
-
“I see you’ve been taking an interest in young Beka of late,” the man says.
I recognise him immediately. Lanky, and taller than I am, with deep brown eyes and a long, curved nose. He blinks at me, and looks very much like an owl in that instant. Short-cropped hair, greying. He’s older than I am; for all of that, Kora says we are very much alike. Perhaps that is why we are friends, as far as we have an understanding that my business and his don’t mix.
Very often, it does, however, and then we’re left to sort out the pieces. I find Mattes an easy cove to work with, mostly because we’re both exiles in a way, even though we’re on opposite sides of the law. A good Dog knows how fluid the lines can be.
“Yes,” I say, calmly, still trying to get off the apple’s skin in one piece. In the Scanran winter, we dip these in honey and fry them as children’s snacks. I’ve always had a soft spot for these. “What’s it to you, Mattes?”
“Beka’s a good girl,” Mattes says, in that slow, owlish way of his. “Wouldn’t like to see anything bad happen to her.”
I straighten up, almost cut the apple skin in that moment of lost concentration and curse. “I’ve seen her work at Mistress Noll’s pastries.” His eyebrows rise at my choice of words, but he says nothing. Work is a mild way of putting it; Tansy Lofts laid a hand on Beka and swore she could hear her dead son’s voice from the swarming pigeons.
Beka also said she’d remove my hands and ship them back to Scanra if I tried laying hands on her to see if I could hear the voices that way. Aniki laughed on the way home and told me that it was entertaining to see one girl I couldn’t charm.
Traitor.
“You think she’ll be helping you, then?”
I raise my eyebrows at him. “She’s the ghost-eyes and the ghost-sight. That’s more than passing rare. By now, I’ll take any sort of help I can get.”
Mattes laughs. “You’re lucky she’s a soft spot for children. Child-stealers, child-takers…them as harms children, she can’t abide.”
I stare at him, and hold his gaze for a long moment, and smirk. “Why,” I say, “Then we’re all on the same page, aren’t we, Matthias Tunstall?”
“Try me, Rosto the Piper,” he says immediately. “I’ve been working the Rogue ever since you were a tot swaddled at your ma’s teats.”
I say cheerfully, “Probably, old man.”
He ignores that—I know exactly how much he enjoys our little verbal displays of affection—and continues, “I meant what I said about young Beka getting hurt.”
I say, “Beka can take care of herself.” Raise my head in what is most definitely a challenge. “Can’t she?”
Mattes threatens to send my jewels back to Scanra in a sack, still calm, still smiling. And I finally see exactly where Beka gets it from.