AU for _deadlydance_, set immediately after "The Price"

[birthrightgreen]

She wasn't nervous. She had nothing to be nervous about. It wasn't like it was a romantic evening. They'd just worked so hard on the case, working to catch the rabid witch who'd been slaughtering innocent males. And they had, with Jaenelle's help. Now Jaenelle and Daemon were back on their honeymoon and she...

She was here in Amdarh, back how she had been, nursing the bruises Falonar had left. So, why, exactly was she changing her dress? The one she had on was perfectly acceptable. She was going out dancing with a friend. She could use a friend right now. What she couldn't use was a male thinking he was just going to sweep in and carry her off.

Not that he was probably thinking that, but she was suspicious.

He was a male, and years of seeing them abused by her own sex still hadn't made her trust them as a gender. Then again, she didn't trust most people.

With a growl at herself, she finally settled on a black dress with enough slink to impress and a enough swirl to make a statement on the dance floor, no matter how elegant and formal. Hair pinned half up, the rest left down. If people stared at her ears, so be it.

She was ready. It was going to be fun. She kept repeating that. Fun. With a friend.

Just a friend. He wasn't expecting anything. He wouldn't be that foolish.

She just wished she knew what he wanted.

Comments

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

Her smile was just a tiny bit forced. "Something like that."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"All I know is we walked ten times round this city, in every direction it could be walked, for three whole days. Then he showed up and you knew exactly what to do."

Daemon also had seemingly eased whatever had been upsetting Surreal for all of those days, setting Rainier on edge because he simply had no idea how to sooth it.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"It was his idea to use the boy. I wasn't thinking in terms of bait and hunting. I got distracted." By her own fears, truthfully. By what she feared to find, holding her back from finding it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"And whatever it was that distracted you, he eased that too."

Rainier's eyes challanged her to deny it.

Not that he was jealous.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She nodded slightly. "Yes."

He'd known, without her saying anything.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"I'm glad he could help," Rainier finally admitted grudgingly. "I don't like to think about how many more men would have died."

Or how taunt, and drawn, she would have stayed.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"Nor do I." She was mildly disgruntled that she'd needed him to put it together. Extra 1300 years doing it or not.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

Maybe he should warn her, Rainier decided.

"Well, you can expect to have won the appreciation of a great many men in the city."

Was she prepared for that?

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She looked up at him and paled a little bit.

"Oh, shit."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"They'll pet," he pointed out, almost as an afterthought.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She groaned slightly, closing her eyes. "Forget the theatre. I'm not leaving the townhouse for the next month until they forget."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"It's a private box Surreal."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"There's a lobby," she said grimly, remembering her last trip to the theatre.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"You doubt my abilty to safely escort you through a lobby?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

Why did males have to twist everything.

"Safely? No, not at all." She gave him a look. "But you seem to be of the distinct impression that females ought to be petted."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He grinned widely.

"Ought'nt they?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"Do you have any idea what it is like to be on the receiving end of that much attention?" She looked at him steadily.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"To that extreme?" Rainier didn't even have to think. "No."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"You'd have a different opinion of it if you had," she grumbled slightly.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

Rainer was quiet.

It wasn't as if he was going to apologize for the behaivor.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"It can be...smothering."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

There was another sip of wine. Then a bite of the dessert.

"Have you ever considered the other view? The dead, empty feeling that consumes when we are not allowed to serve? The inability to dance the edge on our own?"

At least without causing damage so fierce, and to loose the ability to recognize your own hands work.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head, studying him. "I understand when it's needed to bring you down from the edge. It's the...daily fussing. Not letting a woman cross a street on her own. Not finding a...balance."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"You can heal daily. Become the heart, and center of an entire community, daily. Spin webs and weave dreams, daily. If it suits? Paternity can be denied, daily."

He was done with his wine.

"So why can't there be the daily connection? The reminder of what Service really means. Why can't the young one lead you across the street, and feel the touch of an anchor. To feel, more than know why it works, if it is honored? Why does that just have to be about -- an edge?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She hadn't thought about it quite like that. Because it wasn't...

She pushed her hair back behind her ear, eyes thoughtful, and maybe just a touch of the broken little girl in them.

"I don't know," she admitted quietly. "I've never...I've never seen it be like that. Never seen it...work."