Idealism [Miri Fisher x Evin Larse]
Fandom: Tamora Pierce’s Tortall
Pairing: Miri x Evin
Theme set: Beta
Rating: PG-13
Title: Idealism
1. Walking
One particularly rainy evening, Miri peels herself off her pony to discover she is walking bow-legged from the long ride; when Evin laughs at her, she points out that he is too, and then they’re laughing so hard they fall into the mud four times before making it to their respective showers.
2. Wonder
Evin’s eyes widen with wonder when he first sees Miri in a dress; then he coughs, smoothes his tunic, and mumbles something about “cleaning up well”.
3. Wasteland
The memory of charred corpses and a village in ruins chases Miri to the back of the mess tent to throw up her meal; Evin finds her there and, stroking her hot forehead with cool hands, gives her a flask of water and a towel.
4. Balcony
Despite Evin’s claim that anyone who spends half their days on top of a horse can’t be afraid of heights, she still won’t climb up with him to the highest balcony in the palace.
5. Quirks
Miri dismisses it as one of Evin’s quirks when he pulls a flower from behind her ear, brushing her cheek as he does.
6. Jump
Evin is the one who teaches her how to jump fences and logs-and picks her up, laughing heartily, when she tumbles off and falls into ponds and ditches in the process.
7. Soliloquy
“I do not talk to myself,” Evin says heatedly, though his eyes are glittering with mirth. “I just talk to you, even if you’re not around.”
8. Burning
Perhaps the most interesting of his Player tricks is a smoldering sideways glance that can leave her breathless and panting in December; the first time she gets the hang of it, he trips into the water trough and calls her a shameless vixen.
9. Waltz
“Whatdoyoumeanyoudon’tknowhowtodance?” Evin blurts out, horrified; a moment later, he grabs her around the waist and waltzes her around the stables, nearly knocking over two stable boys in the process.
10. Balloon
Miri is so insulted when Evin says her hair looks puffy that she doesn’t speak to him for a week-though it’s all for show, since she actually forgives him two days after.
11. Birthday
On her nineteenth birthday, Evin makes her promise to “give up the life of an old maid and get tumbled properly”-but he never mentions anything about being the one to actually do it.
12. Whiskey and rum
For something that took a bottle of whiskey and half an hour to start, his kiss-and her response--are surprisingly urgent.
13. Breathing
When he runs his hands down the length of her body, his heart beats to the rhythm of her frantic gasping.
14. Bias
“Well,” Daine whispers conspiratorially as they groom their ponies, “it seems we have a soft spot for taller fellows.”
15. Jousting
“Jousting is silly,” Miri hisses to Evin when he drags her to a local tournament-earning the glares of twenty other spectators who overhear her.
16. Serenade
Evin continues his loud, off-key, anonymous serenade until Buri smacks him with her staff and says, “Don’t lose your day job,” with a threatening expression.
17. Bane
“You’re going to be the death of me,” Miri whispers to Evin one night, her face flushed from the heat he’s left on her.
18. Natural
Even though they’re normally careful in public, Miri can’t resist rubbing her foot up Evin’s leg during dinner, causing him to inhale half his drink up his nose.
19. Quiet
It’s the first thing they come to terms with in their relationship-that if they aren’t quiet, they’ll have to face Commander Buri’s wicked eyes and knowing glance-not to mention three months of mucking out stalls.
20. Smirk
Evin still can not get used to the self-satisfied smirk Miri wears like a second skin when she pulls away from a long kiss, fixes her tunic laces, and strolls off whistling, leaving him quite alone and surprised.
21. Sarcasm
“You’re only with me for the sex,” Miri challenges playfully; Evin smiles slowly and traces curlicues on her bare skin-“But you’re just so damn good at it,”-which makes her laugh so hard he has to clap a hand over her mouth.
22. War
Miri only realizes true fear of war is fear in its aftermath as she watches a heavily-bandaged Evin being carried away on a stretcher, his eyes glassy with pain.
23. Stupidity
They don’t make love in the hayloft anymore-Evin is too ticklish to risk what happened last time Miri poked him with a piece of hay.
24. Quitting
“Is this really what you want?” Miri asks, looking at the resignation letter in his hands; she says nothing else for the rest of the day, but when she comes back the paper is in shreds and he is repairing tack.
25. Sojourn
Though she never says why, Buri never gives them too many chores together-there are always too many unexplained breaks.
26. Defeat
Just as she falls asleep, she whispers, “I love you,”-Evin stiffens, but before he can respond with anything, she is asleep.
27. Worry
Both have been involved with other people, but when fragments of those people come back to haunt them, it is Evin who worries the most.
28. Sordid
Miri doesn’t gossip-there’s too high a risk she’ll hear of someone she knows.
29. Just
Whenever people ask her if what she’s doing is just, Miri shrugs; as with all other idealistic notions, Buri beat it out of the Riders two months into training.
30. Question
There’s an unspoken question in Miri’s eyes whenever Evin goes on walks alone, but she leaves it unspoken.
31. Jester
The sight of Evin staring at her dress incredulously prompts Miri to threaten any expected laughter; but all he does is look her up and down, shake his head, and offer her some cider.
32. Sorrow
“Miri, it’s not what you think,” Evin says quickly, trying to block the door-but she still sees the woman beyond it, half hidden by the blanket she knows all too well.
33. Breaking
“We had something, Miri,” Evin says desperately, trying to hold her-but she shrugs out of his grasp coldly and says, “We had nothing.”
34. Share
There was always more to him and Miri than just sharing a bedroll, Evin realizes-but her vehement silence tells him he’s realized it too late.
35. Weddings
Just when she thought she was getting the hang of forgetting about marriages, Miri hears word of Raoul and Buri’s wedding.
36. Wishes
Whenever Miri sees Evin disappear with this or that noble lady, she wishes she didn’t have to see it, that she was in this-or-that’s place, that she could stop thinking thoughts like that-and in those moments she feels choked by those unspoken desires.
37. Horizon
His relationship with Miri had always felt so established he never wondered about what life would be like without it-or her.
38. Near
Though they sit next to each other for the entire meal, not one word passes between them.
39. Nuance
The noblewoman beneath him gives another loud moan-Mithrosthererighttherethatsitohh- and Evin remembers Miri whispering his name as they made love, her breath tickling his ear.
40. Neutral
A time comes when her enmity and his guilt soften into detachment-it’s a bitter compromise, but not as bitter as the alternative, so they take it.
41. Jewel
When Miri sees the lie-detecting jewel Evin purchases, she grins and calls it a neat piece of magic-but all the same, her chest tightens.
42. Quarrel
The smell of perfume on him no longer incites an immediate response: but those are the days she quarrels with him over tack or lists, which eventually culminates in a heated shouting-match, and then ignores him for days at a time.
43. Whimsy
On one of their rare rest days, Evin spots Miri asleep under a tree, and barely checks the desire to trace the whimsical curve of her nose under the shadow of her eyelashes.
44. Belief
Miri couldn’t help but laugh at the joke Evin made; her laughter dies away at the look of hope in his eyes that’s not quite hidden beneath the amusement.
45. Solitary
There’s never a moment when Evin is truly alone-wherever he walks, the memory of Miri walks too, as though time’s fabric has grown thin whenever he thinks of her.
46. Blessing
The sudden absence of perfume around Evin, Miri assures Daine, is only a blessing because she won’t have to hold her breath around him-but this sounds so much like a lie she quickly changes the subject.
47. Valiant
“Evin, no!” The next thing he knows Miri stands in her stirrups and nearly shoves him out of his saddle; when he drags himself up, he looks at Miri only to see her slip off her pony, an arrow embedded in her side.
48. Virtuous
“I thought Buri beat idealism out of you,” Evin says fiercely, his eyes glistening as he bandages a fainting Miri; she smiles distractedly and says, “If she had done it properly, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you in the first place.”
49. Victory
When he says she can’t die, and that he loves her, she smiles and says, “I can’t believe it took an arrow in the side for you to finally say so.”
50. Nowhere
“Don’t go,” Miri whispers as the healing takes hold and her eyelids begin to flutter, but Evin smiles and tells her not to worry-he’s going nowhere anytime soon.