FIC: Enemy Lines
Title: Enemy Lines
Author: fajrdrako
Fandom: Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels, primarily Shards of Honour
Characters: Aral Vorkosigan, Piotr Vorkosigan, references to Cordelia Naismith
Length: 515 words
Challenge: Response to a drabble challenge issued by trialia for a drabble about Aral and Cordelia. I hope she will forgive me that this is a ficlet, not a drabble, and though it is about Aral and Cordelia, she doesn't actually show her face.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of Lois McMaster Bujold.
Notes: Spoilers for the novel Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold. Set after the destruction of the Barrayaran fleet, after Cordelia went back to Beta Colony. Cross-posted to my lj, my Dreamwidth account, bujold_fic, and aral_vorkosigan.
Enemy Lines
Piotr worried about Aral.
He knew, back twenty years ago, that the Vorrutyer slut and her conniving brother between them had almost destroyed his son. Time and circumstance had healed him - mostly.
Now Aral came back to Vorkosigan Surleau after Prince Serg's ill-fated expedition with a new shadow on his soul, with a tendency to exuberance and broody silence by turns. At first, Piotr wondered if he'd run from danger - after all, Aral had survived when few else had. He had no explanation for his survival, and Piotr wondered what Ezar was up to now. Covering for Aral's shame?
Thinking about it, Piotr rejected the notion. Aral was not a coward, whatever the circumstances. But something was on his mind... or someone.
A woman, then? A man? "What aren't you telling me about?" Piotr asked bluntly at dinner on the third day after Aral had come home, before the drinking got out of hand. "What happened to you out there? Something about Ges Vorrutyer?"
"He's dead," said Aral. As if it meant nothing to him. It must, at the very least, be a relief.
"He should have died years ago. Did you kill him?"
"I did not have that pleasure. I would have, gladly, but someone else did it for me before I got there."
"So why do you look haunted?"
Aral waited so long to answer that Piotr thought he might refuse. Finally, pouring himself more wine, Aral said, "While I was away, I fell in love."
Not a happy alliance with some lovely Vor girl, then. "Some damn soldier?" asked Piotr, disgust not quite hidden.
"Some damn soldier," agreed Aral, sipping. "A woman from Beta Colony."
Beta Colony. Piotr thought about it, tapping his fingers impatiently on the table-top. Beta Colony. Trust Aral to add another twist the tangled knot of his life.
Come to think of it, that was the Vorkosigan way, or maybe the Vorbarra: take your pick. It was in Aral's blood. One complication after another. Piotr laughed out loud.
Aral raised an eyebrow. "Father? I thought you'd be angry. Thought you'd call me a damn fool."
"Well, you are that," agreed Piotr. "But you're your own damn fool, and the day you stop surprising me will be the day one of us falls dead. Who is she?"
"Cordelia," said Aral. He tried to sound matter of fact, but a certain reverence had crept into his tone. "Captain of a Betan survey ship."
"Where is she now?"
"She went back to Beta Colony. To her own people."
"You didn't tell her how you felt?" That would be unlike Aral, as well. He always went after what he wanted, however foolhardy.
"I not only told her, I proposed marriage." Aral smiled, with regret but not with sadness. When talked about Cordelia, he seemed to be contemplating an inner light. "She went back anyway."
"Broke your heart, then?" Piotr's gruffness barely hid the faintest trace of sympathy. Why would any woman turn down Aral? This Betan must be crazy. They had odd ideas on Beta Colony.
"No. She showed me what I should be."
END