Hot Prince
Obviously, I got a shitload of writing done today. This makes me very happy for many reasons. Not least of which is the fact that the story is kind of swinging into action now, and I've introduced one of the princes of the Ventris Empire and I think I'm in love with him. Nicki drew a lovely picture of him, as well as two other members of the family. Sort of. One is a prince, the other is his bodyguard. Anyway, here's Thane Ventris, West Greene, and Penn Ventris. And here are a few bits of story.
Claire is silly, and Amelia is the girl Simon rescued.
“I understand,” he murmured, directing his gaze at the floor. That may have been a mistake, as his eyes were inexorably drawn to Amelia’s feet. They were bare against the floor, surprisingly delicate, and she had lacquered her toenails bright red. Simon flushed and pinned his attention instead on a spot near the ceiling. “There’s no line here, though. You’d have to go down to the mail office.”
“And they’re closed,” Claire chimed in. “Who do you need to contact? Perhaps we can think of another way to get hold of them.”
Simon considered chiding her for offering to aid a fugitive, but for the life of him he couldn’t do it. There was nothing malicious about Amelia and if what she said was true - and he was inclined to believe her - this was all a misunderstanding involving her parents. Personally, he felt it might be wiser to simply go to the Guard and explain what had happened, but it wasn’t his place to tell her what to do.
“Another way?” Amelia seemed amused by the offer.
“Yes!” Claire’s face lit up and Simon sighed. There was a light in her eyes that was unmistakable; she looked the same when she reached a particularly exciting place in one of her horrible novels. “We could pay a street urchin to carry a secret message! Or I could dress up like a fishwife and take it myself! Or Simon could get one of his friends at the university to-“
She might have kept it up all night had Amelia not held up an imperative hand, interrupting her. She stopped with a little huff and a wounded frown, but Amelia was focused on Simon. “You have friends at the university?” she demanded.
This is Thane. He's not having a good day and his aide, Arthur, is mean to him.
“Arthur,” he said, closing his eyes as the door shut on yet another useless status report from yet another contrite airman. “Arthur, where are you?”
“Here, Your Majesty,” came the soothing tones of his aide. Arthur Maines had been his servant for going on thirteen years now, having obtained the position the same year that Thane turned seventeen and proving so invaluable that he rarely left the prince’s side these days. He was the only person that Thane really trusted, wholly and without reservation, and if that did not speak to the sad state of affairs that the Prince found himself in, he didn’t know what would.
“What in the bloody hell is going on here, Arthur?” he asked, tipping his head back. A hot towel was applied immediately to his aching eyes and Thane let out a long breath. “You send well-trained men to perform a perfectly simple task, and this is what you get.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Arthur replied. Thane made a rude noise in his throat and flicked his fingers.
“Stop calling me that, for Circle’s sake.” They were of an age, and the formalities between them had not lasted long. Arthur only used honorifics now when there was an audience or when Thane was in a particularly vile mood. “I’m only tired, not angry.”
There was a short pause, then the sound of a chair scraping across the floor. Thane peeled up the corner of the towel and fixed his gaze on Arthur. He was a small man, short and slim and neat, perfectly dressed even at this hour in a tailored black suit, complete with his customary pair of gloves, dove gray with a winking pearl at each wrist. “Why on earth are you dressed like that at one in the morning?” Thane demanded.
“The pressures of my position,” Arthur answered, smiling thinly. “One of us has to look presentable, after all.” Thane growled, but the sound soon turned to laughter. It was not something that he indulged in that often, and then only in Arthur’s presence.
“I ought to throw you in jail for being cheeky,” Thane said.
“You ought,” Arthur agreed. “And then take me back out an hour later when you utterly fail to find someone else as adept at babysitting you.” The two men stared each other down for a moment, then Thane shook his head and dropped the towel back onto his eyes.
Also, I have decided to warm up every day with a short fanfic or a little work on my big bang or Yuletide fics. Because I don't want my fannish stuff to suffer. So here's some Firefly fic that I wrote for fic promptly today! Yay! Also, if anyone knows any friendly communities for me to post this in, I would be much obliged, because I don't think I'm actually in any Firefly fic communities. O_o
Title: Innocence & The Lack Thereof
Fandom: Firefly
Pairing/Characters: Jayne Cobb
Rating: PG-13 for some cussing and references to violence
Summary: Jayne tries to remember what it was like to be innocent and fails.
Notes: Written for fic_promptly.
( Innocence & The Lack Thereof )