(no subject)
Title: Watch the Sun Go Down
Story: The Dragonfire Chronicles
Characters: Fai, Shuang, Kitra, Lana, Aldan
Flavours: Wildberry #13 [Stood up]; Rocky Road #26 [Unholy place]
Toppings: Cookie Crumbs, A Cherry on Top, Gummy Bunnies - 500themes #97 [Approaching doom]
Extras: Malt - Summer Challenge ["You may not have an army behind you, but you have me."]
Word count: 816
Rating: PG
Summary: In which Fai attends Shuang's execution.
Notes: For the Casino Night summer challenge. Cookie crumbs because it's a companion to A Good Day to Die and Reveal. I think cherry applies here because it's definitely not a format I would usually write in, but I don't know specifically what is different about it. Hopefully it doesn't suck though ;D.
He leaves the house and there's not a thought in his head for Kitra, nothing spared for Lana or Aldan.
He'll not be going back there. His loyalty isn't to them. Never was.
Crowds are easy, easy to navigate, easy to blend into.
Prime spot, he thinks, the gallows dark and heavy and
he sees him and
time stops.
Fai knows Shuang's face, his walk, his stance. Could pick him out of a million shadows if it came down to it. He drinks the image greedily now, noting the light in his eyes is dim, the lines in his expression taut, knowing that he is worried, on the day of his own execution, for everyone else but himself and Fai's heart
cracks
breaks
shatters.
His world crumbles into dust when the noose falls onto that pale neck (it looks heavy, so heavy) but then-
Then.
Eyes meet eyes, there are a million things they've never said and never will, but he knows what Shuang wants of him, what he'd ask of him if he could, if he got that close.
His loyalty is to Shuang.
Shuang's loyalty is to everyone.
Fai can't bring himself to hate him for it.
He hates the crowd. Jeering and shouting and cursing and cheering and he can't hear the executioner but the word magic carries on the faint breeze and then-
The ex-bodyguard has been called cold and callous and unfeeling before, by people who don't know him and never will, but if they knew, if they knew-
They don't.
Fai counts. On ten, Shuang's eyes close.
Not dead.
Not yet.
Fai memorises the face of the man standing on the gallows, not the executioner, but the other-
People scream.
There's magic, the rush of it familiar after all this time and the man lifts his head and that
That's surprise.
Fai doesn't smile when he hears the mask of defiance in Kitra's voice.
The crowd is easy, even stampeding.
On the whole, guards are badly trained - because there are so many needed, so often - and so it's quick, quick work, fuelled by desperation and anger
and there's three guards, dead or incapacitated but he doesn't really care.
There's something more important, always more important.
The blade is sharp but the rope is thick and the blue tinge to his friend's lips is worrying but he works at it, his hands work at it without conscious thought until
until
he's down
and Fai is holding him, holding him up, aware there are guards nearby but they're too confused to do anything but any moment now one will notice and remember and then then then
then, a voice.
"Get a move on, you complete idiot," the voice says and pulls him forward, propels him forward and another voice says,
"Come on, come this way, we'll get him somewhere safe."
And that's okay, that's what he wants, so he follows.
No question.
They stop not far away and the voice says, "You need to let go of him. We need to get the noose entirely off," and hands reach, but
no!
Fai pulls him back and the voice is scared but still persistent, "Please Fai, please-"
so he does it himself, tosses the noose toward the voice, tries not to think of who it might be because that's not important what's important is
"He's not breathing."
that.
Fai looks because Shuang's face is so clear even if everyone else's is not and it's not a lie because he can't feel a stream of air when he leans his cheek down to feel and what can he do what can they do if Shuang is dead?
"Put him on the floor," the voice says.
There's something in it.
Certainty.
Fai does as he's told. Shuang looks small, so small, lying in the dust but there's no time to think, to do anything but
"Listen."
so he does.
A hand reaches, two fingers press briefly against Shuang's neck and
"He's not dead."
relief
"But he's not breathing."
and he'll die, he'll die, Fai knows that and yet the voice, the voice
"You need to breathe for him," it says.
It lifts Shuang's arms above his head and crouches down. Fai follows.
There's an explanation, fast, so fast, because the voice (Aldan, a part of his mind reminds him, unbidden) is telling him they don't have much time and then-
He's helping, he hopes. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Shuang's chest
rise
and fall
and if he could keep this up forever, would this bring him back?
But he can hear shouting in the distance and there's no time no time
but
he's not sure but
the voice is tugging, pulling him upwards, saying, "You've done it, you've done it, we have to go- we have to go now."
And he lifts a now breathing, living Shuang and follows.
Story: The Dragonfire Chronicles
Characters: Fai, Shuang, Kitra, Lana, Aldan
Flavours: Wildberry #13 [Stood up]; Rocky Road #26 [Unholy place]
Toppings: Cookie Crumbs, A Cherry on Top, Gummy Bunnies - 500themes #97 [Approaching doom]
Extras: Malt - Summer Challenge ["You may not have an army behind you, but you have me."]
Word count: 816
Rating: PG
Summary: In which Fai attends Shuang's execution.
Notes: For the Casino Night summer challenge. Cookie crumbs because it's a companion to A Good Day to Die and Reveal. I think cherry applies here because it's definitely not a format I would usually write in, but I don't know specifically what is different about it. Hopefully it doesn't suck though ;D.
He leaves the house and there's not a thought in his head for Kitra, nothing spared for Lana or Aldan.
He'll not be going back there. His loyalty isn't to them. Never was.
Crowds are easy, easy to navigate, easy to blend into.
Prime spot, he thinks, the gallows dark and heavy and
he sees him and
time stops.
Fai knows Shuang's face, his walk, his stance. Could pick him out of a million shadows if it came down to it. He drinks the image greedily now, noting the light in his eyes is dim, the lines in his expression taut, knowing that he is worried, on the day of his own execution, for everyone else but himself and Fai's heart
cracks
breaks
shatters.
His world crumbles into dust when the noose falls onto that pale neck (it looks heavy, so heavy) but then-
Then.
Eyes meet eyes, there are a million things they've never said and never will, but he knows what Shuang wants of him, what he'd ask of him if he could, if he got that close.
His loyalty is to Shuang.
Shuang's loyalty is to everyone.
Fai can't bring himself to hate him for it.
He hates the crowd. Jeering and shouting and cursing and cheering and he can't hear the executioner but the word magic carries on the faint breeze and then-
The ex-bodyguard has been called cold and callous and unfeeling before, by people who don't know him and never will, but if they knew, if they knew-
They don't.
Fai counts. On ten, Shuang's eyes close.
Not dead.
Not yet.
Fai memorises the face of the man standing on the gallows, not the executioner, but the other-
People scream.
There's magic, the rush of it familiar after all this time and the man lifts his head and that
That's surprise.
Fai doesn't smile when he hears the mask of defiance in Kitra's voice.
The crowd is easy, even stampeding.
On the whole, guards are badly trained - because there are so many needed, so often - and so it's quick, quick work, fuelled by desperation and anger
and there's three guards, dead or incapacitated but he doesn't really care.
There's something more important, always more important.
The blade is sharp but the rope is thick and the blue tinge to his friend's lips is worrying but he works at it, his hands work at it without conscious thought until
until
he's down
and Fai is holding him, holding him up, aware there are guards nearby but they're too confused to do anything but any moment now one will notice and remember and then then then
then, a voice.
"Get a move on, you complete idiot," the voice says and pulls him forward, propels him forward and another voice says,
"Come on, come this way, we'll get him somewhere safe."
And that's okay, that's what he wants, so he follows.
No question.
They stop not far away and the voice says, "You need to let go of him. We need to get the noose entirely off," and hands reach, but
no!
Fai pulls him back and the voice is scared but still persistent, "Please Fai, please-"
so he does it himself, tosses the noose toward the voice, tries not to think of who it might be because that's not important what's important is
"He's not breathing."
that.
Fai looks because Shuang's face is so clear even if everyone else's is not and it's not a lie because he can't feel a stream of air when he leans his cheek down to feel and what can he do what can they do if Shuang is dead?
"Put him on the floor," the voice says.
There's something in it.
Certainty.
Fai does as he's told. Shuang looks small, so small, lying in the dust but there's no time to think, to do anything but
"Listen."
so he does.
A hand reaches, two fingers press briefly against Shuang's neck and
"He's not dead."
relief
"But he's not breathing."
and he'll die, he'll die, Fai knows that and yet the voice, the voice
"You need to breathe for him," it says.
It lifts Shuang's arms above his head and crouches down. Fai follows.
There's an explanation, fast, so fast, because the voice (Aldan, a part of his mind reminds him, unbidden) is telling him they don't have much time and then-
He's helping, he hopes. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Shuang's chest
rise
and fall
and if he could keep this up forever, would this bring him back?
But he can hear shouting in the distance and there's no time no time
but
he's not sure but
the voice is tugging, pulling him upwards, saying, "You've done it, you've done it, we have to go- we have to go now."
And he lifts a now breathing, living Shuang and follows.