Prompt Post - Part Eight [CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS]
THIS PART IS NOW CLOSED. YOU CAN CONTINUE POSTING FILLS, BUT PLEASE PROMPT ALL NEW THINGS HERE.
Part one here!
Part two here!
Part three here!
Part four here!
Part five here!
Part six here!
Part seven here!
Feel free to reprompt posts from previous parts once. If you do so, I'd recommend leaving a link to your fill on the original prompt, in case somebody ( Read more... )
The boy stares up at him and somehow, then, Bruce has a partner.
That would be complicated enough, except news travels slow below the sea and King Orin follows Lord Oliver's example without knowing better, and there is no refusing a gift like Kaldur'ahm of Shayeris-not from the king of a rival city-state. Kaldur'ahm is young and handsome and powerful and well-liked in the court of Atlantis.
Kaldur'ahm saved Orin's life.
Bruce is almost ashamed to accept him, even though refusing would be the worst kind of insult-how can he allow such a soldier to be wasted languishing away in a harem he only has because it was the safest way to take care of one orphaned child? Kaldur'ahm is brave and quick and devoted to a fault, loyal and strong and the kind of boy who should grow into a great and worthy general. The kind of boy who should grow into a free man.
But Kaldur'ahm is not unhappy when his king leaves him at Bruce's door. He stands tall and serene and content in himself and his place and his duty, and Bruce, who can think of no better choices, lets him in. He gives him the third room in the harem-the first is Robin's and looks nothing like a concubine's, full of books and scrolls and weapons and the kind of things a man would only give a son; the second is Roy's, bare and empty but for the bed and drapes and one broken arrowhead.
Kaldur'ahm comes with nothing except his own sorcery and the armor he was brought here in, and Bruce makes the mistake of coming to his bedroom to ask him what he'd like to have for it. Kaldur'ahm misunderstands his intentions-understandably-and when Bruce reflexively recoils the boy's confusion and shame is a palpable thing in the air.
Kaldur'ahm apologizes anxiously for something that is not his fault and Bruce is again confronted with a child without purpose or direction, except Kaldur'ahm is younger than Roy and only wants to do what is right, only wants to follow the last order of the king who gave him away.
And Bruce still has only one purpose to give.
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I love your writing style. I don't know if it's a consistent form or if you're using it for this story only, but it suits the context, time period and Bruce's character really well. I'm looking forward to more.
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I'm . . . I'm not sure how consistent my form is? *SHOULD REALLY KNOW THAT, PROBABLY* >>;; I am trying to write a little more fanciful than usual, though. I'm glad it works for you! <3
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But Robin and Kaldur'ahm have a purpose, and by the time Bruce returns the next morning the knight and his squire have been hidden from prying eyes in the fourth room of the harem wing.
Sir Bartholomew wakes up only long enough to beg sanctuary for his beloved nephew, and then does not wake up again. Wallace wakes up with lightning in his eyes and veins, a stranger in a strange land with a curse on him that will never let him go back to the West.
Robin looks at him, and looks at Bruce, and somehow that's the end of it.
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Bruce might've had a chance of denying Luthor if it weren't for the fact the man presents the boy to him when his entire court, the Manhunter, and Kal of El are all in attendance-if he denies this boy it would open the way for someone to question why not this one, when he'd accepted and even sought out all the others. More than that, it'd be an insult before witnesses, and Bruce would never think Luthor wouldn't do something with that.
So he accepts the boy with the appropriate thanks and Kaldur'ahm carries him back to the harem, Robin and Wallace-Wally, now-flanking him in the bright, station-appropriate silks that they wear when the court is in session. Robin does a much better job of not looking concerned than Wally, but anyone would. Bruce returns his attention to the rest of the room and finds that Kal of El has disappeared and the Manhunter is looking at him much more closely than he likes.
Luthor smiles pleasantly, darkly, and gives him an emerald key that doesn't look so much like emerald once Bruce has it in his hand. The evening after that is long and miserable and dull and Bruce spends it laughing like a liar for the court and thinking of the boy whose name Luthor did not even bother to provide before he swept off to charm the nobles. The moment it's remotely decent to duck out Bruce is gone, ignoring the “knowing” titters of the few who see him heading in the direction of his harem. In the fifth room the boy lies still as the grave, illuminated by not-emerald chains that glow in the dim light.
In moments like these, Bruce wishes he at least had the defense of saying he did not understand his own world.
The boy wakes up when Bruce unlocks the chains and instantly yanks him down with a monstrous strength-for an instant Bruce thinks this is an assassination attempt and of course Luthor would be so bold, but then the silk falls away and the boy wraps his arms around his neck and kisses him. Not like Kaldur'ahm did, uncertain and reserved but determined to perform the way he thought he was expected to, but something demanding and vengeful and angry.
Bruce puts a hand on the boy's chest and pushes back from him, very carefully. The boy scowls and pulls him down again, and Bruce pushes back again, only barely twisting out of that too-strong grip, and then the boy starts yelling and Bruce hears Luthor's words forced out of someone else's mouth and hears a boy call himself a thing, hears a boy be angry not to be treated as a thing, and . . .
Bruce . . . at that point, Bruce just does what he's always done.
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Her name is M'gann M'orzz and she is here to fight his fight.
Bruce thinks of the way the Manhunter was staring at him last night and can't even bring himself to be surprised. He asks her if she needs anything, and she smiles even wider and glances shyly towards the fifth room and says she's fine, but maybe Conner needs something.
He frowns, and she answers the question still unasked in his head: It's my favorite name.
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They're not his children. They aren't allowed to be.
But he feels like they are, when he sees that.
He brings the girl into the harem under the fall of the black cloak he wears when he goes out in the dark, her broken bow clutched tight against her chest and bruised eyes hidden behind a mask and the tangled fall of her hair. She does not speak of the place or the people she left behind, and Bruce does not expect her to, and does not expect the(his) children to expect her to either.
He gives her a new bow and a new quiver and, just in case, an unlocked window.
Artemis Crock disappears in the night, and comes back in the morning.
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I'm getting a feeling that now, since all the character have been introduced, we'll be moving on to more serious stuff. Looking forward to it.
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