Fic: Count the Ways

[c3childs]

           
              banner by crystaldrake


Title: Count the Ways
Characters/Pairing: Jun/Piandao
Word Count: 2173
Summary: A not-so typical 'love' story told in drabbles.

1.    Map
They’ve been walking out of each other’s orbits for years. Chances were against them, that the bounty hunter and the swordsman would ever meet, that their paths would ever cross for more than an instant. Fate decided otherwise.
2.    Laugh
If he hadn’t heard her laugh, he never would have looked her way. He never would have noticed that the pretty bar girl wasn’t a bar girl at all. Because a moment is all it takes, and that was all he had before he was forced to duck to avoid being hit with the man she’d just tossed across his table.
3.    Stare
That guy had been staring at her for the longest time. It was beginning to be aggravating. She turned to him.
“Do you have a problem?”
He finally blinked.
“Yes. I don’t know your name.”
Now it was her turn to stare.
4.    Blade
“So what are you, like a wandering swordsman?”
“No, I usually know where I’m going.”
“Odd that your destinations happen to be the same as mine. And I am wandering.”
“Life is a mystery, isn’t it?”
5.    Tactile
They doubled back to avoid the guard’s route, backtracked through an alley, scrambled through a crowded market, and ducked behind a fruit vendor’s stand.
It wasn’t until after she released a breath she hadn’t realized she been holding once the tromping of their boots passed that she noticed that they were holding hands. She snatched her hand away.
“Just to clarify, you were holding my hand.”
“Whatever you say, lady.”
6.    Man
It wasn’t like she didn’t notice. It wasn’t like she was blind. It wasn’t that she wasn’t straight.
She just wasn’t sure that he was her type. He was all privileged, and rich, and oddly considerate, and kept trying to figure her out and…
Yeah, there was something wrong with her.
7.    Bar
Two strangers walked into a bar, and the smuggler screamed like a little girl upon seeing the woman. When the man had to duck to avoid being hit with a man, he had the vaguest sense of déjà vu.
8.    Cry
She stared down at the blood that covered her hands. Hands that couldn’t save a life. Hands that seemed to be able to do little good.
A wash cloth was pressed into her hands. When she didn’t respond, the dark hands took hers and wiped them clean.
“He’s gone. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.”
She cleared her throat.
“Will you be all right?”
“...fine. It’s just…dammit all! There was just so much money riding on this live bounty!”
9.    Time
How long it takes for two people to become friends is relative. How long it takes to become the love of someone’s life can take but an instant. The amount of time it took a man and a woman to become the love of each other’s life, whether they were meant to be or not, was somewhere in between.
10. Leak
Knock, knock
“The roof is dripping water on my bed.”
“So…?”
“So, Lord Gallant, either give up your bed or fix this.”
“I think you’re confusing gallantry with being whipped.”
“That, I can fix.”
11. Dark
“A trap door? Who does that?”
“Rich, paranoid men with a lot of time on their hands.”
“Hey! Watch the hands!”
“I’m not touching you.”
“Then what…”
12. Window
“Did he just –“
“Jump out the window? Yeah.”
“We’re up three stories.”
“Apparently, he knew who I was.”
“I’m jealous.”
13. Fear
He wasn’t a coward by any stretch of the imagination. Many a man have had the same problem when his heart beat too fast, and his palms sweat profusely, and his mouth went dry, and he couldn’t properly form the words…
This had to be said very carefully. She was staring right at him, with this look.
“Well? What do you think?”
“I…I think that particular robe has perhaps too much fabric and might be designed incorrectly.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Meaning what?”
“It makes you look…” he held his hands up with space between them then gradually drew them farther apart.
Daggers came from her eyes, and by sheer force of will, he didn’t turn and run.
14. Sorry
“Look," she rolled her eyes behind his back. "I didn’t mean for it to happen.” 
“Uh-huh.”
He kept walking.
“I swear!" she called after him. "I did not know that he was going to proposition you.”
15. Drink
He watched her take the bottle to her lips and drink. The old man next to them had an identical bottle, took sparing sips, and nearly hack out his guts. She offered him the bottle.
“Thank you, but no. I rather like my liver to function for a while longer.”
“Wuss.”
16. First
There were fireworks. A rather new occurrence, but festivals everywhere had them now. White and red sparks exploded in the sky. Green and blue scattered and rained down on watchers and passersby.
She walked on in front of him, moving through the crowd and barely glancing at the explosions. A funny, little impulse struck him, and he didn’t ignore it. He caught her hand, and she turned to snap at him.
His lips took hers before she could.
There were fireworks.
17. Dance
He loved Earth Kingdom dances. They were all rhythm, and flowing, and hips. But if she thought that he was about to get up and make a fool of himself –
She grabbed his hands and yanked him up onto the floor.
-       Then it would seem that she was absolutely right.
18. Talk
“What are we doing exactly?”
There was an awkward pause.
“…you mean you don’t know?”
“I mean, where is this going?”
“I had hopes for a pleasant afterglow. And what’s wrong with where we are?”
“It’s not…the same. You know that.”
“Pretend I’m not. Explain it to me like I’m ten.”
“It is very difficult to pretend that you’re ten.”
“How about a naïve fourteen?”
“Woman, can you be serious for five minutes?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Well, I was trying to work in a proposal, but you insist on being so difficult and –“
“Proposal?”
“…That was the plan.”
“Well, would you…like to try again?”
“No, sorry. You know, I’m just not in the mood for it now.”
“Tch…now who’s ten?”
19. Smile
His lips were a thin line, but his eyes danced with hidden laughter.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell me. I like funny, too.”
“It’s just…if my family hadn’t already disowned me for not being a firebender, I’m pretty sure you would have done it.”
“Hehe...If my dad were alive, he would have buried you in the desert. Alive.”
He wasn’t laughing anymore.
20. Fight
“Is it necessary for you to drink so much or is it just habit at this point?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, do you find yourself thinking of drinking often or feeling compelled to do so. Do you need it?”
“What are you getting at?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you might need help.”
“Excuse you?”
“Have you ever heard of A.A?”
“…I will hurt you.”
“I know that’s not you talking, darling.”
21. Sick
His skin practically burned hers, but he sat in front of the fire wrapped in blankets and shivering. A wicked, insistent cough ripped through him, and she flinched from the force of it.
“Ow,” he gasped when he was done and rubbed his chest.
Practically collapsing, he lay down on the ground, groaning the whole way.
“Men are such babies.”
“Does that mean you’ll hold me?”
“Ugh.”
She did anyway.
22. Family
Technically, he hadn’t been a part of a family since he was six years old, and his mother and father found out that their little boy had zero chance of ever setting anything on fire with his breathing. The orphanage didn’t count, the military definitely didn’t count, and if Fat was to be considered his family, that was a bit sad.
Maybe Fat was the disgruntled, cranky uncle he’d never had.
If that was the case, then they were now a family of three, and she would be the blunt, sarcastic niece the man never wanted.
“Wait, wait, wait. Your butler’s name is Fat? And he has no sense of humor? You realize that’s practically a challenge for me to throw as many fat jokes as I know at him, right?”
“I actually hadn’t.”
“Now, you know. You should put some people on standby; your butler might decide to disown you too.”
23. Monster
She found out he had nightmares. He didn’t yell or talk or thrash in his sleep. He choked and woke up gasping for breath, trembling, and sweating.
He’d fought in the war, seen people die, and killed more than his share. Of course he had nightmares.
But she wasn’t a comforter. She didn’t know how to do reassuring, and she barely did sweet.
She tried anyway.
She kissed his cheek, held him close, and hoped she was doing this right.
24. Lost
Weddings rings were such tiny things, that they were rather simple to lose. In the sink while washing dishes, putting on a little too much lotion, fooling around with a very intelligent, very mischievous shirshu that had paralytic venom for spit and easily able to swallow circular bands of gold…
She stared at her hand then at the shirshu.
“You know what? Keep it.”
25. Puzzle
He was a lord. He was expected to be sociable and attend parties; now that he was married, his wife was expected to host them.
She was dressed impeccably, all reds and ebonies, yet her attitude was not something so easily concealed. As well behaved as she forced herself to be, she still shone green.
The noble women who failed to catch him for themselves and their daughters watched her and tittered behind their fans.
“What does he see in her?”
They didn’t know that he was standing behind them.
“Everything,” he laughed, “that you don’t.”
26. Weapon
“Let me get this straight.”
“Please do.”
“You know how to use a sword.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Sai, bo staff, ninjato, various assortments of knives…Yet you use a bullwhip.”
“Yes.”
“A bullwhip?”
“What can I say? Anything else would have made my job way too easy.”
27. Sneak
It took a while for her to notice, four weeks to be exact. It only took a day for her to convince herself to go see a physician just to be sure, and he confirmed her suspicions. In the time it took to walk back to the castle, she figured out how she would tell him the news.
“Baby.”
“Hm?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
He stared at her, pausing a moment to catch up. He blinked, and his eyes drifted down to her still flat stomach.
“You’re certain?”
“Uh-huh…Problem?”
“No, but I rather like the name Ronin.”
“Yeah? Well, I rather like the saki, but I won’t be getting any of that either.”
28. Persistent
“Oh, come on. Can’t I just have a little sip?
“I have never seen you take a sip of saki before. I doubt you’ll start now.”
“Please?”
“In your condition, I hardly think that’s wise. You can drink tea.”
“…You hate me, don’t you?”
“Be serious.”
“I’m in a loveless marriage! How can I be more serious?”
29. Date
Theoretically, a baby is born every day. Out of the three hundred sixty-five days in a year, statistically, chances are that one will be born on a day that is already significant prior to the child’s birth.
This is all merely a long way to say that the Lord and Lady of Shu Jing thought it was pretty amazing that her baby came to be born on the same day as his father.
30. Small
A new father and his child is only marginally less touching than a mother, but she was taking a well-deserved break.
“He’s so tiny.”
“From your perspective, maybe. Push a watermelon out of your body and tell me that’s tiny.”
31. Shock
“I realize how difficult the pregnancy was for you. While I usually don’t approve of this…” he offered her a saki dish, filled with the finest of golden amber liquid.
“I…I don’t…Okay, cannot believe I’m saying this, but I don’t want any.”
“You…what?”
“I’ll just take some tea.”
“You what?”
32. Content
Little fingers reached for her face, grabbed a tiny fistful of her hair and yanked weakly. Strong, dark hands gently freed her hair and offered his son his own hand to explore. The old butler poured tea and set out leftover cookies and tarts.
If it weren’t the middle of the night and if mother, father, and uncle had more than four hours of sleep among them, the scene would have been ideal. Life hardly ever is, and it is often wasted wishing that it were.
Perfection or not, it was their life.
Fin