FOTD
Author: Casey
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy (NIEE) universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: FOTD (imbroglio: A complicated and embarrassing state of things, a confused or complicated disagreement or misunderstanding, a confused mass; a tangle.)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel, Fresh Peaches ( Finish unfinished business in the morning to clear the decks for an afternoon when anything can happen and probably will., Sprinkles, Malt (Trick or Treat: "Anybody remotely interesting is mad, in some way or another.”
Word Count: 2130
Rating: PG
Summary: Will wakes up after an accident to an unexpected surprise and conversation
Notes: Will is 18 in this piece. Takes place about 6 months after this. Wrote this today without a prompt and then realized the FOTD worked and was relieved :P
Will rolled his eyes as the fight began to break out. He had been watching the impending brawl start to gain momentum and had taken one look at the group and decided it was better not to intervene. He grabbed his bag and retreated to the bar. “Come ‘round, son,” the bartender said, looking unhappy. “This is gonna get ugly.”
“Did you call the local constables?” he asked the man as he slipped around the bar to watch the mess disintegrate.
“Fat lot of good they are,” the ‘tender grunted. “This lot’ll fight themselves out soon enough.”
Will sent him a skeptical look but felt safe behind the sturdy bar for the time being. He leaned his elbows on the bar, watching the men yell and scramble about. Suddenly, he heard a crash and both his gaze and that of the ‘tender’s instantly attempted to identify the noise. “If these jerks break anything,” the bartender muttered.
Will ignored him, finally identifying the cause of the crash. “Look!” he said, pointing at the shattered lantern, lying on its side towards one of the corners. Flames were creeping from it and Will shivered instinctively before realizing what that meant. “Fire!” he yelled, vaulting the bar and beginning to thread his way through the brawling men.
He just reached the lantern when an elbow shot out and slammed him in the side of the head. He stumbled, grabbing at his head, falling into one of the other men. Before he could recover, the second man spun him around, snatched him by the collar and threw him backwards. Will’s head slammed into the wall. As he hit the floor, the blackness creeping into his vision, the last thing he saw was the flames begin to spread across the floor.
Things seemed to fade in and out for a while - vague notions of heat and smoke and then someone’s face, strangely familiar even though he was aware that everyone he knew was over a day’s ride away. “William Darcy. Doesn’t this figure!” the blurry face said. “Let’s get you out.” His next impression was of the cold but fresh night’s air, clearing his head a bit. Again, he heard the familiar voice issuing orders before fading out.
The next time he woke, his eyelids felt like lead and it was hard to swallow, his throat feeling raw and burned. Will knew he was on a bed, but could not, for the life of him, remember what might have caused all of it. Automatically, he took a calming deep breath and instantly erupted in jarring coughs as his throat protested.
“You idiot. You inhaled half an inn full of smoke. Do not take deep breaths,” a female voice scolded him and then there was a steading hand on his back, helping him sit up slowly. “Your eyes are going to feel dry too, so take that slowly. Here.” She guided his hand to hers and the cup of water in it. “Take slow sips and wait until your throat feels better.” He then heard footsteps moving away as he took the cup from her.
Will did as ordered, mind still trying to place the voice and make sense of what it was saying. It took another minute of slow sips before it did and then his eyes shot open as he jerked, spilling water down his hands. As his eyes adjusted to the light, they focused on the woman standing across the room from him. Leigh Parker hummed a nameless tune as she did something at the counter of the small kitchen.
“What?” he managed to croak before coughing again, although not as hard as before.
She turned around, the corners of her mouth crinkling upwards. “Welcome back to the land of the living, William.”
“How?”
“The inn burned down, thanks to that pack of idiots.” She shrugged, an easy elegance to the gesture. “Took some doing but we got everyone out alive.”
“I don’t…”
“There’s a lot in life you don’t understand, Darcy,” Leigh said sharply before turning back to her cooking. “Drink your water.”
Will could not help but feel he had somehow done something wrong, but he decided to obey orders for the moment until something else occurred to him, memories from the beginning of the brawl still hazy. “There was a fire? And you’re here,” he started.
She laughed. Actually laughed, sounding very amused. “Every fire in the world is not set by me. Accidents do happen.”
“Why should I believe you?”
Now Leigh rotated, eyes narrowed. “First of all, if you give yourself a moment without speaking, I’m sure your memory will return and you’ll recall that you saw the lantern knock over. Jake said you were on your way to right it when you got knocked out and the blaze started. Second, I am not a murderer.”
Will frowned. “That’s not true.”
She waved airily, gesturing off to her left towards the far wall. “Just because my wanted posters say that does not mean it’s true, William,” she said icily. His gaze followed her gesture, taking in the entire section of wall plastered with different wanted posters for her.
“You killed the three people in your hometown.”
She paused. “Yes, I suppose I did, didn’t I? Then let’s say I don’t make it a common occurrence.” She smiled, showing all her teeth. “If I had a habit of killing people, you and your friends would be long dead. Now shut up and drink your water.”
“I don’t get it. What are you doing here? How were you here?”
Leigh tilted her head. “You are so often one of the most irritating people I have ever had the chance to meet, William. Don’t you know how to leave well enough alone?”
“Not really.” He coughed again and took another sip of water.
She snorted. “Of course not.” She half-turned away, reaching up and plucking something off a higher shelf before tossing it to him. He caught it one-handed in surprise. “You got burned, since taking a nap next to a burning lantern is not a brilliant idea. That lotion will help heal them.”
He blinked down at it and then back up at her, although she had returned to her cooking. “Is this how you keep from getting burned?”
“This is not going to turn into Leigh shares all her secrets,” the woman said easily. “I will finish making breakfast, which you can partake in, and then it’ll be time for you to get going. Jake’s got your horse since we managed to save the stables.”
There was something about the way she said his name and the ‘we’ that had the wheels in Will’s head turning, although he could not quite sort it out yet, still overwhelmed by the entire situation. So instead he said, dumbly, “You’re making me breakfast?”
“I’m making myself breakfast and, since I’m feeling kind, I’m making more than usual,” she corrected. “After all, I already saved your life in the last twelve hours and slept the night on the floor, I certainly don’t owe you breakfast on top of it. Especially since you’re being a nosy little creep at the moment.”
That was when it struck him. “You live here.”
Leigh stopped mid-chop, back tensing. “Excuse me?”
“After all the time we’ve invested searching for your hideout, I end up here because you decided, for some unknown reason, to save my life.”
“Yes, and thank you so much for that since I’m now going to have to move.”
Will shifted, letting his legs drape over the side of the bed. “No, you don’t,” he said quietly and she glanced over her shoulder to eye him skeptically.
“And why not?”
“As I said, you saved my life. I owe you one.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” Will held her gaze steadily and she finally smiled. “Ah yes, that KIN nobility. Never thought it might work in my favor.” Then Leigh winked. “Don’t be offended if I still decided to move.”
“Do people here know?”
She chopped up a few more things and dumped them in the waiting bowl. “Of course they do.”
“But they’ve never turned you in.”
“I’m the town secret, much like Mr. Dakamar is for all of you. Instead of turning me in, they bring me the wanted posters KIN posts, which I hang. The place has a ridiculously bad group of constables, although on occasion they decide they want glory and we go through the runaround.”
Setting the cup down, Will pushed himself up, wincing as the new burns protested. “Look, Leigh,”
“What is it now, William?” she asked as she popped the pan down, fingers lingering briefly over the flames, dancing with them to unheard music.
“Why do you do it?”
“Burn things? Or insist on torturing you?”
“Both?”
“Regular life bores me,” she said, seemingly ignoring him as he moved over and leaned against the wall where he could see her face. “I suspect you would feel the same way. When things burn, they’re gone, right? Just ashes and soot and gone.”
When she paused, Will realized she expected an answer and nodded. “Yes.”
“No,” Leigh said, “not really. Burns allow for new things to grow in their place. Look at natural fires. Within a year, there is new growth and new life where the old used to be. That’s what I do. I allow for the new growth that otherwise wouldn’t exist.”
“But sometimes at the expense of something amazing.”
She laughed. “I don’t burn down amazing things, William, just old things. Or things that need a fresh start.”
“Like the villages early on.”
“It might not be the most conventional way of doing it, but I helped those people,” she said, suddenly somber and she met his eyes, her firm belief radiant in them. “Because of me, they were able to move past the human tragedies and come together as a community even stronger than before. I helped them.”
“At the expense of all their possessions.”
“Possessions can be replaced,” she said flatly. “People cannot.”
“This is because you…”
“Darcy, unless you want to get burned for the second time in a day, I would rethink your impending comment,” she said coolly.
Will bit down on his lip for a moment. “So if that’s why you burn, why do you torture us? I wouldn’t call that helping us.”
A smile curved the end of Leigh’s mouth. “That’s just because it keeps life interesting. Your parents and the rest of their generation issued a challenge I would have been remiss to ignore. It’s always good to test yourself against a stronger opponent.”
“So you admit we’re stronger,” he said, amused despite himself.
A smirk now took up residence on her face as she reached over and patted him condescendingly on the shoulder. “You just keep telling yourself that, dear William. What they didn’t realize was just how vulnerable they were. Kids are the worst mistake someone in our position can make.”
Will frowned. “I want to have kids someday and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“And how old were you when you first got burned?” she asked.
The frown deepened. “Eleven? Maybe twelve.”
“My point exactly. Although,” she tweaked his nose and then had the gall to grin when he was not fast enough to swat her hand away, “I will admit that life would have been a lot less entertaining without you lot around. What are you doing here by yourself anyway? I thought you always had your little posse.”
“Just a small job down south a day or two. It didn’t need more than one person.”
“Mm,” Leigh said, stirring whatever it was she was making for breakfast. “Well, you picked a good town to accidentally be almost crisped in,” she said easily. “Now go put that burn ointment on while I finish breakfast. Then I’ll walk you back to Jake’s.”
Will moved obligingly back to the bed, managing, if barely, to push aside how strange and surreal this all was. Somehow, though, it also felt very normal and natural. What he knew for sure was that he had no idea what was going on, or happening, but he was completely okay with that, and willing to let it go where it might. “It’s weird to be burned but not by you.”
“That’s a oddly intriguing statement,” she said.
He opened the lid of the ointment and then turned back to her. “Why don’t you give me a tour of the village?”
“I might be convinced,” Leigh said. “If you stop with the interrogation, which I know is hard for you, being KIN and all, but is also probably good for you.”
“No more questions,” he promised.
“Then we have a deal.”
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy (NIEE) universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: FOTD (imbroglio: A complicated and embarrassing state of things, a confused or complicated disagreement or misunderstanding, a confused mass; a tangle.)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel, Fresh Peaches ( Finish unfinished business in the morning to clear the decks for an afternoon when anything can happen and probably will., Sprinkles, Malt (Trick or Treat: "Anybody remotely interesting is mad, in some way or another.”
Word Count: 2130
Rating: PG
Summary: Will wakes up after an accident to an unexpected surprise and conversation
Notes: Will is 18 in this piece. Takes place about 6 months after this. Wrote this today without a prompt and then realized the FOTD worked and was relieved :P
Will rolled his eyes as the fight began to break out. He had been watching the impending brawl start to gain momentum and had taken one look at the group and decided it was better not to intervene. He grabbed his bag and retreated to the bar. “Come ‘round, son,” the bartender said, looking unhappy. “This is gonna get ugly.”
“Did you call the local constables?” he asked the man as he slipped around the bar to watch the mess disintegrate.
“Fat lot of good they are,” the ‘tender grunted. “This lot’ll fight themselves out soon enough.”
Will sent him a skeptical look but felt safe behind the sturdy bar for the time being. He leaned his elbows on the bar, watching the men yell and scramble about. Suddenly, he heard a crash and both his gaze and that of the ‘tender’s instantly attempted to identify the noise. “If these jerks break anything,” the bartender muttered.
Will ignored him, finally identifying the cause of the crash. “Look!” he said, pointing at the shattered lantern, lying on its side towards one of the corners. Flames were creeping from it and Will shivered instinctively before realizing what that meant. “Fire!” he yelled, vaulting the bar and beginning to thread his way through the brawling men.
He just reached the lantern when an elbow shot out and slammed him in the side of the head. He stumbled, grabbing at his head, falling into one of the other men. Before he could recover, the second man spun him around, snatched him by the collar and threw him backwards. Will’s head slammed into the wall. As he hit the floor, the blackness creeping into his vision, the last thing he saw was the flames begin to spread across the floor.
Things seemed to fade in and out for a while - vague notions of heat and smoke and then someone’s face, strangely familiar even though he was aware that everyone he knew was over a day’s ride away. “William Darcy. Doesn’t this figure!” the blurry face said. “Let’s get you out.” His next impression was of the cold but fresh night’s air, clearing his head a bit. Again, he heard the familiar voice issuing orders before fading out.
The next time he woke, his eyelids felt like lead and it was hard to swallow, his throat feeling raw and burned. Will knew he was on a bed, but could not, for the life of him, remember what might have caused all of it. Automatically, he took a calming deep breath and instantly erupted in jarring coughs as his throat protested.
“You idiot. You inhaled half an inn full of smoke. Do not take deep breaths,” a female voice scolded him and then there was a steading hand on his back, helping him sit up slowly. “Your eyes are going to feel dry too, so take that slowly. Here.” She guided his hand to hers and the cup of water in it. “Take slow sips and wait until your throat feels better.” He then heard footsteps moving away as he took the cup from her.
Will did as ordered, mind still trying to place the voice and make sense of what it was saying. It took another minute of slow sips before it did and then his eyes shot open as he jerked, spilling water down his hands. As his eyes adjusted to the light, they focused on the woman standing across the room from him. Leigh Parker hummed a nameless tune as she did something at the counter of the small kitchen.
“What?” he managed to croak before coughing again, although not as hard as before.
She turned around, the corners of her mouth crinkling upwards. “Welcome back to the land of the living, William.”
“How?”
“The inn burned down, thanks to that pack of idiots.” She shrugged, an easy elegance to the gesture. “Took some doing but we got everyone out alive.”
“I don’t…”
“There’s a lot in life you don’t understand, Darcy,” Leigh said sharply before turning back to her cooking. “Drink your water.”
Will could not help but feel he had somehow done something wrong, but he decided to obey orders for the moment until something else occurred to him, memories from the beginning of the brawl still hazy. “There was a fire? And you’re here,” he started.
She laughed. Actually laughed, sounding very amused. “Every fire in the world is not set by me. Accidents do happen.”
“Why should I believe you?”
Now Leigh rotated, eyes narrowed. “First of all, if you give yourself a moment without speaking, I’m sure your memory will return and you’ll recall that you saw the lantern knock over. Jake said you were on your way to right it when you got knocked out and the blaze started. Second, I am not a murderer.”
Will frowned. “That’s not true.”
She waved airily, gesturing off to her left towards the far wall. “Just because my wanted posters say that does not mean it’s true, William,” she said icily. His gaze followed her gesture, taking in the entire section of wall plastered with different wanted posters for her.
“You killed the three people in your hometown.”
She paused. “Yes, I suppose I did, didn’t I? Then let’s say I don’t make it a common occurrence.” She smiled, showing all her teeth. “If I had a habit of killing people, you and your friends would be long dead. Now shut up and drink your water.”
“I don’t get it. What are you doing here? How were you here?”
Leigh tilted her head. “You are so often one of the most irritating people I have ever had the chance to meet, William. Don’t you know how to leave well enough alone?”
“Not really.” He coughed again and took another sip of water.
She snorted. “Of course not.” She half-turned away, reaching up and plucking something off a higher shelf before tossing it to him. He caught it one-handed in surprise. “You got burned, since taking a nap next to a burning lantern is not a brilliant idea. That lotion will help heal them.”
He blinked down at it and then back up at her, although she had returned to her cooking. “Is this how you keep from getting burned?”
“This is not going to turn into Leigh shares all her secrets,” the woman said easily. “I will finish making breakfast, which you can partake in, and then it’ll be time for you to get going. Jake’s got your horse since we managed to save the stables.”
There was something about the way she said his name and the ‘we’ that had the wheels in Will’s head turning, although he could not quite sort it out yet, still overwhelmed by the entire situation. So instead he said, dumbly, “You’re making me breakfast?”
“I’m making myself breakfast and, since I’m feeling kind, I’m making more than usual,” she corrected. “After all, I already saved your life in the last twelve hours and slept the night on the floor, I certainly don’t owe you breakfast on top of it. Especially since you’re being a nosy little creep at the moment.”
That was when it struck him. “You live here.”
Leigh stopped mid-chop, back tensing. “Excuse me?”
“After all the time we’ve invested searching for your hideout, I end up here because you decided, for some unknown reason, to save my life.”
“Yes, and thank you so much for that since I’m now going to have to move.”
Will shifted, letting his legs drape over the side of the bed. “No, you don’t,” he said quietly and she glanced over her shoulder to eye him skeptically.
“And why not?”
“As I said, you saved my life. I owe you one.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” Will held her gaze steadily and she finally smiled. “Ah yes, that KIN nobility. Never thought it might work in my favor.” Then Leigh winked. “Don’t be offended if I still decided to move.”
“Do people here know?”
She chopped up a few more things and dumped them in the waiting bowl. “Of course they do.”
“But they’ve never turned you in.”
“I’m the town secret, much like Mr. Dakamar is for all of you. Instead of turning me in, they bring me the wanted posters KIN posts, which I hang. The place has a ridiculously bad group of constables, although on occasion they decide they want glory and we go through the runaround.”
Setting the cup down, Will pushed himself up, wincing as the new burns protested. “Look, Leigh,”
“What is it now, William?” she asked as she popped the pan down, fingers lingering briefly over the flames, dancing with them to unheard music.
“Why do you do it?”
“Burn things? Or insist on torturing you?”
“Both?”
“Regular life bores me,” she said, seemingly ignoring him as he moved over and leaned against the wall where he could see her face. “I suspect you would feel the same way. When things burn, they’re gone, right? Just ashes and soot and gone.”
When she paused, Will realized she expected an answer and nodded. “Yes.”
“No,” Leigh said, “not really. Burns allow for new things to grow in their place. Look at natural fires. Within a year, there is new growth and new life where the old used to be. That’s what I do. I allow for the new growth that otherwise wouldn’t exist.”
“But sometimes at the expense of something amazing.”
She laughed. “I don’t burn down amazing things, William, just old things. Or things that need a fresh start.”
“Like the villages early on.”
“It might not be the most conventional way of doing it, but I helped those people,” she said, suddenly somber and she met his eyes, her firm belief radiant in them. “Because of me, they were able to move past the human tragedies and come together as a community even stronger than before. I helped them.”
“At the expense of all their possessions.”
“Possessions can be replaced,” she said flatly. “People cannot.”
“This is because you…”
“Darcy, unless you want to get burned for the second time in a day, I would rethink your impending comment,” she said coolly.
Will bit down on his lip for a moment. “So if that’s why you burn, why do you torture us? I wouldn’t call that helping us.”
A smile curved the end of Leigh’s mouth. “That’s just because it keeps life interesting. Your parents and the rest of their generation issued a challenge I would have been remiss to ignore. It’s always good to test yourself against a stronger opponent.”
“So you admit we’re stronger,” he said, amused despite himself.
A smirk now took up residence on her face as she reached over and patted him condescendingly on the shoulder. “You just keep telling yourself that, dear William. What they didn’t realize was just how vulnerable they were. Kids are the worst mistake someone in our position can make.”
Will frowned. “I want to have kids someday and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“And how old were you when you first got burned?” she asked.
The frown deepened. “Eleven? Maybe twelve.”
“My point exactly. Although,” she tweaked his nose and then had the gall to grin when he was not fast enough to swat her hand away, “I will admit that life would have been a lot less entertaining without you lot around. What are you doing here by yourself anyway? I thought you always had your little posse.”
“Just a small job down south a day or two. It didn’t need more than one person.”
“Mm,” Leigh said, stirring whatever it was she was making for breakfast. “Well, you picked a good town to accidentally be almost crisped in,” she said easily. “Now go put that burn ointment on while I finish breakfast. Then I’ll walk you back to Jake’s.”
Will moved obligingly back to the bed, managing, if barely, to push aside how strange and surreal this all was. Somehow, though, it also felt very normal and natural. What he knew for sure was that he had no idea what was going on, or happening, but he was completely okay with that, and willing to let it go where it might. “It’s weird to be burned but not by you.”
“That’s a oddly intriguing statement,” she said.
He opened the lid of the ointment and then turned back to her. “Why don’t you give me a tour of the village?”
“I might be convinced,” Leigh said. “If you stop with the interrogation, which I know is hard for you, being KIN and all, but is also probably good for you.”
“No more questions,” he promised.
“Then we have a deal.”