Disclaimer: Beka and Rosto belong to Tamora Pierce, not me....
A/N: Okay, so this is a very short, very angsty oneshot...I have an excuse this time! I was upset (I can't remember what about at the moment, though) and I had to get it out..this was the result. Well, part of it. I decided that I didn't like the other three-fourths of it and got rid of it. Also, this was partially (only partially, though) inspired by the song Unbreakable by Fireflight. Excellent song, by the way. So, enjoy..and don't forget to review!!
If there was one thing that hurt Rosto the Piper the most it was what he saw in the eyes of Rebakah Cooper after she came back from her journey into the desert. The young woman had pushed herself so hard, and she had broken every rule to prove that she was the best at what she did.
What was more was that she said she loved him. She had for months. Long before she left, she had given him her heart. He had treasured it with his whole heart. Beka was unlike anyone else he had ever met, and the fact that she was willing to allow him to claim her as his made him happier than he had been in a long time.
There was one problem. He saw the greatness in her eyes. Beka Cooper was meant for great things, greater than anything anyone could imagine for her. She was meant for greater things than even he could imagine for her. Greater things than even he, Rosto the Piper, King of the Court of the Rogue, could do.
Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, before she had left on her adventure, he had done the same thing. He had looked in her eyes, and he had seen something. Then, it had been his own future. He had seen her love for him in her eyes, their future together. Even his unborn children. He had seen all of that in one glimpse.
Now, it was different. He still saw that love, and he returned it tenfold, but he saw her future. All the things she could be. All the things he couldn't be.
Rosto knew that there was nothing he could do – nothing that he wanted to do – that would change that. Beka had always been destined for greatness, the Lower City had just been the start.
The Shadow Snake, the counterfeiting, the kidnapping of Tortall's Prince – she had taken on each of those cases, and had won. She was a rising sun in a sky of stars. She was the brightest light in the Lower City, a hero to everyone, even him.
What Rosto hated the most was that he knew that she wasn't his. She was never meant to be, even though she loved him as he loved her. She was a bird who was meant to fly, and he was holding her down. Every time he looked at her, he knew it was true. Beka could do so much more, but her love for Rosto tied her to Corus, to the Dancing Dove.
That was why he was going to let her fly.
Even if it caused him a great heartbreak, he was going to let her go. That way, she could be great, and she could be unbreakable, even if he couldn't.