I wrote this oneshot one night not long after seeing the movie, wanting to make it several various drabbles about Ronin's impressions of the other characters in the cast, but it kind of ran away from me when a spoilery moment opened the fic and so here we are.
Also, whilst watching the movie, did anyone else think "Kinky!" when Tara wraps Ronin up in those vines? I sure did ;P
Memories flood into Ronin's mind as his queen – his Tara – dissipates into golden mist as he kneels on the ground, unwilling to look up. He realises at the back of his mind that an unknown person stands nearby holding the pod...
"Ronin!" Tara's voice peals through his memories. It is a much younger Tara grinning at him. He immediately wants to run to her, pull her into his arms, and swing her around, but he's too oblivious to notice the devilish expression in the young queen's eyes. Within seconds she's ensnared him with the fresh green stalks of a morning glory, raising her arm so that the vines snake up close to Ronin's face.
The gesture sends shivers of delight down his spine, causing him to laugh.
"So, you are ticklish," Tara comments, gliding up next to him, her big brown eyes glimmering with pleasure as she stares at him, apparently engrossed in her own thoughts before she says, with a giggle, "Ronin, you never told me you were ticklish!"
Ronin assumes his stern façade, slowly feeling the laughter drip off his mouth as he introduces his familiar frown instead,
"Tara, that's because I have duties to perform – to you," he says, vainly trying to heave the vines off his chest as Tara watches with amusement. He doesn't see her subtly tighten them, leaving him helpless in her grasp. "There is no time for merriment, such as tickling."
"Oh, you poor man," Tara croons. She places her soft brown hands onto his cheeks to cup his face in her hands, her gaze searching the depths of his grey eyes. Ronin feels compelled to pull his gaze away from hers. This doesn't feel right to him, the Commander of the Leaf-man is not of the rank to court a queen… but instead he finds himself holding her gaze, even as he chastens himself. "Don't you know that all work and no play make Ronin an unhappy boy?"
"And-and you could make me happy?" Ronin returns her question with another question, bandying with her.
Tara's fingers dance up his chest with the grace of a spider, and both of her arms enfold around his neck as she continues to hold his gaze. Slowly, a smile peers out of the clouds on his face, but he doesn't notice how deeply Tara's recognition of his grin makes the queen happy.
There is a moment of pristine silence as the two – the Queen of the forest and the Commander of the Leaf-men – hold each other, caring for nothing else except the world that they see reflected in each other's eyes.
Ronin is content to imagine a world where he could take the Queen's hand for his own, so when Tara doesn't hesitate to answer his question it startles him out of his reverie.
"Yes," Tara confesses. "Yes, Ronin, I could make you happy." She touches his cheek, her fingers tracing the clarity of his high cheekbones. "And, maybe, get you to smile more... I recall you smiling often when we were children playing together."
Her words make Ronin remember his place with a start, and he resumes his struggling against the vines as he scowls.
"Tara, those were different times," he replies, not wanting to hurt her feelings any more than reopen his own pain, but the truth needed to be said. "We were only children and even when you first came here, you were the queen… to be. Life only gave us a few years of unsolicited time together before the divisions in our rank separated us. A queen doesn't show interest in the Commander of her Leaf-men, it's not right."
"Well, then I guess I'm not one of those queens," Tara retorts, waving her arm slightly so that the vines tighten more solidly around him.
"Tara…" Ronin tries to protest as Tara's arms encircle his neck again. Her lips settle upon his, and she smells of the perfumes of morning glories and sunshine and freshness of water, and he finds his own lips moving in to meet hers.
Tara is the first to break away, her expression triumphant.
"See, I could make you happy," she whispers, before she loosens the vines clinging to him. He drops to the ground in a kneeling position, raising his head to look up at her. She always did have the upper hand in this relationship, he reflects with a certain amount of ruefulness.
She turns to glide off back into her inner sanctum where the sun's light revitalises her within her chambers in Moonhaven, glancing over her shoulder at Ronin, who still hasn't moved from his position on the ground. "But oh, Ronin, you need to be brave enough to take the chance with me, that I can make you truly happy."
Her whisper mingles with the winds scudding through the platform yet is still strong enough to reach his ears.
Ronin shakes his head as he rises to his feet. He checks to make sure his sword is safe in his scabbard before seeking out Tara's gaze. The Queen's eyes are sad. She merely nods in response before gliding out of his sight, leaving Ronin alone in the chambers, wondering if he'd done the right thing.
Instead, now he's lost his queen. Not once, but twice.
The painful realisation hits him as he raises his head to face the newcomer, holding the pod that Tara's bequeathed the Life of the Forest to, inspecting her slowly.
This is the woman Tara has chosen, he decides as the young girl tries to work through how she's come to be amongst the Leaf-Men, obviously not realising the importance she holds, given that she bears the pod. For a moment, he wonders, with a pang of grief that maybe Tara intends for this young female stranger to become their new queen, but then he shrugs it off, electing that Queen Tara chose her for some specific purpose and that she'll be off again once it's done.
He rises slowly to his feet, only dimly hearing the young woman offer her condolences to him, but she's still quite bewildered. Ronin finds that he's becoming curious why the normalities of life amongst the Leaf-Men are so foreign to her, but decides that it's not right to pry and instead cuts to the chase about the pod.
The young woman introduces herself as MK to him as he's left pondering what to do about the newcomer and the pod she carries. She's bright and friendly and, he notices, already quite protective of the pod, something that holds her in good stead with him.
Ronin finds himself being reminded of Queen Tara in the bubbly good nature of the young woman as he orders the rest of the Leaf-Men sent ahead to gather the people of Moonhaven whilst he and MK (and the snail and the slug, he adds ruefully to himself) ride off in the direction of Nim Galuu's, like Tara's instructed MK.
Is there a connection between this 'MK' and Tara? he wonders. His mouth tilts in a sad smile as a saying of Tara's floats into his mind. Maybe the connections aren't clear, but she's obviously here for a purpose, and I will obey my queen.
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