first fic... woah, headrush.. so, i had a lot of help with this, so thnx T!! finally, i got the seth/ming fic up.. can't believe it took me so long, n why isn't this pairing more popular, huh? reviews...
Eternity
The breeze caressed Seth's face with a tenderness she had really missed. The sea, which was awe-inspiring and wrathful, but always there and eternal, looked even more beautiful in the evening. A wonderful state of content always filled Seth when she gazed at the amber sun melting into the ocean like a slab of butter left in the heat for too long, that lovely golden colour spreading out before her in liquid form.
She stirred, hearing the movement of someone behind her. It was probably Cooke. The girl, who was now her apprentice, seemed even more interested in spending time with Seth now, even if it was just to stand there and stare at the ocean for hours. Seth usually became restless even just thinking about standing still for such a long time, but it was different with the ocean. It almost gave her a patience that had come from being in the world since the very beginning of time, almost unchanged. It was almost like her teacher.
She needed an eternal companion, she wanted someone who wouldn't leave like Kaim, or die like Aneira, her husband, and eventually her son.
Seth glanced back from the railing of the ship's balcony at her silent visitor. Her expression hardened a bit at the sight of the queen of Numara. She didn't want this discussion now, not when she felt peaceful, she wanted to discuss it when she felt passionate, ready to fight her corner, like a threatened animal in the wild, but it was probably better like this.
"Jansen's not with you?" Seth asked, as she turned back to stare at the calm waters ahead of her.
"Not today," Ming answered softly. Her eyes were attentive. She was like a sailor or fisherman, watching the skies for signs of an oncoming storm. "He's feeling a little ill."
Seth tightened her grip on the railing when she heard the tenderness in the queen's voice.
"I thought you'd want to nurse him," she commented, and then adding in her frustration, "the whiny baby."
"I wanted to speak to you instead." Ming replied.
The queen walked over to where Seth stood, as still as if she'd been hit with a petrification spell. Only her wild hair moved in the breeze. The Queen clasped her hands together, watching the pirate carefully with her big warm eyes.
"Makes a change." Seth grumbled.
"Seth, this isn't like you." Ming sighed. She sounded tired, and Seth wondered if she'd spent a long time mulling over how to broach the subject. Like it mattered. "You usually speak your mind, even if it upsets the person you are speaking to. Please, just be honest with me, I want to know what's the matter?"
"Don't you remember?" Seth asked. She was surprised.
She hadn't brought it up either, and she'd guessed that Ming had known for ages, but preferred Jansen. Maybe she still didn't know totally, even with all the clues, maybe she hadn't realised that they were anything except good friends.
"My memory's still quite hazy." She frowned. Her face was downcast; her eyes didn't meet the earnest gaze in Seth's smokey blue eyes. "I can only remember bits and pieces from my life before Gongora's attack on Numara."
A thought occurred to Seth as she basked in the ocean's warmth and love. She leaned casually against the railing, staring up at Ming's interested face.
She asked, "do you remember, about 200 years ago, when you were in a grand ship, and you were stopped by a band of pirates?"
"I'm not sure."
"Everyone on the ship was terrified," Seth grinned as she recounted the memory, showing her enthusiasm, "especially when the pirates demanded gold and went pillaging the ship's goods. When the pirates found out that the queen of Numara was aboard, they were sorta nervous, so they brought you to me, their captain."
"I do remember that, now that you mention it." Ming said, and her face brightened with a smile to match Seth's cheeky grin, "You stood there, waving a sword in front of my face, and you demanded that I bring you all my gold and the crown jewels."
They both leaned against the iron bar, laughed like two naughty children and they remembered that day when they met.
"Everyone else looked like they wanted to jump overboard, but you just stood there, so calm it made menervous!"
"I told you that if you pleased, you could go on your way with the stolen goods, or you could return to the palace of Numara with me so that I could offer you some food after your long journey." Ming said, reminding her as she chuckled.
Seth nodded, remembering that she'd thought the queen was as crazy as an old fortune teller if she wanted to invite a pirate back to her palace from tea and cakes, but at the same time she'd been as commanding and graceful as a goddess.
"I couldn't believe how fearless you were, that you'd even invite me back! I thought you were gonna get the guard after me, but you were true to your word."
"All afternoon we sat and talked."
Ming's face was soft and nostalgic.
She laid her hand gently over Seth's hand, which was rough and calloused from years of living as a pirate or a soldier. It was a testament to how different their lives were. Seth had lived roughly and dangerously, while Ming had lived peacefully, where her own difficulties were challenged with her mental abilities instead of with physical strength. She lived in a beautiful palace, waited on by servants and expected to rule fairly. Seth had had to struggle more for her comforts, or rob them from someone else's ship, though she was also a leader, but not one so distant and melancholic, like Ming.
"I barely found out anything about you, you just wanted me to tell you about where I'd been, what I'd done, all the fat old merchants I'd robbed!" Seth continued. She accepted her friend's kind gesture without any comments. "Weren't you scared of us at all?"
"At first, I was a little, but I sensed that you were not the blood-thirsty pirates I'd expected. Sometimes, when I look into peoples' eyes, I can see their true intentions and who they are. That's how I can tell when I meet people who might plan to hurt me or my people, and when I meet those who hide their tender hearts behind tough exteriors."
"What did you see in my eyes?" Seth murmured. It was one of those rare moments where her voice was tender and her face was serene, like a divine angel instead of a wild pirate.
Ming hesitated, and then she smiled in an honest way, which reached her eyes and filled them with a compassionate love that Seth had missed so much.
"I saw a kind, brave woman, unafraid of the dangers and troubles in the world; longing for freedom, but held back by something; and seeking riches on other peoples' ships, not for yourself, to help others."
"You must have a gift, to see someone wonderful in Jansen's eyes, cause he just seems like a jerk to me." Seth said. There was a resentful smirk on her face, when she remembered that she was not the only one who was given such devoted looks from the queen.
"He pretends to be something he's not, to hide his insecurities." She replied. "He's not the coward and creep that you think he is."
The look on her face showed Seth how fond the queen was of Jansen. Her feelings obviously ran deeper than just a face attraction, and Seth especially knew how easy it was to fall for a person in just a few weeks time.
"Do you love him?" She asked, with no spite or jealousy shown in her voice. The cool ocean breeze smoothed it away like the snowfall smoothes away the rugged edges of a mountain.
"I do," Ming said with a smile, but then she added, a bit apologetically, "but I fell for him long before I even knew how close we were."
"When I heard you play your harp, I knew straight away. I remembered the day when we met. I stayed at the palace for a whole four weeks."
"We grew so close in such a short space of time. In all the years I've been alive, I've never felt such a connection with someone." Ming confessed.
"I felt it too! It's like we were the same, but different too. We both wanted freedom, almost more than everything else. I wanted you to come with me."
Ming wrapped Seth's hand within her own, and smiled affectionately at her. Seth returned the smile, but she got the feeling that the romantic gestures wouldn't go any further than that this evening. It was so much more different to the intense passion that'd gripped them almost as soon as they'd met.
"I know. I felt terribly lonely when you left." Ming made a sad little smile. "I began to travel on the royal ships more, to feel what you had explained to me, the freedom of being in the middle of the ocean. Even if I had come with you though, we still would have been separated by Gongora, like Kaim and Sarah were. I could not leave my subjects either."
"I guess fate's against us?" Seth said, smiling ruefully. She'd half already expected to be let down by Ming when Cooke and Mack had come into the pilothouse, snickering and telling the group about how they'd just seen Jansen and Ming kissing on the balcony. All the others had been happy about the news, partially because they were happy it was finally out in the open. Seth had been frustrated, because she'd seen it coming and had left it too late to say anything.
Obviously, uncounted numbers of arse-kickings hadn't been enough to stop Jansen falling for the queen. She'd seen him openly staring at Ming like a lovesick schoolboy, and Seth just hoped his feelings consisted of more than just lust. But, Seth's clear optimism meant that she had clung onto the hope that Ming would come back to her, and she still held onto that belief, even as the woman stood right in front of her, and tried to tell her she loved someone else.
"I'm sorry, Seth." Ming said softly.
She was looking into Seth's honest, enthusiastic eyes as if she knew what the pirate was thinking, as clear as if there had been mirrors in her eyes, reflecting her thoughts.
Seth looked at something else to distract Ming, and remind her of their love. There was one physical object which showed it more than anything else could.
"That necklace, I haven't seen you take it off since I gave it back. I treasured it every day, you know. Even when I couldn't remember why I had it, I kept it safe, cause I knew it was somehow part of me."
"Thank you, I knew you would, that's why I gave it to you." She paused while she wondered if she should confess her true reasons. She did. "I didn't want you to forget me, in the midst of all your adventures."
"Ironic, huh, how it turned out being you that forgot me?" Seth smiled ruefully again.
Ming nodded, her cheeks turned slightly pink from shame. But, it might've just been from the chill sea breeze, which was refreshing and cool.
"You're staying here, aren't you? To be with Jansen?" Seth asked baldly. She didn't see the point in dancing round the point instead of getting right to it, she always had.
"And my people. I will not abandon them." She stopped, looking suddenly at Seth, though her pause wasn't quite as abrupt as Seth's actions. Her grace and Seth's practical toughness found a balance when they were together. "You haven't told me yet, are you going to return with Kaim and Sarah?"
"I don't want to, there's too much here for me." Seth answered. She stared openly at Ming's longing face, and could see as clearly as if Ming had said it, that she didn't want her to go. She continued, "just, not you. That won't change no matter where I am."
"We have almost an eternity to live, but Jansen has only a short amount of time in comparison. We could rekindle our feelings at any point in the coming centuries, maybe even millennia, but I have just decades with him." Ming replied sagely.
She really did look like a queen at that moment, giving a formal speech to her subjects to justify actions of her or her government. Seth wondered if this was how she really felt.
"So I've got to wait my turn?" She pointed out bluntly.
"You have a lovely way of phrasing it." Ming said, and made a small laugh that wasn't really a laugh at all.
"I'm right thought, aren't I? You don't want me until Jansen isn't around anymore, so that you've already saved him from himself and you can't hurt his feelings by rejecting him. You're way too nice sometimes, Ming." Seth said, making a half-hearted scowl. She couldn't pretend it wasn't one of the reasons she loved her... her longing to help everyone and see the good in all of them.
"This from a woman who treasured her lover's necklace for two-hundred years." Ming replied. Her voice was like a quiet purr. Her eyes seemed to be as dark as a conspirator's, like she was planning something or suggesting something that was too traitorous to be said out loud.
Seth gazed at her as hungrily as a gambler throwing money into a bet, longing for the prize, and not thinking of the consequences until it's too late.
"I won't let you go easily, Ming, I just can't." She told her honestly. "I saw what was happening with you and Jansen when we were in Tosca and after that, but I didn't know how to bring it up, so I just got more protective of you, and more pissed off with Jansen. I've never been great at talking about my feelings."
"Oh... Seth..." She sighed, her voice as soft and passionate as it'd been when she had been playing her harp all those years ago, playing a song for her lover. As soft and passionate as it'd been when Seth had held her, and caressed her like no one before, leaving a trail of soft kisses on her skin.
"Ok, Ming. I'll wait." Seth closed her eyes for a second, while the ocean yet again smoothed a blanket of ignorance over painful memories. She opened her eyes sharply. There was no point in running away from them. She turned a smile to Ming instead, with a casual tone of voice. "I guess another two-hundred years won't kill me, but if you and Jansen get married, don't expect me to be a bridesmaid. Frilly dresses don't look good on me!"
"Perhaps it should be you who gives me a token of affection this time?" Ming said with a smile, trying to match Seth's casual tone. Her voice sounded inviting, and her eyes, and everything, was beckoning Seth that she should forget about Jansen, and her own world, Gongora's plans, and the shocked faces of her friends if they could've seen them.
"How about this?" Seth murmured, smiling mischievously.
She leaned forwards, wrapping an arm around Ming's slender waist, stroking a hand slowly up her body, feeling Ming tremble with longing and doubt. The queen leaned back against the railing, she was completely enthralled by the touch of her old lover. Seth revelled in her fragrant scent, which was a unique blend of delicate flowers, and the wild sea.
Seth gently kissed her hand, and her neck, and her eyelids. She longed to kiss all of her, for them to lie for hours in each others arms like they had done before. Seth pressed her lips against Ming's, kissing her inviting mouth with passion that had been held at bay for way too long. Warmth passed between them in the cool breeze, with only the sea to look on with its approving presence.
Seth suddenly pulled back, that rueful smile returning to her face.
"Seth..." Ming murmured, as if she was intoxicated.
"Bet you won't forget me next time." The pirate grinned, turning and heading back for the ship's interior, leaving Ming stood in the place where Seth had kissed her, but only days before, she had kissed Jansen.