Just Friends
A Protector of the Small Fan-Fic
Author's Note: Just some old drabble I found while looking through my computer. I do not own Kel or Neal or Tortall.
Nealan of Queenscove bent his head in concentration over the parchment he worked on.
"What rhymes with ear?"
"Hear…clear…mirror…leer…beer…near…?" Keladry of Mindelan rambled off, absent-mindedly.
"Near! Oh, that you may bend that delicate, beautiful, perfect ear, close to your brain and hair so near..."
Neal was interrupted from his sudden inspiration to hear snickering. He turned from his desk to see his best friend fall to the ground, her body shaking with laughter.
"What, pray tell, is so funny?"
Kel struggled to contain herself. "You're writing a poem to her ear?!"
Neal frowned. Kel often found his poems silly—she never understood his romantic fits.
"You, being a girl, simply don't understand."
Kel grinned. "I, being a girl, wouldn't want a poem about my ear."
Neal rolled his eyes and turned back to his work, just in time to miss Kel's blush. He read the poem again, dismally realizing Kel was right. Mithros! Frustration welled up in him. He crumbled the paper into a ball and threw it across the room.
"Neal?"
Neal opened his mouth to vent and shout, but he looked at Kel and knew he couldn't. She'd heard it enough over the past Midwinter. She'd dealt with him as he suffered for love of Uline of Hannalof.
Uline. Just her name sent shivers through him. A beauty—kind, gracious, intelligent. Someone who would never think twice on the likes of an old squire. Neal felt himself slipping into melancholy. Sighing softly, he imagined what it would be like to talk to Uline.
Kel gazed at her best friend. He was so pathetic in his crush it made her want to laugh at him and hug him at the same time. However, she refrained from the latter. She herself had an unrequited crush on him—but he was not to know.
They were just friends.
It's actually rather depressing. But I'd love reviews :D