Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any of the places mentioned, all belong to the wonderful Tamora Pierce
After such a fierce storm, New Hope always seemed to glimmer in a victorious glow. The remaining rain drops acted as beads of crystal on the blades of grass and those leaves that had managed to stay attached to their limbs. While there was a bit of debris tumbling about on the walkways, for the most part, the quickly progressing town seemed polished and renewed.
It was mornings such as this one that its commander, Keladry of Mindelan, felt a gnawing adoration for this place she had come to call home. There was still so much that needed to be done. While the war with Scanra had finally come to its conclusion, the country was still faced with the daunting task of rebuilding that which had been destroyed by their animosities. There was also great emotional turmoil which dragged across the hearts of those who had fought and those who had lost loved ones as a result. New Hope was not unlike many other regions of Tortall, it had faced great challenges but had managed to survive regardless of its infancy.
While she herself refused to take credit, the townspeople fully believed that it was through Keladry's loyaltiy and fortitude that they had managed to stay afloat. While many nobles would have left such a mundane position after their time was up, leaving many regions floundering in the chaotic time of rebuilding. Kel had refused to abandon New Hope and worked diligently and tirelessly to ensure its success.
Waking up at her usual early hour, Kel sighed happily as the dim sunshine seemed to melt into her skin as she made her habitual morning round throughout New Hope to ensure that it had made it through yet another night. Her sparrows twittered ahead of her in order to make their own judgment on the status of the town. Jump patted loyally at her feet with his nose in the air trying to catch a whiff of any unusual scents that may breeze through the air.
While this was a normal occurrence, the rhythm of Kel's heart was at an unusually quick rate. This acceleration was neither due to fear or worry but rather because she knew that in only a matter of hours her longtime friend Nealan of Queenscove would be returning to New Hope to train a new Head Healer. While she felt somewhat apologetic about the fact that she was tearing the sarcastic man from his new wife, New Hope had not been the same without his cantankerous face.
She reached the end of her tour upon entering her office where Tobe, aka her shadow, was waiting for her. The young boy was sitting at her desk with his tongue between his lips as he concentrated on the paper he was scrawling across. Hearing the door open his head picked up and he gave her a half-hearted smile.
"What is that face for?" she asked as she set down her glaive in the corner.
Tobe scrunched his face down at what he was writing, "I'm terrible at this." To demonstrate he picked up the paper and showed it to Kel.
She took it from him and examined the almost illegible letters he had carefully been writing and smiled fondly. She put her hand on his shoulder, "Tobe, you have come such a long way from when we first met. Your spoken words have greatly improved and that took quite a lot of practice. Writing is a skill that also takes practice, you cannot expect it to simply come to you suddenly."
"I know," he grumbled, "But I'd rather be out practicing with Looey."
"You've been working at this for at least a half-hour, I think now is the perfect time for you to take a break," she grinned down at him.
He looked up excitedly, "Really?"
She shrugged, "Why not? Seems to me if you keep going, the only thing you're really going to be learning is how to perfect that pout of yours."
Said pout returned, "I don't pout!"
Kel ruffled his hair, "Sure, buddy."
He scuffled out of her seat an went to make towards to door. Before exiting he looked back at her, "You smile a lot more when Sir Nealan is here."
She met his eyes knowingly, "That is the product of a good friendship. Now get going before I make you help me with all of this paperwork."
Needing nothing more, he rushed out of the room to find amusements with is own friends.
Kel looked down at her desk with a cringe, "And here I thought that I would avoid being a desk knight." She glared at the mountain of paperwork she needed to complete by the end of the fortnight. Some of it was reports she needed to get to Lord Wyldon, others were reports she had recieved from different districts in town, there were a handful of letters from friends and family that she had no time to respond to, as well as financial documents that required some sort of plan to deal with funding a new town in a post-war economy. She was certainly thrilled that the war had come to an end, but she felt somewhat forlorn as she looked out at the beautiful weather New Hope was experiencing. If only a certain Meathead would arrive soon so that she could find a reason to leave her desk.
...
"Gah!" she snarled at her cramped fingers as they had begun to twitch under exertion. What was worse is that after three hours of working diligently, the pile of papers had not shrunk. As a matter of fact, as Kel squinted at the leering tower, the pile had seemed to get bigger.
She frowned miserably seeking some sort of solution that would hasten the process. Paperwork was irritating as it was, but having to also wait around for Neal to show up added to her annoyance. She discovered her solution.
Thunk
Thunk
Thunk
Hitting her head against the desk was not proving to be her wisest idea. Despite realizing this, her head thunking continued until...
Swoosh.
"NO!" She scrambled to catch the flying pieces of paper that her actions had caused to fall from their organized position. She felt horribly defeated as she glanced at the floor now littered with white sheets of paper.
"Sure, I can fight against metal giants, take care of a vindictive griffin, and allow Milord to send me flying in jousting practice but give me the simple task of signing documents and I'm a disaster," Kel grumbled.
"And you say Sir Nealan is crazy when he talks to himself."
Kel's head shot up to see Tobe standing in the doorway.
She straightened up and shrugged, "I'm not crazy, I'm simply discussing my strengths and weaknesses... to a miscreant pile of inanimate objects."
Tobe smirked, "Well you may want to pause your conversation, Sir Nealan just arrived." Tobe scrunched up his face, "And he seems kinda cranky."
Kel let out a sort of squeal and jumped from her seat forgetting all of her paperwork turmoil. She patted Tobe on the head quickly before dashing out of her office. She tried to slow her gait down as she made her way over to the entrance of New Hope as a means of containing her excitement. She could hardly remember the last time she had the urge to skip.
"Mithros, there's even dust in my teeth!" growled the familiar voice of New Hope's guest.
Neal had gotten off of his horse and was impatiently dusting grime off of his clothes. His hair was more tousled than usual and he was rather disheveled. Kel grinned, she'd take him anyway.
"Neal!" she shouted out to him.
His head popped up at her voice and the crease in his forehead smoothed as a broad smile graced his face. That smile dropped quickly as she approached him and turned into a pout. "Here I am, having been dragged away from my beautiful Blossom, and this is all the welcome I get?" He glared at the no one who stood behind her.
Kel laughed with a shrug, "That's what you get when you've annoyed all of the towns people with your incessant haranguing."
Neal smirked knowing her words to be true. "At least I always have you Mindelan." With that he grabbed her into a tight embrace.
Kel returned the hug and threw her arms around his neck.
"I've missed you something terrible," he whispered in her ear.
Kel only nodded into his shoulder.
Neal chuckled as they released each other. He tugged the end of her hair fondly, "Looks like the Lump is losing her lumpiness."
Kel smacked his arm as she led him and his horse over to the stables.
"How's Yuki? Is she terrible angry with me for pulling you away from her?"
Neal smiled warmly, "My Yamani Blossom is more beautiful everyday as she graces me with her loving presence."
Kel rolled her eyes.
"And no she's not angry with you, if anything I think she was a bit happy to have me out of the home for a small while. She said something about my needing to take a break from dormancy and needing to remember my knighthood," the smirk returned. "I have found marriage to be quite lovely."
Kel's face scrunched up, "I really don't want to know about the loveliness of your marriage."
Neal wriggled his eyebrows suggestively at her before moving his horse into the open stall next to Peachblossom. He pointed at the grouchy horse before entering the stall himself, "Don't even think about it."
Peachblossom turned away in annoyance and allowed for the green-eyed man to take the saddle off of his horse. Once he finished with grooming and set his brush down, Peachblossom turned back around and made a quick snap at Neal's shoulder.
Kel fell against the stall laughing as Neal squealed in pain.
"Mindelan! I swear if you do not stop laughing at me I am going to cause you great physical harm!" he growled as he nursed his injured arm.
Kel could not obey his command as peals of laughter continued to roll out of her. Neal frowned and smacked her arm in an attempt to shut her up. She tried to muffle her mirth.
"I'm sorry Neal, it's just nice to know that there are some things that will never change." She moved to take his bag, "Here let me take that."
He tried to pull it away, "I am perfectly capable Keladry."
She smiled at him and snatched it from his hands, "It's the least I can do after my horse took a chunk out of your shoulder."
Neal glanced down at said shoulder sadly before handing his bag over to her.
The two friends made their way up to Neal's old rooms. Neal pushed the door opened and held it open to allow Kel to get through. Upon entering, Neal immediately went to his bed and plopped down on it with a content sigh. Kel laughed and set his bag down by the window.
"Gah, the best thing about riding for such a long distance is being able to sleep in a bed," he groaned into one of the pillows.
Kel smiled down at his immobile body. She looked down at her shoes and began to twist her shirt in her hands. She had to tell him.
Neal turned over and watched as his friend began to make nervous motions. "What's going on Kel?"
Her head shot up, "What?"
He gestured to her knotted hands, "Why are you getting jittery?" He smirked, "Is it seeing my beautiful body on a bed?"
Kel rolled her eyes and shook her head, "It's nothing."
Neal stared her down, "Come on Mindelan." He patted his hand on the spot next to him, encouraging her to sit beside him.
Kel paused before allowing herself to comply with his gesture. As she sat beside him he looked upon her, patiently waiting for something to come out of her mouth.
She made a quick glance at him and then back down to her shoes, "I didn't just ask for you to come out here so that you could train the new Head Healer."
He nodded seriously, "I know, you go through Neal-withdrawals."
She smacked his arm, "I'm trying to be serious."
"Okay, okay have at it."
Kel sighed, "I wanted to talk to you about something that... that is going on in my life right now. I need to tell you face to face because you're my best friend, Neal," she put her hand on his and met his eyes, "And I don't ever want anything to come in between that."
Neal furrowed his brow, "Of course nothing is going to change that. What could possib-"
"Dom and I are seeing each other," she whispered.
Neal stopped and stared at her.
"Dom."
"Yes."
"Blue-eyed, King's-Own-Sergeant, lady's-man, my-insufferable-cousin, Dom?"
"Yes."
Neal stood up and moved to the window. Kel turned around and watched him.
"Please don't be angry. I know it may seem odd to you, it was even a bit odd for us at first. But-"
"How long?" he interupted.
"We only just began to talk about it a couple of weeks ago."
Neal turned around and leaned against the windowsill, "Kel, you do know that he can't marry. He's married to the Own."
She nodded slowly, "We're just seeing each other right now, we're not even talking about marriage." She paused, "We want to take it day by day."
Neal shook his head, "He's my cousin, he's my family, but I know that he does not treat women well. He courts them and then leaves them as soon as the Own calls for him, leaving those he has courted with no promise of returning."
"I know all of this Neal."
"Then what makes you think that you will be any different?"
Kel gave a small smile, "I trust him, Neal. We've been good friends for years and he has never given me any reason to believe that he will be unfaithful." She turned her head back down to her shoes, "I can only hope that this will work out."
Neal sighed and came back to the bed and sat down. "I don't want him to hurt you."
Kel looked up to meet his eyes, "Isn't it better to have felt something than nothing at all?"
"That kind of hurt does more damage than you think."
She stared straight ahead at the white wall, "I just want to have a piece of happiness. After everything that happened with Scanra-," she paused. "We lost so many people. How many of those people left behind opportunities that they never obtained?"
She turned back to him, "Neal, we have a job where one day we could be here and the next we could lose everything. There are no certainties and no way of knowing what tomorrow is going to be like. So for today I just want to be happy."
"And Dom makes you happy."
She nodded.
A small smile began to touch his concerned face, "Well at least you chose someone from the right bloodline. I mean, he isn't quite as good looking as I am, but at least he has the benefit of sharing relations with me."
Kel laughed and shoved Neal. "So you're okay with this?"
Neal's face returned to seriousness, "You made me travel all this way to ask me about this relationship."
It wasn't a question.
She smiled up at him, "Neal, if I had to, I could live without Dom's and my new relationship. I don't want to live without it, but I could. This friendship, however, is not something I could live without." She glanced down at her hands as silence fell over them.
Neal finally spoke, "Kel, nothing is going to change this." He draped his arm around her shoulders fondly. "You're stuck with me Mindelan, whether you like it or not. And so long as you're happy, I'm okay with this thing between you and Dom. Perhaps now that I have someone on the inside I can get him to stop calling me Meathead."
Kel smiled and whispered, "Thank you". She leaned into him for a moment until she abruptly stood up. "Alright, now that that's over let's head over to the healer's wing so that you can start working!"
Neal rolled his eyes, "You need to work on your transitions."
Kel grinned and clapped her hands together, "Come on! It'll be fun!"
He groaned as he stood up, looking forlornly at the bed. He paused as he turned the door knob and turned back to face Kel.
"One last thing."
"Yeah?"
"He breaks your heart, I get to kill him. Fair?"
Kel nodded, "Fair."
Neal grinned, "Good. Let's go Protector, I need to spread my vast knowledge to others and instill onto them my greatness."
"I'm not sure I would call it greatness," she muttered under her breath.
"What was that Protector?"
"Nothing Nealan."