Author's Note: I initially intended this to be a Richard/Kahlan/Cara fic, but decided upon making it a Richard/Cara one-shot instead. If people want to, though, I am quite willing to extend this into a short story with a Richard/Kahlan/Cara pairing. I was always curious how it would work out. In Cara's POV. Oh, and I don't own Legend of the Seeker or The Sword of Truth series.
Pairings: Richard/Cara, implied Richard/Kahlan.
Summary: Richard's charm didn't just work on Kahlan - it worked on Cara too, even if she didn't realise it at first.
It was incredibly difficult at times for Cara to firmly cast aside any view of Richard Cypher as anything other than her Lord Rahl. And as time went on, it only got harder.
Well, sure she betrayed Darken Rahl for him, but she did it as much for herself, for she had seen the future that would have otherwise been wrought upon the world with her very own eyes.
And cuddled up to Richard in that very same future, with an offer that Richard politely rejected.
At the time she had been quite shocked that a man would refuse her; and at the same time mildly impressed by Richard's iron resolve to remain faithful to Kahlan.
Cara strongly suspected that it was the fact that he resisted her so much that made her want him even more in the first place.
The innkeeper had offered them one night's safe refuge, after which he insisted that they get out as soon as possible. There were two rooms - one where Zedd and Kahlan drifted off into a peaceful slumber and another one, where Richard was doing his best to dissuade Cara from keeping watch outside his room all night. Calling upon her sense of duty to the Rahl lineage, Richard insisted that a tired Mord'Sith would be of no use to him, and that if she wasn't willing to look after herself, she wasn't fit enough to look after him.
To Richard's surprise, it actually worked.
"How may I serve you, Lord Rahl?"
She had initially begun off adressing him as she had done with Darken; in an obedient, slavish tone that would naturally instill him with a sense of power, of control over her.
She was taken aback when Richard firmly insisted that she drop the formality, and just call him Richard.
But as days went by, he had become more of a friend to her than a master; Richard, Zedd and Kahlan were now almost her family, one that she never had - the Mord'Sith had always insisted that they were her family, but that was a lie; one that Cara desperately wanted to believe out of her desperation to be liked and accepted - but not one that she ever truly embraced.
With Richard, Zedd and Kahlan it was another story - she loved them and cared for them like she never had for anybody else, despite the fact that her Mord'Sith upbringing always made it infinitely harder for her to express it. But above all, she loved Richard, for giving her the push she needed to turn away from darkness.
And not necessarily because he was her Lord Rahl.
Of course there was still the problem of where each one of them would sleep. Richard seemed quite content with letting Cara indulge in the luxury of sleeping in a warm bed whilst he made himself comfortable on the floor. To Cara this was unacceptable - she was supposed to make sacrifices for Lord Rahl, not the other way round. She was stubborn in her insistence that she would be perfectly fine sleeping on the floor, unwilling to let go of her sense of unrequited obedience to Richard.
"Cara, I'm not Lord Rahl, I'm just Richard, your friend. And friends do things like this for each other."
Friends. That is all that they should ever have been, since their relationship had long crossed the line of being just master and the loyal servant.
Cara could not deny that she found Richard attractive. But he loved Kahlan, the Mother Confessor loved him, so that area was off-limits to her. But then, she found several men attractive, including Darken Rahl, despite the fact that she despised him, deep within. And of course, Leo.
She thought she had found love with Leo. Yet even though she didn't want to admit it, whenever she looked at him after he had been named Seeker, all she saw was a second Richard.
Her Richard. Not Kahlan's. Hers.
And even when she had been together with Leo, the thought of Richard had been nagging her all through the process. To her, even though she did not realise it at the time, being with Leo was her way of getting her mind off Richard, and something she would never admit to anyone, was the fact that she often imagined Leo to be Richard when they were intimately together.
She just hoped that Kahlan never found out.
Cara gazed, stunned, upon Richard's lean form lying in the bed, not believing what had just come out of his mouth. Surely she had misheard?
But no. There he was, smiling as he casually beckoned for her to join him in the comfort of the bed. Cara did not move, gritting her teeth. As much as she longed to be warm, there was a small part at the back of her mind urging her against the temptation. Apparently it was called the conscience. It never troubled Cara before. Well, not to this extent anyway. Not to mention that Cara still had a lingering fear of incurring Kahlan's wrath, despite constantly reassuring herself that she could quite easily take the Mother Confessor in a fight if it came to it.
Richard waited patiently, his eyes fixed on the Mord'Sith "Well?"
Slowly, Cara rose from the floor, a part of her wildly protesting against what it was she was about to do. The remaining part was eagerly egging her on, a curious emotion flooding her body, one that she knew all too well, and wasn't sure that she should be feeling, since Richard inviting her to join him in bed wasn't necessarily an invitation to do other, more intimate things.
She began removing her red leather, taking some pleasure in seeing Richard's initially wide-eyed reaction to noticing the full extent of her body shape. What could have been disappointment quickly replaced it as Richard turned away, embarassed, allowing Cara to get changed without a brown pair of eyes ogling her every step of the way.
Then Leo died. Sacrificing his life to save Kahlan's. Bitterness set into Cara's mind, as she not only lost the one man she felt like she could have truly loved - but to her, she had lost her very own "second Richard" to Kahlan as well, proving to her that in Richard's worldview, nothing could ever be as important to him as the Mother Confessor.
Perhaps this was merely a delusion on Cara's behalf, but to her, Leo's willing sacrifice only served to reinforce an imaginary point that she had concocted in her own mind.
But Richard still cared for her. He had saved her several times. Willingly gone to great lengths for her benefit. Defended her on more than one occasion against those that would love nothing more than to condemn her for what she once was, and still, to some extent, considered herself to be - a monster.
After all, when Kahlan had been called in by the townsfolk that captured Cara to deal out a dose of righteous justice, Richard had firmly believed in her even when she herself didn't.
He had willingly stepped in to defend her against all odds.
He even defended her against Kahlan's wrath once. Granted, it wasn't technically "Kahlan" at the time, and the accusations were slightly ridiculous...well, to Richard at least.
She slipped into the bed beside him, making sure to keep some distance between herself and Richard. If she were feeling up to making excuses, it would have been quite easy to say that she didn't trust Richard to control himself in such close proximity to her, in her usual, snide voice. Even though Richard probably had a great deal more self-control concerning these things than she did.
The truth was, Cara didn't trust herself.
After all, it wasn't like she didn't occasionally fantasise about ending up in Richard's bed. On very, very rare occasions, she liked to think, but it was probably more often than she could count.
Breathing in his scent, Cara desperately fought against the urge to cup Richard's face in her hands and kiss him passionately until his lips were sore. Spirits, it was hard.
Richard grinned as he watched her face with great intensity "Something on your mind, Cara?"
Yeah, thought Cara. You.
Faux-Kahlan, as Cara preferred to think of that emotion-driven maniac that travelled with them during the unfortunate incident with amulet, had hit a lot sore points for Cara, when she accused her of flirting with Richard.
Granted, if Cara could be sure that flirting with Richard would be successful, then there would be little stopping her from doing it. But he loved Kahlan too much.
"You just can't stand that Richard and I were together last night!" spoke faux-Kahlan, her eyes brimming with contempt.
"Why would I care?"
And as much as Cara hated to admit it, she did care. A lot. She did have occasional selfish impulses, wishing Richard wanted her like he wanted Kahlan. Of course, those quickly came to pass at the beginning of their journey to find the Stone of Tears. They became a lot harder to fight as their grand adventure dragged on.
Richard would have already been hers if she wanted him. The trouble with that statement was, she did want him. And yet she didn't have him.
Faux-Kahlan had been wrong about one thing. Cara hadn't been wanting to have Richard ever since he "saved" her from the Mord'Sith.
She had been wanting him for longer. Even if she didn't realise it at the time.
Cara didn't even realise how close Richard was to her, although she was sure he had shifted slightly. Her breathing was now more laboured for some reason, and she was pretty confident it had nothing to do with her being tired and thoroughly sleepy.
She had been facing the ceiling for the past fifteen minutes, silently counting the seconds in her head. It was a useful technique she often employed to help her drift off to sleep.
Except this time it didn't work.
And all because of the man lying in bed next to her. He was so close that she could literally feel his breath on her ear, experience the sensation of excitement coursing through her veins.
Cara turned onto her side to face Richard, and only then did she suddenly realise how close they actually were. Their noses were only about half an inch apart.
"Cara..." whispered Richard, his eyes hungrily taking in every feature of her face, as she was now doing with him.
"Yes, Richard?" Cara tried to give her voice an dispassionate tone, but it was difficult, especially with the anticipation building within her with every passing second. But no, she was just being delusional again.
Before she could react, Richard suddenly leaned in and planted a firm, passionate kiss on her lips.
She wanted to repay Richard somehow. She could not bear being a target of his affectionate, caring nature. She wanted to care as much for him as he clearly cared for her.
So when she was killed in the struggle with the driver, it was without a seconds hesitation that she had chosen her fate as a baneling in the service of the Keeper. So long as she would be able to travel with Richard on his quest once more, protect him, care for him...
And besides, she didn't think it would be too difficult to find convenient victims to prolong her time as a cursed creature of the Underworld - one advantage of travelling with the Seeker is that he was sure to have plenty of people out to kill him wherever he went, with plenty of opportunities for some mindless massacres. All in the name of self-defence, naturally.
Of course it wasn't as easy as that.
But in the end, all worked out well. She found the cure, and Richard was the one that helped her locate the source.
Never mind all those unfortunate bastards she had murdered along the way.
Cara pulled away, staring in shock at Richard, who seemed to be mightily embarrassed by what he just did.
"If you wanted me to show you pleasure, Richard, all you had to do was ask." purred Cara "I have quite a talent for pleasing men of the Rahl bloodline."
"Er, Cara..." Richard swallowed "That was a mistake, I, um...we should sleep..."
Aha, so a kiss like that and it's all a mistake. Every fiber of Cara's being now screamed for Richard to take her, make love to her, please her.
But he was being so hesitant...hope was quickly dying down inside Cara that this might be a sign that Richard wanted her as surely as she wanted him, and not just some split-second experiment to see what reaction he could wring out of her with a quick kiss. Green eyes bored into brown ones as Cara actively tried to convey to Richard, without words, that this was what she wanted. Richard seemed to be slowly edging away from her, seemingly regretting what he had done.
Hope was now merely a tiny, flickering ember in Cara's chest.
There was a moment's pause as Richard met her gaze, and they stared at each other.
Cara opened her mouth "Richard..."
The Seeker seized that exact moment to wrap his arms around her in a passionate embrace and swiftly capture her lips with his own as he pulled Cara towards him. For a tiny fraction of a second, she was dazed - then she responded with equal ferocity, driving her fingers through Richard's hair as the tiny flickering ember exploded into a sudden wildfire of intense desire.
For Cara, attempting to mimic the pompous ways of an orderly princess in order to please the Magrave was beyond humiliating.
But she did it anyway. Because Richard had asked her to, and she would do anything for him.
Even walk to the ends of the world with him, if he asked her to do it.
Which, considering his track record, he probably would attempt to do fairly soon after they found the Stone and sealed the rift.
And Cara would be with him every step of the way.
Cara ran her hands over the smooth skin of Richard's chest, feeling the hard muscle, leaning down to exchange another kiss with the man as his hands began exploring her upper regions, specifically, her chest.
Richard smiled as he brushed a stray hair away from her face. Cara grinned back as Richard manoeuvred himself between her thighs and pushed as hard as he could. A low moan escaped Cara's mouth as the beginnings of impending ecstasy began shooting through every bit of her body.
Here they were, as one whole being, engaged in a fury of passion and pleasure, no longer caring what happened around them. Richard clasped his hands around Cara's legs, whilst the Mord'Sith began trailing kisses down his toned chest, managing to evoke one or two contented sighs from Richard as they rocked back and forth in rhythm.
Nothing in the world could interrupt the moment for them.
As Richard finally gave in and released his seed inside her, Cara had to bite down on her tongue to prevent a passionate scream from leaving her mouth as pure ecstasy took hold, causing Cara to close her eyes to forever seal this moment in her memory. Richard was breathing heavily; so was Cara, but it came in soft, barely audible gasps as she relished the experience.
As they lay next to each other, still recovering from the ordeal, Richard whispered "Cara?"
"Yes, Richard?"
"Not a word to Kahlan and Zedd, alright?"
Cara smirked "Wouldn't dream of it."
Cara couldn't help it as a small smile crept onto her face with the remainder of the memory. It was quite some time before she realised that Zedd was actually talking to her; but her mind was elsewhere as she glanced at the figure of Richard standing a little distance away, practicing with the Sword of Truth.
"Poor boy's going to be exhausted if he keeps going like that." commented Zedd "He's going to need a good meal to keep up his strength."
Cara stood up "I'll go see if I can catch us something for dinner."
She was in love with Richard Cypher. It just took her a very long time to realise it.
Ending Note:Yes, yes, I know the ending was horrible, but I kinda rushed through it because I was tired. If you do think this fic was awful, please bear in mind - I had one too many drinks of caffeine and it was very late in the evening when I got around to typing this up. But nevertheless, I'm hoping people will still enjoy this as much as they can. Should I keep this a one-shot or continue? Let me know your thoughts! Leave a review!