Warehouse 13
Cleena
Princess Bride AU
"Mummy, can you read this one to me?"
Helena took the book from Christina and her eyebrows furrowed slightly. The Princess Bride. She had never heard of the book before. She turned it over a few times. The leather cover, devoid of any design save the title, was smooth against her fingers
"Please, Mummy."
"Anything for you, love."
Christina grinned and sat next to Helena on the sofa. Helena opened the book, and started to read.
The farm girl intrigued woke before the sun to begin her chores in the barn. She refused to eat until she had finished her morning chores. She often vanished once all of her work was done for the day. She hardly spoke to another person.
In fact, all she ever said to Leena was 'as you wish.'
Oh, she was far from unintelligent – Leena had seen far too many of the contraptions she built to believe otherwise – and she was hardly short on things to say – Leena often heard her talking to the animals as she completed her chores – she just never said much to people.
The most intriguing this about her, however, was that Leena was absolutely in love with her.
With the way her lips turned up in her smiles. With the way her hair turned to fire in the sunset. With the way her muscles rippled in her manual work. With the 'conversations' she held with the animals. With the way her eyes softened when they landed on her.
With the way she poured love into the three words she said to Leena.
-oOo-
True love in itself is actually not as rare as people believe. In fact, it is practically common.
There is true love that grows between a well matched couple married for fifty years.
There is true love found between a child and a good parent (not with a bad parent, those should never be tolerated, and I cannot say what needs to be done to abusive parents in a public setting).
There is the potential for true love in a first love.
There is true love that sneaks up on enemies and turns them into lovers.
One of the purest and most beautiful forms of true love, however, is the true love that begins in childhood and grows with the years.
This is the true love that existed between Leena and the farm girl Claudia.
-oOo-
They were both aware of their love. They had been for years – with innocent looks exchanged as girls – but the heart gains awareness long before the head.
It wasn't until they were young women – their looks less and less innocent as their bodies started to complete the changes into womanhood – that their heads caught up.
And when they did, they entered the happiest era of their youth.
Leena began to wake with Claudia, who taught her how to work around the barn. They worked hard during the mornings and enjoyed the afternoons together.
The first time they held hands – so they didn't lose each other in a sudden storm – was in the hills.
Their first hug – an apology from Claudia for laughing when a cow refused to let Leena milk her – was in the barn.
Their first kiss – as sweet and pure as every first kiss aspires to be – was in the fringe of the woods, beneath the sunset.
They lived in innocent bliss that year.
Then Claudia approached Leena's father for permission to marry his daughter.
The man laughed at her –
"And what life could you give my Leena?" he asked. "One married to a farm hand? Moving with the seasons? Little to nothing to her name?"
– and a plan started to form in her mind.
"I'll find a place on a ship," she told Leena one night as they lay together beneath the stars. "I will save what I earn, then come back and prove your father wrong."
"Must you really leave?" Leena asked her – the first time of many that the question slipped past her lips.
Claudia replied the way she did every other time – a kiss and a whispered 'I will come back.'
And she had planned on doing so.
She had planned on a beautiful life.
-oOo-
Leena all but died at the age of nineteen.
The memory of that day never stopped haunting her.
She could still hear the birds singing in the trees, the leaves rustling in the wind, the clopping of the messenger's horse as it rode up the path.
She could still smell the muck she had been shoveling, the fresh autumn air as it blew in from the hills.
She could still remember the messengers face – soft and young, but speckled with mud from his ride.
She could not, however, remember the words he spoke. Those mixed together, forming a single blur. The point of the words, however, was not lost on her.
The ship Claudia had been on had been attacked, by none other than the Dread Pirate Fredric.
Helena ran her fingers over the words. Christina had never liked this part, the disruption of love between Claudia and Leena.
She closed the book, and set it on her desk. Her fingers lingered on the leather for a moment, then moved to run through her hair.
Why had she thought reading this book would be a good idea? On the first anniversary of Christina's birth since her death?
She took a few deep breaths, and picked the book up again. Christina had never let her stop until she at least reached the Cliffs of Insanity.
The Dread Pirate Fredric was feared throughout the realm.
He roamed the seas on his pirate ship Revenge. He attacked sips and towns unconditionally. He never left any survivors.
-oOo-
There is little pain worse than that which derives from a broken heart. It eats at a person from the inside. It gnaws a hole into their very being.
This is the pain in which Lena lived for a year.
Upon reaching the year mark after Claudia's death, the pain left Leena, leaving nothing behind. Leena simply woke that morning numb.
The pain and anguish had eaten any feeling she could possibly have.
So, when the farm fell on hard times two years later, she couldn't find it within herself to care.
The failings of the farm occurred due to Claudia's absence. Without her, the machines started to break down and the animals grew restless. All of which drove Leena's father further into the drink and debt.
It was another six months before the prince entered Leena's life.
She could sense him standing behind her, but did not turn. Her focus stayed on the book.
She could finish in time, she knew she could.
He rested a hand on her shoulder. "It is time, Helena."
She turned the page. "I just need to finish this."
"The Regents have no patience." He lightly pulled the book from her hands.
She stood and spun around. "Allow me this one reprieve."
He watched her for a moment, then handed the book back.
"I will stall them. Read quickly."