Author's Note: First Draft. Unedited.
WARNING: This is actually a possible (probably not) scene for a multichaptered Speedy/Melvin fic I'm currently planning.
Reglement
A Word of the Day Ficlet
By Kysra
She's always been this little brat he had to deal with because Rob and Rae considered her family; and he never paid her too much mind. Not until she grew up and became a force to be reckoned with on her own with or without her power.
And - he could admit it - he has been smitten with her in some way, shape, or form since that first unamused glare she shot at him from beneath sooty lashes in response to some stray comment about her "imaginary friend". And - yes, he could admit this too - he actually enjoyed all her witty barbs and verbal lashings (no matter how true the vast majority were) and took her rejections to heart, always ready to start again.
It wasn't that he wanted her in any sort of desperate, all-encompassing way. He wasn't in love or in lust. There was simply something about Melvin that pushed and pulled at his control since she was a little girl following Raven around like a lost duckling.
Then, just like that, she went missing and he was shocked to the core at how worried he had become - how capable he was of actually becoming that worried . . . to the point that he willingly relinquished his duties in D.C. as well as Steel to join in the search for the vanished eighteen year old.
And when they finally found her, when she was safe once again and seemingly normal, he was shocked once again by the depth of his feeling when she inexplicably began to go out of her way to ignore him. It was then he understood something vital: He had never really wanted her attention until it was gone; and this wasn't a conceit, wasn't a point of personal insult.
Melvin is a master of her own mind and heart - has to be, she's explained before. In this way, she is similar to Raven whose power is also tied to her heart and mind. If balance does not exist, there will be chaos.
He cannot begin to imagine what the dreamworld of Melvin's experience was like; but he knows a bit of what went on their from Raven's own admission because she believes he SHOULD know. And so, instead of forcing the girl to come to him, instead of confronting her and driving her into a corner of confession, he does something a pouncing hunter of his ilk has rarely ever done before: wait.
Because after everything is said and done, whatever relationship they will have is her choice alone. He's already made of his mind. He can only hope that whatever instrument of perfection she loved in that other place, she will come to settle for the Roy here.
Word: Kapellmeister