Disclaimer: I do not own any of Tamora Pierce's works of written art.

When the world goes hazy

by Cho-sama

She screwed her eyes shut and furiously shook her head. Opening them again she wrinkled her nose when she found that the world was still blurry and kept on jogging out of place. Yet again she resulted to shaking her head causing her brain to rattle and the burning sensation to increase.

After another bout of mind rattling she felt cold hands place on either side of her head, stopping her head from moving.

"Kel? Damn, I should've listened to you when you said no alcohol," the voice sounded strangely familiar and Kel, liking the sound of the deep voice, looked up beaming at her newfound friend.

She heard the stranger chuckle and frowned. Why was he laughing at her?

Her frowned deepened when the chuckle turned into bursts of laughter. Her eyes narrowed and she held her head high, even though the sudden movement caused black dots to flash in front of her eyes.

What was so funny? She didn't say anything. Not that in her state she possibly could.

Dom couldn't help himself. Before, when she grinned at him, she looked so sweet and innocent and now that she was pouting and holding her head like a snotty conservative, he felt the laughter come out of his throat involuntarily.

When he took the lady knight out for a drink, he didn't expect it to end up like this or for him to be the sober one.

He looked around the bar and smirked when he saw his cousin asleep on the table, drool dripping out of his mouth, with Merric lying on top of him. He didn't even want to know what happened there, but knew it would be good blackmail material for later.

A few of Kel's other friends were present too. Seaver was still ordering more drinks, swaying from their effect and Faleron was snoring away, leaning on Owen, who was newly knighted, and seemed to be the most fully conscious one, apart from Dom himself.

The bar was a battlefield, responsibility of the King's Own third company. It seemed the lads went a bit wild and now most of them were lying asleep on the floor.

Suddenly he felt something leaning into him. Looking back down he saw Kel with her head leaning against his stomach.

He felt his heart jump, but decided to ignore it.

The alcohol must be catching up to him, also.

Taking hold of her shoulders he lifted her upright and kneeled so he could look into her face. Her normally orderly brown hair was now slightly ruffled. He realised it had grown past her shoulder. Her hazel eyes kept on flittering from place to place.

Almost as if on cue they focused on his eyes and widened, making them larger than they already were. She looked so naive and carefree, which was extremely contradictive to her usual serious and worrying self. He couldn't stop himself from leaning in slightly towards her.

He didn't know what he was doing, but the moment was so intoxicating.

He breathed in deeply. The scent was Kel, if not mixed with a bit of ale. It smelled of fresh grass and lemon. He leaned in closer so that their foreheads were touching. Her eyes were still open wide staring into his and she didn't make to move away. He moved his mouth closer…

"You have pretty eyes," Kel stated as if commenting on the weather, throwing 'the moment' out the broken bar window.

The sergeant put the disappointment to the back of his mind and heaved a sigh, lifting himself up. "I think its time to take you home."

Kel opened her mouth ready to protest, but seemed to decide against it when her eyes fixed on something behind Dom. Slightly pushing him out of the way, she reached towards the table and wrapped her hand around a half full glass of ale.

Seeing this, Dom snorted and pried the drink away from her fingers. Kel whimpered like a two year old whose candy just fell on the ground and Dom snorted again. It was hard not to laugh when he just turned the infamous lady knight into a pouting alcoholic, in just one night.

Pulling her up, he placed the glass back on the table and dragged her out of the bar, Kel barely resisting.

The handsome blue-eyed stranger was taking her somewhere and she was more than happy to follow, but she was finding it increasingly hard to walk, therefore was more or less being dragged by the man.

The night was cold and although her head and throat felt like they were on fire, the rest of her body was frozen.

She had no coat and the stranger didn't seem to be taking any notice of her condition. Digging her heal into the ground, she tugged on his arm, forcing him to stop. He turned back to look at her, his cerulean eyes sending a shiver through her spine. It confused her.

She saw him starting to take off his cloak, but closed her eyes as soon as black dots started appearing again. She felt a strange sensation start from a stomach and travel up to her throat before dieing down slightly.

Opening her eyes, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as the black dots were still there and she didn't realise the man throw his cloak around her. She reached out trying to grab one of the dots, but it swiftly moved away. Her hand still poised, she started swaying and blinked. Were the black dots growing?

Blinking again and shaking her head slightly, she didn't notice arms shoot out to grab her waist as everything went black.

Dom stared at Kel, now wrapped securely in his arms. He slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, slowly registering what just happened. Kel seemed fine one moment, if not a little cold, and then she collapsed the next.

He swore. Now, he had an unconscious knight, in his arms, in the dead of night and nowhere near the palace.

He looked back down at Kel and felt some of the anger seep out of him, but as quick as it came it was gone and instead changed to guilt. How could he be angry with her? It was his fault anyway. In one movement he scooped the rest of her body up and held her close to his chest.

He felt his heart suddenly pick up its pace and swore that he could hear it loudly thumping away; he wondered why Kel hadn't wake up.

As the palace came into view, Dom sighed in relief. Much more of this and Dom felt his heart would either give out or make him faint because of all the blood that was rushing around his body or more to a certain area of his body.

Walking through the palace halls, he thanked Mithros that he was nearing the lady knight's rooms.

When he arrived he cursed slightly, knowing that the only way to open the door would be to wake Kel. He couldn't use his hands since both of them were full and the door would most likely be locked anyway, and Kel was the only one with the key.

He shook her as hard as he possibly could in his position. Kel only groaned and snuggled closer into his chest, which only made his cheeks burn.

"Kel," he whispered. "Kel, please wake up."

Trying his best not to hurt her, he sat her down on the ground and started shaking her shoulders whilst whispering her name as loudly as possible over and over again.

He pondered on what else could wake her. He didn't want to slap her like he did to some of his men and pouring water over her was out of the question, although he wouldn't admit it, he was probably more inclined to this idea. She would kill him for getting her wet, but at least he would have a nice view.

He regarded her face and not for the first time felt his heart skip a beat.

She looked innocent and beautiful. Although her figure was sturdy, no man could fail to miss the womanly curves that were so perfect on her tall frame. Her long lashes cast shadows underneath her eyes and her brown hair framed her face. Her lips…

Dom shook his head and looked at her again. Why did her lips have to look so damn inviting?

Before he knew what he was doing, he was leaning in too close and her breath was tickling his cheek.

"Kel," he whispered one last time, hoping she would wake up before he did anything he would regret, but unfortunately it was too late. Her lips felt so soft against his and so enticingly warm.

Footsteps in the distance brought him back to reality. Pulling away he found two very wide hazel eyes staring at him.

His first thought was that she's so beautiful, but quickly shoved it out when it hit him, what had he just done?

She's going to hate me…she'd probably not want to see me again…oh Mithros, what have I done?

Thoughts rushed through the sergeant's head whilst Kel just stared at him.

She couldn't take her eyes off him. She was in the middle of a wonderful dream, which consisted of enslaving a certain Meathead and forcing him to eat vegetables constantly, when she felt something warm on her lips. She opened her eyes to find the stranger's face in her view, pressing his lips, rather determinedly, against hers.

No he wasn't a stranger. She knew his name, but why would she know that when she couldn't remember hers.

Why did her head hurt so bloody much?

What was his name? Dan…no…Tom…no…it was…

"Dom?" she barely breathed. His eyes shot to hers, seemingly searching for something in them. All she could see was the worry and pain etched into his fine features.

With that name everything started coming back to her in a throbbing, pounding headache.

"Damn," she pressed her hand to her head, as if it would stop the pain and looked up again at the blue-eyed man. "Please, help me up."

The sergeant smiled tightly and stood up, offering his hand. She took it and was pulled to her feet. Brushing herself off she looked at Dom questioningly, hoping to get an answer for what had just happened, but he seemed to be intent on avoiding her gaze.

Did this mean that he liked her?

Her heart started pounding. It could've been a dare, but then why would he be so bashful about it or do it when she was unconscious? Could he really like her?

She turned her head towards the sound of footsteps approaching.

The footsteps Dom had heard earlier were now coming closer. He looked down the hallway to see a burly man approaching.

"Dom? Kel? So you're back from the drinking fest," the Commander of the King's Own, Lord Roaul, grinned at them. "I went to the bar first looking for you, but Owen told me that you'd already left."

From the gleam in his eyes and the raised eyebrow, it seemed that that wasn't the only thing Owen told him.

Dom sighed. "Don't worry, Roaul. I was just escorting Lady Kel to her room."

Kel winced at the 'Lady'. Why was he being formal all of a sudden?

Roaul didn't miss it either and his expression turned confused. He knew Kel hated titles. He looked curiously at Kel and the lady knight returned the look with her Yamani mask on.

"I was just looking for my keys," and she busied herself with searching through her pockets.

"So, sergeant, I need to see you tomorrow morning about some paperwork," Roaul said trying to change the mood.

Dom chuckled, relieved and replied, "But sir, I just got back from repairing a town and my hands are tired from all the hammering I had to do, surely you could find someone else to do it?"

"Nope, all the others are too drunk and wont be fit enough tomorrow," Roaul suppressed a sadistic grin. The click of Kel's door opening made them both face her. Roaul smiled knowingly and addressed them both.

"Alright then. You two have a good night," with that the knight walked away, whistling a tune before quickly turning back with one last thing to say. "Oh and the money for fixing that bar up is coming out of yours and the men's next pay."

When the commander was out of earshot, Dom turned to Kel, who was standing in front of her now opened door.

"Dom, I –

"No, Kel, please let me explain," he cut her off. "I'm sorry for what I did. I had no right to take advantage of you like that, especially for my own selfish reason. I hope this doesn't get in between our friendship."

Kel looked perplexed for a minute, and then unwittingly blushed. "So you meant it?"

"What?"

"When you kissed me. You actually meant it."

Dom regarded her and then met her eyes confidently. "Yes."

Kel felt a shiver run through her and not because it was cold. Dom's eyes pierced through and it made her blush like a court girl. The odd thing was, though, that she liked it. She liked the way that he made her feel impossibly girly when most of the time she was treated like one of the guys.

She smiled up at him. He stared back at her, his mouth slightly agape.

Lifting her head up with her hands held behind her back, she kissed him gently on the cheek. Then, smiling mischievously and feeling more confident, she touched his lips with her own.

It felt as if lightening ran through her body. She felt him about to wrap his arms around her waist, but she quickly pulled away before he could hold her. She took a step back towards her open door and stood in the frame.

Dom stepped after her, but was stopped by her hand on his chest.

"Goodnight, Dom."

The sergeant looked at her and gave a lopsided smile. "You're not going to deprive me of another goodnight kiss, are you Protector of the Small?"

Kel grinned; she didn't even reprimand him for using the name.

Taking her hand in one of his large ones, he pushed her long fringe away from her face and kissed her forehead. She felt him smile against her skin before he moved down and kissed her on the tip of her delicate nose.

He looked into her eyes one last time before kissing her fully on the lips. Wrapping his arms around her waist he pulled her closer. He didn't realise until now how much he really wanted her.

Reluctantly pushing him away, she stepped back into her room.

She chuckled and smiled, "Goodnight then, Dom."

She then closed the door, leaving the sergeant grinning from ear to ear.

Back at the bar, Owen took a last sip of his last drink and grinned.

Looking around he felt a jolly pride in being the only one to not drink himself unconscious. His knight friends all seemed to have had a wild time and the men of the Own did a little more destruction than necessary.

His grin became even wider when he remembered how a certain sergeant was acting towards a certain lady knight. It was definitely jolly gossip and maybe blackmail.

Getting up he walked, or more waddled, towards the door.

Suddenly he felt a strong grip on his arm and was jerked back into the centre of the bar. Turning around he saw a burly man of over six foot five.

"Where do you think you're going?" the man spat when he spoke. "Look what your friends did to my bar! This is going to pay…"

With one last wistful look at the door Owen whimpered as he was dragged away to the Gods know what torture.

Fin.

XXX

My first one-shot and fanfiction finished and I hope you all like it!

I've really wanted to do a Kel/Dom for so long now and finally, I finished it! I always imagined what a drunk Kel would be like and I hope you all agree that she would be a little childish and ditzy and Dom of course had to be her sergeant in shining armour saving her from the drunken battlefield.

Hope you liked it. Please review and constructive criticism is appreciated, but obviously compliments are even more so.