"How Did I Fall In Love With You?" by BSB
Tamora Pierce's Characters from Beka Cooper Books.

A/N: completely ignore everything that happened in my version of Bloodhound. It will make more sense that way.

Remember when, we never needed each other
The best of friends like
Sister and Brother
We understood, we'd never be,
Alone

It had been easy. She and Rosto were friends. They had breakfast together. The most she felt for him was a sibling like rivalry and sibling like intimacy. And she wasn't that intimate with her siblings. If anything, she liked Rosto more than she did her own sister. That changed a little bit when he became the Rogue. He was always gone at some odd hour of the night. Neither of them were really alone, they just weren't together.

Those days are gone, and I want you so much
The night is long and I need your touch
Don't know what to say
I never meant to feel this way
Don't want to be
Alone tonight

It had been at the point when he broke it off with Aniki and before he took on one of those Doxy-mots he was so fond of. Really, they were all the same, and they never stayed. But it was somewhere in there, that she realized, she didn't like the Pipers playthings. They always distracted Rosto from her. Not that she was jealous or anything. She just liked having him to herself for breakfast, and those Doxies, well they never stayed.

What can I do, to make you mine
Falling so hard so fast this time
What did I say, what did you do?
How did I fall in love with you?

One morning, he'd come down with a horrid black bruise over his eye. When she asked about it, he didn't brag. He'd told his most recent plaything that she was unwelcome and she'd slugged him. Beka didn't laugh. If anything, she felt sorry for him. She got the bruisebalm from her room, applying it gently to his eye with her pinky. Something about the way he let her touch his face, that close to his eyes, he was so trusting, so vulnerable. He hadn't made a move on her in a while, but this. This moment, made the pit of her stomach disappear. And it wasn't a bad feeling. He had smiled his thanks. She had wanted to touch him again. She did, cupping his cheek with her hand. When Ersken walked in, she pulled her hand away quickly. What had happened? It didn't matter that she was touching Rosto, folk only reacted that way, if they did sommat wrong. Right?

I hear your voice
And I start to tremble
Brings back the child that, I resemble

Then one night she'd caught him as he was stumbling back to his room. She had gone to get water from the Kitchens and make herself a sandwich. Rosto had been pretending to be drunk all night and was still stumbling and slurring even though he was sober. She offered him a piece of sandwich to get the alcohol out of his stomach. He'd laughed quietly and told her he wasn't drunk. He stood there talking to her about people of the Rogue. She knew more about them than he did. She had lived in Corus all her life. Rosto told her to go to bed, she was shivering. Beka had gotten goosebumps listening to him speak. Every deep rumble caused a shiver to run up her spine. She wasn't cold. Why was it she reacted to him this way?

I cannot pretend, that we can still be friends
Don't want to be,
Alone tonight

When she reached her room, she went through all her encounters with Rosto, and apart from the occasional innocent flirting, they'd been good friends. But somehow, things had changed. It wasn't enough that they be just friends. Ever since that kiss. Just in the back of her mind, she knew what she wanted. Ever since that kiss, she had wanted to touch him. To return the kiss in kind. To leave him gasping for air like he had left her. Stop it Beka! She told herself, chiding herself mentally. He's the Rogue. You're a Dog. Nothing there. Stop it.

What can I do, to make you mine
Falling so hard so fast this time
What did I say, what did you do?
How did I fall in love with you?

And then he'd gone and bought her a belt. It was harmless really. Nothing special. Just a plain leather belt. Her old one had finally snapped. But there was something about the way he gave it to her, told her to put it on, then the way he'd adjusted the buckle. He'd just done the friendly thing and bought her a belt. I mean. It was a belt. There was nothing romantic about it. Kinky, maybe. But Romantic? Not at all. She felt like he was claiming her as his own. She was being silly. But she couldn't help but notice that the doxies stopped coming after that.

Oh I want to say this right
And it has to be tonight
Just need you to know, oh yeah

She'd realized about halfway through a brawl with RiverDodgers that she was in Love with him. Really, it was ridiculous. She was about to lose her skin, and she was thinking about how horrible it would be to leave Rosto behind. Rosto. Ridiculousness. Luckily, she and her Dogs had gotten out of the brawl with their skin still attached. And when she'd finally returned home, Rosto was in the tavern, dark eyes lost in the fireplace, which had gone cold. He'd seen her walk in and stoked the flames until they were good and hot. This time he got the bruise balm. "Rosto? How do I thank you?" She had wanted to tell him how she felt. Tell him she loved him. But all he could do was shrug. He had a shrug like a crow. One that implied mischief even though he was innocently helping her. Her bruises would be nasty, but not absolutely horrible. She shivered as his hand tucked her hair behind her ear. She couldn't help it, she leaned in and kissed his mouth.

"That's as good a way as any." He'd grinned when she pulled away.

I don't want to live this life
I don't want to say goodbye
With you I wanna spend
The rest of my life

There courtship had been long. They didn't dare be obvert with their feelings for each other. Mainly because if they courted openly, folk would talk. He would do little things for her. She would do little things for him. Things that were innocent. People would just say they were talking. But Beka could always tell by the look in his eye. He could always tell by watching her smile, if there was a dimple in it, she was doing it for him. Small gestures. It had been ages before she'd spent the night in his room. Not that he'd minded. She was well worth the wait. And because no one thought Rosto and Beka were more than friends, no one, not even their fellow housemates knew she'd spent the night. When they found her there, dressed, the next morning, they assumed she'd gone down early and they simply hadn't heard her.

What can I do, to make you mine
Falling so hard so fast this time
What did I say, what did you do?
How did I fall in love with you?

One afternoon, he'd heard of an illegal slave auction, all the 'merchandise' was supposed to be girls who had yet to start their monthlies. Innocents. The buyers, from what Rosto could hear, would be lecherous older men. He couldn't stomach slavery. Especially not the slavery of children. So, quietly, he'd told Beka. She and her Dogs had marched off to investigate, bringing a host of men in for the illegal slave auction as well as the prostitution of minors. One of the girls was so young she still played with dolls. She'd given Beka her doll in thanks. When Beka had seen Rosto, she handed over the doll with a smile, a dimple gracing her cheek. "My thanks. And hers." Rosto kept the doll, placing it on the mantel of the fireplace. Folk wondered for years why that doll was there. He needed only to see it, and he put illegal child slavers behind bars. For her.

What can I do, to make you mine
Falling so hard so fast this time
Everything's changed, we never knew

They never had to say "I love you." He'd been the first to express it. They were in his bed for the evening and it was cold. (Cold for her, he was used to far more brutal weather) and he'd brought out his furs, just to make sure she would be extra warm. He'd said it just as she snuggled next to him. But she'd been only a heartbeat behind. "I don't know when it happened Rosto, but I love you too." They didn't say it too often for risk someone would hear them. Still, it didn't stop either of them from wanting to hear it.

How did I fall,
in love ,
with you?

It had been one of those slow days. Slow for Dogs. Slow for Rogues. Slow for everyone. Beka had been thinking, she'd remembered that once upon a time, she and Rosto had been no more than friends. Close, like a brother and sister, but close none the less. Now she couldn't imagine a day without him. They were so close now, some folk had begun to wonder if they had once been lovers. Little did they know that Rosto and Beka had been more than lovers for a long time. They were more than lovers: they were family.

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