Title: Let It Show
Rating: PG
Theme: Prompt 37 – Who am I
Pairing: Alex/Roger
Word Count: 362
Blah: I got the sudden urge to write some Roger during class and got my pencil out. Then it turned into Alex/Roger before I knew it.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tamora Pierce. I just borrowed them for twisted entertainment during class.
He paid a price for his magic, oh yes he did, and he continues to pay for it still.
He wakes up, his eyes streaming from pain and terror, only to find that he is lying in his bed. It is too empty with just his body alone, marble against the cool blossoms of tangled sheets. Like a stiff corpse.
Alex observes this at from the open doorway. His arms are folded and resolute as he walks toward his knight-master, quick, solemn.
The older man's voice is hoarse from screaming when he asks, "Who am I?"
Alex does not know what to say except, "Roger of Conte."
This seems to reassure, comfort the frightened man a little. He is beautiful even when he is cowering in fear from secret nightmares and deprived of his usual charm and dash the way his gaze is bottomless and haunted. "I cannot remember."
Alex tries to calm himself and presses his scarred palms to his sides. His fists are clenched until slim crescents cut into his flesh. He faces the empty wall.
Roger forgets, for now, who he is, who he was, that Alex is his squire. The kisses they shared with the straw tangled in their loose hair, on the floor of an abandoned stable. Alex, however, remembers. After the kisses, Roger had told him, "This has never happened. It is only a fluke, nothing more." Then, his dark hair damp from sweat, his face undeniably hard and beautiful, and smirking, the duke of Conte had risen from the ground in silence. And left the stable with a sharp turn of his heel… Out of sight…
If Alex feels pleased by his lord's temporary loss of memory, he does not let it show on his features. Instead, he turns to Roger. He feels, caresses the lonely space between them on the bed at first. Then he climbs onto the bed and gently pulls Roger under, into the nest of covers. "I'll help you remember." Alex's lips are curved in a vague sort of amusement when they reach his.
If Roger feels the recognition rise within him, he does not let it show on his features.
