Tapestry
Summary: A weaving of time between their pasts. These are those unwritten stories that connect the dots.
Disclaimer: If I actually own Slayers then I don't know why I'm writing fanfiction.
Chapter 1 – Not Magic
Time stood still.
The air seemed poisoned with failure and foolish pride, but she breathed it in anyway.
The little girl charged forward, putting forth all of her will into her attack. She believed so strongly that there was a glimmer of hope for success. This belief in herself would be her strongest weapon, much stronger than the flimsy wooden sword she currently possessed.
She was promptly knocked back down, meeting once again with her good friend: the floor.
When she felt her eyes watering, not from a physical wound, but from a wound to her self esteem, it only made her sink lower. She stood to try again but was dissuaded.
"Lina, you need to stop. Now." The voice was calm, deadly serious, but despite that it wasn't cold. It hinted at a warmth and concern that had to remain unexpressed.
"It's not… It's not fair!" Now she was crying.
"Lina," the older girl repeated, trying to grab her little sister's attention. Lina was always trying to spar with her, always trying to prove herself. Sometimes she had wondered if she should intentionally lose, but her sister, even at the tender age of 6, would understand. She would understand that her victory was a lie. She would feel betrayed, even. Her sister needed reality.
"Do you know what they call me?" Lina wiped her distressed eyes, still frantic.
Luna honestly didn't know the answer to that.
Lina blindly threw her little sword in the direction of her sister, missing by a great deal.
"They call me your leftovers!"
With that Lina stormed out of the room, which was made for storage but contained very little at the moment.
Sometimes being a destined Knight of Cepheid made life very complicated. Luna was a very patient person, but a chord was just struck that made her frustrated with everything. However, she didn't throw her sword. At the age of 8, she still knew better than that.
As Lina ran through the house and into her room, wailing, her parents sighed. This had been happening nearly every day since Lina discovered Luna's secret powers and of her being, even for her young age, nearly a master swordswoman. They never wanted Lina to know, for they knew it would hurt her too much to hear that her sister was special and she wasn't. But inevitably, she found out. Her parents were both disgusted by the thought of becoming apathetic to their child's cries, but every day they tried and every day they couldn't comfort her. Nevertheless, they still tried.
Her mother left her seat in the kitchen. Luckily she hadn't been working in the store they owned, those times were awkward when Lina was upset.
Her mother gently knocked on Lina's door.
"Lina, sweetie, please, open the door for mommy?" The crying quieted a little bit, but the door remained locked.
"Unlock." Her mother whispered.
Lina was crying into the pillow on her bed, and was shocked to find her mother enter her room.
"M-Mommy! How did… Why… I-I locked it!" Lina sniffed loudly and wiped her remaining tears away. She was too confused to cry now.
Her mother smiled gently and sat next to Lina on the bed. "Well, I used magic."
"Magic…? Really?"
"Once upon a time, your mother was a sorceress. Would you like to learn a little? I think you'd be very good."
Lina blinked. "Can…" She thought carefully before continuing. "Can Luna use magic?"
"Well, her specialty is using a sword, like your father. Not magic."
After hearing "not magic" Lina made her decision within a fraction of a second. If Luna didn't use magic then Luna couldn't be better at it than she!
"YES! Yes! Please teach me! Now! Mommy, please. Hurry, hurry!" She got up and pushed her mother out of the door. Anyone looking at her face would never have been able to tell how badly she had been crying only a few moments ago.
"Faster, woman! We don't have all day! Time is money!"
Lina's mother nervously laughed. Where… had her daughter learned to speak like this?
The next day, Lina's mother frantically ran around the store.
"Does anyone we hire work around here? Each second you sit down on the job is a dollar out the window! We're losing profit! Move it, people!"
Lina, meanwhile, attempted to magically lock Luna in her room.
Author's Notes: Don't worry, I'm currently writing the next chapter of Seducing Gourry, but I was interested in writing a bunch of stories on the pasts of the main characters from Slayers. You hardly get any info on their pasts, and it's just fun to try and piece it together like a puzzle. :) The name was inspired by an image song from Saiyuki called... Tapestry! It's about how time weaves together people's pasts and futures, and I thought it was very appropriate for this fic. I tried to get that reasoning into the summary.