Title: This Long Silence
Characters/Pairings: Xingke, Tianzi
Rating: PG
Word Count: 710
Warnings: None in particular
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.
Notes: First XingkeTianzi ficlet. Written for the LJ comm prompt-in-a-box.
"That I did always love, I bring thee proof: that till I loved I did not love enough." (Emily Dickinson)
For six years, silence had drawn a line between them.
Until she broke it, using the sign of their promise.
Six years ago, his life would have ended. If not for her. She had used her feeble grasp on the power of her ancestry, against the will of her advisors. For him.
Although from heavenly descent, she did not hesitate to put herself on a level with a prisoner. Although young, no, because of her youth, she had an unadulterated sense of justice which saved him from capital punishment. Her word was law.
To him, there was no other way to thank her than to give the life she had granted him back into her hands. To be hers, body and soul. To protect her, with this life.
Under a starry sky, he pledged his future to the Empress, the symbol of a government he had been fighting to destroy until that fateful day. Swore to his heart to take her out of Luo Yang, the Forbidden City, and show her everything she wanted to see, in the outside world.
She had opened his eyes to the workings of the government. She was still a child. Not to blame for the poverty of her people, the injustice they had to suffer. She was only a figurehead, a political tool led by the hands of the Eunuch Generals. By opening his eyes, she had given him a new focus for his burning hatred.
He would destroy the Chinese Union from within and set her free, take her away. One step at a time. Becoming strong was the first step on the long journey that lay ahead. To become strong, to be able to fully protect Tianzi, he first had to undergo military training.
Since then, the silence between them slowly unfolded.
Remained unbroken even as he was received in audience at the court. She was there, but said nothing. Was not given the chance to say anything. The Eunuchs were taking care of everything.
He would eliminate them. One of his next steps. They were using him, too. He played along, if only to preserve her name, her status. Played along for the sake of his fellow citizens. They needed someone to save them from their misery. Someone who would rise against their superiors.
A coup d'état he had been working toward for six years. This government could only work if its people were free from choice. So he would regain their right to choose.
But nothing came as planned.
Cowards that they were, the Eunuchs sold the Empress off to Britannia, to form an alliance against the Black Knights. He had to act before the marriage. He had to choose.
To protect the Empress or the alliance for peace.
This marriage and the accompanying cession of territory could not be the will of the people.
Nor was it his.
As he realized he would rather die than lose Tianzi, let her become a hostage on the other side of the ocean, he wished to her to be his, across that line of silence. His heart led him down this path, moving up his plans to start a coup d'état with his rebel army and rescuing her from the prospect of a life spent in captivity, although his head knew he should not be allowed to get away with such insolence.
How could he, Xingke, a mere military officer, know the will of Tianzi, the Empress, the Child of the Heavens? How could he know whether she still remembered their six-year-old promise? Maybe she had forgotten, or worse, lost faith in his pledge, in him.
During the commotion of a foiled wedding ceremony, she answered his silent questions, hopes, prayers. Calling his name in a fearful, desperate voice, breaking the silence between them.
Breaking him free of the hesitation clawing at his heart, too. There would be no stopping him now. Win or lose, free or fail, fight or die. If he could not get back Tianzi-sama, something precious would die inside of him.
Maybe, if he had realized his feelings sooner, if they had broken the silence earlier, all of this would not have happened.
Destiny moved in mysterious ways. And Xingke would not stop walking until his goal was reached.