Disclaimer: The Tortallan names and concepts belong to Tamora Pierce and her associated publishers
Just a little one-shot I emphasise the word little… I did try to make it longer but it didn't really work) about cheering up Kel. It focuses on Merric's thoughts, and on the friendship of the year-mates (If only Roald wasn't too busy being prince!!)
Cheering
Some days, Merric woke up and it was bright and sunny. The weather was perfect, and it was on these days that Merric knew straight off that the day would be bad. You see, Merric liked the stormy weather, it was more comfortable. He could remember when he was a small child and he and his cousin Faleron would huddle under the bed covers, because of course, they were but children and the thunder shook their bones and chilled their hearts. Those had been the best times. Now Merric had grown up, and he could no longer hide under the covers with Faleron because both men were now married and married men didn't do that with other married men, especially not with married men who were their cousins. But these sunny days were so sickeningly perfect and it was impossible not to be disgusted by the perfection.
However, Merric was quick to judge (and quick to anger), and when one was quick to judge, the judgements he made were sometimes wrong, as was his judgement of this day. The fifth year knight had to force himself to dress, because he rather felt like going back to sleep and waiting for the weather to turn horrible just so that it would be a good day. He then brushed his hair, although he needn't have because it was so straight and short that his fingers would suffice. He walked to the mess for his breakfast, where he was met by aggravatingly happy people.
People could be stereotyped, just as days could. Some didn't grow out of going through page training with each other, so much so that they had to find a place after acquiring their shield and stick there- even though it was not their home fief- just to be with their friends. This group of happy people was also a group of the aforementioned people who had all decided to bring their wives and children to New Hope and live there for a while, until they mustered enough courage to leave and make their own lives away from their friends. Such loyalty was hard to come by, and Merric was glad that he had such friends.
If only they weren't so insufferably happy all the time.
But then, there in the corner was one who wasn't grinning and the identity of this person made Merric pause before seating himself. It wasn't a rare sight, nowadays to see Keladry of New Hope not smiling. Her husband was off traipsing around hunting bandits as a veteran of the King's Own and she had just recently –two months ago- given birth to a child who had died in her womb, and Merric knew that the event had upset her greatly.
"Morning", Merric grunted as a reply to the greetings of all of his friends. Neal, Faleron, Seaver, Esmond, Owen and Cleon were all jolly little fellows who had been sculptured to become happy little morning people by their wives. But of course, they were all as ill mannered as ever and Merric was convinced that he was better behaved than all of them. Except for Mother, who was always well mannered. Merric felt bad at calling her Mother, even if it had only been in his mind. It seemed a little insensitive after she had lost the baby and all.
He sat down between Neal and Faleron and picked at each of their plates, too lazy to get his own. Tthroughout the meal he watched Kel, he noted each of his friends doing the same, except for her because she seemed engrossed in her food as she stared down at her plate. Finally, after Merric had finished off both Neal and Faleron's eggs despite their possessive growls, he elbowed both of his friends, flicked his eyes towards Kel, then nodded towards the door and made small swimming gestures with his hands. They weren't all that unnoticeable signals, actually. But she was that so obsessed with the plain old plate of food in front of her that she didn't notice.
Both of the men stared at him blankly.
"Neal get the legs, Faleron get the arms", Merric muttered, he would do all the hard work of course, like open the door and direct them. "I hear the fountain outside is nice and wet this time of year".
Then it clicked in the minds of both of the men, and they grinned. This time was alike all those times the group had tortured Neal, pelted him with bread and serenaded him with love ballads. And also like the time the group had hidden items relating to babies in Cleon's rooms when he had knocked up Ermeliane. They were going to cheer one of their friends up, and this time it wouldn't involve Neal getting seriously injured, which was sure to cheer up the cynical green eyed knight, too.
When Kel rose and begun to walk away the three men stood in a synchronised movement. Merric stood away from the table, and Neal and Faleron swooped up behind Kel, picking her up with one man at each end. They struggled with her fighting against them, and the rest of the men at the table jumped up too. Seaver and Owen grabbed a limb each, leaving one each for Neal and Faleron, which was much more easier to manage than two. Luckily, Kel was sensible enough not to use defence techniques which would have each of them howling when it was just playing. She settled instead for attempting to kick and slap Neal.
Cleon ran for the door, Esmond stood back because he was almost as sensible as Kel and didn't want to be blamed for it at all, and Merric waved away townspeople while directing the four men, steering Faleron, Owen and Seaver away from solid objects such as walls, and Neal straight into them. After lugging the large lady knight around for five minutes, they came to the town square where water flourished from a large fountain. This was where most mothers washed the clothes of their families, and when the knights appeared, most of them had the sense to clear off.
"Let me go! Let me go!", Merric grinned at Kel's futile shouts, she had been yelling such things all the way to the fountain. Two metres before the fountain, Kel realised where they were headed and started to try and appeal to each of her friends individually, "Neal- please don't- I'm your best friend", Neal shook his head with a grin, "Faleron? Seaver? Owen- please don't let them do it!", Owen merely laughed, clutching his sides, "Cleon?" Cleon wasn't paying attention, he was shooing three ladies away from the fountain who happened to be his wife, Merric's wife and Esmond's wife.
When the fountain was finally cleared of women doing the washing and women doing needlework in a seemingly peaceful environment, Neal nodded to the others who held Kel's limbs. "One", Kel let out a wail as she swung to the left. "Two", another despairing wail and a "please, no!", as Kel was swung to the right, and on three, she screamed and spluttered as she found herself in the fountain.
Once she had gotten over the shock of being in the water (for it was autumn and the fountain was cold) she sat up, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and couldn't help but smile. Neal was admiring his work while standing close to the fountain. So close in fact, that Kel could quite easily lean over and pull him in, which she did. They wrestled for a few minutes while Merric basked in his own genius. He had been able to make a plan which resulted in Kel smiling, and he had also managed not to get any bruises from putting the plan into action.
Unfortunately Merric had neglected to realise that he was now standing in a line in front of the fountain, consisting of himself, Owen, Faleron, Seaver and Cleon and behind them was standing Esmond. So, not recognising this fact, he was unaware that he was in danger and soon found himself immersed in the water while Esmond grinned, dry and warm and not in the fountain, "Had to", Esmond said in reply to Merric's sour look, "she'd've skinned me later if I hadn't".
Kel laughed and dunked Merric before wading over to Esmond and pulling him in, too. "That's for not helping me sooner".
They were all positively wet, the knights of New Hope who were actually going to be the Lords of other fiefs someday, just not yet. Because somehow most thought that they needed to grow out of their immaturity. Looking at Kel, Merric shook his head with disbelief. She was laughing and smiling for what seemed like was the first time in all of their lives. There were mature motives to throwing her in a fountain. A mature Merric wanted his friend to begin to live again, soon Dom would be back and maybe Kel's smile would be a more common sight. Until then Merric would continue to make a fool out of himself for his friend's sake, and he knew that the others would too.
From outside the fountain he could see his wife and the wives of his friends staring disapprovingly at him but he mimed a frown, and then a smile and pointed at Kel, once again using his discrete signals. The wives smiled. Yuki even stepped into the fountain and Esmond's wife Amine sat on the side and splashed her husband, then leaned in for a kiss.
Tania handed a pile of blankets, which Merric knew contained a child with orange fuzz splaying across its crown to a nearby woman. She took her shoes off and rolled her dress above her ankles. It might have been a shift, but Merric had to admit that he didn't know which was which, then stepped into the fountain. Merric also had no idea why she had rolled the dress up to only her ankles, because the fountain was much deeper. It was probably for modesty, and he didn't mind that he wouldn't have half of New Hope looking at his wife's legs. She was soon soaked up to above the knee, and then she was in Merric's arms, "it's not even lunch and you've caught yourself the flu".
"Haven't", Merric retorted, "but I will if it cheers her up- as my being tortured seems to. Hear that Kel?", he paused and waited for her to look at him, "if me catching my death in a rotten old fountain will get you to smile once in a while, I'll hop in voluntarily".
Kel laughed again and Cleon dunked her from behind, maybe sometimes days with nice weather could turn out nicely, too.
The End