So, I was just taking a break from updating, trying to catch up with the revised content in "Once Upon A Time" that I was behind on. But then after reading LA Knight's last update the Muse bit me in the brain (hard) and – against my better judgment – I wrote this. *rubs sore bite mark on brain* Ow. This was originally going to be another flash for the flash-prompt series in this fic, Coruscation, but then it got deep and turned into something entirely its own, so I'm posting it as a regular short... Very short short. Nothing fabulous. Now, back I go to catching up. PLEASE ENJOY!

PREMISE

Something very perceptive that LA Knight said when she read All's Fair In Love, War And Drinking: "I mean, right at this very moment they're just friends, but they're not quite just friends... They're those friends that could very well turn into something else."

And something that I said after reading chapter 54 (A Father's Love) of "Once Upon A Time": "I need to write a prompt-flash set in the 1920s, touching on how [Nuada's] and Wink's perspective of Lorelei evolved as she grew up. Because you know it's got to have changed over that time, just as Nuada and Wink's relationship changed from the troll being like a father to him to also something of a brother."

SUMMARY: So, that's what this is, set in Germany, in the late 1920s, addressing how Wink and Nuada's views of Lorelei shifted, and how there was that "could eventually end up more than that" kind of thing in Wink and Lorelei's friendship, even before they actually started falling for each other in the plot of "Once Upon A Time."

WARNING: You will want to have read Silver And Gold Part 2 before reading this.

Update July 11: LA Knight LOVED this when she read it, btw. *happy-joy*

The stage was the only thing not smothered in shadows in the dark room of the music hall. Within that raised pool of light, the tall figure of Lorelei stood, wearing a svelte, floor-length, velvet dress the color of wine, which bared her slender dove-white shoulders and created a romantic contrast with the glossy dark of her long hair. Glittering adornments of finest gold rested at her throat, wrists, and ears. Her eyes shone like polished coins in the stage lights. She was currently singing a duet with an exceptionally broad-shouldered, dark-clad elf, and together their voices wove invisible nets around their audience.

Nuada and Wink were there, sitting at a table, a drink in front of each of them. Both were appreciative of the fine music, but truthfully, the real focus of their attention was the elegant songstress. "I will be the first to admit it," said Nuada. "I would not mind at all if I could be the one that was up there singing with her right now."

Wink grunted in agreement, "You, me, and every other male in the room I would wager."

Lorelei had grown up so beautifully. Both warriors had known, once her aging had started to slow, that she would break a rather extensive list of hearts in just the time that it would take for her to seem less and less like a daughter and more and more like a sister to her mother. It really couldn't be helped. For one thing, she had always been a rather tall girl - by the time she was twelve she already stood at eight inches over five feet - and with every passing year as she grew, she became more lovely, more clever, more charming. (More dangerous, thought Nuada, remembering the cut that she had managed to give him when they were practicing with shortswords the day before last, for which Wink had given him no small amount of derision for the rest of the day.) Remarkable, how things had changed as the beautiful little faery girl that the elf prince had first met had gradually transformed into this glorious and enchanting creature that stood before his eyes. Her aging had not entirely stopped yet, but even an idiot would know that she was all woman by now.

When the stunning Rhine daughter flashed what looked like a rather enticing smile to her duet partner, the blond elf could not help feeling only the faintest prick of masculine irritation. Fates, he thought, she didn't even have to try. The prince took a sip of his drink.

His was a rather hopeless case, with her. It wasn't that Nuada was in love with Lorelei, for in fact he was not, nor did he have any particular desire to pursue her, but... He would not deny, even to himself, that if she had been interested, he would have had no objections about reciprocating.

But she wasn't. She never had been. Not in him. Not like that.

She had never made any secret of where she usually found the most excitement when it came to things like that; naturally, though, there was the rare exception every now and again. But he wasn't it.

Ah well, pure pride even letting it get to him in any measure at all, he knew. Nuada took another gulp of his drink and pushed these thoughts aside. He was not someone who used or kept friends of any sort simply for his own vanity's sake, he refused to think of someone that he so dearly liked and respected in such a fashion.

At length, the self-exiled prince glanced over to his burly, bristled companion. How far had Wink's view of Lorelei changed this past handful of years? The blond elf warrior found he could not help wondering. The silver troll always seemed to treat the ebon-haired rhinemaiden... differently somehow from the ways that he typically treated all of their other female acquaintances. There was a sort of fondness in his manner that Nuada had never seen him regard anyone else with - not even Nuala, when the royal twins of Bethmoora were younger and in happier times. How had that fondness evolved as the object of its regard had evolved? The veteran warrior had seemed to see it as only natural once the river faery had begun to dispense with addressing him with the respectful formality of the word "Ihr" and more and more started to speak to him with the familiarity and equality of the word "du," (which she would never do with Nuada, out of respect for his royal station). To him, it was just another thing that was inevitable, apparently. Girls grew up, became friends, lovers, enemies, wives, mothers, ladies, warriors, and queens. It was hardly that much different from how Nuada had become more and more like a brother and not only as a sort of a son to Wink, as the elf princeling grew and became a man. Clearly though, Lorelei did not hold a sisterly place in the rough-hided behemoth's heart. Not at all. Nor did she occupy the same regard that Wink would give to a woman that he sought to woo, either, that much was quite obvious.

She was simply... more than just any kind of friend, it seemed.

Someone dear. Someone that made the troll's one eye brighten like clouds blown away from stars whenever he saw her. Something that there was no distinct word for, as yet.

For now.

The music ended, and Lorelei and her partner took a bow, to the clapping and table-banging and hollers, hoots, whistles, and roars of applause of their audience – including a very admirable roar from Wink. The elf on stage took Lorelei's slender hand in his, and placed a brief, courteous kiss to the back of it, while the ivory points of Lorelei's winning smile gleamed with the golden lights of the stage.

Nuada and Wink raised their mugs high in a toast, hollering in unison, "To Lorelei!" To which the rhinemaiden blushed and smiled all the wider and more brightly.

A/N - In this short, Lorelei stands at six feet tall, and could be pegged for anywhere from seventeen to nineteen years old by ignorant human eyes. All you squeamish folks that cling to post-modern political correctness and tend to retroactively impose it on global history can say "ew" now. :P You sillies.

- Having your friends show up at one of your gigs, and then very loudly toast you for all to hear after you've finished a song is something that has actually happened to me before.

- I do accept anonymous reviews, so you don't even have to have a user account with this site to leave me feedback, just make up a name and say "hello there," I don't even care if it's not in English, heck, I think I would appreciate learning more if it wasn't.

TRANSLATIONS

Ihr/du = You (polite/familiar)