Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tamora Pierce. I do not own the lyrics.
Set during Lioness Rampant
All of your ways and all your thunder
Got me in a haze running for cover
Where we gonna go from here
-Mat Kearney
Liam stroked the hair of the sleeping woman next to him with a gentleness that one wouldn't expect from a man like him. Around Alanna, he turned into such a bundle of contradictions. She evoked a tenderness in him that he had never really shown anyone before, even though he knew with all his heart that she didn't need it. Their dawn practice sessions had proven that much.
However, Alanna wasn't all stone. She had a fragility that she rarely displayed, but it was there. Liam had a knack for finding her weaknesses and unintentionally breaking her down. Perhaps it was because they were so much alike in temperament.
This was also the reason that he knew it wouldn't last between them. They were much too alike and Liam had accepted that, but then she went and did something that baffled and unsettled him. Here would be this fierce warrior who left legends in her wake, and then she would show up looking like a gentle lady in a dress. She would fight him relentlessly with a sword, effortlessly learn and imitate the Shang style, and then use magic without blinking an eye. Alanna had a way with taking two completely different worlds and setting them on a collision course.
Before he met the Lady Knight, people fit into simple boxes. Alanna tore apart every box he tried to put her in. He supposed it was fitting. Lionesses weren't meant to be caged.