Life
Act Well. Be Polite. Play Nice. Never Indulge. Be Honest. Work Hard. Live Prosperous.
She had been sixteen, and that was all she had ever known. They had raised her and her sisters that way. Every child in their province had been raised that way. She had been kept young, as had many others she had grown with. They had the privilege of wealth to keep them sheltered to the horrors beyond their towns.
Never drink. Never smoke. Never steal. Never cheat. Never lie.
She followed those rules. Many of them didn't...they broke a few. But for the most part, everyone she had known was pure and innocent. Her father never did those things, her mother never did those things, none of her sisters faltered either. And she was proud to be among a group of people that were good and had pure hearts. She wanted to be like them.
Until two young men came blazing into their province, and stopped in her town. One was slightly older, and had said they were looking for work. He was eloquent and had a definite trusting air around him. But the other...the other was wild. Even as he had stood quiet while his older companion made a place for them in her town, she had seen the fire in his eyes.
And it had intrigued her. Curiosity had always been frowned upon as she'd grown, but she had never been able to tame it. And that's what had led her one night to the barn where the two had been staying.
Vala tried to remain quiet as she watched the two of them. They were so different from any of the other boys she had ever known. They talked dirty, got loud and rowdy, drank and smoked, and always were doing more wrong then they let on.
She leaned down, trying to hear the conversation they were having. Next thing she knew, she found herself on the floor, looking up into those fiery blue eyes once more.
"Were you spying on us, baby?" He said around the cigarette in his mouth. Vala felt she should be angry with the name he called her, but the smile of his lips was just as mesmerizing as his eyes. And the guilt she had come to have anytime she did anything wrong overwhelmed her.
"I'm sorry." Vala scrambled to sit up, but swayed slightly. She felt herself steadied against a strong chest, a warm hand coming to rest against her forehead, holding her to him.
"Easy, beautiful." She felt her breathing hitch at his choice of names this time. "You took quite a spill from the hayloft." He moved to help her stand. Vala wanted to run away, but the look in his eyes was so powerful.
"I'm Daniel." He smiled.
Vala swallowed, knowing this was wrong. He was already the talk of the town...a bad boy, a rebel. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to leave.
"Vala." She replied, a small smile gracing her face. It brought a twinge of pain just above her eye, and she placed her fingers to the tender spot. Daniel winced in sympathy.
"That's gonna be a nasty little bruise." He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, and held it out to her. She blinked, unsure what to do.
"I...I don't smoke." Vala finally said, crossing her arms over her chest, feeling insecure.
Daniel raised his eyebrows suggestively. "After a fall like that, anyone could use a drag."
Vala blinked again, this time in confusion. "What?"
"A drag." Daniel smiled, putting the cigarette to his lips and pulling from it in demonstration.
Vala lifted her head in understanding, and he moved to hand her the cigarette once again. She shook her head. "I'm not allowed to smoke."
This brought a laugh from Daniel. He stepped closer to her, and Vala wanted to flinch. She was surprised when she didn't.
"Vala, there have been a lot of things I've been told I wasn't allowed to do." Daniel blew smoke away from her face, then brought his lips close to hers. "You know what my answer to those people was?"
"What's that?" She breathed, both scared and excited by his closeness.
Daniel smiled mischievously, holding the cigarette close to her mouth. "Fuck 'em."
She knew she shouldn't smile at his comment, but Vala did anyway. This was wrong...so wrong, but she took the cigarette. She hesitated as she moved to bring it to her lips.
"Just suck..." Daniel's lips twitched at the word. "Hold it in until you get that buzzing feeling in your head..." Vala did as he instructed. "And blow it out."
She did that, but couldn't help the cough that followed. "That's...disgusting." She wheezed, and then laughed.
"Isn't it?" Daniel smiled, taking the cigarette back and pulling from it with his lips.
"Daniel..." Jack waltz back into the open space. "What are you doing to this poor girl?" Vala noticed how he weaved slightly as he sauntered over to them, an open bottle in his hand, and quite a few more gathered in his arms.
"I'm breaking her free..." Daniel snatched one of the bottles from Jack's arms greedily as the slightly taller man bumped into him. He quickly rid it of its top, and took a deep drink from the bottle, draining the contents to about half. Daniel wiped his mouth as he brought the bottle down. "Of her restraints."
Jack leaned in close to Daniel, and the younger man had to place a hand on his friend's chest to keep Jack from plowing into him. "She's gonna cause us trouble." He tried to whisper, but Vala heard it.
Daniel looked at her, and there was something in his eyes Vala couldn't understand. "Ya know, I think she's worth it."
Vala blushed, but reached for the cigarette in his hand. She took a pull from it and fought hard not to cough as she exhaled the smoke. She had no idea why she felt the need to do it.
Daniel smiled and gave a knowing glance to Jack. Jack, in turn, gave a small nod, and stumbled off towards the roaring fire in the middle of the barn. Daniel took the cigarette back from Vala, and took one final pull from it.
"Vala..." Daniel looked down at the cigarette as he ground it into the floor. His blue eyes came back up to meet hers. "You wanna join us?" He held out the bottle he was still holding to her.
Vala looked down at the bottle. "I want to..." She stuttered. "But I can't."
Daniel stepped closer to her once again. His free hand ran a smooth, warm trail down her back. And Vala liked it a lot more than she should. He leaned in and whispered in her ear.
"I don't care about what you can't do." Daniel placed a kiss to her cheek, and she felt the fire within him shoot through her body. "I care about what you wanna do."
Vala couldn't stop herself from taking the bottle. She took a tentative sip, and the burn that went down her throat matched the inferno in those blue eyes. And no matter how terribly wrong it felt, Vala found herself taking a deeper drink from the liquid fire.
Things had begun to change after that.
She stopped seeing her papa as the pure hero, and her mama was no longer the angel of innocence she had thought she was. Her sisters became nothing more than incessant annoyances in her slowly unraveling world. When she was at home, she began to feel like an imposter. When she was with Jack and Daniel, she began to feel perfection.
So she started spending more time with them. And quickly everything that had been important before became so...unbelievably stupid. She began to skip her daily lessons to go and get wrapped up in wonder with Daniel. Curfews were forgotten and inhibitions lost as Vala fell deeper into his world of too much booze and way more fun.
Soon home was more foreign to her then the barn. She found she slept later into the day, and stayed up later into the night. The dresses she had always loved lost their appeal, and quickly she found them too constricting. And unease crept into her body when she was left without a gun close at hand, especially after Daniel and Jack began to teach her how to shoot.
And her mama's words fast became poison compare to the whispered words of a young man she had quickly begun to realise she was falling hard for.
Act Well became Act like you damn well pleased.
Be Polite became Be pissed at anything that didn't go your way.
Play Nice became Play dirty, or you'll surely get fucked.
Never Indulge became Never waste an opportunity to get lit and have fun.
Be Honest became Be honestly dishonest to get the things you REALLY wanted.
Work Hard became Work it hard to get one step ahead of the competition.
Live Prosperous became Live like there was no tomorrow.
Never drink turned into drink too much, too often, and love it.
Never smoke turned into smoke as many as you could whenever you wanted to.
Never steal turned into Take what you can, give nothing back.
Never cheat turned into Cheat anyone you know will try and cheat you first.
Never Lie turned into Lie as often as needed to get you out of, or possibly into, any situation.
She had tried to hide how messed up she was every morning after leaving the barn. A part of her had still clung to the belief of protect your family's honor. She had tried to keep her walk even, and the insatiable need to scream, laugh, and dance like she could with 'her boys' buried deep within. But soon she began to grow sick of it.
"You know what, Daniel?" Vala breathed against him, enjoying the slur to her voice and the blurred edges of her vision. She smiled as Daniel leaned in to kiss her, truly loving this new sensation of his tongue invading her mouth.
"What babe?" He asked as he pulled away, falling back against the hay covered floor. Vala held up her finger, and drank from the bottle in her other hand. When she pulled it away, she tried to give him a serious look.
"Mama is really starting to piss me off." She frowned. "I mean, she knows I've changed, but she has no proof. And she's trying to work something out of me, and I don't like it..."
Daniel interrupted her for a moment. "You haven't changed. You've grown, but definitely haven't changed."
Vala leaned in and kissed him like he had been kissing her. "Anyways..." She moved to stand, and stepped back a bit as the world tilted as she came to her feet. "I'm sick of pretending to be that nothing I was when they all know I'm something now."
Daniel came to stand as well. He looked into her glazed grey eyes, and rubbed his thumb along her cheek. "You were never nothing to me." He stepped closer and his hands gripped the fabric of her dress. He pulled, and made a tear down the middle of the flowing material.
"Daniel?" Vala questioned, no fear in her voice.
"You're too big for this place, Vala." Daniel pulled out his dagger, and began to cut pieces of fabric away from her dress. "Jack and I have discussed it, and we both think you belong with us. Not just because you're brilliant, and great with a gun, and fun also..." Daniel smiled, and continued to modify her dress. Vala enjoyed the feel of his hands roaming over her body. He stopped after a moment, eyeing his work. "But also because I don't think I can leave here without you."
He turned her, and Vala gasped at her reflection in the mirror. She leaned back against Daniel, and the image reflected back at her of the two of them was so right. Daniel leaned in, and placed a kiss to her now exposed shoulder.
"You are perfection to me." He whispered to her.
That night she had given herself to Daniel. And no longer was the obligation to family a thought in her mind. They hadn't gotten much sleep that night, and the next morning both had gone stumbling into town together, still lit from their evening escapades. Wearing her new outfit, one of Daniel's guns hanging from her hip, Vala had walked straight - okay, not so straight - to her house, Daniel's hand in hers. And she had confronted the family who had kept her tied down for far too long.
They burst through the door together, and Vala was met with the unbelievable stares of her family at the breakfast table.
"Mornin' everyone." She giggled, and then hiccupped a little. Daniel's arms around her waist tightened, and he placed an amused kiss to her neck. "How's that breakfast of yours?"
She held onto a laugh at the look her mother and father shot her.
"It's fine, dear." Her mother looked at her with a false smile. "Would you like to sit and join us?"
Vala did laugh at that. "Nah..." She drawled out and took a few unsteady steps toward the table. Daniel remained standing in the doorway. "See, I've already had my breakfast, and that said, if I sat down right now, I don't think I could get back up."
"Maybe that's a good thing." Her daddy said, fixing her with a hard glare. "Maybe it'll keep you here, away from him..." he pointed at Daniel. "And stop you from disgracing this family."
Vala snorted at the statement. "You wanna see disgracing?" She stood, walked back to Daniel, and captured his mouth in a fiery kiss. She jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. She looked at Daniel, and smiled.
"I'm done."
Daniel nodded and moved to carry her out into the street.
"Vala!" Her mother screamed after them "You're wasting your life away! Don't give yourself to him! He'll only bring you bad things!"
Vala made Daniel stop and jumped out of him arms. She stalked back over to her mother.
"Save myself?" She laughed. "I've already been saved. Saved from you, from this town, from the rules. I'm leaving, mama. And I have no intention of EVER coming back, so you can keep those threats of not having a home to return to quiet." Vala moved close to her mother, then turned and pointed at Daniel.
"See that man?" She asked, and didn't wait for an answer. "He has brought something to me that I never realised I was missing - freedom. Freedom to do what I want, say what I want, act like I wanna act-" She paused as a small burp escaped her lips. It smelled like what they'd been drinking not even an hour earlier. "Drink what I want. And every time I do that, I'll lose more of the YOU inside me. I'll gain more of myself..." Vala leaned in close to whisper in her mother's ear. "And soon I'll be the same woman I gave to Daniel last night...the woman he sees and you don't. Your little girl is dead."
And as Vala had walked away, a part of her had been sad. Childhood had been leaving her in those steps. Part of her still loved her mama, papa, and family. The same part that had wanted to remain the young girl looking in on the strange boys in the barn.
But, now, as she lays against Daniel in their bed of the moment, Vala is glad she never looked back that day. Because the feel of his warm skin has become the home she never knew she was missing. The kiss he softly places in her hair is the love she would never have gotten from anyone else. Daniel is her destroyer and creator...
He stole her innocence, but gave Vala her life.
A/N: This one soooo turned out way longer than planned. The bunny for this one actually attacked me viciously while I was in the middle of working on a completely different idea. Then it wouldn't let me go...and thus this chapter just kept growing and growing. But I think the length works, seeing as it delves into some back story. Who would have thought Daniel was the one to 'corrupt' Vala? -innocent grin- There may be an appearence from some estranged family in chapters to come. Please feed this bunny...he's mean and vicious and will hurt someone if munchies are provided!