So I originally had this fic idea for a different fandom and pairing (don't ask me who because I don't remember), but then I read 3 volumes of Saga and thought it'd work better here. And what better day to post this than when we're finally getting a new issue?
Disclaimers - I planned this after reading 3 volumes and wrote it after finishing 9.
I hope you enjoy :)
A Novel Event:
Unapologetically, Alana enjoyed being on yard duty. It's a time when her superiors wouldn't watch her as strictly and the prisoners were either fucking around or fucking each other. As long as nobody bothered her and she could secretly read her book at her post behind a rock wall at the edge of the yard, she was a happy guard. Prisoners don't see her so they won't be tempted to plan anything and her bosses see nothing. Win-win.
Being a prison guard was so draining and repetitive that she needed her book to escape. Although her co-workers, whom she's complained about her uninteresting job many days, would argue that reading the same books only makes the stagnant feelings worse since she isn't reading novel events. Novel, their exact word, ironically. Alana wasn't sure if the pun was intended but she doubts it.
What do they fucking know? They don't read books let alone good ones.
"What are you reading?"
Alana flickers her eyes over the top of her book and only sees a prison uniform. She doesn't care who it is and returns to the words on the page.
"Ah, one of Heist's," the prisoner continues. He shuffles beside her, leaning on the wall against her post. "In Lieu of Flowers or A Night Time Smoke?"
Instead of responding and losing her place, she turns the cover to show him. She hears him hum as if he's nodding.
"A Night Time Smoke," he states. "It's a good read. How much longer are we out here for?"
"It'll be a while," Alana responds without checking the time.
Like forty fucking minutes. She didn't need a clock to tell her that. Alana's been on yard duty long enough with her book to know how much she could read per shift, plus or minus a chapter in case she had to deal with a prison fight.
"So you seem interested in the book," the prisoner says to keep a one-sided conversation going. "Engrossed, even."
Alana still hasn't looked up to see who it could be but she doesn't care. "Yup. I've read it many times."
Damn. He must be running out of questions if he's asking her that. It wasn't even a question but a statement or observation. Why would she read something she doesn't like? Or be engrossed by a book she despises? As if he's read this book.
As Alana's chapter ends, it's silent. For a moment, she thinks the prisoner fucked off since she wasn't interested. She puts the book down on her lap, keeping it open on her page but flipping it over so the covers face up. When Alana turns to where she heard the prisoner stand, she's shocked to see Marko staring at her.
His stance is casual, hands in his jumpsuit's pockets. He's off-guard, muscles too loose to be holding a weapon to plan an attack on her. Besides, wouldn't he have already shanked her while she was lost in her book? His shoulders are hunched and his dark eyes gaze at her. He looks to be reading her like she reads her books. Alana's mind wanders from the words on the pages as she looks at him with the same studious tenacity. She wonders what's happening in Marko's mind, what he sees from his eyes. The hot-as-fuck prison guard hiding from the lookout tower's view so she could read her crappy romance novel. She's hit rock-bottom. Maybe he's annoyed that she's ignoring him but it's what all the other guards do. She knows it makes the other prisoners angry, them trying to say something, ask something, and the other person isn't listening or cares. They feel the need to get louder, even causing a riot, and still, nobody hears them.
She almost feels bad for him.
Almost.
"This book reads better than how orgasms feel," Alana says, tapping the covers to continue the conversation. "It gives me good PTS which says something since I've seen so much shit on the battlefield."
Marko raises a brow. "You mean nostalgia."
"What?"
"Good PTS. Nostalgia. Same thing, wouldn't you think?"
Alana pauses, drumming her fingers on her book. He does raise a good point. "No. A sentimental longing or wistful affection has nothing to do with orgasms."
"You can't say that when haven't gotten one from me."
Alana narrows her eyes at his stupid grin to hide her burning cheeks. Wouldn't she like to see and feel him try that on her? They could only dream. It's not only the prison potentially stopping them but their opposing species.
"If you read enough books, then you figure out how to read people," Marko tells her. "They don't teach you that when they prepare you for war. A well-read woman is extremely dangerous."
"So you read this book?" Alana holds it up for him, using her thumb to keep her place when it closes.
"I did."
Alana stares at him in disbelief. Him? Reading this trashy romance? "And you liked it?"
"I did. It's not a piece of shit as many say but it's a treatise on radical pacifism and inaction. It's so much between two paper covers bound together by a worn-out spine."
Alana's lips part. So he isn't bullshitting that he's read the book. Okay, she can roll with that. It'll be new to talk to someone about her books and not have it be her defending it or convincing them to read it and failing.
"It'd be hypocritical for you to judge me for reading it," Marko continues, "but you won't?"
"Only because I've already judged you." She smiles. "Did you know people judged Heist for writing this book? Which is why, ironically, it wasn't received well? Sure, you get a lot of attention for books considered by people with degrees to be the pinnacle of literature, but the ability to create something beautiful like A Night Time Smoke is so much better because it's something you earned. Even if people are talking smack about it, at least they're talking."
Marko nods. "Sometimes, your most important work is the stuff nobody notices."
"I wonder if he survived the backlash."
He shrugs. "It's not enough just to survive something. That's not the point of life. You've got to thrive, to feel happy."
"And he was happy with his book, let's assume, which makes us happy."
"Exactly. Just because someone isn't risking their life doesn't mean their life's work is … pointless."
He stands closer to her and she doesn't feel the need to gravitate her hand towards her weapon as she would towards another prisoner. Instead, she grips her book tighter. Never before could she have a conversation about her novels and be so thrilled and excited. Her body wants to move, to run, even fly for the first time in forever. Talk until her throat strains and burns. New energy courses through her veins, making her feel more alive than she has even before the war.
This moment right here is how orgasms feel. Feeling so enveloped in each other that nothing else matters. When she could be so vulnerable and exposed because she opened up about something so intimate to her and he hits it in the right spot to make her explode.
And do it all over again. And again and again and again and again-
"Is that prisoner bothering you?"
Alana snaps out of her fantasies. She shoves her book between her legs to hide it, losing her place but it doesn't matter since she remembers where she left off. She looks up and sees one of the other guards on duty approaching her. Alana glances at Marko who's stepped away with his hands out of his pockets since another guard is present.
"Yes, but I chose this shift so I signed up for this," Alana smiles at Marko once the other guard leaves. "We'll continue this some other time."
"Can't wait," he says as he heads back to the centre of the yard.
Alana keeps at her post and smiles, not going back to her book. She's been reading the same story but that conversation was a novel event, and about a novel too. If she can keep this lively energy in her body forever, then she damn well will.
Why couldn't my experience have been like this? I would've loved to talk about a book.
Thank you to everyone who read this fic! Please let me know what you thought in the reviews. If you have a story idea that you want me to write or have a story you want a beta for, don't be scared to ask!
~ MysteryGal5
