A/N: I love myself. Sometimes.
Mat/Tuon sort of not fluff. I don't own it. Leave a review if you want to.
Okay, we're good
now. The repetition is purposeful, if you are wondering.
With Tuon, life was a dance.
A dance he barely knew and was struggling to learn.
A dance faster and more complex than any in his old memories.
A dance that Mat was beginning to think was impossible.
She tangled up his life just by being there. Threw him over her shoulder without moving a muscle. Turned the world upside down without thinking. It was just not fair. First Tylin, and now Tuon…bloody women. All their saying about men tangling women'sbrains, and really it was the other way around. No, it most certainly was not fair.
He pulled his hat lower and tried not to see Tuon and Selucia whispering and flicking fingers at each other. Finally he couldn't resist. He heeled Pips over to the pair and cleared his throat.
"Excuse me, ladies, but I think you missed an anthill back there. Perhaps we should stop – I wouldn't want to prevent you from counting the ants, or whatever it is."
The smile he received in return was so wide and sincere that he blinked. "No, thank you, Toy," she said sweetly. Sweetly! Tuon! Turned him on his head? Light! She flipped his head completely around. "But thank you for your consideration. Perhaps you are learning some manners."
Mat was so bewildered that he ignored the last remark, and Selucia's snicker behind her hand, simply heeling Pips back into place, staring blankly ahead. Light, but Tuon was beautiful when she smiled, her eyes dancing brightly, losing all their cold composure that they had the rest of the time. Her full lips curving up at the corners. How would it feel to kiss her? Mat shook those thoughts away. "Bloody woman," he muttered at last. He needed a way to get her off balance, to give him moments when he could dance without tripping over his own feet trying to keep up. Only moments, but with Tuon, he needed every moment he could get.
With Toy, life was a dance.
A dance she hardly knew and was struggling to learn.
A dance faster and more complex than any at the Seanchan court.
A dance that Tuon was beginning to think was impossible.
He tangled up her life just by being there. Turned her over his knee without moving a muscle. Turned the world upside down without thinking. It was just not fair. Bloody man. Tangling her brains around his finger. No, it most certainly was not fair.
She stroked the razor's neck, feeling her powerful muscles under the thin skin. A gift from Toy, one that should have made things easier but in truth did the opposite. She had to move as fast as thought just to stay ahead of him. Too fast, by far. She should not be expending so much effort on a man who was not of the Seanchan, who had no even taken the Oath. She talked to Selucia, sometimes, asked her how to handle men, but much of her advice was not suitable for her use. If only she had learned about men as common women did.
Sometimes she wondered why she had tried to stop him from leaving the Tarasin Palace. Sometimes she almost convinced herself that it was because of the damane he had stolen. But she knew it was more than that. It was Matrim Cauthon himself, the man she still thought of as Tylin's Toy. It was her interest, her fascination with him. She was drawn to him, a hawk to a rabbig, but she was beginning to realize that Toy was no rabbit. A man of facets as many as a diamond – a warrior, a rascal, and one who sometimes acted the fool, but that was one thing Tuon was sure that he would never be.
She frowned at his back as he rode back ahead, wondering vaguely if he was teasing her. She gestured at Selucia to be silent. He had looked so bewildered when she had smiled at him. Perhaps she should smile more often. Just to try, when she saw him looking back at her, she smiled again. His eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. Only for a moment, but it was most satisfactory. Any moment when he was off balance was a moment more that she stayed ahead of him. And with Toy, she needed every moment she could get.