I am spoiled
Apr. 6th, 2007 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maderrNikery wrote me bribery that far exceeds what I wrote, so for her I post what more I managed of Meant to Be and will work on more this weekend ^___^
It is nice to come home at the end of the long week to find things that make me smile, from luffly comments to pretty pictures to stories I do not deserve. You guys have no equal in this humble writer's book.
<3
Chapter Five
Planet 2154014 (Tredad), Settlement Four
His eyelids felt as though they were made of lead, but Pyotr forced them open, staring at the ceiling until he was relatively certain he could sit up.
When he did not feel dizzy or nauseous, he breathed a sigh of relief and looked around the room.
Still the same.
The plain light brown walls, the heated floor, the simple furnishings…
He truly was on Tredad. How he’d ended up here was a tangle of calculations that would probably even give Tau Ceti a headache.
So…was the rest of what he sort of remembered true?
Jade. Pyotr bit his lip, thinking hard. He’d still been groggy, not even remotely recovered from his time in the freezing cold. It was nothing short of astonishing that he’d survived not only an explosion mid jump but also the harsh climate of Tredad. So his memories were to be doubted…
He remembered seeing Jade…then his rescuer had drugged him that he might sleep and heal properly. This was the first time Pyotr could recall being fully cognizant, which must mean he was more or less recovered.
Which meant he needed to get home. He reached automatically for the bracelet on his wrist, not surprised to find it gone. He was naked, after all. By this point the chems in his blood would also be gone, and his in-lens of course would never have survived so much chaos. Until he could access some form of comm, he was effectively shut off.
Pyotr looked around the cabin again, but there was no sign of any sort of communications equipment anywhere – not even an in-lens that might connect to unseen equipment. He sighed and wondered when his rescuer would come back.
It was strange, actually, that his rescuer had not already contacted the proper authorities. Not that he assumed everyone would immediately recognize him, but he’d been wearing an IG uniform. That alone should have driven someone to contact the IG.
Hopefully word of the assassination was being kept quiet. The very last thing the IG and the Draconis needed right now was for the news of an assassination attempt to spread through the stars.
Except…they likely thought it a successful attempt. His jaw tightened. This had to do with the Draconis. There was any number of reasons people might want him dead, but something told him this had to do with the Draconis.
Restless, tired of being naked in bed, Pyotr threw back the covers and looked around the little sleeping area for either his clothes or something which he could wear. In Tredad homes, only the great manors had multiple rooms. Most were like this – one large room with a heated floor and a stove in the center for additional heat. For larger families, things were portioned off, occasionally one or two separate rooms might be added…but if a household had three persons or less, they were like this.
He found what he needed folded neatly on top of a trunk at the foot of the bed – his uniform, stiff but clean and even repaired where it had been torn, but also other clothes that seemed large enough to fit him. He started to pick up his uniform…but at the last strayed to the far more comfortable Tredad garments.
The pants were dark blue, loose, comfortable, and warm. Next he tugged on a shirt made of the same material – much like the cotton exported by Mars, but softer and much warmer. It was dyed a lighter shade of blue than the pants. A couple more minutes of searching turned up socks and Pyotr considered himself satisfactorily dressed under the circumstances.
He moved to the stove in the center of the room, sitting down at the small table alongside it. It would eventually get too hot, but that was infinitely better to being cold.
He drummed his fingers on the blanket as he thought, closing his eyes to better focus.
Only a handful of people could have both wanted him dead and paid to have the deed done without anyone figuring it out beforehand. Pyotr had more attempts on his life thwarted than even Tau was aware. If this one had slipped by him…
It was unquestionably an inside job. Precious few individuals knew his itinerary and fewer still had access to his ship. Pyotr felt a brief pang – he’d been fond of the Shangri la, as idiotic as it was to be attached to a machine. It had been custom built from the ground up by people who genuinely cared for his welfare – then improved upon by Tau. He doubted so much as a scrap it remained.
Thinking of the ship forced him to think of the crew. If he’d survived there was hope some of the others had…but it was unlikely. His crew, his bodyguard…Raoul had been more than that, though. The man spent more time with him than anyone, was the closest thing to a friend Pyotr had.
Gone. Protecting him. Raoul had chosen the duty, but that didn’t lessen Pyotr’s guilt any. But he’d been living with guilt so long he doubted he’d know what to do without it pressing down upon him. Not that he would ever know what that was like, the role of High Chancellor and Head of Internal Affairs ensured all his nights were restless and all his days a battle.
He needed to get back. The finest minds in the world had come at his request, order, or bribery to build a team against which no one would be able to stand, not even the persons gathered by those in favor of annihilating the Draconis. However, making his people into a solid team…
Well, he would have to hope they’d figure it out without him. Tresnor and Jundel would manage it, somehow. It was Bikendi he worried about, however…the man gave the words volatile and grouchy new levels of meaning.
Pyotr’s only glint of hope in the entire thing was Valendel. He’d had some indication before everything exploded that Val was indeed Bikendi’s match. Now if only he was correct about Val’s magics…
He twitched with the need to know, to guide, to be involved. Things were beyond his control now and he didn’t like it. Too many things could go wrong and he couldn’t tap the resources to fix them. Everything would succeed or fail and he was trapped on Tredad unable to do anything because his rescuer would not present himself.
As if summoned by the restless thoughts, the trapdoor in the floor flew open, shoved hard from beneath and a figure heavily wrapped clambered up and in. Snow fell from his clothing onto the heated floor where it immediately began to melt. Bit by bit the wet snow gear was unfastened, unwrapped, and dropped on the floor.
Pyotr drew a sharp breath as he realized he hadn’t been dreaming after all.
“Jade,” he said softly. “It really is you.”
Jade Alexander dropped the last of his snow gear on the floor, then flicked his head to whip the long braid of his hair over his shoulder. Sans weather garments, he was dressed simply in loose black pants and a dark green tunic which fell to mid-thigh, cinched low on his slender hips with a black sash. His nails shone a glossy green where they were planted on his hips. “Pyotr. Or should I say High Chancellor? I am not precisely certain of the etiquette in these sorts of situations.”
Pyotr shook his head slowly and stood up, crossing the room to stand close – but not too close. Those painted nails were pretty, but on Jade they were far more than mere decoration.
He tried not to stare, but Jade…
Jade had always made it difficult for him to breathe, no matter how hard he tried to tamp down on the emotions that only Jade ever seemed to stir in him.
“How did we come to this?” Pyotr asked.
“Great misfortune,” Jade replied coolly. “The very last thing I needed was a High Chancellor dropped on my roof.”
“So that’s where I landed,” Pyotr said. That solved the riddle of how someone had found him.
Jade turned away. “Yes. In the middle of the night. You cause me nothing but trouble, Pyotr.”
“Do you want me to apologize?” Pyotr asked, knowing exactly to what Jade referred.
That moment haunted him more than so many others… he’d wanted so badly for Jade not to be the one behind it all…then he’d wished he wasn’t on the side he’d chosen so long ago. One more drop of bitterness for which he had only himself to blame.
“You wouldn’t mean it and I wouldn’t believe it if you did,” Jade said, gathering up his gear and methodically drying and stowing it away. “We chose our sides. I lost. I have no desire to discuss it. The only thing that matters now is what to do with you. I do not need the IG breathing down my neck.”
Pyotr frowned and said nothing, conflicts rising up in him. Jade was a badly wanted criminal, not least of all because in recent years certain convicted members of the IG had vanished from either their cells or the homes to which they’d been restricted in house arrest.
Never mind the crimes he’d been convicted of before that, the worst of those being cruelty to fellow man in the nature of experiments forced upon Draconis and their matches. He had been looking for Jade from the moment he’d vanished…
Yet now that Jade stood before him…
Pyotr stood conflicted. Indecision was not in his nature, but he’d once thought the same about falling in love. It figured that one man would prove him wrong on both counts. “So what are you going to do with me?” he asked at last. “I see now why I could find no comm. Equipment.”
“And you won’t,” Jade said coldly. “You are my hostage, High Chancellor, until I see fit to release you. As I have no idea when I will be able to leave here – you had best make yourself comfortable.”
Sighing, Pyotr gave up and sat down. It wouldn’t be hard to sneak out later, find someplace to get word to Zero or Tau.
“You can stop thinking it,” Jade said, the faintest amused smirk curving his lips. “When I said you were my hostage, Pyotr, I meant it. You are not leaving here, and even that idioitic gremlin of yours would have a few seconds work breaking through my security measures.”
Pyotr kept his expression blank, but only just. Tau taking a few seconds to break through was the same as saying nobody was going anywhere without the right codes and clearance. No doubt in an in-lens, though he hadn’t noticed the telltale flashes in Jade’s eyes.
Still, later he would explore to take proper stock of the measures keeping him a prisoner. “So what do we do until then, Jade?”
“I hope you brought a book,” Jade retorted.
Pyotr’s lips twitched. “Lost in transport. Have any I can borrow?”
Jade shot him a withering look and instead went to the kitchen area.
It was strange and fascinating to see Jade in such humble surroundings. The Jade he knew wore silk and satin, was comfortable serving as a high-ranking official in the IG, and was more beautiful than even a royal Vrill.
The Jade before him now was just as lovely, just as cool and reserved…but less polished. More…real.
Yet farther away than ever. Not that Pyotr had ever stood a chance. His only life was as High Chancellor, and Jade was a convicted criminal. Not that such things stopped him from hiring criminals…the blurred lines were always the hardest part of his job. Jade, though, had made clear he stood against the IG and its laws when it came to his personal vendetta.
That they were more than ten years apart seemed only to be the final seal on the feelings he’d carefully locked away.
Still, he rather liked the Jade before him now, or would if he were able.
Pyotr shifted restlessly, unable to remember a time when he’d had nothing to do. No one was pinging his in-lens, he had no incoming calls, no emergencies to handle, no wars to prevent…no assassinations to order, no wild and half-wild IA agents to keep controlled.
Nothing.
“Is there something I can do?”
“Leave,” Jade said acidly. “True to form, Pyotr, you are doing nothing but causing me trouble.”
Pyotr frowned but said nothing, moving to one of the shuttered windows and tugging it open to look beyond at the unrelenting white.
He made a face. Tredad. He had hoped never to see it again.
Memories of his childhood were fuzzy at best, minus the gruesome discovery of his parents’ bodies that last fateful day…
Ironic that his codename for years had been Winter, when he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the miserable season.
He closed the shutter and turned back to his host. “Thank you for saving me, Jade.”
Jade made no reply, did not even give any indication he heard the words.
Pyotr wondered suddenly why he had. It would have proven far more beneficial to Jade to let him die. Had someone discovered his body sometime, it would have been perfectly normal that he’d frozen to death. The chances of anyone finding him in the snow had been slim at best. If Jade hadn’t been home when he’d landed, it was unlikely he ever would have known Pyotr was on his roof.
So why, then, had Jade rescued him? Nursed him for what must have been a significant length of time. The abuse Pyotr had suffered didn’t heal in a day.
The question was on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed it, knowing that Jade would not answer.
He resumed his place at the table, turning over all the myriad problems that would be facing his Draconis defense team, giving himself a headache but unable to stop thinking.
A glass was set down sharply in front of him, breaking his thoughts. Pyotr looked up as Jade set a steaming bowl down next.
“Eat,” Jade said tersely.
Pyotr frowned. “Why?” he asked, knowing Jade knew he wasn’t asking about food.
There was no reply.
It is nice to come home at the end of the long week to find things that make me smile, from luffly comments to pretty pictures to stories I do not deserve. You guys have no equal in this humble writer's book.
<3
Chapter Five
Planet 2154014 (Tredad), Settlement Four
His eyelids felt as though they were made of lead, but Pyotr forced them open, staring at the ceiling until he was relatively certain he could sit up.
When he did not feel dizzy or nauseous, he breathed a sigh of relief and looked around the room.
Still the same.
The plain light brown walls, the heated floor, the simple furnishings…
He truly was on Tredad. How he’d ended up here was a tangle of calculations that would probably even give Tau Ceti a headache.
So…was the rest of what he sort of remembered true?
Jade. Pyotr bit his lip, thinking hard. He’d still been groggy, not even remotely recovered from his time in the freezing cold. It was nothing short of astonishing that he’d survived not only an explosion mid jump but also the harsh climate of Tredad. So his memories were to be doubted…
He remembered seeing Jade…then his rescuer had drugged him that he might sleep and heal properly. This was the first time Pyotr could recall being fully cognizant, which must mean he was more or less recovered.
Which meant he needed to get home. He reached automatically for the bracelet on his wrist, not surprised to find it gone. He was naked, after all. By this point the chems in his blood would also be gone, and his in-lens of course would never have survived so much chaos. Until he could access some form of comm, he was effectively shut off.
Pyotr looked around the cabin again, but there was no sign of any sort of communications equipment anywhere – not even an in-lens that might connect to unseen equipment. He sighed and wondered when his rescuer would come back.
It was strange, actually, that his rescuer had not already contacted the proper authorities. Not that he assumed everyone would immediately recognize him, but he’d been wearing an IG uniform. That alone should have driven someone to contact the IG.
Hopefully word of the assassination was being kept quiet. The very last thing the IG and the Draconis needed right now was for the news of an assassination attempt to spread through the stars.
Except…they likely thought it a successful attempt. His jaw tightened. This had to do with the Draconis. There was any number of reasons people might want him dead, but something told him this had to do with the Draconis.
Restless, tired of being naked in bed, Pyotr threw back the covers and looked around the little sleeping area for either his clothes or something which he could wear. In Tredad homes, only the great manors had multiple rooms. Most were like this – one large room with a heated floor and a stove in the center for additional heat. For larger families, things were portioned off, occasionally one or two separate rooms might be added…but if a household had three persons or less, they were like this.
He found what he needed folded neatly on top of a trunk at the foot of the bed – his uniform, stiff but clean and even repaired where it had been torn, but also other clothes that seemed large enough to fit him. He started to pick up his uniform…but at the last strayed to the far more comfortable Tredad garments.
The pants were dark blue, loose, comfortable, and warm. Next he tugged on a shirt made of the same material – much like the cotton exported by Mars, but softer and much warmer. It was dyed a lighter shade of blue than the pants. A couple more minutes of searching turned up socks and Pyotr considered himself satisfactorily dressed under the circumstances.
He moved to the stove in the center of the room, sitting down at the small table alongside it. It would eventually get too hot, but that was infinitely better to being cold.
He drummed his fingers on the blanket as he thought, closing his eyes to better focus.
Only a handful of people could have both wanted him dead and paid to have the deed done without anyone figuring it out beforehand. Pyotr had more attempts on his life thwarted than even Tau was aware. If this one had slipped by him…
It was unquestionably an inside job. Precious few individuals knew his itinerary and fewer still had access to his ship. Pyotr felt a brief pang – he’d been fond of the Shangri la, as idiotic as it was to be attached to a machine. It had been custom built from the ground up by people who genuinely cared for his welfare – then improved upon by Tau. He doubted so much as a scrap it remained.
Thinking of the ship forced him to think of the crew. If he’d survived there was hope some of the others had…but it was unlikely. His crew, his bodyguard…Raoul had been more than that, though. The man spent more time with him than anyone, was the closest thing to a friend Pyotr had.
Gone. Protecting him. Raoul had chosen the duty, but that didn’t lessen Pyotr’s guilt any. But he’d been living with guilt so long he doubted he’d know what to do without it pressing down upon him. Not that he would ever know what that was like, the role of High Chancellor and Head of Internal Affairs ensured all his nights were restless and all his days a battle.
He needed to get back. The finest minds in the world had come at his request, order, or bribery to build a team against which no one would be able to stand, not even the persons gathered by those in favor of annihilating the Draconis. However, making his people into a solid team…
Well, he would have to hope they’d figure it out without him. Tresnor and Jundel would manage it, somehow. It was Bikendi he worried about, however…the man gave the words volatile and grouchy new levels of meaning.
Pyotr’s only glint of hope in the entire thing was Valendel. He’d had some indication before everything exploded that Val was indeed Bikendi’s match. Now if only he was correct about Val’s magics…
He twitched with the need to know, to guide, to be involved. Things were beyond his control now and he didn’t like it. Too many things could go wrong and he couldn’t tap the resources to fix them. Everything would succeed or fail and he was trapped on Tredad unable to do anything because his rescuer would not present himself.
As if summoned by the restless thoughts, the trapdoor in the floor flew open, shoved hard from beneath and a figure heavily wrapped clambered up and in. Snow fell from his clothing onto the heated floor where it immediately began to melt. Bit by bit the wet snow gear was unfastened, unwrapped, and dropped on the floor.
Pyotr drew a sharp breath as he realized he hadn’t been dreaming after all.
“Jade,” he said softly. “It really is you.”
Jade Alexander dropped the last of his snow gear on the floor, then flicked his head to whip the long braid of his hair over his shoulder. Sans weather garments, he was dressed simply in loose black pants and a dark green tunic which fell to mid-thigh, cinched low on his slender hips with a black sash. His nails shone a glossy green where they were planted on his hips. “Pyotr. Or should I say High Chancellor? I am not precisely certain of the etiquette in these sorts of situations.”
Pyotr shook his head slowly and stood up, crossing the room to stand close – but not too close. Those painted nails were pretty, but on Jade they were far more than mere decoration.
He tried not to stare, but Jade…
Jade had always made it difficult for him to breathe, no matter how hard he tried to tamp down on the emotions that only Jade ever seemed to stir in him.
“How did we come to this?” Pyotr asked.
“Great misfortune,” Jade replied coolly. “The very last thing I needed was a High Chancellor dropped on my roof.”
“So that’s where I landed,” Pyotr said. That solved the riddle of how someone had found him.
Jade turned away. “Yes. In the middle of the night. You cause me nothing but trouble, Pyotr.”
“Do you want me to apologize?” Pyotr asked, knowing exactly to what Jade referred.
That moment haunted him more than so many others… he’d wanted so badly for Jade not to be the one behind it all…then he’d wished he wasn’t on the side he’d chosen so long ago. One more drop of bitterness for which he had only himself to blame.
“You wouldn’t mean it and I wouldn’t believe it if you did,” Jade said, gathering up his gear and methodically drying and stowing it away. “We chose our sides. I lost. I have no desire to discuss it. The only thing that matters now is what to do with you. I do not need the IG breathing down my neck.”
Pyotr frowned and said nothing, conflicts rising up in him. Jade was a badly wanted criminal, not least of all because in recent years certain convicted members of the IG had vanished from either their cells or the homes to which they’d been restricted in house arrest.
Never mind the crimes he’d been convicted of before that, the worst of those being cruelty to fellow man in the nature of experiments forced upon Draconis and their matches. He had been looking for Jade from the moment he’d vanished…
Yet now that Jade stood before him…
Pyotr stood conflicted. Indecision was not in his nature, but he’d once thought the same about falling in love. It figured that one man would prove him wrong on both counts. “So what are you going to do with me?” he asked at last. “I see now why I could find no comm. Equipment.”
“And you won’t,” Jade said coldly. “You are my hostage, High Chancellor, until I see fit to release you. As I have no idea when I will be able to leave here – you had best make yourself comfortable.”
Sighing, Pyotr gave up and sat down. It wouldn’t be hard to sneak out later, find someplace to get word to Zero or Tau.
“You can stop thinking it,” Jade said, the faintest amused smirk curving his lips. “When I said you were my hostage, Pyotr, I meant it. You are not leaving here, and even that idioitic gremlin of yours would have a few seconds work breaking through my security measures.”
Pyotr kept his expression blank, but only just. Tau taking a few seconds to break through was the same as saying nobody was going anywhere without the right codes and clearance. No doubt in an in-lens, though he hadn’t noticed the telltale flashes in Jade’s eyes.
Still, later he would explore to take proper stock of the measures keeping him a prisoner. “So what do we do until then, Jade?”
“I hope you brought a book,” Jade retorted.
Pyotr’s lips twitched. “Lost in transport. Have any I can borrow?”
Jade shot him a withering look and instead went to the kitchen area.
It was strange and fascinating to see Jade in such humble surroundings. The Jade he knew wore silk and satin, was comfortable serving as a high-ranking official in the IG, and was more beautiful than even a royal Vrill.
The Jade before him now was just as lovely, just as cool and reserved…but less polished. More…real.
Yet farther away than ever. Not that Pyotr had ever stood a chance. His only life was as High Chancellor, and Jade was a convicted criminal. Not that such things stopped him from hiring criminals…the blurred lines were always the hardest part of his job. Jade, though, had made clear he stood against the IG and its laws when it came to his personal vendetta.
That they were more than ten years apart seemed only to be the final seal on the feelings he’d carefully locked away.
Still, he rather liked the Jade before him now, or would if he were able.
Pyotr shifted restlessly, unable to remember a time when he’d had nothing to do. No one was pinging his in-lens, he had no incoming calls, no emergencies to handle, no wars to prevent…no assassinations to order, no wild and half-wild IA agents to keep controlled.
Nothing.
“Is there something I can do?”
“Leave,” Jade said acidly. “True to form, Pyotr, you are doing nothing but causing me trouble.”
Pyotr frowned but said nothing, moving to one of the shuttered windows and tugging it open to look beyond at the unrelenting white.
He made a face. Tredad. He had hoped never to see it again.
Memories of his childhood were fuzzy at best, minus the gruesome discovery of his parents’ bodies that last fateful day…
Ironic that his codename for years had been Winter, when he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the miserable season.
He closed the shutter and turned back to his host. “Thank you for saving me, Jade.”
Jade made no reply, did not even give any indication he heard the words.
Pyotr wondered suddenly why he had. It would have proven far more beneficial to Jade to let him die. Had someone discovered his body sometime, it would have been perfectly normal that he’d frozen to death. The chances of anyone finding him in the snow had been slim at best. If Jade hadn’t been home when he’d landed, it was unlikely he ever would have known Pyotr was on his roof.
So why, then, had Jade rescued him? Nursed him for what must have been a significant length of time. The abuse Pyotr had suffered didn’t heal in a day.
The question was on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed it, knowing that Jade would not answer.
He resumed his place at the table, turning over all the myriad problems that would be facing his Draconis defense team, giving himself a headache but unable to stop thinking.
A glass was set down sharply in front of him, breaking his thoughts. Pyotr looked up as Jade set a steaming bowl down next.
“Eat,” Jade said tersely.
Pyotr frowned. “Why?” he asked, knowing Jade knew he wasn’t asking about food.
There was no reply.
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Date: 2007-04-06 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 12:08 am (UTC)And Pyotr and Jade just makes my day. Seriously.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 04:36 am (UTC)idk, if pyotr likes him i hope i'll learn to like him too.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 06:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-07 11:42 pm (UTC)*____________________________________________________*!!
Date: 2007-04-08 02:14 am (UTC)They have so much in common, and yet they're on totally opposite sides on things. And I love that as bad ass as Jade might be, he's not immune to Pytor.
*tackle glomps* I looooooves this story so much. *________________*!!!
no subject
Date: 2007-04-08 05:45 pm (UTC)More. Mooooore. Please?
Much love in any case.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-09 11:38 pm (UTC)I like the Jade that Pyotr is seeing here. Prickly. So how you going to redeem him..hm hm hm?