daisysusan | Ficlets Galore!

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Have a fic for #96: Writer's Choice

“Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a warrior queen. She had long red hair, always worn braided, never in her way. She was also amazingly beautiful, able to capture the hearts of men as she passed them by.

“She was young to be a queen, but a queen she was—and an unmarried queen at that. But many, many people did not feel comfortable with the fact that she had not taken a Prince Consort—namely her grandmother, father and, well, all her chief advisors. Her grandmother pressed as many eligible young nobles on the queen as she could find; her father quietly insisted on the importance of producing an heir; her advisors told her that she was losing the loyalty of her people by refusing to take a Consort.

“There was also a knight: tall, strong and handsome. He was not inclined to fighting—which is not to say that he couldn’t fight, simply that he didn’t like it. His quest was one for answers to the unanswerable questions. He too was not married, though there wasn’t the pressure for him to marry that was on the queen.

“In childhood, the queen—a princess then—and the knight had been good friends, the best of friends. When they were really no more than old children, their galaxy was caught in a brutal war with enemies that seem unbeatable. Both the princess and the knight fought hard in that war, though in different ways. The princess’s mother was killed, and she became a queen though she’d never desired such a thing. Shortly before the death of the princess’s mother, the knight disappeared and was believed to be dead. The princess was devastated.

“The knight, though, was not dead. He returned—but he was very changed. The now-queen found it exceedingly difficult to see any trace of the young knight she’d so loved in this new man.

“For that reason and many others—the queen had to rule her worlds; the knight had to commit time to his family—they slowly grew apart after the war, speaking rarely, seeing each other even less frequently. Their few encounters in those five years varied from surprisingly passionate to awkward beyond belief.

“One day, the knight appeared unannounced at the queen’s palace, pleading eloquently for her help in the quickly brewing war. She agreed to give it—on the condition that he spend the night with her in her ‘secret palace,’ so to speak.

“Desperate as the knight was for the for the queen’s aide, he agreed.

“When, over a year later, the queen requested that the knight visit, he couldn’t have dreamt why. For she wanted him to meet his daughter—the daughter he didn’t know he had. And the knight came unknowing of what he was going to find.

“And there, in the arms of his beloved queen, was a little girl he knew to be his own. And she was beautiful.

“Though the knight rarely saw his daughter, for he couldn’t tell a soul that the heir to the throne was not the son of a nobleman, he always loved her and sought nothing but her protection. On the rare times he did sneak out to see her, he was reminded of her beauty, of her intelligence and he loved her more for it.

“So after many trials, the knight and the queen were finally able to safely reveal their long-secret relationship, and the true father of the little girl they so loved.

“And they lived happily ever after.”

The knight leaned over and kissed the sleeping daughter on the forehead.

“Or so they liked to believe.”

This one is for #71: Broken

It felt like there was something broken, like a piece of him had just fallen off and was rattling around inside, banging against whatever happened to be in its way.

It was an actual physical ache, like someone had punched him in the stomach.

And he hadn’t even gotten through the doorway yet.

Gavin shut his eyes against the hundreds—thousands—millions of memories that their—his—apartment contained. There—that was a holo of them taken not two months ago. And another, from during the Thyferra debacle. Someone had gone crazy with a holocamera and Gavin was sure that everyone in the squadron at that time had dozens of candid pictures. He and—

He had to have boxes of them stored away somewhere—but that particular one was a very good holo of both him and—him, so they’d—no, he’d displayed it. Oh, Ay—Ay—she looked beautiful in that holo. He’d always kept a copy of it tucked inside his storage locker on base, and she’d always teased him about it and—and—

She was gone.

Dead.

Gavin let his head fall against the doorframe, the feeling of having been punched doubling—tripling—more.

His eyes closed, he pressed the door close panel, and turned to walk back down the hall. He’d sleep in the lounge on base tonight.

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