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Ring [Fic]
Sep. 29th, 2013 04:28 amEverything is very professional on the way to the airport. It's cold and practical, and she's somewhat comforted by that fact. Distance in a metaphorical sense to prepare for the literal. Half an hour into the transcontinental flight, the armed, tattooed men melt into the back of the jet providing the illusion of privacy as he produces and eggshell blue box. The anxiety in her chest is not exactly what either would have imagined at that moment.
"I know we said a simple band, but some things are just right," Alexander says it in a soft voice that doesn't quite travel beyond a murmur to the back before opening the box.
Her gasp isn't quite so soft. The ring is platinum wreath with diamond leaves, all that would lie close to the skin and not get in the way. It's a ring she might have picked for herself, and worth more than he'd promised to spend by ten times, at least. She holds her hands out rather than answering. He slips it on her finger, waiting fro a response.
"It's beautiful, Alec, truly beautiful."
His answering smile is real enough, and so is the heat of the kiss he presses to her lips while his men watch without watching. The show is perfect to ensure her protection on the visit. She is a wife to be, not one of the many disposable girlfriends. Weight that protects her from becoming an asset to be stolen and sold. The ring also gives Alexander influence with men who draw out his name turning it into Aleck-sander as a reminder he was born to a lower cast and another country. Tattoos earned in his work meaning only so much to the older generation. The ring is, in it's most honest nature, a tool.
And yet, the offer is real.
He asked her after he found out she had been assaulted and almost died. The vivid visceral need to protect her and kill the person who had harmed her hadn't been hampered by conscience or affection for the woman who hurt her, and it had been a balm that hadn't been matched when strong men admitted they weren't sure they should offer that to her out of respect. In being reminded of how fragile her state and mind actually are, she had craved the protections she always built around herself. Simple animal things like her rats. And if she could never say that because of how absurd it was for a woman who had spent so much to be recognized as strong and dangerous in her own right, she didn't blame herself for the moment of weakness.
That moment hadn't been enough for an actual yes. She had said, instead, that if she could help prevent this latest would be end of the world, she'd wear his ring and go with him back to the bosses. She take her own clients in the city, but help him convince the other Vor that he was more than where he was born while being protected by the ring. After, when they came back, then she would answer the question.
"I know we said a simple band, but some things are just right," Alexander says it in a soft voice that doesn't quite travel beyond a murmur to the back before opening the box.
Her gasp isn't quite so soft. The ring is platinum wreath with diamond leaves, all that would lie close to the skin and not get in the way. It's a ring she might have picked for herself, and worth more than he'd promised to spend by ten times, at least. She holds her hands out rather than answering. He slips it on her finger, waiting fro a response.
"It's beautiful, Alec, truly beautiful."
His answering smile is real enough, and so is the heat of the kiss he presses to her lips while his men watch without watching. The show is perfect to ensure her protection on the visit. She is a wife to be, not one of the many disposable girlfriends. Weight that protects her from becoming an asset to be stolen and sold. The ring also gives Alexander influence with men who draw out his name turning it into Aleck-sander as a reminder he was born to a lower cast and another country. Tattoos earned in his work meaning only so much to the older generation. The ring is, in it's most honest nature, a tool.
And yet, the offer is real.
He asked her after he found out she had been assaulted and almost died. The vivid visceral need to protect her and kill the person who had harmed her hadn't been hampered by conscience or affection for the woman who hurt her, and it had been a balm that hadn't been matched when strong men admitted they weren't sure they should offer that to her out of respect. In being reminded of how fragile her state and mind actually are, she had craved the protections she always built around herself. Simple animal things like her rats. And if she could never say that because of how absurd it was for a woman who had spent so much to be recognized as strong and dangerous in her own right, she didn't blame herself for the moment of weakness.
That moment hadn't been enough for an actual yes. She had said, instead, that if she could help prevent this latest would be end of the world, she'd wear his ring and go with him back to the bosses. She take her own clients in the city, but help him convince the other Vor that he was more than where he was born while being protected by the ring. After, when they came back, then she would answer the question.
