Entry tags:
fic prompts
So, hello, I'm sorry for the spam. But I have a bad case of Sunday night hyperactivity. If you want a ficlet, please say so: fandom, character(s), prompt - I like this list and this list, but anything. Won't promise to write them all, but will try. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
forthwritten, this time I will try to do better.)
forthwritten, this time I will try to do better.)
no subject
"Will you take some more tea, Alys?" Ekaterin was asking, and Cordelia was noting to herself that they were finally on first-name terms when distracted by the sound of something crashing into something else in the hallway outside.
"It's amazing," she was muttering, "how I immediately want to run out there and shout, 'Miles!' even though I know Miles is currently en route to Komarr and also thirty-five years old" - but the door opened before she reached it.
"Look what I found on my way out," Simon said, quietly. "Wandering around in the entrance hall. She had a little dispute with a vase."
"Simon?" Alys said, turning, "who..."
The child he was balancing on his hip was around three or four, with big brown eyes, ringlets, and a decidedly curious expression. Cordelia had an image in her mind's eye of Simon thirty years younger, carrying Miles or Gregor in just the same way, back when she'd wandered this house and still got lost. From the faintly amused look, he knew what she was thinking. "There is a further wrinkle," he said. "Tell them what you just told me, sweetheart."
"I'm lost," said the little girl simply, but Cordelia turned sharply at the flat Betan vowels.
"You're a long way from home, little one," she said, taking the little girl from him. "Simon, I'm pleased your talents for interrogation remain with you."
Simon saluted her gravely and withdrew. As if a spell had been broken, Ekaterin drew closer. "Shall I ask why we have a lost little girl from Beta Colony in our front hall?"
"Sounds like a fairy tale," Cordelia murmured. "Sweetie, where's your ma? What's her name? Can you tell me your arcology number?" She glanced up at Ekaterin and Alys. "Do they even teach them that in Betan kindergartens any more?" After a pause, she added, "I'm a long way from home, too."
The little girl regarded her impassively. "Cordelia," Alys said, "shall I... you know, I don't think I've done this since Ivan was this age. Dear, would you like something to eat?"
The little girl held out a hand obligingly for one of Ma Kosti's pastries, and Alys clicked her tongue. "Careful, you'll get it on your pretty frock. What will your ma say when we give you back to her all messy?"
"Speaking of which," Ekaterin said.
"I think we needn't call ImpSec," Cordelia put in. "Surely the municipal authorities can deal with a lost child.
Before either could answer, the door opened again. "Excuse me, have you seen..."
The woman was breathless and panicky and wearing something that was studiedly conservative by Betan fashions and positively scandalous for Barrayar. Cordelia grinned. "I take it we have something of yours?"
"I am so sorry! I just turned my back for a moment, and she - your partner told me he'd found - I'm sorry, the tour, oh, Lily..."
"Perhaps you'd better sit down," Ekaterin said, and quietly led the woman to a chair. The little girl - Lily, Cordelia thought - seemed more preoccupied by her tiny strawberry tart, but submitted to her mother's embrace.
"The tour guide," the woman said, incoherently, "he was giving a speech, about this house, and its signifcance in this planet's history, and... oh, dear, you're Cordelia Vorkosigan. And you..."
Alys said, with the tone of someone taking control of a situation, "Ekaterin, perhaps I should ask for more tea. Madam, I don't believe any of us can offer you a potted history of Vorbarr Sultana as comprehensive as the one you're missing, but we'll do our best."
Cordelia said, suddenly, "You have a Sillica accent. I - well, I grew up there, once upon a time."
"It's very different," the woman offered, after a second. She still looked a little shell-shocked.
"From here, or from then?" Ekaterin asked suddenly, and Cordelia glanced sharply at her.
"Both, I suppose," she said. "Still. Nothing like Barrayaran hospitality."
"No, indeed," Alys said, and placed a hand on Cordelia's shoulder on her way to ring for the tea.
no subject
no subject
no subject