ciceqi (ciceqi) wrote in fictunes, @ 2008-04-13 14:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | characters: ashley/sydney, fandom: vagrant story, month: apr 08, writer: ciceqi |
[Vagrant Story] "Glimpses," Ashley/Sydney, not entirely worksafe
Title: Glimpses
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Character/Pairing: Ashley/Sydney
Rating: Not entirely worksafe
Warnings: None
Music: Belle & Sebastian - "Fiction"
Note: Seriously AU. Sequel to "Etching." Er. Because this song so totally says "English Garden" to me, and this particular AU is the closest thing to an English garden I have that doesn't involve gunshots and repressed NATO officers.
Summary: Forewarned does not necessarily equal forearmed.
Standing at the duke's bedside, Sydney stared down at the man unflinchingly, trying to see the powerful figure his father had been in the wasting body that remained. The man's angular, craggy face now sagged with tired flesh, his once-strong body no better, and though his eyes and mind were still as sharp as ever, he no longer had the energy to rise from his bed. Some days he could barely muster the strength to argue with the long-suffering doctor devoted to his care.
"Sydney," Aldous said without opening his eyes, big hands resting defenseless and still on the coverlet. It was, Sydney thought with neither panic nor disgust, not unlike hearing the dead talk. "I've spoken to Hardin about opening the house in town."
Sydney's mouth quirked fondly, knowing his father meant London, not the little town below the Bardorba estate. Dying his body might be, but his father's arrogance remained wonderfully intact. "I hardly think the air there will be better."
"Not for me. For you. I want you to take your brother with you."
He knew that. He'd known that for months, dreamed it waking and asleep.
"No."
"I won't have my sons watch me rot while I live."
"Not yet." He hadn't intended the words to come out so stiffly, so cold, but he had to force them through a jaw that had no intention of unclenching. He wasn't ready.
"Soon, then," his father said, and Sydney swallowed hard, nodded once when glassy grey eyes opened at last.
Soon. He'd known that too.