Written
in response to this fanfic challenge on 'Where the Fire Lily
Grows': Summary: Maerad takes a midnight walk through Innail
and finds Cadvan doing the same thing. Requirements: -The
way Maerad discovers Cadvan is by tripping and falling on top of him. Thank you,
adrengoddess, for giving me this smutt!! And yes, the characters are
OTT.
-They can't kiss, but they come very, very close.
-Cadvan has
to pin Maerad up against a wall.
-It has to end with Cadvan
saying, "That was quite the performance."
NB:
I don't own these characters. I do, however, own 'The Frisky
Ferrets'!
Darkness in Innail. Maerad trod carefully but swiftly towards her destination, keeping her eyes out for predators on the sidelines who might try and steal the precious object she had on her person. Far away, but getting closer, she could hear shouts and strains of music which floated through the air, enticing her.
In fact, she was so intent on her destination that she forgot her wariness.
Her foot caught on something soft, she stumbled and fell, and a pair of warm arms grabbed her around the middle to prevent her from crashing to the ground.
"Got you, you little thief!" said a familiar voice, and then she felt herself being hauled up and mercilessly pushed against a nearby wall.
It was only then that she realised her captor was Cadvan. She must have tripped over him sitting in the darkness, and now he had her pinned against the wall.
And he looked really pssed off.
Curses, she thought. He's found out.
"Hello," she said in her best husky voice. "Fancy seeing - "
But her seductive methods were lost on Cadvan, who was busy patting her down.
"All right," he said finally. "Confess, fiend. Where is it?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she managed as nonchalently as possible.
"Don't try the sweet, innocent Maerad with me," warned Cadvan. "I know you took my concert ticket!"
The very concert, Maerad thought gloomily, which she was now missing.
"Who says I did?" she asked guardedly.
"Hem," replied Cadvan, now on his hands and knees, taking off her shoes and feeling inside them for the ticket. "And Saliman. Plus everyone else who saw you enter my room this afternoon."
"I knew I should have bribed them," Maerad mumbled, then added, when Cadvan cursed over not finding anything in her shoes, "You'll never get it this way."
He eyed her suspiciously through the gloom.
"Oh no? What do I have to do to get it then?"
Maerad grinned evilly.
"Kiss me," she said.
Cadvan's eyes went wide and he stood up sharply.
"No. Oh no. No, Maerad, I'm not falling for that again!"
Maerad's look was all innocence.
"Don't know what you're saying," she said sweetly.
"Oh no? Well how about the time you decided to 'fall' into my arms?"
"I tripped over!"
"Maerad, we were standing on level floorboards! Or the time when we both somehow got locked in the same room?"
"Must have been fate."
"Or when you conveniently 'forgot' to tell me you were using the bathroom, and I walked straight in on you in the bath?"
"You couldn't stop staring then, could you?"
An impatient sigh.
"Maerad, give me the ticket."
"Kiss me first and I will."
Another sigh.
"All right, all right."
He leaned forward towards her and slipped his hands around her waist, tugging her forward so that their lips were barely inches away...
And then he drew back, with a cry of triumph.
"Got it!"
He waved the ticket in the air and Maerad let out a shriek.
"How did you get that?! I had it stuffed right up my - "
"Tricksy hands!" Cadvan said, grinning and wiggling said fingers. Maerad lunged at the ticket and he danced away, holding it up high so that she couldn't reach.
"Aw, c'mon Cadvan, give it me back!"
"Nope."
"Please..." Maerad put on her best 'I'm-really-cute' face, but Cadvan was unmoved.
"That won't work on me, you little thief!"
"Well I was only doing it to make you kiss me!"
"Oh, and 'The Frisky Ferrets' had nothing to do with it?"
Cadvan gestured out to where lights were sparkling and a noise like a hundred guinea-pigs being stepped on warbled into the night air.
"Oooh!" Maerad squealed in response to the screeching. "I love this song!"
She turned back to Cadvan and made sure her eyes were shining with tears.
"Oh no," Cadvan groaned.
"It's just - " Maerad whimpered. "It's just that I've n-never seen 'The Frisky Ferrets' before, just heard p-people sing their songs, and I l-love them s-so much, and anyway you've seen them already - "
"Yes, but that was before they put in the Mongoose March!" Cadvan pleaded.
Maerad stared at him with tear-filled eyes, her puppy dog expression down pat.
"Curses," Cadvan groaned. "All right, take the stupid thing."
And he reached out to give Maerad the ticket.
Just as she took it, the screeching reached a high pitched tone, and a roaring applause broke out, followed by a voice that sounded like a ferret on helium, squeaking: "You've been great, guys, we'll see you next year!"
Maerad and Cadvan groaned - they had missed the whole concert. They glanced gloomily at each other, then down as the now worthless ticket.
"Well," Cadvan said in a resigned tone. "That was quite the performance."
The End!
NB: When preparing my own
translation of The Treesong, I found Alison Croggon
had made a grievous error - what she translated as 'the Winterking'
was actually 'The Frisky Ferrets', so when Maerad says 'I think I
fell in love with the Winterking', what she actually
means is - 'I think I fell in love with The
Frisky Ferrets.'
Much
confusion has naturally occurred over this.
... :)
Read and review! Because you know you want to!