Disclaimer: It isn't mine, no matter how much I wish it was. I'm not Tammy.
A/N: So, my return to not so sad oneshots has finally come! This is a birthday present for Navigator101, my co-author for Love in the First Degree and an all-around awesome gal. And for once, I didn't kill off a character. And it's not angst! I'm proud of myself...and I love this oneshot. So, when you're done, don't forget to leave a review!
Happy birthday, Star-la!
"Beka! Beka! Tell me a story!" Nilo cried. His fourteen-year-old sister looked up from the skirt she was fixing a hole in. Beka smiled faintly and paused. Nilo climbed onto her lap before she could do anything. She laughed as her little brother threw his arms around her.
"What story did you have in mind, Nilo?" she asked, putting her sewing aside for a moment.
"I don't know," Nilo said. He thought for a moment before he looked up at her again, unsure how to answer her question. Beka waited, running through stories in her mind so that she would have something to suggest if Nilo didn't have one that he wanted to hear. There was one… One that she had never told him; one that their mother had not told him either. It was one that few people cared to tell. It was simply a fairy story to them, and not one that they cared about.
The tale of the Pied Piper was a strange one. He was only a legend, but one that she had heard when she was young – one that she had loved to hear for a reason unknown to her. It had never occurred to her to pass the tale on, but now seemed like the perfect time.
"Nilo, did I ever tell you the story of the Pied Piper?" she asked her brother. He looked up at her with wide eyes and shook his head. Nilo always loved a new story, and it wasn't often that Beka or anyone else had a new story for him at this point.
"What's the story of the Pied Piper?" he asked curiously. Beka smiled at him.
"There's an old legend that I heard when I was your age," she said. "Many people don't know the story anymore, but others remember it. Some use the story to scare their children into obeying. I don't think it's real, though," she added.
"Why?" Nilo asked.
"I don't know," Beka said with a shrug. "I just don't think it's true."
"But what if it is, Beka?"
"Then I'm wrong if it is. I don't believe in that story. I loved it very much when I was your age, though," she told him. Nilo gave her an exasperated look as only he could.
"But, Beka!" he started. Beka put her finger on his lips to silence him.
"Do you want me to tell you the story, or do you want me to go back to sewing?" she asked. Nilo quieted instantly. "There's a good lad," she said, kissing him on the cheek.
"The story of the Pied Piper is an old one. It's a tale long forgotten by most," she started. "Once, in a far away land, there was a village that had an infestation of rats-"
"Like the Rats my lord Gershom catches, Beka?" Nilo cut in. Beka chuckled.
"No, not like those. These were little hairy rats. They are foul little creatures that are almost as bad as the Rats in the City," she told him. Nilo nodded in understanding. "These rats were eating the food and spoiling what they didn't eat. They spread disease and made folk sick."
Nilo's eyes widened even more as Beka spoke. "Then, one day, a cove came to the village, dressed in strange clothing. He claimed that he was a rat catcher, and that he could lure the rats out of the village and far, far away. The villagers promised to pay him if he got rid of the rats for them. So, he played his pipe and led the rats all out of town, dancing along behind him," she continued. Nilo was entranced. Of course, he never failed to be entranced by a story. Particularly if it was one he had never heard it before.
"He led the rats to a river, and they all drowned, never to trouble the villagers again. The piper returned to the village triumphant, but the villagers broke their promise. They wouldn't pay him as they said they would!" Beka exclaimed, feigning shock. Nilo acted properly shocked as well, but he probably was. "The cove cursed them, leaving town angry. But he vowed that he would return, and he would have his revenge…" she trailed off, watching Nilo's expression turn to outrage.
"That's not the end! That can't be the end! Tell me the rest of the story, Beka!" he demanded. Beka chuckled and mussed his hair.
"Of course. You're right – that's not the end," she said. Her brother looked quite satisfied by that. "One day, not long after that, the pied piper returned. He went back to the village when all of the adults were busy, and only the children were at play. He played his magic pipe and the children followed him!" she said. Nilo's eyes were wide again.
"What happened to them Beka?" he asked.
"No one really knows," she told him. "The children followed him, dancing all the way, just like the rats. At the end of it, there were only a few left – one of them was lame and couldn't follow. He told the adults what the piper had done. But all of the children were gone, never to be heard from again. Some say that the piper led them to the hills, others say that he took them to another country…and others still say that he took them away to another realm," she said, whispering the last part. Nilo was staring at her.
"No one knows what happened to them, Beka?"
"No one. Not even to this day," she assured him. "But they say that the piper was never heard from again…"
"What happened to him?"
"He disappeared, just like the children," Beka said. There was a long silence as the lad contemplated this. In the end, he kissed Beka on the cheek and climbed down from her lap.
"Thank you for telling me the story, Beka," he said. Beka grinned at her little brother as she reached for her sewing.
"You're welcome, Nilo. Now run along. Someone is probably looking for you," Beka told him, making a shooing motion. Nilo gave her an impish smile, then disappeared. Beka could only shake her head at him before she returned to her sewing.
It was winter at the Dancing Dove years later. Beka was curled up in her bed, blissfully warm under the covers. It was nine of the clock, and she was loathe to get up. She knew that she'd probably already missed breakfast with her friends, but it was just too cold. And she was finally warm.
Watch the night before had been awful. It had been snowing, and there was ice on the streets. She had fallen over more than a dozen times on the slick cobblestones, and her body was feeling the effects of that. Bruises throbbed all over her body from her almost magnetic attraction to the ice covered street.
Worse was the fact that she had twisted both her ankle and her knee on her left side. That just irritated her even more. It wasn't bad enough to go to the healer, though. It was nothing more than a slight inconvenience, and this was her day off, after all. She would be better by the next day if she judged everything right.
It wasn't until a little later, when Beka heard a knock on the door, that she actually got up. By the time she got to the door, she was shivering. And she was not happy about that. It was just too cold outside! She sighed as she opened the door. Thankfully, though, it was Aniki, and not some message runner looking for her to take on extra duty.
"Good morning," Aniki said cheerfully. "You look cold," she commented. Aniki herself was in breeches and a shirt, no jacket. But then, she was Scanran, and they'd probably faced winters as cold as this before.
"Aren't you?" Beka asked. "It's freezing here."
"A little," Aniki admitted. "But I just ran up the stairs, so it's not so bad," she said. Beka scowled at her.
"How is it that you aren't cold?"
"I grew up in it. Ask Rosto. He did, too," Aniki pointed out. "It's colder up North," she added. Beka sighed.
"I know…it's just so sarden freezing!" she complained. Aniki couldn't help but chuckle.
"I take it that you're not coming to breakfast then?" she asked. "And I had a surprise for you all planned out and everything, too…"
"Surprise?" Beka asked curiously.
"Oh, nothing," Aniki said innocently, though her grin was enough to say that she was planning something absolutely wicked. "I was just planning on dumping water on Rosto, that's all…" Beka stared at her for a moment, her mouth slightly open. Then she started laughing.
"Won't that make him angry?" she asked. Aniki shrugged.
"He won't get up, and he knows how much I hate having to wake him up when he won't get up and all. He's insufferable sometimes…" the other woman said, shaking her head. "Besides, it's not like this cold really bothers him or anything…"
"You're going to get yourself into a whole lot of trouble, Aniki," Beka told her. Aniki shrugged.
"He deserves it," she said simply. "I'll let you get back to bed until he's up and about," she added, grinning at Beka, who rolled her eyes at the other woman.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," she called after Aniki. There was a laugh from the stairwell, but Aniki was otherwise silent. Beka sighed and closed the door, intent on going back to bed and being warm again…until she heard the tapping on her windows.
She shuffled over to the glass-paned windows and lifted one, pushing the shutters open slightly and praying that it wasn't pigeons making that noise. Surprisingly, it was Rosto, dressed and all. He looked irritated.
"Aniki is trying to dump water on me," he said dryly. "Can I hide in your room for a while?" he asked. Beka blinked at him for a moment.
"I suppose…" she said. "But I was going back to bed…" she continued. Rosto grinned at her.
"Should I take that as an invitation?" he asked as he hauled his lean body through the window. Beka flushed bright red.
"No! Stop it, Rosto!" she complained. Rosto chuckled.
"Aww, Beka. You didn't even let me finish my sentence.I only meant to come in…I'm actually quite cold," he told her.
"Get your own blankets then," she said. "I'm not sharing mine."
"I wasn't asking you to," Rosto replied.
"What were you asking, then?" Beka asked.
"If you'd be more than my friend," he responded. "But you've already answered that many times with a no, so don't bother saying it again…"
"Rosto…" Beka started, but he cut her off.
"Don't, Beka. Don't ruin this for me. I'm still your friend, and I want it to stay that way since you won't let it be anything more," he said. Beka watched him for a moment.
"Rosto…" she started again. He put his finger on her lips, which elicited a squeak of surprise from her.
"Don't, Beka," he insisted. She blushed again, rather mortified by the way he'd silenced her. Rosto's hand dropped and he watched her for a moment before sauntering over to her desk, where he turned the chair around. He sat down in it and pulled a thin wooden pipe out of his boot.
"What are you…" Beka trailed off when he raised it to his lips and an almost magical tune seemed to float out of it. It was heartbreakingly beautiful – so beautiful that Beka couldn't find words to describe it. She sat down on her bed, staring at Rosto and mesmerized by the music. It was several moments before he put the flute down.
"Where did you find that music?" she asked. Rosto smiled at her. It was a genuine smile, not like razor sharp smiles she usually saw on his face.
"I wrote it," he said. Beka's eyes widened.
"You did?" she asked. Rosto nodded, a chuckle escaping him.
"Yes, I did, actually," he informed her, shaking his head at her.
"Why?"
"It's for you, Beka. I wrote it for you…" Rosto said quietly. His dark eyes were fixed on her.
"But why did you do that, Rosto?"
"Because. I was hoping that it might show you how I feel about you. A little, at least," he told her. Beka blushed scarlet.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"The position we're in is heartbreaking. Attracted to each other as we may be, we're not supposed to act on it," he replied, getting to his feet. "We're not supposed to like each other, much less…much less love each other…" He trailed off, hoping that she would understand what he was saying.
"You...you love me?"
"I do, Beka," Rosto acknowledged. "I shouldn't, but I do. You're heartbreakingly beautiful, though you yourself don't see it. You're strong, brave, courageous…I've loved you since that first day, but it took me a long time to realize how much. At first, I thought it was just the chase. But it's been four and a half years. And it won't go away. I can't stand staying at a distance anymore. I'm not like the men your mother was with. I would never hurt you. Don't shun me for this," he said. "But you don't have to love me in return. It's up to you. But you're the only mot who will ever hear that song, and you're the only one who's allowed to dance to my tunes," he finished.
With that, Rosto turned and left, praying that he hadn't just destroyed their friendship with that admission. Moments later, he heard footsteps on the stairs, thundering down toward his room. There was a sharp knock on his door. He got up from where he had sat down at his desk and moved toward it. Whoever it was knocked again before he got there. He opened the door to find Beka standing there impatiently.
"Beka, what-" But she cut him off before he could get the next word out of his mouth. She kissed him lightly, then pulled away.
"I'll dance to your tune, Master the Piper, but don't ever forget that I'm my own mot," she said. Rosto blinked at her.
"I never would, love," he replied. "I never would…"
A/N: Hey, before you leave the page, be sure to leave me a review! I'd love to know what you think!