Anything's Worth a Try

Rated T for simply no reason other than that's just what I wanted to rate it as.

Disclaimer: Once again, I do NOT own anything written by Tamora Pierce.

Summary: Drabbles from Jon's POV at Fort Drell. For some reason, I like to do stuff from Jon's POV. No one really knows what he's thinking during the books, do they? Spoilers for ITHOTG.

Most of the speech is direct from the books.

I actually wrote this a while ago and just decided to put it on here for you to read! Enjoy! Oh, and R&R.

AND it's a little OOC... Not the quotes, the unquoted parts. Just FYI.

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"You're dead on your feet. Why didn't you stop?" Jon asked tearing his eyes off the road for a moment to gaze down at his exhausted squire seated in front of him.

"They needed help," he heard her rasp, barely audible over the clapping of Darkness' hooves on the road. Fearing she might fall, he secured his arm more tightly around her waist. She allowed herself to fall back into him. He suddenly felt just as much at peace as his squire, Alanna, did at that moment. As she drifted slowly to sleep using his chest as a pillow. "Why did you have to go there in the first place?"

"I wasn't useful where I was," she muttered. Though he couldn't see her, it was clear to him that her eyes were closed as she let out a deep sigh of contentment.

"Must you always be useful," he asked, unable to stop his tone. She could have died of overexertion, and that for some reason made him worried and angry. He had never felt that way towards his squire before, and it scared him. His heartbeat began to skip faster and faster as she wriggled closer to him, though that was near impossible. Instinctively, he tightened his hold around her, hugging her to him.

"Hm?" she said groggily.

"I said, must you always be useful?" he repeated, this time taking the snap out of his voice. He was grateful she hadn't heard him the first time.

"Yes," was her simple reply.

Changing the subject a little as if hoping to keep her awake, at least for a moment or two, he said, "Perhaps I could make myself useful there too, instead of attending a lot of meetings where Roger makes the decisions and never asks how I feel. Think it's worth a try?"

She turned her head a little and it fit like a glove right underneath his chin. It was as if they were made to sit like that together. Jon let out a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment taking in the dark surroundings and the comfort he felt just being here, like this, with Alanna. This was much better than being with Delia who was always pushing him to do this thing and that for her. Alanna just let him do as he wished, but if she deeply disagreed with it, she made sure to let him know. That's what he loved about her. Wait… loved?

Suddenly, she shot up, ruining the mood, much to Jon's unexplainable displeasure. "Now you listen to me, you prissy animal—!" she cursed. Jon had to force down a smirk. That was one of the other things he— there was that word 'loved' again— about her: her temper. She was more like a wild fire than a squire in that respect.