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aftanithTitle: Evergreen, Part I
Fandom: Parabellum (original fiction)
Wordcount: 1561
Pairing(s): Stelian Frost/Sparrow | Stacey Katharos
Prompt(s): OTP Christmas 2015 6. buying the tree
It'd been almost a year by now, and Sparrow still didn't get out much. She knew Frost still didn't trust her; if anything, he trusted her less now than ever. He'd been bad enough before, guarding over her like a jealous warden--which described him rather perfectly, now that she thought about it--but after Severin and Suri had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, his obsession intensified almost overnight. As soon as he'd realized how close he'd come to losing her--how close she'd come to escaping him--it was as if he was terrified of letting her out of his sight at all. She'd hardly gotten a second to herself for the entire month afterward, and even now, it was hardly better.
To her immense relief, however, he was still letting her out of not only the suite but occasionally the manor itself, and today she found herself at his side as he lead her through the single strangest store she'd ever come across.
"This is a literal forest," Sparrow said, her arms crossed tightly over her chest in the chilly winter air. There were Evergreen trees as far as the eye could see, and people killed about seemingly at random over the frozen earth of the lot. The ice crunching beneath their boots looked almost like a thin dusting of snow.
Frost laughed. "What better place to buy a tree?" he asked, as if adding more nonsense on top of nonsense would explain it.
"I'm still not sure why we're doing that, actually," Sparrow reminded him, and he gave her a little sigh. She shivered in her coat, the garment clearly designed with style in mind instead of warmth, and she let Frost wrap an arm around her waist. She'd gotten to used to being warm this fall; this slight chill was nothing compared to the winters she'd suffered in Solares, and yet somehow she was genuinely cold.
"It's Beneficence," he repeated. "This is a big part of it, and you would love it if you just gave it a chance."
What did he think she'd been doing the past few days? "I am giving it a chance, Frost," she insisted, a bit impatiently. "I'm here, aren't I?"
"I know, darling," he said softly. "I didn't mean to sound ungrateful."
The false contrition in his voice was honestly fairly amusing; for someone who could so easily manipulate people--up to and including herself, she was well aware--there were still times like this when he would say something so obviously inauthentic that there was no pretending otherwise. She wondered, of course, if that was actually part of it; perhaps he thought that by merely letting her catch the occasional lie, he could trick her into thinking everything else was the truth. As if she had ever been that naive.
"Yes, you did," she countered, but there was nothing approaching upset in her voice. "You're not grateful that I'm letting you get away with this, and let's not pretend that you wouldn't have just dragged me here anyway if I'd said no."
He stopped in his tracks, turning to look at her with a sudden frown. "Sparrow. If you want to go home, we can go home. I'm not going to force you to be here."
My, what generosity, Sparrow thought as she shook her head. "Frost, I think this is stupid and I'm cold as shit, but I'm here anyway. Do yourself a favor and stop acting like you know better than me, would you? I am doing this entirely for you, so shut up and enjoy it."
Frost was still for a moment longer, and another couple passed them on the wide path between the rows of Evergreens. He glanced over in their direction, his eyes following them until they were out of earshot, and then he turned back to her. "I'm sorry. Believe me, love, the last thing I wanted to do tonight is upset you. I won't say anything next time, alright?"
She tried to hide the mocking quirk of her lips. "Next time you decide you know better than me, you mean?"
He must have caught her smile anyway, because he matched it with a faint grin of his own. "You know what I mean."
Sparrow could only scoff. "I always know what you mean, Frost," she said, reaching out to hook her arm through his. "I suggest you don't forget that."
The faint look of uncertainty on his face as she started walking again, tugging him down along the path at her side, was the best thing she'd seen all day.
They walked along the trees for a few minutes before Sparrow finally asked the question that was on her mind. "Alright," she said, "if we're doing this, I'm gonna need something cleared up: How exactly do you go about picking out a tree? Aren't trees all just about the same? By what strange collection of standards are we judging these poor dead plants?"
To her surprise, Frost laughed. "They're not dead, love. Look at the base of the trunks. They're still planted."
"So, what, this is a fucking farm? Some kind of ridiculous tree farm?"
"More or less. The second are actually planted somewhere else and then transferred here, but, yes, they grow these trees here year-round."
"I'll never get you people," Sparrow remarked, shaking her head. "What's the point of growing trees all year, only to kill them in time for Beneficence? Is this some kind of weird ritual sacrifice thing?"
To her intense amusement, Frost looked fairly horrified by the thought. "What in the world has Hyde been teaching you?"
"Nothing about Beneficence trees, I promise. "
"Sounds like maybe he should, if you think ritual sacrifice is a reasonable explanation of our cultural traditions."
Sparrow rolled her eyes. "Makes just as much sense as the real answer, I'm sure. I just don't get the fascination with trees."
"It's just tradition, love. And I'm sure the trees don't mind."
She snorted. While she certainly wasn't about to start anthropomorphizing trees just to frustrate him, there was certainly something characteristic in his automatic assertion that the victims of one of his beloved society's "traditions" didn't really mind their victimhood.
Frost, however, seemed to think she was laughing at his words, not the implications behind them, and so he merely smiled at her. They kept walking.
Finally, after Sparrow was fairly sure they'd circled the entire place without Frost apparently finding whatever particular tree he was looking for, she stopped him. "Are we looking for something specific, or are you just wasting my time?"
"Browsing," he said simply. "Why, are you cold?"
"Try bored." She turned to him, ready to demand that they just grab any tree and get out of here before it was midnight, when something else caught her eye. There was a small clearing in the trees, an icy patch of open space filled with wooden pallets stacked with what looked like towering piles of already cut trees. Sparrow nodded in that direction. "What about those?"
Frost followed her gaze. "Those aren't trees," he said, and Sparrow's brows shot toward her hairline.
"Excuse me? Those aren't trees? What the fuck are they, then?"
He chuckled. "Alright, fine. Those are artificial trees."
"Wait, hold on," she said, brow furrowing now. "Are you kidding me? There's selling artificial trees here? Then why are we looking for a real one?"
She had no idea why Frost looked as surprised as he did. "No one wants an artificial tree."
"Why the fuck not?"
"Why would we?" he countered. "Why get a fake one when you can have the real thing?"
Sparrow could only stare. "Well, it's plastic, isn't it? You can use it again every year, instead of cutting down another fucking tree? How the he'll could killing a tree every year possibly be better than that?"
"It's tacky."
"Well, then I'm fucking tacky." Unfortunately aware of just how much she sounded like a petulant child arguing with a stubborn parent, Sparrow pointed toward the piles of plastic Evergreens. "You want me to pick out a tree? That's my pick. We're getting a plastic one."
She watched Frost's face cycle through the emotions she'd come to expect when she asked for something he didn't really want to give her. First surprise, then resistance, then reconsideration, and finally begrudging acceptance; she knew he was willing to give her this, so long as she kept giving him what he wanted.
"Alright," he said once the cycle was done, "I suppose I can compromise. The main tree in the grand hall is going to be real; we've already bought it, and it's a national tradition, not just mine. But as for the tree in the suite... if you really want a pl--an artificial tree...I suppose it won't actually hurt anything."
Sparrow could see that he didn't look convinced; there was something particularly close to distraction in his eyes, as if his mind was far off elsewhere even as he was speaking to her. Her arm still hooked around his, she slid her other hand around the back of his neck and rose slightly onto her toes so she could kiss him. He smiled against her lips, his other arm settling around her waist.
They both knew this was her part of the compromise.
© 2015 A.F. Tanith
Fandom: Parabellum (original fiction)
Wordcount: 1561
Pairing(s): Stelian Frost/Sparrow | Stacey Katharos
Prompt(s): OTP Christmas 2015 6. buying the tree
It'd been almost a year by now, and Sparrow still didn't get out much. She knew Frost still didn't trust her; if anything, he trusted her less now than ever. He'd been bad enough before, guarding over her like a jealous warden--which described him rather perfectly, now that she thought about it--but after Severin and Suri had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, his obsession intensified almost overnight. As soon as he'd realized how close he'd come to losing her--how close she'd come to escaping him--it was as if he was terrified of letting her out of his sight at all. She'd hardly gotten a second to herself for the entire month afterward, and even now, it was hardly better.
To her immense relief, however, he was still letting her out of not only the suite but occasionally the manor itself, and today she found herself at his side as he lead her through the single strangest store she'd ever come across.
"This is a literal forest," Sparrow said, her arms crossed tightly over her chest in the chilly winter air. There were Evergreen trees as far as the eye could see, and people killed about seemingly at random over the frozen earth of the lot. The ice crunching beneath their boots looked almost like a thin dusting of snow.
Frost laughed. "What better place to buy a tree?" he asked, as if adding more nonsense on top of nonsense would explain it.
"I'm still not sure why we're doing that, actually," Sparrow reminded him, and he gave her a little sigh. She shivered in her coat, the garment clearly designed with style in mind instead of warmth, and she let Frost wrap an arm around her waist. She'd gotten to used to being warm this fall; this slight chill was nothing compared to the winters she'd suffered in Solares, and yet somehow she was genuinely cold.
"It's Beneficence," he repeated. "This is a big part of it, and you would love it if you just gave it a chance."
What did he think she'd been doing the past few days? "I am giving it a chance, Frost," she insisted, a bit impatiently. "I'm here, aren't I?"
"I know, darling," he said softly. "I didn't mean to sound ungrateful."
The false contrition in his voice was honestly fairly amusing; for someone who could so easily manipulate people--up to and including herself, she was well aware--there were still times like this when he would say something so obviously inauthentic that there was no pretending otherwise. She wondered, of course, if that was actually part of it; perhaps he thought that by merely letting her catch the occasional lie, he could trick her into thinking everything else was the truth. As if she had ever been that naive.
"Yes, you did," she countered, but there was nothing approaching upset in her voice. "You're not grateful that I'm letting you get away with this, and let's not pretend that you wouldn't have just dragged me here anyway if I'd said no."
He stopped in his tracks, turning to look at her with a sudden frown. "Sparrow. If you want to go home, we can go home. I'm not going to force you to be here."
My, what generosity, Sparrow thought as she shook her head. "Frost, I think this is stupid and I'm cold as shit, but I'm here anyway. Do yourself a favor and stop acting like you know better than me, would you? I am doing this entirely for you, so shut up and enjoy it."
Frost was still for a moment longer, and another couple passed them on the wide path between the rows of Evergreens. He glanced over in their direction, his eyes following them until they were out of earshot, and then he turned back to her. "I'm sorry. Believe me, love, the last thing I wanted to do tonight is upset you. I won't say anything next time, alright?"
She tried to hide the mocking quirk of her lips. "Next time you decide you know better than me, you mean?"
He must have caught her smile anyway, because he matched it with a faint grin of his own. "You know what I mean."
Sparrow could only scoff. "I always know what you mean, Frost," she said, reaching out to hook her arm through his. "I suggest you don't forget that."
The faint look of uncertainty on his face as she started walking again, tugging him down along the path at her side, was the best thing she'd seen all day.
They walked along the trees for a few minutes before Sparrow finally asked the question that was on her mind. "Alright," she said, "if we're doing this, I'm gonna need something cleared up: How exactly do you go about picking out a tree? Aren't trees all just about the same? By what strange collection of standards are we judging these poor dead plants?"
To her surprise, Frost laughed. "They're not dead, love. Look at the base of the trunks. They're still planted."
"So, what, this is a fucking farm? Some kind of ridiculous tree farm?"
"More or less. The second are actually planted somewhere else and then transferred here, but, yes, they grow these trees here year-round."
"I'll never get you people," Sparrow remarked, shaking her head. "What's the point of growing trees all year, only to kill them in time for Beneficence? Is this some kind of weird ritual sacrifice thing?"
To her intense amusement, Frost looked fairly horrified by the thought. "What in the world has Hyde been teaching you?"
"Nothing about Beneficence trees, I promise. "
"Sounds like maybe he should, if you think ritual sacrifice is a reasonable explanation of our cultural traditions."
Sparrow rolled her eyes. "Makes just as much sense as the real answer, I'm sure. I just don't get the fascination with trees."
"It's just tradition, love. And I'm sure the trees don't mind."
She snorted. While she certainly wasn't about to start anthropomorphizing trees just to frustrate him, there was certainly something characteristic in his automatic assertion that the victims of one of his beloved society's "traditions" didn't really mind their victimhood.
Frost, however, seemed to think she was laughing at his words, not the implications behind them, and so he merely smiled at her. They kept walking.
Finally, after Sparrow was fairly sure they'd circled the entire place without Frost apparently finding whatever particular tree he was looking for, she stopped him. "Are we looking for something specific, or are you just wasting my time?"
"Browsing," he said simply. "Why, are you cold?"
"Try bored." She turned to him, ready to demand that they just grab any tree and get out of here before it was midnight, when something else caught her eye. There was a small clearing in the trees, an icy patch of open space filled with wooden pallets stacked with what looked like towering piles of already cut trees. Sparrow nodded in that direction. "What about those?"
Frost followed her gaze. "Those aren't trees," he said, and Sparrow's brows shot toward her hairline.
"Excuse me? Those aren't trees? What the fuck are they, then?"
He chuckled. "Alright, fine. Those are artificial trees."
"Wait, hold on," she said, brow furrowing now. "Are you kidding me? There's selling artificial trees here? Then why are we looking for a real one?"
She had no idea why Frost looked as surprised as he did. "No one wants an artificial tree."
"Why the fuck not?"
"Why would we?" he countered. "Why get a fake one when you can have the real thing?"
Sparrow could only stare. "Well, it's plastic, isn't it? You can use it again every year, instead of cutting down another fucking tree? How the he'll could killing a tree every year possibly be better than that?"
"It's tacky."
"Well, then I'm fucking tacky." Unfortunately aware of just how much she sounded like a petulant child arguing with a stubborn parent, Sparrow pointed toward the piles of plastic Evergreens. "You want me to pick out a tree? That's my pick. We're getting a plastic one."
She watched Frost's face cycle through the emotions she'd come to expect when she asked for something he didn't really want to give her. First surprise, then resistance, then reconsideration, and finally begrudging acceptance; she knew he was willing to give her this, so long as she kept giving him what he wanted.
"Alright," he said once the cycle was done, "I suppose I can compromise. The main tree in the grand hall is going to be real; we've already bought it, and it's a national tradition, not just mine. But as for the tree in the suite... if you really want a pl--an artificial tree...I suppose it won't actually hurt anything."
Sparrow could see that he didn't look convinced; there was something particularly close to distraction in his eyes, as if his mind was far off elsewhere even as he was speaking to her. Her arm still hooked around his, she slid her other hand around the back of his neck and rose slightly onto her toes so she could kiss him. He smiled against her lips, his other arm settling around her waist.
They both knew this was her part of the compromise.
© 2015 A.F. Tanith
