Darcy
Some unedited musings on everyone's favorite grumpy general There was a knock on his door in the middle of the night.
Darcy was not surprised to see a grinning redhead, peering at him with piercing green eyes through the crack he made in the door to investigate. “It’s late,” he observed, opening the door, but blocking most of the entryway with his body.
“Indeed,” Ishara agreed, as she stepped over the threshold, forcing him to move out of her way or let her crash into him. How easy it was for her to command him without saying anything at all. He closed the door behind her, turning to watch as she took off her coat and draped it on one of the hooks available for such things.
“Where does your husband think you are?” His disapproving tone was more about her travelling at night, alone, and less that she had to lie to her husband- his best friend- to do so.
Using both hands, Ishara pushed long waves of fiery hair behind her shoulders. She sighed, clearly content to be out of the cold. She didn’t answer him immediately, rearranging her clothing as she moved into the kitchen. Darcy followed her. “Ishara,” he pressed his line of questioning as he stared at her from across his kitchen island. She was doing a marvelous job of making herself comfortable. She hummed as she moved around his kitchen with almost intimate knowledge.
She continued to hum an unfamiliar melody as she took a wine glass for herself out of one of the cabinets. She sorted through his selection of Veridian spirits for just a moment before selecting her favorite. A mango champagne that she didn’t seem to care was meant to be for special occasions. Darcy watched her struggle with the cork with a neutral expression. It eventually gave way with a satisfying pop and she poured the light amber liquid into her glass.
Darcy opened his mouth to repeat his question for the third, and final time before he got irritated, and that was when she answered him. “The herbalist,” she said loftily, before taking a sip of the drink. “Victoria has a small cold and I told him I needed more Meadowsweet.” She took note of Darcy’s alarmed look over the rim of her glass; concerned that she would be visiting him instead of gathering remedies for her feverish child. “Worry not,” she seemed to playfully chide him. “I gave Victoria the last of it before he came home, she will be fine.”
His expression became neutral once more. They stared at each other in silence as Ishara sipped his fruity champagne. She continued to watch him even as she poured another glass. He didn’t fidget under the weight of her gaze, but he wanted to. What was the challenge here? What did she want from him? He opened his mouth to ask, and she spoke up. She was always doing that. Not quite interrupting him.
“Couldn’t you just imagine it,” she said, sighing dreamily. He frowned, but waited for her to continue. “Me, just lounging in the sand in a cute bathing suit on that beautiful island of yours. I’ve only seen pictures, but I bet it’s just to die for.” She was looking at him with a completely straight face, despite this whimsical train of thought.
Darcy’s face softened. “Of course I can.” His response wasn’t much more than a murmur. “I think about it all the time.”
The glass she was holding met the granite of his kitchen island with a sharp clink. “I’m sure you fucking do.” Her voice had suddenly turned to ice.
“Why did you come here?” Darcy shot back, a sudden burst of emotion. He pushed his hands through his hair. “Do you just enjoy coming over here and reminding me of what I don’t have?” He dropped his hands, and rounded the island to stalk towards her. Ishara frowned and back away from his approach. He wouldn’t hurt her, she knew that, but he was not above menacing.
Ishara attempted to scurry away from him, but she wasn’t out of his reach. He grabbed her by her upper arm, just enough to pull her towards him and push her back up against the wall. He pressed his hands against the wall, on either side of her head and leaned down to be eye level with her. Effectively trapping her in the space between their bodies. “You chose to marry my best friend over me, and you come here in the middle of the night and act like it’s my fault.” He dipped his face closer to hers, leaning hard against the wall. Knuckles turning white with the effort.
She was trembling. Not because she was frightened of him, but because she was angry. Frustrated, and admittedly aroused. He was so close, she could feel the warmth of his body, smell the fading remnants of his cologne. “You didn’t give me a choice.” She pushed the words from between clenched teeth. “You didn’t give me a choice!” She yelled it this time. “You ran off to the Isles and left me to...to...I don’t even know what I was supposed to do!” She wasn’t crying, but her eyes shined with tears. “You were just gone one day.”
Amber eyes bored into green. He exhaled sharply through his nose and pushed away from the wall. He stared down his nose at her, neutral again. “I left for you.” His tone implied that this information should have been obvious. “I wrote to you. I told you where I was. I told you what I was doing. I went home, Ishara. For you. To beg the Veridian nation to take me back. To offer me sanctuary from deserting the CAF. I had to ask my queen to abandon the mission she gave me, for you.”
Darcy ruffled his hair again, propping both hands on his head. He gazed down at her, almost in disbelief that she was making him say this. Dredging up all this painful shit, because she was unhappy with the choice she had made.
“You didn’t. Write. To me.” Her voice was clipped and tight. Staccato with the tears she still wasn’t shedding.
“I did. Almost every day.”
“I didn’t get any letters!” She pushed away from the wall and stood next to him again. “I wrote to you!” She insisted. “Didn’t you get any of my letters?”
This was admittedly the first time they were speaking about what had happened when he had taken his leave from the CAF to return home to make a place for her. For them. It had gone miserably, of course, because as far as he knew she had chosen Renly. He had tried and failed to distance himself from Ishara. Though nagging questions had always annoyed him at the back of his mind he had never bothered to ask her. Never bothered to find out what had happened between the woman he loved and his best friend to lead her to choosing another man over him.
Did she love him? He never bothered to ask. Darcy imagined she had to love Renly in some small way. Why else did she stay? Why else would she keep having his children? Their fourth child had just recently turned six. The oldest was almost twenty. Almost twenty years she had been out of his reach and yet they still had these foolish arguments with one another.
“No,” Darcy said, finally. Having dove into his own thoughts for a moment. “The only letter I received from was the one to tell me that you weren’t waiting. That you were marrying Renly and leaving for the United States!”
That’s exactly what she did of course, and here they were. Both stuck in Colorado, both still under the CAF’s thumb.
“That’s impossible! I gave Renly all my letters to send to you!”
A silence stretched between them so dense the drop of a pin would have echoed. They stared at each other.
“Renly?” he asked, and Ishara nodded in response. “Renly would have had to give my letters to you…”
Darcy was filled with a sudden rage. Ishara gasped as if coming to the same realization. Renly had played both of them for fools. Dozens of letters diverted by his selfish and underhanded friend. Darcy cursed in Veridian and slammed his hand down on the kitchen island. “That son of a bitch!” Darcy swept his arm forward. Papers and other various items he’d discarded there crashed to the floor. He exhaled a growl, as she clawed his fingers through his hair.
The mess didn’t make him feel better and when he looked over his shoulder at Ishara she was crying silently. Again, not because she was scared of him, but because they both knew now that they had been tricked.
“Fuck Renly,” Darcy growled as he crossed the room to where they had parted. This time when he backed her against the wall he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her up. Layers of skirts rode upwards as she locked her legs around his waist and crashed her mouth against his.
He made love to her twice before he allowed her to go home. It didn’t make up for the years that had been lost between them. They would lie through their teeth to Renly about where she had been all night. It wouldn’t be punishment enough for the things he had done.
❖
“Ishara’s pregnant again.”
Darcy continued to stare straight ahead as Renly spoke. The other man laughed as he slid another beer across the bar to settle in front of Darcy. He sat down on the stool next to him.
“Can you believe that,” he continued and Darcy only grunted in response. He snatched the beer up off the counter and took a long swig. He could feel Renly’s eyes on him. The icy blues more cold and calculating to him now. Darcy grimaced, setting the bottle down because he didn’t prefer the dark beer that Renly always bought for them.
A pathetic sounding “congratulations,” was all he could manage.
“Yeah. Thanks, man.”
Renly was staring him down in such a way now that Darcy wondered if Renly knew that Darcy had been fucking his wife for a few months now.
Darcy wondered for a moment if the child could be his. He suppressed the smirk just the very idea prompted. He took another long swig of beer.
❖
It was still raining when Darcy left the house. Victoria and Owen had finally fallen asleep together in his bed. It had been a struggle when the often woke up screaming or in tears. Visions of their mother’s mutilated body every time they closed their eyes.
He still wore his uniform. It was increasingly unclear if he own and other clothing. He tore into the woods behind his house. A man on a mission. “Julianna!” He shouted into the darkness. He his hair back away from his face. Scanning the woods in front of him. “Julianna!” He shouted again, because he knew she was nearby. He just knew that she would be stalking in some shadow like a macabre guardian angel.
“Darcy?”
He barely heard her over the rain. He whipped around to find her standing behind him, still have emerged in the shadow she had come out of. She was also soaked from the rain. Her curls hung heavy in her face, and her once bloodstained clothing ran pale pink. The dirty bandages on her arm had come undone, even he could see that the wound was open again.
Darcy didn’t care about any of that. He didn’t care how pathetic she looked. Didn’t care that she was still injured. He closed the distance between them and took her by the throat. “What are you doing here!” He demanded. Both of her hands held arm. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. He didn’t know if he wanted an answer or if he just wanted to be done with her right there.
“You’re...going to...provoke it,” she managed to choke out.
He released her because he knew by ‘it’ she meant the very demon that had killed the love his life.
Julianna dropped to the ground, coughing and gasping for breath on all fours. He felt no pity for her in that moment. She sat back on her heels and looked up at him. Rain still fell in sheets. “I’m sorry!” She pleaded with him. “I didn’t know who she was!”
Darcy growled at her and bared his teeth. Her ears pinned backwards.
“Get out of here!” He screamed. “Don’t you come near me or my s- these children ever again!”
❖
“I just want to check in on how they’re doing. I want to help.”
Darcy’s eyes made subtle saccades between the duel colored eyes of Kama Darkwillow.
“They’re traumatized. Their mother was killed in front of them.”
Kama shifted uneasily on his feet. “General Weatehrfare, I-”
“You want to help?” Darcy snarled at him. “Go find that sister of yours and throw her and that fucking demon into the deepest, darkest pit you can find.”
❖
“Fuck off!”
Darcy glowered at the door slammed in his face. Owen was on the other side of it, incandescent over the ultimatum he had just been given. To transfer to the CAF academy or waste his youth away in some sort of juvenile detention classroom.
Victoria’s room was down the hall. He could still hear the sappy love songs she had blasting at full volume to smother her sobbing. Heartbroken over some boy. Darcy sighed, his head falling back in resgination as he scrubbed his hands over his face.
“I can’t do this on my own,” he said to no one. Or perhaps to to lover he had lost.
❖
Renton was flirting with him again. All baby blue eyes and tailored suits. Darcy didn't know what to do with him.
"It's just lunch," he cooed, standing entirely close and smiling entirely too enticingly.
"I'm busy," Darcy said, like he said every day.
Renton pouted with lips that looked entirely too kissable. "You're always busy."
"Yeah..." For a moment he looked regretful about the fact. "I am."
❖
Darcy leaned back in his chair with one hand covering the bottom half of his face. He considered the woman standing in front of his desk with hard amber eyes. She didn’t say anything. She just stood there with her ears at attention. Hands folded neatly on top of her thighs, clad in grey wool pants that matched her blazer. “I told you to stay away from my children,” he said finally. His hand dropped to his leg with an audible slap. Over the years he had started referring to Owen and Victoria as his children. It was easier that way, and not entirely wrong, even thought they were well into adulthood and capable of making decisions that he didn't agree with or necessarily care for.
Her ears dropped off either side of her head. “You did.”
His gaze didn’t leave her. “Yet, here you are.”
“It was a bit of an accident.”
“Juli-” he frowned at her. “Drusilla, Why did you accept this job?”
She looked thoughtful for a moment. Lips parted but she didn’t speak immediately. Her tail picked up a steady rhythm behind her knees. “I think…” she paused and her ears popped to attention. “I think...I think I would like very much for him to kill me.”
I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you.
The following 1 user Likes megs's post: saronym
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only][Image Heavy] - by megs - 11-08-2014, 01:29 PM
Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-08-2014, 01:32 PM
Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 12-05-2014, 05:26 PM
Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 12-08-2014, 01:08 PM
Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 05-16-2015, 03:31 PM
Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 06-06-2015, 04:34 PM
Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 09-02-2015, 06:24 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-11-2015, 02:33 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 08-28-2016, 01:16 AM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 09-11-2016, 07:02 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 09-17-2016, 08:31 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 09-21-2016, 11:44 AM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 09-21-2016, 12:40 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 10-15-2016, 04:07 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-12-2016, 07:04 AM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-12-2016, 03:54 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-12-2016, 05:36 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-12-2016, 05:49 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-19-2016, 06:16 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-21-2016, 08:47 AM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-28-2016, 02:48 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-28-2016, 04:15 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 11-30-2016, 02:00 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 12-03-2016, 02:19 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 12-10-2016, 06:42 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 12-11-2016, 10:54 AM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 12-22-2016, 01:14 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 12-30-2016, 08:59 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 01-07-2017, 12:03 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 01-07-2017, 12:04 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 01-07-2017, 07:41 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only] - by megs - 01-08-2017, 01:27 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only][Image Heavy] - by megs - 05-17-2017, 12:31 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only][Image Heavy] - by megs - 05-25-2017, 08:18 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only][Image Heavy] - by megs - 08-01-2018, 06:22 PM
RE: Megs Writes Stuff [Read Only][Image Heavy] - by megs - 09-04-2019, 07:38 AM