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Advent fic: 1st December, 2007
TITLE: Anchor In Storms
SUMMARY: Nearly everyone else believed she'd come back a proper lady - like the ones that occasionally came through town and sneered behind their fine clothing and expensive makeup at the simply-dressed locals and their 'quaint' customs. Ronon knew better.
CATEGORY: AU, romance
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: Neither Ronon nor Teyla, nor any of the characters or constructs related to Stargate Atlantis are mine and I'm using them without permission and without making money off them.
NOTES: Next in the 'Fly The Stars' series - sequel to 'Walk The Air'. There'll definitely be a string of these.
-- Anchor In Storms --
It was nearly seven years before Teyla returned.
The letters came to town once a moon without fail. Sometimes in the elegant formal characters of the core worlds, sometimes in the phonetic scrawl of the common people, always handwritten on thick, fine paper, with the Academy letterhead.
She wrote little of her studies, more about the people she was with, the places she'd seen. And in every letter, Ronon could hear her longing to be home.
They wish me to stay on, she wrote in that last, seventh year, her characters scribed neatly down the parchment page. I have been offered a position on Persephone as a government administrator. But I long for home and will return in time for the harvest this year.
"Harvest's next week."
"She flies in day after tomorrow." Taigan folded the now well-worn letter with a smile both wise and wistful as he looked over at Ronon, just back from a long hunting trip. "Although Athos will seem small after Sihnon and Londinium."
Ronon shrugged, tucking his carvings into his pocket for the short walk home. He'd left the game bag at the abattoir and dropped by to see Taigan and Charin before going home. "She'll still be Teyla," he said, pressing his lips to Charin's forehead and clasping Taigan about the wrist.
He couldn't imagine Teyla snubbing her family.
"You're like a child waiting for the hong bao, this morning," Melena said the day Teyla was due to arrive. Her eyes met his in the mirror where she was putting on her make-up.
He felt like a child waiting for his New Year's red and gold packet - itchy in his best clothing and restless.
"I haven't seen her since we were children. It seems like years."
"It has been years. Ronon--"
He heard the concern in her voice.
"She's still Teyla," he said stubbornly. Nearly everyone else believed she'd come back a proper lady - like the ones that occasionally came through town and sneered behind their fine clothing and expensive makeup at the simply-dressed locals and their 'quaint' customs.
Ronon knew better.
She'd still be Teyla.
"She'll have changed in seven years," said Melena as she finished pinning up her hair. "You've changed in seven years," she said with a laugh that wasn't entirely steady.
He wasn't always the most insightful of men, but Ronon had a sudden flash, then. He planted his hands either side of her on the dresser so his face hovered over her shoulder in the mirror. "'Lena..." He loved Melena - was crazy about her. In two months they'd formalise their commitment before a regional administrator and Ronon would be husband to the most intelligent and beautiful woman in Athos town.
But Teyla was a part of his childhood - an anchor of who he'd been after the Reavers took everything else in his life. Whatever other storms had tossed his young life, Teyla - and Taigan and Charin with her - had been there for him. He believed in that beyond all measure of rationality and logic, with the faith of the child he'd been and the yearning of the man he'd become for a child's assurance.
There were no words to explain this, if Ronon had ever been a man for words.
He bent to kiss Melena, slow and deep.
--
3. The Prodigy Returning
TITLE: Anchor In Storms
SUMMARY: Nearly everyone else believed she'd come back a proper lady - like the ones that occasionally came through town and sneered behind their fine clothing and expensive makeup at the simply-dressed locals and their 'quaint' customs. Ronon knew better.
CATEGORY: AU, romance
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: Neither Ronon nor Teyla, nor any of the characters or constructs related to Stargate Atlantis are mine and I'm using them without permission and without making money off them.
NOTES: Next in the 'Fly The Stars' series - sequel to 'Walk The Air'. There'll definitely be a string of these.
-- Anchor In Storms --
It was nearly seven years before Teyla returned.
The letters came to town once a moon without fail. Sometimes in the elegant formal characters of the core worlds, sometimes in the phonetic scrawl of the common people, always handwritten on thick, fine paper, with the Academy letterhead.
She wrote little of her studies, more about the people she was with, the places she'd seen. And in every letter, Ronon could hear her longing to be home.
They wish me to stay on, she wrote in that last, seventh year, her characters scribed neatly down the parchment page. I have been offered a position on Persephone as a government administrator. But I long for home and will return in time for the harvest this year.
"Harvest's next week."
"She flies in day after tomorrow." Taigan folded the now well-worn letter with a smile both wise and wistful as he looked over at Ronon, just back from a long hunting trip. "Although Athos will seem small after Sihnon and Londinium."
Ronon shrugged, tucking his carvings into his pocket for the short walk home. He'd left the game bag at the abattoir and dropped by to see Taigan and Charin before going home. "She'll still be Teyla," he said, pressing his lips to Charin's forehead and clasping Taigan about the wrist.
He couldn't imagine Teyla snubbing her family.
"You're like a child waiting for the hong bao, this morning," Melena said the day Teyla was due to arrive. Her eyes met his in the mirror where she was putting on her make-up.
He felt like a child waiting for his New Year's red and gold packet - itchy in his best clothing and restless.
"I haven't seen her since we were children. It seems like years."
"It has been years. Ronon--"
He heard the concern in her voice.
"She's still Teyla," he said stubbornly. Nearly everyone else believed she'd come back a proper lady - like the ones that occasionally came through town and sneered behind their fine clothing and expensive makeup at the simply-dressed locals and their 'quaint' customs.
Ronon knew better.
She'd still be Teyla.
"She'll have changed in seven years," said Melena as she finished pinning up her hair. "You've changed in seven years," she said with a laugh that wasn't entirely steady.
He wasn't always the most insightful of men, but Ronon had a sudden flash, then. He planted his hands either side of her on the dresser so his face hovered over her shoulder in the mirror. "'Lena..." He loved Melena - was crazy about her. In two months they'd formalise their commitment before a regional administrator and Ronon would be husband to the most intelligent and beautiful woman in Athos town.
But Teyla was a part of his childhood - an anchor of who he'd been after the Reavers took everything else in his life. Whatever other storms had tossed his young life, Teyla - and Taigan and Charin with her - had been there for him. He believed in that beyond all measure of rationality and logic, with the faith of the child he'd been and the yearning of the man he'd become for a child's assurance.
There were no words to explain this, if Ronon had ever been a man for words.
He bent to kiss Melena, slow and deep.
--
3. The Prodigy Returning