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Fic: Heavy Heart to Carry (Legend of the Seeker, Nicci/Richard, PG)
Title: Heavy Heart to Carry
Author: alyse
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Pairing: Nicci/Richard
Word Count: 410
Spoilers: Bound
Author's Notes: Written for the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
legendland song title challenge. I chose Florence and the Machines' 'Heavy In Your Arms'.
Summary: There is something soft in Richard, something that bends but does not break.
There is something soft in Richard, something in the set of his mouth, perhaps, or in the way he tilts his head when he listens, his focus almost entirely on the person talking to him.
It should be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, but to do that would be foolish itself. And Nicci may be many things, but a fool she is not.
There is something soft in Richard, something that bends but does not break, something that uncurls as slowly as his smile, the one that holds the warmth of the sun in it.
Nicci is not warm. Nicci is cold, layer upon layer of ice around her heart. She hides herself from the sun not because she is afraid she will melt - she cannot melt, and she cannot bend or break. She hides herself from the sun because the sun burns too brightly, and she is far, far more at home in the dark now, down with all of the other things that have been buried miles deep below the surface.
Richard burns just as brightly as the sun, and she turns her face away from the warmth of his gaze. She is weighted down, dragged down, held down by a soul that no longer knows how to soar; Richard, however, is weightless, reckless, flighty. Richard is too soft, and sometimes she thinks, when he looks at her, when he sees her, that he sees that same softness in her, buried underneath it all, layer upon layer down. Sees that same weakness, when Nicci has ripped everything soft out of her heart with tooth and nail, with blood and pain. With sacrifice, all in the name of the Keeper.
It would be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, knowing that when he looks at her he doesn't see her for what she is - wholly the Keeper's, wholly beyond salvation. To know that when Richard looks at her he sees someone who is just lost, not someone who has forsaken everything and would do so again. That Richard sees someone who just needs to be guided back home, and Richard is, underneath the Seeker and the Lord Rahl and everything else he is and will be, a guide.
It should be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, but somehow Nicci finds that she cannot.
It should be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, but perhaps Nicci is simply the most foolish of all.
Author: alyse
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Pairing: Nicci/Richard
Word Count: 410
Spoilers: Bound
Author's Notes: Written for the
legendland song title challenge. I chose Florence and the Machines' 'Heavy In Your Arms'.Summary: There is something soft in Richard, something that bends but does not break.
There is something soft in Richard, something in the set of his mouth, perhaps, or in the way he tilts his head when he listens, his focus almost entirely on the person talking to him.
It should be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, but to do that would be foolish itself. And Nicci may be many things, but a fool she is not.
There is something soft in Richard, something that bends but does not break, something that uncurls as slowly as his smile, the one that holds the warmth of the sun in it.
Nicci is not warm. Nicci is cold, layer upon layer of ice around her heart. She hides herself from the sun not because she is afraid she will melt - she cannot melt, and she cannot bend or break. She hides herself from the sun because the sun burns too brightly, and she is far, far more at home in the dark now, down with all of the other things that have been buried miles deep below the surface.
Richard burns just as brightly as the sun, and she turns her face away from the warmth of his gaze. She is weighted down, dragged down, held down by a soul that no longer knows how to soar; Richard, however, is weightless, reckless, flighty. Richard is too soft, and sometimes she thinks, when he looks at her, when he sees her, that he sees that same softness in her, buried underneath it all, layer upon layer down. Sees that same weakness, when Nicci has ripped everything soft out of her heart with tooth and nail, with blood and pain. With sacrifice, all in the name of the Keeper.
It would be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, knowing that when he looks at her he doesn't see her for what she is - wholly the Keeper's, wholly beyond salvation. To know that when Richard looks at her he sees someone who is just lost, not someone who has forsaken everything and would do so again. That Richard sees someone who just needs to be guided back home, and Richard is, underneath the Seeker and the Lord Rahl and everything else he is and will be, a guide.
It should be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, but somehow Nicci finds that she cannot.
It should be easy to dismiss Richard as a fool, but perhaps Nicci is simply the most foolish of all.