![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
moriwen1.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tamingthemuseTitle: In the Highest
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Coxswain
Warnings: None
Rating: G
Summary: “'I’m her coxswain,' says Lena firmly, and that’s that.”
Steel can’t help but feel a little out of place. Oh, Cassandra is making a great show of affection towards him, but it feels emptier than usual. She interrupts Elsa to talk to him, makes sarcastic comments a little too loud in his ear, but though her hand is on his shoulder, it’s always Elsa she’s really talking to, Elsa who’s meant to be hurt or offended. Adversarial as it is, the bond between the two women is older than that between Cassandra and him. Stronger, too, maybe. It hurts a little to think about.
Elsa is in turn being overly polite as she shows them about her airship. Steel’s only seen the great balloons as they pass far overhead, so he has no sense of whether Cassandra’s snide comments about its size and state of repair or accurate or not. They don’t seem to have any effect on Elsa’s smooth bubbling narration, though; she happily shows them every facet of a craft that’s plainly precious to her. Steel thinks he does well to guess a few words of the vocabulary the other two seem to take for granted, port and stern and starboard and crow’s nest.
As soon as it’s clear that Cassandra and Elsa are quite engrossed in their incomprehensible discussion of the cut of the something something something, Steel slips away to have a looksee for himself. All he really finds out is that the intermittent swaying of the light wooden craft makes him nauseous, and the fat balloon tethered overhead makes him claustrophobic. He clings to the railing as he looks down at rolling hills and mesas, dots that must be scrubby trees and the fine blue line of a river in the distance. The stiff breeze tosses his hair, and he pulls his fingers through it, tugging at the stubborn tangles. It’s going to be impossible to comb after a day or two of this relentless, drying wind.
Then he almost jumps, startled by a hallooing from the -- prow, he thinks, if he hasn’t gotten it mixed up. The voice is unfamiliar, and he shades his eyes and looked up at the raised deck where a figure is standing and waving, silhouetted against the setting sun.
It’s only half a minute’s run to the base of the platform, but from there he has to clamber nearly twice his height up an uncomfortably rickety ladder. As he’s nearly at the top and reaches for the edge to pull himself up, his foot slips and his breath leaps from his lungs as he flails and clutches, trying to steady himself. Then his grasping hand finds warm flesh, and he’s hauled up by strong arms under his armpits.
As he leans on the side and tries to make his breath steady, Steel comments, “I didn’t think anyone else was on board.”
The woman laughs, hearty and unreserved. “You thought a lady like this flies herself?”
He can’t help but roll his eyes. “Do I look like someone who’s ever been on a ship before?”
“There’s all sorts,” she answers, unbothered. “I’ve got cousins look like you. Landsmen, but they’re in the business, anyhow.”
Steel decides he likes her. “I’m Steel, by the way. I guess you’ve met Cassandra?”
“No, but I’ve certainly heard enough about her. You should have seen Elsie when she came back from the city! It was all, Cassie this, Cassie that, you’ll never believe what Cassie did. But I won’t tell you what she said, because I don’t want to offend you, and believe me, if you’re here with Cassie, you would be. I’m Lena.”
“Pleasure,” says Steel, meaning it. “And I doubt I’d be offended -- I’ve spent some time with Cassandra, and she’s not exactly easy to live with.”
“I’ll say that! Are you and she…” Lena trails off, but it’s not so much delicacy as not bothering to find a suitable euphemism, at least by Steel’s guess.
He means it about not being easily offended, though, so he just laughs and mock-shivers. “No thank you. And you and Elsa? What’s between the two of you?”
“I’m her coxswain,” says Lena firmly, and that’s that.
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Coxswain
Warnings: None
Rating: G
Summary: “'I’m her coxswain,' says Lena firmly, and that’s that.”
Steel can’t help but feel a little out of place. Oh, Cassandra is making a great show of affection towards him, but it feels emptier than usual. She interrupts Elsa to talk to him, makes sarcastic comments a little too loud in his ear, but though her hand is on his shoulder, it’s always Elsa she’s really talking to, Elsa who’s meant to be hurt or offended. Adversarial as it is, the bond between the two women is older than that between Cassandra and him. Stronger, too, maybe. It hurts a little to think about.
Elsa is in turn being overly polite as she shows them about her airship. Steel’s only seen the great balloons as they pass far overhead, so he has no sense of whether Cassandra’s snide comments about its size and state of repair or accurate or not. They don’t seem to have any effect on Elsa’s smooth bubbling narration, though; she happily shows them every facet of a craft that’s plainly precious to her. Steel thinks he does well to guess a few words of the vocabulary the other two seem to take for granted, port and stern and starboard and crow’s nest.
As soon as it’s clear that Cassandra and Elsa are quite engrossed in their incomprehensible discussion of the cut of the something something something, Steel slips away to have a looksee for himself. All he really finds out is that the intermittent swaying of the light wooden craft makes him nauseous, and the fat balloon tethered overhead makes him claustrophobic. He clings to the railing as he looks down at rolling hills and mesas, dots that must be scrubby trees and the fine blue line of a river in the distance. The stiff breeze tosses his hair, and he pulls his fingers through it, tugging at the stubborn tangles. It’s going to be impossible to comb after a day or two of this relentless, drying wind.
Then he almost jumps, startled by a hallooing from the -- prow, he thinks, if he hasn’t gotten it mixed up. The voice is unfamiliar, and he shades his eyes and looked up at the raised deck where a figure is standing and waving, silhouetted against the setting sun.
It’s only half a minute’s run to the base of the platform, but from there he has to clamber nearly twice his height up an uncomfortably rickety ladder. As he’s nearly at the top and reaches for the edge to pull himself up, his foot slips and his breath leaps from his lungs as he flails and clutches, trying to steady himself. Then his grasping hand finds warm flesh, and he’s hauled up by strong arms under his armpits.
As he leans on the side and tries to make his breath steady, Steel comments, “I didn’t think anyone else was on board.”
The woman laughs, hearty and unreserved. “You thought a lady like this flies herself?”
He can’t help but roll his eyes. “Do I look like someone who’s ever been on a ship before?”
“There’s all sorts,” she answers, unbothered. “I’ve got cousins look like you. Landsmen, but they’re in the business, anyhow.”
Steel decides he likes her. “I’m Steel, by the way. I guess you’ve met Cassandra?”
“No, but I’ve certainly heard enough about her. You should have seen Elsie when she came back from the city! It was all, Cassie this, Cassie that, you’ll never believe what Cassie did. But I won’t tell you what she said, because I don’t want to offend you, and believe me, if you’re here with Cassie, you would be. I’m Lena.”
“Pleasure,” says Steel, meaning it. “And I doubt I’d be offended -- I’ve spent some time with Cassandra, and she’s not exactly easy to live with.”
“I’ll say that! Are you and she…” Lena trails off, but it’s not so much delicacy as not bothering to find a suitable euphemism, at least by Steel’s guess.
He means it about not being easily offended, though, so he just laughs and mock-shivers. “No thank you. And you and Elsa? What’s between the two of you?”
“I’m her coxswain,” says Lena firmly, and that’s that.
