He introduces himself as Vane. And as she eyes him up and down, from the self-confident cock of his hip to the well groomed and styled beard, she thinks “yes, you are vain.” But there is part of her that seems to wake up and take notice. Madi lets him buy the next round and tries to figure out where she knows him from.
“Have we met before?” He asks, head tilted to the side. The low rasp of his voice settles deep in her stomach and she knows this feeling. She recognises the way it makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, her fingertips tingling with the need to reach out and touch.
“I don’t know,” she responds quietly. He walks her home and they don’t speak much but it’s almost as though there is nothing left to say. Thousands of conversations over hundreds of years seem to drift behind them like shadows. When he kisses her hand, the rasp of his beard against her skin like a shock, she gasps. And she remembers.
Tag: Charles/Madi
Madi/Charles?
The long braids of her hair, dark and tight and filled with the sweet scent of oil, and the curves of her hips and breasts followed Charles into his dreams – he saw her cross the deck of the Ranger in his mind, turning to him with dark eyes so bright he felt himself almost become a pane of glass, all his flaws and failures laid bare before her, only to be dismissed as she touched his cheek with her hand…
He woke with sweat on his forehead, his chest heavy as the woman at his side sighed heavily in her sleep, the knowledge of payment and safety letting her sleep deeply by the side of one of the most feared men in the Bahamas.
Charles took a lock of his own hair in hand and toyed with it, twirling it around his finger and picturing the princess’ face in his mind as he closed his eyes again; her eyes seemed to swim into his thoughts again, this time warm and welcoming as she opened her arms to him and beckoned him back to sleep.
James/Miranda and Charles/Madi for the meme thing please? (I’m saving your chapter for on the train home today)
oooh, thank you! I hope you like the chapter when you get the chance to read it!
Send me a ship and I will tell you:
James/Miranda:
- When I started shipping them: I didn’t ship them really until I started to understand just what Miranda had given up for her men and how much she really loved James – so, as of the middle of s2 or so, because up to that point I kind of had misgivings about her but I repent. I was wrong.
- My thoughts: They just… they love each other so much, in whatever sense you want to take that, although I do tend to interpret it in a “they’re pretty much common law married and what they have isn’t the fiery, passionate love that James and Thomas have but it’s comfortable and it’s warm and it’s just as real for all that.” James says it himself – he lost Thomas and has never been the same since but Miranda’s death ruined him in so many ways. She stayed for him, she tucked herself away in the interior so he wouldn’t face the prospect of losing her too, so she’d be safe and he could sleep at night, and for her he burned a city and started a war and killed Alfred Hamilton, because she asked/ordered him to do it. And yes they do things to each other that are not great but by the end of s2 they’re so CLOSE to being back on the same page, hell, they’re there – they’re united in their rage, finally, and in what they want to do about it.
- What makes me happy about them: He brings her books, she patches him up when he’s gotten injured, her house is quite clearly where he allows himself to be James again instead of Flint – they’re just so. fucking. cute together, in London too. They start off with laughter and teasing and by the end of s2 we see them starting to do that again – starting to laugh together, and cry together, and starting to be ok again.
- What makes me sad about them: they spend so much time together but apart, hurting and snapping at one another and missing Thomas so very much, and by the time they start to come back together and help each other cope – by the time they start to be united again – it’s too late and Miranda dies.
- Things done in fanfic that annoys me: fanfics where James and Thomas are together and don’t so much as think about Miranda. she was a huge part of their lives, and as much as they are true love personified, she was so very important to both of them and both of them loved her in their own way.
- Things I look for in fanfic: Miranda being present, and involved, and allowed the full range of emotion that we see her express in canon. I love her, and I also love that her patience is far from infinite, her temper is fiery as hell when roused, and she’s got a distinct tendency to mock people when they’re being awful – or silly. Let Miranda be the political manipulator and all ‘round badass that she is, damn it!
- My wishlist: So much more Miranda lives fic. Fic that centers on her and James in London. Miranda reincarnation fic where she gets to write music and be famous and have her men and be happy. AU fic where Miranda survives Charlestown and James and Thomas get her back. Miranda and Thomas time travel fic where both of them find themselves back in London before The Fall and together they kick Alfred’s ass with a singleminded focus that’s absolutely terrifying because they are both DONE, and then they go and find younger James and proceed to be happy forever.
- Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: hmm. Miranda and Gates? Maybe? James and Thomas obviously, that’s not in any question.
- My happily ever after for them: Is yet to be written. I’m working on it – I’ve got a fic in the works, but it’s taking a back seat to some other things at the moment. Basically, though, Miranda lives, joins James in making England pay, and then they find Thomas and take care of him
Charles/Madi:
- When I started shipping them: Just after s4, actually.
- My thoughts: these two would be so. fucking. good together.
They had a lot in common – parental figures they don’t always listen to but that love them, backgrounds as former child slaves, a burning hatred of slavery and those who perpetrate it, respect for James, leadership styles based on respect and strength rather than shame, willingness to lay down their lives for their cause if necessary, former partners who betray and use them for their own gain. They could talk each other through some of their issues – Charles has been through the “someone I loved turned on me” thing and Madi has lived her life among people who have been through what Charles has been through in terms of recognizing that some part of him has had it forcibly beaten into him that orders are safe and good and following them is better than having ideas of his own. Also he could learn to braid her hair and she could do his and he could teach her to fight and she could read to him.
- What makes me happy about them: they’re just… so right for each other? They could be an amazing King of Nassau and Maroon Queen together. They could give the empires of the world such an ass-kicking they’d never recover from it. They’d understand each other’s commitment to their people and their ideals.
- What makes me sad about them: That they never actually share a scene together or got to know each other. It’s a serious waste of what could have been one hell of a power couple.
- Things done in fanfic that annoys me: um, nothing really? I’m literally the only one writing these two together.
- Things I look for in fanfic: literally I would LOVE to see anyone at all other than me give these two a try as a pairing.
- My wishlist: again – anyone aside from me writing them. at all. in any scenario. but if I get to actually make wishes – a fic where they’re together from the beginning, or a slow burn fic where they spend the series making cow eyes at each other but come together really as a couple when the war starts in s3. that and just fluff with the two of them having lazy mornings and getting to laugh and tease and be cute together.
- Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Madi/Eme is my other ship for Madi (and I don’t care, the ship name is Meme, damn it!), and for Charles, Charles/Jack.
- My happily ever after for them: Charles lives through s3. Madi realizes that Silver’s angling for her to give up everything for him, tells him where to get off, and goes to be with Charles instead. The two of them proceed to run the war together and win and then settle down to rule together.
Meg's Mumbles 