Title: A Good Thing

Author:Zalia Chimera

Pairing: Alad/Gevan

Warnings: Introspection, speculation, why the hell do I always go for minor characters and bizarre pairings?

Hope you like!

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Alad sighed in contentment and shifted a little closer to the warm body next to him, tugging the rough blanket to cover himself more fully. The night was cold and the fire had burned low. One of them would have to brave the drifts of snow to fetch more wood in the morning. It would be a miserable morning no doubt, at least until the cabin warmed a little. Gevan, he knew was chafing in their temporary exile from the main house. His lover liked to be active, and with all the land roundabout knee deep in snow, there was little to do except talk.

But it was a small price to pay, Alad felt. They had too little time together as it was and it was good to not have to restrict themseleves to kisses stolen in alcoves, ever mindful of prying eyes. Alad laughed silently. They could help to organise a rebellion right beneath Vega and Ariel's noses, and yet they could barely have a relationship without fear of capture.

He sobered. The fear of capture was something that he had lived with for almost as long as he could remember. After his morther had died, he had lived on the streets of Sutrium, stealing whatever he needed to survive. A dangerous pursuit; the soldierguards were as likely to just beat you to death as arrest you if caught and Alad had come close to both fates more than once.

When inevitably, his luck had run out, he had somehow ended up being sent to Obernewtyn, rather than executed or sent to the Council Farms; an occurance that Alad was grateful for, although at the time, the thought of Obernewtyn had been more terrible to him than the prospect of death.

He smiled a little and ran his fingers softly down the side of Gevan's face and down his neck until he couls brush the back of his hand across the skin of the coercer's back. He winced a little as he felt the lines of old scars across Gevan's back, wondering once again what had happened to cause them.

He had known Gevan for as long as he had been at Obernewtyn; they had noticed each other almost instantly, recognising a kindred spirit perhaps, but in all that time, gevan had never once mentioned his past, flinched away and going silent whenever the subject was broached. It had hurt a little at first until Gevan had kissed him and said that it was something he had to come to terms with on his own. Alad hadn't mentioned it since.

It was strange to think that at one point he had considered arriving at Obernewtyn to be the end of his life. The most he had hoped for was a swift painless death. But he had never expected to find something close to happiness, someone who brought him happiness. Things were still strange and he still felt utter terror at time, but being sent to the House had been a good thing. The beginning of his life, rather than the end.

Stifling a yawn, Alad lay back down, curling bfront-to-back with his lover, and went back to sleep.