#danger mcsteele

I hope you enjoy Danger McSteele, the total badflank, and Frolicksome Meadowlark, also a pretty big badflank in his own right.

Some people drank for fun, or to forget their troubles; not him. He hated the stuff. He finished off his glass and called for another. Some people drank to forget. He drank to remember. Another drink. The armor he wore and the sword at his belt felt like weights dragging him down. Another. In his sleep, all he sees are the fires, swords flashing in the moonlight as the enemy falls upon his home. He hears the screams and smells the blood and he can taste the fear in the air. Then the light and the infinite, deafening silence as She calls upon her magic. And then he wakes. Another. But the drink takes him back—or farther back, at least—to happier times. To memories of the mischief he and his brother had gotten up to; to his training as a Temple Guard; to the first time he knew he loved Her, with her raven-black hair and her eyes, the deepest blue of the midnight sky. Her laugh, a chiming of bells that set the butterflies in his stomach to flight. Her smile, that brightened even the darkest of hearts. Another. His brother loved Her, too, of course. How could he not? She was perfect. Twins, they were, identical in looks if not in temperament; his brother had always been more outgoing, more at ease with others—even sang, sometimes. It had been a rift between them, and She had seen it. She confronted them, told them that whatever had come between them surely they could work it out. Nothing had ever been able to break them apart before. He’s kissed Her, then. And then his brother had done the same. For someone with the Vision, she’d always been rather blind when it came to how others saw her. And She’d cried, told them how She loved them, but it wasn’t fair because she couldn’t choose. They shared everything else, she’d said; if there was room in her heart for both of them, couldn’t they both love her as well? Another. The door opened. "I’ve found him, lieutenant! Knee deep in his cups, too." A sniff. "Better make that neck deep, actually." "Alright, I’ll take care of it from here. Dismissed." Well, that was a familiar voice. "Captain Smiles, have you been terrorizing this poor barman all day?" "Only since the dawn, Lieutenant McSteele." She took a seat next to him. "You can’t keep doing this to yourself, Sunshine, it’s going to kill you. We’re worried about you." "It’s the only way I have to remember her, Danger. Please, don’t take that from me, too." A hand on his shoulder, a rush of her magic, and he was sober again. A neat trick, to be sure, but he’d be paying for it with a week-long hangover, soon. "What’d you do that for? I wasn’t done wallowing in self-pity and regret." "Do you really want Her to see you like this?" "What are you talking about?" "It’s almost Moonrise, Sunny." "Already? Shit." "Keep the change," he says, dropping a bag of coins on the counter and standing. "I’ll be back tomorrow, and I expect it to have magically turned into more drinks." They walk together out to the fields, and sit beneath the old shade tree that grows on the hill. He leans on her as they wait, a comfortable silence between them. The moon rises. "I miss her, Danger. I just miss her so much." She turns to wipe the tears from his eyes. "I know, Sunshine. I know."