#rivendellrose

I do indeed say the “ch” at the end of Radch as in checkers! However.

Also who you project your own issues onto. XD

4. I called your name last night. Three times. (Babylon 5, Delenn/Lennier)

There is a candle in Delenn’s hands, cupped between her fingers as gently as she had once held his face. As gently, and with as much steely resolve. “I called your name last night,” she says. She is speaking to him. She is focused on the candle, which is present, but she is speaking to him, who is not. “Three times.”

Lennier knows. He heard her. He was not there in the room where she called out his name, or in the city, or even on the planet. But he had heard her. She had called his name and he had heard her, as he always did, and he heard her now, as he would always hear her, in his soul.

His name on her lips is a prayer. It is a blessing. It is a burden. He bears them all, so that she will not have to. And she has called for him, so he will go. Yes, he will go. He will go to Delenn, after so long, at last.

A/N: I wanted to make this a lot more bitter, I really did, because damn. But these bastards just wouldn’t cooperate. XD

11. You were burned, you were about to burn, you’re still on fire. (Neroon & Delenn) (Babylon 5)

It was not the first time that Delenn had visited him, as Neroon remained in the care of the best healers on Minbari, and he was quite sure it would not be the last, now that she had returned to Tuzanor to live… with her husband.

He rather wished she wouldn’t bother. It felt unkind, both to the man she had married and to the man Neroon had once been. But he permitted her to enter his quarters; he would have been nine different kinds of fool to turn away the honor of such a visit.

“You are looking well,” she told him, taking his hands and beaming into his scarred face, and it was plain that she meant what she said.

“My reconstitution is proceeding apace,” he replied, falling back on the dry humor that served him so well when dealing with Delenn. It often seemed like his only refuge, apart from a deep well of bitter regret that he was wary of getting to close to the edge of. “You need not concern yourself so with my well-being, Delenn. I know you have much to occupy your time these days.”

“I do, yes. And if I should choose to concern myself with the well-being of a man who saved my life, that is a worthy way of occupying my time.”

Neroon snorted softly. “Saved your life, did I? I wonder… Sometimes I think all I did was preserve you for future torments. Much as these doctors have preserved me, this past year, with all their potions and procedures.”

Delenn frowned, not understanding.

“In my mind, Delenn, and as you stand before me now… You were burned. You were about to burn… You are still on fire. And so am I. Can you not feel it?”

“There are many kinds of fire in which to burn,” she returned carefully. “If this is a pain of the body that lingers, we should speak to the healers.”

“I have. Many times. They do what they can, but… the embers… they linger.” Neroon smiled, a thin and fragile press of his lips that did not reach his eyes. “And I know full well that your fire cannot be quenched as easily as mine, and your burns run far deeper.” He paused, and studied her, studied the aurora of pale flame that had surrounded her ever since she had passed under the Starfire Wheel. “And no one will pity you over them.”

Some barely controlled emotion flashed across Delenn’s face “Not even you, old friend?”

“I would never presume to pity you over anything. We both walked into the fire with our eyes open, and we both expected to die. We can hardly be blamed for living, in spite of the flames.”

“Is that how you view your life now?” asked Delenn, her voice filled with sorrow and dismay. “As one to be lived out of mere spite?”

The man who called himself Ash Tyler, who wore Tyler's face and spoke with his voice and possessed his memories with all the bravado of a thief who knows he has been caught, was not an introspective being. He never had been, in any sense; the Ash Tyler who was dead had been free of any need for self-reflection, and the outcast Klingon who had become Ash Tyler had never learned the skill.

"I should go back to my ship."

"Yes," L'Rell agreed, reluctant but determined. "You have already stayed too long."

He had. He knew he had. Still, Ash remained at her side.

Like so many with time-scarred hearts, he did not know himself; he could only look with the eyes of others, and he did not understand what it was that kept drawing him back to L'Rell's side, this infinitely faceted and yet somehow frighteningly uncomplicated woman who had given him the means of destroying himself for the empire, who had lied and clawed and drawn blood from him, for him, and who had loved him enough to sacrifice him. Who still loved him enough to send him away, into the arms of the woman they both believed could love him better.

He didn't understand. Neither of them understood that there were more ways of loving, vital, urgent, ungentle ways that hurt as much as they healed, ways uncongenial to humans or to those who tried to be human, or that such love can burn as brightly and fiercely alongside more comforting flames.

It was no fault of L'Rell's, that the plan hadn't turned out the way she'd hoped. And Ash grieved that Michael was gone... but not as much as he thought he should.

"You are still here."

Ash took a deep breath. "Yes. I am."

Oh god why would you do this to meeeeeee I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS

1) It's Aziraphale's coffee shop, obviously. Like, that's even the name over the door (Anthony convinced him that "A. Z. Fell" was just too stuffy and he should go with the nickname instead.) He doesn't even really LIKE coffee but he couldn't get a small business loan for a tea shop. Something about "too old-fashioned" and "not in the right part of town" which just irks him to no end. So the tea is actually cheaper than the coffee but none of the customers care about the drinks because the cake is just THAT GOOD. (Really it's more of a cake shop.) (Yes this is me crying about my own local coffee shop I haven't been to since March.)

2) His silent partner Anthony is always draping himself over chairs and drinking things that are definitely neither coffee nor tea, and he says he's there to keep an eye on his investment but he doesn't ever seem to mind when a few quid go missing from the til. Aziraphale can't figure out where the money's going but Anthony tells him not to worry about it. It's not until later that Aziraphale realizes that Anthony's been swiping from the til to give to the homeless people who hang around the front and back doors. And he can't call him on it, because Aziraphale's also been giving them food and coffee, free of charge.

3) The most obnoxious customer BY FAR is Aziraphale's old boss Gabriel. Aziraphale used to be in corporate investments before he bought the coffee shop and Gabriel predicted that he would crash and burn within six months, that he was useless on his own and would come crawling back to the firm asking for his old job. The fact that Aziraphale's Coffee Shop has not only survived but become a thriving part of the local community is the worst possible thorn in Gabriel's side and Aziraphale LIVES FOR IT. He always makes a point of giving Gabriel a twenty percent discount on his latte and scones, like of course a corporate banker would need a discount at the coffee shop. "Oh no, old chap, no trouble at all, we're doing quite well enough to help out a friend." And Gabriel seethes.

4) There are a couple of less than stellar blokes who come in sometimes, making a bit of a scene, scare the customers, try and intimidate Aziraphale. Anthony won't say who they are but Aziraphale has suspicions. One day Anthony doesn't come to the shop and Aziraphale's very scared, thinking that these old 'business associates' have done something drastic. He calls Anthony's flat and gets nothing but the answering machine, but just when he's starting to panic, Anthony saunters in saying something about "cleaning up old business" and Aziraphale's so relieved he bursts into tears while he's kneading sourdough.

Ohhhh this ask makes me happy, because I have had so many Babylon 5 feels since I finished The Goblin Emperor. I know we've joked for years that the Minbari are Space Elves™, but these elves feel like a terrifying combination of Minbari and Centauri, all the subtle magic and the rituals and the lore, mixed with the insane opulence and the court intrigue and the emphasis on noble houses and strategic dynastic marriages.

So going with a crossover instead of an AU, that would make the Elflands and Barizhan and all the rest part of a planet that unexpectedly makes contact with, oh, one of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. (Not the Drazi, that would be bad for everyone. The Brakiri, maybe?) And Maia would offend the entire court by appointing his astronomer half-sister Vedero to the committee dealing with the new arrivals, but of course the more they complain, the more he doubles down, until finally he just snaps and makes her the official Untheileneise ambassador to the League. ("Unless you prefer that we should go ourself?" "No, Serenity," mumbles the entire Corazhas.)

Eventually Maia goes to visit Vedero on Babylon 5, because he is insanely curious to see the stars and to see all of these others who are neither elf nor goblin nor ogre. (Idra stays behind to look after government things and he is NOT happy about it, but Maia promises he can go next time.) Csevet goes with him, of course, and Csethiro and all his bodyguards, and some other nobles and their staff for good measure.

Maia and Sheridan hit it off immediately, because they're both puppies and smarter than they look. There is a lot of horse talk. Delenn makes an immediate conquest of the entire party -- everyone likes her and no one trusts her an iota, so all is as it should be. (Her gentle manner of speaking reminds Maia of his mother, and he doesn't like that.) Csevet and Lennier spend a lot of time looking uncomfortably at each other like they're seeing a weird reflection.

Londo in particular is eager to meet this youthful emperor. After having dealt with Vedero in the council chamber he's very surprised and honestly a little disgusted to find that her half-brother the emperor is a slim, quiet young man with a gentle smile and a kind word for everyone, and married to a woman who reminds him disagreeably of his wife Timov. Vir is already intimidated by Ambassador Vedero and meeting Empress Csethiro is even WORSE. *pets Vir*

G'Kar is put off by the overwrought wealth of the elves but is eventually won over by Maia's nohecharei, of all people -- clerics and soldiers are people he understands.