embolalia | Fic: At the Front

Title: At the Front
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,166
A/N: Written for

rachelindeed for a DPP prize, for the prompt of Kara and Lee somewhere in history! (bonus points to

sci_fi_shipper for the civil war prompt!)

At the Front

The battle is a bloody one, and the general is wounded, but Lee doesn’t even spare a glance for him as he catches sight of the newest recruit. Kieran is standing near the center of the field where they’ve spent the morning fighting, bloody but seemingly unharmed. Lee breaks into a run.

Hazel eyes turn toward him, murky with grief. It takes everything in Lee’s power to keep from pulling the young officer into a hug. Instead, he claps a hand on Kieran’s shoulder and tilts his head, knowing both their ears are still ringing from the gunshots. Without a word, he leads the way back to his tent.

As soon as they’re inside, the tent flap closed, Kieran bursts into motion, tearing at the bloody uniform, throwing away the gun, pulling loose the regulation cap. When she’s stripped down to her undergarments and bindings, she bursts into tears. It’s then that Lee reaches out, wraps his arms around her and lets her cry.

“It’s alright Kara,” he whispers into her hair, cut haphazardly around her ears. “You’re safe.”

She shakes her head against his chest. “The war,” she manages to say between sobs, “that part I understand, but Zak...he only came here because I said I thought there was glory in it.” She blinks up at him, shivering in the chill of the tent and the pull of her grief. “And he died just like those men out there, screaming in the mud--” She starts to cry harder, and Lee finds himself crying, too. He was there when it happened, and his brother’s cries still ring in his ears.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he says hoarsely when he can. “My father wanted us both to be soldiers, you know that’s true.” He holds her tighter; she holds him back. “He was only sixteen. I should have protected him better,” he whispers. It’s the first time he’s been able to say the words aloud, and he’s glad beyond measure that she’s here to hear them.

Kara had been a child with them, before they knew about the boundaries of social class, had been the most mesmerizing person he’d ever known. But as they grew he and Zak were sent off to school and Kara to be a scullery maid, and their old closeness was lost. For years Lee had watched her, captivated by her beauty and spirit, loving her from afar - until the morning he found her kissing his brother. She turned to him then, saw his disappointment, and her face twisted with such regret that Lee’s heart leapt at the thought that all was not lost. But there was not even time to make his intentions known; the war had begun. That afternoon he and his brother headed for the front. The entire way there, Zak poured out his love for Kara, promising Lee that their feelings were true and enduring.

Zak lasted three days once the fighting began in earnest. The letter to their parents was the hardest Lee had ever had to write.

It was two weeks before he heard anything back from them, not until a young recruit arrived yesterday bearing a message. He had recognized her at once, of course, but said nothing. She nodded her gratitude to him when no one else was looking. All night long, Lee laid awake in case she came to find him, but he neither heard from her nor saw her until the moment that she raised her musket in battle and shot dead a man who was aiming for Lee himself.

He lost sight of her in the fighting, but from the blood on her discarded clothes Lee knows she must have fought in close quarters. He’s overcome by unexpected admiration; she survived far worse unharmed than he did in his first battle.

As he realizes she’s still shivering, Lee pulls away. “Here,” he says, and reaches for his pack. It isn’t cold, he knows, but shock. Passing her a bit of candy, he takes out a cloth and a bowl of water. When she doesn’t resist, he begins to wipe the blood from her face, her hair, her limbs. He leaves the bindings over her breasts in place, though they too are mottled with another man’s blood.

Slowly Kara stills beneath his touch, and he hears her breathing change. His own heart is still pounding with adrenaline from the fight, and as he gently dries the inside of her thigh Lee finds himself impossibly aroused.

Kara takes another cloth from his pack before he understands why, then reaches for the buttons on his uniform.

“You don’t--” he protests, but she silences him with a look.

There’s less blood on him, but still she bathes him, baptising him with each touch. As she unbuttons his pants, Lee watches her face flush, and he grabs her wrist gently before he offends her.

Kara’s eyes dart up to meet his. “If I had been his wife...” she says softly. They know the rest; if she and Zak had married, it would be Lee’s duty now to care for her...and perhaps to marry her himself.

“But you weren’t,” he says.

“And if the next battle is our last?” she answers. “What then will it matter?” His grip on her has loosened and she pulls free, running her hand over the front of his pants so that he groans. Her eyes are wide and nervous and daring. She looks just like she did as a child, daring them to be the first to jump off a twenty foot cliff into the lake. “I’ve always--” she starts, and then he kisses her.

It’s the sweetest kiss of his life. Kara’s not a reticent young noblewoman like the few others he’s kissed. She’s his friend, and he loves her, and she kisses him eagerly. His hands run along her skin and she shivers, in pleasure this time, as she presses close to him.

“I love you, Kara Thrace,” Lee whispers, needing her to know, knowing what happens next will change their lives forever.

She nods, tears in her eyes. “I love you, too.”

He reaches out to unwrap her breasts; she finishes unbuttoning his pants and pushes them away. They fall down to his bedroll, kissing and exploring and finally coming together in a moment that is sharp and brief and pleasurable all at once, a consummation of years of longing.

Afterward, as they lie together, watching each other with shy, bright eyes, Kara’s face grows serious. Finally she speaks. “I’m staying at the front,” she says. “I need to see him avenged.”

He knows what the others would say: that it’s no place for a woman, that she can’t handle it. But he knows that she can, and that he needs her here if he is to survive it himself.

“Promise me, Lee,” she whispers. “We’ll win this together or fight them until we can’t.”

He nods, then kisses her to seal his words. “I promise.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

deborah-judge.livejournal.com

What an interesting premise, Kara as one of the folksong women soldiers who dresses up as a man to go to war. It really suits her, and it makes sense that she wouldn't want to sit at home after Zak was killed.

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Fic: At the Front

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