lalo; scene five; 5 pages

[cridecoeur]

I am very disappointed in you all for not voting in my poll. >:| Granted, most of you weren't around for like half of those universes and probably don't compulsively check Dreamwidth, like I do, anyways, but. Disappointed.

However, I've got another scene in Lalo for you! I'm not gonna lie to you guys, this one is rough. It is also a first draft, so I'm not too fussed about it. I am thinking if no one votes in the poll, this will be my default fucking finish it thing. Because it is closer than anything else to being finished (which is... not saying much, especially since I don't exactly know how it's going to end, ha ha). ANYWAYS. Scene:

FADE IN:

INT. MIELI'S BEDROOM - DAY

Leikr stands beside the window in Mieli's bedroom, looking down on the city below. The view from the window is much like Leikr's first glimpse of the city, the citizens thin and haggard, moving listlessly through the streets or grouped together on corners, bent together and talking quietly.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

Your people, they do not look well.

CUT TO:

INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - DAY

Mieli sits at the council's long table looking as if things are far from going his way. The council are politicking over what to do about this invasion business, but don't seem to be taking matter's very seriously, being as they've got Mieli who apparently they expect to just knock all the ships out of the sky or something. Because that is obviously a reasonable thing to expect someone to do.

MIELI: (V.O.)

(Standing and walking over to the window, looking out.)

They aren't. And you know why.

CUT TO:

EXT. WITHERING FIELD - DAY

A repeat of the earlier scene with Mieli watching crops wither away to nothing under his gaze. He looks up at the sky as if looking to the stars for help. Little does he know that Leikr is eventually going to be that help. And also that he seriously needs to reconsider the council's role in all of this.

CUT TO:

INT. MIELI'S BEDROOM - DAY

Leikr spins away from the window and then spins back when he realizes that the only other thing he has to stare at in there is the bed.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

I am trying not to think about that.

INTERCUT CONVERSATION.

MIELI: (V.O.)

(Raising an eyebrow.)

The crops?

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Uncomfortably.)

No. The other part. The part where I can see in your head. That part, I am trying not to think about.

MIELI: (V.O.)

(Gripping the window sill more tightly.)

Ah. That part is hard to avoid.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Sighing.)

Yes, I am having trouble. Although it would help if we were not talking like this. And from so far away.

MIELI: (V.O.)

(Smiling, slightly.)

You're going to have to get used to that.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

I do not like it. You are in my head all of the time. I cannot think, not to myself, not at all.

MIELI: (V.O.)

This is... unusual. You aren't even ...

LEIKR: (V.O)

(Tipping his head back to look up at the sky, as if he could make out the Skimmer ship from down on the planet's surface. Then, as if he doesn't know perfectly well what Mieli means.)

Are not what?

MIELI: (V.O.)

(Frowning, for any number of reasons.)

One of us.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Looking down again.)

Ah. No. I do not think this... It has not happened before?

MIELI: (V.O.)

Never that I've been told. And I know all the old stories.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Stares into the distance for several moments, and then, more hesitantly.)

Where are my men?

MIELIE: (V.O.)

(Hands tightening on the window sill again.)

You don't want to know.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Determinedly.)

I do. I... Tell me. Let me see.

Mieli closes his eyes tightly.

CUT TO:

EXT. OAPUS VERN FOREST - DAY

Mieli, in his higher form, fully light, holds his arms out, raising fire from the earth, trapping Leikr and his men. Leikr falls to his knees, as the fire rises higher and burns closer, cutting him off from his men, who, meanwhile, are trapped by the fire themselves, shouting, if they are in their lower forms or making frantic, animal noises if they are not. As Mieli draws closer, his body splitting the fire in a path before him, Leikr raises his arms to shield his face, before Mieli reaches him, and he collapses. Meanwhile, Leikr's men are glowing as if suffused with light, just as Mieli is. As Mieli stops, though, stooping down to touch Leikr, the men begin, one by one, to dissolve, flaring up and flashing brightly, first, as if they were consumed by the light, which they pretty much were. So that really sucks for them, not existing anymore.

CUT TO:

INT. MIELI'S BEDROOM - DAY

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Looking sick, stricken.)

You -

MEILI: (V.O.)

(Cutting him off, sharply.)

You can't tell me you wouldn't have done the same.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

I -

Leikr cuts himself off, and then turns from the window, this time reaching for the black glass flute still at his belt, making to bring it up to his lips. Mieli disappears from the council room suddenly, leaving the councilors to exclaim and all that, and reappears at Leikr's side. Leikr jerks, and Mieli reaches for him, grabbing his arms, struggling to keep a hold on him, to keep him from getting the flute to his lips. I'm not actually sure if Leikr could kill Mieli with that thing, being as they're now intrinsically linked, and Mieli is kind of a demigod but best not to risk it. The flute was a gift from a god after all and - seriously stop debating with yourself and write.

Mieli clutches Leikr tightly, pressing him back into the wall beside the window with his body, hands clamped over his wrists, pinning them either side of his head.

MEILI: (V.O.)

(Trying to calm him.)

Lalo -

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Cutting across him, fiercely, because no one gets to call him that but his mom, and his mom is dead which mean no one gets to call him that.)

Don't you dare -

Leikr opens his mouth, as if to scream, and Mieli does the one thing he really can to to stop him, which is to cover Leikr's mouth with his own. Instead of biting him, like he fully deserves, Leikr goes limp against the wall. Curse you, intrinsic link, why must you betray him like this. (Hey, buddy, you're the one who bonded to him.) Mieli freezes for a moment before softening, tilting his head slightly, clearly going from just keeping Leikr quiet to kissing him. Leikr shifts in his grip, slightly, and yields. His fingers uncurl, and the flute drops from his hand, hitting the floor without shattering (like I said: gift from a god don't think he didn't see just this sort of situation coming), and rolls away, forgotten, for the moment. His breath hitches, and he arches against Mieli, who suddenly pulls him away from the wall and more tightly against himself, releasing his wrists but wrapping his arms around him, tipping his head back with one hand in his hair and kissing him deeper. Leikr just kind of clutches at his shoulders and lets himself be kissed. I am not going to make Mieli dip him, though I am badly tempted. That is the kind of thing Epic Romances produce after all, dip-kisses.

Mieli begins walking backwards, shifting his grip on Leikr to pull him along. His knees bump into the bed and he spins suddenly, overbalancing them, and pressing Leikr to the bed with his body, so they're hanging half-on half-off the bed until Mieli manages to drag them up onto it fully. They pull apart, panting, which seems to be enough to snap them back into the moment. Leikr stares up at Mieli, who just sort of stares back down at him. Silence hangs between them for a moment, until Leikr breaks it.

LEIKR: (V.O.)

(Faintly.)

This is going to be a problem.

FADE OUT.