This fic has no Vecchio in it! :D

[r_vecchio]

Title: Thicker Than Water
Fandom: Blade: Trinity
Characters: Asher Talos, Danica Talos, girl
Words: 2130 approx
Notes: Written because I've always wanted to explore their past and I had a swell time doing it. Yes, I actually enjoyed writing for once, yay! \o/ P.S. Nikki? The friend is totally "Amelia". Trust Danica to delay their meeting each other though, for who knows how long :D



The hammer skimmed off the anvil, missing the shoe and sending a reverberating shudder up the bone of his arm. He blinked the sweat out of his eyes, screwed them up briefly, and shook out the shock, readjusting his grip on the hammer and raising it again. Each clang of iron came steadily then, incessantly, the noise barely registering with its maker except for the minute twitches of a taut jaw, clenched teeth hidden beneath.

Asher was fourteen but he had the hands of a thirty year old. The hands of his father; dirt and dust caked under his fingernails, palms covered with tight, rough skin. The scar on his right was newly healed, the result of misplaced confidence and a sorely-felt lack of supervision. The confidence had been conquered there and then but the supervision had been once again propped up in the ale house, much like it was today.

Asher wondered why his father needed to visit the tavern as often as he did when dotted around the ‘smithery were more bottles than he could count. He was good with numbers, his mother had made sure he knew a two from a five ever before he had reached the latter age. There were definitely more than five bottles.

The hammer stalled above his shoulder. The soft clatter came again.

“Father?”

The scratchy, hollow noise of an empty bottle rolling along sandy ground turned his head. Crouched behind him, half hidden behind a wooden beam, a raven-haired little girl watched with anticipation, lips pursed into a tiny o as the bottle rolled past Asher’s foot. Target missed, and unaware her hiding place was no longer safe from his watchful gaze, she wrapped two equally tiny hands around a new bottle and carefully tipped it on its side, beginning to empty its contents onto the ground. Only an empty bottle would roll where she wanted it to roll.

Liquid poured from its neck. Asher looked on, quizzically, as the brown puddle grew before his eyes. He dropped the hammer suddenly, rushing over to her side and extracting the bottle from her grasp.

“Danica, no!”

She looked up at him in surprise, blinked and stared.

“Father will think I drank it.” Asher took the bottle and placed it high out of reach. He had to hope his father wouldn’t notice the depleted contents before he could replace it. “What have I told you about coming here?”

Danica was still crouched, skirt stretched across wide, bent knees, her bottom hovering above the floor. The toes of dusty black leather boots peeked out from under the cloth. Her fingers played with a small hole forming near the hem.

“That I should come here because you miss me when, when you have to come here.”

Danica was five but she had the imagination and tale-telling ability of a girl three times her age. She had the attention-span, however, of a child three years her junior.

“I told you it was dangerous,” Asher reminded her, slinging the rag with which he had wiped his hands over his shoulder. Squatting down in front of his sister, he reached out and encircled her wrists with his fingers, in an attempt to draw her gaze and hold it. “There are lots of things that could hurt you in here,” he explained, glancing from left to right and waiting for her to do the same. “Things can get very hot and burn you.” He let go of one wrist to lift his hand to her face and gently turn it back to him.

Danica didn’t see much that could hurt her and her tone revealed her lack of belief. “Like what?”

“Like the forge.”

His sister’s interest lay in tugging on his hair now though, hard enough for him to need to tilt his head to avoid losing it.

“Ow, ow. You’re a ball of mischief, Dan,” Asher told her, scooping her up nevertheless and answering her unspoken request by swinging her around onto his back. She clung to his neck and kicked her heel into his side. “Ow. Horses?” Danica wasn’t keen on the real kind when she had a brother that was more than willing to step in when the situation arose. “Horses,” Asher decided, jogging his way to the nearby barn. He still had work to do but at least he could keep a better eye on his sister when the worst she could fall into was a pile of straw.

Although he couldn’t understand Danica’s aversion to sitting on a horse, he could respect it, so he lowered her to the ground and let go of her legs without getting too close to them. She scrambled to keep a hold though, arms tightening around his neck. When she reached up and tugged on his hair again, Asher laughed and got on all fours. “Dani, you have to get down now. Danica…” He warned, though she paid no heed, and so he shook his shoulders as hard as he could, his little sister eventually tumbling off with a cry louder than expected from a five year old girl. She fell less than half a foot but her body lay there, still as stone, neck lying crooked, eyes shut.

Asher pushed the hair back off his face and rose to his knees. “Uh oh, looks like I’m an only child now,” he mock lamented, lips quirking up at the concentration on Danica’s face as she tried not to breathe.

A horse whinnied in the background.

“Double helpings for me at supper tonight,” Asher continued, standing up and brushing his hands down his thighs. He watched her for a moment longer, hay sticking out of her hair. Perhaps he ought not to spoil it. It was a rare occasion when Danica went this long without making a sound.

“I’ll go and tell Nanny she’s all mine now.”

She was up on her feet within seconds, a small fist hitting at Asher’s stomach. “No no no no no!”

Nanny was their rabbit. Come Michaelmas, however, she would be in their mother’s stewing pot and Danica would be crying her eyes out on Asher’s knee by the fire, like she had done last year when she’d been able to put two and two together. For now, though, it didn’t seem to register with his sister than it could - and would - happen again this winter.

“You’re alive.” Asher feigned his surprise and gave her a smile. She gave him another punch to the stomach when he ruffled her hair and pulled a piece of straw from it. He stuck it in his mouth. “Why don’t you collect some straw for Nanny?” He suggested, turning towards a pitch fork to get ready to turn the hay.

“Because I don’t want to.” Danica’s affection for her rabbit could be unpredictable and there had been more than one instance when Asher had had to remove her completely from his sister when the child got too rough.

“I’m sure mother would appreciate some help at home then.”

Danica would grow out of it, Asher was sure, but right now there was nothing she was more adverse to than hard work. She hurried away to the next stall to collect some hay, the lesser of the two evils. He called out for her to be careful and to remember what he had told her about not getting too close to the horses on her own.



Her name was Charlotte. She was thirteen and pretty and liked horses almost as much as Asher did. He was teaching her how to ride and though she only had two lessons a week, sometimes she visited between those to feed them with him. Today was one of those days.

His head automatically ducking when he saw her, Asher scratched the back of it and walked over, squinting against the sunlight as it filtered through a cloud.

“’lo.”

“Hello.”

Shy by nature, Asher kept his eyes on the ground, scuffing his boot over the stones and rubbing at his neck. If wishes came true, he’d be blending into the background by now.

“One of the horses has uh… her hoof is uh…the back hoof is…”

Charlotte suppressed a giggle.

“She scares easy at the moment so you’ll be riding a different one tomorrow,” Asher finally got out. Horses, he could talk about. “He’s good though. He’s a good boy. He’ll go slow.”

“A boy horse?” Charlotte’s blue eyes widened in fear.

“He’s still young, not too big. He’ll go slow. I promise.”

“Can my friend…” The rest of the question was lost on Asher, who had turned his attention back to the barn, drawn by the agitated noises of the horses. When the scream came he was already on his way back to investigate and he ran, searching the stalls frantically.

“Danica? Danica!”

The high-pitched scream came again. Asher would give anything for her to stop. When one horse became spooked, they all did, and that made it all the more difficult to find the original and to find her.

“Where are you?!”

Wishes did come true. Her screaming ceased, midway through his name. Dust, kicked up, stung his eyes, filled his lungs, when he flew into a stall. He stood, chest heaving, squinting through the haze for any sign of his sister. A tiny figure took shape in the corner in the dirt, horse stomping in front, back and forth. One back hoof was lifted from the ground.

Danica’s body lay there, still as stone, neck lying crooked, eyes shut.

Asher calmed the horse, even as his own heart raced. He led her far enough away to allow him to approach his sister. His eyes watered. Her dress was torn at the shoulder, skin quickly turning another colour beneath it. When he picked her up, her left arm hung as limply as the rest of her body.

“Danica? Danica?”

Charlotte was waiting outside and rushed to them immediately.

“What happened?” she exclaimed, leading them away and hurriedly taking off her shawl and tucking it around the little girl.

“I don’t…the horse. Danica?”

He knelt down, holding her in his arms and giving her a shake.

“Danica?”

His sister was making him cry in front of a girl.

He shook her again, at a loss for what to do.

“Danica, wake up. Is she… I don’t see any blood.” Streaming eyes looked up, imploring Charlotte’s help.

“Papa once fell down,” she said hurriedly. “He was asleep for one or two minutes. Mama gave him a drink and it woke him up. I don’t know what it was.”

Helpless once again, Asher looked down at his sister, his tears dampening her dress. “Please, Danica, wake up now. Danica? We can play together. I’ll get you a--” Sudden bright hope sprang to his eyes and he pulled Charlotte down to the ground beside them, helping her to wrap her arms around the lifeless figure before he sprinted away.

The bottle. Its contents was too strong for Asher to stomach but when he ran into the ‘smithery and reached for it, he was thankful for the smell of it, powerful enough to clear his senses.

He took Danica back into his lap when he returned to the pair and tipped her head up. Charlotte reached out to open her mouth and encouraged her to swallow as Asher carefully poured some of the liquid in.

Nothing happened.

“Danica, wake up. Wake up. God, please don’t take her.” He buried his face in his forearm and took a deep breath, feebly shaking her again with one arm, rocking her. “Please…”

Charlotte knelt silently.

The sky grew darker, the sun entirely blocked out by towering clouds rolling in but all was silent.

Except for Asher. The noise of his own crying filled his head and he struggled to keep breathing. He never should have let her go off on her own. He was her brother, her big brother, he was supposed to protect her. He didn’t want to be an only child. He didn’t want double helpings at supper. He didn’t want Nanny all to himself.

He wanted Danica.

And wishes did come true. She stirred, not enough to alert Asher but enough for Charlotte to take a quick, quiet breath and reach out to him.

“Asher.”

He looked up at her, then down at Danica. Deep brown eyes opened up, staring at him. First vacantly, then in surprise, and then she was screaming at the top of her lungs from the sudden pain, the hot burning across her shoulder and up her neck. Asher hadn’t heard anything more wonderful in his life. He pulled her into him. She buried her face in his chest and cried and cried; he buried his face in her hair and did the same.

Comments

[souncanadian.livejournal.com]

omgggggggggggg!!! They are SO PRECIOUS. I want a wee Danica all my very own! For Christmas like Asher got! ... only I don't ever want her to grow up and be scary >_>

Piggyback rides and playing dead <333 And my bebe is SO SUAVE with the ladies XD

WAY TO COCKBLOCK, DANI.

[cazzasaurus.livejournal.com]

That can be arranged!

Only after I wrote it did I realise the piggyback ride thing happened in opposite!plot XD