31_days | [Sept 18] [Original Short Story] To Show Her Love

Title: To Show Her Love

Day/Theme: Sept 18 / Arrangement in black and gold

Series: Original

Character/Pairing: Bailuik Citanai, his adoptive daughter Yasana Asserai Citanai

Rating: PG

To Show Her Love

Bailuik Citanai knew about love. True, he wasn't married and had barely courted a girl, so busy had he been in his teens with his military career, but he knew his parents and younger brother and clearly loved them. He certainly planned to marry someday. But for now, Yasana Asseri was his to love, to raise, to protect. She needed a mother, of course, but that could come later, couldn't it?

The child hadn't known much love, that much was clear. Her mother had died giving birth to her; her father had died earlier. Her sister, only five years old at the time, had taken upon herself the task of raising her baby sister, and with the help of the other villagers had succeeded in surviving, at least. But life in Village Kicyah was harsh and so the little girl had known very little kindness. Perhaps she wasn't meant to live at all; she and her sister had almost died escaping from Assera.

But fate, steering the hand of Pathin Citi, had averted this disaster. He had brought the girls to Kikaren, to safety, to the hospital, where they had recovered. Lilana had gone to Asukah, where she promptly fell in love with and married Asah Asukai. Bailuik Citanai, commander of the Kikaren armed forces, had adopted Yasana. She was nine, then.

Bailuik knew about love, but he didn't know how to be a father, this was true. He decorated his new daughter's room in bright colors and gave her beautiful silk gowns to wear. He surrounded her with toys and servants to cater to her every whim. She seemed so sweet, loving and affectionate when he was with her. It was so hard to believe the reports his men gave him, that when he was away she threw fits, she refused to come to the table, refused to eat. What else could he buy her? Was he just spoiling her?

But he was a general and made the money necessary to spoil her, and perhaps spoiling her wasn't the worst thing? Her life had been so full of deprivations previously; was it wrong to wish her dressed finer than a princess?

People he knew whispered behind his back. Bailuik should really take a wife, they said. Little Yasana is only ten, eleven now, but she will be a woman soon and how will an old bachelor know how to prepare her for the life a girl of her station must lead?

One day, back from a trip to Assera, he brought her a golden necklace with a pendant of iron ore. That night, at dinner, he offered it to her. At first, she took it, all smiles and thanks, but no sooner was the necklace around her neck than did she frown. "Father, why do you buy me things?"

"Because you deserve them," he said simply.

"But then you go away," she pointed out. "You give me gifts, then you leave. Do you tire of me?"

"No, not at all! It's just, I have work! I have to go to Assera, you know. There's so much to be done there, after the war, to establish a true peace and to create diplomatic links with the provisional government that the revolutionaries have set up there, I..."

"Don't lie to me!" the girl cut in suddenly, fiercely. "You go because you tire of me! And when you finally are sick of me, you'll send me away, won't you?"

"Who's telling you these things?" he demanded. "Has someone been saying that to you? That's wrong, you know. That's very bad of whomever said that to you, very cruel, and..." but he could not imagine anyone in his retinue, anyone he trusted enough to look after the girl in his absences, to be so heartless.

"Nobody tells me, I just know. You're a fine lord and I'm only a peasant girl. It's like my sister said, so many times, what can you want from me but... and after, you'll send me away, won't you?" Her small lips trembled and her blue eyes filled with tears. "Isn't it true?"

Bailuik felt sick. That she would accuse him of dishonorable intentions? She was only eleven years old, for god's sake! But what else does she know? He asked himself. She doesn't see it as wrong, for the world has treated her too badly to teach her what wrong is! She only draws from her experiences. Good god!

"It's not like that," he told her earnestly. "I take care of you because, like I told you, you're my little girl. I don't want anything other than your happiness. Can you trust me?"

And though she did not understand then, soon enough, she did. And soon enough, Bailuik, though perhaps he'd started off his noble plan to rebuild a little girl's life a little haphazardly, watched the beautiful young woman he'd raised glide across the dance floor, confidently waltzing with some young lieutenant or another, knowing that she had a full, rich life before her.

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