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i.
Kel is pretty used to ignoring the dirty looks the court girls and their mothers and noblewomen give her when she serves at banquets by now, ans she's far too used to ignoring the looks the noblemen and boys give her. She's there to be a knight, not to get caught up in court intrigues.
It leaves her at a disadvantage, sometimes. For all her usual skill at noticing the small details, she isn't the best at picking up on certain things. Like flirting, as Neal has told her a hundred times before. She has maintained that flirting isn't really a skill she needs, and thus she doesn't need to devote time to figuring out all the clues people give when they're interested. She would rather have them tell her straight up, anyways.
"Hey," one of the younger knights calls to her as she's crossing the room with a platter of meat.
She glances at him, but her hands are full, and he doesn't seem to need anything urgently, so she ignores him for the moment. As she's going around the room again, checking on her tables, the knight calls to her again.
Half-curious and half-annoyed, she makes her way over to his table.
"Can I help you?" she says politely. The knight who called to her has dark brown curls that flop around his ears and into his face. He looks up at her.
"You're Keladry of Mindelan, right?"
"Yes." She watches him warily. He doesn't seem angry, but sometimes you can't tell. One of his buddies elbows him, laughing.
"C'mon, man, just ask her," he says, and she's pretty sure she isn't supposed to hear him.
"Oh, uh," the knight says, "You're pretty. Want to get dinner in the city sometime?"
She looks at him, confused.
"Squires don't have a lot of free time," she points out.
"Well, when you get some." He's blushing a little, now, and awkwardly runs his fingers through his curls.
"I don't think I can help you with anything," Kel decides, because that's the logical conclusion to draw from their exchange.
"No-" the knight says, exasperated, but she's already walking away.
"What was that about?" Neal asks when she gets back to the kitchen. She shrugs, already focused on retrieving the next platter of meats.
"Was he giving you trouble?"
"What? Oh, no. He wanted me to get dinner with him, but I can't think of why he'd want that. It's not like I could give him advice on—"
Neal sighs loudly, interrupting her.
"Kel. He was asking you out."
She stares at him.
"Why on earth would he do that?"
He rolls his eyes and gives up.
ii.
After that disaster, the women in the palace (the smart ones, at least) come to the conclusion that surely Kel simply doesn't like men that way.
"Is she... like us?" one servant whispers to Lalasa in the servants' dining hall.
Lalasa shrugs.
"Do y' think you'd ask her?"
Lalasa simply looks at her.
The other girl rolls her eyes.
"C'mon, she won't dismiss you. Just ask her."
"It wouldn't matter," Lalasa says, after a minute, "If she was like us or not. She wouldn't notice."
The girl, Cara, tries anyways.
"Miss Kel," she says one day, slipping up next to her in the palace gardens.
Kel glances at her.
"Have we met?"
"No," Cara says, "But I know Lalasa."
Kel smiles at the mention of Lalasa, and pauses, allowing Cara to continue.
"But I would like to get to know you better," Cara says, looking at her sidelong and throwing in an eyelash flutter for good measure.
"I don't know your name?" Kel says, sounding confused.
"Cara," she says quickly, "But- that's not important. Would you say no to a walk sometime?"
"I'm very busy," Kel says apologetically, "In fact I'm late to class right now."
"Oh," Cara says, and Kel smiles nervously at her.
"But if someone's harassing you- go to Lalasa. She can help," she says, and turns to go.
"Wait- that's not-" Cara says, then sighs as Kel vanishes into the distance.
It won't matter, Lalasa had said, and she was right. Her flirting had gone straight over Kel's head.
-
"You were right," she tells Lalasa that night at dinner, "She didn't notice."
Lalasa laughs, and pauses in the middle of buttering a roll.
"I told you she wouldn't."
Cara rolls her eyes.
"I felt so foolish," she says, "She even asked if I needed help."
Lalasa snorts, which does nothing to soothe Cara's wounded pride.
"I did warn you," she points out, and Cara shakes her head.
"That was worse than what you led me to expect."
Lalasa only smiles.
-
"The oddest thing happened to me earlier," Kel tells Neal as soon as she gets to dinner.
"Oh?" Neal says. She nods.
"This maid came up to me, asked me to go on a walk? But she wasn't in trouble, didn't need anything-" she trails off. Neal is laughing. Why is he laughing?
"It's not funny," she says, "Neal, I mean it. D'you think something was wrong?"
"No," Neal says, visibly fighting off another round of laughter, "She was flirting with you, dumbass."
Kel stares at him.
"She was what?"
"Flirting," Neal repeats, "Do you need me to define it-"
"No," Kel interrupts, dropping her head into her hands, "No, I- oh, I feel so bad. I didn't even-"
Neal surrenders to his laughter, resting his forearms on the table as he shakes.
"You really aren't the least bit romantic," he gasps after a moment, "But damn. That's impressive even for you."
She glares indignantly at him, but she doesn't really have a comeback.
"Should I apologize?" she asks hesitantly.
Neal looks up at her.
"Do you want to go out with her?" he asks, his gaze suddenly serious.
Kel shrugs uncomfortably.
"Not really, why?"
"Then don't apologize," he says, "She'll think you're flirting with her."
"Oh," Kel says, "That doesn't make much sense."
Neal shrugs.
"Romance usually doesn't," he says, and there's a sad tinge to his voice that Kel rarely hears.
She nods and focuses on eating her food, thinking over what he'd said.
Flirting. How had she not noticed?
iii.
The flirting incidents mostly die down, once Kel becomes a knight, and especially once she's sent off to Haven. And no one in Scranra is trying to flirt with her: they have a mission, and lives to save.
But afterwards? Afterwards is another story.
She visits the palace, one warm summer, and spends some time with the squires, giving lessons in supply and camp-building to the older ones, and some times with the knights she herself was a squire with, telling stories over the dinner table and reminiscing about their own training.
One night, she visits the library with Neal. He's looking for some books on Yamani history, he tells her, and he wants her help. It's a task he's far better suited to than she is, but she doesn't mind lending a hand.
Some of the younger academics are there, studying at the tables scattered between the bookshelves, or roaming through the aisles, searching for particular volumes.
They draw stares when they enter, but Kel chalks it up to the late hour and the fact that most knights avoid books like the plague. As they wind their way through the bookshelves, Neal chatters about the research he's been doing, and his plans for helping magically-inclined squires get the education they need while still being able to become knights. His plan is well thought through, Kel will give him that. But she's struggling to focus, because a few of the academics are trailing them. They're not a threat, she knows, but it's still a little weird.
When Neal pauses to flip through a book he's picked out, she takes a couple steps toward the two boys who have been following them.
"Did you need something?" she asks, quietly, of course.
They exchange wide-eyed glances.
"No, Lady Knight," one of them says, "We just think—"
"He thinks you're hot," the other one announces with alarming frankness.
"Well," Kel says, and the urge to ask Neal how on earth he likes this sort of thing is startlingly strong. "Thank you."
That has to be the end of that, right? She decides it is, and starts to head back to Neal.
One of the boys taps her on the shoulder.
"No," he says, "Like he wants to take you to dinner."
Kel raises an eyebrow.
"I'm very busy," she says, "And I'm sure you have studying to do. So thank you, but I will have to turn him down."
"Oh," the boy says, sounding dejected.
Kel hesitates for a moment, feeling both awkward and a little cruel, but she doesn't know what else to say.
"Sorry," she offers, and flees back to Neal and his books.
Again, Neal laughs at her.
"A lot of the student mages think you're a godsend for what you did in Scranra. It makes them... interested."
"It wasn't just me," Kel points out, as they make their way to the librarian with the books Neal decided on.
Neal throws her a glance.
"I'm aware. Some of them know, too, and go after me 'n Merric. I would say Dom, too, but they all want him already."
"Oh," Kel says, "I'm sorry?"
Neal laughs.
"I don't mind the attention. I'm a sunflower, remember? Their admiration is the sunlight I require to—"
Kel punches him in the arm.
iv.
In late October, about a year later, Kel leads a company of men, including Neal, to fend off a bandit attack against a small town called Gladwater.
The bandits aren't particularly difficult to fight, but they're stubborn, and they have some of the town's men with them as captives, so they have to be extra careful. It takes them a couple days of skirmishes in the mud and rain (because of course it's raining) to drive the bandits into a section of hills and trap them there, and then another day of full-on fighting to drive them to surrender. Though they took hostages, they didn't see particularly interested in following through on their threats of killing them.
Even so, Kel's first priority is to get the hostages, and make sure they're as unharmed as the bandits' leader has promised.
When the group of about ten men is ushered over to Neal and his waiting group of soldiers, Kel breathes a sigh of relief.
They all look fine, including the one that one of the villagers points out to her as the headman.
They're all safe, so now she can focus on rounding up the bandits, disarming them, and sending them, thoroughly disgruntled, with the group of her soldiers she designated for this purpose.
Once the bandits are secure, she sends her men out to bury the dead, including the bandit dead. The villagers that had come to help her fight leave sometime while she's rounding up the bandits, taking most of the hostages with them.
Probably for the best, Kel thinks, before grabbing a shovel and following Neal to the spot he designated for graves.
When she finishes, she wipes the sweat and dirt from her brow and leans on the shovel, surveying the field.
Neal lets her know he's off to check on the wounded, and she waves him off, rather distractedly.
There weren't that many dead, she reminds herself. Overall, it has gone well and quickly.
But the corpses she had just put in the ground still weigh on her.
"Lady Knight," someone says from behind her, and she turns, squaring her shoulders.
"Yes?"
It's the headman of the village, who's on the younger side, with long choppy hair and an ever-present furrow in his forehead.
"I wanted to thank you," he says, "For the help you brought on behalf of the crown, and for the kindness you yourself showed."
She smiles.
"It's my duty," she says, and the quirk in he headman's mouth gives away how little he believes her.
"You treat my people well," he says, "Most—"
"Most knights don't," she finishes.
He nods.
"So, thank you."
"You're welcome," she says, because it's my duty, and it should be theirs too isn't something she can tell him.
"If there's anything we can do—"
"Thank you, but no. I can't ask any more of your people."
"If there's anything I can do," he repeats, emphasizing the I, "Anything you want."
"My duty is enough," she says, "But thank you. And thank your people. They did exceptionally well."
He nods, a little disappointed, and strides away.
-
She finds Neal, later, and tells him about the exchange. He laughs, as she knew he would.
"That's a new one," he says between giggles, "I didn't think he would offer favors for doing your job."
She grins.
"So that was what he meant."
"Oh, absolutely," Neal gasps. "Wait— you didn't know?"
She shrugs.
"I don't care about that sort of thing," she reminds him. "I wondered, but—"
He descends into peals of laughter again.
"Imagine if you'd agreed," he says. She buries her face in her hands.
"Imagine."
+1
Kel has just finished a set of floor press-ups when the Shang Master walks into the training yard. It's a lazy summer afternoon, and the yards are mostly deserted, so Kel gets up and wanders over to her.
"Afternoon," the Shang Master says, "I've heard about you." She's wearing a sleeveless vest and loose tan breeches, and Kel's gaze catches on her muscled shoulders, and the way she moves so easily, almost like a cat.
Kel gives her a half bow, feeling oddly self-conscious.
"Afternoon," she says, straightening up.
"Jasmin Harper, Shang Tiger," the woman says, offering a hand to shake. Her grip is warm, and her palms are calloused. Kel doesn't want to let go.
"Keladry of Mindelan. But please, call me Kel."
Jasmin's smile is electric.
"I'd be delighted, Kel. Would you want to join me for a stroll?"
"Of course," Kel replies, shoving aside the thought that Neal would be outright cackling at her right now, and also letting go of her plans for finishing her workout.
They make a lazy loop around the palace grounds, chatting about workouts and the city and, really, anything that comes to mind.
"You know," Jasmin says, as they're rounding the corner to the training yard for a second time, "You look very..." she hesitates for a moment, and then finishes, "strong."
Kel is about to mention a couple of her favorite exercises when she catches the glint in Jasmin's eye. The little voice in her head that sounds like Neal whispers flirting.
She grins.
"Thank you," she says, and then she thinks Neal's spirit might posses her for a moment, because she puts a hand on Jasmin's bicep and leans closer to whisper, "I would say the same about you."
Jasmin actually blushes, and Kel can feel her own cheeks heat.
She ducks her head, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Sorry, I—"
Jasmin puts a finger to her lips.
"I rather hoped you swung that way," she says.
Kel smiles.
"Well—"
Jasmin kisses her.
It's entirely unexpected, but not unwanted. Jasmin's lips are warm, and a little chapped, and Kel reciprocates as best as she can.
It isn't a long kiss, but it's sweet, and when Jasmin pulls away, Kel's lips are tingling.
"Oh," she says.
Jasmin laughs.
"Dinner tonight?"
"Yes."
"I'll see you," Jasmin says as she strolls away, throwing a wink over her shoulder.
"Yeah," Kel says, "I'll see you."