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crack_van2011-03-04 06:05 pm
beatrice_otter) wrote in crack_van2011-03-04 06:05 pm
Entry tags:
Five Ways Ekaterin Never Met Miles at Twenty by Sahiya
Fandom: VORKOSIVERSE
Pairing: Ekaterin/Miles
Length: short
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sahiya
Author Website: AO3
Why this must be read:
"Because Ekaterin is awesome" is true but probably not enough of a reason.sahiya is one of the best authors in fandom, and this fic is a prime example of the strengths of a Five Things fic. We don't meet Ekaterin in canon until she is thirty, with ten years of heartbreaking and soul-crushing marriage to an abusive man. That she has survived as well as she has, and learns to stop being afraid and claim her own strength and agency afterwards, show just what kind of strength she learned in those ten years, buried deep where her husband couldn't touch it. These five things explore what she might have been like, at twenty, without the pain and heartache, but also without the wisdom and maturity she learned with such cost. All of these ways are very plausible, and very true to the characters as we know them, and all of them tug on your heart, either wishing that things could have happened like that or glad that they didn't.
Regret . . . And what if she and Miles had met at twenty, instead of she and Tien? It had been possible; she'd been a student at the Vorbarra District University, he'd been a newly minted officer in and out of the capital. If their paths had crossed, might she have won a less bitter life? - pp. 534, A Civil Campaign
The theater was dark, thank God. Ekaterin sat stiffly in her seat, unable to pay attention to the play for the distracting smacking noises to her left. From the short glimpse she had caught before averting her eyes, it seemed as though Mara were attempting to suck off Lord Ivan’s face. This had left Ekaterin free to take refuge in impeccable posture and stew in resentment and irritation.
She was never, ever doing this again. And she meant it this time.
Her own date to her right looked as though he was thinking the same thing. Ekaterin glanced over at him – down, rather – and saw that he was looking quite as stone-faced as she imagined she was. She thought briefly of telling him she was getting up to use the rest room and then simply leaving, but that seemed . . . cruel.
After a second Ekaterin realized Lord Vorkosigan was looking back at her, eyebrows raised.
“Sorry,” she muttered, glad he couldn’t see how she blushed.
He shrugged and, strangely, went on eyeing her. She looked back, and after a moment he jerked his thumb toward the exit. She nodded and pointed to the necking couple with a questioning lift of the eyebrows. Lord Vorkosigan rolled his eyes and shook his head, and together they crept out of their row.
Once in the lobby Ekaterin sighed in relief. “Thank you,” she said.
Five Ways Ekaterin Never Met Miles at Twenty
Pairing: Ekaterin/Miles
Length: short
Author on LJ:
sahiyaAuthor Website: AO3
Why this must be read:
"Because Ekaterin is awesome" is true but probably not enough of a reason.
sahiya is one of the best authors in fandom, and this fic is a prime example of the strengths of a Five Things fic. We don't meet Ekaterin in canon until she is thirty, with ten years of heartbreaking and soul-crushing marriage to an abusive man. That she has survived as well as she has, and learns to stop being afraid and claim her own strength and agency afterwards, show just what kind of strength she learned in those ten years, buried deep where her husband couldn't touch it. These five things explore what she might have been like, at twenty, without the pain and heartache, but also without the wisdom and maturity she learned with such cost. All of these ways are very plausible, and very true to the characters as we know them, and all of them tug on your heart, either wishing that things could have happened like that or glad that they didn't.Regret . . . And what if she and Miles had met at twenty, instead of she and Tien? It had been possible; she'd been a student at the Vorbarra District University, he'd been a newly minted officer in and out of the capital. If their paths had crossed, might she have won a less bitter life? - pp. 534, A Civil Campaign
The theater was dark, thank God. Ekaterin sat stiffly in her seat, unable to pay attention to the play for the distracting smacking noises to her left. From the short glimpse she had caught before averting her eyes, it seemed as though Mara were attempting to suck off Lord Ivan’s face. This had left Ekaterin free to take refuge in impeccable posture and stew in resentment and irritation.
She was never, ever doing this again. And she meant it this time.
Her own date to her right looked as though he was thinking the same thing. Ekaterin glanced over at him – down, rather – and saw that he was looking quite as stone-faced as she imagined she was. She thought briefly of telling him she was getting up to use the rest room and then simply leaving, but that seemed . . . cruel.
After a second Ekaterin realized Lord Vorkosigan was looking back at her, eyebrows raised.
“Sorry,” she muttered, glad he couldn’t see how she blushed.
He shrugged and, strangely, went on eyeing her. She looked back, and after a moment he jerked his thumb toward the exit. She nodded and pointed to the necking couple with a questioning lift of the eyebrows. Lord Vorkosigan rolled his eyes and shook his head, and together they crept out of their row.
Once in the lobby Ekaterin sighed in relief. “Thank you,” she said.
Five Ways Ekaterin Never Met Miles at Twenty
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