misheard: (Chuuya)
Mini ([personal profile] misheard) wrote in [community profile] nealuchi2016-09-20 02:06 pm

unpressing us against each other

Title: unpressing us against each other
Fandom: End Roll
Character(s): Saxon, Kantera
Pairing(s): Saxon/Mireille-ish
Genre: Angst
Word Count: 505
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: Over tea, Saxon explains why he won’t become involved with Mireille.
Notes: By request!


Having tea with Kantera is almost always a pleasant affair for Saxon. By now Kantera knows exactly which blend of tea is his favorite (Earl Grey) and will always have it on hand for him, though now and again Saxon does like to ‘change it up’ to something as wild as Irish breakfast tea.

...When thinking that, he realizes that he doesn’t have a lot of excitement in his life, to consider that wild. But that’s a digression.

Having tea with Kantera is a good way to pick up on some of the local gossip that people simply don’t tell their mayor. Kantera has loose lips, or else realizes that people don’t stop being interested in this sort of thing when they hit thirty years old, and is quite happy to tell Saxon all about Cody very nearly getting a date with a Muscle before Dogma arrived and inadvertently (possibly inadvertently) scared him off.

The price he pays for this update on local news is…

“And how is Mireille?” Kantera asks, with the same smile as always.

It wouldn’t be as bad a question if he didn’t know what always follows it. “She’s doing well, I believe. She hasn’t overworked herself to exhaustion recently, and I’m grateful for that.”

“You do care so much about her wellbeing,” Kantera replies. “‘Tis heartwarming to see.”

Of course he realizes what Kantera’s getting at. That doesn’t mean he has to make it easy for him. “I would do the same for any of you, particularly if you were under my employment.”

Kantera tsks, and gets to the point more directly: “When are you going to officially enter a relationship with her?”

Saxon sighs. His reply is the same as always: “When the twenty-five year age gap and difference in social status stop making that a terrible idea, doctor.”

Kantera takes a sip of his tea before going on. “She’s madly in love with you.”

“I know.” He’d have to be a fool to miss it after all this time. “When you were younger, did you not have any crushes on someone older than you?”

“Hm…” Kantera thinks about it. “I cannot say I haven’t, but that was when I was still a teenager. Mireille is a legal adult, you do realize.”

“Barely,” Saxon says. “My answer remains the same: the way things are, it would be cruel and irresponsible to answer to her feelings.”

“So you say, every time I ask.” Kantera covers his smile with his sleeve. “But, Mayor Saxon, you’ve never given me a straight answer on whether you return those feelings.”

“And I never will.”

Saxon knows better than anyone else that he’s a terrible liar, and that refusing to answer is practically confirmation. Even so-

Mireille is a wonderful woman, kind, generous, beautiful. Any man would be lucky to have a mere fraction of her affection. Someday, a man closer to her age, with less power over her, will catch her eye, and Saxon will sincerely wish them well.

This is for the best.