Title: Waiting for the Sunrise
Fandom: : Tortall (Protector of the Small)
Rating: PG
Length: 531 Words
Content notes: For the FFW prompt "seasons" and my advent challenge day 16 prompt, "staying up late."
Summary: Kel and Neal wait out a very long night. Post-canon


Kel sighed as her meditation was disturbed, yet again. She had known that it would be impossible to meditate here, but Neal had needed the company, and Yuki had glanced at her with that hidden pleading. The Yamani had become more open to showing her emotions over the seasons, but she could still speak volumes with a single look.

And so, after she and Alanna had finished Yukien's official instruction ritual, (Neal had been emphatically rejected by his daughter for inclusion in that ceremony) Kel had retreated to the family's quarters in the palace and had sat with Neal. Or rather, she had sat and meditated while Neal had paced throughout their small quarters.

Kel was slightly jealous that Alanna had been able to sneak back to her own quarters and her waiting husband, but she quickly shoved those thoughts away. Neal needed her. As Irnai had predicted all those years ago, he had not dealt with his daughter's quest for knighthood graciously. Not because she was a girl, for which reason both Kel and Alanna could have justifiably pounded him in practice. In fact, Neal had been equally worried when his oldest son also became a page.

Kel tried to resume her meditation, thinking about the seasons that had passed, and how much the castle had changed.

As Kel had known for years, Neal was simply an excitable person, liable to think the worst. Having spent his page years healing Kel and watching her silently take the abuse of the older pages, he had been beyond worried for Yukien. However, the young woman had proven herself over and over again. And the new training master was far more accepting of his female pages than Wyldon had been - there had been seventeen, including Yukien, in the seasons since Kel's tenure as a page. Of the seventeen, thirteen had become knights, including one earlier this Midwinter from Yukien's class. Three were still in their page or squire training, and Yukien was sitting up in the chapel right now.

Kel had no doubts that her godsniece would pass; she had Yukimi's quiet strength and determination, and none of her father's excitability. She had helped to raise her four younger siblings before entering page training, and had always been responsible for the younger pages. She had had a quiet four years in page training, with none of the adventures that Kel and Neal had stumbled into. And with more females, and a Training Master who did not turn a blind eye to their troubles, the gender-based bullying had lessened considerably.

Neal uttered a small oath and Kel finally opened her eyes, releasing her meditative state completely. "What?" she asked, looking at him with fond annoyance.

Neal was nursing his hand and glaring at the table, so she had a fairly good idea of what had happened. He scowled and his hand was surrounded by a green glow as he healed himself. Shaking her head, Kel sighed and closed her eyes again. Maybe nursing his anger at the table's undoubtedly vicious attack would keep him still for a little while.

In all her life, Kel had never wished more for a sunrise to come.