Title: After the Flood
Fandom: Twelfth Night
Word Count: ~300
A/N: Viola, alone.
Summary: Viola grieves and remembers Sebastian.


After she'd coughed up an ocean on Illyria's coast, and once capable of rational thought, Viola's joy at being alive was quickly replaced by the almost physical awareness of Sebastian's loss. A bruise on her soul, a keen sense of absence of a connection that had been so natural, so fundamental to herself that she only felt it now that it had ceased to exist.

She shed tears for him; naturally she did, there was no shame in that. However, it was no use increasing the ocean's waves with the salt from her own eyes: sooner or later she must decide on a course of action, do something with this life of hers that, rescued from the floods, mustn't go to waste.

She could still see his face, smile breaking as the waves began to rock the ship harder. Looking at him had always been like looking in a fairytale mirror. Their parents had dressed them the same when they were children and the performances had grown out of that; him with a lady's veil, she with false moustaches.

She might have gone to Olivia's court as her own self, tried to find employment, a position on this strange island, and a sister who had experienced the same grief as her. The other choice... a duke who wouldn't tolerate the company of women out of a strange fancy of a lovesick heart. Viola shook her head at the thought - not a very manly way of coping with rejection.

She didn't know where the question came from, but suddenly it was there and wouldn't let go: what would Sebastian do? What would it be like to honour his memory by becoming him? Goodness knew, she had done it often enough on the stage. She didn't like what it entailed - the costumes were uncomfortable to say the least - but it seemed better than being herself, for some reason.

When Cesario looked back at her from the mirror, she felt, if not complete, at least less like she was only half a person. She - he - took a deep breath and walked out, to find what this Duke Orsino was really like.