The Sun (Roshaun/Dairine)

[storypaint]

Comm: myriadwords ficathon
Words: 2290
Title: The Sun
Fandom: Young Wizards
Pairing: Kit/Nita married, Roshaun/Dairine implied
Rating: G, mentions of character death
Spoilers: For "Wizards At War"
Disclaimer: The Young Wizards series belongs to Diane Duane. This fanfic is a derivative of canon material that is not my property. I do not profit from these writings. The opinions and actions expressed in these stories are not necessarily the views and beliefs of the original author or me.
Note: This fic seems to end sort of abruptly, but that's intentional. It's meant to be a little vignette in the characters' lives (it just got a little bigger than I anticipated).

Written for Kara for the myriadwords ficathon; prompt: "holidays at the Callahans/Rodriguezes, sometime in the future."

Excerpt: It had been better than fifteen years since Dairine had seen Roshaun. In fact, she had just celebrated her twenty-ninth birthday not long before. It was somewhat still discomfiting to see the age difference in the appearance of the Sun King on the doorstep.

A wizard's work was a busy job, and time passed more swiftly than any sentient being would like. It didn't take very long before Nita, Kit, and Dairine were back into the old swing of things. First, of course, was Kit's Mars intervention, an endeavor fairly tame when compared to the one they'd just finished. And there were a few smaller interventions after that, but nothing huge. Seeing Kit yawn after a night repairing worldgates, Rhiow had put her whiskers forward and remarked that the Powers seemed to be giving them a break.

They needed it; wizardry was practically a full-time job anyway, even during "peacetime," and schoolwork only got more difficult. The end of the school year was met by serious cheers from the three of them, especially from Dairine.

Roshaun's disappearance hadn't affected Dairine in the same way as Nita had expected it would, though the assurance of the mobiles had undoubtedly eased her grief. She blazed through school with good grades and even hung around in their own solar system for a while. But somehow Nita knew that wouldn't last. She wasn't surprised when Dairine packed her pup tent the first day of summer vacation and disappeared. Even her father wasn't very surprised, though he was a little disappointed that her phone calls home were infrequent.

Dairine looked for Roshaun; she found a lot of other things on the way. She fought the Lone One and met another of the Challenger's avatars and she nearly died in service to the Art, but she didn't lose sight of her goal.

And in the end she found Roshaun. Well, actually, he found her.

*

Christmas was good of an excuse as any for a reunion. Kit and Nita saw their friends on errantry once in a while, but rarely did they have a chance to congregate. But the Lone One had been relatively quiet in their arm of the galaxy for the last couple of months. Madeleine had dealt It a dear blow during her Ordeal and had even managed to come home in one piece, more or less, though Carl hadn't been so lucky. She had brought a dog home with her, a fact which had pleased Kit nearly as much as hearing about the newest manifestation of the Hesper in their universe, an event which had made things slightly less dangerous this time around, though no less painful in loss.

Kit's parents had been invited for the holiday, along with Nita's family and a score of familiar wizards. Harry sat in his daughter's living room casually passing time with Filif or Sker'ret. Kit's mother had less experience with unfamiliar wizards and had to have a quiet lie-down a couple of times when some of their most interesting guests came through. But the stealth spells on Kit and Nita's house were good enough to hide the whole group of them from the entire United States government if necessary, Dairine said when she arrived.

Nita convinced her sister to stay for a while. It didn't feel right to celebrate without Dairine. Dairine had done her part in all of their wizardries. She still wore the emerald necklace under her clothes, though she had tucked the Sunstone away somewhere.

Sleeping arrangements weren't incredibly difficult to arrange in a wizard's house, but Dairine somehow managed to crash on the living room couch. The doorbell rang at three a.m. and she groaned and turned over.

"Uh oh," Spot said. Dairine was up in a flash, checking cloaking spells. She was the only person in the room, but one had to be careful. She scowled a little. She'd only dropped off to sleep about two hours previously, what with seeing all of her old friends. It had been a nice visit, she had to admit, even arguing with Ronan.

The knock came again louder. Dairine glanced down at Spot, crouched under the coffee table. Then she opened the door.

It had been better than fifteen years since Dairine had seen Roshaun. In fact, she had just celebrated her twenty-ninth birthday not long before. It was somewhat still discomfiting to see the age difference in the appearance of the Sun King on the doorstep. He had aged well, but aged all the same. Suddenly Dairine felt like the long t-shirt she'd wore to bed was too short, caught in a sudden memory of the last time he'd seen her so unclothed. She blushed furiously. Expressionless, Roshaun's eyes roved over her. Mind wandering, she thought that his species had a longer latency period than hers did; even after this length of time, he shouldn't look so old, so adult.

Then she shut the door and went back to the couch. She lay down for a moment, eyes open, the emerald heavy at her throat.

But Dairine had changed and grown in these past few years. She got up, opened the door, and hugged him roughly before she hit him. The resulting argument woke most of the household.

*

"I need your help," Roshaun said, long fingers resting against his coffee cup for only one nervous moment before tapping at the rim. No lollipops had been found in the cupboards.

Though he was talking directly to Dairine, he had a larger audience; most of the Rodriguez-Callahan clan sat around the kitchen table as well. With sleepy eyes, six-months-pregnant Nita Rodriguez was holding Kit's hand under the table. Madeleine was watching Roshaun wide-eyed. It had been impossible to convince her to go back to bed, especially when she learned the identity of the tall stranger. She was, as she pointed out cheerfully, a wizard not long past Ordeal; and hadn't her own mother helped wizards in the past without any magic of her own? She could borrow the hairdryer if necessary. Even Harry Callahan was there. Nita noticed in the lamp-glow that his hair had gone almost entirely gray, and the curious way that he was staring at Dairine and Roshaun. He'd have plenty of questions later, she was sure.

Dairine looked at Roshaun sourly. She reached into her otherspace pocket and pulled something free. The Sunstone glowed orange as she tossed it across the table to Roshaun. He caught it and stared at it for a moment, his finger on the orange-golden stone. Then he nodded thoughtfully.

"My father trained you in the use of this?"

Dairine nodded, but she wasn't going to let Roshaun off the hook yet. Finally she burst out with the question she'd been waiting to ask even since he vanished.

"Where have you been?"

It was a very long story.

*

There were a lot of kinds of space in the universe, and many, many worlds. They were conversing in pure Speech after only a little while, unable to find the proper worlds for the sideways place Roshaun had gone to. In short, he hadn't known exactly when or where for a long time. By the time he had that figured out, getting home was low priority.

"They had their Choice," he said, his voice thick. The wizards nodded; an intervention like that was one of the most difficult to handle, and they were coming all too often these days. Nita was seeing something big on the horizon and she had been for a while. She felt somewhat out of place at the table-- her pregnancy had taken her off of active duty and it had been a bit unexpected in any case. She was mostly helping Tom with consults; Madeleine's Ordeal had not been without cost and when the raw wound of Carl's death began to close Nita found herself holding a phonebook-sized manual and there was something resembling a coat-rack on her front step.

Roshaun went on with his story. After the species had Chosen, he was in big trouble. A wizard couldn't interfere directly with something like that and the Lone One had been too much for them. The species was stuck in some sort of terrible half-life, courtesy of that One. Roshaun had nearly died in the effort to intervene; since then he and those remaining had been fighting a guerilla war, losing ground with every step. But now things had gotten even more serious.

"They're coming here," he said, his face bleak. "The Lone One has taught them gating and they want our sun. They are great worshippers of their own sun, so It taught them to hate all other suns, and It still has a grudge here."

"Should be right up your ally then," Dairine said, the first time she'd interrupted. Roshaun looked at the jeweled collar in his hand. It still glowed orange.

"I haven't had to use it, even though your dad trained me how. Most of my work has taken me off planet," she said. She didn't mention her search for him; Kit's eyes met Nita's. Still, Dairine's heavily shielded mind was likely the only hint that Roshaun needed.

"Well, it's not mine anymore, if that's what you're thinking. Would things have worked out so neatly if there wasn't a reason for you to have it? I imagine the turmoil on my planet was bad enough," he said ruefully. "I haven't even been home yet."

"I'm not going to be their queen, if that's what you're asking," Dairine said forcefully. Roshaun blinked.

"Let's take care of the mess here first," Nita interjected diplomatically, pulling her manual from its pocket.

Dairine rose slowly from her seat and walked away with a measured step. There was a clap of displaced air outside. The wizards at the table looked at each other.

"The Lone One interferes here already," Madeleine said softly. Everyone turned to her, most wearing anger in their gaze. She didn't flinch; she had inherited Carmela's self-assurance.

"Stubbornness is at some points a gift-- at others, a roadblock. Aunt Dairi was looking for him so long that she had nothing to brace against when she found him. A team which cannot stand united has no chance against the Lone One."

"Now I am to chase her?" Roshaun protested. "She should know that I was just doing my duty!"

He turned to follow, but Harry put a hand on his shoulder. A worried expression crossed his face. "Her feelings are hurt, and she's a person first, a wizard second," Harry said.

Chastened, Roshaun nodded and strode outside. He disappeared.

*

Kit's mother poked her head into the room, her hair rumpled with sleep.

"What's going on down here?" she asked, taking in the wizards sitting around the table. Her face tightened.

"Business as usual," Kit said, yawning. After a moment, Mrs. Rodriguez strode over to her son's refrigerator.

"If it's that sort of business, you'll need some fuel. And Nita, your Powers better be giving you some maternity leave or I'll talk to Ponch myself about it!" She opened the fridge and pulled out an egg carton.

Nita laughed and it broke some of the tension. She paged through the manual and held it up for inspection. "I'm just doing consultation, it looks like. Dairine and Roshaun seem to be in charge of this one."

"Thank goodness," Mrs. Rodriguez said briskly, pulling a pan out of the dish drainer, and the group got to work with brainstorming as breakfast smells filled the kitchen.

*

Roshaun's footsteps were loud once his air bubble merged with Dairine. He crunched over to sit beside her. She had her knees drawn up to her chest, her face in her arms, and she felt impossibly like a child.

"How did you know where I was?" she asked, voice muffled. Roshaun laughed gently.

"I ran a scan for emeralds on your moon. I didn't think there'd be too many."

He was holding the Sunstone collar in his hands, turning it over and over as if looking for something.

"It would look much better on you, you know," he said. "You should wear it."

"That's the worst apology I've ever gotten," Dairine said grumpily.

"It's the truth; it's not an apology. This is an apology-- I'm sorry for disappearing like that. I came back when I could."

Dairine lifted her head and stared out at the bleak landscape, deliberately avoiding Roshaun's eyes. "You came back because you had to."

Roshaun laughed. Her glare bore straight through him. He went on, "You think I didn't miss you-- is that what this is about? Don't be ridiculous; of course I did. You're one of the only people who put up with me voluntarily. You're my... my friend. My best friend, really."

"I looked for you," Dairine said, too softly to be heard, but Roshaun heard it anyway. She was taking down her mental shields and nerve connections long unused were blazing to life.

"Thank you," Roshaun said. Dairine looked at him, feeling naked all the sudden. It wasn't just the t-shirt she still hadn't managed to shed.

Delicately, he leaned over and hugged her. Her body shook with a sudden sob. Dairine wasn't even quite sure why she was crying. She still sort of wanted to hit him again.

He whispered something in her ear and then she grinned. "Okay," she said as she pulled back from the embrace. "Promise?"

"I promise on my honor as the former Sun King, Roshaun ke Nelaid am Sereit..."

Then Dairine did hit him. "We don't have time for the whole thing-- we have a sun to save. Come on!"

Without waiting for his answer, she began her teleportation spell. Roshaun smiled and picked himself off of the ground, dusting off his clothing.

"I'll make it up to you," he said. "I promise."

And with that, he followed.