Blossoming Loyalty

TITLE: Blossoming Loyalty

AUTHOR: WotanAnubis

FANDOM: Suikoden V

DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters and am not making a profit.

RATING: NC-17

PAIRING: Lelei/Lucretia

NOTE: Normally, I try to finish a game before writing fic for it. However, I've been in a real writing slump lately and when Lelei and Lucretia's introduction scenes (but mostly Lelei's) made all the yuri alarms in my head go off, I decided to throw together a quick little fic in order to get myself writing again. As such, it is entirely possible that I get some things truly hilariously wrong. Oh, and also that this fic is not up to my usual standards (whatever they are).

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Lucretia stared unseeing at the book in her hand. She normally read around this time, but now she simply couldn't focus on the words floating out there in the distance. It wasn't entirely unexpected, but it was still a bit disconcerting. The reason she couldn't focus was Lelei. She'd initially... befriended her, if that was the right word, for safety reasons and to make her stay in prison as comfortable as possible. She was fairly certain that the guards had all been told about her status as a tactician and had still been aware of that when she'd managed to persuade them to her side. Yet in Lelei's case she felt a pinch of guilt about that. She wasn't really sure why. She had been honest with her, after all. Well... mostly, anyway.

Lucretia was beginning to suspect that she actually liked Lelei. Oh, she liked the other guards who were on her side as well, but in the end part of her still felt they were assets to be used when necessary. Lelei, on the other hand, had once been an asset, but was now becoming something rather more than that. Exactly what Lucretia couldn't say.

And so, in the spirit of fairness and to alleviate that nagging little bit of guilt, Lucretia had decided to trust her guard. Instead of carefully guiding her to a point she liked, she would instead allow Lelei to make up her own mind without argument. Well, without too much argument, anyway. Just enough argument to make sure that, no matter what, Lelei would still be on her side in the end.

There was a knock on the door and then the sound of a key turning in the lock. Lucretia took care not to smile. It was so polite of her guards to knock before entering.

As expected, Lelei entered the cell and, after closing the door behind her, stood before her as though she were her soldier reporting for duty. Lucretia idly wondered how much effort it took the young woman not to salute.

"Lelei, I'm glad to see you," Lucretia said, closing her book and putting it on the table.

"My Lady," Lelei greeted. "I trust you had a pleasant enough day."

"As pleasant as could be expected," Lucretia replied.

"I assume none of the guards gave you any trouble."

"That assumption is correct."

Lelei nodded. "Good."

"Now then, there's something I want to tell you," Lucretia said.

"Of course."

As Lucretia rose from her chair to walk