#but i've yet to decide how well the starfall nations line up with the old story

[fictionadventurer]

Don’t let it go to your head + Man from UNCLE? (Or whichever fandom you prefer) for the prompt meme?

I really did intend to try to write something for this fandom. But I haven’t seen any episodes of the TV show in years, and I’ve never seen the movie (which I suspect is the fandom you’re referring to, so the TV characterizations probably wouldn’t hold much appeal for you anyhow). I wasn’t confident enough in my grasp of the material to come up with any decent drabbles.

I then tried to think of similar fandoms, or any fandoms at all, that would fit the prompt, but my brain was contrary and decided to use it as a spark for a scene from one of my original universes. Well, two, technically. I have characters from my long-abandoned non-magical fantasy romance, A Beautiful Tomorrow, and this drabble’s a bit of an experiment in switching up their story and moving into my Starfall universe (though the Starfall portion of it doesn’t really factor into this scene).

So even though it’s not fanfiction, it’s a little bit like fanfiction for my own characters, and I’ve been sitting on this prompt so long that I’m overdue to do something with it. I hope it’s not thoroughly disappointing.

Interior Worlds

Snowflakes drifted like daytime stardust beyond the schoolroom window. Daniela rested her head against the glass to watch it fall. She could take a moment to relax. Her student was absorbed in her geography text, attentive to the lesson for once. Even in exile, Lucia preferred tales of far-off lands to facts about her homeland.

Something moved in the faint reflection of the glass. A shadow darkened the schoolroom door.

Daniela bolted upright. Hoops clattered against the wall as she straightened her skirts. She patted down the flyaway strands in her hair, even as the more rational part of her mind told her it was unnecessary. Even though Prince Alessandro couldn’t see her hair, Daniela couldn’t shake the conviction that he would know.

He, as usual, looked as pristine as an oil painting, the pleats of his trousers and jacket crisp, every hair in place. His unfocused eyes seemed to see everything, including Daniela’s inattention to duty.

Daniela breathed deeply, steeled her spine, and gave a curtsy that would have made the Countess proud. “Good morning, your highness.”

He acknowledged her with a stiff nod. “Good morning, Miss Decardi. I hope I’m not intruding?”

Though he spoke it as a question, it had the effect of a command. He couldn’t be intruding when it was his house, his sister, and his employee, and it was her duty to accommodate him. “Not at all, your highness.” She was proud of the steadiness of her tone. She was ever amazed at how social training could cover fear and anxiety. “Lucia is finishing her geography lesson.”

He nodded and strode into the room, his cane lightly sweeping before his feet. “How does she progress?”

“Very well, your highness.”

Lucia lit up brighter than a star lamp and bounced up from her seat. She rushed to his side and led him toward the wooden chair next to the standing globe. “I know all the capitals!”

His eyebrows rose. “All the capitals?”

Lucia helped him into the chair with the patient confidence of a nurse three times her age. “All the important ones.”

Daniela explained, “She has learned to identify all the major cities of the western nations.”

Would it be enough? He’d made it very clear that Lucia’s accomplishments were her responsibility, but she had needed to take extra time to frame the lessons in a way that captured Lucia’s attention…

The barest of smiles softened the sharp lines of Alessandro’s face. “An excellent accomplishment,” he told Lucia. “But don’t let it go to your head. There’s much more of the world to learn.”

“I know,” Lucia said, with the enthusiasm of an explorer.

“By the time you come of age,” Alessandro said seriously, “you ought to be able to label a globe blindfolded.”

Daniela’s stomach twisted at the reminder of the prince’s astronomically high expectations.

Lucia only laughed. “Even you can’t do that, Sandro.”

His shoulders and spine straightened. “You think I can’t?” He lifted a hand to the standing globe beside him and turned it until his hand covered the entire Western continent. He pointed at nations. “Alsperra, Corlant, Myraldia, Ephros, Dartan.”

Lucia laughed. “You’re just guessing.”

“Am I right?”

“So far. But that’s the easy part.” She twisted the globe and planted his finger in the middle of the broad Eastern Expanse. “What’s here?”

He brushed his other hand over the surrounding patch of the globe. “The Espiren Mountains.”

“What country?” she demanded, unimpressed.

“It goes without saying that they’re in the western portion of Poresti.”

She twisted the globe again. “What’s here?”

“The Feshrin Peninsula.”

“Here?”

“The Midnight Islands.”

“How about here?”

“Well, now we’re just in the middle of the Avrian Ocean.”

She released his hand and threw her own into the air. “How are you doing that?”

His eyes, blank as they were, sparkled with mischief. “What do you think I did as a boy?” he asked. “I forsook all sleep and leisure, memorizing this globe so I could one day astound you with my geographical wizardry.”

“You’re cheating!” The accusation was half amusement and half outrage. Lucia looked toward Daniela. “Miss Decardi, how is he cheating?”

Daniela only shook her head in amazement. The globe included topographical definition, and most of the places Lucia had pinpointed were geographically distinct, but his quick, confident answers were still impressive. “I don’t believe he is,” she said.

Alessandro’s smile was as bright as the sun through a storm cloud, and just as startling. “Thank you, Miss Decardi. I knew I could trust your academic honesty.”

The words left her dumbfounded. Not what he’d said, but how he’d said it. It was like he’d transformed into a different person. Always, he’d been the meticulously polite prince, the exacting employer. But now, he was speaking to her, with genuine warmth rather than polite formality. As if some dividing veil had been pushed aside and she was seeing something of the man beneath.

She was surprised to find herself returning the smile.  “Always glad to be of service, your highness.”

Lucia seized Alessandro’s hand again, and the game continued. He identified seven more nations, three mountain ranges and two archipelagos before he finally stumbled over a collection of nations in the southern hemisphere.

“It’s not Efzi!” Lucia cried triumphantly. “It’s Falni!”

“I think not.” He brushed a finger of his other hand over the flat surface to the nation’s left. “It’s a coastal nation.”

“It’s on the...” Lucia peered at writing on the land mass. “The Efni Flats.”

He lifted his head. “Miss Decardi, does she tell the truth?”

“I’m afraid she does, your highness.”

Alessandro withdrew his hand from the globe. “It wasn’t a fair test,” he told Lucia. “You turned the globe upside down. It doesn’t count.”

Lucia said, “That wasn’t in the rules!”

“We never defined the rules.”

The quarrel continued, with no real hostility. The answer didn’t matter so much as the contest and the camaraderie. Daniela had never seen either of them so at ease. Their lives had been painted by sorrow, weighed down by war, but here and now, they were a brother and sister caught up in silly games. Daniela thought she finally understood how Lucia could be fond of her brother. This was the man she’d always been able to see; this was what they brought out in each other.

Finally, Alessandro settled back in his chair. “If I made a mistake,” he conceded, “it means only that you have opportunity to surpass me. I still expect you to make a diligent study of geography.”

“I will,” Lucia said, then seized his hand. “I’ll bet you can’t get another one.”

He withdrew his hand from her grasp. “Unless I was very much misled, I graduated the schoolroom long ago. It would be rude of me to take you from your tutor any longer.”

Lucia turned pleading eyes toward Daniela. “Miss Decardi, don’t make him leave! I was learning geography, really!”

Alessandro began to rise from his chair. “I did not intend to distract your student. The schoolroom is your domain, and I apologize for taking your...”

“No. Please. Stay.”

The words escaped before Daniela had time to consider them. When she’d spoken them, she wasn’t sure what was more shocking—that she’d interrupted the prince, that she’d contradicted him, or that she truly did want him to stay.

She used every lesson in deportment she’d ever received to gather up her confidence and courage, then added, “It is an unorthodox lesson, but an engaging one, and Lucia enjoys it. If it pleases your highness, you may stay as long as you desire.”

The prince laughed. “Very well,” he said. “If the ever-proper Miss Decardi is willing to indulge this folly, who am I to protest?” He sat back in his seat. “But you must be willing to be judge of this contest.”

Daniela smiled at him—even if he couldn’t see it, he’d know. “Gladly, your highness.”