Drabble Challenge: Day 15

    Siiiiiix minutes to spare. I think that was my fastest scrawl for that amount of words. About forty minutes, all together. Maybe even less.

    But! Guess whose baby is home again so now she doesn't have to sit downstairs at the desktop all night long working on her drabble. :D Yes, my Claudia was finally returned to me this afternoon and I am much pleased to have her back. Now I just have to readjust to how small everything is on this screen.

    Anyways. Vena all month was a humorous goal, though I am surprised I got as many posts done as I did and mayhap I'll still get a few more done, but right now, it's the Continuing Adventures of the Minister of Busan, I'm afraid. She's just one of those characters that's been around a while, got revamped, and now is one I enjoy winding back to every now and again. It's an again moment.

    The drabble takes place a few weeks to a month or two after yesterday's scrawl with Liftin. 


    Drabble Challenge: Day 15 - order
    Word Count: 954    Minimum Goal: 900

    She lay in her bed that night – that huge bed, too large for just herself, but perpetually unfilled by another’s warmth – after the jerking and seizing had ceased again. Exhaustion was lingering behind her eyes and making them ache, so Jaz let her gaze slide shut.
    As expected, memories of that afternoon filled her mind as soon as there was no admittedly-boring roof to captivate her attention. Turning on her side, the woman pulled her lightweight blanket closer around her and tugged the pillow closer to her shoulder.
    Jaz had never expected to see him again, for some reason she couldn’t determine. Maybe because his presence in her life hadn’t been a fixed one. They’d helped each other out on a few jobs, but that’d been it. 
    After a few moment of further consideration, she supposed that her being a leader of a collective had probably been as surprising for Haydn as it been for her to realize that he was on Minister Masters’ personal detail. 
    Blinking jade green eyes open again, she tried to banish his face. I can’t be entangled. We both knew that duty came before whatever we had. This is duty. 
    A long breath escaped her before Jaz could help it. 
    O’Haire stood when Leena brought in Masters and his entourage. She hoped she didn’t look too much like death, even with Leena having put her appearance in order as best she could—it’d been a long, rough night which had ended with the summoning of her doctor. But this meeting was one she hadn’t been able to postpone, so now the Minister of Bligh was standing in her office, waiting for her to make the first move.
    Donning a tight smile, Jaz extended one hand towards the tall man, taking in his posture and appearance and marking him as trained military. Were all ministers ex-military? “Welcome to the Busan Collective, sir. I’m Minister O’Haire. Did my assistant make you and your men comfortable?”
    It took him a few beats to respond, but then the other leader stepped towards her to shake her outstretched hand, his grip firm and businesslike. “Yes, she did. Thank you for your generosity.”
    “Anything for potential allies,” Jaz replied with a short nod as they both took their seats.
    Nielsen, who’d been especially watchful today, stepped into the room with a man wearing Bligh’s uniform. She assumed they’d been discussing protection plans by the way her bodyguard’s gaze went from her to Masters and then went to find his fellow guard. Her gaze flicked to the other man for a brief second before returning to the minister opposing her.
    It’d been enough. Even though still struggling with some blank spaces, Haydn’s face had come back along with the majority of the others.
    “I must inform you that we received word from Minister Liftin about your dismissal of him.” Masters drew out, brows raised enough to put a tone of question on the words.
    Jaz leaned back in her chair, drumming her fingers on the arm of it. “He took me for a fool and I refused to be treated as one. And I’m not one to allow a highhanded collective, no matter how important they may have been, to gain complete control over my city. I’m sure you can understand.” The guise of ease came as easy as breathing to her by now, so Jaz was able to cover her physical fatigue along with her mixed emotions over the reappearance of Haydn without trouble. 
    “Of course.”
    “Also, I would warn you against attempting to take a similar stance as Minister Liftin when dealing with me, Minister Masters,” O’Haire continued, the words coming out intentionally non-threatening, but she knew the message would be taken the same way. “Busan is not a piece on a chessboard to be owned by one king or another; she has her own queen and that’s me.”
    Masters’ brows rose another fraction, as if surprised at her daring. Jaz wouldn’t have been startled to learn he was. “There’s no need to worry, Minister O’Haire. Busan is spoken of more than I believe you realize. I know better than to underestimate your city.”
    Even now, hours later, his statement still impressed her even as it filled Jasmine with pride because finally, someone was recognizing the fact that they weren’t just a pawn to be used in this coming war.
    When she compared him to Liftin, Masters had been everything she believed a minister should be. Down-to-earth, in control of the situation, calm at all times, always aware of what was going on and being said, and, most importantly, drawing his own conclusions. Many of the other ministers she’d had meetings with over the past several months had walked into her city with their own assumptions about Jaz and Busan and had refused to see anything else. Having Masters treat her like an equal now was a relief.
    But Haydn…
    Jaz knew better than to believe she truly… loved him. Her heart had lost the ability to fulfill that particular emotion years ago. She did know she’d never worked with anyone more suited to who she was than him. If the woman had believed in soul-mates, she would’ve said Haydn was hers. 
    Or at least, it’d felt like that at the time. The way she was now may have changed their dynamic and she hadn’t even attempted to talk to him earlier, with Masters in the room. 
    Jaz ran her fingers along the edge of her blanket, smiling in the dark, even though she knew it didn’t reach her eyes. None of them did these days. 

    I’m a grand mess. She surmised before focusing on getting to sleep. Five would come far too soon.


    Yaaay, Haydn's back. I've kind of confused myself about how all their history went, because I did a little flip-flop at one point where he was from Busan too when he's actually not and apparently from Bligh instead. (Hooray for lame collective names.) But yeah. I think Jaz reminds me of Jaydn a bit, just she doesn't carry her duty as nearly as heavy a burden as Jaydn does. 

    Which reminds me I should do one of these for Jade. She was off in a jungle last I checked on her. Beating herself into line. 

    Anyways, let me know if these Jaz things are boring/confusing/just not very interesting. You guys know I enjoy feedback, and a bonus is that I don't bite! How's that for a deal?

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.