Xena Warrior Princess 3.18 Fins, Femmes And Gems

Nobody Got You the Way I Do

Chapter 1: I Will Carry You Home

AO3

Summary: 5 times Corvus tells Soren "I got you." 1 time Soren tells Corvus "I got you."

Note: If you follow me (or just keep up with Sorvus), you may have seen many posts of mine after season 7 about the "I got you" scene. Well, I came up with this idea and decided to make it into an actual fic. Enjoy!

...

Soren had been challenging Corvus to all sorts of weird activities for a few days. Corvus wasn’t sure if there was a reason, or if it was just Soren being Soren. Or if Soren was just trying to distract himself from… well, everything.

Sure, they’d known each other since childhood, but that didn’t mean they’d known each other well. But Corvus was observant enough to know that Soren wasn’t doing half as well as he wanted everyone to believe he was. So, Corvus went along with his schemes, hoping it would bring a smile to Soren’s face.

Soren’s current choice of competition was a race across the field outside of the city that Corvus had wandered to. Soren had somehow followed, trailing behind him like a lost puppy. Corvus didn’t have the heart to tell Soren he’d wanted to be alone. But shockingly, Soren’s company wasn’t as grating as Corvus feared it would be. He actually found himself enjoying it.

Corvus sighed. “Fine. Where do you want to race to?”

Soren looked around them, bouncing on his feet. Even in a full suit of armor, Soren was somehow light on his toes - as Corvus had found out firsthand every time he’d attempted to escape Soren and Claudia and failed. That felt like a lifetime ago, now.

“There!” Soren said excitedly, pointing to a tree across the way. “There and back. Sound good?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really,” Soren said with a grin as he prepared for their run. He stretched his arms across his chest and kicked his knees up. “Okay, go!”

Corvus followed behind him at a distance, used to endurance running more than… whatever this was. Soren turned around, running backwards. “C’mon, slowpoke! I know you can do better than that.”

Corvus focused on his breathing. “Don’t care.”

Soren rolled his eyes, still jogging backwards. Now he’s just showing off, Corvus thought. “Yes, you do. I’ve seen the look on your face when you beat me.”

Corvus did like winning, he just didn’t care in the same way Soren seemed to. So Corvus was fine letting Soren win most of these competitions. The smile it brought to Soren’s face was worth the blow to Corvus’s ego and competitive nature.

“Fine,” Corvus said as he sped up, catching up to Soren and running beside him. How had Soren still been winning even when going backwards?

“That’s more like it! Now -”

“Soren, watch out!” Corvus exclaimed. He’d noticed it a moment too late: a foot sized hole in the ground. He cursed, wishing he’d been paying less attention to Soren’s antics and more to their surroundings.

Soren’s eyes widened almost comically as his left foot landed in the hole. He started falling backward, arms windmilling.

Corvus reacted before his mind could catch up. He reached out a hand, catching Soren’s arm and pulling him upright, his other hand landing on Soren’s shoulder. They ended up face to face, almost nose to nose. Corvus could feel Soren’s sharp bursts of breath across his face.

“I got you.”

Soren’s eyes remained wide, but this time in… awe?

“You caught me.”

“Well, yeah, that too.”

“No, but like… you didn’t let me fall. As a lesson or something. Trying to teach me to not be so…” he waved his hand. “Soren-y.”

Corvus’s face twisted as he backed up once he was certain that Soren could stay up on his own, even with his foot in the hole. Their proximity was making him feel… weird. But he didn’t let go of Soren. “Of course not. Who would do something like that?”

Soren’s face darkened. “My father.”

“Oh,” Corvus exhaled. Corvus hated to speak ill of the dead, but everything he learned about Viren really made him hate him even more. “Well, as long as I’m around, I’ll catch you when you fall. I promise. Okay?”

Soren nodded, still looking at Corvus with reverence. “Okay.”

“And let the record show, I like your Soren-ness just the way it is,” Corvus added as he released Soren and kneeled down to take a look at Soren’s trapped foot. He needed to get away from Soren’s amazed eyes immediately or he might do something he regretted.

Since Corvus looked away, he missed how Soren’s face and neck turned a bright red at those words.

…

Soren watched as Corvus felt around the hole. “Whatcha doing?”

“Checking to make sure that this dirt is packed tightly. If it’s a collapsing animal tunnel or something, we don’t want to get you out of there and then have a bigger hole to deal with getting out of.” Corvus poked and prodded a bit more. “But I think we’re good to go. Put your weight on your other foot.”

Soren nodded, prepping for Corvus to free his boot.

Moments later, Soren grinned and flexed his now free foot. However, he wasn’t prepared for the jolt of pain that would run up his leg as he put weight on it, causing him to try and lose his balance yet again. Corvus quickly popped up to help hold Soren upright. 

“Ow,” Soren pouted, putting an arm around Corvus’s shoulders to help bear some of the weight. “I think I twisted it.”

“You’re lucky that’s all you did, show-off. Do you think you can walk?”

Soren took a tentative step - and his knee almost buckled. “Mm, that’s gonna be a ‘not really, especially if I want to work the rest of the week and not injure it further.’ But it’s fine, you can head back to the castle and send somebody out for me.”

“Soren,” Corvus said exasperatedly. “I’m not leaving you.”

Soren’s heart fluttered. He shouldn’t read into that, but he wanted to. “Okay. Then how do you propose we make it home?”

Corvus didn’t react negatively to his use of “home” to describe the castle, which gave Soren hope that he’d say yes to joining the Crownguard and staying in Katolis - staying with Soren - when Soren finally worked up the nerve to ask.

“I think I can carry you, at least for a little bit. Would that be okay with you?”

Soren’s mouth went dry and he cleared his throat. “Uhm. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds…” he couldn’t say great, even though it did sound great and had his heart doing jumping jacks in his chest. “Agreeable.”

Corvus gave him a funny look, but shrugged off Soren’s odd response.

Corvus got down onto one knee in front of him (Calm down, Soren told his rapidly beating heart, he’s not even facing me.), preparing to give Soren a piggyback ride. “Okay. Hop on.”

...

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading! My plan is to upload a new chapter every other week because I don’t have all of them finished quite yet, haha. If I finish them all, I may update more frequently. We shall see!

You also may remember I made this post. So, I had to complete the piggyback set myself.

Ow

hit me like a slow bullet (munseth, 7k, explicit)

Eddie is fine, but he's kinda fucked up, Gareth is guilty and he's definitely fucked up

in which i put gareth through the horrors of longing, and eddie is in recovery

Teehee

i'm making a collection

please witness its power

i will never shut up about this

I like how the lack of spacing here implies that the helpline is there for those addicted to eating raw flour, dough, or batter, like a gambling helpline or something

soren is so full of bottled up emotions. that boy deserves a mental breakdown i think. as a treat.

also i do need to see him sobbing for personal reasons. why do favorite characters exist other than to torture them

lmao look what i found on the TDP reddit (don't ask me why i was on that cursed place)

masterlist of places to submit creative writing

it's intimidating thinking about submitting your precious work to judgement, but all the rejections are worth it when you finally get that one glowing acceptance email that puts your anxieties and impostor syndrome to bed. but where do you submit? it can be incredibly overwhelming trying to find the right sites/journals/zines to submit to so i thought i'd create a little collection of places i have found to submit to and i will update it whenever i find new discoveries.

PROSE ONLY

The Fiction Desk

They consider stories between 1k words and 10k words, paying 25 GBP per thousand words for stories they publish and contributors receive two complimentary paperback copies of the anthology. (A submission fee of 5 GBP for stories which sucks)

Extra Teeth

Works of fiction and creative nonfiction between 800 and 4,000 words receive a 140 GBP payment upon publication in the magazine as well as two copies that feature your work. If your work is selected to published online, you get 100 GBP instead. A Scottish based publication that also offers mentorships to budding writers. (Free)

Clarkesworld

Fantasy and sci-fi magazine accepting submissions of fiction from 1k to 22k words, paying 14 cent per word. Make sure you read their submissions page carefully, it gives you a good idea of what they're looking for and what will get you one of those disheartening rejection emails. (Free)

Granta

Open to unsolicited submissions of fiction and non-fiction. Unfortunately they do charge a 3.50 GBP fee for prose submissions, but they do offer 200 free submissions during every opening period (1 March - 31 March, 1 June - 30 June, 1 September - 30 September, 1 December - 31 December) to low income authors. No set minimum or maximum length, but most accepted works fall within 3,000 and 6,000 words.

Indie Bites

A fantasy short fiction publisher looking for clever hooks, strong characters and interesting takes on their issues' themes. Submissions should be no longer than 7,500 words. You get an honorarium of 5 GBP for each piece of yours that they publish - it's not much, but yay money! (Free)

Big Fiction

Novella publishers (7,500-20,000 words) looking for self-contained works of fiction that play with things like the linearity of narratives, perspective, structure and language. (Free)

Strange Horizons

Employing a broad definition of speculative fiction, they offer 10 cents a word for spec fiction up to 10,000 words but preferably around 5,000. (Free)

Fantasy and Science Fiction

They publish fiction up to 25,000 words in length, offering 8-12 cents per word upon publishing. (Free)

Fictive Dream

Short stories from 500 words to 2,500. They want writing with a contemporary feel that explores the human condition. (Free)

POETRY AND PROSE

eunoia review

Up to 10 poems in a single attachment, up to 15,000 words of fiction and creative non-fiction (can be multiple submissions amounting to that or a single piece). It's free to submit to, and they respond in 24 hours (I can vouch for that).

Confingo Magazine

Stories up to 5,000 words of any genre and poems (a max of three) up to 50 lines. Free to submit to and offer a 30 GBP payment to authors whose work is accepted.

Grain Magazine

Another Canadian based publication also supportive of marginalised identities. They accept poems (max. of six pages), fiction (max. of 3,500 words) or three flash fiction works that total 3.5k, literary nonfiction (3,500 words) and queries for works of other forms. All contributors are paid 50 CAD per page to a max of 250. Authors outside of Canada will need to pay a 5 CAD reading fee but they do offer a limited number of fee waivers if this impacts your ability to submit.

BTWN

An up-and-coming lit mag looking for diverse works that play with genres, breaks the rules and is a little weird. They want what typical lit mags reject. Stories up to 7,000 words, non-fiction up to 7,000 words and up to 4 poems totalling no more than 10 pages, hybrid work, comics/graphics up to 5 pages, original periodicals up to 14,000 words of prose or 20 pages of poetry. (Free)

Gutter

Accepting submission in spring and autumn work that challenges, re-imagines or undermines the status quo and pushes at the boundaries of form and function. If your contribution is chosen, you get 30 GBP for your work as well as a complimentary copy of the issue. Up to three poems (no more than 100 lines), fiction and essays (up to 2,500 words)

Whisk(e)y Tit

This one's worth checking out just for their logo. They're looking for fiction whether it's short stories, flash fiction or novel excerpts up to 7,000 words, up to 5 poems, up to 7,000 word essays, screenplays and stage plays (can be full works or excerpts up to 20 pages). (Free)

FOR QUEER AND MARGINALISED WRITERS

Plenitude magazine

A queer-focused Canadian literary magazine accepting poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. They define queer literature as create by queer people. (Free)

Lavender Review

Poetry written by and for lesbians. An annual Sappho's Prize in Poetry takes place every October. (Free)

AC|DC

"A journal for the bent", always open for submissions from queer writers of all experience levels. They lean towards dark and raw writing but are open to everything as long as it's not over 3,000 words. (Free)

Sinister Wisdom

A literary and art journal for lesbians of every background. They accept poetry (up to 5), two short stories or essays OR one longer piece (not exceeding 5,000 words), as well as book reviews (these must be pitched before they are submitted, (Free)

Queerlings

Open annually from Jan 1st to March 31st they publish short stories of any genre (up to 2,000 words), flash fiction/hybrid work (500 words), poetry (up to 3 poems per submission with a 20 line maximum on each) and creative non-fiction (2,000 words) written by queer writers. (Free)

underdog lit mag

Based in the UK, they focus on amplifying emerging and underrepresented writers. If you're female, POC, LGBTQ+, working-class or all of the above with a story of 100-3,500 words that fits their flavour of the month (the last flavour was Magical Realism) send it their way! (Free)

fourteen poems

London-based poetry publishers looking for the most exciting queer poets. You can send up to five emails to them within their deadlines and you get 25 GBP for every poem published.

Froglifter Journal

A press publishing the most dynamic and urgent queer writing. Poets send in 3 to 5 poems (max. 5 pages), writers send in up to 7,500 words of fiction or non-fiction or three flash fiction pieces, and cross-genre creators send in up to 20 pages within the submission windows March 1 to May 1 and September 1 to November 1. (Free)

OTHER SOURCES

Short Stories: X | X | X

Poetry: X