happyfalcon | Prompt: Captured

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Prompt: Captured

((ooc: Open for anyone to tag, but beware the historical mindfuckery. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Is to rescue Anne Boleyn from the prison tower of Emperor Charles V in Spain.))

It seems the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was not content to sit idly by and let Henry VIII, King of England, mistreat his aunt. Catherine of Aragon, the unhappy queen, had been neglected and ignored by Henry since her miscarriage of their son. Henry grew angry, thinking his marriage cursed by God and had thus sought to create male heirs by his mistresses.

Though Anne Boleyn was different.

She had refused his advances at first, to the chagrin of her father and uncle. Anne hadn't had interest in the king - and did not take to the idea of being referred to as "The Second Great Prostitute" like her sister, Mary. Still, after a while she had broken down and agreed to be the king's One True Mistress - though they had yet to share a bed. Still, that didn't stop Henry from pursuing a divorce from Catherine.

That's what had made Charles angry.

A few secret letters from Catherine told him the truth of how she had been mistreated by the king, and how he sought to divorce her in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Outraged, Charles had sent orders to his ambassador to take a few men with him and kidnap the queen and her ladies.

Kidnapping the queen and bringing her to Spain would free her from the king's cruelty. And, as Anne was a lady in waiting to the queen, she would also be captured, and Charles would be free to execute her in his realm. The charge: Treason against the queen of England.

So Anne was locked in the prison tower, awaiting her punishment. What would it be? Hanging? Drawn and quartered? Anne knew Catherine would want the slowest, most painful death imaginable for her...but Anne would not give the satisfaction of showing her fear. Even locked in the tower she remained strong and refused to cry.

But in her heart, she wondered: Where was her brother, George? Where was her father? Where was the king?

Would anyone rescue her?

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He opens the door and comes in, then closes the door behind him. "I brought you some food." He sets it down on the desk, then pulls the chair out. "I'm sorry about this."

Anne sits up slowly, pushing the covers away before turning to face him. She's quiet for a while before she replies.

"No, I'm the one who's sorry..." The admission comes with difficulty. "You risk your life to save me...I repay you by getting upset...it was wrong of me, please forgive me."

"Of course I do. I've never truly been mad at you, and I wasn't now either." He's silent for a moment. "I know that your life isn't how you would want it to be. I also know I'm not the one with the power to change that for you."

She opens her mouth, but thinks better of it and closes is again. A weak smile appears on her lips.

"No, you don't. No one does, really," Anne muses. "If I refuse to continue meeting the king, he'll find some reason then it's-"

She mimes a haphazard slashing motion across her throat.

"Off with my head." Then there's the alternative. "If I continue, and things progress the way the king wants, especially now with Catherine separated from him in Spain, he'll propose."

The very thought makes her sick to her stomach. There's a very long pause before she looks up to Killian again.

"I...I cannot marry him. I can't."

"And your father and your brother can't help you here. They wouldn't, if they could, because they could benefit from your marriage to the king."

"I wish I could help you."

"Precisely," Anne sighed. She reached up, rubbing her forehead with both hands.

She shakes her head slowly.

"Maybe I was better off in the tower in Spain...I don't know what to do."

"They would have executed you if you stayed in Spain."

"I'll be executed either way in the end. What does it matter whose soil I'm on?"

"You don't know that you'll be executed in England."

"You haven't met the king, have you? He doesn't take no for an answer," Anne tilts a brow at him. "I just told you, I cannot marry him, and he will ask me! When I say no, he will seek his vengeance."

She rises from the bed and leans against the wall where the porthole is, glancing out the corner of her eye.

"He'll find some charge to hold against me, some minor habit that he found charming before, and use it to charge me with treason."

"How can I help?" It's an honest question; he really does want to know if there's a way he can help.

Again she opens her mouth, but closes it again, shaking her head slowly.

"I don't..." she just can't seem to form words.

Anne turns to him, again she tries to speak but finds she can't - can't bring herself to ask for what she wants, what little he could do to help ease her pain.

"Anne. Tell me."

"It's not...it's not something one asks for, Killian!" Too many thoughts are running through her head, Anne's not really in control of her mouth nor her mind. "I don't even know..."

Fitfully she pushes a hand through her hair, trying to regain her senses to no avail. All she feels in confusion, and all the emotions in the world in one tiny room.

"...whatever it is, if I ask, if I dare say it aloud-" She bites her lip again. "...that makes it, all these thoughts in my head, real. And then what am I to do if, if..."

God dammit why can't she just say it??

"I endure enough pain, Killian. I don't know if I could handle any more. If I say it aloud, what happens after? What happens when a woman more fair than I, more agreeable and available to you than I appears?" Anne shakes her head. No, she can't say it.

"Anne." He reaches for her hands, takes hold of them to steady them, and her. "Just tell me."

Despite his grip, her breathing accelerates a bit. No she doesn't like this, not one bit. After a minute she wraps her fingers around his hands, glancing up to him with a soft, almost defeated look.

"You'll refuse. I already know it," Anne tries to pull her hands away. "But, as you're so insistent, and likely to not give a moment's rest until I say it, very well, I'll say it."

But there's a pause. And a long one. "If I offered you my heart, Killian Jones, the one thing I possess and control, and that I may give to one person only in this life - what would you do, what would you say?"

"Anne." He moves from the chair and comes to sit next to her on the bed. He puts his arms around her. He doesn't have a lot of experience with women, and he doesn't know how to make her feel better about this. Not without giving up something he's not willing to give up.

"I would say that was the best gift I ever got."

((ooc: but short of them running off to sea and meeting Liam at random ports all over the world...I haven't come up with much))

She's a bit startled by the reaction. Needless to say, she wasn't expecting it. Her arms come up, wrapping them around him and leaning against him a bit. The solidness of his frame gives her a sense of security and protection that the king's embraces never possess. She wants to speak, but she can't find any words, and she's afraid saying anything else will ruin the perfection of the moment. So she keeps quiet.

[ooc: Unless Liam comes with them, which he never would. Killian's also not really in a place right now where he'd run off like that.]

"It's not much, and it's not what you want, but I can promise to treat it gently."

((I figured - so their only hope really is a distraction for the king, another woman to catch his fancy over Anne...which isn't too difficult but unfortunately history tells us it only happened AFTER they married...))

"Will you stay with me?" She leans back, realizing what it sounds like she's asking. "I mean, whenever you return to England, will you find some way to see me, as we have been?"

There's a pause, almost fearing the answer. "Even if it's only for a fleeting moment, I would be content."

[ooc: Not really a surprise, considering he was chasing her while he was married to someone else.]

"I will. I would like that."

((Oh no, and she knew that would be a problem too - hence why I play her this way half the time: Not interested in marrying Henry because she knows he's incapable of fidelity, begging for fidelity from those she DOES care for))

Anne leans up and kisses him passionately - all the energy from the flurry of emotions that had been rushing through her moments ago, all projected into this kiss while she holds him tight.

[The irony is that at this point, Killian might actually be interested in getting married -- but he follows the rules, so it wouldn't be to someone that far above his station. When he doesn't care about the rules anymore, he's no longer so interested in marriage.]

"I can't promise we'll have much time together, but I'll make as much time for you as I can."

((Sooo many feels!! But in this case, Anne wouldn't necessarily need marriage, just some promise of loyalty. Only because it would break her heart if he wanted someone else.))

Anne nods, her hands sliding up his chest.

"Whatever time you can spare, I will be happy. If there's a way I can make it easier, if you desire anything from me, you need only ask."

[ooc: He can give her that. Eventually, in canon, he does meet someone, but that's a ways off yet, and this is basically an AU thing anyway.]

"I will. I promise."

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If only there were some way to do this where he could still see his brother.

Oh believe me, I've been trying to think of one -

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