heir apparent; Variations of Reality | Kenric/Giannine

[kitsuneasika.livejournal.com]

Title: Variations of Reality
Pairing: Kenric/Giannine
Wordcount: 224
Summary: There are no ghosts here, but still she cannot sleep.
Disclaimer: I don't own Heir Apparent.

Variations of Reality

There are no ghosts howling and clacking their chains throughout the castle. There are no cold fingers brushing against her cheeks, no wailing and moaning piercing the otherwise quiet night.

Still, she cannot sleep. She tosses and turns and—

remembers. A charming smile that kills. A look of surprised respect. An kindness revealed against all odds.

Someone who doesn't really exist.

That's the problem with virtual reality, she supposes— it's hard to tell where the reality ends and the virtual fantasy begins.

She worries people, she knows. She's played Heir Apparent hundreds of times, until her pockets are drained and she can practically beat it with her eyes closed. She lives more in fantasy than in reality, more in the game than in her real life.

Logically, she knows that she should just stop. Stop playing, stop living her life in a game that's just that. A game. Stop pining over someone who will never really be there, and maybe start returning those looks Nigel gives her from over at the concession stand.

And yet— And yet—

She can't. Because he's not Kenric, even if they look the same, and it isn't him she dreams of on the nights she can actually fall asleep, even if they appear to be the same.

He's not Kenric, no matter how much she wants him to be.