FIC: "Baldwin's Touch" (double drabble -- 200 words)
AUTHOR: Mistress Marilyn camelotslash-2 at qwest.net
DATE: May 14, 2005
FANDOM: "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005 movie)
PAIRING:  Balian / King Baldwin (Orlando Bloom and Edward Norton)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own 'em. They belong to 20th Century Fox, to Ridley Scott and the respective actors of the movie, and to the ages. This is a work of a fan, done for no remuneration save the satisfaction of the work.
WARNINGS/RATING: Slashy and a bit angsty.
BETA: CharlieMC (thanks, as always!)
DEDICATION: To anyone currently suffering from an impossible love.
AUTHOR NOTES: There are always slash possibilities. (If you haven't seen the film or you don't know the history of Baldwin IV, the young king suffered from leprosy.)
Written for our new 'Kingdom of Heaven' slash list: Kingdom-of-Heaven-Slash

I see your nobility, though your birth was far from noble. You have worked hard, and this has tautened your limbs and face. You have known both joy and despair, marking your male beauty with the iron line of your jaw. You have learned most recently to both follow and lead, and this has seasoned your resonating voice with distinction.

Your father served me faithfully, and his strength made me strong. Now, in your youth and health I see what might have been for myself, and it burns my heart more than the disease eating at my flesh.

You cannot see that behind this mask I am younger, even, than you. And in my chest there swells a longing more painful than the ache in my fingers. There is nothing left of me to prove my worthiness, save my voice.

Would you allow me to speak to you of my passion? I would direct another to please you, to stroke your fine body in my stead. Your thick lashes would shade your cheeks as your shaking lips shaped my name.

I cannot touch you myself, save with my heart

My hands hold death, but my heart can still hold love.

The End