Barrayar

[jamjar]

Gregor could remember when Miles couldn't walk. Couldn't lift his arms above shoulder level, could turn his neck, but only by twisting his whole body around with it. He remembered, in those early days when it was natural for Miles to be carried, when it was childhood and not deformity that kept him there, the neck brace Miles had worn to prevent him snapping his own neck during one of his frantic twists to grab something new.

He could remember Miles crying, because even the best, the safest, painkillers can't be given to a child for extended periods of time. And the desparate attempts by the doctors to find something, anything, that could be given to Miles.

Then there were the long, agonising months that followed breaking and resetting his hips. Miles's first attempts at walking, the stumbles that broke both his wrists and put him back in the chairs and his parent's arms.

When his wife asked what Miles was like as a child, Gregor always started from age eight.

Comments

[ceresi.livejournal.com]

So I came in here for your bandslash fic and then started poking around and hey! Bujold! Who can resist Bujold?

I know this is kind of old, but it's kind of wonderful, and it's something I haven't seen before, which is kind of novel. Really, I love chances to catch glimpses into Gregor and Miles's relationship as children, because I think Bujold didn't originally have much planned for Gregor so the books always feel a little haphazard to me on that subject. And Miles's struggles are described in just enough detail to hurt like crazy.

Anyway, love! :D

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

LMB is a former fanfic writer herself, so maybe that's where the desire to show love for a character by hurting him just enough comes from.

I really do love her work.