Soggy Farewell

[Existentially Odd]

(Continued from \'Soggy\')

"I\'m sorry about that little show in there," she told him ruefully, somewhat embarrassed that he\'d had to endure the perusal of her guards - especially with nothing between them resolved.  "I hope you weren\'t too terribly offended by their drunken high spirits; if you were, I can punish them soundly on your behalf."

She grinned wolfishly to show that she was joking but, again, her eyes were twinkling because she was half serious about it.  It never hurt to exercise her authority a little and remind upstarts just which side their bread was buttered on.

[Kysis]

"I am only offended by that if you are, m\'lady."  Kysis offered what smile he could.  The young man was planning his words, even if he concentration was disrupted by the sight of snow...  He had seen it before, but that was just once during the Greek winter, and that was strange.  Yes, it had been fun to go out in it, the feastival held in it too... Kysis crouched for a moment, taking a handful of the snow to toy with before continuing on with his words.

"The snow is colder here..."

He was stalling.  That much was apparent.  Kysis however knew that he had to hurry up about the rest of his apology, as he was certain the Captain had a completely wrong idea of him.  Of course, that would take stepping out of his shell, admitting to one thing just to dispell another on the same line.  Kysis was glad his friend had not come with the family during their move, though.  He was relieved past all possible...  Kysis was glad.  Yes, they had grown up together, but Kysis had been growing quite smothered by the constant companionship.  Commitmentphobic: definitely.

"I believe I gave you the wrong impression earlier, on a few points.  You see...  I used to confide in a friend of mine back in Kreos, Rico, all the time.  I would tell him everything.  And then, one day, he decided to tell everything I had ever said and done to Alia.  He promised me he could keep anything I told him a secret, and he broke that trust."

Kysis could see his breath in the air, pulling his cloak closer to his body.  Buying a local coat seemed a very smart idea right about now, Kreos attire just not made for a northern winter.  Perhaps the cold just served to keep him more alert, "About my betrothal..."  Kysis trailed off.  Why did his voice sound so meek?  He shook his head, deciding to wait and see what the Captain had to say about his trust issues.  Probably something along the lines of \'get over it\', seeing how he had treated her.

[Existentially Odd]

"I see," she said when he explained that his close friend had broken his trust, because she did see all too clearly why he would ask her to keep things to herself now.  If someone he\'d known all his life had turned on him, then how could he trust that she wouldn\'t?  It didn\'t excuse his actions, but it explained them.

Someone exited the tavern and, instinctively, she looped her left arm through his right, completing the circle of his capture by holding her left hand with her right.  She walked him determinedly in the direction she wanted to go, head tucked down towards his - he was slightly shorter than her, naturally - so that she could hear what he had to say as they went.  If whoever exited saw them and noted who they were, that they were arm in arm, bully for them; she had to get Kysis moving, lest they stand before the inn discussing things all night.  As soon as they\'d moved about ten paces, she would relax her grip, ceasing his direction and allowing him to pull away if he wished, but until that time he was her virtual prisoner whether he liked it or not.  She talked as she marched him.

"You don\'t have to explain; I think I see what you\'re getting at, if it all happened at the same time," she told him kindly, slowing her long strides already.  "Rico was your lover, and he told your sister everything, making it impossible for you to go through with the farce of a marriage."  Her gaze was completely sympathetic as she looked at him.  Why, her own brother in law...

[Kysis]

"No.  That wasn\'t how it happened, though it was all around that time..."

He had been a little shocked as she grabbed his arm, but made no move to show it.  Kysis knew what she was doing, so allowed it to be done.  Why fight?  The Captain wanted to avoid notice, as did Kysis.  He dropped the snow, injured hand numb now.  The cold felt good for some reason.  Kysis was probably just being morbid, as he was accused of too many times.  Pessimistic, nihilistic even; that was Kysis.  He had a good excuse for it, too.

"What I did with Rico was merely to spite my father."  That was one-hundred per cent the truth.  It had been out of spite.  Marcos told Kysis three days before the marriage that it was going to happen.  Kysis was finally allowed to meet the girl just hours before said marriage, and bolted.  Settling down was not something Kysis wanted.  He cherished what freedom he had, and would not let it be ripped away, not so easily.  Spite was a terrible thing, "When I told Rico we were just friends... he told Alia everything.  Of course, it was his version of things.  Not what really happened..."

Kysis glanced back over his shoulder before pulling up his hood, obscuring his pale hair.  Even at night the color of his hair was quite notable, and anyone who took a glance would notice.  If they wanted to be inconspicuous, he\'d have to hide it.  Kysis did not mind.  He had always thought better while in  motion, all this walking good.  The Captain had a way of making Kysis feel guilty, no matter what came up.  He had been a cruel and vindictive youth, that was for sure.  Even though Kysis was trying to get away from that, leave it in Kreos, those past deeds kept coming back to haunt him.

Had this cleared up both matters?  Kysis hoped so.  He wanted to be seen as he was, not what his fascade hinted at.  Yes, his hair was a bit more femme than most males; did not mean he was making himself pretty for men.  Kysis rather liked his hair, though he might crop it off because of this.  It would definitely help him blend a bit more... and stop all this questioning of his sexuality.  Did he seem homosexual to onlookers?  Perhaps the world was trying to tell him something...

[Existentially Odd]

"Oh!" she uttered, surprised.  They were walking normally now - a little slower than normal, in fact, instinctively matching their pace to the amount of resolution they needed to get through, she supposed - and she left her arm hooked around his, happy enough to be taken and dismissed for lovers should anyone see them in the darkness.  She\'d been making assumptions for quite a length of time now, that it was almost shocking to hear that they could be such, considering he wasn\'t devoted to his own sex.

"So you really don\'t have an interest solely in men," she said, processing it as she spoke and no doubt sounding far dumber than she\'d intended, for stating the obvious was something that always annoyed her.  "You really did object to the arranged marriage idea, then," she chuckled, amused and somehow impressed that he\'d had the wherewithal to not only get out of a marriage he didn\'t want, but had no doubt infuriated his father in the process (she doubted Marcos was the type to bow to Kysis having relations with a man, though it was a pleasant notion - the thought that he\'d flummoxed a man he obviously had a bad relationship with).

[Kysis]

Finally.  Kysis breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a little better now.  Assumptions were a nasty thing.  It was such guessing and not checking that had ruined his friendship with Rico... no, actually it was Kysis being a prick that ruined the friendship.  He had to stop blaming everything but himself for a load of things, probably the same length as the \'I hate Kysis club\' list.  There really wasn\'t a gathering of people who hated Kysis.... he hoped.

"Oberon is a much less tumultuous a place for me.  Truly."

Understatement was something Kysis had been doing a lot lately.  Kreos had been a raging hell, the constant combat only a fraction of it.  Battle helped keep his mind off those other things.  Now he was far away from the causes of such strife.  Rico was still serving in the house of Kysis\' uncle, the current Lord Liari.  The girl, he could not remember her name for the life of him, was probably still living in Kreos, hopefully married.  Too bad he could not have convinced them to marry each other, knocking out two birds with one stone.  Wouldn\'t that have solved a lot of problems?

"I should really stop running away from my problems..."

[Existentially Odd]

She laughed, a sour note no doubt detectable in the emission.  "That\'s true.  It doesnt matter how far you run, they always catch up with you, don\'t they?" she murmured, knowing this from firsthand experience.  "Still... it\'s bloody tempting to just go like Hell when it all starts to crowd you, isn\'t it?  I tend to go camping.  A night or two in the woods or on the farmlands seems to help me sort everything through."

Or a night spent with a young and thoroughly impressionable man, at the least, she thought to herself, then pushed it aside, determined not to feel guilt for anything that had happened.

"It seems that love and relationships don\'t ever get easy, though.  I often wonder if there\'s something to be said for a simple, easy marriage.  At least we could avoid the turbulence of uncertainty that comes with casual lovers, eh?" she grinned, giving him a companionable squeeze with her inner elbow.  She was probably making assumptions again - and confessing more of her dirty secrets - but there was a sense of... understanding between them now, that made her feel they were alike in ways.  Enough that she might give voice to very private ponderings, anyway.  What would a marriage feel like?  She always wondered.  There was the potential for it to get boring, without the variety she was used to but... in her opinion, the security of it would surely have to outweigh that.

[Kysis]

"Camping?"  That was something he had not heard much of before.  A few of the servants back in Kreos talked about it, and Kysis found the whole affair to be rather confusing.  Why would anyone want to live in a tent out in the wilderness when they had a warm bed waiting for them back at home?  Then again, Kysis was confused by a great number of things, and would not press the matter... wait, did he hear right?

Kysis replayed that last bit of sentences in his head, almost exactly as they were heard.  Before the question, Kysis had not pondered over such things.  In fact, he hadn\'t even taken a lover... Rico did not count.  Nor had he committing to anything with anyone.  Kysis feared the day he had to sit still more than a few moments.  He barely even spent time with the family he already had.  Why add more people to be ignored?

"Alia keeps bugging me to get married.  I think she just wants my room at the house."  Kysis said house instead of home, he had a few times, actually.  The manor here just did not feel like home, not that the keep in Kreos did.  The young man had yet to find home, and he planned on keeping it that way.  Home is where the heart is, and Kysis did not trust anyone with his heart, so... no home.  Later.  Much later?  Please?

"I don\'t know.  It could be calmer, marriage, but after having lived with my parents.... I haven\'t much faith in it."

[Existentially Odd]

"Don\'t say \'Camping\' like that!" she chided him, laughing into the silence at the disdainful manner in which he\'d said the word.  "It\'s good to get back to basics and pit yourself against the elements; tracking, hunting... riding places no sane person would go, let alone on a horse... it keeps you sharp and aware," she encouraged, giving his arm two more squeezes on the words she emphasised.

She laughed again when he stopped thinking quietly and proved that he wasn\'t taking her comments about camping on board, imparting instead his belief that his sister was stalking his room.

"Yes, I understand what you mean... and I suppose a marriage undertaken simply because it\'s easier wouldn\'t have a lot to it.  Mind you, you don\'t seem all that enthused about doing it for love, either," she teased, grinning at him so broadly that the light of the streetlamp they were passing glinted off her even teeth.  He was right about marrying for the wrong reasons, though; she\'d grown up with a dead mother, a drunken father and two loving, devoted pseudo-parents in her aunt and uncle, but she\'d broken up enough domestic disputes in her wilder recruit days to know that what she\'d experienced was quite idyllic.  "You\'ve never been in love, have you?"

[Kysis]

"No."

Though he was still thinking on the concept of camping, it did not stop Kysis from giving a quick answer on her last question.  He knew nothing of love, minus what he had read in books during his tutilage.  That was not much, either.  He had heard people proclaim love before, but it was such a one sided affair, Kysis did not understand it either.  Another instance of laying one\'s self bare, like an emotional camping.  Kysis had no clue about either.

"Never really had time for such things in Kreos..."  Truth, completely.  Kysis was either protecting shipments of Liari goods or practicing or being force-fed scripture.  There was not room for anything else.  Kysis had accompanied the one movement of Liari equipment through Oberon, but found that no one really took notice, which was a nice change of pace.  However, he had more spare time than he knew what to do with.  Many people might have jumped for joy at the notion of their having more time.  Kysis was confused about it and wondering why the Captain kept squeezing his arm.

"So much time here, I have no clue what I should be doing.  I\'ve explored that maze in the castle courtyard a few too many times for my good.  I\'ve wandered these streets aimlessly on a couple of occasions, the market too."  Kysis shrugged.  He was not used to spending his free time with people, that was for certain.  A sword did not count as a person, despite all the tales he\'d heard that stated otherwise.  Even this conversation was slightly awkward, but Kysis\' mind was sliding in to it as he walked.  This was just a conversation; people had them every day.  No need to panic.

[Existentially Odd]

She laughed heartily, throwing her head back to allow the full-bodied sound passage into the night.  At the same time, she unlinked their arms and gave his shoulder a playful shove, allowing the gesture to give her the impetus to move away on her next step; she\'d been getting quite snug walking up against him but he hadn\'t relaxed at all.  She knew she was better off not touching him, he didn\'t like it (which led part of her brain down a whole new path of thought about how much touching he\'d ever done then, of women, rather than men).

"You need a hobby!" she declared, thoroughly delighted by the image of him roaming the castle proper looking for something to do - but of course, the true source of her amusement came from what she would suggest as his hobby.  "Take up camping!  It\'ll get you out of the confines of the city and toughen that precious ass of yours."

She hid a smirk, knowing that a swordsman was never precious - especially one with the scars and wounds she\'d noted upon his hands, back at the tavern.  Still, he seemed altogether disinterested in the notion of leaving the civilised roof over his head, so she felt it a valid jest.  Especially if he bit.

[Kysis]

"Precious?!"  Kysis could not help but gasp.  Precious?  Dear lord, his whole body was pretty roughed up from spars, no part but his face seeming anything like a doll.  Ok, so his ass might not be scarred (he never took the time to look, so how was he to know?) but it hardly begged for a word like precious.  That also brought back memory of defending his sexuality.  It brought a blush, a mix of the lightest anger and embarrassment.  The little shove seemed playful, but those words...

But words were failing him.

Crossing his arms, Kysis stared down at the snow he was about to trod over, letting the rhythms of his footfalls calm his mind a bit.  He had to say something least it seem as if he agreed that he had a precious ass.  Thinking about what to say only brought him back in to that bewildered irritation, so after a while and clearing his throat, Kysis finally managed something.  He never even considered that she might be baiting him in to such an answer.

"I could handle camping.  I\'m not some stuck up snob of a nobleman.  In fact, I may just go camping some time soon..."  It was then that the gravity of his statements stuck him.  Oh dear.  Kysis knew he\'d gotten himself in to quite the mess, but was too stubborn to back down on it.  He would prove she was wrong, even if it took living out in nature for a week.  How hard could it be?

[Existentially Odd]

Damn, it was hard to stop herself laughing openly at him.  With his stubborn arms folded defensively across his chest and his plaintive claim that he was no nobleman - and would likely head into the wild at any moment - he was quite hilarious.  She found it intriguing that he couldn\'t tell she was joking.  Apparently his social skills were that lax that he couldn\'t recognise a friendly tease when it... well, when it came up and slapped him on the shoulder.  It was kind of cruel, but she couldn\'t help dragging it out just a little more, telling herself that it would do him good to realise that she wasn\'t as serious as everyone took her to be, just because she had a very serious job.  In her downtime, why would she not relax?

"That\'s true; you\'re no nobleman," she goaded, adding a bonus insult to his manners and very obvious breeding.  He was the most polite and noble merchant she\'d ever met, that was for sure.  She supposed it had a lot to do with his constrained upbringing in such a harsh country, but that was irrelevant when she was subtly deriding his very proper presentation.  "But I believe you will cope with our woods.  That sword you say you\'re good at will come in handy if the wolves find you - be careful, because they\'re very common during this season.  I\'ll tell you the best places to go, if you like - you shouldn\'t see more than one or two of the beasts there, easily defeated with a sword - if you can control the weapon in a tense situation," she told him kindly, giving a decisive nod as she peered at him.  Yes, questioning his ability with the sword - when she didn\'t doubt it from the way he carried himself and obviously trained a lot - was a nice touch... but was likely to tip him off that she was joking, sadly.

Oh well, it all had to come to an end sooner or later, and the wolf detail was probably going to be her downfall anyway.  No-one in their right mind spent time outside their home when the snows were on and the wolves were ravenous from not being able to find nutritious food.  Had he not been so busy blustering to answer her first challenge, he might have thought that through - or he might still not be aware of the wildlfe he was likely to face in this part of the world. Still, the snow crunching underfoot should have tipped him off first that camping was not the best idea right now, as far as hobbies went.

[Kysis]

Kysis sighed.  The moment she mentioned his swordsmanship, he knew she was playing.  And she was damn good at toying with his mind, as it had been proved again and again.  Kysis was just not used to these people... he sighed.  No excuses, not know.  He had fallen for it and would live up to it, as hard headed as he could be.  The Captain had proved her victory in this matter, quite clearly... but it was certainly hard speaking with someone he knew not the name of.

"Ah, I see now.  Trying to get me to slip up and do something dumb.  Well, you got me.  I surrender."  All this was with a playful smile.  The words \'I surrender\' had never before parted his lips; in fact, Kysis had planned never to say such a thing ever, jest or no.  But, Kysis had to get his head out of the clouds.  He was not the best out there, he probably never would be.  Acting normal could not hurt to much, although he was not too fond of what he had been informed as to normalcy\'s true colors.  Kysis would have been flirting with her had he been trying to seem like some average man.  At least he recognized she was not just a woman, but had a mind and a job to prove it, too.

His hands were raised, left one bent more to keep his palm from sight.  Kysis was paranoid about some things, even if he had seriously loosened up.  It wasn\'t solely the cider\'s fault either.  Kysis had needed someone to converse with for a while, and this was a perfect opportunity, even if her red hair was really distracting.  He had to contantly resist the urge to touch it, and ignore the fact that he was slightly shorter than her.  It would have bugged a lot of men, but Kysis was not too bothered by it.  Kysis could assert himself enough that height was not a determining factor-- if ever such projected opinions were needed.

Of course, his words might have had multiple meanings, if of course it wasn\'t Kysis.  He had never been the type to use such subtle means, though he was quickly studying in it.  Kysis had not even noticed the way his words could be taken other than face value.  Hopefully he would not be too horridly misinterpreted again tonight.

[Existentially Odd]

Peals of laughter met his rather sour surrender - though he might be smiling, she could see it didn\'t reach his eyes and that he was perturbed by her besting him.  She would be exactly the same in his position, and she couldn\'t help but admire the stoic way he admitted defeat.  She didn\'t allow herself to gloat in laughter too long, not wanting to put him offside permanently when she was rather more interested in making an equal of him, if not a friend.

Again, she touched his shoulder in a reassuring manner, her body leaning into the contact as well and some of her hair possibly blowing into his face due to the breezes that were chasing each other down the narrow streets they were walking.  If it were Freddy she\'d caught out in a joke, she would throw an arm around him as an apology, but Kysis was neither that close to her, nor that comfortable in her presence, so a quick press of herself - which really meant her breast nudging his upper arm and her temple briefly contacting his forehead, along with her hand on his shoulder - to him was all that she did before she parted from him again.

"I\'m sorry," she told him while still within his personal sphere, "I don\'t mean to taunt you, it\'s just," here she pulled back, smiling at him as she forced her hand back into the pocket of her coat, just like her other already was, "it was too hard to resist!  Camping now is... would be close to suicide.  The warmer moons are when you should consider such things.  In the colder ones... well... do you like board games?  Perhaps you could take them up.  Or practise a hell of a lot.  Maybe you should consider my offer of visiting the Guardhouse for a sparring session and let me judge if you could be of use," she said slyly, her gaze switching from being directly focussed on him to the night around them, in an attempt to put him at ease.

She really was very interested in whether he was any good; at the very least, if he was the one who tested all his father\'s weapons designs, he might at least be able to give advice to recruits as an exotic weapons instructor.