I am in a sorry state. I might as well be a packrat or some other loathsome creature that dwells in the garbage pits of a major city. I smell like the sea, my robe still has sand clinging to the edge of it and my arms are filled with, trash. To be perfectly frank, when Alice and I decided to go fishing and get away from the festival, I had thought I had a good grasp on fishing. I am, forever surprised that I am not nearly as adopted with everything as I thought I was. The few fish that were caught were all hers and I have been left with the noble thought that I might have cleaned up much of the beach of Gadgetzan before my time was through.
All of this being said though. I returned to the Duchy and my Duchess with a bag full of empty rum bottles and enough tattered cloth to make many many blankets from.
“Alle Dear.” I called out as I came into her living quarters. I know I am a state, but, I think there is a talk that needs to be said, and… I am curious if she can do anything with all of this. I do promise, I am not a hoarder or anything, but, this was a perfect opening to a neutral conversation.
As I’m putting the makeshift canvas bags down I notice Alle sitting neatly on a sofa near by. She is dressed more casually than normal, her dress not as ridged and I can tell she’s not wearing a corset at the moment. The thought, is almost like someone hit me with a snowball on a warm day. It’s shocking, but I have to remind myself, I have seen women in nothing but what they were born with. But this is different and I feel as if I am intruding upon her… I am intruding, I always intrude at first, but this time I feel it.
Her bright eyes lock on me and my bags. “What is all of that?”
“Bottles, cloth… I was going to see if you had any recycling facilities I can use? Glass is always needed for… people.” I am bullshitting out of my fine silk clad ass. I have no idea if she needs this, but I wanted to bring it to see if it was a good neutral opener for the more, pining questions in my heart.
Part of me wonders if she saw right through me. She always sees right through my acts. “We can try to find something to do with them. The cloth could be very good for making paper.” getting up she crossed over to look into the bags. “How was your…. day with Alice?”
“Perfectly charming as it should be with anything a man does with his daughter.” I say but I know I sound aloof, I am always aloof vocally, call it a natural defense if you must. “We had a good time though, I might have learned a little too much about my son, but, it was charming.”
“I believe Quin will want you to say Alice is your future daughter-in-law.” Alle reminded me, but honestly, I don’t care. Quin can groan about it, but to me a child is a child and I am firm on this.
But for Alle I just nod and continue to speak. “Sadly the festival wasn’t to my taste, nothing good to eat and I’m not so fond of… people in general.”
“That is hardly a surprise.” Reaching into the bag I watch her pull out a bottle and examine it. “You know, if these had been broken they would make beautiful sea glass pieces later on. That’s a future idea for yourself, you’ll be able to see the reaping of your seeds if you do that.”
I need to ignore the mention of my immortality, and instead do what I always do, divert. Maybe many don’t notice this, but I am a master of diverting conversation. It’s an old habit I picked up and use, often. “Do you like sea glass? It can’t be common in Silverpine.”
“It wasn’t.” She said her smile small, and I know I have unlocked a door to some beautiful memory she had. “My Father had made my mother a necklace of sea glass. It wasn’t something opulent like other noble ladies had, but, it was beautiful.. She was buried with it.”
There are times I see through her wall, that Gilnean wall of strength and fortitude, and I see the woman inside. Maybe others see this woman as a strong, unmovable force, but I have see the young scared noblewoman. The little girl who was given impossible choices to make and survived them.
“It sounds lovely… Maybe I can acquire you something of the same make?”
Her eyebrows move slowly as she thinks, what would that mean for us? I have made her a ring once for her protection, but now, a piece, just so she can have a piece? That’s a line and I know we’re reaching something that I have been wanting to ask.
“How long have we known each other Anthion?” Her even saying my name draws up a shiver.
It takes me a moment to calculate it. “A little over a year and a half, why?”
“How long has it been since… we told each other how we felt?”
Oh yes, not even a month since we admitted it that she finally puts together some small pieces. “Less that a month my Dear.”
“What does that mean then?” She put the bottle down and looked up to me. I know we are strange, there is nothing about out relationship that should be ‘normal’, but here we are.
My tongue lightly wets the seal of my lips, not wanting to appear threatening, I slowly hold a hand out to her. “Normally, when people admit such things, and there is nothing to stop them, they normally, court.”
Court. I have hated that word since I was a child. It meant escorts and family having to negotiate over what we can and can’t do. All of those things nobles have to worry about, all those things I thought I left behind when I died. Alle and I are not normal people. She’s a wild beautiful thing, and I am no longer beholden to my races ridged traditions.
“Court, is a very formal term.” Alle said, taking one small step away from me. The distance was easily felt and I wonder if I have stepped over one of her unseen lines. “But the term, boyfriend and girlfriend is… immature. I’m too old to be called a ‘girl’ anymore, and I doubt you want anything as juvinaile as that.”
She didn’t want- My mind had been rubber banded and I felt the world spin around me. “Are you saying, that, you do want to court me?”
The wait was like everything froze. Maybe she didn’t know what she was saying, maybe I was reading between the lines. Her eyes flashed up to me and those lips of hers pulled in as she though.
“Did we not admit we…” She stopped, and I suspect that it is hard to say it again in a moment like this. A flush was rising to her cheeks as he pushed through what she wanted to say. “love one another? That, as you said, means we should, court.”
Oh I adore how strained she is. This is probably the hardest thing she has ever had to do and I am as always, in awed of her resolve. “I had more wanted to inform you what is normal, and… you deserve better than normal.” I stopped facing her head on. “Lady Beithioch,” I said dusting the front of my shirt. “May I court you?” This was the only way to truly play this hand we’ve been dealt. Forever I will be asking her for permission, and I am happy to do that. She deserves to pick, she deserves to have a proper moment of someone asking her this. So again I hold my hand out to her, and this time her warm hand rested over mind.
Her heart beat is easy for me to hear, the thundering shuddering beats were almost all I could hear. How much strength does it take to admit this? There is no way to quantify but I can say the outcome is, magical. “Yes.” She said finally, the strength returning to her voice. “But give we aren’t normal, I never want to be called girlfriend. Your Lady, if you must.”
“My Lady.” I said a smile growing on my face and I know I can’t help but show my teeth. Others would be afraid of my fangs, but this is just one of us smiling at the other. Both of us finding the one thing we’ve been trying to find. Where is our balance, and what makes us, us. “I am more than overjoyed to agree with your terms.”
Lifting her hand up I press my lips to her knuckles and hear a small intake of breath. The cold alone of my lips remind us both of how off we are, but right now, I don’t care. She’s the noblewoman with the heart of the wild in her, and I’m an undead monster who’s attempting… some form of life.
“You do know that this means all of our previous contract of friendship needs to be renegotiated.”
If I ever die, this is what I will remember in any future life. This damn woman and her ability to cut me down from a high point and into a place where I know she’s always thinking one step ahead of where I have been plotting.
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