Leo

[eden-kissinger-deactivated20140]

I think the harvest New Moon feast is my favorite

There’s something entirely wicked hanging in the air.

[leo-windsgate]

You fancy wicked tales, boy?  

[lyricunsung]

Scholar. I am no lady.

Certainly not you. What does a man who thrives off his own beauty know of more academic pursuits? Not much I’d guess. Don’t waste my time pretending to be a man of more than one side.

[leo-windsgate]

Can one not be a lady and a scholar?

I've seen the moon times and times before, always marveled at the silver beauty, I wonder have I ever thought of the darkness that it hides. All the things are two, my lady scholar. Hath not the coin two sides? Hath not the fool most wisdom? Can't the slave a be a prince as well?

[lyricunsung]

So you keep saying…and saying, and saying. 

Tell me, do you have anything of substance to impart, or do you simply chatter on and on about how wonderful you think you are.

[leo-windsgate]

Well, my lady if you'd require substance, first maybe you ought to inquire what are you interested in? One can not give answer to questions that were never asked.

[love-the-eyes]

"I might." She rearranged her features to appear perfectly serious, though she couldn’t - or didn’t - force the smile from the corner’s of her lips entirely. Silence, for a moment. Awkward and uncomfortable, both of which Ruby detested. With a sigh, she sat back, lifting the dress up and slinging it over her shoulder before tucking the needle into her own gown. "Come on. I’m hungry, and I refuse to wait until someone delegates my own meal times to eat."

[leo-windsgate]

"So you choose to delegate mine instead?" He smiled, although some part of him wished he could say something more. Apologise, though that might just seem foolish to her again. Leo grimaced, maybe he was indeed the fool she said him to be. He groaned quietly as he followed her. 

[love-the-eyes]

She laughed openly, rather than offering another comment. He sounded so pleased to know how useless he was, and it was too good of a thought to counter it. ”Or perhaps I’m just used to the cold.” She never shook. The cold did not get to her. And soon enough, it won’t get to him either if there was any sense in his brain. ”What? Why are you sorry?” Her confusion, at least, was genuine. Ruby was taken aback by his sudden sincerity and sat forward. “You don’t have a choice about your own bastard children if you don’t care to gamble with spells and witches. Why should you apologize to me?”

[leo-windsgate]

"Do you dislike the warmth?" Leo chuckled. As she sat forward, he blinked startled, Ruby seemed confused, and he wondered if his words would anger her, upset her or hurt her, and which of the three was the option that he didn't want. He opened and closed his mouth, confused, Leo thought that she'd want children of her own. At least she said it wasn't her choice. "It was just a fool talk, mistress." 

[love-the-eyes]

"Men as a whole do nothing but earn me gold - I would think we’ve covered that by now. Please, my fool, sweet and silly fool. Do not start thinking you’re of any import to me." Nothing more than good company, of course, as she beat back his words again and again. Ruby hardly knew how to admit she enjoyed being around someone who was not entirely dependent on her or looked to her for guidance. Rettie was easy, Rettie sought her out. And, at any rate, boys will be boys and boys will be stupid. She laughed at the thought and laughed at his words, mocking him. "My, what big words you speak! Are you trying to make me kind? It won’t work, dear fool, I’ve seen nothing of spring for the past fourteen years and yet there still seems to be no warmth but that which you brag comes from yourself."

"Could they? Would you want to give it up forever, though? Certainly I wouldn’t, but then again I never had a say in the matter." Ruby would only realize what she had said much later and what it meant. At the moment, she only shrugged off his question. Something he could take, how foolish.

[leo-windsgate]

 “Of course you have no use for me. I cannot give you gold for your backside.” That was entirely untrue, but Leo laughed. He laughed with her even if she was laughing at him, and mockery filled her words. He couldn’t deny that her company was one that he was starting to feel warm in. The prince wondered what would’ve happened if he saw her in the palace, if she was one of the servant girls. He’d never look at her.  “True.” He agreed. “But I don’t see you shivering so you must be enjoying my warmth. Oh, I wouldn’t want to turn you to be kind, my beautiful mistress that might cause you to do things that you’d never want to admit to another soul. You’d want to share your food with useless foolish boys. We couldn’t have that.”Her words shut him up, Leo glanced at her. “I didn’t -- ” He felt ashamed again, speaking without thinking. “I just don’t father children out of wedlock. I didn’t mean – I’m sorry.” 

[thequiethuntsman]

...excuse me.

[thequiethuntsman]

"So… there is a young woman here called Ruby? I— No, don’t call on her. I doubt she… would wish to see me. I just… I was merely curious."

[leo-windsgate]

"Are you sure? Seems to me that you know her. Why wouldn't she want to see you? You hardly seem like the type to do something unforgivable to a woman." Then again. 

[thequiethuntsman]

...excuse me.

[thequiethuntsman]

"I… I don’t think so." Adrian ground his teeth, disliking the term ‘boy’. "I was merely… passing through."

Adrian began to turn and walk away, but hesitated. In his mind, he knew what the young male slave would think of him, of what rumours he could spread around town… but he was not afraid of town gossip.

"Do you…" He began, turning back towards the other young man. "Do you know if there’s a girl here— that is… a young woman, who… who goes by the name Ruby?"

[leo-windsgate]

"Well, if you change your mind." Leo smiled even brighter, entertainment wasn't something often found, so he took it as it came. Ready to see the man turn his back on the place, the prince was ready to go back to his previous doings, when the other turned around once again. He was almost sure that he'd ask how much the girls cost, or something that he'd laugh at, instead he was asking for Ruby. "A lot of the girls in there are young women." Leo brushed his hands into the fabric of his pants. "There might, what you need of her?" He realised that was too personal of a question. "I can call on her, if you wish?"

[lyricunsung]

Gods above, you simply do not stop talking. Your looks are average, so please do stop inflating your ego with such talk.

[leo-windsgate]

What I lack in looks I make up with charm and wits. No need to call upon the Gods, surely they have more important dealings than that.

[thequiethuntsman]

...excuse me.

[thequiethuntsman]

"Sorry, I was just… passing through." Adrian said, although his eyes decided him, glancing up at the whorehouse.

[leo-windsgate]

Oh,you mean you wouldn't want to stop? I'm sure the girls could find it in themselves to entertain you, boy, for the right price surely. 

[thequiethuntsman]

...excuse me.

[leo-windsgate]

Well what do you know, someone with manners around here. I can not believe my ears.

[love-the-eyes]

"Ha! I’ve no doubt to that, but I’ll let you know - I don’t want to share you. I like having a plaything, and if I shared you with someone else, they might break you. Can’t have a man without a cock, you see, and some of the girls like knives a little too much." They weren’t. Ruby made sure to keep women like that as far away from her and the people she did not completely despise, and the knives were kept away from them. But she could still say it, if not to scare him a bit. His words stung her, not because he was wrong, but because she had once thought the same thing. Her sister had once told her the same thing when they were girls, hadn’t they? But there were many things she would never find again, and, sooner or later, he would know that, too. She laughed, though just a bit bitterly. “You’re like a child. A hopeful, innocent,foolish child. How many things your heart must bleed for, I wonder whether they deserve them or not.”

"You haven’t been here a whole nine months, my fool. Ask me again when you have."

[leo-windsgate]

Leo glared at her with her words, still didn't find the idea of being talked about like he was an object too entertaining, but she was trying to scare him, that much he could figure out on his own, her word of bastard children and him being parted from his cock. "Is a man just a cock to you, my mistress? Have I no other value than that?" He snarked back. The prince sighed, she thought him a boy, not a man, even more a child not even a male, smiling Leo looked at her. "My heart it bleeds, it pains, it beats and suffers. For you too, you see. Because denying one part means you don't have your sight fully there. It means you see the boy and not the man, and the winter absent the promise for a spring. You call me foolish, mistress, perhaps I am, I admit it so."

"I can't -- " He started closing off his mouth. "Witches could take care of that, cant' they? About having children? Surely there is something that I can take."

[love-the-eyes]

Shame >> Ruby & Leo

[love-the-eyes]

When she was hurt Ruby isolated herself. It didn’t’ matter if it was physically or emotionally. She kept people away so they did not pity her or see that she was not all she appeared to be. Ruby wanted to be untouchable, unbreakable, unreachable. How could she be that if they saw her when she was like this? Then again, Ruby already knew the girls gossiped about her, ruined her name and loathed her. It was by her own denial that she thought they looked up to her. Rettie was the only one who stayed loyal after the first few months.

His fingers against her cheek were greeted with a violent flinch. She was used to only two kinds of physical contact, and when it was not sex, it was pain. For someone to be gentle with her was to become foreign and unknown. She watched him with fear in her eyes as he said gentle things to her, spoke quietly. Ruby relaxed enough to go back to her original position, but she still found it hard to meet his eyes. Even if he could not see her own, it was the very idea of the act itself that seemed to be impossible.

It occurred to her that she could do a number of things to the man who reached for her so often by now. She could push him away, she could pull him close. She wondered if he would judge her if she leaned into him and hid from the world for just a moment, the way she used her veil to hide her now. Ruby knew him better than to suspect he was simply here for the gossip - or at least she’d like to think so. Doubtless that countless other slaves would, but she still found it hard to believe he was here simply because he wanted to be. 

Gods knew she wanted to fall apart right now, or even just to find the strength to go to her own bed and sleep. Whips, she could take. Those was easy. But not the threat of being thrown out - that alone hit her deeper than anything else, but her stupidity for forgetting it was an option left it’s mark as well. But she couldn’t let it show, not here, not in front of him. She said the only thing she could think of to say, quietly and not at all herself, and did not pull away when he wrapped his fingers around hers a second time. “You’re warm.”

[leo-windsgate]

She hissed and feared his touch as if it was the one that had put the bruises on her skin, bruises that looked like they shouldn't belong on her skin. But she didn’t push him away, Gods knew she could as easily take her pains on him, if she wished it so.

“Are not all foolish summer children warm?” He asked, glad that she didn’t push his hand away again, trying to escape his touch. He didn’t move, just held her, not wanting to scare her, so he just was there, present and silent not judging, though he could’ve been. Seeing the cracks in her armor that she donned on herself. He could’ve used his words as sharp as a knife and hurt her, should this had happened a few weeks ago, perhaps he would’ve. In his own vengeful childish notions believing that he deserved to see her hurt. But now he didn’t. He didn’t want any of that. Some part of him had grown into something more. Some part of him considered her – a friend. A strange friend, but he was a prince turned whore, he’d wasn’t supposed to have proper friendships. They were people that weren’t allowed to have anything normal, whether a whore, or a prince. So for now he just wanted to warm her fingers with his own. To enjoy how small and delicate her hand seemed between his, almost deceivingly so, but he knew that it wasn’t a gentle hand, one that didn’t know what work meant,  it was the kind of hand that knew wounds upon the ends of her fingertips,  had them heal and the skin bore memories of past that wasn’t gentle. It was the kind of hand that deserved to be kissed the most.

“Would you let me escort you to your room, Ruby?” He still asked quietly a gentle whisper, small smile on his lips as he knew she’d find it ridiculous that he worded it like that.

[love-the-eyes]

She sighed, mocking the sighs and smiles of a woman in love. “Such an optimist.” In a second, her tone returned to normal, as did her smirk. “Don’t let the girls hear about that. Either they’ll fall in love with you or start taking bets on how long it takes to rip it out of you.” She did note the way his expression differed from the others, but chose not to entertain the thought. If it was a pressing matter, he’d voice his concerns. “My heart,” Ruby explained simply, “was frozen over by Eira’s cruel and and so I ripped it out myself and lost it in the snow.”

"Well, yes, and that is why there is a fire going in every room." Ruby gestured to the hearth as though it was the warmth they spoke about. It certainly could have been, considering he had failed to give a proper definition.

She snorted. “I meant that you’d be just as cold and cruel as I. Well, that and the likely father of at least fifteen bastards - one for every year and a second on the ten-year anniversary of you coming here. That’s really quite barren for a whore, to tell you the truth, so I am disappointed with the sheer lack of scandals I’ll be able to blame on you.”

[leo-windsgate]

"I'll be sure not to." He mused shoulders shrugging as he hid the smirk on his lips into the dips of his fingers, knees folded underneath his chin. "Surely  you wouldn't want to share your ownership over me with others. And it wouldn't be the first time for women to strive for my heart, with no success in the task." Leo found that thought entertaining. He was a prince, that back home every woman sighed and oohed upon, and here he was in a whorehouse wanted by none. His wealth made up for most of his charm it seemed, that and the tittle of a princess that would come with his marriage. The smile on his lips died as she spoke of her own heart. "Nothing remains forever lost, Mistress."

"You seem entertained at the thought of the children I would father, I managed to make it thus far not fathering any bastards, my lady. Any children of mine would know their father. And I hardly think it would be women that would wish me for the nights." He added clearing his throat, he'd learn by now not to oppose it. Could he whine, when she did not, could he color his pains greater than hers? "My heart, my mistress, my sweet cruel mistress, would be just as yours." Leo hummed again, hiding the smile on his lips inside his fingers. His heart would always be fire. 

[love-the-eyes]

"Well, there is the organ that keeps you beating, but that’s just a heart. I’m talking about a heart. The things witches rip out of your body when you’ve nothing left to live for, the thing that makes you who you are. Surely a romantic such as yourself would understand the difference.” Ruby spoke with her hands a bit, now that she was in such a casual mood. She was still trying to keep herself from enjoying herself - or at least admitting it - but it was hard. This was…fun. To say the least. She laughed sharply. "What need have I for warmth, my foolish boy? You may have it now, but what will happen after a year, hm? I wonder if you’d be anything like me. Though not half as beautiful, I’m sure."

[leo-windsgate]

"There is always something to live for." He added to her words, looking trough the window, Leo let his chin rest on his knuckles. "And your heard was it ripped by a witch then? Or do you just fancy it so?" The prince smirks, but it's a tired smile that graces his lips. "Everyone has need for warmth." Wasn't it so? Didn't every living creature strive to find some warm spot for itself, in the winter didn't the fox curl around itself and poke its nose under its tail? "No, surely not half as beautiful as you. Like you, mistress and what would that be? Would I sneak my food on the lesser slaves? Deny the existence of my heart?" Leo chuckled then, smile still there on his lips. "Maybe so, maybe so."

[love-the-eyes]

Shame >> Ruby & Leo

[love-the-eyes]

"Have we forgotten about the black ice that runs in my veins?” she snapped, willing the fact that it existed there to be enough reason. Willing that to make her cold so she did not have to lie, or at least numb her heart that was not so buried as she liked it to be. “Fourteen years a whore might freeze even the warmest of souls. Doesn’t matter if there’s a fire going.” She sounded bitter. Ruby hated bitterness in all walks of life, from food to how someone acted, but then again, she hated comfort as well. Her world was night, harsh and cold and bitter, and she did not know what to do when a pinprick of light came her way but to protect it and care for it. That did not mean it could care for her.

Rettie, she guarded fiercely and protectively, but she was a child, still. Innocent to a point and sweet. Girls like her were a rarity. And this one, he was, well…obedient. He did not disobey her, and let her keep her own pathetic illusions of power. And she could not deny at this point, they were pathetic. Who was she to think that she could rule over anything, even this whore house? She was bold, angry, self centered…interrupting her own thoughts, she looked up to Leo.

Why was he here? Even the simplest of slaves had learned to leave her be after she had been punished. Whether the scars on her back had been reopened by a whip or bruises colored her colorless skin, they knew to leave her to walk to wherever she would huddle to recover and gossip about it only after she was out of earshot. None had been so kind or cruel as to approach her after. She was too exhausted to compose herself and smirk, or even clench her jaw and sneer. And it left her sounding defeated and vulnerable - two things she loathed to be but could not deny she was. “Why are you here, summer child? Did your mother never warn you about the wretched winter women who are cruel and vain and did nothing but cause misery and pain for everyone around them?”

[leo-windsgate]

“No.” His reply simple accompanied only with a shrug. “My mother only warned me to stray away from women that burn me with eyes as hot as summer day, feverish skin burns to the touch, she said.” He watched her quietly, she went from snapping to being quiet and Leo felt strange to see her like this, to see her look smaller than usual, fragile than usual.  Fingers brushed around her cheek, and he smiled. “You, mistress, are cool to the touch.” And it soothed that heated skin of his just fine, lukewarm feeling, but it was enough. “And bring no pain on my skin.” Tough she could if she wanted to, Leo had to remind himself, she could if she wanted to, but she didn’t instead she took care of him. In her own strange way she took care of him. Silently, not demanding, and perhaps she wanted it to stay hidden, he mused, and sometimes she’d tell him things that he would not understand just yet, that would make sense much later. Things that she knew and he didn’t and it took the prince some time to realize that she didn’t have to know the things he was taught to survive, she didn’t have to know how to sing and play the harp like the high born ladies to know how to stay strong. His skills were useless to her, and her wit was sharpened by tools much stronger than his.  She was bold, his mistress, like a flower in the winter, leaves frozen, yet it still stubbornly blossomed. She was angry, with lips like ruby. She found strength inside herself.

But he hated her, and she was cold black ice runs in her veins.

He did, that he did, it didn’t stop him from reaching for her hand again. Leo always somehow mimicked her moods like a mirror, when she was angry so was he, and when she was quiet so was he. And now when she was defeated, his fingers curled around her own. “I’m here because I want to.”

[lyricunsung]

…fascinating. 

[leo-windsgate]

Hardly fascinating, my lady. Should you find yourself robbed of the opportunity to express yourself you'd find that it's something that you have the urge to do in most occasions. As for my mistress that's hardly fascinating either, women tend to disagree with men on basis of gender alone. And she most stubborn of them all. And my good looks are a subject I think all would agree upon, however I would color them as fascinating, my sister often envied the color of my eyes and my lashes, even if her own were practically the same, much darker so.