| All Along the Watchtower |
| Summary: | Darek seeks out Sela to tell her goodbye. |
| Date: | 2 August 2012 |
| Related Logs: | The Accord with the Charltons and You Really Got Me |
| Players: |
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| A Watchtower, the Terrick Lands |
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| Its an out of use watchtower. |
| August 2, 289 |
Darek has been running for about twenty minutes, which isn't as easy as it sounds when you have to deal with the weight of a sword you're not used to and a stiff new tunic. And now he's taking a break from his errand to run some more. Good thing his knight likes to make him run, so he's just sweaty and out of breath rather than dying. Trotting up to the base of one of the empty watchtowers along the coast, he starts to circle around it, looking for the 'lady' he had been told was spending time at that location.
As Darek begins to move around the base of the watchtower, he will find the first sign of Sela by the familiar boots strewn in the overrun grasses. There is also a small satchel of what looks to be the remainder of a packed lunch. High above him, skirts flutter in a soft ocean breeze, perhaps drawing the squire's gaze upwards. He will be met with the sight of that lithe girl in an obviously commoner's dress of old, patched wool and a tattered shift. She wasn't expecting someone to be looking up her skirt. Her bare feet are finding even the smallest holds, and her fingers are digging into the side of the tower as she climbs. She has not yet realized there is a voyuer below her.
Darek spots the satchel, then almost trips over the boots. Circling around the tower a bit more, he looks up — and gets a nice flash of pale legs. Managing not to laugh aloud or make some dirty joke, he searches out a little finger-sized rock, hefting it in his hand for a moment and then chucking it up at the wall a pace or so away from the climbing girl. He should probably step back from the wall so that he can't see those lean legs, but he's totally not going to do that.
"Ow! What the fuck!" Sela declares as the stone hits the wall, startling her more than hurting her. She manages to maintain her holds, but now casts her gaze downward with a fierce glare on her face. At the sight of Darek though, it softens. "Jerk," she announces down to him before she starts to make a descent. "You could have just called out to me, you know?" She complains as she retraces her steps, making sure to secure each foothold and handhold before moving down — three points of contact. About six feet from the bottom, she pushes off the wall so she can free-drop to land on the soft grass.
Darek straightens up a bit as she curses, his eyebrows rising in what might actually be concern. When she snarks at him, however, he laughs, shaking back his hair and then crouching down to rest his hands on his knees. "But that might… have surprised you. Could've been… dangerous." Still, he watches her climb down through a curtain of hair, standing up once more as she lets go and drops down. Stepping close, he offers out his hand to utterly unnecessarily brace her arm. Despite his teasing and joking, his face is quite a bit more sober than is his usual wont.
Sela takes his offered arm, and a warm smile pulling at her lips. Perhaps she has yet to notice his sobriety, or perhaps she just wants to kiss him. She presses forward so her lips can touch his with a gentle kiss, and her fingertips run through his curls to fulfill a desire to touch. Then she pulls away, looking into those familiar brown eyes. Now she sees it. There is a small, nervous laugh fused through her words — perhaps even a tightness in her chest. "What is it… why do you look so serious?" The girl asks, perhaps a bit demandingly.
Darek lets his hand curl around her upper arm as she steps close, returning the kiss with perhaps a bit of… relief? Even when she pulls back, he smiles a little, "Sorry. I should've started with, 'it's good to see you, Blue-eyes.'" One hand reaches up to scrub at the back of his mass of hair, "I've gotta go, Sela. To Highfield. Ser Jac's been sending me running 'round to get Charltons ready." There's a little wariness about him, as if worried that she might take it badly.
"Its good to see you too," Sela says, though there is a hint of wariness in her tone. Each of his awkward gestures only builds that worry, and then he says he has to go. It is then that the personal stormcloud builds overhead, darkening her features. "Oh," she says, perhaps a little coldly. "I thought you said you had more time." There is no hiding the accusation in her tone. She steps back from him, attempting to shrug his hand off her arm. "I guess I should give you some credit, at least you didn't just sneak away without telling me."
Darek drops his hand from her arm as she 'oh's him. "I — " and he's cut off as she keeps going, "That is — " again, the accusations keep coming. He fumes, letting her finish as he regains his breath and clenches his fists in frustration. He waits a moment longer after she's done, and then snaps, "Are you done thinking the fucking worst of me yet?" He should probably keep talking, but he takes a breath there. Foolish man.
Sela narrows her eyes at him, bright blue glaring between heavy lashes. "I don't know, am I?" She snaps back angrily. "Did you already tell Mara, and Louisi, and Babbe, and Erma goodbye, too?" She snorts as she turns away from him, arms crossed at her chest. The evening sun is setting at the ocean's horizon, giving her something to stare out at that is not the fiddler and his gorgeous curls.
Darek throws up his hands in exasperation, "Fuck this. I'm puttin' off what my knight told me to do to come tell you I've gotta go to Highfield, and find out when in the hells that you might be following, and you're fucking yelling at me." Okay, so he's the one yelling now, not her. "No. I didn't tell Mara, Amerie, Louisi, or any of the others yet." He reaches out to grasp her shoulder and try to her back around to face him again, "I came to tell you, and ask you."
"I wanted to spend more time with you," Sela bellows back, her voice carrying easily in this far away place. "I wanted you to stay longer, I wanted… I wanted…" She ruffles up a bit, though at least she doesn't seem to want to shout anymore. There are tears now welling up in her eyes — angry, hot, emotional tears. "I don't want you to go," she says in a small whisper. She reaches up to brush away her tears before they fall, stubbornly forcing them away. "I haven't talked to Ser Garett yet, I don't know how long it will take."
Darek flinches just a little in the face of the bellow, and when she sputters to a teary-eyed halt, he pulls gently on her arm, trying to draw her close against his chest so he can wrap his arms around her. "Hey. I don't want to leave you here either, Blue-eyes." The unshed tears were apparently enough to keep him from shouting as well. "But I've gotta go. We're moving out in the morning." There's a pause, and he swallows hard, "Do you think it'd be good if I brought it up to him?" There's a little worry there, maybe even a touch of fear, but he still makes the offer.
Sela sinks into him as he draws her close, and she sniffles throatily as she rests into his new tunic. She breathes out a small sigh, shaking her head a bit. "No… I don't… because then he'll ask questions and try to find out why it's so important, and you know he will start asking about intentions." She sighs as she looks down at the blue tunic, giving it a small tug. "How long of a ride is it from here to Highfield?" She asks thoughtfully, bringing up a hand to wipe away the residue of tears.
Darek strokes her back lightly as she settles against him. And then she says the scary 'intentions' word, and he stiffens a bit, clearing his throat and shifting just a bit. The question lets him move past the absolute terror that tried to lock his limbs, sliding his hands down along her back until he can rest them at her hips so she can lean back enough to brush at the tunic, "I dunno, Sela." he thinks a long moment, "Maybe eight hours?" Leaning down to press a still-wary kiss onto her brow, he adds, "Might be a little long for an overnight trip."
Sela accepts the kiss to her forehead, closing her eyes. She reaches up with both hands to gently cup both sides of his cheeks. She leans back to look into his darker eyes. "I will speak to Ser Garett tomorrow morning and ask him if I can journey to Highfield, perhaps to see more of the Cape. I will convince him, Darek, I promise." Then she offers him a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry I yelled… I just… I thought you were… running away after last night." She turns a bright red flush. "That I wasn't… good."
Darek nods at the promise, offering up a bit of a smile, then stops at the blushing words, blinking in surprise, "Blue-eyes… you saw how good you were — " he stops, and revises his words with a bit of a husky laugh, "You felt how good you were. Had me poppin' real quick." There might even be a little bit of a blush there, although he does his best to laugh it off. "You think I'm gonna run away from a pretty girl who ain't just willing to give me a leg over, but eager? Even if I didn't like spendin' time with you."
Sela blossoms with a shy sort of smile. "It was really nice," she confesses. Then she brushes a curl behind her ear before she steps closer to him, looking very demure as she averts her eyes before looking up at him. "How long do you have until you have to return to your knight's task? I will take the blame if he is cross with you, but I would like to give you… a proper goodbye." There is another bright blush that turns her as red as a ripe strawberry.
Darek nods his enthusiastic agreement to her review of the event, although her sudden attack of shyness causes him to tilt his head to one side, shaking it to toss a lock of hair from his face. And then the question — and suggestion — that follows draws another husky laugh from his throat, "I don't know, Blue-eyes. I just got one more person to 'find' and tell that we're goin', and I already found him. Maybe… twenty minutes?" There's a definite hopeful sort of sound to that guess, and he only hesitates a moment before he adds, "I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get away tonight, either. There's lots to do before we leave…"
"Twenty minutes," Sela says in agreement. "I'm sure that one last person was a hard one to find too," she offers with a helpful tone. Then with a sober, confident expression, she steps forward to draw him into a kiss. This one is not as soft as their greeting had been, though it does not look to entirely consume him in desire. Her fingers slide up through his curly hair, and she draws herself up on her toes. Her fingertips hook confidently onto the edge of his belt, and she is starting to draw him back with her against the wall of the watchtower.
"Emrik's an iron-clad bitch to find." Darek meets his little thief halfway on the kiss, ducking down to meet it. His left hand goes for her hair as well, burying in it, while his right loops around her waist and pulls her close against him. She doesn't have to do more than just tug at his belt and then he's pushing her back quickly, aiming to slam his left hand into the watchtower, and then press her against it a bit more softly — although perhaps not really gently when you get right down to it. As his right hand starts to gather up material from her skirts, he tears his lips from hers to growl, "And now I get to show you the good point of skirts…"
