( the smugness is what makes her laugh again, turning her face between his pillow and his shoulder.
she had decided to linger before she had set her foot upon the bottom-most stair of the tower; julius not unaware of this possible outcome, and the hour (having left just early enough) not yet so late that she thinks he will be sleeping. he is like her, that way—working late, taking it to bed. she means to speak with him before she sleeps, but to stay, yes.
the shape of what's changed will take time to see, entirely. how easy it feels is seductive. an echo of what might have been all with julius if she hadn't inadvertently given him an ultimatum in its place; something that she can be at ease with mostly because of the fact that she did. )
I would hear your opinion, ( she tells him, magnanimous, sparkling. )
['Is that so,' says the rise of his eyebrows and the tip of his chin.]
Then my opinion is that I've put very little effort into making this room comfortable. But the color of the bedclothes suits you, so you may as well stay.
[The slow, spreading line of his grin is close in the low light.]
( she is still smiling back at him when she presses the back of her knuckles to his jaw, a little gesture of fondness that she doesn't think before making. )
Commander, ( she says, very seriously, ) I shall take that under advisement.
( there is no particular intent to it, when she kisses him. it is simply pleasant to do so. )
[For a short while, it can be just that - pleasant and easy, her narrowness an appealing shape pressed across his forearms and into his hands and his weight settled over all of it. It's only once the sweat starts to go stale and his leg begins to go pin and needles prickling that he finally makes the effort required to untangle himself from her with a last grumbling groan of effort. A hollow thunk greets him as he shifts to lay alongside her. Some squirming produces a book from under his hip and with a grunt, Flint frisbees it toward the foot of the bed.]
Do you want a drink? [he asks her. His spare hand is loose at her hip, the absent stroke of knuckles across her skin.]
( at first her answer is just a pleased hum, her mind somewhere else, and then, )
My word, yes.
( even as her eyes track movement, absent and instinctive and probably at least slightly curious as to what title james flint takes to bed with him and then imprints on his own arse. )
Those evenings are so much duller now I do not drink at them.
( a little; he had seen wine in her hand, had seen her drink it. she had tasted it, certainly, enough to taste of it, but that is not drinking. she is not young and horny and impatient, but she doesn't look quite old enough for the wry nostalgia of her look, either. remember when i was fun, etc, except he doesn't, and anyway, this is fun.
is it that she's older than she looks or that her life was harder; a little of both. )
[Sounds like Fuck. The prospect of being trapped in a circle of miscellaneous minor nobility without a drink in his hand isn't something he would have been able to stomach in Tevinter, much less some bullshit party in Hightown.
It takes a concentrated effort to kick his leg out farther beyond the edge of the bed and swing himself to a sitting position - his hand at her knee, squeezing briefly - and then sway upright. Stay Put, he doesn't say.
He is gone for only a handful of minutes before padding back in possession of two stoneware cups and a pitcher. With the edge of the mattress giving under his weight, he passes along one of the cups and bends to fetch the cloth from his shaving kit.]
If that's not to your taste, we can break into the Scouting office. Yseult is a little more selective.
(oh, for the good stuff, the quirk of her mouth says for her, but what she actually admits aloud as she pushes herself up against his pillows, drawing her hair over one shoulder and contemplating how motivated she is to move further than that to clean herself up— )
My tastes are less particular than they once were. ( and certainly less extravagant, for all that she still has the palate to appreciate the difference between something cheap and lethal and something that was, at some point, intended for humans to enjoy consuming. ) Tempting as it is to send you marching in there as you are.
( they could break into the scouting office wearing literally any clothes, but is that as fun to imagine as sneaking around stark bollocking naked. no. it isn't. her hand had drifted over his back when he'd first sat up, and when he sits again it falls to his thigh, less intent than merely inclined to be touching him when the option is before her.
he leans for the cloth; she takes over pouring the drinks, sniffing the pitcher but finding it unobjectionable. it is a generous pour. )
[The mental image that draws up is ridiculous enough to make him snort as he straightens, shaking out the cloth.]
Now there is something worth being berated around the war table for.
[There is something simple in it—not languid, but uncomplicated—about how he leans back across her thigh, nudges open the angle of her knee and presses the soft cloth between her legs. The full palm of his hand against her, warm and sure.]
( probably it is terrorism of the highest order that she pull her blonde curls straight with one hand, lazy, and precisely as she shifts to accommodate the press of his hand and cloth and to encourage the slide out of her of the mess they made,
in her very best impression of thranduil's occasional affect of his wife's orlesian accent, ) Commander Flint, are you taking your role seriously?
( she hasn't studied yseult enough yet to do an immediately recognisable impression. )
[The look he gives her is sharp with surprise, which is different from laughing but just as clear. He scoffs, side warm across the line of her leg as he works the cloth over her.]
You sound like Rutyer.
[Going off the content alone; the Provost rarely insinuates that he isn't doing his job.]
Rutyer sounds like my husband, ( she says, dry, which doesn't sound as if she means it for a compliment, entirely. that flint reminded her of him more is—
neither here nor there. she stretches out her leg against him, toes curling in the bedding, drinking from her cup. it's been a long time since she wore her wedding ring.
that she doesn't call him the ambassador is the truest gauge of her ease in this moment and with him, specifically. )
[is his automatic reply, thoughtless in the way that his hands aren't. It's only in the beat afterward that he glances up at her with a quirk of the eyebrows which says, In relatively broad strokes, if you'd prefer I not call your husband names. Even then, it's a brief consideration disposed in favor of inner thighs.
When he's finished, the soft cloth is folded and jettisoned off the edge of the bed.]
( when he's finished, she puts a cup in his hands and holds her own around them, briefly. she might have kissed him again, but for the disinclination for it to look too much like being overly warmed by calling her husband names.
even if that is precisely what's happened. especially. )
I found marriage to be a most educational experience.
( one that is in the past now, either way. marius is a widower, and petrana not the woman she had been. and then, much as she had said on the matter of her origins, )
[She is not the first woman in the world to be relieved by her husband's absence. But,]
That's a shame.
[because it is. He takes a drink, his other hand settling back to the inside of her thigh where he might press small circles with his thumb above her knee.]
a shame; a relief. she tips her head, thoughtful, above her own cup. )
I had never been with a man but my husband, all of my life, ( is what she says, contemplative. ) If I had considered it, there was the small matter of the flaming sword with which to contend; he would not have sent me with a light heart to another man's bed, or entertained inviting anyone into ours.
( with some amusement— ) I don't know that my Enchanter had thought much of fidelity until I assumed, that following morning, that he did not. I meant it for—oh, I don't know.
( a tilt of her hand. )
To enjoy something of my own. I have enjoyed it some time, now, I find I mean to continue.
[There is the cup to contend with, the line of his mouth obscured both by it and the cast shadow of his hand. But there is something that softens in the rest of his face that must coordinate with at least the impulse of a smile - a series of small wrinkles forming, an easiness in the press of his thumb at her skin. Looks like approval, but then again it would. He's presently benefitting from their mutual understanding.]
Quite the workable arrangement.
[(If it feels a little like opening an unfamiliar book and discovering straightaway some familiar idea, he decides not to be troubled by it. It's a good thing, not a bitter one.)]
( her lissome shrug is not unpleasant to look at— )
That it be so has been—academic. Prior to this night.
( it is plain, rather than pointed; disinclined to imbue her decision to ride james flint like she stole him with fairy-story meaning, but honest that if they have been maturely self-congratulatory in their love affair (and, occasionally: they have) it has up til now been only for how well they have proceeded together.
she doesn't doubt that the conversation and conversations they have had, frankly honest with one another, will hold up to reality. it's merely that a day ago, she might have thought it wouldn't ever need to. )
To be someone's partner and not their treasured possession, I think that is very valuable.
[To his credit, his pause is very small and his surprise relegated to the slight tip of his head and the set of his fingers on her skin. Maybe it is occurring to him that there are parts of this which may reveal themselves to be slightly more complicated than 'Enchanter Julius understands'; mostly, he is doing the math. It's quite the education to have been split between two men.
(Enchanter Julius' quality of life indeed.)]
I've found it makes a difference, [he says absently] to the quality of what two people together can accomplish. It matters to have equal ownership of a thing. —If that's something you care for.
[added, but perfunctory like he knows that it is; like he can't imagine how it wouldn't be a consideration.]
( it is, but she can imagine very easily how it mightn't be for someone. for marius, who would object to having it said of him, himself his own blindspot.
she rests her fingertips lightly over his knuckles; companionable without pressing enough to interfere with the way he touches her. comfortable. whatever this is, is theirs and not something one has stolen of the other. )
[It could be a sly joke, something to emphasize by squeezing her thigh. But it's not. It's the sort of question asked in private, yes, but one he might have still asked after their walk around the gallery even if they'd kept all their clothes on. What do you want, Madame de Cedoux?
(Which causes is he actually meant to be forming some sympathy for?)]
A great deal, ( she says, as if she might speak no more of it, and then frankly: ) Julius should be his father's heir by right. I want that bannorn, but—
( a hum. )
I am considering our options, at present. You, among others, have given me much to think on.
( nevarra. marcus's cherished dream of mage independence being mages, independent. riftwatch's back and forth with the chantry, with the inquisition, with itself. after a moment, )
I have lived all my life in the belief that it is the duty of those with the power to act to do so. I take that very seriously, and I wish to ensure that among those with that power who do not believe the same, I will be there. And I might change that.
There is a charming saying ( is there ) which I became acquainted with early days upon the road, and I believe if I am recalling it correctly, it is that there is more than one way to skin a cat.
( and there is probably more than one reason why she isn't in his office; most of the more significant coming before the weight of his hand upon her thigh and the ease of their conversation in his bed. )
Perhaps I am simply more comfortable with something more familiar to me.
( and if he might have before she said so assumed byerly rutyer to be more her comfort zone than he is, she won't be surprised. )
My eldest was born in a brothel under mercenary guard, ( she says, mild as a lamb. ) I grant you, there is a distinction to be made between a pirate captain and such a commander, but I daresay that the men upon whom I relied for the better part of my reign would be more at ease in your company than in Ambassador Rutyer's.
( as is she. )
In any event, I am a diplomat. It is natural to work alongside my colleagues, but it is foolishness to think I need not look beyond that.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
she had decided to linger before she had set her foot upon the bottom-most stair of the tower; julius not unaware of this possible outcome, and the hour (having left just early enough) not yet so late that she thinks he will be sleeping. he is like her, that way—working late, taking it to bed. she means to speak with him before she sleeps, but to stay, yes.
the shape of what's changed will take time to see, entirely. how easy it feels is seductive. an echo of what might have been all with julius if she hadn't inadvertently given him an ultimatum in its place; something that she can be at ease with mostly because of the fact that she did. )
I would hear your opinion, ( she tells him, magnanimous, sparkling. )
no subject
Then my opinion is that I've put very little effort into making this room comfortable. But the color of the bedclothes suits you, so you may as well stay.
[The slow, spreading line of his grin is close in the low light.]
no subject
Commander, ( she says, very seriously, ) I shall take that under advisement.
( there is no particular intent to it, when she kisses him. it is simply pleasant to do so. )
no subject
Do you want a drink? [he asks her. His spare hand is loose at her hip, the absent stroke of knuckles across her skin.]
no subject
My word, yes.
( even as her eyes track movement, absent and instinctive and probably at least slightly curious as to what title james flint takes to bed with him and then imprints on his own arse. )
Those evenings are so much duller now I do not drink at them.
( a little; he had seen wine in her hand, had seen her drink it. she had tasted it, certainly, enough to taste of it, but that is not drinking. she is not young and horny and impatient, but she doesn't look quite old enough for the wry nostalgia of her look, either. remember when i was fun, etc, except he doesn't, and anyway, this is fun.
is it that she's older than she looks or that her life was harder; a little of both. )
no subject
[Sounds like Fuck. The prospect of being trapped in a circle of miscellaneous minor nobility without a drink in his hand isn't something he would have been able to stomach in Tevinter, much less some bullshit party in Hightown.
It takes a concentrated effort to kick his leg out farther beyond the edge of the bed and swing himself to a sitting position - his hand at her knee, squeezing briefly - and then sway upright. Stay Put, he doesn't say.
He is gone for only a handful of minutes before padding back in possession of two stoneware cups and a pitcher. With the edge of the mattress giving under his weight, he passes along one of the cups and bends to fetch the cloth from his shaving kit.]
If that's not to your taste, we can break into the Scouting office. Yseult is a little more selective.
no subject
My tastes are less particular than they once were. ( and certainly less extravagant, for all that she still has the palate to appreciate the difference between something cheap and lethal and something that was, at some point, intended for humans to enjoy consuming. ) Tempting as it is to send you marching in there as you are.
( they could break into the scouting office wearing literally any clothes, but is that as fun to imagine as sneaking around stark bollocking naked. no. it isn't. her hand had drifted over his back when he'd first sat up, and when he sits again it falls to his thigh, less intent than merely inclined to be touching him when the option is before her.
he leans for the cloth; she takes over pouring the drinks, sniffing the pitcher but finding it unobjectionable. it is a generous pour. )
no subject
Now there is something worth being berated around the war table for.
[There is something simple in it—not languid, but uncomplicated—about how he leans back across her thigh, nudges open the angle of her knee and presses the soft cloth between her legs. The full palm of his hand against her, warm and sure.]
no subject
in her very best impression of thranduil's occasional affect of his wife's orlesian accent, ) Commander Flint, are you taking your role seriously?
( she hasn't studied yseult enough yet to do an immediately recognisable impression. )
no subject
You sound like Rutyer.
[Going off the content alone; the Provost rarely insinuates that he isn't doing his job.]
no subject
neither here nor there. she stretches out her leg against him, toes curling in the bedding, drinking from her cup. it's been a long time since she wore her wedding ring.
that she doesn't call him the ambassador is the truest gauge of her ease in this moment and with him, specifically. )
no subject
[is his automatic reply, thoughtless in the way that his hands aren't. It's only in the beat afterward that he glances up at her with a quirk of the eyebrows which says, In relatively broad strokes, if you'd prefer I not call your husband names. Even then, it's a brief consideration disposed in favor of inner thighs.
When he's finished, the soft cloth is folded and jettisoned off the edge of the bed.]
no subject
even if that is precisely what's happened. especially. )
I found marriage to be a most educational experience.
( one that is in the past now, either way. marius is a widower, and petrana not the woman she had been. and then, much as she had said on the matter of her origins, )
I don't miss it.
no subject
That's a shame.
[because it is. He takes a drink, his other hand settling back to the inside of her thigh where he might press small circles with his thumb above her knee.]
I imagine your Enchanter is a relief.
no subject
a shame; a relief. she tips her head, thoughtful, above her own cup. )
I had never been with a man but my husband, all of my life, ( is what she says, contemplative. ) If I had considered it, there was the small matter of the flaming sword with which to contend; he would not have sent me with a light heart to another man's bed, or entertained inviting anyone into ours.
( with some amusement— ) I don't know that my Enchanter had thought much of fidelity until I assumed, that following morning, that he did not. I meant it for—oh, I don't know.
( a tilt of her hand. )
To enjoy something of my own. I have enjoyed it some time, now, I find I mean to continue.
no subject
Quite the workable arrangement.
[(If it feels a little like opening an unfamiliar book and discovering straightaway some familiar idea, he decides not to be troubled by it. It's a good thing, not a bitter one.)]
no subject
That it be so has been—academic. Prior to this night.
( it is plain, rather than pointed; disinclined to imbue her decision to ride james flint like she stole him with fairy-story meaning, but honest that if they have been maturely self-congratulatory in their love affair (and, occasionally: they have) it has up til now been only for how well they have proceeded together.
she doesn't doubt that the conversation and conversations they have had, frankly honest with one another, will hold up to reality. it's merely that a day ago, she might have thought it wouldn't ever need to. )
To be someone's partner and not their treasured possession, I think that is very valuable.
no subject
(Enchanter Julius' quality of life indeed.)]
I've found it makes a difference, [he says absently] to the quality of what two people together can accomplish. It matters to have equal ownership of a thing. —If that's something you care for.
[added, but perfunctory like he knows that it is; like he can't imagine how it wouldn't be a consideration.]
no subject
( it is, but she can imagine very easily how it mightn't be for someone. for marius, who would object to having it said of him, himself his own blindspot.
she rests her fingertips lightly over his knuckles; companionable without pressing enough to interfere with the way he touches her. comfortable. whatever this is, is theirs and not something one has stolen of the other. )
I am incurably determined to accomplish.
no subject
[It could be a sly joke, something to emphasize by squeezing her thigh. But it's not. It's the sort of question asked in private, yes, but one he might have still asked after their walk around the gallery even if they'd kept all their clothes on. What do you want, Madame de Cedoux?
(Which causes is he actually meant to be forming some sympathy for?)]
no subject
( a hum. )
I am considering our options, at present. You, among others, have given me much to think on.
( nevarra. marcus's cherished dream of mage independence being mages, independent. riftwatch's back and forth with the chantry, with the inquisition, with itself. after a moment, )
I have lived all my life in the belief that it is the duty of those with the power to act to do so. I take that very seriously, and I wish to ensure that among those with that power who do not believe the same, I will be there. And I might change that.
no subject
Then I'm surprised you're in my office instead of Rutyer's. He seems uniquely positioned to be sympathetic to at least part of what you're after.
[And could use a solid prod to move in any direction except in a straight line drawn by Queen Anora's hand.]
no subject
( and there is probably more than one reason why she isn't in his office; most of the more significant coming before the weight of his hand upon her thigh and the ease of their conversation in his bed. )
Perhaps I am simply more comfortable with something more familiar to me.
( and if he might have before she said so assumed byerly rutyer to be more her comfort zone than he is, she won't be surprised. )
no subject
[He doesn't sound wounded.]
no subject
( as is she. )
In any event, I am a diplomat. It is natural to work alongside my colleagues, but it is foolishness to think I need not look beyond that.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)