07-11-2019, 07:41 PM
She woke. Head cradled in her arms, hair splayed like a thick blanket of black velvet over her shoulders and cheek, but warm and content and reluctant to move. Jai’s greeting was met with a few sleepy blinks, her gaze alternating a bleary focus between his face and the low glow of light she could see but not feel as it pulsed brighter. To his quip she frowned vaguely, though didn’t rise to the bait. Not entirely. “You’re heinously cheerful for morning time.” Her tone was bland, but it was ruined by the faint tug at her lips that followed. Because he was still here. Stupid fool that he was. Stupid fool that she was. The smile never bloomed beyond a faint promise; instead she shifted enough to press a finger to her lips, though it was a gesture more indolent than concerned. Or appeared so, at least; she’d have to be made of stone not to realise how much trouble she’d be in if they were caught. Despite it, her hand curled back under her cheek. She made no attempt to get up. If it weren’t for the fact she knew she had to, her eyes might have drifted back shut, or she might have buried her head back into her arms. Or him, if he hadn’t already snuck away. Practised at that one, huh.
Reluctant to relinquish the peacefulness, Nythadri savoured the moment of ordinary – which, despite being far from ordinary, felt natural; rationalised by the bridge of time between fully awake and fully asleep, where the unreasonable made a perfect kind of sense, and right now she was content to forget context, forget everything. Just breathe in and out and exist. She watched Jai unabashed. Contemplative, like he were a puzzle as yet to make a full picture, but one she was keen to remember. The bruise on his cheek had bloomed in the night and his jaw was shadowed above the new beard. Despite having made some effort to straighten his clothes (and his jacket was draped all over the neat paperwork on her desk, she noted) he still looked dishevelled, all ragged at the edges. And his grin was infectious. Why was he smiling like that? She was amused by his good mood, all things considered; both relieved and heartened, and a little curious. I could get used to that. But would never get the chance, she reminded herself firmly, anchoring such whimsy down with realism before it swept her away. Time to wake up.
She rubbed a hand over her face as she sat up, yawning silently and sweeping messy curls out of her face and over one shoulder. Falling asleep seemed like a stupid idea now. Eyes-wide-open, willingly naive. It was the Dark One’s own luck they’d not been caught; that Elsae had kept her word, that no other had seen Jai come here, that the guards had never thought to search the silent Accepted Tower. Alongside morning the reality of it crept in like cold, but it was a dull reproach against the solid touchstone of contentment warding off panic. Beneath the cold glamour of cynicism Nythadri presented to the world hid a ruined but persistent idealist. Some risks were worth the pieces of happiness scattered like breadcrumbs from fate’s hand. Ephemeral happiness, that she accepted, but it did not mean she was not prepared to protect it.
Breakfast? A low hum of laughter left her throat as she planted bare feet on the chill floor. “They’ll skin my hide from now ‘til Tarmon Gaidon. If they catch you in here.” Which was probably close to true, certainly in sentiment, despite the amused way in which she spoke. “And I don’t even know what they would do to you.” Two could play at teasing, if her jesting was rather more ominous in tone - and steeped in a rather more serious truth. Perhaps it was in bad taste to speak so when his last transgression had cost him so much, but he would find no quarter with Nythadri. He knew she was Accepted, knew in generalised terms that it meant her affections were not for courting, but she’d already discovered in the shallows of the Aryth how little he knew of the actual rules that bound her. Add a little common sense to what he did know and he might realise she should not have let him pass the threshold last night, let alone stay, but she doubted that cohesion of thought would occur to him unless she pointed it out. She liked that about him. The recklessness of passion before thought, even if it left chaos in its wake.
Goodbye hung like the promise of cloud on a clear day, an inevitability she did not fight but neither rushed towards. It was still quiet beyond the four walls of her room; enough to justify delaying the routine that would see her out the door to another day, at least for a few more minutes. By all rights she should be urgently ushering him out and praying not to be caught in the process - for both their sakes - but reluctance deadened her limbs. Better for her sanity if she convinced herself she would not see him again, but it did not make her eager to watch him leave. Still perched on the edge of her bed, she stretched her legs out long, crossed them at the ankle, her hands loose in her lap. A smirk toyed with the edges of her lips, a playfulness that reacted to his mischievous grin. But there was something subtler beneath it; a cautious thoughtfulness, maybe even a glimmer of confusion no sooner surfaced than extinguished. It was replaced by the resolution not to question, and she felt lighter for shrugging off the past's burden. He made pancakes sound awfully enticing, and the roguishness of her look now had once preceded her hand slipping into his to be tugged through a saidin-wrought gate. Jai and temptation was a potent mix, but the seven bands of acceptedhood chained a tighter restraint in the halls of the Tower than they had in Arad Doman. She was't going to do anything else foolish. Probably.
Reluctant to relinquish the peacefulness, Nythadri savoured the moment of ordinary – which, despite being far from ordinary, felt natural; rationalised by the bridge of time between fully awake and fully asleep, where the unreasonable made a perfect kind of sense, and right now she was content to forget context, forget everything. Just breathe in and out and exist. She watched Jai unabashed. Contemplative, like he were a puzzle as yet to make a full picture, but one she was keen to remember. The bruise on his cheek had bloomed in the night and his jaw was shadowed above the new beard. Despite having made some effort to straighten his clothes (and his jacket was draped all over the neat paperwork on her desk, she noted) he still looked dishevelled, all ragged at the edges. And his grin was infectious. Why was he smiling like that? She was amused by his good mood, all things considered; both relieved and heartened, and a little curious. I could get used to that. But would never get the chance, she reminded herself firmly, anchoring such whimsy down with realism before it swept her away. Time to wake up.
She rubbed a hand over her face as she sat up, yawning silently and sweeping messy curls out of her face and over one shoulder. Falling asleep seemed like a stupid idea now. Eyes-wide-open, willingly naive. It was the Dark One’s own luck they’d not been caught; that Elsae had kept her word, that no other had seen Jai come here, that the guards had never thought to search the silent Accepted Tower. Alongside morning the reality of it crept in like cold, but it was a dull reproach against the solid touchstone of contentment warding off panic. Beneath the cold glamour of cynicism Nythadri presented to the world hid a ruined but persistent idealist. Some risks were worth the pieces of happiness scattered like breadcrumbs from fate’s hand. Ephemeral happiness, that she accepted, but it did not mean she was not prepared to protect it.
Breakfast? A low hum of laughter left her throat as she planted bare feet on the chill floor. “They’ll skin my hide from now ‘til Tarmon Gaidon. If they catch you in here.” Which was probably close to true, certainly in sentiment, despite the amused way in which she spoke. “And I don’t even know what they would do to you.” Two could play at teasing, if her jesting was rather more ominous in tone - and steeped in a rather more serious truth. Perhaps it was in bad taste to speak so when his last transgression had cost him so much, but he would find no quarter with Nythadri. He knew she was Accepted, knew in generalised terms that it meant her affections were not for courting, but she’d already discovered in the shallows of the Aryth how little he knew of the actual rules that bound her. Add a little common sense to what he did know and he might realise she should not have let him pass the threshold last night, let alone stay, but she doubted that cohesion of thought would occur to him unless she pointed it out. She liked that about him. The recklessness of passion before thought, even if it left chaos in its wake.
Goodbye hung like the promise of cloud on a clear day, an inevitability she did not fight but neither rushed towards. It was still quiet beyond the four walls of her room; enough to justify delaying the routine that would see her out the door to another day, at least for a few more minutes. By all rights she should be urgently ushering him out and praying not to be caught in the process - for both their sakes - but reluctance deadened her limbs. Better for her sanity if she convinced herself she would not see him again, but it did not make her eager to watch him leave. Still perched on the edge of her bed, she stretched her legs out long, crossed them at the ankle, her hands loose in her lap. A smirk toyed with the edges of her lips, a playfulness that reacted to his mischievous grin. But there was something subtler beneath it; a cautious thoughtfulness, maybe even a glimmer of confusion no sooner surfaced than extinguished. It was replaced by the resolution not to question, and she felt lighter for shrugging off the past's burden. He made pancakes sound awfully enticing, and the roguishness of her look now had once preceded her hand slipping into his to be tugged through a saidin-wrought gate. Jai and temptation was a potent mix, but the seven bands of acceptedhood chained a tighter restraint in the halls of the Tower than they had in Arad Doman. She was't going to do anything else foolish. Probably.