2017-04-02: The Right Time
- Log: The Right Time
- Cast: Lily Keil, Leon Albus
- Where: Rooms at the Starfall Saloon, Adlehyde
- Date: April 2, 2017
- Summary: After both have separate run-ins with Cassidy Cain, Leon and Lily do some catching up.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Late afternoon stretces on, right on the way to evening. It's not there yet, of course; it's been a full day for many in the City of Adelhyde, and in this out of the way saloon that's no exception. Sunlight can still be used to supplement the lights in the halls, and the thick wooden doors have their own familiar bit of wear and tear by now.
This one is one of the many rooms present. Lily Keil's arms have just finished falling from where she pushed the door closed behind her. The black-haired woman is looking at Leon a little more consideringly than usual, a if she has a question. Leon knows this particular look; it's happened before.
But she crosses her arms to move across the room to him. "Good afternoon," she completes her greeting, and lets her lips prss together. "I met someone today," she says by way of explanation, and starts to the table against the wall, where she pulls her satchel's strap over her head and sets it down on said table. "Someone who said she knew you." She considers what next to say, and then shrugs. "Come over and sit with me and I'll tell you about it."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Late afternoon stretces on, right on the way to evening. It's not there yet, of course; it's been a full day for many in the City of Adelhyde, and in this out of the way saloon that's no exception. Sunlight can still be used to supplement the lights in the halls, and the thick wooden doors have their own familiar bit of wear and tear by now.
This one is one of the many rooms present. Lily Keil's arms have just finished falling from where she pushed the door closed behind her. The black-haired woman is looking at Leon a little more consideringly than usual, a if she has a question. Leon knows this particular look; it's happened before.
But she crosses her arms to move across the room to him. "Good afternoon," she completes her greeting, and lets her lips prss together. "I met someone today," she says by way of explanation, and starts to the table against the wall, where she pulls her satchel's strap over her head and sets it down on said table. "Someone who said she knew you."
Lily starts digging into her satchel, without immediate explanation. "She was..." Pausing, Lily looks over to Leon. "...You know I don't like dealing with people."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon let Lily into his room when she asked. It looks like any other in the inn: not on the large size, and with little decoration. It is a far cry from the sort of finery that he was used to in Nortune, but it feels nice to have a place that he can feel some ownership of again. He turns to look at her, following her with his silver eyes. His eyebrows raise at the statement.
"Someone who says she knew me?" he asks, and he is momentarily confused. The ex-soldier tilts his head to the side, and it is as much a question, while he watches her place her satchel down on the table.
"Did you get a name?" he asks. Then, he steps closer. He frowns, though the expression is more than thoughtful than irritated. He tries to think of who it might have been. Cassidy doesn't come to mind immediately.
Then, he looks up, and he smiles slightly. "I'm aware," he says. "I'm sure that you were perfectly charming and gregarious with her, as well." It is a gentle teasing -- and a teasing that won't go further than that.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily takes the time to glance around, but only by force of habit. This room isn't hers, but she's not uncomfortable in it for the simple fact of whose it is. Hers is next door.
"That's right," Lily answers immediately, while still rooting around in her things. The question gets a nod as she looks, and she might answer after her own statement, but Leon beats her to it. She turns to him and rolls her eyes. "Obviously," she agrees. "Next time, you deal with her."
A beat, "But yes, I got a name. Cassidy Cain." Lily pulls a small white box tied with ribbon from her satchel and tosses it to him. "...It's still a surprise," she offers, "Because I was very surprised." A pause, and she looks uncertain. "...I'm sure I misunderstood her about what's in that box." She doesn't sound at all sure of that. "...That's not really true. I'm not sure at all. "Leon..."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I can do that," Leon says with a sigh. When she tosses the white-wrapped package, he catches it, and looks down at it for a moment. His eyes widen for a moment, and he hopes that this is not some absurd situation where he has a secret admirer. Then, he hears who got it for him, and he dismisses that thought immediately. "Ah, her," he says. "I met her just the other day. She was helpful to some locals."
He doesn't share the whole story. She would call him naive -- and be right -- and it would worry her, he thinks. He looks up, and then smiles once at her, before he nods.
"I mentioned a little about us," he says. "But not about you, exactly." Leon trusts Lily to see his meaning -- there is plenty that he could say about them, about their relationship. There are truths about Lily Keil, though, that are not meant to be shared with others. But there are complications here, too. Such as what a small box might look like.
Leon coughs, then looks down. "...It is not that," he says. "We--this wouldn't be the right time for that. I know that." He sighs, then says. "Let's see..."
He tugs the ribbon off and opens it up -- and sees the brooch, in delicate gold, and the rubies on it. His eyes widen a moment, before he blinks, then hands it over. "...Well. I can't pretend I had this planned. She is too clever for my own good."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Good," Lily answers Leon and his sigh. She certainly doesn't want to do it, and he's better at that sort of thing by far than she is. She sets her satchel down on the table once he's caught it and turns the rest of the way to face him, crossing her arms and looking thoughtfully at the man before her.
"She mentioned," Lily acknowledges. But then, Leon's right about how she could worry over such a story. She doesn't mention it immediately, but she does watch his eyes before relenting in a smile of her own for him, very brief but present.
But then there's the matter of the box... and of what Leon says about what he mentioned. Lily dips her head in acknowledgement about what he didn't mention, and then looks to the box that she'd handed him, which ratherdominates her attention for the moment. Right up until...
Lily glances away. "Ah. Yes, I was thinking that, myself." She looks down, too. But Leon moves to open up the box, and Lily uncrosses her arms to take the box when it's open, looking down at the brooch. "Ah..." Pause. "She's... Something, like that." Softly, "I wasn't precisely at my best for that conversation. I thought... Well..." She looks down to the box, and it may be obvious.
"We did talk about you. About what you did with those urchins, for one." Lily hesitates. "But why act as if it's something other than this?"
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm," Leon murmurs, "I can see how you could see that. I--ah, I don't know why. I think she was hoping to surprise both of us. Encountering you must have thrown that plan off."
That Cassidy might have been playing a game with them doesn't occur to him.
A small smile creeps into his expression again, and he shakes his head. He looks down at the brooch in Lily's hands, before he looks back at her face. His eyes regard her, a calm silver as he looks at her -- even if he realizes that she heard about the urchins. He opens his mouth, then closes it.
"You heard about them," he repeats. Saying so will not change that she did, he realizes. "I was trying to help. Of course... we can't help every single person that we feel warrants it. But--mm. Given where I came from, I know... I could have been like that, had my father not come along."
He crosses his arms. "...It made it hard to ignore them."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I'm just being soft," Lily answers with a shake of her head about what she would have seen. The subject didn't entirely drift on to nothing for her, after all, as she looks down at the box and th brooch.
"I wish I'd thrown her off in a little more private a setting. I ended up with three people discussing my marriage or lack thereof."
Lily grimaces, and looks up at Leon's silver eyes for a moment after. Her expression turns more studied and a little concerned, her golden eyes deep and sharp.
"Yes," the black-haired woman answers about the urchins. It's known by now; she doesn't expect him to deny it. But unlike her, she softens at his explanation, all the more because she was starting to sigh about trying to help.
"Leon..." Lily reaches up a hand an cups his face for a moment, fingers along his cheek. "I want to tell you it's unwise, but I can't." Her fingers flex and then fall, as she shakes her head. "I'm an orphan myself, after all."
She pauses. "...I still love that heart of yours. I'll just have to protect you. We're all one another has, now."
She closes the box.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"It's not softness," Leon answers, quietly. "It isn't... everyone would feel flustered then. I certainly do, thinking about it. But... we know why we haven't, yet. It's..."
He trails off. It is many things, and one of them is difficult to speak of. After all, they wait in part because they don't know what future they might have. How can he discuss that with her? The future holds finding and destroying Gryndille, far from a success they know they can manage, and then...
Then, he doesn't know, except for what they can't have.
But then he feels the hand that rests on his cheek. He blinks, lifting his chin when those gloved fingers touch her -- and he smiles, even as he feels a pang of guilt. She has to protect him, now, because of how he failed before. "Lily," he says, his voice quiet.
"I know," he says. "We'll protect each other." He looks down at the box, then back up at her. He wonders about the gloves on her hands, for a moment, even now. He knows better than to ask. He looks back at her golden eyes. Then he sighs, leans forward, and kisses her.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily opens her mouth as if to say something when Leon says it's not softness, but his second quiet insistence stops her, causes her to close her mouth again, looking at him. Each thing he says seems to have another slight reaction; none of it is much, by most standards, but he knows what it lookslike for her.
She knows as well as he does the reasons that they don't. ...A few of them are difficult to speak of for her.
They don't know that they have a future at all.
But she says none of that; she says something else, touches Leon's face as bes she can through her gloves, the same gloves that he doesn't ask about. But he does say her name.
"Yes, we'll..." She looks into his eyes, and then closes her own as he leans forward, resting her free hand on his chest and opening her mouth slightly.
Eventually she pulls back, when he does, but even then she leans forward to rest against him. "Mm..." A shake of her head, before she pushes off and stands up again.
She stares at his eyes again, looking for what she wants to say.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
He blinks when she pulls back. Leon doesn't fluster, before he steps closer to her. Then he sighs, and slings an arm around her shoulders. He is used to her being quieter and not always knowing what to say. He doesn't, either, really. He looks down at the box for a moment, and then sideways, back at her. He smiles again, and his arm pulls her tighter.
But his silver eyes stay on the box.
"You realize, of course," he says. "If we consider how we started dating, five years ago, then..."
He still smiles, but the smile changes. It isn't an expression he wears too often -- mostly around her. She probably knows what this means.
"...Most likely, you will have to hint at wanting a wedding for six months, until I finally realize," he says. "In the middle of the reception. I'm sure it'll be a fantastic reception, too."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily stands where she is as Leon moves closer, except shifting just enough that her weight moves against his arm without an extra word. Her eyes close again briefly. It's fine, that she can't find what to say; she smiles slightly anyway, slipping her own fre arm around her waist to let her hang onto him.
She pauses, at wht he says, seeing he's looking at the box she's still holding, and looking up at him gamely at whatever it is that he's going to say. But she realizes...
Her expression turns flat as he wears that smile, knowing exactly what it means and bracing in her on way.
"..."
It doesn't take long; there's a soft, dark laugh, a real laugh even if it's quiet, that bubbles up in the next moment, something that so rarely happens. "You joke," she says wryly, "But I probably will. At least it's not hard to get you into formalwear."
Her humor is a little weak at the moment, her smile smaller even than usual. She's leaning against him anyway. "And of course it'll be fantastic. I intend to plan it."