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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 10, 2009 17:08:45 GMT -5
"Everything is fine thank you." Rory confirmed with a nod of her head, seeming vaguly annoyed. It was obvious that the noble had something to say, she wished that he would just come out and say it rather than skirting around the issue like this. Did he not realise how akward it made things feel? Then again, she couldn't forget that she was back in high society, where no-one ever said what they meant. Dinner wasn't a place to have certain conversations, it was impolite, though Chris failed to realise that his only guests were Phoenix and Rory. Did he really think that Phoenix would mind her telling him what had happened? Chris could be very strange sometimes. She had no idea what kind of a man he thought that Phoenix was, but it was obvious that he was wrong.
The only conversation over dinner was akward and light, Chris attempting to start conversations about mundane things such as the weather or local history, but his attempts failed and the room soon fell back to silence. There was still a considerable ammount of food left on the table when they were finished. It was a noble custom, a show of wealth. If your guests ate everything on the table then you weren't a good host, you hadn't provided enough food. It didn't matter that too much food would be a waste, that others could have put the food to far better use. With nobles it was all about upholding your reputation, with no concern for the effect you had on the world. Rory would go as far as to say that most nobles were completly ignorant of the real world and real problems, they were all too wrapped up in their own lives.
As the table was being cleared, Chris turned his attention to Phoenix. "Would you mind if I borrowed Aurora for a moment? I would like a word with her, in private." It wasn't really a request, more that he was telling the thief what was going to happen. Ah, that was what Rory had been waiting for, the Princess sighing lightly as she rose to her feet, offering Phoenix a light smile. "You may...well, do whatever you like. You are a guest, you may go anywhere in my house." Chris told Phoenix as he rose to his feet, holding back a comment about not touching things. "I am sure that you will find a way to amuse yourself, I will try not to keep her too long."
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 12, 2009 13:20:03 GMT -5
Phoenix wasn't a noble, he wasn't anything like that, but even he could tell that the conversation was strained and awkward in the room. With slum-dwellers, things that were a problem tended to be solved pretty quickly, up front and occasionally with violence, but then it was sorted. Noble affairs seemed a lot more long running, and the thief found himself wanting to just get up and leave halfway through dinner. How noble society could live like that he had no idea, and it felt strange to be sitting here. Living in the slums had given people a strange view on how things went, that if you got rich, you got happy. It just wasn't so. Not that this would change his view on the world at all, he still wanted to steal any rare treasure that he could get his hands on just because it was there and because he had his eye on gold, but he was painfully aware of how things were.
He glanced up as Chris spoke; he had finished eating a while before, not having a particularly big appetite to begin with, and he lifted a brow. Borrow her? She wasn't his property, as long as Rory wanted to go with him then he didn't have a problem with it. He nodded absently, smiling back at Rory as she rose to her feet. "I'm still pretty sleepy. I'll just go back upstairs, thanks." he murmured, following suit and rubbing at a bruise on his cheekbone, before stepping away from the table and brushing past them without another word. There, now he could interrogate her and pump her for information as much as he wanted to, Phoenix wouldn't have even cared if he'd have done it while they were sitting there. Why should he, when he had nothing to hide?
Getting back to the room he had stayed in wasn't difficult, this time, he had paid attention on the way downstairs to ensure that he wouldn't have the same problem again. He sighed as he reached the top of the stairs, suddenly finding himself feeling pretty tired again. He wouldn't sleep yet, but he'd be surprised if he found it difficult to drift off that evening. Soon enough he was sat in the guest room, leaning back on his hands and waiting for Rory to come back up the stairs. He thought she was going to come and find him, call him selfish or expecting too much. But she didn't seem to be that pleased with Chris when he had been talking to her, so he thought it was safe to wait up and see what happened.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 12, 2009 20:38:43 GMT -5
Rory nodded to Phoenix a little as he said that he was going back up to his room, before moving to follow Chris out of the dining room and to his study. In all honesty, she was too tired for this conversation right now, but they needed to get it out of the way and clear the air. She couldn't cope with things being as akward as they just had for any longer. It couldn't be pleasant for Phoenix either. He was here as a guest, completly out of his comfort zone, thrown into the noble world and Chris was making things unbearably difficult. She just hoped that he would drop whatever problem he had with the thief after this conversation, or the tension between them would become tedious. Rory had no intentions of constantly playing peace keeper between them. Needless to say, the conversation didn't end well. Rory had held back certain details of their more criminal activites as the told the story, only giving him the basic outline of what had happened, and through-out Chris had sat with a disapproving look on his face. He even dared to try and tell her that Phoenix was a bad influence on her. That had been the last straw, it was also the point where she realised that she had become more outspoken in her time away from the castle. That had probably come from realising that the world wasn't going to end if you spoke out of turn, and that it was better just to say some things than to let them linger in your mind. The conversation ended with the Princess storming out of his study and the stairs, Aurora having no intentions to speak to Chris at any point in the near future. Firstly, she went into her room, leaving the door open. There was a series of strange bangs and knocks as she attempted to push the bed towards the door, with no luck, Rory standing with her hands on her hips to scowl at the bed for a moment before she had an idea. She swiftly gathered up the blankets and pillows from her bed before moving to knock on Phoenix's door. She didn't care what Chris said, she wanted to share a room with Phoenix and, on the condition that the thief didn't mind sharing, that was exactly what she was going to do. If she couldn't move the whole bed she would just have to take the matress and blankets into Phoenix's room and set up a bed on the floor.
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 12, 2009 20:59:09 GMT -5
Phoenix looked up at the tap at the door, smirking to himself knowingly and shaking his head. Sometimes, he thought, he should be given awards for his intuition. He was as thoughtful as Chris was stupid. He had almost fallen asleep again, truth be told, but he was wide awake as he rose to his feet, stretching and moving to the door. He smiled at Rory when he opened it, looking confused as he glanced down at the blankets before two and two clicked together for him. It was that bad that she was ignoring his subtle little hint that she couldn't share a room with him? Well, that actually explained a number of the strange noises that had echoed, albeit rather muffled, into his room. He'd been afraid the housekeeper was trying to break something, but now it all seemed to make sense. She couldn't move the bed, so she would move everything on it instead.
"Come on in." he murmured to her gently, stepping to the side to let her in before smiling and turning around. "Stay there." he told her, sounding faintly amused and disappearing out of the door so that he could grab her mattress and hoist it up, dragging it across the hall and into his room. "If only there had been a hammock, we wouldn't have had this problem." he winked to her as he clicked the door shut behind him, leaving the idea of whether to lock it or not up to Rory, "Then it'd be just like we were back in the slums again." he shrugged, setting the mattress down a few feet away from the bed, relieving her of the blankets and pillows to set up the bed expertly, as if he had done it dozens and dozens of times before. Soon there were two beds, one of them just... looked a little lower than the other, and it didn't have any frame.
"You want to talk about it...?" he asked her in a soft voice, sinking down onto his bed again now and tilting his head to her. "Oh, and you can have this one, by the way. It'll be colder there on the floor, and I'm more used to it than you are. Don't argue." he grinned playfully, scooting up so she could sit with him. "I'm sorry if you had a disagreement or somethin'." he murmured with a light shrug, "I know he's your friend, even if personally I think he's a bastard."
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 12, 2009 21:17:19 GMT -5
"Thanks." She smiled to him weakly as he invited her in, taking that as a sign that he didn't mind sharing his room with her. That was a relief. She didn't quite feel right sleeping in a room on her own, no matter how close his room was. It was probably a little paranoia, after everything, the only time they had been separated was when something bad had happened, but, whatever it was, she was glad that he was willing to share. She waited patiently as he dragged the matress across from her room, letting him take the blankets and pillows to set up the bed. "Thank you." She murmured again, lingering by the door when he was done, seeming to think for a moment before locking it. She wouldn't be surprised if Chris came up to check on them, and she was in no mood to deal with him right now.
She sighed lightly before moving over to sit on the bed by him, simply nodding a little and smiling faintly as he told her that she was having the real bed. "No, it's alright. Chris can just be...insufferable sometimes." She murmured, brushing her hair back from her face, looking down at the floor. "It will be alright. He just needs to realise that he is wrong." Obviously Rory could never be wrong, ever. She was a Princess, Princess's were never wrong. Her word was almost law. "I...I'm just tired, and I ache everywhere, and I'm in a terrible mood." She admitted to him, running her fingers through her hair. "I think I should sleep. Thank you for letting me stay in here with you. Having a room of my own doesn't feel right anymore."
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 12, 2009 21:44:44 GMT -5
"Insufferable, huh?" he chuckled to her, grinning as she said, almost adamantly, that Chris was wrong. Not that Phoenix was going to be likely to contradict Rory anyway, seeing as he wasn't exactly best friends with the noble, but he found it almost adorable that she didn't see a difference in opinions. She just saw it as her being right, and everyone else being wrong. He didn't really want to get into an argument with her, actually. He had been glad she'd locked the door as well, he was too tired to be dealing with Chris and all of his speeches and his noble ways of thinking and his ideas on Phoenix's 'dishonourable behaviour' by sharing a room with Rory. Perhaps when he was in better humour, but definitely not tonight. "Maybe things'll look better in a couple of days, when you get used to being here." he suggested, tilting his head.
"I'm pretty tired too. You'd have thought it would stop hurting once you started to heal, wouldn't you?" he smirked down at both of their bruises and their cuts, as if trying to judge how long it would be before they were better. At least another week to heal completely, he figured. "Yeah, maybe you should sleep. I know that's what I'm plannin' on doing." he murmured, slinging one of his arms around her in a sort of one armed hug, as if that would make the fact that they both felt like crap a little easier to deal with, at least. "Don't be silly, Rory. You don't have to thank me any more, I'm used to you bein' around. It's as much a favour for me as it is to you if you decide to share a room with me." he told her, smiling warmly. "But either way, I think it's time we got some more sleep. If you're in a terrible mood I don't want to be shouted at, do I?" he winked, sounding playful.
"G'night, Rory." he murmured, leaning forward to kiss her cheek softly and rising to his feet, as though it was nothing. He'd practically done it on instinct, only realising that he had done it to Rory as he moved to unlace his boots and un-button his waist-coat, by which time his back was to her and his expression of panic could be hidden. It must have been all of this thinking about home that he'd been doing; kissing Layla goodnight when he had been at the inn had been a customary thing, after all, and he'd done it for so long that he didn't even think about it. His waist-coat was hung on one of the chairs, and he tugged his shirt over his head, his back still to her as he fought to wipe his expression clean. The scars from where he had been whipped were only faint and pink now, and would fade until they were barely noticable in a few months.
His expression was clear and carefree at last as he curled up on the floor-bed, flopping onto his stomach out of habit and glancing up at her to offer her a brief smile, before he settled down to sleep. He couldn't change what had happened now, could he?
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 12, 2009 21:58:51 GMT -5
"You would think that, after a while, it would hurt less. But it doesn't." She murmured, glancing down at herself before sighing heavily. "We are never jumping out of moving carriages again. Ever." She told him in a matter-of-fact kind of way, just to make that point clear incase he hadn't come to the same conclusion. It was impossible to maintain her bad mood as he slung his arm around her shoulders, making her smile softly, the faintest of pink rising in her cheeks. It was a hug, and hugs solved everything, or so it seemed. However, what followed left her rather speechless. Her blush deepened to a bright red as he kissed her cheek, Rory unable to hide how flustered she was. It was just a peck to the hceek, just a goodnight kiss, but she couldn't help that her heart had fluttered at the touch.
She quickly looked away as he moved to unlace his boots, resting a hand on her burning cheek. Oh, she really needed to get a grip of herself, she couldn't go blushing like this every time he was near her, that would be embarrassing. He was just being friendly, that was all. She should learn to deal with such little things. Oh, she was hopeless, wasn't she?
She occupied herself with taking her shoes off as he got ready for bed. Her nightdress was in her room, and she didn't want to go fetch it. It wouldn't hurt sleeping in her dress, she was sure that Chris would have more for her by the time tomorrow came. She let her hair down out of her plait, shaking it free over her shoulders before clambering under the blankets and curling up, smiling to Phoenix sleepily as she looked across at him, the faint blush lingering on her cheeks. "Goodnight, Phoenix." She murmured to him before closing her eyes and settling down. This felt right, there was nothing out of place today, she could drift off into a carefree sleep without that niggling worry that something was missing.
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 13, 2009 8:33:26 GMT -5
Phoenix seemed to have a similar mentality about him, since he slipped off into a dreamless sleep without so much as a worry or a care; half, he thought, because Rory was there and half because he was still just too tired and aching to let anything interrupt the healing process. It was mid-morning when he began to stir, a faint tapping at the door making him shift and open his eyes. It wouldn't be Chris, he knew the noble's knock and had remembered it ever since he had rudely interrupted them back in the village. This must have been the housekeeper. Phoenix sat up a little, rubbing his eyes and running his fingers through his hair, which was around his shoulders now, the black band safely around his wrist. Slowly he shuffled to his feet and stretched, haphazardly pulling on his shirt to go to the door and unlock it, clicking it open.
The housekeeper smiled to him politely. She apologised if she had woken them, and informed them that the master would have breakfast served whenever they desired (by 'they' he assumed it was aimed at Rory). She also asked if they would like a bath drawn up. Phoenix looked down at himself. Yes. After their adventure crossing the border and with everything else before that, he could use a bath. He didn't get them often, living in the slums, preferring to use the basins of water to save the rest if things grew in short supply... shorter supply. "Yeah, thanks." he murmured to the housekeeper, who nodded again and told them that she'd return in a few minutes for them. Phoenix nodded again gratefully, and waited for her to wander off down the corridor before he clicked the door shut again.
He liked the housekeeper, he decided. She must have been from a low background in her youth, he thought; she looked at him with that same rough, roguish glint that was in his own eyes. She treated him like anyone else, without a hint of contempt. He would have to ask her about her past at some point. Once the door was closed he tugged off his shirt again and moved to the side of Rory's bed, smiling faintly. "Hey, mornin' sunshine." he nudged her softly, brushing her hair out of her face. He was still achy; a dull, vague pain that persisted no matter what he did, but with sleep his good spirits, at least, had returned. "How does a hot bath sound, huh? Then breakfast?" he asked, kneeling next to the bed and half leaning on the covers. He was in a strangely good mood, looking - and acting - like his old self for the first time in what felt like forever.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 13, 2009 9:07:59 GMT -5
Rory was still sleeping pretty deeply when the housekeeper knocked on the door, deeply enough for her to hear neither the knock nor the short conversation that followed it. She was still catching up on sleep that she had missed while traveling, which could take a while. It wasn't like her to sleep in so late. Then again, when she was around Phoenix she didn't go to bed early either, like she would have done at the castle. It was strange how quickly you broke one routine and started another. Not that it was a bad thing. She had wanted to break ties with both the palace and everything to do with it. If she had been more daring she would probably have cut her hair too, but she wasn't quite that out going. She liked her hair as it was, she hadn't felt the need to change herself. Well, not yet anyway.
The Princess stirred as Phoenix nudged her, pouting faintly and nuzzling her face into her pillow, as though in a sleepy attempt to ignore him. It was, however, impossible to pretend that she heard him, though her murmured 'Morning, Phoenix,' was muffled by the pillow. Her eyes were open by the time she shifted to look at him again, Rory seeming adorably sleepy as she smiled to him, that usual faint blush dusting over her cheeks as he brushed her hair back from her face. "Bath? A bath sound great." She nodded to him, hiding a yawn behind her hand before sitting up to stretch out. She still ached, but it was more bearable now, more like a background sensation, something that she could ignore.
It was nice to see Phoenix acting like himself again. He hadn't seemed so happy since...well...since they had been at Layla's inn back in the Cressan slums. She seemed more awake as she looked down to him, running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to straighten it out. "You haven't been up for too long, have you? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sleep so late." She apologised. He seemed wide awake, as though he had been up for hours. Oh dear, he must think that she was terribly lazy.
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 13, 2009 10:55:52 GMT -5
He couldn't resist a chuckle at her, shaking his head as she smiled at him and sat up, moving to sit back down on his floor-bed as she spoke to him. "Nah, I've only just got up, like you." he told her with a light shrug, "The housekeeper knocked a couple of minutes ago, if it weren't for her I'd still be sleepin'." he admitted, pushing his hair out of his face and leaning back on his hands. He felt weirdly awake as well, it must be showing. Gone were the days when he wasn't a morning person, with all his business happening at night and with chicory to keep him up when he had to stay awake. Over these last few days he had trained himself to be wide awake from the moment he woke up, just in case someone or something was after them, or they had to get up and run, or they had to jump off a cart and such.
"She said it wouldn't be long." he murmured, smiling up at her. "You feel a little better, at least?" he asked, tilting his head. "You look better, if that helps." he told her. She still looked sleepy, which he wasn't surprised at. Phoenix never got very much sleep anyway, so he would probably recover a lot faster now that they were left to sleep as much as they liked, but for Rory, with a much healthier sleeping pattern, he guessed it would take a little bit longer. She still looked dazzling, as always, even with her bruises. He hid a yawn behind his hand as the door knocked again, and he smiled to her. "Let's hope we feel a little more human after this, huh?" he grinned, moving to the door to open it, smiling brightly to the housekeeper. She gave him a clean towel, assuring Rory that she'd return shortly, showing him to the bathing rooms. Chris obviously would have instructed that she take great care of Rory while in the house, after all.
Phoenix was happy to be left to his own devices, the thief spending an unusual amount of time in the bathing rooms considering that he wasn't usually one to lay about. But he never got the chance to do nothing, and with hot water instead of luke warm and no pressing matters at hand, he was happy to take as much time as he wanted. He looked a hundred times better by the time he was shuffling back down the corridor to his room, rubbing at his wet hair with a towel. Now that he was clean his bruises were more visible than ever, but somehow that made him look better, not worse. It was always nice to feel clean, for once. He checked his room before he walked in, just in case Rory was in there, but, finding it empty, he wandered inside.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 13, 2009 12:17:47 GMT -5
"I feel better." She nodded to him. Even though she was still covered in cuts and bruises, and she still ached everywhere, she was feeling a lot better than when they had arrived. It was not surprise really, she doubted that you could get very much lower than she had felt when they arrived, from there, things could only look up. As she had hoped, her spirits had lifted considerably, and she was feeling much more like herself again. Their situation seemed less dire, it didn't feel like the whole world was against them anymore. She would even go as far as to say that it was about time that they had a little good luck. Surely all this bad couldn't happen to them without something good waiting around the corner. Fate wasn't that cruel, was it? She glanced up as the housekeeper came to collect Phoenix, nodding to her as she said that she would be back. She rose to her feet as the thief left, taking care to make her bed before fussing over smoothing the creases out of her dress. It wasn't long before the housekeeper came back for her, leading her to another set of bathing rooms, which were at the other side of the house. Chris was taking every precaution not to leave them alone together in any compromising situations. He doubted that the thief could be trusted, even after Rory's adamance that he could. Rory was also given a towel, the girl smiling and thanking the housekeeper before disappearing into the bathroom. Ha! A real bath. It had been far too long since she had a real bath. She was feeling a hundred times better when she left the bathing room to head back to her room. The hot water had soothed away the worst of her pains, and it was surprising how much better you could feel when you were clean. If there was one thing that she missed about the noble world then it was the baths. She didn't feel quite herself with she wasn't all sparkly and clean. As expected, there were new dresses hanging in her wardrobe when she got back to the room, the choice actually baffling her for a moment. She had a choice of what to wear? That never happened, not even at the palace. She took a long while examining each of the dresses before chosing a pastle yellow one with white lace and tiny blue flowers embroidered around the cuffs. From the selection of dresses, it seemed that pastel colours were the current fashion in Marmosia, it ws a pleasant change from the vibrant silks that were the fashion in court back in Cressa. Her hair was still damp when Chris came to visit her, brushed into place and starting to curl at the ends. He had came to apologise for yesterday, he didn't want there to be any bad feeling between them, and, though he cast a suspicious look at the empty bed frame, he didn't comment. The door was left slightly adjar as they spoke, neither of them hearing Phoenix return to his room. "I spoke out of turn yesterday, and I apologise. I just need you to know that I have your best interests at heart. I was worried when I heard that you were missing, and finding you in that tavern...and in such a state, it was quite a shock, as you can understand." It was Chris speaking, Rory nodding in appropriate places. It was impossible to stay mad at him, she just wished that he would take the time to get to know Phoenix and realise that he wasn't a bad person.
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 13, 2009 12:33:55 GMT -5
Phoenix hadn't shut his door completely either, just in case Rory came wandering down the corridor and wondered where he was. He spent a moment or so to get dressed, wrinkling his nose down at his clothes. Damn that carriage and damn those guards that had chased them down, he really could use a change in clothes. That's what he was going to do today, he decided. He'd go out, examine the layout of the place they'd arrived in and get himself some new belongings. He'd feel a lot more like himself when he knew that he had things of his own that weren't just the clothes he had on his back and the things he had in his pockets. Just ten minutes later and he had wound his wet hair into its plait, straightening up and looking wide awake and ready for the world at last. Brilliant. That was when he started to hear the voices.
Quirking a brow, he moved to the door, not realising that he was moving as quietly as he was able, as he would have if he had been sneaking into a house or trying to climb over a wall without being seen. He instantly picked out Chris's voice, tilting his head and opening the door slowly so that it didn't creak, stepping out into the corridor and gazing at the door to Rory's room, open just enough so that he could see the both of them. He was lecturing her again? Phoenix couldn't say that he was surprised. But he was in two minds whether to go in there himself and confront the noble. Any problem that he had with Rory he undoubtedly had with himself. And Phoenix was much more willing to be lectured and have an argument with Chris than he was to let Rory deal with it all the time.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 13, 2009 12:52:03 GMT -5
Neither Rory nor Chris noticed that their conversation wasn't private, the Princess sighing heavily as she looked over at the story teller. "I know that, but you don't seem to understand that I am capable of looking after myself. My judgement of people isn't as terrible as you think it is." She told him, her tone telling that she had said all of this to him already. She was tired of saying the same things over and over again to him, and she didn't want another arguement. His response, however, was different this time, something about his body language making her tilt her head at him in confusion.
"It's not that. I care about you, Aurora, and I don't want to see you getting hurt." He was moving closer to her now, looking at her...strangely. "I just hate seeing you with someone like that. He isn't good enough for you. Don't you see, all I want to do is take care of you." His hand had moved to rest on her cheek now, the Princess utterly lost. He wasn't here for an arguement? So...why was he here? She didn't understand, she didn't understand what he was saying.
"Chris, I..." She was cut off, rather suddenly, as he leant forward to kiss her, her eyes widening. For a moment she was frozen by shock, her mind having to take a moment to catch up with what had happened, before she put her hand to his chest and pushed him away. Confusion soon turned to anger, and embarrassment, her cheeks red as she stepped back away from him. He had just kissed her? What on earth was he thinking.
Chris was actually looking just as shocked as she was. Oh, he hadn't just done that? Had he? How stupid was he? He never acted on impulse like that, it was just that...that...that he could think of no other way to make her understand. Obviously it had been the wrong move. "Rory, I did't me-."
"Leave." It wasn't a request. She didn't want to hear his excuses or apologies, she wanted him gone. Her back was to him now, Rory facing the window, scowling down at the street below. They had been though this. They were friends, nothing more. If he couldn't understand that then, well, she would have to leave, there was nothing else for it. Even if his feelings were reciprocated, which they weren't, he was a married man. He couldn't possibly expect her to have an affair with him? What kind of a person did he think that she was? Oh God, he had kissed her.
Without further arguement, Chris turned to leave, his head hung low as he moved towards the door. What had he done? Right now, he wasn't even sure that she would be able to forgive him. He may have wrrecked their friendship forever. He clicked the door closed after him, sighing heavily and rubbing at the side of his head. He really was an idiot, wasn't he?
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 13, 2009 13:11:57 GMT -5
Phoenix had been about to walk right into the room and tell Chris to back off when he just... suddenly... he was all over her. The thief's eyes widened and he straightened up from the secretive, low to the ground stance that he didn't notice he'd been holding, taking a step back. He wasn't arguing with her. He was kissing her. He was kissing her. He was surprised at the flare of anger that rushed through him, and the sting of jealousy as he watched them. Oh, God, it was like time had stopped. He didn't wait to see any more, pressing his eyes closed as he stepped away from the room. He should have known. Being married wasn't nearly as big a deal in the slums as it was to Rory - and for Phoenix, the fact that he had kissed her didn't mean that he was stepping out of line, it just meant that he was doing what he thought was right. And he hadn't seen her objecting to it.
His door slammed, as if he was making a point of telling them that he was there, before he stalked off down the corridor, frowning to himself. He didn't know why he cared, why was this such a big deal? Rory deserved a noble, he'd always known that, he was just helping a friend. But at the same time, he knew exactly why he cared so much - his memory of the night at the tavern was a lot better than hers. Ugh, he was such an idiot. He was a thief, from the slums of Cressa. She was Princess Aurora, for goodness' sake, what the hell had he been thinking? He'd never even had a chance, not one chance, at all. Right from the beginning, he'd known that. He'd flirted and been playful, because that was his way, and before he knew it he was caring more and more about Rory and less about the beautiful women passing him by. Oh, he'd been such an idiot.
Phoenix wasn't made for commitment. He knew this already - he'd been deluding himself with this petty fantasy, of the thief and the princess, of all of that sort of thing. It was time he woke up.
He was wandering out of the house and into the streets before he'd even noticed what was going on, and he found his gaze turning up to Rory's room, catching her petite silhouette in the window. He turned his face away instantly. He had to start acting like himself again.
The day had almost ended by the time he returned, and he seemed just as carefree as ever as he walked in through the doors. He had changed clothes, and by the few parcels he'd brought with him he had replenished the tiny wardrobe that he did have, but that was good enough for him. Something had changed, however. There was no lingering look as he sought Rory in the house, there was no double checking to see if she was alright. Of course she was alright, she was with Chris. Why wouldn't she be? He swept straight up the stairs to his room, opening the door and walking inside to deposit everything on the bed. Glancing down at the floor-bed, he frowned a little. That would have to go.
((I no knew if you wanted me to big skip yet, but it seemed a little soon. I can go back and change it though, if you want me to. ^_^))
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 13, 2009 15:12:36 GMT -5
The slammed door barely registered to her as she moved to sit on the window sill and close her eyes. It occured to her that was Phoenix letting them know that he was there, and that he had seen at least part of what had happened, but she didn't want to think about that. This was bad enough without the thought that Phoenix had seen that too. Goodness knew what he would think of her after that. Oh, she felt terrible, she had no idea how to deal with any of this at all. She couldn't even see how she had done anything that would make Chris even think that he had the right to kiss her. She had barely spoken to him properly since getting here, and when they did speak they had ended up arguing. Oh, there was only one thing that she could do, she was going to have to avoid him. She would take her meals in her room, and do everything in her power to avoid seeing him, at least for a couple of days, at least until she had decided what she was going to do about this.
Her day was spent locked in her room sat by the window, waiting for Phoenix to come back. She couldn't talk to the theif about what had happened, of course she couldn't, what was she supposed to say? There was, however, that creeping worry in the back of her mind that reminded her that he usualy came back hurt when he went out alone, if he came back at all. He was probably just getting a feel for the city, taking a look around at his new surroundings, working out where everything was, but still, she couldn't help but feel a little on edge.
Rory could honestly say that her good mood from this morning had vanished by the time the thief got back. She had been wrong, things weren't gettig better at all, she was just faced with a whole new set of problems and no idea how to cope with them. At least Phoenix's return broke the cycle of dark thoughts that had been moving through her mind, the Princess listening to the sound of his footsteps coming down the corridor, waiting until he got into his room before rising to her feet. She didn't want to sit there on her own anymore. At least Phoenix seemed to have had a good day, or so she assumed from the parcels that he was carrying. Maybe his good mood would rub off on her?
She glanced down the corridor as she opened her door, making sure that Chris wasn't around before slipping out of the room, moving to knock on Phoenix's door and wait for him to answer.
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