Knight in Shining Armor (Andre)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock was limp as he rolled them over, laying against his chest without the energy to move. Slowly, she caught her breath, and came down from where she was floating, her senses starting to work again. She couldn't speak for a long while, so overwhelmed by the amazing experience. Finally, his words started to penetrate the clouds of pleasure in her mind. She closed her eyes and bit her lip, uncertain how to respond. She couldn't think clearly right now. Somewhere deep down, a part of her still wanted to recoil from this. He was an honorable knight, who had protected her without question or hesitation. And she was a vile murderer, and dabbler in the dark arts. And the damn daft fool was asking her on a date. She let out a soft laugh. Could he really be so innocent? He was still inside her, she could still feel the stickiness of their lovemaking, and he was asking her to have dinner with him. She rolled off of him, feeling a touch of disappointment at the emptiness, and laid on her side with her back to him. She stared wide eyed into the night, beyond the campfire, her hands clutched to her chest. Her heart was hammering inside her chest, and her head was spinning. She didn't know what to do. Stay or leave? Accept this, or fight it? Embrace the man, or show him the darkness inside of her in order to drive him off...? She closed her eyes, swallowing hard. She didn't deserve something this pure. The daft fool was swept up in the bliss of the lovemaking, all starry eyed and daydreaming of romance and fairy tale endings. Did he not know what the real world was like? He didn't know her. Didn't know a single thing about her. And if he learned... Would he still want her, when he knew the things she had done? When he experienced her crude temper, her foul language, and her amoral behavior day after day? Would he be able to understand that her work came first, and she couldn't pull herself away from her all-important projects in order to spare time for romance? Tock lived in the moment. She could spare moments. But she didn't have the time in her life, or the purity in her heart, to give this man what it seemed like he wanted. No matter how much it made her heart ache. Finally, she closed her eyes, and whispered, "Bit late fer ta been thinkin' bout candlelit dinners after what we already done..." She needed to disillusion him as quickly as possible. Before he got any fool romantic notions in his noble head. "I ain't gonna leave ya out 'ere ta die, but when I git ya back ta the city, I gots work ta do. I's a busy girl..." She had to keep her back to him, so that he wouldn't see the guilt in her eyes. The hesitation. The difficulty she was having saying these things, when part of her wanted to say Yes, yes, please, yes! No, it was better to cut it off now, before it became any harder for her to push him away. She could get over this. It was just one night, no matter how magical the end of it had been. She could put one night behind her, and get back to work. Better that, than leading him on, and letting herself get attached and develop feelings for him. Because she didn't have any feelings for him... she couldn't. Not for a man she didn't know. The pounding in her chest had to be something else. The urge to hold him and kiss him had to be just a silly fantasy. The churning in her stomach had to just be indigestion, not fear at the thought of never seeing him again. Had to be. Because she couldn't be falling for a man she'd only met a few hours ago. This wasn't a fairy tale, there was no such thing as love at first sight. Real life didn't work that way...

[Andresciel]

The Knight watched as she rolled away, heard her words, but did not accept them. He forced himself up, gasping at the pain, but still, his right hand grasped her shoulder. "Do you think you could stain me? Do you think I don't understand that you are busy, and may not have time to take for me. I ask for dinner, not marriage Tock." The Knight stated, his voice growing cold, rougher. "I'm a Reimancer Tock. There is nothing you could say, or do that would offend me. I have been hated all my life for the magic I wield. Because I wield it. Not because I have harmed someone...though I have. I looked a man in the face only three years ago as I burned him down for standing in the way of justice." He stated, releasing her shoulder, his voice soft as his eyes closed. "All I want is to be normal. To be given a chance, ya know. I have innocent blood on my hands. How does it make you feel to know that you made love to a murderer?" He asked, feeling as if he stained her as he looked away. "So please...quit treating me like I'm some petching innocent unblooded Knight who hasn't spilled innocent blood." He stated, growing quiet. No one but him know about the man in the wildlands he had burned, to death. The house that he had burned down, the flames that had haunted him for days.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

She started to laugh. It was all too much. The Knight a murderer, maybe even an overgiven madman. She didn't know anything about him, or why he was out here. What kind of insane person wandered the wildlands alone? Only someone who was desperate in some way, as she was. "Aye, fine," she laughed, rolling onto her back and looking up at him. There was a touch of madness in her brown eyes. "We'll 'as dinner, an' trade stories o' murder an' magic! An' ya can tell me all 'bout 'is bloke ya done killed 'inna name o' justice,' an' I's tell ya all 'bout 'ow I done murdered a man who were jus' tryin' ta protect 'is family..." She giggled, staring him right in the eye, unable to resist feeling amused at the ridiculousness of it all. "Izzat whatcha want, bloke? Ya wanna git in a pissin' contest 'bout who done killed worse? Who 'ad more 'atred fer what 'ey is? Sure, mate, sure..." She reached up and slid her hand into his hair, laying her head against his bare shoulder. She reached her other arm towards Handy, and the Automaton strapped his leather tail around her wrist, buckling himself in place. She shifted herself up, bracing her head against her hand, with Handy now hanging right near her head on her wrist. He started stroking her hair the way he always did, and Tock shifted closer to the man before her, pressing her bare body against his. "Izzat whatcha want?" she whispered to him, her mad eyes staring up into his. Her heart was pounding, and some part of her wanted him to say yes. Another part of her wanted to scare him off, let him see the darkness in her, so he'd run away and never want to look at her again. She traced her blood-stained fingers over his face, the blood of her victims caressing his skin. "Ya want me, aye?" she whispered. "Ya wanna take me out ta dinner, trade murder stories o'er candlelight an' fancy wine, 'en come back ta my workshop an' stick it in me again while my babies watch? See what if'n my spider decides ta gut ya inna night after we's done? 'Ow's 'at sound, mate? Romantic 'nough fer ya?" She stared him down with a wild gaze. She didn't know whether to pull him back on top of her, or shank him and end it all here. But despite the madness in her mind, despite her urge to scare him off, her heart was pounding with anticipation. Something about the daft fool had captivated her, and if he wasn't afraid of her, wasn't turned off by the madness, or the murder, or the crude, rough way of her, then maybe... Maybe she could just let that flutter in her chest fly free, and not fight it...

[Andresciel]

The Mage Knight looked down at her, before capturing her hand, and drawing her finger to his mouth. He was teasing as he sucked at the tip of her finger, before speaking. It was a single word that carried the weight of a thousand, "Aye." He stated at first, feeling her bare body pressing against his own, "I want to trade stories of magic and mayhem with you. It is romantic enough." He stated, as he brings her hand up, placing it above his heart, where she would feel his heart, steady and strong. "You don't scare me Tock. Your babies are beautiful. You are beautiful. And I'd prefer to 'stick it in ye' in a bed, alone." He stated, before tilting her head up, his strong blue eyes, a hint of madness in them, stared into her own wild brown eyes. "I'm not going anywhere, no matter what you've done in the past. You have my word, not as a Knight. But as a Man. And I never said whose justice Tock. I killed the man for myself. He was innocent of unlawful crimes. It was I that tried and convicted him for his actions." There was no warmth in the actions from the past, no regret either in his voice. He looks down at her, his voice slow, "So go ahead. Throw your worst at me. I will survive it, like a rock in a storm, I will weather." He tilted her head back, and without a word, sealed his lips to her own, and his own fate to hers. "I am yours Tock, if you would have me. Until the bitter end. Your Madness calls to me, makes my chest feel light. With you, Tock, I feel the weight of the world is lifted from me."

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Well, that was it. He was crazy. Loony. Insane. Completely petched in the head. He had to be. No sane man would vow himself to a woman he'd known for all of three bells. Out in the woods, in the middle of the night, with a broken arm, blood and sweat and sexual fluids staining their bodies as they lay in the dirt. Only a complete daft fool would make such a promise to a woman he didn't even know. And part of her just couldn't help falling for his insanity. She pressed him back to the ground, curling her body against his, laying her head on his shoulder and draping her leg over his. She sighed and said softly, "Yer a bloody loon, mate." She said it with a touch of affection and a smile on her lips. "But don't make no vows at me. Ya might bloody change yer mind tomorrow, o' next week. I ain't one fer ta be tied down ta nothin', an' I ain't fer ta 'as ya swear no nothin' ta me. Ya can't put no claim on me what fer one crazy night..." She found him simultaneously sweet, and irritating. It was touching, in a sick, crazy sort of way, to know he didn't care about her madness. It was sweet that he was so ready to offer himself to her. But it was also creepy, and a bit unnerving. Like he was some kind of psycho stalker, vowing himself to her and professing feelings that a sane person couldn't see as real. She was fairly certain his professed feelings of 'being light' and freed from the 'weight of the world' were either a sign of unhealthy obsessive behavior on his part, or just the post-sex bliss still holding onto him. And while a part of him had touched her heart, she certainly wasn't ready to vow anything to him, or profess any strong feelings the way he was doing. She held him closer, surrendering to the insanity for now. She didn't have the energy to fight it, and surrendering to him felt so nice. She sighed, letting herself relax and just enjoy it. In the morning, she'd see whether he was still ready to spout poetry at her, or if he got enough sense in his head to realize this whole night had been a mistake. She opened her eyes for a moment, looked up at him, and asked, "Whadja say yer name was again?" If the loon was going to profess his undying devotion to her, then the least she could do was try to remember his name...

[Andresciel]

He glanced at her, though the light feeling was simply the post-sex bliss, but still as he listened to her, his eyes changed. "Oi. I might be crazy. But I ain't claiming you. I'm only offering a chance for...a maybe relationship." He stated, as he shook his head "And my name, is Andresciel. Just call me Andre though. Everyone else does." He stated, as he let her relax against him, drawn up to his chest, "And now you need to sleep Tock. I can see it in your eyes. You are tired." He whispered, not forcing her to, but suggesting it. "Tomorrow, we will see where Syna shines, and go from there. As for your earlier offer to get me to the city, I'd prefer you get me to Syliras, so I can see a healer there. But if you are going to Zeltiva, I shall tag along, if you'll show me around." The Knight smiled, rolling his cloak up under them as he laid back. His eyes closed as he let himself drift, unworried about her madness, or what may come. He was a man of the moment. "All I care about Tock..is the here and now. All I ask for is a single date to try and change your mind about me." He stated, his voice slurred with sleep, as he finally drifted into the darkness.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock snorted and sleepily muttered, "I's 'as dinner witcha... an' petch ya again," that had been far too amazing of an experience for her to say no to another chance to try it again. "But if'n I 'ears the word 'relationship' from ya again, I'll bloody shank ya right here in the woods..." Strangely enough, there was sweet affection in her voice, even as she threatened to shank him. It had to be the most peculiar 'pillow talk' ever... "An' it'd take 'alf a bloody season fer ta git ya back ta Syliras, ya daft fool," she muttered sleepily. With a yawn she added, "We's only a few bells from Zeltiva. Docs in the infirmary's take plenty good care o' ya..." She drifted off to sleep, naked in the fool man's arms, glad that, at least for a few bells, she had been distracted from her painful memories. In the morning, she might just abandon him to his fate. Or murder him, when she realized he knew too much, and could point the law in her direction for her crimes. Or maybe just tell him off, drop him at the infirmary, and decide never to have anything to do with him again. Though just maybe, instead of any of that, she'd be eager to make sweet love to him once more. OOC : End here, and post your reply as a new thread for the morning after?