A Most Excellent Adventure (Attn: Bella/Natlya)

[Locke]

Terric

They parted ways in the common room after securing a room. After dumping their bags across the room’s bed, Terric headed back downstairs to see to lunch. On the way in, he’d noticed a pair of doors to some sort of patio dining. After ordering for himself and Natlya Cade, he pushed open the double doors. The doors did indeed let out onto a small patio enclosed by a surprisingly ornate, waste high, wrought-iron fence. Ivy climbed the side of the building and wound itself around the fence. A few couples and single diners sat about enjoying the summer air.

After securing a corner table, Terric sat on the riverstone floor and watched the bustle of the town. Heavily laden farmers wagons trundled along while lacquered merchant carriages tried to force their way through on their way to market. Unsurprisingly, if he looked in the right places, he could see the glittering surface of the Manetherendrelle peeking between buildings or the shining bridge towering over roofs.

In this rare moment of alone time, his mind wandered slightly. It didn’t go too far. In fact, his thoughts circled around Natlya Cade. They had managed to build an easy rapport, and she also wanted this affair to last when they returned to their regular duties. What would that mean though? Dancing in Hama Valon common rooms and rooftop romps? That did sound fun. There was just a small, and entirely unexpected part, that might have wanted a little bit more.

[Bella]

Natlya let Terric see to lunch while she saw to her horse. After all, each was an area that they were particularly suited to. After that was done, she went inside and was directed out to the patio. It was another lovely day, and the idea of eating their meal outside but at a table and chairs held a unique charm after meals on the road and sitting on benches alongside streets.

She sat down at the table and flashed That Smile at him. She was just...happy. Stupidly happy. Some part of her whispered cynically, You know it can't last. She just had no idea how soon it would come down.

Their meal was brought out to them and she was, by now, thoroughly not-surprised to see that her Aiel companion had twice as much food as she did. It just made her smile again. The pair talked easily about how impressive the view was, and things that they might want to see while they remained in town. She teased him about the joy wheel.

When she realized that their cups were empty, she looked around for a serving girl. Seeing only one, on the opposite side of the patio, she tried to gain the young woman's attention but couldn't catch her eye. She excused herself to go get her attention and had to navigate her way between a few people, changing course to intercept. She raised her hand to try again...

...and suddenly there was a hand around her wrist.

Without even thinking, she pushed her hand forward at an angle that twisted the offending arm back. The weak grip broke easily and she brought the other hand up, smacking it flat into the offender's chest and then falling back in an easy defensive stance. She now saw who had grabbed her and her first thought was...he looked pissed.

Something about him triggered a memory, but she couldn't place it. He wasn't much taller than she was, with flashing dark eyes and oiled back dark hair. He wasn't going for her again and she relaxed her stance slightly. "What warrants this?" she asked cautiously, feeling a warning jumping around in her brain.

"You!" he said with all possibly scathing and loathing wrenched into the word. "You stole from me!"

Oh no...

Now, she remembered him. He was more than cut purse, although not truly a long game. Lord...something or other. Some minor noble of some minor house that no one really cared about, but who they had been stupid enough to let transport some priceless family heirloom that happened to be pricey indeed.

"What are you talking about?" she asked flatly. She was hardly going to fess up to the memory, was she?

"You...used your womanly wiles," he said, gesturing at her with a limp-wristed wave, "although you seem to be half the woman you were then, and far less pretty. But I'd know your face anywhere. Ten years ago, in this very town! You conned me out of my family's best heirloom and then were just gone! You...and that partner of yours."

Oh, time to dance. She didn't know how long the memories of the local constabulary might be and she had no intention of ending up in shackles over this. Not now. Not ever.

"If you were so easily gulled out of something worthy by a pretty face, then should it not be you that you are mad at?" she poked, immediately ignoring her own advice. She didn't like how he'd grabbed her. Or said she wasn't pretty anymore. Gaidin may she be, but she had her pride.

"Little bitch," he snarled and slapped her.

Before his hand even finished it's trajectory, she had hold of his wrist. The Tower had trained her well and her strength made him yelp as she squeezed. A crowd had gathered around them now and she knew Terric would be upon her any second. Heartbeats between now and then, she knew. She whirled the man around, pushing him through the crowd and back against a wall. Her forearm now at his throat.

"We are none of us what we once were," she hissed at him, hazel eyes flashing. "I am sorry for what ills you have suffered in your life, but they touch naught on me now. Ten years is a long time. You should live in the present and not the past, sir. And you should be wary of who you hit. I leave you in one piece now, but do not try me again."

With wariness all over her expression, she stepped back from him. He looked like he would say more, but saw the crowd gaping at him and his ego was pricked when a woman showed him up. He fled. Natlya watched him go and then looked at the crowd. Her shoulders rose and fell with her sigh as she turned.

She saw Terric. There were questions in his eyes, and something else. Or was the something else in her?

[Locke]

Terric

Natlya Cade hadn’t been gone very long when there was a commotion from inside. Turning, Terric could see a crowd gathering through the windows. He almost turned back to watching the streets, deming it none of his concern when he caught sight of his fellow Gaidin in the midst of it. He was pushing the double doors open when he saw the slap. With that, Terric began to shoulder his way through the gawking inn patrons and employees.

He realized he needn’t have worried as she handily subdued her assailant. She held him for a moment and hissed something before releasing him. Terric glared after the little wetlander as he scuttled away. Closing the distance to his colleague, he reached up a hand to lightly touch her cheek. “Are you unharmed, Natlya Cade?” he asked before glancing over his shoulder. “Do you think he’ll be trouble in the future? Maybe we tell the Guard?”

His eyes scanned her face again. That altercation, it didn’t seem like a conflict between strangers. He hadn’t heard the words but… Old intuitions made him ask, “Did you know that man?”

[Bella]

Her adrenaline was still pounding through her body, along with anger and a few other things, but when he touched her cheek--the one burning from that slap--she leaned into it slightly. For a moment, she closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. When she opened them again, she felt a little calmer. "Not here," she said softly.

Taking his hand, she pulled them away from the lingering crowds and toward the room they had gotten, which her writer can't remember if she has any way of knowing which one it actually is yet but doesn't care. They got to the room.

Once they were in the room, she let go of his hand and kicked the door shut. "Yes," she replied to the question he'd asked. "I think..." He didn't need to ask for her to follow up. "He thinks I stole something from him, ten years ago. I might have. I think I did, but it was a long time ago and there were a lot of people."

Nat pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and when she pulled them away, she met his gaze and realized... He didn't know. Just her intuition popped up. Her brain flew through the past days. No, she'd never said it. She didn't aim to talk about that part of her past, Morgan and all... Didn't he knew from the Yards? She hardly kept it a secret.

Blinking, her brows knit. "I... The years spent between my leaving the orphanage and coming to the Tower," she said, looking for any spark of understanding. "I survived by being a thief, running games and cons, on puffed up ponces like that man down there."

[Locke]

Terric

Even with this revelation, she was the same woman. They had known each other for a while now. He had thought he’d known her at least. Back at the Tower, here on the road, nothing, not one sign of her true self. He could feel anger flare in his chest. She had lied to him. He’d thought he might have even… No, he pulled himself away from that path.

He hadn’t asked. She didn’t have to tell him everything. It was just hard for somebody like him. Still, a thief, a liar, and a con. He had left his home hunting down a conman. The lies and false faces…

That first night they had danced, her dazzling smile as they dizzily clung to each other. The look in her eyes as she gazed up at him, flame hair splayed like a halo, as they laid together later that night. Those couldn’t be faked could they? Was he just another mark?

“You aren’t still part of that life, are you?” He reached out, hugging her to his chest. At least a small part wanted to pity the girl who had been forced to live that life. He knew, she wouldn’t have wanted his pity. That made him dread her answer even more.

[Bella]

Feeling her still-inflamed cheek against Terric's chest made her release a breath she had been holding as she waited for what he would say. She knew him enough to know what honesty meant to him, but it had never occurred to her that she was being...dishonest. Yet she hadn't been. How could she know he didn't already knew?

You could have talked more about your past, she reminded herself as she pressed against him for that long moment. But to talk of that meant to talk of Morgan, and of a girl who had grown up.

She forced herself to pull back so she could look up into his face. "No, I am not," she said solemnly. "It took me a little time to change when I came to the Tower, I will admit that, but I am not that girl anymore. I am no longer Natlya the little thief with no ties to the world and no reason to care..." She hesitated, realizing the truth of those words. "I have much reason to care now.

"I am Natlya Cade. I am Gaidin of the Grey Tower. And I worked hard to become her. I will never apologize or be ashamed of what I was, but I am not her any longer. I am who I am here. I am who I have been with you."

[Locke]

Terric

Her words were reassuring. Of course they are, she’s a career conwoman, came a whisper from the deepest recesses of his mind. No, he couldn’t constantly second guess her. She was a Gaidin like him. She still hid things from you. If she was to believed, not purposefully. She hadn't talked about being a thief and probably hadn’t mentioned that spent his entire adult life hunting people like her. No, not people like her. Thieves and murderers and worse, she wasn’t like them. No, they weren’t even like them. In his life as a Red Shield and in the Wetlands, he’d met very few truly evil people. Even most murderers he’d met were just people making the best with the hand they’d been dealt. That said, those kinds of choices did change people. They were choices, no matter what many people believed.

He searched her face again, fingertips drifting through her hair. Her face was defiant with a hint of pleading. She didn’t want to lose him as much as he didn’t want to lose her. He tended to be good at catching lies, and she didn’t seem to be lying. What if she was just that good?

Terric bent to kiss her, gripping the former thief by the shoulders. He battled against his own doubts. Pulling her close, he tried to kiss away his own prejudices and suspicions. Breaking the kiss, Terric said, “Shopping in the morning, how does that sound?” His fingers had moved to her buttons, but that voice in the deepest recesses of his mind still whispered, Smart move, take her to the markets and watch her.

[Bella]

Natlya could almost taste the...desperation, although she was not consciously aware of what she felt. She just felt a need meeting a need that was built on something far different than everything they had shared on this trip up until that point. Something had changed. She could feel it, and it...hurt. Something hurt in her.

"Anything you wish," she replied, kissing him again as her fingers tangled with his to unbutton. She pulled it off and tossed it away, gripping him by the front of his and pulling him with her.

He had put their stuff on the bed and it took up most of it, but somehow they found the narrow strip towards the end that was clear. Her back hit the mattress and she pulled him down with her. Could she just erase the morning? No, because the past would still be made clear at some point and it would all happen again...

How could she convince him? She didn't want to lose everything they'd found because some arse in a poofy shirt had held a grudge for ten years. Grabbing his shirt, she pulled it off and kissed him again. Somehow she hoped to find answers in the feeling of their skin touching, the merging of heartbeats, yet her mind remained in maelstrom as she saw everything being built now being pulled apart.

"Terric," she gasped softly, pulling away and looking up at him with that raw feeling in her eyes. It felt like her nerves were suddenly frayed. The words lived on her lips. If you lose faith in me, I'll turn myself over to the constables right now. But she couldn't say them. Could she let herself give up all she had achieved because of this? For him?

It was too much. She couldn't say it. So, she kissed him again.

[Locke]

Terric

Sometime later, Terric found himself lying with his head on her chest, cheek against her warm skin, hair brushing against her face. He had barely been present, tumultuous thoughts still raging. HIs thoughts lingered on the moment she had called his name. Unlike on their previous trists, it hadn’t been filled with desire, but instead it had more of the sound of a pained gasp. He squeezed his eyes shut. She had plead his name. This was hurting her as well. Guilt and shame twisted his stomach.

He propped himself up on one elbow to gaze down at her, hand cupping her unbruised cheek. “I…” he said before cutting off. He didn’t even know what to say. He could see the hurt in her eyes. Just walk away, it’s all part of the con, the voice in his head said.

No, I refuse to believe that, Terric thought, teeth clenching. He kissed her again, looking for that spark from before. Breaking the kiss, he lingered, nose brushing hers, their breath mingling. “Natlya Cadie, I…” he couldn’t complete the sentence. He held her gaze, searching for something. He didn’t know what. That playful sparkle? Some hint it would all be ok? Eventually, he sagged back against her chest.

After laying there for a moment, feeling her chest rise and fall, he thought he could say it. He had to say it. “I don’t want to lose you. You are like water in the desert. I need to trust you.”

[Bella]

For a moment, Natlya almost was sorry for the life she had once led.

She stopped that thread of thought where it was, however, because she refused to be ashamed. She had done what she had to, and done what she was good at. She'd never taken from anyone who couldn't afford it, and it was mostly men like the one who'd been in the common room. Men who had been too quick to have her sit in their lap to get what they wanted, and just as fast with a raised hand when they tired of her.

No. She would not be sorry, nor would she be ashamed. But for a moment... For that moment, something just hurt inside. Their lovemaking now had been more frantic than joyous, and it made her...sad.

"I don't want to lose you either, Terric," she whispered, staring up at the ceiling even as she held him to her chest. She clenched her jaw against the emotion roiling through her. "I need you to trust me. I..." She stumbled over her words again, not saying things that she wished she could say. Please don't take this from me.

Ironic, how scared the former thief was of something being taken from her. Or perhaps just fitting.

Licking her lips, she swallowed hard and blinked away her feelings. "We should get some sleep," she finally said, her voice sounding ragged even in her own ears. She just...needed this conversation to end for the night.

She didn't think she had the heart for it anymore.