[OOM] Eiattu - Palace Courtyard

[fighting_mad]

Plourr is in a tree.

It's not quite as strange as it might originally sound; she and Rial make a point of taking at least a day to themselves per week, and she tends to hightail it outside. The courtyard is small and overgrown, forgotten long ago; wild and beautiful, flowers spreading across all. The tree is low and sturdy and Plourr is sprawled across a heavy branch, her back against the trunk and one leg dangling, her foot nearly touching the ground. The tree is just under the overhang that leads into the 'yard, and, eyes closed against a ferocious headache, she listens to the rain pound the leaves, the soil, the overgrown pathways.

She always did love Eiattu's rainy season. She likes it even more, now. She doesn't look out across the plains and wish that she were riding; not in this mess.

Comments

[eiattu_pride]

Could be that Rial is looking for her, if quietly. He was painting, originally, and thinking idly about Finn. Poor boy oughtn't to go back to his war, really, but that's not for Rial to decide. But thinking of Finn led to thinking of children which led to thinking of Plourr, and so it is that he's come looking for her.

He spots her fairly quickly, and suppresses a knee-jerk reaction of calling to her that she's going to fall.

What he does, though, is wander up and lean against the trunk. "If you fall, I won't catch you."

[fighting_mad]

Plourr tips her face up, cracking an eyelid. "My foot is centimeters above the ground, Rial. I won't fall."

She does smile, though, faint and sure, with one side of her mouth. "But yes, you would."

[eiattu_pride]

"You might," he says with an (imagined) air of wisdom. "And no, I wouldn't. Really."

Really really.

[fighting_mad]

"Yes," she murmurs, leaning against him, her cheek on his upper arm, "you would."

[eiattu_pride]

"Yeah," he admits finally, turning to cradle her head in his arms, against his chest.

"Yeah, I would."

[fighting_mad]

She opens her eyes nice and slow, but the sky is dark and gray and this part of the palace not well-lit, thankfully for her head, and she keeps them open. She glances down at his hands, the smudges of bright color on them. "What masterpiece have you been creating this morning?"

[eiattu_pride]

"Abstract," he admits, grinning down at her. "What's with the hiding?"

[fighting_mad]

"I'm not hiding," she says, sliding her foot a little farther out along the branch, to the point where raindrops begin to patter on her boot. She looks out at the wild, tangled courtyard; the little rivers running through bushes with enormous orange leaves, gnarled tree roots, bright flowers. "I like it out here." She winces, just a little, at a lance of pain through her skull. "It's quiet."

[eiattu_pride]

Rial frowns, just a little, and nods. "So it is. How're you feeling?"

He's not getting as wet as he could be, standing where he is, and he's glad because here, now, Plourr in his arms, he thinks he could stay forever.

[fighting_mad]

"Headache," she says simply, matter of fact and watching an tritide bird take flight out in the courtyard proper, winging through the rain. "Just waiting for the painkiller to take effect." Thing #801 that sucks about being pregnant: only able to take wussy-ass pain medication.

[eiattu_pride]

"Oh, ouch" He maneuvers so he's got her hugged a little more securely to his chest. "That's no fun. That why you've decided to become a bird?"

[fighting_mad]

"Nah." She shrugs one shoulder, looking out into the pouring rain. "I just like it out here." She blinks after a moment, though, and angles her head up. "I'm barely off the ground, Rial," she says, amused. "That hardly qualifies as trying to be a bird." She always has liked heights, though, and especially since she was told to cut down on flying, she has tended to gravitate toward them.

[eiattu_pride]

"A flightless bird," he suggests, playing with a strand of her hair. "One that really wants to fly but, unfortunately, can't."

He shifts in closer to the tree, back starting to feel unpleasantly damp. "But after she lays her egg, well. She can get back in the skies again?"

[fighting_mad]

Plourr glances to one side as he starts, eyes downcast. When he shifts and goes on, though, her eyebrows rise incrementally.

When he has finished, she pauses, silent and staring at the cracked paving stones with what can only be described as a '...what the fuck' sort of expression. Then she punches him in the shoulder.

"And that's what's known as taking a metaphor too far."

[eiattu_pride]

D: goes Rial's face. D:!

"Ow," he complains, but grins all the same. "You're right, anyway."

[fighting_mad]

"I'm always right," she says seriously, but she looks over and up at him, anyway. "Which part?"

[eiattu_pride]

"That I took the metaphor way, way too far."

But hey, it was fun.

[fighting_mad]

"You're good at that," she teases, watching the rain consideringly.

[eiattu_pride]

:O goes Rial.

"You don't like my metaphors?"

[fighting_mad]

"Not when I can't follow them," she says wryly, turning her face into his shoulder and grinning. He is, after all, far more lyrical than Plourr will ever be; she prefers straight-up words.

She doesn't really mind his tendency toward poetic, though. Particularly when it's directed at her. Even if she rolls her eyes, sometimes, or makes the occasional gagging sound.

[eiattu_pride]

He hugs her, for a moment, tighter then he should and then relaxes.

"Well, I'll tone them down."

[fighting_mad]

Plourr is a strong woman who doesn't need or want to be treated as though she were made of glass; it takes a lot to get her to say that someone (well, Rial) is hugging her too tightly.

This officially qualifies as 'a lot.'

"No, that's alright," she says, resisting the urge to check her ribs when he releases her. "You could tone down how hard you hold on to me, though." She glances up at him, dark eyes trained on his face. "Everything okay?"

[eiattu_pride]

Rial's looking off thoughtfully into the distance, listening to the patter of rain on the leaves. The air is almost muggy, as it often is, and he inhales the scent of flowers.

It's nice.

When it finally registers that Plourr asked him something he glances back down at her. "Mmmhmm."

[fighting_mad]

Well, now. That was a lengthy pause. By the end of it, when he looks down, he'll find himself looking at a wife who isn't quite as at ease anymore,and whose eyebrows are raised.

"Did you catch anything I just said?"

[eiattu_pride]

Rial looks vaguely guilty and hastily tries to search his memory.

"Uh...you asked if everything was okay?"