SaDiablo Hall, Dhemlan, Kaeleer

[wwiii]

Training. Studying in Kaeleeran Court protocols, poring over any information that he could get his hands on regarding sanitary setups for new settlements in untamed territories, digging around for maps that could help Warren get a better idea as to where they were, and where they were trying to get... It was fairly safe to say that, when Warren wasn't busy running himself ragged in Kaeleer, trying to get budgets to balance and to work out supply options that weren't going to explode in his face, he was spending practically every waking hour training.

His teeth ground together as a stick whipped around, smacking him in the ribs with an audible crack.

Some types of training were easier than others, especially when he was running himself to the ground. He was tired, and it was starting to show. That wouldn't be so bad, if the person that was seeing it at the moment wasn't a sadistic Eyrien with a stick.

With a wince and a ruffle of feathers as he gasped to get his breath back, Warren straightened up and raised his stick again.

[For them what are in Kaeleer!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Keep biting, Warren. If you stopped, Karla might take the resulting grin as an invitation to do a little biting herself.

He did have a point, though. And Karla wouldn't mind a few days without getting beat on. While seeing her friends. Checking on the store. Attending classes.

"Can I still bring my books?"

[wwiii]

"I'll even carry them for you," Warren offered. "We can go over them together."

See? He was just making sure that she'd get some sleep from time to time!

And he was reserving the right to hide those books on her if she didn't seem to be relaxing, too.

[glacial_queen]

Karla eyes him suspiciously. "You're starting to sound just like the rest of the boyos," she accused. "All sweet and reasonable after you get your way. Have you been hanging around with Khary? Don't believe his story about the wall!"

[wwiii]

"I might have heard about the wall. Briefly," Warren admitted. "But you know, it isn't just my way. Making you rest isn't just for your good, it's for Glacia's."

But mostly for hers.

[glacial_queen]

"It was all his fault," Karla asserted. Completely unbiased, of course. "He started it!"

Karla had just ended it! With a wall. On his head.

HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER AT SHIELDING, OKAY?!

Karla sighed, stretching her neck and wincing when something popped in her neck. When he put it like that... "I'm being unreasonable again, aren't I?" she asked quietly.

[wwiii]

"Kind of," Warren replied, still smiling softly. "But that's okay. I'm pretty stubborn too."

He'd picked that up from her.

[glacial_queen]

"I noticed that," Karla said ruefully. "But then, I guess you have to be, dealing with me." She raised her face up for a kiss. "I don't mean to be, I just..."

She spread her hands, unsure how to word it.

[wwiii]

"You have a lot on your plate," Warren murmured, giving her that kiss and then settling in close with his arms around her. They were both soggy anyhow. It worked out. "Your territory, people you know... And you want to fix it all right now. We all do."

[glacial_queen]

She didn't mind his soggy wings half as much as he seemed to. Karla had no problems cuddling up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. She felt so small like this; small in a good way. Small and safe, surrounded and protected.

It was a feeling she was seeking more and more often recently.

"What's the point of having all this power and stuff if I can't just fix everything?"

[wwiii]

"But you can," Warren replied. "It just takes time. Anything worth having doesn't come easily, does it?"

... It sounded good at the time. Even if the truth kind of sucked.

[glacial_queen]

"I dunno," Karla said with a small smile. "How easily did I fall for you?"

[wwiii]

"Not sure," Warren countered, his grin going a little crooked. "How long was it before either of us figured it out?"

[glacial_queen]

"I was pretty convinced after that day on the couch," Karla said, bumping she shoulder against Warren's. "The day you glued yourself to the wall?"

In case he was confused about dates or somesuch.

[wwiii]

"You know, I might actually still have a few cases of Spree in my room, after that," Warren mused.

He would happily donate them to the Glacian relief efforts.

[glacial_queen]

They could make decorative wall-art for the yet unbuilt cottages for the refugees!

"You did buy a dozen or so, didn't you?" Karla asked. "You should be glad you're only down to a few." She nudged him. "No dodging the question."

Oh, hadn't Warren realized she was taking his rhetorical question literally?

[wwiii]

"Well, I know I'd figured it out sooner than that," Warren noted, because if she was going to take it literally, then he was going to roll with it. Why not? "But... you know."

While he wouldn't exactly consider himself shy, he hadn't exactly been the most outgoing guy on the island, either. Confidence was for other people.

[glacial_queen]

"How much sooner than that?" Karla asked, smiling a bit more now. Hey, she'd agreed to take a vacation; her ego deserved a little petting. "And what do I know?"

[wwiii]

"We went flying," came Warren's reply. "You brought out your wings, and we flew together. I don't think you really understood what that meant for me, yet. I mean, you knew a little bit, but..."

Mostly just that he hadn't flown much, and had initially been hell-bent on hiding his wings. For like a week.

"And you know how hard it was for me to say much of anything, then. Like any time I opened my mouth, I might accidentally say something that could take this amazing thing and break it to pieces."

So... Shy, after all. And possibly paranoid.

[glacial_queen]

"I like your mouth." Because it was say that or fall all over herself giving Warren hugs and telling him he was wonderful. "I'm glad that was past tense."

But she remembered that flight, a chilly day in late winter or early spring. She'd told him about Eyrien tag and flown around with Ben for a time. "But that was ages ago," she protested. "You were still a newbie back then!"

[wwiii]

"You gave me an excuse to fly," he countered. "One that wasn't just running away. With other people."

And if she wanted to get really flaily and protesty, he could get into how the crush had started when he was still dazed and staring around the welcome picnic.

"Do you have any idea how afraid I was of people finding out what I was, back then? But you didn't just talk me out of that harness, you talked me into the sky."

Kind of a big deal.

[glacial_queen]

Karla would have a hard time believing it. She wasn't the kind of girl males pined over for months. Not that Warren had been pining DENISE, but the principle was the same.

Or something.

As it was, she was shaking her head. "You would have gotten there," she said. "I did what anyone would do. I saw you were hurting and told you this was a safe place. Mother Night, I was just excited to have someone else to go flying with."

[wwiii]

KARLA WAS TAKEN AT THE TIME. DENISE HAD SAID SHE'D DO HIM. HE WAS SEVENTEEN. FUCK YEAH!

"What anyone would do, Karla?" He was giving her that look. That 'my dad tried to strip me of my wings and my entire world would rather I never existed' look. "Really?"

[glacial_queen]

HARRUMPH. DETAILS.

It was a very eloquent look. "Well...anyone at Fandom." She thought about some of their classmates. "Almost anyone at Fandom." And a few more of their classmates. "A decent number of people, anyway."

She leaned up to give him a kiss to distract him from the number of corrections there. "The important part is, it worked."

[wwiii]

"Yeah," Warren murmured, and then leaned down to kiss her again, smiling against her mouth. "It really, really did."

If somebody had told Warren-at-seventeen that he was going to be half as confident as Warren-at-nineteen was, he probably wouldn't have believed them. And he still had a long way to go.

[glacial_queen]

What about if he'd been told he'd be getting that much curry?

Well, if he was going to claim a kiss, Karla would have to steal another just to keep ahead in the tally. "I guess this means we're going to Fandom?" she asked when she finally pulled away.