The Skies Tell The Future

[Tristan]

"I know.  It's a rare gift, mine," Tristan answered with trumped up vanity, his tone liberally sprinkled with wry good humor about his welcome wagon performance.  "Perhaps we should go back," he continued, slowing his steps as if he meant to wheel around and return the way they came any moment.  "One of the stewards would surely be better equipped to..."  But no, he shook his head, took a breath, and suddenly began plowing on ahead again, turning a corner that might indeed lead into a familiar hallway for Eiluned - one where several members of the Blood had their apartments.

Conversationally, as he drew them along toward one door in particular, he answered, "Oh, little enough.  The Hold is much as I imagine it to have been since the Founding.  Everyone has been anxiously awaiting your arrival.  And the wedding, of course.  These are your rooms."  He stopped at an open door, nudging it with a knuckle so it swung further open to reveal the plush interior.  The timely arrival into the lap of luxury helped mask the subdued tone for the 'and the wedding' part of his answer, gave him a good excuse to look away from Eiluned and into her quarters instead.

[Eiluned]

A hand moved to touch the captain's elbow as he dodged around the question. It was a careful motion to draw at least some of his dwindling attention back to her. The room was grand, true enough and she'd expected no less. Her eyes had even brushed across the room a moment before returned to Tristan with a very apparent curiosity. "You know very well that's not what I was asking. Did you miss me then too?" Her lips pursed and she moved past the man and into the room proper. The furnishings were lovely sure and she sat on the edge of what would be her bed, picking at the mud on her pant leg.

"I don't think I can move." Eiluned gave a heaving sigh and fell back onto the bed, waving her arms.

[Tristan]

The touched elbow found a place to rest against the frame of her door, leading into the lean of his shoulder and bicep, a casual stance that handily hid the piano wire tension of his frame - from the familiar gesture of her hand, from the teasing tone, from the whole general stress of the day.  Tristan did well to keep his tone easy when he answered, "Of course I missed you, silly girl," a term of 'endearment' that he'd hardly be able to use again once the deed was truly done.  "How could I do otherwise for my friend and the wife of my brother."

It wasn't quite as cozy as Eiluned's flopping back in her bed, but at least Tristan looked pretty much at his ease in the open doorway.  "Shall I go and tell them never mind?  Our new Lady is indisposed, dear holders, and can't be roused from her bed?"  Brows climbed amusedly while he added, "Quite the first impression you're making, filthy and bedraggled and now lazy.  Tut tut."

[Eiluned]

Eiluned lifted her head, just enough to watch Tristan but not enough to sit up. Her nose wrinkled and her head fell back again with a bit of a huff. The man could be impossible, and yet the familiarity of his responses was comforting. Even just a few moments of laying as she was gave her some of the energy back she'd lost on the road. However she may have been milking it, if the smile twisting her lips was to be any indication to her true mood.

"Yes, please do." One hand lifted and waved him off, a truly imperious gesture if she ever used one. Truth be told she'd learned it from her mother who tended to use the same motion to send off all kinds of people on her orders. "At least they'll get an impression, which is all they're after I'm sure. Holders would prefer the opportunity to gossip and all the better for me to not be there, more gossip don't you know." Still, the future lady of Fort swung up to proper sitting position and yawned.

[Tristan]

Watch Tristan reel a touch from that imperious wave, the way that he blinked toward the bed at the flare of those fingers.  Of all things, to see that particular gesture from that particular girl... it clearly took him by surprise, and he cocked his head, peering toward the sprawled figure as if it couldn't possibly be - it just didn't make - he shook his head, clearing away the image of that wave juxtaposed with that young woman.

It took the glib commentary to really drive home the fact that Eiluned was teasing him, and he took a comfortable breath to reassure himself, breathing it out with a light, loose chuckle while he reclined back into his slouch against the door frame.  "Ah, see.  You have it figured out already.  It doesn't matter how you really are.  It's just how you seem.  And.  At the moment, you seem rather sodden and sloppy.  Your trunk should be here in a moment.  Wash up?  I'll go and scrounge up your fiance.  Between the two of us, I'm sure we can keep you from having to hold high court on your very first day at the Hold."

[Eiluned]

"Aren't you the charmer then Tristan?" Sodden and sloppy indeed, if it weren't for the distinct sense he may have been teasing her in return Eiluned might have account to feel slighted. In any case she covered a yawn and rubbed a hand over her face to chase away the encroaching drowsiness. No, she supposed he was right, at least about cleaning up a bit. Pushing herself up from the bed, she wavered a moment on her feet and then stretched, enjoying the luxurious ease of it all. She was here. Soon everything would settle properly. Yes, and the best way to return to normalcy would be to be herself, which included being clean and comfortable.

"You do that, and I'll see if I can't find myself under all this mud." There was a bureau taking up a fair portion of one wall on which a mirror was precariously perched and she made a rather nasty face at her reflection. Ugh. It was worse than she thought. Hopefully it took Tristan a while to find Haighe, otherwise the young lordling might not even recognize his betrothed.

[Tristan]

Tagging Haighe here...

The smile that flashed back was, indeed, charming.  For a moment, it was obvious exactly how he managed to keep himself well-bedded, considering he had absolutely no interest in the women that "took the edge off," but the whole expression was fleeting while Tristan leaned out of the door frame and let his momentum carry him down the carpeted hallway the short distance to the rooms of his lordling half-brother.  He half-expected there to be no answer when he arrived there, that perhaps Haighe had already left his apartments and was down in the great hall to greet his bride, but he stopped outside the door anyway, lifting a knuckle and rap-tap-tapping it against the door.

"Little Lord, little Lord, let me in," he cooed, putting his mouth near the door jamb and trying to slide his voice in through the slim crack.  If Haighe was home, he'd at least know who it was that came a-knocking.  If he wasn't... well, Tristan had allowed enough time to pass with the attempt that Eiluned could make herself look purty again, and perhaps even have received her trunks while he was away and been able to find clothing that wasn't mud-splattered and rain-dampened.

[Haighe]

The door flew open in enough of a hurry to really convey that Haighe was all nerves and excitement. She was here! Was she here?  He'd forced himself to remain in his rooms rather than hover around like an eager puppy or crowd her on arrival but all it had done was exacerbate his current nervous state into a near frenzy. He'd changed at least four times, and there were clothes strewn everywhere.

He'd paced so much that he wouldn't be surprised if there was a groove worked into the ground from the tread of his feet.

He caught Tristan up by the shoulders. "Is she well? Does she find her rooms suitable? Did she mention me? Is she well?"

Obviously his patience was commendable.

[Tristan]

All of this, Tristan caught in a glance - the disarray of the room behind him, the way that the door flung open like that, the palpable anticipation Haighe exuded.  It at least made him less likely to react with surprise when he was so hurriedly seized, and instead left him chuckling faintly for the bridegroom's nerves.  Carefully peeling off the fingers on his shoulders, still chuckling, he answered, "She's well, brother, though I think very tired from the trip.  We didn't have a chance the decor.  And I'm fairly sure your name came up, yes."  In order.

"If you think you can contain yourself?"  There was a mock accusation in the question, as if Haighe might seize upon Eiluned as he had upon Tristan.  It certainly might not go over as well with the bride-to-be as with the half-brother.  "She's in her rooms, doing whatever it is that women do when they need to make themselves presentable."  He waved his hand at the arcane matters of a woman's toilette.

"Shall we?"

Coveting Haighe's wife wasn't great, it was true, but he loved his half-brother no less for doing so.  It was confusing.