(Untitled)

[damosel_linet]

It was dead strange.  It seemed that one moment, Lynet was in her bed - sick beyond help, and lonely - feeling that all the good had gone out of the world.  And now, but a moment later, she is standing in the foyer of some grand, strange house, not a thing like her cottage, or any castle she's known, and she feels ... quite well, actually.

It's

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[littlebetter]

Dear God.

Just a few days ago he was telling Cimorene he didn't think his wife would ever come back, and to-day he wanders down the stairs (in his jeans and button-up shirt) and finds her in there. Just sitting there. The same as he always remembered her--well, maybe a little different around the edges, but-- her. Lynet.

He falls back a step, his knuckles whitening as his hand clenches on the stairrail.

"My lady?" very softly.

[damosel_linet]

She twists in her seat, turns her face up to look at him. If she's surprised, she doesn't show it, though there's a faint smile around the eyes... maybe.

"God in heaven," dryly, "What a mess you look."

[littlebetter]

"I do not," he says, forced lightly. "I look well. And for once in my life I don't smell of foxes."

[damosel_linet]

A little laugh, a smile even, "Aye, well there's something anyway."

[littlebetter]

"So." He leans back on the stairrail. "You've missed me?"

[damosel_linet]

"What, missed picking up after you? Not hardly."

Her hands are still knotted in her skirts, but she's putting on a pretty good show of being casual.

[littlebetter]

"I thought that's how it would be. You took your time coming."

[damosel_linet]

"As if I'd planned it to spite you," another laugh, this one derisive. "Aye, and maybe I should have, seeing as you're so glad to see me now."

[littlebetter]

"Mm, you're as glad to see me as I am to see you, and you well know it."

[damosel_linet]

"If this is any indication of how glad I am," she gestures at Gaheris, at the distance between them, "Then I'm a poor sort of glad."

But her voice shakes, only a little.

[littlebetter]

"Easily mended." He takes the steps down to her, closing the cap, and sits down on the bottom stair beside her.

[damosel_linet]

She sits again, as he does, and turns to face him.

But she doesn't speak again, for a moment. Uncharacteristically quiet, her face all full of questions and her hands kept still and away from him.

[littlebetter]

"Not like thee to be silent," he remarks quietly.

[damosel_linet]

Her hands clench and unclench in the skirt fabric, and then suddenly, her arms are around him. "God, mess or not," she mutters, "I did miss thee."

[littlebetter]

"Thou'rt the most obstinate filthy-troublesome woman on this wide earth," into her shoulder, holding her back fiercely tight.

[damosel_linet]

The embrace is awkward, sitting on the steps like this, but she does not shift or loosen her hold on him.

"At least I'm not an idiot, and poorly dressed besides."