[log] i would just disappear if it weren't for you and your love like nails in my feet

[errantknights]

[00:46] * Martel is in his study - settled at the top of his tower, where he can see most everything from, and where he's /really/ settled, looking as though he's been there for years and may or may not intend to winter there, too.
[00:48] * Candice comes to interrupt him, knocking at the door.
[00:49] Martel: "Come in," Martel says, distracted - though he's on his feet by the time he's realized who's knocking.
[00:51] * Candice meanders over, dressed--notably--in some of the fashions acquired via seamstress, though it's the lightest layer that's decent, long and sleeveless with a slit up one leg. "Are you very, very busy?"
[00:51] Martel: "Getting less busy by the moment," Martel says, putting himself between her and his desk smoothly. The interest in the slit up her leg is not feigned, but it /is/ convenient. "Hello, there."
[00:53] * Candice eyes him like she thinks maybe putting himself between her and the desk isn't accidental. "What's keeping you so preoccupied?"
[00:54] * Martel does /not/ feign innocence, which is inherently suspicious (particularly from Martel, who doesn't do it very well). "Numbers. Is this from the seamstress?"
[00:58] Candice: "It is, yes." She approaches him to lean on him, all the same. "Do you like it?"
[00:59] Martel: "I like it." Martel wraps his arms around her waist. "What day is it?" ...He is probably asking due to California.
[01:02] Candice: "It's early on Wednesday. I'll probably go out tonight and stop by."
[01:03] * Martel nods, thoughtful. "Leave me the address, will you?"
[01:05] Candice: "Of course. Will you miss me?"
[01:05] Martel: "At once and until you return." It's hard to tell whether or not he's kidding.
[01:09] Candice: "You should give me a good sendoff," she suggests, rising up onto her tiptoes.
[01:11] Martel: "Marvellous idea," Martel agrees, pulling her up the rest of the way and carrying her awaaaay from the desk to the sofa by the fireplace instead. "How long are you going to be gone?"
[01:12] Candice: Thwarted. She'll get to that desk yet, Martel. "Two months," she says, blase.
[01:12] * Martel leans back. "You wouldn't leave me out of your sight for an entire week. I don't believe you."
[01:13] Candice: "With the Nexus schematics, it may well be that long. Don't test me," she teases, "I'll test you back."
[01:15] Martel: "/I/ wouldn't leave /you/ out of my sight that long, either."
[01:15] Candice: "You say that like I'm the troublemaker here."
[01:16] Martel: "I say that like I'd get tired of not looking at you." Martel is, on occasion, something like charming.
[01:16] * Candice is suitably charmed enough to smile, avert her eyes, and then kiss him.
[01:21] * Martel is so much more appealing than his work, or any work, really. "I do like this," he adds, /thoughtfully/, twisting the fabric near the top of the dress's split between his fingers. "Well worth the effort."
[01:23] Candice: "I could say something awful here, but I think I'd make you blush," she laughs, "but I'm glad you like it."
[01:23] Martel: "/Would/ I?" Martel is not sure whether he's skeptical or intrigued.
[01:25] Candice: "...or I'd make myself blush, possibly."
[01:25] Martel: "Do tell."
[01:27] Candice: "...you know I wasn't planning on /saying/." Except now she thinks they're in a mini-power struggle, a playful one, but one nevertheless, and she knows how those tend to go with him.
[01:27] Martel: "You can't taunt me like that," he says, mildly, flying in the face of all obvious facts to the contrary.
[01:27] * Martel tends to do his damnedest to win them and refuse to concede ever.
[01:28] Candice: "Can't I?" She raises her eyebrows, defiant. And...probably on his lap, which ruins the effect somewhat.
[01:29] * Martel runs his thumb up underneath the split in her dress. "If I make you blush /first/, we'll never have to know if it'd make you."
[01:30] * Candice inhales. "Funnily enough, what I was thinking had something to do with--ah, the phrase 'easy access.'" THERE, MARTEL, WILL YOU STOP (no, never).
[01:31] * Martel laaaaaughs into her shoulder.
[01:32] * Candice is, predictably, crimson. Maybe she can take advantage of his laughter to slip off his lap and to his desk?
[01:33] * Martel starts, slightly, when she slips away. "Candice, what're you doing-"
[01:34] * Candice sits behind his desk annnd peers. "What're you hiding, husband of mine?"
[01:35] Martel: "Would I hide from you?" He's written in Elenic, but perhaps by now she can read some - one of the scraps of parchment, he seems to have been trying to work out his own exact age. The other's an incomplete set of notes on his family, an annotated family tree down to the two of them.
[01:36] * Martel would, by the way.
[01:37] Candice: "If you felt you had good reason...what is this? A family tree?"
[01:38] * Martel doesn't answer the first part - because she's right - and rolls his good shoulder. "Something of the sort."
[01:38] * Candice looks at it for a second longer, and then goes back to him, standing in front of him. "That's not a bad idea. Any particular reason?"
[01:40] * Martel rests his hands on her hips, due to a general unwillingness to not be touching her. "Some reflection, lately. Nothing so interesting."
[01:49] Candice: "I won't pry. But I like to know these things." She slides forward back onto his lap, kneeling with her legs on either side of him, not quite sitting unless he guides her. The slit in the skirt enables this.
[01:51] Martel: "It's desperately dull, darling." This is probably half the reason he likes the dress so much - he pulls her to sit, not hurried. "We were interesting only independent of each other."
[01:53] Candice: "Pardon?" She sits just like that, then. Because apparently straddling him is their favorite way for her to be in his lap when they're alone.
[01:53] Martel: "The family tree over there," he says, not without humour.
[02:03] Candice: "You're interesting in any context. Though I admit to being biased."
[02:04] Martel: "I should hope that you're biased."
[02:06] * Candice just laughs, and kisses him again. "Very."
[02:10] Martel: "Lucky me," Martel murmurs, dry.
[02:11] Candice: "You sound sarcastic!" She leans back, now.
[02:11] Martel: "Don't I usually? Come back here."
[02:13] Candice: "Make me," she says, deliberately, just because she often likes it when he does.
[02:14] * Martel drags her back to him by means of a hand on the back of her neck. Why.
[02:15] * Candice makes a fascinating (and...disturbingly provocative, why indeed) noise in response to that, but over to him she goes.
[02:19] Martel: "Better," he says, deliberately, and neglects to let go.
[02:22] Candice: "Is it." She suspects he likes her smallness at times like these.
[02:25] Martel: "I wouldn't lie to you." There's a diplomatic pause. "Right now. About this."
[02:25] * Candice twists forward, unless he stops her with the hand on her neck, to bite /his/ throat. Hmph.
[02:26] Martel: "What if I had a /very good/ reason?" he asks, mock-plaintive, rumbled through laughter.
[02:29] Candice: "You always think you have a good reason," she mutters in his ear, "you're also sometimes wrong." And then she bites down there too.
[02:32] Martel: "If only you weren't most of my fun," Martel says, tipping his head, "then I could more readily accuse you of ruining it."
[02:33] Candice: "You make that sound like something dirty," she says, half-accusing.
[02:33] * Martel slides his hand up the side of her thigh. "Do I? What an accusation."
[02:34] Candice: "...possibly because it probably /was/--" She looks amused. And waits for him to discover just how interesting the necessary underwear for a dress like this is.
[02:35] * Martel is so fascinated he finds it necessary to tug it where he can get a better look.
[02:36] Candice: "I told them," she murmurs, sounding pleased, "to make it the softest fabric they could find that would be difficult to, ah--rip." In other words, Candice enjoys presenting challenges to Martel, lest he get bored.
[02:37] * Candice is also not pink at all shut up.
[02:42] * Martel gives her a wildly amused look for her trouble. "That's trouble to go to."
[02:45] Candice: "Well, they're pretty, too. I'd show you, but you seem to like this dress so much..."
[02:49] Martel: "And you'd be annoyed with me if I tore /that/."
[02:52] Candice: "Yes. I would. So you have to take it off /nicely/, if you do, and store up all that aggression for when you've finally got me undressed." Oh.
[02:53] Martel: "But darling," Martel murmurs, finding the catches, "I thought you'd like to be able to walk in California."
[02:53] * Candice goes very scarlet, and takes a deep shaky breath before she speaks: "I have the whole day to recover."
[02:59] * Martel seems to view this as a challenge.
[03:00] * Candice ends up basically...unwilling to do anything but curl up against him and breathe. Must you, Martel.
[03:01] * Martel remains extraordinarily pleased with himself. And /exhausted/, but extraordinarily pleased with himself.
[03:03] Candice: "Now you're going to have to get me into the bath," she threatens, mildly, "without alerting the household."
[03:04] Martel: "You didn't want Ewar to carry you?" Martel, she is never too tired to get you.
[03:06] Candice: "Like this?" She raises her eyebrows. "I suppose I can manage if he doesn't mind my present state. Call for him." See.
[03:07] * Martel reflects on that backfire. "I think he'd object to mine, somehow." Come on, guys, it's bad enough Ewar knows this is what you do when Martel gets kicked out of his study. Do you have to do it in there, too? ...yes.
[03:10] Candice: "We've got pinpoints in here, don't we?" She shifts against him. "I didn't know you could be--quite that--"
[03:10] Martel: "...surprise," he offers, dryly.
[03:11] Candice: "I don't know if you noticed, but I wasn't really objecting."
[03:11] Martel: "It may have come to my attention."
[03:16] * Candice reaches out to test his back.
[03:17] * Martel hisses through his teeth. This doesn't really do much to remove the air of smugness.
[03:18] * Candice is distressed. "I made you bleed again. I'm sorry."
[03:19] Martel: "There are worse things to bleed for." He'd, uh, know. "You can come home quicker to see how it heals." :>
[03:23] Candice: "Oh, I see. That's your angle." She kisses him briefly, affectionate.
[03:25] Martel: "Did it work?" False idleness. Martel is never idle.
[03:26] Candice: "You know I'll come back to you as soon as I can."
[03:27] * Martel 's smile is faint and genuine. "I wouldn't doubt it." We-ell...he might've, but less now.
[03:28] Candice: "There's nowhere else I belong." That's also genuine.
[03:29] Martel: "I suppose we should look at property sooner rather than later, then," no, Martel, that's not what she meant, but he drifts uneasily away from too much intimate discussion, sometimes.
[03:40] Candice: "If you like." She notices that tendency, don't worry.
[03:43] Martel: "It'll be interesting."
[03:58] Candice: "Did you have anything in particular you know you want...?"
[04:02] Martel: "'Space' goes without saying at this point. Land."
[04:11] Candice: "Fencing?"
[04:13] Martel: "It might make marking out wards simpler if it were well-fenced."
[17:09] * Candice half-smiles. "We should get a swimming pool." >_>
[17:10] Martel: "Should we?" Survey says: absolutely.
[17:10] Candice: "If it's well-fenced, I wouldn't have to bother with bathing suits." ...good enticement.
[17:11] Martel: "What a marvellous plan."
[17:24] * Candice squirms closer to him. "For now, though...we're going to get cold."
[17:27] Martel: "God forbid." Pinpointing around the castle is...shameless cheating, actually, but it's a big castle, he's tired, and he doesn't want to put his clothes back on. (If there's blood on that sofa, one of the maids is going to have a heart attack.)
[17:29] Candice: "I sometimes wonder if we don't pay our staff enough," on that note.
[17:32] Martel: "I'm sure we can afford to raise it when the place properly starts to turn a profit." Hm.
[17:34] Candice: "Maybe." She is not...moving away from him unless he makes her, by the way.
[17:34] * Martel is uuunlikely to make her move. But he is going to lean over and fish his pinpoint out of his pile of clothing.
[17:35] * Candice presses her face into his shoulder, quiet.
[17:37] * Martel lands the pair of them about a foot to the left of where he meant to. Still, it's a big damn bed. There's no need to let on.
[17:39] * Candice would laaaugh if she knew.
[17:44] * Martel tucks them under the covers. "We can look at it properly when you're done with this job."
[18:00] Candice: "Ah--" She sighs. "I've got the rest of the day to prepare for it. I won't manage that in bed." And yet she's not moving.
[18:02] * Martel has work to do, himself; still, distracting Candice for a while is rarely a bad plan. (In his opinion.) "It's early, yet," he reminds her.
[18:09] Candice: "Yes, and as promised, I don't quite feel like walking yet." She gives him a dirty look, but it lacks much real fire behind it.
[18:10] Martel: "I was provoked," he taunts. Martel is not going to win any husband of the year awards, but Candice should probably get something for patience worthy of a saint.
[18:18] Candice: "Provoked?" she demands. "How?" Candice. You know how. ...possibly she just wants to see if he'll say it.
[18:23] Martel: "/How/?" Mock incredulity, Candice, have some!
[18:23] Candice: "I'm sure I have no idea what provokes you, caballero."
[18:24] Martel: "My little queen, you are a terrible liar."
[18:26] Candice: "Untrue. I'm a very good liar."
[18:28] Martel: "You might be able to persuade someone who'd never met us both," he says, considering.
[18:28] Candice: "I could tell them you seduced me," she laughs, tipping her head back. "Am I covered in marks?" Yes.
[18:30] Martel: "No," he lies.
[18:30] * Candice pinches his hip. "Then you're not quite as forceful as I though you were," she goads.
[18:30] * Martel leans back from her and gives her a look as if to say 'see? this. this right here.'
[18:31] * Candice feigns innocence, which is amazing considering she's naked, curled against him, and covered in bite marks and bruises he left.
[18:40] * Martel laughs and laughs and laughs.
[18:41] * Candice pouts. "Perhaps I should go and get ready." :|
[18:42] Martel: "Later," Martel says, coaxingly.
[18:44] Candice: "Convince me," she suggests.
[18:49] * Martel drifts his fingertips down her body, carefully /avoiding/ assorted care-of-Martel marks already left. "Belated birthday celebrations," he offers, "We'd been too busy." Stealth plurals.
[18:52] Candice_: "...birthday--/we/?" She props herself up on her elbows.
[18:53] Martel: "Yours was recently, I'm sure," he says, blandly, rolling her into his lap. One day Martel's going to have to stop manhandling his wife. (No.)
[18:56] * Candice is strangely dubious about that, yes. "Ah...yes, it was on the first--" She frowns. "I'm thirty-six."
[19:01] * Martel can't imagine why. "I thought so. I'd meant to do something." But there's no end of work in the castle, and there's that pesky missing wizard, and also Martel's quiet aversion to birthdays when not using them to distract his wife and keep her where he likes her.
[19:03] Candice: "I don't like the idea of getting older," she admits, "is that superficial?" Though it's not as if she'll age. Also, she suspects he likes her right where he is, and she doesn't mind that, either.
[19:03] * Martel laughs quietly. "Rest comfortably in the knowledge that no matter how old you get, I will always be older than you."
[19:06] Candice: "How much older?" She raises her eyebrows, shifting to get comfortable in his lap. This is easy when she doesn't have to worry about her clothes.
[19:06] Martel: "Old enough," he says, mildly, settling underneath her and resting his hands at her knees.
[19:09] Candice: "Well, I would hope you aren't secretly nineteen, yes."
[19:13] Martel: "I think, somehow, you'd be able to tell. Though, I don't look as old as I remember looking." He kisses her shoulder, adding, "Conveniently, given how young you can be mistaken." What, it's a valid point. The age gap isn't that huge, no need to make it look wider than it is.
[19:18] Candice: "...yes." She winces slightly. "We might have problems already in Georgia, in some places, with the interracial aspect..."
[19:27] * Martel does not, at least, really need /that/ explained to him any. "Charming." He's quiet a moment, considering.
[19:30] Candice: "Savannah's not as bad. There are a lot of dead there--I'll make sure whatever property we buy is clean, though."
[19:34] Martel: "You're a very useful woman to know." There's also the 'madly in love with her' aspect, yes.
[20:30] Candice: "Well, thank you." She pushes her hair away from her face. "You'll stay out of trouble while I'm gone?"
[20:30] Martel: "Define 'trouble'."
[20:31] Candice: "Things that would make me annoyed with you."
[20:32] * Martel actually has to think about it.
[20:33] * Candice stares at him.
[20:33] Martel: "Yes," he says, finally.
[20:36] Candice: "Thank you," she says, emphatic, and kisses him.
[20:42] * Martel kisses her back; not so violently as before, good job. "I'd hate for you to be vexed with me, after all."
[20:43] Candice: "I might start withholding," she taunts, even as she wraps one arm around him.
[20:43] Martel: "I could persuade you."
[20:46] Candice: "You could try."
[20:46] Martel: "Not if you want to leave this evening."
[20:47] Candice: "I meant when I came back," she objects, nudging him, "Would you really keep me with you?" ...Candice you've met the guy.
[20:48] Martel: "Do you really think I wouldn't?" Candice. /Really/.
[20:52] * Candice eyes him for a second and exhales, leaning in to brush her lips over the curve of his jaw. "One day you're just going to chain me to you by the hips, and then where will we be."
[20:53] Martel: "Here, probably," he says, blandly, his hand sliding up her back to pull her closer, since she's there anyway.
[20:55] Candice: "You're making me not /want/ to go," she mutters, accusingly.
[20:56] Martel: "That's /terrible/ of me," Martel says, insincerely contrite.
[20:56] Candice: "Martel. Really." It would mean more if she'd pull away from him.
[20:57] Martel: "Darling." Martel is a nuisance.
[21:03] * Candice bites down a little. "You know, there are some people who would say spending so much time together isn't good for us."
[21:03] Martel: "I'm not known for listening to other people." ...well. It's true.
[21:06] Candice: "And we're a bit different."
[21:14] Martel: "Dead," Martel murmurs, "for one thing."
[21:15] * Candice ...puts her hands all over him experimentally. "Mm, well, you might've died before, but you feel pretty alive to me, caballero. Should I check more?"
[21:16] Martel: "If that's how you'd like to check, I'm not going to protest."
[21:19] Candice: "Aren't you exhausted yet?" She raises her eyebrows. "You could barely move before."
[21:21] Martel: "What would you have me do instead?" This seems like an unwary question, sir.
[21:22] * Candice .....pushes him down onto his back.
[21:29] * Martel grits his teeth briefly, because his back is a /mess/, and smiles through it, raising his eyebrows. "Candice."
[21:31] * Candice is totally going to tie him to the bedpost if he doesn't stop her. "This way I'll know you're staying out of trouble /and/ you aren't antagonizing anyone--"
[21:31] * Martel wraps his hand around whatever she's attempting to use to tie him down with and tugs her flat against him instead. "I hope you don't really think I couldn't get free, if I /let/ you."
[21:34] Candice: "If you let me," she agrees, smiling, "remember that time in the library? When I was in your lap, and my ribs were still healing?"
[21:35] Martel: "I remember that," because it was kind of funny, actually, "the near miss."
[21:36] Candice: "You liked, I think, being on the receiving end of the attention a little. Didn't you?" She's trying to sweet-talk him into it, and doesn't expect much success, but it's worth a shot...and it's just kind of fun to tease him.
[21:41] * Martel considers her - like he might actually be considering it, even - tugging the tie out of her grip. "Perhaps."
[21:42] * Candice takes his free hand and guides it to one of her hips. "You can have the control there," she suggests. Um. Guys, what kind of sendoff is this.
[21:43] * Martel gives her a dubious look, albeit not one remotely doubting his own ability to control situations and/or people. Or Candice, specifically. (Great.)
[21:44] Candice: "Please?" Aaand she's kissing down his chest now.
[21:44] * Martel sighs. "Your heart set on it."
[21:49] Candice: "I'd do whatever you want the next time," she says, and considering she's kissing his hipbone now........hi.
[21:52] Martel: "I'm holding you to that," Martel says, giving in. He's not letting her near the ties again, though.
[21:55] Candice: "You'll enjoy yourself," she promises, easing her way back up.
[21:56] Martel: "And yourself," because refraining from that comment was apparently too much for him. She's going to go to California with hand-prints on her hips.
[21:58] * Candice ends up rolling next to him on her back, feeling relatively pleased with herself this time around. Also, sore. They should probably care more about protection, but they do refer to each other as husband and wife, so.
[21:59] * Martel generally fails to care about that at all, which is somewhere between a product of his time and just, you know...Martel. "What a fascinating morning it's been." ...ffff. He's going to sleep half the day at this rate.
[22:00] Candice: "I've certainly had worse." She tucks herself against his side. "Was a little capitulating /so/ terrible?"
[22:04] Martel: "There are worse things in the world," he allows, keeping the smile off his face but not entirely out of his voice. Still, she should probably write this up on the calendar as a red letter day.
[22:05] * Candice glances down at her hips, and then back at him. "You certainly took what power you could get." Fff they're going to think she's some kind of freak when she gets to California.
[22:05] Martel: "At your suggestion," he says, piously, as though he wouldn't have thought of it on his own. (Lies.)
[22:09] * Candice eyes him for a second. "What did you have in mind for turnabout?"
[22:10] Martel: "I'll let you know, dear."
[22:10] * Candice just laughs, and rolls over onto her stomach.
[22:18] * Martel rests his hand briefly on her back. "I was working out," he says, absently, "or trying to, how the time gaps have affected my age."
[22:29] Candice: "Mmm?" She regards him from one side.
[22:30] Martel: "Mmmm. I didn't get anywhere."
[22:36] Candice: "How old were you, when--?" He died.
[22:42] Martel: "Forty-one or so."
[22:44] Candice: "Mm." She presses closer to him, breathing slow. "I think that's about what you should keep, then."
[22:44] Martel: "In which case," Martel says, "I am forty-two." ...hit him.
[22:44] Candice: "Did you want what I offered in return for before, or did you want to mouth off and make me rescind my offer?" :>
[22:45] * Martel gives her a mock injured look. "It was the fourth of the month."
[22:46] * Candice rolls over to look at him right back. "Why didn't you say anything?"
[22:46] Martel: "To what purpose?"
[22:47] Candice: "So I could've done something for you."
[22:47] Martel: "Do something for me when I mark a century," he advises, with supreme confidence that he actually will.
[22:51] Candice: "Oh, but /what/?" She stretches, amused.
[22:53] Martel: "You have a good fifty-eight years to decide."
[23:02] Candice: "That's true. And for now...I should bathe." She looks down at herself, rueful. "I'm basically filthy."
[23:03] * Martel isn't smug. At all. Also, he was a boy scout once. "What'll you hurl at my head if I threaten to join you?"
[23:03] Candice: "Will you keep your hands to yourself?" ...haha.
[23:03] Martel: "Do I ever? Go on. I'm too tired."
[23:04] * Candice kisses him. "You're welcome to, if you just want to relax." Off she goes.
[23:04] * Martel does join her, in a short while; it's not like he's any less in need of hot water and soap.
[23:09] * Candice is stretched out with her eyes closed, head tilted back against the edge. ...yeah, she's got a lot of bruises. Damn it, guys.
[23:14] * Martel sinks under the water at the other end. "Don't fall asleep."
[23:55] Candice: "I won't. I'd drown."
[23:55] Martel: "Rather my point."
[23:57] Candice: "So don't let me."
[23:58] Martel: "I will do my level best."