Arden, Daveis & Symond

[bloodstirring]

Arden
Daveis
Symond

Symond invited Daveis to come over for a tour around the Citadel. Everything goes fine until they reach the garden where... something goes on which makes both of them go a bit 'asfihaf'. And Arden also shows up for some more 'asfihasf'.


skljfdskljfsd she had less than a day to plan this?!?!

...okay so she wasn't planning anything, because this was just friends. Meant nothing. Right? Right.

Right.

skjlfds

Luckily, Ricky had bought her a dress that was made to fit her, and not one she had to attempt to make fit herself, and she had enough warning to make her hair look nice. Nothing to be ashamed of, walking to the Citadel.

She was led in to his study, doing her best not to gape or slow down when walking by room after room. She had thought Dr. Belovi's was huge!

Symond had invited her like any friend would invite another friend. After all, they were just friends. Weren't they? They had to be.

He took another look at the document that was presented to him this late afternoon. Apparantly some of the Lenstern guards were questioning a man who possibly knew the location of a woman with minor Noba blood running through her veins. At first Symond thought it was a joke. Terre had exiled everyone. Even his own brother. Who could possibly have been saved from Terre's insanity? But the ministers seemed very confident in the matter.

So it was only a matter of time...

He thought it was a good thing he invited Daveis to come over. He could use a little distraction from the prospect of marrying a relative. And she was probably the closest thing he'd call a friend.

He looked out of the window when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

With one last look over the hallway she was leaving, she entered the study. "Hi, it's me." Of course it was her, although it could also have been, say, Ricky, or one of the guards that just lead her here, so it was okay.

"How are you?" She just sort of stood in the doorway area, not sure where she was supposed to go. Wasn't there...ettiquete or something for this?

It was her. For some reason this meeting felt more awkward than all of the others combined. Symond guessed it had to do with being in a much different position now. After all, he wasn't King when they last saw each other.

"I'm fine. You?" He tried to sound as casual as possible. His tone was often much more cold when he spoke to his guards and servants. But this was Daveis. After a moment of silence where Daveis didn't budge, Symond was the one to break the silence. "Oh, have a seat." He nudged at the chair on the other side of his desk.

Sitting...oh, that was familiar. This was how she conversed with Dr. Belovi most days.

"I'm fine, too. What are you looking at?" Apparently nothing could keep her inner nosiness down!

Hm? What did she mean?

... Oh!

Symond took the document, crumbled it and threw it into the bin. "It wasn't of any importance. Just a small message." It was quite the opposite.

"How are things over at Dr. Belovi's?"

...oh, okay. That worked too!

"Same as always. He's around a bit more again, but he looks so tired. And he refuses to take tea from me anymore, since I, uh, tend to put in some herbs that calm him down and put him to sleep when he gets like this." Ricky didn't appreciate that either, but they were stupid men who didn't know how to take care of themselves. That was hardly her fault. "I tried to diagnose someone over the journals last night. I don't think I did a good job."

After all, she was preeeetty sure they were Laguz (going from Verdane to Orgrehill?) and she hadn't learned much about Laguz biology. Maybe it was something that only effected them? What if they didn't get pnemonia?

Well, it certainly worked for him...

"Looks like both Arden and Dr. Belovi learn from their mistakes, huh?" Symond remembered Daveis asking for help in finding a way to restrain Arden to a bed. It was how they became acquainted. Though he did wonder how often she used that herb trick...

"Over the journals? Well, it's always hard to diagnose a patient if it's not within your view. So if you did a bad job, it wasn't your fault." For some reason that didn't sound right. "Not that you did a bad job, of course!"

"Sometimes. I gave the tea to his daughter to give to him." Daveis knew how to defeat them at their own games. "Ricky still takes tea from me, since he doesn't spend enough time at the clinic." Tying to bed was an awesome way to get him to stay still, she was sure. If only he'd STAY there.

"I guess. I think she had pneumonia, but it's hard asking for symptoms when the person your asking has no experience in looking for any."

Symond gave out a slight grin. "Arden doesn't strike me as the type of person to fall for those kind of tricks often." Wasn't he the best spy and assassin Lenster had to offer?

"That certainly makes it more complicated, yes. I do hope they were in the vicinity of a city? If not, she could be in trouble of the illness continues to grow worse."

"He doesn't. But he falls for them enough that he is healthier!" She was his sister and she would be a horrible sister if he never fell for it.

"I think he said they were by Nodion, and were going to go there for help." She wished she could remember if Nodion was friendly or not. "I hope they get her there in time."

"He's still breathing, so you're probably doing a good job." Daveis was probably the reason he was still alive in the first place.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, then. Nodion is a Noble House, so they probably have good facilities over there to help the wounded." Any Noble House should. After all, those in charge had to remain in good health in order to avoid chaos and disruption.

"Hm, would you like to have a small tour through the Citadel? Just a few of the most noteworthy rooms, mind you." The Citadel was too big to allow a tour in only one night.

"All I ask for, most days." And him and Lethe still seemed to be going well, even if Lethe moved out~ Things were good.

"Yeah." But were they friendly to Laguz? Did they even know how to take care of them, or was it different in the first place? Daveis had been more surprised to know that Laguz had the journals...or could write in Basic (better than she could)...

"Sure! It's so big, it's amazing. I've never seen anything like it, and I've barely seen any of it."

It was probably a good thing Daveis didn't mention it was a Laguz she'd been treating - or trying to - over the journals. Symond's answer would have been a clear one: let it die and don't look back.

"Good." He was glad she agreed on the tour. It gave them something to talk about and walking was relaxing for the mind. He stood up and walked over to the door and held it open for her. "Ladies first."

Daveis took care of the poor and unable to really pay people all the time. Turning away anyone, even if it was a Laguz (and she still wasn't even sure about that) was just...unthinkable. Especially when she really didn't have to worry about them ruining her clinic, since they weren't anywhere near Lenster.

"Ah, thank you." She walked out a few steps and waiting, having absolutely no idea where she was supposed to go now.

Symond followed Daveis out of the room and closed the door behind him. There were several places they could go to now. The throne room, the library, his bedro-- now, why did that one come up of all possible locations? Surely, it was one of his favorite rooms, but hardly appropiate to show in a small tour. He shrugged it off and figured it'd be best to offer a few possibilities to Daveis.

"Well, the place is rather huge, but I think the library, throne room and the garden are the most interesting to see. Which would you like to see first?"

"Uh..." Where to go? They all sounded awesome! "The...library!" That worked. She hadn't seen many before in her life, and they always amazed her. So many books...she didn't think it was possible.

Symond was glad she chose the library. He spent quite a lot of time there in the past weeks. He wasn't raised to be a King, so he had a lot of catching up to do. But it was much harder now than it was when he were young. Now he had to. And he wasn't fond of being forced to, even if it was he himself who was doing the pushing.

"Ah, that sounds like a fine place to start. Follow me." He turned to one side of the hallway and began to move his feet towards it. Luckily, the library wasn't too far away from his study.

Daveis followed a bit slower, still awed by the hallway. It was so...decorated! Expensive! Unlike anything she had ever seen?

Symond took a glance over his shoulder to see if she was still following him. He noticed how she looked around and couldn't help but smile. "Had I not spend most of my childhood here, I probably would have been in awe as well."

"I've never seen anything like it. The orphanage...well, obviously nothing like this. Dr. Belovi's isn't like that, either, and that's the most...expensive place I've ever been."

Admittedly, she lived in the clinic area, which was much less expensive and dramatic.

"Well, I've seen both. After my brot-- after Terre exiled everyone, I was forced to flee the country. I ended up in Grandbell and there I've led a simple life. Same counts for Alster."

Since 'Bryce Godfrey' no longer existed, he no longer deemed it necessary to remain silent about his stay in Grandbell.

"Grandbell? Really? What was it like there?" Well, one foreign country was the same as another to her, really.

"Not bad. The country definitely lives up to its name. But it wasn't like Lenster, hence why I eventually chose to come back. And when Terre died, I could even return to the only place I call home."

Two more rooms and they'd be at the library. Time progressed a bit faster with company.

"It's like a grand bell?" What sort of city was that? "Of course no place is as good as Lenster." Duh. That was just a fact.

... was she serious? Symond couldn't help but laugh. Gently, as he didn't want to hurt her feelings. "No, no! Not a grand bell. The country is known to be a powerful and civilized nation. That's what it is living up to. It's nothing like a bell."

...oh. "Well, the grand would imply that I guess." Sigh she was always laughed at, but but. "A country that's like a bell would be really, really, really weird."

"It would definitely be weird, yes." The doors to the library were almost always open, so Symond lead Daveis into the spacious room. "Well, here we are. Enough reading material to last a lifetime."

........

He wasn't understating that! She just stood there at gaped, wondering what such an amount of books could even cover.

"And people read these?" She asked, finally.

"Truth to be told, this library is not used often. The citizens of Lenster and all of the students generally use the Academy library. Though in the case the Academy doesn't have a certain book, a request comes in to see if this library has it. No one is allowed to take the books out of the library, though. Well, except the King."

He himself had read quite a few of the books, however.

"I don't think it'd be fair if you couldn't take books out of your own library!" She stared walking along the edges, peering at the covers.

So much writing. So much knowledge. Amazing.

"Ah, very true."

Symond followed Daveis and also peered at some of the covers, recognizing some of them along the way. He'd read quite a lot of these since he came back, didn't he?

...huh. She managed to roam her way back to the front, stopped, and turned out to look at the books again. "So many. How long did it take for them to collect that many?"

"Centuries, I'm sure. Some of those books have been rewritten quite a few times now, so their content isn't lost."

"Oooh." She stared some more, then smiled brightly. "Where to next?"

"The garden, perhaps? We could cross it to get to the other side of the Citadel, where the throne room is." The choice of going to the library first had indeed been a good one.

It seemed so! "Okay! Oh, what sort of flowers and plants do you have in the gardens?" Sure, she'd see them in a moment, but she wanted to know now.

What sort...? He had absolutely no idea. "I never studied flowers and plants." He had more important subjects to cover, after all.

"Oh." Well, she only knew them in their dried and crushed forms, to be turned into medicine. "Well, are they pretty?"

Pretty...

"I guess so?" This was not exactly the kind of topic he had any interest in, so talking about it was rather... difficult. Still, he liked the garden. Walking through it had a relaxing effect on him. He just didn't care about what kind of flowers and plants grow there.

"Well, it's just through this door." They had crossed the hallway and were now in front of thick wooden door. Symond pushed it open and lead the way into the fresh air.

"Oh, they are pretty!" And absolutely nothing she could recognize! Well, that was okay, because flowers were very able to be appreciated in almost total ignorance. "And it smells so nice!"

The smell was definitely nice. A whole lot nicer than the usual musty smell that hang around the interior of the castle. And being in the open air always did Symond good. He enjoyed a good walk.

"This is one of the better places in the castle." Symond bended over to pick a particulary nice flower. "It certainly feels and smells much nicer." As he stood up straight again and turned around, he noticed Daveis was closer to him than he had anticipated. Anyone walking in on this scene may have gotten the impression he was offering her a flower...

"Yeah, the castle is more on the, uh, intimidating side, and this is very calm and peaceful and beautiful..." She was a bit too distracted leaning down towards a bush and running her finger over some of the blossoms to notice where he was actually standing.

He just stood there with the flower in his hand whilst an unknown aroma lingered around his nostrils. He didn't recognize it as any of the flowers'. No, instead it seemed to come from... Daveis.

And it smelled... nice.

Was he-- no, that was impossible. Right?

... right?

"I've always been too busy to keep a garden of my own. Just easier to go to the market and get what I need, without the need to plant, water, weed...it takes a lot of upkeep." She neglected to mention her failed experiences in keeping plants, and the fact she cried when each of them died. It was like killing beloved pets.

With a final touch, she stood up and smiled at him. "It's very nice here."

"It is, isn't it."

Seeing her smile like that, from this close... Symond never felt anything like it ever before. He just... stood there, the flower still in his hand. In a strange impulse, he took one of her hands and placed the flower in it, without saying a word.

skjfds what? Ooh, how nice! "Thank you! It's so pretty." She felt the petals, then sniffed it. "Thank you."

"No problem." He smiled at her.

Oh boy, wasn't this awkward... Symond had absolutely no clue on what to do. He couldn't help but stare in her eyes and...

It was on the awkward side. What could she do? Give him a flower? Did it go the other way like that? She said thank you twice...

What else could she do?

Symond guessed there was only one thing he could do. Well, there were more, obviously. Many more. But for some reason it was the only option he could think of at the moment. The only one his impulses gave him.

And so he moved forward, lowered his head a little and his lips touched those of Daveis.

He was kissing her.

...

?!?!?!

The news he brought was important. Important enough to interrupt the King's privacy unannounced. It wasn't as if anyone would dare get in his way anyhow.

He was directed towards the library, where apparently he was entertaining someone. He didn't find him there, but the trail led to the open door that led towards the garden.

He spotted him with whomever his companion was, and he rushed towards him. "Highness! Highness there is news you need to hear! We've found-- whatareyoudoingkissingmysister?!"

D:

There were simply no words for this. Here he was, sharing a kiss with a girl he was fond of. He didn't see Daveis a lot, but there was something about her Symond really liked. She was his first female friend. So kind and so sweet. And she was one of the few people who could put a smile on his face.

But she wasn't just any girl. She was Arden's sister. And fate saw it necessary for Arden to show up on a moment like this. Oh, irony...

"I-- What news do you have?"

... That was a wrong approach, wasn't it?

...

Daveis stared and really had no idea what was going on. First kiss, skljfsd what was that about anyways he was the king, she was left next to the apples when she was a day old! and now skjfdsk

"Eeh?"

Oh, Arden was positively furious. So much so that he sort of sputtered for about thirty seconds before he calmed down long enough to be able to finish.

"Another. Bearing Noba blood. Has been found. Now. Would you be so generous. As to kindly answer my question. My King?"

Another one with Noba blood? So they found one...

...

Looks like his future was set in stone now. He was going to marry a woman he didn't even know and provide Lenster with a new major blooded heir.

But first things first.

... How the hell was he going to get out of this one?

"I don't know. It... happened." Damn it, Symond. That was pretty poor.

They what?

She just stood and waited, either to be dragged out, yelled at, or left behind if Ricky ran off for...something.

She didn't do anything bad! But...he had that look in his eye. Not a good sign.

Just happened.

Yeah, that wasn't just poor. From the flaring of his nostrils, he was just moments away from striking someone.

He looked from Symond to Daveis and then back several times, as if he couldn't quite decide whom to unleash his fury onto first.

...

"If you are toying with my sister, highness..."

Arden didn't feel the need to complete that sentence.

Toying...? Did Arden really think this low of his King?

"Your sense of judgment is disappointing, Arden. I'd never even think of toying with Daveis."

It was true. It had never crossed his mind and it never would.

"My sense of judgment tells me to trust few, noble or not, especially regarding my family. It has never led me astray."

But then Arden did something that only a few weeks ago might have been unthinkable.

"But... I believe you." He glanced at Daveis, poor Daveis, looking like a doe about to be attacked by a predator. He sighed, then turned around, taking a few steps away before he stopped. "Her name is Lana Kozlov. Expect a visit soon, my King.

"Make no mistake, however. Hurt my sister, and no amount of holy blood will save you from my wrath."

He believed him? So he had finally gained Arden's trust...

"Thank you. And I'll never hurt her. You have my word on it."

And now he had a new issue to deal with: informing Lana Kozlov of her new future. Her future with him.

"I need to think things through before I approach her. Place her in one of the finest suites and make sure she stays there. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Symond turned to Daveis and looked straight into her eyes. "I had a very pleasant time, Daveis. Thank you." And before he started to walk towards the open door behind Arden, he smiled at her.

So much information. She waved, still holding onto the flower, and watched him go.

Then turned and looked at Ricky and waited for...whatever was coming.

Arden nodded. "It will be done, my King."

When Symond was gone, and he was left there with Daveis, whatever rage he'd felt evaporated. He sighed and approached her. "I'm sorry I got upset."

"That's...that's okay." She hugged herself and waited, just. Just wanting her mind to settle down.

"No, it's not," he frowned. "I get angry when you get all mother hennish and overprotective but then I turn around and get the same way about... well, everyone I care about. Especially you."

"It's who you are. Hard to get angry about it."

...

No, her mind wasn't entirely back yet. This all meant nothing, really. Right?

That was okay.

Right?

He sighed. She was a grown woman, even if she was a bit naive at times.

And the king liked her. A good deal, it seemed.

This... was going to cause problems, he knew. And really, all that mattered was Daveis being happy. If this made her happy... well then who was he to try to get in the way?

"Still, I'm sorry. Come on, kid," he smiled. "Let's go get something to eat, okay?"

No yelling. No berating. She blinked. Sorry about what?

"Okay. Food sounds good. Thank you."

It was okay.