Welcome to Gaia! ::

She looked like a delicate thing, small and refined with graceful movements and gentle poise, but her calves were shapely, thighs toned and waist narrowed. Not terribly obvious at a glance, and certainly not in her usual modest attire, but undeniable when she was on stage and in her element. Or even during a fight.

His advances hadn't escaped her knowledge but Delphine wasn't sure what she wanted from him yet, if she wanted anything at all. He was certainly handsome enough, and though he'd made it clear he found her attractive he hadn't been too forward or aggressive.

The sort of young man her mother would certainly have approved of.

Dark eyes met lighter hazel. "Well enough. My general is strong and impressive and she expects much from those of us who serve beneath her, but I've found her to be an agreeable task mistress." One of the few, Delphine allowed silently, dark lips ticking up just the tiniest bit.

"Our schedule while I was away was rigorous and strict. I scarcely had time to eat a proper meal, let alone worry about much else. Which was all the same," she went on, though paused as she muled over just how much to say. "At the time there was someone at home I kept in contact with, who I reconnected with once I returned, but."

Her voice had softened, and she'd her fingers twitched where they rested delicately on the side of his face. He died, rested heavy on her tongue but she wasn't sure she wanted to say it. Instead she went with something a little softer. "He's gone now."

His fingers on her wrist were gentle as he coaxed her hand back from his face, and she didn't put up any resistance to it. If he needed a break from the cold that was perfectly acceptable. The point was to reduce the swelling and numb the pain, not make the site ache more from prolonged contact with the ice. Her fingertips lingered on his cheek, even as her other hand lowered.

"I'm sure they do, but some are less accepting of mediocrity or defiance than others." Which was not directed at anyone specifically. Just an observation she'd made over time with the Negaverse.

Of course the mood had shifted, they'd both felt it.

It wasn't her intention. She'd volunteered to come to Witzend to move past the the loss and the lingering weight that had settled over her as a result of it. She didn't want to wallow in might-have-beens and lost chances.

"Sometimes. It was very sudden, and we still don't know exactly what happened." But the door had been locked, which meant it had to have been... "But it doesn't do to dwell in the past," she continued, lips pulling in the shadow of a little smile.

She watched him lean into the delicate touch of her fingers and once again found herself wondering just how sincere the act. If there was an honest interest behind the soft brush of his lips against the skin of her inner wrist or if it was all a show and all that he wanted was a bit of fun.

It was hard to tell, Delphine had only known him a few days, and that made it difficult to accurately read behind that charming smile or that cultured tongue. Hard to know if there was anything at all behind the pretty words and the soft gestures. There was attraction there, she believed that to be true, but attraction alone had never been enough. Not their's, not her own.

And he was attractive, there was no denying that. Tall and tanned, and cut from the same social clothe. All things considered, he would make a very nice distraction.

"You're very direct," she countered smoothly, head tipping as she looked back at him thoughtfully and color rose up to darken pale cheeks. It would be a lie to say she didn't like the attention he was giving her. The feeling of being wanted again, after everything that'd happened.

There was nothing to keep her from testing the waters, so to speak. No harm in letting the young man sitting before her chase away some of the ghosts that still lingered. Dipping in a toe didn't mean she had to dive all in.

"Does your lip still hurt?"

She let her hand lower from his cheek to his shoulder as stood there between the 'v' of his knees. "I prefer honesty," she answered simply, overly aware of the weight of his fingers where they lingered around her wrist.

She hadn't pulled free, hadn't stepped away.

"The flattery isn't half bad, either," she mused with a small smile, her hand shifting so she could brush her thumb along the lower edge of his lip, away from the split. His skin was still cold to the touch, but not as icy as she imaged it had been.

"No," she clarified. "You haven't. But you did ask what I preferred." It wasn't a note on his behavior, just an answer to his question.

Her thumb tgged back from nipping teeth with a small, startled sound that melted into a soft chuckle and an amused smile. One that grew as he complimented her, not just her looks but her capabilities as well in balanced ego stroking. She'd baited him into it, Delphine knew that, but that didn't make anything he'd said untrue.

The cold compress had been taken from delicate fingers, and she brought that hand up to rest on his other shoulder, weight shifting from one hip to the other as she looked back at him, her gaze flicking down to his mouth. "Is that so?" A small step forward brought her in closer. "Are you asking permission?"

There was something to the force with which he'd pulled her in closer, the strength in his hand where it splayed wide at the small of her back. Not rough, but firm, and her arms slid along his shoulders and down his back, curling up slowly until she'd wrapped them around his neck, holding on to him in turn as he straightened to sit a little taller.

It put them almost level, and Delphine felt the warmth of his words against her lips before he closed that last small gap between them to claim her lips.

She barely knew him, and the thrill of that crashed over her in a heady rush. It wasn't proper, wasn't anything she'd ever considered she'd be doing, but there were countless other things she'd been met or challenged with in the past few years that she could never even have dreamed of. What was a kiss with a relative stranger that spoke sweetly and smiled and caused a spark in the dancer she hasn't felt in months.

Delphine leaned into him, lips parting at the slightest prompting, and she could feel her cheeks burning as she tilted her head to deepen the kiss.

Even as her arms tightened around his shoulders and she melted eagerly into the press of his lips and soft n** of his teeth she wasn't sure just how much she wanted from him or how far she'd willing to go, but she had needed this. The warmth and the weight of arms wrapped around her and the knowledge that life carried on even when it felt like things were crumbling at the edges.

She could put it back together, and she could close up the hole that Ian's loss had created.

Gansey wasn't a replacement, but he was a great distraction with the potential to be more than that. At the very least she was finding she enjoyed spending time with him here, in this chaotic setting.

One arm shifted to slide her fingers up into the warmth of his hair, nails running lightly along his scalp as they kissed. She grazed his lip with her teeth, light, testing, the faintest nibble just to see if he'd respond to it.