Welcome to Gaia! ::

Their traveling seemed to go much slower than it had when they were marching to battle which was odd to Naevius. She thought the soldiers would be eager to get home to families and the land they new and loved. As she observed at night though, after her long conversations with Sebastien at his fire, most were content to take their time and drink as much as they could, probably on the King's coin too. Let them have their fun, she told herself, they've earned it.

Things had been a little odd during the day though, soldiers weren't as willing to speak with her as they had been. Perhaps it was because all she had done? In any case, Nae didn't know the cause, but was determined to make today a good day. It was, after all, a good day. A messenger had arrived the day before with the thing she had sent him off to find. After making sure it was properly oiled and cared for and to her exact specifications, she decided it would be the day.

Wrapping it in some cloth, Naevius made her way towards the beast pens on the outer edge of camp where she knew Sebastien always made his camp. It was about midday, and he was normally there, so she hoped he was this day. Approaching his tent, she kept her hands and the package behind her back, looking as if she was just walking gracefully. "Sebastien?" She called out once she neared as to not startle him for whatever reason.

With a smile bigger than she normally gave most people, Naevius took pleasure in the slightly odd smile on his face as he approached her. They'd talked a lot lately, mostly at night when neither of them could sleep. It was refreshing for her, to have someone she could just talk plainly without worry. So far, it didn't seem like anything she said had changed Seb's opinion of her, well, assuming that opinion was good. "Nice to see you during the daylight." She said jokingly. Night was normally the only time they talked as most of the day they were traveling or busy with one thing or the other. This was why she took pleasure in the ability to actually seek him out during the day, especially with what she brought him.

"Maybe I'll just have to pretend to be a stable girl then." Naevius replied with a smile, not letting his teasing get to her. Her hands twitched behind her as she shifted from foot to foot a little nervously. Unknowingly, she bit her lip and looked away for a slight moment before she made up her mind.

"Hey, so...I hope you know how grateful I am for what you did at Neued. And, I recalled that when we were taken you had to leave. My dad had always said to his trainers that a whip was an extension of themselves. So I got you something." She said, not sounding nearly as nervous as she felt. What would he think? Would he think she was trying to buy his friendship? Or flaunt the money her family had? Nae could only hope not. Holding the cloth wrapped bundle out to him, she waited until he took it to do anything else, she wanted to see the reaction on his face to try and gauge if her gift was well received or not.

Naevius gave a sort of nervous laugh as he took the bundle from him. She could tell the confusion in his face but wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Was it good? Was it bad? The small lack of reaction somehow made her nerves all the worse. "You had left your whip at Neued so I thought you could use another one that's strictly yours. I hope everything is to your liking, I had to kind of guess at the diameter of the grip for you." There had been a lot of guessing involved with this gift so hopefully he liked it. She bit her lip once more and fiddled nervously suddenly wishing she had some of the alcohol the soldiers always had at night. "Do you like it?" She asked tentatively.

Naevius waited and watched as he unfolded the cloth. The smile on his face brought her own smile back up and her nerves begin to fade away. She got even happier when he said it was beautiful. It looked great with him and she was so happy that he liked it. And then he said the sentence she had been dreading. 'I can't accept this.' echoed through her mind. Her smile faltered, most people accepted what she gave them, but at least he was being honest with her, right?

She forced the smile back up. Well, she wouldn't force him to take anything just like she never wanted to force him to do anything. Nae nodded, not really knowing what to say at first. "Oh, alright. It's okay then. Don't even worry about it." She took it back when he offered it to her and wrapped it back up so she could figure out what to do with it later.

Luckily, the years of being among Oban nobility allowed her to pull her emotions together and keep herself from crying, something she didn't want to make a habit of with him. "In any case, looks like they're keeping you busy?" She said with a smile once again.

To say that what came after taking the whip back was a surprise would be an understatement. Her face both flushed and blushed at the same time and his soft words just seemed to increase that. "I-..." What would she even say? She blushed like a young noble who had just spoke out of turn for the first time.

Naevius scratched the back of her neck when he allowed the conversation to move on, but her brain was still replaying what had just happened. "That's good. I'm sure everyone would rather have someone they trusted do the important things." She held his gaze, even though the smile made her legs shake a little bit. Nae was speaking both for the soldiers and herself, because she did trust him, and if she ever had anything important to do, she knew he would be the one she would turn to.

"You're the last person I would trust." Naevius joked with a wink. She could get used to this, just being able to be a normal person with him, not having to worry about any of the "Is my hair perfect? My shoes have dust on them!" things that most nobles worried about. That wasn't really her to begin with but it was nice to not have someone talk to her differently because she was a noble.

She couldn't help but smile at his question. "Well, I think I could visit for awhile. Who wants to do 'noble' things anyway?" She continued her humor. "So what do...normal...people do for fun?" She said, mocking his question a little bit. She hoped he would understand that she was just making fun of the way he had phrased it and not him.

Naevius rolled her eyes and laughed, giving him a small elbow back in retaliation. It was so easy to be with Sebastien and not have to worry how many prying eyes were on her. She could be...herself, which was something she'd never really been able to do with anyone before.

"Surpass normal huh?" She raised an eyebrow at him but couldn't keep her serious face at what she could only assume was him mocking the nobles, or at least what he would think he would be like if he were truly surpassing normal. She had to admit, though, he wasn't like most guys.

Nae followed him over to a large tree with big roots that would pass as seats which was apparently exactly what Seb had in mind. She laughed at his response to what 'normal' people do normally. "Is that so? Well, we've done the drinking part together already. So now you its on to "tell stories everyone knows couldn't possibly happen that way," right?" She said lightly, hoping he'd indulge her as she plopped down on a root and leaned her shoulder against the tree trunk. She made sure to keep facing him, although she wasn't sure why, its not like he was hard on the eyes or anything.