Yuki's body, clothes and armor were clean. The latter was lying organized alongside his boots, on the floor at the the foot of the bed that the white knight had chosen to borrow for himself. Darius laid atop them for easy reach, though for once he didn't feel as though he would need to defend himself for a while.
He'd been tempted to sleep outside on the soft grass, but the idea of a real bed was something even more tempting that he couldn't pass up. If he was not among those chosen, maybe he would live to still have a chance to sleep under the stars.
Lying flat on his back with hands resting on his stomach, fingers laced together, he gazed up at the roof overhead that nature had provided. Lancelot's home really was beautiful, and Yuki wondered to himself how often he had sheltered the weary as he was offering them all shelter and safety now.
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100
Nio Love
Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 11:27 pm
Lancelot's hut held little of interest for her, but the caves felt so familiar, so welcoming, that it felt like coming home. She gravitated to them immediately, and found what she assumed was the reason for that feeling of longing. Yuki was resting on the bed furthest from the entrance, and she pursed her lips, hesitating in her step. He deserved to rest, after all. It would have been ideal to let him do so, in the quiet peace of the caves. It was what she wanted, more than almost anything - and he was a man who deserved a hard won peace.
But she didn't leave, and she knew she was going to guilt trip herself for being so selfish with his time. Simply put, there was so little time left - and if either one of them were chosen to represent the White Knight, that time would abruptly run out. So maybe she was being a little selfish, and she would have to find some sort of selfless act to make up for it, later on. It wouldn't be hard - there were many in need.
Her robes never touched the floor anymore, so when she padded to his bed it was in silence. She sat down on the floor beside it, far too embarrassed to get anywhere near a bed he was laying on, and cleared her throat to give him notice of her arrival. He might have already seen her coming, but it was just a formality, in case he was lost in thought.
"Do you treasure the solitude as well?" She asked, hoping that was a subtle enough way of asking whether he wanted to be alone or not.
His eyes had been closed, by the time that Riley had discovered him, but he was not yet asleep. Just breathing, in the deep and comforting sort of way to help one's body relax and coax itself to the dreaming world.
The sound she made stirred him, and he opened his eyes calmly to look toward the sound. He expected to find someone standing over him - perhaps he'd laid where someone else had intended to somehow - but it took only a second to realize that the assumption was wrong. Once he saw her sitting there alongside the bed, Yuki was rolling onto his side, propping his head up and smiling softly to her question. "Only in part."
He rose, then, to sit up rather than remain lying down when she was speaking with him. "You know you can take one of the others. Or you can sit with me, if you'd like." He offered quietly, ready to move if she agreed to the latter. "There's no need to sit on the ground. Especially not just after you've washed your dress."
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100
Nio Love
Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 11:48 pm
"I know." She murmured softly, immediately tensed when he moved to sit up. "I didn't mean to make you move. You were resting. You should rest! You needn't sit up for me."
She made no move to take any of the other beds, nor did she come to sit on his. She looked content on the ground of the cave, where pebbles and dust clung to the whisps of ragged white on her dress. "It's ruined. I hold no more concern over it than I do the rest of me, now." She folded her hands in front of her, as if they'd felt idle and she didn't know what to do with them, but they instantly unfolded as she lurched forward.
"Your wounds! Have you checked on them? Are they healed?" And she focused with a furrowed brow on the spot of his abdomen where she'd seen the mark earlier, her lower lip jutting out in a thick pout. "I wish I had some kind of healing power for that."
A soft sigh - an amused sound - escaped him when she declined his suggestions.
Scooting down off the edge of the bed, he came down to sit alongside her. "Then I suppose I'll compromise," Yuki spoke in a soft and almost teasing tone, giving her a little smirk that challenged her to try and stop him from doing just that.
"I'm fine. The lake tended to me." Her concern had him unconsciously putting a hand to the very spot she looked toward, as if he couldn't tell from sense alone that the mark was still there.
"I know, but it's more a nuisance than anything I'm worried about." Only because he hadn't felt sick. Of body or of mind.
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100
Nio Love
Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 12:12 am
"No!" She rose up off of her haunches when he slid down to the ground beside her, and put both of her hands on his shoulders, as if she could somehow lift him back up into the bed. All she managed was a pathetic shake, before dropping back down in a huff. "You stubborn man." She whimpered out, dropping her hands back down to her lap. "Get off the floor. I'll sit with you, if it means keeping you comfortable."
The hand he placed on his abdomen was, after several moments of intense thought, covered with one of her own. "Have you slept at all since then? Don't the nightmares plague your rest? You should be sleeping right now, oh, and here I am keeping you up and convincing you to climb down on the floor with me - I'm a terrible influence."
It was hard to keep a straight face after that last one.
He laughed at her protest, and couldn't rightly remember the last time he had laughed. Other than that brief moment back at the castle, after he and Jason had landed in a heap on the floor. Though, Riley had been mortified in that moment, and it was different now. Frustrated was a better word, and he didn't feel guilty this time.
If she was allowed to be stubborn, so was he.
He got up with her insistence and dusted the back of his pants habitually, sitting again at the edge of the bed. He was then patting the spot next to him to suggest he wasn't about to let her go back on her word.
"You worry so much over me," he replied, failing to answer her questions. "You need to worry about your well being before mine." He meant not to suggest that she was weak or anything of the sort. "I've slept since," he assured belatedly. Specifying that several hours of it was because he had struggled against capture and suffered a strike to the head didn't need to be mentioned. It still counted as not being awake.
"I don't remember any nightmares... Come to think of it, I can't remember any dreams either." He looked toward his weapon for a moment, mouth drawing into a line before he corrected himself. "Other than what Darius showed me. Though I believe it was a memory; not a dream."
He looked back to her again, shaking his head softly and his warm smile returning. "Nonsense. We've got time to rest. Being able to spend time with friends without worry is a comfort in itself. Most of my getting to know you hasn't exactly been in a calm environment."
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100
Nio Love
Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 1:08 am
"You ask for me to be someone I'm not." She reminded him, moving very hesitantly to sit on the spot he patted beside him. Or more specifically, several inches away from the spot he'd patted, because old habits died hard. She set her face in a pinch, as if mentally trying to convince herself of something, and moments later, moved to the spot beside him, instead. She'd just needed to work up to it.
"Your well being will always prioritize over mine. That's just who I am. I don't know if I could consider myself over anyone, in any instance, but infinitely moreso when it comes to - " Her mouth turned into a thin, pursed line. She remembered herself, even if it was too late to do so.
"Time." She breathed out, relaxing within the melancholy of the word. "There never seems to be time for anything, now." She quirked a side glance at him, curious but sad. "And it's difficult to get to know anyone under these circumstances. I still don't remember most of my life - only bits and pieces. Do you?"
"It was not my intention," he said in way of apology. "I merely mean that you can't solely worry about others and never yourself." Though, in her mind, those two might have meant the same thing. "But your selflessness is, from what I know of you, your greatest virtue."
He watched her, quietly and patiently, as she settled alongside him. First a little ways away, then closer. It widened his smile, and he rested his hands in his lap if only to keep her from having second thoughts. He remembered her allowing his embrace in the dungeon, but that had been different. She'd been worried for their lives then. Now everything was fine and they were alive. For a little while longer, at least.
He didn't seem to catch the hesitation in her words, or look to her in a manner that suggested that he thought she meant to finish her statement with him. If he did, his expression did not change and he did not directly address it. He brought his hands together, lacing his fingers and making a small sound of acknowledgement at the mention of time.
"There may yet be. We cannot see what the future holds. Tomorrow, this war may be over." Though he wanted so desperately to sound convincing, he was unsure. There was so much evil in that place. That evil had marked itself on him.
He looked to her, brows furrowed at her last question. Not because it bothered him that she asked, no, but because he was trying to recall his own memories. He couldn't grasp them, despite how vividly the memory that Darius had sparked had been. It was strange how one small piece of his life could have come about in such perfect clarity, and yet everything else was so securely sealed away.
"Just the vision that Darius gave me," Yuki answered. "And the voice in that God forsaken mirror... Taunting me and telling me that I was nothing... That I would die as nothing." His voice.
"But we've all lost ourselves, in part at least. Everything begins as something small and incapable. I don't consider myself worthless, or insignificant."
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100
Nio Love
Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 2:04 am
"And tomorrow, we may all be dust." She added, despite how sad that sounded. "I don't want things to end, just yet. I thought - perhaps - I was ready, but." She wrung her hands out until they turned white, then red from how tightly she held them. "I don't know anything anymore. I'm just so confused."
Her vision blurred, and she closed her eyes to fight off the stinging threat of tears. "That's what I'm afraid of the most. I'm afraid of how much I've lost. How much I've destroyed, by using these hands to kill, to hurt, to injure even the foulest of creatures - there were so many, Yuki. So many."
She knew her place, when she took her sickle to the shadowy monstrosities that had swarmed the castle. She'd cut them down by the hundreds, never once doubting that she was fighting for the worthiest cause. But now, with the death of even the darkest of life on her hands, and a weapon still clung to her body like a trusted friend, she faced the changes within her and worried over what she saw.
"This new found fear in me, the fear of dying, the fear of regret for all I would be giving up - this fear is a pollution that germinates inside of me because I let it. Because I spilled blood. And. I."
Her throat closed up - it was too difficult to speak.
To hear and see her struggling with her words, her thoughts...
"I know, Riley."
Maybe not in the same way, because everyone fretted and mourned differently in times as these. Questioned their actions, regardless of how right they seemed. Perhaps this taint was because he had tried to kill Morgan. Punished for doing what should have been right. The fates were not always kind.
He didn't want to die. He didn't want to watch more of them face slaughter. He didn't want to imagine his friends among them. It was a nightmare that he didn't need to be asleep to have concerns over.
"We've had no choice. If we didn't fight against who and what we have, we'd be dead with them." He knew it was like her. To mourn even the terrible lives she had dispatched. But those shadows had no souls, he believed, they were nothing but darkness and despair and destruction given a ghastly form.
There really wasn't anything that he could say, both because he hadn't the words and because even if he did they would barely matter. She was suffering for things that neither of them could take back, and things that they could not foresee. Yuki wished that he could take her fear into himself so that she needn't feel it, but he could not.
He unclasped his hands and leaned toward her, slowly circling an arm around her shoulders and seeking to pull her against his side. He wanted to offer comfort, and a shoulder to cry on was all he seemed to have left.
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100
Nio Love
Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 2:36 am
No choice. Would it have been better to die, than to kill? It wasn't even a question, when she'd been faced with it - but she'd been in that place, surrounded by everything that corrupted and twisted until it was impossible to tell who she was anymore. She opened her eyes, and stared down at her hands, reddened from twisting into one another. They were a point to focus on when his arm wrapped around her shoulder, and they gave her the strength to move with his pull, resting awkwardly against his side. It should have hurt, to feel him pressed up against her. It should have stung every inch of skin, until her tears were from pain, instead of confusion. He should have hurt her, and he didn't. He hadn't, for quite some time now.
Her awkward position melted, flush against his shoulder until he felt as comfortable as a bed against her. This was just as worrisome as her fear, but it was a thousand times easier to ignore; because it was the only thing in the cruel, cumbersome world they lived in, that brought her peace anymore.
She did not cry against his shoulder. She closed her eyes, let out a long, gratified sigh, and reveled in what was once a familiar feeling, but had been lost in all the chaos. The peace, the joy, the comfort that solitude once gave her. She found it there, where it wasn't supposed to be, and she reveled in it.
The hold on her was so light, so careful, as if he feared she might break like glass. Yuki feared no such thing, of course, but her past responses to physical contact called for a delicate touch. When Riley didn't resist, which would have stopped him immediately, she wasn't the only one to breathe out a sigh. Though his might have mostly been of relief that he hadn't offended her.
"The young woman I met in the banquet hall would be stunned to see us now." He said in playful jest, hoping to chase away the lingering dreadful mood that had settled over them.
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100
Nio Love
Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 3:03 am
She lifted up one hand, and she turned it in her line of vision. He was right, but she had already come to terms with that. The woman who'd given up her memories for the kingdom could never have known what was in store for her - and perhaps losing her memories was for the best. There was a strong chance she would never have been able to do all that she'd done, if she could remember the reason behind her aversion to all things physical.
Then her hand dropped, and rested against his chest, patting where his heart lay. "The young woman you met in the banquet hall had never met you." At least she could accept one thing with a flood of true relief. No matter how she'd changed, the one thing she had never lost to the darkness was her crystal clear sense of honesty.
Again, he patiently awaited her response and studied the movement of how she gazed at it like she was trying to determine something.
When that hand came to rest over his heart, Yuki sincerely wondered if she'd felt the way her gesture of acceptance made his pulse flutter beneath her palm.
Maybe he was self conscious about the way his heart raced, because his free hand took hers.
But he guided it higher, his lips brushing over her fingertips as he put a gentle kiss to them.
OOC
My character's name: Yuki Character's journal link:Here BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Reference here; without pointed ears. Rank of character Knight Sacred Points obtained: 35/100