Taj and Aero: Advent of the Feather King

Tristan rubbed his jaw in remembrance of the night before. “I swear he has super human strength when he is drunk and if I can help it I will never get him drunk again. Not unless we are safely locked behind a door.” He nodded. “Speaking of, have you seen him?” He wondered if he should go check on the room they put him in. Before he could though he saw Rose storm past and his gaze followed her down the stairs and storming out of the room. “What the? What the hell is going on here?!” Tristan suddenly felt very out of the loop and followed his sister out of the inn.

Demetri slid past Ilario’s gaze and slipped outside but kept his back to the wall and kept her distance from Rose. She seemed rather irritated and he was suddenly feeling guilt. He could have stopped some of the things that happened last night. Well, maybe anyway.

Oriana stood where she was, an annoyed look on her face when Rose pretty much freaked out. “I’m missing something, and I don’t like it.” She announced to her brother who simply shrugged and made his way downstairs to give Ilario and Alex a look before going outside.

Oriana stomped down the stairs in normal fashion and caught the look of someone in the bar. He had a really stupid grin on his face and Oriana had a sudden urge to punch his face in. She turned a dark glare on the man. “What?” She barked.

“Oh, nothing, I just thought you looked better with a top.” He laughed as did the group around him. Oriana stood where she was utterly frustrated in herself. Alex was right and that made it all the worse.

This day was going to be fun, he could sense it. Rose was all bent out of shape, the twins had apparently been beaten senseless by Ryleon, Demetri was blushing like a love-struck girl, and for once in her life, Oriana seemed absolutely helpless when it came to men. This of course meant that there would be some intervening involved, and who better than him to come to her rescue. Detaching himself from the bar, Alex walked over to Oriana's side and slung his arm casually around her thin shoulders, a very grating sort of look on his face that would set most people's teeth on edge. "Well look, if it isn't the gawkers. Sorry boys, no show today, and I'm sure you're quite disappointed. That's probably the most skin you've seen on a woman in your entire lives. Come fair lady, there's no need for you to waste your anger on these cretins. They're hardly worthy of your time." He let his arm slip from around her shoulder and gestured toward the exit, shooting a dark glare at the men who were propping up the Inn wall. If they so much as twitched in Oriana's direction… well, the sword at his hip certainly wasn't decorative.

Ilario shook his head at the display of Alex's manliness, wondering where it had all come from. He couldn't actually be feeling protective of Oriana, could he? Naw, no way. With a grin on his face he exited the Inn after Tristan, following him outside to see Rose facing the street and tapping her foot impatiently on the cobbling. In such a stance and with the look on her face, Rose scarily reminded him of their mother when she was angry at some trick that the twins had been up to. "Whew, wonder what bee got in her bonnet…?" He whispered to Tristan so that Rose couldn't hear.

"If you're quite done…" Rose said, turning a poison filled glare at her elder brothers. We need to be off. We're getting nowhere fast just standing around here."

The man at the bar stood to try and take Alex down but the look on his face said he meant business and he sat himself back down. “Ah, we didn’t want a dirty whore anyway; someone that lose couldn’t be any good.” He made sure to be loud enough for the two of them to hear.

Oriana was rather shocked to see Alex defend her but figured it was more him wanting her for himself. She was fine to let him lead her out until she heard the comment from the men behind her. She stopped in her tracks. That was far enough! “You stupid ugly son of a bitch!” Oriana turned around and was on the man in a matter of seconds. She was straddling his wide hips and was easily punching his face in several times. “I’ve had enough of you stupid people!” When her right hand would get tired she could easily switch to her left which was equally as strong despite it not being her dominate. She didn’t care when blood started seeping from the man’s nose, or when she was sure she chipped a tooth. She was pissed and taking it out on this man seemed like a great idea.

“I think it was more than a bee, perhaps something more gloomy?” He suggested, and he knew at that point he probably wasn’t getting his face healed any time soon.

Alex bristled when the man stood and made his insult, thinking to simply brush off the lowly comment. However, Oriana was not of the same idea. She was suddenly gone from his side, and by the time he could look around to locate her she had set upon the man that had made the comment. He was tempted to leave her to it, but once the blood started flying Alex decided that it was time to pull the furious girl off of her victim. With a bit of struggling, he managed to grab Oriana around the waist and yank her away, dragging her toward the door. He could just dare any of the men to follow them at this point, and would have no guilt at all in releasing Oriana on them if they made a move. When he finally got Oriana out of the place he could only sigh wearily. "My Lady, you put up quite a fight when you are angry. Please, remind me often not to disgrace your name so."

*~*

A dry look passed over Rose's face when she heard Tristan's snarky comment and decided right there and then that the two boys could live with hurting faces for a while. She didn't get to tell them as much, however, for Alex had just dragged Oriana out of the Inn at that moment, her fists bloody. Instantly she was worried for her cousin and ran to her side. "Oriana?! What's happened?"

"Nothing she couldn't take care of." Alex replied with a little laugh and a wink.

Oriana was furious, never in her life had she been called a whore before and she did nothing to deserve the title. She put up a bit of a fight when Alex pulled her off of the man but gave into him once she got a hold of her self. She looked to him, a little surprised but then a smile broke out onto her face. “I’m glad you now know.” To even more of a surprise she didn’t shrug out of his hold around her waist and let him walk out with her and to Rose’s concerned expression. She let a grin come to her face at Alex’s statement finding it appropriate. “It’s not my blood.” She wiped her hand on her pants to show Rose that the blood was in fact not hers.

Tristan was pleased with his comment and even more so when Rose did not deny it. It only added to his glee when Oriana came out looking like a man as usual with blood on her knuckles and kept Rose’s attention on her. Ahhh, what a good day it was going to be.

Demetri watched Alex with interest. Oriana was actually standing contact with him even though he was sure her night didn’t go so well after a hang over. How on Earth did he do that?

"Oh… well, that's good, I suppose?" Rose asked, concerned and a little confused as she looked between Oriana and Alex. Were they actually getting along together…? Had her little talk will Alex actually worked? She thought the man thick-headed and unreasonable, or perhaps this was just another stage of his ploy to get Oriana to like him? If that were the case, than another talking-to was going to be needed in the near future. "In any case, I think that we should be going…"

Alex was a little surprised when Oriana didn't immediately shrug him off, her drunk confession of the night before rising instantly to the forefront of his thoughts. Reluctantly he let go of Oriana in favor of adjusting his traveling pack and nodded toward the sky. "Rose is right. Let's get out of here before any of your other admirers require a beating." Grinning, he crouched and took off with a powerful stroke of his wings.

*~*

The rolling hills had become endless plains by the time that the group had landed, setting up camp near a small stream that trickled from a natural spring of water that welled from the ground some miles back. After everything was set Rose heaved a sigh and rummaged through her pack, grabbing a thin robe she had brought along for just such an occasion. After putting on the garment she folded all of her clothes and stepped out of the tent with a bundle in hand. "I'm off to wash these." She said, gesturing to her dirty clothing. "Anybody coming with?"

Immediately Ilario snickered, casting a look to Demetri. The two of them had been awkward all day, and though he and Tristan were completely out of the loop they knew when something was afoot, and making their sister even more uncomfortable was just their style.

Despite the night before and run in with ruffians in the bar, Oriana was in a pleasantly good mood. Perhaps she just needed someone to punch her anger out on. As she landed she stretched her wings and got a good smell at her clothing. She smelled like the beer they were drinking and scrunched her nose in displeasure. “I’ll go.” She said, picking up a few of her own things and walking to Rose’s side. She knew Demetri wasn’t actually going to go despite the stupid grins on the twins’ faces and she shot them a dark glare as she walked with Rose to the near by river.

Demetri landed quiet literally in a tree and had fully indented to stay there for the night. No matter what he could think to say to Rose, the moment he caught her attention the two of them would promptly look away with a blush on their faces. He sighed, what was he supposed to say?

Tristan had decided that he wasn’t going to tell Ryleon that it was their faults for his broken hands and would continue on with his good day, even though his jaw was still hurting. “Rosssseee, when you get back please fix my jawww!” He called after her.

Oriana's volunteerism was a little unnerving to Rose, she was still put out that everyone seemed to know what had gone on the night before except for her, but she couldn't deny her companionship. Just as they were walking away, she heard her brother call and scrunched her shoulders up in irritation. "NEVER!" She shouted back, then promptly stomped off into the darkness toward where she knew the river to be. "I swear, those two… I don't know what trouble they got into last night and I don't want to know! Ignorant, selfish-" She continued to list all of her brother's less than desirable traits, growing angrier with every synonym she could think of until they finally got to the stream, where upon she threw her clothes on the grown and huffed. "-And they always want me to fix it! Well they can suffer! Let them be in pain for a while!"

*~*

Alex sighed and shook his head, staring into the fire for a while. Things were changing in a most uncomfortable way, in all honesty. Well, at least they were for him. He couldn't believe that he might actually care about Oriana as a person and not just another shiny bauble that followed after him like pidgins after seed. He heaved a small sigh and looked up to the tree that Demetri had parked himself in, an idea formulating in his head. He stood from his place around the fire and took off, maneuvering himself up into the tree that Demetri was in, though on a different branch and attempted to make himself comfortable. "I don't know how you stand it up here." He mumbled, finally getting himself into a bearable sitting position where he could talk to Demetri more or less face to face.

Oriana looked over at Rose and put her arms behind her head. “Rose…did something happen last night?” She said honestly confused. She was almost as out of it as Rose was and could remember nothing, so it wasn’t a surprise that she had not heard of what happened between the two. She offered her a nervous smile. “I…don’t exactly remember anything from the night before…” She tried to keep her smile up and then let it fade putting a annoyed pout on her face. Stupid Alex.

~*~*~*~

Demetri curled back a bit as he looked at Alex. “You get used to it after awhile. Takes some balance.” He looked a bit confused, no one ever joined him while was in the tree and Alex looked like he had something on his mind. Something that wasn’t going to be pleasant for him. “What are you doing up here? Not that I really mind…” He let his voice trail off hoping that Alex wouldn’t bring up the one subject he thought he wouldn’t be able to avoid.

"So you don't know either…?" Rose asked a tad bit warily, kneeling next to the river bank and began washing her shirt, hissing at how cold the water was. "I honestly don't remember what happened last night." She confessed, doing her best to scrub her clothes clean. Next time she saw the cleaning ladies back home, she was going to thank them for doing their laundry all of those years. "I just… when I woke up, I was naked except for my underwear, and there was this gross stuff on the floor, and Demetri was in a corner and… that's all I know." She heaved a heavy sigh, rubbing her clothes without even thinking about it anymore.

*~*

Alex smiled knowingly at the man. He knew that Demetri wasn't going to want to talk about what he was about to force the man to talk about, but he wanted to know. What's more, the tension going on between him and Rose, though amusing at first, was going to end awkwardly, and he didn't know how much more awkward he could stand. "I'm glad you asked. So, since you seem rather talkative tonight," lies! he was never talkative! "I thought that I would join you and give you the opportunity to get some things off your chest. Let's start with Rose."

Oriana went about cleaning her own clothing and kept a confused look on her face. Naked. She mouthed, trying to see how the girl could get herself into that sort of trouble, but on the other hand…she did take her top off….in a crowded room full of piggish men….Oriana sighed, hanging her head. “I asked Alex what happened.” She stopped in washing her clothing and looked up to her cousin. “I took my top off last night in the middle of the bar, tried to marry someone, and perhaps got into a fight with several women.” Oriana said it as if she were stating facts even though a light blush came on her face. “And…I woke up topless and lying with Alex.”

~*~*~*~

Demetri gave the man a dry look as he adjusted himself on the branch. “I’ve told you already when we were back at the inn.” He thought for a long moment, knowing full well he wasn’t going into detail about the events but did think of something to ask the prying man. “What about you and Oriana? She seemed more…lax…in your company this morning. Even though…” He trailed off, letting Alex fill in the silence for him. He wasn’t fully sure what had happened with those two but he was sure that something did.

Rose's face heated up when Oriana described her own experience of the night before, trying to not imagine her cousin prancing around that filthy inn half naked in front of a bunch of jeering men. Figuring that her shirt was as scrubbed as it was going to get, she set the material aside and started on her pants. "It sounds like you had quite the exciting night… but I have a wonder, Oriana. Why is it that Alex isn't also black and blue in the face?" She asked, blinking at her cousin. "I'm surprised that you didn't beat the man silly for probably taking advantage of you last night."

*~*

Alex narrowed his eyes at Demetri. Oh, so he was trying to flip topics, eh? Well, two could certainly play at that game. "Even though… what, exactly? I'm slightly offended that you have so little faith in my ability to charm the pants- or in this case shirts- off of women. Rest assured Demetri, I have Oriana fully in hand by now, though she is unaware of this fact at the moment, which is very much how I would like to keep it." It was only a little bit of a lie, for even in his state of mild denial he knew that his little game with Oriana had spun out of control and was now biting him in the rear. It was a terrible thing actually, and he wasn't entirely sure if he could reverse the process. "But you my good man are another matter entirely. Simply mentioning the name of our fair blonde lady gets you all up in knots. Surely there is something you would like to confess about the matter."

Oriana sat back to ponder Rose’s question. “For some reason, I believed him when he said he didn’t take advantage of me.” The words seemed to taste odd in her mouth and she went back to her clothes, a much safer and boring topic. “I really shouldn’t since I woke up shirtless with him but…” She let her voice trail off. “Have you even bothered to ask Demetri what happened? Or rather…do you even want to know?” Oriana was the type of person to rather know what happened, digest it and move on with her life.

~*~*~*~

Demetri didn’t fully believe Alex’s story. Oriana seemed like a wild horse to him, something that couldn’t easily be tamed and then he thought he might finally understand why people kept calling her a horse. At the mention of Rose a light dusting of a blush came to his face. “It seems I find her more beautiful then I had originally thought…” He felt so awkward, he didn’t know how to explain it and certainly didn’t want to but he knew Alex wouldn’t give in so easy. He would happily push him for questions about Oriana if he was going to push this subject so much. “Do you actually like her for a person?” He said almost more of a statement than a question.

"…He actually sounded sincere?" Rose was as bewildered as her cousin was, her brow furrowing to further show her surprise on the subject. Maybe it really did work, then… She didn't get to ponder Alex's change in behavior, however, for Oriana's next statement effectively shattered her concentration on the subject. "I don't know if I want to know!" She replied in a hurried voice, pulling her pants out of the frigid river and rubbing her hands together to get some warmth back. "I-I mean… well, I don't think he would, but he could tell me anything, you know? A-a-and the look on his face-!" Her shoulders drooped, her head falling slightly. "I really should find out…"

*~*

More beautiful than he had thought…? How incredibly lame. That was hardly a revelation, and certainly not one that should make a man blush so deeply at the mere mention of a lady's name. The man hardly ever showed any emotion, but when it came to Rose he was far more verbal than normal. Demetri's question put his line of thought to an abrupt halt, and he actually had to ponder it for a moment. There was no way that he could actually care about her as a person. Ever since he learned the women were only after money he had viewed them as playthings, and the harder they were to catch the more fun they were to play with. Oriana was his toughest case yet, but… that tiny little admission she had made was still gnawing at him. "I don't know." He replied honestly, leaning back against the rough bark of the tree. "She's much more entertaining than any other woman that I've tried to ensnare, so perhaps she will be my downfall." He shrugged, figuring that it was the best answer that he could give at the moment. "And your downfall seems to be Rose. Has she gotten inside your head yet? Or perhaps… in your pants?"

Oriana pulled her clothing out of the river and began to wring them out. Her hands were nearly numb from the frigid temperatures but it had to be done. “I’m sure it will also fix the awkward tension floating over then entire group.” She offered her a small smile and stood, rubbing her bare arms and then something struck her and she groaned stamping her foot into the ground. “Shit…I didn’t bring anything else with me.” She said point blank as her face turned a few shades paler. She looked down to her cousin with a pleading look. “Could….you possibly go back and see if anyone has something extra…” The thought of wearing some of the boys’ clothing didn’t sound great but it was better then freezing and catching a cold or something.

~*~*~*~

Demetri was surprised by his honest answer and actually had to admire him for it. He doubted Oriana would ever get to see this side of him, or not at least until Alex has completely lost himself in this little game but it was interesting to see nonetheless. At the mention of Rose getting in his pants the poor man darkened twenty shades and hide his face from Alex. He was all too on the mark with that question.

Rose had just finished dunking her undershirt in the water along with her underwear when Oriana's revelation occurred. Rose whipped her gaze around to meet her cousin's eyes, noting the sour expression on her face and was fairly certainly that she had also lightened a few shades. "Oh no…" The last thing that she wanted to do was have Oriana go out there and have to stand in her panties with Alex looming near by. "Of course, of course! I'll be right back." Rose scrambled to her feet and was gone in an instant, heading back to camp.

*~*

Of course he didn't actually expect Rose to have gotten into Demetri's pants, but the peculiar shade of violet the man was turning proved him wrong. He grinned, leaning forward slightly to pick at Demetri more. This was just too good. "Oh really? What'd she do? I imagine she had to get pretty rough in order to get your pants off. You seem entirely too reserved for that sort of thing…"

For not the first time in his life, Demetri was saved by Rose, though not in quite the same sense as the first time she had healed him up from his near-death experience. She came into the campsite looking a little flustered, and promptly asked something of Ilario and Tristan. Alex paused, listening intently and heard the two ask why Oriana needed a shirt from them.

"Because… well, she doesn't have an extra one." Rose said, twisting her fingers together. "Come on guys, you have to have one clean shirt packed away somewhere."

"And that's my cue." With a grin, Alex jumped out of the tree, flaring his wings to keep the fall from hurting, he simply walked past the campfire. He was long gone before Rose figured out that he had left and her face instantly turned to one of horror upon figuring out his intent. "Oh no!"

*~*

"So, I hear that you're in need of clothing." Alex said, stepping out of the forest near the stream bed, taking off his jacket as he did so. "Why do you have this unfortunate habit of taking off your clothes, my fair lady? You're not even drunk this time."

Oriana thanked Rose as she quickly went off to find her something to wear as she mentally scolded herself not having packed something else. Perhaps when they were in town next she could pick up something cheap. She couldn’t very well travel for however much longer it was in one change of clothing.

~*~*~*~

Tristan looked at Rose as she came up to them and tiled his head. “She didn’t think to bring anything?” He watched as behind Rose, Alex made his way into the woods in the direction Rose had come out of and grinned. Soon Rose caught on too, but Tristan wanted this little game his friend was playing to pan out. He caught his sister’s arm and brought her to sit down with them. “No need to worry sis, Alex will give her something to wear, of course.” He had a silly grin on his face that only half way believed his own statement. “Stay here near the fire and warm up, eh?”

Demetri was more than happy to be rid of Alex, his face was so hot feeling that he could swear he would have been purple if he got a look at himself. He watched Rose enter the camp and his eyes followed her. He sighed. Why did this have to happen to him?

~*~*~*~

Oriana rubbed her arms again and suddenly heard a familiar voice, sadly it was not Rose’s. ….Really? She turned to see Alex coming up to her and she quickly shot down, leaning on her heels as she wrapped her arms around her. “Alex! What are you doing back here?!” She hissed a rather dark blush on her face. She had no idea why she felt more embarrassed about being in her underwear then when she was topless.

"Eep!" Rose suddenly found herself wedged between her brothers, Tristan holding her down on one side and a laughing Ilario keeping her down on the other. Her eyes widened in shock that they would conspire to keep her there together and she struggled against them. "Let me go you idiots! Who knows what that creep will do to Oriana?!" Of course her struggling was in vain. One day of training with swords did not make up for the years that her brothers had of practice, and as such they were far stronger than her.

"Oh relax sis." Ilario said, rolling his eyes. "Oriana's a big girl. She could kick his ass if she needed to." He shot a grin at his brother over their sister's head, hoping that either Alex or Oriana would shortly come stomping out of the forest with an angry expression… or in Alex's case, a black eye. His efforts at converting Oriana to his side were quite amusing, especially since he didn't have the word "surrender" in his vocabulary.

*~*

"I heard that you were in desperate need of some clothing." Alex replied simply, shaking his coat a bit for emphasis. "Although, as previously stated, I do rather thing that you look better the less that you have on. You have very nice legs. You should show them off more often." He didn't bother to hide his roaming eyes, finding particular interest in her exposed underwear, despite her attempts to cover them.

Oriana looked from him to the coat and stood quickly, grabbing his coat and wrapping it around her small frame. She found out it was a bit large on her but nothing she didn’t expect but she found it had a nice scent to it; mahogany with a bit of spice she couldn’t put her finger on. She found it oddly appealing but would never actually tell him that. “Thank you…” she looked away, a small blush on her face as she fingered the edge of the jacket. At least he wasn’t taking advantage of her lack of clothing. What was with him lately?

In that moment of weakness Alex wanted to latch onto Oriana and hug her close. But as soon as the urge overtook him it left again. "You're welcome." He replied quietly, simply staring at her for a few moments, the small blush on her cheeks far more enthralling than it should have been for some skin pigment. He only just barely restrained a sigh and turned, feeling defeated again. "Come on, lets get you back to camp before a wolf jumps out of the woods and mistakes you for something to eat."

Oriana wasn’t really sure how to take the comment but simply nodded, keeping his jacket close to her body as she picked up her wet clothes to place near the fire to dry. She would simply have to hope that in the morning the coat would still be snuggly be wrapped around her and she wouldn’t find Alex worming his way in. She kept a dry look on her face as they made their way back.

~*~*~*~

With a rather uneventful morning, which Oriana was thankful for the girl’s had redressed to a certain someone’s dismay and they packed up to leave for a long day of flying. The plains were out in front of them for what seemed like forever and by the time the set was starting to set the end of the plains was no where in site. They landed pretty much in the middle of no where and to Demetri’s dismay there wasn’t a tree in sight. As they set up camp Ryleon prepared the their dinner.

Demetri found himself sitting a distance away from the fire that was started as he fidgeted nervously. He was used to being able to see clear across the area from his vantage point and being in the middle of no where on the flat ground made him feel like a huge target.

Tristan urged Ilario to come a fair distance away from the camp fire as well to do some sparring. His muscles were sore from the flight and he wanted to loosen them up some by trying to beat the crap out of his brother. That sounded like a grand idea indeed.

Oriana was sitting across the fire and was sitting quietly in her own thoughts. Alex was acting odd to her, and she didn’t want to let it fill her thoughts but she found that Alex’s scent was on her and driving her nuts. Like a constant reminder.

He was in denial. Or rather, he was trying very hard to stay in denial. Somehow, Rose had convinced him that he should look at Oriana as a person instead of as just something to play with and he had taken her up on the challenge ever so briefly. Unfortunately, once Alex had removed the barrier that kept him emotionally unattached from his victims, it was hard to put that barrier back in place… or so had been the case for Oriana. Currently he was brooding, doing a very good rendition of Demetri's normal scowl and sitting by the fire, simply watching the flames dance while his mind wandered. It probably would have been better if he could have sparred with Tristan, but he and Ilario were off beating each other senseless and adding to their collection of bruises, the clang and screech of metal on metal echoing across the plains.

For her part Rose was debating whether or not to go to bed. She didn't particularly want to spar seeing as no one else had to tonight, but she was still a little restless. Rose stood by the fire, content to soak up its heat, then looked up and saw Demetri and sighed. The lack of memories of the night before was haunting her, and after mustering up some courage she walked over to Demetri's side and sat down next to him, keeping her gaze carefully averted in order to avoid breaking out into a severe blush. "I want to know what happened." She mumbled, wrapping her arms around her knees. "What really happened."

Oriana looked up to see a brooding Alex and cocked her head. Something really was eating at him. Not knowing what and figuring she wouldn’t get it out of him if she tried, she stood from her sitting position and sat directly next to him. She stared at him for a long moment, thinking about what she wanted to say before opening her mouth. “Alex. What did you used to do? Ya know, before being a prisoner? I can hardly think that has been your entire life.” Maybe bringing up his life before the floating monsters would bring him into a better mood? Gah, Oriana was no good when it came to reading people, she halfway asked him because she was curious.

Demetri nearly jumped out of hi skin hen Rose sat next to him and asked what happened. He was expecting to be left alone as per his usual when he was sitting by himself and even more so didn’t expect Rose to talk to him ever again. He looked down with a concerned face as she played with a string hanging from his jacket. “We didn’t….do….it if that is what you are asking.” Sudden guilt welled up, but they came close.

He was perhaps just as surprised to see Oriana at his side as the woman probably was to see him brooding, a most unbecoming past time indeed. Alex listened to her query, drawing up his legs and resting his arms over his knees with his fingers laced together loosely. "You're actually curious to know of my past?" He asked, a tad bit incredulous. It was the first time that anyone had expressed any interest in getting to know him in a little over three months, so naturally he was a bit bewildered by the notion. It could be said that the fact that he remembered that he was a living person at all was a testament to his ironclad constitution. What's more, Oriana did seem honestly curious about his origins, another novel concept. "Well, I didn't do much, in all honesty. I am the fourth son of a wealthy trading company that has its base in the Northwestern part of the country. I spent most of my days working in the shadow of my eldest brother to learn to manage his funds or perhaps run an outskirt post of my families' larger holdings. Then there were the social things. I learned to fight for the sake of appearing impressive to the other nobles… learned to dance for the social parties and gatherings… and of course learned to manage funds and coordinate what merchants were sent where during the trading season. Why do you wish to know?"

*~*

Rose shook her head, twisting the corner of her overcoat in a nervous way. "You said that last time, and I trust you but… that's what didn't happen. I want to know what did go on that night… I have no memory of that night at all… I can only recollect fleeting snippets of emotions and most of that is a little… well, it's hard to comprehend." A light blush overcame her face and Rose still doggedly made sure that her eyes were locked on the ground in front of her, not daring to make eye contact with Demetri at all. If she did… well, she was afraid that she might be unable to speak.

Oriana listened, her face holding not much emotion other than curiosity. When he stopped talking after asking why she bothered to inquiry she simple reached to his side, and poked him a bit. “I wanted to know if there actual substance in there.” So he actually worked for his money, or his family did, either way work was involved and Oriana could respect that. For a long while Alex had reminded her of Kol in some ones, one being that he seemed wealthy (or was) and two was his good looks. Uncle Kol was a little obsessed about his looks over the last couple of years, not wanting to age gracefully and that brought a faint smile to her face. She moved on, remembering of his other hobbies and tilted her head. “Did you do nothing out of your own self interest?” She stopped herself as a sudden dry look replaced her previous one. “Besides chase women.” She added on.

~*~*~*~

Demetri looked down at the ground as well, utterly frustrated that she was going to want to know about it but he could deny her not what she asked for. The truth was important to her right now and if he lied he would be living with it for a while. “You…” He clenched his fists as he turned pretty red in the face, how was he supposed to do this?! It was awkward enough to have it happen to recount it to a person who was there? He sighed, he might as well just get this over with. “You started saying you were really warm and uncomfortable…so you removed your clothing…most of the way….” He fiddled with a blade of dried grass as he spoke. “I tried to get you to keep them on but…you kept pleading…Eventually…You…uh…pleasured me…” He stammered, trying to get this out as fast as possible but hit nervousness was making it go painfully slow. “With you mouth…” He added quickly. By this point he was probably a dark plum color, remembering made it even worse and he crossed his legs. “Then…you pleaded for me to…take care….of you…and Rose I….” He felt like he was making excuses a bit for taking part in it all. “I couldn’t stop myself…” He rested his head on his knees as he sighed. “After that you fell asleep and I put you in bed…you know the rest from there.”