bakerstreet | Sentence you to death

[She looked both surprised and touched by that.]

Truly?

[Well, since they're being honest:]

...I have feared that I would not be, in truth. I am ungentle, more warrior than matron; I do not well remember my own mother, but I do not think I am much like her.

[And for what it was worth, he trusted her with…being that close to him if it ever came to that. Hell, she’d kissed him before. She’d seen him shirtless when she bandaged him up. It felt different, somehow…but he’d take the risk. Some people were worth it.]

Maybe you have lived through rough times and you did what you had to and acted the way you had to to get through those times. Like you said…there’s a future now…so maybe things can be different.

[A soft shrug.]

Maybe.

[She looked at him for a long moment, thoughtful, considering.]

Give me your hand.

Take your gloves off, first. I want to touch you.

[Which isn't the point, precisely. But it feels important, somehow.]

Yeah. Okay. Sure.

[He pulled his gloves off and tucked them into one of the larger pockets of his jacket. Kabal did it without hesitation, which should say a lot. He doesn't do that for most people but here they are. He offered her his hand. His palms had been spared, thankfully, but the backs were covered with the mottled burn scar tissue that covered the rest of his torso.]

[She took his hand in both of hers, slim fingers lacing between his, and met his eyes - as well as she could through the mask, at least.]

Would you ever stay?

[Kabal took a few deep breaths, enjoying the feeling of having skin to skin contact, how her hands held his...how the magic that had healed him had somehow saved his nerves on the back of his hand so much so that he could feel were the weapon callouses were on her hand from holding swords and the like.

He sat in that feeling for a moment before her question hit him like a freight train.

Run. Too close! You'll just get hurt again! .

Kabal's heart hammered in his chest but he didn't move, riding out the momentary panic that had reared up, waiting for the panic to subside and logic to take over.

He was a nomad, had been his entire adult life. One step ahead of the law men and the Black Dragon alike. What would it be like to stop? To have a home? A place to come back to-the same place to come back to? A real home?

He'd always knew he'd eventually have to retire. There's no way someone in his condition would be able to keep going until he was an old man. That wasn't going to stop him from doing his best to last as long as he could...but he was realistic.

Kabal audibly swallowed before he turned his head to an angle where Eowyn could see at least his good eye through the lens of his mask. The hand she was holding trembled a little. His throat was suddenly very dry but he nodded as he closed his fingers around hers.]

Yeah. I think so.

[Someday. Not right this second...but definitely. At some point, even he would have to slow down and then he would have to stay somewhere.]

Edited 2024-09-12 20:05 (UTC)

[Her hands were not entirely steady, either; but the steadiness of her gaze, sharp and intense, made that easy to overlook.]

Then when you are ready to stay, if I am still unwedded... come and find me.

[She squeezed his hand, once, and let it go.]

[It was a difficult thing to say. Not only because she was a woman unused to being so open, not only because of that fear of rejection - but because duty had not left. She could steal away sometimes, find time to herself, in a way she would not have done before the war ended. But she was conscious, all the same, that she was the king's sister; that he was a stranger and a foreigner, with nothing but danger to offer to her people. It was not enough to care for him. It was not even enough to love him. Her happiness had never been cause enough to do things before, and it could not be the only cause to give up what duty still demanded.]

[But there was a stubborn streak in her which railed against that duty, and so long as they were talking in if and someday and I think... it did no harm to say it, did it? It was not a promise.]

[It was, perhaps, a hope.]

[Kabal flexed his hand when she let go...staring at it for a few moments as her words sank in. Her previous question had hit him like a freight train, but this one sat on his chest, burrowing into his heart and filling it with things he didn't know he'd ever feel. Tears welled up in his eyes but he wasn't sad. He wasn't stifled or trapped. He closed his eyes and blinked his tears away while he nodded.]

Okay. I will.

[He gently reached out to tuck some of her stray hairs behind her ear before he sighed. He felt overwhelmed in a completely different way than it had a few moments ago. The nagging fear that no one would ever want him...would ever want to make a home with him was suddenly dashed to a thousand pieces. Who knows? He might be made a horse guy yet. It was like Eowym was thinking, though he didn’t know that…it was a hope. A hope that he could have a place to call home…and someone to share it with.]

Edited 2024-09-13 04:31 (UTC)

[She could hardly see his expression through the mask, but she could hear it in his voice, see it in his slow, almost dazed movements. When he brushed her hair back, his fingertips grazing her temple, she tilted her head into the touch, wondering at the tightness in her own chest, the lump in her own throat.]

[Sometimes, she did not realise how lonely she still was, even surrounded by people who loved her as their lady. Sometimes - and then, when the loneliness lifted, she realised how heavy it had been. This was one of those moments.]

[She swallowed, and closed her eyes for a moment, taking a long, deep breath.]

Take your mask off, a moment.

[His breath caught a little when she leaned into his hand. Would he ever get used to that? Did he want to get used to that? He was content to enjoy it regardless.

At her request, Kabal nodded.]

Sure.

[Of course. For her? Anytime.

His hands moved to the side undo the buckles and straps. That held it on and loosened the air hose. It gave a small his as it shut off and he slid it up and let it rest on the top of his head like a pair of sunglasses. He gave her a crooked smile, good eye still wet with happy tears.]

Hey.

[His voice was quieter without the artificial amplification of his respirator, but it was happy nonetheless. How could it not be? It was not every day a former criminal turned mercenary turned part time OIA agent got kinda sorta proposed to by a princess.]

Edited 2024-09-14 00:20 (UTC)

[It was not at all the sort of face she would have expected to want to see. He was not at all the sort of person she would have expected to feel this way about. He was certainly a long way from the handsome kings and dashing warriors she dreamed of in her loneliness.]

[But life was strange, sometimes; and she has learned, in the past months and years, that what she needed was not always what she thought.]

[Now it was her hand that came up - the good one, the one not restrained by scarring and a still-damaged shoulder - and touched his face, fingertips tracing the uneven scars on his cheek, feeling with some surprise the wetness of tears.]

Hey.

[Not something she would ever have said, before knowing him. The casualness of it still sat oddly on her tongue - but she smiled, all the same. It was a softer smile than usual, one that lifted the hardness and stony cold from her features.]

[She leaned in, and kissed him squarely on the mouth, briefly but not gently.]

[Hey, Kabal didn't think his face was one that anyone would...you know..wantto see. Even before being disfigured, he'd never considered himself traditionally attractive...more like...unconventionally so...but now, especially, he had always thought it was plainly obvious his face was not one that anyone would actually like to look at. Frankly, there weren't many people he wanted to actually look at him. Eowyn. was one, though. It was his turn to lean into the hand that traced along the uneven tissue on his cheek.

He gave a small, pleasant sound at the smile that was a bit softer than he usually saw. He suspected she had intended to kiss him but the way she did it was different. She'd kissed him before...but it was soft and polite. This one was brief, but there was a forcefulness to it that he definitely noticed and appreciated. It took his breath away in a good way. The hand that had tucked her hair behind her hair cupped her cheek while he leaned in and gave her his own insistent kiss in return.]

[Kissing was not something that had been a significant part of her life. In fact, this was almost the first time she had been kissed, at least with any kind of heat behind it. It felt strange, his lips as uneven and damaged as the rest of him, rough and smooth at once.]

[In the name of exploring further - and driven by some rawer instinct - she parted her lips a little, the tip of her tongue running against the rilled texture of his mouth, curious to know whether it would feel different that way, too. Then, as if catching herself doing something so strange had shocked her, she pulled away sharply, blushing a little, but still smiling.]

Catch your breath, if you need to. [I do.]

[The tip of her tongue against his lips was a pleasant surprise and he started to open his lips to allow her more room to explore...but she suddenly pulled back, but the blush and the smile made it clear she was probably more startled than anything. Kabal smiled and gave a small shrug.]

Thanks.

[He definitely took it as a compliment, if that flush was anything to go by...but he would take a few deep breaths to go along with that beaming smile of his.]

[She cleared her throat, pushing her hair back behind her ears. She was examining his face very closely, looking for something - for any sign of distaste, mostly.]

[If it was there, she could not see it; only a smile which did not seem at all feigned to her, and which was, despite his ugliness, a pleasant sight to see.]

Thanks? [In a tone which was a little teasing, but still sincere in the undertone: Is that all?]

[Not a single sign of distaste there, ma'am. Not a small smidgen. He was all smiles.

There was a quiet chuckle from his throat at that little tease...that little fish. No, that wasn't all.]

You really got me, there. I wasn't expecting that and you got me by surprise is all. A good surprise. Hell, a great one.

[He brought his hand up again and gently ran his scarred fingers along her jawline, the pleased smile never leaving his face.]

You really do take my breath away.

[He paused before adding.]

In the best way.

[She smiled, and there was a gleam of sharper amusement in her eye, something more hot than warm.]

Then answer it. I have kissed you twice; I think it is your turn.

[Oh...oh he was here for that little glimmer of humor...that tiny pinch of sass. Chef's kiss. Perfection.

Kabal put his hands up as if he had been caught red handed with his hand in the cookie jar. His voice had a lilt of playful singsong.]

Oh! Heavens, you're right. How unfair.

[He gave her a crooked smile.]

Well, I'll just have to do something about that..to make it even...with interest.

[Hey, he was a business man. He knew all about interest, finder's fees and whatnot.

Carefully, he reached a hand behind Eowyn and rested it in the small of her back and pulled her closer. The smile didn't leave his face as he leaned in and gave her nose a small nuzzle before giving it a soft kiss before he returned to her lips and gave her a slow, soft but fairly innocent kiss. He pulled back for a moment and gave a soft sigh before taking a breathe before he kissed her again, harder and a bit more insistent this time taking a page from her earlier, his own tongue pressed along Eowyn's lips.]

[She would love to say she took this in her stride, that she was self-possessed and flirtatious, dignified in her reaction. Alas! The truth was, it made her feel more than she had ever been prepared to feel: the warmth of it, the tender touch, was almost frightening in how much of herself cried out for it. She had been at least somewhat prepared for lust, strange as that was to think. She hadn't been prepared for tenderness. There, again, was that loneliness, suddenly apparent in its soothing, and she felt unbearably conscious that she had never been held like this, conscious of all the times she had wanted to be.]

[To her shame, she found herself trembling from the moment he pulled her in, a lump in her throat. Joy. It was joy, and it was strange, and it was alien, and when he kissed her a second time, she let out a low sound against his mouth and flung her arms around his shoulders, her lips parting as she brushed her tongue against his.]

[Of course he had been lonely...he just got used to the idea of being alone...not that he'd admit it...fake it 'til you make it, baby. He had a pretty decent personality if he did say to himself. He was good at thinking on his feet, at having a poker face under duress. Sometimes having a criminal background came in handy.

Still...all that went out the window when those arms went around his shoulders and he felt Eowyn's tongue press against his own. Damn. Direct hit to his heart. Kabal's free hand rested between her shoulder blades and he hugged her back. His eyebrows knit together about his nose and he made a desperate little moan as they kissed.

He wasn't above a little lusting...but it was the closeness and tenderness that his absolutely lived for.]

[His hand was warm, even through her gown: she could feel where it pressed against her back, pulling her in close, comfortingly steady.]

[The sound he made startled her, in the best way. The last of the uncertainty was gone; there was no space for doubt in that little moan, no way to question whether he might not want this the same way she did. She smiled against his mouth, and when she drew back at last to catch her breath, resting her forehead against his, her eyes were suspiciously bright.]

Much better.

[Well, that made two of them. Any doubt was gone and that was priceless. He felt so warm and safe in her arms and it brought a sense of peace that a few hours ago, Kabal would not have thought he would ever know.

Upon feeling her smile against his mouth, his own crooked lips pulled into a pleased grin and he happily savored the feel of her forehead pressing against his.

Oh, he could definitely get used to this.

He looked into her eyes with his his one good eye and it definitely had more sparkle than normal. Good times, for sure.

He gave a small nod, not moving his forehead from hers.]

Awesome. I'd hate to disappoint you.

[With anything. Ever.]

[This is not safe. She knows it, deep down. He will leave again, and this will pass, and in the end, it will all go back to loneliness and cold duty; and if he does not, then that raises a whole other range of problems and dangers. But even though it is not safe, it feels safe - safe, warm, and comfortable.]

[Her arm disentangles from his shoulders to trace against his jaw, a gentle touch exploring the lines of his face as if for the first time.]

You have yet to do so.

[Another kiss, lingering on his lips.]

[Eowyn is right. He will leave...but he's loyal to the bone...so he'll be back. He'll always come back until he can't in good conscience leave again....so, there's that. He is reliable in all respects.

Kabal's hand on her shoulders moved down to join the other at the small of her back as her hand traced his jaw. It was nice to have someone...want to touch him and it sent a pleasant little thrill up his spine. If he still had arm hairs, they would have raised....especially with that comment about him not being disappointing. That went right to his chest and his heart swelled at that.]

Yeah, well...I sure don't have any intention to start anytime soon, you know?

[And then there was another sweet, lingering kiss on his lips and he was quiet for a moment to just enjoy it. Enjoy that, Eowyn. Not a single sassy comment about it, just a happy sigh and a please "hmmmmm."]

Edited 2024-09-26 14:47 (UTC)

[She quite liked his sassy comments. They were refreshing, and pleasingly unlike what she was used to, and they were part of why she felt so able to let down her guard around him, lower some of the armour of nobility and manners.]

[She liked their absence more, though, and for the same reason.]

[The kiss remained chaste for a moment, but it was hard to resist the curiosity that was awoken by something so thoroughly new. She pressed her tongue against his lips again, more confidently than before, her hand anchoring itself at the base of his skull, and closed her eyes to focus on the feeling of his mouth on hers.]

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I now need an AU where this totally happens.

duly noted c:

Excellent :)

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Oooooo, girl.

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this got so abruptly sappy srynotsry

Here for it...all the sappy fluff. 10/10

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