RP PotHN: A Starry Night [1x1]

He stirred beside her and so she shifted forward, releasing his second hand so that he could better serve himself. Her own hands began to unwrap the cheese, preparing it to be sliced next.

The questions made her pause; they were far more personal than what she was used to, than what she'd usually allow. But the pause was brief - half a second maybe - and before was able to process her decision, she'd begun to speak.

"Everyone said I looked like her. But her hair was lighter - less ashy. And her wings were darker. More blue, without the silver sheen. She worked like a dog to provide for us. But I knew she was unhappy. I didn't understand why, so I resented her for it."

Alys would have wait an entire decade after her passing to finally understand. Although not physical, a broken heart brought the worst type of pain.

As if realizing how goddamn depressing this conversation was, she kept going, clearing her throat with a sip of wine. "But she did have help. There was a family that lived with us - upstairs, above the tavern." Rented out by the owner of the tavern, cramped together. "They came from the desert - they're the ones who taught me about the stars. The cook - I swear his laugh could level buildings. He taught me how to whittle. And slipped me leftover bread rolls whenever he could. The regulars, they knew us all well - tipped me with fucking sea shells and pretty rocks, and I loved it."

And then it was all gone - torn away.

Alys took another cream puff, finally realizing just how much she'd shared. Willingly, and without realizing. "But that's enough about me, I want to hear about your family."
 
Caleb listened intently, while slicing the cheese and putting it on top of the bread in two servings. He offered it to Alys and ate his part in almost a single bite. It took him a while to chew, which was good to provide more time for him to think of how much he was going to say.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want her to know, but he didn’t want her to pity him. He’d gotten that look from his mother before, and he didn’t want to see it in Alys’ face.

“My dad was a bastard, and a doormat. If the family we served asked him to cut off his cock, fry it and eat it, he’d do it in the blink of an eye - pardon my language.” He took a long sip of the wine to clear his mouth of the bread crumbs and slid down, resting his head on Alys’ lap. “My mom… She was just there. Obedient, like my father. He’s bald and fat, so at least I got my looks from her.” He smiled cheekly, looking at Alys’ face framed by the starry sky.

“The cook, Bernadette… I liked her the most. We aren’t related, but she was like an aunt to me. She was the only one who cried when I got arrested.”
 
Alys was met with a cheeky smile, though his words - apart from the quip about his looks - hardly matched his demeanour. There was little kindness in his words, for the people who brought him into the world. Although she expected that - most people with happy stories didn't become pirates - it still made her heart ache for him. She smiled softly, entertaining his remark, while running a hand through his dense curls. Her fingertips knowingly brushed over one of the strings that held his eyepatch in place, though they didn't linger. In a way, it felt forbidden somehow, so she kept them moving, gliding gently.

"Arrested? For what?"
 
Caleb closed his eye and felt the hair of his arms raise with Alys' touch.

“Take a guess.” He said, taking her other hand in his. “I was sixteen. What do you think I got arrested for?”
 
"Well shit, the possibilities are fucking endless," Alys laughed, throwing her head back and re-adjusting the pillow behind her back. "Stop me when I get warmer..." She looked up at the sky, as if to gather inspiration. "What would a sixteen year you get arrested for? Drinking through all the expensive liquor and then pissing in the empty liquor bottles? Getting caught with the family jewels? Shooting and breaking a crystal vase? Shooting someone? Getting caught with your hands up a royal prude's skirt?..."
 
“Almost.” Caleb said with a chuckle, after Alys’ last theory. “Except she was no prude and my hands were nowhere near her. The duke she was engaged to was just too jealous.” And, he let that detail out, she was the princess.

As comfortable as that position was, it wasn’t good enough. Caleb sat up, her hand still on his while the other trailed down to her hip.

“She was like you were that day in Allegria… Wet in her undergarments. I was just looking, because she asked me to. I think she wanted to make the duke jealous.” He leaned forward and kissed her lips slowly, then her chin. “I haven’t stopped thinking about that day…” Her neck. “In Allegria…”

***

The lantern had been put out and the wine completely forgotten, near the basket he'd brought that was now covered by a pile of clothes. It was by far the best date Caleb's ever had.

He looked up at the night sky, with Alys’ head resting over his scar and a blanket protecting them from the cold. His hand moved up and down her arm, and even though he was tired, he wasn’t ready for the night to end just yet. It took him a long time to finally break the silence.

“Do you ever think about what your life would be like if those pirates had never shown up?”
 
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Her eyes had closed, head resting against his chest. Feeling each breath, relishing in his body heat and the silence that enveloped them. A couple moments longer and she would've fallen asleep.

But once the question was asked, Alys stirred, lifting her head and propping it against her open palm. Her other arm remained draped over his torso.

"I used to - all the time," the fairy replied thoughtfully. "I dreamed that we'd all be together again, by the beach. And I'd get married to a nice, handsome man with a boat - a merchant passing through - and he'd take me on adventures across the sea." She scoffed at the ideas now; ideas belonging to a little girl who knew nothing about the real world. Fortunately, it hadn't taken long for those thoughts to change.

"And then I grew up." A gentle smile found it's way onto her lips.

She'd have struggled, been miserable - like her mother. And when she got desperate, she'd find an old, rich widowed man who'd latch onto her with his grimy fingers. Or maybe she'd start whoring herself out instead. But she didn't say that out loud, not as he looked up at her, a softness in his eye.

"But I don't think I've done too bad for myself," Alys whispered, grin broadening as she leaned forward to kiss his chest. Yes, she was constantly in danger, but she was independent and strong and surrounded by adventure. She had living people on her mind, not the ones who were dead and gone.

"And you? If you'd never gotten arrested?"
 
“I don’t know.” Caleb said. He had in fact thought about it a lot, but it was different every time. “I don’t know what kind of a person I would have been if Sinead hadn’t broken me out that day. Maybe I would’ve followed in my father’s footsteps, but I like to think I wouldn’t have.” In the end, it didn’t matter. He couldn’t change what had passed, like it or not, she’d turned him into the man he was today.


“Maybe I would’ve become a merchant with a nice boat and married a girl I met at the beach.” He smiled, turning to the side to face Alys. “I’ve not done bad at all.”
 
His words took her aback. They were straight-forward, and suggested something she hadn't thought about, or wanted, in years. Even now, Alys wasn't sure she'd change her mind. But he was just joking, surely.

Alys laughed, shaking her head, partially burrowing her face into the pillow wedged underneath the side of her neck. To hide the uncertainty. "I said a nice man. Would you have been a nice man, in another life? A gentleman?" She teased.
 
The word had an impact on both of them, even if they pretended it didn’t. He’d thought about it before, but even though it was an appealing thought, it seemed too far from their reality for him to bring it up seriously. Unless he had a reason to think it was something she wanted as well.

“In that hypothetical scenario, you wouldn't have had any interest in me if I was. You’re the one with shitty taste in men, remember?” He joked, putting his arm over her waist and landing a kiss on her neck. “You like it that I’m a bastard.”
 
He was right, of course, she wouldn't have wanted him. Though, maybe in this other, upside-down world, she would've wanted a nice man. Maybe she would've deserved one.

No, deserve wasn't the right word. It was more about seeing another as an equal; someone who wouldn't fault her for her anger and brashness, who wouldn't condemn her for her occasional cruelty. Someone who wouldn't try to change her. And a bastard wouldn't.

But it wasn't just that.

Grinning, she placed a hand on his shoulder to nudge him back, away from her neck. "For the record, I don't think you would've followed in your father's steps, even if you hadn't been arrested. You would've had enough eventually." She paused, looking at him. "Who did you want to be? Before everything?"
 
She was probably right, or at least Caleb liked that she thought so.

“I wanted to be a prince, a duke, or a lord. Laugh if you want.” He said, feeling slightly embarrassed for admitting it. “I couldn’t help but compare myself to them, eating great food, dressing in nice clothes… While my family served their tables and cleaned up their toilets.”

Caleb closed his eye, despite knowing falling asleep up there was a bad idea. They should probably go back to their rooms soon, before someone woke up.

“I’ll buy a castle by the beach one day. When I get tired of all of it.”
 
"And now you can eat the best food from across the continent, and buy the finest silks and castles that'd make even the royals jealous," Alys murmured, slowly rising until she loomed over him, the movement causing him to open his eye. She firmly took his chin in her hand, angling his face up towards her. "And you can take everything else, Captain," the fae whispered, grinning mischievously until she leaned down.
 
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