Runelords 16.4 - Keeping Occupied

“Hey!” Luna said brightly, wandering into the study where Aldern sat writing in an armchair. She approached him and leaned over, glancing at the letter he was penning. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting?”
“No, not at all!” he said cheerily. “Just writing a letter to a captain. We’ve done some business in the past; another ship recently reduced their work with my company, so I’m seeing if I can’t make a deal.”
“I don’t want to bother you if you’re working…”
“No, please,” he reassured her. “It’s...not terribly pressing. A lot of my work gets done whether I do it or not. By-product of inheriting the businesses, I suppose. I’m trying to get more involved now because, well, I don’t sleep, and I have to do something.”
Luna leaned over the side of his chair and smiled, “Well, that’s great! I’m sitting around wondering what to do; I finished the medallion, and before that I had my gun, but right now I’ve got nothing to keep me occupied.” She pursed her lips, “I guess I could make another gun. It would probably sell, if nothing else. Not a lot of competition on the market here.”
“It is a rather fantastic weapon,” he admitted. 
“I wonder if there’s a better market for pistols or rifles…?” she considered.
“I wouldn’t know; I don’t deal in weaponry,” he shrugged.
“Pistols are generally easier to use, but I don’t think firearms are half as popular here as they are in Dionisia. Hmm…” she thought. “Well, I suppose if I don’t have anything else to do…I don’t have the materials though…”
“Here,” he said, passing her a sheet of paper and his pen. “Write down what you need.” She took them and perched neatly on the chair’s arm, considering each item before neatly writing in an orderly list. He watched her for a moment before sliding over, “Here, sit.”
“Oh, it’s fine, I don’t need…” she stammered as Aldern shook his head, dismissing her arguments. Frowning self-consciously, she muttered, “I don’t take up much room at least,” before sliding into the space, sitting against his leg. As she scribbled notes, she pondered, “It’s too bad I don’t know how to enchant them. That would certainly sell easily enough.”
“Hmm, but if you need to bring in another partner to do the enchanting, it will cut into profits,” he commented.
She chuckled, “I wouldn’t get someone else, I’d learn it myself. This isn’t about making money, it’s about me having things to do.” She stopped writing and turned to him, “What about you? You need more hobbies, if you’re getting bored. What do you like to do?”
He sighed wistfully, “Most of my free time I’d spend at the country club. Dances, parties. Social functions.” He sighed again, “I can’t exactly do those things anymore…”
She frowned sadly, then became bright as she said, “Well, you can get some new hobbies! Make things, read things, write things, see things. Anything you want! True, you can’t really do all of the social stuff right now, just because we don’t know how to stop your blackouts yet. But we will! And in the meantime, you can still do some social stuff, just, maybe not things where you could get alone with people. But you look and sound normal, and can eat if you need to, so it’s not like you can never do anything again. You’ll be able to go to parties and functions and shows and everything else.” She grinned, “You can go see every opera in existence!”
He returned the smile, “We can get you a gown, and we can go to a ball. You’ll be the prettiest one there.”
“Augh…!” she gave an embarrassed groan, covering her smiling face. 
He chuckled, “Well, maybe we will go to a show tonight, if you’d like.”
Luna looked back up, “Seriously though. What do you want to do?”
He looked at her with a measure of gravity, replying, “I want to go adventuring with you.”
This took her aback slightly, and she stuttered, “Well, I don’t usually do adventury things. I might not ever adventure again, after this is all fixed.”
Aldern sat back, looking considering, “That’s fine: I don’t really think I’m an adventurer either. But wherever you go, whatever you do, I want to go with you.” Luna fidgeted, smiling slightly at the sentiment, staring self-consciously downwards as he continued, “I don’t know what I would do, or would have done, if it wasn’t for you.” He twiddled his thumbs, watching them for a moment until he suddenly looked over to her, saying with insistence, “It broke my heart, when you said that no one would hug you.” He added quietly, “I will…”
Luna wrung her hands, biting her lip shyly. Slowly, she leaned over, pressing herself into Aldern’s side. As she did, he twisted slightly and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as she pressed her face into his collarbone. She lingered, both of them savouring the contact. “Hee…” Luna said softly into his shirt, “You probably could have walked clear to Ursialla by now…” He didn’t reply, and she added, “I wonder if you could walk to Dionisia…?”
“We could find out,” he said simply.
“Heh. I don’t know if I want to find out that badly. Maybe if we were really bored,” she replied, sitting back to look up at him.
He regarded her gently for a long minute, until she began to blush and wither under her shyness. “You have such a lovely face…” he said quietly.
A muted noise of dissention came from her tightly shut mouth, as she hid her face in Aldern’s shirt. “Nuh uh…” she muttered through the cloth, “I’m plain-looking and creepy.”
He smiled, hugging her again, “That’s not true. I have danced with many, many women, and you are certainly the most beautiful where it counts.”
“Pfft!” she snorted. Glancing up, she said, “It’s not very fair then, that you get to be both.” She shoved her face into his chest, muttering, “You don’t get to be good-looking and a good person. You have to leave something for the rest of us.” He chuckled slightly, shaking his head. Eventually, she pulled back with a shy smile. As she moved to sit back, she was caught by his eyes, watching her so curiously. She looked back at him, confusion on the tip of her tongue, when he moved forwards, closing the distance between them and bringing his lips to hers. Her eyes widened in shock before closing slowly, returning the lingering kiss. 
When they pulled back, Luna quickly looked away, fidgeting, grinning and unsure of herself; she would be blushing madly if she could. When she looked back towards him, though, his expression was strange and distant. Her smile faded, and she looked at him with concern, “What is it? Why do you look so sad?” 
“I...I think I’m falling for you…” he said quietly.
She frowned at the incongruity of the statement and his expression. After looking at him a moment longer, she asked, “...Is it your wife? Do I remind you of her?”
He blinked and turned to her. “No. No, not at all…” he shook his head. With a distant, downcast look, he explained, “The last time I cared for someone, horrible things happened. I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you, and I don’t know what I’d do if…if you...” he trailed off.
Luna considered this for a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “I won’t say that you couldn’t, or shouldn’t, hurt me; everyone gets hurt, no matter who they are, whether they mean it or not. I’ll get hurt eventually, somehow. But I’m not weak. You won’t break me. Nothing you do is going to break me. And I can’t die. So everything will be ok, in the end.” She smiled timidly at him, “I won’t leave you alone.”
His features suffused with poignant relief, and he embraced her tightly again, “Oh, Luna,” he said, “That’s everything I wanted to hear…” She wrapped her arms around him as well, and the two held each other, smiling. When they pulled back, he caught her gaze once more and again leaned in towards her lips. This time, they shared a series of kisses, each one punctuated by the shortest of pauses. 
When they finally parted lips, Luna smiled at him warily, “I promised that it would get better, back then.”
He smiled with measures of happiness and relief, “Yes. Yes, you were right. It's better.” She nestled into his shoulder again, and the two sat quietly for a while. Eventually, Aldern commented, “If you’d like to go out, we’d best get ready.”
“Mrr…” she groaned, burying her face further. “I don’t want to get up. You’ll have to carry me if you want to go.”
He chuckled, “If that’s what the lady desires…” Sliding his arm under her legs, he stood up with her and began to walk away, her slight form hindering him none. She giggled as he did. 
Category:Rise of the Runelords