Paradise Found

ashe They may say, "You're too small, you're too young to do it all," But you're a giant on the inside. They may say, "It's not enough, leave your dreams collecting dust," But there's a fire that you can't hide. Ashe had nearly burst out laughing when those gourd guts had splattered past his hand and onto his face, just barely smirking at his warning that he'd get her back. She had just rolled her eyes and busied herself with finger combing the rest of the shit from her hair, catching her breath. She finally took a moment to look about at the place they had found themselves. The leaves were full and barely turning, the occasional red leaf drifting by on a breeze that smelled of sweet grass and damp earth, carrying with it the sound of water that splashed into the crystal clear pool behind her. Ashe blinked and glanced at the water, and for a moment she was brought back to Northaven as she wondered about fishing from it. Satisfied with her hair, the assassin returned her attention to Kalt as she reached her hands up to the golden clasp of her cloak at her throat. She froze however, for the other assassin was slowly approaching. Her heart started to pound in her chest, her hands stalling on that clasp as she kept sharp eyes on him, watched him move with a predatory sort of silence - one she knew and had mastered well. Where she expected him to stop, he kept going, closing the distance between them until she had to tilt her head to look up at him. She still didn't quite know what to make of what happened, of what they were to each other. He was as infuriating and stubborn and egotistical as he always had been, but there was something fundamentally different in him. In both of them. And then there were moments like this, when she looked up at him as his fingers dragged veins of blue down her arm and - She inhaled sharply and held her breath when a warm hand slipped under the hem of her shirt, just over her hip, and ignited sparks under her skin there too. It was moments like this that felt both so familiar and foreign at once. He kissed her head and leaned in closer, and her heart stuttered as she looked down, listening to the sound of his breathing and remained keenly aware of where his skin touched hers. She knew she should step away, she should tell him not to touch her like that. She should. But what did she want? Kalt's voice drew her attention, and she lifted her head and glanced about them at this little paradise. Her lips hinted at a smile as she dropped her hands and propped her leg on a toe, leaning her weight to the one that hadn't been bitten. ”Those eight months in southern Northwind,” Ashe replied. ”Those people I trained with lived in practically a desert - nothing but cacti and shrubs, lizards and hare, flat land everywhere. They had this big oasis right on the grounds of their estate. They were grossly rich, loved to flaunt it. Theirs was smaller than this and maintained in that oh so blueblood way.” The last bit was said with a mockingly posh tone. ”But it was nice at night. I managed to slip away from my guards a few times to be out there.” Ashe fell silent for a moment, remembering the way she would lie flat on her back and stare up at the star-filled sky - a sky that seemed so much bigger in the desert. The she wolf turned her head up to look at the sun-bathed trees and breathed in the crisp air of fall, still so warm for this time of year. As she breathed out, she still couldn't keep her focus away from where Kalt's hand rested over her hip. Idiot girl, came the unbidden hiss in the back of her head, and her jaw feathered as she forced herself to step back and out of his grasp. Her skin was left cold where his hands had been, his proximity reluctantly left behind. She glanced up at him as she both coaxed a stumbling soot into her hand and removed her cloak. The vibrant, deep blue fabric was draped over a stone, and she used the excuse of pouring a small bit of wine into a dip in the stone for pulling away. The wine spider’s only sound was a soft hiccup as he settled himself down with the little pool of red wine. She took a brief drink of the wine before she corked it and set it down on her cloak before she turned back to Kalt, one side if her mouth feathering with an almost-smirk. Stay, she had pleaded. ”When did you last find a place like this?” she countered. She tilted her head at him in an almost-canine like way with the question as she leaned her weight to one leg.