SaDiablo Hall, Dhemlan, Kaeleer, Saturday Evening (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

The first week Karla, Warren, and Raven had been back, they had been granted a leave on lessons. After all, Warren and Raven had just graduated from high school and that was an accomplishment of some note. Even Lucivar had announced his morning exercises for the week were voluntary only, making the three of them (okay, Raven and Warren) immediately popular among the coven and boyos.

Granted, calling the lessons "voluntary" was kind of a joke, because Lucivar was a prick, but it was the thought that counted.

The following week, however, it was business as usual, or, rather lessons as usual. Though Karla was the youngest at eighteen, Saetan had a firm rule that while Jaenelle's friends stayed at the Hall, they took lessons. The coven and boyos privately agreed that it was a last-ditch attempt to keep them out of mischief while they stayed, but since they'd all run off the most obnoxious of tutors years ago, the lessons that remained were no hardship.

And some, like Protocol, were necessary. Especially when dealing with the kind of Protocol only found in Courts. Some Protocol lessons were taken together, polishing the give and take between the sexes in a Court. Others, like this one, were separate, with the boyos sitting down and learning about what it was like to act as Consorts to Queens. Granted, Saetan hadn't been a Consort in over fifty thousand years, but that didn't matter. Saetan was the foremost expert on Protocol, then and now.

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[darkcourtcoven.livejournal.com]

For the others in the room, the surprise of seeing their own males in paint had begun to wane, though their appreciation remained. "Yes, the Festival," Gabrielle said, her fingers tracing the outline of leaves that decorated Chaosti's face. He shivered a little at her touch and leaned closer still, like a cat welcoming caresses. "Were you gentlemen planning on going similarly adorned?"

[wwiii]

"Of course," Warren replied, not taking his eyes from Karla for so much as a heartbeat. "With all the effort you ladies have been putting into your dancing, we wouldn't want you to find yourselves stuck with escorts who are at anything less than top form."

Warren had no idea where those words had come from. But apparently he was going to the festival in guyliner now, too.

But then, with the way Karla was still looking at him, it was getting difficult to talk himself into ever washing it off again.

[glacial_queen]

"I like it!" Karla blurted. Because maybe that hadn't been obvious? Or something? Words?

"You look...I like...you. I like you. In that. The--" Karla gestured to her face. Eloquently.

[wwiii]

In the pretty princess make-up!

"Yeah?" For just an instant, Warren allowed himself to drop that all-business stoic expression he was wearing in favor of a little grin. "You're saying I should do this more often, are you?"

He could be the prettiest raccoon in Kaeleer!

[glacial_queen]

Come on, Warren! Aaron was clearly the pretty one!

Rather than answer right away and making a further fool of herself, Karla took a moment to compose herself. "I certainly wouldn't argue with it. But I know it's not the same thing, for you. That it is here, I mean."

Look! Look! Coherent sentences!

[wwiii]

And Warren appreciated them! Especially when it meant that he was now aware that Karla understood how weird this was for him, right now.

"Yeah, but not much is the same thing for me from home as it is here," Warren pointed out. "This is a way easier look to get used to wearing than the prospect of powder-blue tights, I think."

[glacial_queen]

"Don't you sass that other-you," Karla chided with a laugh. "He taught you that bow, after all."

Okay, equanimity gained. At least a little bit. Looking at him up from under her lashes, Karla crooked a finger and held her face up for a kiss.

[wwiii]

And for that bow, Warren would be forever grateful. But beyond that?

... That other him had been a bit dim.

Still and all, if it meant that he was getting a kiss just then, he certainly wasn't about to complain, either.

"Can't wait to see what other mes have to teach me, at this rate," he murmured, lips against hers even after the kiss was through, little crooked smile still toying at the corners of his mouth.

[glacial_queen]

Karla cupped his cheek and drew him back for yet another one. What? Kisses were nice and Warren was run awfully ragged at the Hall. Time together was at a premium.

"You don't have to keep wearing that if you don't want to," she whispered, ignoring the spoiled part of her that stomped its foot and pouted at the thought. "You're sexy just the way you are."

[wwiii]

Actually, Karla, he did have to keep wearing it. Saetan had informed him that he was going to have to be a pro at this by the end of the week, which meant that he was pretty much going to have to devote the rest of his waking hours to mastering eyeliner. Or kohl. Or whatever.

"But you like it?"

That seemed like the really important part, right there.

[glacial_queen]

"I do," Karla breathed. "A lot. But then..." She waved a hand at the rest of the room. Gabrielle was perched on Chaosti's knees, leaning back a little while he played with her hair. Aaron and Kalush were cuddled up on the loveseat, Kalush running her nails down his arm. Morghann and Khary were still at a slight distance from one another; with Morghann's Virgin Night approaching, they were being even more careful than usual. But the look they were sharing was almost as intimate as a kiss.

"It's a thing here," she explained. "You're kind of ruining my composure as you might have noticed. But it's not just how you look in face paint, as absolutely delicious as you do look in face paint."

[wwiii]

Delicious. Warren could definitely live with being considered delicious.

"Oh? Something else, then?"

[glacial_queen]

She patted the seat next to her, inviting him to sit. They could talk and snuggle together, can't they?

"It's...kind of hard to explain," she said. At least, not without mentioning her dad or being Kaeleeran, and those could come out very weird if not explained properly. "So, there's how you look in it and..." Hopefully the expression on her face let him know how she felt about that.

"All the other stuff it means. In Kaeleer, I mean."

[changeable-eyes.livejournal.com]

"Males don't wear face paint often," Jaenelle supplied. "It's a special thing when they do it. If a male's wearing face paint, it's because he's trying to impress a lady. He's doing it for her, specifically. It's like dressing up nicely, but with a lot more effort."

There was more to it, of course. Jaenelle chewed on her lip, trying to distill cultural understanding into simple words.

"But it's more. This is something he only does for her. He might wear it where others can see, but it's only for her. It means she's special. Some males will wear it when they're trying to become a Consort, others..." Her eyes went distant, trying to chase down an elusive memory. "Others wear it from time to time to be a mockery. To make females feel special without even knowing why. But not you. Never you."

[wwiii]

Warren took the offered seat, and then let his arm sneak around Karla's shoulder, pulling her closer in a silent invitation to cuddle from right there in his lap.

"Saetan mentioned that I'd have to keep an eye on other males wearing face paint," he noted. "It's good to know why."

Really, he wouldn't have put it on in the first place, if it wasn't for Karla. There wasn't really any danger of him running around wearing it for anyone else, and there definitely wasn't any danger of him wearing it with anything but pleasing her in mind.

[changeable-eyes.livejournal.com]

"It's a reality you're both going to have to face," Jaenelle said wryly. "You know that, right? When Karla becomes Queen, males will be pouring out of the woodwork to sign a Consort contract. Doesn't matter that you're already there. They won't let that stop them."

[glacial_queen]

Karla rolled her eyes. "Jaenelle...Come on. I'm not about to fall for a bunch of males who are just in it for the grandeur of being a cock for a Queen."

[wwiii]

Warren gave Karla a wry look.

"Still, it's a fair warning. I trust you, but that doesn't mean that anyone who would go out of their way to impress you isn't going to do everything in their power to make things difficult for me."

The landen consort.

The competition.

[changeable-eyes.livejournal.com]

Not that they would ever really consider him such. He was a landen, after all.

"Difficult can be an understatement," Jaenelle said, arching her brow. "She's a young Territory Queen. Ripe and easy pickings."

[glacial_queen]

"This was not where I thought the conversation was going to go when Warren walked over wearing face paint," Karla grumbled, snuggling against Warren's chest.

[wwiii]

Warren smiled faintly, lifting a hand to run his fingers gently through Karla's hair.

"Then I'll worry about it later," he murmured. "We have time."

And it would be his worry. No sense in worrying Karla about it when she was still in school, a year before it would ever really be an issue.

[changeable-eyes.livejournal.com]

Jaenelle looked from Warren to Karla and back. "And on that note, I think I'm going to go and see if I can't pick a fight with Lucivar for a bit. I'm feeling rather...severalth wheelish."

She dropped a wink at both of them. "Don't forget to be up in time for sparring with Lucivar," she chided, walking towards the door. "No matter how late you stay up."

[wwiii]

Oh yeah. That was absolutely a grin, right there, solemn expressions on the other boyos or no.

"We'll be up," he promised, and then directed his grin back to Karla. "But we'll probably be in need of a lot of coffee in the morning."

[glacial_queen]

"You might want to ask Mrs. Beale to make double the usual amount," Karla agreed, fingering Warren's collar and using that to pull him to her. "Just as a suggestion."

[wwiii]

And what a good suggestion it was, wasn't it?

Warren leaned forward, chuckled as his lips brushed against Karla's, and let one clawed (and copiously ringed) hand trail idly down her back.

"Actually," he murmured, breath warm against her mouth, "I have a suggestion, too. Interested?"