SaDiablo Hall, Dhemlan, Kaeleer

[glacial_queen]

Hell's fire and Mother Night. When Karla had left Fandom, she'd expected to be tired and run ragged. However, she'd been thinking she'd get that way by dashing across Glacia saving Black Widows, fighting Hobart's idiots, and building a village for the refugees to settle into.

Hopefully they'd get around to doing that soon.

Instead, her time had been spent searching for a suitable location in Arceria, gathering the necessary supplies to start building said village, researching, arguing with Morton, and, of course, meeting after meeting after meeting. It was exhausting, and she didn't even have any concrete feeling of accomplishment after it all--well, sure, now she had a rough idea of how much farmland a village of a few hundred people needed and knew more about sanitation procedures than she'd ever really wanted, but neither of those carried the same weight as actually, you know, saving lives.

And now after yet another fight with Morton, Karla had a headache and wanted nothing more than to take a nap for an hour or so--preferably while curled up around Warren. Except to do that, they had to both stand in front of Saetan and declare themselves as lovers; something they hadn't yet had a chance to so, what with running hither and yon for the past few weeks. Honestly, it was one of the last things she wanted to do just for the privilege of taking a nap in her boyfriend's bed, but Karla also knew that she'd get off easier if she blew up the kitchen again than if she broke this rule of Saetan's.

So rather than napping or snuggling as she wanted, Karla was hanging around the Hall, waiting to ambush Warren and tell him they had to go announce to the Hall's patriarch that they intended to sleep together while still under his roof. This would hardly be awkward at all!

[NFB & for one, please.]

Comments

[wwiii]

Awkward? What would be awkward? Warren was completely oblivious, if a little tired, as he walked down the hallway. There was a stack of receipts in his arms that was tall enough to bury a small animal under if they had the misfortune of tripping him up.

Warren was really, really hoping not to get tripped up.

[glacial_queen]

Well, not a small animal, but what about his girlfriend?

"Kiss kiss," Karla said, with a ghost of her usual mischievous humor. "I assume that's a Warren under that stack?"

[wwiii]

"Unless something else has gone and crawled in here with me," Warren replied, craning his neck a little so that he could peer around the papers to see her. "Which is entirely likely."

It was not a small stack.

Another moment later, and he was finding a spot on the floor to set the receipts down on. She sounded at least as tired as he felt. Maybe moreso. There were some things that were more important to have in his arms in moments like these than others, and she was very much one of those things.

"Hey."

[glacial_queen]

Burying her face in his neck in five...four...three...

"You okay?" she asked, voice muffled against his skin. On top of everything else he was doing--and it said something that Karla wasn't even entirely sure whatall he was up to, honestly, just that everything he did meant less she had to do--he was also heading back to the island for classes. "That looked like a pretty big stack of receipts there. Do I still get kisses for those, too?"

[wwiii]

"One for each and every one," Warren replied, one of those crooked little grins of his tugging at the corners of his mouth. "But we'll have to pace ourselves. Your lips are bound to get chapped if we try to tackle them all at once."

He reached up and ran his fingers through her hair, sighing and folding a wing around her.

"I'm fine, you know. You're the one with the whole territory sitting on your shoulders. I'm just doing what I can. How are you holding up?"

[glacial_queen]

"I've had a headache since last night," Karla admitted. "And the more I read about sewage and sanitation, the less I'm interested in eating."

The books she'd been pouring over had been graphic in some of their descriptions of what happened when people used substandard systems. Ick.

"I was thinking of taking a nap and seeing if you were interested in one, too." One that didn't involve them sleeping two hallways apart, specifically. "But if you are...it gets kind of complicated."

[wwiii]

"Complicated?"

Of course Warren had noticed that his sleeping quarters were nowhere near Karla's. He'd kind of taken it as a matter of course, around here. Things were just... done differently. He already felt as though he had to work extra hard to earn his worth around here, being the one with no craft to speak of, and so he'd never really asked about it. He didn't know where his limits were, as a landen. He didn't know how badly he wanted to push.

But if Karla wanted to address that issue, then he was more than willing to do so with her, yes.

[glacial_queen]

"Well, okay, it's actually really easy," Karla said, clearing everything right up.

You know that unsure-but-game smile, Warren? She was wearing it again. "We just have to corner Uncle Saetan in his study and tell him that we want to sleep together while we remain at SaDiablo Hall. It's sort of a rule of the house."

[wwiii]

See, Karla, how Warren's eyes widened just a little at that suggestion? That would be because he hadn't been expecting you to suggest he corner the High Priest of Hell to ask if he can share a room with the guy's niece.

He might as well jump off the roof while wearing his harness. It would probably get him similar results, with a bit less time between the start and the end of the ordeal to panic.

"... That's all, huh?"

THAT WAS NOT EASY, KARLA.

[glacial_queen]

IT WAS! FOR CERTAIN VALUES OF 'EASY!'

"Yes?" Karla said, peeking up at him. "It's just so no one freaks out if they find us together." There were any number of males in the house who would be happy to yank him out of her bed if they weren't absolutely sure he was there by her choice.

And then there was Lucivar. Who would do it anyway because it was funny.

"It sort of cuts down on confusion."

[wwiii]

"And confusion is bad," Warren offered. Because he was very insightful that way. "And freaking out is definitely bad. Okay. So... we just... go and talk to him? Just like that?"

He was going to die today, wasn't he?

[glacial_queen]

Karla nodded, relieved that he was taking this so well. "Exactly! We go tell him and then we can go and nap. Easy-peasy. It'll take like...three minutes. Tops. And that's including the time it takes to get from here to his study!"

It was not going to take three minutes.

[wwiii]

Warren was already blocking off a couple of hours in his handy-dandy little mental black book. And then another twenty minutes to an hour after that for hyperventilating or letting his healing factor do its thing. One or the other.

"The study's that close, huh?"

See how gung-ho he was about this? Looking in that direction and everything!

"I guess we should, uh... Do this, then."

[glacial_queen]

"We should," Karla agreed, nodding. Then she noticed the feathers prickling under her hands. "That is...if you want to?" She tilted her head up and looked him in the eyes. "If you'd rather, we can stay as we are."

She would even save all her pouting for when she was alone in her room! That was love, Warren! Love!

[wwiii]

Warren winced, and then with a bit of effort smoothed out his feathers again.

Traitors.

"No, no, I want to," he replied, deciding that he probably didn't need to clarify that what he wanted was to be able to be close to Karla, and that he wasn't exactly singing and dancing at the thought of facing down Saetan to do that. "I'm just... maybe a little nervous, that's all. But I'll be fine. I'm just overthinking."

He was picturing rotisserie Warren, at this point. He was really overthinking.

[glacial_queen]

Karla squeezed his hand. "Does it help to think of it as not asking for permission he can grant or deny?" she asked, starting to walk down the hall towards the stairs. "We're simply informing him of a fact for him to come to terms with."

That would help him relax, surely!

[wwiii]

It was a miracle that Warren wasn't peeing himself in terror. Thank you, Karla.

"Just informing, huh? You figure he'll take it well?" He was following along after her, now, keeping step easily enough even though his feathers were prickling all over again.

Yep. Terror.

[glacial_queen]

"It's not a choice he has any say in," Karla informed Warren airily as they headed down the stairs. "I love you; you love me; my Virgin Night is well behind me. The only people whose business it is who I invite to my bed are the people I intend to share it with. And that means you. He has a right to know, but not to pass judgment."

There. That sound very Queenly.

"...I might not word it exactly like that, mind," she added a moment later. "But that's just diplomatic stuff."

[wwiii]

"Diplomacy is good," Warren intoned, knowing better than to even bother with hoping that their talk with Saetan would be anything resembling diplomatic. "I guess if you put it that way, it should be easy enough, huh?"

Okay. Heading down the stairs. Almost there. Warren was at that mental place now where he was unconsciously looking for quick escape routes. Windows, doors, okay, good.

[glacial_queen]

Karla was always diplomatic!

...On a scale of Anakin Skywalker, anyway.

"In and out," she promised rashly, squeezing his hand once more. "We'll be napping before you know it."

And it was a good sign, really, that the study door opened before she could knock. It meant...something good.

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course it did.

"Ah, Karla. Warren." Saetan's voice floated out to them, a deep, throaty rumble almost like Kaelas's purr. "I've been expecting you."

The lighting in the study was dim and his eyes glowed gold in the shadows behind his desk.

"Please, do come inside."

[wwiii]

Oh, yeah, that wasn't intimidating at all.

Warren swallowed heavily at a lump that had decided to make itself at home in his throat before nodding and stepping into the room, trying like hell not to stare at those ominous, gold-glowing eyes. But then, maybe that was exactly the reaction that Saetan was aiming to get out of him.

"Expecting us...?"

Was that a good thing?

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

"For several days now," Saetan said blandly, even as a small smile flickered across his face. "I trust Karla not to break the rules of this house and to acquaint you with the more pertinent details, so I figured it was only a matter of time before you two made it down here."

He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. "Do you care to sit?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla nearly said they were fine; that this shouldn't take more than just a few minutes. Saetan's psychic scent was decidedly amused right now, which she wasn't appreciating much at all. But this was his home, which she respected--and she also wasn't all that keen on making it sound like she was impatient to drag Warren off to bed.

Granted, she was. But to nap.

"Thank you," she said, taking a chair with a quick glare at Saetan to let him know his amusement had been noted. "And you are correct. We're here to inform you that we are lovers and wish to remain so while under your roof."

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

"I see," Saetan said too softly. "What have you to say, Warren?"