apassingafternoon | hail of arrows

hail of arrows

To graduate from utter silence to the constant roar of Gilead was something else. Though she had been here for over a week now, and would stay for much longer, Kaine was not used to the constant noise. Even at night it felt as if she could hear every shuffle of bodies in sheets and night clothes, every fuck whether positive or not, and all those conversations that were never suited for daylight. It all made sleeping outside difficult, but even lying beside Nariko didn't make it any easier to deal with the walls all around her. They were suffocating. At night and in the day, they threatened to drive Kaine out of her mind.

So she took to wandering around because there wasn't fuck else to do around here, not for her.

Which might have explained catching sight of him towards an edge, around a corner. The specifics weren't relevant, that Kaine saw Bert and spun on her worn down heel and followed him was relevant. It should have also been worrying for her, this unnatural and constant fascination that was tempered by the occasional bout of good sense felt odd. It was a ... Not a problem, but not exactly good. Crushes on men that you hardly knew, that hid the way Cuthbert did, that never let her finish talking the way Cuthbert did couldn't end well.

She followed anyway, and not with any real ounce of subtlety or control. Eventually one of them would have to say something and in her own way she knew he might take that responsibility first. So she followed, and even if Kaine happened to be wrong he was pretty interesting to stare at anyway. Maybe it was the hair.

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"It's no easier," Cuthbert confided, after a moment. Maybe it was the wine spurring him to it, or maybe just that same easy companionship from earlier. Either way, the shadow was back in his eyes. "At least, it's easier for them, I guess. Doesn't stop it hurting, trust me."

He tilted the bottle to take another drink, remembered it was empty, and put it to one side with a sound of mild disgust. Just when it was starting to have an effect, too. "The whole of life's a hassle," he said sagely, in lieu of anything better. "Still, it's a damned sight better than the alternative."

He appeared very personally affronted at the bottle for not magically producing more alcohol and it made her giggle. It didn't matter that it was the wrong answer to his words, out of place and maybe even a bit crazy but she laughed and then couldn't stop. It felt good to hear the sound again even if it was too high, too loud. Kaine only knew being quiet or being loud, there was hardly an in-between and she made herself feel guilty about it often.

"Isn't that the fucking truth!" How many times had she used that line of thinking to justify her loneliness? The constant sensation of existing out of her own life? Until she met Nariko.

Fuck.

Kaine leaned against him sloppily, and looked up at the sky. When had it gotten this late? "You're really not so bad."

He was good with laughter. Laughter did him just fine. He'd learnt a long time ago that good-natured laughter rarely stung, not if you didn't let it. For a little while, he even joined in, throwing back his head and laughing aloud.

When she flopped up against him, he stopped laughing, and rather hesitantly patted her on the shoulder. Even mildly drunk, he had enough of himself left to remember that he was trying not to give her the wrong idea. Still, it was remarkably nice, having someone relax against him that way, just two youths sitting together and being slightly intoxicated. Or, well, maybe more than slightly, judging by how limp and warm she felt.

"Hallelujah!" he said, covering all that with his usual veneer of silliness, and raised one hand in mock-praise. "Write it on my gravestone! Spread the word to every town! Tell my teachers they were wrong! I'm really not so bad!"

Why did he stop laughing so quickly? How weird. But she was too out of it and vaguely tired to care about a small detail. What really counted was that he didn't move away and he was comfy.

"Also, great hair. Add that in." Her voice was beyond thick with sleep, and she did her best to fight it off and forced her eyes to open. "Thanks. You're sort of ... I mean, definitely the first friend I've made here." In Gilead, Nariko counted as a friend but it was far more complicated than that, another reason that she couldn't quite declare them an-tet in any manner. "I want to eat more chicken tomorrow."

She was so, so very drunk.

"I was worried I might be," he said, softly, and cleared his throat. Aloud, in a jolly kind of voice, he said "Come on. You're going to fall asleep on me, and you're no Alain in the weight department, but I'd still sooner not carry you around all night. Let's get you to bed." He didn't move, though, rather enjoying her comforting weight against him. That, and he was slightly worried that if he made her get up and move too quickly, he might get vomited on. He really hadn't expected her to have so poor a head for alcohol.

"Bluh." Which was a 'no, thank you, I'll stay right here if it pleases you, which it had better'. Why couldn't they just stay out here? Or, well, she supposed he didn't really have to stay with her at all but that would be pretty terrible, but fair. "'nd I don't have a bed. Or walls. Place. Yeah."

As in she didn't have a room to be taken to in the first place so, really, where did he expect to take her. Forcing herself up Kaine tried to stand. She wobbled left and right before she dropped to her knees and rolled onto her side. "I'll just ... Yeah. Here. Ah-huh. This is okay."

Now if only she didn't look so pathetic.

"That looks as if you're like to wake with a crick in the neck and an out-of-place spine to go with your hangover," Cuthbert corrected her, pulling a face. "And I am telling you right now, I will not be the one to deal with your mood if that happens. Try not to puke on Nariko's nice new flowers, either." But, hopping down off the wall, he hunkered down next to her, genuinely concerned. "Wait here. I'll fetch you some water. Doesn't do to sleep without washing it down a little. Take it from one who's had more hangovers than he'd ever want to count."

Kaine's very logical, eloquent response involved reaching out to push her hand into Berth's face to smoosh his cheek left and right and in little circles. Whether that task was exactly accomplished remained to be seen thanks to her shifting vision, Either way her arm certainly flopped onto the grass and she hummed a tune that had been caught in her head for weeks now. Whether he was gone for a few minutes or an hour didn't really matter to her, she stared off into space but eventually sat back up, her hair a gentle mess.

Hopefully Bert would return by the time she dragged herself up onto her feet and wobbled towards ... Well, she was quite sure that was a door? It was a wall, actually, but she would awkwardly sidle towards the door in the near future. Hopefully.

He returned a few moments after that, his colour high and his eyes bright with exertion and alcohol, but with a large cup of water in one hand. It took him a couple of seconds to locate her - itself probably a sign that he was a few sheets to the wind himself - and then he was at her side, his arm going around her waist and the cup coming to her lips.

"Here. Drink."

She made a vaguely discontented noise at the water, pursing her lips shut like a stubborn, irritating child. But the water was cold and sort of nice compared to her overly-hot skin, and that was all she needed to convince herself to drink. She gulped loudly, greedy, but then pushed it away.

"Bed - I need a bed. Bed's actually a good idea-ish. Just, like," She flailed her arm again as her free one wrapped around his middle, "Toss me at Nariko. Might land on her boobs. Or her ass." This forced her to bust out laughing again, "Oh but don't, don't tell her I said that! We would get into a fight." And then she gasped, looking right up at him. "Oh my god, Cuthbert, let's start a fight!"

"Let's not." Bert pulled a face, taking a long swig of water himself. "All the good places I know for starting fights are down in the lower town, and if you think I'm taking you all that way in this state, then I'm going to go ahead and assume you hit your head too."

Scraping his hair back out of his eyes, he shook his head to try and clear it a little, looking up at the castle in front of them. The lights were coming on, spark-lights and oil lamps and candle flames. It was really quite beautiful, but that wasn't why he was looking.

"There's a spare bed up near Alain's room," he said at last. "It's not made up, but I'm guessing you don't care too much. C'mon. No fighting. Bed."

"Why're you so cl-ear?" It really seemed as if she was getting drunker with each passing second. Her tone was beyond slurred, in fact what were meant to be words could sound like awkward, jumbled imitations of language. "You should be riduc'lous and-and!!!" That was a lot of build up for two repeated words but at least she sort of awkwardly careened in the direction Bert meant to take her. "And not s'damnfuckin' smart, like, what is this?"

Her other hand came up to hold his cheek, tried to get him to look at her while her usually placid, calm gray-blue eyes were set on fire as she asked, very seriously, "What's with all of this Cuthbert? You've gott'a be clea-r like the rest of us sometimes!!"

He met her eyes for a moment, his dark eyes serious, then shook his head and said lightly, in a really rather good impression of her, "I don't gott'a be anything, sai. It's all part of my wild, madcap appeal." Then, reverting back to his own voice, "Come on, Kaine. You're drunk. Don't ever ask questions when you're drunk, you'll only regret the answers in the morning. And, since you're drunk, I'll let you off for the part where you said I'm not meant to be smart."

Laughing, he reached up to take her hand away from his face, steadying her as they headed towards the little wooden door a few hundred yards away.

His imitation of her helped put a look of fascination in her eyes, as if she was entirely convinced that, at least in voice, Cuthbert was obviously her. Whether she really believed that was impossible to tell when drunk but for the moment she only made a vaguely irritated noise at being ordered to not do something, and purposely leaned on him more as if that would really get in his way. Kaine wasn't without her own strength but she was slim, quicker than she was blessed with brawn, so to speak.

"Why do I feel so hot! This is annoying!" She whined and scratched her own neck as if that might relieve the flush that had grown there and over the rest of her. "Alcohol is so dumb. But then it's so good, too and everything is sort of like that. But not you. You're smart. jus' shouldn't be smart while drinking!" Or, wait, had he only been playing around when he said that? Oh, well.

He patted her shoulder, pulling a face. "Years of practice, my dear apprentice. Years of long and arduous training in the use of alcohol. You'd be amazed how fast you learn to be smart when you might have to stop being drunk suddenly and go shoot things." He grinned, ear to ear, and loosened his grip on her just a little as they reached the door, long enough to lean over and open it. "Dumb but good wouldn't be too bad, though, I guess. Just look at Roland. It seems to do him fine. Come on, let's get you to bed."

"That's ridiculous," Since she laughed along with that statement Kaine could have meant the surely loving jab that he had just delivered to Roland. It was also likely to have been something else entirely but it didn't really matter, did it? Especially since, though she obviously lacked her mind after just a few drinks, Kaine hadn't lost an ounce of her speed. Cuthbert let go and that was all the free reign she needed to squirm in his hold, very obviously trying to get away.

"No!" Never mind that she had been the one to ask for a bed. If she were sober Kaine might have stomped away as she thought she was doing, but it was really more of a non-threatening shuffle that occasionally did enough damage that she smacked into a wall.

"Oh, for..." Throwing his hands up dramatically, Cuthbert rolled his eyes and darted after her. She wasn't the only one who was fast, and he was not only less drunk but also less liable to lose his balance even if he'd been completely wasted. "Why did I think wine was a good idea?"

He grabbed for her shoulders with both hands, ducking in front of her and making eye contact. "Bed. Now. Or I'm carrying you there, and if I throw my back out, it'll be your fault."

"Because wine." And that was a great reason to think that wine was a good idea! Because it was there. He also had absolutely no way of knowing that Kaine had the alcohol tolerance of wet paper being torn into shreds. Her dazed eyes squinted at him as if she couldn't see Bert - and in a sense she couldn't! There were maybe six or eight Berts and all of them were trying to speak at the same time. - and in the end she patted his shoulders, and apparently missed every word he'd spoken.

"No, no, I'm fine, I'm okay. O-okay!" She drew out the first and last letters of that word just to make herself laugh again as her hands knocked Bert's off of her shoulders and she went right back to going ... Well, wherever she intended to go. "This way - Let's just go this way!"

Bert sighed loudly, sticking his hands in his pockets and striding along beside her. "Well," he declared to the sky, "that'll teach me to be generous. I did warn her. Never let it be said I didn't warn her."

Which was the only warning she was getting before he darted in front of her again, ducked down, and moved to lift her over his shoulder.

He might as well have been talking to himself because Kaine didn't hear a word, she was only there to witness her world slipping up and around as he picked her up. She squealed, twisting in his hold but Bert was given a small miracle, she didn't attempt to kick him in his chest or get the back of his head with her elbow, instead she struggled to grip the back of his shirt, and clamped onto him like a terrified spider monkey.

"What the hell! Where'd you - go? Berrrrrrrrtt!!" If nothing else she wouldn't be moving away from him anytime soon! So, hey, mission accomplished.

"You're going to bed," Bert replied, smirking, and started towards the door again. Carrying her wasn't the easiest thing in the world - like her, he was built more for speed than strength - but it was remarkably satisfying. The wine might have been responsible for that satisfaction, of course.

The probability that she might vomit down his back was less satisfying, but what was life without a little risk?

"I swear," he told her casually, as he carried her inside, "I have never seen anyone get so drunk on so little. We need to work on your stomach."

While moving back and forth (or at least the equivalent) certainly tempted her insides to become the outside, Kaine managed to hold back. She didn't want to deal with the vile taste anymore than Bert wanted it down his back, after all. "Nnnnn!" Because that was a response. "Tha' was strong wine, dammit! S'not my fault!"

It probably wasn't even vaguely strong, she really was an unbelievable lightweight, her grandmother had been one, too. It was probably the most screwed up family inheritance she could have ended up with.

"Keep telling yourself that, sai," Bert answered with a smirk, waving cheerily at the servant who stopped to stare, and didn't break his stride until they reached the foot of the stairs. Here, he stopped, considering the tall stone staircase and the weight of the woman on his shoulder. The two didn't seem like they would go too well together.

"Alright," he said, after a moment. "If I put you down, are you going to run off again? Because I can and will pick you back up."

She was quiet, and the only real indication that she hadn't fallen asleep yet was that she breathed normally against his back, and occasionally swung her legs and hips a little. Didn't exactly help the weight problem.

"... Will you give me a hug if I don't?"

It was a very simple deal, all things considered!

"Sure." Smiling, he lowered her carefully to the ground, being extra-sure to support her with one arm while she found her feet again. "But after we get you upstairs. Deal?"

Honestly, he could think of plenty worse things than giving a hug to someone like her, even if it was slightly mitigated by just how obviously drunk she was. But hugs were good, in his book, so that was a win-win.

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