RP:A Promise of Loyalty

Summary: Lita and Leoxander share the hammock, secrets, and plans for their island's future.

This is a Rogue's Guild RP.

Lita should be out buying more cupcakes or drafting some elaborate apology letter for Leo. Things had been tense between them, entirely her fault. She'd left Leo with the knuckleheads to finish clearing that cellar after seeing the new Arena space the night prior. Maybe a little space would be okay. Thankfully Xiem had been okay with that too, even without further explanation just yet, just a promise that there'd be one. Not that the quiet did anything for her either. The hammock on the back deck of that beach house is a welcomed reprieve from the rest of the world, always has been, and she lounges in it now, stretched lazily, one arm lifted up over her forehead and the other overhanging the hammock, a glass of whiskey and half empty bottle just within reach. She should be happy, excited. She'd won the tournament, Leo had maybe offered her a place at his side? And yet dark eyes are heavy with concern and worry as she chews at her lower lip.

Leoxander hadn’t stayed long. The ‘knuckleheads’ could handle some of the heavy lifting. He had enough on his agenda. But even the rogue needed a break from that routine, from time to time. Leo wasn’t cashing in his chip for his one night on the hammock but he was stealing one. Or at least, that had been his intention until he came across the vampire naturally occupying the bed net. She was pretty on point when it came to her surrounding but maybe he had enough talent in his skill range to sneak up onto her a bit. Enough to grab that bottle from the sand or wherever it settled. Maneuvering to avoid any instinctive hook of a fist, he stepped back hopefully with that prize in hand to take a victorious drink from it, regarding the vampire taking in the view from their shore. He might even look out that way, too. The scenery never got stale from that beach.

Lita isn't paying much attention to her surroundings just now. It was becoming a bad habit to feel too safe at the villa. So when she catches sight of someone's hand out the corner of her eye, she does a bit of a double-take. And she reaches out, for a moment forgetting that she's in a hammock at all, and while the pirate dances with ease from her reach, she finds herself landed unceremoniously on her butt in the sand. She huffs a sigh and scoops a handful of sand to toss at his boots in defiance as she tugs herself to her feet again, brushing sand from the skirt of her dress before resetting into the hammock again. She's watching him, trying to remember the last time she'd seen him at the beach house without him being injured. "I'm gonna have to tattoo an apology on you next time." She says softly, apologetically, as she reaches a hand out, beckoning him closer so she can tug him to join her on said hammock.

Leoxander chuffed a quiet laugh after his drink from the bottle at her rebuttal. He knew how to hold a grudge, but not with Lita. They’d been through far too much to resort to that. “You don’t need to ink it. Jus’ say it.” He offered her that dare. They were two very unapologetic people, but whiskey always helped with that. Not to mention he could relate to the stress she’d been dealing with in the tournament. There might be a moment of hesitance in case she took advantage of that opportunity to punch him, but he bought her bait and stepped in closer, turning to side sideways on her in that hammock that nearly dragged the ground with their combined weight. But it was a good hammock; durable with her care. That’s why he appreciated it. Once they swayed back and settled he took another drink and forfeit the bottle back her way. “I ain’t a mind reader, Ace. Sometimes I jus’ don’t know what’s goin’ on with you unless you let a few words go.” Private, himself, he could respect her reserved nature. But he had made it clear they had trust, now.

Lita feels a little forgiven when he joins her on that hammock. Or at least a little closer to it. Words had always been a difficult thing for her. Not just because she was a private person, not just because there were so few left she trusted. But she knew if she started she might not stop. But she trusted Leo, more than most. More than anyone probably these days. And it does nothing to make the words any easier. But she leans into the warmth of him, her head on his shoulder here, and sighs softly. Because he's right. And she knows if she wants to move forward with him and their island, there has to be something more than trust. "Do you remember what it meant for you after your duel," her voice is soft, as if someone somewhere might overhear her still. But she knows he'll hear it regardless. "to have to face those monstrosities?" She knows she doesn't have to use the word 'spiders' for him to likely remember it. "Mine wasn't spiders." She's not even sure how much of what had happened in that arena days prior had been real or just imagined in her head but it had felt real. The way the night terrors often had and it had taken her so long to find her way back. She'd hoped it would be easier now, after so long a time and with people around now. She swallows hard and knows she has to give him more an explanation for it to make sense. "I had a friend named Remi. He ran some of the trade caravan routes through Gualon, that's how we met. He had all this ink in tribal patterns and star charts, everywhere. Used to say it was a map of the world he'd walked." She smiles briefly for the memory. "I took a job that put me in opposition with some powerful people and things got messy. Remi offered me a place to lay low for a while in Gualon. He was captured and questioned about me. When he refused to give up my name, he was killed." This is a fairly clipped version of events, but it was years ago now and she's trying to keep her voice flat lest she betray the overwhelming emotion of it. "I came to his found and found the map of him tacked up to the walls like some macabre navigation attempt. I went after the people responsible but I didn't have a plan, I was reckless and pissed off."

Leoxander offered her an arm to rest her head on when she leaned in. He wasn’t oblivious to their way of butting heads while still caring for one another, but she clearly understood her jab the night prior had found a spot in the rogue he didn’t know he had. It left him wondering why anyone would say yes to him. Whiskey was always a good remedy, and far more rare than that, a friend, which he could count Lita as for more years than most, now. “It wasn’t even the spider for me, Ace…” He admitted tentatively. His pride would insist it was. “I couldn’t hurt that girl. Not jus’ because her father might have hunted me like a f’gin’ fish in a shallow barrel, but… she’s due for good things. Jus’ a pity she wants to run with us.” That response was between the time she first spoke and the follow up of words she granted him, which he was quiet to receive. As she spoke of star charts, he was looking up at one, no light left to make his eyes shine like a wolf’s. Just a glassy reflection of the sky in his stare. “So yer thinkin’ it’s dangerous to try to give a s*** about anybody again?” Sorry, gods, there was no gulls to censor him at that hour. Leo fell silent again to let her answer and speak on.

"I spent almost a year in an underground cell somewhere. I didn't know how long at the time. Chained to a wall, unable to feed. At first the mage came often, talked to me about Remi, said he'd been a friend and I'd gotten him killed. I tried to explain, but, it didn't matter. Said it was only fair I try and salvage what'd been taken." She swallows again. "I didn't know, then." Her voice breaks a little with the effort of the words and she furrows her brow, trying to keep it all straight in her head so she can tell it through. "The first time he dragged me outside the cell, there was only damp earth and tunnels and darkness and I was so hungry. Everything smelled like decay and rot and it wasn't until the tunnels opened into a small arena littered with others in chains that I realized it was a slave trade. I didn't realize Remi had been in the slave business, not that I'd have cared much, just kept out of it myself." She draws a little breath, trying to keep herself on track. "I didn't want to fight." She'd always been a better runner. "And I didn't at first. Time and time again. He'd drag me out and I'd refused and- well, that's how I got the scars on my back. Why they never healed right. Every time I refused. But I was so very hungry. I couldn't remember what the warmth of the sun felt like. What the ocean smelled like. You lose a part of your soul in a place like that and you never really get it back. And then he said, so sweet, he said that if I agreed to fight, that anything I killed I could eat. And the next time we went to the arena, I knew it would be me or them. Except it wasn't another slave he offered, it was Chio. And I cried. Exhausted and starving and terrified, but he knew. And he didn't look away even as I took his life." She's only told one other person this story, and only because they'd helped drag her out of that he'll. "I'm not afraid to give a shit about people, Leo. I love you. But that doesn't mean I won't hurt you, even without realizing it. And that's what scares me. That capacity for that darkness and that place. Knowing it's a part of me. It took me years to find my way back to this. I can't go back."

Leoxander rocked with the wind and a slight push of the heel of his treaded boot as he listened, still gazing up at the sky. She could probably guess he’d been in a situation similar by the slight edging at the corner of his jaw as she described it, but he didn’t override her words with his own, taking everything she had to say in while avoiding eye contact, but only at first. There were probably some scars like hers that spoke some of the story, anyhow. Only when she was finished did he finally turn his head her way to look into her dark eyes. Those three words weren’t missed, but they weren’t words he ever spoke back easily. Not even to Loravelle. “We got a helluva pile of bones in our closets, don’t we?” He asked quietly, a redundant question, because he already knew the answer. “But what’s stoppin’ us, now? Same as you in those fights. All we need is a reason to win, an’ I feel like we got a bloody shipload of reasons right here.” That island, the squad, their family, that hammock, even. “I know I’m missin’ memories that I pro’lly woulda kept, but we don’t got’a go back if we can move forward.”

Lita is grateful for him. Maybe it won't ever feel easier to tell or share parts of herself but that's something she'd accepted. But she could try at least for him. Try to do better. She's not oblivious that he's battled similar demons in his past so his words make her smile briefly. "I'll be honest, I'm not fightin' for the island yet. I love it, you know I do. This villa, the hammock, our shop." Yeah, she says 'our shop'. "This place is the best parts of me some days. But if I'm fightin' for anything, it's you. The other stuff will come after and I'll let it. So will the others. Not just to be in your corner against the rest of the world but when you need someone in that darkness."

Leoxander met her eyes as they rocked a bit but as he stopped pushing his heel into the sand, the shared hammock would settle as he stared. “I want this island. It’s the only real home I’ve ever had.” His secrets weren’t as detailed in return, but that tone in his voice she might understand. It wasn’t the pirate’s usual sharp bark or rough bite. Smooth waters compared to the usual warning waves. And perhaps that would make up for all the things he didn’t have the nerve or mental discipline to say. “And it is pretty dark tonight.” That said more matter of factly, but that had hidden meaning, too. “I can’t wait for Mahri to hide whatever it is she needs to hide. I need those names.” He wasn’t trying to manipulate the vampire from the she-wolf; Mahri’s time in Leo’s company was surpassed by none. But he’d given them the chance and it was damn well time to start taking progressive steps forward again, as he had mentioned.

Lita isn't sure what she'd expected him to say when he stops rocking the hammock but he doesn't look away and so she holds his gaze. "I'll help you get it." A promise, in more ways than one. "I'm proud of what you've done, how far you've come." And not just in regards to the island but his personal life too. When he rounds the conversation back towards those names she draws a little breath and exhales slowly. For a moment she wonders if this isn't the reason for Leo's visit. Old habits die hard, both manipulation and distrust being easy things to fall into. "Keep rocking," she says with an elbow nudged gently against his ribs as she curls into him some. "Arien was the last governor with any public face, far as I can tell. Name's all over the record books. But long as anybody can seem to recall, she'd hightailed it on a ship out years ago. After the war things went to disarray, no one really seemed to notice that she wasn't around to call the shots. Or maybe they figured she was in hiding. Think most just didn't care. But the law still gets paid. If you follow the money it leads to a started and abandoned construction sight north side of the island." She might have had to pilfer a few of Xiem's records for that much. She wasn't as proud of that. He probably would have given her the information even, but Mahri had wanted this quiet. "The place is marked on a few missives as government property, some proposed location of a new home, others seem to suggest a meeting hall or the like. From the outside it looks like it sort of gets tied up in red tape. And so for years it's sat vacant. Just money being funneled into this project that never goes anywhere. And all the official records tied to that I could found have Arien's name on them, despite her absence. Except one." The one she'd pilfered outside the public and official records. The one the contractor had kept. "I haven't found the name anywhere else and I don't know if it's a person or an alias." She admits. "I'm still trying but as of yet, they're a ghost."

Leoxander squeezed his arm around Lita’s neck if she’d accepted that bicep (and perhaps that earth and whiskey musk that came with it), dragging her closer in. His boot heel went back to work to relax them both and his gaze returned to the sky with the high tide waves washing in a stone’s throw away from them. Her praise meant something, even if he was as likely to say ‘thanks’ as ‘sorry’. He listened as she unfolded the story, only responding after a time with no recognition or wonder in his voice. “Arien. That long-earred lady messin’ with the black chief.” Rhocielle. Wait… Mahri’s face came into the picture. Hadn’t the Selen island alpha run off with the she-wolf? Such a confusing, muddled mess in his brain, he continued to hear her words as she went on. But Dezerae’s words started to pop up like sparks in his head, too. That fog was still so very thick, but Lita might notice his chest still as he held his breath for a moment. Eternity. Had this past governor taken it? Did it matter? He tried to shake some of the questions away and eventually tried to sit up in the hammock, upsetting the sway. Leo looked back over his shoulder at Lita. “...They tried to kill me.” He came to the revelation without exactly knowing what, or who, but that Rynvale was involved. Good thing he wasn’t still holding that bottle - he would have dropped it. “They tried to take this place…” Something was coming back to him, still out of reach, but it was definitely fueling the fire of his reason for claim. Leo stood up and hopefully Lita would catch herself to compensate for the lost half of weight as he paced a few steps toward the break of ocean to land.

Lita didn't know much about Arien, outside of the stories Hanan had told. Lita had been new to the island back then, mostly kept to herself, just trying to survive mostly herself before the war had started and after, through the thick of it, she'd been all but glued to Hanan's side. Lita had still been human then and with the way the island burned, the Cap'n had been terrified of losing her. Ironic, now. Lita draws a hand briefly across his chest, fingers splayed but he moves to sit up quickly and she recoils a little at the suddenness of his movements. The way he looks back at her, coupled with those words, leaves her a little speechless as she stares up at him, brow furrowed slightly. But he's on his feet and moving before she can ask any questions and she juts a leg out, bare toes buried in the sand as she catches her weight when the hammock swings free of him. She hesitates a beat, turning to watch him before she's up and following after, unwilling to let him get too far from reach just now. "They failed." She says with quiet resolution and she draws up next to him just behind his right shoulder. She reaches for his hand gently, squeezing his fingers reassuringly.

Leoxander was just a bit stunned before he realized her hand was in his and clutching with her words. He looked down toward their clasped grip and then toward her. She -had- been different then. So many of them were changed in some way or another. Including Mahri, his alpha-sister. He’d fought the chief once because of her… and Arien. It was starting to come back to him. The pack, all those names and faces lost for some reason or another. That he still didn’t know. But he had to swallow his own words. No point in going back if they could move forward … and his tightened fist relaxed a bit, even if he couldn’t hurt Lita the way he might have were she still human. Whoever ‘they’ happened to be, he found he didn’t care. Nobody was going to take that land again, whether they were successful or not that first time around. A deep breath of Rynvale’s air was drawn into his lungs and exhaled from his nose. “They’ll always fail. I need your help makin’ sure of that.” Once again he met Lita’s gaze.

Lita relaxes a little when he draws that breath. She knows she's not the only one still fighting the darkness of a past easier left buried. She's grateful he trusts her and she doesn't shy away from it. "You haven't given up on me." She smiles softly as she lifts her free hand to his ribs, drawing him into a loose hug from behind as she loops her arm around his waist and presses against his back. "I'm grateful for it. I hope you'll keep doing it." She settles her chin against his shoulder and turns her gaze out across the water. "Whatever you need, I'm your girl. Promise." And she loved Mahri but she couldn't keep secrets from him. It would tear her apart. It had been.

Leoxander felt the cooler press of her body behind his as he looked back across the ocean, and to a wolf’s nocturnal vision in the distance he could barely make the twinkling lights of Cenril. He would need to have that talk with the mayor, soon. A hand rested over the arm around his front. The rogue didn’t let many invade his back space like that but Lita was apparently an exception. “We’ll figure it out, but we’re gonna need a sit down together quick.” He wasn’t upset with Mahri for trying to protect him, nor Lita for that matter. But he was getting that impression he needed to put his foot down and stake an official claim. Nothing was happening on that territory without him knowing about it. Attempting to turn in her hold to face her, he decided to jump to one more subject he didn’t have all the answers for, yet. “An’ the dragon? He’s safe?” Not just to be on that turf, but not to hurt her, because that would have dire consequences, too.

Lita quietly nods at his mention of a sit-down. She's no intention of trying to incite or support some mutiny against the claim he's of mind to make and foster. She doesn't think Mahri is either. But those cracks are where they started, even unintentionally. She'd have to hope Mahri would extend her the same understanding and forgiveness the pirate had. She hasn't been as close to Mahri for as long a time. It's an easy thing to let him turn and face her, half expecting that familiar smirk and a brief kiss to her cheek before they part ways. Instead he asks about Xiem and her gaze flickers down over the line of his jaw as she bites at the inside of her lower lip. She still hadn't told him about that kiss yet. "For now." He'd said he loved her. She still didn't quite know what to do with that. "He's too good for this place." She says softly, the words tugging a grin across her features. Because she means it with love and affection for the island and the home they'd built amidst their chaos and darkness and all the good that lived and bled alongside that. "But if that changes, I'll let you know."

Leoxander nudged her jaw back up with a soft butt of knuckle when she looked down from his eyes to make her meet them again. “We’ll make sure to keep him an’ his crew busy, then. We got a lot to rebuild, here. An’ you make sure to invite him to the party when we get enough done.” There had been floating rumors of that beach bonfire but rogues that they were, it wasn’t advertised or plastered on posters as other Kingdoms tended to do. “I’m willin’ to accept him here if you are.” There was no official ‘deputy’ title when he didn’t intend to carry one of his own. She had the crown she had wanted and frankly, the pirate needed no title, jewelry or throne to make it known where his loyalties remained. “I’m headin’ back to the ship. Maybe you could hook me up with the builder to see about fixin’ up the place next door. I doubt ‘long-ears’ is comin’ back to reclaim it if she hasn’t by now.”

Lita lifts her eyes to meet his again, a faint blush of color on her cheeks. She nods when he mentions inviting the dragon to the beach bash. She'd planned to. Hard not to when he was pretty much living at the villa these days. But it was nice to hear the acceptance from him all the same. "You an' Lora next door?" She says excitedly. Deviously. Already scheming, more than likely. She leans up to press a kiss against his cheek. "Do it. Place is yours more an' anyone else's and if we ain't asking anymore then there's no stopping you. White picket fence an' all." She tugs away from him then to let him head back to that ship. There would be a few more hard conversations ahead but she wasn't going anywhere.

Leoxander bowed his head to return the kiss to her smoother cheek, since his had a few days of stubble grown in. “I think I’ll look into it.” That was as much farewell as he’d give, but he did scoop up that bottle, took a drink, only to toss it back in a precise grip that hopefully she had the reflexes to catch before he went on his way toward the westbound road.