RP:Tempted by the Fruit of Another

Synopsis: Kyori comes knocking at Nel's door for the truth of her resurrected brother. Truth is, she is not sure how it happened as she does not remember the moment she almost died. The two jest throughout the whole confession in whiplash conversation. Up and down with emotions. Kyori confesses new truths about him, and comes to the conclusion that he doesn't want to be someone else in Lithrydel. He cares about the people he met throughout his fragments of time being in Lithrydel. The spellblade wants to be himself, and Penelope wants the real him too, as it has been off and on knowing who the ghost whisperer is through his comatose states. She makes it complicated, and the two are in trouble because of it.

Part of the Until It Sleeps Arc

Part of the Planting Seeds in a Memory Arc

The Silent Forest

The adventure with Penelope and Lanara in Enchantment ended without Penelope delivering on those answers she promised. Kyori, being a gentleman always (lie) let it go then. But that was then and this was now and he’s spontaneously shown up at her house in a very not creepy way with her pie dish. In lieu of a sword, he’s armed with the aforementioned pie dish, half a pack of cigarettes and the same crappy clothes he can’t escape. It’s early evening, which means the chances of Penelope being home would be better than none. Midday? No way. It’s also, he concludes before he steps into the yard through the bushes that divide it from the rest of the forest, the time people were likely to be home. That’s one way to be nosey.

–

Penelope had the night shift the night prior, so throughout the day she slept. Normally on days where Penelope snoozed away, Pakellin, Alexia, and Aeric made sure to get out of the house to not make much noise for the healer. Afterall, she was the breadwinner of the ‘family’. Family… Not her kids. Linken’s kids. Plus Aeric was now eighteen and Alexia was fifteen. It was a whole thing. Linken’s house burnt down the night he got sucked into that void. The Ardelian took the weight to provide shelter for the boy and girl despite their attitudes with her. Nel was not very liked–at least with Aeric. Anyway, back to Penelope snoozing during the day, when evening struck, that was technically her morning, but thankfully, she did not have to work until the next true morning. So her ‘day off’ was the night. When there is a knock on the door, her face twists because… no one ever visited. The girl wears loose, flowy sleepwear. Flowy cream pants, a cropped orange, dingy tanktop and a flowy orange wrap. She hides her stomach as the girl has that gruesome scar from the night she was stabbed on her belly. Her hair rests messily on the top of her head–curls fall in random places and also frame her face. Quite the bed head bun. She goes to the door and slowly opens it to find Kyori with a pie dish…? “What are you doing here?” She looks over his head to see if any of the other residents are around before opening the door a little more. “I told you the pie was good. But I don’t have another one. Can you settle for muffins?”

–

Kyori’d expected, if Penelope was the one to answer the door, that she’d be less than pleased to see him. The pie tin was the bartering chip he’d brought to try and get his foot in the door. “Good morning to you too.” He smirked, pushing his luck. He leans out of the way so she can look behind him. “All clear.” He promises as he straightens again. “Are you expecting someone else? A gentleman caller perhaps?” The spellblade tucks his toes inside the door, in case she tries to run him off. “Does he know you’re having my baby? Is it really his baby? I won’t be mad.” That’s a lot of nervous filler instead of hello hi Penelope. Not having his sword still felt like a missing limb. His sapphire eyes settle on her and try to gauge if this was actually a bad time. “Are these muffins a bribe to leave or an offer to come in?” His smile becomes more genuine instead of roguish as he admires the domesticity of the healer. “Also…” Kyori bends down to pick up the chunk of tree root he’d promised to bring. “I come bearing gifts.”

–

Penelope felt a small chill run through her back at the ‘all clear’. She felt bad she was doing such a thing, but… if Linken’s son Aeric saw Kyori? Sven, help her. That would be a recipe for disaster. It would probably end up with Aeric saying that the healer was messing around to even help save his dad who nearly killed them all. “Why? Glad you’ll get out of daddy duty? No Father of the Year award for you?” She grins up at the man in a taunting way, but she still feels hesitant to let him in. He, however, has a foot in. Stubborn spellblade. When the muffins are mentioned as a way ‘in’, and the chunk of stump is offered, her teeth grind before she fully opens the door to let him breeze through. “You’re lucky I like gifts.” Pause. “You can stay. I don’t think the others won’t be back for a couple hours, I assume. Kel always takes Aeric and Alexia to Cenril on days where I’m dead to the world.” Who was Aeric and Alexia to Kyori? She is still closing her body off in that sleepwear. She walks to the kitchen before she is forced to let go of the thin robe. “I have cran-orange muffins or chocolate.” She slides the wrapped plate across the counter for him to take his pick, if he wants one. “So… I assume you -weren’t- here for muffins. You clearly brought a much needed gift. Why else are you stalking me?” Banter, of course. To fill in the curiosity. She takes the initiative first as she snags the orange-cranberry muffin and walks across the room to plop into the couch with a relaxed leg up. She automatically takes an overly large chomp out of the muffin to fill in the space for him to talk.

–

“Are you kidding? I’m clearly -the- model candidate. I’m drafting my speech right now.” Dramatic to a fault. On the chart of things he is, dramatic falls just a spot below stubborn. He strides in victoriously and listens to the temporary passage she’s granting. Who -are- Aeric and Alexia? Based on the few hints he’d picked up during his last visit, he’s going to guess kids. And since Penelope hadn’t mentioned names or having kids of her own, it’s an easy assumption to put them as Kel’s. Who is taking them to Cenril. He does notice when he struts past that she’s guarding her stomach strangely. “Feeling okay?” He eyes her waist with concern before her robe falls away. That might be a conversation she’d rather leave for later. For a guy who lied through his teeth when he met her, he’s become oddly concerned about her state of affairs. Chocolate is chosen after the plate’s unwrapped. He bites into it, aiming to give her a moment of silence until she catches him off guard. “Stalking?” He laughs, mouth full of muffin. “If you’re my baby momma, it feels like I’m allowed to do, like, a -little- stalking.” Also, obviously, a joke. He chews quickly. “I owed you the stump piece.” Delaying. “And you owed me a little info on this whole…your dead brother isn’t so dead anymore thing? If you’re feeling up to it.” He doesn’t sit yet, but instead leans against the couch’s arm. Just in case someone comes in and she needs to shove him out. He’s honestly forgotten the details about the demon Penelope fought with his own curse looming but it wouldn’t be hard to remind him if she wanted to. The ‘why’ they’d talked to her twin faded away until his name showed up again.

–

The Ardelian snorts. “So proud and willing to have our hypothetical baby.” Penelope ignores the question of ‘feeling okay’ because well, it was all about to be explained today. The deep scar on her stomach. Her brother. Kind of. She could still hardly remember what happened. She sits there and plays with the paper on the muffin as she chews her large bite. A smile on her face from his contagious laughter. This was easier for her as it always had been. Easier for the both of them, but… their relationship had become deeper. Where it was necessary to understand things that did not necessarily make sense. “A -little-? Boy, you best be waiting on my hand and foot,” she smirked, swallowing the rest of the muffin piece in her mouth. She owed him information. That smile sort of twitches–because she does not want to kill the mood. “Uh, yeah, I do.” She had been avoiding it for so long. Lanara had been that barrier there to help with talking about what she needed to explain. Kyori deserved the explanation the most–since he fell into a coma because of it. Using his magic. For her. “I mean, who is up for really talking about -that-?” She picks at the bread rather than eating it now because nerves had grown and most of those nerves were pulsing to her stomach. “You can sit, you know.” He might need to. “Truth is, I don’t remember what happened, and what I have to explain…? In the vagueness of it will be? You’re not going to like to hear that part of the story,” she looked at Kyori cautiously. “It was the night when Linken was something… so… dark… The last night I saw him. And… it was the evening I was trying to explain to you before you fell into your coma–when I was shutting down the shop,” Her mouth remains sort of tight. She could almost feel sweat on the back of her neck.

What was supposed to be a ‘non-dreary’ explanation was already working her post-traumatic stress up. Would that remind him? “There was so much that happened, and I can’t… shape the details… For my health. Your health. I had to learn to deal with my triggers of… reliving that night because too much had happened.” Truth was, whatever happened that night, she never wanted anyone to know. She did not want to express how she paralyzed a man. How she was physically forced to kill an illusion of Linken’s mother. How the torture struck her mind.. The thought of spiders crawling out of her mouth. Blood. So much… blood. But what she had to confess… “I remember being in a line towards the end of that night. I was standing in a line of strangers. Besides… Aeric and Alexia. I couldn’t move.”

–

“Girl, you best believe I would.” Kyori likes seeing Penelope smile. Really smile, without pretense and the masks they love to hide behind. When she starts to delay, he peels away the paper from his muffin and tosses it at her. He wants to offer her an out but he also wants to know what the hell’s been going on for the past year. He knows she’d refuse if she really didn’t want to. When she tells him to sit, he picks a slice of empty floor to occupy. Knees bent, arms wrapped lazily around them. If the subject was less serious, he’d remark on how this was good practice for telling their kid pretend kid stories. It was an easy joke. She’d appreciate it if she didn’t look so nervous. Anxiety is dredged from the pit of his stomach. “Pen, we can forget this -” Is she going to be sick? Anxiously, Kyori stays still and silent and she keeps talking. But she looks a little closer to passing out each second. Linken’s name, along with the stench of death in her shop. The memory hits him square in the chest. The delicate way she’s sorting through the pieces, picking the least sharp ones to hold up and show him. That damned panic made him wish he’d stayed standing. He wanted to make her stop, to let her stop, to let her continue. All he could do was wait there, to hear what she could say and read between the lines of what she couldn’t. The shop had been rotten with the tang of coppery blood and the sickly decay of life. The place was infested. He didn’t blame her for wanting to leave that. He did blame himself for not being here, to help her sort through what she’d seen. He had that nasty complex about wanting to save her. To save everyone. But she broke a very specific, very delicate thing in him that he didn’t like. That he didn’t have a say in. “You were trapped.” He says, to show he’s listening and here with her. She doesn’t have to remember this alone. It’s all he can do.

–

Penelope had to, at this point. Not just for him. For her. Saying it aloud was what she really could benefit from. He wants to forget it, but she can only pretend as she has been doing for the past year. Is this how Lanara felt in all her past situations? Pushing back and focusing on breathing day to day? The woman feels sick, and the half-eaten muffin lowers to the coffee table in front of her. She finds comfort that he sits on the floor rather than close to her. “I was trapped. We all were–cattle ready for...” Slaughter. The Ardelian takes a long inhale. “Kyori, that night, I almost died, or maybe I did for a moment. I don’t know for sure.” She paused and chewed the inside of her cheek–no tears prick. She just feels like she is almost out of breath at that moment. “You wouldn’t have been able to prevent it, so please, don’t beat yourself up. This was… fate calling me.” The druid finally decides to slide down to the floor where the man was. That scar across her stomach, the gruesome mark, that was the wound that she hid for the past year. “When I was younger and met Linken, Linken held a curse that I was never able to comprehend–nor could he. That curse ended up following me too–that curse was that demonic entity trapped within Linken… It watched me. For years. When Linken did not know where I was out? That thing did. It wanted evil for Linken. Evil for me. It killed my brother in Linken’s body. The thing told me what it did. Perhaps the curse is still over me. Perhaps the grotesque creature is still watching. I don’t want to think about it.”

She reaches for Kyori’s hands to reassure him. She was alive. Healthy again. It was okay. “When we spoke to my brother from the grave… he was warning me. To stay away. I didn’t. And I didn’t listen to you either. I didn’t listen to my old friend Krice, nor Ruari. -No one- could have stopped me. I felt at fault for Linken. Perhaps I still had an underlying love there to close the relationship. I left him a time ago without a word during the night. Days after I thought he killed my brother, I couldn’t get over it. He couldn’t find me for years, and because I found him, and he was sick, I felt I at least owed him to help him recover as I became a healer. So that reencounter? That was my fate. -My- fate.” A shift in tone is given like a parent gives to a child in a strict fashion. A nurturing fashion of taking the blame off of Kyori because the spellblade would have never had control of the situation. This was not his past, nor could he let it be. “When I woke up… everyone was alive around me: Ruari, Linken’s children Aeric and Alexia, but… Linken was… gone and nothing was left but… his metal arm.” That was another story which Aeric was wracking his brain around. “Pakellin was… there too. I don’t know how. I don’t know why? But… I’ve been trying to piece it together, as I’ve been very confused and so has he. The entity was an illusionist of sorts, and I didn’t bury Kel when he died. It’s the only thing that is logical to me. Where that entity stuck my brother? Then again, we talked to Kel’s ghost, so that’s where I’m lost.”

–

Pakellin’s warning flashes like lightning through Kyori’s mind. Don’t let her depart. Don’t let her go in the dark. Let her revolve around the sun. Be careful or you might be tainted too. He thought he’d be here to help her through whatever was to come, even after using his magic, even with the help of his sisters. He’d stupidly thought if he wanted to do it enough, wanted to protect her and prove Kel wrong, he could. But the story wasn’t about him, even though it felt like a retelling of his own failure to help. Her face looks the same way it had when Kel reached through her chest and the spellblade was sure she’d fall dead on the spot. All her reassurances, no matter how true they could be, didn’t ease the thorns twisting and tangling inside him. He resists the compulsion to catch her, like she’s falling, when she slides into the floor with him. The spellblade’s defensive monologue reads something along the lines of threats of violence for this entity, though he knows nothing about it. Mental note to ask Lanara about a way to block it, a spell or charm, to keep it from coming back and trying to kill her again. Surely she’s thought of this, two women rooted in magic, no way they hadn’t already considered a solution like this.

Penelope reaches out for his hands. His legs lower and cross in front of him. Every word she’s saying sounded true but they’re at war with his own rash wants. The past could not be rewritten, even with reckless rage. He’d have stupidly tried to make it his part. Hero complex boys are missing a screw or two somewhere. The friction of Penelope’s strained relationship with Linken hits close to home. He’d strained his own relationships, by vanishing for months or years at a time. In Lativu, though, people knew just enough to expect large chunks of absence. The tick of Penelope’s pulse bleeds through her hands to remind him, remind them both, she was indeed alive. The more complicated part of the story leaves his own head reeling. Kel appeared when Linken disappeared, but Penelope never buried Kel’s body and Kel was surely dead if they’d talked to his spirit. The kids staying here weren’t her brother’s. They were her ex’s. The expectation of Linken’s return sounded slim to none. But what if this entity, this cursed creature that killed them and then they came back…it wasn’t impossible to see how Kel might rematerialize since the demon killed her twin when he possessed Linken. Perhaps Linken had sacrificed himself in a way to spare them all. To give them all a second chance, including Pakellin. Equivalent exchange would say Linken’s body was reformed to become her brother’s but evil entities aren’t know for making things easy or allowing for a neat clean up.

When Kyori’s brain stops buzzing, he lets his sapphire eyes fall back on Penelope’s face. She is alive. She has laughed and scolded and healed. He’s seen her make dust clouds and climb trees and touch the ring he gave her. She is alive. “Linken’s body could have reformed into a new body for your brother.” If only the flesh was gone. It meant it was unlikely that Linken had been vaporized or stolen away. His arm would have gone with him. “Without knowing more about the curse, it’s hard to say. I can say Kel was absolutely dead or trapped in the realm of death. That spirit we spoke to was real.” The specific magic they’d used wouldn’t have pulled Kel from any old dimension. “I don’t know if this helps” but he hopes he can at least help find probable answers for the situation her family survived.

–

Penelope reads Kyori’s face, although she feels ill. His brain is turning–she just knows it, and she wants to stop it. Stop him from stirring over it. Stirring the past. But if the entity still lurked? Who knew if it did? But she cannot figure out the pieces that Kyori is trying to make. If only she had the answers for him. She hated to make the atmosphere so dark between them, as this was something she was never wanting to share. Normally, sharing feelings made her fickle, as she did not want history to repeat itself. Getting too close to someone. That was why she could only trust Lanara–as Lanara had been through terrible times. Kyori? Well, he seemed like one to pull away too. Two masked people staring face to face with each other. That made things easier. The thought of Linken’s body reforming into a new body makes her slide her hands away. “Then the only way would be resurrection. But… Kel’s eye would have been massacred. He would have decayed.” Beat. “You know what the strange thing is…? My brother is a lot freer than what he used to be–personality wise.” Her hand reaches nervously up to the back of her neck. She does not want to spiral. Her teeth grind. “I just know, I have to forget or… no–move on. Hopefully get the hell out of this house as it isn’t really a home. I still see things I don’t want to remember. This place is.. Not to mention Linken’s kids are in the mix as their home burnt down that night. Aeric hates me. Hates that I haven’t done anything to bring Linken back. He said there is a -way-, and just won’t let it go.” The girl groans and shakes her head. “Honestly, you and your sword have been a breath of fresh air. Anything to get me out of these walls. And people wonder -why- I work so much.” The girl flops back onto her back. “You can stop me now. Anytime. -Really-. Have another wrapper to throw at me?” She tries to jest, but her tone is full of dry humor instead.

–

Kyori and Penelope always had this dynamic. Masked strangers hiding their scars. But she had a bad habit of pulling things out of him that he wanted to stay hidden. That he wanted to forget. “Had to be a new body…” but where did it come from? The demon wouldn’t do anything helpful. They never did. She’s withdrawing and he lets her, letting her steal back her pulse. “Death changes people” is his offered theory for why Kel might be more at ease in ‘his’ own skin. He watches the tension wind through her body. “It’s a positive.” Her twin’s new take on life. The rest, the house and all the attachments, were a sinking ship. It’s clear she’s struggling still to explain this all to herself. “Losing your family is hard.” He sympathizes. “When my parents died, I was the same way. I tried everything to bring them back. My sisters too, and they were still with me.” In the sword. He was younger and had a lot of rage to misplace. “I’d pick fights to lose. A black eye felt better than feeling powerless.” Kyori leans his head forward, elbows braced on the sides of his knees. “Hell, I hoped they’d kill me sometimes.” Heavy admission. “I understand how he feels.” And Kyori also knew Aeric would be pissed to see him. His barging in here felt tackless now. His smile is stretched thin when she says the hunt for his sword has been a breath of fresh air. He wishes he could say the same. “Textbook work-a-holic.” The heel of his boot wedges under one of her ankles and puppet’s her foot, wiggling it back and forth. “I ate the rest of that wrapper, you’re out of luck.” Translates to ‘why would I stop you? Do you know me?’. “I feel like you’re gonna yell at me for this but, when we find my sword, and when we figure out how to keep me from going zombie mode, we can try talking to Linken.”

The unsaid subtext of ‘if he’s dead’ steeps unspoken between them. “So don’t yell, thanks.” Penelope looks like she barely has the energy to keep her eyes open. “I know the experience was literally hell…but your brother’s back.” He tries not to sound jealous. “You’ll move on from this. The kids will too. And, because I’m annoying, I’ll help try and bring Linken back. When you’re ready.” A beat. “You can tell Aeric a witch is working on it. It’s not a lie.” It’s enough of a lie Kyori, but he’s also a kid. Sometimes kids need little lies. The spellblade wants to say ‘sorry’ or ‘thanks for telling me’ but those words sound too common place. “It’ll be okay.” Aeric. Penelope. Linken. Kel. Alexia. Yeah, he’s going to dissect this with Lana, see what they could do without stressing the plant witch. All the words he knows and he can only settle on “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.” Here to listen, here to talk to ghosts or raise the dead. Here to father their fictional child. Here to support her and here to eat the muffins. Let me be here.“Toss me one.” He says, leaning back and opening his mouth, expecting her to hit him in the face with it. Let me protect you too. “I’ve got a big mouth, you can’t miss.”

–

Despite the duo’s masked ways, it brought a comfort to the Ardelian that she could be this forthcoming even if she did not want to. Even if he pulled out the worst in her, at least she can be somewhat humorous towards the situation at one point even if it was wicked. Tainted. He would not know the exact taint it brought her, and it was probably for the best. Linken always brought out the worst in her for those years she was wrapped underneath him. A new body…? “But I’m a twin, how would that even work?” The hypothetical question lingers. No one would be able to answer. Nobody but Linken. This was his curse. His story that leaked into her own. ‘Death changes people’, that comment makes her run a hand across the scar that lingered on her collarbone. She inherited a lot of major scars; all from stories with Linken, as toxic as it was. The talk of family has her gaze lift up towards Kyori’s to listen about his family. How he did everything. Family had been the main thing for him. How he wanted it to be him instead. An ache reaches the girl, as… she had felt the same feeling of wanting death to take her instead. Instead of Kel. Replacing herself instead of Linken so she would not have to deal with Aeric lashing out at her. The stubborn, relatable tone of Aeric of busting an eye to get answers. “You’re speaking like the boy,” and for that, Penelope felt shameful she has not attempted to try anything. “I’m terrified to even think of the possibility of bringing Linken back–even if Aeric was speaking the truth.”

Eyes stare up at the ceiling before he puppets her foot playfully. She is still dramatically sprawled, and a very faint smirk touches her lips, but it fades as her heart is beating way too fast still from this conversation. The next moment, the words Kyori speaks, makes her face turn grim. “I.. I can’t,” literally, would she even be able to speak to him after what had happened? What would she even say? “But you can take… Aeric. You can promise him you’ll bring Linken back for him if that’s the case.” She finishes, for she cannot be mad. There is shame in her words, and she hated that she felt this way about the elf. Afterall, Linken was not her family. The thing was, even though Penelope did not know this, Linken was still alive, but that was his story. When Kyori says he is ‘not going anywhere’, she is motionless. He had said that before, but she would never hold it against him. It was not his fault. Instead of responding, she grabs the half-eaten muffin and takes off a hearty piece. “A big mouth is right.” The piece is thrown, and the Ardelian is truly hoping it hits him in the eye for pulling such… dread out of her. “How long should we keep Lanara on her toes with our lie?” Time to move on to other, well, were they positive? Notes? "Also, why are the stones so important in the sword? I know I can... tap it to wake you, but who has the others?"

–

Kyori knew Penelope was cocooning when she didn’t scold him for trying to use the powers that would put him to sleep. Without the sword in his position, and with all the traumatic confessions, it could fade into the background. He shrugs at her question about Kel’s body. It could be a question they could ask Linken when they finally got Kyori’s sword back. They come to the same quiet conclusion. Sapphire eyes catch her touching her scars. Her own little brushes with death. Had Death changed her? Who had she been before the first time Linken touched her life? “Men are dumb.” He concludes with a shrug when she says he sounds like Linken’s son. “We’re bad with words.” The healer admits her fear of bringing Linken back and Kyori pauses, studying her intensely. A hitch in breath, jump in pulse, clenched teeth. He’d know it immediately.

“I’ll take him. Closure might be all he really needs.” The boy might not yet accept the fact his father is gone, if he’s so sure he can be brought back. “Hey,” the spellblade frowns. “It’s not your fault.” But she’s moving them away from the conversation she didn’t want to have. Her muffin hits in the cheek, crumbs spraying in his hair. “Did you magic that? That’s cheating.” Leaning forward, he brushes the crumbs out, staring at the floor. Slivers of her wrap and arm sit in his peripheral. He laughs in surprise when she asks about their witchy friend. “You can’t tell me it’s not hilarious how she looks at us.” Crumbs defeated, he straightens with a smile. “Plus, I’m learning a lot about your pants fetish.” He holds his hands up, surrendering. “I’m not passing judgment.” His smile’s too easy. The switch between life and death could make people dizzy, he’s well practiced, for his own sanity. His face falls at her question. Kyori rubs his face with calloused hands, a wave of grief threatening to drown him. “No one has them anymore.” He shields his eyes and leans forward, afraid of what his face says that he doesn’t want to. “Each stone lets me call the person it used to belong to. My family. My sisters. My parents had stones but we all did.” A beat. He rubs his nose, sniffing and letting his hands drop. “It’s not a trap, but a portal. My own ‘ring’ to call them.” The spellblade hadn’t tried to call his parents. He’s too ashamed that he let them die. He can’t face them. “I’m not the best at explaining it.” It linked him to his family, the link let him connect with other beings in the same plane. I can talk to ghosts that are still here without the sword, but if the souls aren’t trapped here, I can’t reach them alone.” He rubs his shoulder, the scared chunk of skin stinging on his back.

–

A flick of a smile touches her lips when Kyori says ‘men are dumb’, but it was way more complex than that. She almost relaxes under the conclusion that Kyori would take Aeric, but that still makes her nerves tight. ‘It’s not your fault’ rolls off his tongue, and it’s time to turn the conversation off and move on. Penelope cannot wrap her brain around that observation that she was not faulty, but she tries to ease her body enough. Get your nerves back to grace, Penelope. Kyori falls into the change of topic, and silently she is thanking him. “No one said I play fair.” The woman finally sits up and she pulls that wrap around her to take the chill off. “Yeah, but it’s going to tick her off if we don’t tell her the truth. Plus, best tell her before she tries to throw a baby shower. You know how she -loves- events.” When he talks about the ‘pants fetish’, she grins dopely. “Okay, literally that conversation was taken out of context. I told Lanara to wear the pants in the relationship so she can fall into bed with her -now- husband. The girl actually put on his pants, and that’s -not- what I meant. She claims it did work. So… am I a coincidental know-it-all? Yes,” she says this with mini pride, but she is teasing, of course.

Penelope does not even bat an eye, as the switch between life and death comes naturally to her. Someone staring through the window would probably be scratching their heads at the easy dynamic between the two. Though, here we go with the wave as they talk about the sword. He covers his face, and she feels she touched a low. The stones… his family was in those stones. “Your family is… missing without that sword.” It all connects why the sword is such a piece of him. She did not need to know the logistics, as she will never understand his gift. Talking with the dead. Does that mean that if the Ardelian died, he would still be able to reach her too with the stone she had? The Ardelian is lost for words for a moment, but she finds herself reaching out to grasp his arm in reassurance. “We will find your sword. Your family. I will search every inch of Lithrydel to find that damned precious thing.” Pause. “Were you the only one in your family with… your gift?”

–

Kyori thinks he specified the weird specifics with the stones in what was a couple months ago to him but he can’t remember. “Yeah we’d better tell her before she gets really mad that we’re keeping secrets.” Lanara’d become a staple in his life and he’d hate to risk losing her over a joke. It did look like the witch could misunderstand sometimes. It’s endearing anyway. “Or, and here’s a thought, we just make the baby so it’s not a lie. Do I get a vote? That sounds more fun than cashing in our chips.” More fun than watching the healer fall into a well of trauma the likes of which he can’t fathom. More funny, at the very least. “Not everyone can be called. It’s a conscious decision. Kind of like connecting the stone in the first place. But people can’t show up either. Knock and answer.” That’s how his dad explained it. “Plus you can wear my pants. I can get better pants, I know you’ve been on me about that forever anyway.” Let’s flip flop so nothing’s too funny or too serious. “So don’t worry, you wouldn’t be like…weirdly trapped in my sword or anything.” He’s sure that’s what she’s worried about. Okay, he’s not sure but he takes a shot in the dark, he’d be worried about it if their places were swapped. But the whole magic sword thing was twisty.

“It’s not the sword, anyway. The sword is just… a portal.” Did he say that already? He thinks so but his heart is racing with her touching his arm and making this ‘vow’. I would have been here every day. He jumps when she touches his arm but quickly puts his hand over hers to keep her from pulling away. “Sorry.” He mutters. Her next question is one he should have expected but he got all twisted up on what she was saying. “We all had the aptitude, but the sword was passed down through the men in our family. It was my dad’s and so on.” A flash of lightning, the patter of rain on the leaves of a tree overhead. The hill overlooked the castle grounds. The graveyard where their ancestors were buried. The massive oak shielding their whole family from the elements. The transfer of magic. Only days before… He forces a smile, forces himself out of the memory. Don’t go there, Kyori. “My sisters were so mad. I wasn’t even the oldest kid! But my mom, it’s like she knew what would happen. She taught me so much before I officially came of age. Thank Okami because…” Shit. “...they died pretty soon after.” Kyori clears his throat and moves, gets up to get another muffin to do something with his hands. “We could all talk to ghosts that are still here. That’s in our blood. Whatever water magic is too, I think. No one talked about that part.” The sword was just a catalyst. And that memory goes back in the box. He peels off the paper of a cran-orange muffin and flips the top off in his mouth. “Do you have a list of baby names? We should probably pick one, get Lana’s approval, with her being the godmother and all.”

–

Penelope blows air between her lips at his next suggestion, and well, the woman’s neck floods red at the jest of making a baby. A hand covers her face for a moment to get herself together from the amount of ridiculousness that just came out of his mouth. “Sorry to burst your delusional dream, but I don’t think you can even handle making your dream come true,” the color is slowly fading from her face, thankfully. As he explains how the ‘call’ works, pieces are connecting. Somewhat understanding. “Consent to be spoken with. Like… when we visited Kel. Not one hundred percent he wanted to talk to us. I get it now.” The spellblade bounces back to pants, which makes her brows furrow, as she keeps a little smile on her lips. “I’m about to loan you a pair of my brother’s pants before you go today. Especially for work because of the ones Nancy loaned you. That way you don’t bend down and give someone a ripped pants show.” She rolls her eyes before she frowns about the thought of being trapped in a sword. “I am relieved I can go freely. But just know, I’ll gladly come with your beck and call. I hope you let me haunt you,” she smirked.

A portal. Was it a portal to the realm where people who die go? Penelope is not sure. These are all internal thoughts. Spirits and the world of the devout was a foreign place for her. Besides, nature–she had finally gotten used to that one, considering her magic. When Kyori jumps, she tries to jolt back before he holds her steady. “Talk about not being able to handle it,” prior to making the baby faux-dream come true. She tries to lighten the mood for a moment, but really? The girl was startled and silently apologetic that she caused such a stir. The nerves in this room. Rising, falling. She would eventually pull back once he let go of her. She listens carefully to his family history. The gift of the heirloom passed down to each man in the family. Kyori had been the only one, as he had told her that before. Five sisters. Penelope watches the smile plaster on his face, for moss eyes linger on him closely. Cautiously. She would recognize a look like that, for she usually does the same. Her face is soft as she listens to him, and eventually she looks down to take the heat off of him. His next words have her pinned, as she can feel the anticipation leading up to a mild pause of regret. The Ardelian lifts her eyes when he mentions his family died. Well, she knew that, but it was the first time that he truly, clearly stated it. Penelope does not offer a sign of remorse in her face, if anything she remains motionless and lets him move on about the cottage. Give him space. She remains quiet to let him balance himself out. This was a lot today.

Penelope takes the initiative to slide back up the couch back to where she first started before she watches him from afar. He wants to move on, and… she lets him–for now. It was too raw of a confession to ask how his family died, especially when they talked about Pakellin coming back. How fair was that? “Mind you, we need two baby names, just in case. Ardelian twin lineage and all. Who knows, it might just be my brother who has the gene. I wonder what will pop out. What if it’s two girls? Who’d get your sword -then-?” She would then stand before slowly sauntering over to him. She plays the tiptoe game when she nears him, and she does not get too close. “I know I don’t always say the right thing, but… you’re safe with me.” She was here for him too was really what she was trying to say. Beat. “Also, feel free to take a tin of muffins before you go today.” And a pair of pants. An offer of condolences, really. She sort of baked when she did not sleep, so the muffins would be no loss.

–

Penelope takes his comments in stride. He can’t see the red creeping up her face but he hears the way her pulse flashed like lightning. “Sounds like a challenge.” But the moment falls away. “Your brother’s pants?” He recoils violently. “No way.” She’ll look at him and see her brother, which can’t happen, especially not with jokes about babies floating around the living room. “I’ll buy my OWN pants.” Clothes were just annoying to buy. He didn’t want to go shopping. If only there was a delivery service you can tell people what you want and they go get it for you and bring it back. Maybe you tip them? Tip them, yeah. For sure, tip them. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m not doing squats or jumping on tables.” The whiplash could snap people’s necks but they kept up with each other. Then she says this thing about how she’d come if he called her. “Haunt me without dying, thanks.” Always those little remarks knock him off balance. Little jokes or things she says like that. Too honest and emotional to be a platitude. Life and death? No problem. Jokes and earnest conversation? Still got him sometimes.

The warrior pales when she mentions picking two baby names. “Uh, guess -” He swallows, clearing his throat to resume his confident airs.. “Guess we’ll have to keep at it until we get a boy.” He shrugs but his face is telling. Almost fumbled there. It’s made worse by this little sauntering, tip toe thing she’s doing. “Are you finally on board with the baby thing?” Kyori gives her that classic carefree roguish grin he’d perfected but she hits him with another honest emotional remark. Maybe he should sit back down. He puts the muffin remnants down on the counter and dusts his hands off. Crumbs everywhere. Without missing a beat, he moves and sweeps her off the floor, one arm under her legs and the other props against her back. He’s fast when he wants to be. “Sauntering in here like that.” He tsks playfully and laughs. It’s loud and wholesome, from deep down in his bones. He’s watching her face, grinning stupidly and remembering another memory of rain. Her hair soaked. Planting flowers outside Halifax Roots. The constellations of freckles on her face and those juniper eyes that broke him apart when they fought and put him back together when they made up.

“So much for my plan to come to this new place and stay distant. Save kittens from trees, mercenary work for money, penance for past failures. Rebrand.” Kyori, now’s the time to let her go, but he doesn’t. Sorry Penelope. “I wanted to be someone else.” His voice grows serious, the smile wilting to a casual ghost of a grin. A juxtaposition considering this goofy princess carry he scooped her into. For a while, he was someone else. He was a gentle, older brother to Nat. He kept his cool in dangerous situations. Found humor in everything. Then he started to get involved and get angry and feel guilty. Protective, possessive of what was becoming important to him. If he has to watch another person he loves die, he’ll split apart in a dangerous way. “Do you remember that day in the rain?” They had that huge fight a couple days before that meeting, about Linken and the entity and the scent of death that drowned the shop. Time had passed but the spellblade was ever still the confident idiot he’d been then.

–

Death changed her, especially after cold metal struck her. Enough to hold these whiplash conversations. The old Penelope? She would not have stood a chance against Kyori’s back and forth banter. Death, at that time, scared her. Now? Now she talks of a jest-filled haunting, and he is not having it. “Fair. For now, I’ll just throw a sheet over my head, cut out two holes and visit you at the tavern.” She sucks her cheeks in to hold back her smile. Orange floods in the living room while that girl follows him. Her eyebrows raise because he looks like he might pass out from the joke of twins and trying until they get a boy. Did she get him, yet? No, the ghost whisperer is still adamant in that quip of babies. Despite the tease, the Ardelian swears she is getting dizzy by the thought of Lativu-Ardelians–not to mention Kyori is a whole foot taller over her five foot, two stature. Carrying -those- hypothetical babies? Sven, save her small frame.

When Kyori closes the distance, Penelope’s heart skips the moment his hands go under her thighs and she is whisked up so easily. Curves of laughter strike his face which makes her snort in return. “Well, I never know with you sometimes. Clearly.” Sapphire eyes stare down at her, and for a moment she feels the vulnerable sting reach her chest. The same familiar feeling from before. It makes her want to itch a scar when he looks at her like that. She felt timid, but not completely uneasy. It was really a bare feeling to be so close to the spellblade with the same memory buzzing through her mind. Dirt underneath fingertips. The day he gave her the aventurine stone. The smell of earth with the mixture of rain along with him. Soap, the comfort of cigarettes even if she harped on him.

When the ghost whisperer confesses the desire of distant life, she loses the grin on her face, and instead a simple, soft expression rests on her freckle-dusted face. ‘I wanted to be someone else,’ of course life is not that simple. “You still can do that–bask in a stale brand of someone who is not necessarily you, if you really wanted to, but sometimes our unconscious speaks for us.” Beat. “If it makes you feel better, as selfish as it is for me to say, I’m glad you’re not that.” For she dated men like that in the past. When he reads her mind of the day in the rain, her chest beats unnaturally. A make-up from a fight. Although the ghost whisperer vanished shortly after that day, that memory was still clear as ever of that evening full of rainy sun. Especially when he is holding her–for too long, it seemed. “Too well,” she breathes out. The day she felt like she was starting over a new chapter. She did not keep her own word of looking into bringing Linken back, instead, she let the horrors settle inside of her. A conscious decision. “And… I want you to kiss me.” It is a dangerous request. A bold request. A selfish one. One that could lead to rejection considering the circumstances of the spellblade’s curse. She was always delicately forthright, and because of that one rainy day, and that time of healing between his thick slumber, she is learning to know what she wants. Even if he does fade away from her from time to time.

–

Kyori’d spent the two days time between their fight in Halifax Roots and the day he showed back up searching for information on Linken and his kids and the demon, or whatever it was. The bruises on Penelope’s neck, though long gone, showed him just how close she’d come to being gone and just how little he could have helped her. That’s where the ring he gave her came in. If she was going to be stubborn enough to rush off on adventures without him, she could still call him. The tell-tale feeling of her racing heart bleeds through her wrap. “How could you not know with me?” He smiles gently. “You know everything.” He wants to jokingly add ‘about me’ but it’s more fun leaving it here. The warrior’s expression stays soft. “I can’t do that.” Start another life, be another person. “What would my sons think of me, abandoning them.” The pet rock and the crab back at the tavern. “I don’t think it’s selfish.” He just hopes he can live up to the expectations people had of him, now that they knew more about who he was.

Too well. Time warped around him. When he woke up the second time, it was a couple days for him but months for her. The third time, the same. Weeks to years. She had a life outside of his time and he was a liability. Unreliable. He was a broken promise linked with ghosts and death.Penelope had been touched by death but she was sunlight and flowers. Would his darkness starve her of sun? He can think of several jokes to make. Smooth, confident, charming. He says none of them. Guilt makes him hesitate. Did she want that? Could he live with it? The spellblade holds her, scanning her face for hesitation. She’d told him. “I don’t want to hurt you.” He says, but he’s afraid to let her go. If he puts her down, she’ll vanish into sunbeams like dust, and float back to a place flooded with light. Somewhere he couldn’t be. He studies her face, holds her safely and kisses her like she’ll vanish. She smells like bed sheets and fresh laundry. She tastes like cinnamon and sunlight. Too well. He remembered it too.

At the couch, he sits, holding her in their kiss while gravity shifts her in his arms. He’d been selfish the first time. Asked her on a date that he never took her on, told her she could decide what to do with him. Penelope was supposed to go to Gaulon for three days. Three days. Then months sped by without word. He vanished. A bad habit. Once she’s safe in his lap, he lets her legs go, repositioning his arm around her waist. Again, he felt like a lightning struck ship looking for harbor. The searchlight shine of her eyes guiding him in.

–

Penelope flashes him a grin when he speaks of the pet rock and hermit the Kelvarian got him. Reliable little babies for if he fell victim to slumber again. She bit back a smirk at the ‘knowing of everything’--he was not happy the first day he met her. In fact, he was rude because of her snarky nosiness. Kyori was a flustered thing looking for a cartographer, and there was a content ease that fell onto her face. The truth was, she barely knew a thing. It was easy to play confidently. That day, she never thought she would see the Crazed Coyote again, but he kept popping up unexpectedly. Truth was… he was humorous. Kind. Protective. Stubborn as hell. Even if the curse of comatose swept him up. Off and on for months or perhaps she knew him longer now. She cannot remember. Is he shocked everytime they meet? Does she ever look different to him? The way she puts her words and wants on the line, makes her hold her breath. Was this sad, beautiful, or tragic? She can easily take a rejection–even from him. He would have been smarter than her at that moment, but…

‘I don’t want to hurt you.’ She feels the hitch in her chest. The Ardelian knows, and she is thinking of desires–not the logistics like she normally did. “I know,” she says this quietly–breathily. Reassuringly. If she opened a door and he did not return, she would pick herself back up again as she always could–such a fickle past. She would care for his return if he ever did. Even if the days felt bleak, which they did the third time he left. The second time? Well, she scolded him. If he did not come back after tonight, would he be gone forever? Or would they both be older? It was really a moment she was holding onto. The freckled girl was grasping out blindly. The feelings that lingered under her skin for this ticking-timed-curse of a man made her irrational. Lips collide as the druid soaks in what she missed for those months he was… gone. Even if time did not stop for her, when he was back, it felt like he was never gone. He lingered like a ghost. Pretty cliche for a ghost whisperer. Once she is settled in his lap, olive hands freely move up to hold his face. If he could hear the pace of her heart, it's… too much. Just for mere moments more. He is pouring into her, and she is breathing it in. Sweet tobacco. She grazes his lips before placing small kisses on his lower lip. Date or not, the stubborn man had her tied around his finger when she saw him. Whether she admitted it or not. She pulls back, green eyes staring into a sea of blue. “I don’t want you to go,” she says slowly as hands slip down his face and her forehead pressed against his. “He’s going to be home soon. They’ll be home soon.” She cringes.

–

Kyori would have told her that she didn’t look different with the time skips but she felt different. More confident and sure of herself each time. It was like meeting her all over again, minus the yelling. Usually. This last wake up had been more dramatic than usual because of his missing sword and the fact she didn’t know he was there. The logistics of their interactions were little to none. His meeting her didn’t equate to catching feelings. First, she was annoying. Then, she was injured and small and time tumbled forward. All he’d had were moments. Snapshots of time accordioned up where he couldn’t see the gaps in between. He’d kissed her cautiously but she pulled him in and he follows blindly. Grasping through the dark for purchase before the whirlpool snuffed out the stars. He never knew what the gaps in time had done for her feelings. If she’d gotten tired of the man who’d kissed her once and disappeared. If she was ‘over’ his thoughtless comings and goings. He feels idiotic for not seeing her feelings hadn’t changed.

She pulls back and he leans forward to follow her. Her eyes stop him. He ignores the obvious ‘but’ hanging between them. “I don’t have to go.” It’s that simple, obviously, if she wants him to stay there’s no reason not to. Except that reason. The man keeps his frustrations with the housing situation internal. He’s breathless and trying to solve quantum physics formulas on how to stay with her but the solution won’t arrive. Too many thoughts at once to think about anything clearly. She’s wearing all these soft clothes and kissing him. “We’ll build a forcefield around the house.” He shrugs, shakes his head approving this suggestion and leans in to kiss her again. It’s brief, because this is not a real solution and he knows he has to go. They were playing a dangerous game the longer he stayed. Climb a trellis? Throw rocks at the window? Stash him in a closet? Juvenile solutions he’s not above trying. “I’ll just squeeze under the couch until they pass out.” There, done. Solved. He’s a genius. An idiot genius. Kyori can tell his suggestions are flops by her expression. “Or, I can go.” His reluctance is evident in the slow draw of the words as he pulls away, freeing her from the cage of his arms. “Penelope Halifax, I release you.” Beat. “Actually,” he grabs hold of her again. “Just give me a second before you go.” He’s gotta reset his brain. Once his blood reallocates enough to not be noticeable, he lets her go with a shrug and shameless grin. “It would have been a bad look if Kel walked in, I’ve gotta make a better second impression.” He teases.

–

Penny smiled easily when he mentioned he did not have to leave. If only it were that simple. No, this situation was not clear blue water. She could keep him hidden in her bedroom, have him climb out the window at dawn and be just as foolish with her thoughts like a little sneaky teenager. The walls are so small, Kyori would be caught in a heartbeat. Idiot genius is right. Any more ideas and she would let lust get the best of her. No, she is a girl who abides by the rules–kinda. The girl throws her head back in her little laughing, snorty pig-hyena way at the thought of a force field and he is back in to kiss her briskly. “Wow, have you ever thought of living the rogue life with stealthy skills like that?” She presses against him as she cannot contain her laughter. Though, the humor fades when he says that he can go and she leans back to fully look at him. Eyes have to take him in. Every inch of his features. Once his hands are no longer holding her steady, she knows they are making the non-idiotic decision.

Penelope begins to move on command before his hands grab her waist again to keep her in place, so he can deal with his situation. “I’m telling you, you can’t handle it.” She gives him a crooked, sly grin before she finally escapes from his lap. She stands, adjusts some of her clothes that became bunched in the heat of the moment. “Yeah, Kel can be pretty intimidating, too. Wanna meet the big bro, though? Hm. Big move.” It was weird to talk about her brother so freely. There was a pang of guilt that came along with it. The girl tucks a loose, frizzy strand behind her ear before she moves to the kitchen to fidget. The curls on top of her head bounce around freely. She grabs the container of muffins before shoving them in his face. She rocks on her bare feet. “Okay, my next excuse to find you or for you to find me because I -love- this container,” not really, she just needs any reason to see him again–zonked out or contently awake or frazzled (his sword was missing still–yikes). She blows out air between her lips, and her gaze lingers on him for too long. Juniper eyes drinking him in before he would leave.

–

“The rogue life of sneaking into women’s bedrooms when their brothers are home?” He squishes his features, trying to figure out why that’s funny to her. If it was just her brother coming home, he’d be less inclined to let her go. Linken’s kids were a strange barrier all their own. She snaps back about him not handling it and that gets a reaction. “Hey! It’s a compliment! Eh? Go over there, get away.” Their laughter fills the house in a way that pains him. Oh, that guilt, that someone would get hurt. Later, he tells himself. Later. “Technically,” Kyori says when he’s left the couch of sin and moved to the kitchen, “I’ve already met him so it’s more of a reintroduction, right?” It’s possible he didn’t remember the experience. Kel’s eyes, burrowing into Kyori’s, screaming about darkness and death. He needed a new image to associate with Penelope’s twin. The healer’s breezing around the kitchen like a hurricane. Her nerves were showing but he kept his mouth shut, twisted in a little smile until she surprised him with the muffins. She talks a big game but she’s flustered. The warrior takes the tray in one hand, holding her wrist. Juniper and sapphire meet. He wants to say…anything but they both know how this ends, with him leaving alone. Well, with muffins. “I wanted to be someone else, but I don’t anymore.” He lets her go, for the last time, and slips out the back door before Kel or Linken’s kids can catch him.

–

Penelope knows she made a selfish decision tonight which is making her breezy, but she keeps convincing herself she would be okay if she did not see him again. So when she is in front of him, she frowns at the mention of the reintroduction. That night Kel pressed through her and she saw… fate. Before she knew she was a witch. Kellin was a seer of that sort. The blood. She tries to blink that away when Kyori introduces himself for the second time. “Not as dark. I promise it’ll be good.” Hopefully. Whenever that happens. She is waiting for him to take the container–he takes it, but also grasps her wrist. It keeps her from breaking his gaze. Sapphire. She cannot speak after he confesses he does not want to hide himself anymore. Mentally, she is thinking she does not want him to hide anymore either. She wants the rawness of him. His whole… him. Wow, poetic, Nel. Stupid thoughts. She holds her tongue instead saying the last word like she normally did. Instead, she watches his back turn to her before pressing her back against the counter. Her stomach turns at the thought. Green eyes watch him leave. The possibility of future pain when he is gone. Her gaze casts down, but next thing she knows, the family is walking through the door the moment Kyori is gone. The ghost lingering in her chest. “Hey, sis.” The twin brother looks at the bare counters where the girl normally had something in a tray or dish. Green eyes look over her shoulder at her brother who is now in astonishment. Like he caught her in a terrible situation. “Oh my god, did you eat the muffins?” Beat. Penelope shifts around. “Um, doctor’s gotta eat, right? Big shift tomorrow.” Lie. It was a part-time day… okay morning–tomorrow. She lets the thought of the spellblade leave the home and continues the night until Kel and Linken’s kids want to rest their heads.