homeless_pard | Life rarely cooperates with our desires.

Entry tags:

jason au

Life rarely cooperates with our desires.

Who: Khemrys, assorted
When: Six months into dating Jason.
What: Her first trip home since her arrival.

She recalled the last thing her friends had said, Beryl had told her to enjoy the date, Nathaniel had whistled teasingly and said she looked good, and that was what she had to remember them by as ran pelted down from above in yet another round of fall storms.

The date had been fun, honestly, to a point. Jason had approved of her outfit, she could tell by the curve of his smile and the fact he kept sneaking glances at her as he drove. And well he should, in Beryl's words, she'd adopted some corsetry into her date dresses, and lighter skirts, but still soft and touchable, and her boots laced well and high up the legs visible through various slits in peeks and moments.

A dancing dress, mayhap, for the newer dances they still were teaching at the Circus. There was a club in the next city over Jason wanted to 'research' but no reason not to mix dating with business so they'd set out early to see a museum and the take a meal...

...that had been the plan anyway.

"You should come in out of the rain, lady," a voice murmured behind her.

She shifted slightly, water creasing off the oiled hood of the cape she wore, "in a moment," she sighed. "Do not worry for me."

The scholar she'd been traveling with sighed, "worry is warranted when you look like a tragic illustration in the doorway, lady."

"I miss my home and friends," she sighed. "Allow me that."

"Still?"

"And should such as matter be forgotten in a mere two years?" she countered, a small thread of anger warming her against the damp chill.

"No, never," he sighed, "but you've a life to live of your own as well...here." With...new friends.

Ah yes, the lonely scholar. She'd no doubt laugh later about such, but she'd landed in an old keep where a single man rattled around, taking rubbings and analyzing pre-chaos war history but...he'd jumped at the chance to potentially locate functional gates when she couldn't get the one she arrived through to open again.

And my she had been quite angry when the stone arch in the garden of the ruins had refused to let her return to the museum she'd been taken from. Three months of trying and research before she'd determined it would be necessary to travel to the one she KNEW led to the park on Jason's world.

The only problem being she hadn't exactly been able to draw a map upon her first journey there. And while her companion was actually delighted by her ability toy shapeshift and had many theories about her, essentially, breaking her own bloodline restrictions with her nascent healing abilities, well, it was not best for others in Arvon to know of her ability.

It slowed things, monthly, when they dared not travel in settled lands. Of a certainty her healing ability set them in good stead for travel goods, clothing and food ere easy to trade for health, but it also added complications of people wishing her to stay.

For all Jason's world confused her many days even yet, she had forgotten the burden of expectation every person seemed to have in her own world.

It was exhausting.

Much like the Scholar Nenniv's hopeful attentions.

It made it much easier to stand in the rain outside the small cottage that had been granted them for an evening after she'd healed a harvest injury. Easier to stand and remember those she wished to return to; her own high lord, her friends, her companion in stillwork, and Jason...

Thankfully the rain passed by morning and they were traveling again, they'd been walking the edges of the wastes, hoping to chance upon the route she recalled from her flight, and thankfully they had traced it, they were near two years from her arrival now but the land was finally growing hilly and rocky again. She last remembered scrambling up these stones on four exhausted, feet, and while her two now were no less sore from travel, they at least were shod in abused boots and not bleeding. "There's a path I believe ne-" the call died in her throat as she turned back to spy a dark horse wandering up to the stones below, the rider upon it looking up at her and waving the scholar over to speak.

No.

No.

She didn't need to hear Nenniv's scream to run in order to start moving. However the word had spread didn't matter now, the Hunter had come to check the rumors, and again escape would be found in running...

...she tore up the path, boots skidding and sliding, a sole splitting entire on a sharper stone, but it mattered not if she could reach the cave.

He tried to stop her, how not? The dart gun she'd feared in the Hunt was raised behind her, she could hear darts ping and ricochet around her, stone chips flying from the metal shafts...thankfully the one that finally caught her, tip grounded in her shoulderblade, spun her into the crevasse where her way home lay.

Thank all the Powers honestly, she gasped, fingers, slamming against unyielding stone for a brief moment before she was falling through and down upon the piled stones of a world that smelled far different from the old, misty winds of Arvon.

She was...just going to rest a bit honestly. Darts were...far from a joke yes. Idly as she closed her eyes she wondered how long it had been in this world rather than her own...

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"I'll take a cup to go," she smiled at Nathaniel, "I'm on call tonight," so best to be closer at need!

"I'll be back to helping as soon as I'm able," Khemrys winced.

"You'll rest and recover first, girl, or all the boys will sit on you!"

Khemrys winced again, settling carefully against Jason and nodding, "yes dame..."

Thankfully they had plenty of travel mugs from Jason and Nathaniel's visits, and Nathaniel filled one and handed it off to her.

There was a soft sound from her neck. "You're crazy if you think I'm letting you out of my sight," he murmured.

She wasn't so out of it that those words did not get a mild blush! "I am oft called such these days," she muttered back. "How long was I away?"

"Four months," Requiem noted mildly.

"...oh."

"I've told you before those people don't know what they're talking about." He was going to be angry if he heard about more social cruelties towards her while she was gone.

The pages and pages of the journal were flashing in Jason's mind, and he could feel her reaction to Requiem's words. "How long were you away?" he asked softly.

"As ever, my lord, it was thought a kindness. A way to deter from a fools errand," she sighed sipping her tea. "Two turns yet again." Eight hundred days.

"And the name you mentioned?" Requiem prompted.

"A travel companion, eager to witness live gates, should I manage to find it again..."

Jason stiffened. "Two years?" Four months of missing her, wondering if she was ok...but she had two years of that. "Khem..." he murmured softly into her hair.

Two years, and she still carried a pack of hope that she'd find her way back.

"I had to find my trail from the wastes," she mused softly. "And healing paid our way in safer travels, but many wished me to settle in their lands due to such." Which delayed her!

"It seems two years is a common span for me."

Jason was a sober presence at her back. "I'm sorry," he said in a whisper. "I didn't know what to do. I kept going back to the museum, I tried the rocks..."

Frequently, until threats of calling the police turned to action and he found himself blacklisted at the museum. And too many people knew about his meltdowns at the rocks...

"I do not know you could trigger such lord, but I am truly grateful you tried..." she admitted, equally soft. "The one I arrive through this time would not reopen to here..." and that had made her rather angry in her own right yes.

"Grateful I am that the shop still stands..."

"We wouldn't let it close," Requiem assured, Beryl nodding as she sipped her tea and leaned against Nat.

Nathaniel was happily supporting Beryl, so grateful that she didn't shy away from touch. He wasn't going to push his way in, but he could feel vulnerable when left on the side.

He hoped she knew he would have tried. But everything happening as it did... Keeping his nose buried in her hair was doing a lot for keeping him calm, though, after the frenzied worrying he'd done earlier.

"Hmmm," Beryl mused, arm around Nathaniel's waist, "think we should sit downstairs for a bit?" she offered.

Requiem glanced at her, then Jason, evaluating quietly, "I can finish some blending..." he allowed.

Nathaniel smiled, "Sure, since you asked so nicely. Maybe we can see about getting something for everyone to eat."

Jason stayed with his face buried in her hair, listening as he heard their footsteps fading down the stairs. He didn't move, but there was a deep breath against the back of her neck. "I'm...so, so sorry, Khem."

"That sounds like a plan kitty-man," Beryl chuckled. "I approve."

Khemrys blinked when Jason apologized, confused..."whyever would you be lord?" What? She tried to turn a bit to look at him but that hurt so she stopped like a sensible creature!

He knew he should move so they could talk face to face, but suddenly he didn't want to meet her eyes. "I wanted you so badly...I wasn't thinking clearly and I didn't...I didn't want things to stop that night. But then we did and suddenly a gate opens and pulls you back?"

He swallowed, nuzzling the back of her neck again. "It's not hard to see a cause and effect there."

She stroked fingers lightly along his arm, shivering a touch, "do you regret such l-...Jason?" Did he?

Had he...changed his mind?

He could melt at that touch and he shook his head. "I could never regret being with you," he said, pulling those arms firmly but gently around her. "I meant what I said. But I feel like I put you in danger with that gate."

She was honestly just going to keep stroking his arm as it was what she could reach currently? Touch was soothing...and she'd missed him. For over two of his own years. "And how could you have done that?" she chided gently. "You are no witch of your own, nor warlock."

It was soothing. And it had been such a short amount of time in comparison...but damn had he missed her as well. There was a very soft kiss behind her ear. "But you definitely have some power from your world. You didn't once think you'd been taken from here because you gave yourself to me?"

Yes, back to blushing at the kiss, how not? "No my lord, no. I think, in as much as artifacts may be, it was...excited to have one akin to me nearby nothing more."

He rested his face there beneath her ear, not nuzzling but just enjoying being so close to her. "I've been so worried about you." He frowned down at her shoulder. "Was this the hunter?"

The change in his tone was impossible to miss.

Edited 2022-02-06 06:57 (UTC)

She was honestly relaxing against hm as he breathed, almost drifting again despite the injury, but his question made her tense again, "aye." How could she forget him?

"I don't know how he heard we were traveling, or knew were going to the gate once more but he rode up as I started up into the stones..."

He felt her tense and soothed over her arms with his hands. "You made it, though. You're home."

He paused, his voice soft. "Your friend was with you?"

"...yes, he was kind, in his way, if saddened that I was promised elsewhere," she sighed in the slightly exasperated tone of anyone who had to say no more than once. "The Hunter rode up to him to speak, he screamed for me to run." And she had.

She didn't regret it...but she did also hope the scholar was not dead as cost for her escape.

"I'm glad he was looking out for you," he said, not questioning further what might have happened to him for warning her. Either way, it would be worry that they couldn't have an answer to.

There was a pause and the ghost of a smile against her skin. "Two years is a long time to try to get back to someone, especially if someone else is interested. I guess I can't blame him for being smart enough to see how desirable you are."

"It was a comfort to not travel alone," she admitted quietly. Especially given her last experience in doing so, that and having even an unmarried man accompany her reduced...issue.

"Hardly, lord, I'd have traveled longer at need," she sniffed. "And it was not desire but loneliness. He worked as a scholar alone..."

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Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.