Safe keeping

[Lovely]

May 24, 2008
early afternoon


Kiefer had taken a walk along the beach after leaving Ace's office, keeping herself in solid form as long as she could to feel the warm breeze and the wet salty air against her skin. She held the velvet box against her chest, her thoughts wandering over the past couple of years and the memories of how things were before the ripple. She sighed softly and with a slight shimmer, she disappeared from the sunny beach and reappeared in the shadows of the rooms she shared with Deacon in Morte's abode. "Are you here?" She asked softly as her form slowly solidified in the space.

"Where is 'here', really?" Deacon spoke from a chair where he was draped lazily, looking out into the depth of the forest from his glassless window, awaiting a call. He was only partially there, himself, a hazy expression of the form she knew to be him. "In this room, this chair, or somewhere out there, only pretending to be here at all? Or, am I talking to myself again?" He sighed and stood up to lean on the ledge of the window, still looking outward.

"Here with me.." She answered softly, the pout etched on her face as she took a step, showing herself more solidly than she had since the incident at the club with her sister. "Has my... illness.. driven you away from me? You seem farther away then you have ever been.. why would you only pretend to be here with me?"

He grinned and shook his head. "I'm not driven to be anywhere at all," he said, turning to face her. "Or I haven't been. No reason to go or come back, so why not stay somewhere in between? Less taxing that way, when you only have part way to go to get anywhere? Alright, I'll bite. I thought you and Ace had things to work out so, yeah, I let go a little bit. Didn't think you'd notice it that much."

"So.. you're mad that I went to see him.. and you obviously know that I went to see him.. this conversation is starting out wonderfully." She set the box on one of the small tables and crossed her arms.. just when she felt better. "Why on earth.. or any dimension would you ever think I wouldn't notice if you weren't 'here'?"

"Kief... no, I'm not 'mad'. I have no reason to be. I just.. got used you being here with just me, and well, at the risk of being freakishly possessive, thinking I wouldn't have to share." He leaned against the wall with his shoulder and folded his arms around himself. The shrug was still noticeable. "You set me straight on that and I made adjustments. Isn't that what I was supposed to do? You look great, by the way. A little worn around the edges, maybe. Is that me or is something else chipping at you right now? What's that?" He gestured at the box and tried to hide the concern a little and not simple envelop himself in her presence. Being who she was, it was a test of his will to behave.

"You're not mad.. but you don't like that I went to see him? You have to share a part of me with everyone just as I have to share a part of you.. It's who we are.. what we are.." She sighed and glanced to the table, her fingers ran over the box and then she looked at Deacon. "A goodbye between me and Ace.. its a gift.. that he once had made for me.. something that allowed me to stay in his world for lengths of time.. it allowed me to be someplace that otherwise would drain and eventually kill me.."

[Lovely]

"Isn't it a little dangerous to just leave out in the open like that? What happens if something happens to the box?" There was a panic in his eyes, not of losing 'love' but specifically losing the woman herself if something happened. He rolled the thoughts around more. The panic dulled with a hint of strange hope. "What do you mean... goodbye? You're not going back, then?"

"No.. it's not dangerous at all.. it just means exactly what you said.. that I'm not going back. He gave it to me so that no one else can use it, though I'm not sure anyone actually could. It was created specifically for me.. to go there.. to be with him.. Since I chose you, there is no need for him to have it in his home. I believe it was more of a gesture.. just like my bringing it here was. I was hoping you'd keep it 'safe' for me and to let you know that you don't have to share me."

He stepped closer to her and the box. "A gesture.. for me? Well I about screwed that up, didn't I?" He looked around, expecting Morte to be laughing his balls off in the corner. Deacon laughed at himself, looking down at the floor. "I'm sorry. Of course I'd keep it safe, box or no box." He glanced up, finding her power over his will still so very tremendous and he didn't want to fight against it.

"I went walking on the beach to decide what to do with it, after seeing Ace.. I considered tossing it out to sea, among other things.. but as I have been since the first time we met, I found myself drawn back to you." She smiled softly, he'd moved closer to her and now she did the same, closing the gap between them and reaching her hand to his cheek. "When we first met, I thought Ace was gone so when I first chose you, it wasn't exactly a choice.. then he came back and I was confused.. I know you doubted whether I would choose you over him.. now you know that I would."

He nodded. Whatever he thought he could say would ruin the moment. He took her fingers from his cheek, finding he'd made his way back fully in form now and kissed her hand. He held onto it gently and reached for the box, wondering what would happen to him if he touched it, if anything. In all the years of carting the essence of miraculous beings in the tiny containers his father coveted, he hadn't ever concerned himself with consequences of one being too powerful to touch.

She didn't say anything else about the choice she'd made, through all of this she'd been hurt and confused by her love of both men but she knew she couldn't choose Ace over Deacon. She'd been tempted by Ace to do just that and each time she'd returned to Deacon, she'd also hurt them both and had made her apology to Ace.. now she needed to do so with Deacon. "You've been more than fair to me.. through all of this. I've hurt you.. I'm sorry for that. Can you forgive me?"

She'd hurt him? He hadn't thought of it quite in that way and it stunned him a moment. This wasn't just confusion and emptiness, but a true sense of painful loss he'd been feeling and didn't have the means to express. The creatures around him hadn't ever been human, so how could they explain it or... diagnose it, he thought, considering it an illness of his own all this time. Once explained so eloquently and simply, the smile returned to his face, though slowly just as she'd appeared from the fog the night he'd first seen her. "How could I not? I love you," he grinned, forgetting the box and reaching for her.

[Lovely]

Kiefer wrapped around him, holding tightly as she felt tears of joy sting at her eyes and she laughed with relief. "Ohh Deacon.. thank you.. I don't deserve you but I am never giving you up!" She showered kisses over his cheek, neck and jaw, making her way to sweetly claim his lips. "I love you." She murmured against his mouth and then pulled back, her eyes lighting up a bit. "Marry me?"

Again he was stunned and he laughed. "Hush. I'm supposed to ask you that... aren't I? I've never done that before, so I'm... I'm not really sure how one marries Love. I'll say yes, if you say it first," he challenged.

"I don't know.. I've never done this before either!" She giggled and stole a quick kiss, her eyes lit up, she seemed strong and vibrant once again. "Alright.. alright.." She was growing more playful by the moment and the sparkle of her eyes might clue him into that. "I'll say... 'it'!" She teased him, cupping her hands gently around his jaw. "Yes."

"Good god it's about time. Go on, don't keep her waiting," Venge said, gesturing for them to continue as he hopped down from the window ledge and resumed his human form. "But, ehm... you might need to postpone the ceremonies and all that rubbish until we're back from the job, hah? Eh, forget it. I'll handle it. You two just... that... what you're doing. Keep at it. Aless and me, we'll take care of the collection." He stepped around the pair and swatted Keifer's back side gently in his approval of them and their open affection. "Good work snapping him out of his reclusive and altogether intolerable state. Much... oh, so much better, thank you!" He kissed her cheek himself and made his way back to the ledge.

"I'm thinking... roasted raven at the ceremonies. Don't you think?" Deacon said, glaring but still grinning giddily as his associate circled the room.

Kiefer smiled as she always did for Venge he just had that way about him and she tried to give him a swat in return as he circled and kissed his cheek as well, all the while never fully letting Deacon out of her loving embrace. Her laugh was soft and amused as she shifted to rest her cheek against Deacon's and asking him softly. "I was going to make him my maid of honor." She teased them both.

Aless didn't really know couple, very well and the years without her heart within her had left her lacking Love's warmth. Kiefer had been ill and the two of them wrapped in their complications, it left little time for her to get to know either of them. She smiled shyly for them as she followed Venge, extremely curious about his family. She had Raven's memories mingled into her own but it wasn't quite the same as knowing them as she was now. She watched how Venge interacted with them and the affection between them all even when they teased, but she kept herself back from them. Showing her human form only briefly before melting to feathers and returning to the window ledge herself.