Winter is putting footsteps in the meadow

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

Characters: Bres and Mab
Date/Time: Oct 31, late afternoon
Location: Rose Garden
Rating: TBD
Warnings: Snark.
Summary: Halloween time interactions with old-timey clothes!


She found little amusement in her forced choice of clothing. However, after much diligence she'd discovered something that she felt was passable. Feathers after all were a fraction more reliable than spider webbing.

And with her ill mood she'd taken herself away from the main house and come to the gardens. It was warm and bright and the flowers were in bloom. It did nothing to improve her temperament. In fact, the air in the small, almost secluded corner she'd come to, turned decidedly cooler, and the grass beneath her bare feet began sparkling with frost. She could admit quietly to herself that she reached out to coat a vibrant red rose in crystal clear ice purely out of spite, small as the revenge might be.

Comments

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

She stared at him a moment, brows drawn together in question. "You're angry." She sounded surprised.

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

His facial features seem to be in flux as they shift from human..to something distinctly not.

"Was it that strutting peacock, Apollo!? I'll teach him to treat the Queen of the Fae of like a common strumpet!" A slight hint of horn could be seen pushing the helmet up.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

Though his guess was spot on, she was truly confused by his vicious response. She rose and approached him, with what may have been caution. She reach out a hand and touched his face, because there was exposed skin and she could command his attention by the coolness of her own. "Bres. Control yourself."

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

His features were by this time were twisted into a truly bestial image, but the cool hand is like a light switch to Bres' more rational mind.

"I.. apologize," his voice with a deeper, altered tone. His tone sounded both chagrined, and almost shaken.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

Now that she had his focus, she took her hand away. She eyed his second form, recognizing it for what it was. "Can you change back?"

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

"I..don't know," he admitted. "I will..try." He closed his eyes, trying to will himself back to human-form. The skin felt like it shifted again, but not as quickly as it had before.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

She watched his struggle with the transformation with interest, and a small amount of concern hovering under the surface as well. "You will need to practice."

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

"So it would seem," he said with calm, but ill-humor. His words were more "Bres-like" again, though they seemed at odds with his new form and altered voice. "I suppose this is my..evolution." he growls a bit before sitting on the ground, the snow not bothering him in the slightest. "I shouldn't complain..you went through worse than this," he said with respect, trying to rein in his anger.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

"Who can truly say which is worse. I was unaware of my own evolution, as you say." She sat again, in the snow as well, knees together and laying sideways. "Had I some indication, I could have avoided that mess. Equally, had I not been here, you may have done unknowable things. You were quite... enraged."

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

Bres seems to think on this, his bestial features turned in thought. "A good point, Mab..thank you." He thinks back to that, an involuntary snarl escapes his lips, but he keeps his anger in check. "I was..I am sorry for that."

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

"What's done is done. We travel forward from here. Though I confess, I wonder at what set you off so." She phrased it very carefully. Not as a question that he should answer, but as a statement of simple fact.

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

Bres looked distinctly uncomfortable. He knew it wasn't a question, but...

"The idea..that some godling propositioned you..upset me," he admitted.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

And her brows shot to the heavens in her unmasked surprise. "Why?"

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

The image of Fomorian-Bres looking downright uncomfortable may almost have been humorous.

"Well..you are Queen of the Fae! You deserve better than be some 'lay of the moment'." He pointedly leaves out his own personal reasons.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

Her lips twitch at the corners, betraying her amusement, before she could school her expression back to neutral. "As I said, it was nothing I couldn't deal with. There's no need to fly off the handle."

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

"I know you can handle e yourself, just the idea of some other ma.." and he stops THAT dangerous train of a thought. Damn it! This Fomorian form was making him far too forthright! "It's nothing of import," he says trying to sound casual, kind of hard with his more passionate emotions dominate in this form.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

She looked at him silently as her mind worked. She had a very good idea of what he had nearly said, but part of her dismissed it. She could not read his mind or sense emotions. That was not her realm, and to jump to conclusions would be to tip her own hand. And that could be disastrous if she were wrong. So after a long moment, she broke eye contact and glanced away.

"As you wish."

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

No that wasn't what he wished! It wasn't what he wished at all! This was Mab! Why would she want him of all people!? The thought is sobering, causing him to actually shrink and strat to return to a more human-shape.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

His changing drew her attention right back to him. Her hand even reached out before stopping halfway between them, hesitating. "Are you all right?"

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

He hadn't noticed her hand. If he had he might have wondered if it had been actual concern.

"Yes," he began to say, but let out a strained growl as the horns began to retract and the increased muscle began to mystically shrink down.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

"You are a truly poor liar." She sounded as though she was exasperated by him, yet her raised hand moved at last, curling around on of his. A show if support that belied her affected annoyance.

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

"I am usually better at it," he said in wry pain. The sudden touch of his hand on hers surprised him, but it was more comforting than any words exchanged between the two. He took a calming breath as the horns completely retracted back into his skull. His features were also less animalistic.

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

"Not that I've ever seen." This was better. Dealing small insults, while pretending she was holding his had purely as a favor, was far more normal for them. "You're nearly your Tuatha De self again," she observed.

[kingoftwoworlds.insanejournal.com]

"Hmph, he says to her dismissal of his lying skills. And pretends he needs the extra comfort so he can hold her hand a little longer, His claws were nearly gone and his features were almost entirely human-looking. "Agreed." Even his voice had returned to normal. "That was..more painful than I'd care to admit."

[winter-queen.insanejournal.com]

"You bore it well." It was tantamount to an expression of sympathy from Mab. There was even an almost imperceptible increase of pressure from the hand that held his, that might, in some other universe, be called a squeeze. For Mab that was practically mushy.