I had an idea, Summer thought it was a good one, I played some Ultima 5 and discovered that I can read Britannian runic… so for the sake of my sanity, here’s the follow up to “Learning the Forms”.

            The hunting party milled round, impatient to be off.  Restless horses pawed the ground and servants fussed about their masters.  Daryoon looked around him.  He was surrounded by several of Lord Teosu’s friends and their offspring, and for the hundredth time that morning found himself wondering why he’d decided to come along for the random festivities that Lord Teosu was holding on his estates.

“Where’s Narsus?” the voice of some young boy, that Daryoon assumed was one of Narsus’ miscellaneous cousins, cut through the muttering.

Daryoon hid a sigh, there was his reason.

“Probably still in bed.” Answered another.

“Which is exactly where I should be!” came an indignant female voice.

Daryoon watched them all.  There to his left was the boy who had spoken, who had spent part of the last evening discussing the consequences of warfare with Narsus, who had carried on the fairly serious conversation with some woman falling asleep on his shoulder.  When Daryoon has finally decided to ask who she was, he’d just been given the same answer that he’d been given for at least half the guests…

“Narsus, who was that woman?”

“T’han, she’s my cousin.”

“Your cousin?”

“Yes.”

“The girl eating everything in sight?”

“My cousin.”

“And what about the one smoking those leaves?”

“He’s a cousin, I think, I’m never quite sure.”

“What about the one fetching all your drinks?”

“Elric.”

“Another cousin?”

“Oh yes, I definitely know I’m related to him.”

“Just how many cousins do you have?!”

Daryoon recalled the elegant shrug that answered his question.  Not only were Narsus’ relatives prolific but Daryoon couldn’t shake the feeling that they were all judging him, assessing his suitability…

He was roused from his brooding my Narsus’ appearance.  He greeted his father and various relatives before mounting his horse and retrieving a heavy gauntlet with attached falcon from a waiting servant.  Daryoon noted that the falcon was unhooded, it looked at Narsus and stamped it’s feet a bit.

“Good morning to you too.” Narsus said with a smile, supposedly to the falcon, though he glanced at Daryoon.

Daryoon suppressed a grin, he definitely had a good reason to be here.

            The day had worn on and now a large tent was set up to provide shelter for those no longer riding.  The larger party had broken up into smaller groups, some of whom were resting, others talking, others still continuing to hunt the game scattered throughout the nearby forest.  Daryoon sat quietly among a group of miscellaneous cousins, hiding his annoyance that he and Narsus had been unable to find any time just for themselves.  Daryoon had engaged in the early morning hunting, while Narsus and the cousin Daryoon recognised as Elric exercised their respective birds of prey.  Later Daryoon had watched as Narsus seemingly held court amongst his relatives, trying to remember who it was exactly who had told him to ‘get used to it’.  It struck Daryoon that Narsus would make a fine diplomat…

A light tap on his arm and Daryoon turned to find Narsus smiling at him apologetically.

“I’m sorry about today.” He said softly.

“It’s alright…”

He was gifted with a look of disbelief.  “Just get your horse.”

“Where are we going?”

Narsus gestured vaguely in the direction of the woods.  “Unless you’d rather stay here and talk to my relatives?” this said with a teasing smile.

Daryoon stood up.

            They rode quickly away from the others, into the woods.  Now, deep in the woods, away from the noise of the gathering and the few remaining hunting parties, slowing the pace of their horses.

“Well, what do you think?”

“Of what?”

“My family.” Narsus said with an expansive wave of his hand.

“There are certainly lots of them.”

“Actually I don’t think I’m really related to them all.  Some are my Father’s close friends and their children, whom I’ve grown up with.”

“What about that Elric then?  You spend a lot of time with him and even when you’re not talking…” Daryoon shrugged trying to articulate the silent interplay that he’d watched.

“Elric really is my cousin.  Besides father keeps suggesting that I try to persuade T’han to view Elric in a more romantic light.”

“Oh.”

“When my father isn’t winding people up, he’s trying to fix their relationships!”

“Really?”

A nod, followed by Narsus whispering theatrically “Be afraid, be very afraid.”

Daryoon had to laugh, then fell suddenly silent. “I just worry that your family might not approve…” he said seriously.

“You ate mohingar with my cousins last night didn’t you?”

A confused look.

“The fish thing with noodles.”

“Right.”

“That’s family approval.”

“It is?”

“Of course!  It wouldn’t have been something half as nice if they didn’t approve!”

Daryoon looked dubious “Your family show their approval with food?”

“You want to try eating pearbeau for a week!?”

“I’m not even going to ask what that is.”

            The day progressed, neither bothering to take note of the later angle of the sunlight or the darkening sky and the first splatters of rain that were easily ignored soon becoming a downpour.

Daryoon looked round for any sort of shelter but the trees were too thinly layered to be of any help.

“There’s a cave not far from here.  I used to play there when I was younger.” Narsus spoke above the steady beat of the rain.

            The cave was dry and large enough for the horses to remain near the entrance while Daryoon and Narsus sheltered further back in it’s recesses.  Daryoon had somehow taken a rather severe soaking in comparison to both Narsus and the horses, and now seemed prepared to strip entirely out of his wet clothes.  He would have done so if he hadn’t noticed that despite the damp clothing Narsus was still wearing an under-tunic, for modesty’s sake.

“Oh.” was all Daryoon could think to say.  He blinked several times at the sight before him.  Narsus sat staring out of the cave, legs curled beneath him, tendrils of long hair already beginning to curl as they dried.  The under-tunic that he wore had still taken a soaking and clung to him in places.  Daryoon gulped.

“Will you stop staring at my legs!”

“Oh, err, sorry.”  Daryoon blushed, guilty, until he heard Narsus laughing.

“You weren’t really staring at my legs were you?”

“No!”

“They why did you get embarrassed just now?”

“Err…. Because… because I can’t stop staring at you.”

He was rewarded with a sweet smile and Narsus holding a hand out to him.  “Why don’t you come here and keep me warm then.”

Daryoon slowly moved over to where Narsus was sitting, trying to control his unsteady breathing.  He sat down, congratulating himself on not doing anything stupid and hesitantly pulled Narsus into his arms.  Think non-sexual thoughts, think non-sexual thoughts, was the litany running through his head.  In the relative silence of the falling rain Daryoon thought about mucking out the stables, cleaning his uniform boots, the three day training march last week, his friend Qubard’s snoring…

“What are you thinking about?”

“Qubard’s snoring.” Daryoon answered honestly.

“Why?”

He shrugged “You know he snores really loudly.”

“OK.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Not much, what’s for dinner this evening, how long it will take for the rain to let up… that sort of thing.”

Daryoon covered his disappointment, he’d hoped, well, it was best not to think about it.  It was at times like this that he really envied women, they had much more control over their bodies!

There was another silence.

… Sweeping the floor of the barracks, watching Zechs kiss up to Commander Treize, again, having to dance with some miserable woman who didn’t like him any more than he liked her at a recent ball…

“Daryoon…”

“Yes”

“What are you thinking about now?”

“Sweeping the barracks floor…”

“Oh.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“I was wondering why I’m sat here almost naked and you’re thinking about sweeping the barracks floor instead!”

“Oh.” Was all the Daryoon got to say as Narsus slid his arms round his neck and pulled him close for a deep, passionate kiss that left them both breathless.

“Now that’s got to be better than thinking about your training.”

The only reply was another deep kiss, which continued for a rather long time.  The soft sighs that escaped from Narsus muted by the steady beat of the seemingly unending rain.  The movement of Daryoon’s hand coming to rest on Narsus’ thigh, just under the hem of the damp tunic, produced a low moan that was swallowed by his lover’s deep kiss.  Further movement was reduced to breathing and the press of mouth against mouth.  The rain continued to fall.

            As they finally separated both were suddenly aware that the ceaseless rain had stopped.  Narsus peered out of the cave from within the safety of Daryoon’s arms.

“I suppose we’d better get back.” Daryoon began, hesitantly.

“Yes.”

“Right then…”

Silence as neither moved.

“Perhaps we should wait to see if it’s going to start raining again?”

“I suppose you’d better dry off too.” Narsus said with a barely hidden smirk.

Daryoon looked down at the wet clothes he was still wearing and the pile he had set down.  They could always go back now but if they both came back soaking wet it might look like…

“Your father would kill me.”

“No, he wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t you if some someone had dragged your son off into the woods with the express purpose of getting him drenched so that they could get his clothes off and… and…”

“And?” a teasing smile.

“Well, he will kill me!”

“I promise you he won’t.  Father will most likely spend the evening congratulating me and saying things like ‘Now you’re a man…’”

“He will?”

A solemn nod, followed by a long-suffering look.  “We’ll say here till our clothes dry.  I’m not prepared for my whole family assuming ‘things’!”

“It’s not like we did anything, anyway.”

“Exactly!”

“I mean we could have, if you wanted to.”

“Oh… Did you… err… want to?”

“Not specifically.  Not that I wouldn’t… Did you…?”

“Umm, maybe not right now…”

“Oh.”

“I mean, they’d all know about it the moment we got back.”

“I don’t know how I’d cope with that.”

“So it’s probably a good think that we didn’t…”

“For the moment.”

“Oh, yes… for the moment.”

“Narsus?”

“Yes?”

“Umm, I was wondering, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to… umm, how many other…”

Narsus fixed him with a severe look then folded his arms across his chest and said firmly “None, I’m a virgin.”

There was a speechless silence from Daryoon.

Narsus continued, voice dripping with sarcasm “You see I was waiting for the right man but then I got bored so I settled for you.”

“You did?”

“No, idiot, I’m joking.”

“Oh.”

“Daryoon, could you please start saying something other than ‘oh’.”

Daryoon opened his mouth ready to just say ‘oh’ again then decided against it.  Action, he though, was his best response, so Daryoon simply pulled Narsus back into his arms and proceeded to kiss him senseless.

Moments passed.

They parted and Narsus could only stare at Daryoon breathlessly.  The response was a raised eyebrow and a roguish grin, “We need to do ‘something’ while we wait for our clothes to dry.”, Daryoon said before proceeding to repeat that ‘something’ with as much enthusiasm as before.

Food terms:            mohingar – Burmese fish, noodle thing

                        Pearbeau – Burmese weird bean thing (I can’t stand it!)

I don’t know why this has taken me two days to complete, normally it’s only a couple of hours.

Narsus (16/6/01)