Lucas Eli Sawyer (wingsofillusion) wrote in _fracture_, @ 2014-04-18 19:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | chapter 2, kyle, lavel, mazie |
Non-comprehend-y
Who: Kyle and Mazie
Where: Out and About
When: Early morning
It had been late when Kyle had finally made it back to the tent the night before. He’d waited until things were quiet, then headed back and ended up wrapped up in blankets with Adam. After everything, it felt like the right thing to do. Still, he found himself awake before dawn, and extracted himself from the blankets whilst his boyfriend was still sleeping, figuring that he would go for a walk or something. There had been word at the banquet last night about exactly what today would bring for the ‘knights’. Stress and worry wouldn’t let him just lie there any longer.
Mazie had slipped out of the tent early enough to go sweet-talk her way into some freshly baked bread from one of the merchants in town. She was walking back toward the tent with a loaf under her arm and a half-eaten croissant in her hand when she saw Kyle. "What's up?" She asked, heading his way with a grin on her face. "Want some bread?"
The smell of the fresh bread itself was enough to awaken Kyle's stomach and he nodded, eagerly. "Thanks," he said, gratefully breaking off a piece. "You're up early," he observed. "Couldn't sleep? I couldn't stop thinking about today."
"Just sort of woke up early. Weird place, new smells, and set out to find some food." She quieted down when he said that last part, took a bit bite of her bread, and watched him while she chewed. Her food wasn't entirely gone when she spoke either. "…About the fights and stuff?"
Kyle nodded as he took a bite of his bread and chewed. He made sure to swallow before he spoke though, good manners having been drummed into him at a young age. “How are they meant to actually do any of that? The people - the ones who are knights, who came from the hotel. They don’t really know how to do any of that.” He knew he was attempting to distance himself, at least a little bit, using ‘they’ instead of his real worry, which was ‘him’.
Mazie shrugged. "They try? Or they don't and forfeit. Nothing says anyone has to go through with it, you know?" She watched him for a second before continuing. "If you're that concerned about him, why don't you just ask him to bow out? Do you think he'd do that?" He hadn't said it verbally, but it was pretty obvious he meant Adam. At least, Mazie sure seemed to think he meant Adam.
Kyle shrugged a shoulder, not quite meeting Mazie’s eyes. “He’s already said that he’d drop out if it meant that much to me. I… Don’t want him to do that, just for me. I don’t want the kind of relationship where he can’t do what he wants to do, because of me. If Adam wants to take part, then Adam should take part. He can make his own decisions and he should do. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to worry about him though.” He took a bite of the bread, though it felt dry in his throat right now. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to watch though. That… might be too much.”
Mazie didn't know anything about relationships, so as she listened, she just became more confused. He didn't want Adam to compete and Adam said he'd not if Kyle didn't want him to but yet Kyle wasn’t asking him not to. Obviously confused, she shook her head. "I don't know what to tell you..." she answered honestly. "People get hurt all the time though. We're strong. But he'll probably be fine..." she said, though she had no basis for it. "Let's get some ale? This bread is making me thirsty." And maybe walking would be Kyle?
Kyle almost turned down the offer, thinking about how poorly he handled alcohol. Then he remembered something about water being full of all sorts of nasties in this kind of time and how people only drank ale or wine as a result. Figuring he didn’t have much choice, he nodded. “Lead the way. And… you don’t have to tell me anything. It’ll be whatever it is. I worry a lot. I always have.”
"What good does worrying do you?" Mazie asked, purely curious and it rang true in her voice. She started toward the nearest place she knew to get ale but turned her head to look at him carefully. "It never seemed to do me any good so I stopped doing it. Why don't you try doing it too?"
"Why don't you try stopping breathing?" Kyle snapped, stalking ahead a few paces before he caught onto the fact he was being unreasonable. He stopped and turned to wait for her to catch up. "I find it difficult to let go, unless I know there's going to be someone there to catch me. Which there isn't." And there wouldn't be. Harry had always been Kyle's safety net, and look how that had turned out. Kyle needed to learn to stand on his own two feet. He shook his head, wanting to get off the subject of himself. "Did you enjoy the banquet last night?"
Mazie lifted an eyebrow at him and tilted her head while he walked ahead, watching him turn and taking the steps to catch up to his side. "There's not always someone there to catch you." Mazie didn't really have people there to catch her but that hadn't stopped her from trying to be that person for others who couldn't catch themselves. It was just so much easier to deal with when it came down to finances and not emotions. "You just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again, if you fall."
"Banquet was cool. The food was good. I could get used to this 'eating turkey legs all the time' thing. And it's good that everyone was invited, not just the rich people. It would be way wrong if only the rich people were invited." Which, historically, she figured was probably the norm but at least here the entire town had been allowed to go. "Did you have a good time?"
Kyle thought back to the night before and his lips curled up into a,secretive little smile. Screw Kennedy and her opinions, he and Adam were just fine and she could go jump. "Yeah," he said to Marie. "I had a good time."
She watched him, watched that smile, and it had one of her own brewing. “Well, that looks good. What’s that,” She pointed at his face, made a circle with her finger around his mouth, “All about?” Maybe something had happened at the banquet that she wasn’t aware of?
Kyle looked down, not quite meeting her eyes, though the smile subsisted. “I… Adam and I kinda made things official last night,” he admitted, that little smile widening somewhat. “Which… Is great, plus, there… This girl - not offence or anything - but, she was kinda… Even though she knew he was with me! She’s been sniffing around. Even though he told her about me and she’s all ‘he could do with some competition in his life’! Like what he wants doesn’t actually matter. Well, now he has… I dunno… Like that solid foundation to tell her to fuck the hell off.”
Mazie listened and ended up shaking her head. “That sounds really weird of her to do… But he could have told her to fuck off anyway.” She watched Kyle still, noting the smile and ended up smiling a little more back at him. “But I’m glad you’re official. You two were pretty damn official first time I met you so it makes sense, I guess, to be official-official now. How’s it feel?" It was weird, to be contemplating whether or not she was offended just because Kyle had said ‘no offense’ when it came to mentioning a girl. Was she supposed to be offended? In the end, the argument got a little too meta for her so she pushed it aside and just waited for his response.
Kyle finished off the last of his hunk of bread as he considered that. “It feels great,” he admitted. “I mean, the timing’s terrible, and it’s all… happened so fast and it’s kinda intense, but I really like him. And I know that he could have told her to fuck off anyway and he will, I know he will, I just… She was a bitch - going on about how I didn’t have any hold on him because we weren’t married, like that has anything to do with anything, and how Adam needed some competition for his affections because he needed to learn that he was actually attractive - which I actually agree with her on that point but still, that doesn’t give her the right to go after someone who’s already…” Kyle broke off before he slipped from merely rambling into a full blow rant, fuelled by his own insecurities.
Mazie tried to listen, really she did, but she just didn’t get it. There seemed to be a lot of issues that Kyle had with this girl after Adam, but she also just…didn’t see the issue, nor did she know if she cared. “I don’t…understand. You two want to be together but the timing is terrible and now some chick is hitting on him and that…I wouldn’t really know, but I think people get hit on whether or not they’re in relationships. It’s just up to that person to be like ‘Woah, no thanks’? So…why are you so worked up over this? If he shut her down and you’re..official or something, shouldn’t you be happy and not freaking out?”
Kyle looked at her a little wide eyed, as though he had been caught out. He chewed on his lower lip a for a moment, before answering her. “I just broke up with my boyfriend,” he explained. “Like just-just. Like less than a week ago, just. And it was a really serious relationship. That’s the bad timing part. The rest… Harry - the guy I was with - was… Well, let’s just say that he wasn’t so great at that whole ‘faithfulness’ thing.” He winced, because he was well aware that he was putting all his insecurities on Adam, and that wasn’t fair at all. “So, yeah, Adam will tell her to fuck off. Probably in a nicer way that that, but - he will. I just… I… It’s me. This is my problem. She’s persistent and - she’s a girl.” Kyle shrugged, colouring a little. “He’s only ever been with girls before. I just - I know I shouldn’t, but I just… Get scared.”
Mazie shook her head again before speaking. “Again, don’t know anything about this, but the whole point is that you two are supposed to make each other happy. And if you don’t, then that’s something you gotta figure out. And you should probably find someone who’s actually been in a relationship to talk to about this stuff because I don’t know shit about it and am probably giving you some weird ass advice. But I think you gotta back off this girl thing. If he’s official with you know, you gotta stop thinking he doesn’t want to be with you. Because that’s not cool either.”
Kyle sighed. "I know. I know all if that. I know I shouldn't be thinking this and it's unfair to Adam. And he does make me happy. Really happy. He's... not like anyone I've met before." Which was why he wished he could get rid of his demons about this. Kyle, though, had a hard time switching off his brain. He took a couple more steps, then mentally shook himself. “Sorry,” he said, giving her a look of apology. “I’m kinda going on - I’m sure you don’t really want to hear about all of this. Are you going to watch the fights later? Given how into practising you were yesterday, I’m guessing the answer’s ‘yes’.”
Mazie was still at a loss for what to say. If he knew all of this, then why did he keep freaking out? And she’d already given out all of her advice on the subject, for better or worse, so she took the subject change happily and shrugged. “More than likely. At least the hand to hand stuff. Jousting is cool, I guess, but…eh. The hand to hand stuff is cooler I think. I’m guessing the answer to if you’re gonna watch it is no?”
"Pretty much," Kyle confirmed. He felt guilty about that. He knew he should really go and cheer on his boyfriend, or whatever, but he just couldn't face it. "I was thinking if going back to the blacksmith, asking if I can work with him."
“Could be good. I’ll be there to watch, make sure someone knows if he gets hurt.” Because apparently Kyle couldn’t or wouldn’t go, which was definitely something she was not getting in the middle of. “Make something awesome, ok?” She said, grinning a little at him. “Like a sick metal bracelet or something, with engravings and shit.”
Kyle grinned. "Maybe - but I figure he'll just put me to work. Which is cool. I'd actually kinda love to learn how to shoe a horse or something," he admitted, which wasn't anything he'd ever thought he'd hear himself say.
“Sounds like a good skill to know,” She said, grinning a little. “You could own a barn, have horses for people to take riding lessons…” She suggested, grinning at the thought. “We could play one awesome game of horseshoes.”
Kyle laughed at that. His mother would die at the very idea of a Van Allen doing something like that. “I don’t think I’d be the right person to teach people to ride,” he said, amused.
“Why not? I think you could do it,” Mazie said, shrugging. “You can at least make some horseshoes so we can play a game with them, right?” They had a horseshoe-game set up at home and after putting the idea out there again, Mazie really wanted to see one set up somewhere where she could get her hands on it.
“You don’t even know if I can ride” Kyle pointed out with a smile. He could - he’d learned at one of the few riding schools in New York, and had enjoyed riding more in the summers they had spent in the Hamptons. Still, the idea of teaching people left him cold. That much interaction with people - probably children - who didn’t know what they were doing did not sound like his idea of a good time. “But, sure - I’ll see if I can get us some horseshoes,” he promised.
Mazie shrugged. “Well, even if you can’t, I’m sure I could get you some decent YouTube videos once I’ve gotten us some internet access at that Hotel…” Because she was going to. She had to, for her sanity and the sanity of others around her, she was sure. But when he promised to get her some horseshoes, she nodded and smiled again. “Deal. Let me know if you need any help getting materials and stuff again, ok? I like haggling."
“Sure, I’ll do that,” Kyle agreed. He might have said he didn’t need help, but how was he to know? He didn’t know how anything worked here in Lavel, after all.
“Cool. I’m gonna go scope out the tournament ring…” She started that way before turning around and walking backwards slowly. “You wanna come with, before the blacksmith?”
Kyle took a breath and considered that. It would be empty now, of course, but Adam would be fighting - actually fighting - there later. His imagination really didn't need the reality assist there. "Thanks, but no. I think I'm just gonna get going. Hey, though - look out for him today?" he requested. She,was Adam's other squire, afterall.
Mazie nodded and give him a quick wave. “You got it, Chief,” She said, a grin on her face as she started on her way to the tournament grounds.