Lip Lesson
As the sun slowly climbed above the horizon, the light found itself piecing through the light cloud cover and shining on one man, and one woman, isolated amongst the marsh and dirt pathway they followed. The man was leading the way, marching tirelessly forward while the woman followed more slowly, having fallen a fair distance behind.
She already missed her horse. She already missed her fellow knights. She was already questioning the wisdom of this journey. And she was definitely questioning the motives and competence of this man. Not to mention he was walking way too fast.
"Do you even know where the hell we're going?"
She'd blurted it out without thinking, and was surprised at how harsh the question had sounded. Perhaps it was because she was tired from traveling through the cold night without sleep. Or perhaps it was because she was feeling guilt about her decision to abandon her duties and fellow knights back at brass castle, to follow this strange shady man on a quest to find her father. Or maybe she just felt she had to say something to get him to slow down for her.
Regardless, she couldn't take the sting out of what she had already said, so she stood her ground when the blond man in front of her stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, placing a hand on his hip. His sarcastic expression was almost perpetual, she'd found, and it continued to irritate her the longer she looked at him.
"No Chris, I was lost before we left the castle."
The comment matched his facial expression, and Chris felt the heat rise in her cheeks from anger.
"Stop it Nash, I don't appreciate the way you talk to me," she said with authority.
The man called Nash smirked that annoying smirk and raised an eyebrow. "Likewise."
She immediately felt repentant. It was true that she had been the on who snapped at him first. Having been slow, grouchy, and belligerent the entire trip so far, it was a wonder Nash had been able to deal with her using his sarcasm alone. It was true that she didn't entirely trust him, but being as difficult as she had been wasn't helping their situation at all.
Chris cleared her throat and hesitated. "I'm...sorry."
Nash's other eyebrow lifted to form an expression of surprise, clearly not having expected an apology. He walked the few feet back to where she was standing, and lowered his head, looking kindly into her violet eyes.
"Do you want rest? You look exhausted."
She couldn't help but feel that he might be patronizing her, but she did her best to mask her resentment. "There's no where for us to rest... The ground has been nothing but muddy for the past couple miles."
"Of course, a lovely lady such as yourself can't wallow in the mud like a common peasant!" He began walking a bit off the pathway into the long damp grass, towards the trees.
Chris scowled at his back, but did not give him the satisfaction of voicing the bitterness she felt.
"Now what are you doing?" she asked instead.
"Come." he replied.
The silver-haired woman released a sigh, and consented to follow him. However, she stopped short when she saw him climb deftly up a thick oak tree and wedge himself into a reclining position between the branches.
"Wha-"
"Come on!" he said. "The trees are dry, you don't have to worry about getting mud on those stylish traveling clothes."
She stood at the base of the tree and crossed her arms.
"I don't think so."
"Why not?"
She did not know how to reply.
"You're not sure how to go about climbing up here?"
"Please!" she retorted. "I'm a knight! I've been trained to scale a brick wall in full armor."
"Bravo!" Nash exclaimed. "So, what are you waiting for?" He reached down, offering her a hand up.
Chris realized then that she was just being stubborn. She climbed quickly into the tree, ignoring Nash's hand. It took her a few minutes to find a place to sit amongst the branches, but she finally found herself sitting quite comfortably against the main trunk, facing Nash.
A few minutes passed in silence while the two caught their breath and rested their weary feet. Eventually Chris thought to bring up their whereabouts again, in a more polite manner this time.
"So, we're right in the heart of the grasslands right now."
"Yes," Nash replied. "We're almost at the Village of the Duck Clan."
A moment passed in silence as Chris watched Nash. It was so odd, how yesterday she was captain of the Zexen knights, and less than 24 hours later, she sitting in a tree with a man she hardly knows anything about.
It was so strange, the way he showed up through a secret passage in her room, just after that pivital conversation with Salome. Too much of a coincidence.
"Nash... How did you know what Salome and I were talking about?"
Nash chuckled. "I told you Chris, I can lip read!"
"I don't believe you! It's just too much of a coincidence."
Nash sighed. "Chris... It is possible that the knights wanted this for you."
"What do you mean? That this was set up?" Chris couldn't imagine that Salome would trust someone like Nash to convince her to run away with him.
Nash's elusive answers persisted. "Does it really matter Chris? Don't you feel glad that you can do what you need to do without worrying about Brass castle?"
"But I still do worry about Brass castle... I worry about my knights... I worry about-"
"Worry about yourself for once!" Nash interrupted. "You can't do this if your mind is still in brass castle."
Chris bowed her head, realizing he was right. "I know... I guess its just such a rash decision for me to make. I'm not even sure how this all happened. But its only dawning on me now that its more than a coincidence."
"You could be right."
"So you didn't lip read our conversation!"
"I didn't say that!" Nash held up his hands in defense.
Chris opened her mouth to reply, but Nash spoke again before she had the chance.
"Wait! I'll prove it. Whatever you're about to say, just mouth it and don't actually say it."
Chris paused and crossed her arms. Then she nodded and mouthed her next sentence.
'I think you're a scandalous liar!'
Nash smirked his biggest smirk yet. "Oh Chris, that's far too easy. I already know you think I'm a scandalous liar."
Chris tried to hide the fact that she was impressed.
"Try another one," he said.
'How long before we get to the Duck Village,' she mouthed.
Nash mouthed something back, but Chris couldn't understand it. He chuckled and spoke what he'd just mouthed.
"We'll be at the Duck Village in another two days."
"I would think that's a handy skill to have," Chris commented, defeated.
"Wanna learn?"
Before waiting for Chris to answer, Nash scooted across his branch over to the one Chris was sitting on, and leaned in close to her. She leaned back in an uneasy reaction to his sudden closeness, and nearly fell off the branch she was sitting on.
"Nash...!"
"Relax, I'm not going to bite you... Even though you'd probably prefer that than if I were to kiss you."
"How dare you!" she exclaimed, her heart racing.
"Settle down, I promise I won't do either!" He raised his hands in surrender.
She fell silent.
Nash went on to explain to her about how there were tricks to lip reading. Demonstrating with his mouth, he showed the subtle differences between certain vowels and consonants.
"The tricky part is when a phrase sounds very close to something else," he explained. For example, what do you think I'm saying?
Chris was horrified when she was positive he was mouthing 'I love you.'
Nash laughed at her reaction. "I wasn't saying 'I love you', Chris... I never say that on a first date."
Chris blushed furiously. "What? This is note a date Nash!"
"Of course not," he replied with a wink. "But regardless, what I was actually saying was 'Elephant shoes'. That's why understanding the context of the conversation is essential, and its therefore much more difficult to lipread short conversations."
Chris was still too flustered to really pay attention to his point, and decided it was time for this 'lesson' to end.
"Nash, I'm very tired, I think I'm going to try sleep a bit."
Nash bowed his head. "Be my guest, my princess."
"Don't call me that!"
"My apologies," he said with a lopsided grin. "I think I'll get some rest too. I'm rather exhausted from that lip lesson I just gave you."
Chris picked up on his innuendo, and tried to make the blush on her face look like the heat of indignation. However, Nash was not paying attention as he crawled to his more comfortable spot among the branches.
Chris could already feel sleep taking hold of her as she saw Nash looking at her after he was settled in. He mouthed something to her. And she understood.
She was blushing until she fell asleep.
A/N: It's not my best fic by far, but I dearly missed writing about these two characters. I just had to do another fluffy fic about them. I had to!