House Call.

[BetaFlame]

He just.. blinks. Really, Agnie? He can't help it, he laughs, even as he wanders over to her on the ground. He sits next to her, still smiling. She can't just let him kiss her, no. She has to at least pretend resist. He supposes it is a matter of pride or something? Either that, or she really just wanted to try and hit him.

"Oh good. I win." Without further prompting, he leans down to kiss her.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he's wondering if this is where he gets stabbed...

[channe]

Really. Really, Aleksei? You think this is over?

If he wants to fight dirty, Agnieszka will comply.

She pushes herself up on her hands. He leans in; so does she. But instead of a kiss, there's a violent push to his breastbone if he can't stop it fast enough, and a reach around his body to hopefully grab the pommel of his sword no matter what happens. She never let go of hers; if successful, she'll bring them both up, crossed behind his neck.

[BetaFlame]

He sends a hand back to brace himself, mostly out of flat reaction than any real anticipation. She has both sword, but in his mind that isn't really a problem. Both her hands are occupied holding something behind him, which gives him plenty of space for this.

He tucks his chin and sends the bony part of the top of his forehead toward her nose. He won't stop there, no. Even if she avoids that, there are two sharp things behind him, so he pushes forward with his hands on the ground, rolling even more. Hopefully right over top of her.

[channe]

Crack. She sails straight back, sporting a bloody nose; hits the ground with a grin. She'll allow him to twist -- oh, she'll *let* that happen, because while he makes to get straight on top of her, she's brought her knee up. Hard. There's one lovely moment where their eyes meet.

And then -- knee, if he's not prepared.

[BetaFlame]

Still, heads colliding didn't leave both parties uninjured. Fortunately, he has a hard head.

He can feel her twist as he does, and her leg move--shit. There isn't much to do about it, so he twists to keep certain.. delicate areas out of harms way (and really, did she want to break those?). Instead, right on the hipbone. He can feel the tingling down his leg. He needs to brace over top of her, though, so his hands land, and if his aim is correct, he goes directly for her wrists. Can't have her swinging those swords around, now can we?

"Don't make me headbutt you again." Words through pain gritted teeth.

[channe]

Whether or not she let him succeed in holding down her wrists will quite possibly always be a mystery -- but here, in the fallow field behind the barn, he really does win, with her wrists pushed down into the dirt by his hands. And it's left Agnie with an inscrutable half-smirk, looking up at him, blood trickling out of her nose, down her ear and to the ground.

"I'm pretty sure you really don't want to kiss me," she whispers --

-- not that it's something the violent, death-song visions swimming in his brain, now that they're skin to skin, shouldn't be telling him already.

[BetaFlame]

He takes a deep breath. How had they gone from a sword fight to a wrestling match in the dirt? He just looks down at her, shifting his weight a little bit. Again,the flashes of memory are shared between them, and he bites his lip. His head swims less now from all this, he is actually starting to adjust. The nice thing about having voices in your head.

"Let's try and decide." So he does. Again. Fully expecting to get kneed.

[channe]

She doesn't surrender.

So this isn't a surrender.

Or so she tells herself.

She sees things. Awful things. Bursts of it. She knows he's holding back. Aleksei is at the center of it all. Violence. The corruption of a beautiful thing, the sweetness of an sin unknown, a knight who left it all behind --

-- and she should stop this, she should --

But she allows him to kiss her, there under the bright sunlight, in the middle of the fallow field at the Calomel farm.

[BetaFlame]

When their lips meet, finally, would she sense it? Why he does what he does? Why he just doesn't give up and settle somewhere? A man of his skill, his knowledge.. his power. He could advise lords, be well compensated. Live in a life of luxury.

Atone. The feeling, the word rings like a bell in his mind. The center of why he is what he is. He must atone. He carries the sins of his entire people on his shoulders. He must atone for them. For what he has done, there is no forgiveness.

The sun overhead is like the light in his head that seems to envelop both their minds. The soothing peace, a brief flash before its gone, and he pulls back, hands releasing her as he sits back to let her up.

He doesn't say anything, not yet. He just looks at her. For a few moments, then a smile.

"That was worth it."

[channe]

And is Agnieszka part of this atonement? The thought runs through her head, softly, far away from where Aleksei can see it. And she pushes it out of her mind for the moment. This isn't the place, nor the time.

"This is a bad idea," she says, quietly. "A really bad idea."

But this is the longest she's been in human contact with someone else since she arrived back in Myrken Wood. It hurts. It makes her tremble, choke, remember --

-- so she reaches for him again. Because there was peace there, for a few beautiful seconds.

[BetaFlame]

"Its Myrken. There are only bad ideas, and worse ideas. Right?" Didn't she and Glenn tell him something like that once?

He just draws her in again, arms going around her as he tucks his cheek against the top of her head. He can't offer her the same peace she is looking for. That bit.. is distracted. But there is a serenity to Aleksei all his own. The peace of a strong, ordered mind. He offers her that. The knowledge there is control. She knows the cold of the grave, the cold of a soul trapped in your body at death. He knows the peace of the heavens. The warmth of the love of the divine.

All the darkness, the hatred and violence in him are silenced now. He finds peace in this, and he can share that with her.

"My master, the wise man that he was, told me nothing easy was worth doing. Now I think I finally understand." Because this was definitely not easy.

[channe]

"Don't talk about your master right now," she says. Aleksei's swallowed her emotions with the siren song of Order -- and she's desperate for it -- for now. For now. Only for now. Can he feel the chaos burning her edges? The desire of death itself?

"I'm not easy," she says, and suddenly -- oh. Panic. She drags herself up, trying to push him away. "I'm not -- I'm not easy."

[BetaFlame]

He raises an eyebrow at her and tilts his head. "That was rather the point, Agnie. I appreciate the fact you aren't." He sighs and shakes his head. "The best things in life are things you have to struggle and work for. If any of this -had- been easy, it wouldn't have the same feeling to it." He just gives her that easy smile of his and shakes his head at her.

"You know, I like the fact you are prickly, difficult, and down right maddening, or I wouldn't be here." He gives a little sigh. Trying to hold her in place would be counter productive, so he just lets her move how she wants. "Sorry, I probably didn't phrase that very well..."

[channe]

Of course it would be counter-productive. Trying to force Agnie into anything is counter-productive.

Very few people have seen this. Aeryn had, a long time ago, before he betrayed everything he was, and had been, and could have been. Her brothers and sisters. Glenn Burnie, too. But all of those are different to what's happening right now.

"I'm glad you came by," she says -- and, of all things, of all possible things, she blushes.

[BetaFlame]

He just smiles and flops back in the grass, staring up at the sky through his glasses (how had he managed to keep those on wrestling like that?!). His thoughts drift backwards through the events of the day. He feels.. relaxed, for a change. For just a little while, the earth stop revolving around whatever crisis they had to content with, and he got to be a person. He turns his head to look at her, his smile growing even further.

"You know, so am I."