Work Text:
Aesling sighed as she walked through the dense woods surrounding the nine shrines bar. The tall trees and dense underbrush comforted her, it reminded her of the one part of Meathe she missed.
Soft light filtered through the leaves, a lighting the forest with a tender glow. If you were quiet enough you could hear the oceans quiet waves. The deep serenity of the forest swayed Ashe to let her borders down to relax, if only for a moment. She sat down against a tree suddenly extremely tired from the sleepless nights before, closing her eyes for a moment she fell into a restful sleep.
-
A shout echoed through the nine shrines bar, quickly followed by Kyr and Markus being kicked out. An angry Thog walked out, throwing the new invention at the two.
"No! Are you crazy? This can't be exposed to direct sunlight!" Kyr yelped quickly covering said invention with his cape.
"Careful Thog! The Kyr-culator is a valuable asset to this company!" Markus said as he stood up, straightening his shirt, "It'll allow us to keep track of and add numbers together. There is only a mild chance of radiation poisoning."
"Yeah, look!" Kyr pressed random buttons before pushing the Kyr-culator into Thog's hands, the bright screen showed 12 + 4710293643892.
Thog sighed, rubbing his eyes he pressed the ANSWER button. He jumped slightly as a recorded version of Kyr's voice yelled from the machine. "Ha Ha! This is too easy! The answer is seven!"
Thog raised an eyebrow at the two and typed in another problem, "Seven! Seven is the answer!" It shouted again.
"This dumb thing only says seven," Thog said, mildly amused by the machine's failure, but still upset at the two imbeciles.
The inventor and socerlock looked at each other, quickly agreeing on the fact that they need more materials and to get away from the Kyr-culator before it has a bigger malfunction. Each of them ran in different directions looking for any new materials and gizmos to add to the invention.
-
Markus stopped and bent over resting his hands on his knees, his quick three minute sprint had exhausted him beyond words. He took a minute, breathing heavily before standing straight and looking around. Thinking back, maybe it hadn't been the best idea to run wildly into the woods when the night was about to fall. He shrugged and kept walking.
The air quickly started dropping in temperature, a flaw of living on a small island in the middle of the ocean. Markus was considering heading back to the general direction of the bar when he heard teeth chattering. After making sure that it wasn't his own, he walked towards the noise, nearly tripping over the white haired girl's' body. She was curled up in a fetal position still fast asleep. It was obvious she was freezing.
Markus considered waking her up, but considering the Meathian didn't get much sleep, he decided against it.
Markus quickly took off his cape and rested it on top of Ashe, before walking into the woods to find some sticks to maintain a small fire. The dark woods would have been treacherous to anyone who didn't have dark vision but as he has made it well known he does, in fact, have dark vision and could semi-easily traverse the woods. Only stumbling a few times because of his... less than graceful balance. After grabbing an armful of branches and some small twigs he made his way back to Ashe.
He noticed that she curled up in the cape like it was a blanket, but she was still shivering. Markus sighed, and quickly started to arrange the sticks in what he thinks looks like a campfire structure. Quietly snapping his fingers, he lit one of the sticks and waited for the fire to start.
The fire eventually grew, emitting quite a bit of heat, possibly because it was a big fire, possibly because it was demon fire. Either way, it quickly warmed up the area. Ashe's sleeping form relaxed and a very peaceful look fell across her face, a small smile on her lips. The way the fire threw shadows across her face made her look... very... pretty. A small strand of her hair fell into her face. Markus gently, brushed the hair away from her face and suddenly realized, this is the first time he's ever seen her asleep. In all their travels together, he's seen her knocked out and black out but never naturally sleeping. She looked a lot younger, more her age. Probably because she wasn't yelling or glaring at anyone, she was just smiling contently. Leaning back against a tree, he quickly put some barriers around the fire to prevent it from spreading, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.
-
Ashe woke up, the morning sun shining brightly through the leaves into her eyes. As she sat up, she felt a cloth fall off of her onto the ground. She glanced down and saw Markus's black cloak crumpled on the ground. 'Did... was Markus here?' She thought, looking around the area. A small fire burned a few feet away, as she walked up to it she saw Markus sleeping nearby. A small smile on her face, she gently shook Markus awake. He startled, and looked around before looking at Ashe, "Oh, hi Ashe." He said, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. "Did'cha sleep well?"
"Yeah..." Ashe said unsure of how to thank the horned man, "Um. Thank you for letting me use your cape." She said, passing his cape back to him.
"Your welcome." Markus stretched and put the cape back on. "Do you make it a habit of sleeping in the woods, because I have to say sleeping under the tables are much more comfortable."
"Not... really," She said, slightly awkward at the conversation. "I feel like I owe you something..."
"Ashe.” Markus says, laughing, “It was an act of kindness. You don't owe people for those."
"Well, I didn't know! I'm not used to people being nice for no reason!" Ashe crossed her arms defensively.
Markus continued laughing and wrapped an arm around Ashe, “Alright, Alright no need to get defensive. Come on Ashe, let's get back to the tavern.”
Ashe sighed but didn’t push his arm off, the two walked back to the tavern, Markus’ arm wrapped around Ashe’s shoulder. Ashe gently leaned into him. his warmth soaking into her. Almost lulling her back into a sleep.