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[Meeting on the Pier - Crimes Against Nature Part Eight]
Music:
It was one of those Gridanian days that are found in catalogs across Eorzea. The sun hung high in the cloud-free sky all afternoon, filtering through the leafy canopies of the city that so naturally made its home within the high forestf. Despite the brightness of the sun, the air was warm, but not overbearing. The crisp of autumn hanging faint upon the horizon, but as of yet, just out of mind. It was the sort of day that made one forget the discomfort of other weather: past bitter winter and scorching summer days could not resist its lusty perfection; nor could those ever-present damp, rainy Shroud days that had seemed to be the norm as of late.
It was just the sort of day that the old rogue remembered from his youth in the forest. He drew in a deep breath, glancing either way upon the stream that the pier he stood upon over-looked. For a moment he regretted that he was not there to fish, before reminding himself that he did not actually much enjoy fishing. "Its just the thing you're supposed to want to do on a day like this..."
He'd made his way to the city earlier that day, leaving behind the young twin wards at his modest villa by the sea on the Vylbrand coast. On other occasions it may have been difficult to convince him tto swap the scenery of the beach for that of the Shroud, but he just couldn't wipe the Cheshire-like grin from his lipsÂ
Drawing in another deep breath he tasted the arrival of his friend, that welcome scent of vanilla, cream and peaches, and of course, of her beneath it all. Facing away from her, his cat-like eyes lit up with the glee of mischief as he correctly anticipated the loud sound of heels stepping upon the wooden planks of the pier.Â
Few things could have brought him so far and in such a hurry, but here was one of those things: Aya Foxheart. The alluring friend of his who never quite seemed to escape his mind. They knew each other far better than there all-too infrequent conversations should have allowed. There was simply a bond between them: it had caused him to risk his life for her before; and he had swiftly answered her call for help.
"I can always tell you're coming", he said as he turned his body slowly around. His grin had grown only more confounding as he turned his eyes upon her. He began with her shoes, as he always liked to. They often spoke more about her than any words she might choose to use: those dangerous heels, strappy shoes that suggested there was no outdoor adventure planned that evening. His eyes trailed slowly upward, admiring the toned legs that so well hid her power and strength, the yellow dress that matched the vivacious energy of her usual cheer, and the figure that made the dress so worthy of his appreciation. At last his green hunters eyes settled upon her own, and her smirking pursed lip grin greeted. "It's your perfume. No one else smells quite so good."
"C'kayah, C'kayah" she said with a slow shake of her head, "Never change. Please." She shone a radiant grin as she took the last few steps toward him, more that accustomed to his admiring gaze.
He beamed an amused, cheerful grin back toward her, his arms outstretched as she approached. Her heels left her somewhat taller, and she gladly wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he embraced her. He gave her an affectionate kiss upon her cheek, "I never thought you'd stay in Gridania this long", he said remembering the last time they had spoke. "Especially after that chocobo lead petered out."Â
She found an immense comfort in the embrace of his masculine form. She just held him tight, closing her eyes at the greeting of his affectionate kiss. With a slow exhale she leaned back, "One part Monsieur Vann, and another part the sort of curiosity that always gets a girl in trouble."
With his hands resting upon the outer-curves of her shoulders he just laughed, "Have you looked in a mirror lately", he drew his hand from her shoulder, brushing a lock of her blonde hair away from her perfect cheek. "You're the sort of woman that just exudes trouble. But you know I'll always watch your back, don't you?"
He watched her eyes glancing at him with a hint of bashful disbelief.Â
"And no," he added with a warm smirk, "that is not a euphemism..."Â He leaned his head toward her slightly, as if to emphasize the sincerity of his words.
She blushed, a hint of crimson warming behind cheeks already reddened with light makeup. Here she was a performer, accustomed to compliments of all sorts, having appeared on posters across the land of Eorzea: but somehow he always seemed to find a way to reduce her to a bashful schoolgirl, and he reveled in it.Â
Despite her best effort, she just couldn't hold back an expression of genuine shyness--that girlish demureness.  A warm smile tugged upon her lips. "I know..." she replied with a soft hint of delight, "That's why I've asked you here."
His eyes sharpened a bit as he apprised her expression. "I'm retired now, you know. I didn't think that I'd be able to stay out of the game, but fortune smiled upon me and gave me higher priorities to attend to. I have others to take care of now. Daughters."
"Well", he chuckled, "foster daughters. I don't think you've met Kia and Zyia yet, but you'll have to come when you get the chance. They're not old enough to travel easily yet."
He looked out over the stream, his thoughts firmly focused on the future, and his expression a hopeful, even satisfied smile. His sudden shift to his new quiet life seemed a rejoinder on whatever business she may have had for him. But that smile caused her to smile as well: rarely had he seemed so excited by something that wasn't a woman, or the game itself.
He noticed her apprehension, and with a quick little scratch of his nose continued. "Retirement is a funny thing, though." He furrowed his brow a bit, still looking away, "On the one hand, I have far fewer contacts." He turned his eyes upon her, that smirk of his returning in all of its glory, "On the other hand, I've got a lot more time. And sometimes I find myself bored and want to dip my finger into something exciting."
He leaned back a bit, exuding a welcome confidence, "So tell me, Aya. What is it you have on your mind?"
She canted her head in a mixture of confusion and amusement. At his final offer she just let out a little laugh, pursing her lips as she tried to contain a broader grin. "Retirement just doesn't suite you C'kayah..." she unleashed her playful grin upon him, "But I trust that you will enjoy your vacation. And the time with your family."
"I am. So tell me about it." he encouraged with a grin.
She seemed to hesitate, most of the playfulness going out of her expression as she glanced away, fingers fidgeting with the straps of her gloves. "You know I wouldn't have bothered you, C'kayah, if I thought you would forgive we if I hadn't".
There was a little flash in his eyes as he smiled mischievously, "I remember the first time you asked me for a big favor. Bringing a letter to your family in Ishgard. You almost couldn't do it. You've always wanted to ride on top of life, without making a deep impression. Like a water strider in a pond."
"I'm glad you've come to your senses and recognized that you're no ordinary friend, no ordinary acquaintance. I could no more not help you than I could not help myself."
Her fingers continued to play with gloves, worried eyes looking at them momentarily. "You are too kind, C'kayah, and you always have done so much for me. I won't say I can quite understand, but I will always appreciate our friendship more than anything else."Â
She returned her eyes to his. "C'kayah." she said, rather matter-of-factually, "I'm hoping to meet with some dangerous men. They do not know who I am. And I do not know if I will be safe."
His expression grow more serious to match hers, as he offered a slow nod. "Tell me about these men", he said. "Tell me everything."
"They're old Wood Wailers." she continued, with a bit of serenity finally coming over her troubled expression. "They've something to do with the events in Toto-Rak forty years ago. Or some things more recent..." she paused if thinking about something, "they're a danger to our friends and I am hoping to be able to learn something about them."
"Retired wood wailers?" He stressed the term as he turned her words over in his mind. "Wailers who were on active duty when whatever was unleashed happened, and when the dungeon was sealed?"
His eyes darkened and he furrowed his brow. "I read a book about it once. Terrible thing, that." He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "You think they'll see your interest as a threat? That they'll see you as someone trying to reopen that which they're trying to forget?"
"They're..." she paused as if thinking about how to express herself. "Its not just passive. They're up to something. They've recruited this young Wailer, his name is Weylan. He was a member of the Sixteenth, the unit that was all but wiped out by one of the Ghosts released from Toto-Rak. Do you remember the mad woman I spoke of before?"
He nodded, his eyes growing distant. "That's not the sort of thing you just forget", he said with eyes narrowing. He seemed to be lost in thought, the story mixing with his own recollections in a haunting brew. He blinked, and he seemed to return: back into the present with her. "I've heard some stories about those wailers. About what happened. Probably ninety percent fabrication, but it sounds like the wailers weren't simply reacting..."
She nodded along with him, "I don't know, what it all means, but I fear that it goes even deeper. They're trying to cover something up. The Toto-Rak records for that entire year are simply missing. And they're filling this Wailer's head with nonsense about adventurer's being the enemies of Gridania, and how they must be stopped. That is what has me worried most. That they will try to use him to inflict violence of one kind or another against our friends."
He paused, cocking an eyebrow as a question suddenly struck him. "How did you come to find out about these old Wailers, Aya?" He drew nearer to the woman, lowering his voice, his eyes flicking around as if he were afraid of listening ears. "What put you on their trail?"
"Weylan..." she blushed a bit while a playful pursed-lip smile drew across her carmined lips. "He seems to have found my posters rather fetching. That, or it was just the sight of me upon a bridge on a lonely afternoon."
C'kayah smirked. Then that smirk became a smile. Then that smile split as he began to laugh. "If I ever underestimate you, my friend, I'll deserve everything that happens to me."
she tried her best to fight off a grin, pursing her lips while drawing blonde bangs back behind her ear, one side at a time. She looked toward the water that flowed beneath the pi.er they stood upon. "He's invited me to meet these men. The Old Veterans whom he hopes will make him an elite soldier once more. After he helps them stop the adventurers, of course."
"Stop the adventurers", he repeated, sucking in a breath through his teeth. "I remember what Gridania was like. Before the Garleans came. Before they decided to welcome adventurers into the city. I lived in the shroud for years before the Calamity. Gridania was a closed door. Hostile to any who lived in the forest. You and I, we couldn't have stood here on this dock within the city. I don't want to see it go that way again."
Without looking back up, Aya offered a quick couple of nods. "So," she drew back another strand of blonde that had fallen forward with her downward cast gaze, "I'm supposed to have a date with him, sometime-I'm not sure when. At the Sleeping Boar, if you've heard of it. And he'll introduce me to these gentlemen."
"And you want protection," he astutely guessed.
She nodded, pulling her lips tight for a moment as her eyes moved back to his, "Don't you think that would be wise?"
"Oh, absolutely", he agreed. "But what form should that protection take? I can't exactly perch outside with a bow and a quiver of arrows. The Boar is a basement bar, is it not? A very shut-in place?"
She nodded along. "Mmhmm..." she blinked a bit as if trying to obscure that she had already thought this through a hundred times--as if there were any point in trying to hide that from C'kayah. "I had thought either indoors in disguise, or else just outside on a link-pearl."
"I can do better than that", he said with a sly grin. "How about both? Too many wailers recognize me, so I'll be outside on a link pearl, but I've got a reliable man in the area. I hired him to help out my cousins in the Shroud. Good fighter. Likes a close-in fight. He could come in as a wine merchant, bringing an assorted case for the bartender to try. That would give him an excuse to be there, just in case..."
She sighed quietly, shoulders relaxing as she tilted her head a bit with her eyes softening; looking thoroughly relieved.
"When is this meeting taking place?"
She shrugged by way of reply, adding a little shake of her head, "That's something that I do not know yet. I'll, of course, let you know when I do."
He grinned with a nod of his own. "That will give me another excuse to come back to see you. Though you really should pay a visit to me in La Noscea, too. I'm sure the girls would love you."
She grinned, all worry seeming to evaporate at the brightness of the expression. "Oh you know it doesn't take much of an excuse to find me at the beach!" she giggled excitedly, folding her hands together.
He brought his right arm out to rest on one of her slim shoulders. "My house is right on the beach. A perfect little cove. The tide goes out and you can just walk out for malms..."
She let out an audible breath, the lips of her grin slightly parted. She cocked her hips, canting her head tauntingly. "Are you going to make me beg?"
"The thought does have its appeal", he grinned teasingly. "But I love you too much for that."
"Do you have an overnight bag? You could come back with me until it's time for you to set up this 'date' of yours."
"I do..." she paused, letting out a soft sigh, "But I've just returned from Ul'dah. I have a show this very evening. Perhaps, once this job for Monsieur Vann is over, I think I know where my first stop will be."
"A show tonight?" His grin widened, his eyes flashing, and his tone becoming quick and excited. "Is it open to the public? I'm very public now, you know..." he purred jokingly.
She pursed her lips, shifting her cocked hips to the other side, "I cannot imagine that Monsieur Vann would abide your being turned away, would he? Still on friendly terms with the Syndicate, are you not?"
C'kayah grinned with a shrug. "Friendly enough", he said. "Though I think Vann still hates me. Blames me for some robbery of one of his gold caravans. As if I'd do something like that..."Â He leaned toward her, with a plaintive plea of innocence.
Blonde eyebrows rose and rose-red lips pursed, before she gave an amused little side-to-side head shake, "Mmmhmmm, as if."
She moved her hand to her stylish little purse, withdrawing from it and then slipping into his hand a firm piece of paper several ilms square. "Just in case they give you any trouble."Â She grinned as she used her fingers to close his hand around the guest pass.
He smiled at the feel of the paper, and the warm touch of her hands. "I'll be the very image of discretion, on my very best behavior."
"You'd best not get me into any trouble!" she laughed. Narrowing her eyes a bit she gently teased him, "I never took you much for a lover of fashion." She leaned in a bit closer, "Its almost as if you might have an ulterior interest." She leaned a bit closer yet, so that he could feel her body press gently against his, and then added a gentle soft-lipped kiss against his cheek.
As she leaned into him he firmly pressed his fingers against her feminine waist. And the kiss summoned forth a smile and a blush; blushing in a way that he did for no one else. "It's been far too long, Aya", he said with a soft earnestness. "I'll take any excuse to see you. Especially", he smirked, "to see you wearing the things Vann will likely dress you in. And if I can sweep you away after the show? How can I not?"
She grinned warmly, drawing her bangs back again after they'd slipped free of her ear, "Oh I think you'll find the outfits most enjoyable. Maybe even ravishing." She giggled as she lifted her eyebrows suggestively, and her front teeth come down slightly against the fullness of her lower lip.
She turned part-way away from him, but close enough still that it allowed his fingers to rest comfortably on the delicate narrowness of her waist. "I'll see you tonight then."Â She pursed her lips, and offered a close-eyed kiss in the air toward him.
"Count on it", he purred, his eyes drinking in the heart-aching loveliness of her face. "I'd say Menphina guide you, but there's little else she could do to improve you..."
Aya took a step away, causing his hand to slide down the widening curve of her hips as they swayed. His compliment brought forth a radiant open-lipped grin in reply, "Oh C'kayah!" She just let out an amused laugh, "I have no answer for that one!"
He returned tho laugh, offering no break from his cleverness, "You can have a few days to think of one! I hear good wine and home-cooked meals are excellent for the wit!"
She continued to giggle, "I'll do the best I can!" She turned and stepped away, his hand slipping free from her side. She raised her own to offer a little wave of her fingers. "I'll look for you at the show. Enjoy it!"
He gave a little bow, smiling with open affection. "Thank you. I'll see you there, Aya."
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