05/13/2000


Zaidah's Room, The Shadow's Demise Tavern, The Plaza, Tar Valon

        You see a typical room at the inn: bed, washstand, dresser of
drawers, a little writing desk that can also be used for a vanity. The way
it is arranged though is hardly the way one would expect of a young woman
claiming even half noble blood. Clothing that seems more appropriate for a
small man, well.. except for the shirts with the ovals cut out of the
bosoms, lies scattered on the floor. Not a single dress in the whole room,
well none that's visible.


A new set of clothes has joined the others on the floor. If there was a
maid, she might be a little ticked, not that Zaidah would have anything as
'girly' as a maid. The bed is in a similar state of disaray, with the
comforter flung on the floor and it's occupants kind of tangled up in the
sheets, not that they mind at the moment considering both are most likely
quite unconscious from the alcohol and... other things. Wakefulness tugs at
Zaidah for a moment, but only long enough to make her stretch a bit and
squeeze the arm snaked around Neel's waist and turn her head so her face is
firmly buried in his arm. Bad light. There, that's better. She shoves
consciousness away again and dozes.

For once, Neelkan actually seems to be sleeping quite peaceful. No rolling
around and clawing at anything. No whimpering in his sleep. No bad (or even
slightly weird) dreams. He doesn't even snore! Which is probably a good
thing. He doesn't drool either. A little while after the face was buried
into his arm, he slowly shifts near consciousness. Arg! Ow. Did anyone see
who was driving that carriage that rolled over his head? Whine. He reaches
up a hand, the one that isn't attacthed to the arm which has a face buried
in it (which would of course be the girl he's sort of laying next to, but
his mind has yet to process that), and presses it over his eyes and groans
softly. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Uh... did I Zai forget to mention among the rules that moving isn't allowed
when she's not awake yet? Maybe if she holds onto him tighter he'll get the
point and go back to sleep, so she drags herself over onto her side, which
proves to be far more difficult than the distance she has to go would make
it seem, but she does manage, and snuggles. If she wakes up any more... the
pain in her own head is going to make it impossible to go back to sleep and
believe you me she will -not- be a happy camper. Did I forget to mention
that their legs and the sheets combined makes for a knot that will be very
interesting (read: annoying) when it comes time to untangle it? Ooops.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. ... Huh? Is that... is there someone.. what the...? Ow.
Those are the extent of Neelkan's thoughts at the moment. Slowly he lifts
his fingers up a little and slightly opens one of those bright blue-green
eyes and then instantly closes it. Bad light. Women invinted sunlight. He's
sure of it! But... there is something seriously wrong with this picture.
There's a someone snuggling against him. Ow. Head hurts. Don't think. He
keeps his hand covering his eyes and tries to do just that... but alas...
with something warm and sorta soft pressing against him, it's a little hard
to ignore for long, even with the pounding in his head. He raises his
fingers up again and looks through his lashes until... ERK!??!? A... a...
woman? (Would he have perfered a man? NO!! Not in bed with him!! But the
point is it's a woman!! An evil, evil, evil -woman-!!) He covers his eyes
again, as if hoping this is all a horrible, pain filled nightmare and he'll
wake up in a few minutes!!

Pumpkin.. you're moving again. Don't make me hurt you. Zaidah doesn't say
any of that though, she just groans and mumbles something totally
incomprehensible. Alright, this isn't good because now she's keenly aware
of the throbbing in her head, and the somersaults her stomach is trying to
turn. Definately not good. She might be a little confused about waking up
in bed with a strange man, except that it happens to her all too often,
which is part of the reason she calls people pumpkin. That she can
remember, names on the other hand.. oiy. She yawns and stretches a little
again, or starts to anyway before realizing that just sends a hot poker
into her brain. "Uuuuung." She has a bottle of icky hangover-be-gone around
here somewhere... why does she never remember to take that -before- she
goes to sleep? The problem now is getting up enough strength to get out of
bed and find it.

Oh Light!! It isn't a dream!! Neelkan is not moving a muscle anymore
(little late now, huh?). Is he even breathing? Ow. Pain. Head hurt.
Actually, he's got a pretty strong stomach, so the only thing he really has
to worry about is his head falling off his shoulders and landing on the
floor. Not that that will happen literally, but it might feel like that is
what's happening. Arg. But the part that has him holding his breath and
laying there completely frozen is the fact that this isn't a dream, and
there's a girl... with him... in a bed... that's not his own. Ow. Blood and
ashes!! What happened!?! Ow. He actually tries to remember. He remembers
meeting the Amyrlin. He remembers her giving him silver... he remembers
going out of the tower and nearly getting into a fight. Ow. He remembers
going to the Tavern with the girl, and starting to drink... That's where it
goes fuzzy. Arg. Someone please, just put him out of his misery? Ow. He has
to start breathing again though, or he'll do the job himself. Slow, deep
breaths. Ow.

Zaidah blinkblinks a little when he stops moving, not that she actually
opens her eyes or anything. She just thinks about blinking, yeah, that's
it. Alright, we're moving, we're moving... we're not moving. But the sleep
thing.. isn't happening so she's gotta do something. Very slowly she lifts
up her head, not too far, just enough to try and open her eyes and take a
look around. She cracks the eye with the scar over it, open and peers. Oh,
well at least he's a cute one. She doesn't bother trying to remember at
this point. Either it'll come to her, or it won't. It's just that... he's
between her and the drawer where she thinks she remembers keeping her
bottle, and for some reason it doesn't occur to her that she could just get
out on her side of the bed. Ok, gonna do this one body part at a time. She
tries to tug on her leg, and does blink this time before squinting down in
it's direction. Ok, the leg's stuck... for all intents and purposes anyway.
She lifts the sheet and peers down there to try and figure out what the
problem is.

Daaaaaa!!! She's not only moving around, but she's lifting up the sheet
that's covering him!? Have you no shame!?!? A'right, Neelkan's moving again
now. He lowers his hand from his face and peeks open one eye barely just to
make sure what it feels like she's doing is really what she's doing. No
reason to freak out if there's... Wait. There's plenty of reason to freak
out. One being he's in bed -- /way/ underdressed!!! -- with a WOMAN!! Who's
ALSO /way/ underdressed!!! He lets out a small yelp, which hurts his head
so he won't do it again anytime soon, and reaches down with a hand to push
the blanket back down. "WHAT---ow d'ya 'ink yer doin'??" his voice starts
out a little too loud, but is instantly lowered.

Zaidah winces at the sudden loudness of voice and frowns at her view being
taken away. For once she hadn't been thinking about -that- she was just
trying to-... ok so maybe she did peek a little.. or a lot... Shame? What's
that? She slowly drags her head back up to squint at his face. She opens
her mouth to try and explain, but it's just going to take too much effort.
"Ssshhh," she reaches up to put a hand over his mouth. It still hasn't
dawned on her that he might not be entirely happy to be here. "I'm trying
to think," she half-whispers, half-mumbles.

Not entirely happy to be here? What, usually the men are!? A'right,
a'right, they probably are. But Neelkan's not exactly that fond of women,
after all. When her hand comes in contact with his mouth, his eyes widen,
at least until the light effects them and the narrow again. He starts to
squirm a little, as if trying to get away, but his legs... they're stuck!!
How unfair is this!? She must have tied him up! The evil, evil woman!!
Arg!! But he doesn't say anything, cause that would mean opening his mouth
with her hand covering it. Not something he really wants to do. So he just
squirms and.. is he whimpering...?

Ow... Ow... Ow... "Could you kindly..." Ow... "stop squirming?" Ow... "That
hurts." Ow! Zaidah removes her hand and peers at him. Is he whimpering?
"Look..." she puts the hand up to rub at her own eyes, which aren't too
happy at the moment, "it won't hurt so much, if you don't move." Ok, here
we go, she tries to push herself up slowly to a sitting position, and
unlike he she's doesn't seem to notice whether the sheets are covering much
or not.. which they aren't. She reaches down to try and tug on the sheets a
little. How did they get into this bloody mess anyway? She just wants her
bottle, and then to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, Neelkan was never good at taking orders, and he had a soft
spot towards taking them from a -woman- so he keeps squirming and
whimpering (and not from pain either... oddly enough) up until she sits up
and... He stops squirming now and closes his eyes firmly. His head is still
killing him, but that's a afterthought when the sheer shock of this
incident is taken in mind, at least for him. He will not look. He will not
look. Yes, he saw it all last night, even if he doesn't remember, but that
doesn't mean he wants to see it again!!! He mutters softly through his
teeth, "A'right, a'right." With that, he focuses on the pain in his head
that makes him unclench his teeth. Ow. She wouldn't happen to plan to share
the bottle... would she?

She might. If he's nice, which he isn't likely to be. "There, that's
better." She continues to try and pick her way through the sheets and
untangle their legs. He's acting kind of... strange... hmmmm, maybe she
should try and remember. Kneel? Can? Can Kneel? That thought makes her
giggle- ow. Still, she's amused, and it hurts. Let's see... what else can
she remember as she sets about the task of pulling the sheets out from
around their legs. If he's not careful, she certainly isn't, he might lose
his precious cover again. She tries not to think too much about the pain,
even though remembering stuff is hurting like she's been kicked in the head
by a horse. "At least it must have been interesting if we ended up like
this." Er.. did she just say that outloud? Mumbled anyway, but still!
Again, oops.

Arg. He doesn't want to think about it! Interesting or not... Neelkan only
remembers the start of it. It doesn't matter how interesting it was, cause
it doesn't count!! No it DOESN'T!! Sigh. Just a stupid, drunken mistake.
And certainly an incentive not to ever drink again. (Ye'h right. And he'll
just go swim in the river next too!) Meep. Is it getting drafty? He opens
his eyes to peek down again, only to find his coverings slipping and
quickly reaches down to snag it back up. Arg! It was bad enough he had to
live with the mental picture that while he was delerious in the Tower he
was -bathed-, likely by -women-! Arg. Whine. Whine. Whimper. And if it's
any consolation, he doesn't remember her name either. Just the firefly
nickname he threw at her. Ow. His head still hurts, a lot. But that isn't
why he's whining and whimpering...

Ah ha! Freedom! Zai pulls the sheets lose and blinks as something stop her
from tugging them off all the way. She looks down and bursts out laughing-
OW! That really hurt, but it was kind of worth it too. She tugs on the
sheet again, innocently (yeah right) trying to pull it away from him.
"There's no sense getting all shy now pumpkin." She almost starts to giggle
again, but manages to stop herself in time. Even grinning is hurting right
now. Where is that burned bottle? She starts to climb over him, and then
pauses, leaning down to whisper in his ear, "you certainly weren't last
night." Actually, she doesn't really remember whether he was or not, but he
is rather fun to torment, drunk or sober, or hungover as the case may be.

Ack! Give it back!! He loses his grasp on the blanket but still reaches for
it slightly. But unfortunately it gets pulled out of his reach. Arg!!
Neelkan finally just lays back and closes his eyes. He can't yell. Hurts
too much. And he can't fight her. Hurts too much too. So he's just going to
close his eyes and pretend he's somewhere else. In a lot of pain. And kind
of chilly. And completely humilated... The whispering in his ear though
causes him to shiver slightly. Stop that! Arg. Stupid male hormones. In
reply he grumbles something softly, but it doesn't even seem to be words.
Can't even come up with a good comeback yet. Give him a minute. It's in
there somewhere.

Zaidah gigg- ow. Ok, she's really gotta stop that. She might take more time
out from her search to play with him, but she's on a mission now. So she
finishes crawling over him and carefully steps off the bed. She doesn't
take the sheets with her though, having actually forgotten about them now
that they're not hindering her movement anymore. Bottle, bottle, where are
you bottle? Just the thought of the stuff is making her sick, but the pain
in her head is enough to make that a non-issue. She hangs onto the dresser
while she, with no small amount of effort, goes rummaging through the
drawers.

With her off the bed, Neelkan peeks his eyes open again and sits up. Or at
least tries to sit up. Arg. Head. Pain. Ow. Instead he just uses his leg to
nudge the sheet within reach and pulls it over his lower body again. Much
better. Now he can just lay here in pain. For a bandit from Eharon the boy
has almost no scars anywhere on his body. The ones he does have are small
and easily over looked and could have come from falling out of a tree or
something. The only major injuries he's ever had were Healed by the Aes
Sedai and they didn't scar. He -does- however have a few bruises from the
stampede at the parade the other day. But he's just going to cover himself
and lay here until the pain stops. ... No. He must get up. Get dressed. And
get -out- of here. Arg... in a minute...

Oh thank the Wise Woman. The bottle is actually pretty close to being used
up, but there's still enough so that she's not worried. She takes a swig
and nearly spits it back out again, but forces the stuff down. 1. It tastes
truly awful and 2. Her stomach is quesy enough as it is. Somehow she
manages to keep it down though and she can already feel her head clearing.
She drags herself back over to the bed and plops down on the edge, offering
it to him. Except that his eyes are closed.. so she rests the cool bottle
against his cheek, "here, pumpkin, this'll help with the pain."

Flinch. Oh wait. Just a bottle. Neelkan peeks one of those bright
blue-green eyes open again and glances over at it. Help with the pain? Oh.
A'right... He'll... try to sit up now. Arg. He puts one hand down even with
the bed and forces himself to sit up, no matter how much it hurts, then
takes the bottle with the other one. Though when he takes the bottle he
avoids touching her at all. He presses the bottle to his lips, then closes
his eyes and takes a sip. Uuuuuugh!! Tastes awful!! Could be worse though.
Could be milk!! It takes a few moments, but he takes a sip. Followed by
another sip. Followed by another. He hopes this awful stuff doesn't take
long to work...

"Hey, hey, hey, hey now. Don't drink it all! I need some of that for
later." She gently pulls the bottle away from him and frowns as now there's
barely enough for one more of these encounters, and she doesn't know if
they have anything nearly as good here... It definately doesn't take long
to work though. Gooooood stuff. She stoppers the bottle back up and tosses
it onto a pile of clothes before looking back at him, and watches to see if
the stuff is taking effect.

"Sorry..." hhe mutters softly after she snags the bottle away. And the
bottle starts to work. Aaaaah! Much better. Now. Must get out of this bed
and get dressed and get away from here. Who cares how tired he is! Neelkan
keeps the sheet with him and refrains from looking at her too much as he
slides off the bed to look for his clothes. Clothes, clothes... where are
you. Ah. There they are. He keeps the sheet tugged around him as he
awkwardly moves towards them. Must get dressed. And hope the evil woman
didn't tear them! They aren't his! They belong to the Tower, and he doesn't
want to explain things like that.

Zaidah lays on her side, propping her head up with her arm and seems
perfectly content to watch him get dressed. "You don't have to go so soon
pumpkin, unless you have somewhere to be." Oddly enough, or not, she's not
nearly as tired as she was when she first woke up. There was a bet of some
kind wasn't there? She can't remember who won though... oh well, not like
it matters. In a way they both kind of won, at least to her thinking.

Neelkan just shakes his head, his hair ruffling around back into its fluffy
state of dissary (it was actually a little flat for a while there), and
bends down to fetch his trousers and pull them on first. No tears. Woo. Now
he fully lets the sheet drop and picks up the shirt. Ack! Sigh. Well, it's
not completely torn... he'll just say he fell or something... He puts it
on, then the tunic follows, and the sash. He does all this without talking.
"I shud -really- be goin'. Yer not 'xactly m' ideal company." Ye'h! Yer
evil! But he can't fully bring himself to yell at her yet. He just wants to
get out of here. Now. Where are his boots...

Zaidah glances down and snatches up one of his boots, hiding it behind her.
"I'm not? That hurts pumpkin," she says with a smirk even though she does
manage to put some hurt into her voice. "So I guess that means you don't
want something to remember me by." Rats. Her certainly did get dressed
fast, not that she has any issues with being naked, she just... perfers her
guys without clothes.

Uh. Somethin' t' remember 'er by? Neelkan pauses in his looking for his
boots, almost as if he were considering that, but really he's not. He's
NOT. He's just thinking back on what happened, and what he happens to be
able to remember. Which isn't much. Which is just how he likes it!! But...
"Yer name's... Zay? Zai? Right?" Light, he feels like an idiot. Spent the
night with a girl and he can barely remember her name! He feels like such a
jerk! This is why he HATES women!! Things can be completely outside his
control, and he still feels responsable. Grump. So kneeling there on the
floor, looking for his boots, he glances over and actually manages to just
look at her eyes. He's -not- looking anywhere else. Oh, it's still in his
view of course, but he's focused on her face.

Hmmm, is he reconsidering maybe? She grins, as always crinkling up that
scar of hers. "That's right. Zaidah." Oh wait, does this mean I'm supposed
to remember his name? She's not sure if she actually called him anything
but pumpkin last night. Uh.. uh... Well she doesn't let it bother her. He
has rather pretty eyes.. unusual, that's for certain but there's nothing
wrong with that. "So what are you doing so far from home pumpkin?" Guys
like talking and stuff. She finds it unecessary, but since she's still got
his boot she may as well do -something- with him. Wait, where did that come
from? How do you know he's far from- Oh yeah, he's from Eharon too.. uh.. I
think...

Neelkan keeps his eyes on her face for a moment, glancing over that scar...
Did he say something about her scar? Somethi-- no. It's gone. Maybe it's
better that way. Giving a small shrug and looking away again to go back for
the boot hunt, having no idea one is behind her, he scratches at his hair
with one hand and responds absently, "Eh, kinda a long story." Zaidah? Zai.
Firefly. Whichever. Doesn't really matter. He'll probably never see her
again once he finds his bloody boots... Where are they...? Grrr. "I left
'home' a few years 'go." He adds on. Ah-hah! There's one. He reaches under
the little writing desk. Looks like it was thrown there? Must have been an
interesting night...

"I see," she says softly. "And you're in a hurry. I understand. Sorry about
the shirt," she says with a grin that doesn't seem sorry at all. Except..
that he really does seem like he's preparing to go. Pout. Then she gets an
idea and grins again. "Having trouble? What exactly are you looking for
anyway?" As if it wasn't perfectly obvious...

Neelkan frowns and glances towards the woman. Women are evil yes, but he
never figured they were dumb. Or blind to the obvious. In fact they almost
always seemed to -know- everything. Like whenever he'd done something
wrong, one of his sisters or mother would know of it! Again, he manages not
to pay too much attention to the fact that she's... underdressed...
"Lookin' f'r m'boot." He shakes the one he's found as if to emphasize that.
Then he realizes something else... his necklaces! "Uh. 'n m'necklaces
too..." He did wear them out of the infirmary... didn't he? Yeah. He did.
Hope she didn't break them when she tore his shirt... he'd not be too happy
about that...

Zaidah smiles innocently and hooks the boot with one finger, swinging it a
little as she holds it up. "Oh, you mean.. this boot?" The smile turns
decidedly wicked, and she doesn't look like she has -any- intention of
tossing it over to him, or of ever putting any freaking clothes on! This is
too much fun though. She can't wait to see the look on his face. Is she
evil? Oh yes.

"Ya..." ARG! Neelkan actually grumbles for a moment, his rather longer then
normal pointed canine teeth visable for a moment before he sucks in a deep
breath and moves forward. She is not naked. She is not naked. She is not
naked. She's just... not clothed... He will pay attention to her face. And
her eyes. And her hair. And that scar that he never really understand why
Eharon women found so endearing. Then again, he never understood Eharon
women, or women at all, in general, so why would he expect to know this
little tid bit. He moves up close enough in an attempt to snatch it back
and yells, "GIMME M' FLAMIN' BOOT BACK!" Light, he's got a loud voice.

Zaidah winces, "Ow. You're really lucky my hangover is gone or I'd have to
kick your ass for that. Just for that, the price of the boot just went up."
Go on, ask what the price of the boot is. Oh evil doesn't even begin to
describe her. It's like she's made it her mission to thwart all those nice
women at the Tower's attempts to prove to him that the female gender is not
all that bad. She makes sure to hold the boot out of his reach, that
annoyingly smug grin permanently affixed to her face.

If that is her mission, she's doin' a fairly good job of it!! Neelkan's
eyes widen a little and he continues to reach for it, only to have it
snagged out of his arm length. "Ya lil' trollop," he grumbles, finally
giving up with the reaching thing. He's going to have to crawl over her or
something to get it, and there's no way he's getting any closer to a...
women with no clothes on... Arg. Stupid male hormones. Placing his grabbing
hand down on the sash around his waist he looks away from her towards the
door. He could walk bare foot... he could... but he likes those boots, and
he still has to find his necklaces. Arg. "A'right, a'right!! Grrrr. What's
'is price??"

Zaidah tosses her head back and laughs as he calls her a trollop. "Oh come
on, I'm not that bad." Yes she is. She sits up, and then stands, taking a
step closer to him, though she keeps the boot firmly behind her back. "The
price... is that you have to kiss me." She could have made it a lot
worse... but that will probably be bad enough, though he is starting to
confuse her now. He doesn't seem to like her all that much, not that that's
new just... guys are usually a little more friendly the morning after,
well.. except for the married ones, but she knows he's not that.

"I AM NOT---Grrrr!" Neelkan yells at the given price, but he doesn't
finish. She might go and up the price! She's a cunning little trollop if he
ever met one. He wants to hit something. Badly. But the last thing he needs
is for her to up the price by busting a hole in the wall. And there's no
way he's hitting her. His fists clench for a few moments either way.
Finally he looks back at her, moving forward again, and says, "Fine! If
'at's what ya want, ya brat, 'en..." With that he reaches out to pull her
face over with the intent to plant a -very- quick kiss there. Cheating
wench! If he didn't like those boots so much.... This kiss won't count
either. He was drunk with the others, and this one was stolen by her
holding a boot hostage.

This is definately more fun than anyone would girl deserves. Zai's not
about to let him get away with that though, and when he tries to pull away
she grabs onto the front of his shirt with her free hand and tries to hold
him there. Cheating wench indeed. Someone walking in right now might start
to wonder if Neel was going soft, considering he's kissing, albeit
involuntarily, a naked woman.

Erk! Neelkan's eyes widen as he gets pulled back down into the kiss, and
unlike last night he does open his mouth to protest, letting out a small
ack-like sound. Heeeeey! That's not fair! (What else did he expect from a
woman!?) Sigh. His hand moves down to try to pull hers off his already torn
shirt so he can jerk back and get out of this. Arg. Lemme go!! Lil' firefly
trollop! His other hand smartly tries to grab towards his boot! Ah-hah! He
can use his brain sometimes. The kiss has no effect on him whatsoever...
... Well, he doesn't -want- it to. Arg.

Didn't your Ma tell you an open mouth is an open invitation pumpkin? Zai
takes the opening and slides her tongue into his mouth and woah! The pointy
teeth do nothing to dissuade her unfortunately. Nor would it dissaude her
finding out about the little puncture wounds in her shoulder. If anything
she would just think that was even more incentive to keep him here. Alas in
her attention to his mouth she isn't doing much with the boot except
holding onto it, though considering he has to put an arm around her to get
to it -that- could definately be taken the wrong way.

Twitch. A'right, so he shouldn't have yelped. That was a mistake. But...
well, there's nothing he can really think to do about it now, unless he
just went and bit down on her tongue... but as is he doesn't seem to now
how to take to this... type of kiss. Awkward. He tries to close his mouth
though without snapping off her tongue. Though she's /really/ tempting him
to break his little 'never hurt a woman' thing... Neelkan clenches his eyes
closed for a brief moment (I HATE WOMEN!!) then opens them again and snakes
his arm around to try and grab his boot. Gimme. Gimme. Wouldn't fit her
-anyway-! He has no idea this could also be taken the wrong way like the
ack was... He's not the ripest melon in the garden.

Hrmmm... He needs to loosen up, that's what he needs, but she has this
distinct notion that if she removes her tongue she'll never get it back in
so she doesn't dare try and tell him. Oooo, arm going around the waist,
that's definately encouraging. Ok, so maybe he's just never really been
kissed before, and her tongue is definately in the way of the whole closing
the mouth thing. She takes a step back, keeping her grip on his shirt and
trying to pull him along with her. Back to bed, back to bed my fiery
haired, long toothed, pumpkin. Did she forget to mention that in her price?
Though the boot is definately in danger of being taken from her.

No. She didn't mention anything about the bed in her price! Grrr. Women.
But then until he snags the boot, there's really nothing else he can do
about it, unless he pulls back hard enough and lets his shirt get torn
completely off... That would not be fun. He'd have to go back to the Tower
without a shirt! Neelkan still seems quite awkward with this strange kiss.
He probably wasn't awkward with it last night, but then again he was drunk,
and that kind of takes away most forms of awkwardness. Gimme the bloody
boot... Grrrr. He is easily dragged towards the bed, but he's got all his
attention focused on one thing... the boot. Alright. Two things. The boot
and the kiss. And the kiss is starting to get distracting. He finally tries
to jerk his head back in an attempt to get out of the kiss. He's -really-
tempted just to slap her. Or smack her upside the head with his boot when
he gets it! There's an idea...

Zaidah acks a little herself as he jerks his head back. She frowns at him
but doesn't let go of his shirt. "What'd you do that for??" Speaking of
clunking people with boots... Oh -I- see... he's playing hard to get.
Well.. that can be a fun game. So, she doesn't clunk him over the head,
instead she tugs on his shirt more to wheel him around and tries to slide a
foot around behind his leg to yank it out from under him and send him
flopping back down on the bed, intending to follow right on his heels.
Boot? He can have the boot, it was just a means to an end.

The boot is snagged. For all of two seconds. As soon as he gets it, Neelkan
is tripped, and that causes the boot to fall to the floor at the same time
he falls onto the bed. Ow! "Anyone e'er tell ya yer a real bitch!?" Grrrr.
Ack. Then she's following right on his heels? That means she's going to get
on him? When she's naked!? Help!! "Get offa me!!" He yells almost panicked.
What he wouldn't give to be back in the Tower Infirmary again. None of the
women there tried to jump on him!

Zaidah blinks and sits back, peering down at him. "I'm not a bitch, am I?
Well.. maybe a little. You didn't seem to mind last night." Get offa me?
She frowns a little. "You don't like men or something do you?" That would
explain his strange behavior, and why he wasn't happy about last night.
That must be it. "I'm sorry," and she really does look sympathetic this
time. He's missing out in her humble (yeah right) opinion.

"Yes yer a---" that's as far as Neelkan gets in his response to the first
part as the next part is heard. Does he like men!? His eyes widen even more
then they were already and he explodes. Literally, "Blood and bloody
ashes!! I do not like men!! I just HATE women!!!! Women like ya're WHY I
hate 'em!! But 'at doesn't mean I like men!! Grrrrr!" Even laying down he's
got a loud voice. "Now get OFF!!" He starts to squirm pathetically, trying
to push her off without... touching her very much. Which might make that
difficult.

Oh my... Oh dear. Hate women? How can anyone hate women? She's not foolish
enough to fall in -love- with a man, or trust one very far for that matter,
but that doesn't mean she hates them. They definately have their uses.
Well, Cad she may be, but she's not going to try and force herself on him
or anything, so she rolls off and sits back on the bed, frowning softly.
"You hate women?"

"YES!" Neelkan answers, sitting up now that he's free and looking anywhere
-but- her. "Ya'd hate women too if ya had t' live with m' five older
sisters who were all worse 'en ya!" Well, 'cept they didn't try to jump
him... "Ne'ermind, -YER- worse!" Arg. Is his face a little flushed? Yes.
Light. Just, let him get his boots and find his necklaces and get out of
here. "Light, 'n 'ere I was e'en thinkin' not all women were bad 'til I met
ya!" All women are now evil!! Denn and Espi and Wyn are flukes! They're men
in disguise!! ... No. That'd be even more weird. We'll just say they're
weird. (And they can all channel. Isn't that a hoot.)

Zaidah doesn't know if she should be insulted.. or take it as a compliment.
It's not that she -tries- to be brash and annoying... most of the time she
doesn't really realize why people find so many things not to like about
her, but she does enjoy a good tease and if she's gotten anyone's goat,
she's gotten his. Still.. to be hated? "Look.. Neel," oh, is that his name?
Bits and pieces do seem to be coming back to her. "I'm sorry." Ick. I hate
apologizing... "How was I supposed to know- well it's not like I saw you on
the street and said I think I'll try and get that guy into bed- ok, well..
maybe the thought had crossed my mind, but-" She scowls, not liking this at
all. "Just leave ok? Forgive me for trying to have a little fun." Sulk.

Eh. Why does he suddenly feel like an utter and complete ass? Neelkan
pauses in his getting off the bed to grab his boots and stares off at
nothing for a few moments while she finishes saying what she's saying.
Sigh. He closes his eyes after that last part and lowers his head a little.
He opens his mouth to return an apology... then stops himself. No! He's
just going to leave. It's better that way. But the pause and the hesitation
is pretty apparently. He does get up though and slip on one boot, and then
the other, then locates his necklaces near the bed and grabs them and slips
them on as well. All this done without looking at her. He turns to start to
leave... and stops. Arg. This is another reason he hates women. He lets out
a small sigh then says, with his back still to her, "I'm sorry t', Zai."
There. He feels a little bit better and starts towards the door again.

Zaidah laughs, albeit a forced one. "Stuff it. I don't want your
apologies." Why is this bothering her so much? It's not like no guy has
ever said 'no' to her before, still, she's highly tempted to throw one of
her own boots at him, and speaking of feeling like an ass... She shrugs it
off though. What does she care? She had her fun didn't she? Might as well
get dressed. She grabs a shirt off the floor and tugs it on slowly.

Neelkan pauses for another small instant when she tells him to stuff it and
is instantly tempted to turn around and yell at her... but instead he just
stiffens his back a little and continues towards the door. He'll let her
have the last word and just leave. Safe that way. Less... tempting. Women
are evil, cruel beasts. The Dark One himself invinted women... no. He
doesn't think that. But he still hates them in general. He opens the door,
steps outside and closes it behind him. Now... how's he going to explain
this to the Yellows... Sigh.