Louis rang the bell and waited. When Kay opened, he flashed her a charming smile. "I hope I'm not terribly late..."
She smiled at him warmly, "You're not late at all. My other guests should be here soon. Just remember what I warned you about them".
"These are for you...", he said, giving her a bouquet of red roses.
How wonderful ! MORE roses ! Kay all but purred with delight as she settled them into the vase that already held the still-fresh 'apology-roses'. The rich red tones of the new roses blended in perfectly. She then opened a fresh box of Terran dark chocolates (and successfully resisted the urge to sample them), then set them beside the vase.
"Most excellent!", she exclaimed softly, regarding the arrangement with a self-satisfied grin, then added to Louis, "as are you".
Louis grinned. "Why, is that a compliment? If I may say, you look quite dashing yourself. I have something...you say your guests have not arrived yet? Then perhaps...no, it's better later..."
"No, they're not here yet, but they should be arriving any momemt now. And it's really very sweet of you to flatter me", Kay chuckled softly. Then she added wryly, "especially when how I _FEEL_, is over- tired, over-stressed and mostly worn-out".
She was just about to ask what it was that he had to to tell/show her. By the fact that he clearly didn't want her other guests to know, it obviously wasn't anything neutral or trivial.
A loud thumping on the door abruptly caught Kay's attention. Had her other guests just arrived ? Or had they been standing outside the door waiting (and possibly listening) ?
Feeling somewhat nervous about what they might have overheard, Kay hurried to open the door.
"Good evening", she said softly in greeting and then stepped aside to allow them to come in. She decided NOT to ask how long they'd been standing outside the door. THAT might lead to questions that she'd really rather NOT answer.
Danette smiled at Kay. "I am sorry that we are late, but I overslept." She smirked. The time that she had spent helping Kay took alot out of her.
Behind her, Anwyn's face began to contort itself into all sorts of odd expressions as she tried to resist the urge to snicker. But a shirt snicker bubbled out and escaped before she could repress it. The way that Damisela Dannette has said "overslept", reminded Anwyn of a scene from an Adore Eternally book that she'd flipped through in the base library (ONCE, and only out of total boredom). Those characters had seemed to oversleep alot -- especially after staying up late doing things that REALLY shouldn't be discussed in polite company.
Louis turned to the door and smiled as the guests entered. He bowed his head slightly do Danette and her companion and winked at Anywn. "Good evening, damisela Danette. Good evening, vai dom."
Danette smiled at Kay as she and Connor walked into her quarters. "I hope you don't mind an extra person." She smiled at Anwyn.
Anwyn smirked at Dannette, then shrugged and giggled "If I wasn't welcome, then surely _SOMEBODY_ would be suggesting that I go get lost ... or something". She tried to give the impression that she didn't really care anyone wanted her around. But some of the impact of her statement was lost as she was pounced upon by three small forms -- two feathered and one furred.
Dani quickly spotted the animals (and the box of Mestru Marrick's favourite chocolate-for-sharing on the desk) and said to Connor. "See I told you we should have brought Midnight along". That made Connor laugh. Dani then explained to him about her chocolate cravings. The ones on Kay's desk were exactly the same kind that had been turning up in certain few places in Thendara. Connor chuckled and said, "I know where to look for her most of the time then when she goes hunting for it."
Remembering that the human cub couldn't speak to them like their other humans did, the birds and cat had settled for simply snuggling up to Anwyn and making signs of of affectionate grooming instead.
Kay chuckled softly. Anwyn sometimes tried so hard to seem mature. And then something like THIS happenned, and a sudden flash of child- like innocence shone through. Idly she wondered if she herself ever looked that way. "Hey Anwyn", she suggested mischievously, "when you're done with your little mutual cuddlefest there, I'd like for you to go fill the wine glasses".
"Sure ... whatever", came the distracted reply. Mairead and Amadaine were simply TOO cute not to capture most of Anwyn's attention. And, even though she thought it offended Oberon's dignity to be thought of as 'cute', the girl still couldn't resist _thinking_ it when she looked at the little owl.
Dani looked at Anwyn and said, "Yes I know. You remind me of me at your age" In one respect that was the only good thing to come out of Dani staying offworld. Her tomboy antics would have driven Marius nuts and he would have called her out on so many things.
This time, when Anwyn felt a giggle trying to get out, she let it. It seemed such a bizarre idea that some gorgeous high-class sorceress could _EVER_ have been quite _THAT_ bad at fitting in. "You ? A trouble-maker ? As bad as _ME_ ? .... No waaay !!!", she giggled, giving Dani her best cynical-teenager mischievous grin. "You're too pretty for anyone to call you a pest ... and from what I saw _before_, you're obviously not afraid of getting dirty, but you probably have too much talent for most folks to think you're just a nuisance", she added.
Then Dani turned back to Louis and Kay, suddenly realizing that she'd been distracted from making a formal introduction. "Greetings. I would like you both to meet my freemate Connor-Rakhal Ardais", she said warmly.
Oberon paused to regard the stranger. Silently he scolded himself. He SHOULD have examined the stranger BEFORE greeting the human-cub. It was all right for the youngest ones to be childish, but he often still felt it to be HIS burden to watch out for them. Back when none of them had had humans of their own, he'd been the one to teach them how to survive.
Dani's attention was caught by Oberon. He reminded her of the owl that was the goddess Athena's companion. Using the skills that she developed with Romily, her hawk, she told him, *I will not harm you or the others, neither will my mate.*
The owl's ears perked up in sudden surprise. ANOTHER human who could talk. Abandoning Anwyn's lap, he flew up to the back of one of the chairs, where he could get a closer look at both the she-human and the new he-human. Large, round owl-eyes flicked back and forth between them, as if he was trying to decide which one was more fascinating.
On one hand, the small owl could feel his human bond-mate's uncertainty. He wanted to ask her about it. But he also knew that Kay prefered that he NOT *speak* to anyone when strangers were near enough to notice him doing it. However, on the other hand, this man seemed to belong somehow to the other woman, and SHE had already been accepted as a friend of his flock. Sometimes human rules just didn't make much sense.
Feeling somewhat confused, Oberon concentrated instead on contacting his _other_ human instead. A quick query was enough to reassure him somewhat. Ceroill agreed with Kay that there was likely no immediate danger, but also agreed that he didn't know that other man quite well enough to erase all doubts as to how far to trust him.
After weighing the possibilities in his mind, Oberon reached and brushed one of his wings against Dani's hand. Forming his thoughts the way he did with Kay and with Ceroill, the owl projected (with a tight focus) *he-human YOURS ... welcome ... MY nest*. But he didn't take his eyes off Connor. Even if his humans didn't consider the man to be a danger to them, he still found the man to be rather fascinating -- especially with that glow. Oberon could somehow *feel* the warmth of the glow when he looked out of Kay's eyes. Part of his sharp mind noted that not all humans glowed, and not all of the glowing humans could speak properly. However, every human that COULD do that, DID in fact glow.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kay noticed how intensely Oberon was watching Connor. Part of her was secretly glad that the owl felt so protective of her. And partially she wondered what it was that he found so interesting about the man. She was tempted to ask, but then changed her mind. If it was important, then she was certain that Oberon would already have told her.
Secure that her animal-companions were behaving themselves reasonably well, Kay turned to Connor and Dannette.
Bowing formally, she commented, "A pleasure to meet you, Dom Ardais". It was always wiser to err in the direction of being too formal, she'd long ago decided. And it also tended to provide more time in which to size a person up. There were a number of things that she could tell from looking at him, and a few more that she thought she could guess. One hand, he seemed friendly enough. But from the brightness of his aura, he clearly had much more power than anyone she'd ever met before -- and that could be extremely dangerous if he ever STOPPED being quite so friendly.
Connor smiled at Kay. "No need for formalities. If you are a friend to Danette then you are a friend to me."
"Oh yeah ?", piped up Anwyn boldly, looking up from playing with the kitten and hawk (who then proceeded to each climb up onto one of her shoulders), "Well, I'm Kay's apprentice ... so does that mean that you'd teach me about those energy field things your lady mentioned ?". It sounded like such a way cool idea to be able to see people glowing -- especially if it was other teenagers. Maybe then she wouldn't feel like such a complete freak so much of the time. There was alot that adults simply didn't understand about being a teen.
"ANWYN !", Kay protested, suddenly looking as shocked as if such a simple request had been something extremely impolite. So Anwyn went ahead and interrupted her back. "I want to know the answer, and it's NOT a rudely-improper question", she replied indignantly to Kay. "And anyways, you know (as well as I) how totally obvious it is that he's like us too. My Gran told me that folks are happiest with their _OWN_ kind, and she didn't mean in terms of _APPEARANCE_".
Kay's face suddenly blushed a bright red. It seemed to her that Anwyn was giving away too much information, as well as imposing on someone she barely knew. Admittedly, she _had_ noticed the look on Connor's face when he'd stepped into the room. Clearly, he had perceived SOMETHING. But she wasn't sure whether or not he'd been able to identify the energy signature of the passive ward-runes that she'd set on her apartment That all depended on whether he was familiar with elementary Wiccan energy-working.
A further thought suddenly popped into Anwyn's mind. It seemed to explain quite a few things, so she decided to let it out. "Maybe", she said impulsively to Kay, not being able to resist the urge to tease her, "_THAT's_ how you got that silly nickname ... 'cause NONE of them were your own kind ... and maybe THAT's why you never ...".
Anwyn paused for a moment, noticing that her words had caused a rather odd sort of expression to creep across Louis' face. How delightful ! Maybe her guesses were correct about what was up between those two. She giggled mischievously, "Or at least, not until ...".
"That's ENOUGH, Anwyn !", Kay interrupted rather sharply, "Surely there are more interesting dinner-table conversation topics than the current state of MY love life".
Then she added to everyone else, "Why don't we just sit down and eat before the food gets cold". As a hint, she started filling her own plate. The chervine stew smelled so good that she almost forgot that she was worried- angry at Anwyn.
Mumbled grumbles came in reply. It wasn't FAIR ! Anwyn had often heard OTHER people talking about far more personal topic in the cafeteria, where ANYONE could overhear them. "Whatever", she replied, trying to sound as though she didn't care.
Kay sat down on the side of her bed, up near the headboard. Since there were only three chairs in her small room, this would be a fine enough seat. Her plate didn't really need to sit on the table with the serving dishes and the other plates that she'd _borrowed_ from the cafeteria. Well, nobody had _COMPLAINED_ when she'd walked out the door with them, so it must have been ok to take them. And anyways, they'd get returned after dinner anyways.
Anwyn pulled one of the three chairs around to the end of Kay's bed. Since she'd apparently just put her foot in her mouth, perhaps it would be wiser to follow ADULT politeness standards for a while. The other chairs (and the place settings on the table) were obviously meant for the guests, and she guessed that Louis would want to sit next to Kay.
Louis regarded Anwyn curiously as the girl so quickly grabbed the chair he'd hoped to take for himself. She gave him a mischievous grin, then nodded towards the bed. OH! So THAT was it then. Louis was silently amused at Anwyn boldness. With a shy grin, he sat at the foot of the bed, taking care to keep as much space between himself and Kay as was possible (though that wasn't very much).