ic Bend to the Tempest (IC)

[April]

"Oh."

The ancient guardian dropped her stance as well and took a moment to fish a leather thong out of the back pocket of her cargo pants. She gave Erik a considering look as she pulled her ankle length hair back into a ponytail and secured it with the strip of leather, briefly wondering why she hadn't done that before. And she found herself distracted by the swordsman's physique, again. Oh. Right.

"I have never had talent," Willow said more as a distraction from her own thoughts, the subject was something of familiar ground to both of them. "All I had was power, though even that is failing me. I am now what I was then, though, a blunt instrument."

"Do you find the knowledge of your background useful? Does such knowledge influence your decisions?"

[Gizmo]

"Nah, not really," Erik dismissed with a wave of his hand as he watched Willow tie her hair back before pausing for a moment to reconsider. "Well, actually... a bit, I guess? I mean, knowing that much went into making sure you'd be awesome at something is a confidence booster," he chuckled a little ruefully, a reflexive boast taking a surprising turn for the self-conscious at the ancient guardian's sincere interest. "On the other hand, precision instrument, blunt instrument... Euh." It took a long moment for the athletic young man to marshal his feeling into words. "I'm not about to be anybody else's weapon, right, but when it comes down to it, fighting's the only thing I'm good at."

[April]

A white eyebrow rose.

"Fishing for compliments, dearest Swordmaster?" Willow inquired, amusement dancing in her amber eyes. "You know as well as I do that fighting isn't the only thing you're good at." She chose that moment to pad over to Erik, her bare feet gliding across the cool metal floor of the Wreck Room, and kiss him on the nose.

"You are a most capable teacher," she continued, her voice was quiet but her tone was earnest. "What you have shown me, what I have learned at your side... if I had to make a choice of what I was then to what I am now, I would choose now."

The ancient guardian leaned up against the metamagi, resting her cheek against his chest and averting her gaze. "Though you are capable of destroying, beloved, you are equally capable of creating. That is not a claim a weapon can make."

[Gizmo]

Erik laughed at the whimsical display of affection, his pensive mood broken. "Ha, fair enough. Guess I can't pull off self-deprecating." It was pretty hard to feel too bad about himself with a beautiful woman leaning against his bare chest, slipping an arm around the small of the slender immortal's back. "So can we just agree that we're both awesome and shouldn't pretend otherwise?" he asked wryly, inclining his chin to brush his lips over the point of Willow's ear.

[April]

Willow made an appreciative noise and snuggled up against Erik. "I am willing to concede the point," she breathed. The dryad lapsed into silence her arms wrapped around Erik, her head still resting on his chest and her eyes were closed. There was a look of contentment drawn across her angular features and the swordsman noticed that the ear not pressed up against his torso was twitching in sync with his heartbeat.

"Will you go on patrol tonight, Guardian?" Willow asked, breaking the silence. It was just a quiet inquiry, Erik knew the dryad well enough by now to know she took his work (and her work) rather seriously.

[Gizmo]

Erik was not typically one for quiet moments of stillness. His restless nature was one of the reasons for his habitual, almost compulsive training and exercise; the athletic young man quickly became uneasy if he wasn't doing something immediate. At that moment, however, softly breathing in the dryad's light earthen scent as the fingers of his free hand stroked flowing white tresses, he found himself uncommonly at peace. It wasn't simply a question of another warm body pressed against his own, he knew. If that had been all it took to remedy his admittedly limited attention span he imagined his romantic history would have been considerably more successful. No poet, the swordsman found himself unable to put the difference into words even to explain it to himself. Fortunately, that didn't seem to bother him much either.

"That was the plan," he answered Willow in a pleased murmur, dark blue eyes partially lidded. Much as he was content to remain where they were for the foreseeable future, he did still have his responsibilities. "Would you care to accompany me, Guardian?"

[April]

Willow kissed Erik's neck in answer, her quiet mmhmm nearly muffed where her lips lingered. Her eyes remained closed as she nuzzled up against the swordsman but being the curious mix of gentle and fierce, eventually her capricious nature asserted itself and she nipped at Erik's jaw.

Her eyes opened and her smile was impish as she looked up at the human, the man, who brought her so much joy, who made her genuinely happy to be alive. "If my Heart is offering then I would gladly accept." She rested her head back against Erik and added, "I would follow you anyway, beloved Swordmaster."

[Gizmo]

Erik's breathing grew momentarily heavier against Willow's ear and he had to catch himself from letting the hand on the small of her back wander too freely. The slender woman's fickle balance of personality was maddening in all the best ways, but if they intended to get anything accomplished that evening, he was going to have to force himself to remain at least nominally focused. "Hey, you may have world-saving seniority on me, florecita, but don't forget this is my town," he mock-chided with a winning grin, snapping his teeth lightly in the air in her direction.

[April]

"And that is why I remain here, dear Heart, because it is your town," Willow said in tender reply. And that was the truth, or at least it used to be. Erik was still the major reason why she remained in the area but thanks in large part to the Swordsman's own efforts the wood nymph was developing her own fondness for the bustling city of humanity. Willow was only partly paying attention to her own wandering hands, preoccupied as she with the changes Erik brought about in her when she realized she had hooked her leg around his own and was about to toss him to the floor.

The ancient guardian blushed, her copper complexion turning a dark crimson as she stepped lightly away from Erik and shot him an apologetic look. "I... forget myself when I am around you, beloved, I apologize."

[Gizmo]

Erik's expression turned momentarily distraught at the abrupt lack of dryad in his arms, but quickly schooled it into a rueful smile. "Heh, believe me, you never have to apologize for that, pretty lady," he assured Willow with a light chuckle and a perfunctory bow expanded upon with a flourish of one arm. "I wasn't planning to head out until the evening anyway, if you'd care to practice a bit more," the swordsman offered nonchalantly. "Some simple pins and holds, perhaps?"

[April]

Willow coughed lightly and then grinned, a mischievous look in her amber eyes. "Are you suggesting that we have the entire afternoon and early evening to practice simple pins and holds?" She pursed her lips together, tapping a slender finger against them as if in thought. The dryad approached Erik, took one of his hands into her own and still clasping his hand she pirouetted, backing up against the swordmaster and placing his hand on her stomach.

Arching her neck she looked up and back over her shoulder at Erik. "Show me."

[Gizmo]

The untamed nature of his white haired sparring partner seemed to have rubbed off on Erik, perhaps literally, as with a deep, throaty growl that reverberated in his chest and against her back, he locked his arm around Willow tightly and placed a line of kisses along her arched neck, leaning over her shoulder to continue down to her throat. It was looking less and less like any actual combat training was going to get done that afternoon, but the fencer could live with that. The Wreck Room wasn't going anywhere, after all, and his time with the Interceptors had taught him that it wasn't enough to simply fight, one had to have something they were fighting for.

[April]

The dryad closed her amber eyes and leaned against the swordsman making a sound not unlike purring, a feminine counterpoint to his throaty growl. They separated for a moment, and Willow turned to face Erik, lifting her shirt over her head and casually tossing it aside while a deft movement and a twitch of her hips soon had her stepping free of her cargo pants.

Coppery skin creates a subtle contrast when held against bronzed flesh something the lovers took ample opportunity to observe amid practicing their pins and holds.

[Gizmo]

The time that had been set aside for training being put to somewhat different but similarly vigorous use, the swashbuckler and the dryad eventually found themselves propped up in one corner of the Wreck Room in a comfortable tangle of limbs, using an exercise towel sized for the Interceptors' most imposing member as an ad hoc blanket. Erik rested the back of his head against the cool metal wall, his dark blue eyes half lidded as he absently traced the curve of Willow's bare shoulder with the fingertips of one hand. "Mmh, you are a force of nature, you know that?" he murmured, the corner of his mouth quirking upward.

[April]

The dryad lifted her head from the fencer's shoulder, placing one last lingering kiss on his neck before facing him. "I know," Willow murmured in acknowledgement. Her amber eyes cut away for a moment though she snuggled up closer to Erik before she continued. "More than you may realize, beloved Heart, though I wish I could be more than that."

"The changing of the seasons, they affect me more deeply than others." she said after a time. "You have seen me in spring and summer, but I fear autumn. I want you to understand, Erik, I need you to understand. My heart beats for you and your issue, I have bound my purpose to yours." The dryad shivered. "And then there is winter."

[Gizmo]

Erik frowned slightly in concentration as he opened his eyes fully and tried to parse exactly what Willow was trying to explain to him. The ancient guardian's manner of speech tended to sound florid and poetic while being starkly literal. "Well, hey, everybody has bad days," he responded finally, his lips curving back upward in a reassuring smile. "So maybe you have all of yours in a row. I can live with that." Letting out a short, chagrined breath he shifted his position to wrap one arm around the dryad's back as she faced him, the fencer admitted, "And you haven't really seen me at my worst yet, either. How about we keep each other on the rails?"

[April]

Willow regarded the fencer with a puzzled expression. "On the rails?" she asked. "I have heard many human idioms over the years but I am not familiar with that one." The dryad settled back into Erik's embrace, resting her check against his shoulder, one hand tracing the scars and well defined muscles of his torso.

"I do not wish to move from this spot," Willow murmured, placing a lingering kiss on the swordsman's torso, "but it is nearly time for us to begin our vigil." Amber eyes looked up into blue, "But you should eat first, I think."

[Gizmo]

"Y'know, like... keep each other on track. On the right path," Erik attempted to clarify, straining a bit as he found herself trying to explain idioms with more idioms. "I'm just saying we can watch out for each other, I guess," the fencer finally settled on, reflexively tightening his embrace for a moment. At Willow's somewhat abrupt suggestion, he blinked then laughed, a melodic chuckle she could feel through his chest. "Not exactly the looking out I was thinking of, but when you're right you're right, florcita. You feel like anything?" He knew that the dryad could eat even if she didn't have to.