Topic: Empty Chairs

Dru Granger

Date: 2015-10-05 19:08 EST
Friday, 25th September - Les Miz rehearsals

Things had been going pretty well during rehearsals for the most part, except for the occasional faux pas or minor mishap. The cast and crew were excited about bringing Les Miserables to life on stage at the Shanachie, and Aran was as eager as any of them, but perhaps, but slightly different reasons. He'd won the role of Marius, hands down and with argument from anyone once they'd seen him in the part. When Aran was on stage, he became Marius, putting so much of himself and his heart into the role, it was easy to forget he was only playing a part, but it was during one of these rehearsals that it almost proved too much for the elf. The song was Empty Chairs and Empty Tables. It was the song that had won him not only the part but a place in the company that year, proving once again that he was worthy of a place there.

Thankfully, it wasn't a rehearsal that included the full cast and chorus. They were rehearsing the smooth transition between Empty Chairs At Empty Tables and the following movement, which meant only the students at the barricades and Dru Granger were present, along with Ludo, the director. Josh Stuart was one of those students, standing silent behind Arandir as he sang, a ghost in the mind of Marius with the promise that the lighting would help the illusion. Dru, as Cosette, wasn't supposed to be on stage for this part, leaning comfortably against the wall as she listen, rapt, to the beautifully intense cadence of Arandir's voice.

At first, it seemed the tears were just part of the role. Good acting, perhaps, but about halfway through the song, the elf's voice broke and he fell silent. It had been a particular line that had done it. "Oh, my friends, my friends, forgive me ....that I live and you are gone. There's a grief that can't be spoken ....There's a pain goes on and on." That last line had been whispered so quietly, it could barely be heard and then he fell silent, a pained expression on his face that was more than just due to good acting.

Josh had been the first one to notice that something was wrong. Though he didn't know Arandir well, they'd rehearsed this scene time and again, and the elf had never failed to give a heart-rending performance, but he had never fallen silent mid-song as though he'd been struck dumb.

"Aran," Josh whispered behind him, but it was already too late. The music had gone on without the accompaniment of words, and had at last died away. It seemed as if the entire theater had fallen silent with him, and no one knew quite what was wrong or what to do. Josh stepped forward and touched a hand to the elf's shoulder. "Aran' Are you all right?"

Tears were streaming down the elf's face, as he turned to face the young man who was portraying his best friend. He took one look at Josh and knew he had failed yet again. Choking down a sob, he mumbled an apology in a language Josh didn't know and hurried to make his way offstage to collect himself in private.

There was a minor scuffle from the stalls, where Ludo had only just noticed what had happened, but by the time the director had unfolded from his seat, Aran was already off-stage. Dru caught him as he hurried away, worried about the quiet but always collected half-elf she'd come to admire over the last year. "Come with me," she murmured to him, giving him a gentle tug out of the immediate backstage and into the warm up area behind. There was no reason for anyone to come back here right now.

Later, he'd be grateful for Dru's intervention, but right now, Aran was too lost in his own grief to do anything but mutter an apology that was only half meant for her. "I'm sorry," he murmured under his breath. "Goheno nin," he whispered, repeating it again as he crumpled onto a couch, drawing himself up into a ball and rocking back and forth, his arms clasped tightly around his knees.

Unlike others, who might have fussed over him, Dru recognised some form of trauma when she saw it. She'd been through something similar, but she had had a lot of help from family and from Josh when it had been at its worst. All she did was sit down beside him, not touching him at all, and pull her phone out of her pocket. A moment later, her voice made itself known. "Hi, Carina" It's Dru. I think you should come to the Shanachie - Aran's had a bad turn. He's not hurt, he's just really emotional. Okay. Okay, sure. Come through the stage door, we're in the warm up room." Finally, she laid her hand on Aran's back gently. "Carina's coming, Aran."

The elf was so far gone and lost in his despair that her words hardly reached him. He only clutched his knees, head bowed, and broke into heartbreaking sobs.

Josh joined them, looking from one to the other, just as Dru hung up the phone. "I made excuses to Ludo. Told him Aran was feeling a little ill today." He glanced at the curled up elf who seemed to be having some sort of breakdown before looking back to Dru with a concerned and confused expression on his face. "What's the matter with him?"

One hand on Aran's back, Dru looked up at Josh with a concerned look on her face. "Remember what I was like after the anniversary of my mom's death?" she offered softly. "I think this is the same sort of thing, but much, much worse. It's almost like PTSD; something triggered him so badly, he's completely caught up in it." She sighed softly, wishing there was something she could do. "I called Carina, but I don't know what else we can do."

Though Josh, too, had lost his mother, he had never suffered through such a traumatic event as Dru had or, it seemed, Aran, and while his heart went out to them both, he had no idea what to do to help. "Just stay with him, I guess, until Carina gets here. What do you think triggered it' He was just singing when he suddenly went silent," Josh said, keeping his voice as low as he could, so that none of the others onstage or otherwise would overhear them.

Though he knew what Dru had gone through, he didn't know Arandir very well. Except for Carina, the elf kept mostly to himself, and while he had been part of the theater company for over a year, he had remained aloof through it all, quiet and shy, but always coming through with a perfect performance, even when he didn't understand the story or his part in it. Josh had tried to get to know him better and had failed. He just wasn't around enough anymore, now that he and Dru had married and had responsibilities of their own in Tirisano. If only he had known the irony of it all, but up until now, Carina was the only one who knew the truth of Aran's past, and she had not spoken a word of it to anyone but her own family.

"It was that line, I think," Dru murmured, her hand gently rubbing over Aran's back, reluctant to remove that touch for now. "You know ....my friends, forgive me that I live and you are gone. That's a powerful line in itself, even without the music and the visual to go with it." She genuinely had no idea what was going on herself. Like Josh, she hadn't managed to make a friend of Aran, though Carina had been friendly enough. It was a difficult situation. "Ludo's okay with the interruption, right?"

"Yeah, I told him he wasn't feeling well, and Ludo believed me," Josh replied, looking worried. Josh wasn't sure what to do to help, and if Carina couldn't manage to somehow reach the elf, there wasn't anything Josh could do or say to keep him in the company. "Do you think we should try to talk to him?" he asked, uncertainly, unsure if they should wait for Carina or not.

"What do we say?" Dru asked him, at a loss herself. "The only reason I responded to you was because I love you, and I knew you wouldn't hurt me. I don't think he has any friends, does he" I've tried, but he's always so distant." As she spoke, she glanced toward the door. Carina wasn't known for her careless driving, but Dru had once seen her knock over a market stall to get to Aran in a hurry.

Josh frowned at that. He'd tried in his own way to get acquainted with Aran, but maybe he hadn't tried hard enough. He and Dru weren't around much anymore, but was that an excuse really when they all worked for the same theater company' "Maybe we should try harder, Dru. You remember what it was like when we first got here and didn't know anyone?" Josh pointed out with a slightly guilty frown on his face.

Dru Granger

Date: 2015-10-05 19:09 EST
As for Aran, his sobs had slowly subsided, but he was still curled tightly in a ball, as if he was curled inward on himself, afraid to let anyone else in.

"Maybe we should invite them out together," she suggested thoughtfully. "Not too much pressure, but not so many people around. Would that work, do you think?" Her hand stilled on Aran's back as he went quiet. Somehow, that was worse than the sobs.

All of that depended on whether Aran was going to recover from whatever trauma he was suffering. "What do you think happened to him?" Josh asked her quietly, his gaze moving back to the elf, who'd gone disturbingly quiet. There were only so many things that could cause a person - human, elf, or otherwise - that kind of emotional distress, but if it was the lyrics to the song that had done it, then it narrowed it down a little anyway.

"It could be anything," Dru sighed softly, shaking her head. "But maybe the closest guess is that he lost everything, everyone he loves. That might explain why he keeps himself so closed off from everyone here." She jumped as the door to the stage door access suddenly banged open, and Carina lurched into sight.

The young half-elf took one look at Arandir and skidded onto her knees in front of him, pushing her hands between his knees to gently raise his head. "I'm here, melamin," she murmured to him. "What happened?"

Josh didn't really have a chance to respond to that, before Carina came rushing in, though he thought that made sense. He didn't know much about the elf, but he knew that except for Carina, he was very much a loner. The look on Aran's face when Carina raised his head to face her was enough to prove to Josh that Dru had come pretty close to the mark. The look on the young elf's face was pure anguish, the depths of which Josh could only imagine. Aran stared out at Carina through glassy eyes, one hand moving to grip the amulet he wore against his chest and which he was never without. "He froze up during rehearsal in the middle of a song," Josh tried to explain.

"Which song?" Carina asked, looking into Aran's eyes all the while. She'd never seen him quite this bad, though there had been a few close calls. It was a relief to know that Dru had thought to call her rather than try to get Aran out of his shell herself.

"It was Empty Chairs," Dru admitted quietly, rising to her feet to stand with Josh as Carina eased closer to Aran. "He just ....stopped. It was like everything shut down."

Carina nodded, still looking into Aran's eyes. "Could you guys get me a cup of honey tea?" she asked Josh and Dru. "The sachets should be by the kettle downstairs still."

Josh reached for Dru's hand as she rose to her feet to join him, partly for lack of something useful to do and partly to offer her a little reassurance. He remembered when she'd had a breakdown, though it hadn't been quite so bad as this, and it had been up to him to console her and bring her out of it. He had a feeling Carina was the only who could do the same for Aran. "Yes, of course. We'll be back as soon as we can," he replied for them both.

"Thank you." As Dru and Josh slipped down the stairs and out of sight, Carina pulled her coat off, moving herself to sit beside Aran, all the while murmuring to him in the elven form they had adapted between them over the past few months. Her hands gently massaged his, urging him to relax. She didn't tell him to step away from his memories, or to pull himself together. Just kept reminding him that she was there, and that all those souls were still there with him, in the stone he gripped so tightly in his palm.

But what was a stone compared to all those lives that had been lost' If he could only sort out what he was to do with it. His mother couldn't have given it to him only as a remembrance, could she" No, there was some sort of magic involved, but as yet, he had not been able to unlock the key or been able to gain access to those memories, and yet, the thing thrummed in his hand, like it had a life of its own. He remembered the tearful goodbye to his mother as she'd bade him to walk through the mirror, through the portal that would take him to safety and a strange world. The amulet, along with his memory, was the only link he still had to the past and to the world where his mother's fate and the fate of his people was unknown to him. There, he was a prince, destined to one day become a king. Here, he was nothing but a commoner, but it wasn't that which had plunged him into despair, but the guilt and loss of all those he'd once loved and who'd loved him.

He was struggling hard, she could tell, but there was so little she could do until he came out of it. Her arm wrapped about him, her cheek touching his shoulder, and softly she started to sing. It was an old lullaby, one her father had sung to her when she was very small, filled with promises to stay close, to always be there, even if she could not see him or hear him. It was all she could think of to do, hoping to draw Arandir out of his memories before it became necessary to do something a little more forceful to get his attention.

It was Carina's singing that reached him finally, tears streaming down his face once again, as he slowly returned to himself and the present, leaving his memories behind. "C-Carina?" he asked, the glassy expression fading, like he had finally found his way back from some nightmare or other. He felt strange, disoriented, unable to remember for the moment where he was or how he'd come to be there.

"Cormamin lindua ele lle, melamin," she murmured to him with a smile, raising her head from his shoulder as she felt the tension bleed from his frame finally. Her hand rose, warm and gentle against his cheek as she turned his eyes to hers once again, glad to see some expression there. "Drusilla called me," she explained to him. "It was the song, wasn't it' It cut a little too deep."

He nodded his head wordlessly. Though he was still a little lost to his own grief, he was struggling to regain control of himself and his emotions and return to the present. "I think so," he replied, his voice trembling as much as he was. "I-I'm sorry, melamin. I don't know what happened."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," she was quick to tell him. "Remember what my adar told you. You have to grieve. You have to feel it, to walk through it. But you don't have to do it alone." She wrapped her arms around him, brushing her lips against his cheek. "I'm always here for you, melamin, and you have so many people who would be your friend, when you're ready for them."

He uncurled his arms from his legs, and let her take him into her embrace. In some ways, he was still like a child - so new to this world that he didn't always understand or know how to cope. "I'm afraid, Carina," he whispered, almost afraid to hear himself say the words, afraid that admitting them would make them come true. Afraid to let people close, to let himself care for them, only to lose them like he'd lost his family and all those he'd loved. All but her - he had not been able to close himself to her.

Carina drew him close, gently stroking her hand through his hair and down his back, careful to keep her lips away from the tip of his ear. An inadvertent spike of desire would not be helpful right now. "It's the risk we take when we let people in, melamin," she murmured to him, knowing he could hear her perfectly well. "It must be awful for you, but the only to recover is to trust a little. I can't be everything for you, however much I might want to. You need friends, other people you can talk to about the things you don't feel comfortable sharing with me. It's perfectly natural, and I know it must frighten you, but if you spend your whole life protecting yourself against what might happen, then you may as well not be living."

He lifted his head to face her, fresh tears pooling in his eyes of vibrant blue - too blue to belong to someone purely of mortal blood. "I don't know how," he started. "They are all gone, Carina. All of them. Everyone. All my friends and family. My father, my mother ..." His voice broke as he mentioned his mother. He had not spoken of her in so very long, though she was always there in his heart and his mind, alive in his memory, though gone to him forever. "I should have died with them, fighting alongside them. I am no prince, but a coward for abandoning my people when they needed me most." What he wasn't saying was that it hadn't been his choice to leave - it had been at his mother's urging, fearing for the life of her only son and wanting to spare him to make a new life for himself in a world where he could live in peace and one day, continue the bloodline that had started with her and his father.

Dru Granger

Date: 2015-10-05 19:10 EST
"That isn't how it happened," she reminded him fiercely. Her hand took his, closing his palm around the soul stone he wore at his neck, knowing from experience how it thrummed when he was feeling this terrible guilt for something that had been entirely beyond his control. "If your mother had not sent you away, what would have happened to this" Who would still be alive to remember your culture, your civilization' It would all have been forgotten; they would be forgotten. It is a heavy load to carry, but I will help you carry it. And others will, if you have the courage to trust them with even a little of yourself."

"You would do this for me?" he asked, eyes swimming with tears, his chin trembling with emotion, as she closed his hand around the stone that was thrumming with life, like a beating heart. He wasn't so sure about friends, but though he loved Carina and had become part of her family, he longed for some friends of his own to end this self-imposed loneliness.

"Of course I would," she assured him, her voice soft with the quiet adoration she felt for him. "Amin mela lle, Arandir. I have done almost since I first met you. I will help you carry your burdens, if you will let me. And I will help you make friends, if you would like me to."

"Amin mela lle, Carina," he replied softly, abandoning the stone to take her hands in his. I love you. "Marry me, melamin. I don't want to be alone anymore." It was not only a plea for her to be his wife, but an admission that he no longer wanted to close himself or his heart to those around him.

"Then you won't be," she promised him fondly, leaning close to brush the tip of her nose to his. "Should we kidnap Drusilla and Joshua to be witnesses and go and startle my parents, do you think?"

"Now?" he asked, startled by her question, but not unpleasantly so. He had been the one to suggest it, after all. Weddings in his world tended to be big formal affairs that were celebrated by the entire kingdom. To think she would be happy with such a small ceremony as this warmed his heart. But he wasn't too sure Drusilla and Joshua would want to share in their nuptials. Though they were acquainted through the theater, he wasn't sure he knew them well enough to call them friends, and yet, one had to start somewhere. "Do you think that would be possible?"

"Of course it would," Carina smiled. Though others might have thought it was rushing things a little, in truth, her father had been expecting them to ask him for the ceremony for almost six months now, ever since they had passed his deadline for being certain that they would not grow apart. Her mother even had a dress and a robe, if they wanted to dress up a little. "My father is an official here in Rhy'Din; he performs elven joining ceremonies if people ask him to, and so long as we have witnesses, it will be legal in the eyes of the city, as well. Would you like to, melamin""

"I would like to very much, lirimaerea. If you do not think it is too much trouble," he added, almost as an afterthought, as though getting married might be too much trouble for those involved, other than them. The tears had faded, though his face was pale and blotchy, and his eyes had brightened with renewed hope at the knowledge that she not only loved him, but wanted to join her life with his for all of their remaining years.

"No, I don't think it is any trouble at all," she promised him affectionately, gently untangling one hand from his to tease her fingers into his hair as she kissed him. The decision had been made a long time ago, after all; this was simply execution, nothing more.

"Wow," a female voice commented behind them. "Never knew you had a magic mouth, Carina." Dru chuckled where she stood with Josh at the head of the stairs, the cup of honey tea in her hand.

There was something magical about that kiss - not because it was shared by two people who bore elvish blood - but because there was something magical about the spell a kiss cast between two people in love. There was no better cure for the heartsick or the distraught, and his eyes brightened with life, his face flushing with color at the tenderness of it. Arandir blushed further to find they'd been caught in mid-kiss. Though shy, he was smiling a little, and looking far better than he had when the pair had left them to fetch the tea.

Josh smiled, relieved to see Aran looking more like himself, and sharing what looked like a much-needed kiss with his sweetheart. "Looks like you did the right thing calling Carina, Dru," he said.

"You know me, I never say or do the wrong thing, ever," his wife responded with a cheeky giggle. They both knew that was definitely not the case, but it was something of an inside joke as to just how many mistakes she made on a regular basis.

Carina laughed softly herself, gently drawing her fingers against Aran's cheek before looking over at the other couple. "Are you needed for rehearsal for the rest of the day?" she asked them hopefully.

Josh arched his brows, wondering why she was asking. He glanced toward the door the stage door, though it seemed no one had come to fetch them. "I told Ludo Aran wasn't feeling well," he admitted, hoping they didn't mind. It hadn't really been a life, after all, and had saved Aran from embarrassment and from having to explain himself. As for himself and Dru, he wasn't sure, but he could find out. "I'll go check," he volunteered, though he wasn't sure why Carina would be asking after himself and Dru.

"Thank you," Carina smiled at Josh, raising her hand to beckon Dru over before the other girl could escape.

At a loss yet again, Dru did as she was told, letting Carina take the tea from her hand and give it to Aran. "Is everything under control now?" the human girl asked gently. "You had us worried for a minute there."

"Glad to see you looking better, Aran," Josh told the elf before disappearing to find Ludo and see if they were still needed. He wasn't sure what Carina had in mind, but he had a feeling the incident with Arandir had thrown the rehearsals off for everyone.

"I'm better, thank you," Aran replied, taking the tea from Carina, his voice quietly shy in answer to Dru. He'd offered a nod of acknowledgment to Josh, but had not said a word.

"Drink that, melamin," Carina told Aran gently. "It will help." She hadn't taken her arm from around him, understanding that he felt shy around people in the first place, even those he had worked with before. She looked up at Dru. "Thank you for calling me."

Dru shrugged, tucking her hair back behind her ear. "I'm just glad you're feeling better," she told Aran with a faint smile. "And I was kinda interested to see how long it would take Carina to get here."

"How long did it take?" he asked, looking from one to the other. Yes, he was capable of speaking to someone other than Carina when he felt so inclined. He had no sense of how much time had passed since he'd blacked out on stage. Though he hadn't lost consciousness, that's what it had felt like, with no memory of what had happened exactly or how he'd come to be backstage.

Carina had the decency to blush, knowing full well that her driving was not at its best when she was worried. Dru, on the other hand, laughed. "Oh, about ten minutes," she told Aran. "And I know where she started from, I could hear the seagulls. From the Docks to the Shanachie in ten minutes. Impressive."

"You should not put yourself at risk because of me, Carina," he scolded her mildly, though at the same time, he was touched to know she had hurried to be with him as soon as she'd heard he needed her. "We were wondering if you and Joshua would consider doing us a small favor," he said, more words said in a few minutes than he'd probably uttered to Dru in the last year or so that he'd been a member of the company.

"You needed me," was all Carina had to say, but she knew she didn't really need to defend her actions too intensely. He would do the same if she needed him, and they both knew it.

Dru Granger

Date: 2015-10-05 19:11 EST
Dru blinked in surprise, perching herself on the arm of the sofa comfortably. "I'm sure we'd more than consider it," she told Aran. "What were you thinking of?"

He exchanged glances with Carina, wondering if he should explain or if he should leave it to her. He didn't think he was very good with words, and he was almost too shy to ask her himself. With the tea in one hand, he reached for Carina's hand with the other, summoning the courage to explain quietly, "We want to get married."

"Oh, how wonderful!" Dru exclaimed delightedly. "How can we help?"

Carina smiled at Aran, squeezing his hand as she enveloped it between her own. "We'd like you and Josh to be our witnesses," she explained quietly. "Today."

Dru's jaw dropped in astonishment. "T-today?"

"Is it a bad day?" Aran asked, a little confused at Dru's reaction. Maybe today was a bad day for them; maybe they had other plans. He and Carina would understand if that was the case, but he thought they'd been waiting long enough. What was the saying among humans" Life is too short' Though he and Carina would likely enjoy extended life spans due to their elven blood, they were far from immortal.

"No, not at all, it's just ..." Dru struggled to find a polite way to say what was on the tip of her tongue. "I didn't realize you were so serious about each other." Although she wasn't really in a position to talk - Arandir and Carina had known each other far longer than she and Josh had known one another before they'd decided to marry.

"I wish to spend the rest of my life with her," Aran explained further. Was any other explanation necessary'

The conversation was interrupted by Josh as he returned, a relieved smile on his face. "Ludo says to take the rest of the day off. We all know our parts anyway, and he doesn't want us working too hard." The truth was he didn't want another incident with one of his primary actors. If Aran had come down ill due to overwork, then maybe a day off was in order. He'd dismissed the entire cast for the day and ordered them all to get some rest.

Dru smiled at Aran, the smile deepening as she heard her husband return with his news. "Well, love," she said, tilting her head back to look up at Josh. "How do you feel about going to a wedding?"

"A wedding?" Josh echoed, obviously confused. "Who ..." He trailed off, looking between them and realizing from the silly grins on all their faces that Dru must be talking about Aran and Carina. "Wait ....You two' Congratulations!" he told them both with a warm, happy smile.

Carina giggled, leaning into Aran. She'd known that people would be pleased for them, but she hadn't realized quite how willing Dru and Josh would be to abet them in getting the job done. "We'd like you and Drusilla to be our witnesses, if that is all right."

"Us?" Josh questioned. He was about to ask why them, when he realized that both Aran and Carina kept mostly to themselves and each other. He had told Dru just a short while ago that maybe they should make more of an effort to get to know the other couple, and what better chance than to help them accomplish such an important, not to mention romantic, task" "I, uh ..." He looked to Dru as though for confirmation. "We'd be honored." He hoped she agreed with him.

"Very much so," Dru agreed with a nod. "Would you like us to meet you somewhere" Go and get changed out of rehearsal gear into something more appropriate, perhaps?"

Carina bit her lip, looking at Arandir. She didn't mind; all she wanted was to marry him and stake her claim. They'd been living together for almost a year. It was about time they made it official.

While the trio had been talking, Aran had finished his tea, which had helped steady his nerves. "Perhaps you should call your parents first, melamin," he reminded her gently. After all, it was very short notice and they might be busy, though now that they'd decided, he didn't want to wait any longer. The thought of making Carina his wife at long last was doing nothing for his nerves, despite the tea, and he found himself filled with eager anticipation at the prospect of it - and of what would ultimately follow.

"All right," she nodded. "Let me call them now, and we can let you know. I won't be long," she added to Aran, brushing a kiss to his cheek as she rose to her feet, moving a few steps away to call her parents and inform them of what was happening.

"You'll have to let us take you out to dinner so we can celebrate some time soon, then," Dru said in the wake of Carina's mild abandonment. "Just us, no big parties or anything."

Now that they'd decided to be joined in marriage, Aran could hardly take his eyes off his future bride, forcing his gaze back to Dru, only half hearing what she'd said. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked, a little distractedly.

Josh smirked, having an idea where the elf's thoughts had gone. "She said we'll have to take you two out to dinner sometime to celebrate."

"Oh," Aran replied, flushing a little in embarrassment. "I think we would both like that very much." His expression changed, a small frown finding its way to his face. "I'm sorry about earlier. The song ....it ..." he trailed off, at a loss to explain what had happened.

Dru shook her head gently. "You don't need to apologize," she assured him in a quiet tone. "Everyone has moments when a song triggers a memory, and we don't have control over those moments or how strong those memories will be. You have nothing to apologize for, Arandir."

"It was not very professional," he said, clearly ashamed of himself. The words were not his own - they were words he'd heard said by others in the theater when something had happened they hadn't approved of. "Thank you for helping me," he added with a nervous smile.

Josh offered a friendly smile of his own. "Don't mention it. That's what friends are for."

Friends - the word struck Aran as ironic. Perhaps he was not as alone as he'd thought.

"If anyone gives you trouble over it, tell us," Dru suggested, a glint in her eye suggesting that anyone making trouble for Aran would soon regret it. "There isn't a single person here, regardless of their species, who hasn't had a wobbly moment. Good grief, I've wobbled in public too many times to count. Even on horseback." It said a lot for their privacy in that moment that she hadn't even considered what she was saying; after all, no one but the Grangers in Rhy'Din knew that she and Josh were royalty.

Aran arched a brow, not quite following Dru's train of thought. Horseback" When would she have been on public display on horseback" Josh seemed to sense Aran's confusion and sighed, looking to Dru with a pointed look that silently asked if she really wanted to say more.

Catching Josh's eye, Dru looked confused for a moment before realizing what she'd say. "Oh ....fudge," she muttered, rubbing her forehead. "I'm sorry, Arandir. What we do when we're away is secret, more for security reasons than anything. I shouldn't have said that, I do apologize."

"No need to apologize. I understand," Aran replied, though he clearly did not. He did understand the need for secrecy sometimes, but not the secret behind it. He had his own secrets to keep, after all, not the least of which was the stone he wore around his neck.

Timing is everything, and a moment later, Carina rejoined them, blushing a little at her mother's sign off. "They, um ....they say we should be there as dusk falls," she offered with a shy smile of her own. "We could give you the address, and that should give you time to change, if you want to."

"Of course we want to!" Josh replied enthusiastically, replying for both he and Dru before remembering himself. "Don't we, Dru?" he asked, nudging her with an elbow. What better way to start a friendship than to witness a wedding"

His young wife laughed, nodding her enthusiasm. "Of course we do," she agreed with Josh warmly. "Just give us the address, and we'll be there, with a camera so you will have at least one picture of your wedding day."

Carina blushed - she hadn't even considered that. It was one of the things her mother bemoaned constantly; that she hadn't managed to get Raniel in front of a camera on their wedding day.

Aran's face lit up at the prospect of marrying his melda, as well as sharing the event with family and those who could only be called friends. Forgotten was the grief that had consumed him only a short while ago, replaced by feelings of happiness and hope for the future. "We will see you at dusk then," he said, seconding Carina's invitation whole-heartedly.

It took only a minute of Carina tapping her parents' address into Dru's phone for the plan to be set, and the two couples went their own way - one to their private home on the beach; the other in the direction of the Marketplace, and the over-excited embrace of Carina's mother. Dusk seemed at once an age and a breath away, but it would come eventually. After a year of umming, ahhing, and generally being entirely too courteous to one another in the bedroom, Arandir and Carina were finally about to be joined.

((Yeah, kind of backdated, but we wanted to! The wedding is coming!))