Unrequited for Caden/Aerie! :D
(Send me a pairing and a prompt)
Send me a "Unrequited" and I'll write a drabble about one character longing for the other.
((Ooh, good pairing choice for this one. ;) I think this ended up likely being set roughly somewhere before this conversation.))
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"Aerie?" Caden calls softly down the hall toward their rooms at the Mithrest Inn. "Are you coming down? Everyone else is eating."
"What? Oh-- yes, I-- I'll be down in a minute," he hears her answer.
Involuntarily he smiles a little, just hearing her voice, but the smile is tinged with concern. "Everything all right?" he asks, moving to poke his head around the door frame.
She is sitting on the bed, a few crumpled sheets of parchment clutched in her hands. Hearing him enter, she looks up and blushes at once. "Oh! Yes, everything's fine, Caden. I was just... well..." She looks down at the papers and then adds shyly, "Haer'Dalis gave me this bit of one of his plays and said I should learn the lines. He thinks I should be an actress."
Caden's smile flickers almost imperceptibly, then steadies. "Well, and why shouldn't you be, if that's what you want?" He hesitates, then crosses the few steps to sit on the opposite end of the bed from her. A pause. "Is it what you want?"
She fidgets uncertainly with the parchment. "Perhaps," she murmurs. "It is beautiful, the words on the page. I-- I should like to be able to speak them with such confidence. But I do not know if I can."
Caden reaches out cautiously to rest a hand lightly on her arm. "I do not doubt your ability to do anything you wish to do," he says softly.
"You are kind to say so, Caden," she says, but he can tell she does not really believe it.
Of course, he reflects sourly, perhaps it means more when Haer'Dalis tells her so, with beautiful language and passionate eagerness. The thespian tiefling has a seemingly neverending supply of compliments and artful turns of phrase, and Caden is not blind to how it has worked on Aerie in the time they have all traveled together.
What chance have I, country boy from Candlekeep with darkness in his soul, compared to such a worldly light?
"Would you... like to read the lines for me?" he asks cautiously. "I could even try to read back the other part, if you would like."
She hides a giggle behind one hand and looks sideways at him. "It is a love scene, this piece, you know," she says.
Of course it is, Caden thinks ruefully, feeling heat rise up his neck and ears. Why would it be anything else? "I'm happy to help," he says stoutly. "Though I am no master of the stage myself."
She considers, clearly debating within herself whether she is too shy to attempt this before anyone yet, even him. Then she nods and smiles slightly, and leans over, her shoulder brushing his, so that he can also look at the page she is holding.
"It starts here," she says, pointing at one line near the top of the paper. "Theodorus speaks first. That's you. And I'm Cynthia. He's-- I don't know. The lines are quite complicated, but if I read it right, he is her servant. And they are both in love but neither can tell the other..."
He finds himself momentarily struck dumb, as if he's forgotten how to read, because she is suddenly closer to him than she has ever been before and he can feel her warmth where her shoulder is against his... Focus, Caden--
"Ahhh--" he stammers, fumbling for the words on the page. Slowly they come into focus. "My mistress true," he reads hastily, "too long have I attended/thy troubled mind and longed to place a balm/upon the fev'rish pain that doth bewilder/thy heart with fear and doubt and wonderment."
She clears her throat, reads back the next line earnestly. "Oh Theodorus, wouldst that thou could know/the passion still that burns within my heart/for one who should not hear and doth not ken/the state to which he drives my aching soul..."
Her eyes flick up and she catches him staring at her, and she laughs again softly. "Your turn again," she points out.
"Ah, right. Um... My lady, sure I think you wrong to doubt/that I should have the heart to understand/such pain... for true it is I live and breathe/within consuming fire of my own..." He trails off, swallows in a suddenly tight throat.
She turns her head, raising her eyebrows. "There is more to the line. 'Much could--'"
"--Much could I say, had I an artist's mind..." Caden says hoarsely. This feels, suddenly, like a dreadful mistake, because the words of the play resonate far too keenly with the longing that drifts up in his heart whenever she's close to him. He stops, coughs, and then attempts the line again. "Much could I say, had I an artist's mind/with skill to match the fervor of my heart./But still it is my soul shall know the depths/of feeling that my tongue could never sound..."
To his deep embarrassment, his voice cracks a little on the last word.
Damn it, he thinks, clenching one fist suddenly into the sheets of the bed they're sitting on. It isn't fair.
She draws back a little, registering his agitation, and her eyes widen just slightly with some sudden realization. "Caden--"
"It's your turn," he whispers.
"Yes, but--"
"AERIE!" Haer'Dalis's sharp tenor cuts across the moment like a knife; he bursts through the door with a wide, ear-to-ear smile and a dramatic gesture. "There you are, my mourning dove; I did fear we had lost you in the great halls of this fine establishment. Will you not come to eat? I would not have you faint on the road for lack of a good meal!"
He extends a hand to her with an elaborate flourish. If he notices Caden is even in the room he gives no sign of it; his attention is entirely on Aerie.
"Oh!" Aerie says, startled out of whatever she was about to say. Her eyes flick between the two men frantically for a moment's hesitation, and then her shoulders slump just slightly, though she smiles in answer to the invitation. "Yes, of course, Haer'Dalis. I was just about to come down."
She reaches out to take the tiefling's hand, then pauses, looks to Caden. "And you will come too, will you not?"
Caden's expression has gone suddenly rigid with the effort of keeping a wave of turbulent emotion from showing on it. "Yes, I-- I will be down shortly," he says hollowly. "Do not let me keep you."
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