Open Post: The Arms of the Emperor are Never Idle

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon spends her mornings in the practice yard, bright and early, despite the cold. She jogs and stretches to get her blood pumping and her muscles warm before she draws her sword, and then after drills she brings Tally her coffee, and then after that it's back to more sword—unless Tally hauls her off to some other activity, which she pretends to hate but is secretly devastatingly grateful for. The absolute worst part of this place is all the time. Endless stretches of time, with barely any work to be done.

In some ways it's just like the Ninth—except on the Ninth she knew her exits. They were few, sure, and near-impossible, but she knew them: buy her way out, fight her way out, trick her way out, or truly earn it.

None of those apply, here.

She breaks for lunch, and wanders the halls trying to locate various Clues and Mysteries that might end up giving her a way out, and mostly just finds people. More and more people.

She's not antisocial. She likes the people here, more than she's openly liked anyone in her life, individually or as a group. But a gnawing restlessness keeps her on the move rather than letting her time fill up with idle conversation as so many here do. She's always hunting for something to keep her busy, to wear out her body so that when she sleeps her mind is forced to rest rather than serving her a lovely buffet of the worst things she's ever seen and even worse things she hasn't, the things she was yoinked away just in time to miss.

Sometimes it even works.

[This post is open in perpetuity until something happens to make me close it, at which point I will edit it and say so! Feel free to find Gideon in the morning doing sword drills, or tooling around inside, opening and closing drawers and trying peel the wallpaper off in case there's flesh underneath.]

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[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon shrugs. "I said I'd help you, didn't I?" Though now that she thinks about it, she's not sure she ever did, aloud; she just kind of started doing it. She circles Tally, weighing the practice sword in her hand. "And no, actually, you being pretty--like, scientifically capital-p Pretty on purpose rather than just normal person hot--probably makes me less likely to help you out. I'm contrary like that."

[tallyyoungblood]

"So you're saying... you like me for me?" Tally looks at her with wide eyes, turning to track her movements but also trying to send a message of sincerity.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon snorts. "Yeah, duh," she says, and then strikes, flicking the light wooden sword at Tally's knee.

[tallyyoungblood]

Tally jumps back, then turns to aim a strike at Gideon's shoulder. She's not concentrating on the sword fight very much, though, because her memories are icy-clear right now. Both David and Zane had kissed her first, made the first move. She'd done it a few times when she'd kissed uglies way before her fifteenth birthday, let alone her sixteenth, but not when it really mattered. The way Gideon makes her feel sometimes makes her think of Shay, the desperate want to belong to someone. They're teetering on the edge of friendship and flirting in a totally butterflies-inducing way.

"Then would you kiss me?" she blurts out, surprising herself. "I know you have your, um, Harrow at home, so it doesn't have to be anything serious. I just... want to." Magnus had definitely made a good point that she shouldn't use Gideon for pure bubbliness purposes, but this isn't that. This is just Tally asking for what she wants, even if she's not entirely sure she knows all the reasons why she wants it.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon dodges the strike, then commits an absolute combat faux pas and stops dead, staring at her. "Harrow and I aren't," she starts, and then stops, and then, in case she misheard, "You want me to kiss you?"

[tallyyoungblood]

For a moment, Tally thinks about pushing Gideon over, but she already looks totally pushed over. It's both concerning and utterly gratifying.

"Yes," she says, committing. "I know I said you were ugly, and I'm really sorry. Like you said, my, um, soft-core panopticon totally fucked me up. But obviously that's not the prevailing opinion any more. Um, that I have. I like you for you, too." She starts nervously twirling the sword in one hand, then stops herself.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon grins, wide and shit-eating, ducking past Tally's nervous sword-swinging and--probably obnoxiously--into her space. "Won over by my irrepressible charm, huh? My huge guns? My beautiful big butch bod? Or is it all the swordplay that's got you hot?"

She's close enough she could kiss Tally, now. She doesn't--she just stares up at her, at the chrome of her eyes, the tattoo whirling at her eyebrow. "Because you like me, huh?" she asks, quieter. Shit. Can it really be that simple?

[tallyyoungblood]

Tally laughs a little in relief at Gideon's smile. Her mind feels utterly ugly. She thinks she could remember every detail of the Smoke right now if she wanted to, but she actually wants to think about the present moment, for once.

"It is kind of the swordplay," she teases. "Totally bubbly-making." She looks into Gideon's beautiful golden eyes and finds the vulnerability there, less evident than it might be in a pretty's but much more authentic. It feels like a prize she's won.

"I do. You make me feel like myself."

[ninth_cavalier]

Well, goddamn. There's not much Gideon can say to that that isn't either insulting in a way she doesn't mean or sappy in a way this definitely doesn't call for—this doesn't have to be anything serious—so she opts to say nothing at all, instead swallowing against a sudden flare of nerves and leaning in and up to press her mouth to Tally's.

[tallyyoungblood]

Tally kisses back, warmth flooding her head and chest. The kiss lacks the magical feeling of kissing another pretty, or the illicit passion of kissing David, but it's heart-pounding nonetheless because it's Gideon, her weird and bold protector from outer space. A nagging part of Tally tells her some part of Gideon belongs to her mysterious Harrow as much as David had belonged to Shay, but Harrow isn't here right now. And Tally doesn't owe her anything.

Tally's bubbliness is almost wrapping back around to lightheadedness, so she puts her hand on the back of Gideon's head to steady herself. She leaves it there when she pulls back to get some air, gently carding her fingers through Gideon's short hair.

"Wow," she says softly. "I could totally win a fight with a Special right now, probably."

[ninth_cavalier]

Tally's mouth is really, really soft, and the feeling of her fingers in Gideon's hair makes something in Gideon's brain pop and fizzle and go completely stupid. It isn't anything like she ever imagined kissing would be, partially because Tally is nothing like the only person Gideon has ever really, genuinely imagined kissing. There's no biting, no insults, no desperate and horrible sorrow, no feeling of two hateful comets crashing into one another and merging into something hotter and altogether worse. It's just--her and a girl who likes her. Actually likes her, in a way Gideon's not sure she's ever been liked.

"Yeah," she says, a little stunned. "I mean, uh--" She rallies. "Only if the Special didn't have a decent sword."

[tallyyoungblood]

Part of Tally feels like something is finally right with the world, that Gideon is acting the way she's supposed to act around someone as pretty as Tally is, but she's awake enough to notice it and correct herself. It's not the halo effect. It's the Tally effect.

She's feeling a little bit Gideon-effected right now herself. She wants to listen to everything Gideon says, and look at her more, and to get a little closer.

"So mean, Gideon-la," she chastises. "It's totally not my fault if my sword teacher is, like, utterly distracted." She kisses her again.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon breathes in sharply at the second kiss, and catches Tally's delicate chin between her fingers. In the process her thumb brushes over the bandaid they'd stuck to it earlier. "Pretty sure it is your fault, Whirlybird," she counters, her voice pulled a little lower than usual, "given that you're the one doing the distracting. What, you done with learning self defense so soon?"

[tallyyoungblood]

Tally's really never met someone who talked like this before. It reminds her of men in Rusty movies, whose cadence had always confused her. Now she realizes it's part of Gideon's whole gender thing, this deliberate way of talking. Tally thinks she likes it.

"Maybe," she says, then sighs, too lucid to forget the actual threat of real-life zombies she's supposed to be preparing for. "I mean, no. I probably should still actually learn things."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon can't resist sliding her hand up to cup Tally's cheek, briefly, the curve of it ridiculously soft against her palm, and then turns and steps away, clearing her throat. "Right," she says, "well." She takes her stance. "I'll make you a deal. You get a hit in, a real hit, something that would do some damage if you were wielding that—" she nods at Tally's sword where it rests on the furniture shoved into the corner, and then she actually looks at Tally again, at how wildly, insanely hot she is, and loses some of her momentum. But Tally is the one who asked. "I'll, um. I'll kiss you again."

[tallyyoungblood]

Tally shakes herself to rid herself of goosebumps. "Okay, deal."

She'd meant it when she said she felt like she could take on a Special earlier. The combination of adrenaline, pain, and kissing has time slowing around her, allowing her body to work like the beautifully designed instrument it is without the burden of a pretty mind. She copies Gideon's stance.

Experimentally, she starts by aiming a strike at the arm that doesn't have a sword in it, hoping that her speed and pretty reflexes can get her through Gideon's defenses.

[ninth_cavalier]

Tally is fast, but she's still a beginner, and it shows. She telegraphs where she's going to strike—very deliberately looking at the place she wants to hit Gideon before hitting her. Gideon knocks the blow aside easily. "Your eyes give you away," she says. "I know it's kind of the opposite of what we got going, but you gotta work on not thinking so much. See the opening—" Tally's guard not quite back up, "—move." A strike to her unprotected side.

[tallyyoungblood]

Tally whacks desperately at the incoming blow, just barely able to stop it. Contrary to what Gideon just said, she starts thinking a lot: she has to look at something else, not where she's aiming, but then that makes her look at Gideon's face, and that makes her heart beat a little faster, and she loses track of where she was supposed to be aiming, and looks at it again.

She backs up a few steps, fending off a couple strikes as she retreats, then decides she will look at Gideon's face, and aim for her leg. She darts back in again, starting high and then dropping her sword down low when she gets in close.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon jumps it—but barely, the edge of the practice blade grazing the toe of her boot. Turns out Tally holding her gaze while she swings a sword, even a fake sword, is also distracting to her. She lands, and whistles. "Damn. That was close!"

[tallyyoungblood]

Tally beams, momentarily forgetting they're in a fight. Maybe she can hold out long enough versus the zombies that Gideon doesn't have to rescue her at all, and they can totally kill all the zombies together. She backs up again, then darts around to try and get at her from behind. She's beginning to put together that only speed and surprise can counter Gideon's skill and strength.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon whirls to meet her, and for a while they trade blows, neither of them really making any headway. Tally's unpolished, and she telegraphs like a motherfucker, and there's no real strength to her blows right now—they'll get to that, it's fine, speed and accuracy can come first—but she's fast enough and her freaky reflexes make her actually pretty fun to fight. It starts to feel more like an actual sparring match and less like a coaching session—a few more bouts like this and she'll even be ready to pick up her cute little pirate sword.

Now that she's not trying to think of wise and helpful shit to say, Gideon actually starts processing the fact that they're, like, having kissing. They've done kissing, she and Tally. Mouths have met. Spit has been swapped. She's had—and she knows this is shocking—her first ever kiss. She feels like she should be, like, telling people?? Not that this was the first babe she's kissed, her reputation would never recover, but that she's kissed this babe. Objectively an incredibly hot babe. And a blond, at that. Harrow would die of jealousy.

The thought makes her falter. Harrow would—

She forgets that she's not wielding her sword and that the practice blade has fuck-all weight to it, and one of Tally's swings that actually has some force behind it pushes past her block. The wood ricochets off her shoulder.

[tallyyoungblood]

"Ha!" Tally crows, throwing her sword onto the ground with a clatter. She'd all but forgotten that exercise was totally endorphin-making. Every nerve in her body is singing.

"I won!" This isn't entirely accurate, but she'll have to settle for one hit being good enough on her first day. Gideon's really, really good, which only becomes clearer as Tally gets marginally better herself. Actually, wait--she's good enough that Tally's not sure what happened to let her get a hit in. "Um. Are you okay?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Huh? Oh—yeah." Gideon gives her a little grin. "Nice hit."

[tallyyoungblood]

"Are you going to hold up your end of the bargain, then?" Once again, Tally telegraphs her intentions: she looks at Gideon's mouth. There's something a little sad about it, though. Tally considers pressing, but it feels bogus to interrupt the flirting when Gideon isn't really visibly upset, so Tally lets the question lie. She can ask more questions later, when she isn't totally fizzing like champagne.

[ninth_cavalier]

"Right," says Gideon, her grin slipping into more of a smirk, and she drops her sword to reel Tally in by the hips and press their mouths together again.

But it's—suddenly the joy of it, the marvel of skin on skin, feels guilty, unearned. This shouldn't even be her mouth, these shouldn't be her hands—she shouldn't be here, with Tally. Every touch, every moment enjoyed, is a tiny theft.

She pulls back, brushes her thumb over Tally's chin again in silent apology. It's not her fault. "Great work today," she says, stepping back entirely, and bends to gather up their practice swords. "Same time tomorrow?"