#the rise and fall of every line is so fucking choice. obsessed with the shape of the sound of this song

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: May 7

"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" by Queen

[elmidol]

Three Small Words (NSFW)

Three Blind Tooke Part Two Precarious Harmony

Read on AO3

Warnings: sex, angst/complicated feelings; oral; face sitting; slight emotional manipulation

Three Blind Tooke

Part Two: Precarious Harmony 

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Three Small Words 

The man who slept next to you was not the creature who had impaled you with the plasma blade; he was not the monster that had dragged you away from the flames that would have promised death. While the body did indeed belong to the one who had stolen your virginity and tortured you, there was something different about him as well. Rather than shying away from the name of Ben Solo, he was seeking to embrace it. Not as his current self either. A portion. Kylo Ren was adamant that the past should die. Even should he have begun to use the name Ben Solo throughout the rest of his days, that would never be the Ben Solo from the days prior to turning to the Dark. He would not be the person Rey would be made to believe she could save. Kylo Ren would be manipulating her, maneuvering her into a position where she could be used. Only then, when she proved herself ready to fight alongside with him, would the Force user offer her a place at his side as ruling body over the galaxy.

 Like the Sith, you had whispered. Kylo Ren had paused, his brown orbs searching your face as his expression softened. He had not needed to say anything further at that point. This was beyond the Sith. No Jedi either. You were unaware as to what Kylo Ren intended to call the new order that would arise from the joining of their powers. This was not a question you had posed.

 Ren had not redressed when he had finished toying with you. His nakedness was concealed by the blankets, one of which possessed a loose thread you were tugging at. You sometimes loathed when plans were made for the future. They were emotionally exhausting. This perhaps best explained why you had been frantic and desperate to kill him originally. He had robbed your future. You pushed your right hand underneath the covers to touch your scar. The finger with the name Ben Solo tattooed on it twitched. The next moment you curled your hand into a fist, which remained on your belly. There would forever be a hole in you. All choices had been stripped away. Not quite all; you had options that revolved around Kylo Ren. Killing him, strengthening him… You squeezed your eyes closed as the unbidden addition of loving him entered your thoughts.

 It was not quite love so much as caring; you told yourself this, and knew that it was a half-truth. You doubted that you could ever love him completely and romantically. That would have entailed not only forgiving, but putting all the times he had raped you completely in the past.

 Let it die.

 A hand of ice seized your heart as Kylo Ren’s voice wormed its way into your thoughts. History helped to create the present, offered up a means of shaping the future. You gagged at that final word. Future. Turning over onto your side with your back to the man, you curled your knees towards your midsection. The second sob broke through your attempts to swallow it down. After but a single gag, the horrid, pathetic noise erupted from your mouth. The mattress shifted, which is what you had feared would occur. The man behind you turned, his chest pressing against your spine.

 His mouth was at your ear then. Hot breath blew aside strands of your hair as he spoke to you. “Are you afraid, tooke?” A spasm caused your body to undulate along with his. Kylo Ren set three fingers on the back of your hand, rubbing up and down. “You have become aware, haven’t you? Once I am Supreme Leader, Rey will be the new Master of the Knights of Ren. We will destroy the Resistance. The Sith. The Jedi. All of it—gone. And you… You will have to let the past die.” His fingers stretched further, his entire hand eclipsing yours. “I could have loved you…and I can still, tooke. I told you. I marked you as mine.” Ren’s voice had dropped to a whisper now, intimate, for your ears only.

 You shuddered at the thought of it. Kylo Ren in the place of Supreme Leader Snoke. This girl Rey where Ren now was. As for General Hux—you toyed with the idea that the Force user was planning to use him in a similar manner that Snoke was. The redhead was, after all, a great tactician. It would be foolish on Kylo Ren’s part to dispose of such a tool. You grit your teeth at that thought. Snoke would no longer be the puppet master. That would fall to Kylo Ren. It would not be Kylo, Hux, and you being moved around the board. It would be Rey, Hux and you. All the wile Kylo Ren would be holding your strings.

 He was far worse than the creature that had taken your virginity. Kylo Ren was now the one who wanted you by his side.

 “You don’t love me,” you croaked, your words sounding almost hollow as the desperation from the past returned. There was no utterance of I do nor Not yet nor anything at all. His tongue, hot and wet, was on your ear. The underside drew a line downwards, and you jerked away from him, curling up further.

 “Soon you won’t need to live in the past.” His words slipped out like a promise, and it was one you did not wish to believe. The sort of love he was insinuating was one of blind devotion. Adoration and worship—this was the monster you had sworn to kill, and it had sprouted more heads while sharpening its fangs. “I saw it in your eyes, tooke. You have never met her—is she the first woman you have ever craved?”

 His filthy words had you shuddering. You swatted at him, shaking your head and whispering for him to stop. You wanted nothing more than for that silver tongue to become still.

 “She has feelings for the traitor.” Ren traced your hip with two of his fingers. The bare flesh on your naked skin, his ghost touches encouraged your body to respond. Somehow you had become an instrument, and he was the only player who knew how to stroke your strings in the ways that caused sounds to be produced. The soft gasp followed by a staccato of breaths. The fingers had traveled from your hip to your lower belly, on which he traced patterns. His name. The girl’s. Kylo-Rey-Ben-Kylo. Between each, a pause, his hand cupping you, rubbing you. “You used to imagine your allies fucking you when I was inside your body. Do you think her tongue would feel like mine?”

 “I…” You gulped, your mouth too filled with saliva. It was difficult to know what to say to him when you were confused about your own feelings. Your attraction to this woman—and, stars, how obsessed with you did he have to be to have noticed?—confused you most of all. You had never met her. Yet you loved her. It was not lust. You had no idea what she looked like. What color eyes did she have? What shape was her face? The picture that was being painted in your head with every word that slipped from those lips, however, complicated you. But… He had always been skilled at that, hadn’t he?

 “Would you like to call me Rey while I taste you?” Kylo Ren purred, his finger slipped past your lips and inside of you. He stroked you from within, small, quick rubs that had your toes curling. The hand that had been on your scar now caught his wrist. “Just a Jakku scavenger, tooke. How starved she must be. How thirsty. Imagine how greedily she would drink you up.”

 Kylo removed his finger, bringing it to his lips and greedily slurping at the sticky substance that had gathered. That taste of your juices made him groan. His hands were again on your hips, this time to push you until your ass hit the pillow. Kylo jerked your legs open. His thumbs started to dig into the flesh of your inner thighs. His mouth remained inches away from you. You could hear him blowing as much as feel it. That thin line of air from his pursed lips. It hit against your clitoris. Your body felt as though it were pulsing, heat spreading through you. You shielded your eyes with one hand.

 “Do you prefer Ben to Rey?” that husky voice asked you. The moisture in your eyes had not disappeared, however there was nothing new gathering. His teasing irritated you. It aroused you. It distracted you, blissfully so, from the feelings of desperation that had earlier plagued you.

 The truth was that you preferred whichever of them—Ben or Rey—that would be able to put a stop to Kylo Ren’s plans. If he became the Supreme Leader, you feared that the Resistance would be destroyed. Supreme Leader Snoke had been teaching his pupil that sentiment was a weakness. Kylo Ren was using that against Rey. Against you. All the while somehow displaying moments of sentiment and compassion. That cold, unfeeling creature that was Snoke… You had somehow led yourself to believe that it would be far more terrifying than Kylo Ren. How mistaken you had been.

 If you could orchestrate a means of Kylo and Rey assassinating Snoke while either Rey or even General Hux killed the Force user who was now kissing your knee then it would be a risk worth taking. Rey would be able to defeat Hux so long as she received proper training from Luke Skywalker.

 There were far too many factors, too many pieces. How had Snoke become such an effective puppeteer?

 Kylo Ren distracted you from this question by tugging at your strings. He nibbled at the side of your knee, up your thigh. Sucking your flesh, his tongue laving at the skin between his teeth. Your hand moved away from your face. You gripped the bed sheets, the leg that was not occupying his mouth now outstretched. His fingers dug further into your thigh. It hurt. It amplified the sensations of pleasure. Ren pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, shifting towards the side and tugging you along with him. Your feet touched on the ground directly after his.

 His hands on your wrists, Kylo yanked your arms up above your head and pinned you to the wall. You stared at him with wide eyes, your chest rising and falling as you attempted to control your breathing. You recognized the fire in his eyes as animosity. Not against you, but instead directed at your attraction to Rey. The familiarity of this stemmed from your interactions with General Hux, all of Ren’s reactions to them. The zealous nature of his obsession with owning you had you jerking your eyes off of his face and staring at the wall. In his passion, he said things that you wished could be taken back. You were granted glimpses of the monster that had hunted down your allies; the creature that continued to slaughter your comrades on the battlefield. This was not the man who housed the memory of Ben Solo, not in these moments.

 The pressure on your wrists waned. As though realizing his mistake, Kylo Ren stepped nearer to you. His lips were feather-touches on the heels of your hands. Did he, you wondered, expect you to put aside the memories of these moments with him if he succeeded in his plans? Let the past die. As though he could control what clung to your mind, what shaped you into who you were to become, and what you would guard yourself against. The time he had spent with Snoke had the exact outcome you had dreaded.

 “You’re so cruel,” you said, sniffing then parting your lips to inhale more deeply. Ren’s mouth was now on your left wrist. A kiss. Not an apology. This was simply him changing tactics. “I thought things had changed with you after Starkiller was destroyed. They haven’t.”

 Rather than respond to your words, to the accusation, Kylo Ren muttered out for you to remain still. His hands left you, and you obeyed simply to see what it was he wanted from you. This was not solely about sex. Had that been the case, he would not have sobered when you responded to him with apprehension. You allowed your head to loll, rolling your shoulders and considering the scars he had obtained during his battle with Rey on Starkiller base.

 He, meanwhile, was staring at your scar. Kylo Ren reached forward to trace around its edges. “You’re terrified to watch the Resistance fall. There is no Resistance for you, tooke.” You were aware that he was not being literal so much as underlining the fact that the Resistance would never allow you to join in the fight again if you somehow, miraculously, managed to escape the First Order. The best place you could be, ironically, was still at Kylo Ren’s side. “You don’t want her. You don’t want Rey—you want me.”

 Your lips pressed tightly together as you frowned at him. Admitting that you did not know what you wanted would give him too much power, and so you chose to instead remain silent. Your mind wandered to how General Hux had been treating you. Passively. As though you were side entertainment for when he was not busy; and he was busy…which meant that the Resistance was suffering countless losses. It was much the same as when he had ordered the Starkiller weapon to be fired, when he had caused your mother’s death. General Hux never backtracked as a means of appeasing you so much as changing tactics to better manipulate you. With Kylo Ren, though the majority of his actions were similar, there was the key difference that he did, on some warped level, care for you.

 “I do want Rey.” His mouth twitched, the man beginning to scrunch his nose as though ready to bare his teeth. “I want her to defeat you after you kill him.” Kylo moved ever closer. He set his forehead against your shoulder, shifted nearer, and had his face buried in the crook of your neck. You could feel his eyelashes brush against you as he closed his eyes. “The Ben Solo from the past is dead. I’m not stupid, Ren.”

 “She won’t believe that,” the dark-haired man rumbled. You hummed in acceptance of his words. “Perhaps your feelings for her will help put her at my side. I will have to teach her the ways of the Force. She hardly knows how to control her powers. To the Knights, she will be a stranger, an amateur. But, tooke, her potential is great.”

 The way he spoke, you imagined he had managed to convince himself that the only way Rey could fulfill her potential was to join him, to study under him. It was much the same as how he treated you when it came to the differences between the First Order’s views and those of the Resistance. It was always his way that was best, or so he deluded himself into believing. This was not a man who could be saved, you thought for the umpteenth time. He did not want to be saved. He craved power. The son of your beloved General Organa was self-entitled and dark. He was dark.

 You lowered your arms to your sides, the strain having started to make itself known. You were allowing your mind to drift to how things would proceed if Kylo Ren did succeed in all his plans. Not only would he be Supreme Leader. Rey would be the Master of the Knights of Ren, and they would assist in claiming the galaxy. The New Republic was destroyed, the shambles housing the remnants of the Resistance. Kylo Ren had taken you from the Resistance. What was to stop him from doing the same with the entire galaxy? Rey. The girl Rey, and Skywalker if the legendary man did indeed return.

 You covered the scar from your lightsaber wound with both hands, one atop the other. “You don’t like it when I think of anyone but you.”

 Lips curled into a smile, his eyes shining with that hint you knew to be his streak of possessiveness, Kylo Ren straightened and stared you in the face. “If Rey from Jakku would thirst for you, tooke… If she would drink you up so greedily…” The man was lowering himself onto his knees in front of you, his hands on your thighs, nudging them, albeit less forcefully than he had been not long before. “Tooke…” His tongue traced his lips. Slowly. With purpose. You swallowed thickly, your body clenching, legs trembling. Kylo whispered your name as though it were a prayer. Softly. With something that would have been described as love if not for the fact that, at this moment, the two of you did not love one another. Your lips parted at that. There was something impossibly thick in your throat. Emotion. “I’m parched, tooke.”

 You removed the hand that possessed the tattoo of Kylo Ren from your belly, using it to trail your fingertips up his face. Mere hours before he had encouraged you to call him Ben Solo. He had wanted to play make-believe with you. All practice to lure Rey to him. To ensure that he would be able to eliminate Snoke when the opportunity presented itself, when the apprentice was ready to surpass the master. Though Rey would be beneath Kylo Ren in terms of position—Master of the Knights of Ren serving the Supreme Leader—you knew that he would treat her as more of an equal than Snoke now treated him. But for now… Now he was begging for your approval.

 Deciding to play along again with the knowledge that it would be best to appease him for now—the two of you constantly finding and exploiting openings in the other’s defenses—you shifted your fingers down to his mouth. Kylo Ren parted his lips, wrapping them around two of your digits and sucking at them. You thrust them forward, began to draw them back, and offered them to him anew when his growl threatened to turn into a whimper. His tongue waggled its way between your fingers. You added a third into his mouth, again rocking them back and forth, fucking his mouth with them. Ren moaned, bobbing his head and staring up at you with those eyes. Desperation. Desperate for approval, your approval.

 You pinched his tongue, catching it between your middle and ring finger. It was an awkward hold, though one he allowed to keep him. “Beg for it, Ren.” His eyes began to narrow. He was not exactly pleased by the level of boldness that you were displaying. Given how much he had teased you, however, you had no sympathy. You snatched your hand up, your fingers leaving his mouth with a wet pop. You raised your hand to your face and observed the way they glistened. “You don’t have to. Unlike before, I am willing to touch myself now. I don’t need you.”

 “Let me taste you,” Ren said, his voice breathless. You could hear the slight rumbling afterwards. His growl. His hands on your thighs allowed you to feel the way he was trembling. Kylo Ren held himself back from taking what he wanted from you. He had, when telling you of the Rule of Two that well described your relationship with him, placed you as his equal in certain respects. When you did not grant him permission, his fingers dug into your thighs. There would be bruises there. You lifted your hand to your mouth and kissed the tattoo of Kylo Ren. “Let me show you how parched I am.” His shoulders rose and fell with his heavy breaths. He was rocking a little, swaying. You watched his tongue flick out for a second time.

 “You want something wet?” Kylo Ren was looking up at you with his eyes alone. There was a hesitancy to his actions now. His eyes dropped to your pussy then raised back to your face. You parted your thighs, spread your legs enough to where his face would be able to fit, and stroked his hair. “Who are you right now? Ben? Rey? Kylo Ren?” You snickered. When he bowed his head, you took pity on this man who had been your enemy for so long. You used your foot, rubbing its side along his hip. “What am I supposed to moan if you’re any good?”

 “Ren,” he said, all traces of shyness and indecisiveness gone.

 You hummed, replaced your foot on the ground, and placed a hand on the back of his head to urge him forward. His nose brushed against your pubic hair. You felt his tongue against your outer lips, slipping through, parting your folds. Your mouth formed a small o as Kylo Ren licked from your entrance to your clitoris, where he paused to suck at you. Tilting back his head while keeping his mouth on you, Kylo Ren stared up at you. You met his gaze, rocking your hips forward. With a moan, he opened his mouth wider, his tongue again finding your entrance. You could feel him working that organ against you, gathering your juices and drawing them into his mouth.

 There was the sensation that something was swimming inside of you, going around and around in your lower belly, threatening to shift down to your cunt. Ren groaned against you when he opened his mouth again. The vibrations had the sensation growing. Your free hand slammed flat against the wall. The sound of the slap echoed in the room. Those brown orbs were peering up at your face. Your eyelashes fluttered. Kylo Ren’s teeth grazed your clitoris.

 “Mm…Ren…g… Go… Bed…”

 You were left against the wall, breathing hard and legs wobbly. Kylo Ren climbed onto the bed without any further prompting. He laid on his back. His hand was on his cock, thumb tracing his length as he turned his head to stare at you. You kept your hand on the wall as a guide. Lifting one leg then the other, you moved climbed onto the bed as well, crawling then swinging a leg over. You straddled his face. Ren greedily opened his mouth. His hand was pumping his cock now, quick flicks of his wrist matching the pace at which you were rolling your hips. Your hands were in his hair.

 “Ah! R-Ren! Uhh….mm…” You leaned forward, feeling his nose nudging your clit as his tongue thrust up inside of you.

 Earlier you had pretended Kylo Ren was the man from his past. That he was Ben Solo, someone who could in actuality not be saved. Now you allowed yourself to play make-believe anew. This time, however, it was you toying with the future he had painted. You somehow killing all history that was preventing a loving relationship from forming. The rapes. The times you tried to kill one another. The way he had used you to hurt your mother. You pretended that none of those things existed. You pretended that Snoke was dead.

 You ground against his face, bowing your head and looking past your shoulder at the way he was pleasuring himself. Your jaw dropped as you came. His tongue was working more vigorously against you now, lapping at your cum. His hand was moving faster too.

 “Don’t cum,” you groaned, earning a moan of approval.

 Kylo Ren helped you off of him, holding your shaking body and laying you down so that your head was on the pillow. You kept your legs spread. He climbed between them, gripping himself and rubbing your wet cunt with the head of his erection. He rocked forward thrice, fucking your outer lips until you demanded, breathlessly, that he fuck you. You arched your back as he entered you. Your hands were on your breasts, toying with them. You pinched your nipples, tugged at them. You cupped your breasts from the side, thumbs and forefingers clasping your nipples.

 When he moaned, it was not the nickname he had chosen for you. It was your name. You whispered out a desperate yes.

 “I’m going to kill him one day, tooke,” he said. “And you’ll see. You will choose me.”

 You gripped his hair at the back of his head, tugging him down to kiss you. Your other hand left your chest as well to instead splay across his. You ran the sides of your fingers against his nipple. With a grunt, Ren grabbed onto your hips with both hands, the man picking up his pace. You broke the kiss, nipping at his jawline. When he said your name once more, you threw back your head. Swearing, you grabbed onto his shoulders and looked down at where your bodies were joined. His cock slipped in and out of you.

 You bit down on your bottom lip, swerving your hips so that he hit your g-spot. Kylo rested his forehead against yours. He was watching as well. One hand trailed from your hip to your lower back. He drew circles on your spine. Next, his name. Your entire body was trembling. It felt good, now that he was not teasing you out of jealousy but instead out of—you did not know what to call this. This was not love. He could not love you, not yet. That would interfere with his plans to defeat Snoke. That was something both of you desired.

 “Oh, fuck, Ren!” Your second orgasm crashed over you, and you could feel that the way your inner walls tugged at his cock made him cum too.

 The two of you laid down on the bed together, you in his arm. You closed your eyes and decided to play make-believe for a little while longer. Would this be your life with him if you did renounce the Resistance once he killed the Supreme Leader? Laying in his arms, satisfied on a sexual level…yet missing something. You clenched your jaw. Your right hand was on your abdomen. The scar. The hole in your life. The future that you could never have; a decision that should have been yours stolen away. The arm that was wrapped around you shifted. His hand found yours and rested atop it.

 He had killed that part of your future. Now he was asking you to kill your past.

 Rey was the one thing—person—you could cling to. The idea of her. You did not know what decision she would make when it came time. If she did choose to side with Kylo Ren, you doubted that you would be able to stop them. You had vowed to kill Kylo Ren or die trying. Perhaps you did need to stop living in the past. You would toy with the different possibilities of the future while also taking a day at a time. Relearn your body, as you had been doing, and sharpen your mind so that you would be able to stay ahead of Kylo Ren.

 “You’re mine, tooke,” he whispered. It was not the first time, and you doubted that it would be the last time he said those words. The sound you made was dismissive, and so the man tried again. This time it was not tooke. He said your name. Using your name, he claimed that you were his. He rubbed the back of your hand. “You admitted it before. You are mine as much as I am yours.”

 “That was not out of love,” you countered. Then, seeing an opening, you said with a sigh, “Besides, I thought we were going to let the past die. Those word were in the past.”

 “Then say them again.” He was infatuated with you. This man you had trained to kill. This man who had promised you not long ago that the two of you would work together. You being allowed to find chances to kill him. He using that as a means of growing stronger. Now he wanted you to reciprocate his other feelings for you. The ones he was masking during most of his waking hours. The ones General Hux would use as a weapon against the both of you.

 Would it be prudent to kill General Hux first? Or did you need to keep him as a failsafe to eliminate both Rey and Ren if the woman from Jakku joined the man who was in bed with you?

 “Do you want to be mine, Ren?” Here his hand curled around yours, his fingers wiggling until he was able to entwine them with yours. “You are volatile. Erratic. I can’t have that right now. My own body doesn’t even work like I’m used to.”

 “And…General Hux?”

 “He killed my mother, Ren.” There was venom in your voice. His thumb began to rub you again. Back and forth along the side of your hand. As though he did wish for you to be calmed.

 You wanted to tell him that you would not betray the Resistance; yet you had already agreed with him that there was no Resistance. There was you. There was him. Hux. Snoke. Rey. People who were pieces.

 “Right now I can’t kill the past. My past is filled with the dead. What you’re asking me to do—you’re wanting me to forgive you for breaking me. Repeatedly breaking me. Now you’re telling me that you can love me in the future. Isn’t sentiment a weakness? I thought you didn’t have compassion for enemies of the First Order.”

 Kylo Ren shifted onto his side. His hand did not leave yours. You kept your body as it was on your belly. This time when he said your name, you looked over at him. The two of you remained there, lying together, and watched one another. Now that the conversation had died away, the game of make-believe began anew. This was what it would be like to allow the past to die a thousand deaths. To accept the offer of his future affection. You would be in his arms.

 “Do you want to play a game of make-believe, Ren?” you asked. He blinked, his nod something you nearly missed. “Pretend.”

 With how long the two of you had been together—back when he had been your only form of social interaction, he had learned the language of your body so well—you did not need to elaborate.

 “You will call me Supreme Leader,” he said. Your eyes dropped to his lips. Biting down on yours, you weighed your options. Play, your mind said. You’ll get hurt, your heart whispered. Your mouth formed around the words that he had spoken, you uttering the title. “You don’t think I can do it.”

 “You’re doubting yourself.” For once, you did not want his uncertainty. You needed him to believe he could complete this task. “So: pretend… Supreme Leader.”

 “I love you.”

 The truth was in-between the lines. The silent will always present. This time you believed him. If he succeeded in his plans, he would love you.

 That hurt most of all.

[hyperionswrath--archived]

@princenza​

“And they say chivalry is dead.” There is a brief eye-roll at the nickname the Owls had bestowed upon her coming off his lips, irritation absent however - too excited about what the day was going to bring. It annoyed her more several months ago, believing it was given to her because she was that man’s daughter. He was a sperm doner and nothing more. He’s just following orders, he says. She will understand some day, he says, all the while playing the role of President Deling’s attack dog, oppressing towns and cities and killing anyone who dares to defend their home from tyranny and dictatorship. Her father really thought that buying her things was enough to get her to shut up and behave and be a ‘good girl’.

So she left, taking Angelo with her and decided to be the change she wanted to see instead of waiting for the change. Someone had to stand up to Deling. Someone had to stand up to that man.

She’d made her way to Timber where she met Watts and then Zone, all going well until she was recognized as the Galbadian General’s only child. That made things complicated, at first, them not wanting to trust her especially after all the trauma done directly to them because of Galbadia’s tyranny. Your parent being publically executed for doing the right thing.. Rinoa couldn’t imagine that. That’s why she’s here, that’s why she has to try. It took time to earn their trust and she wasn’t being used as some kind of spy to leak information.

When they continued to call her princess, it was admitted they did so because whatever Rinoa wanted, she got, and the young woman always got her way. If she had to charm, flirt, or force her way - somehow, Rinoa always got results. That is how she earned her title Princess - a terrifying force of nature that took no shit packed in a tiny body. People didn’t take her seriously, and she used that as a strength.

“You did.” She confirms, smile unrelenting, relieved he’d held up his word. Sure, they’d spent a decent part of Spring talking back and fourth that lead up to this, but if there was something Rinoa had to get used to, it was dealing with disappointment when help would fall through. She herself wasn’t too sure about Seifer after learning he was part of Garden. Galbadia had a Garden too and they were linked very, very close to the Galbadian’s military - even if she could afford to hire mercenaries, there is no way in hell they’d accept. A different Garden didn’t occur to her, figuring them all the same and tied close to their respected countries. Seemed like she was wrong, and Balamb’s Garden operated differently. It was a ray of hope.

She makes no effort to hide she is sizing him up. He easily has a foot on her at least, and the brief grab of his arm spoke of whatever training a merc on the rise would have, but what really got her attention was that case. Maybe if she was lucky, she’d get to see him in action. She adored Zone and Watts, but those boys were useless in a fight, despite her attempts to push them into it. At the end of it, they were better at running, while Rinoa wanted to be on the front lines.

“But who knows, maybe another cute girl might’ve whisked you away.” She adds playfully. Hardly the reason either one of them were here, but it was better than letting something accidently slip out. Soldiers were around Timber and in sight, efforts to get them out falling flat.

So Rinoa leads him, changing route when she notices a soldier on patrol to waiting them out to look the other way before proceeding. She in particular gets watched, likely thanks to him. Their arrival does come even if a bit delayed, Rinoa opening the door of the train for him with a playful bowing gesture to welcome him in side, following right behind him.

“Aaaand, this is where all the magic happens! The Meeting Room is down the hall, engine room’s not really anything to worry about, although sometimes Zone likes to come in here to read his naughty magazines when he thinks no one’s around, so, you know - careful of that. And the last room on the left is my room. They’re probably in The Meeting Room. If you have cramps from being stuck in the train though, you can rest a bit.”

Naturally, Seifer had done his homework before coming here. Garden was quick to attach the title “troublemaker” to him, deeming him not able to do the easiest of tasks - except for, maybe, leading the Disciplinary Committee in hopes by enforcing it’s rules, he’d have to abide by them. What a joke. It had, however, helped him to learn the do’s and don’ts of Garden quickly and thus led to awhile set of loopholes he had no shame making use of. One of such being that he exactly knew when the Library Committee sealed up their working place and, what’s more, where they stored their key cards. After all, his presenting the Deling-Plan was supposed to be a surprise, so he couldn’t have anyone know what he was looking up by checking out maps and books, right? Also, above everything else, he preferred to work on his lonesome in the night, there was just something about it that made his creative energies flow. So he had brushed up on his history knowledge about the Timber area and their resistance groups, as well as the whole political shitfest that had been going on over the past decades, all within the past months since spring. While Fu and Rai knew better than to ask him about his newest obsession (he had even laid down a little on riling up Leonhart, to everybody's surprise), they had made a quiet point of shutting down every inquisitive glance in Seifer’s direction when he carried around his notes or sat down in the cafeteria, the same papers spread out before him as he went through his gathered intel. Couldn’t have showing up in Timber and knowing fuck shit about why he had been asked to come there in the first place, after all. Right now, he gave an almost good natured chuckle at the eyeroll Rinoa displayed when he called her princess, taking a mental note that she was likely to actually not respond as favorable to the moniker as he might have anticipated. Good to know. “Not in my books, it isn’t,” he cared to reply nonetheless. Still, she was all smiles and giddy to see him, which admittedly was rare enough when he showed places, people usually quick to curse their bad luck when he was assigned to them - and for a reason he was proud of. He was a born leader, after all. Someone who could see through the bullshit and cut to the chase without so much as a blink, let alone tedious discussions about cost-efficiency or talking through plans, and sitting through briefings when the course of action had long been decided on. In short, he only played by the rules if he deemed it worth his time. Something he had come to realize Rinoa appreciated when they had written back and forth about their meeting up today. Humming in amusement at the next words that fell between them, Seifer let himself be guided by his arm outside of the train station, shooting a telling grin and the ravenhaired woman beside him, privately basking in the attention her admiring glances granted him. “They might’ve tried but would’ve hardly succeeded, all things considered.” Sure, they were talking idly now to avoid any suspicion, but he was also testing the waters. Garden had a couple of cute girls, certainly, but his reputation was a double-edged sword, often making hooking up with someone more of a hassle than a challenge. His ego didn’t take well to be denied so for the most part, he’d simply resorted to focus on new recruits who didn’t yet know what kind of guy he was. Easier, less drama. At least until he dumped them.

The fact that Rinoa was now sometimes beelining and changing directions was not lost on him, as were the soldiers patrolling the small town - he had expected as much, with the tension between Timber and Deling City only increasing lately. There had also been rumors of the Dukedom of Dollet becoming restless, but since that had nothing much to do with their course of action here, he had elected to not pay much mind to it. Seifer had very much expected them to hole up in an old building, maybe even a ramshackle old industrial one, or, if the Timber Owls were bold enough, in the hotel but… when they approached an obnoxiously colored and sprayed train wagon, Seifer stopped dead in his tracks for a second. Now was one of those moments he would have likely copied Leonhart’s pinch to the nose if his hands had been free. They couldn’t be serious about this, could they? Regaining his composure quickly, he instead fell back into step and was led to the door, stepping inside once it opened with a quick and secretive glance over his shoulder before bowing his head to slip in. Just how dense was the Galbadian army not to notice this thing? “Interesting choice of Headquarters,” he commented evenly, careful to keep all judgement out of his voice - for now. The tall blond let his gaze wander, a quick endeavor as there wasn’t much to see, and he snorted mildly at the comment of one of those teens wanking away in the engine room from time to time. Hyne, maybe all of this had been a bad call after all? But then again, he was up to the challenge of whipping those noobs into shape, his plan being a good one, so he’d humour them with his attention for now. “I’m rested enough from the ride here, we should get started.” Wasting time was not something he did, thus he let his duffle bag fall to the ground, shuffling it to the side and next to a wall with his foot, keeping Hyperion’s case in his hand. “Lead the way.”