Scribemaster Nigel's Conversation
Words: 584
Summary: Pauline and Nigel are having a conversation. Halt does not approve of such conversation and finds a solution. Halt/Pauline fluff
From in the shadows somewhere Halt watched. There was a scowl on his face that he would have denied before forcing the offender into some sort of torture depending on who they were. Thankfully his apprentice, Will, was at the harvest festival that he group had turned into an annual thing. Crowley - the old sod - was in Castle Araluen, most likely complaining about his paperwork and attempting to get the youngest of the graduates in there with him to do it.
No, they weren't his issue, being that they were normally. The scene that was currently presenting itself to him was. Pauline was there.
Talking enthusiastically.
To Nigel.
Not him.
The calm yet often polite expression she commonly held was gone, instead there was a general interest in what the conversation was about; Halt being too far away to hear it.
As he stood there and watched Nigel clasped Pauline's right hand and gently, whilst elegantly, kissed the fingertips, looking at her meaningfully. Pauline gave a measured response but did not show any return of the Scribemaster's affection, to Halt's immense relief. Nigel walked off.
Once he was gone and out of hearing Pauline turned to where she knew Halt to be and gave him a look. It was one of the things he loved about her; the ability she possessed to always see him when no one else could.
Halt stepped out of the protection of the shadows reluctantly.
Pauline took the last few steps until she was in front of the man she loved. He reached forwards, almost placing his hand upon her cheek before thinking the better of it. She grabbed it and placed it there herself, leaving her hand on top of his his, to make sure it stayed.
"I'm tired of this playing around," she murmured. The whole thing was beginning to feel like a 'stolen moment in a secret corridor', and neither were the type of person to do that.
"What do we do then?" Halt asked. Pauline scrunched up her mouth delicately in thought. She honestly didn't know.
As they stood there Halt became aware that the two of them weren't getting any younger and that if his last days in the Rangers were going to appear soon, he would want someone to grow really old with. It was this thought that gave him reason to pull back slightly, reaching into a hidden pocket he himself had sewn.
"Grow old with me?" he asked, dropping silently to one knee and holding a ring out to Pauline.
There was no hesitation, just a kind of beauty in it that a person would be hard pressed to find somewhere else. Pauline nodded and Halt slipped the ring onto her finger.
"Now go out and turn people into trees, my dear Ranger," she said softly.
The two left each other's company. It wasn't until a few days later when Pauline, Nigel, Halt, Sandra and Arald were in a meeting together that someone knew.
Pauline reached for her glass with her left hand and Sandra saw it. She squealed before turning to Halt and throwing her arms around him. Halt froze with no clue what was actually going on. Over the Baroness' shoulder his eyes made contact with Pauline's and she winked at him with a smile that made his slightly old, grizzly heart melt.
Just a small thing for valentine's day that I managed to write as I practiced my handwriting. It might actually be the first time I wrote fluff for this pairing and I have to say how pleased I am with how it turn out.
Hope you liked it!
Alyss Mainwaring