Disclaimer: The characters are all Tamora Pierce's, I take no credit.

Daine watched Numair as they walked up the steps to his room. He was tugging on his nose and staring intently at each stair as he placed his foot on it.

"Did you know" he stopped and surveyed his feet, fingers now placed on the bridge of his nose.

"No, I didn't" her voice dry, she said

A smile appeared on his face and he looked down at her. "I was just about to say" he said, tugging on one of her curls "did you know that there is the possibility that our feet never actually touch the floor, it just seems that they do."

Daine looked at him.

"Numair, you've come up with some fair strange theories before but, I must say, this has to be the strangest."

He laughed, and they continued walking up the stairs.

That was four days ago, when they had just come back from cleaning up at Port Legann.

Now Daine sat at a long table, wrapped in a purple confection, feeling the castle dogs sniff at the wonderfully varied scents in the hall. Right now, all she wanted to do was join them. Half the people in this hall had much more interesting scents than they did personalities. Sighing, she shut them off and tried to concentrate on what was happening. The person to the left of her was talking to Lindhall Reed about Carthaki politics…….the person to her right was discussing dress fashions (she had spent the first half of the dinner in raptures over Daine's dress)……Alanna looked like she was dragging Thom out for a spanking……Harailt was talking to a guild official….and there was Numair.

Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him. One of the few people on the dance floor, he was dancing with a tall elegant brunette. Dressed in a white robe and green sash, a green ear drop catching the candlelight with every turn, he looked the most sophisticated person in the room. A god among mere mortals.

He hadn't looked at her all evening. Well, they had agreed that they wouldn't. The normal Numair Salmalin spent his balls flirting with whichever eligible lady he was trying to bed. The normal Daine Sarrasri spent those balls she could be forced into talking to people and ignoring Numair. They had only ever been to three balls at the same time when things were "normal". Why couldn't she just act normal?

That was it. She decided to go into the garden, the only "normal" thing she'd done all evening. She walked out, opening up her mind to all the animals that could stand living in a rose garden, and closed her eyes. The bats came and clung to her, whispering in their scintillating tones of the hunt, the night, the patterns of sounds….

"AAAAAHHHH!"

Black flurry met the screams as they pierced the bats sensitive ears. Daine turned around, bat free, to see a blonde woman clinging half fainting to the balcony and to…Numair. He looked up and their eyes met. She walked away, blundering half blind through the rose bushes. The music had stopped and a palpable murmuring penetrated the air. "Well, I guess something's never change" Daine thought, savagely wrenching her sleeve free from a thorn "No matter whether or not you're a war hero."

"Daine!" A speech spell flickered at her ear. "Please meet me at the bench." She went over to the bench and sat down, properly arranging her skirts.

In just one minute, he had come over and sat next to her. His arm snaked around her and she leaned into him. The silk of his robe seemed too stiff; the tendrils of cologne were strangling her nostrils. She leaned away, back into the hard wood of the bench back.

"Daine?" He said questioningly. She looked up at the stars "I'm just not in the mood tonight, Numair."

"And what can I do to get you in the mood?" He breathed into her ear.

"Nothing, Numair, I'm just not in the mood!" She snapped. "I'm going to go to bed". She made to get up from the bench but was stopped by his hold on her arm.

"Daine, please" He said gently "Tell me what's bothering you."

Sighing, she sat down again.

"I just don't like balls, that's all."

"That's all?"

"That's all."

"And your dislike of balls has translated itself into a dislike of spending time with me?"

She winced. "No….it's just. You're part of that."

"Part of what?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "You're a fancy dress courtier while I'm just a bastard born Gallan girl who would rather spend her time with bats."

He paused. "That's a complete oversimplification, Daine."

"Well, it might be an oversimplification, but it's true." She pointed out.

"No, it's not true the way that you put it." He put one arm around her shoulders and the other he cupped her face with. "Yes, I am a courtier and yes, I like "fancy dress" but I love the Gallan girl who would rather spend time with bats. And I would throw away all the balls and fancy dress in the world to live in a bat cave with her. Because she's not "just a girl", she's more wonderful than any woman I've ever met" he kissed her on the cheek, lips lingering "more compassionate" he kissed the other cheek "and more beautiful " he brushed his lips against hers and melded his mouth to hers, sending echoes and shivers through her body as she clung to him.

When they broke apart, Numair moved one hand to stroke the back of her neck. "I'm guessing part of this was caused by my idiotic attempts to hide my feelings by not looking at you all evening." He said regretfully.

She blushed and ducked her head. "It's rather silly of me."

"It's not silly, I think I'd fall to pieces if we were in the same room and you never caught my eye."

She blushed again. "You knew I was looking at you during the ball?"

"I would never be able to be in a room with you and not be aware of what you were doing." He said softly. "I'm so so sorry." He continued, burying her head in her hair. "I've been a complete idiot and hurt you."

She laughed into his chest. "That's ok."

He drew back and looked her in the eye. "No, it's not ok. It will never be ok and you have a perfect right to slap me whenever I do so."

She buried her face in his shoulder and laughed. He stroked her jaw line with his thumb.

"I love you."

She raised her face to look at him and smile "I love you too."

He bent his head and kissed her, his lips first soft against her s and then more urgent. She felt his tongue against her lips and she opened for him. His tongue entered her mouth and found hers. She moved onto his lap as he began to stroke her tongue with his. She moaned against his mouth and he pressed her to him, his arms wonderfully tight as their lips stretched.

They broke apart, gasping for air. She climbed off his lap and they sat there, breath coming harsh against the rose-scented air.

He cleared his throat and looked down at her. "So" he gasped "will you permit me to take you back to the ball?"

"Why?"

"So I can sit and look into your eyes for the rest of the evening."

She just sat there and laughed.