A/N: Short Story (by request from Mirabar on FFN): "When they just got together and Daine is all over him and he is kinda shy."

Blurb:

Set in the two weeks after ROTG.

Fed up with just kisses, Daine sets Numair a challenge. He has twenty four hours to explain what's stopping him from going further, or he has to stop touching her altogether. He warns her that going for a whole day without touching will be a lot more difficult than she thinks. Determined to prove him wrong, Daine thinks over their relationship so far hoping that the answer will appear before temptation gets the better of her. D/N... obviously! Lots of fluff and missing scenes from the end of ROTG.

Notes:

This work is based on a request I got for my D/N one-shot collection "Bronze and Black". I loved the suggestion, but I think it's an idea that needs more than a one-shot to really work. This will probably be 3 - 4 chapters long. Let me know if you have any requests for the next story!

888

Chapter 1: Challenge Accepted

"This middle ground," Daine said, bursting into the study that evening, "is killing me."

Numair looked up, immediately pushing away his notes and giving his friend his full attention. Daine's quick changes in mood were getting more and more unpredictable, and this time he had no idea if the odd note in her voice was irritation or laughter. It could even be both. Catching her hand, he held her still.

"What middle ground, sweet?" He asked, threading his fingers through her own. She bit her lip, and he couldn't resist the urge to pull her a little closer. Daine shivered, and for a second her nervous energy seemed to drain away. Then she collected herself a little and tried to look stern.

"This middle ground," She squeezed his hand tighter, but saw that he didn't understand. It probably didn't even register with him that he was doing anything wrong, because it felt so natural to him to touch her. Even as she spoke he drew her close enough to see the dark expression in his guileless eyes. She could drown in those eyes, but that was exactly the problem. She blushed every time their eyes met and found her thoughts skipping away. He, on the other hand, kept some secret store of self-control ready to pull away just when she wanted him to kiss her again.

Her words were more of a whisper than she had practiced, but she managed to say, "I don't like it. It's not fair."

Numair suddenly understood what had upset her, and both his hands fell away from her skin as if she'd scolded him. Daine laughed and made no attempt to move back, knowing that he didn't really want to push her away. In the three weeks since the war had ended she had learned that much about her lover, at least. It was pretty much the only secret he had revealed, though. Her voice sounded hurt because she still didn't understand why they hadn't done more. "If this were a siege you'd've either attacked or gone home by now, Numair."

"You're not a siege... and I resent that metaphor." He said, matching her hurt for once. Catching hold of her chin to force her to meet his eyes, he drew a deep breath. "Daine, I don't want it to be like that. I don't even want you thinking it should be like that. I'm not about to... to assault you, for Shakith's sake!"

"Then what do you want to do?" She demanded. "Gods above, Numair, I thought you wanted me. Short of walking into your room stark naked I'm being about as obvious as it's possible to be here, and you're making me feel like a scolded child." Seeing him flinch, her eyes widened and she exhaled in a rush. "That isn't what's stopping you, is it?"

He pulled a face at her. "You're not a child."

"I'm so glad you agree." She said tartly, and then her voice grew quieter. "There's nothing wrong between us, is there?"

"No." He looked up in surprise. "Of course not." Seeing her pale skin and the anxious way she was biting her lip, he kissed her forehead and murmured. "Magelet, please don't be angry at me. It's nothing like that. I just..."

Daine waited, watching him with a thin worry line between her eyes. He smiled wryly and smoothed it away with his fingers, letting them wander on to her soft curls and down to the nape of her neck. She shivered but kept watching him, her eyelids only fluttering closed for the briefest moment.

"Don't think I don't want you." Numair said gently, watching the wondrous changes in her eyes at his lightest touch. "I want you. I've dreamed about you in my arms. I want far more than you can imagine, sweetling. But I can't just take that from you."

"But I..." Daine swallowed and tried again. Her voice sounded strangely husky, even to her ears. "I really do want you to."

He shook his head, not even trying to hide the flush of colour in his cheeks. "I know. And I know how frustrated you must be – I'm stopping us from doing something we both want, and I can't even explain why." He smiled at her then, and as much as she was irritated at him, Daine found herself smiling back at the boyish guilt in his eyes. He leaned closer as if he were telling her a secret and there was a pleading note in his whisper, "It wouldn't be so bad if I had a reason, would it, Daine?"

"I don't know, it's pretty bad either way." She moved slowly into his lap, deliberately pressing closer, and when he failed to bite back a groan she kissed him. Moving from lips to cheek to ear, she breathed, "It just seems like a strange time to test the limits of your self control, love."

"Daine," He caught her hips with both hands, and for a moment they both froze and caught their breath. Then he let his out in a croaked plea. "Please don't do that."

She bit her lip, and abruptly moved away. "Fine." She said. "I won't, but... but I still don't like being caught in the middle. Either you want me or you don't. Until... until you decide one way or the other, maybe we shouldn't touch each other at all."

"I guarantee that trying that will make you even more frustrated," He said with a strangled laugh. Daine tossed back her head impetuously and folded her arms.

"Why would I be frustrated? My best friend is keeping a secret from me and I've been outright rejected by the first person I fell in love with, but other than that I'm just fine. You're the one who knows exactly what he's missing out on."

"Not exactly," he echoed heatedly, and she blushed from head to foot. Tilting his head to one side, he grinned and said in a thoughtful voice. "We might try it, though. It's a good idea. Shall we say twenty-four hours, to see if we can get our heads clear?"

She smiled and nodded, a look of relief crossing her face. If nothing else, it meant that in twenty five hours he should at least have an explanation for her. He held out his hand, and she shook it with playful seriousness.

"So, this time tomorrow we'll talk?" She asked. He shook his head, suddenly looking mischievous.

"We'll start at dawn." He pulled her closer again, and this time she didn't try to hide the way he made her shiver. Eyes very dark, he murmured, "Right now, I want to kiss you goodnight."

888

A dull thunk woke Daine up, and she sat up blearily in bed to hear a stream of soft cursing coming from another room. The thud had sounded like something heavy hitting the wooden floor, and from the direction of the cursing Daine guessed it had been something in Numair's study. Probably a book. Something dull and heavy and dusty, if Numair's sneezing fit was anything to go by.

She yawned widely and looked around. She could see a cold cup of camomile tea and a piece of bread and honey had been set in a carefully cleared space on the table beside her. One of the local sparrows had flown in and was taking small pecks off the bread, but she waved it away with an apology and ate her breakfast hungrily.

Numair must have woken up early, she thought, and he had decided to keep himself busy. Making her some breakfast was a sweet gesture, even if he had absentmindedly left leaves floating in the tea and the bread was slightly hard. It was probably the only food he'd remembered to order from the servants at Corus when they moved back to the tower a few days ago; he had never been the best housekeeper. Daine smiled at the thought and licked honey from her fingers, wishing there was more. She dragged a dress on and padded downstairs to the kitchen, sighing at the mess. Honestly, even when the foxes raided the compost barrels they didn't make this much chaos! Grabbing another piece of chewy stale bread she cleared a space and started mixing up some bread dough. While the yeast was rising she started cleaning in earnest.

"We've had the same idea," Numair commented from the doorway, sounding amused. Daine looked around, nervously brushing flour from her hands onto her skirt. He was dressed in scruffy clothes and his hands were streaked with dust. She smiled. It was an odd thing that she hadn't realised she'd even been missing until they'd left the palace, but the dishevelled look suited him far more than he knew. Not that she would ever tell him that.

"Thank you for breakfast," she said instead.

He shrugged easily and gestured to the bread. "Are you making more?"

"I'm going to give the old loaf to the birds." Daine knew they both hated waste, and then she added, "I'll walk to the next farm over as well, and see if they have anything to sell. We haven't got any milk or cheese."

"That'll fill an hour." He winked at her lasciviously, and Daine felt herself blush to the tips of her toes.

"Can I kiss you good morning, beautiful?" Numair asked, and it was a serious question. Daine shook her head, and her own answer was just as guarded in its raw disappointment.

"We both know it wouldn't be just a kiss."

"True. And with a whole day to go…" He looked very pitiable for a moment and then he smiled secretly at her. "I admit I was tempted to wake you up before dawn."

"Why didn't you?" She said a little archly, wary of whatever the joke would be. He tugged at his nose.

"I slept past it. I've never been a morning person."

The girl laughed and turned back to her bread. Numair hid a smile. He had no inkling of Daine's private approval for his own looks that morning, but he might have been amused by how similar they were to his own at that moment. They were close to the way he admired the slow line of blushing skin which ran up her neck to nestle beneath her tousled hair. Provoking that blush, he decided, was just too delightful to resist. "Well then, if you'll excuse me I'm going to return to my books. Standing here I have both a gorgeous woman and a jar of honey in my eyesight, and it's a rather distracting combination."

"You're supposed to eat honey!" She yelled out after him as soon as she could trust herself to form words.

"That's the idea!"

What idea? Daine found herself wondering that as she collected some money and a satchel, and some of the answers her vivid imagination provided made her shiver and press her thighs together, trying to relieve some of the tight feeling in her stomach. It didn't work as nearly well as she'd hoped.

Remembering his words last night, it suddenly occurred to her that he was proving his own stupid point. I guarantee that will make you even more frustrated. Gritting her teeth, she mentally cursed all lanky mages to Shakith. She had somehow managed to get caught in a game where they weren't just clearing their minds, they were openly daring each other not to touch. On the way out of the tower she fitfully shoved at the half-open door of his study, hearing the wood crash against the stone.

"You said that on purpose!"

He didn't answer, but she heard a soft chuckle and scowled at the swinging door. Right, Numair – this means war!

It took about half an hour to walk to Madding's farm. Daine thought about riding Cloud and taking the chance to complain to her old friend, but the day was too warm for any horse to want to be saddled, and as Numair had snidely worked out, she was trying to fill time. By the time she got there she was hot and dusty, which didn't improve her mood. All of the animals in the farm were lazing around in the sunshine and didn't want to either talk or play with an irritable wildmage, thank you all the same. Mistress Madding took her time taking milk and cheese out of her cellar, sighing in pleasure at the small, cool space while her guest waited outside on the porch.

"We're surprised to see you so soon," The good woman commented, handing over a sweating clay flask and a muslin-wrapped wheel of cheese. "We figured you both would be stayin' in the city until the worst is cleared up. We heard it was a messy fight."

"It was," Daine agreed, shivering at the memory of the bloodstained walls. In this weather they must be covered in swarms of black flies. "We were both sick after the last battle, and Jon... his majesty, I mean... sent us home to get better."

"Are you ill?" The farmer's wife frowned and looked at the girl more closely. She had known Daine since the first time she had stayed in the tower, a thirteen year old scrap of a thing who had boldly marched into her barn and informed her that her prize sow needed healing. She was happy when Daine shook her head and waved a hand dismissively.

"I don't mean sick, I mean... tired, really. Numair was worse. He used all his magic and then he wouldn't see a healer until I yelled at him, and it turned out the idiot broke two ribs. Numair said the man he was fighting tried to turn him to stone, but the magic only got as far as his bones before he worked out how to break the spell. Bones aren't meant to be... solid. Duke Baird said two of his ribs just crumbled into ashes, and after a few hours... " She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her knees. "I can't even imagine how it felt."

"Is he...?"

"Oh, he's fine now." Daine shrugged, a little distantly. "If it still hurts he isn't telling me about it, and I don't ask."

As she was walking home Daine thought over what she'd told the woman. It had taken her less than a minute to describe what had been days of worried, broken sleep as the healers fussed around Numair, catching the remnants of a spell which had made particles of bone and dust pollute his blood without him realising. He kept trying to get up before he was healthy. The healers found him out of bed one time too many.

The last time they caught him he was bent over double in the hallway, gasping in pain. They lashed his wrist to a bed in the soldier's ward, spelled the restraint to make it impervious, and told both him and the soldiers that if Master Salmalin was caught even looking at the restraining spell they would all be on a diet of salted gruel and half pay. The spell might have only held him for a day, but the glares of twenty burly men effectively curbed Numair's escape attempts for nearly a week.

Daine slept through the first few days of this. She and Numair had made their way back to the castle with Cloud and Onua. They had both felt exhaustion washing over them in a black wave the moment they reached the safe haven of the stables. Daine had fallen first, stumbling over a raised floorboard and finding that her legs refused to right themselves.

She woke up to find that she was in her own room, with several anxious animals and one tearful dragon fretting between the sheets. She had heard some of Numair's exploits from the cats, and the rest from a harassed looking Onua. She made it nearly out of the door before they collectively reminded her she wouldn't be allowed into that part of the healing wing.

Daine was still exhausted, but of course she couldn't sleep. She waited until darkness fell and then shapeshifted into a small brown cat. She struggled to hold on to the shape with so little magic filling her veins, but she was too stubborn to give in. Creeping in to the healing wing, she anxiously padded through the large rooms listening to each man's snore with her sensitive ears until she heard a familiar note. Heart in her mouth, she jumped on to the end of the bed and padded closer to the sleeping shape. When she was sure, she leapt joyfully onto the blanket, and then bounded up to his face.

"Whuh?" The human exclaimed sleepily, and Daine nuzzled against his cheek until his reddened eyes focused on her. "Daine," he sighed, smiling irresistibly, and he held out a hand.

She lay down beside him and cuddled against his palm, feeling her panicked heart finally relaxing. He looked exhausted and unfocused, as if he might drift back into sleep again in moments, but at least he knew she was beside him. When he fell asleep, she thought, she would creep away again. She had enough magic to stay for a few minutes.

He sleepily stroked her head, and a few minutes became half an hour, and as the room settled into the deep silence of midnight she felt her eyes sliding shut.

She woke up with a clumsy hand on her shoulder, and the sudden awareness that she was human again. Numair shook her weakly but urgently, and his croaked voice was torn between laughter and panic. "Daine! You changed back!"

She opened her eyes and blinked blearily at him for a moment, forgetting where she was. "Hullo, 'mair."

"Hello magelet," He replied, and kissed her forehead fleetingly. His dark eyes were very obstinately not looking anywhere but her face, and he said in an intense voice. "Daine, you absolutely have to turn back into a cat right now."

She was about to ask him what on earth was the matter when she realised that the only fabric touching her skin was the blanket above her and the soft linen of Numair's shirt. She covered her face, suddenly flaring with embarrassment.

"You've seen me naked before," She informed him in a tart whisper, trying not to think about the very large difference between being seen by a man and being naked in his bed. He scowled at her, and she noticed his own cheeks were scarlet.

"Even if I have, there are about twenty other men in here who haven't, and I don't want them to."

She smiled and asked in a low voice. "Are you defending my honour?"

"If you're still human in the next thirty seconds I think I might have to." He glanced around worriedly, and then an amused line appeared at the corner of each eye. "Not that I wouldn't duel each and every one of them if it came to that, Daine. It's just that you might wait until I can stand upright before sending me twenty scoundrels in one go."

"Fair enough," Daine said slowly, and raised her hand to trace the outline of his face. He was pale and shone with a cool sweat, and a week without a shaving had let coarse stubble begin on his face, but his eyes were bright and amused and wonderfully lucid. She rested her cheek against his own, impulsively affectionate. "Have I told you I love you yet, Numair?"

"Not in words," He murmured back, and laughed painfully. "But you did risk your honour sneaking in to find me in the middle of the night. I got the message, sweetling."

"And then you tried to get rid of me before I even got the chance to kiss you!" She made her voice sound disgusted and he shook his head wryly. Even that small movement obviously caused him some pain, but his voice was soft.

"I wouldn't dare do that."

"No," She murmured, and leaned closer. It felt odd to be the one in control, and for the first heartbeat she had a fleeting moment of doubt in case she was doing something wrong. Then the thought faded, because she breathed in and inhaled the close, living scent of the man she loved, and knew that he loved her too by the way his heart raced under her hands. He returned her kiss gently, carefully, as if she were as fragile as glass, but his hand shook against her shoulder and when he breathed in his breath hitched in his throat. Daine copied him curiously, learning as if by instinct the slow differences between love and desire and the way they struggled and danced together in every light touch.

"I need to leave now," She whispered shakily, finally drawing further away and stroking his cheek. "Or else I don't think I'll be able to."

He nodded, and his eyes had never looked so black. When she leapt on four paws to the cold stone floor and looked back he was only a shadow in the darkness, but she could feel the way his eyes followed her.

The next morning she slept late, exhausted by using magic she hadn't really had to start off with, and when she dressed and made her way to the healers' wing a guard blocked her way. Someone had seen a small brown cat sneaking away from the room in the early hours of the morning, and they had recognised the unusual fur shade as the wildmage's hair colour. Baird forbade her from entering the men's part of the healers' quarters again, and no cats were allowed past the door guards.

Daine knew they would have been watching for her even if she were strong enough to choose another shape. As it was, she could not even hold a bird shape for long enough to fly through the window. For the next few days she worked in the stables with the bruised and bloodied horses until she had passed out in exhaustion. She had woken up on a soft couch in Thayet's solar, with both reagents working at opposite sides of the room. When they saw that Daine was awake they both dismissed their pages and sat down.

It was a small comfort to be told that she was usually more sensible, even if Jon did say it through gritted teeth. It was impossible to bite her tongue. She told them that she had hoped to wake up in the healer's quarters.

"I want to see Numair." She said, setting her chin stubbornly. "They won't let me near him."

Jon had been one of her adopted guardians for six years, and so he knew exactly when Daine wouldn't back down. He didn't even bother arguing with her, but he shook his head and walked out of the room. Thayet gave her a quizzical look, but suggested that if Daine slept a little more and ate something, then perhaps Numair would be allowed a visitor.

"He doesn't need visitors. He needs to come home." The girl replied. "You know the healers need every bed they can get. And you know I've got more chance of getting him to stay in bed than some pushy green-robe healer with his nose in the air."

Thayet smiled crookedly. "Careful, Daine. I'm starting to hear your teacher's words coming out of your mouth."

"Then you agree I know how he thinks." Daine pushed, sitting up straighter and willing herself not to reel dizzily. Steadying herself against the back of the chair, she looked the woman straight in the eyes and let her see every raw truth held in her own pleading gaze. "Please, Thayet, I know he'd rather come home with me."

"With you." The woman echoed, and looked away before Daine's sudden blush got too obvious for her to pretend it hadn't happened. Then she sighed, gripped the girl's shoulder for a moment, and stood up with unconscious grace and an awkward smile. "We'll have to think about that, won't we? Get some sleep, Daine."