The Queen hobbled out of the denser part of the Mistpeak Forrest with a hand pressed securely over the slash on her thigh; feeling its stinging embrace whenever she dared put weight on it. With every step she winced; her face scrunching together and hand tightening onto her Bonesmasher, which she'd found after making it over the hill back to where she was ambushed by the White Balverines. Hobson had already made his mad dash back to the waiting carriages on the road leading to Brightwall and he sat inside the Queen's with door open trying to nurse his forearm which would need at least a dozen stitches when back in Bowerstone. He looked up when he saw her coming and even despite the pain he was in himself bolted to his majesties aid, "Allow me to help you madam!" he offered, taking her sword and pistol from her hands. "Help me? Get me my damn Gin if you want to help me!" she snarled with eyes still on her ticket home, Hobson was quick to get back into the carriage and hunt down the bottle of alcohol she'd brought along. When he stepped back onto the frozen grass he hastily got out of the way as Reaver came out of nowhere and tossed the limp unconscious Landon into the Queen's carriage and wiped his hands together as if freeing them of invisible dirt, Hobson cradled the bottle against his chest and felt light headed at how close one of his many idols was to his person. He made quick to take up the opportunity to touch Reaver, placing a hand ever so lightly against his shoulder "This isn't your carriage Master Reaver…" he said quietly, from where the Queen stood she rolled her eyes at Hobson's pathetic coyness.
Reaver stopped dead where he stood leaning slightly into the carriage and looked up at the windows on the other side thinking speechlessly "Did he really just touch me?" he turned his head to get a view of the battered and intensely overweight thing beside him whose eyes were beaming with a sense of wonder like he was looking at Avo himself. It flattered Reaver, deep inside his mind, but just he was a man although high in class when it came to social stature was so low in class when in it came to overall importance. He was a butler; he was the one who made sure the Queen didn't throw up on herself during one of her nightly alcohol binges and made sure her puppy Thatcher's business didn't sit on the carpets for to long. And he had the audacity to speak, none the less touch him without any form of permission?
The Queen tilted her head as she saw Reaver's hand opposite where Hobson stood clench into a tightly knitted fist, before he had a chance to send it anywhere in particular she cleared her throat loud enough for them both to hear. Hobson watched Reaver close his eyes and sigh then respond to him with shaky rage apparent in his voice "Yes, I'm quite aware that this isn't my carriage...do you think me blind?—if you know what's good for you you'll never breath near me again! Clear?"
He snatched the bottle from the butler's hands making Hobson yelp with sudden fear, then began to walk towards the Queen while explaining with a sudden burst of glee "The lovely Queen will be accompanying me during this fine ride back into Bowerstone, you…can squeeze yourself in with the extra baggage I've just placed in there!" he waved a hand at the Queen's carriage and Hobson peered in at the bloodied man on the floor inside. He placed a hand on his damaged arm and nodded, knowing she must have lost yet another bet against him. "Here you are, my dear." He heard Reaver say to the Queen, handing her the bottle and leading her away towards his own carriage which sat near to the arches leading to Brightwall, two large anxious black horses stood at the head of it clomping their hooves into the frozen cobblestone as if they knew they'd finally be able to move from their spot. "Nervous?" Reaver asked, bending down to get his sultry breath against the Queen's reddened ear; the feeling made her squirm the side of her face into her shoulder for it tickled her.
She scoffed, "Why would I be nervous?"
"Because something tells me you only agreed to this bet because you thought you'd actually win it!"
"You technically didn't win, and no I had full knowledge of what I was getting myself into…it's only a breast anyways, not like nobody else has seen it."
"You wouldn't have won anyways my dear; you couldn't even kill one Balverine! What happened to that fiery little damsel that swept through my entire guest list at that party two years ago?"
"You really want to know?" she stopped her limping just inches from the carriage and looked at him with blankness and pain in her eyes, Reaver was smiling with anxiousness. The Queen held the bottle up to his eyes and shook its contents around; it swashed dully making a wet brushing sound against the glass. "Alcohol, gambling and Ruler-ship—that's what happened to her. I can see why Logan was such a beastly piece of shit back then…I think the ale and Gin's what keeps me from falling as far into madness as he did."
"Not to mention—your brother is a first class nut—my dear there's no point in trying to fool ourselves any longer!"
She laughed and agreed, "What happened to Landon anyways? Is he dead?"
"No…he's very much knocked out, but he will be dead soon enough I assure you…"
Reaver's driver was waiting to open the door for the two of them, shivering uncontrollably under his thin coat. Once the Queen turned back towards the carriage he opened the door giving them both passage to the inside, she groaned with pain as she brought her leg up and sat at the farthest corner on the right side with said leg propped up taking up the entire seat beside her for obvious reasons. But Reaver had no intention of sitting beside her anyways; he'd have a better view from sitting directly in front of her. The driver closed the door, making sure to lock it from the outside as instructed by Master Reaver before leaving for the hunt; incase anyone would try to escape. He climbed up to the drivers seat and equipped himself with the reigns and whip, then waited for the Queen's carriage to start moving before he did; royal carriages always comes first, rather their in it or not.
"Now…"
The Queen bit her lip at his voice as it razored through her ears cutting up all her defenses like they were nothing but butter. She pulled his coat, still over her shoulders deeper over herself and looked ahead of herself to find his eyes creeping their way across her every feature; her broad eyes, V shaped chin and jaw, and muddied and soaked white dress shirt which did little to hide the fact her bra was dark green and laced with black silk. "Yes, now…" she echoed in annoyance; she felt no fear in the fact she would have to show Reaver any part of her body, what she was concerned with was how he'd go about reacting to it knowing him and his unstable sexual control. "Before I do anything…" she set her hands on her right thigh which was not slung up on the seat, she saw Reaver falter backwards into his own seat as if impatient "What?" he asked swiftly, twiddling his fingers against his knee. The carriage began to move as the Queen asked curiously "How did you hear about my birthmark anyways?"
Reaver rolled his itching eyes "I couldn't help but overhear a man talking about it when I made one of my rare visits to the Industrial pub one evening."
The Queen burst into a gentle fit of laughter "Ah the pub, too many silly stories I have from that place…" she was smiling to herself while recalling some drunken memories. Reaver eyed her closely, he'd heard many of them himself; she was quite the crazy thing when intoxicated, he'd only ever seen it twice. "Well…" she whispered bringing her hand to the first button of her blouse then moving to the second, she kept her mind on her wine cellar back at the castle and how she was going to drain it dry when she got home instead of thinking about the fact Reaver was staring at her from mere inches away. "It surprises me, you've really never seen a woman with a few birthmarks on her chest in all your years reeking havoc on females?" she asked absently, working out the third and fourth buttons. Reaver was so enthralled in how delicious the Queen's hand looked touching her cleavage he almost didn't have the mind to answer her, but when he did he sounded almost like he was robotic "Sure I have, just the fact its you makes it why I'm so anxious to see…"
As the Queen undid the final button she peered out the window to see that the carriages were nearly a half of the way to the Mistpeak Monorail station. She sighed, trying to break the awkward silence that had seemed to have fallen over the inside of the carriage despite the muffled ruckus of clattering hooves and rolling wheels outside. "Consider this bet, over!" she said bluntly, tugging the left cup of her bra down just enough to show the dark dot which was a little over a half a centimeter in diameter and mere inches away from her nipple, which was just barely visible as well, and Reaver found himself staring at that more then what the bet was originally over. The Queen was smiling nervously, she'd never done such a thing like this sober and usually when she did she was at a bar surrounded by sailors she'd never see again. Reaver's expression was expected; he had on his typical smile and his eyes were locked on the mark (or so she thought) like glue, he was still tapping his fingers on his knee out of a habit probably gained from constantly tapping his cane on the ground whenever he spoke but he didn't have it today so he resorted to the next best thing.
"Magnificent…" he muttered to her in a stunned tone, she didn't know he hadn't even really looked at the birthmark at all. "I guess it's different—" she responded looking down at it herself, Reaver slowly raised a hand towards her as if wanting to touch it. She covered herself quickly and hissed "What do you think you're going to do?"
He laughed "Touch it of course, why not? It looks so smooth and taunting!"
"Hell no, your not touching my breast, the deal was you'd get to see the mark and that's it."
"I'm not? What ever is wrong with me?"
"Make this about yourself, why don't you?—ugh, nothing is wrong with you…your just you and I'm not letting you touch me!" she folded her arms hiding her chest from his view and looked off out the window as the sign for the monorail came passing by iced over with a thin sheet of snow. She felt Reaver's eyes on her face and his always sarcastic laugh ripped through her ears again, "My dear little Queen…" he said wisely in a low playful tone. He leaned in towards her slightly, his knee coming into contact with her own "The fact that its me didn't seem to bother you a few weeks ago when you were mining the inside of my mouth for invisible gold with your tongue…now did it?"
Her body immediately flushed of all life, she shot him a grave glare and her mouth fell open speechlessly. The horses came to a halt just outside the cave entrance to Mistpeak Monorail and before the driver came to open the door the Queen caught her hitched breath and stammered as coolly as she could without losing her temper "…It was late…and I—was drunk, and you…drugged me."
Reaver burst out laughing and made to counter her response but stopped as the driver opened the door oblivious to what was going on inside. "We have arrived Master Reaver and your Majesty!" he said cheerfully and the Queen flicked her eyebrow at Reaver as she stepped out onto the road, re-buttoning her shirt in the process.