Kel was washing her hands after feeding the griffin when Cleon walked into the tent.
"Kel, they just put your name up for tomorrows jousting lists," he said, running his fingers through his red curls. He ignored Jump and the sparrows, who were trying to get his attention. "Against Ansil of Groten. Tell me" He stopped in mid sentence, looking her over. "It's true, isn't it? You challenged a full knight- you, a second year squire."
Kel tried a smile. It didn't feel as confident as she would have liked. "Oh, well, I had to," she replied. "The mans a bully. He insulted my lord."
Her tent had never felt this small before. She liked mathematics, her mind babbled. It was impossible for there to be less room inside a tent with just her and Cleon here than there was when Merric, Neal and Owen were present as well. Her brain was rattling. In a moment she would start to babble out loud. Instead Kel began to refill the sparrows' seed dishes. She needed something to do with her hands.
"He's asking a winners purse of ten gold crowns," said Cleon gravely.
"I have that money from Joren. I can pay if I lose." When I lose, she thought as she put out the filled dishes. She glanced at Cleon. It always surprised her to see him in her family's colours of blue, cream and grey, wearing the Mindelan grey owl crest.
She knew she ought to find something else to do with her hands, but she looked at Cleon again. Instead of tasks she thought of how good he looked in those colours. Perhaps it wasn't the colours. Perhaps it was the way his shoulders filled out his cream linen shirt, or the way his chest pressed against his blue tunic.
She looked up: his eyes were on her. Warmth flooded Kel's body. Hurriedly she grabbed her breastplate and a polishing cloth. "I have to go over my gear," she mumbled.
Big hands tugged breastplate and cloth from her grip. Cleon put them aside and told Kel softly, "Was I wrong, believing you liked it when I kissed you? I thought maybe you did, but you've avoided being alone with me since."
She looked down. "Midwinter was, it was, nice," she said, cringing inside at her idiotic reply. It was very warm in the tent. "People would talk, if we- if they saw. They might get the wrong idea."
"Here I am, hoping one person will get the right idea," Cleon explained.
Even with her eyes on her shoes, Kel could see his legs: he stood that close. His clothes smelled of orris. The warmth of his body spread to envelope her. "If someone sees," she whispered.
"Jump, close the flap, there's a good fellow," Cleon said. The dog obeyed immediately.
"That isn't what I meant," Kel protested. Where was Raoul? If he were in his tent next door, he might hear and interrupt. Obviously Jump and the sparrows weren't going to stop whatever was going on. As chaperones they were useless if they liked the person who was confusing her so. "I meant we shouldn't be, you know, alone," she said, dry mouthed.
"Please look at me, Kel." Cleon asked.
She was ready to refuse. Then he said "Please". It would be churlish not to look up, so she did, meeting his grey eyes with her hazel ones. He was smiling. That was a dirty trick. It was impossible o remind him she was a fellow squire, sexless, when he smiled with so much liking that her insides melted. He lowered his head just a few inches to press his mouth to hers.
Oh, my, thought Kel.
He took his lips away. "Um, that wasn't too bad, was it?"
She was glad to hear his voice crack. She wasn't a complete dolt, if this upset him, too.
"Neither of us turned into anything awful," Cleon went on hoarsely, "the tent didn't collapse- even the animals are quiet."
Kel looked around. All eyes- the sparrows', Jump's, even the griffin's- were on them. "I-," she began, not sure what to say.
Cleon wrapped big hands around her elbows, leaned in, and touched his mouth to hers once more. Kel gasped, then forgot almost everything else as Cleon drew her snugly against him.
A mocking voice sounded in her mind. It was Joren's, from a talk once they'd once had on the palace wall. "You'd make a fine wife for one of those big fellows- Cleon, for instance. You could settle down and raise young giants." Kel stiffened.
Cleon released her instantly. "What's wrong, Kel?" he asked. "You have to say if I push too hard. I've just been thinking about this for such a long time-,"
"You have?" Kel asked shakily.
"Remember the night you took me to your room to give me a letter for Mindelan, since your brother and I were going that way?" Cleon grinned. "I wanted to kiss you then, but your maid and her friend were there."
"Oh," Kel whispered. I sound stupid, she thought, furious with herself for saying dolt things, and for blinking at him like a thunderstricken deer. I had plenty to say to that Groten swine, she thought. Lerant too.
Cleon kissed her again. A/N Now it's my work
"KEL!!!" Kel started.
"Yes?" She called. Cleon sat down suddenly, and started playing with Jump, while grinning mischievously at Kel. Kel blushed. Miliko and Neal walked in, closely followed by Yuki and Owen. The others had suddenly found something else to do. Shadi was still with Dom, and Myanh had found someone called Squire Matthew of Turtle Dove.
"What is going on in here, hm?" Miliko asked, looking from Kel to Cleon, then she laughed, as Kel opened her mouth.
"Don't worry, I already know. Good luck with your joust tomorrow, although I already know what happens," Miliko assured Kel. Kel looked confused. Miliko laughed again.
"Come on, let's give them some privacy." And with that, she led the others out, leaving Cleon and Kel alone.