* 21 * 7/11/12

Half of the party was seated, especially those who were intoxicated, around the hearth now. It had been fifteen or so minutes since Bishop had left, and the wine was really starting to affect Lily. For that reason, she stayed mostly quiet, but couldn't help laughing with Neeshka every now and then. She had to admit that even though the tiefling was beyond wasted, she at least knew how to have a good time instead of being a violent and intolerable drunk.

But Lily was realizing as the minutes ticked on that her reasoning was becoming more and more clouded. Still, she preferred to stand, feeling that if she had to concentrate on doing something that it'd keep her sober... Enough, at least.

Casavir was still in his armor, despite there not being any enemies to fight at the moment. He kept it on at almost all times, always ready to spring into action...in case there were some kobolds hiding in the walls or something.

Lily stared at his drink. He had a mere quarter of it left, but he had had the same drink for almost half an hour now. Needless to say, he paced himself quite well with alcohol, and seemed in full possession of all his faculties.

Lily smiled. That was just like Casavir.

Her attention moved to his hands, one of the only parts of his body not currently covered in some kind of plating. She examined the shape of his fingers, paid mind to their length and curvature.

Casavir was in his mid-thirties, made readily obvious by the few light wrinkles in his face, which were especially noticeable when he frowned. Though he was stern, he was also quite responsible, selfless, and caring, and thus had won the respect of all of his teammates rather quickly. Well, almost all of them. His striking ice blue eyes most often focused on only one thing at a time and rarely flitted around; this, combined with his great patience, gave the impression that he really saw you when you spoke to him. His sheer presence had many times put Lily at ease, which was part of the reason she was so happy to have him back with the party. He always seemed to be right next to or behind her, and she had gotten so used to him being there that she felt very exposed when he wasn't.

Lily could be considered quite young for a sun elf, and in her years, she had never met anyone like Casavir, a true knight in shining armor in all senses of the phrase. It was easy to delude yourself into believing no gentlemen existed anymore when there was so much hatred and greed in the world. But the world had always been that way, and the white knight stereotype had come from somewhere.

Without thinking, Lily reached over and grabbed the paladin's left hand in her own, bringing it a few centimeters higher to see if there were any obvious signs of age. He had a few extra lines, perhaps scars, but those could've come from anywhere, having been trained to fight for many years. It was always surprising to Lily to find a warrior that had been battling for many decades yet still had all his limbs intact. She was surprised even she fit this bill after so many years.

His hands were surprisingly soft for such a battle-hardened warrior, but then again, he had had days to heal. He wasn't clenching his fist, which made it easy for Lily to slide her fingers over his own and feel them sidle over her skin.

With a start, she realized what she was doing, and looked up. Casavir's gaze was locked on his hand, which was now sandwiched between those of Lily. His lips again formed a line, and he seemed reluctant to meet her eyes. His expression was mostly unreadable, but there was a hint of curiosity, and more noticeably, embarrassment.

No one else seemed to have noticed, or at least no one had said anything yet; Lily hadn't broken her concentration away from Casavir to check.

She shifted her gaze back down to his hand, chancing a very light squeeze as she felt his skin more. Lily looked again into his face. This time, she caught him looking straight back. No longer able to contain it, his face was colored. Lily giggled quietly and smiled up at him.

Casavir looked as if he'd been stung; he shifted his gaze away and quickly turned back toward the others, being careful as to disengage his hand from her own gracefully without ripping it away. He said nothing, but disapproval was stark on his face. It didn't seem to pertain to her directly, however. But then, what, or whom, was its target?

Lily dropped her hands to her sides and tried to go back to looking normal after her minutes-long lapse in judgment. Out of her periphery, she found a pair of eyes that had been watching. Grobnar's. Without thinking, she raised her hand to wave to him, then put it down again, blushing. Why did I do that?

Thankfully, Grobnar the Airhead just waved back enthusiastically instead of thinking she was weird or something. Lily was bothered as to why she was suddenly worried about that kind of thing. Then again, her headspace did feel more than a little off. Perhaps she should leave the others until she had sobered up, but what would she do? She wasn't quite tired enough yet to sleep, and blowing things up in her current state would certainly not be a good idea, though it would probably be tons of fun.

As the minutes went on and Lily thought more and more (though it was gradually becoming harder to do so) about her sudden fascination with Casavir's hand, she began feeling guilty. He had taken a few more sips of wine since then to try to fit in with the others, but his demeanor still hadn't quite returned to how it was before her little episode. This worried her.

She edged closer to her right toward him and lightly grabbed a piece of his arm armor. "Hey," she whispered.

Casavir sucked in a strangled breath and dutifully looked over to her, made stiff by her touch. "Yes, my lady?" He looked down once at where her hand was before matching her eyes again.

"Are you upset with me? I'm sorry."

Casavir made a quiet sound of disbelief. "My lady, I assure you that I am not upset." His face told a different story, though it wasn't necessarily a completely bad upset. Moreso...confusion, and uncertainty.

"Okay." Lily was about to let it drop, but then a sudden warmth flowed through her, and she giggled again. "That makes me happy." She embraced his entire arm with both of hers now and gave a squeeze. Casavir's breathing picked up, as did his heartbeat.

"...If I may say, my lady... I do not believe you are in the fullest possession of your wits at the moment... Perhaps you should sit down until the drink is out of your system."

"But I like it right here, standing up," she whined, her gaze catching his again.

Casavir was now effectively speechless. As more members of the team finally started to notice the mini affair, heat rushed to his cheeks. He couldn't and wouldn't push her off, but she was also not being completely herself. He should not allow her to let herself be so vulnerable in front of anyone, even him. It was his duty as a paladin to keep his Leader from doing such things. Right?

Now that they had been discovered, the paladin tried to hide his face by looking down at the ground, still fervently trying to think of what to do. Lily held onto his arm, grinning only wider the more people caught sight of them.

"Casavir, it appears you have a leech," Qara joked.

If anyone hadn't seen them before, now everyone was looking in their direction.

"WHAAAA!" Neeshka started howling with laughter and making cat calls between snorts. Hopefully no one in the inn was planning on catching any sleep anytime soon.

Elanee was grinning uncontrollably, a rare sight. She almost seemed even more pleased than Neeshka with the scene, who was already crying from laughter. Lily didn't quite understand why it was so funny, but then again, it didn't have to be funny for someone who was wasted to find it absolutely hilarious.

Or maybe... Was it because Neeshka had been waiting for this to happen? She had witnessed the events at Ammon Jerro's Haven. The portals, finding Casavir...

The kiss...

Maybe she was laughing because the air between the party seemed to be tolerable again, the tension from that day having temporarily dissipated from the minds of those who were involved.

Or maybe Lily was overthinking Neeshka's thoughts, and the tiefling wasn't thinking at all.

Isn't alcohol supposed to lessen your tendency to think?

"You two seem like you would work rather well together," Elanee commented, bringing Lily out of her reverie.

Casavir's heart was pounding, and all of the blood seemed to be going directly to his cheeks. He tried to hide his face even more, but his feelings betrayed him and he looked toward where Lily held onto him. In response, she only leaned more against him.

Lily couldn't have been more than twenty centimeters shorter than him, but her leaning made her appear much shorter. Casavir didn't know precisely how old she was, but sun elves stayed youthful for a long time. In many ways, she was as young as in her 20s, most noticeably in personality: though serious when a battle was on the horizon, she was most of the time rather carefree, a trait Casavir couldn't help but envy. For a moment, his eyes softened as he looked at her. He didn't want to move, but the pressure of all the eyes in the room on him made him uncomfortable. If only he and Lily could be invisible from their sight for just a few minutes...

No. No, absolutely not! he chided himself. His self control was able to stop this thinking in its tracks for a few moments. But...

"If only's... If only I could be as liked as her, then everything in my world would be okay... If only I could live in luxury like him, then I would have no more issues plaguing my mind... If these things ever were to be attained, then we would just find another potion to dream about that would solve all our problems..."

His brief spurt of anger was wholly dispensed, and a small smile found its way to his mouth. Such wisdom is not acquired through a life of blindness and immaturity. Lily was even more impressive a creature than he'd given her credit for, which was saying something... He wondered more about her past, how she'd lived her life before the attack on West Harbor. What did she spend her time on then, when she didn't regularly have to lead ten friends into battle?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted: "Maybe we should ask for another room so they can flirt more privately," Qara said, bemusedly raising her eyebrows.

Casavir snapped out of it at this lewd comment. All of this daydreaming had been done while he was staring at the one clinging to his arm. And, as he quickly realized, she had been looking back the entire time.

Now his heart threatened to beat right through his chest. With much reluctance, he finally broke free of Lily's hold on him. With a polite and simple "Excuse me," he quickly walked to the door and exited the inn.

Lily stayed put but looked after him, tears welling up in her eyes.