(PKMN-A RP Log) A Shining Night

The sun had gone down and the night was slightly warm for the time of year. The sky was clear and the moon was shining bright, almost full. Around Maxwell's tent it was all quiet, most of his neighbours still out with friends and loved ones. His tent was empty, the entrance opened up to let fresh air in. On one of the entrance posts a white shirt with light blue trim and a black jerkin with purple embroidery on the back were hanging. Max himself was almost hidden as he used the tent cloth between the entrance posts and the mid post of his tent as some sort of hammock. He was only wearing a pair of pants the colour of his eyes. With his hands behind his head he was looking up at the sky letting his mind go over the events of the day again and again.

Having left her dishes to soak in the washbasin, Rae hurried away from the kitchen, back toward the tents where a number of the Shepherds made their home. While rougher than staying in the barracks, it allowed for more privacy. A little bit, anyway.

The truth was, Rae wasn't completely sure where Max lived. Her ears were piqued, listening for a familiar voice, or breath, or heartbeat. She was unconsciously wincing as she tried sorting through dozens of words and lungs and hearts, birdcalls and footsteps, items dropped and dragged and rolled and... ugh, the only thing worse than good hearing had to be a good sense of smell!

But still she looked. She would speak to him tonight, even if it meant waking him up when she finally figured out which tent was his.

Max was softly humming, remembering full moon nights with his sisters. They would sneak out of the house and run though the wood until they found a open spot where they could howl (or yip in case of Growlithes) to the moon. He still had trouble sleeping on full moon nights. He chuckles softly as he remembers an instance were one of his sisters had been caught but he had been up on a tree fast enough to not get spotted.

Rae tilted an ear in a different direction than she was headed. Was that...? The timbre sounded right for his voice, but she didn't recall if she'd heard Max hum or sing before. As she headed that way, though, she became more certain. Yes... there it was, the familiar sound of his heart, so much faster than hers, even at rest... She let the sound direct her, and went back to ignoring the rest.

From there, it did not take long to find his tent. Her hearing was acute, but with so much background noise, her range was relatively limited. She squinted in the moonlight; the sound was coming from about head high, but she couldn't actually see him. "Max? Can we talk?" she asked thin air.

Max shoots up straight as he hears the Luxray call his name. "Rae?" He moves forward until he is crouched on top of the tent entrance. It really was her! What was she doing here? They were supposed to meet tomorrow for dinner, weren't they? He shakes his head as he jumps to the ground. Snap out of it! Now on the ground he smiles at her, just a little bit unsure. "I had not expected you to come by."

Now that she'd arrived, Rae realized that for all of her strong intentions, she hadn't given any thought of what she would actually say. "Yeah..." She scratched behind her ear. "Sorry... I... um, didn't mean..." No. Stop. No going down the same awkward, rocky path they'd been on before. "Sorry," she started again. "I'm sorry that I ran off like that. But I think I've mostly got my head on straight, now."

"You said that you needed to think." Max was still not quite sure why she was here. He was also a bit confused by his own reaction to her being here, shouldn't he be happy or something?

"I did think. And I think I acted really strange and if I left you with any idea what I want, it could easily be the wrong one." She folded her arms over her chest, holding her elbows. "I'd really like to talk."

Max is quiet for a moment before gesturing to the tent. "Come in." He steps in himself after getting the clothes off the tent pole and taking them with him. Inside it's seemingly simple until you look better. Just inside to the left stands his armour on a stand. On the other side of the tent is a simple bed, made to perfection. Against the right wall stands a desk with a simple stool, a clothing chest next to it. The desk was the only messy place in the whole tent, books and papers sprawling over it and something that looks like a half finished wood carving in the only open space. When looking closer it seems most of the wood in the tent is carved in intricate and delicate patterns, even the centre pole of the tent. Max folds the clothes in hand neatly before putting them in the chest, sitting down on the bed when finished.

Rae glanced about briefly, more intent on somewhere to sit than the details of her surroundings. Her eyes lingered on the stool, but then she visible discarded the idea, sitting beside him instead. She let her hands sink into her lap. "First, I want you to tell me," she said, regarding him closely with both eyes and ears. "How long has it been? When did you realize you loved me?"

Max looks at her for a moment before he looks down at his hands. His fingers moving like they were looking for something to do. "The answer to that question is probably the same as the answer to a question you asked earlier. In our sparring when you asked about getting under my skin." He peeks up at her for a moment. "But I can't tell you how long it's been since I started to love you. That might be as early as the first time I got dinner, here with the Shepherds."

It's finally Rae's turn to be left speechless, staring at him for a long moment. So much for the thought he'd just been impulsive earlier...! Then her shoulders relaxed; she smiled softly. "Heh. So I've just been being oblivious, huh?"

She turned her head, the smile still in place, but now aimed at her hands. "Sometimes..." she started, then began again to correct herself, "...often, I try not to think ahead. It's easier for living around people who won't live as long as I will, because it's too easy to think too far ahead." She closed her eyes, but instead of thinking forwardly, she was remembering. "I was still a child the last time someone like you loved me, or at least, got close enough to tell me. And when he died, his daughter hated me. The only shred of decency she had was seeing that I was sheltered and fed, but it would have been kinder if she'd found someone else to do it. I was a burden that made her miserable, and worse, it made her resent him."

She chuckled, saddened but still amused at her own reaction. "When you told me, I just got stuck on the idea that your children would hate me. And that terrified me. And if-" And if those children were hers... she'd recoiled from the idea of having the same relationship with her own child that she did with her mother, where it was easier to worry about her from a distance than deal with her in person. She looked at him again, clearly much calmer and focused that she had been before dinner. "When I tried picturing the future, I got hung up on stuff from the past. That's not fair to either of us."

"Not that oblivious, I wasn't that much more aware until you came close enough." Max gives half a smile as he glances over to the manakete. He shakes his head. "And there I was feeling like I was not good enough for someone like you. Just a puppy opposite an almighty dragon." He chuckles as he lifts his head to look at her. "What a pair we are. Both so locked in our minds that we make decisions for others before even talking about something."

"Ooof..." Rae laughed. "My mother might like people to think she's a goddess, but she never had me fooled. And my other form might be big, but it's got plenty of weak points. I'm not all that mighty." She let herself tip over, leaning on his arm again. "I'm just a goof who cooks a lot to prove to myself I'm not being a burden again. That I can have a place here no matter if I can fight or not."

Max looks down at her with a smile, ears slightly back. "Now you're talking yourself down. Don't do that, you're a wonderful person."

"I'm not talking myself down! It's how I think, I can't help it. I know for a fact that 'sister'-" she says the word with biting sarcasm, "-was a bitter old woman who liked to complain more than she liked fixing anything, and I was very convenient to both complain about, and to. But some part of me just can't let go of the idea that maybe she was partly right."

Max can't really say anything on that, his father had always made it clear that he was not what he was supposed to be.

Rae wrapped her arms around the one she was leaning against. "You got some of that too," she noted, recalling what he'd said earlier about being a Furfrou in a clan of Growlithe and Arcanine. "Maybe we can finally convince each other they were wrong," she said warmly. She made it sound possible.

"Maybe." The statement sounds soft and warm making the uncertain word something positive. Max was still not sure where they stood but at the moment he did not care.

Rae, too, was content with the moment. Strangely, it was moments like this... intimate without being necessarily romantic... that had led her to consider romance at all. How many times had she seen passion carry pairs beyond reason, and when it cooled, left them nothing but memories of better times? Better to love someone first, before falling in love. Because then you could trust they would still be there when you stopped falling.

Or something like that.

"What did you have planned tonight?" she asked, voice subdued, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"All I had planned I already did." He points at a basket next to the desk, now filled with paper. "I checked what else I got from the seamstress. If you hadn't come by I would have probably filled most of the night with stargazing."

"No reason you couldn't." She snickered quietly. "Though I don't think your tent could take both of us! Might need a different spot, if you wouldn't mind some company."

Max looks over at the Luxray with a chuckle. "It's just an old habit I have no problem breaking if you want to do something else." His hand touches the wood on his bed. "It's just like the wood carving, something I used to do in my sparse spare time and I still do because I have nothing else to do. That happens here a lot more than I thought it would."

"Not all habits are bad ones." She closed her eyes, enjoying the company without regard for their surroundings. "I thought I was going to be up all night arguing with myself, but a good friend helped settle that a lot faster than I planned on. It's too nice a night to spend inside." She smiled playfully, whether or not he could see it. "And it would be warmer together."

"Ok, we'll go out stargazing then. Let me put on a shirt against the cold." Max looks around his tent not moving yet. "I'll take my bag too, there's a water bottle and some snacks in it, among other things."

"Sure." She sat up, letting go of his arm. "I'm ready whenever you are."

Max gets up, his tail softly wagging as he walks to his clothing chest and opens it. From it he gets the shirt and jerkin he had just put away. After pulling the shirt over his head and getting his ears out, he tucks it in his pants putting the jerkin on leaving it open. Walking to the entrance he collects his bag. "Let's get going then."

Rae waited patiently. It was sort of amusing to see him worry over clothing, when he'd made do with just his armor for so long. Rae might have three changes of clothing to her name... assuming the dress she'd worn to the dance was still in her trunk. Unlike him, her transformation absorbed her clothing; as long as she fought by transforming, what she wore didn't matter all that much. Some support up top and good soles below, that's all she asked for.

When Max was ready, she flashed a grin, then got to her feet. "Know where we're going? Or do we decide when we get there?" she joked, joining him by the entrance.

Max gets a bit flustered as she jokes at him but manages to stay coherent. "There is a hill not far out of camp, that seemed like a good place to start."

"I think I know the one." It was far from the main buildings, so there wouldn't be much ambient light, but not a long walk from here. Assuming they meant the same hill... she'd let him lead, just in case. It felt sort of... silly, taking his arm again. No, giddy - that was it. Her smile was probably too goofy to be sincere and she couldn't hope to keep her tail still, and neither of those things seemed all that important. "Let's go."

The Luxray taking his arm makes Max shake his head again to collect his wits. "This way." He leads her out of the tent, weaving through neighbouring tents until they get to one of the bigger paths where he takes the shortest route out of camp. It's only a short walk until they are starting up a hill, taking a bit of a detour to get as less slope as possible.

Rae is glad to see it is the place she expected. Getting a better view would require a lot more walking, or wings. Not that she was against either. What would Max think of flying? She glances at him, then looks forward again, saying nothing. Flying on a night like this could be breathtakingly beautiful, but the fact was, the only people she'd ever picked up in dragon form were ones she intended to throw back down. Sure, in a life-threatening emergency, she'd do her best, but- better not to think about transformation anymore today.

As they get to the top of the hill Max looks around, a bit unsure. "This looks to be the highest point." He looks up to the sky mesmerised by the big round moon hanging there. Stargazing was more of a moongazing with him.

Rae joined him in staring upward, but after a minute or two her neck began to cramp. She took a step forward, slightly downhill, and gently pulled on his arm. "I don't think I can keep my head at that angle," she noted, letting go of his arm to instead take his hand in both of hers while letting her legs fold beneath her, sitting on the ground. "Come on! It'll be more comfortable down here."

Max looks at the Luxray as she moves her grip and sits down with her, legs sprawled downhill. He puts down the bag hearing the soft clink of two bottles. Two bottles? Suddenly he remembers, he had been into town earlier and his purchase was still in the bag. This could turn out to be a lucky coincidence.

Rae's ears twitch at the unexpected noise, but has no reason to ask about it. What he had in his bag was his business. She finally let go, lacing her hands behind her head as she lay back. "This way is a lot more comfortable," she said, staring upward once more.

Max followed her example but after a few minutes sat up again. Laying down like this with is feet lower hurt on his heels, so he shifted to sort of sitting cross-legged. He looks back up at the moon. "Any constellations you like?"

"Mm-mm." Some nights she thought about counting the stars, but even if she didn't lose her place by dawn, she'd never find it again the following night. "No matter how many times somebody tries to point out the archer's bow or the twin-tailed fish or whatever, I just see a bright squiggle or a lopsided box. You?"

Max points at a bright shimmering star not far above the horizon. "That star. It's called the dog star (Sirius). I like how you can always find it on the horizon, so even though my loved ones might be far away they can find that star and know I'll see it as well."

Rae grins at him. "Cheater. That's a single star, not a constellation!" She faces upward again, though her smile lingers. "That is a comforting thought, though. That there's something everyone can share, no matter how far apart they are."

"I also like the Swanna (Cygnus) but you can only see that during the summer months." Max looks at the Luxray as she stares at the stars. "It makes being far away from home a lot easier."

"Naming stars always seemed kind of silly. Like naming a foreign country you haven't been to. Sort of possessive. But I guess..." She chuckled under her breath. "Well, friends have names, too. And if they can't tell you what they are, you have to pick them. I hope that's where the names come from. Those names have been around longer than I have."

"I think it probably makes it easier to think of something if you name it." Max's gaze has returned to the moon. He smiles softly. "Even with words like star or moon we name something."

"Could be." She looks back at him again, considering, then sits up. Using her hands and heels, she scoots backwards until she's sitting beside him, but facing a different compass point, so she can lean back against him, his shoulder helping to prop her head at a comfortable angle. Much better.

Max freezes momentarily as she comes to lean onto him. Really? Again? He scolds himself. What was it in her that made him freeze like that? His gaze wanders to his bag, 'liquid courage' they called it, what sad type of person would he have to be to drink just for that. "Do you drink?" He asks it casually.

What? Drink? Wait, that sort of drink? "Er..." That awkward incident with (the original, not sheepy-) Prince Chrom comes to mind. For some reason, both her protectiveness and her inhibitions went haywire if she had too much. Had Max been part of the Shepherds then? "Not really a good idea. When I have too much I get..." How to put it? "...kinda..." She held out both hands, flexing her fingers repeatedly. "...grabby."

"Grabby?" Max raises an eyebrow as he gets a (1l) bottle of mead from his bag and looks at it for a moment. "Drinking too much is not really possible if you only have one bottle for two people." He un-stoppers the bottle. "I'd feel like a really sad character drinking by myself." As if to make a point he first takes a slug from the bottle and then offers the bottle to the Luxray.

"That really depends on the people." The sad fact was, Rae couldn't remember how much she'd actually drank that time (...and possibly two other times, that she knew of...). She took the bottle and looked at it critically, as if the container could tell her what her limits were. "If this goes weird, it's your fault," she warned him, taking a drink before offering it back.

"I'll take that chance, and you can have fun seeing me get up and walk down a hill." Max chuckles taking another drink. "The moment balance goes... Let's say I've seen some very funny things at my house." He hands her the bottle again after another sip.

"When I get 'grabby', that'll be the least of your worries." He'd been acting so flustered, it's almost tempting to fake it. How flustered would he get about her holding his arm or his hand if she was carting the whole of him off? She smiles around her next mouthful, already knowing the problem: she only knows what other people were willing to tell her. If the sources were less reliable, she'd believe she'd simply dozed off and they were just trying to trick her.

The problem with running off now is that she doesn't know where she'd been running off to.

"I still find grabby an interesting word choice." Max looks over to her, his eyebrow raised.

"Weren't you here for that?" she counters, all innocence as she returns the bottle to him again. "I wonder if Natsu's forgiven me yet."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Max takes a drink as he thinks back, he wasn't with the Shepherds for that long yet. Suddenly he turns his head a bit. "Isn't Natsu the prince's wife?" He takes another sip, looking a bit puzzled.

"Yeah. I'm sure Natalee is still pretty miffed, too." Rae's grinning, but counting on their positions to hide it. Natalee and Kody had recently announced their engagement. That particular incident had nothing to do with her betrothed, but it didn't sound like Max would realize that. Would he realize what she was saying? If he did, would he call her bluff? Get jealous? Hopefully he wouldn't be upset...

"Natalee, Natsu, I'm definitely missing something here." Max passes her the bottle again after another drink.

"Not much to say, really," she says, taking a quick swig. "I'm just glad Frederick didn't find out until that time was over. Chrom took it in good spirits but I for one have been in no rush to make eye contact. Everyone seemed to find me snatching Natalee's object of affection much funnier."

The comment on object of affection gives Max something that seems like a coughing fit, making him move forward and sound like he's chocking on something. "Natalee's what?!"

"Ack!" When Max moves forward, her support is gone, and Rae finds herself flat on her back again. She bursts out laughing, unable to keep a straight face anymore. "Her MUFFIN! I stole one of her muffins!" She holds up one finger. "Though I also tried to steal Chrom once. Because I thought Natsu was attacking him for some reason. To be fair, there's no doubt Natalee WOULD have attacked the muffin...!" Every sentence is interrupted by giggles.

"Give me that." Max saves the bottle before the Luxray can hold it upside down. He looks down at her with a chuckle as he takes another drink. "You were right about different effects on different people. I'd have to finish this bottle by myself to get at least close to where you are now." He makes a point by taking another long draught of mead. "But that also means you're a cheap person to take out on the town." He winks as he looks down again.

"I'm a lightweight! For a manakete anyways." Rae stays prone, conversing with his back as easily as she does when he faces her. "I only weigh a liddle bit more than normal. Liddle," she says again, scrunching her nose when she can't get the sound right. "Nothing cheap about dragons, you know. One bod... bottle might get you here, but it'll take four to keep me here!"

Max starts to feel the effect of the mead as well and chuckles before taking another drink. "You can never be as much a lightweight as I am, I'm just all legs and no bulk." He turns sort of lay in his side, leaning on his elbow as he looks at her, his head slightly crooked. "What's the difference between manakete and other people?"

"Hell if I know." Rae shrugs in answer to his question. "It's the dragon, prolly. It's got to go somewhere, so we're heavy. And it's got to eat, so we EAT. And it lives ages, so so do we. It's us, but at the same time? It makes us bit..." If she was having trouble with 'little', she wasn't going to try 'different'. "...funny."

Max thinks for a moment. "Then it's probably also like that with the beast I can change into, I would not notice eating more in a household with only taguel." He gets a thoughtful looks on his face. "I'm still very light though." He takes another sip as he thinks about it. "Could it be because I get wings?"

"You're light to what, though?" she asks, confused. "People? Taguel? Me?" Was he comparing himself to other men his size, or to his sisters?

"Can I go for D, all of the above? On the trained warrior side that is, there are probably some petite ladies in high towers who will be lighter." Max chuckles at the idea. "That must be really boring by the way."

"Don't know if it's because you got wings, but your wings wouldn't work if you weren't." Phew. Sounded like her mouth was recovered. "They're probably not gonna have much lift, but they wouldn't at all if you were heavy. Ehh..." Her mother fit the definition of "petite", though she weighed nearly as much as Rae did. "That would REALLY depend on the 'lady'. I've known some little ones that would make it interesting, no matter how empty it was or how stuck they were. And you're not that much lighter than me."

"How much do you weigh? Or shouldn't I be asking that?" Max takes another drink from the bottle before offering it to Rae again. "And I've met some highborn women who you could call petite but definitely not a lady."

Rae waves it off, this time. "Last I checked? Not enough. It's not something I pay attention to." Unless she felt sick. When she had a list of priorities, eating tended to fall down toward the bottom, and stay there until her body started to protest. "Uh huh. Ladies in name ONLY." She grinned. "No worries, I only got one thing in common with such ladies."

"That you're female?" Max was obviously no longer thinking about what he should or shouldn't say.

"That's the important one, right?" Rae joked. She finally sat up again, scooting some more so she could sit beside him, but facing the same way this time. She leans against him again, her legs folded to the side. "Right?" she said again, her smile coy.

Max leans back into her a bit as the Luxray leans against him. "Yeah, I guess. But it really depends on why you ask that. Being female is not what defines you, it's just a little part of it."

Rae snickered. He was taking this conversation much more seriously than she was. "I ask that to flirt with you, dummy."

Max is quiet for a moment before chuckling. "See, now I no longer know when you are being serious and when you're not." He looks at her with an almost giddy look on his face. "But at least I didn't freeze like the last time you used that tone." He softly shakes the bottle to find out how much is still in there. "And the bottle isn't even empty yet." He takes a sip. "I really lost my tolerance for alcohol."

"No, this time you ignored it. Not sure that's an improvement," she replied, her tone cynical, but tolerant. It would be good if he didn't freeze up, especially since she was supposed to be the one still testing the waters. He hadn't struck her as being shy, much less someone who would use drink to overcome it. "Am I really that overwhelming?" she wondered out loud.

"No it's not really, isn't it." Max ponders over her question for a moment. "Something like that but overwhelming is not the right word. The Typhlosion woman, she's overwhelming. I react really different to her presence. You're just..."He seems to have trouble finding the right word. "Special."

She tilts her head to the side, considering. "Matter of opinion, I guess," she decides with a chuckle. "I've been with me so long, the novelty's worn off."

"Well, it's my opinion." Max smiles softly looking up at the moon again. "It's all new, it's all strange, it's all exiting, it's a whole new adventure."

Rae leans her head on his shoulder. She assumes she isn't an 'it', so the topic has shifted. She doesn't mind; talking about herself could quickly get dull. "What is?"

"Love. As sappy as it sounds." Max chuckles softly, it sounded sappy in his ears. "Or maybe just the easy companionship of being together with someone you like."

"Heh." Maybe a little sappy. Rae wraps both her arms around the one she's leaning on. "I'd call that love, too, though. A very important one. That's the kind of love that only gets stronger when the novelty's worn off."

"Then I'll put my faith in that." Max looks at Rae again as he says it, a small smile on his face.

Rae smiles back. "It's a good place for it."

"Maybe I'm more like my father then I thought." Max chuckles softly. "I can now understand why he would go against family and tradition to be with my mother." The thought slightly puzzled him but also made him happy.

If Rae had to guess, the only thing her sire had to overcome was his own better judgment. Her mother could have her impressive moments, but most of the time, she was... well, herself. "Family and tradition can be wonderful, and should be respected." She sat up to kiss him on the cheek. "But sometimes hearts have other ideas, huh?"

Instead of freezing Max turns to look at her for a moment before putting a hand against her cheek and kissing her softly.

If Rae had the mead to thank for it, she'd didn't really mind. Maybe she'd even buy him another. Afterward, she smiles softly. "I think I like being courted."

"I'll keep it up then." Max's smile is warm as he pulls his hand back.

Rae grinned, letting go of his arm to wrap hers around his waist, settling in close. "I'm looking forward to it."

Max wraps his arm around her as she comes to sit closer. This was turning out to be a very good night after all.