What if we could?, Breezy and Archie <3

[archmageness]

Derek slowed his horse down slightly at the woman's words, a slight frown creasing his brow. He took a moment to consider what she'd said. He supposed she was right; one couldn't always win life's troubles. He kicked the horse, speeding up to catch up with Charlotte, though he didn't say anything immediately.

So he'd lost Monica, as well as...his citizenship. Pretty much his whole former life. But sitting around and sulking about it...Charlotte was right; it wouldn't do any good. He should keep his head held high. He sighed again. "You're right," he said quietly. "It'll just take some time...is all." He glanced behind him, as if he could try and see Monica, or King Cyrus behind them.

Then he looked forward, and galloped forth.

[Breezy]

"I wish I could say to you that it'll be alright. But I don't know. We're really quite just making it up as we go along." Charlotte said to Derek as he caught up. "While I can't tell you about your future, I can tell you that you will have a friend on this road we ride on." she continued as she looked ahead into the night.

"For the sake of there being no pain tonight. I'll tell you. It'll be alright." she said, not only for his sake, but for her own. She needed to convince herself as well that what she was doing was right. Charlotte was doing what she had always dreamed of, breaking free, but with all those years of conformity also came with that sense of wrongness.

"I sure will miss my sister. Though I can't say the same for my parents." she smiled smally.

[archmageness]

Derek chuckled quietly, shaking his head at the first comment. "Telling me it'll be alright will hardly do any good," he mused. "I already know the truth." He glanced behind them, before ushering them both onward. "We need to get as far from here as possible.

He blinked when she told him he'd have a friend during his travels, turning to Charlotte with a reluctant but thankful smile. "You needn't do all this for me," he said quietly. "If you travel with me, you can never return to your home." He rose an eyebrow, as if asking if that was what she wanted.

He honestly wanted her to come with him. VERY much so. He just didn't want her to do something that she didn't really want to do.

[Breezy]

"It could still bring a slight sense of comfort." Charlotte told him. "It does me." She looked away from Derek so she couldn't see his face anymore. It wasn't something she wanted to talk about. "I want to. I couldn't live there much longer anyway. It's time for me to find my own place in the world."

She did want to leave. More than anything.
"I just need some time to adjust like any rational person." Of course, Charlotte knew that she was far from rational. She almost smirked at herself if it hadn't been a serious topic for her.

"Your really strange. Your asking ME if I want to come when you were going to let yourself die." She said 'die' as if it were a word she said everyday that it had lost it's seriousness.

[archmageness]

"Fair enough," he said in answer to her first words, listening as she explained her reasoning for joining him. "Beside a criminal is hardly the place to make a new life," he snorted, though he sounded more than appreciative.

He rolled his eyes when she called him strange. "I was doing the honorable thing," he said defensively, in a more quiet tone. He was still having second thoughts about fleeing from the kingdom. If they ever got caught, Charlotte would probably have to go through a whole new round of convincing to get him to try and escape.

[Breezy]

"A criminal who did nothing wrong. No physical person was harmed." Charlotte reminded Derek. His personality was starting to peeve her off. If he kept going on like this, she might actually leave him and find her own place without such a negative person. But Charlotte knew that Derek was a good person.

"I'm sure you were Derek. There is no sense in living in the past. Look forward. Keep moving forward as my sister says." Charlotte murmered. She was getting tired. She had never riden a horse at night. Emme was quite warm, Charlotte was sleepy. On a horse no less that was galloping.

OOC: ZOMG! MOAR MUVEE KWOTS.

[archmageness]

Derek sighed slightly. "I only meant that there will be more hiding and fleeing than actual living," he amended with a shrug. "Or perhaps not. It is hard to tell." He let the subject drop, especially after Charlotte's motivational speech. Lordy, was she always this optimistic? Even when they were fleeing retribution from an angry king?

He wanted to be far out of the city before they stopped, though he was well aware that his female companion was tiring. "Just a bit further," he said quietly, looking ahead. "I want to be far from this city when we stop to rest." He'd probably end up staying up most of the time that Charlotte slept, to keep a sort of watch. He could already hear a few bells ringing, from guards gathering to search for the two. Sigh.

[Breezy]

"Hiding doesn't mean the quality of life is decreased. You can talk to people and live while IN hiding." She insisted, narrowing her eyebrows at him. She too just let herself trail off, she was too tired to continue fighting his anti-optimism. Charlotte had lived the courtier life since she was a little girl, she was MORE than optimistic about a new life, away from prying eyes.

She understood that he wanted to be a little further out on the city.
"It's fine, but maybe instead of travelling on roads... we should travel on the plains away from the roads?" The faint sound of bells rang in Charlotte's mind, repetitively. It suddenly dawned on her that not only was she running away, but she was currently a fugitive as well. Either way, it didn't matter to her. It was pointless to stress over things that wouldn't change.

She smiled into the cold wind, her teeth were sensitive so the cold air forced her mouth shut almost involentary, a need to protect herself from pain she guessed.
"The plains would actally provide good cover really. The wouldn't be able to see shadows moving in the dark." she said excitedly.

[archmageness]

"I suppose so," Derek grunted, not wanting to completely drive the ever-optimistic Charlotte away with his realism. Jeebus. v.v He couldn't understand what it was that caused the woman to be so damn positive about it all. They were running, for Pete's sake! From a king! An entire kingdom, even! Gah.

He blinked at her suggestion. Why hadn't he thought to travel off of the roads? "That's a good idea," he admitted reluctantly, turning to glance at her. "We will be much harder to find off the roads." The wind from their fast pace was chilling; he should have brought an extra jacket, to give Charlotte, at least. Sigh. He just wasn't being any sort of a proper gentleman, he mused to himself. He shouldn't be letting Charlotte ruin her life to come join him. But at the same time, he didn't dare tell her to leave.

"Let's get off the road," he decided, glancing behind him to make sure no soldiers could still be seen, before steering his horse away from the road, out into the wilderness. As a nobleman, he'd never really gone off into the woods (or plains, rather) like this, so to speak. It was almost a bit eery, though he wasn't about to admit that to Charlotte.

[Breezy]

Charlotte frowned. Derek was so... infuriating. Frustrating. Intense. Almost any other adjective that had the same meanings. In all senses Charlotte felt that she was supposed to repell from him, them being like polar opposites. Derek was pesemistic (sp?), unhappy, and ashamed while Charlotte was the opposite. She was optomistic, happy and completely willing to leave the country behind. Yet something pulled her to him. Something unexplainable.

"Of course it is. It's mine." Charlotte said, winking. Hadn't it been her idea for the horses too? If it wasn't for her Derek would probably have been caught and arrested by now. Her blue eyes were watery from the wind in her face, it possibly looked like she was about to cry. Her curly blonde hair was blowing about wildly. She was reminded of her sisters. Her reflective mirrors. Finally she would be able to stand apart from them. Not be part of a matching set if you will.
"Harder to find is good." she told him. "Means no jail." she said, laughing softly.

Charlotte nodded and turned to look as well before following Derek off the road and onto the plains. She remembered as a child whenever her family would travel she would wish she could go play on the plains with miles to run across without ever reaching the end before her legs would get tired.

Charlotte stifled a yawn once again. She let go with one hand to wipe her eyes, rid them of the water that was still there.
"When did you say we would stop again?" she asked. A lady needs her beauty sleep as her mother said to her each and every night since she was eight.

'Ugh.Why did she make me go to bed so early?' she asked herself mentally.

[archmageness]

"Fair enough," Derek replied, finally grinning somewhat. And it was true; he would have been caught by now, if it wasn't for Charlotte. Hell, he wouldn't have even made it out of that room had she not dragged him away.

He chuckled; poor Charlotte looked like she was about to fall off her horse, she was so sleepy. "Not too much farther," he promised quietly. They traveled for several minutes in silence, the only sound was the hooves of their horses pounding on the ground.

Finally, he allowed them to rest, stopping his horse and sliding off the side to land on the ground. He sighed; he wasn't used to riding that hard, or that long. It made his legs and his back quite tired. He could only imagine how Charlotte felt; he assumed she was less used to physical labor than he even was.

"We'll rest here for the night," he said quietly, extending a hand to help her down. "If this place is suitable to you." He'd leave it up to her, if she wanted to find somewhre better.

[Breezy]

The silence almost killed Charlotte, she tried not to talk, she tried not to fall asleep. She just kept riding, her poor mind failing on her. It screamed at her for sleep but Charlotte would deny it.

Finally she noticed Derek was slowing down and she too slowed Emme down. Her eyelids were half closed at this point. Charlotte had learned how to hold herself on a horse the most comfortable way yet she hadn't been doing so due to her lack of sleep. The curse.

When Derek hopped off the horse, saying that they were stopping she said a silent prayer of praise.
"Anything would be suitable when your as exhausted as I am." Charlotte told him, cocking an eyebrow at him with her closed eyes, she opened one slowly to get an idea of where his hand was before taking it and dismounting Emme. "Thank you." Charlotte said simply before stumbling off to find the softest patch she could find which was right at the base of a tree.

She slumped down and curled herself up into the familar position that she always slept in.
"Good night." Charlotte mumbled to Derek, half way off to dream town.

[archmageness]

Derek nodded. He liked how soft her hand was, though he wasn't going to voice that particular thought to her. He reluctantly let go her hand, before tying both of the horses to one of the trees. He yawned slightly, pulling out the small pack he'd brought, and digging out a blanket; it wasn't very big, but it was the best he had. He went over to Charlotte, who was by this time already probably asleep, and draped the cloth over her gently, not wanting to wake her.

That done, he offered the sleeping form a rather gentle smile--one that he didn't really reveal to others often at all--before finding his own place nearby to sleep...without a blanket. Ah well. He would rather be slightly chilled than let Charlotte be cold. That wouldn't be gentlemanly at all.

[Breezy]

While Charlotte was asleep she was vaguely still connected to the waking world. She notices the blanket and one of her hands reached to grasp it. It was a subcouncious action of trying to warm up. Already the dreams were taking over.

It wasn't a dream where you fitted in with everything and didn't question anything. It was one where you were completely aware of what had happened before you fell asleep. She was in a house and for some reason or another she was making some food of such.
"What am I doing?" she asked herself.

It was then that Derek walked in the door. He smiled at her, and not the sort of smile that a friend would give a friend. It was almost... a loving smile. He came up to her and gave her a kiss on her cheek. She blinked in wide eyed wonder.
"Derek what are you doing? That's not right." she said to him. He just cocked his head and smiled.
"Honey. We're married." Charlotte looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Married?" she asked. He just leaned in again and kissed her, this time on the lips.

The first time she hadn't been able to appreciate the kiss but this time it was something that felt natural, it was loving. She kissed him back. After pulling away she said his name.

While all this was happening in her dream, every word she had spoken in it had been replayed in her dreaming state, a.k.a. she was sleeptalking. Everything she had said in the dream. Not to mention there was a small smile on her face, probably invisible in the night.

[archmageness]

Derek woke before Charlotte did that next morning. It was probably the rather chill breeze that did it for him. The sun was just rising when he sat up, stifling a yawn. He heard Charlotte speak, and his gaze snapped over to her, but...she was still asleep. Dreaming.

Another rare, gentle smile lit his face, and then he blinked when he realized she was talking about...him. He chuckled quietly, and went over to start a fire, for breakfast, listening to her one-sided conversation as he went. He found it cute. c: