pointedly confused, and wildly ignorant of what it means to see her naked, the falinks simply form a half-moon shape around the bed and watch blankly. the commotion stirs king who, with a lazy gait, makes his way into the room. seeing as it was his, he doesn't even bother knocking.

"finally up, eh?" the light that spills in illuminates a shirtless king, skin having a thin sheen of sweat over it. his hair is damp, mouth chewing on... something.

"any longer and 'n i was probably gonna' have ta roll ye up in a carpet and throw you in an alleyway. y'know, just incase."

freya morningstar

the last 72 hours are hazy. it's taking her some time to process why she's in king's bed the way that she is, but when she does she frowns, wishing he weren't here so she could put all the thoughts in her head together alone. she glances off his bare torso as the memories become not so hazy. 

her mouth is dry. she rolls her tongue, tries to swallow past it. 

"did i...share your bed with you? like this?" she says with a frown, ignoring his joke. 

KING WAYLAND

☉

"the look ye have right now would offend me, if i didn't have one of my previous entanglements actively tryin' ta kill me. though, somehow yer reaction seems more rude." he had, after all, listened to her tale, fed her, let her use his shower, and his only bed. oh, and that didn't even cover the fact her clothing was now bundled and freshly cleaned on the chair in the corner.

he shrugs nevertheless, taking her frown in stride.

"but ta answer yer question, no. i've slept on the couch past few days." his eyes fall from her face, to the sheet that covers her. "y'know, didn't really take ye for the shy type. 'neways, get dressed, stay in bed, shower — whatever ye want. i'm making breakfast and yer welcome ta it."

and without another word, king walks out the door.

freya morningstar

he's always been stronger than her. the one to knock her down when she comes swinging. the one to muzzle her when she's spitting flames, thrashing claws. and still he takes her lashes without bowing, but this isn't the ring. this is a battlefield much more cruel. 

so when he goes, essentially telling her that's what his is hers, she can't help the guilt that crawls up her throat. the door shuts. she doesn't stay long in bed. her muscles ache, but that's more from staying in one place the past couple of days. so she puts her clothes on and does some of her katas. 

in his bathroom, she's reminded of where she fell asleep. damn it. she owes him a lot. everything, really. 

after rinsing her mouth and chasing away the bad breath that comes from two days of nonstop sleep, she splashes her face. her hair is a wild, tangled mess that's going to need a lot more care than she wants. she gathers it up, teething the hair tie on her wrist, and wrangles what she can. 

when she finally looks respectable, she leaves his bedroom to join him in the kitchen. 

"i'm sorry," she says as she goes to his side. "i don't regret coming to you or what we did, if that's what you took from that question." she shifts uncomfortably. "i'm not used to feeling...vulnerable."

KING WAYLAND

☉

despite the air of nonchalance he put on, the question had bothered him. even if it was only a tiny bit. he remembers back to the circumstance that had led to it, and the fragile emotional state that preceded it. his lips form a thin line.

wasn't the first woman to sleep with him to 'get back' at another man. wouldn't be the last, more than likely.

"i get it," he says to her, still focusing on his task at hand, "no one really does. makes people do things they wouldn't otherwise do, ye?" it seemed to be the easiest answer he could come to; the safest.

"don't sweat it right now, just sit 'n get somethin' in yer belly 'fore you pass out again." he the crackle and pop of whatever he's frying sounds off like small fireworks, while the vent from beneath the microwave roared. with his free hand, he gestures to the chair at the island as he prepares to toss food onto plates.

freya morningstar

with a sinking feeling, she realizes he doesn't get it. and how could he? she was telling the truth - feeling vulnerable isn't her strong suit. so to take that next step after and explain to him that while she doesn't regret it, it may not have happened had she not been where she was, but it's not just that.

because she doesn't feel these things for people. even with emma, whom she'd loved, had she only on occasion ever felt sexual desire. because she's never wants that from a person. 

save for that night, save for him. 

"well," she starts, "i can at least promise you it didn't make me want to kill you." a dour attempt at lightening the atmosphere. 

she eyes him as he slides out some plates. "you want to talk about it?"

KING WAYLAND

☉

her joke forces a bark of laughter from him.

"i'll give ye a buffer period of 9 months 'fore i take that at face value." he says, adding to the joke with his own.

"what's there ta talk about? slept with a woman, she faked 'er death, hid my kid from me for half a decade, 'n now she's tryna kill me." he shrugs, but the the nonchalance is forced; king feeling ever so slightly prickled at the thoughts. even an idiot like MATIAS SILPH would notice that.

he does his best to change the subject.

"how're ye feelin'?"

freya morningstar

nine months? she furrows her brows, clearly not getting it, until he drops that bomb on her. her hands go to her stomach. he needn't worry - the past few years have not been kind to her body. and after her most recent surgery and the follow-up appointments thereafter, it'd been made clear to her that sideways flings weren't going to disrupt her life in that sense. 

he's clearly troubled, but he's so quick to change the subject that she can't get a word in edgewise. 

"better," she says, "thanks to you."

she doesn't eat her food like a starving wolf this time around. as painstaking as it is, she goes slow, if only to stretch the time to have something to distract them. 

"that pink mist," she says after a bite, "that you saw after punching my face in. it's gone now. completely. and i feel like myself again." she moves around some food on her plate. "i don't know if that's going to make me an enemy to FERNANDO SILPH ." she grips the scale. "but i don't know who else to turn to for this."

KING WAYLAND

☉

he finishes preparing his own plate, then sits down next to her. king leans heavily onto his forearm while forking at the food on his plate, tossing one in like a barbarian. he weighs her words for a moment, before speaking.

"what the hell was up with that 'neways?" the pink mist had caught him off guard when he'd first seen it. it was to the point where he was positive he'd imagined it, had it not shown up time and time again. "how are ye coughin' up pink mist, 'n what does that have ta do with a councilman?"

freya morningstar

she side-eyes him. "some of tapu fini's power. or, that doesn't feel quite right. it's a madness. i felt...primal. like not quite myself, but all the more whole because of it. tastes were sharper. sounds. touch." she sets her fork down and leans back. 

"and when i didn't have it, all i wanted was more. i looked at him like..." she trails off, nose scrunching, lips twisting. like he was my savior. 

"i kept coming back for our fights. i kept throwing myself at you. i didn't want to win. i wanted you to help me. and i didn't even know it. king, i'm still putting the pieces together."

she sighs, tries to give him her best wry smile. "sometimes i forget what life was like before all this crazy. when hoenn was normal." 

KING WAYLAND

☉

the idea that someone's free will was so easily manipulated, and by someone close to her, gave him a sour taste in his mouth. he drops his fork on the mat next to his plate, lips twisting in disgust.

"why would this fucker want ye under his will like that?" connections? sex? some sick desire to manipulate someone just because? he tries to push that to the back of his mind.

"so how much of our interactions - last night excluded - do ye remember?"

freya morningstar

his disgust isn't unfounded, but it makes her uncomfortable. she drops her gaze back to her plate, appetite suddenly gone. 

"i went to him willingly. i lost everything. so i asked him for power, with the promise that he'd let me burn." she looks down at her hands. flexes her fingers. "he wants to save hoenn. easier to do that when you can trust the people on your side."

at his next question, her brows furrow. she looks up at him again. "i remember everything. more so than the rest, actually. and i don't know if it's because you knocked some of that out of me or -" she stops suddenly, cheeks flushing, annoyance sparking in the lilt of her lips. 

"regardless, it's less about not remembering and more about my reasonings behind what i did. i felt a compulsion to please him. to protect him. it's why i got shot," she says. that damn tree. 

KING WAYLAND

☉

he reigns back on his own visceral reactions, settling the caged animal inside as it rattles against the bars.
[break][break]
"there's no savin' this hellhole," he whispers out, taking a deep breath quickly to drown it out. king mulls her next statement, pausing to consider the implications. what she described was no different than mind-control and he makes a mental note to bring it up with Lulu Flint next time he sees the crazy mother fucker.
[break][break]
"ye, but yer compulsions wouldn't have led ye here considerin' we knocked it clean out of ye. perhaps the compulsion fades with time, or maybe it's weaker er some shit the more will a person has." again - out of his wheel house. but, talking it out might help her.
[break][break]
"saw them, ye. nasty scars that. still, nothing to mine." he bumps her shoulder, grinning, before stabbing at another piece of egg.

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉