where the lines overlap

✦◝⋆ { theo james. he/him.} nathan lyones had been seen wandering through avalon. they are an 33 y/o halfling that  has been known to be rather engaging but a tad bit over-ambitious. i  heard they have been working as a dragonologist for the department for  the regulation and control of magical creatures. i’ve seen them jamming  out to grow up by paramore.  i hear they have joined the side of the  knights.( ooc rose. 26. est. she/her. ).

It was too late to clarify what she’d meant now without looking like an idiot, so Caelia smiled when he took her hand. Was that a sign that he wanted it to be a date? Or was he just being friendly? She was trying not to read into it what she wanted, so she took a breath and got up from her seat, smoothing her dress down. “I agree, I’d hate to see you so gravely wounded again,” she chuckled, and nodded when he suggested he could win her a prize. “Or maybe I’ll win you one… a big fluffy dragon to keep you company when I’m not around.”

“That was honestly some of my best work. I’ve never really been able to achieve that high again.” It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Nothing was simply able to top the madness of stink bombing her own dorm. “See, I think some people just don’t appreciate a good prank. Okay but fake snake or real? I think that one would’ve gotten me either way.” Looking over at him, she offered him a sympathetic smile. “Hopefully that’s all it is, because that’s kind of gross.” Bea blindly around in the bush regardless. Fingers brushed against the frog, the creature moving before she could grab it. “It’s over here, I almost had it.”

“Real, that’s why I felt bad. I should’ve gone the fake route.” Pranks and mischief quickly took a back seat as Bea revealed she found the creature. Hoping that he hadn’t imagined the fire-breathing part and sent them on a rather dirty mission to find a normal, rogue frog, Nate scanned the earth near Bea. “Alright, we need a plan to trap it. Maybe we could corner it? I’m used to working with rather large creatures, not ones that can hop away so fast and hide so well.”

“It seems like the main thing,” she teased, gesturing to his scars. “But I think I may be able to protect you from any more nasty gnome encounters. They come for you again, you holler for me and I’ll come running.” She giggled, lifting her goblet of wine to toast to him playfully before she took a drink. 

Her heart quickened as he confirmed it was like a date, but then, he didn’t sound so sure. Her brow creased a little, did he not really want it to be a date? “I… um, I want… that is to say, I’d like that. It sounds nice.” She stumbled over her words, realizing late that she wasn’t being clear about what she wanted. To distract herself, she lifted her glass and drained the rest of her wine. “Shall we?”

Nate’s heart skipped a beat. Did she want it to be a date? Or had her ‘it sounds nice’ been in reference to two friends spending time together? It felt stupid to ask. Nate gulped down the rest of his wine to hide his confusion before he nodded. An evening with Caelia - whether it was a date or not - should not have scared him as much as it did. He took her hand, fully aware that the action answered what he wanted their night to be.

The trap for their firey friend was sprung; the rock became a scorched heap and successfully distracted the frog away from what Arthur was doing. He quickly sprung forward with his jacket and covered the impish creature with his jacket.  It seemed like it took time to recuperate before it let out another burst of flame so quickly they needed to figure out what to do with it. 

“I got it!” Arthur scooped up his jacket with the frog bundled in the middle of it. “I have an idea of how to buy us some time. I’m going to put a containment spell on it, but with this thing’s firepower, it’s only going to last for a couple of minutes. We have to make a decision fast what we’re going to do with it.” He didn’t wait, handing his bundled coat over to Nate. Spells and casting weren’t Arthur’s strong suit, he’d never put his focus on it while in school, but he was still a pureblood warlock from a family with strong magical ties. The basic containment spell was simple and he said the spell, his hands gesturing around the jacket holding the frog. 

The spell cast, the frog was in its only little invisible box for the time being. “Ideas?” Already steam was billowing from his jacket. “I’m not past throwing it into the lake.”

Nate swore as he took hold of the jacket covered frog. He wanted a word with whoever thought it was a good idea to bring this thing into a carnival full of people and things that could easily go up in flames. Even with the containment spell, he could feel the heat from the frog’s abilities stinging his skin. Although Nate was no stranger to burns, he wasn’t exactly in the mood to be turned to char. 

“Lake,” Nate said quickly, holding the frog as far as possible from his body as the containment spell slowly broke down under the fire’s heat. “If we get it by water, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve to protect us from the burns long enough to find someone to transport it to the department of magic. I just wanted to get it away from that brush before this whole place went up in flames.” This wasn’t exactly Nate’s department, after all. Surely there would be someone around from the right department, anticipating that this might happen. 

Yeah, right about now those fire resistant gloves were sound pretty good and probably something they needed to keep on hand considering the kind of trouble he and Nate could find themselves in. The funny thing was, fire freathing frogs, probably not as out there a thought as one might think in their line of work. Arthur climbed back up to his feet, brushing off the leaves that still clung to his already soiled riding clothes. “Yeah, I’m fine too.” Though they had been both surprised by their fire breathing friend and the fire power it held. 

“Komodo dragon? I have no idea, just be careful.” Arthur warned agreeing between the lines to the plan already. He shrugged out of his coat all the while silently giving a nod of his head to Nate that he was ready. He crept forward, even so light on his feet as he avoided trying to put to much weight in one spot. He could see the scorched plants from which the burst of fire had come. Arthur stopped and signaled over to Nate a gesture of throwing the rock and with his coat spread out he’d hopefully capture the fire breathing amphibian beneath it. He held up three fingers and silently counted down….3….2…1….

While Nate certainly hadn’t expected to nearly get scorched by a fire-breathing frog, he couldn’t say it was uncommon to somehow find danger whenever he and Arthur were together. He gave a silent slight nod, having crept up on the frog’s other side. As soon as Arthur’s last finger went down, Nate tossed a small rock. The movement caught the illegal frog’s eye before it even hit the ground. A ribbit sounded, closely followed by another stream of fire. Nate cringed at the damage, but quickly turned his attention toward the distracted frog.

Caelia couldn’t help but smile when he twined their fingers together, her blush deepening. She could be a flirt, but the truth was that she didn’t often date anyone seriously, so when she had real feelings for someone, it was a little strange. “I doubt I could protect you from a dragon, though.” She warned him with a little laugh.

Her eyes widened when he touched her face, and she took a deep breath. “You mean like… a date?” She raised a brow at him. She couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t thought about it before, but it never seemed to work out. 

Caelia giggled softly, a flush rising to her cheeks as Nate’s finger tickled her palm. “I’m sure you’re not so bad,” she insisted, although she could imagine that he would take things seriously around dragons. She hoped so, at least, she’d hate to think he might get hurt because of carelessness. She felt something warm bubble up in her chest as she met his gaze, her heart quickening at his promise. She believed him, instantly. “I know you wouldn’t,” she smiled, forcing herself to look down as her heart threatened to leap into her throat. “I trust you.”

Nate’s throat tightened. He slipped his fingers through hers, closing their hands together. All his life, Nate tried to do the right thing, to be a good person - to be someone worthy of other people’s trust...but hearing it from Caelia, that validation coming from her lips? “You have no idea what that means to me,” he admitted, brushing his thumb over her knuckles.  “I trust you too.” More than he’d admit, and probably more than was wise.

Arthur fondly rolled his eyes at that reponse. A smirk on his features as he watched his friend’s endevor to find the fire breathing frog. Either way, he would still be here in the brush with his friend out of loyalty and their long standing friendship. “I forgot, that must of been me looking for an excuse to leave.” The Pendragons were meant to support the community and disappearing wouldn’t be taken fondly by his mother. “I have fun, just not at this.” Not to say he didn’t live in that moment where he dueled another swordsman and showed off the skills he had. 

“How are we supposed to catch a fire breathing frog anyway?” He asked looking around and for a moment swore he saw a bit of smoke from the brush. Arthur watched that area and there was a feeling in his gut  that told him something wasn’t right. “Nate! Move!” He yelled in warning and threw himself off to the side just in time as a balloon of fire came their way. Laying on the ground he pushed up on his elbows to look over to Nate, “Alright, I believe you now about the fire breathing frog. Are you alright?”

Nate couldn’t help but laugh. After years of friendship, he knew these sorts of gatherings weren’t Arthur’s cup of tea. Perhaps if Nate was in his friend’s shoes - if his attendance was expected - he would feel differently. “Carefully, that’s how. I didn’t think I’d need fire resistant gloves at this thing, so we’ll have to stick to-” Before Nate could finish explaining his genius plan to safely take possession of the frog, he was interrupted by Arthur’s warning.

“Oh come on, have a little faith. We got this.” Branches tangled in her clothes, making her pause to keep them from ripping the fabric. “Aside from the usual experimenting with magic and potions far outside my skill level, almost burning down the house. Well when I was a second year, there was this group of older students, I don’t remember what years they were, they were absolute pricks. Bullying and taking advantage of people just cause they could. Well I got tired of it and made this particularly nasty stink bomb. Which was tossed in their dorms and it stunk up the place. The only problem was they were in my house, so it was my dorm too. The smell lingered for almost two weeks. I think my entire house hated me for those two weeks. It was worth it though. Anyway that started a trend of me using various to fuck with people.”

Nate choked on his laughter. “Incredible. Absolutely brilliant.” He was sure her housemates probably hated her for a few weeks for the prank, but...it was a good one nonetheless. Still feeling around on the ground for the frog, he said, “I never put stink bombs in my dorm. Other pranks? I definitely tried those. Most of them were in good fun, just my friends and I goofing around. The only one I ever felt bad about was when I put a snake in my friend’s bed. He was terrified. I’ve never heard anyone scream that loud.” Something unusual touch Nate’s palm, and he let out a little noise of triumph as his fingers closed around it. But when he brought it toward the light and his face... “Ah, damnit. It’s just some sort of...ew. Mud and leaves.”

Bea pushed aside bits of underbrush, still no sign of the elusive frog. “Yeah I never cared about the frog race. I guess every kid has to get in trouble in their own way.” Her bouts of trouble had usually been confined to the academy or her own house. She never caused trouble in such a public space, at least not on purpose. Who the frog belonged to probably didn’t mean for it to get loose. “It won’t burn down the whole place. If there’s a fire we can put it out before anyone even notices.”

“Right, because we noticed it and took care of it! But fire spreads fast.” Nate let out a little sigh and got on his hands and knees to feel around for the creature. “What sorts of things did you get into trouble with, then? If intense cheating in frog races weren’t your choice of rebellion.”

“I know they will but I just prefer them to people.” She spoke with a sigh as she ran her fingers through the waves of her hair loosening them. Her mother had wanted her hair tight and proper for the evening but as the time had gone on it had started to fall back to her usual hairstyle. “I have to admit that I don’t find much fun in these events. Most of the people who approach me are looking to see if I make some terrible mistake or they’re coming to tell me that some cousin is single and looking for a girl like me to settle down with. Which we both know means they just want to be associated with my family. It’s rather tedious dealing with them.” She didn’t mind complaining to Nathan about her romantic woes after all if he told anyone what she said they wouldn’t believe him anyway. She hadn’t earned the title of ice princess for nothing. She was as closed off as they came. “Come along show me some of this fun you’re talking about. If you don’t make me smile though you owe me a dragon egg.”

“Now, that doesn’t seem fair! Something tells me I’m going to lose this bet,” he teased, but held out his arm for her to take anyway. There was no doubt in his mind that Adelaide would likely find all of the things he found amusing rather dull. That wasn’t going to stop him. As they strolled through the festivities, Nathan lowered his voice so only she could hear. “I suppose I’m lucky. Of all the things my parents have pressured me into, marriage is not one of them. Honestly, I think they’d be perfectly pleased if I met and married a...less influential woman.“ It was a blessing. Nate’s parents had never put pressure on him to settle down and start a family. Perhaps they’d understood that he simply wouldn’t settle for just anyone. It had to be right. “Honestly, just start telling all the people who approach you terribly dull stories. Maybe they’ll leave you alone.”

“Did you actually see it breathe fire? Could’ve just been a regular frog.” Despite her skepticism she still followed, ducking under the fence. Eyes on the lookout for the creature. “So someone sneaks in an illegal frog to race for what, some bragging rights. And then they are stupid enough to lose said illegal frog. A lot of trouble for a race that isn’t that big a deal.”

“I saw a spark,” Nathan insisted, though he knew it could’ve been a trick of the light. Quickly scanning the area right in front of the brush, he let out a little sigh. This was going to take some real investigative skills. “Maybe it’s not a big deal to you, but to a teenager hell-bent on winning? It probably seems like life or death.” Maybe, just maybe, he was speaking from experience. Pushing aside a pile of brush, Nathan stuck his hand inside the mess of bushes and felt around for the creature. “I just want to make sure it doesn’t burn the entire celebration down.”

A smile stretched across her face when Nate stuck his tongue out at her, and she shook her head. “Such a brave little knight,” she laughed playfully, reaching out her other hand to touch the scar on his face affectionately. 

She dropped her hand when he turned her hand over. Her hands weren’t exactly as soft and unmarked as one might expect of a lady; her nails were cut short and neat, her fingers calloused from years of carrying heavy trays of ale and scrubbing dishes clean. She didn’t have any major scars, though. “Hm, I don’t know if a dragon’s idea of ‘playing’ would really agree with me. I don’t think I could carry off the scars so well as you do.” She laughed, and color flushed her cheeks when he followed up. “I find it hard to believe that you need lightening up.”