xradiant.

Hearing him say that made her feel all kinds of disappointed. Sure, it wasn't as though she wanted so badly to get married but she did want to do her duty to her Vault. If this was going to help things then she would do whatever it took. He had done his duty as well but Lucy could tell that he would rather be doing something else. She wasn't even sure what it was that he did in his own Vault. Maybe she could ease up his thought process about this entire thing by getting to know him.

"I think that coming into this with a negative viewpoint is just going to make this worse." She drew in a breath and walked towards the kitchen, reaching up to remove the veil that had been pinned into her hair. She paused at the counter to look down at the small basket of snacks that they had placed in here for them. She cast a glance back at him over her shoulder. "What did you do back home?"

He scoffed at the supposed self-righteousness that lingered in Mat's voice. Of course he would take the higher ground. Mat was always a good man in the face of hard turmoil. George did wonder whether or not he had ever been faced with the decisions that he had been. A destitute family, an ambitious mother, a king to take to bed. The thought was one that he wouldn't openly share because it made him seem like he was taking some sort of higher ground. Although he did deserve the higher ground. He had purpose and it was all coming to fruition.

"It would be nice if you would at least see things from my perspective." he told him simply, evenly, as he looked at him in the eyes. "You should really tell me why it is you disapprove. I could make things easier for you here at court. You know that, don't you?" He bit down on his bottom lip wondering what he would have to do to get Mat to notice him in a way that just might be seductive. It worked on so many others, why not an old friend? "Wouldn't you prefer it to be easier?"

She wants to be angry because those words fill her with an anger that she can't really express. Her father was a good man! Everyone knew that! He wanted to help those that were here, the people that occupied these lands. There was no reason at all for Paran to think otherwise and yet there was an intense seriousness lingering in his dark eyes that almost startled Lucy. She had to look away from him because the sight of it was unnerving. Did he actually believe what he was saying? It seemed such an insane thing to let himself think.

"You don't mean that." She stated with a thick swallow, her jaw tensing. Finally she turned her gaze back to him once more. She needed to be resilient. She needed to make him see that his view was wrong, he just needed to be brought around. He was easily spoken to. Lucy was eager to speak to him and clear things up that were hanging between them. "You can't mean it because it really isn't true. My father is a good man and all that he wants is to help everyone here. Can't you see that?"

"You really think that I need someone to be chasing me around, looking after me?" She questioned. Even her own brother had never done that. She had been trusted well enough at home that she was relatively left on her own and allowed to do whatever it was that she could or wanted to do. What made it seem so paramount to Mat that she needed to be kept an eye on? She didn't find it insulting she just figured that maybe they ought to just keep an eye on one another instead.

She shook her head lightly so as not to offend him. She really didn't want to be rude about it even though she knew full well that she could take well enough care of herself. "Mat, what if we made a deal?" She suggested with a brightly lit look in her eyes, a spark of suggestion. "What if we looked after each other instead? And neither of us go around going off on our own Wouldn't that be easier?" She smiled at him. Maybe that would be convincing enough. "Come on, no one will tell my dad." She knew that's where he was getting this from.