dg_cain | (no subject)

Title: Silvery Moonlight
Characters/Pairings: Cain/Gale (You choose the pairing)
Author: transgenic_girl
Rated: G
Spoilers/Warnings: None
Summary: In silence, contentment can be found. This is a Pick Your Own Pairing, as it can be either Cain/DG or Az/Jeb.
Disclaimer: Tin Man belongs originally to Frank Baum, modified by Sci Fi (as well as just about everyone else). I'm just following their examples and playing in the O.Z.

He had not expected her, that much could be said for certain, not as she came to him that night. It was strange, how she appeared at the door to his rooms, as if brought there by a magic he was unfamiliar with. He knew of magic that summoned brilliantly bright white light, of magic that destroyed, of magic that healed.

But of this magic he had been before ignorant.

When he opened his mouth to ask a question, ask one of a thousand questions that came to mind at the sight of her in his doorway, she held up a finger to his mouth with a small smile. The sight of her, with her long, dark hair unbound and wearing a sky colored silky robe that he had never seen before, it might have been evoked from a dream he would rather not admit to having. In fact, he was nearly certain until she dropped her hand and slid it into his to tug him out of his room that she was a figure in a dream. The warmth of her small hand in his was enough to convince him otherwise.

Well, or at least try to convince him otherwise.

He attempted to speak again, to question what was going on, but she again looked at him as if he was being naughty and breaking some easily followed rule. His mouth closed without a word.

While she barely waited for him to even close his door behind him, leading him somewhere, she gave no explanation. As if it were entirely normal for Princesses to come and kidnap Cains in the middle of the night. As if she had done this a hundred times to him, and he had never before protested.

He was fairly certain the latter was not true, and completely certain that the former was not.

Wordlessly they traveled through the hallways and corridors of the Palace, the place seeming bigger and emptier at night. The lights in the hallways between rooms never quite went out, but were dimmed at this late hour, making the entire place feel less occupied. Hundreds of individuals lived within the Palace walls, from servants to diplomats to security to the Royal Family. And yet just then, it felt as if they were entirely alone within the grand structure.

It came as a surprise when she led him to the most unexpected of places, even for this midnight jaunt. The dark haired Princess had led him to the kitchen pantry, which was not the unexpected part. No, it was the fact that after she stopped to close her eyes and raise her hand to the back wall, she stepped through the wall. Too taken off guard to resist, he was pulled in after her, bewildered but feeling as if he had simply stepped through empty air.

There was a mysterious smile on her lips when she looked back at him, before she bent to pick up a bundle and place it in his arms.

The bundle was light; fabric, in fact. A blanket, it seemed, and he was once more confused, but only a shade more as this entire event had already begun so far off the norm.

And then she was off, leaving him behind but for her fingers still entwined with the fingers of one of his hands, leaving him to trail after her.

A full silvery moon hung in the clear night sky above, lighting up the landscape around them nearly to the point of soft daylight. Seeming dawn or dusk when the sun was long gone. Bathed in moonlight, everything appeared ethereal and otherworldly, especially the woman in front of him. Beside him when he jogged a step or two to catch up and keep pace with her stride. She appeared to know exactly where she was going, as she never faltered in her path, looking over at him from time to time with an unreadable, yet warm look in her eye.

He knew every inch of the Palace grounds, had gone over it on numerous occasions since they had come to stay there. Still, the landscape looked and felt nothing like it had before, more of a dreamscape than any possible reality.

They came upon a weeping willow tree he recognized as one of her favorite spots, one she had frequented on many occasion. With him keeping watch from a distance, doing his duty in guarding her from any possible danger. The thought of which had him looking around them, a sudden mental demand to know where those who were supposed to guard her were. To know why exactly she was so exposed out in the middle of the grounds without a single one of her highly trained men watching over her.

As if she could read his mind, she looked over at him and shook her head, and the thought slipped away again. The sudden rise in confusion and will falling away to an oddly peaceful state that was more curious than demandingly inquisitive.

Her footsteps, bare now that he saw them, came to a stop when they stood beneath the tree. Her delicate hand slipped from his as she turned to him, looking up at him with an entirely open expression of trust and something he could not quite pinpoint. A smile passed fleetingly over her lips again, before she reached forward and scooped up the bundle of fabric she had given him. The fabric was revealed to be two blankets, one smaller than the other.

When she handed the smaller back to him, he instinctively took it, but no more understood what was going on. Instead just watching as she spread out the larger to cover a patch of ground in the high grass, only for her to step onto the blanket and settle down into a seated position, leaning back on her hands with her legs out in front of her.

“Sit.” It was the first word she had spoken to him since she had first appeared at his door, and he was frozen in inaction, not moving to comply. Earning him another, “Sit,” complete with a patting motion at space of blanket beside her. The look he gave her must have given away what thoughts crossed his mind because a laugh bubbled up from within her, her head giving a little shake as she negated his thoughts. “Your virtue is safe here Mister Cain,” she told him, her eyes still laughing.

The suspicious expression he sent her likely did little to make him seem less ridiculous in her eyes, but he did as she asked. Although ‘asked’ was a generous way to describe the order given. He sat beside her, as ‘asked,’ still holding the smaller blanket. At least for a moment, before she tugged that away and opened it up to spread it over their lower halves. It cut away some of the cool summer air that he had not noticed before, as she lay back on the blanket and tugged on the fabric of his shirtsleeve to have him do the same.

Above them, the silvery moonlight filtered through the leaves of the tree, as the soft breeze made them gently sway back and forth. Between leaves and branches, he could see bright stars here and there, as well as dark night sky. Beside him, all pale lines and dark hair, the Princess sighed and stretched comfortably. Content, it seemed.

The realization of her contentment had him look over at her, seeing the weariness in her expression mostly having fallen away. The heavy weight she always seemed to carry, from all her time being what everyone else demanded she be, it had fallen away. Beneath long, dark lashes, she looked back at him with bright eyes, a smile that was softer and warmer than he had seen before gracing her lips. Unrestrained and trusting.

When she sighed in contentment again, moving to curl up against his side, he wrapped an arm around her without protest. No titles or history lay between them as he pulled her close, as they lay beneath the stars and the tree, the moon and the sky. In that peaceful, silent moment.