Not the Elf You're Looking For (Taliesin & Varius Giovanni)

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Daren had been very focused on getting in and out of the room as quickly as possible. He was thus startled and somewhat bothered when she grabbed his shirt. He turned to frown at her and was completely nonplussed when she took his supplies and left. He stared after her with his brow furrowed, trying to piece together her strange behavior. When his sharp ears picked up her yelp however he for once did not run away but ran forward to see what was going on. He arrived downstairs and looked around for the trouble but he didn't see anything. He didn't even spot Nuri right away. It was only on his second more thorough scan that he realized that shadow in the corner was the upset girl.

He opened his mouth to say her name and realized while she must know his, he had no idea what hers was. "Err…are you alright?" He edged forward warily, not sure how to handle the situation. He also wasn't sure she could hear him over the thunderclaps. "Er…" He wished he knew her name! "Hey!" he spoke a bit louder, finally catching a pause in thunder. "Hey, what's wrong?" He was almost next to her now but being the flighty thing he was he was almost afraid she would last out at him in her fear.
 
There was so much thunder, her body shaking. Biting her lip so hard it was bleeding as she hid her face. She couldn't move, Hearing foot steps she couldn't even bring herself to get up and look, or at the very least, turn her head. But she heard a voice, it was Daren. The last person she expected but she did bolt in front of him. The voice asked if she was okay. It was dark and if she had her head raised she wouldn't be able to see him anyways. But it got closer and closer and with a gap in the thunder she looked up when he spoke. She was about to say something but the biggest clap of thunder that could ever be heard crashed and tears streamed down her face and she cried out and terror in her face before she hid it again. Her shoulders were shaking.

T-Thunder..." she cried softly, "M-Make it s-s-stoop..."
 
"Oh." Daren felt helpless for several moments, edging closer while he thought furiously. There was no way he would be able to actually stop the thunder and there weren't enough pillows in the house to muffle the massive peals of thunder enough to calm her. He sat down next to her and gingerly put an arm around her. "Uhm…" He had a spark of an idea and cringed. It was exceptionally unethical even for him who regularly charmed his way into other people's houses but…it just might do the trick. And it would wear off eventually. And she might not kill him afterwards. "Here." He murmured softly, putting his hands on her cheeks and gently tilted it up towards his face, his voice taking on a mesmerizing tone. "Now there, focus on me." The tone got stronger spinning its way into her mind so all she could see, all she could hear, all she would be aware of was him. And unfortunately, how incredibly attracted to him she would now be. He silently chanted in his mind *please just be a cuddler, please just be a cuddler*
 
Nuri barely felt his arm around her as he sat next to her. It was so loud, so loud. A constant reminder of piece of her past she just wanted to forget. Suffering, death. Hearing screams of her family, loud crashes, this same weather haunting her the night her life changed for the worse. But then she felt his hands on her face and her eyes widened as her face was tilted towards his. As he spoke his voice seemed different, it had a quality in it that was very soothing. Suddenly her very tense body relaxed as she focused on his voice. Looking at him she noticed something she had not before. He was very handsome indeed.

"Daren..." she said softly, sweetly. She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled her face closer to his but then veered and just nuzzled her face cutely into the crook of his neck and pulled herself closer to him. Her soft body pressed up against his as she cuddled up against him. "H-Hold me...don't leave..." she said softly. "I've been alone so long...please..."

Normally not being this open with anyone, her fears came out and she felt so exposed. But Being under his magic and feeling him next to her she felt much safer.
 
Daren mentally sighed in relief as she started to relax, but he was immediately tensed up as she said his name. He knew it. He knew this thing was going to backfire so badly. He tried not to cringe as her face drew close, trying to think desperately of some way to divert it…only to have her cuddle up in what was pretty much the best case scenario. Sure, he was still decidedly uncomfortable having another person so close but he would deal with it for now because he was the biggest softie ever.

Daren reluctantly put his arms around her, trying not to think about how that was only making her closer and honestly starting to do not comfortable things to his body as well. It had after all been even longer for him since he'd allowed himself to be this close to anyone else either. "I-I'm right here." He managed to choke out, disturbed but unwilling to break the spell while thunder was still about. "Think of nothing but me." If he didn't die of a heart attack at some point tonight she was totally going to kill him later.
 
As she begged him not to leave she felt his arms around her. For the first time in so long she was comfortable and felt safe. Running as long as she had never allowed anyone to see her so vunerable looking. But not being able to help it she didn't care right now. Hearing his voice again reassure her he was here and told her to not think of anyone else but him. Nuri nuzzled him softly as she nodded and closed her eyes, leaning into him more. As she would fall asleep her head rested against his chest, just below his chin and nestled into him. Sleeping she looked so much softer and sweet, her long draping hair resting against her back, her body pressed against his. He was warm. Sleeping all night like this she didn't let him go as her arms had slipped from his neck to his waist, wrapping them gently around him. By the time it was morning the pounding thunder had been reduced to a low rumble and for the most part had subsided.
 
Daren was awake long after she had gone mostly limp in his arms. He was relieved that this had been a sufficiently relaxing experience for her but he spent several hours being very cruel to himself and once her hands slipped down around his waist it was all he could do not to freak out. Eventually though he slipped into a semi-restful doze.

As soon as he heard people starting to move upstairs Daren snapped out of out and started to panic again. He wasn't sure what the family would think and he was even more concerned about how Nuri would react. If he was lucky the effects of the spell would linger for a while yet but without him putting more power into it it would eventually fade. He told himself to worry about that later and tried to extricate himself from Nuri's arms just as the little girl skipped her way downstairs. He froze while she stared at them in stunned silence for a few moments before squealing in excitement and running upstairs, probably to tell her parents.

Daren groaned softly and slumped back against the wall, accepting his fate.
 
Nuri didn't remember falling asleep last night. With all the thunder last night she had not a clue. There had been nights where she spent all night, her knees pulled up her chest in the pouring rain. But she was very warm and very comfortable. She nuzzled her face into him and then slowly opened her eyes as she felt Whatever she was snuggled into....move. Hearing footfalls she groaned and gripped him tighter.

"Mmm...Don't squirm..." she said and felt it move but relaxed again as she heard a squeal. Opening her eyes slowly she was still somewhat out of it."Good Morning...."

Looking up at him she saw it was Daren. What was he doing here? And why were her arms wrapped around his waist. But she couldn't bring herself to let go.Hearing her stomach growl softly she blushed softly but tried to ignore it.

"T-Thought you were going t -to sleep on the...couch..." she said dozing off softly again for a moment, fighting to stay awake it was clear that she wasn'y completely concious of what she was doing yet.
 
Daren tried not to cringe as her eyes opened, unsure just what mood she was going to wake up in. "M-mo-morning." Unsurprisingly his stutter was back and worse than ever. He did not like not really being able to run away from this confusing situation. Since he could not however he was doing his best to act normal…whatever was normal when you woke up with your arms around another person. "Er…" He thought desperately, trying to think of some excuse that would not trigger her into thinking about their situation. "Uhm…well…I changed my mind?" He couldn't really think with her pressed up against him like this.

To make matters worse he could hear voices upstairs and multiple footsteps now. The whole family emerged from the top of the stairs and looked down at what to them was a rather cute scene. The dad gave Daren an encouraging smile and then ushered his family into the kitchen to make breakfast.
 
Something seemed off, very off as he stuttered a morning greeting to her. He even hesitated to speak again as he gave a very simple explanation to why he wasn't on the couch and instead remained seated here all night long letting her wrap her arms about his waist. Just then her eyes widened as she looked up at him. Around his waist, she was clinging so close to him. It came back to her or atleast most of it did. She remembered commandeering the blanket and pillow from him, and coming down here to try and muffled some of the sounds of thunder by taking the couch. But everything was still too loud and that is where her memory of the night cut off. Before she could pull back and say anything she heard the little girl and her family come to the top of the stairs. They all stared at the scene of the Mage and the elf tangled in what appeared to be a affectionate hold. The mother cooed at 'awww' ed at them bother before following her husband to the kitchen. She blushed madly and reached over, Smacking him with the pillow much too softly to be serious but she looked embaressed.

"What did you do to me?!" she asked, her cheeks flushed several different shades of red that didn't exsist till now. "W-Were we like that all night?! Daren..." she said biting her lip, not knowing what magic this elf was capable of. Anything could have happened.
 
Daren flinched at the pillow but it was a lot less than he expected so he was feeling pretty lucky. He was still wary of setting her off into a murderizing spree. "Er yes well…" How to explain what he did? She seemed familiar with magic so it wouldn't be too much of a problem explaining probably but she may get the wrong idea about it as well. "Uh well I-I didn't know what else to do…you were so upset so-so I used a m-mesmer so you would only see me and calm down…" He slowly edged away from her, expecting an explosion at any moment. "N-nothing happened…y-you just decided to cling to me…" There was no way she would really think that of him right?
 
She looked to him and her eyes went wider as he said, they were like that all night. A whimper left her lips and she closed her eyes and hung her head. It was so embaressing. Never did she want anyone to see her weakness but already so soon after she met him. Nuri hated, absolutely hated feeling weak and that was how she felt now a self loathing. The mage didn't see him edging away but as she heard 'mezmer' she knew exactly what that was. If he had wanted to, he could have done anything to her and she wouldn't have been able to help herself. But there was no reason to not believe him, he didn't seem like the man to take advantage of her like that. But shaking, her body shaking was visible.

"A hug would have done nicely...magic wasn't needed...I'm not that scary am I?" she looked up at him and in that moment looked more soft than she ever had, it wasn't intentional. Looking out at him though long lashes she heard the family upstairs. Biting her soft bottom lip she sighed and got up, deciding to go upstairs. She didn't know why that made her so shaken up, so uneasy. But now they expected her, the family, her and Daren more than ever to act as a couple. It was a bit unnerving but would keep up the act if she needed to .If it kept a roof over her head.
 
Daren winced at her whimper that was almost worse than her flipping out and trying to kill him. He was really starting to rethink this whole traveling together thing, he obviously had no business being around other people. He felt almost like someone had stabbed him in the heart when she spoke and he felt short of breath for several moments afterwards. He made an effort to pull himself together as she stood up. "You…" He didn't know what to say. She had seemed that scary to him in some ways, he had never been around someone who killed so effortlessly before. And now the guilt made him just want to run away. He opened his mouth to say something again then seemed to think better of it and wrapped his arms around himself and turned his back to her, visibly tense. "I'm sorry." He muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
 
As she stood up to go upstairs she heard him speak. It was soft and just one simple word...you...but it was enough to catch her attention. Looking to him she blinked at him from under her long lashes. But then he proceeded to finish what he was saying as he opened is mouth and parted his lips. But it just wouldn't come. The mage then felt a twinge of guilt as he looked at her and wrapped himself in his arms. When he turned away from her, her heart sunk even further and further. It was then Nuri heard the apology. So stepped towards him and he looked so tense. Reaching out she hesitantly placed a gentle hand on his arm.

"I'm sorry...If I overreacted. At least you helped me, and that is more than I can say anyone has done for me...in a very long time. Thank you. Sorry I make you uncomfortable. I'm trying not to be so brash...so direct and forwards but it's who I am. Oh and....I think I forgot to tell you but...Nuri....My name is Nuri."

Just then she heard someone upstairs calling that breakfast was ready.

"So How about we go get some? And just move past this and think about what we need to do next? Come on Daren....Let's get moving."

Standing up there was that fire in her eyes again, playful, non-relenting.
 
Daren just barely held himself from jumping away when he felt her hand on his arm. Like her, he really wanted to be perhaps just a bit braver and more outspoken. He knew at some level that being flighty as a deer was helpful but in some situations it didn't always work and he had to be ready to find some other way to deal with his problem. And if she could do so and say sorry, perhaps he could be a bit braver too. "A-alright…" He murmured softly, clearing his throat and trying to pull himself together.

He let her lead the way to the kitchen and smiled weakly at all the expectant expressions around the table. "Good morning." Even just those simple words sent the little girl into a fit of giggles and Daren turned an impressive shade of red. He ducked his head and dug into his breakfast. He was mostly silent as the group chatted around him and once they were done he stood up and walked over to the father. "Thank you for letting us stay the night." He said with a smile. "But we need to get moving before my parents start to get worried about us." He waved goodbye to the family and in a rather daring act actually grabbed Nuri's hand and lead her outside.

"We need to get somewhere else as soon as possible…" He spoke as they started walking down the street, mostly walking to himself.
 
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