After a morning of shopping for Zandrianna, Immalaine's basket was full of vegetables and herbs. Looking around the town square, she decides to go in search of Rastellion for she wished to see him. Furrowing her brow, she decided to try at the trading hall, as that was where he was most often at this time of the day.
Entering the trading hall, Immalaine looks around wide eyed. As always, she was a bit in awe of the bustle of activity as men and women talked quickly back and forth amongst each other, haggling over price, quantity and quality and goods and gold exchanged hands. Pushing her way through the crowd, she soon reached the back of the building, scanning the gathering of people for the man she sought.
Not finding Rastellion in his usual location, Immalaine frowned and continued searching Bree. Finally she decided to head to Lalia's market, where she thought she'd do a little browsing before returning home.
As she entered the market, she heard the familiar voice as he spoke with someone. "So, we're agreed then. For the next quarter, you'll provide all tack and saddling at a 10% discount, in exchange for getting first selection of our eastern leathers at market price, subject to the parameters we already agreed upon." Quickening her step, she looked over to see Rastellion and smiled at him as she headed his way. Dropping a kiss on his forehead. she murmurs happily. "'ello Rastellion,"
Neyaa nods and Rastellion passes her a parchment to sign. He turns and smiles. "Oh, hello Imma!... Just a minute.. I'm nearly done here."
Moving to the side to look at the selection of saddles, Immalaine shifts her market basket in her hands as she listens to Rastellion and the lady discuss business.
With a steady gaze, he retrieves the parchments, signs both copies himself, and returns one to Neyaa. "Excellent," he says. "I'll circulate the news to the Association tonight." Neyaa nods, tucks the parchment into her papers, and turns to her next order of business. Rastellion stands to greet Immalaine with a proper kiss. "Shopping for Zandrianna?" he asks, seeing the basket.
"She needed a few things fer th' house, so I told her I'd pick them up while she were away." she replied, looking Rastellion over. Smiling, she adds. "Those are nice garments. Ye look right handsome in them."
He curls his lip and runs one finger under his collar. "I hate them," he whispers to her. "Ana said I had to look more formal for Association business... but I feel like a pig in a ball gown!"
Immalaine chuckles, but idly picks at her dress. "I know what ye mean, Lady Zandrianna insisted I start dressin' more 'proper' as well. E'en gave me some dresses what she's not wearin' no more. Though," Imma adds ruefully, "I did have t' take them in a bit as Lady Zandrianna is more ... generous." she said, motioning at her chest and blushing.
"I dare say you can thank Althessia for that!" Rastellion chuckles.
Thinking of Althessia, Immalaine smiles. "Well, fault or no, she's still got more o' what a fella looks at." Coughing a bit into her hand, she continues. "What're up t' right now? I didna mean t' interrupt yer business ... had I known ..."
With a brief squeeze of her hand, he replies. "No, it's alright. I just finished up gettin' the Association a discount on tack and harnesses through the Yule season. Might extend the arrangement, too, if it proves suitable." He smiles at her. "And that was my last bit of business up here for the Association. Got a few hours to myself now."
Smiling happily at the news, Immalaine looks over Rastellion. "Well, would ye care t' spend a bit o' it wit' me then? I'm done the shopping an' all I have t' do now is bring it home."
Rastellion opens the door, motioning for Immalaine to go ahead as he follows behind her. "I'd like nothing better. We could go to the Pony, see what Barliman has on the menu for today. I bet you're hungry after all those errands for Lady Zandrianna!"
"I feel like I could eat a whole boar by meself Rastellion." she says, leaning against his shoulder, as they walk towards the tavern.
He chuckles as he holds the door to the Pony open for her. "Let's start with a single serving. We can always get another."
The tavern was steadily busy that day, and they made their way to the bar where Barli was standing taking someone's order. Rastellion checked the menu over Barliman's shoulder. "The boar stew okay.... or did you want the sliced meat and greens?"
"I reckon th' stew'd be just fine. An' some bread, if they got any fresh."
Rastellion grins. "Well, I'm going to have the slices. A little treat after that deal I just sealed with the harnass and tack outfitters for the Association. And cider. Cider for you too? Or tea?"
"Cider fer me, an' I'll go find us a table while ye get th' food." Leaning up, she kisses Rast on the corner of his mouth and heads over to look for a place to sit.
With a quick glance over, Rastellion leans into the kiss, then turns back to the counter and places the order while Immalaine heads to the back of the room to find a table for them.
A few minutes later, Rastellion sets Imma's plate in front of her. "I got you one of those honey cakes you like, too," he says, placing that down as well, then sets his own food across from her.
Looking down as she stirs the stew, Immalaine grins. "Thank ye, I really wish I could figure out how those were made. But I haven't quite got the knack of it yet."
"I've no doubt you'll have it figured in time for Yule." He starts in on his own lunch.
She shakes her head as she takes a bite of stew. She swallows, taking her mug up for a sip of the cider, before replying. "An' I reckon not, but I dun intend t' quit tryin'."
"Oh, an' I know how stubborn you can be, once you got your mind set on somethin'! You'll get it sussed."
Her mouth full of meat so she can't reply, Immalaine merely snorts. She quickly swallows her stew, and takes a drink.
"This boar ain't half bad." Rastellion says, between bites. "Still... Barliman's loss that he didn't snap you up for his kitchens before Lady Zandrianna hired you!"
Immalaine looks over at Rast, her eyes taking in his new clothes with a grin. "Careful ye dun get anything on them fancy robes o' yers. Might be a bit harder t' get clean."
Chuckling wryly, he shakes his head. "Aye... nothing but a nuisance these things are. No point but to impress folks that I'm to be taken seriously." He huffs a laugh. "I should keep the old ones around for when I want to make sure people don't...."
"Well, dun matter t' me how yer dressed, though Lady Zan and Ana seem t' both think we need t' look more proper." Immalaine sighs, looking down at her half finished stew. "Seems t' me though, so long as e'erything is covered, is proper 'nough."
Rastellion chuckles at the image, but shakes his head. "Fraid she may be right, though, if that's how city folk think. I gotta wonder, if I dressed up like this when I first started tryin' to get that deed taken care of, maybe the folks over at the town hall would've been more helpful. With these new clothes and my position at the Association - well, they've been tryin' a bit harder to be useful." He takes a bite of his meat. "Or maybe that's just 'cause I'm lookin' to buy, and they'll get to add fees to that if I do."
With a satisfied nod, Immalaine pushes her stew aside and reaches for the piece of honey cake, breaking off a corner. "Ain't much ye can tell 'bout th' character o' a man jus' by his clothes. But, I guess ye got the right o' it there." She pops the bite of cake between her lips, closing her eyes as the sweet taste of honey fills her mouth.
Smiling at her obvious enjoyment of the treat, he wipes up some of the gravy from his plate with a bit of bread, washing it down with the cider, and being careful not to drip on his uncomfortable new clothes.
"Ye should try some o' it yerself. I think ye'd like it." She pushes the plate to Rastellion, as she reaches for her ciderto take a sip.
He takes a long swallow of cider, then reaches over and breaks off a bit of the honeycake. He pops it into his mouth, chews, and nods. "Not bad," he says. "Mebbe a little sweet for me." He winks at her. "I think you've got the sweet tooth between us!"
"I reckon mebbe I do," she replies, leaning over the table to brush a crumb of cake off of Rastellion's mouth. "Though there's something t' be said fer a good warm muffin wit' yer tea in the mornin'."
"Well, I don't say no to a morning muffin... but I think you know that already!" He raises one eybrow at her, a briefly playful and dangerous look, before grinning and taking up the last few bites of his lunch.
Immalaine thinks about his statement, then blushes furiously, looking around to make sure no one had overheard him. "Rast!" she said quietly, "That ... that weren't what I ... that wasn't wat I was referrin' to. Ohh!" She looks at him and then giggles, "Asides, ye ne'er say no t' that no matter what time o' day."
"Maybe I would... maybe I wouldn't." He grins at her as he wipes up the last bit of the gravy from his trencher. "You've yet to give me enough time to say 'no', even if I wanted to..."
"Oh!" she replies, grabbing a bite of the honey cake and throwing it at him. Seeing it hit him in the forehead, she stares mortified for a moment, before starting to laugh, covering her mouth to try and hide her mirth, her eyes gleaming with mischief.
"Oi!" He grabs for a handkerchief, another thing he's supposed to be carrying around now that he's dressing proper. "You'll get these damn fancy clothes sticky!" He wipes the honey off his forehead, but grins at her, not at all put out.
Still laughing, though more quietly now, she gets up to move around the table. 'ere, "Let me 'elp ye wit' that." She reaches out for the handkerchief, brushing a few stray crumbs from the front of his hair with a nod. "There, now that's better." she said, looking down at him. "I'm glad Lady Zandrianna weren't here. I canna imagine what she'd say."
"She'd say we was actin' like kids on th' farm." Rast drops his careful attempt to talk more like townsfolk with that last sentence, slipping back into country dialect. "An' she'd be right peeved attus, I'm thinkin'." He grins back at Imma... then takes the tip of his finger, still sticky with a bit of honey, and wipes it off on the tip of her nose.
"Rast ..." she says, giggling as she wipes the tip of her nose off with his handkerchief. "She'd be right, mos' likely."
Rastellion downs the last of his cider. "So... shall we go sit a bit? I've done what I needed for the Association today, and I'm waiting on some trades before I can do my own speculation. Figure I should go look through deeds down at the town hall in a bit... but I've got some time to myself yet."
"I'd like that." she said, smiling at him. "An' I already got th' shoppin' dun."
He leans in to whisper in her ear, "And since Zandrianna's still away on her trip to Ered Luin, mebbe I'll come over tonight again, hmmm?"
Her cheeks turn pink, as she blushes, but she reaches up to kiss Rast. "I'd like that too," she murmurs quietly back to him.
"Good! ... So let's go sit a spell down the hill!" Standing, Rastellion helps Immalaine up as the head out of the Pony.
(Credits and love go to Rastellion, who provided the voice of the male characters in this story. *Blows kisses to Rastellion and grins widely*))
