Look Beyond What You See

Giacomo

 "Rise and shine, Aerys," a velvet voice murmurs in my ear, causing me to reluctantly swim out of the warm dark bliss of the best sleep I can remember. Warm flickering flames greet my gaze as I struggle to open my eyes. Around the flames, sharp beams of brilliant dawn pierce into my consciousness and I draw my eyelids closed against them. A warm chuckle, and then a warmer hand on my face over my eyes. "You can open your eyes now. This should make it easier." I slowly comply with his instructions. So considerate. How did I get so lucky?

"Thanks," I mumble as my eyes adjust. Why did we have to wake up? Last night could have lasted forever and it still would not have been long enough. Forgiveness and reconciliation brought about such happiness for both of us that the idea of facing the rest of the world again is absolutely abhorrent.

Unfortunately, I realise as he slowly takes his hand from my eyes that we're still on the roof and that therefore the rest of the world will probably be angry at us and invading our just-recaptured happiness with all of its unpleasantness in the very near future.

"They permitted us to sleep up here last night?" I wonder. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Juniper consented to this.

"I wouldn't go that far," Dmitri returns. "Malina said she'd persuade Juniper to turn a blind eye, provided you were in your chambers where you belonged when she came in to wake you up this morning. That's why I woke you, actually. Juniper will be disturbing the sanctity of your suite soon, I believe."

"Are you sure we cannot just stay up here indefinitely?" I whine as I snuggle closer to him. Good things like this shouldn't have to end. He runs a hand through my hair with a fond chuckle before unburying my head from his chest so that our eyes meet.

"I wish we could," he answers, the liquid hot sincerity that colours his tones causing my insides to melt. "But more than a few people would object to that, and a number of them know that this is one of our favourite haunts."

"We should go somewhere else then, a place where they will not find us."

"Don't tempt me." His lips just brush mine as he whispers this huskily. My whole body trembles with suddenly reawakened desire. For an agonizingly long moment, we stay like that, a hair's breadth between our lips, foreheads pressed against each other, caught in each other's embraces in our nest of bedding in the middle of the roof garden.

A door slams somewhere below us, shattering the moment. With great reluctance, we get to our feet and gather up the bedding, wishing for what might have been had reality not so rudely interrupted.

"I'll see you at breakfast, then?" I ask. Anything to restore a sense of normalcy, and push away from the intimacy. If we go back there now, we won't leave the roof short of fire, flood, or an enraged Juniper.

"I would like nothing more," he replies, though we both know he's lying. We would both like something more, a lot more, but at the moment that simply is not to be had, so we content ourselves with a brief hand clasp before we climb down our separate ladders to face separate interrogations by separate staff members.

To my surprise, no ladies accost me when I enter my bedchamber from the closet that grants me access to the roof. I quickly change into a fresh gown (yesterday's was quite dirty, after all the excitement; I'm rather surprised that Dmitri was willing to tolerate such squalor) and proceed into my little study, where my desk and books and the like are. In the centre of my desk, a single red rose lies across a piece of paper decorated with an elegant, unfamiliar script. What in the world...? My first thought is that Dmitri left an apology note for me here while he was trying to find me, before our necklaces broke and my grandmother arrived and threw her temper tantrum. But no, Dmitri's handwriting does not look like this, though it is elegant in its own way.