The One

FIFTEEN

She slipped casually onto his balcony.
He had been gone for a while, she never heard him coming in this late.

She stood, in the curtains of the doorway leading into the room, listening.
Was he still in the bath?
She certainly didn't want to walk into him, nude!

She just stood there, waiting, listening for the sounds of water or creaking of his chair.

Nothing, maybe he was sleeping?

She dared.
She slid her feet across the floor, these polished floors loved to make sounds under bare feet.
She carefully looked into the bathing room as she reached it sliding through the sitting room.

He wasn't there, good, that meant he had to be at least wearing pants.

She turned, looking across the room into the bedroom.
She felt for the dagger she had put around her waist with a belt, it was still there.

Slowly, she approached the room.

But halfway there she could hear it, breathing.
Heavy breathing.
She had expected him, passed out, on his bed.
As described by the file about him.

But he wasn't.

He was sitting in the high backed wooden chair lined with fur,
a steaming mug on the table between the chairs.
Sleeping.

She had been tense, panicked and ready to flee.
She hadn't fully trusted him and it didn't let go of her throat until she was certain he was properly passed out.

She stood up straight, let go of the heft of her blade.

He looked as tired as she felt, but at least he was sleeping.
Though, she doubted he was comfortable.

She moved towards him carefully.

Should she wake him?

Yes.

But how?

"Hello?" She tried.
"Hello? You there?" She tried again.
"Wake up!" She actually called.
She stepped closer and clapped her hands quite near him.

Nothing.

She stood there, wondering, he was definitely breathing so... not dead.
She squinted at him now.
She had never actually seen skin like his,
or hair like he had for that matter.

She couldn't help herself and touched a very freckled part of his cheek.
Warm, very warm, but not different then her own skin.
She thought as she touched her own face.

Well maybe, dry?

She touched his nose, which definitely had been broken.

What was she doing?

She kneeled ever so slightly to look at his face better.
He wasn't like the other man competing, especially his forehead area and nose.
No impressive well sculpted eyebrows and smooth forehead going into a sharp straight nose,
no angled eyes.

His forehead was a little rounded, as were his eyebrows.
His nose crooked, both sideways and in profile.
The tip of his nose seemed very undecided on whether it wanted to be a well shaped tip or just round.
He had a look of being permanently tired due to how his under eyes and nose linked up to his cheeks.
All the others had quite full lips, Agnus his lips were actually partly covered with freckles, so they were a bit unclear.

She had never seen that.

Freckles on lips?

He certainly didn't have big lips, but that would have looked weird with his facial hair anyway.