Next cometh Autumn with the sun so hot and piercing...

[light_of_the_world]

Back home, the court moved. Breguswith had explained it to Hild once, when she was a child and adamantly against such constant travel. She wanted to stay in a place long enough to learn its habits, to discover its secret places, to feel it with her whole skin. But as her mother pointed out, a king could not remain in one area for so long, not if he wished to keep his thegns in line with his powerful presence and keep his court from eating those thegns out of house and home. And so they had drifted from castle to castle, following the shifting seasons, keeping time with the different vills. Bebbanburg, Yeavering, Tinamutha, once, Brough, Sancton, Goodmanham, York.

But time did not need a changing landscape to move on. Hild found herself on the cusp of fall, without York, for the first time in more than a decade. Darrow did not have York's sweet apples or pears, nor its wars. It did have something called a pumpkin spice latte, however, which was almost as delicious as the overexcited barista had told Hild it would be. She had ordered two if only to calm the woman, but she had reasoned that anything that garnered such praise, mostly earnest, had to be passing good.

Balancing a tray of coffees and a few scones in one hand, Hild texted a few of her friends with the other, inviting them each to join her in the park, if they had the time. The first to arrive could have the spare latte. So she said. Hild had every intention of ensuring that each of her friends could share in the pumpkin spiced goodness.

Comments

[youfeelluckypunk]

"I think you might be right, if such duties really do exist. Though being with him seems to make me consistently happier so maybe having a boyfriend will do away with all the bad moods entirely." The chances of that are highly unlikely, which is why Reid says it with a twitch in his grin, but he's honest when he says he's happier now. Hild can see that, he suspects, because even though he wouldn't say he's ever been a particularly morose person and is generally in good spirits, even Reid can say about himself that he does smile more now.

He smiles more because he thinks of Luke often, whether it's about something they'd done or something Luke had said or something they might do later, just the thought of his boyfriend is enough to make his eyes glaze over with happiness. Some of the detectives at the department have already noticed this, poking fun at him when he checks his phone to find a text from Luke and insisting that they should all go out to the bar together one night. Though Reid had adamantly declined--

(not out of embarrassment and not even because he doesn't want to have to think of his next excuse for why he doesn't drink but because he wouldn't want to subject Luke to the teasing that would almost be a guarantee)

--it'd still pleased him to know that the people he works with here seem to be just as happy about seeing him happy as his team had back home.

"And I can't speak for anyone else but for me, there's something to be said about knowing with certainty that there will always be someone I can turn to at the end of the day. For Luke, I would drop everything to help him if that's what he needed, and I know he would do the same for me. It's comforting to have that kind of security." There's also the matter of what an excellent kisser he is but that's something he thinks is better left unspoken.

[light_of_the_world]

It made Hild glad to hear that Luke made Spencer happier, as she thought the same true for the other man. But she felt a sharp emptiness in her chest even so, like the ache of having too little food to sustain one. She saw others' happiness in love, felt it, breathed it in like it was incense, heady and rich. It was difficult for Hild not to be happy when her friends were happy. Despite this, being in love was one thing that many of her friends had experience with and she did not. She had never had the time, never had the luxury of being able to fall in love. She was young by the standards of Darrow, but old enough by the standard of Northumbria. She had sex and enjoyed it, but as Spencer and she had discussed once, there could be sex without love. She cared, in some instances deeply, about those she had let share her bed, but she knew it was not the same. She did not know what being in love felt like, but she knew she had not tasted it yet.

Her smile would not falter. No dark shadow would pass over her gaze. She was happy for Spencer and not unhappy with her own lot. Only aware.

She nodded and dipped her head to consider her coffee cup, worrying the edge of the cardboard holder with her thumb. "I had something like that with Begu, my gemæcce. She was always to be there when I needed her, and even when I did not realize I needed her. It is good to have someone you can trust in so completely. To know there's no games at work with them."