God, she grins instantly when Clarisse grabs her and hauls her up, forgetting to stop grinning when she betrays the fact of the flight to get there. Honestly... if Clarisse told her right now they'd have to fly for hours to get there she'd do it. That smile is very convincing, that's all!
Thinking of something, she tugs on her hand. "I'll go if you kiss me?"
Oh. This was easier than she thought it'd be. Turns out all she needed to do to get Abby to go flying with her was start kissing her.
"I can do that."
She tugs Abby closer and leans in to kiss her, resting her free hand on Abby's waist. Abby's lips are warm on hers, and she smells good, like she washed her hair and let it dry in the sun. Clarisse, in a flash of instant gratification, thinks about postponing the date and staying here instead, but then she reminds herself about the good weather and the birthday gift, so after a few more seconds she breaks the kiss.
So a girl likes a little positive reinforcement every once and a while, is that such a crime? Abby leans her body into the kiss, feeling Clarisse's arm press against her where it folds up between them. Her hand finds and slips into the little dip between Abby's waist and hip like she's done it a hundred times before. It's warm there, nice. The kiss is over too soon, would have been that way even if Clarisse stood her and kissed her all afternoon, one hand resting on her. Holding on for no reason.
"Yeah." She skates her tongue across her lip when she turns away to grab her bag from the side of the bed, haul one strap up onto her shoulder. She grabs her jacket — they're flying, the wind will be pretty cold up there. Gotta hold up her end of the trade proposal...
"Can I guess?" Clarisse said it was only gonna take a couple minutes to fly after all.
Once Abby has her jacket and her bag, and they're ready to head out, Clarisse reaches for her hand again. They haven't talked about it yet—whether they're together outside of this room, too, where the rest of Riftwatch can see them—but she doesn't think they'll run into anyone on the way up to the eyrie.
"If you guess, you win a prize." Prize to be determined. "But I don't think you will. It's pretty cool."
The casualness of it, Clarisse reaching for her hand without looking first, makes her stomach do a flip. No, they haven't talked about it yet but she's not about to pull away — she doesn't want to and it feels a little like being claimed, the notion bold and exciting to her. She hopes her palm isn't sweaty, thinking about all of this.
"Damn, okay." Challenge accepted. Hope Clarisse is prepared for her to guess all the way up the eyrie...
... But by the time they're up there, saddling Blunder, she's guessing stupid things that couldn't be true because Clarisse is right: she really isn't gonna get it. "We're going to... Delaware."
Clarisse has been playing along, doing a nonsensical rendition of you're getting warmer... nah, colder all the way up as Abby's guesses get more and more ridiculous. On Delaware, she pauses in cinching Blunder's saddle and affects a disappointed look. "Yeah, how'd you guess?"
Then she pokes her tongue out and says, "Give up, dork."
Once they take off, no matter how steady or slow she makes Blunder fly, it'll be hard to talk, and she won't be able to see Abby sitting behind her, so Clarisse takes a few extra seconds to grin at her before she hauls herself into the saddle. Abby looks happy even though she's about to do one of her least favorite things, so she must really like Clarisse. The realization is enough to make her ears go hot.
"Ready?" She offers Abby a hand up, even though she doesn't need it.
Abby gives a big, gusty sigh, "Yeah..." before she catches Clarisse's hand, allowing her to help her up onto the back of Blunder. It's obvious that she hates this part, that no amount of joking around eases the sensation of Blunder edging off the wall of the eyrie and into the air, falling like a stone for two heart-stopping seconds before she catches herself and the weight of her riders, pulling them upward, levelling out. It's that stomach-swoop that always makes Abby want to throw up, but she can't. No throwing up on the girl you like.
She doesn't. She keeps her face pressed into the back of Clarisse's shoulder where she can feel muscle working under skin, and smell her, the shampoo she's still using that makes her hair nice and soft. Whenever she runs her hands through it it slips through her fingers. Abby thinks about that instead of how far away the ground is, and Clarisse was right about the flight on being a few minutes but she still slips off the griffon with a shudder onto legs that are wobblier than she'd like.
Clarisse opens her mouth and what's about to come out is a very casual "proud of you, babe," but she stops herself before actually saying it. It's kind of dumb but dating Abby has made her second guess a lot of the things she would have said to her without a second thought when they were just friends. Probably not the "babe" part unless it was as a joke, but still.
"Yep," she settles on.
They've landed in the mountains, but not so high up that it's much colder than it was in the Gallows. The ground underfoot is soft, a little spongy feeling but not wet enough for mud. She couldn't have asked for better at this time of year.
"We have to hike up a little," she says, figuring Abby won't mind.
Yep. See, Clarisse barely noticed her struggle. What a relief — Abby had been sure she'd gripped her a little too hard around the middle when they started to descend but couldn't make herself loosen up for anything. She grins. Cool.
"Okay." She's starting to get excited about where they're off to, noting the surroundings with relish now that they're back on the ground and her eyes are open again. She announces the start of her question, "This 'cool' place," and her voice seems so loud because it only has the sounds of nature to contend with. Trees blowing in the wind, insects and birds... It's amazing to be able to come out to somewhere she's never been before and not be afraid to raise her voice. Abby doesn't think she'll ever get over it. "Did you just find it, or something?"
"Not just," Clarisse says as she retrieves their packs from Blunder's saddle and she begins to unclip it. "But kind of recently, I guess."
Once the saddle is off, she places it in relative safety against a tree and watches as Blunder stretches first her back legs, then her front, and then launches back into the air. She'll fly around doing griffon shit for the afternoon and come back when Clarisse calls her.
"If I have extra time I like to explore in the mountains here or out by the lodge." It's meditative, okay. "It's mostly just what you'd expect but sometimes I find something cool. And since no one else is around, it gets to be my discovery." Like, forever. Just call her Magellan.
Yeah, it's pretty quick to get out here if you... take a griffon. Abby watches Blunder bound back up into the sky with a sense of foreboding but — well, she doesn't have to think about it right now. So she won't.
"Ready."
Clarisse is excited. She's grinning as Abby takes her pack from her and pulls it on. It's making her smile too — there's a warmth in her chest that looking at Clarisse has been giving her lately, an extra niceness whenever she's around.
"Yeah, I think I'll call it New New York," Clarisse answers without hesitation. She hikes her pack up tighter on her shoulders, grins over at Abby, and sets off up the mountain.
It's more a deer trail than a walking path—sometimes they have to walk single file to avoid getting scratched by bushes, and a couple times there are larger boulders they need to climb up and over to keep going. After about fifteen minutes they reach the bank of a river and Clarisse gets visibly pleased about it, rubbing her hands together in a very self-satisfied way.
"Bad," Abby says immediately, and laughs. And then they're off, following Clarisse's path through the woods, not talking much. They don't need to, the silence — the one between them, the forest is incredibly active — is comfortable and Abby finds herself slowly settling into their pace in time, enjoying the stretch in her legs. Clarisse seems to enjoy going in a straight line no matter what, even if this means pushing between trees or dense foliage, or clambering up rocks. It's funny.
Abby privately thinks she could keep doing this for hours, actually, following Clarisse around wherever she thinks they both should go.
"You're so excited about it," she notes, hauling herself down the other side of a bank. Affection is making her tone playful. "It's pretty cute."
Clarisse rolls her eyes. "Shut up, no it isn't." But she's pleased that Abby thinks she's cute. She isn't above being cute in this situation.
"Mostly I'm excited that I remembered how to get here," she admits, as they begin to make their way upstream. She takes them back into the woods a little, keeping the river close enough to hear it but choosing a pathway that doesn't keep it in direct sight. "Imagine if I'd taken you the wrong fucking way."
She knows Abby would have pretended to like wherever they ended up, even if it was just some field or weirdly shaped rock. Because Abby likes to get out and move, to climb and explore just like she does, so it would be the whole journey rather than the destination thing. And because Abby likes her, too.
But Clarisse still wants something worth it at the end of this. Payoff.
That she's pleased with herself for correctly remembering the way is pretty cute too but Abby decides she's gonna keep her mouth shut about it this time; she's smiling while she follows Clarisse upstream. The sound of the river is nice, the smooth rush of water over stones. This reminds her of travelling with Lev. It's easy and she's able to enjoy all of it, the breeze rustling all the foliage and Clarisse walking a little ahead of her to direct them both, the sun punching through the canopy every so often to shower them in warmth. Before she came here she was only ever aware of her environment to keep herself from getting hurt by it.
"Then we would have gone the wrong way," she says. "I don't care."
The journey is good. She rumples her braid to get it off the back of her sweaty neck and grins, extending her arms up over her head in a good stretch. When she tilts her head to one side she feels the stretch extend up the side of her neck into her jaw. "This is really nice. Doing this with you, I mean."
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God, she grins instantly when Clarisse grabs her and hauls her up, forgetting to stop grinning when she betrays the fact of the flight to get there. Honestly... if Clarisse told her right now they'd have to fly for hours to get there she'd do it. That smile is very convincing, that's all!
Thinking of something, she tugs on her hand. "I'll go if you kiss me?"
Too cheesy...?
no subject
"I can do that."
She tugs Abby closer and leans in to kiss her, resting her free hand on Abby's waist. Abby's lips are warm on hers, and she smells good, like she washed her hair and let it dry in the sun. Clarisse, in a flash of instant gratification, thinks about postponing the date and staying here instead, but then she reminds herself about the good weather and the birthday gift, so after a few more seconds she breaks the kiss.
"Ready?"
no subject
"Yeah." She skates her tongue across her lip when she turns away to grab her bag from the side of the bed, haul one strap up onto her shoulder. She grabs her jacket — they're flying, the wind will be pretty cold up there. Gotta hold up her end of the trade proposal...
"Can I guess?" Clarisse said it was only gonna take a couple minutes to fly after all.
no subject
Once Abby has her jacket and her bag, and they're ready to head out, Clarisse reaches for her hand again. They haven't talked about it yet—whether they're together outside of this room, too, where the rest of Riftwatch can see them—but she doesn't think they'll run into anyone on the way up to the eyrie.
"If you guess, you win a prize." Prize to be determined. "But I don't think you will. It's pretty cool."
no subject
"Damn, okay." Challenge accepted. Hope Clarisse is prepared for her to guess all the way up the eyrie...
... But by the time they're up there, saddling Blunder, she's guessing stupid things that couldn't be true because Clarisse is right: she really isn't gonna get it. "We're going to... Delaware."
no subject
Then she pokes her tongue out and says, "Give up, dork."
Once they take off, no matter how steady or slow she makes Blunder fly, it'll be hard to talk, and she won't be able to see Abby sitting behind her, so Clarisse takes a few extra seconds to grin at her before she hauls herself into the saddle. Abby looks happy even though she's about to do one of her least favorite things, so she must really like Clarisse. The realization is enough to make her ears go hot.
"Ready?" She offers Abby a hand up, even though she doesn't need it.
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She doesn't. She keeps her face pressed into the back of Clarisse's shoulder where she can feel muscle working under skin, and smell her, the shampoo she's still using that makes her hair nice and soft. Whenever she runs her hands through it it slips through her fingers. Abby thinks about that instead of how far away the ground is, and Clarisse was right about the flight on being a few minutes but she still slips off the griffon with a shudder onto legs that are wobblier than she'd like.
"Okay." Still breathing deeply. "See? Fine."
No problem.
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"Yep," she settles on.
They've landed in the mountains, but not so high up that it's much colder than it was in the Gallows. The ground underfoot is soft, a little spongy feeling but not wet enough for mud. She couldn't have asked for better at this time of year.
"We have to hike up a little," she says, figuring Abby won't mind.
no subject
"Okay." She's starting to get excited about where they're off to, noting the surroundings with relish now that they're back on the ground and her eyes are open again. She announces the start of her question, "This 'cool' place," and her voice seems so loud because it only has the sounds of nature to contend with. Trees blowing in the wind, insects and birds... It's amazing to be able to come out to somewhere she's never been before and not be afraid to raise her voice. Abby doesn't think she'll ever get over it. "Did you just find it, or something?"
no subject
Once the saddle is off, she places it in relative safety against a tree and watches as Blunder stretches first her back legs, then her front, and then launches back into the air. She'll fly around doing griffon shit for the afternoon and come back when Clarisse calls her.
"If I have extra time I like to explore in the mountains here or out by the lodge." It's meditative, okay. "It's mostly just what you'd expect but sometimes I find something cool. And since no one else is around, it gets to be my discovery." Like, forever. Just call her Magellan.
"Ready?"
no subject
"Ready."
Clarisse is excited. She's grinning as Abby takes her pack from her and pulls it on. It's making her smile too — there's a warmth in her chest that looking at Clarisse has been giving her lately, an extra niceness whenever she's around.
"So you got a name for this place, then?"
no subject
It's more a deer trail than a walking path—sometimes they have to walk single file to avoid getting scratched by bushes, and a couple times there are larger boulders they need to climb up and over to keep going. After about fifteen minutes they reach the bank of a river and Clarisse gets visibly pleased about it, rubbing her hands together in a very self-satisfied way.
"It's not far now."
no subject
Abby privately thinks she could keep doing this for hours, actually, following Clarisse around wherever she thinks they both should go.
"You're so excited about it," she notes, hauling herself down the other side of a bank. Affection is making her tone playful. "It's pretty cute."
no subject
"Mostly I'm excited that I remembered how to get here," she admits, as they begin to make their way upstream. She takes them back into the woods a little, keeping the river close enough to hear it but choosing a pathway that doesn't keep it in direct sight. "Imagine if I'd taken you the wrong fucking way."
She knows Abby would have pretended to like wherever they ended up, even if it was just some field or weirdly shaped rock. Because Abby likes to get out and move, to climb and explore just like she does, so it would be the whole journey rather than the destination thing. And because Abby likes her, too.
But Clarisse still wants something worth it at the end of this. Payoff.
no subject
"Then we would have gone the wrong way," she says. "I don't care."
The journey is good. She rumples her braid to get it off the back of her sweaty neck and grins, extending her arms up over her head in a good stretch. When she tilts her head to one side she feels the stretch extend up the side of her neck into her jaw. "This is really nice. Doing this with you, I mean."