It hadn't really quite clicked until the night before. Somewhere between drinking, tossing daggers and laughing at Marie as he was winning that in his search for information about Sirayn, he'd neglected a very obvious source of information. Her 'niece', though the relationship was probably more distant than that, was in his very own company. They got along as far as things went, and maybe she'd be able to help him out a bit. Not that he could pose the same sort of plan to her as he had with Corin, but there had to be some way about it.

 

That was why Aran was meandering through the yard, trying to find Lyssa Simeone. She'd be around somewhere, practicing away as she always was. Path of Perfection students tended to have a serious streak, even Lonrick had. Of course, Lonrick had finally been able to laugh about Aran crawling into a tub with him when he was busy romancing... A bit after the fact, but he'd managed. He'd even managed to get Lyssa to laugh a few times, so there was hope for her yet.

 

And there she was, practicing her forms. Well, one form in particular, Bundling Straw as she surged forward, alternating the height of her thrusts before unleashing a slash and backhand in turn. Then she was at it again, and again, Aran was happy to watch her for a bit and study her technique. She had come a long way from when he'd first known her, but that didn't mean he couldn't poke fun. Waiting for her to finish the form again, in the pause that Lyssa took Aran shouted from the side with a grin.

 

"Your feet are dragging."

 

 

Aran

Tower Guard

Lyssa woke up quickly and stretched her body, taking a few minutes to prepare herself for the day ahead, to think about what needed done. She gazed over at the wall, a picure or Sira, Solin, and herself hung there, painted by Jaydena Sedai. Solin no longer lived, he had become something she despised, a darkfriend. Their own mother had ended his life, just as she had begun it. At the time she had hated her Mother, he had been her twin brother after all but now she knew that Sirayn had done the right thing, just as she would have done if she had known. She kept the picture to remind her how far someone could fall, how far she could fall if she didn't watch herself. Her father had been a thief, a bully, and a rapist. So far Solin was the only one who had inherited his traits and she was happy of it. With her mother being the way she was, there was no telling what kind of person she could become. She grinned at the thought but quickly quelled it, she loved her mother but sometimes she just got so annoyed at her behavior. Lys climbed from the bed and began to wash up. When she was finished she put on a pair of stretchy leggings, a button up shirt and her cloak. She added some liner to her eyes to accent her blue eyes and then strapped her bastard sword around her waist. Daggers slid into the holders in her boots and then those went on as well.

 

She walked from her room and out into the Warders Yard, she set her weapons down with her cloak and began to run laps around the yard, it was early but she wasn't the only one out and about. Once she had stretched, run her laps and then run around in the woods, she began to work on sword forms. She went through the easier ones first and then began working on one of the ones that was giving her troubles. Bundling Straw, was her nemisis the last few days and she was detemined to perfect it. She moved forward quickly making several quick thrusts, following that up with an overhead arc, ending with a return arc which brought her back to her guard position. She practiced it several times when she as she heard a voice behind her, "Your feet are dragging." Spinnng around she eyes the man behind her, shorter than her by a good 5 inches, he sported dark hair and eyes. She grinned and him and said, "Oh really, seems like your the one dragging, I didn't see you out her running, bet you were still laying in bed, question is with who." She winked at him and turned around to work on the form again, making sure she shook her tush a little more than usual. Flirting with him was fun and harmless, he had no interest in her, she was to boring for him...

 

Lyssa Simeone

Lyssa had taken a bit to crack open but with time had come an easy friendliness. Of course, so had other things, but this in particular had been crucial. Getting past the defences of people who shut off those around them was always difficult, and it was hard to keep the trust once it was forged. Well, it did get easier with time, but it was always risky to put it in jeapordy, one had to then have faith that it would hold. After all everything was tested at one point or another and trust was no different in that respect. If trust wasn't tested, then would it be nearly as valuable?

 

"A gentleman never tells." Grinning as he walked over to her, he was quite appreciative of the way she moved around him. Another part of their friendship was the flirting, and it was always easy fun. He'd always been tempted to take her up on it, but it was always a risky thing with virgins. Well, she still was as far as he knew, and a woman's first always tended to stay with them. Something that hadn't troubled him once, but he was wary of hurting a friend. And a friend she was.

 

"I need to talk to you about something, and its not something you're going to want to talk about I think." That warning got her attention. "I had a run in with your aunt awhile ago. Few words were spoken, and she roused on me. Something about calling her cranky and stubborn. I want to get her learning how to use a weapon again, so I'm trying to understand her a bit better. Can you help me? I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it."

 

 

Aran

Tower Guard

Aran winked at her in his special way and said, "A gentleman never tells." Lyssa chuckled and said, "I don't see any gentlemen around here, come on your know you want to talk about it. Brag even, you've got half the women in this Tower eating out of your hand or rather off your bed." Lyssa grinned and continued the form as Aran walked closer to her. Aran came in front of her and she dropped the lathe to her side. The smile slide from his face and he adopted a serious expression. Lyssa blinked for he didn't do serious. "I need to talk to you about something, and its not something you're going to want to talk about I think. I had a run in with your aunt awhile ago. Few words were spoken, and she roused on me. Something about calling her cranky and stubborn. I want to get her learning how to use a weapon again, so I'm trying to understand her a bit better. Can you help me? I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it."

 

Her thoughts took a moment to form as it always did when someone talked about her mother, she always had to force the pain and shame down when someone called her aunt. She hated the lie and she had been living with it for more years than she could count. There was still that little girl inside of her that felt that her mother was ashamed of her and that was why she didn't want anyone to know that they were really mother and daughter. Of course the adult in her understood that her mother would lose her postion and be thrown from the Tower for giving birth to children. It was fine line that Sirayn Sedai walked, she didn't know how her mother did it with the three oaths. "Aran, why are you talking me about this rather than my aunt, you should know I have barely any contact with her hold no sway over her." Oh was that true! "If you want to talk to me you will need to pick up a lathe and get answers out of me that way."

 

Lyssa Simeone

 

edit to add new sentence at end, lets get this on track so I can get my req and such and then have some fun!

Aran was prepared to drop it all together when Lyssa suggested he fetch a lathe. Nodding at her, he wandered off to the closest racks that held lathes that Aran preferred. Somewhere between a short sword and a long dagger, when paired he was more than capable of holding his own. Lyssa had stopped her form work, or so Aran noted as he approached her again. Instead she was sizing him up, trying to determine how best to attack. Adopting a murderer's grip in his left hand, he led with it to confuse as he held the other back in reserve. She would deliver the first blow. "So, why don't you have contact with your aunt?"

 

Lyssa eyed his choice of lathe and changed hers for a different size. She tested the weight of the lathe and began to move toward him, he led in with the left hand and she blinked for a moment, then she moved into Leaf Floating on the Breeze, her blade moving slowly up and down as she waited for him to attack, she waited and waited and kept circling, when she saw that he wasn't going to attack she was about to when he spoke to her.

 

"So, why don't you have contact with your aunt?" She considered his question and attacked with, Whirlwind on the Mountain, her body spinning with the move, she gracefully slide into The Wood Grouse Dances, making short thrusts as she spoke, "My aunt is busy, she is a very important person in the Tower and she doesn't care much about some wayward niece that showed up to be a Aes Sedai and then failed, only to becone a Tower Trainee instead." During this Aran had easily pushed off her attacks and she wondered when he would attack her.

 

Frowning, Aran danced forward while Bundling Straw. "Why do you care so much about her then? What did she do to you that makes you so upset when she comes up in conversation?" Low Wind Rising forcing Aran to step back, he replied as the Courtier Taps his Fan only for it to transform as The Kingfisher Stoops, just sliding past her hip while his other lathe was Parting the Silk, wrapping itself around the Lightning of Three Prongs and casting it aside.

 

He was like a dancing little man! She settled in the void and tried her best to reach him, all her strikes didn't reach him and she was having problems even keeping up with him. He had almost hit her in the hip with one of the strikes. She attacked back with The Boar Rushes Down the Mountain, moving right into Lightning of Three Prongs, sweat was already pouring off of her the little bastard.

 

She was lost in the void and ignored everything around her until he spoke, "Why do you care so much about her then? What did she do to you that makes you so upset when she comes up in conversation?" She took a deep breath and almost lost the void, she left the void and as she attacked again spoke, "I care because family means more to me than that, I am more family with the people I have met here that her she cares more for others that she does for me. Family shouldn't be an inconvience, a political counterstroke, or a pawn in a game. I am living now and I am related to her now and I will die and she will live many more years. I would like her to actually think of that before she ignores me."

 

Slapping aside another attack, Aran sidestepped the next thrust as he lashed out with his boot, catching her on the hip and driving her back a couple of paces. Lifting his right lathe before him, it shifted back and forth without pattern as the Creeper Embraces the Oak. She was good but she didn't have his years of experience, nor the same sort of training for that matter. "She rejected you then? Or she used you? Why does she set you aside now?"

 

She attacked again and almost hit the ground when his boot connected solidly with her hip. She limped forward a couple steps and watched warily as he moved into Creeper Embeaces the Oak. She attacked him with The Falcon Stoops and came back to the guard stance, as he began speaking, "She rejected you then? Or she used you? Why does she set you aside now?"

 

She shook her head and said. "She rejects me everyday when she ignores me when she doesn't spend time with me or take time out of her busy schedule. Sometimes I feel like she used me but I don't know and I don't want to talk about that it just makes me mad." The anger surged through her and she pushed it away before attacking with quick strokes, The Cat Dances on the Wall moved into Hummingbird Kisses the Honeyrose, her strike to his face quickly blocked.

 

She flashed into The Kingfisher takes a Silverback and then locked blades with him in The Grapevine Twines. She was trying to disarm him, her hips throbbed, not a single attack had hit him and at some point he had hit her in the arm, she could feel the welt and goose egg rising up. Sweat poured from her eyes and she looked him in the eyes as their faces were close together. "She dosen't want me, Aran. I always wondered what my great aunt would be like but she dosen't care." Anger filled her and she waited for him to say something...

 

She was becoming overwrought in her fighting now. She was abandoning her defence for attack and while Aran could have taken advantage of it, he didn't. They were sparring, the idea was to win, not to beat the other person into a pulp. Locking his lathes against hers, there was a moment after she spoke where Aran could have done a whole manner of things. Seeing how tired and angry she was, he decided to be himself.

 

His tongue darting forward as he leaned in, he quite liberally licked the side of her face. Getting a squawk of confusion from her as she stumbled back, Aran laughed as he lowered his lathes. She was going to find it a little difficult to keep her anger together after something as random as that. Or alternately she was going to be very angry with him, but it was a risk he was willing to take. "We should stop there, I pushed you too hard I think."

 

 

Aran

Tower Guard

 

Lyssa Simeone

Tower Guard

As their faces were close together he leaned forward and licked her up her face. She blinked for a moment and then screamed loudly in anger and shock. "We should stop there, I pushed you too hard I think." Lyssa pushed him backwards with her fist, "What I am not good enough for you either, I can't keep up with you, I can't fight as good as you. You are just like her, your probably using me to get at her. Want to sleep with my aunt maybe Aran?" Rage roared through her faster and faster, she had been having lustful thoughts about this man for months and now it was obvious he wanted her mother and not her. Everyone liked her mother better, "Why am I not surpised, she's everything I am not and she reeks of power." She walked toward him with her lithe frame pulsing with anger. "I should have known, no one ever likes me for just me, I am to serious, not quick enough to give it away. Light I have all but offered myself to you on a platter and you have turned away every single time. Gah, I just want to kill something." She pushed him back and said, "I suggest you leave or it will be you, and don't ask me anymore questions about my aunt or I will murder you in your sleep."

 

Lyssa Simeone

Letting himself stumble back as Lyssa shoved him with her fist, the barrage he then got he couldn't say was unexpected. Well, unexpected in that particular moment, but it had been something brewing for months. Ever since the first night they had met for that matter, and from there on, it had always been there in the background. The thought that he was after Sirayn as a bed partner was certainly not what he would have expected though. That wasn't to say he hadn't contemplated it, he contemplated everyone, but that was about as unlikely as it came.

 

As she stepped up and gave her threat, Aran dropped his lathes before speaking. "Yes yes, your life is so terrible and you're so unwanted, blah blah. Has it occured to you that I might realise that you've been offering all this time? And that there might be another reason for me not taking you up on it? You're a friend, and furthermore I know for certain you haven't been with anyone else. A woman's first is special, maybe I didn't want to take advantage of you? Think of that?"

 

Shoving her to emphasis the point, Aran stepped forward as he continued. "I don't settle on one woman, never have and never will. So I thought to myself maybe I won't take advantage because I didn't want you to feel gutted when I didn't then stay with you and no other. If you think its been easy passing on you again and again you're a fool. But I have because I didn't want to hurt you, because friends don't gut each other just for one night. Why don't you roll that one around for a bit."

 

Aran wasn't one to show anger, but it was perhaps the closest he'd come to it around Lyssa. She needed the rude shock, now he just had to see whether it worked or not.

 

 

Aran

Tower Guard

Aran dropped the lathes and spoke in a voice laced with sarcasm, "Yes yes, your life is so terrible and you're so unwanted, blah blah. Has it occured to you that I might realise that you've been offering all this time? And that there might be another reason for me not taking you up on it? You're a friend, and furthermore I know for certain you haven't been with anyone else. A woman's first is special, maybe I didn't want to take advantage of you? Think of that?" Lyssa blinked at him and wondered where this agressive man had come from and what did he mean that it wouldn't be special. What a controlling jerk. Growling low in her throat she eyed him as he began to speak, "I don't settle on one woman, never have and never will. So I thought to myself maybe I won't take advantage because I didn't want you to feel gutted when I didn't then stay with you and no other. If you think its been easy passing on you again and again you're a fool. But I have because I didn't want to hurt you, because friends don't gut each other just for one night. Why don't you roll that one around for a bit."

 

She could see the anger in his eyes, there was a part of her that just got more and more angrier and another part of her that was turned out by his passion. Coming at him again she tackled him to the ground, it was a good thing they were alone in this part of the yard. Growling low in her throat as she straddled him she spoke, "How dare you, I would rather my first time be with a friend, with someone who can show me affection and passion. We have a chemistry and a passion and a friendship and in my book that's the way to go. How dare you! She hit him with the palm of her hand on his chest and continued, "My mother, went on a trip and while she was out on this trip she was raped, my brother and I were the result. She came home to lick her wounds and we were born. Her first time was violent and resulted in something she didn't want. I actually get to make the choice, I have chosen you but you are to much of a bloody blockhead to get on with it. What do I need to take the lead here, I would think with all your fabled experience that you would have made a move."

 

Lyssa Simeone

Aran was beginning to feel that Lyssa not only enjoyed tackling him but that the habit that she was developing needed to be broken and fairly soon. Before he could dislodge her without using his fists or feet she was railing at him but with things that she hadn't revealed before. He certainly hadn't known anything about her mother and he had never really asked about it. A child of her circumstances was... unlucky, because even though without your father you could not live, the making was cruel to the mother. A hard thing to accept that your conception was based on a crime.

 

But, then Lyssa was determined, and she did make a point. She rathered a friend rather than a true love, and even though he had to wonder whether it would work out that way he was left with little choice. Well, not really, he could have perhaps driven her off and then perhaps patched things up afterward, but there was a much simpler way to solve the entire situation. Rather thankful that Lyssa had picked a more remote place to train, he reached up and grabbing her by the shirt pulled her down to him.

 

That definitely got her attention. Some people felt there was a science to kissing, Domani in particular with their ridiculous number of different kisses. While he had learned all of them in his time, there were some things that were instinct and experience, and remembering that each person was different. By the time their lips parted, it was a softer Lyssa that was sitting astride him. Somewhere between shocked and happy, he was sure she'd figure out which in a moment, or maybe something else depending on what she thought of his words.

 

"Maybe I shouldn't have kept you waiting, howabout we make up for lost time then? Our rooms aren't that far away."

 

 

Aran

Tower Guard

Lyssa glared at him and then thumped him with her hand, he stared at her for a moment and then pulled her down to him. She tried to pull away with shock when she realized exactly what was going on. Lys had wanted exactly this since that long ago day in the bathhouse. That time had been so scary for her that she hadn't completed anything and had held off, making him wait and then he had gone away. She was 25 years old now and she had been waiting to be with Aran for 7 years. Light that was a long time, she thought. Just about then all thinking shut off and she just melted into his arms. Some time passed and it was evident that the man wanted her. When his left hers and she raised her head, she felt light headed and hot. The man knew how to kiss that was for sure, she wondered for a moment where he had learned to kiss so good but ignored the road those thoughts would lead down.

 

"Maybe I shouldn't have kept you waiting, howabout we make up for lost time then? Our rooms aren't that far away." Lyssa gulped and nodded, her eyes a deep dark blue with desire. She stood up and held out her hand to help him up. Awkward thoughts filled her for a moment, a part of her wished that he had just taken her right there. Then she wouldn't have to worry about the what will happen and what ifs. Of course he wouldn't do that as he cared enough about their friendship and her not to hurt her the first time. The fire had burned within for so long that she wasn't sure how to handle it or him. She raised her eyes to him and saw that he was watching her carefully. He stepped forward and pulled her into his arms, the kisses continued and he grabbed her hand and led her through the glade. Just as they were about to leave the safety of the glade he pushed her up against a tree and took possesion again. He whispered against her lips that he would meet her in his rooms. She nodded and he walked away whistling, she waited a few minutes, knowing she was flushed and that her lips were swollen. Lifting her chin she walked from the glade and followed him to his room, of course she couldn't see him but she was ready for this. When she reached his room in the barracks she looked around and then slipped silently inside, shutting the door behind her...

 

Lyssa Simeone