The dawn will come

Maeve’s steps could be barely head, as she made her way towards the small room that Lucien had claimed as his studio. The brunette was barefoot, hair mussed with sleep and with her chemise totally messed from the sleep. She had gone to bed before Lucien, who had promised that he would join her before midnight, which clearly had been utter and complete bullshit since Maeve had awoken near dawn in an empty bed.

The former bard was starting to worry about the mental health of her lover; if he kept fucking up his sleep pattern and missing meals he’d go insane before he had a chance to reclaim his name. Maeve supported him with his goal, but she would not enable his self destruction
The brunette saw him awake, reading papers and taking notes and silently placed her hands on his shoulders, being careful to not startle him “Darling, it’s time to stop for tonight, or rather said today; soon the dawn will come, let’s get at least a couple of hours of sleep” she hugged him from behind, brushing her lips against his cheek “I miss you.” She admitted quietly “And I hate to see what you are doing to yourself”

When Lucien had first managed to escape the La Rue's, he ended up having to live on the streets for a bit until he could figure out a plan. Things got a little bit better day by day, plan by plan, as he wasn't the sort to just roll over and allow his life to be an utter ruin. Thanks to his expertise in the art and architecture world, he managed to find that he was actually a decent fence, but even that hadn't begun over night as he needed a cash influx to get it up and going. 

Eventually meeting Maeve had helped things, and then securing a day job at the school he had graduated from. Ultimately he was able to secure some modest rooms at one of the finer Inns that Val Royeaux had to offer. When his relationship changed with Maeve to a more intimate one, he was glad for the rooms, since it enabled them to have a bedroom, a small living area and a tiny room that Lucien used for his office.

When Maeve came into his office, he didn't look up from his notes, not at first at least.

Oh, right hon, I'll be into bed in just another fifteen minutes I swear. He couldn't actually see that the sun was starting to come up from the room he was in. He put down the paper and looked up at her smiling, her hands feeling nice. When she told him what time it actually was he winced and immediately apologised. I am so sorry, I honestly meant to, I just, there's so much to juggle, finances to get in order so that we can afford the mercenaries. Ya know, as a kid I used to think the game sounded fun, me and my siblings would run around pretending to play the game, like it was just this fun innocent thing that didn't really hurt anyone. I still can't get that Magister's words out of my head, the way he just sneered and told me I'd best learn to play the game more competently if I wanted my estates back, what utter bull shit. He said with a sigh, turned in his chair so that his lap was no longer shoved under the desk and then pulled Maeve down into it. 

Forgive me?

Maeve rose an eyebrow as Lucien asked for more time; considering that hours had passed since he last said that, Maeve hardly believed him. The brunette listened to his apology patiently, she was not mad or frustrated anymore, just tired and worried for Lucien. The former bard even allowed him to pull her to his lap, something that she would have resisted if she was mad

“Im not angry at you Lucien” she said before resting her arms on his shoulders, entwining her fingers at the back of his neck “I am just very worried. You barely sleep, you only eat if I force you to take a break to get some water and food. I don’t want to lose you because I am selfish and I can’t handle to lose anything more in this world” and because she loved him, but she was not ready to say that yet.

“I know the state and the family name is important for you, and you have me for whatever you need but not like this. I don’t want you to get sick, or to go insane; and if these are the price to get the state back I am not willing to go that far” confessed Maeve before pressing a tender kiss to his forehead “Darling please, come back to bed and talk with me; I’ll help even more if I can but you need to take breaks. Tell me how to help you, share a bit of the burden; or am I here only to look hot and to get amazing sex?” she added the last part as a joke because of course Maeve had to make a joke in a moment like this.

He had to admit, his life wasn't so bad any more, he had Maeve, and the money he'd earned being a fence kept them relatively comfortable, between that and his salary from the University. It also wasn't like he needed his old life, the titles, the estate, the money; but they were his family's, and he couldn't help but feel rather stubborn on the subject when it came to getting back what was rightfully theirs, to revenge the deaths of his family, or rather avenge, he often used those words synonymously.

You are definitely here for more than eye candy and sex, though I do appreciate those quite a bit. I know I obsess a bit, it's just.... He fell short for the words to continue, the words that described how he could still hear the screams of his younger siblings, the sound of his mother pleading for their lives, the smell of blood as nearly everyone at the estate was massacred. These words, these memories, he kept to himself, he just didn't know how to say them out loud.

Maeve started to kiss Lucien in order to distract him from his worries. It was their usual dance, in which sex and seduction was the way that she pledged the love that she felt and could not understand yet.
Her lips sliding down his neck came next, but instead of trepidation she felt fear, a bubble of anxiety that threatened to explode the more that she trapped it inside.

She stopped, her forehead in the crook of his neck “Just…talk to me. For once I can’t just ignore it or suppress how much I worry. I get why you obsess, I have in the past too. Talk to me about what worries you, what keeps you awake”
Maeve sat more straight as she held his face on her hands “Don’t talk to me about plans or schemes but about what you feel tonight. Tomorrow we can even pretend this conversation never happened, I understand if it makes you feel vulnerable, I feel like that too” confessed the former bard.

Lucien leaned into the kiss and found it pleasantly distracting, even though there was always a part of his mind on getting revenge on the LaRue family, at least at the moment it was fast becoming a very small part of his brain. He still wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve Maeve, but he also wasn't stupid enough to question it. He let out a small moan as she kissed down his neck but then when she stopped his heart was racing and his mind now fully on other things. It was hard to focus on her words.

You know that vengeance consumes my mind most days and all the careful planning that goes into it. I have to get it right, I have to be better at the game than them... The words still rang in his ears when he'd escaped captivity and made his way to the magister, the way the magister had looked down on him and simply told him that he'd best learn to play the game better if he wanted his home back. Bloody Orlais and their blood games, it was exhausting and made Lucien hate being an Orlesian.

Lucien slid his arms around Maeve and pulled her down into his lap.

Maeve nodded as she listened to him “I have a hard question for you Lucien, and I want you to be sincere with me” she said holding his face in her hands, staring at him while sitting on his lap.

“If you win you get the state and the name back, after a long game in which I will have your back without a doubt” There was a pause, a clear hesitation as the brunette tried to find the best wording for her following words “But what if you don’t win?” said Maeve seriously “Because I will stand by you in both scenarios, but I need to know that there is a line that you won’t cross, that if this game gets too dangerous or things don’t go as planned I won’t lose you. That if the worst happens, you won’t throw everthing away for this” maybe she was crossing an invisible line, but she had to know that there was a part of Lucien that cared for something besides of vengeance

“Is your vengeance worth everything? Even if it costs your life? Because if it comes to it, I don’t know if I could stay and watch something happen to you”

Lucien took a deep breath and did his best to give Maeve his complete and undivided attention, though that wasn't an easy thing to achieve. He listed as she explained that she had a hard question for him, and that she wanted him to be sincere. He nodded along as she spoke, as she said the words 'what if you don't win' he sighed again and looked off into the distance for a moment. He wasn't sure how to answer that question, on one hand he definitely loved Maeve and respected her opinion, on the other hand, he wanted revenge.

I honestly haven't thought about a line, but if it makes you feel any better I don't plan on storming the gates with just us. I just have to be careful who I hire and when. I need to make sure I have the finances in line which means more of my secret ventures for thieves looking to sell off stolen art and antiques. He paused for a moment realising, hey wait, he did have a limit of how far he'd go, just not in the way that Maeve probably meant. So I guess I do have limits, I won't do anything stupid by myself. I won't go after them directly until I know I can win. I mean, if I hire mercenaries and they lose, that's like, money back guarantee right?! He said with a sly grin.

“You don’t know how much that answer reassures me” said Maeve as she pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “ Then whether you win or not, you’ll have me by your side to the end my darling” said Maeve as she moved her lips to his neck “And we can proceed with what we had started”

Because she was tired, but never too tired for him

Well, I think I"m finally ready for some sleep. Come lay down with me until I fall asleep, and don't let me sleep too late. I have a class later this afternoon that while my assistant probably could teach it, you know how I feel about relying on them. He said with a shrug as they headed into the bedroom.