the golden age

[deepest_magic]

When the party has died down, Isabella, for one, is well and truly exhausted. She explores the palace until she finds a room with a bed in it, and into this bed she flops, still in her clothes and holding her staff and carrying the cordial in her pocket. She sleeps late, because the party kept her up so late and she hadn't really slept the night before; but around noon, she stirs, and gets up, and goes looking for James and wherever her backpack may have got to. The backpack she finds in the great hall where the principal mass of the party was; some enterprising creature took both bags from the battlefield at Beruna up to the castle for them, and she only wishes she knew who it was. She takes her bag to her room and carries James's with her and continues looking for her friend.

Comments

[deepest_magic]

Lunch lunch lunch.

Dessert.

Dispersal of household.

[neverbeatme]

"So we could go somewhere comfy where we aren't likely to be unexpectedly interrupted and try kissing now," says James.

[deepest_magic]

"We could. My room?"

[neverbeatme]

"Sure."

[deepest_magic]

To Isabella's room they go.

Isabella closes the door.

[neverbeatme]

And...



...kissing?

[deepest_magic]

Kissing!

It's nice. Isabella approves.

[neverbeatme]

James approves too. The experiment is a tentative success.

Further trials may be needed.

[deepest_magic]

Wouldn't want an inadequate sample size to ruin it.

[neverbeatme]

Indeed.

[deepest_magic]

Kiss kiss kiss.

[neverbeatme]

Hmm. Yes. James is definitely developing a sense that this could become a regular pastime.

[deepest_magic]

So is Isabella!

[neverbeatme]

It's good that they're on the same page there!

[deepest_magic]

Mm-hm. Otherwise it would be kind of awkward, just as Isabella feared. Admittedly, she was mostly fearing awkwardness at an earlier stage of the proceedings.

[neverbeatme]

James is definitely past any fear of awkwardness at this point in time.

[deepest_magic]

They are on the same page there too!

[neverbeatme]

Oh good!

[deepest_magic]

"So um, that went well," says Isabella, catching her breath, a few minutes later. "It could continue to go well on a regular basis and I would like that."

[neverbeatme]

"I would like that too! I'll make room in my schedule," says James.

[deepest_magic]

Isabella giggles. "Nobody like Flit looks at your schedule, right?"

[neverbeatme]

"I'm not literally going to write down 'kissing the queen' in any books of appointments. Just, you know, going to take into account for future planning that I should leave room for this semi-secret thing here and there."

[deepest_magic]

"I might literally write down 'kissing the king'. But nobody looks at my notebook without me right there supervising the page-turning so we're probably safe."

[neverbeatme]

"Okay."

[deepest_magic]

"Also it would not be on a schedule page so much as on a thinking-about-things page. Pleasant things."