Duplicity Inbox

[alwayskayaking]

Duplicity Inbox

You've reached Tim Stoker. I'm out at the moment. Leave me a message and I'll return your call soon.

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[alwayskayaking]

And thanks for the gifts and the letter. Not sure I really deserve it, but I didn't find it patronising and it was deeply appreciated.

[massrez]

I meant every word of it.

It's almost startling, how far we are from the people we were a year ago.

[alwayskayaking]

You think so? I'm not so sure. [He didn't feel constantly hated by everyone now which was a nice change, but he didn't really feel that much different either.]

[massrez]

I do.

Even I've changed, I'm sure.

[alwayskayaking]

I don't know. You're still the regal, but kind King I first met.

[massrez]

And yet if you told me a year ago half of what I've done here, I don't think I would have believed you.

[alwayskayaking]

Too busy ruling to have some fun and casual flings, right?

[massrez]

Among other things.

I do feel as if I understand more than I used to. But that's always a good sign, isn't it? If you can look back at your younger self and point out all the things you thought wrongly of.

[alwayskayaking]

Never hurts to learn something new. Especially when you're young and not yet set in your ways.

[No comment about pointing at the things he thought wrongly of. Tim still doesn't think he was wrong. Not really.]

[massrez]

You have a point. I had always imagined one thing in my mind, the way it came across in stories or tavern's tales. Then there was the reality of how it would have been in court.

I would have been foisted on the first convenient noble daughter they could find for me, and that would have been that.

[alwayskayaking]

That sounds difficult. To be forced to marry someone you don't even know, but I know that's how things use to be in my world.

[massrez]

I understand the practicality of it. It's how my father and mother were married.

And from all that he told me, it's not anything to be wished on someone.

[alwayskayaking]

Just because it's what has happened before, doesn't mean it needs to happen again.

If he felt that way about it-- I take it he was not exactly pleased with the arrangement? Although, I must say, I think he was lucky to have a son like you.

[massrez]

I agree. It's only my lack of efforts that have even brought it up as a viable option.

Neither of them were pleased, at first. By all accounts, they couldn't stand one another. But they grew to. They learned from one another, and from understanding grew affection. Eventually love.

[ Which might explain a little of Anduin's own perspective on such things. Why everyone gets a chance to show who they really are, deep down. ]

By the end, he loved her so fiercely and entirely that nothing could fill the emptiness left behind when she died. Not even me.

[alwayskayaking]

I'm sorry, that you lost her, but I'm glad that in the end they were able to find happiness and even love together.

[massrez]

We often find it in the last place we'd think to look.

Morning. 25 December.

[notnotsasha]

It's a usual morning at flat, even if the holidays are attached to it this time. Sasha's up before Tim to put tea on, eggs and toast and jam. It's not fancy, no, but it's one of the things they don't often have the time in the mornings to do: Just have a breakfast together. Time with each other without having to run out for work.

There's a prettily wrapped gift sitting on one of their plates on the table. While Sasha's not much of a crafty person, she's somewhat proud of her work on the wrapping, not to mention the gift inside. While the toast is toasting and the tea is steeping, she wanders into Tim's bedroom and plants a kiss on his sleepy, snore-y forehead. "Wake up, you. Breakfast."

[alwayskayaking]

Maybe, it would be nice if we'd think to look in the last place first. I suppose it would still be the last place, but at least then it will also be the only place.

[massrez]

I think it can be found in more places than we think. But I still think the arrangement itself is a terrible practice. And I have no intent of following through on it, when I return home.

I don't think wanting to marry someone I have the time to fall in love with, and they with me, should be so much to ask.

[alwayskayaking]

I don't think it should be either.

I hope you can find that someone, or perhaps, do you think you will try to take Gilia back with you if you find a way home?

[massrez]

It's not that simple.

[alwayskayaking]

Is it not? I suppose the king can't actually do whatever he wants even if that's what the day dream makes it seem like they can.

[alwayskayaking]

Dressed in warm festive pajamas, Tim is sprawled out on his large bed, snoring away. Dreaming of a grand feast from the scents his nose picks up on until he feels his forehead kissed and that dream becomes a reality.

A grin on his face he stretches out his arms and legs with a happy yawn. "Merry Christmas! What a perfect way to start a day." He sits up a little more to give her a proper kiss. "Do I smell eggs?" His stomach rumbles with excitement for the answer.

[massrez]

There's that also.

But even if there were a way to choose to go home on our own terms, asking her to come with me? That would amount to asking her to leave behind any hope of seeing her home or family again.

That's a lot to ask of anyone.

[notnotsasha]

His kiss is lovely and warm. "You do," she hums, holding out her hands for Tim to take. "And toast, and tea. So! Get yourself awake, run to the toilet if you must, but be quick about it." Sasha can't really recall the the last time she'd been so thrilled for Christmas morning. Last year had been a rough go of it all, her trying to figure out her place in this brave new world, as it were. So much has happened, not all great, but she'd not trade it for anything.

This? This is home.