Midmorning on his first day off in forever was a nice thing and he decided he was overdue on some things that needed taking care of. Bath first though. He was managing his life as best he could despite the growing pressure. Raff stepped into the river up to his waist and dunked under quickly to get the cold shock over and shook off the water like a shaggy dog as he rose back to the top. 

With so much going on it was nearly impossible to take a breath and chill out. It was just barely warm enough for a bath so Raff decided it would work for now. He'd been managing strictly within the army's salary for him above board. But he was making money hand over fist working for Keelan. It kept the kids wanting for nothing and he'd upgraded everything he could that others wouldn't notice-especially nosy neighbors. He soaped up his shaggy head first, lost in plans as the river coursed around him, the flow of water doing a song of its own.

Raff scrubbed away at his chest, singing loudly and cheerfully.

Evanthe hadn’t been walking along the river very long when she heard a man singing what sounded like a sea shanty. Well that was fun. Another woman might have turned away, being all alone in the woods with nobody knowing where she was, but Evanthe could handle one singing man. She’d handled way more. Summons were so, so nice!

The more she moved along the river, the louder the singing got. She thought she knew the shanty, but it was in the way that someone knew something they heard only once years and years ago. Vague and fuzzy.

Finally she found the source. She found a man taking a bath of all things in what was probably a freezing river. It took a while for Nevermeran waters to take the heat of the hidden sun. The man angled himself enough that she thought she recognize him. Heh. She never thought she’d see Raff Terach in any state of undress, and now she was seeing him buck naked.

She’d wait for the song to end and she would clap, and would only stop once he turned and took notice of her.

She’d deliberately eye him up and down, “Woof! If I knew I’d be getting a free show, I would have brought a little wine for myself. But here I am with a free show and no wine.”

Raff dunked his head to rinse off and continued the last verse of the Scotsman's kilt, belting out the last note and holding out his arms wide. And someone was clapping?! He turned around in surprise, with a loud and astonished,

"What the fuck?!"

Seeing her didn't immediately ring a bell but hearing that usual sarcastic tone gave him instant recognition. Royce's Pair!

"Curran?! You're back!" he said in surprise, walking forward to greet her. "Where the hell ya been lately? And hand me my pants, ya leering pervert." Raff grinned at her in welcome, walking directly toward the pile of clothes on the ground in front of her. He waited until he was about four feet away and then shook his head like a dog to shed the cold water all over her.

"Woof yerself. Taking advantage of an innocent helpless guy like me, all alone in the river. Shame on ya Curran!"

“You betcha I’m back, Terach,” she gave him her Cheshire grin, “Got back from Coheed not long ago, then I’ve been hanging around Skia, doing the usua—woah!” She wasn’t close to being a prude herself, but she hadn’t quite expected him to just walk out of the water like that. She remembered Merk saying that he had no body shame whatsoever--not that he had anything to be ashamed about. She almost envied the woman who got to play with that, “Is that a javelin or are you just happy to see me?” She chuckled, “Put that away, Big Guy. No one wants to see that!” She’d reach for his pants that were on the ground in front of her, and she threw them to him around the time he started shaking off.

She threw her hands up to shield herself from the water, “Gah!” She was so glad she’d pulled her crazy hair back. The water would only make it worse, “Terach, you asshole!” there was a little laugher in the words, “How could get in that ice bucket?”

“Innocent,” she snorted, “I know better than to trust a naked man in the woods!”

"Yea I ain't advertising fer ya Curran. Ya wanted to stand and eye me, that's on you." Raff smirked, catching his pants as he stepped out of the water. That woman still had a mouth on her that never stopped with the sass-and never failed to make him laugh. A friend from Paired training, she was that breed of fearless witches he'd known and respected like Kat and Merk. Seemed like it was a way of life that was dying out now. He donned his pants as goose bumps raised over his every inch of his flesh and grabbed his shirt quickly. 

"I got in that crazy ice bucket coz the tub we got is being replaced right now. I got me a girl that ain't gonna come near me if I dint find a way to clean up. It was ice water or no Red." he answered, with a smile. Raff ran his hands through his wet hair with the small thin braid and tied it back neatly, laughing with Curran. 

"Hey you above all others should know from Merk's throwing knives, I'm not innocent now I got my britches on." He winked and then took a long moment to look at her face. The circles under her eyes told a different story than her smile, but he'd never ask. Wasn't his business. He bent and put on his boots as he replied,

"Curran ya got shit timing as always. I'm heading out to Cambria in a couple days. Just got my marching orders. 

“Look, if you’re going to be walking around with your goodies on display for everyone who walks by to see, you can’t blame a girl for peeking, can you?” Even so, she politely turned away as he dressed. Personal modesty aside for either of them, she wasn’t about to ogle him. That’d be crossing an unspoken line. She’d not even ogled Royce when he was naked. Professionalism and trust was key in any pairing.

“But it sounds like someone might blame me for looking!” Her smile shifted to something more teasing, “So a girl’s managed to get your attention and keep it. Good for you,” seemed everyone had someone these days. Too bad her once ‘someone’ couldn’t take the consequences of what they’d done together, “So what’s she like? Let me guess, busty? Long legs?”

“You and Merk with your knives,” a pause, then, “I heard what happened to her. She was one of the best. How are you coping with that?” At least she could still talk to Royce. He didn’t need two legs for that.

If her hair was down she would have tossed it, “My timing is always excellent, what are you talking about?” She said missishly, “So they’re shipping you out huh? Shame. I’m in need of a new pair partner.”

Raff grinned at her and shrugged as she turned around. They both knew that nekkid just happened as part of the Pair process so ya deal with it and move on. It was actually a big piece of that trust. The witches had to control that curse and risk getting killed by that wolf if their concentration wasn't perfect. In return with their male Pair, the men were bared to the world before and after and vulnerable if they didn't change back fast enough. They protect each other and both saw and knew each other's physical and emotional weakness. You bared your everything to your partner because they'd never judge you cruelly over it. 

"Yep yep and hell yea." he answered, finally dressed . "Ya can turn around now. Anyway, Red is this edible little .." he put out his left hand to just over five feet. "..snack of witch. She's a smart, funny sassy fighter and as honest as the night is long." 

And the witch dropped the Merk question. Nice. Charming. Really. His favorite topic. The smile dropped from his face which had him snapping his mouth shut until he answered flatly. 
"Fine. Great." 

Raff put his hands in his pockets, letting the sounds move around him just listening to the woman speak. He kept his expression neutral at her flippant remark of partners. He was leaving in two days and she gives him a kick in the ball sac like that?!  

"Yea. Well ain't that a cryin fuckin shame..." his voice a low, deep growl of barely restrained emotion. 

Evanthe listened to Raff gush—well gushing for him—about his new lady love. That last little bit was almost poetic. She never pegged him for a poet. Her impression of him until then was that he was a ‘fuck em and leave em’ kind of guy. He seemed to really like this Red gal. She wondered if she’d ever get to meet her.

“She sounds sexy,” she adjusted the bag on her shoulder, “…her parents named her after a color?” And ‘red’ at that. Surely it was a nickname. Violet, Coral, or even Azure would have been better names if they wanted to name their daughter after a color. Something with a little elegance and beauty.

She mentioned Merk and needing a new partner and he shut down on her. Well, shit.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” She shifted her weight so it was centered on her right foot, crossing her arms as she did so, “Sorry…it’s um—” a difficult season for me, she almost said. Raff didn’t need to know that…although if they ended up partnering up despite her gaff, he’d probably find out soon enough. It was difficult to keep some secrets from your pair. But she’d pounced on it too soon, and just blurted out that bit about Merk. Could she have said it differently, or was Merk’s death still too raw for him? She was always at least a little irreverent in her manner, but Ver was just...it was a time she distracted herself.

She let the sentence drop there, unsure of how to continue on.

Raff nodded, "Yea she's sexy like crazy. And her full name is Redara. Red just suits her personality. Can't think of fiery without Red." he grinned, just talking about the woman. 

"Curran I dunno what ta tell ya on the Paired thing. I put in fer re Pairing a few weeks back. If they decide we're a team, we'll have to roll with it. But I warn ya now, I don't trust yer mouth. Up front, yer fine with the witches and that's great fer ya. But yer too impulsive fer me ta literally trust ya with me life. And there's no way I could promise I wouldn't kill ya. That's how it is in a nutshell." He shrugged to soften the blow of his words, but Raff preferred brutal honesty over sugar coated shit.

He took out the brush from his rolled kit, untied his hair and started trying to untangle the mass of hair. Twitching his mouth left and right with each tug and snarl, he kept at trying to tame the mass of unruly hair. The brush was clearly straining under the pressure and he paused for a moment to smirk at the woman, deciding it was a good way to break some of the silent tension.

"But we do have the same hair...issues in common. Considering yer hair is like a matted sheepdog too.."

“A real spitfire, huh?” Evanthe approved. A witch should have a little spirit. Passive didn’t work well while working with the chaos that was magic, “How’d you two meet?” She asked mostly to make conversation and to live vicariously through Raff and his girl. He seemed pretty smitten with her. She used to smile like that when she talked about the man who had fathered her child. She missed feeling that way. Still, Redara was a weird name…but her own parent’s had named her ‘Evanthe’ so she supposed she didn’t have much room to talk. This Redara probably didn’t have trouble learning to spell her own name…if she could even write. Literacy was hit or miss with most commoners.

That name was familiar though. She swore she’d seen it written down somewhere or heard it in passing. But Evanthe wasn’t good with names—especially names of people she’d not personally met and spoken to. Ah well.

“Impulsive?” She raised her eyebrows, “Terach, I think you’re remembering how I was like during our training years,” she’d been what her mother had lovingly called ‘a wild child.’ Rebellious, impulsive, hedonistic, she’d considered hardly anything off-limits, “I shaped right up my twentieth year,” sure, she was still flippant, but she could keep her cool when it mattered, “Royce can vouch for me,” she held her hands up in a halting motion, “But I won’t push. Just think about it, okay? That’s all I ask.”

She watched him try to brush the tangles out of his hair. ‘Try’ being the key word. Had he started at the bottom? She’d missed if he had. She was on the verge of offering to help—she was getting a headache just watching him struggle with his hair—when he commented on her hair.

She frowned and gave him her flat stare. Under different circumstances, perhaps with more booze involved, she might have challenged him to meet her in the training ring or more likely arm wresting over the insult to her hair—she wasn’t a mean drunk so much as a confrontational one. As it was, he’d also insulted his own hair, and no one else was around to join in on his teasing, which was essentially what it was. Teasing. Fine, fine. She’d tease him back.

“How flattering. You woo your girl with sweet words like that?” she smiled and patted her hair, expecting to feel how neat and smooth it had been when she’d pulled it back before she left, but instead touched frizz and wisps of curls that had escaped the leather tie. Well that didn’t battle his description of what her hair looked like.

"Mhm. We met at a tavern, got hammered and hooked up." Raff answered simply. "Ya might've seen her sloppy fuckin dismissal papers. She should've been slapped with an instant Article 15 on the spot but it was botched and the Commander decided to give an informal discharge. It took me a week of paperwork to clear up that.." Raff paused to finally tug the brush freely through his hair with a sigh.. "and get her officially, properly discharged without prejudice. You might have seen her as Private Rhedara Shannon."

I won't push she says? That's literally pushing. She'd made her wishes known, he refused and she brought it up again. This was exactly why he did NOT want her as a partner. Curran acted like rules for thee and not for me every fuckin time. I said no and she still had to mention it and insist on talking about it more. Like anyone saying no to her simply wasn't an option her royal highness Evanthe would accept-which really pissed him off. He tied back his clean hair neatly and then stood at ease with his arms behind his back, his legs squared and his chin lifted. Sure he'd trust Royce with his life, but not Curran. 

When she put up her hands in a halting motion, Raff was certain it was more of a warding off gesture of his denying her persistence. A second goddess damned time. His dark blue eyes stared hard at her in an unfathomable expression.

'Like yea excuse me acquaintance, but I'm secretly a hired thug on top of trying to stay a low key Lieutenant, balancing a new relationship and shipping off to Cambria. Pairing with an obnoxious, confrontational, pushy, clueless, gold-digging loud mouth like you is a big fat no way.' Raff thought, his mouth in a hard grim line. When he finally spoke to the woman, his tone sounded very tightly controlled, with a low growl in it that only Red had come to know.

"Ya don't give a fuck about my girl. Ya only wanna shove fer another Pairing. Just a matter of I'm the only name near yer rank and age fer ya. Ya'd give the same demand ta any guy Pair on the list with a pulse. Great plan though Curran. Pair up now as we're movin out and you'll definitely rank up faster."

Interesting. She’d heard that things had been chaotic following the ball, but it sounded like things were more unorganized than she’d thought. Well, it was handled and it wasn’t her problem so she wasn’t going to pry about it. But at the mention of her whole name…

“Wait,” she said, amusement lighting up her eyes, “Is she the one that turned Sergeant—er, Lieutenant Abbott into a chicken or duck or something?” She didn’t know one witch that hadn’t at least played with the idea of cursing anybody that they found insufferable, but usually the ones that actually did it were less obvious about it. That curse though had her chuckling for several hours, so the lack of sneakiness was well worth it for the legend that it was.

In her opinion at least.

Then he had to get all stiff and superior-ish. She got “the look” from him as he told her exactly what he thought of her and her idea about them pairing up. Well whooptee-fucking-do, he’d passed judgement on her without even giving her a chance. She wasn’t asking to pair right then! Goddess, what was his problem? Moody bastard. Must be on his man-period.

“Well tell me how you really feel,” she crossed her arms and shifted her weight so it was evenly distributed on her two legs, “And excuse me for making conversation. You know, a simple ‘No Curran, I’m not interested,’ would have worked just fine.”

Raff passed a hand slowly over his mouth and down his beard, as he continued to stare down at the woman. He just wanted an hour to himself, by himself to think. He'd relocated all the sites to pass on to Bulger, notified Keelan, got Brent seen to, Denzul and Ewan dropped off at Kat's, Alan married, a still angry silent Cady seen to, readied his kit for deployment, said his piece to Red and just needed a little time off from all the constant demands on his every waking minute. 

Curran just ran her mouth even more, not literally hearing that her running mouth was exactly the problem. Like he didn't have enough on his plate right now. Yea shove a gold-diggin loud noble in his face to demand a pairing at this perfect time. Sure. He was the asshole. There was no escaping it-or more importantly-her. Raff could've desperately used the downtime without someone in his face constantly needing, taking, demanding something, but even now, someone plagued him. 

He took the shit from the kids, cadets, soldiers, superiors, scumbags, marks, night work, time constraints and the need to eat and sleep. Raff had said up front he was leaving in two days for another kingdom but she had to shove herself in on everything. Didn't matter that he could be spending the last of his precious free time with Red when Curran demanded him to kiss her ass. That was exactly the clueless, selfish, egotistical behavior that he didn't like about her. Sure she probably had her own issues like anyone else but damned if she'd consider that about anyone else. 

After a very long silence, Raff's shoulders slumped and he shook his head at Curran. 

"I told ya I'm leavin my family and girl ta go ta Cambria in two days. I'm a Lieutenant and ya know that Curran. I got heaps of people demanding my time and shit ta do but you shove yerself in like yer the only thing I should focus on right now. From what I said at the first, does this tell you I'm willing ta even think of adding more ta my list of things to do or think? Do I seem thrilled to leave my family and girl? Observe, think, then talk. Yer exhausting Curran." Raff shrugged his shoulders tiredly. 

"And goddess help me if I am the only Pair option ya got."