[ ✸ ] and they were roommates!

His lips were pressed finely together like bread to butter; the curls that caressed his cheeks aflame with the heat of embarrassment. To all those around, both with eyes covered in cloth and the batch that could see, it was clear merely in his trembling accent alone that he was far beyond flabbergasted. He marched about, head tall but ears flickering from erect to folded, tail standing, tucking, standing again.

He was confused, hurt, surprised? No one had ever dared stray so close to him, and to kiss him rather, that was an achievement (if he could call it by that name) he had never expected to complete!

Yet... Who had done it?

The fragrance of home clung to his collar, a being that rested in his company. No other had entered or ventured out to his cabin, and it was hastily narrowed down to one possible individual. "C-CAPTIN MEISSA!" The doctor called out to her like a schoolboy attempting to scold their peers, not a drop of gusto in his tone. What was he to do with this? What did one do with this? "Y-YEW COME OUT RIGHT NOW!" Oh, you silly fool.

the moon will swallow me whole

The captain, rid of her title for the time being as she was not on the clock, had fled back into the bushes after planting a kiss upon the unsuspecting doctor. He had been standing there, face covered in cloth as with any other wolf expecting a kiss, after all.

Merriment kept her mind light and eager, mischief of the event sending her fur alight with electricity.

As a "pixie," she'd only planted the one kiss, but even that had filled her with such embarrassment that her only thought had been to hide back in the bushes, to breathe and watch his reaction. Perhaps see what other pixies and recipients would be darting about. Wait, was she meant to stay out in the open to wisp him away? She'd seen one Eleanor's day before after adulthood had claimed her, but she had been far too nervous at the time to do any such thing.

She was, after all, not a girl who could go up to any who had caught her eye and offer sweet words. In fact, for the most part she found herself desperate to avoid any she found attractive.

It was a terrible way to be, for how exactly was she meant to meet anyone when she was just sitting hiding in a bush or so focused on her work that she glossed over their faces?

Oh.

He was yelling for her. Her in particular. He knew it had been her.

She licked her lips, a trait of nervousness she'd carried on since childhood, and tried to shake it all off. After all, this was just a part of the festivities. Wolves came here to kiss and be kissed, she shouldn't be shy about it. Still... he sounded pissed.

Meissa stepped out of the bushes, trying to hide the tremor in her bones that, even after years of being in the military, she could not help but feel at a scolding. You called?

Ah, there she was, all coy and innocent acting. It was very striking to him that a lady that held such an important role in their society (not his, but rather those who supported the current asshat of a king) would lollygag. Of course, he understood the act of relaxation, as he wasn't nearly as uptight as the moment made him seem, but was she aware of what she'd done?

Certainly she did! Look at the way she'd ran and hid, that tremble!

If the College had gotten word of the incident, they could remove his titles! Take away his home, his right to heal, revoke the oath he swore! Well... Probably not his house but, all of this for a tiny graze on the cheek? He thought not! It was a bloody outrage! Who was she to plant a kiss upon him? Not his lover, nor his blood, but a client!

He huffed, dropping his gaze as if he were a disappointed father. Now, what to do... She seemed meek, nervous. He hadn't in him to do more than a disapproving glare, still, he had to set this straight. "Miss Meissa, with all due respect, what yew've done is 'ighly inappropriate. In fact, et could 'ave gotten me fired." Stomping a large foot, shaking that maned head of his. "Et is strictly forbidden for doctors and clients tew do anything of the such, playful or not! She might have been smacked on the head but she was clearly still smart enough to know what was doing, she'd hidden after kissing him!

"Plus, I thought most of the folk in the army were already paired up, I'm not tryin' tew get in trouble with yur lover! Speaking softly, unknowingly closing a bit of distance between them. He wanted her to see the seriousness in his eyes, the drop of his jowl.

the moon will swallow me whole

He began to chastise her, to scold her as if she were a child.

One part of her, an instinctual hum that she felt from her core, demanded she lower her gaze and accept the beating. Another part rose up with snapping jaws, howling at the audacity of this man she barely knew. How dare he scold her, treat her like a whelpling?

She fought back the desire to let her teeth show. Instead, she looked at him evenly, taking a deep breath to quell her shaking bones.

Her brow creased with a quiver of confusion. The College would do no such thing for a custom within Queen Eleanor's festival. Perhaps he did not know the customs. After all, he was young and if he had his head in the books as he'd explained, this sort of thing may have gone unknown.

Then he went on to talk about her lover and she gave a harsh laugh along with a shake of her head. Yet, his voice was softening, he was growing near.

She felt the anger within her fading. If I had a lover, I would not have ventured into the kissing booth as a pixie, to bestow a kiss upon one blindfolded and waiting- she indicated with a paw to the cloth that no longer covered the man's eyes.

Perhaps...

The next she spoke was careful, voice softened even more. How long am I to be your client, Doctor Flynnigan? She tilted her head. Must you avoid every wolf you have ever treated? It would be deeply sad if he did - for the more he put into his work, the more his client base would grow. If he would not partake in festivities with those he had treated... it would surely be a lonely life for him yet.

Perhaps he did not know what he had walked into.

After all, why else would he have such a reaction?

Perhaps it was just she who was so despicable to kiss. She fought the urge to tell him to just go wash it off if even a simple lick from her was so offensive. If she did, she doubted she would be able to keep her voice from breaking.

Had it not been obvious that he hadn't intended to partake in whatever was being held? His almost drunken stumbling? The way he fidgeted under his mask? Even as the woman spoke, an ember flicking along her tongue, he cared not of the festivity she'd named. As far as he was concerned, he'd been sexually harassed, and by someone he shared a rare night with!

Perhaps his intentions hadn't been very clear. All things considered, she had recently injured her head... Though he highly doubted it was a valid excuse. She was coherent, lively, and by the sound of it very, very lonely. Had she mistaken his clinical duties for attraction?

"How... lewd..."

He'd been sent by a friend, one who suggested he entered a gardening competition of sorts in attempts to get his name to wider crowds. This kiss, to him, was a blemish on his perfect record. "Don't speak about the College as though yew know them, I attended, I graduated, they have ruined peoples lives for much less." His neck craned to look down at her, ears pushing forward at her attempts to defend a useless cause. "I'm sorry tew inform yew, but I was unaware of the event, even if I was waiting it certainly wouldn't have been for yew!"

Did she take him for some pervert? Some lowly animal? A man that was so lonely he fell for a complete stranger in under a night? This was no fairy tale, he was no prince and she was no princess! "It's barely been three days since I last treated yew. I don't know yew as anything but a client, Miss Meissa! Did yew mistake me for a friend? I do what is needed of me so that people like yew feel better, not tew come out of it and possibly enter a one-night stand!"

Oh, was she now saying he was some sort of whore? That he had to avoid all of his clients? Did she completely forget the reason why he'd need to do that in the first place? "Of course I don't avoid all of them! Most of them 'ave the common sense not tew kiss me!" The young doctor, completely flustered and irrational, turned from her in a huff. He'd had quite a time with women and their advances already and he wasn't about to get taken down that path again. "Just... Please, I don't wish tew be bothered by the brothel members. Tell them tew leave me alone."

(exit)

the moon will swallow me whole

Fury rippled within her.

Perhaps in the future you should ask why before allowing strangers to blindfold you. She was not the only one at fault here. He had appeared all but the nervous barely-adult man, like half the other strangers floating about waiting for a pixie's kiss. Besides, the College didn't even know she was a patient of his, unless he went and reported every scratch licked or bone mended to their snooty ears.

You insult me, sir! She scoffed, affronted and enraged by his insult upon insult, I'd never have a one night stand and even if I did, it certainly would not be with you.

If the man thought a kiss on the cheek, a tease, was grounds for insisting she would spread her legs for him then - ugh!

She didn't need to defend her honour to such a bitter, judgemental man, but she still felt the words bubble up, Tell them yourself. Air blasted from her nostrils. He was more likely than she to interact with the brothel and its inhabitants.

It didn't matter. He was gone, and so too was she.

The woman turned and fled from the woods, desperate to clear her head. She regretted the moment she'd thought that perhaps she could have begun to find a friend in him, for it was clear that he only thought of her as a client.

Perhaps no longer even that.

(exit)