( CLOSED ) | i can read the signals from a mile away

[indissection]

WHO: Byerly and Sidony
WHAT: Dinner
WHEN: An evening at some point
WHERE: Byerly's room
NOTES: Marital Drama (tm)

Sidony cannot decide if she should be angry, happy or a mixture of the both, a low-level discontent that bubbles under the surface of her heart and prickles at her senses.

She had no reason to believe that her faux marriage would be anything long-lasting, of course, but there's a note of something sour about it all the same, something painful that tugs at her heart. It came down to a desire for honest security, more than anything else: married to Byerly she did not have to fret about being discovered, she did not have to worry about people knowing her deeper desires, the longing she still holds close to herself. The flowers she keeps in her room, an ode to a woman long gone, the taste of someone else on her mouth and the want for something more...

It was easier to be Madame Rutyer than it was to be Sidony Venaras, afraid of her own dreams.

Madame had a nice ring to it anyway.

It doesn't take much for her to gather a few bottles of wine and begin to make her way to Byerly's rooms. if anyone has wondered about the fact that the married couple does not always share a bed then they have not mentioned it, and she is thankful for that; it would be awkward, to try and explain it away. The idea of sleeping with Byerly is not offensive to her - she would share a bed with him in a purely heat-seeking sort of way, wanting to curl up with someone familiar - but she would not wish to bed him. He would not wish to bed her either, she knows that for a fact. They are too akin to brother and sister now.

Sighing, she presses her hand palm-flat against his door before she musters her courage and knocks, once, sharply, before she opens it. She has no time for odes of politeness, not when he is her husband now.

"I brought the better wine tonight." She thinks she might need it.

Comments

[bouchonne]

"Ah," he says, startled by that curse. She usually speaks as delicately as a rose (thorns and all), so the bluntness is unexpected. So he blinks, and clears his throat, and says -

"It...is how I feel, though. I assure you of that. My pleasure is to be of service."

[indissection]

"But Byerly," Sidony shakes her head, leaning up just a little, soft, careful, so very tender with him, "isn't it my pleasure to be as dear a friend to you as you have been to me?"

Leaning forward, she touches her forehead to the line of his jaw - as sharp as both their tongues.

"I want to see you take any happiness that you can."

[bouchonne]

He lets out a small breath. His hand comes up and strokes her hair. And he confesses, rather awkwardly -

"And if I don't know what will make me happy?"

[indissection]

"Then should you not be given the chance to learn it?"

Sidony grew up with wealth and money and education and all she could wish for at her fingertips; she had all that she could possibly desire from the world, but happiness was something she had to learn on her journey. Why should Byerly not be given the same chance?

"I would be glad to stand with you and find what brings you the most joy, my darling."