never_promised | (no subject)

After the ball bounces against it, one of the doors swings open, and Viola sticks her head out. Her curls are all tousled, her eyes with the distinctive, heavy-lidded look of one who has only just woken up.

"O," she says when she sees Hal. "Why, I might have guessed."

"O! Viola!" Um. Oops. He looks up and down the hall; they're alone. "Or Cesario, rather. Mine eyes did mistake me there a moment. --Thou might have guessed, thou sayest? Does no one else come knocking at thy gentle bower?"

He has his foot on the ball; with that, he gives it another sharp loud kick against the wall.

She runs a hand through her hair, which only makes the whole thing worse.

"None indeed," she agrees. "And none so gently."

"In truth I had forgot this was thine hall," he says sheepishly. "I did but follow where my ball led me."

...Heh, ball. And heh, hair. Hal can't help it, he snickers and pokes at it. "Thou art very wild and fierce today."

Viola scowls and swats at his hand. "And what right hast thou to mock, whose hair is of Judas's own hue?"

"'Tis not!" He claps the offending hand to his own head. "'Tis--more of a straw color."

She leans in and rises up on her toes to get a closer look. "The straw in the fable, perchance-- spun to copper 'stead of gold."

Oh yeah? Well--well he can stand on his toes too! Now who's tall? "Copper, forsooth! Thou art grown wonderful bold, Cesario, speaking of copper and Judas when thou hast such a great briar-patch tangling up about thine ears!"

She presses both hands to her head and tries to flatten it down.

"And am I not lucky to have by nature what others must by art devise?"

"Just look thou that the starling does not make her nest there, finding it so natural."

....He'll stop standing up on his toes now. And he'll snake out his foot and retrieve the ball. "So have I woken thee from thy gentle slumber, thy beauty-rest?"

"I--" She ducks her head, bashful. "Ay, so thou didst. I thought to sun myself, catlike-- and ere I knew it..."

"Surely it has never happened to any of us before, in the whole history of time," he says solemnly. "I have never done such a thing."

Viola laughs. "Ay, but such faults may be forgiven in a price-- a king! Whereas I do but offer proof to those who claim all pageboys to be careless, lazy, prone to sloth."

"Ah--heh. Say not king, for in truth a king hath not such luxuries." Mmh. "But as prince, ay! I have been as slothful as any pageboy, never appearing when I was wanted, never at my master's elbow, never at the king's beck and call--"

Viola lifts a brow. "Why, thou'rt the picture of industry now." She makes a lunge for his soccer ball.

Ohoho no you don't! He wriggles around, flailing. It's...not exactly what you'd call a world-class Cruyff Turn.

Viola laughs and tries to play keep-away for a second or two, but-- is essentially a coward, really, and quickly surrenders.

Yes, well, Harry breaks off quickly himself; in the middle of the flailing and the dodging he'd gotten an unintended armful of Viola.

Viola edges back, slightly pink.

"Well, sir, I had best--" Do what? Uh. "--tend to my-- bird's nest, here."

An apology would make it more awkward. Probably. And anyway, it hadn't been a particularly personal armful, just--

anyway.

"Stand not on ceremony with me, Cesario. Hast not made it clear I have no cause for vanity of mine own? With my Judas-copper hair?"

Edited 2016-01-26 01:31 (UTC)

"Ha!" She points triumphantly. "So, I have made thee confess at last! For surely, sir," she adds, at once all solemnity. "The greatest virtue is to know thyself. --but what wouldst thou have with me, if thou wouldst not have me trim and fair? Need'st thou some partner in thy sport?"

"Ah--" Hem. "'Tis better with a partner, certain. Wilt join me?"

Augh. She laughs and drops her face into her hands. "O, thou'rt a very tanner with a phrase, canst turn any word inside-out. Ay, I shall. Do but let me fetch my--" She starts back into her room, then says, after only a brief hesitation. "But-- come in, if thou wouldst, thou needst not linger there."

She continues in without waiting to see if he'll follow, gathering together her stockings and shoes.

"What!" He's all innocence now. "What, I did but invite thee to learn somewhat of the football with me; hast some other thought in thy mind?"

....Yes, he's going to follow her in. Nudging the football along as he goes.

Well! Viola can look innocent, too.

"No, indeed, sir," she says, picking up a shoe. "I am merely a maiden, all such thoughts are far from my mind."