A Meeting by the Docks

[bookity101]

((OCC- Fixed.))

Noel lead Viviana towards the door. He found himself adjusting easily to her shorter stride, which suprised him, as he was usually unable to do that very quickly. As they left the door, he paused to let the porters fall in line behind him, then they continued down the dock, just a little way's because the Red Log Inn, the inn he owned, was just two doors down from his father's office.

It was a large building, made of red logs, thus its name. With elegant looking doors windows, it also sported a terrace on the upper level, with stairs that led there for beasts who didn't want to go through the Inn itself. He opened the door for her and signaled the Hostess for a table on the terrace, it was about this time that he heard Viviana's question.

"Mostly ships, houses, or the occasional mount..." He stopped, dumbstruck that this femme had actually seen him painting... He NEVER let anybody see him paint, and when he painted on the docks, none of the beasts he usually was around ever came down there. It took him the rest of the climb up to the table to get his thoughts back on track.

"I'm sorry Miss, I lost my train of thought there. I have never let anybeasts see me paint, well except my little sister." He pulled her chair out for her to sit. "How did you manage to see me painting?"

[jaydjasmyn]

~Viviana

After his last sentence she thought that he'd be upset with her for catching him paint but then it seemed more like he was surprised. It was a relief for her to know that she didn't upset him in any way. She took her seat and then answered him. "Oh! I was down by the docks. I came in on one of the ships. I needed time to rest and so I sat on my luggage for a while." She chuckled. "And I have to admit that I got a peek of it. I'd like to see more of your work." Her lips then turned up and into a smile. She certainly hoped that she could see more of his art but then again that was up to him.

As she waited for him to respond she chanced a look around. This was a very nice place to eat. Even the eating establishments weren't as nice as this one. Perhaps she'd get a chance to talk to one of the waitresses in order to ask her if they were hiring. She hated seeming like she was a shadow of her real life. She hated the fact that she was forced into finding a husband for the sake of everyone else's happiness except for her own.

[bookity101]

Noel had taken his seat and signaled for a waitress by the time she started talking again. It was a rather hot day and he was taking a sip of water when she mentioned her luggage. He nearly choked himself.

He sat, quite dumb for the moment, then he gathered himself again. "Miss Viviana, you have a rather startling way of surprising me." He smiled again, leaning forward a bit as he continued. "You see, I never let any one see what I'm painting, besides my step-mother and sister. Well nobeast knows that the are seeing my paintings at least. My paintings actually decorate most of the interior of this establishment." He said waving a paw in the general direction of the doorway into the building.

Suddenly his smile faded. What was he DOING? He was acting all to free with a perfect stranger! He quickly grabbed the menu from the table and held it so it slightly obscured the front of his face. Noel was now in better territory for him, cold and distant and you don't get your heart broke... At least this was what he was telling himself. Truthfully, he had just opened up more than he had in a long, long time. And it had felt... good.

Noel looked over the edge of his menu, still maintaining his guard. "What will you be having Miss Mist?" He asked as the waitress made her way back over to them. As she got there Noel ordered the shrimp soup and a glass of white wine, then he looked over to her, waiting to see what she would order...

[jaydjasmyn]

~Viviana

No! What was she doing? Everything was so confusing to her! She wasn't as strong as Val was and she just couldn't do this. But what exactly was she doing? Well for one she was going to be taking a free lunch and she wasn't exactly being honest woth Noel, not that she needed to be an open book with a stranger but still she didn't want to seem like she was taking advantage of him either.

And was all of this that he was doing? He had a valet and he seemed to be silently giving orders with the wave of his paw. She had seen him do it before and now again when he was ready to order. And his paintings decorate most of the walls in this establishment. What was that all about?

Either way what was his business was his business but Viv just had to come clean, even if it's only to one lone male. Viv simply looked up at the server in shock but then asked her polietly to excuse them for a moment. Viv would wait for her to leave before she would begin.

The femme took a drink of the complimentary water. Her throat was rather parched but she had to tell him before she lost her nerve. "Noel I just have to tell you something. You see I needed to come here for a job and to find a place to live. I have no money for lunch here. I didn't expect you to be so kind as to offer me lunch. You see.... My family and I lost our fortune in a freak storm and now my father wanted my sister and I to find rich husbands. But I just can't do it! I want to marry for love..... not money!" Viv began to cry. She wasn't suppose to tell anyone about this but she just couldn't hold it in any longer.

[bookity101]

Noel sat in shock at what she said. He really didn't know how to respond to her tears, or to what she was saying. He sat for a few moments, trying to figure out what to do or say. Finally he decided.

Signaling the waitress and Myles, gave them quiet instructions. Maryann, the waitress, was to go get a light wine from the cellars, while Myles was to get Noel's private eating theater ready. After he did that, Noel stood, and made an almost impossible choice. Help her himself? or what for Myles to come back. He made the right choice moving over to her chair, removing his pocket hankie as he did so.

He laid a paw on her shoulder gently, and helped her rise from the chair, handing her the handkerchief as he did so. He didn't say anything,not yet at least. He lead her into the building and was stopped by Myles, who told him what he had been wanting to hear. His step-mother and sister were both in his private room. Good, they would know what to do better than he would.

A few moments later, he opened the door, but signaled his little sister to be quiet. Elana was bouncing with curiosity, trying to figure out who he had brought in, because Noel never stayed when girls started crying, and he never brought them back to their special eating place!

Marta Telious simply sat, a paw resting on her distended belly. She trusted her step son's judgment, but she to was very curios as to why he brought her back here when he barely let his cousins come in to the room he usually used as a studio. A moment later she understood as he whispered in her ear what had happened.

Noel turned back to Viv. "Miss Viviana Mist, this is my Step-mother, Marta Telious, and my little sister, Elana." He said, hoping that she would be ok with the change in scenery, the private booth was very nice, and quiet, nobeast would over hear anything that was said inside. "I'll be right back with something for you to drink."

As Noel closed the door behind him, Elana got up from her seat, and ran over to Viviana as best she could in the small room. "Why are you crying?.., Did Noel do something mean because if he did I'll get him back for you." "Elana, shush now, come finish your lunch now, before it gets cold." Elana looked at her mother, sighed and went back to her seat, but kept her eye's Viviana. For her part, Marta sat quietly, waiting for Viviana to say something.

[jaydjasmyn]

~Viv

By the time that Noel was beside her she was sobbing, trying to be silent about doing it. This was just to much pressure put on a young female. To ask her to sacrifice her entire future was just... crazy! Each day that passed Viv found that she resented her father more and more for asking her to do this, especially so since she was such a delicate flower.

Viv took the handkerchief daintily, looking at Noel with a sorry expression on her face as her lithesome shoulders shook from trying to hold in the tears. She was so completely embarrassed and she wasn't really sure that Noel knew what to do, not that she expected him to do anything, or if he even understood what she was saying. Viv barely noticed that he was giving soft orders to others in her behalf.

She allowed him to led her to the private room. At first she was thinking that maybe she just embarrassed 'him' but instead she entered a room that held two other females, his step mother and his sister. Viv knew this because he told her so. "Miss Viviana Mist, this is my Step-mother, Marta Telious, and my little sister, Elana." Viv of course smiled nodded politely to them both, honored that he would allow her to meet two of his closest family members. Viv recalled seeing the little femme at the docks.

About a minute passed before his sister came up to her. "Why are you crying?.., Did Noel do something mean because if he did I'll get him back for you." Viviana chuckled and then shook her head. She found the kits presence comforting. "Oh no... Noel didn't do anything to me. He's been the perfect gentle-beast. From what I've gathered about him so far I don't think that he could hurt a fly." It was highly likely that Noel heard what Viv said upon his return.

After her mother instructed her to finish her lunch Viv wiped the tear stains from her face and then decided to speak, not wanting them to think that she was totally insane. "Oh she's fine M'lady. Her presence is comforting to me. I have a sister of my own that I miss terribly. But to answer your question a bit better Elana... It's something that you wouldn't understand right now. Perhaps I'll share my secret with you when you are a little older." Not that she would likely see her when she was older but still that would satisfy a kits desire to know.

Now Viv's attention turned to Marta as Noel pawed her a drink, but first she thanked him and then looked back to the expecting female. "Your son is wonderful. I'm jealous of his future wife that's for sure." Viv smiled, looked at Noel and then back to Marta. "When are you due M'lady? It must feel blissful to carry a child." Indeed her desire to have children was great but that just brought her back to the thoughts that she would be forced to have them with a male that she didn't love.

[bookity101]

Marta smiled gently to the younger female. "I'm due in about a month." She said stretching a paw out to Noel for the other glass he had brought with him, but this one contained lemonade, not wine. "
"He certainly is a dear when it come to taking care of me and Elana, other than that, he stays locked up in his studio to much for any normal beast." Noel's face flushed as he was ignored in the conversation, not that he mined, but it was interesting to be talked about, and ignored, while he stood right there. "Mama, I'm to heading to the dock, I'll be back in a moment Send Myles for anything if you need it.." With that he made his way towards the door, stopped and turned again. "Elana, do you want to come with me?"

His younger sister shook her head violently. "No way, I need to stay and finish my lunch, remember?" She said it in a way that made it obvious to even Noel that she just wanted to stay near Viviana. Noel smiled and shook his head, "Well then I'll just have the kitchen heat it up for you, Come on now." He held a paw out behind him as Elana huffed her way slowly to the door. When she got there, he swung her up into his paws and began tickling her once they got into the hallway, her happy giggles ringing in the empty hallway.

As they left, Marta turned her attention to Viviana again. "Blissful?" she repeated as she took a small sip of her drink. "I wouldn't quite describe it as that but in the end, it is definitely worth it." A warm smile light up the elder meerkat's features as she spook. Then her features turn sober. "Noel tells me that you are new to Rosferia, Are you moving here?"

[jaydjasmyn]

~Viviana

Her dark gray eyes searched every creature in the room. Noel's mother was very sweet and his sister was simply adorable but she was wondering why Noel had to leave her so soon. Viv was afraid that she wasn't interesting enough for him. He seemed very on edge around her for some reason.

Viv took in a large breath and then out a soft sigh, right before she watched Noel leave with his little sister and she then answered Marta. "It's a long story and for most of it I am very embarrassed about but yes I am looking for a place to settle down." The fae took a deep sip of her wine.

Her eyes drifted toward the door and then her paw flew up, her thumb pointing toward the very exit that Noel took. "So tell me why Noel stays inside so much? Is he sad about something?" Viv was certainly sad about something, the fact that her father wanted her to ruin her life.

[bookity101]

Marta sat thinking about how to respond. She waited a couple of moments, watching the door and hoping that Noel would come back in. No such luck. After a while, Marta sighed and turned to Viviana again.

"Noel lost someone very dear to him. His best friend, Miranda Collens, she died in his paw's after she fell from a bridge that he had recently managed to climb." Marta smiled a little remembering the day. "She was a very pretty girl, always after Noel to get up and get him outside. Actually she is in many of his paintings," With this, Marta signaled Myles, and he pulled on a hanging rope, that was just out of reach for Marta.

When he did, a large section of the back wall pulled away, revealing a large room, filled with paintings. Many were not quite done, but one in particular was missing a finishing touch. I was a very large painting, feature a smiling meerkat maid with bright blue eye’s and a mischievous smile. She was wearing a pretty blue dress, and had a daisy tucked behind one ear. In one paw she held a small heart shaped cross stitching. That stitching was the piece that was unfinished. It held an empty space, where it looked like it had been primed for something, but work had stopped before it was done.

Marta sighed, remembering the day she had died. “He was working on that one there when she pulled him out of the house that day.” Marta shook her head, talking more to herself now. “He fought and fought going outside, but he lost, he always lost those fights.” Marta smiled softly, but the smile quickly disappeared.

“Noel hasn’t stopped regretting that day ever since.” Marta was lost in thought for a few moments after she motioned for Myles to close the back screen again. It turns out that this happened just in time, because Noel was just re-entering the room. Marta visibly brightened as Noel came back in, but this time he was carrying a large square shape, not Elena, which gave the kit a perfect opportunity to scramble up onto Viviana’s lap, which she promptly did.

“Ah, Noel, your just in time, I was just about to ask our guest what her plans are for the time being.” Marta’s eye’s settled back on Viviana’s, letting her know that the question was directed at her.

[jaydjasmyn]

~Viviana

As Noel's mother was telling her son's story V could feel and hear the emotions coming from her. The young femme assumed that Noel was in love with the blue-eyed fae that was in the painting. Viv wondered if Miranda knew that she was loved. Of course she probably did. How could she not know? But then again she had been wrong before.

V listened to the story. It was indeed a sad one but the meerkat couldn't help but to think that Noel needed rescuing. Viv didn't know how she could help. She didn't even know what she was doing tomorrow or the day after that, given the stupid mission her father had her on.

"I'm assuming that he was going to marry........" Viv's words were cut short by the re-entry of Noel and the jumping of his little sister into her lap which caused Viv to flinch, gasp and then giggle. Fondly Viv held Elana.

Marta knew just how to hide what they were talking about by asking a question, to which Viv gladly responded to. "My plans? Well I'm not sure if I told Noel this or not but I wanted to go to the Tavern to look for a job. I have no certain plans but if I have a job and things work out here then I see no reason in moving." Viv looked to Marta and then to Noel not understanding yet that Noel owned the classy pub. "Can you direct me to the owner?" Viv smiled softly, especially toward Noel as she played with Elana's paws with her own.