Changing Perceptions

She caught him off guard with the kiss, and he was too surprised to kiss her back; but she had his attention, at least. Sadrok studied her silently when she was done, forced once again to reassess his opinion of her. His initial opinion of her had been the same as he made of any girl he ran into, or that quite literally ran into him – that she was not much better than Rahime Najat, the Domani novice that wouldn’t leave him alone whenever she got the chance to harass him Now he saw she was far more intelligent than he’d given her credit for, and quite attractive in her own way.

He’d already come to the same conclusion she espoused – he would still have had his Bar if he hadn’t – but he didn’t blame himself anymore for what had happened that day. It still hurt to think about, and he missed the friends he’d lost in the fighting back then, and he would mourn that loss whenever his memories of them were brought to the surface, like when he’d caught her with Air to keep her from tripping again. She started to fidget under his gaze before he nodded his head. While the motion was almost imperceptible, he’d decided that he could afford to trust her – and maybe let her get close to him.

He then raised a hand up to lightly trace the back of his fingers over her cheek. But he didn’t ruin the moment by opening his mouth, as her eyes widened slightly in surprise at his reaction. He could see the surprise in her eyes clearly enough for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by another look in her eyes that it took him a moment to place. Worried that he’d upset her, he gave her his best mischievous grin as he lightly tapped her on the nose. She blinked reflexively at the gesture, a sad look entering her eyes. Eyes that often seemed so much a reflection of his own at times, now that he thought about it.. Except with that look in her eyes, their eyes were almost identical. As she tried so hard not to fidget under his gaze, she suddenly turned very pale. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Brileia. A silver for your thoughts?”

“Oh, I don’t know if my thoughts are worth that much, Sadrok…” That playful look in her eyes was back for a moment before it was overwhelmed by sadness – a few unshed tears pooling in her eyes as she spoke sadly. His finger crooked, he wiped the tears from both of her eyes and smiled at her, leading her over to sit next to him on the edge of a water fountain. He didn’t know what had made her so upset all of a sudden, and for some reason, he really didn’t like it… It must have been something he’d said or done to trigger some memory of  her own, perhaps?

After a brief moment of thought, he decided that he was going to get to the bottom of it eventually, especially after she had dragged out his explanation a minute ago about the ambush. He was going to figure out what was upsetting her even if she still didn’t seem to have understood just what it was he had been upset about, himself. He owed her that much after the way he’d treated her before – and she’d already taken the first step – anyway.  “You think I’m going to let you get away with hiding whats wrong after what you said to me a moment ago?”

A soft sigh escaped her as they sat down at the edge of the fountain. Silky black curls fell to hide her face as she tried to hide her eyes from him. Hide them she did, but if he didn’t know she was upset he would have thought she looked alluring just then. She trailed her fingers through the water slowly, creating ripples in the calm surface as she bit her bottom lip, looking anxious -so he placed his arm around her shoulders lightly in an effort to comfort her. “Probably not…but a girl can dream, can’t she?”

“You can dream about me all you want, Brileia… Doesn’t mean you’ll get me in the end, though.” After her question he’d given her one of his winning smiles, answering her sarcastically. Then he reached over and cupped her chin softly in one hand, raising it to lock gazes with her again, looking serious once more. “Tell me what’s bothering you, Brileia. I don’t like seeing you sad like this.  You’re much more beautiful when you smile… or even when you’re yelling at me.”

Teal eyes widened as he lifted her chin, a faint blush coloring her cheeks at his comment. Her lips parted as if she was going to say something, then closed for a moment as she bit her bottom lip again, unable to look away from him. “I…well, it’s just that for a moment you reminded me of my brother. When I was little, he used to do things like that…poking my nose and such.”

Her brother, huh? He poked her nose again gently with that mischievous grin of his. He wasn’t sure just yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but he knew he would figure it out by the time he understood why she was  upset. Leaning down towards her without breaking eye contact, he let his nose brush against hers for a moment before kissing her softly on the lips again, whispering. “Would your brother do something like that?”

She seemed to hesitate for a moment before responding to his kiss, a small hand lifting to touch his chest lightly. He felt comfortable with her, even if they could get in trouble doing this. Drawing back just enough that their lips were barely touching again, she whispered softly. “No…he never would have done something like that with me. Now… whether he did something like that with one of the maids back home, I couldn’t say. He swore me to secrecy years ago.”

Sadrok laughed softly, smiling as he straightened and ran his fingers along her cheek again, his swordsman calloused fingers barely tracing over her soft skin. “Sounds like he and I might have made good friends. You’ll make him proud as an Aes Sedai one day, I believe.”

She shivered lightly at the touch. A wistful smile curved her lips at some thought crossing her mind. Blinking, she drew herself out of her memories. “I think you two would have been good friends. He had the same dream…” A sigh escaped her. “I hope you’re right about that.”

“Look where you are, Brileia. Look where we are… In Tar Valon! Sitting on a fountain in the gardens of the White Tower, both of us wearing novice whites. Light! Whoever thought they would see the day men were admitted to the Tower as novices? They’re not going to let either of us go until we are Aes Sedai, you know.” He smiled, running a finger lightly over her lips as if to silence her. “Maybe  when we’re both Aes Sedai, you could show me Maradon? I’d offer to show you Far Madding, but I doubt you’d want to go there.”

Her lips parted slightly beneath his finger as she drew in a ragged breath. Then she smiled back at him, soft laughter spilling from her. “Of course I will, if that’s what you want. I’ll even show you all the secret paths and hidden spots I managed to find.” Silky black curls tumbled over her shoulder as she tilted her head slightly, peering at him in blatant curiosity. “Why wouldn’t I want to go to Far Madding?  I’ve never been there before. Well, truthfully…before leaving to come here, I’d never been anywhere but Maradon.”

“I’ll hold you to that. As for Far Madding, there is a ter’angreal there that stops anyone near the city from channeling.. It has some other ability too, but I never could find out what it was. I don’t really relish the idea of going home, myself.” He smirked playfully at her at the mention of the hiding places she’d found, then kissed her lightly on the lips again – the barest brush of his lips over hers. He scooted back from her after a moment so anyone who came buy would just see them talking quietly. “Yes, learning all the ins and outs of Maradon does sound interesting… You’re not much less traveled than I am, though.. Aside from the trip here, I’d only left Far Madding the one time I told you about already.”

The tension seemed to dissipate from her slight body, a small smile curving her lips. Her fingertips idly traced patterns over the edge of the fountain as she turned her head slightly, gazing around the gardens. “Perhaps when we are Aes Sedai, we can travel together and see all the sights we’ve missed so far, in between assignments from the Tower, of course.”

“Or even during our assignments from the Tower? Maybe we’ll find a way to work together more often than not?” He smiled, leaning back from her on the fountains edge, one ankle resting on his other knee as he propped himself up on his hands and looked up at the midday sky above, occasionally glancing down to study her figure appreciatively. “For a while I’d thought this was turning out to be a very droll Sunday… Thanks for turning that around for me, Brileia.”

Bluish-green eyes turned in his direction, a soft laugh escaping her. She shook her head, an amused grin on her face. “Oh, well…you’re welcome, Sadrok. Glad to have been of some amusement to you today. You know, the first thing I thought of today was finding someone to run into, just to make his day that much better.”

He laughed softly at the facetious tone in her voice, shaking his head. Just when he was beginning to think he had her pegged as having little to no sense of humor… She surprised him. He hadn’t forgotten about how she’d gotten depressed earlier when she was thinking about her brother, he just wanted to change the topic for a moment so he could catch her off guard when he did ask about it. “What were you doing alone in the male novice well, anyway?”

Laughing softly, he thought was glad to see she had the decency to look embarrassed about her one girl invasion of the male novice well. It only made her look cuter when she looked away, tangling her fingers in a strand of her hair. “Um… Well, truthfully… I was really, really lost. I got distracted by the tapestries while trying to get from the dining hall to the library. And… well, I panicked a little.”

She turned back to him a moment later, at least trying to look apologetic for knocking him over and landing on top of his chest. “I really am sorry about running into you.”

He smirked at her, still taking his ease and only glancing at her occasionally, most of his attention on the sky above. Wanting to rattle her a little more, he suddenly sat up and looked her in the eye, his face dead serious. “You should try to watch what’s ahead of you a little better, Brileia… You trip a lot, you ran headlong into me.. you’re going to get hurt one of these days.. Did you at least enjoy pinning me down?”

Her mouth dropped open in shock at his question, a bright blush coloring her face. She stared at him wide-eyed before even making an attempt to answer him. “What…oh…um…” Tongue-tied, she couldn’t even think of a response, much less say it without stammering.

He laughed for a moment, smirking at her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking – who knows? maybe he did… Then he completely switched topics on her to catch her off guard. He felt kind of heavy handed distracting her like this, but he really didn’t know any other way to get her to let it slip. “Maybe someday I’ll let you pin me again, then… Maybe not. So why is it that my reminding you of your brother makes you sad?”