exsiliumlogs | (no subject) (part 2)

That wasn't what she had been meaning, but she couldn't blame him for thinking as he always did. Releasing a soft brush of air from her lungs, she smiled lightly in amusement. Always the loyal fighter, he was, and while he had grown much over the years, there was still so much that he remained unaware of. So she remained silent after his answer.

Bringing her hand away from his back, she moved to pull Stern out from the holster at her back before placing the pistol above her head. Though her other arm was still trapped by his weight, the gunner move to lay on her back as she smirked in arrogance and found the return of her teasing manner. "Well I do need to be good at something, Handsome."

Clive watched her silently in the flickering fire light and his gaze watched as she removed Stern and set it aside. That was her weapon now, wasn't it? She had made them sentient, the two pistols that she carried and he had chosen similarly but with different weapons altogether. Yet their decisions still somehow mirrored each other.

He eased his weight up so she could get her arm out from under him where she could lay comfortably on her back. He finally rose away from her and built up the fire with wood for the night, creating more warmth. He was soon enough back by her side, smirking at her answer. "Maybe you should get good at sleeping too then?"

She remained where she was even as Clive released her arm and began to raise. It came as no surprise to her. Her boys had always been a little on the slow side in that regard, but she still remained where she was even as he moved to add more wood to the fire. The fire crackled when the new wood fell on top, and she took her time listening to the sound until he returned back to her side.

"I think that I'm fine in that regard," Elza muttered as she remained laying on her back. The smirk looked good on him. It always did, after all. Reaching up, her hands came to knit behind her head. Sliding one leg up, her knee remained poised in the air as she closed her eyes and kept that arrogant smirk on her face. "You should know that I'm good at everything, gunslinger."

Well, he had noticed that she slept well when they spooned together, despite the hard surface that they were sleeping on. He too had been sleeping better, finding himself well-rested and ready for another day. He wasn't about to guess as to why that was as it might bring up conversations he wasn't ready to have.

He shook his head a little and rested against the ground, watching the shadows flicker across her face in response to the flames nearby. It highlighted her features very well. "Including gloating."

She turned her head to look at him when he lay back down alongside her. Remaining on her back, she watched his face as he shook his head and watched her. After running for so long, everything she wanted was so close and yet so far away from her.

"I did say everything," Elza muttered with a pleasant smile. While her face may have remained mostly in shadows now, but that was how she much preferred it. It helped to hide how she felt in a lot of ways. Dropping her leg down to cross over her other one as she came to lay on her side once again. "Or have you forgotten that, Handsome?"

She looked like she was getting quite comfortable lazing around like that, but it had been a long time since he had seen her so free. Even at the Guild, they had to be guarded against others and the trickery of the Elders and Guild Master who wanted them on guard at all times. She was free for the most part, though she was hiding herself.

He shifted his hand back to tugged at his hood to pull it up and over his head again, the closest thing to a pillow that he had. It kept his head warm at the very least. He raised an eyebrow when she turned to face him again. "I hardly forget your arrogance, woman. Only made worse by the fact you're usually correct in your gloating."

There was always that harsh tone in his tone whenever he spoke, especially when it involved his anger or emotion. Those were the times where she knew that he was hiding the most, and appreciated that small sign of how human he was. She wanted to touch him, but unlike last time, Elza kept her hands to herself.

"I don't think that it's made worse. You're just a sore loser," she retorted with. He always did pout in his own ways, even if he had never lost poorly to anything that had ever happened during their days at the Guild - at least when it came to their training.

He wasn't certain what made him a sore loser at all, since he was generally too passive to care much about her throwing her weight around. He knew his strengths just as he knew her own, but she was clearly just playing with him to get a rise out of him. He wasn't going to let it work.

"I can hardly be a sore loser when I haven't lost lately," he replied simply, shaking his head and rubbing his shoulder more into the ground to find a comfortable spot to take root in. "If you want to try to best me, we can do that in the morning."

It seemed that he had fallen back into his usual passiveness, which meant that there was little point in continuing teasing him. Perhaps it was time, and she couldn't complain given that he had opened up beforehand. Rolling onto her back, she decided to give him some peace of mind as the gunner pulled Mond from her hip before slipping the belt off of her hip. Placing them neatly off to the side, Elza rolled onto her other side to give him her back instead. He didn't want to move too quickly, and that was something she could respect.

"I don't need to try and best you," Elza murmured as she used her arm as a pillow. Settling into her spot, her eyes remained opened and fixated on the flicker of the flames. "You should get some sleep, Guild Master."

While he generally removed his weapons before he slept, he still didn't trust these lands or the considerable amount of transports roaming the hills. He left his own guns in their holsters attached to his body, but he watched her remove her own gun belt with a familiarity that was eerie in how little it surprised him.

When her back was to him, he waited silently to ponder her comment before sighing to himself. He eased out of his rut and over to where she lay, spooning up behind her and slipped an arm around her waist. He shifted and rubbed and finally eased himself into a comfortable position and then nestled his face into the warmth of the back of her neck. "As should you, Knight," he replied before settling and saying nothing more.

Her gaze only left from the low flames as she felt him shifting towards her back. There was the press of his muscled body up against her back moments before she felt his arm slip around her waist. Subtly glancing back over her shoulder towards him, she didn't say anything and instead settled back against his body as Clive's larger form warmed her back.

Smiling softly to herself, Elza found her gaze dropping back down to the fire when Clive fell silent. She knew that he wouldn't say anything, but that was fine. There was enough to go through her mind as it was, and as her hand came up to cover his own, she silently watched the fire as they began resting.