All Work and No Play - Yves & Alayne

[Yves Chevalier]

Knowing that there was going to be a war, I had to figure out what I was going to do. I knew I had to go, no matter that I had left my past behind, a man that did not fight for his country was no man at all. The problem was Julia and Claire ... what would become of them? I was estranged from my family, and though I had seen my brother at the Royal Wedding, no doubt he was going to be fighting as well. I would hopefully be able to avoid him, and perhaps I would get lucky and he would get killed.

There was one person I could ask, but I hadn't yet decided if she would be willing to care for two small children that she had yet to even meet. With all of this on my mind, I was trying to spend more time with the girls when I could. I'd built a sort of play area behind the bath house, and since it was early in the day, a slow time for whore houses it appeared, I had left Geoff in charge and was sitting outside watching the girls play. It was good to do this, just simply sit and be with them, sitting in the grass under a large, shady tree, while they ran around and laughed.

[Alayne Lombard]

The night had been loud, the bruise on my face was receding, and for reasons I didn't care to think about, I hadn't slept well at all. It was probably the reason that I woke up earlier than usual that morning, and barefoot, in my shift and with a robe that was hanging over my shoulder with as much elegance as it would on a hook, I stepped outside. I was cradling a mug of tea, waiting for hunger to tell me to break my fast.

There were children outside, playing, and I recognized their father. I wandered over to sit companionably on the same patch of grass, not too close for comfort, and gave him a sleepy smile.

“Mornin'.”

[Yves Chevalier]

I glanced up and saw Alayne coming over, a cup of tea in her hands. She looked a bit worse for wear this morning and I could still see the old bruise. It angered me, but sometimes I wasn't able to control things, and this was one such occasion. No one would ever dream of treating an adept this way, but because the girls here didn't come with exorbitantly high price tags this sort of behavior was considered all right? I pushed the irritation away, however, because I didn't want it to sour our morning.

"Good morning, Alayne." I smiled as the girls raced by. "Looks like some people have more energy than others this morning." As for me, working nights, I was exhausted, but these morning hours were the best time to be with the girls, so I made do with as little sleep as possible.

[Alayne Lombard]

I stifled an yawn and stretched my legs on the grass, wriggling my toes lazily. “They really do,” I agreed, and gave Yves a little smile, thinking of how kind he ever was. “You never sleep, do you?”

I knew he was on the night shift – gods knew, the guards were more than helpful when patrons were asses about us – and yet here he was, up and awake, looking serenely at his little girls. I envied him, and hid my smile into my cup of tea, eyes still on the children.

[Yves Chevalier]

"I do," I laughed, turning toward her. "Just not as much as I likely should." It wasn't too bad, of course, there were plenty of people about who did not mind caring for the girls in the daytime hours while I got some sleep, including their grandfather, once he had breakfast out of the way.

"What about you, it's pretty early for anyone else to be up, truly," I said, smiling at her as the sunshine made her hair look like a fiery halo.

[Alayne Lombard]

I chuckled a little, gave Yves a sleepily wry look, whatever that was, and smirked in my mug. “Couldn't sleep anymore,” I drawled cheekily. “Blame it on a sore puss and some colorful dreams.” I frowned, had another sip.

“I had a day off, the other day. Met a weird john. Or made a friend. Not sure which.” I wasn't sure why I wanted to bring up Hal – perhaps it was because I felt the need to clarify to myself his offer, and why I'd felt so unable to accept it.

[Yves Chevalier]

I frowned slightly, I didn't like the slightly self-deprecating tone I heard in her voice, though I had grown accustomed to it by now, living here. I felt sometimes like I was the only one who saw these girls as the beautiful women they were.

"Weird how?" I asked, flexing my muscles involuntarily. Whatever else, I wouldn't stand by and watch them be hurt and I had knocked more than a few heads together over it.

[Alayne Lombard]

“Wanted to be my friend.” I grinned, and fished inside my pocket for an apple. “Well, actually, he wanted to buy me a dress. The arse over at the Philistin wasn't keen on me, and I think he almost punched his face in for calling me a whore.” I shrugged, then. “You know, if it'd been you, I wouldn't have been surprised, but....” I bit into the apple, and through the mouthful, I finished, “... guess I couldn't see why he'd be so involved.”

[Yves Chevalier]

I raised a brow. It was a singular man indeed to fight over the virtue of a whore, I knew that I was unusual in that way.

"Well, that was nice of him," I said, though like her I wondered what his purpose was. "Just be careful, not everyone is what they seem, and not everyone's motives are pure." I felt stupid after I said it, as if she did not know that by now.

[Alayne Lombard]

I nodded, chewed on my apple a bit longer. “Yeah, that's what I'd been thinking. He took me to the Grand Magasin de Soie, too, and I don't even know, he wanted to buy me a dress there. Can you imagine Tigris's face, if I'd come back dressed like a Duchess? I talked him out of it, though. I think he was just trying to be nice, but...”

I still wasn't sure what to make of it. It ate at me that someone would try to fix me, as if I was a problem, or a charity case, or something that needed to be set straight, like a broken piece of furniture or a torn shift.

[Yves Chevalier]

I raised my brow again, then tried to smooth my features before they became stuck that way, as I was always teasing Claire. Still, that was the kind of shop I would have hesitated to spend money at even when I'd had it to spend. I laughed slightly at the image of what the other girls would think if they had seen her in a dress from a place like that. Most would be jealous and I doubted the dress would last two days before someone 'accidentally' spilled something on it or something of the sort.

"Well, I suppose some people are just nice," I said, knowing that I was being entirely too cynical ... when had that happened? "If he comes around, point him out to me, I'll keep an eye on him," I promised. I'd likely take him outside for a bit of conversation as well, but I didn't mention that part. I thought of these girls like sisters, and if I'd had any, I'd have done the same for them.

"So, besides having adventures with the upper class, what else have you been up to?" I asked her, my stomach growling a little as I watched her eat her apple, a reminder that I hadn't had breakfast yet.

[Alayne Lombard]

I nodded, thinking that maybe it was, Hal had really gone out of his way to be kind to me. It was just an incredibly strange thing to behold.

“Nothing. Lavatory duty,” I replied, shrugging. “Tigris wasn't really happy with me.” It still stung, the way I'd been punished before I was tended. I ate my apple quietly for a bit, wondering again how life was outside. Wondering (furthermore) if working for Hal would have been a good idea.

But I was afraid, a little, and I didn't know what to expect. The bathhouse was all I'd known, and it was home. Leaving it would be like tearing a part of me. Or was it? It was a difficult thought to entertain.

[Yves Chevalier]

"Lavatory duty?" I asked, wrinkling my nose. I knew that Madame Moreau had sometimes used that as a punishment and it looked like Tigris was following in her footsteps in some ways. It was odd to think about, how the bathhouse had changed hands, but for me it mattered not, as long as I could stay here with the girls and earn my keep at the same time.

"Sounds pretty bad," I said, leaning forward and picking at the grass. "If you need a hand with it, though, let me know."

[Alayne Lombard]

I shrugged moodily. “It's complicated. I think she's putting too much on herself – like she thinks that now that she owns the bathhouse, she can't be weak, or something like that. I'm bothered because I would have preferred... I don't know. I made a mistake, I didn't follow the rules exactly, but I didn't do anything blatantly wrong, and I had this, and....” I sighed. “You know, I didn't really feel like a person, in that exchange.”

And that, really, was the gist of it. I wanted my mother. Or rather, I wanted Erika, someone I could go to, get a hug from, and be coddled by. It had been a long, painful year, without her.

[Yves Chevalier]

I smiled sympathetically, reaching over to give her arm a squeeze. Claire ran by, waved at us and continued, Julia chasing her.

"Perhaps she just needs to find her footing in this new position of hers, I'm sure it was nothing personal..." I didn't know if that would help at all, but I was at a bit of a loss when it came to the inner workings of the bathhouse. My job was to look menacing and crack heads when necessary.

"Either way, you are a person, a special one, and don't let anyone make you think or feel otherwise."

[Alayne Lombard]

I gave Yves a meek smile, then gave the same smile to his daughters as they scampered by us, and then I shrugged again.

“I don't know,” I said again, “but thank you.” I felt sad and hurt, and I was becoming bothered by authority, it seemed. Perhaps that was what becoming one's own person was. For a moment, I brooded, my fruit forgotten and dropped on the lawn, to be picked up later.

“You know,” I said finally, slowly, “I wonder sometimes...” a breath, then, “Yves, can I tell you a secret? Do you swear to keep it?”

[Yves Chevalier]

"Of course," I said without hesitation. I had been the recipient of many secrets in the past five years, and not one of them had ever passed my lips. It was strange to think of myself that way, as a secret keeper and a confidante, but I couldn't help it, I cared about all of the girls here and if they needed a place to keep their secrets, how could I say no?

"I swear," I continued solemnly, casting my gaze around to make sure the girls were far enough away not to overhear. They were too young to really pay attention to adult's talk, but one never knew and I would have hated for them to repeat something that they should not have heard in the first place.

[Alayne Lombard]

It wasn't a big deal, really – just thoughts that passed and passed in my mind, but since my exchange with Tigris... they'd somehow become more persistent. I leaned closer, talking like a conspirator, and spoke my mind.

“Sometimes I wonder what life's like, elsewhere,” I said softly. “I mean – what it's like, not to be a whore.” My eyes slid to the ground, I adjusted my shift a little. “-- how do you think it is?”

[Yves Chevalier]

I wasn't sure what to say. I knew first hand what it was like to be someone else, but that was my own secret, something I had never even told my wife.

"I imagine some things are different, but they're superficial things... life is universal, even in the highest echelons. You laugh, you cry, you love; only the details differ." Was it true? For the most part though, I was much more satisfied without the trappings of nobility. About the other part of it, her occupation, well that I knew was difficult for some and not so difficult for others.

"Have you considered other ways of making a living?" I asked her cautiously. I had helped a girl or two find gainful employment, but in general the money was less and sometimes people fell back into their old habits.

[Alayne Lombard]

I pondered everything that Yves said – how he seemed to think that we were all the same, regardless of where we were on the food chain. Hal had said something similar, but it seemed easier to believe it coming from Yves, who was like a brother to all of us girls. Yves, who had always been there, always been part of the bathhouse, of what made it a safe place.

I contemplated it – contemplated, too, the fact that a random stranger, a friendly stranger, had offered me a meal and gainful employment. I sighed.

“I don't know,” I said finally, my chin resting on my knees in a brooding posture. “I don't want to be a scullery maid, Elua, that's what's got me thinking of it now, the bloody lavatory duty.”

[Yves Chevalier]

I nodded, her words were familiar. There was some freedom to being a whore that was missing from other lines of work, some notoriety even, and the money was a bit better. Some women thought they wanted something else, but at the same time, this life was what they knew.

"There are other options," I offered, though of course, just starting out meant jobs on the lower end of the scale. "It all depends on what you really want. A scullery maid is not the most glamorous of jobs, but it comes with a stability that can be hard to match in a place like this." The bath house could be a fickle place, and dangerous besides.

[Alayne Lombard]

I nodded, remained quiet after a bit, still trying to decide what I thought of it all. Ultimately, though, the truth of it was more complex than I could word up.

I sighed, and scratched my head.

“I don't know what I want, Yves. I think I'd want to be you. You're always so calm, so strong. I'd want to be you, and that would fix it for me,” I said finally, stoutly, firmly.

[Yves Chevalier]

I blinked and then laughed, shaking my head. If she only knew the uncertainties and fears I faced daily, not to mention the past I'd left behind... run away from, coward...

"Oh no, I'm not that calm and strong," I said, laughing, but at the same time a bit proud that I at least conveyed that to the girls, because I wanted nothing more than for them to have one person in their lives who was a friend, who did not want anything from them. "I just have a wonderful poker face."

[Alayne Lombard]

“Say that another time, and you'll be starting rumors,” I said, chuckling. “Now, is that were your pay is going? Tsk tsk tsk. Think of the girls, Yves, think of the girls!”

He was making me feel better – and I wondered to myself if that was what having a brother felt like. Maybe it was so – I'd grown here, I might well die here, and so all those who were my housemates, I thought of as family.

[Yves Chevalier]

I laughed, liking that she held a sense of humor, because not all of the girls managed to retain one. It made me sure that she would be all right, however, because a sense of humor helped one to endure all manner of things. I had to remind myself of that sometimes.

"Which girls?" I teased, reaching over to tug one of her fiery red locks. "Those two..." I nodded to Julia and Claire, who had collapsed a few yards away, lying in the grass breathing heavily from their running. "Or the rest of you?"

[Alayne Lombard]

I laughed, and gently swatted at Yves' hand, though I kept it a moment, and gave it a squeeze. “These two,” I replied, grinning. “You know the rules, handsome. Though I'd lie if I said it wasn't a shame.”

It was all in good fun, really – it would have felt incestuous to bed him, in a way. The compliment was sincere nonetheless: I meant it, when I called him handsome. He was a joy to look at.

[Yves Chevalier]

I blushed a bit at her words, though in all honesty there were times when that rule was exceedingly difficult to adhere to. Like the time I had crawled into bed to find a slip of a girl already there, a new girl who wanted to curry favor or protection. My cheeks heated further at that memory.

"Ah well, rules are rules," I said with a light, somewhat awkward laugh. One would think that working in a whorehouse would enure me to such things, but the girls were still adept at making me blush. Sometimes I thought it was something of a contest between them. When I'd first arrived, not all of the guards were keen to follow the rules, until I'd made it known that anyone taking advantage of the girls would not only lose his job, but his health as well.

[Alayne Lombard]

I laughed, and rolled my eyes. “Yes, Tigris,” I replied cockily. “Sounds like she's taken over your body. I wonder how it feels to be in there – come out, come out, and bring my Yves back to me, ere I cry!” I declared, grinning widely.

I wanted to talk to him about love, for some reason. Not about his and mine, we weren't like that. No, about my love for another, perhaps? Or another's love of me, maybe? I didn't even know.

“What happened to Love as Thou Willt, brother?” I drawled ponderously.

[Yves Chevalier]

I had to laugh, I had sounded a bit sanctimonious there, hadn't I? She was serious though, I could tell, in her question, and I had to think a bit for an answer. Memories pressed in upon me: a beautiful woman who liked to wear lavendar and smelled of it as well, a swollen belly, a bloody knife, two brothers at odds... I could still smell the mix of copper and lavender in the air. Love as thou wilt... yet what of the consequences?

"I think we complicate things too much," I admitted. "I think we misunderstand Elua's precept, or we use it to justify ourselves, or we disregard it entirely. I think too few think about the consequences of their actions and the feelings of others. No matter how high born or how low, we all deserve to be loved."

[Alayne Lombard]

I listened, it seemed as though Yves had some story to go by, that made him think the way he did. I smiled a little, half-sadly.

We all deserve to be loved.

I almost wanted to ask, Even me? but then, how pathetic is that? It's much too self-pitying, even if it came suddenly in my mind like a vibrant question.

“I guess,” I said simply, hands in the grass, still, as I picked at it. “How do you ---”

Just then, my name was called from inside, and I sighed. “Duty calls,” I said with resignation. “Thanks, Yves.” Before he protested, I kissed his cheek, then ran back inside before my lavatory duty got extended some more.