Cloaked in love [Ashara memshare #1]

[qelos]

The warmth of the Dornish night, air scented with spices and carrying the distant sound of revelry, drifts in through the open window of Ashara’s chambers. Her revelry, however, is much more private. Intimate. Just Ned, just her, in the privacy of her chambers. And she intends to keep him to herself until they must part. For her beloved must leave once more, to return to Winterfell; it is agonising, being parted from him. Gods, for their betrothal to be official. To know that it is only a matter of time before he is hers, and she is his, forever.

She stands at the window, gazing out over Starfall. Ned comes up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on her shoulder as he draws her back against him. “I have something for you, my love,” he murmurs softly in her ear, pressing a kiss to her cheek. At home in his arms, she smiles softly, leaning back into his embrace and reaching up to caress his cheek.

“All I need is you, my wolf,” she replies, teasing. But for the teasing it’s still the truth.

“And you have me. Always.” Her heart leaps at his words. “Which is why I’ve brought you a gift.” He turns her towards him, warm hands cradling her face as he leans down to press a long, lingering kiss to her lips. “So you’ll have a part of me with you on the long nights that we’re apart.”

He pulls away, then, and she cannot help but feel the loss of him, going to one of his packs and drawing from it a large wrapped bundle. He presses it into her hands. “I will always return to you, Ashara. My heart is yours.”

She opens it, slowly, curious... only to have her breath stolen away from her by what she finds within. It is a fur cloak, his cloak, the one he always wears, with the Stark crest embroidered on the fabric over his chest. And the Dayne crest, embroidered by her own hand on the chest as well, right over his heart. At its throat rests a cloak pin; one half of a matched set. A wolf with a purple jewelled eye. She looks up at him with wide violet eyes, stunned beyond measure. He’s giving her his cloak. She knows what cloaks mean to Northerners, knows what part they play in their marriage ceremonies.

“I promise you, my star.” He takes it from her hands, unfurling it and wrapping the cloak around her shoulders. Fastening it with the cloak pin she’d given him, his hands brush the fur now resting at her shoulders and then touch her cheek. “My heart. My love.”

Rising up, she kisses Ned fervently, with all the passion she feels for him, all the love, arms twining around his neck. He grins against her mouth and responds in kind, his other hand settling on her hip. And together they make their way towards her bed.

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[ulfur]

[ Part of Ned blushes to have such a private moment displayed for all to see. He'd never told anyone about this. In the climate of political unrest, he and Ashara had been waiting, knowing that their marriage would be far easier under Rhaegar's reign than Aerys's. Most knew about their favor for each other, but a formal engagement had never been announced.

But the Daynes had known. And if he could not publicly promise Ashara anything, the private gesture had been all the more important.

He glances at Ashara, shyly. ] That is one of my dearest memories of you.

[ And the memory of that promise... Ned looks wistful. ] It seems I have kept my vow. I returned to you. In the end. Even if it took another world to do so.

[qelos]

[Oh. This is what it is like, to have your memories projected for all to see. Ashara isn’t sure how she feels about it, having such a personal, private moment shared publicly but there’s nothing she can do about it. Other than be thankful it hadn’t been a more... intimate moment, between her and Ned.

The private gesture had meant the world to her. Had been a promise, and proclamation, and a proposal all entwined together. It had been all that she needed. The public promise would have come in time. His words, the shyness of his glance, earn him a warm smile.] And mine of you.

[There’s wistfulness in her violet eyes, too as she leans forward to press a kiss to his cheek.] You did.

[Her gaze shifts, to where a folded cloak sits, tucked out of the way. Looking just the same as it had in her memory. She had found it, shortly after the elf doll had vanished from their quarters. A gift. Although she’d thought it more punishment, at the time. Now, though, it no longer hurts to see.]

[ulfur]

[ He smiles at the look in her eyes, the warm affection in the innocent kiss. He might have turned the moment less innocent, were it not for the wistfulness and the glance at the cloak in the corner. He'd wondered at its arrival for Yule, but had not asked Ashara about it, at such a painful time for them, when they were living parallel yet platonic lives.

Now, he looks at it too, his eyes a thoughtful, foggy grey. ] I have to wonder at them bringing the cloak to you as a gift. That was before we even knew what would happen with us here. [ Ned reaches for her hand, wrapping his fingers around hers. Even her long fingers are drowned in his larger, broader ones. ]

[qelos]

[Oh, there is plenty of time for things to turn less innocent, a bit later. They’ve been making up for lost time, since they’d taken that final step and fallen back into each other’s arms. They cannot seem to get enough of each other. Ashara certainly can’t. It’s as though all her efforts to ignore how she longed for him, how she loved him, have amplified... everything.

His hand is warm around his, easing the remembered pain of the cloak's arrival.

She reaches up with her other hand, fingers splayed along his jaw. She can speak of it now, how deeply the cloak’s arrival had wounded her. How much it had hurt her to see it, a reminder of what had been hers, what she had lost. What was so very close, and yet couldn’t be further away. There is an echo of that pain in her violet eyes, an echo of what he had no doubt seen in them after its arrival.]

It didn’t feel like a gift, when it arrived. It felt like a knife through my heart. Punishment, rather than a gift. Mocking, and hurtful, rather than bringing joy.

[She had cried herself out over it, before he’d returned. Heart-wrenching sobs mourning... all that she had lost. Gathered herself. Done all she could to pretend that nothing was wrong. To give Ned what he had asked of her.]