duskrecluse:

Basteaux recognizes the voice before the words fully register. He
curls his hands more fully around the wooden mug in front of him rather
than look up to the face he knows he’ll see. “Even if one doesn’t have to be, from another’s perspective, sometimes it’s better that way.”

He
breathes a sigh and looks up, squinting slightly in the dim light of
the tavern. “I know you mean well, Destiney,” he continues, “but you
would be better off simply forgetting my existence.
Surely there are
others more receptive to your attention?” There is, perhaps startlingly, something akin to warmth coloring his smooth baritone despite the words. It’s as he rises from his seat that the reason becomes more clear. Though he hides it well, there’s a lack of stability about him, each step deliberate as he makes his way toward the exit.

He stops with his hand on the doorframe, glancing back over his shoulder to his surprise visitor. “Goodnight.”

A deep breath before slowly letting it out. Nearly in a sigh. Stubborn to the core. However his words had struck a cord. Someone else that decided she was ‘too good’ for them. She hated that. Yet for some reason it only made her more stubborn than want to run off. She was totally not letting this go so easily.

She walked over to stand beside him, Daisy perched on her shoulder and merely watching the exchange. A warm smile that doesn’t quite meet her eyes as she looks to him. “I think I would much prefer not forgetting. Besides are you going to force me to stay put and not follow you?”

She shrugs and looks out the doorway into the night outside of the tavern. “Did you ever think maybe the Twelve decided you need a friend?
Nymeia works in strange ways.

Maybe it’s time for you to quit isolating yourself for at least one friend?”

Now that smile had a hint of mischief to it as she patted the book sitting against her hip. This time the smile did reach her gaze. “Worse comes to worse I could just give you a light bop on the head. Don’t try to tell me I’m ‘too good’ to talk to you or be your friend. We don’t know each other well enough for you to fairly make that judgement of me.”