The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

On Friday, Arthur had reached a decision. After the weekend, he wasn't in the best mood to follow through on it, but there were few reasons to let his mood interfere with what was, essentially, a duty of some kind.

The duty of survival. As Crown Prince, it was a real one.

Still, he thought, as he arrived in the salle, Dinah had best be grateful. And it was all tactics. His gut still twinged with the sting of clear betrayal, but his sense of morality was as confused on this subject as anything else ever was, and so he ignored it.

[[ open! ]]

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[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was practicing somewhere in Arthur's vicinity, and brightened when she saw Ronan. "Hey, you! Have a good and silly weekend?"

Step, step, curve the blade slowly in front of her in practice.

[not_in_the_book]

"Not so silly," Ronan said, not breaking his pattern as he spun and ducked into a low slice. "But good, yeah. It felt... odd, but not bad, to be so young again. I mostly kept to myself, though."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I was five. I nearly ate my weight in ice cream and jelly and marshmallows, and I sang at Caritas, and had the most ridiculous fun available." Dinah grinned at him, moving into high block, middle block, low block. "God, I forgot what it was like to be that hyper."

Yes, she did. Really!

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan blinked at her. "... Because clearly you're calm and collected at all times now that you've reached your dotage."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah stuck her tongue out him, then giggled. Yes, like a five-year-old.

"You didn't see me. My poor roomie had to rescue my cat from me, and I pestered Chuck Bass, and just -- yeah." She grinned, sword going up in a backswing, slow, slow. "I was a happy little tornado, okay?"

[not_in_the_book]

"So in other words, pretty typical for you, then," Ronan retorted. He grinned, though. "Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't get into more mischief, myself. I was really into the 'big kid books' in my room, though."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Pbttt." Pretty typical of her now, again. Not in the time in between. Dinah spared a brief, grateful thought that she hadn't turned into a miserable nine-year-old. "'Big kid books'? Like what? Books without pictures, books on magic?"

[not_in_the_book]

"YA novels, actually," Ronan said, flushing just a little. "I, uh. I'm rather fond of the Adolescent Magician books."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Ohhhh." Dinah grinned big. "I liked those when I was twelve or so, I think. So I can see him doing that. How old were you?"

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan considered. "Seven, I think? I didn't really pay much attention to that." He paused. "I was a little busy reading through all eight books over the weekend."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah gaped at him, then laughed. "Advanced and focused. Wow. I hung out with Tahiri and Blysse, and Adora and Francine. It's like one long sugar-fueled dream."