[h3]A Desert Night[/h3]
[i]tabby & poo[/i][hr]On the initial journey from Gilane, the dirt and heat of the desert had felt nothing short of oppressive. Each step was unpleasant for Anifaire, her thoughts and feelings at their lowest. It seemed all was a failure and she could do nothing about it. 

Leaving the prison, the heat didn’t seem so dry, and she realized she was so dirty it was beyond repair. In the most dire need of a bath than she had ever been in her life, Anifaire felt more satisfaction than ever. Somehow, beyond her despair, the group had succeeded. In the back of one of the wagons, she found herself leaning into the sun, careless for how the sand sprayed her, the journey as far from the first as could be. 

As they arrived, the entire tent city reverberated with the high of celebration she felt. Through all her time since leaving Alinor, she had never felt so welcomed by a strange people without even speaking to any of them, though she knew she owed it to her group’s success. Though she often would struggle with feeling inadequate over not playing her own part, the cooled evening air felt like it was washing inhibitions off her. 

She weaved her way through the large crowd, for once unconcerned about the possibility of being lost or running into unfavourable circumstances like she had in the past. The atmosphere forbade her fears; no hostility directed itself towards her. She brushed past others, no destination in mind, until to her surprise she found herself at the front of a crowd watching a wrestling match. 

Two redguard women, unarmed, circled each other. One stood, fists raised, a grin on her face, but the other, quicker, grappled her around the waist, using superior size to push the former back several paces. Their bare feet slid in the sand, but somehow each kept balance like it had no effect, until the woman being grappled shot up her knee, knocking the larger one to the ground. 

All around her, men and woman cheered, shouted, and generally made a ruckus following the hit. The woman next to her, an Imperial far shorter than Anifaire, threw her arm around the elf’s shoulders, a bottle of… something, in the other hand. The stranger, friendly as she was, was intoxicated and without balance; the pair were knocked to the ground. As Anifaire collected herself, and the other woman scrambled to apologize, the crowd filled in around them, people rushing forwards and cheering over the wrestling match. 

The Imperial, trying to stand up, handed Anifaire the bottle in her hand. She made it to her feet, using the elf as a confused ladder, and just as quickly she disappeared into the shifting, river-like crowd. Anifaire backed out of it, the adventure enough for the moment, and was able to use the benefit of her height to see over enough heads to make it to the outskirts of the tent city. 

The atmosphere was more subdued, and while she felt less exhilarated, she could breathe again. Finding a half-clear area still well within the bounds of the tents, she discarded her shoes, wanting to feel the sand now that it was cold. She sat in the sand, resigned to be dirty until a bath was available, and the sand felt nice. 

She tilted the bottle in her hand up to her face, sniffing the contents: wine. Anifaire placed the bottle in front of her. Was it all right to drink it? She frowned. 

“We haven’t had any time to talk yet, have we?” A voice asked from behind her. Not four paces away, Alim lay on a caravan cart, his head dripping from the jug of water he used to half drink/half wash himself after he was broken out of captivity. His chin rested on his crossed arms as he looked at her, smiling easily. 

He was in need of a huge retelling of what happened while he had been captured and away, but at the moment all he wanted was some comfort, and to hear Anifaire speak. Or perhaps they were both one and the same? It didn’t matter, he was far too tired to try and philosiphize himself out of certain ways of thinking. 

He dragged himself up, though his body felt like it weighed thrice what the normally lithe man was used to. Groaning, he hopped onto the sand and made his way to Anifaire, setting his rump down next to her. They hadn’t even talked about him kissing her yet either. Well, it would certainly come up soon, he believed. 

“Alim,” Anifaire greeted, surprised. She’d thought about him throughout the journey, nervous, and faced with him now her face erupted with blush. She crossed her legs, shifting to better face him. Idly, she  traced the sand around the circular bottle of wine, He had kissed her; she felt butterflies in her stomach at the thought but couldn’t decide what he could possibly have meant by it. 

“Oh, everything is… you’re all right, aren’t you? Being imprisoned…” After seeing him initially, the concern of injuries had slipped her mind, but he seemed so tired now. 

Alim blinked, realized they both had their legs crossed and were looking at one another. He gave a small laugh. “I’m very good, thanks to you.” he told her with a smile. He did feel aches in far too many places. Blunt trauma and bruisings he had ignored over the past few days to get through the experience, but now everything hurt. But he also knew none of it was serious, though his back problems had come back a bit. 

Somehow, even though he had been the one imprisoned, he was mostly worried about her. Probably because he had not seen her in a long time. “How are you? I mean, how have you been?” he asked, looking past the unkempt mass his hair had grown into, giving him a more wild, rugged look than his previous smooth, princely aura.

Anifaire felt relief that he confirmed his well-being, though it didn’t feel like she deserved much of the credit. At his question, she considered what to say; the state she had been in right after Gilane was awful, and she wasn’t sure how to talk about it. In the moment, she was simply glad he hadn’t seen her like that, and felt embarrassed. 

“Gilane and… leaving… was difficult.” She didn’t want to lie, but the time was something she wanted to forget. “I was worried about you.” Trying to think of something positive to say, she blurted out: “I learned to make mashed potatoes.” 

“I was worried about you t-...wait really?” he asked her. Normally he’d laugh, but she usually seemed to sheltered. She was learning new things! “That’s awesome Ani! How’d that happen? Who taught you?”

“Zaveed,” she answered blankly. The Khajit seemed strange, but not so bad, yet he’d done bad things. Her brow creased, thinking. 

He smiled, and reached up to brush her cheek a bit with his fingers. “You’ve learned a lot since I was away.” He told her. Alim knew people, and he knew how to see different changes in them; subtle things only a keen eye could see. She seemed far wiser and more experienced. She had already been intelligent to begin with. “That’s the best thing you can do. Keep improving yourself, I mean.” 

Anifaire smiled brilliantly, a flash of pride at everything she’d been through appearing. “Thank you…” She trailed off, looking down at the wine bottle she was playing with, tracing out the sand around it, hollowing out a hole. She blushed lightly, thinking of how he kissed her, but afraid to ask about it, she rambled amicably. “I think I like this desert now. Do you like the desert?” 

Alim smiled and nodded. He knew she was nervous, and it was probably the most adorable thing he had witnessed in years. He kind of wanted to milk it, but he couldn’t help but reach for her dainty hand and hold it. His thumb rubbing the back of her hand caringly. “I do. I like it very much.” His dark eyes met hers. 

She nearly jumped in surprise, muscles jolting lightly, but she didn’t want to pull away. She relaxed her shoulders, tightening her hand slightly. “It’s nice here.” She paused, nervous to look over at him, and tilted her head back to look up at the stars. Somehow, they seemed more plentiful in the desert. “Alim…” She wasn’t sure how to ask her question, but she wanted to kiss him again. 

The redguard relaxed, feeling a quickening of his heart rate when she squeezed it. Even being as experienced in women as any, Anifaire always found a way to melt his heart. He looked up at the stars too, following her eyes. It was very beautiful up there. Like all of the jewels of the world had been plucked and placed in the sky. 

“Yeah, Ani?” 

It took her time to speak. Finally, after debating a few sentences in her head, the pressure she felt from leaving the silence hanging pushed her until she blurted out, “you kissed me.” 

Alim’s eyes opened wide, both out of surprise and sudden fear that it had been the wrong thing to do. He knew women and he could tell she liked him, but he had just been so happy to see her and to have busted out of the cell. “Sorry…” he said, deflating a bit. “I was just...No, there’s no excuse. I apologize.” he remarked, unable to tell how she would react next. 

Anifaire’s jaw loosened in surprise, frowning quickly. She raised an arm, gesturing with it as she spoke hurriedly. “No! Um-” She paused. “I didn’t mean that I didn’t… I was just... surprised you wanted to kiss me.” She stopped, nervous he would think she wanted him to leave her alone, and her hand dropped back down to her lap. 

“I thought we were um…” he didn’t know how to react to this. She was obviously far more worldly since last they spoke. But she still seemed a bit sheltered, and he wasn’t sure how to approach this. “I thought we were getting closer? I...simply wanted to. Have you ever felt that before? The desire to kiss someone? It’s nice, right?” 

His brow raised and he gave her a charming grin, though there was an obvious warmth to it. “You know if you wanted to, we could kiss again?” 

Anifaire slowly broke out into a smile. She toyed with the hem of her shirt nervously, but nodded in agreement. 

“I would like that,” she said quietly. Her head tilted down, she had butterflies in her stomach. “I was only worried you only thought… you were only being friendly to me to be nice, or…” 

Alim smiled, chuckling at such an intelligent and beautiful woman being so sheltered. He reached up to grab a handful of lush elven hair gently, and he kissed her. With his other hand, he cupped her cheek. He’d never had a woman need to lean down to kiss him, but he found he didn’t mind. 

She never thought she would be kissing someone who wasn’t an Altmer, she realized, though it didn’t occur to her until she noticed how she had to lean down. That expectation, she realized, wasn’t something she particularly cared about. 

No, kissing Alim turned out to be perfect. As seconds trickled by, her muscles relaxed, and she leaned over closer to Alim, her hand digging into the soft, cool sand. The desert was lovely by night, she decided. It had grown on her.