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[fieryface]

"This isny Scotland," Jamie mutters to no one in particular as he flops down near the lake. The fair is being taken down at last, and it seemed a bit dreary to him, to watch it all come to pieces, so he wandered off towards the lake in search of somewhere cooler.

There's too much sun for it to be Scotland, that's what he thinks as he inspects his arms, which are definitely looking redder and more freckled than they did this morning. He can only imagine what his face is like. Speaking of which--

"Ah, shit." He hurriedly rolls over to retrieve Ursula's sketch from his pocket. Well, it only got a little bit crushed! He lays it down on the ground and tries to smooth it out. He doesn't want it, exactly, but it seems too rude by half to just throw away someone's hard work like that. He imagines what Meg would have to say about that.

So once it's smoothed out he just leaves it on the ground there, looking uncertainly down at his own face.

Comments

[likeroaringlions]

"Hey now, what's that?" William had flopped down too--a little more carefully, because he has a collection of things in his hands. But now he rolls over as well and has a look. "Ah, look at you! There, now you've got you."

He'd tucked the photos from Jim into his shirt; now he pulls them out and spreads them next to Jamie's portrait. "Different kind of paint, though. Or whatever it is."

[fieryface]

"Some kind of ink, she had." He looks at them side by side for just a moment or two before he gets embarrassed and flips his over. "Don't know what to do with it."

[likeroaringlions]

"Don't know what to do with mine either. Any of it." He waves a vague hand behind him, at the fair prizes and such he'd tossed onto the grass. "Have to keep it here, I guess. And you laughed at me when I said we could hide things here. --Let me see it again?"

[fieryface]

Jamie snorts. "Kept it near your heart like a sweetheart, so far." He hands over the paper, and he resists any urge to glance at it again as he passes it on. "Can't see the point of it and all. I know what I look like."

[likeroaringlions]

William studies it. "Aye, but not--it's not the same as looking at your reflection, is it. My mother has a mirror, you know? Never looks in it, but it's about as big as your hand, so dark you can't see anything anyway, it's like...it's like when you look at your face in the water but you can see all the pondweeds and the much through it at the same time..." He rolls his eyes at himself. "Anyway, you know what mirrors are."

[fieryface]

Yes, he knows what mirrors are. But he takes the point anyway.

"But there's portraits and all." He's a king, he's had portraits done. They were just done by politic painters who often as not left the birthmark off. "Anyway, what am I to do with it? Sit around and look at my own face?"

[likeroaringlions]

"Aye, if you're king there's portraits, but they don't really look like anyone. Not as much as this." He's still studying the face. "It's not exactly you, though, the way the pictures Jim made look so much exactly like the real things. --Anyway, I dunno, we'll put our stuff somewhere. Look."

He sits up and tugs over his winnings: a blue ribbon, a stuffed animal with a little hat. And the fan he'd bought, though he doesn't open it.

[fieryface]

Jamie reaches for the ribbon. "What's all this, then?"

[likeroaringlions]

"Won it, didn't I?" A self-satisfied grin. "From hooking ducks. Remember, I'm a born duck hooker. Did the best in the whole fair."

[fieryface]

He laughs. "And they gave you that wee bear, too?"

[likeroaringlions]

"Aye." He scoops it up and tosses it at James. "A wee soft bear with a hat on. What am I to do with that? It's yours if you want it."

[fieryface]

He catches it, just, though it also partly smacks him in the face.

"And what am I to do with it?" he laughs.

[likeroaringlions]

"Fuck me if I know. Give it to a girl? Give it to Meg? But she'd ask where it came from."

He's been holding Jamie's picture all this time, and only now remembers to toss it back to him.

[fieryface]

"Right, I can't be taking it back, can I." He ignores the drawing, opting instead to waggle the bear's little arms in what is maybe meant to be a threatening manner. "I'll give him a wee sword, call him William, eh?"

[likeroaringlions]

"Bear William. Bear Douglas, I like it. Well, he's all yours, I'm no taking it back. I saw the Hotspur there, getting prizes too. For a friend."

[fieryface]

He tosses the bear up and catches it. "Bit sad, isn't it? The Hotspur's meant to be-- I dunno-- fighting your family. --it was nice, though. The fair."

[likeroaringlions]

Yeah, it is a bit sad. William bristles for a moment, defensive: Hotspur is his find, his family's special enemy. He's glorious, all right? But yeah. It's a bit sad. "Fuck, if I end up here when I die..." He lies down again in the grass, staring at the portraits. "Aye, it was nice. People having fun. Playing games. No...ha. Ha!" He lifts his head suddenly. "That's what was funny, there wasn't any kind of bear-baiting, badger-baiting, dog fights, nothing like that. You know? No...no big crowd, all around to watch something..."

[fieryface]

"There was a bit of a show," Jamie says. "A man with a goat and a-- a thing-- I don't know what to call it, but fell right off, he did." Which was great. "But that's true, no big show, no big crowds."

[likeroaringlions]

"No..." No blood. No standing around with ale still on your tongue, watching someone or something bleed. "Funny kind of fair. But nice, aye, it was nice. Oh--oh, Jamie. I got something for me mam. I'll have to say it was from the castle, from Stirling, like. You know, someone come to sell French fans. Can't think why anyone would end up asking you about it, but..." But cover for him? Eh, it sounds stupid when he says it.

[fieryface]

"Ay, did you? Let's see it, then." He holds out a hand for it.

[likeroaringlions]

He's reluctant for a moment, for no reason he can think of, but sure, he'll hand it over. "It folds up, aye? And it's painted. It's--" Ugh, it's stupid. Getting something like that for your mother. "I couldny give it to any girl, you know? Thousand fucking questions. But my mother doesn't know anything, she'll believe it's from wherever I say it is."

[fieryface]

"It's nice," Jamie says. He can tell William is embarrassed, so he's careful to keep even a touch of teasing out of his tone. "She'll like it. Nobody in all Scotland will have anything like it."

[likeroaringlions]

"I just thought, I dunno, the last baby died and she's pregnant again already, might make her feel a little--" Ugh. What a stupid thing. "Nothing like it in Scotland, that's for sure. And it's, I dunno, it's got flowers, she likes flowers I guess? I mean--fuck it, she's the wife of the Earl of Douglas, she's allowed to have something a bit special! The fuck is the point of being the Douglas if you dinny get your lady a fucking fan or something? And there, now it'll be something in the family. Nothing like it in the whole fucking country."

[fieryface]

Ah, Christ. Poor Lady Douglas.

"Aye, it's true!" Jamie say heartily. "Tell her you had it out of France, think how she'll like that."

[likeroaringlions]

"Right! That's what I was thinking." He reaches to take the fan back again, still embarrassed but somewhat relieved. "But where should we keep the rest of this? We could get one of those rooms they have."

[fieryface]

Jamie bids thoughtfully. "Aye, aye, maybe we should. Don't need but one between us."

[likeroaringlions]

"Right. Just a place to put things, a place for a kip now and then. We'll go ask that Bar of theirs what it costs to keep one, aye?"

[fieryface]

Jamie nods. "Aye, we'll do that. Canny think how I'll get the money to pay for it, but-- I'm the king, I can have what I like, eh?" He laughs as he says it.

[likeroaringlions]

"I brought in a few things--pair of gloves, a dagger with a stone in the hilt--and traded them to the bar for credit, right? Something you can say you lost if anyone asks. --And aye, you're the king. You can have what you like."

He shares the laugh, ruefully. Supposed to have whatever they like, the king and the Douglas heir, except don't they half get in trouble when they try.

[fieryface]

"Oh, aye, just mad wee James, losing his things--" He knows that's not fair, it's a good idea. "But we'll do that. That's a good way, we'll do that."

[likeroaringlions]

William reaches over and swats at his arm. "I was thinking of myself. Hear it all the time from my dad, don't I? Losing things, not taking care of them, when he was my age he didn't have a pair of gloves to lose, am I sure I didn't give it to some whore, all that. --You are a wee mad James, though, no denying that." A big grin.

[fieryface]

He swats back. "If I am, you shouldny say things like that. Might be I'll just snap on you."

[likeroaringlions]

"You're no that type." He's not. It's Jamie, he has nightmares that don't always go away quick, but--it's Jamie.

William yawns and stretches back on the grass, arms folded behind his head. "Did you have any of those pies?"

[fieryface]

"Oof, aye." He flops back, too. "Too many, maybe."

[likeroaringlions]

"Girl selling them liked me."

[fieryface]

"Oh, did she? How do you figure that?"

[likeroaringlions]

"You can always tell, can't you? It was in her smile. And I made her laugh. Girls like that."

Okay, so the girl in question was a good ten years older than him, and he is obviously, blatantly, full of shit. But he's pretty sure she hadn't not liked him!

[fieryface]

"Yeah, funny, isn't it? How every girl you meet just falls in love with you."

[likeroaringlions]

"Poor things. They can't help it, I can't help it. Victims all of us."

He scratches his belly, yawning again. "Want to go in, see about that room?"

[fieryface]

"What now?" Then again, he's hot and sleepy, and doesn't much fancy falling asleep in the grass. "Yeah, alright."

[likeroaringlions]

William's thinking much the same, that it's the end of a warm day and something cold to drink and somewhere softer to lie down might be nice. So he groans and grumbles up onto his feet, and reaches out a hand to help Jamie up.

[fieryface]

Jamie takes William's hand and hoists himself up with a groan, and once he's up, stretches, reaching his long, skinny arms up to the sky.

"Right, then." Oh, right. He stoops to retrieve the drawing. He hesitates, then offers it to William. "You want it?"

[likeroaringlions]

"--Yeah, all right." He takes it, awkwardly-casually, and folds it in with the other two pictures. "Keep all this in our room, anyway, when we get one. And your bear. It's your bear now, I amn't taking that thing back."

[fieryface]

Jamie clutches the bear to his chest dramatically. "I wouldny let you! Wee William is mine now."