It's Called a Lance...Hello. [Gwaine]

[Rowan d'Auber]

Rowan was never one to miss a joust, although she would never not be annoyed about the fact that women were not allowed to compete. She was as good on a horse as any man (in her opinion anyway) and was quite convinced that were she given a lance she would be just as good at the joust. It was with slight disappointment and irritation that she watched the competitors, but it would take a little more than that to prevent her from enjoying it entirely. Who wouldn't enjoy some knights becoming hot and sweaty in armour? Well, perhaps Ciaran, who although he was enjoying the joust as much as she was, his enjoyment was probably for different reasons. She had been leaning against the wooden bar in front of her seat but she leant backwards in order to say something to her twin...only to find he'd disappeared somewhere...

She folded her arms across her chest. Well...she'd watch it by herself then. But how was she supposed to become emotional when Iwan won everything if she didn't have someone to get emotional to? It was all very selfish of Ciaran. Didn't he want to see their brother win? She let out a frustrated sigh before leaning forward against the bar again, resting her head in her hand. Rowan wasn't one for being by herself, even if she was only watching men on horses. Her reactions needed an audience...she'd just have to find one...

Tagged: Gwaine
Timeline: Series four
Location: Jousting arena

[thegwaine]

Jousting was one discipline that Gwaine had learnt to pick up on since becoming a knight. Given he had a year and a half of practice now under his belt, he was now at least not a complete pushover where his fellow knights were concerned. At least he’d known how to control the horse, he’d just had to learn how to hold the lance and direct his shots. For months he had just stuck to the sword fighting competitions, but all the knights had to learn how to joust and showcase their talents in public events, so here he was, showing off. Or more he would if Sir Owaine wasn’t his next opponent. Gwaine put down the visor of his helm and spurred his horse into position, and lined up his opponent. Oswaine had done the same, and there was now an odd sort of hush around the crowd, waiting for the first horse to make a move.

Levelling his lance, Gwaine pulled his horse into a quick gallop; making the first move was always his speciality after all. Gwaine kept his eyes firmly on Oswaine, and lowered his lance at the right point in over to hopefully knock his opponent off his horse. He didn’t close his eyes as the lance struck Oswaine, but he wasn’t knocked from his horse; Gwaine narrowly missed being hit himself. He had won the point at least, and that was all that mattered for the time being. Gwaine rode off to the side, discarding his now useless lance, and began to take off his armour; he wouldn’t be expected to joust until later anyway, and it was too warm today to walk round in his armour for the rest of the tournament. Gwaine ran his hands through his hair, and grinned as he looked over his shoulder to see Leon lining up for his joust.

The tournament today was to celebrate the engagement of King Arthur to Guinevère. Gwaine was happy enough to see that there was finally a ring on Gwen’s finger, another few months or so and Gwaine might have had to nudge Arthur in the right direction. Not that he would assume upon their friendship at all, but he could jest, and tell him to get a move on. Gwaine took a look at the crowd, and straight away a woman with her head on a bar took his attentions. Gwaine took his knightly duties very seriously, one of them was to look after the citizens of Camelot. Therefore it was his duty to brighten up this young ladies day. Walking up to her with unmistakable confidence, Gwaine sat beside her, “Forgive me for intruding my Lady, I couldn’t help but notice you looked a little lonely.” He grinned, “Would you allow me to change that?”

[Rowan d'Auber]

Now that the jousting was well underway, Rowan was becoming more than a little enthusiastic. She didn’t care that she wasn’t sat next to anyone she knew, whoever she was sat next to would just have to accept the fact that she was a very excitable young woman. She was still leaning against the bar, but she’d moved so her arms were folded and her chin was resting on her forearms. Every time the knights started charging at one another her fists started clenching and she bit her lip. Tension was not something she was good with. As soon as the men met each other, lances clashing against armour, she winced...alright, maybe she wouldn’t like jousting but she’d still be brilliant at it.

Her interest was piqued even further when the knight who had just finished his joust didn’t go over to where all the others were assembled. She furrowed her eyebrows. Where on earth was he going? Oh...he appeared to be coming towards her...she continued watching him – without his helmet he was rather nice looking, she certainly wasn’t complaining. Oh. He was actually coming towards her. Hopefully she wasn’t blushing. That would be horrendously embarrassing. She sat up and resisted the temptation to check that her hair was still in place. It was supposed to be in up with a few strands to frame her face, hopefully it still looked that way.

Rowan wasn’t particularly good at small talk, especially when handsome knights were involved. The majority of times she met people was when she was shouting for help after falling off something. She wasn’t so inexperienced that she was going to come over like some sort of over excited teenager. She was going to be...aloof...and mysterious. And she was going to bite the inside of her lip to stop herself smiling. “Why? Is there someone you could recommend?” That was good, wasn’t it? Witty? Maybe?

[thegwaine]

Gwaine was certainly glad to be out of his armour. It was one of Camelot’s better days today, and perhaps most would see it as a good thing, good weather to celebrate the engagement and suchlike, but for Gwaine it was just annoying. He used to crave good weather when he was a nomad, as good weather meant he had somewhere dry to sleep in the forest, and everyone’s moods were usually lighter, and somehow an ale always tasted better at the end of a long summers day rather than a winters one. That was getting off the point anyway, Gwaine was now itching for an ale now that the thought had entered his head. However, he wasn’t allowed to leave the arena to drink himself under the table as he had another match later on, but quite a few bouts later on, so he had quite a bit of time to fill.

The young woman was clearly going to take him up on his offer, then again, Gwaine wasn’t really used to being rejected, so of course she was going to accept his offer, and he could start working his own particular brand of charm upon the young lady in question. She was of course very beautiful, and he couldn’t imagine why he hadn’t noticed her before. No doubt there was some reason, but he couldn’t recall it, therefore it wasn’t important. Gwaine continued to just grin at the young brunette, this was going well so far, he could tell that much from the colour her cheeks had gone.

He chuckled at her retort, it was quite quick for a noblewoman, and he was suitably impressed. Of course he’d heard better, but he had also heard much worse. “Perhaps my Lady,” He took her hand, and placed a small kiss upon it, hoping that the bold move wouldn’t put her off too much. Some women were content to keep physical contact out of courting for a time, but others revelled in it, and he hoped that the lady in front of him belonged to the latter group. “I would be most honoured if you would allow me to keep you company.” He inclined his head a little towards her, “Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Sir Gwaine. What may I call you my Lady? But then, what name could do justice to such beauty?” He grinned a little, sometimes he was just too good, but he was enjoying the faint rose colour at her cheeks.

[Rowan d'Auber]

To say Rowan was relieved was probably an understatement – then again that was hardly surprising; most ways to describe Rowan were an understatement. It seemed her comment had been well received. Maybe she could be witty...or maybe this was just one of those once in a blue moon moments, and she’d never be witty again. Well, if it was the first and last time it was probably worth it as the man seemed amused and that was the main thing. She allowed herself a moment to reflect on her own intelligence before she felt herself definitely blushing. Oh this was horrible. She’d been trying so hard for aloof, ice queen and now she was just being red-faced embarrassment. The only way he couldn’t notice was if he was blind. Well. She would just have to carry on regardless. There was absolutely nothing that could go wrong now...

Really, it was all his fault. He shouldn’t have kissed her hand. Rowan was horribly unused to that sort of thing. Most of the conversations she had with strange men where when she had had a little too much to drink and had been on the verge of making an embarrassment out of herself so said strange man would be doing the gallant thing and taking her to either Kay or Iwan. What they definitely didn’t do was kiss her hand.

There must be a way of recovering her composure...well, if there was one nothing was springing to mind. She bit her lip again. Nothing witty was springing to mind either. Her previous comment had definitely been her once in a blue moon moment. “Surely you should be otherwise engaged?” She raised her eyebrows, but the rest of her body language was probably betraying her. “My company is all very well and good but it will not win you the tournament.”

Oh. He was grinning. Why did he have to have such a nice grin? It was really horribly distracting. Was she supposed to be replying...? Probably? It would help if he could just stop grinning. He had dimples! She mentally slapped herself. Aloof. “Lady Rowan d’Auber. Does that suffice?” See...aloof was going well...a bit.

[thegwaine]

The reaction he got from the kiss on the hand was one that he expected. The girl blushed, though she tried to hide it, and it amused Gwaine no end. He bit the inside of his mouth to stop him grinning so much, so this girl was perhaps not used to male attention, so he would have to be a little more gentle with his flirtations than he had been with some of the women previously in the Camelotian courts. That was no matter though, the woman seemed sweet enough, and he only intended to flirt with her a little, and leave her with a smile on her face if nothing else. Everyone needed a bit of Gwaine to lighten up their lives; though he’d been trying to convince Iwan of that for over a year now and he still didn’t understand it.

Gwaine raised an eye brow at her words, despite the blushing, the fact she brought the tournament so quickly into conversation hinted that she actually didn’t want him to be there. He hoped he’d misread that, as he was on complete form today, and would hate to think he had wasted time in-between spars on a woman who really didn’t want any attention. He was already enjoying her company anyway, so it was a losing situation for him if she brushed him off like he was nothing. “There are more important things than fighting, my Lady.” He winked at her, hoping to make her blush again at the very least.

“Rowan is a beautiful name, my Lady.” Iwan had defiantly heard the name d’Auber before, but he couldn’t remember where. Perhaps this was why everyone told him that he shouldn’t drink as much. If he didn’t, then he’d probably be able to remember things like this a lot easier, rather than being here not being able to remember where he had seen this woman before, or where he had heard her family name being mentioned. He was once again going with the philosophy that if he couldn’t remember then it wasn’t worth remembering. It would all be fine, he was sure. If any of it was important then it would reveal itself in time, he wasn’t going to insult the Lady in question by badgering her with these questions of course. If she felt unimportant, or like he had just stumbled across her then it would really ruin the effect he was going for. “Are you enjoying the tournament so far my Lady?”

[Rowan d'Auber]

Oh dear...he really shouldn’t have winked. And she should really learn to deal with male attention without becoming so...flustered. Not only was it far too embarrassing for words, it was hardly attractive. She didn’t particularly want anything more from this man than what she was getting already, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be anything less than her most attractive self. Hopefully, this meeting – and her survival of it – would help her later in life when she was actually trying to flirt with someone for a purpose. At the moment, it was just stressful, interlaced with moments of Gwaine being rather charming and Rowan being too easily affected. If he could just keep speaking and being charming that would be fine. Rowan would be able to cope with that a lot more elegantly as she wouldn’t be expected to give anything back. She could just sit there, spending all her energy trying to be composed instead of trying to be composed and witty and unaffected and it all going rather wrong.

Although Rowan was more than fairly certain that Gwaine was always flirting with whoever happened to take her fancy, she wanted to think that the exact opposite was true. It would be rather nice for this to be an irregular occurrence for both of them. If she was a little more naïve she might think that these “important things” were her – but Iwan had done a well enough job at making sure she didn’t continue with that line of thinking. No doubt “important things” could have meant any woman. Right now that happened to be her and although she should probably be more prudish, more reserved, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride with the knowledge that right now she was the only woman taking his fancy.

She leant forward a little and propped her elbow against the beam, chin resting slightly on her fist and tried to look sophisticated but the effect was probably lost. That was probably a mistake. It was no good trying to be sophisticated when she was quite so easily distracted by his face. Oh she was an embarrassment to her gender. “And I take it I’m one of those things...?” Even she was impressed by how even her tone had been then. When the words had first entered her mind, she’d been convinced she’d end up sounding desperate and melodramatic but no...she was getting better at this.

Or at least she was until he started talking again and said her name and said it was beautiful and all of her composure just gave up. How on earth was he doing this? Did he practice every day in front of a mirror? He was incredibly irritating...and handsome...and had really nice eyes...Rowan. This was not what she was going for. She was trying to look as though none of this was having the slightest effect on her, and although she’d been failing miserably so far, things had to get better eventually. “Certain aspects are...agreeable...and you, my lord?”

[thegwaine]

It really was too easy with some women, but that wasn’t a bad thing in the slightest. A lot of women in Camelot came with a sharp tongue and a bite to match it. Gwaine had learnt that very quickly since taking up residence in Camelot. Then again, there were women like Brynn that still blushed at him, but that he had learnt not to charm anyway, Brynn had let him know in her own way that she wasn’t interested, and now they were incredibly close. Rowan on the other hand didn’t seem to be giving him any sign of wanting him to stop, or leave her alone, in fact her reactions were being incredibly encouraging. Gwaine was sure that she wasn’t going to disappoint him, then again, it wasn’t as if he wanted to mess with the girls head, he just wanted to bring a smile to her lips, and enjoy himself in the meantime. He took up the seat beside her, as standing wasn’t really the best way to woo a woman and besides, he was drawing attention to himself while his fellow knights were below, bantering and jousting. Gwaine would have to go back to the jousting of course in a little while, but not yet; his listing wouldn’t be up for some time, so he had enough time to enjoy himself with Rowan. That was before the knights started shouting at him to get suited up. This wouldn’t be the first time that Gwaine let the situation run away with him; he had once nearly missed an entire tournament for the sake of a beautiful woman. If he said it was in the pursuit of love he would be lying, Gwaine just enjoyed the attention and the rewards it sometimes brought him.

He had to stop himself from grinning so much as she leant forwards, perhaps trying to appear alluring or entice him, or whatever it was that women tried to do to attract men. Gwaine had seen it before, but it didn’t mean that Rowan had done it before, so he appreciated the effort nonetheless, “It’s not as straight forwards as that my Lady.” His eyes danced as he grinned at her, “For it is many things about you which are more important than fighting.” He didn’t make a move just yet, as it was rather premature in the conversation for such things, and there was plenty of time, of course. “Most of all it is your smile, as it was beautiful enough to spot through these crowds.” It wasn’t his best line, but the aim was flattery, and Rowan was very beautiful so he was not lying.

Gwaine decided that he liked the rose tint to her cheeks, it made her look a little more lively, and even more beautiful. He nodded at her, and then looked across at the jousting, he could not imagine women finding some aspects of the joust easy to watch, as it was a watered down version of what one could expect to find on the field of battle, but still, “I enjoy jousting, but armed tournaments are more to my liking.” He grinned, “Are you here alone today my Lady?” That was partly out of polite conversation, but also for self preservation. Gwaine would not be caught here by some bad tempered, over protective father; he’d had enough of that in the past.

[Rowan d'Auber]

Although Rowan wasn’t naïve enough to think that Gwaine’s words were completely for her and she was the only woman to catch his eye, she also wasn’t experienced enough to remain unaffected. She was stuck between giggling and blushing like a fool or being aloof and mysterious, only neither of them was really working so actually, she was probably acting like a fool rather well. It would really help if he stopped grinning at her, it was terribly distracting. She pressed her lips together – it seemed to help Iwan when he was trying to refocus so hopefully it would have the desired effect on her.

“I see.” she replied, feeling slightly more confident now. She matched his grin, very much hoping that her cheeks had returned to their usual colour otherwise the effect she was going for would be somewhat ruined. “Well I hope it was not too distracting.”

She could have conversed at length with him about different types of fighting, the advantages of different weaponry (the result of only brothers) and of course boasted about her talent with a bow but it seemed Gwaine was in no mood to discuss such things when there were obviously more important things, such as whether or not she was alone. Technically, she wasn’t but she had absolutely no idea where Ciaran had wandered off to. He was probably doing the exact same thing as Gwaine was – flirting with some random woman to pass the time. If she was still alone she would be annoyed with him, but as she was fairly sure Gwaine wouldn’t have approached if he’d thought she was in male company she couldn’t be too annoyed at her abandonment. “My brother has abandoned me.” She replied with an exaggerated sigh. “My other brother is part of the tournament.” She replied with a grin, no doubt Gwaine knew Iwan – they were both knights after all.

[thegwaine]

Gwaine was quite enjoying his time away from the jousting ring. He had thought that the wait in-between his jousts would be quite boring; he had been quite naive to even think that really. He was never really at a loss to do, he just needed a push in the right direction sometimes. So far he was quite pleased with how this was turning out, Rowan was after all quite beautiful, what man wouldn’t be pleased to hold her attentions for a while? Gwaine wasn’t going to lead her on of course, she blushed too easily, which told him she was young and inexperienced. Gwaine wasn’t in the habit of hurting women if he could avoid it, and he knew when to stop. That was one of his many talents. Gwaine grinned at her, feeling a lot more in control of this situation than Rowan was. Well, that was to be expected of course. The young girl still had pink cheeks, which amused him. He loved having that effect on women, it was too easy sometimes, but Rowan had such an agreeable nature that he didn’t much care if she was blushing or not.

“It was eye catching enough to lead me here my Lady.” He winked at her, and took her hand again, placing a small kiss upon it, hoping it was not too much. He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb before realising it slowly, flashing her a little smile. He frowned a little as she told him that one of her brothers had abandoned her, and the other was taking part in the tournament. If this was the sister of one of his fellow knights then they wouldn’t be that happy with him. However, that wasn’t going to put him off, Gwaine liked to think of himself as having gained some morals since becoming a knight, so he wasn’t going to be too risky with his advances, “Would I know either of your brothers?” He asked plainly, looking around the stands.

He looked Rowan up and down, and decided that it was hard to charm a woman whilst fighting to be heard over the roar of the crowd, and whilst trying to avoid the sight of his fellow knights bashing each other black and blue. He didn’t feel threatened that Rowan’s head would be turned by any of the other knights of course. “Would you like to take a walk my Lady?” He asked gently, “Somewhere, a bit quieter maybe?” She could take it however she wanted, but this was only going to progress one way or another.