Night Watch I: Eliza, Ward of Andrew
What the fuck was he doing?
*Andrew’s POV*
It was the Day before the cursed festival of some stupid god or another, and I couldn’t sleep. Images of someone’s grubby hands all over Eliza’s chest filled my mind, and I couldn’t shake them.
I was determined to win Liza’s dance if it took every silver, every gold I had. Shit, even if I had to take out a loan. Brad knew I was good for it; I was a ranked Night Watch Officer with decent savings…
But what if it wasn’t enough? What if someone had some huge amount of money ready, and he was just waiting, eyeballing my woman from afar? What if Ashley won!?! I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut to try and force out the image of the two of them dancing, smiling merrily. Ash’s brown eyes glinted with nefarious, sexy-type thoughts.
No! It couldn’t happen! My wings shivered, my nerves overwrought. I was tired, but I couldn’t stop my mind from cycling over and over the possibility of failure.
Unable to take it any longer, I got out of bed, trying not to wake Eliza, and popped a kilt on. If I couldn’t sleep, I’d go take a fucking dump. I didn’t really need to, but I had to do something, and that was all I could think of.
Afterwards, I still felt restless. Feeding the cats an extra meal didn’t help any. I took a seat in the back room and just watched Eliza sleeping. Gods, I loved her.
*Eliza’s POV*
Andy was going on and on about how he didn’t want to go to the festival on our Night off, that he didn’t like large groupings of people, that he hated having to put on ceremonial garb just so that he could be auctioned off like some kind of prized cow. He seemed to be preening an awful lot for someone who supposedly didn’t like getting dressed up.
I refrained from pointing out that Blasko had given us the following Night off as compensation. Naturally, however, I had to mention that Andy was much more like a prized bull, with a temperament to match. That got a reluctant smile. I could tell he was going absolutely insane with jealousy, he was acting just as fussy as he did when he got really hungry. Everything I tried on was too scandalous for his taste, he kept persuading me to change tops.
By the time I was dressed, Andy was primping in front of the mirror, putting on his full, ritualistic war paint. He looked rather the way he had the Day we had met. War paint was something I hadn’t done myself before, the Watchmen didn’t really follow the practice in Merry Willows. “Am I supposed to do that too? Or is it just for Officers?”
Andy didn’t pause in the careful application of kohl to his eyes. “Probably would increase your fetching price. So, no.”
I snorted. Fetching price? “So I should go buy some rouge and lady’s cosmetics from Jeffree instead?”
Andy scowled at me, a comical effect when he was only half made up to look fierce and menacing. “No! Never mind… You can borrow my stuff instead.”
Dubious, I approached the mirror and watched Andy try and avoid poking out his eyes as he made little black bursts around them. “Is the design uniform, or am I supposed to have my own?”
“You invent your own. I guess I hadn’t thought about it. Just do whatever comes to you, you don’t have to keep a design if you want to change it later.” Hesitantly, I followed Andy’s cue and made big, black circles around my eyes. “You look like Ashley.”
I groaned. “There has to be more? Like, fancy shit?”
Andy tried to feign like he didn’t care. “Only if you don’t want to look like Ashley…” I watched him draw a line over the bridge of his nose, and wondered where in the nine hells such a tradition had come from?
I looked at my face in the mirror. “Is it supposed to be attractive?”
Andy frowned again. “No, definitely not. Definitely not attractive. At all.”
I chuckled. “Well then, seems you’ve failed, Second Officer.”
He rolled his eyes at me and continued grooming himself diligently.
*Andrew’s POV*
I felt like an idiot, putting on my traditional war paint and getting armed to the teeth, just so that I could cut enough of a convincingly commanding figure that someone would want to dance with me. I fished out some feathers from my dresser and fastened them to my hair absently.
At least Eliza had relented and agreed not to bid on the dance with me. That way, I knew I had all my funds to bid on her dance! She clearly thought I was a testosterone-fueled, sexist idiot with a double standard, but I thought I’d made plenty enough progress lately. I didn’t intend to let her dance fall through my fingers!
I felt a little ashamed when it briefly occurred to me to squeeze Eliza’s trigger spot before she went up to auction, just to increase my chances of winning. I mean, I was desperate, but I wasn’t cruel! I resolved to try and be less of a dickhead (though I would still win) as I fastened a little rodent skull to one of the epaulets on my vest with some twine.
I adjusted my hair a little, then turned to see if Eliza was finished with her war paint. Hopefully she looked absolutely terrifying.
I was disappointed when she turned around, looking hopeful, and appeared just as beautiful as usual. Hmph. “How’s that?”
I fussed with the seam in my painted-on pants. Eliza had insisted they were more flattering and goaded me to wear a pair. I had only caved to the suggestion because I’d grown accustomed to no longer being afraid that my nethers would get exposed with a single, clumsy move. “Fine. Let’s go.”
*Andrew’s POV*
Eliza and I stood by the stage, now doubling as a bloody auction block, and I was having a fit. What was going to happen? What if nobody bid on me? What if everyone bid on Eliza and I couldn’t afford it?
For that matter, why was Eliza talking to Ashley? I adjusted my hair and willed myself not to butt in, but it was difficult. Apparently it had just been some manner of social nicety, as they didn’t talk long before she came to stand near me on the proverbial chopping block.
Eliza had better common sense than to be mooshy in front of most of the Village before the bidding, but she gave me a sympathetic look as the Voice of the Council took to the stage in his full, elaborate dress. Ugh.
Everything happened in a blur, I was so nervous. I watched as the assorted causes were announced, and a bunch of dances with Assassins were bid on. Apparently we were expected to parade back and forth during bidding. Great, just great. All the catcalls were just bonus icing on the shit cake.
My anxiety heightened when the Watch and the funding drive were declared. They started with Gerard from the Dawn Watch. The Day Watch put up Lizzy and Simon. The Dusk Watch had Ashley to represent, and the crowd went wild with an Officer on the block. Mizuho, the Dusk Watch Initiate, also brought a decent price.
I knew the Night Watch had put up the most Watchmen, being that it was Blasko’s damned idea in the first place. Michale, Whiplasher, Otep, and Doyle went by with me hardly noticing, I was so edgy. My breath caught as I heard Sebastian announcing my turn. “… is the second, Second Officer of the Night Watch…” I tuned the rest out as I walked on stage, mildly irritated. At least everyone would already know that Eliza was my ward and would be nearby for any and all dancing activities. Hopefully that didn’t lower my take too greatly…
Despite myself, I preened a little and marched around, trying to present a convincingly warrior-like, yet good-at-dancing, front. It took effort not to look back at Eliza once bidding started, so I just opted to ignore the specifics of who was bidding what.
Every time I heard a bid, I’d smile and look pleased. When Sebastian would ask if there were more, I theatrically put my hand to my ear to rile the villagers. The bidding was going fast, and had started to get pretty high! I puffed out my chest with pride and grinned, satisfied, as the price started to exceed even my hopes.
“Thirty gold!” What?!?
I turned, shocked, just like everyone else, only to see that Ashley had made the bid! My eyes nearly fell out of my head!
What the fuck was he doing? He would give all those girls in Training ideas! Already I could hear their delighted giggling. “
Going once, going twice… sold to Second Officer Purdy!” Sebastian was grinning ear to ear. “Second Officer Purdy, I’m afraid your dance with Second Officer Andrew will have to wait until after…”
I zoned out. I had to dance with Ashley? What in the nine hells had gotten into him?!? Completely befuddled, I walked off the other side of the stage, before turning to watch Eliza. I couldn’t get distracted; I had to win!
The moment bidding started, she bent over double, laughing about something someone had said, and her chest practically fell out of her shirt! Inflamed, I made a bid much higher than the last, wanted to nip it in the bud. “Ninety coppers!”
Acey, the variety store clerk, dared to top that! “Three silver!”
I didn’t hesitate. “Forty silver!”
“Fifty silver!” What? But Ginger was married, why was he grinning like that?
Again, I boosted my bid considerably, I was losing my patience. “Ninety silver!” There was some reaction from the crowd, but I didn’t care. I was going to win if it impoverished me!
A voice I knew all too well piped up. “Two gold!” Blasko, that crafty son of a bitch!
“Ten gold!” I frowned, thankful when I didn’t hear anything right away.
But it seemed I had been thankful too early. “Eleven gold!” Blasko! Bastard!
He had to know I wouldn’t let him win, but I didn’t care! “Fifty gold!” Shocked gasps echoed through the crowd, but I paid them no mind, only listened for more bids. I had fifty gold, and more; I wouldn’t give up on a chance to have Eliza’s first dance.
Sebastian looked at me, half surprised and half amused. I didn’t dare look at Eliza, lest she was mad at me. “Going once, going twice... sold to Second Officer Andrew!”
I couldn’t help but smile like a lunatic as Sebastian kept talking. “Since you have another dance owed, Andrew, to Ashley, and Ashley has a prior dancing partner as well, perhaps the ‘dance of the Second Officers’ should occur second?” I nodded enthusiastically as Eliza walked down from the stage towards me. By her expression I could tell she was trying to be annoyed, but that she loved every second of it.
I stood close to her, my heart aflutter like a teenager’s, as a few other causes put their Fae up for auction. I wasn’t interested. I had all I cared about right next to me.
*Andrew's POV*
Once everyone started to disperse for a few minutes while the music troupe finished getting set up, I resolved to ask Ashley what the deuce he had been thinking. But Eliza caught my arm first. “Hold up, I know where you’re going. There’s no need to try and beat Ashley to death, Andrew. I put him up to it.”
My mouth fell open mid-protest. “What?”
She grinned. “I agreed to not bid on you, but I didn’t agree not to have someone else do it for me. I’m afraid you’re going to have to dance with me twice, Second Officer. That is, unless you’d rather dance with Ashley-“
“-Not a chance.” I looked into her vibrant, green eyes and decided that I didn’t care if we were in front of a bunch of Watchmen. Technically, this was our Night off. I gently pulled her to me and planted my lips on hers, warmth and happiness blossoming in my chest where, for so long, there had been only sadness.
When we broke apart, I was blushing, and so was Eliza. “We still need to go talk to Ashley, though.”
The cloud of happiness dissipated a little. “Why?”
She beamed at me guiltily. “I owe him thirty gold.”
*Andrew's POV*
I knew a little about how to dance, but Eliza confided in me that she really didn’t. I couldn’t have cared less. “When the song starts, just put your arms around my neck, and shuffle back and forth with your feet. It definitely helps if you look besotted with me and stare dreamily into my eyes.”
Eliza chuckled. “I think if I do that, we’ll have to leave before the song ends, and I’m afraid I insist on getting that second dance I paid for, fair and square. Well, fair-ish.”
I just smiled at her as I heard John start the opening chords of one of my favorite songs. It was an ancient song, predating record, and the words made no sense at all, but I liked it instinctively. The lyrics were incredibly dark, but the rhythm was so damned catchy. As a small child, my mother and aunt’s names being a part of it had enthralled me.
I’d asked if Michale could take a song out before his dance to sing it, I felt he sang it best. And I wanted my first dance with my woman to be perfect.
“Ooo…Ooo…” I wrapped my arms loosely around Eliza’s waist and grinned self-consciously at her. “Whoaohhh…Ohhh…”
“There’s fifty-two ways to murder anyone,
One or two are the same,
And they both work as well…”
Eliza grinned at the morose words, but started swaying in time to the music. Her eyes were such a beautiful green… Like the most expensive jade I’d ever seen.
“…I’m coming clean for Amy,
Julie doesn’t scream as well,
And the cops won’t listen all Night…”
Michale’s crooning voice, John’s clean downward picking, were all just as I’d hoped. I couldn’t help myself, and I started to sing quietly along.
“…And so maybe, I’ll be over,
Just as soon as I fill them all in…
And I can remember when I saw her last,
We were running around and having a blast,
But the back seat of the dry vin,
Is so lonely without you,
I know when you’re home,
I was thinking about you,
There was something I forgot to say,
I was crying on a Saturday Night,
I was crewzing without you,
They were playing our song,
Crying on Saturday Night.”
Eliza just listened, smiling gently. After a moment, she rested her head on my shoulder, and I kept singing unobtrusively.
“As the Moon becomes the Night time,
You go viciously, quietly away,
I’m sitting in the bedroom, where we used to sit and smoke sig are ets,
Now I’m watching, watching you die-“
Eliza looked up at me, smiling. “You have maudlin taste, Andy.”
I just grinned and kept dancing, barely moving, happy just to have her in my arms. Michale sang, “… I was thinking about you…”
I bent down to Eliza’s ear, so she alone would hear. “I love you, Liza.”
I felt her hold around my neck tighten a little as I moved my head back. Her eyes were so bright, I could see the stars of the Forest reflected in them. “I love you too, Andy.”
We kissed softly as the guys finished the song.
“…They were playing our song,
Crying on a Saturday Night,
Yeaahhh…
Crying on a satuday Night
Crying on Saturday Night”
This had turned out to be the best Night off ever.
4/15/17