My hair is made into a long braid, the ends tickling my lower back. I change my mind many times on what I want to wear, and I decide on a simple light purple dress, that's long sleeved, and some warm pantyhose, paired off with black boots with buckles.
Where Quill resides, it's almost always cold, and I understand why he chose that spot; his entire pack run on a higher temp than the rest of us do. Quill comes back from speaking with my father, and heads back in my closet, pulling out a thick, flower-patterned blanket.
He wraps it around myself, kissing the tip of my nose as he does so.
That simple action, so casual, and out of nowhere makes my heartbeat faster, and the blood rush to my face.
Quill notices, his face switching from embarrassment, to teasing, as he kisses both of my red cheeks.
"S-stop, you tease!" I say, lightly shoving him back, as I wrap the blanket around myself.
"My darling, you are covered from head to toe in clothes, it might be a problem in walking. Why don't I carry you to the carriage?" he says, his face straight with no expression.
"I can walk perfectly fine! Please just lead the way, lest we waste more time."
Quill's face falls, but I can see the twinkle and mischief in his eyes. He turns around, holding on to my hand as he leads the way out of my room.
My maids curtsey, and keep their heads bowed, but I can see their smiles, and they way they peek at each other.
Quill leads me on, and the blanket covers my sight from most of the people, but I can hear them quickly stop talking, as they greet us.
"I swear, people have no lives if they spend their entire moments speaking about others." he says, and I hear nervous laughter, as if he's speaking to them directly.
I can't contain myself, and a small laugh escapes me. Quill turns around to me, and smiles, his green eyes lighting up.
"I've made you laugh, and I wasn't trying." He states, and I push him forward; why must he always tease me so?
When we finally exit my home, the carriage is around the corner, the horses waiting patiently. Quill steps forward, opening the door first, before helping me in.
I stumble, stepping on the ends of the blanket. Gravity almost forces me on my back, but Quill manages to catch me, shoving me inside the carriage. I land face first into the seats, pulling the blanket away from my face. I sit up, and glare at Quill, as he sits across from me, telling the driver to go forth.
He notices the expression on my face, and pushes a strand of my hair down that was sticking up.
"You seem upset, my dear. What seems to be the problem?" he asks, trying not to sound amused.
"I fell on my face, and my hair is all unmade!" I say, trying to smooth down the wild strands of hair that's coming undone of the braid.
Quill frowns, looking at me then my hair.
"Turn around, I can fix this." he says, and I do as I'm told, showing my back to him.
This time Quill's intake of breath is much more sharper; I chew on my lower lip in confusion. It doesn't make sense, the back of my dress just having nothing but buttons on it. It's high enough that it covers the entire back of my corset.
"Are you wearing a corset?" he asks.
"Yes, unless you think it's better suited, I go bare-breasted." I replied, and Quill is silent, the seat around him shaking.
I turn and see him laughing, his hand covering his mouth. I smile at him, then stop, rolling my eyes.
"Quill, please, just fix my braid." I say, folding the blanket, and placing it on my neck.
"Yes, my lady." he says, trying to sound serious.
I sit straight up as I feel him undo the braid, sectioning it off in three parts. He tightens the top part, then moving the three parts of hair faster and faster.
Even with the jostling of the carriage, Quill's braiding never falters. He finishes, and then ties off the bottom of my braid with a deep purple ribbon.
"There, my darling. All done."
I sit back on my seat, and stare at him, curious. He smiles, showing normal human teeth.
"We're in private quarters, yet you continue to call me endearing names. Why?" I ask him, looking up at him. Quill leans forward, as much as he can, and he cups my face with his hand, brushing my bottom lip with his thumb gently.
"Because you're going to be my wife. Even if it started out of something negative, I'd like to add as much positivity as I can." he said, and for a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me.
I thought he was going to break the rules of pre-marriage and kiss me.
But instead, he leans back, and sits back on his seat. "Sorry, there was something on your lip."
"I'm sure there was." I say, feeling the heat creep up on my face.
Instead of giving him the pleasure of seeing me blush because of his actions again, I look out the carriage window, watching as the trees, and the environment I grew up in pass me by. Soon, the scenery changes, more mountains coming into view, and wild animals creeping about. I don't notice the climate changing, until Quill gets up and seats me next to him, wrapping the blanket around me.
"It's going to get much colder from here on out. Please, sleep if you need to. We still have quite a distance to go." he says, wrapping his arms around me.
I'm aware that he is hugging me, and I can feel his breaths, the way his lungs move, his heart beating on my back. Does he know that his is matching mine? Or is that mine beating too loud.
"Thank you." I say, because though I've felt like I was being rude, up until now, Quill hasn't snapped at me the way I thought he would. I feel his lips dip down to the top of my head, as he lightly kisses me.
"It's no problem, my darling."
I did end up dosing off in the end. I felt warmth in my blanket cocoon, plus the added heat of Quill's body made me very cozy.
The temperature in Quill's land, New Puerto, was very cold. Snow packed and covered the green grass, and everything was in a cold wonderland. When I tried to detangle myself from Quill, I could feel the reluctance in him letting me go.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around.
People played or walked in the snow, food, and other merchants selling along the sidewalk. I watched then as more snow began to come down, a young girl laughing as she ran out, and stuck her tongue out to catch some fallen snowflakes.
"This weather is different." I say softly.
"Snow lasts two months longer here. Even in the spring, it's cooler. Perfect environment for my kind." Quill says, reaching out and grabbing my hand.
I'd forgotten my mittens, so my hands were chilled, the tips of my fingers frozen. Quill rubbed feeling back in them, grabbing my other hand and doing the same.
He'd gotten a bit more daring, maybe getting more comfortable with not only our roles with each other, but physically as well. It was normal for a husband-to-be to want to grab, and hold on to his wife-to-be.
I think it was how easy and how at ease it was for him to be this way. Even now, he kissed my fingers, lingering on my left ring finger. I was too distracted looking at the snow fall, that I didn't realize right away that he was sliding a ring on that finger.
When I felt the cool band touch my skin, I looked down, seeing a gold ring with a big blue stone on my ring finger. I stared in shock, looking back up at him.
"Now, you really can be mine." he said softly.