The Happy Couple (Tag: Alidia and Rahim) rated M

Ruth was dancing in her room. She dreamed of her masked Padriac. She dreamily sighed. "Oh Padriac...why hide your well-chiseled face...and your eyes..." she swooned as she landed on her bed. "like mirrors into the soul..." she was home alone as she fell asleep dreaming of her and Padriac. She smiled.

The next morning she came back wearing a summerdress and sandals. She carried a basket. "Padriac...I'm back..."

Padriac was up early that morning.  He had been working on making his place more hospitable.  It wouldn't do to have Ruth come in there and see it a mess.  Technically, composers usually were disorganized, but he wanted to present himself as better than that.  He perked up when she called for him.
"Ruth!  Glad to see you again.  What's in the basket?" he asked when he saw that she had come bearing gifts this time.

Ruth opened her basket as she set the table with sweets, lunch and some wine. "I hope you don't mind..." she poured the wine into two wine glasses. She raised her glass. "To an awesome friendship..."

"Here, here." Padriac agreed with her.  He took a drink from his glass.  It tasted quite wonderful.  Must have been a good year.
"Splendid.  What else did you bring in that basket?  I haven't had the opportunity to eat yet today." he told her, cheerfully.

She blushed as she drank her wine. "Umm I brought berries, sandwitches, veggies and some sweets. All homemade. Here try my strawberry tart." she picked up a tart and placed it in his mouth. She blushed more as her fingers brushed his smooth lips. She wondered what it'd be like to kiss them. But she shook her head. "What am I thinking..."

Padriac took a bite from the tart she'd given him.  She seemed to have a talent for cooking too.  It looked like Ruth had many talents.  He hummed in delight as he swallowed it.
"You know, you do have a touch for baking." he complimented her.  As he watched her face, he wished to reach out and caress her smooth skin.
'Wait, what am I thinking?  This is a friend I'm talking about.' he thought to himself.

Ruth smiled and blushed. "Thanks Padriac..."
"Ruth cut it out...you're blushing..." she shook her head again to clear it as she drank some more wine. She reached out for a strawberry and their hands touched again. "I'm so sorry..."
"His eyes...his lips...his touch..." she thought. "Earth to Ruth...come on...he can't feel the same way...can't he?"

"You're...welcome, Ruth.  If you like baking, maybe I can recommend another recipe for you to try." Padriac suggested.  He was suddenly feeling hot under the collar.  He thought at first that it was his cloak making him sweat, but even after taking it off, he was still unusually warm.
"Um, Ruth, do you have...anyone special in your life?" he asked, cautiously.

Ruth did a small chuckle. "My father keeps bring suitors but none aren't my type...it seems they only wanna marry me cause of my father's fortune but I am keeping my eyes opened for Mr Right..." she got up and placed some ice in her scarf and placed it on his neck. "Something told me you need this..." she loved the smoothness of skin. She moaned softly. "Oh Padriac..." she said quietly.

His smile was very evident.  He found himself so relieved that she wasn't spoken for.  Padriac reached out and touched her hand.
"I know how you feel.  I haven't found the right one for me.  But it's not because of so many women who are the wrong type, it's because of this horrid disfigurement." he said to her.

Ruth gasped as she dropped the ice as Padriac's hand touched hers. She quickly got down and started cleaning up. She half-smiled. "We have some much alike and you're not horribly disfigured you're quiet handsome..." she quickly closed her mouth and shyly continued cleaning. She blushed. "Did I really say that?" she wondered.

"Yes, you did.  But I wonder if you would think so if you saw what's under this mask." Padraic said.  Though it warmed his heart to hear someone call him handsome, that mask was always present in his mind.

"I was always told be my mother that true beauty is found inside and to trust your heart..." Ruth wrapped her arms around Padriac's neck. "Trust me when I say I'm never going to leave you...cause my heart beats loudly when you're near or when I'm home asleep I dream of us...I'm in love with you Padrica..." she faced his face and tilted her head and kissed his lips. She loved it. She moaned softly with the kiss. She pulled away from the kiss and closed her eyes and began singing and dancing.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard in his life.  Ruth was able to see past the fact that he wore a mask to hide a horrible disfigurement.  She was able to love him for the heart he wanted so much to share with the world.  He came up behind her and embraced her lovingly.
"I do need you, Ruth.  I need the sunlight you bring to my life.  Loving you keeps my spirit alive." Padriac told her, his voice hushed with emotion.

Ruth smiled as they shared another lovely embrace. "I will be your sunlight...If you be my knight.." she spun herself to face his eyes. She giggled as she caressed his cheeks and kissed his lips again.  She moaned softly with the kiss as she held herself close to him.

"As you wish.  I'll be your knight, Ruth." Padriac promised her.  He would be there for her.  It was then that he started to wonder if he should talk to her about his face and how it got that way.

Ruth held herself close to her beloved knight in shining armor. Then she gasped as she looked at time. "I'll be back tomorrow my beloved musical knight..."

She ran home. And when she opened the door she gasped as she saw her father and a young man. "Umm...hello..." Ruth curtsied. "Papa what is this..." her father took her hand into the young man's. "Ruth my dear meet your future husband...John." Ruth pulled away. "I'm so sorry John I know you mean well but my heart belongs to another..." her father's eyes widen. "Great news daughter...who is it?" Ruth shook her head. "I can't say..." then without warning she was grabbed and taken away. She cried out Padriac's name. And she was gone.

Padraic wondered what Ruth might be up to.  Against his own misgivings, he thought to follow her home.  He dragged along a rapier sword, just in case.
He was surprised when he saw her being dragged from her home.  She called out his name.  Knowing that she needed him, he raced after her.

Ruth heard horse hoofs following them and she looked and smiled. "Padriac..." she held out her hand of the carriage's window. "My knight...save me..." John looked at what/who his fiancée was calling to and gasped. "What a beast..." Ruth growled as she slapped him across the face "Padriac...isn't a beast he's a gentleman unlike you..." John told his driver to go faster. Ruth screamed as she was tied up and then gagged. "You will be my wife..." John said. Ruth's eyes showed fire. "Marry me or let him be beaten..." Ruth began to cry. She nodded. She'll marry him to protect her beloved. 

Padraic spurred his horse on.  He was almost upon them.  He drew his rapier and cut the reins needed to control the horses pulling the carriage.  Then, he unhooked the horses, slowing the carriage until it came to a stop.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded to know, dismounting his steed.

Ruth looked at him with sorrow and apologetic in her eyes as she looked at him. John smiled. "Haven't you heard that Ruth and I are meant to wed. But she doesn't love me; no, she's doing it for you...if me not to lay a finger on you...but she didn't say anything about my driver...Oh Wilson..." the driver pulled out a sword. Ruth gasped as she saw the driver running towards her beloved. She ran super hard and was stabbed instead of her beloved. She gasped for air and moaned. John gasped and began to drive off. She caressed her beloved's cheeks. "It doesn't hurt that bad...my knight..." her breathing began to get shallow.

"No, this isn't right.  If I could turn back time, I would.  I could have handled him, Ruth.  I would give up anything if it meant I could save you now.  I love you so much." Padriac babbled, finding it hard to stop talking.
All of a sudden, a ray of light seemed to shine over them.  He watched as his beloved's wound closed in on itself and disappeared.  There was a pins and needles feeling on the side of his face that was under the mask.  Then, without warning, the mask fell to the ground and shattered.
"Don't look at me.  I look horrible." Padriac said in despair, trying to hide his face from Ruth, unaware of the other miracle that had taken place.

Ruth looked at her beloved and removed his hands and gasped with joy. "Padriac...your face...it's not horrible...it's healed..." she smiled and giggled. "you're healed..." she grabbed his hands and began singing and dancing.

((OCC: anymore awesome pastlife ideas...we could do like a swan princess one...))

Padriac danced with her, unable to deny her this moment.  He wanted to find a mirror, to see for himself that his face was normal.  But he felt like he was meant to be there with Ruth.  As he twirled her around, he put his free hand to the side of his face that he had kept hidden.
Indeed, his face felt fine.  Those awful disfigured features were gone.  His face seemed perfect under his fingers.
"I can't believe it's real.  I never thought my face would be handsome, not after my mother's story about how it happened." he murmured to her.

(OOC: I think I might have some.  Do you remember that story Rahim told Alidia on their first night together?  What if the reason he liked it so much was because it was one of their pasts together, but he didn't make that connection until now.)

((OCC: I think so about the siblings who were separated at birth and a desert witch helped the brother. And he fell in love with her?))

Ruth smiled as they danced. "It doesn't matter my beloved cause this is our story...we are in control of it..." she looked into his eyes with hers. She brushed away some of his hair and kissed him as her foot lifted off the ground.