Linda quietly listened to Morthil's story— giggling a little at his dry humor and nodding acceptingly at his struggles. She wasn't one to judge others— Morthil would be quick enough to learn that, if the fact that she was caring holistically for a talking cat... elf... person, and a goblin, wasn't already proof enough.  She waited patiently for him to finish his story, before sighing a wistful sigh. Poor thing. She couldn't possibly know what sort of 'pranks' he got up to in his past life, but it was quite the punishment to be branded as something you hate.

"Trouble courts trouble, to be more accurate— Trust me, I would know." Linda explained, nodding to herself at her wise words as if rather impressed that she had said them. "My father-- may he rest in peace-- was a leviman... and a bit of a gold shark. As a younger girl, I never really understood how his tax hikes on the imported goods he traded caused a lot of the poverty in our hometown-- I was always just happy to never really want or need for anything. He'd pushed a bit too much of an outrageous price hike on wares one day... and we were chased from our homes for it. We... we were ambushed on the road to Ketra by goblins. I was captured, and he... well. He didn't make it." Linda closed her eyes, offering a momentary prayer to the departed. She had no allusions of her father now, as a grown woman; He was a corrupt man, and she had been a pampered, oblivious child because of it. But regardless of what he'd done... he was still her father. "If it wasn't for Goblinda, I probably would've spent the rest of my life in a goblin lair."

Taking a finger to her chin, Linda pivoted the subject a bit-- growing uncomfortable at the very thought. "I'm sorry to say I'm not terribly familiar with elven culture, or elven magics besides. Didn't seem like our hermit was very clear on it either... So I might not be able to help you with your little... um... kitty conundrum." She fought (and lost to) a slowly-spreading smile on her lips. Who could blame her? Unfortunate as his story was, the fact that he'd been turned into an... an orange cat, was just...

*NOM*

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Lin..."

A familiar prickling sensation set upon Morthil-- though this time not at his neck, but the back of his furry little head. Indeed; while they talked, Goblinda had finished off the steak in her mouth, and, on pure instinct, gone for another steak-- a cat steak. A cat skull, to be more precise, but it didn't seem like the little green goblin could tell the difference. Not at first, at least. But before Linda could make it to the table and back with another steak, the Goblin had already spat out the poor thing, leaving the run of the back of his head and neck covered in goblin saliva. Which was like human saliva, but... more... saliva-y.

A sigh of relief escaped Linda's mouth. Well, at least she didn't TRULY have to worry about her eating him. Just maiming, apparently. "Sorry, on her behalf... she's usually a lot better about her table manners." The woman attempted to explain, nonsensical as the explanation was.

"There you go doing that again," Fletch tutted at him. "So sure I'm going to get bored and up and leave you." He tilted his head up a little more and frowned at Theo as if to challenge the notion, eye darting back and forth between the man's. Then he shook his head resignedly and sighed, shifted, and sat up to slide off the bed. "Alright. Well. I need a smoke," he said as he began to dress himself. "Just the balcony. Won't be long."

Theo watched with his own heart hammering in his chest. He was so sure this was going to be a rejection, that he was going to be told he was a means to an end or that he was forever mean t to be a challenge, a tryst, and a secret. He hardened himself, braced and prepared for it. 

So when Fletcher admitted his uncertainty rather than his damnation, Theo needed a moment to dip his head and collect himself. His beloved did not need him gushing and throwing himself at him in this moment. He needed his own reassurance that was gentle and soft and straight to the point. It took a moment to collect those words but when the nobleman raised his gaze it was filled with conviction. 

"I am yours until I am no longer what you want. And I will wait as long as it takes for you to find what brings you peace, no matter how many different tries it takes to figure it out. I just want you to know I will not be the one to make you fight for survival each day...or bear the burden of my own happiness and path. I will not make myself into your cage, Jack. But, it's also okay to not know now, tomorrow, ten years from now. Just...promise to tell me when you know, even if I'm no longer part of it. That's all I ask of you."

Fletcher's face fell, and his eye slid from Theo to the bed. It wasn't the first time he'd been asked this. The last time, he'd brushed it off. This time, he ruminated on it. But still he had no answers. "I don't know. I don't...I don't know."

He faded back into memory, head hanging lower and lower and his expression shifting subtly as he paged through year after year of his life. For most of it, he'd assumed he was destined for an untimely death. For the rest, he'd been preoccupied with someone else's. Had he ever truly known? Slowly, his gaze rose to meet the man's again. The afterglow had left him, now, and he was solemn as the grave.

"Love, you've got to understand that this is all new for me. I've never been asked what I want like this. It's always been survival. Just making it to the next day, trying to hurt people before they hurt me. No prospects, no future. And after that, it was fixing things. Watching...watching a man slowly cave in on himself and die. Being a shoulder for him. Even when he was gone, and I had the whole world, all I've done with it is be angry and hurt more people. That's how we met. That's why I knocked you over. That was me chasing a man with the intent to beat him. And this is the first time that it's ever felt like it could be any different. So...I think maybe I'll have to get there before I know what that is. If you'll have me until then."

Morthil sighed, sulkily lying in the goblin's grasp with eyes that looked ready to murder someone. 

"She can do what now?" Morthil incredulously asked.
"Practically heal herself by taking a bath? Why doesn't she just carry around an empty barrel and pray to the gods that it's raining."
Despite his outwardly annoyed and potentially ticked off demeanor, inwardly he thought the goblin that had him in an iron grip was cool. He wasn't about to say that though. 

Linda came back with two steaks and Morthil really hoped one was for him.
Luckily one was.
"Thank you. For taking care of me and giving me food."
But now there was a problem. He only had one paw and the other was injured. 
He managed, and in between bites of steak he answered Lin's questions. He owed her that much at least.
"Oh? What gave it away besides the fact that I can talk in this dratted form?" Morthil wryly asked.
"You are correct, I'm not human either. I...well...I'm an elf. When I was younger I was a prankster...too much of a prankster, for I got cursed to shift into the form of the creature I hate the most...a cat." 
Morthil finished the steak but not the bone, and started to clean his paw the best he could. 
"I had finished a job in that last village and laid low for a couple of months...seems I attract trouble wherever I go."

Linda's face reflected her puzzled mind as she closed her eyes and thought on the question that the strange cat-creature had presented. She pondered for a good moment, as if working through a right proper response... before shrugging with a smile. "...Maybe!" She happily replied, as she went to grab another beef steak. Despite her small stature, Goblinda was making considerable progress through the one that had been stuffed in her mouth prior— it wouldn't be long before she was biting at the air— and potentially the cat— once again.

"I honestly wish I could say that this was normal for her... but I'm not really a goblin expert, and even among their kind, Lil' Linda's a bit of a... well, an oddity, as I'm sure you've probably guessed by now."

Goblinda gave a reassuring squeeze to the floof pillow that was Morthil; almost as if unconsciously agreeing.

"She has... a unique? Physiology. She's a lot stronger than any other goblin I've ever met, and she can shrug off fatal wounds by just... well, bathing. It's all very, very weird." Linda had made her way back toward the bed, this time with not one but two steaks. One, obviously, was for the ravenous Goblinda, who was near to finishing the first— bone and all. The other, with a little finesse, she was able to place closer to Morthil— yet still far enough away from Lin's mouth to prevent her from being too greedy. "You must be hungry as well, no?" She asked kindly, a gentle smile on her face as she went to sit back down. "While we wait for your... 'captor', to wake up, why don't you tell me more about yourself, if you're comfortable with me asking? You're certainly not a cat... but I don't think you're human, either. At least, the hermit I asked to examine you two didn't think you were."

He crinkled his nose and made such a face. "The beach does not require two moons either. I'm pale enough to be easily mistaken for one."

Theo quietly nodded to the rest, brain clearly turning the ideas over and over like rocks in a tumbler getting polished. When he did speak it was with great hesitancy and focus. He sat up on his elbow to face Fletcher better and give the man his full attention. 

"But what if your life? Is partnered with a Baron really what you want? You don't like the noble life from what I've seen. Would you be Captain of your own ship? Would you stay here? I may make you happy—I want to make you happy, but what thing of substance will sustain you? You don't have to know yet anymore than I do but...something to think on I guess."

Fletch smirked. "Good. Smart. Because it sounds fun and romantic until you've got sand going up your backside, let me tell you."

He thought on what he'd said about planning. "The first bit, maybe not. I know it's not wise. Maybe it's just me wanting to hurt what's hurt you. The status bit..." He shifted to prop himself up a little better. "My first thought is forgery. Manufacturing a scandal for — was it your cousin? But I think, when you're ready, I'll need you for it. I can do the dirty work, but you're the sharp one, here. You'd have to advise me. Otherwise it's me taking shots in the dark and messing everything up even worse. And...it's your life. You should call the shots on where this goes. And how much damage you want to risk, and to who."

Theo smiled back. "I am...the same. I've never thought of anything outside of the cage in so long. It's...scary, I admit. But, with you it feels worth it. It feels possible to plan let alone dream. And I'd be lying if I didn't say I was terrified of it."

He stole another set of little kisses and hummed softly. "Do I even want to know how you'll rub it in her face? Or get my status as heir reinstated?" Tweaked Fletcher's chin but grinned tiredly all the same at him.

"I want to go to the beach at night with you. See the stars and listen to the waves until you're complaining about how cold you are. Come home and...warm you up."

What didn't he want to do? He'd be lying if he said he hadn't imagined everything under the sun already. He tilted his head and frowned at the sudden realization that he'd been thinking of their future together. When had he ever done that before for anyone else? Every other time, even with Ven, he'd just taken what was given to him and lived in the moment and never allowed himself to want anything more.

"Sorry," he laughed as he came back to the present, to Theo waiting lovingly and expectantly. "I...just realized I've never had this conversation with anyone in my life. But you've got me thinking about things I've never really let myself want." What he didn't say was that a part of it scared him. How would he, free man and wanderer and rogue, cope with being locked down and tied to another's fate? Theo clearly didn't want him sleeping with anyone else. Was this going to feel like another prison? But that was for way down the road. That wasn't for now. He shook the thought from his mind and tried earnestly to answer.

"Let's see. When you're no longer engaged? Rub it in her face, of course. I'm not above kicking someone like that when they're down, and I think she needs a little humbling. After that...find a way to line this up so you're free when the bastard kicks it. After that, though...I think I want to see you how you were at the night market. I think I want to get into a little trouble together. And maybe show you why traveling isn't all it's cracked up to be," he added with another little laugh. "Can't tell you how done I was with sleeping on the ground after months of it. Hard to romanticize the notion when you wake up shivering and covered in bugs. But maybe that's a thing you should learn for yourself."