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It was a common slip of the tongue for Laurance, but he still cringed each time he caught himself.
"Good morning, my lov— gah, my Lord."
Aphmau laughed politely into her hand, stepping through her front door that Laurance had kindly opened for her. Jiggy bounded out excitedly behind her, panting already. "Good morning, Laurance..."
"I swear, it's as if they made those words so similar purely to punish me," Laurance muttered, attempting to lighten the blame on himself. Aphmau could almost give it to him... she rolled her eyes, fondness tugging at the corners of her mouth. Laurance shut the door behind her after she’d forgotten without comment.
As Aphmau walked past her guard and her dog, Laurance eyed the beast, mouthed, ‘don’t’... and Jiggy promptly lunged at him, with enough force and surprise to nearly knock the guard over. “Ghk— Down, Jiggy!”
Jiggy had not an ounce of respect for Laurance, so he fell down onto his front legs once before bouncing back up excitedly. Laurance tried to carefully push the dog back down himself, but Jiggy only took that as in invitation to playfully nip at Laurance’s hands, forcing him to retreat. He scowled at his lady’s dog... and Jiggy’s tongue lolled happily out of his mouth.
Aphmau noticed her companions weren’t by her side when she reached the stairs, and twisted back to look at them, catching Laurance in the act of glaring at her dog. If it weren’t Jiggy, she’d take more offense to that, but she knew the dog could be a handful, and Laurance seemed to have trouble with even the best behaved pets.
“Jiggy!” She immediately had her darling troublemaker’s attention, and Laurance resented the dog for how quickly he heeled to Aphmau... not that Laurance could blame the creature. “Down, boy! C’mere!” She clicked her tongue at him to make him follow. “Don’t bother Laurance!”
Jiggy happily abandoned Laurance to chase after his mama, and Laurance rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, feeling all-too-humbled by a dog. Aphmau, noticing his discomfort, tried to bring Laurance back into conversation with her—that always cheered him up, right?
"What you were saying before— Punish you for what? And who is they?" She began her way down the steps to her village, Laurance trailing behind her, Jiggy on her left. She kept rambling on. "Did you make the same mistake with your old lord? I find it hard to believe you..."
Aphmau trailed off, regretting the words when she heard Laurance freeze a few steps behind her. Having not thought it through, she realized too late she was poking at a not-so-old wound... She winced and turned to apologize, but to her surprise, Laurance was close behind her—and grinning.
"Lady Aphmau, the man I called my father and Lord was many things," he said, circling around her as he kept their faces close while he passed her on the steps, "but a beautiful maiden, he was not."
In the few moments she was flustered, he took her hand delicately in his own and pressed a kiss to it, eyes twinkling devilishly. When Aphmau finally found her voice—"Laurance!"—he was already bounding down the stairs, metal clunking mixing with his laughter.
She huffed, then fell into laughter herself. "Hey! Come back!"
"Why don't you chase me for a change, my lady?" he looked back at her with a daring expression. Without dignifying him with a response, Aphmau smirked and bunched up her skirt in her hands. Laurance's eyes went wide and his grin went wider as he sped up to get away from her, their laughter echoing in the early morning for all to hear.
She pointed threateningly. “JIGGY! Get him!”
“W-wait, don’t say that! He will! APHMAU!—”