"Oh, look at that!" Rose said and pulled a pouty Laska along with her. Instead of the romantic walk Laska had set her mind on earlier, Rose had insisted on strolling across the many boulevards of Trademeet. Still, Laska wouldn't mind stepping over the marble and clean city ground of Trademeet... if only Rose wouldn't stop to gape at every shop-window. Right now, Rose had dragged the hapless elf to the window of a candle-shop.

"Take a look at that wrought-iron candelabra!" Rose smiled and pointed to a six-armed, richly adorned candle holder "That would look wonderful on the piano, don't you think."

"Huh?" Laska muttered.

"Hey," Rose swatted her lover in the belly. "Stop thinking about viciously slaughtering orcs."

"How'd you know I was thinking about that?" Laska asked.

"I know you," Rose said and pecked her lover on the cheek. "Shall we take a break, then? There's a coffee-place right over there."

"Thanks," Laska sighed. "You don't know how I need that right now..."

"You're not loving this, do you?" Rose gave her lover a half-smile.

"Well, being around you makes window-shopping bearable," Laska chuckled.

"Charmer," Rose smiled and noticed two passing men spent quite a bit of time staring at Laska. Rose immediately hooked her arm into Laska's and held onto her lover possessively, sending the men the right signals : Back off, you don't have a chance.

Meanwhile, Laska saw the coffee-bar come into view, and saw in it a release from the torture she was forced to endure. Oh, she enjoyed spending time with Rose, and loved being with her... but what she didn't like, was being forced to wait and watch every shop-window again and again and again. And already, she felt Rose tug on her arm as she was being dragged towards yet another window. This time, however, Laska managed to escape, ironically, by finding a shopping window she liked.

Like a moth to a flame, Laska was drawn to a window of a smith. There, a great number of ornate and strong steel swords and other assorted weapons were proudly displayed. Unfortunately, her glee was short-lived.

"LASKA!" Rose called from the other side of the street.

She offered one last wistful look at the swords, while muttering a curse to express her displeasure of having to stare 15 minutes at a candelabra and spending all of one second staring at an object she actually liked.

"Look," Rose pointed at the window. Inside of it, was a long white gown. It was low-cut and had a long split on either side of the legs.

"Nice," Laska said. "But don't you have enough dresses already?"

The elf gave Rose an appraising look. Today was one of the rare days Rose was actually wearing a pantsuit, though those days grew actually less and less rare. Today, she wore a blue suede leather pantsuit which really accentuated her delicate form. Apparently, Rose noticed that Laska's gaze was pausing at certain parts of her anatomy and offered Laska a playful smile in return.

"Love," Rose said. "I was thinking that this dress might be something for you."

"What?" Laska said. "Me?"

"Sure!" Rose chuckled. "Why not? Don't you ever get enough of those leather pants and that skimpy vest?"

"No," Laska snorted.

"Try it sometimes," Rose smiled. "It looks so lovely. I bet you'd look like a dream in it. You've got to embrace you femininity a bit more, Las."

"Rose," Laska said. "My femininity is fine as it is. Some girls like to knit, but girls like me like to spend that same time killing orcs. That doesn't make me less of a woman."

"Of course not," Rose smiled. "But sometimes it's nice to explore your femininity, Las. I've really gotten to like these pantsuits myself, for example..."

"I'll think about it," Laska said. "Now, let's go get some coffee."

"Ah, now that's good coffee," Laska said while she leaned on the table after pouring a few nips of brandy into her coffee.

"You know, Love," Rose said. "I've been doing some thinking... well, some daydreaming, actually."

"Hey, you always have your head in the clouds," Laska said, taking a moved to gently move a fallen lock of Rose's strawberry-blonde hair from her face. Today, her hair hung loose on her shoulders, floating free, while Laska still wore her hair in her usual braid. "Must be your artistic spirit."

"Well," Rose said while Laska took a draught from her spiked coffee. "I've been thinking. You know... it's really a shame the two of us can... can never have a child of our own."

It took inhuman (or is that, inelflish) effort for Laska keep herself from spraying the coffee from her mouth. Instead, she gulped and swallowed the coffee quickly. Still, the spiked brown liquid hit her stomach like a ton of bricks.

Apparently having picked up on Laska's discomfort, Rose continued. "I mean, I know we've only known each other for four months and all, but, well, I've seen you play with Risa and Becky back home... and I've seen you take care of that little elven girl Lise. You'd make a wonderful mother, you know? We'd both make good mothers."

Laska still couldn't say a words, and was still trying to cough away the coffee she had just swallowed.

"It was just daydreaming, Las," Rose smiled. "I'm not saying I'm pregnant... I don't sleep with men, and I can't very well get pregnant from you. Besides, you won't be fertile for another century yourself... Still, it's nice to dream away..."

"As long as it's no more than dreaming right now," Laska finally said. "I'm too young to have kids."

"Me too," Rose said. "But, like I said, it's a nice thought."

"You know what's also a nice thought," Laska said, setting herself next to Rose and twirling her fingers through her hair. "Me taking you out to dinner this evening, in a expensive restaurant."

"Las," Rose smiled. "Such places usually have a dress-code."

"I know," Laska said, "but if they don't take me as I am, leather pants, braid and vest, I'll let just have to let myself in... using extreme violence and foul cusses."

"Let's just eat at a tavern," Rose smiled. "You get unhappy sitting among nobles."

"I should have taken you offer and pressed for that restaurant," Rose yelled as she led a obviously quite inebriated Laska up the stairs towards the floor their party had rented.

"Uh-oh," Imoen said while she heard the two approach. The pink-haired had been playing in the hallway with the little elven girl Lise all day, but she thought it wise to tell Lise to go to bed while she hid behind a large plant. She knew that Laska would spot her in an instant... if she was sober.

"Whatz," Laska slurred, "what's I do?" she added while supporting herself by leaning her body and head into the wall.

"38 ales, Laska, 38!!" Rose snarled. "And then all that food mixed in too, where do you put it all... Geez, 38 of those big tankards..."

"My guts," Laska slurred in reply. "Thatssss a sstupid quessthions..."

"A romantic dinner for two does NOT include starting a drinking contest with a local half-ogre!" Rose shouted in return.

"Oh, he was askhing ffor it," Laska slurred and crumpled up her face in disgust. "He wassh being a jwerk..."

"He was just saying he admired your eyes!" Rose said.

"In a dera-derograr-dter... mean fassjion," Laska said. "I couldst heersh that betters than youse, Rozhe.."

"But the clincher was that you climbed up on our table and announced to the whole tavern that 'My girlfriend has the most beautiful breasts in existence!'," Rose sighed and shook her head.

"It'sz true!" Laska slurred. "It waszh a compl-complis-com... true!"

"Didn't you see how many men were in that tavern?" Rose sighed. "Those men leered at me, yelled at me to take my top off and groped me when we left!"

"Oy, I bushted their heads, dinnI?" Laska grinned stupidly. "Beshides, you're ushed to being groped by men enough already."

Dead silence fell inside the hallway as Rose simply stared at Laska... the silence seemed to last for an eternity, and was finally broken by a single sob. Tears started to well into Rose's eyes as she kept staring at the woman she loved. The harsh sound of flesh colliding with flesh followed, and Rose sped to the door of her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her, leaving her lover behind in the hallway, a reddish imprint of a hand apparent on Laska's face.

"Geesh, what'dIdo?" Laska slurred and rubbed her face. "Doesh thish mean I don't get any tonight?!"

She stood there for a moment, staring at the door to their bedroom, waiting for Rose to come out again, but she never did.

"You've really done it this time, haven't you?" the voice of Imoen sounded from behind Laska. Immediately, the elf whirled around intending to confront her... and almost whirled into the wall.

"Drunken sot," Imoen chuckled. "You're even drunker than usual! Usually, you can still stand and speak normally, even after 38 drinks."

"Stupid half-ogre probly putsz somethings in my alesh," Laska said, indeed feeling drunker than usual.

"Wouldn't surprise me if he tried to scam you," Imoen said. "But you always get yourself suckered into stuff like this, and look what it made you do! Big-ears, you'll have to fix this!"

"Why?!" Laska said adamantly. "I ain't done nothin' wrong!"

The fury in Imoen's eyes made Laska step back a little as the pink-haired mage approached. Finally, the mage backed her sister into the wall... no more escape for drunk elves. "You... were... being... an... utter... and... complete... bitch!" Imoen said while poking her finger into Laska's collarbone.

"Ow, that hurtz!" Laska said. "But, I didn't do nothin'!"

"You made Rose cry," Imoen said calmly.

"Oh... crap," Laska sighed while realization finally penetrated into her drunk brain.

"You have to fix this Laska. Wait here," Imoen said and ran downstairs. A few moments, she came back, took the hapless elf by the throat and forced a pot of fresh, hot, black coffee to her lips. Laska struggled a little, but most of the coffee ended up inside her mouth instead of her vest and skin. Laska coughed, sputtered and fell to all fours as she tried to recover.

"I think I've got a hangover," Laska said, sounding very much more coherent. As soon as the coffee had hit her stomach, sobriety slowly started to dominate her mind.

"Come on, Big-ears," Imoen chuckled. "Tell aunty Imoen all about it."

The door to the darkened bedroom opened, and Laska slipped inside quietly. Rose was lying on the bed with her back to the door, still sobbing quietly.

"Rose?" she asked carefully.

"Go away," Rose whispered.

"Rose, I..."

"Go away..."

"But..."

"You know I hated my previous life... my 'profession', the misery it brought and the men that used me," Rose sniffed. "And you... I've heard hurtful things said to me before, but I never expected it from you."

After feeling Laska sit down on the bed, Rose quickly moved out of her reach.

"Rose, I... shit, Rose, I mess everything up!" Laska suddenly shouted, followed by a deep sigh. "First I blow Imoen's rescue... and now I wreck our relationship. We almost got killed back in the grove... dammit, I'm such a bloody failure!!"

Rose, who still had her back turned to Laska, relaxed a little. "Laska?" she whispered. "Laska, are you crying?"

"How'd you know?" Laska said, barely being able to keep surprise from her voice.

"I know such things," Rose said, turned to her side and... gasped.

"What?!" Laska said, jumped up from the bed, turning to face Rose. "I look terrible in it, don't I?"

Laska was wearing the same dress they had saw in the shopping-window earlier. It fit Laska's body incredibly well. It was low-cut, leaving very little to the imagination, and the split showed off Laska's long and slightly-muscled legs incredibly well. But that wasn't all. The elf wore her dark hair loose and was... wearing make-up : red lipstick, black mascara... and even two long, jeweled clip-on earrings.

"You're beautiful..." Rose whispered.

"That's funny, I feel like a monkey and I look like a porcelain doll," Laska grimaced. "This is a one-time deal, Rose. I'm wearing it just for you."

"How?"

"Oh, Imoen did the make-up and the hair... She actually stole the dress from the shop and left some money on the counter. Same with," she said while taking the wrought-iron candelabra from a cloth bag and giving it to Rose, "this thing."

"You are crazy," Rose giggled while she held the wrought-iron monstrosity.

"You think is hideous, isn't it?" Laska chuckled.

"Completely..." Rose said.

"I've also got you some flowers," Laska said and handed Rose a bouquet of posies.

"You know," Rose said while smelling the flowers. "These look suspiciously like the ones in the large vases downstairs..."

"The, um, flower-shop was closed," Laska grinned.

Rose chuckled for a bit and invited Laska to sit down beside her. Their faces were mere inches away and they felt each other's warm breath on their skin as they gazed into each other's eyes. Suddenly, Rose started to laugh.

"What?" Laska asked.

"Imoen," she giggled, "she wrote 'kick me' on your forehead with lipstick."

"Figures," Laska smiled. "I wonder what she was doing up there..."

"Your mascara ran," Rose said and wiped away the path of Laska's tears with her thumb.

"I love you, Rose," Laska said. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

Rose answered with a kiss.

"Wow, that was intense," Rose said as the two lovers lay under the covers, holding each other close.

"I had something to make up for," Laska said and kissed the tip of her lovers nose.

"You're not the only one with regrets, love," Rose said. "We all have done something in our love-lives we're not proud or wanted to do over again."

"Oh?"

"Have I never told you about my first love?"

"It is something I want to hear?" Laska chuckled.

"Don't worry," Rose smiled. "Let's see, I told you at the joust and that I was once in the box with all the other perspective young girls for the paladins to dedicate their joust to? I was sixteen at the time, a young girl hoping to get picked by one of the paladins. And I was picked... I was surprised enough to find out that I was picked by a Lady Paladin."

"Oh, nice," Laska smiled.

"Yes," Rose smiled and seemed to dream away. "You should have seen her on that horse, Laska. Tall, strong, yet very feminine... the wind blowing through her long, fiery red hair. Twenty years of age... She won the joust, of course."

"Of course..."

"Well, and she invited me to celebrate her victory with her," Rose smiled. "Totally swept me off my feet, naturally."

"We saw each other for almost three years," Rose smiled. "At that time, ours was much of a forbidden love. I hadn't told my mother about her yet, and was very much afraid to tell her that I am... different. We met at cafés, had dinner there and talked for hours... Of course she didn't have any place of her own outside the Order, so whenever we wanted to made love, we had to do it in my room very quietly. Still, we thought it was beautiful... Our love was ours and no one else had anything to say about it..."

"So, what's to regret?" Laska ask. "I hope you didn't have a bad break-up."

"No," Rose sighed. "She'd often be away a month or so to go on missions, and we'd often make love before she went. That time, she was part of a contingment of paladins which was about to take on a dragon which had settled near the city. I think she somehow knew she was going to die on that mission, our lovemaking was so intense... Still, she promised she'd try to be back before my nineteenth birthday. Instead, it was on my birthday that I've heard the news of her death... She had jumped right into the dragon's maw with her spear and driven it up his brain... she would have survived if the dragon hadn't breathed gas just that last second before his death. A paladin friend of hers delivered me a letter which she wanted me to have after she died..."

"Gods, Rose, I'm sorry," Laska said.

"But that's not the worst part," Rose sighed. "I still hadn't told my mother about my... sexual preference, and I was afraid to. I... didn't go to her funeral, because I was afraid she'd find out... It was all the more bitter that, after I had finally told her, my mother told me that she'd love me and support me no matter what... I should have gone to that funeral, Laska. I really wanted to..."

"I know you wanted to," Laska said and took Rose in a firm embrace.

"Any skeletons in your romantic closet, Laska?" Rose asked.

"They don't fit the closet," Laska chuckled. "I've had more one-night stands with men and women than you can shake a stick at. One girl, though, I really regret hurting."

"Oh?"

"Well, you know, I've told you that Sarevok pierced me, right? And that I almost died? Well, I went completely wild after that, trying to enjoy life like I thought I wanted to enjoy it. I drank like a fish, went out into the woods and sewers to slaughter the monsters and had a new lover in my bed every day. It went on like that for a week or two and my friends really started to worry for me... But then I spotted a young noble girl. Human, uptight, prissy, very attractive..."

"You hit on her?"

"More than that," Laska sighed. "I lied, schemed, sweet-talked and flirted myself into her bed. Her father had just died, and I took advantage of that, now that I think about it. She was all alone in that big mansion..."

"You wanted her love?"

"I wanted sex, sex and more sex," Laska shook her head. "I took the girl's virginity, and taught her all kinds of things, from elaborate sexual techniques to sword-fighting... She sent me gifts, and all that, and I have no doubt that she came to love me. But that didn't mean I stopped sleeping around..."

"Well, that was a mess you'd gotten yourself into," Rose said.

"I'll say," Laska snorted. "It went on like that for a month or so... but, one day, when I was supposed to see her, I was actually in a bar picking up this half-elven male. Anyway, she came looking for me at the tavern and found me in my room... in a rather compromising position with said half-elf..."

"Oh, dear Sune, how awful."

"Yes," Laska sighed. "The world was too small for both of us after that. You know, our party left Baldur's Gate a week later, and went to Beregost to plan our next move... and I spotted her again at the Jovial Juggler. And, being the idiot I was, I went over to her."

"You wanted to apologize?"

"I wanted sex," Laska snorted. "Anyway, I went up to her room and she offered me some wine... I found out too late that she spiked the wine. Last thing I remember was being knocked out from behind... When I woke up, I was under the 'gentle' care of Irenicus."

"She turned you over to..."

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," Laska said bitterly. "I paid the price for manipulating her. Imoen never told me how she, Dyna and Minsc came to be under his care too... I never had the heart to ask them either. I... truly regret that I have used her, not because of what happened to me later, but because... I think I really hurt her and I feel bad about it. Just like I feel really bad having hurt you just now."

"You grew up," Rose said and caressed Laska's cheek. "Just a little..."

"Yeah, but at a high price," Laska grimaced. "Maybe there's something to that 'true elves need 100 years to mentally mature before being considered an adult'-thing after all, ey?"

"Sorry I slapped you," Rose sighed.

"That's okay, I deserved it," Laska smiled.

"No more binges, okay?" Rose asked. "I don't mind if you drink, but today was... excessive, even for you."

"Promise," Laska said... she just hoped she would be able to keep it.

"Tired," Rose whispered.

"I really... really want this relationship to work out, Rose," Laska said sincerely, and cuddled with her lover for a bit.

"And I still," Rose said, her eyes already closed, "want to raise a child with you some day..."

Together, the lovers slept peacefully.