xp_logs | Buzkashi: Asadabad (Reply)

Nathan took Rahne to Afghanistan and forgot to give her a fairly significant piece of country-specific gear. Rahne is perhaps a bit apprehensive still, but Nathan makes it very clear that he has faith in her.

The knock on the door was hesitant. "Rahne?" Nathan called softly from outside in the hall. He wasn't sure if she was sleeping or not. It had been a long flight. Couple of flights. He looked down the hall as a pair of other hotel guests came up the stairs and went into their rooms, not sparing him a glance.

It was not a hotel he would have picked in any other city, but you didn't have a particularly good range of accomodations to choose from in Asadabad. It was hardly a tourist destination. This one was small, no more than a dozen rooms, and family-owned. They could fly beneath the radar here, and that was what was important.

Rahne was somewhere between groggy, wired, and seriously confused from having dozed diligently on the planes, and had been trying to remember what time zone this was when she heard the knock (at which she woke up the rest of the way) and the voice (at which she relaxed and hopped up to open the door). "Aye?"

"Brought you something," Nathan said, stepping in and nudging the door closed with his foot. He had tucked the wrapped package in under the sling - it was light, after all, and used his good hand to pull it out and place it on the room's small table.

"I can't believe it slipped my mind before I left," he said, managing to tear the tape with some difficulty, one-handed, and then pulled back the light wrapping paper the shopkeeper had used. The scarf inside was of a light, filmy green material. He'd thought it was the most Rahne-esque color in the store.

"Oh, that's pretty...." Rahne trailed off as it occurred to her why he would be bringing her a scarf. She looked up. "...It doesna have to be more, er, heavily opaque?"

Nathan shook his head. "Not for you," he said with a brief smile, taking one end of it and giving it a shake. "You're foreign, so as long as you make the effort," he said as he showed her how to put it on, "you'll be seen as being properly respectful." Except by hardcore Taliban, and Nathan frowned a little.

"I wasna sure. I'd brought one of my own, but... well, 'tis meant for a Scottish winter," Rahne said wryly, paying careful attention to the arrangement of the scarf but catching the frown. "...What?"

"Nothing," Nathan said, tucking in stray bits of her hair, and then sighing. "Well, no, not nothing. I'm sorry? I've brought you to a place that's not precisely friendly, Rahne. But women are not likely to talk to me."

Rahne looked up at him. "Ye did warn me before we came," she said quietly. "I'll be careful. I just hope they willna mind me." And that being careful would be enough.

"Just... be yourself," Nathan said a bit helplessly. "I mean, Clarice would be a disaster, here..." Oh, damn, the mental images. "Dom has been a disaster here. But you should be fine."

Rahne's eyes widened slightly; she was having some mental images of her own. "Clarice and Dom," she said, sounding a little strangled, "do not really do 'demure,' do they?"

Tucking in a few more stray bits of her hair, Nathan grinned a bit wryly. "No, not at all. I could tell you the story about Dom's last visit to Afghanistan, but... no, I think we'll skip that." He paused, examining their joint handiwork. "There. That should do."

Rahne felt around the scarf carefully -- she wanted to be sure she could duplicate it by touch alone if it came up -- and nodded. "Thank you."

"Just make sure no hair slips out, or you'll have old men giving you dirty looks on the street, and then I'll have to challenge them in your honor," Nathan said with a perfectly straight face.

"And we canna have ye damaging any more old men than are strictly necessary," Rahne agreed in exactly the same tone.