Not all gifts are "sweet" (Cassiel/open) - The White Tower

"How hard do you think it would be to climb to the top?" She asked without looking at him. In fact, with the cigarette between her lips, she put her bare feet underneath of herself and stood, walking carefully to one end of the ledge and keeping her hand on the wall that connected the ledge to the rest of the building.

"What? Up on the...?" he got up, pushing the blanket aside sa he sauntered outside, tucking his hands in the pockets of his baggy trousers while throwing a quick glance back towards the building itself.
Up the spire?
"I don't know" the youth said with a light shrug of his shoulders. "Doable if you're a good climber and aren't afraid to plummet to your death I suppose. Though given the weather I'd say it electrocution might be a bigger threat"

Charlie looked back to the Rose, eyeing her for a moment. "You want to go up?"

"You just said 'risk of electrocution' and 'plummet to your death' in the same breath," she chuckled, looking at him with a grin.

"Of course I want to go up."

He blinked and then let out a soft laughter as he slipped one hand out of his pocket and scratched the back of his neck.
"Seriously? Cass, that's near suicide unless you tell me you're secretly a professional climber" the youth smirked.

"I've done plenty of other more dangerous things," she smirked. "Why would this be any different?"

She looked back up, obviously looking for any place to put her foot.

"Because..." ah damn it he didn't really have a good answer to that.
"Cass, seriously" Charlie waved a hand towards the building and the rather slick looking surface. "If you fall..."

She just gave a laugh, walking back to the other side of the ledge, again looking for a foot hold... or a gutter... or anything.

"I wouldn't do it without a proper harness, does that make you feel better?" Jovial Toreador was pretty jovial about the whole thing. The idea of the danger just did not bother her in the slightest.

"Promise me you'll wear a harness and I won't try to stop you" he smirked, quickly moving to her side and reaching out to try and grab her wrist though without using any force. "Until then... please, Cass?" Charlie smiled gently. "Don't give me a heart attack"

He caught her wrist easily enough-- jerking away would have just caused her to lose her balance and to be fair, she really didn't have a death wish.

Cass looked down and smiled, still standing though, a twinkle in her eyes.

"Does being on this ledge really bother you, sugar?"

"It would bother me if you fell" he smiled at her, still gently holding her wrist as if to reassure himself more than her perhaps.

"Come up here with me?" She smiled invitingly to him.

Oh, now there was a bad idea. Yet, the youth, who was already barefooted, figured what the heck and carefully got up on the ledge without letting go of her, even as he threw a sideways glance over the edge and towards the ground far far below.
"Better?" he chuckled.

She put two fingers under his chin as she chuckled, very gently guiding his attention to her face.

"Don't look," she chuckled again. Not yet anyway. Get your bearings first, dear."

She easily enough caught his gaze, the smile still across his lips as he met her eyes.
"The height doesn't bother me" Charlie smiled at her. "But you're better to look at than the view regardless"

She turned, allowing him to hold her wrist as she padded back to the other side of the ledge near the wall and pointed upward and toward a dip and then part of the clock above them.

"That would be the easiest way to go, even if the building is slippery." She grinned. "Though it may change the time on the clock."

Well, he followed, how could he not? Careful though, with a slow well balanced step as he had no plans on needlessly risking falling.
"Could work" he followed her movements with his eyes and looked over the areas she'd pointed out. "Harness though, you're so not doing that without a harness and me holding the rope" the youth chuckled, looking to her again. "Deal?"

"Deal," she smiled as the lightning lit up again. "I suppose you want off this ledge now?" She wrinkled her nose at him.

"Mmm, I'm comfortable here if you are" the youth grinned, lips slightly parted as he eased his tongue across a canine, looking at her the whole time. "Though there are a few limits as to what we can really do up here without the risk of falling"

"Then just admire the view, Charlie," she grinned. "Look up and out. That's why I want to get up there... Just for the view."

Yes, the view. He loved the view, though in all honesty he hadn't actually admired it perched on the edge of the roof during a thunderstorm before. That one was new.

The youth's eyes slowly turned to the view, to the city bathed in neon lights and lit windows, the dark silhouette against a storm filled sky. It was beautiful. It really was.

"Life. It's life," she said softly. Cass was watching his reaction the entire time, trying to feel what he saw instead of seeing it with her own eyes.

He liked this. He liked the feeling of the wind, the energy in the air, the freedom of hovering on the edge of nothingness. The city landscape that seemed to stretch on forever in the distance before fading against the dark back drop of the night sky.

"Yeah..." he answered, almost in a whisper. "It is.."

"So... If I go up there once I have a harness... Are you coming with me?"

Cass was trying to tempt him.

He didn't actually need much time to consider it.
"Alright" he looked to her. "Harness -and- a basic climbing introduction by someone who knows what they're doing. And then we can" Charlie looked up at the building. "Do something incredibly stupid"

"Distrusting much? Can't just go with the flow?" She smiled. "It's not stupid," she whisper. "It's taking our existence by the horns and still being able to see the good parts of it. It's living even if we no longer breathe. Testing ourselves to see how long we can hold onto it and feel it's warmth on our faces."