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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:39 pm
Araceli paced in front of the door to Detra’s room, biting her lip and holding herself back from barging into his private space. She had promised him in the beginning that she wouldn’t come into his room uninvited. She was worried, though, and it was very hard to keep that promise. Detra had come home, only a couple of days ago, from a job that had take him across the desert. In those few days, he had become weak and dizzy on his feet. A wound to his back had become worse than Detra had anticipated and, despite Ara’s please, he had refused to seek the attention of a healer. She paused, raising her hand and preparing to knock, before she pulled it back.
She’d let him rest, for now, while she went and fetched Lithian. Ara knew that Lithian and Cas had gone off to Aisko, recently, for an adventure of some sort. Though, as luck would have it, he was due back. So, with one last look at the door to Detra’s room, Ara headed out of her house. She quickly made her way through the town, towards the place Lithian was currently residing in for his stay on Eowyn. The whole time, all she could think about was Detra and getting Lithian to help him, no matter how stubborn the oblivionite wanted to be.
When she arrived, though, and inquired at the desk of the inn, she found out that Lithian wasn’t there at the moment. Ara frowned as she moved away from the inn, rubbing her arms and looking around. Where would Lith go? The beach, market… Her eyes widened and a smile flit across her face. Despite having just been on a trip to Aisko with him, Lithian was most likely at Casseth’s house. With that assumption in her mind, she set off towards Cas, making good time and arriving quickly. She knocked and waited. And waited some more.
Ara knocked again, biting her lip and fidgeting. Detra needed healing and if Lithian was here, she had to get him back to her house. So when she tested the door knob and pushed the door open, she didn’t think twice about stepping into the seemingly abandoned house. After stepping inside the house, the quiet made her hesitate and second guess herself. Maybe he wasn’t here. Her wings twitched and she paused as she turned to leave. Quiet voices traveled down to her from one of the rooms upstairs. She strained to listen, staying completely still, and smiled when she recognized Lithian’s voice, though what he was saying, she couldn’t make out.
That didn’t matter anyway, he was here. She spun on her heels, taking the steps quickly and coming to a skidding halt outside of Casseth’s bedroom door. Without even knocking, she reached out for the knob, twisted and grinned as the knob gave way and turned. She froze in place when the door swung open and all she saw was Casseth’s a**. For a few seconds she couldn’t look away. Then, quickly, heat flamed her cheeks as she squeaked and turned away. “I’m so sorry Casseth!” As her mind registered the rest of the scene, though, she turned back, peeking not at Casseth’s backside, but the pair of mismatched wings spread out, shielding whoever was under him. Her eyes narrowed on the feathered wing as it twitched and she jerked her gaze back away. “I thought I heard Lithian...I...must of been mistaken.” She groaned silently as she felt the heat in her cheeks seep into the rest of her body.
Casseth grunted and muttered as he scrambled to move next to Lith, tugging the covers up over them both. “You weren’t mistaken. You should learn to though.” He pulled his wings in, tucking them safely behind him but not making them disappear. What was the point? They would have been very hard for Araceli to miss. “What do you want?” The demand was clipped, not happy at having been barged in on.
Ara’s shoulders slumped at the tone of his voice. “I...I was...wait...Lithian…?” Ara blinked but didn’t dare to turn back around. “Lithian’s...here?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:40 pm
Lithian’s face burned, body going rigid and words sputtering to a halt at the interruption. For the first instant, his heart threw itself against the cage of his chest, panic meshing a thousand fears together at once. When Araceli’s identity became clear, it did nothing for his blush, but some of the tension eased out. His pulse slowed a fraction, though it still kept up a stuttered beat, and he scrambled back with Casseth, mumbling as he held the covers against him.
“I…it, ah…technically…” Lithian cleared his throat, thumbing over the edge of the coverlet and fidgeting, “ …yes…” After nibbling at his lip and rearranging himself under the covers, his eyes flit to Ara. “We should, mm, probably…get dressed. Just, er…wait…wait there.”
With no small amount of awkward fumbling, Lithian shot an apologetic glance to Casseth and leaned over to press a quick kiss to his cheek before scrambling out of bed and into his clothes.
“What—ah—what did you need me for…?” he asked as he fastened his belt and then slipped his tunic top back over his head, still partly damp from the swim, though a quick pluck of his fingers to remove the water solved that issue. His heart still felt overly fast in his chest. Whatever she’d come here for — and however supportive she might have seemed that night on the windy cliffs of Ayr — it was different to say something and then see it in person. Now, there was no hiding the nature of his new shift in relationship status with Casseth from Ara, and whatever reaction she would have to it was now out on the table and entirely unknown as of yet.
He sent up a quick, silent prayer to Abronaxus and pulled a section of hair around, fingers sifting through it to braid it as he waited.
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:41 pm
Casseth watched Lithian dress before climbing out of bed and pulling his pants on himself. He moved over beside Lith and placed a hand on Lith’s shoulder, squeezing as he gave a small smile, as if to say everything would be alright. People eventually finding out about their relationship was bound to happen. Though Casseth would have preferred it had been in other ways. “We’re decent.” Cas said as he turned his attention back to Araceli.
Ara jumped at Cas’ voice, face heating up a fraction more before she hesitated, peeking slightly to make sure they were decent as Cas said. She let out a breath as some of the tension in her shoulders eased and she turned around. Her gaze flit to Cas’ folded wings and she tilted her head as he pulled them in closer. “I...Detra’s hurt.” Ara’s gaze flit to Lithian. “He refuses to go to a healer but he’s getting weak. So I came looking for you, Lith. I’m sorry I...barged in…” Another faint flush covered her cheeks as she looked back to Casseth. “Your wings...I never knew. You’ve never had them out.”
Casseth tensed and looked away. “They’re not something I show off.” He rubbed his arms and shook his head. Whatever Ara thought of him, now, made no difference. She had accepted him as an oblivionite and dovaa hybrid. He hoped, by knowing he also had orderite in him, she would not judge him differently after this reveal. “Not everyone is accepting as hybrids and most times those hybrids only have two bloodlines in them. I have all three.” He shrugged as he looked back to Ara, instinctively moving closer to Lith. “It’s easier to just keep them hidden from others. Lithian was the first, and only, I trusted enough to have them out around.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:41 pm
Lithian blinked. To say he was startled that Ara focussed on Casseth’s wings of all things, as opposed to walking in on them in the middle of—
Well.
It was an understatement, to say the least. If it was of that little concern to her, though, Lithian supposed he wasn’t about to complain, and more of his tension seeped out, his attention shifting to Araceli’s request.
“Detraeus…?” He frowned, finishing with his clothes and pulling on his belts and flasks. “If he’s averse to speaking with you about it, I hardly see him trusting me…I can offer, though, and do whatever he’ll let me. Are you…still letting him live with you? Or has he found a place of his own?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:42 pm
Ara’s attention flit back to Lith and the original reason she had sought him out. “He’s still living with me.” She sighed and shook her head. “He’s being his normal, stubborn self but he needs a healer, Lithian. He’s resting now but earlier he wasn’t very steady on his feet. Please? Casseth can come too.” Her gaze went back to Cas and frowned. “The wings though…”
Casseth grunted and pulled his wings in close as they slowly disappeared, going back to the wing tattoos that were the norm among orderites. “There, they’re gone.” Cas was no fool. He knew if he was going to be around Detra, it was better to have them hidden than to risk exposure. Neither him or Detra was ready for a revelation like that. “You won’t tell him...will you?” His eyes narrowed slightly at Ara, almost daring her to do so.
Araceli shook her head. “That’s not my place.” She looked hopeful, though. “You’ll help, Lith? Please?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:45 pm
Lithian nodded. “Of course.”
He glanced to Cas. Since it looked as though Casseth intended to follow regardless, it didn’t bear mentioning that if it was going to be a matter of convincing Detraeus to emerge and cooperate, Casseth’s help would likely be mandatory for success. As they moved out, Lithian shook his head, thinking on it. The oblivionite reminded him of a prey animal in that regard: holing itself up when wounded, puffing up and trying to mimic healthiness so as not to look like an easy target for attack. Most of the time, he carried himself like a predator, but when his defenses were down, Lithian couldn’t help but think of an irritable, oversized bouken.
The corner of his lip twitched up at the thought, but he pushed it down, tucking it away for later. However striking the resemblance might be in certain instances, he was certain it wouldn’t go over well with Detraeus to hear it, and if they were going to get him to cooperate, he ought best let Casseth and Araceli do the talking.
As predicted, upon arrival it took a good bit of negotiating and prompting to finally coax Detraeus from his ‘hole’ of a room. He was none too pleased to have to deal with Lithian, but Lithian managed to keep his mouth shut and refrain from mentioning that as he was not Detraeus’ ideal healer, nor was Detraeus his ideal patient. Instead, at Casseth and Ara’s encouragement, the stubborn man eventually conceded to allowing Lith to tend to his wounds ‘on penalty of a broken arm’ if Lithian touched him.
Naturally, healing without touching was a good bit more difficult, but through manipulation of a small stream of water which he then layered out into a small blanket across the affected area, Lithian did manage to curb the effects of the infection. That, he explained to both Araceli and Detraeus, was the primary source of his dizziness and the wound’s refusal to heal: infection. With it cleared, the gash in his back ought to start on the proper track to recovery in fairly short order.
Casseth and Lithian left — much to Lithian’s relief — with all of Lith’s bones intact.
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