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 Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 3:37 pm
Naarhiji tucked his chin beneath Malik’s head, bunching tight and close and absorbing all the warmth the contact offered. He did not want to move, yet he had very little (and dwindling, at that) desire to stay. He twisted to bury his nose to the hollow of the other man’s throat, nudging away at the collar of his coat as he did. “Yes,” Naar griped, lashes dipping shut. Despite his attempt at sounding firm, the following words were lazy, slow, and muttered. “You heard me. Don’t sound so surprised. You must know I wouldn’t let just anyone get away with this. I shouldn’t have… not let you get away with it…” He grunted.
A sharp yip erupted from him as Malik rose to his feet, and Naar’s arm reached back to loop behind his companion’s neck, knees pinching around Malikai’s arm as if this would further deter gravity from existing. There was a brief moment he questioned their stability and Malik’s coordination and likelihood of managing him.
The moment passed quickly, and Naar sank back against his chest.
“Wouldn’t have even let an Orderite in my bed before you, and here you are, doing it there and everywhere else.” Naar huffed and laid a disgruntled kiss to Malikai’s collarbone. “So you must be special. You say special things and do special things and are apparently rewarded with special things in return.” It wasn’t as if any of this had been intended, after all.
Although maybe not- Naar’s lashes lifted to squint at a tree a yard or two away- maybe not completely unexpected either. He vaguely recalled an offhand comment about not sleeping with people who ‘couldn’t control their tongues.’ In the span of time between then and now, Malikai had apparently learned a great plethora of right ways to use his. The memory immediately drew a long, low scoff from him and an inadvertent, half-displeased swat-pat to the other man’s shoulder.
He knew what he’d done. He must know. And this was all intentional. All the things he said and all the treacherous, bubbly feelings Naar felt in response. ‘Special,’ indeed. Vindictive, diabolical, and completely ridiculous was more like it. Another kiss to Malik’s throat.
“If it’s all the same to you, if future ‘rewards’ could be carried out in summer, or maybe even spring… I like outside, I do,” he assured in a murmur. “I just care a lot less for the cold and the wind, and really I think I’d prefer grass to-”
The thought never made it to its conclusion, because a sweeping instant later, something worse and more deserving of his attention (and complaints) occurred to him. “Will you even be here in the summer?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 7:25 pm
Malikai frowned almost opening his mouth to apologize and remind Naarhiji that he had not only consented to and encouraged the course of events as they had gone along, but had explicitly gone out of his way to complain about Malikai’s repeated requests for assurance that it had indeed been what Naarhiji wanted.
Then the boy continued on—and on, and Malikai’s stance progressively relaxed. His expression softened, easing from mild concern into private amusement and content. And flattery. His cheeks warmed a touch, heat creeping out towards his ears, and he didn’t even bother to argue with how ridiculous the younger man was being. It was a pleasant breed of ridiculous, and that was all that seemed to matter.
Doing it here and there and everywhere else.
The corner of Malikai’s lip twitched up. It didn’t hurt that all of it came with scattered tucks and nuzzles and kisses, which tended to remind him more of a disgruntled, but deeply affectionate small animal than anyone seriously upset about anything. Then came the end, and as abrupt as it did, Malikai frowned. The future — for a number of reasons — was not something he tended to dwell on. It was much easier, after all, to indulge in temporary happinesses if he was not busy concerning himself with how quickly said happinesses would inevitably be over, and much less work to be momentarily optimistic if he ignored the reality of where most of his life was all but bound to lead.
The question, though, was at least slightly more immediate than that. Malikai answered honestly. “I…can’t say I know for sure. We do tend t’ move about a good bit, and it’s not generally my place t’ hear ‘bout it until closer t’ the time we do.”
If he had known, an oblivionite whore was certainly the last person he’d be authorized to discuss troop movement with, but that didn’t seem to need saying. Since he didn’t know, it simplified things.
“We ‘ave already been stationed ‘ere longer ‘n we typically have in th’ past in my time on force, but with…” ‘…the war in the state it’s in…’ “…things bein’ as they are, an’ progressin’ as they seem…it’d be my guess there’ll be more goin’ on in this desert again than most other places…doesn’ mean we won’t move out, though, at times. I’d expect we’re more’n overdue for some variety o’ action that’d call on at least a portion of us t’ move an’ be on guard t’ fight…after which, though, I’d figure there’s at least as much a likelihood I’d be stationed back ‘ere than anywhere else a’ this point, if ‘m still around t’ return after.”
He spared a downward glance to his ‘cargo.’
“Why…think you’d manage t’ miss me if I was gone?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 8:25 am
“Well, that sounds annoying,” Naarhiji griped stiffly at Malikai’s admittance that he didn’t rightly know where he’d be in a few months. Just a few months! It seemed like that type of constant uncertainty and flux would give anyone depression. But then, as far as Naar could tell, most things about the military didn’t exactly inspire any warm, fuzzy feelings. Certainly not for him, anyway. Though there were probably some crazy people who didn’t hate it with an intense and loathing passion.
He huffed and shifted in the other man’s grasp, reaching to tuck an arm beneath the fabric of Malik’s coat. For warmth, obviously. “How do you make plans if you never know what to expect? What do you do if you want to take a week off? Would they leave without you? Or if you get sick? What happens if you get hurt-” His eyes narrowed, and he tipped his head to rest against Malik’s shoulder with an expression just hinging somewhere between confusion and an angry pout. Somehow, he expected ‘getting hurt’ wasn’t the same type of problem for Orderites as it was for his people. Of course, their magic was always made to sound treacherous and terrible, but it couldn’t exactly be ‘treacherous’ if it helped Malikai specifically. “Mm, well, I guess hurt wouldn’t be so bad. That’s all bird magic is good for, anyway, right...?”
Surely they had some number of mages that would take care of all that. Naar couldn’t say for sure what he expected the ratio of healers to warriors was, but he’d always expected it was enough to keep damn near everyone alive. More than once, he’d found himself thinking healing magic would’ve benefitted Oblivionites more more than their feathered counterparts, but...
Somehow Malikai still had so many scars...
The tips of his fingers happened to find the smooth, raised skin of one along Malikai’s abdomen even as he thought it. He grunted, and pulled his arm back to himself before reaching to drape both of them around Malik’s neck and tug himself slightly up closer to his face. He dusted a kiss to his companion’s jaw.
“I have a routine, you know,” Naar murmured, touching his forehead to Malikai’s shoulder. “And maybe you haven’t been part of it for very long, but I don’t exactly want it all mucked up just because of your dumb job.” He fidgeted a little. “So you should tell me if you’re leaving. And how long you’ll be gone. That shouldn’t be too much trouble. I don’t really care where or what you’re doing there- I especially don’t care what you’re doing there… I would just like to know if I should not expect you for a time, is all…”
He huffed, and buried his face into the older man’s chest. “Not that I’ll miss you, or anything.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:33 am
“Well, I don’t,” Malik said. “Make plans, tha’ is. Not often. An’ I can’t just ‘take’ a week off if or as I please. If there’s somethin’ real important comin’ t’ be an’ y’ know it a long ways ahead, you c’n request the time, and then y’ might get it, t’ go home for a period or some such. But it’s not guaranteed. Not when we’re this far out an’ th’ army moves as it does. It wouldn’t function if everyone was let t’ come an’ go as they needed. So aye, if I left without bein’ told I could, I’d be left behind. An’ it would be treason besides, which doesn’ bode well for my head, since I tend t’ prefer it on my shoulders most days. If I get sick doesn’ change a great lot. Stay with th’ group an’ if we have th’ resources, have one of our healers see t’ easin’ it along.”
He tipped his head, eyeing his company with an upward twitch of his eyebrows. “‘Bird’ magic is good for a lot o’ things, an’ has a variety o’ uses, like most all other sorts. Some o’ our mages aren’t practiced in healin’ at all, preferrin’ t’ cast offensively, or work sheildin’ or illusion spells…not tha’ I know a great lot about it, but aye. An’ as for bein’ hurt, I suppose it’s not any better than you’d expect. We only have a certain number o’ folk actually fully dedicated t’ healin’, an’ when we’re fightin’, there’s enough injury t’ go around. Y’ can’t spend great amounts o’ magic on any one single hurt or all our healers would collapse exhaustin’ themselves. An’ if y’ take a blade through the gut in the middle of a battlefield…s’not like there’s an’ instant fix for tha’, an’ often as not…”
Malikai frowned.
“Well, as with all things, not everythin’ always happens quick as it would need to. When y’ fight an’ you’re in the middle of it, as y’ often are, you’re not in reach of immediate help…so aye, healin’ magic is a great blessin’, but it’s not a cure-all t’ any injury in a moment. If it was an’ we were managin’ t’ keep everyone alive an’ well from all things…” He spared Naarhiji a flick of a glance, and then looked away. “Don’t figure we’d still be fightin’ this long later.”
Down the shadowed street, a bluster of winter wind skittered, and Malikai shifted his grip, wings twitching as the chill teased his feathers. One more street. It was almost odd, he mused, how familiar the hybrid town was becoming to him. But then, after as long as he had spent there now, he supposed it was only to be expected.
“I’ll tell you,” Malikai said. Drawing a breath, he glanced down again, eying his bundle and then — in spite of himself — letting his head tip to press a kiss to Naar’s hair at his temple. “I’ll tell you soon as I know, mm? An’ no, aye, o’course not…” The corner of his lip twitched up, tugged by a string of amusement. “I wouldn’ expect you t’ miss me. But…I’d miss you, eh? A pretty good lot, I think…I’ve started to grow spoiled, gettin’ t’ have your royal company most often as I like.”
When the brothel came into view, Malikai wondered if he ought best set the man down at the door when they reached it, or carry on through as though nothing were even a touch out of the ordinary.
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 10:36 am
Naar’s expression pinched, lips puckering and brow furrowing as he considered what he’d been told. “Well, that doesn’t seem fair!” He asserted with a huff. “Maybe it’s just me that thinks if you’re already volunteering your life away for ‘the good of your people-’ or whatever it is they tell you, I’m not sure- you should be able to take a week or a month, or- Or you’re not even fighting now! They don’t need you now. You should be able to do whatever you want! Go home, or wherever else! They’re wasting your time- your life! That you chose to give them out of- Well, whatever reason you have, anyway. And then they’d have the audacity to use the word ‘treason.’ Hf. That’s- That’s- Well, it all seems very unnecessarily cruel to me, anyway.” Not that he was greatly familiar with the military, their tactics, their reasoning, or their apparent scheduling issues.
“It just seems like if you were in the army and you could use magic, they’d make you learn how to heal people even if you preferred to do something else.” He huffed and tipped his nose up. “Because to me it sounds like they’re right good at making people do-”
Naar started, flinching slightly and unhooking an arm from his companion’s neck. “Ah, papapa, ts, tsss-” He plastered his hand across Malik’s lips. “I don’t need or want to hear about anyone ‘taking a blade through the gut’ or anywhere else. And I’m definitely not interested in thinking of you ‘in the middle of it’ doing what you do, so… So just… Let me think you’re a seasoned, practiced warrior, far above being impaled by some faceless stranger’s blade. You seem to be talented enough at fairy tales to manage that.”
He cast a quick glance away from Malikai, tossing it toward the road ahead of them and home and bed. These things had been welcome minutes ago. Not that he exactly wanted to end his night and try and fall asleep to thoughts of boyishly charming and genuine and good-humored Orderite knight-soldiers stabbed and bleeding out on a battlefield in the middle of some faraway desert. Naarhiji hooked his arms tighter about Malik’s neck.
“Fine,” he grunted. “Fiiiine. If you’re going to carry on and say things like that, I might miss you. I can’t say it’ll be a ‘good lot,’ but I might, if you were gone long enough. And if you-” He groaned, a soft, annoyed-at-self sound as he pinched his lids shut. “I could miss you a ‘good lot’ if you didn’t come back. So… You should. Come back. So I don’t have to waste my time missing you and thinking about you and, you know, whatever else.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:43 am
Malikai blinked, glancing down at Naarhiji’s reaction and feeling—touched? Surprised? Flattered?
It was oddly encouraging to hear the younger man rail and complain about his work, not because he wanted to seem him upset, but because it felt like a defense. Personal offense taken at a ‘wrong’ he believed Malikai experienced, which was pleasing in its own way. He opted, though, not to comment further back on it, since it didn’t seem necessary and—well, Naarhiji’s hand on his mouth the next moment seemed excuse enough to stop regardless. Malik’s expression warmed with amusement. Because yes, very well, it wasn’t a deeply amusing topic overall, but Naarhiji’s reaction seemed endearing enough to merit it.
Kissing the tips of Naarhiji’s fingers already pressed to his mouth, he stepped over the threshold and into the brothel, still carting him. If there was a swell and bloom of heat and something else in his chest at Naarhiji’s admittance that he would — or ‘might’ — miss him, and if the corners of his lips curved further up with his smile at the words, Malikai decided that, too, felt justified.
In retrospect, he would not have said he expected their entrance to have no audience. Late as it was and knowing the sort of business run there, it would have been a preposterous thing to hope for. What Malikai had expected, however, was — he supposed — the ‘usual’ crowd of witnesses: the young women who generally spent their time in the foyer on call until a client came in, Sytherina perhaps, or even, if he was particularly unfortunate, Hadelric.
Naarhiji’s uncle, the brothel owner Remalus, was a surprisingly infrequent guest, at least so far as Malikai had personally experienced. Perhaps he spent the majority of his time elsewhere within the building, outside of it, or Malikai had just been fortunate enough with his timing not to encounter him often. But whatever the case, he had only seen him a handful of times, infrequently enough so that it hadn’t even occurred to him to think of or anticipate him.
Yet, so it was that, upon stepping in with Naarhiji cradled in his hold, lips to the boy’s fingertips and still caught in a smile—Remalus’s was one of the first heads to turn, and stare. There were no words quite perfect for describing his gut reaction to the moment, but he thought that the feeling inspired in him when meeting the stare of Laesara’s noble, seasoned war general father as a sixteen year old boy after having kissed her for the first time was close. Unlike in that instance, however, the feeling quickly shifted from guilt and mortified abashment to something else entirely, because—he was not out of line, here.
This was what this man was letting his brother’s child do with his life. And Malikai was entirely within his rights, doing nothing more than any other man who had come before him. His wings stretched, flicking behind him — for balance, of course — and he shifted his grip, hoisting Naarhiji just enough to dust a kiss to his nose.
“‘Course I’ll be comin back,” he said, taking his attention off of Remalus and keeping it there, firmly set on Naarhiji instead as he moved through the foyer and off down the hall towards the younger man’s bedchamber. “Wouldn’ wanna keep you guessin’…an’ certainly not wastin’ your time on me, mm?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 1:49 pm
Remalus Vivere was significantly less than thrilled. He smiled, of course, for the sake of the atmosphere, but he was not pleased. It was well enough if they stayed in his room, once a week, for an hour or two. Anything beyond this, including accidental run-ins during festivals and allegedly quick ‘strolls’ outside were decidedly not acceptable. He hadn’t expected there’d ever be much need to expressly say so. His nephew was a coward and a p***y. Naarhiji choosing to go anywhere with anyone unsupervised, especially a drunken, overweight, overaged Orderite soldier- proponent of light and slayer of Oblivionites- was, if nothing else, absurd.
He wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t happening right in front of him.
It distinctly felt like the whole escapade was being deliberately paraded before him for his own displeasure. Remalus made a point of making it clear where his focus was as his gaze trailed after his nephew and the bird, striding into his brothel as if this was the most natural thing in the world. Malikai met his gaze, and Rem’s tail lashed, the edges of his lips drawing into more of a snarl than a smile. There was a line. And it had been crossed many paces ago.
He barely had time to shift his weight, let alone take an actual step, before Sytherina was there, standing before him, one hand on her hip while the other ‘innocently’ twirled a curl around her finger. She’d immediately launched into some clearly important and all-consuming topic, because already she was on about… He didn’t rightly know. Remalus’ attention darted briefly from the corridor that led to Naarhiji’s room, to Syth’s face, then back.
Something about a teenaged girl at the library. It all sounded extremely irrelevant. When he moved to step around her, she stepped with him, the corners of her lips just barely threatening to edge into a frown.
She knew what she was doing. Any pretense of a smile dropped from the man’s lips. He held a hand to her face, demanding silence, and glowered at the hallway. He stepped around her. She grabbed his arm.
“No sense in making a scene now, hm?” Syth shrugged. “And if it bothers you, I find it’s generally a more accepted form of parenting to express your desires in a more civilized fashion before erupting into the yelling and screaming that you would like to do right now… But that’s just my advice. I imagine it would be slightly more well-received…”
Naarhiji didn’t even notice the beginning tension of an altercation. He tsked, notching his head back in an (unsuccessful) attempt to avoid Malikai’s kiss. “Don’t you smile and chuckle at me like I’m a little child who’s said something silly, Malikai. I’m serious,” he informed the other man tartly. He crossed his arms, and with enough shifting and squirming in Malik’s hold, managed to do the same with his ankles; a testament to the severity of the seriousness this conversation should’ve had. “My time and especially my concern are precious. And from the goodness of my sou- eeer, heart-” He squinted, then shrugged it away. “From the goodness of my heart, I’ve chosen to give them to you, of all people.”
“And I’m just as surprised as you are about it, let me tell you!” The assertion came with an indignant pat-slap of the flat of his palm to the older man’s chest and a high-pitched scoff of a sound reminiscent of a small animal having its tail stepped on. “But against my better judgement- way against, it doesn’t make any sense- you’ve got them.” His voice softened, and his weight shifted to rub against him anyway Naar could. “So don’t muck it up, because I won’t forgive you if you do.”
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Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 8:17 am
Malikai was not especially unfond of tails.
They tended, however, in his experience, to belong to and on animals. As such, he tended to interpret them and their movements as one might otherwise interpret similar movements on an animal. The sharp lash of Remalus’ was read by him in that context, and in the immediate aftermath of it, Malikai fully expected to be trailed. Challenged, or reprimanded in some narrative. Not that he had done anything out of the ordinary—or not that far out of the ordinary, and his shoulders squared back a half inch in preparation of saying so.
Except that the last thing he saw before turning the corner out of sight was Syth, a physical barricade of deep red skin and rolling dark curls between himself and the brothel owner. A coincidence, surely, but a conveniently timed one. He counted paces in his head as he neared Naarhiji’s door, wondering if Remalus would still manage to appear behind him before they made it in.
One, two, three, four…
…five, six, seven, eight…
No extra footsteps.
He glanced down, eyeing his bundle. “Serious,” he repeated. His smile returned in full. “Oh, aye, I c’n tell you’re very serious. An’ I do feel blessed. Your time an’ concern are most precious, undeservin’ as I am…” He shifted, working it so that he could get Naarhiji’s door open and then slipping inside. The room smelled, as ever, of the many intertwined scents of Naarhiji’s floral perfumes, all layered over the underlying aromas at its base, but it was a familiar mix, now. Malikai moved for the bed.
“An’ if m’not mistaken,” he continued, “I seem t’ recall y’ warnin’ me for somethin’ similar right before lettin’ me fly you up…” At the edge of Naarhiji’s mattress, Malikai stopped, and dipped, finally settling his ‘cargo’ gently atop it, and studying the younger man’s face after. “Somethin’ about never forgivin’ me if I mucked it up…but now, like then, I’ll promise t’ do my best not t’ disappoint, mm?” Reaching, he tucked his fingers through several soft locks of green, brushing them from Naarhiji’s face, and then—because he could, because he wanted to, and because there was no better judgement strong enough to convince him not to, he leaned, and kissed him. “You sleep well, princess…an’ I’ll come see you again soon, mm?”
If his fate was truly blessed on this evening, Malikai mused, he would not even be stopped on the way back out. He did, however, make mental note to thank Sytherina for her timing, whether or not she had any inkling of the role she’d played in keeping that night’s peace. He, at least, appreciated it.
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