Archive | April 2, 2012

In The Tub, a vignette of Cya/Boom/Postapoc

Apr2

I realized I’d had Panlong in the tub for two months, whoops.

This story comes after:
Separation Anxiety (LJ) Boom!/RP timeline/ Cynara
Parting Advice, and Mother Bears (LJ)
Mother-Son Bonding (LJ)
Kept du Jour (LJ)
“Are we killing this one?” (LJ)
Meeting the Family (LJ) (a chat log)
Roleplay Log (Cya/Cabal, posted by cluudle)
Cleaning Up (LJ), One month later and 2 Vignettes of Cya (LJ)

Panlong was, unsurprisingly, in the tub, the water almost to his chest. If it weren’t for the antlers, he’d look helpless; even with them, he looked lost.

“Scoot up.” She set the mugs on the wide edge of the tub. “The one with the blue marshmallows is for you.”

“Thanks?” He scooted forward in the tub, clearly confused, and then even more confused as Cya started pulling her clothes off. “Ma’am…”

“Have you been Kept before, Panlong?” She already knew the answer, of course. But it was as good a place to start as any.

“Yes, ma’am,” His eyes were very firmly fixed on her face. “By Tethys. And then by Selena.”

Tethys she already knew too much about. “Selena sh’…” Naked, she slid into the tub behind her

“Sh’Oralee, ma’am. Cy’Linden.” He was sitting stiffly, trying not to touch her at all. She wrapped her arms around his chest, feeling the tension there.

“That explains a lot. Lean back against me, carefully, Pan, mind those antlers.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Curiosity got the best of him, and he leaned. “Explains, ma’am?”

“I think this is one of this situations where you can lay off the ‘ma’am’ for a bit.” Gentle. She needed to be gentle with him. It wasn’t his fault. “Bad Keeping begets more bad Keeping begets bad behaviour. It wouldn’t have occurred to you that anything was wrong with Yoshi.”

“Oh.” He was board-like against her, as far from relaxed as was possible to get. “My Keeping wasn’t bad. I mean, Tethys…”

“You said you were never happy when you were with her. There’s no need to protect her now, Pan.”

“Are you going to kill her?” His voice was thready and, against her hands, his heart was pounding hard and fast. “Only… she’s my friend, you know? Now?”

“I’m not going to kill her.” Only in saying it did she realize it was true. “That’s Yoshi’s job, should he want it. And I’m not sure he will.”

“Oh.” He sagged her in arms. “Are you going to kill me?”

She planted a careful kiss on the back of his neck, just below the collar. She really needed to make him his own. “No. No, Pan, I’m not going to kill you.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/313853.html. You can comment here or there.

And Out, a drabble of Reiassan for the March Giraffe Call

Apr2

For [personal profile] kelkyag‘s commissioned prompt

This story comes after:Meat of the Matter (LJ)
Bare Bones (LJ) [Beta]
Skeleton Key (LJ) [donor perk] and Ambush (LJ)

Reiassan has a landing page here.

Rin hopped out of the window, but not so fast that she couldn’t catch the expression on Girey’s face. It made her smile, the sudden panic of being caught out, the further embarrassment at being thanked for it.

She got out of the way and let him hop after her while she scouted the area. The path to the stables was clear; indeed, there was nobody in the courtyard at all.

“We’ve got to go before they figure out we went through the window,” Girey hissed. “These people don’t want to buy you breakfast, Lady Healer.”

“I’m aware.” His concern was touching, his assumption she didn’t know how to handle herself less so. “If this is how you talk to all women, no wonder you don’t have any in your army.” She kept it a half-voiced mutter; he was right. “Come on.” She kept her hand on her sword hilt, her eyes alert for intruders, and still she almost missed the stable boy that stepped out of the shadows.

“Leaving without paying your bill?” he hissed. “A fine lady like yourself? We can take the man as payment, if your purse is empty, Lady Healer.”

If one more person sneered her title, she was going to grow irritated. She reached into her purse and pulled out a handful of coins. She took a quick glance at them to be sure the price was high enough, and pressed the pile of money into the stable-boy’s hands. “That should cover it. And your rooms aren’t nearly worth what my captive is.” It was a ridiculous thing to add, sleeplessness her only excuse. “Our mounts?”

The boy was still staring at the money. “One moment, one moment.” He hurried to the back of the stable, coming back quickly with three saddled goats. “Here you go, your Ladyship, sir. Reiassannon guide your travels.”

“And yours,” Rin answered. There were sounds coming from the inn; they’d noticed they were missing, then. “Speed on the road,” she added, and mounted. Behind her, Girey was doing the same. They put heels to their sleepy mounts’ flanks and were gone.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/313397.html. You can comment here or there.