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Pink Lemonade Binge with Cookie Crumbs and Malt
Story : knights & necromancers
Rating : R (non-explicit sex)
Timeframe : 1260-1270's
Word Count : 2913
Malt Prompt : Thanksgiving - Falootin's cheese - And I need you now tonight/And I need you more than ever/And if you'll only hold me tight/We'll be holding on forever/And we'll only be making it right/Cause we'll never be wrong together
Cookie Crumbs for Sallow and First & Last
I gave Rune and Lyssa lemon chiffon and I thought I'd give Kairn and Lyssa a binge too. This covers pretty much the whole course of their relationship, some of which I've addressed before and some of which is spoilery. I'm not sure how well the continuity works, the prompts led it to be a little patchy, so I don't think it really works as a stand alone summary like the Rune/Lyssa one so much as a bunch of snapshots.
Come a Little Bit Closer
Smiling so tightly it makes her jaw hurt and juggling a pair of cups and saucers, Lyssa makes her way to the couch. The two of them are huddled there among the cushions, looking like they’d like nothing more than to disappear altogether.
Bone thin arms curled around her distended middle, the woman gives her tea a vacant, wide-eyed stare as it meets the table in front of her, while her companion glowers. “It’s good for you,” says Lyssa, with a nod at the steaming cup. “My friend, the tall one, he’s a healer.”
Wordlessly, the woman reaches a timid hand for the drink. She pauses, the cup halfway to her lips, and wrinkles her nose.
“Smells like shit, I know. But he knows what he’s doing. And I promise the rest of his cooking is much better. You like cookies?”
There’s a slight quirk to her lips as she lifts her gaze from the cup, like she might smile at that if she could remember how. “Cookies?”
“Yup,” says Lyssa. “Put some meat on your bones in no time. What about you?”
The man flinches from the teacup thrust his way, and for the first time, Lyssa takes a moment to get a good look at him. He’s staring back at her, murky green eyes set deep in a round face. Course, dark hair juts at all angles from the top of his head and all along his jaw, framing soft lips and an upturned nose. He might just be attractive if someone found him a comb and he stopped with the scowling. He throws up his palms, as if a cup of tea is something that needs warding off. “I-I, uh, I’m fine.”
“Nonsense,” says Lyssa, giving the saucer a shove into his palm.
The woman scowls at him over her cup as she lifts it for a sip. “Give it up, Kairn. We’re safe. Just drink your tea.”
Hard to Get
“Do you have any idea how hard it’s been to find you?”
Crouched in a corner, Kairn’s still trying to get over the fact that there’s a body on the floor, that she’s standing over it with her sword still drawn. “That…that’s sort of the idea, isn’t it? Not to be found?”
“By them,” says Lyssa, with a wave of her bloody blade at the dead bounty hunter. “I’m here to protect you.”
“And how was I supposed to know you were looking for me? Sham, don’t touch that!” he snaps, and the toddler snatches back the hand he was about to lay on the man’s boot.
“Oh,” says Lyssa, crestfallen. “You’ve got a point there.” Stooping to wipe her weapon on the fallen man’s pants, she brightens. “You know, now that I’ve found you, there’s no need to keep hiding, is there? We can just crash through any- What?”
“I, uh, I don’t think that would be wise.” Not that arguing with a woman who just killed a man and has yet to sheath her sword strikes him as particularly bright either. “M-maybe we should leave the crashing through things as something of a last resort, don’t you think?”
Tangled Up in You
Kairn’s shaking, out of breath, with a body freshly slumped at his feet. Reason tells him the commotion’s stopped, but the cries and the blows still echo in his head. When a hand closes over his shoulder, he jumps.
She’s a mess, her front sprayed with enough red it nearly blurs into her cloak and a thick cloud of ash strewn through her hair, and all he can do for a moment is gape. “A-are you…?”
Lyssa follows his gaze down to her blood-spattered front and addresses his concerns with a tight laugh. “Not mine,” she says. Her eyes, when they meet his again, are wide. “Are you…?”
All he can manage, as his breath comes rushing back in a deep, shuddering sigh, is a quick bob of his head. The next thing he knows, she’s in his arms, holding him fast, and he’s pressing his lips to hers.
Slip into Something More Comfortable
They’re twined together, a churning mass of limbs, sprawled on the floor of all places, trying to work out the traumas of the last few days the way Lyssa knows best. He’s got one hand up her shirt and the other in her hair, she’s got her nails dug in his back, and he’s hard against her, both of them frantically grinding against the cloth that separates them. It’s been so long since anyone’s touched her like this it hurts, and she closes her eyes and lets her need for him drown all other thought.
“Oh gods,” Lyssa murmurs, as he pries his lips from hers to plant them on her neck. “Oh, Rune.”
That’s when he pulls back and she finds herself staring into a pair of wide green eyes. Kairn doesn’t say a word; he just keeps gaping at her in silent horror. And then she’s fumbling for an apology, a flood of half formed phrases tumbling from her lips as the temperature of the room begins to rise.
Taking it Slow
He catches her by the shoulder as the purse slips from her hand into his, before she can turn away. Her eyes dart from his hand to his face, questioning.
“I-I’ve got dinner,” he says. “If… if you’re hungry, that is.”
She’s just about to lay her hand over his when he pulls it away. “I am, but…I wouldn’t want to impose.”
The coins in his hand suddenly seem a much greater weight, and she follows his gaze to the purse when he repeats, “Impose?”
“Don’t look at me like that. I already drank my share.” She pulls her cloak tight across her throat and she’s turning for the door, but he’s got her by the shoulder again.
“Please, we’re talking about a bowl of soup, Lyss. What could it hurt?”
Tender Loving Care
All he can say as she comes hobbling into the apartment with bandages peeking out the top of one boot is “Again?”
Lyssa shoots him a glare even as she flops down on the couch and props her injured foot up on the table. “You’re not painting on it,” she says.
Kairn’s already digging in a cabinet for a paint stick. “If you don’t want me to fix it, don’t come here wounded.”
“It’s not that bad.” She’s unlaced the boot and now she’s gingerly peeling back the leather. “Look, it’s almost…” she trails off as Kairn leans in, open paint stick in hand, to frown at swath of angry pink skin she’s exposed and then at her. “Healed,” she finishes, lamely.
Shaking his head, he seats himself on the edge of the table and scoops the swollen ankle into his lap. “You know, it’s a wonder you haven’t gotten yourself killed yet.”
“Never do see the other guy, do ya?”
Kairn swallows hard. “I’ve, uh, I’ve seen you fight before.”
“That’s right. You have.”
She flinches at the press of paint to her skin, and he’s trying to be gentle, but everything looks so puffy and sore. “How did you manage to walk on this?”
Whatever answer she would have given is swallowed by a yelp as he activates the mark. He already knows the answer to the next question, but he asks it anyway. “This time will you please see a medic?”
Notch on the Bedpost
It’s uncomfortable enough sitting in this strange kitchen, graciously accepting the hospitality of a woman he’s quite sure is none too happy to have him or the boy about. It doesn’t help that Lyssa has seen fit to still be in bed at half past ten, leaving him with her sister and her mixed messages.
“Would you care for some tea?” says Ski, with a sour look that suggests the last thing she’d like to do is pour it for him.
“No,” he says hastily. “No.” And then, just to show he’s satisfied with things as they are, he shovels a bite of cereal into his mouth and tries to smile around chewing it.
But if he thought dealing with Ski was bad, it’s nothing compared to Mara. This morning the girl is looking past Sham, who’s as absorbed in his own breakfast as Kairn would like to pretend to be, and fixated on him. “You must be a special friend,” she says.
Kairn slowly swallows his mouthful of cereal and looks her way. “Oh?” he says. “Why is that?”
The look she gives him is completely innocent, but it doesn’t soften the words a bit. “Because you’re staying at the house. Usually when Momma brings home guests, they just go to the barn.”
Between the Sheets
Neither of them has said a word for a while now, their lips too busy holding onto each other instead, while their hands explore. The candles on the bedside table surge and ebb with their breaths, bathing the walls in wild, dancing light.
He keeps looking at her, and staring into those wide, green eyes as their lips meet again and again is almost as exhilarating as the press of his body against hers. Lyssa slides her hands up around the back of his neck, twisting her fingers in his hair, and pulls him down on top of her as she sinks into the pillows.
Double Entandre
“Uncle Kairn, are you alright?” Seated at the table, the boy greets him with a sideways look as he comes staggering into the kitchen.
“Just feeling a little off this morning.”
Sham gives him a knowing nod. “Me too,” he says. “I think I’ve got a stomachache from too much pie. Did you have too much of Lyssa’s pie last night?”
“No, I di-” Lyssa’s bent low, her head thrust into the cupboards under the counter, and Kairn stops short, fixated on the swing of her hips and the way her nightshirt is riding up her bare thighs as she digs through the dishes inside. “On second thought, yes,” he mutters, raking a hand through his hair. “Far too much pie.”
Lyssa bobs up with a snicker, a mug in each hand. “Coffee?”
“Thanks,” he says, as she presses a cup into his palm.
“What did you in?” She’s smirking at him over her shoulder as she scoops the kettle up off the stove. “The third slice or the fourth?”
Fooling Around
There’s paint on her fingers, paint on her belly, a daub of it on her nose, traces at the corners of her mouth. She’s trying not to think about the bit that’s trickled down between her breasts.
Kairn’s underneath her, his face split from ear to ear in a grin. Lyssa doesn’t think she’ll ever be quite comfortable with the slimy, greasy feel of the paint as he traces the lines on her flesh, but she’ll never get over the way the magic makes him writhe and moan either.
He’s already exhausted a half dozen energy transfer forms, but she runs a hand down along his cheek, unleashing bits of heat from her fingers for good measure. It sends a shiver through her to watch as his eyes roll back and he nuzzles into her hand.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” he murmurs.
Lyssa laughs. “Only about fifty times so far tonight.”
Naughty But Nice
“I saw your woman the other day” is Reida’s greeting as she deposits her cloak and her bags in the middle of the forms Kairn’s been working on.
Kairn snaps to attention, the chalk falling from his hands and the hour’s worth of work she’s just smudged forgotten. “Did you see Sham? Is he with her? Is he alright?”
Dropping to her knees at the edge of the ring, Reida snorts as she starts rifling through her bag. “All concern for the boy and none for the bitch, huh?”
“Lyssa can take care of herself. It’s her ability to take care of a twelve-year-old that I question.”
“Oh, she takes care of herself, alright.” She frowns at the bag and gives it a slow pull across the floor, obliterating even more of his lines, to shove her arm deeper inside. “Don’t worry, she puts the boy to bed before she goes to the bar to whore about.”
“She wouldn’t.”
“You don’t look so certain.”
“Shut up.”
“You know,” she says, her lips curling slowly back over stark white teeth. “She doesn’t have to be the only one getting some action.”
Kairn’s only answer is a shudder as he retrieves his chalk.
Sleeping Beside You
It’s one of those mornings, like they always used to have, where she wakes up buried in the crook of his arm, breathing in the smell of him, and the only thing that could make the morning better is to repeat the process a few more times, and so she does. It’s about the fourth time she’s coming out of dozing, gently flexing her shoulders and burying her nose against his chest, that Kairn cocks his head and raises one bushy brow at her.
“Morning,” he says, his voice thick with sleep. “At least I think it’s still morning,” he adds, squinting at the curtains.
“Does it matter?” she says, curling an arm around him. “You’re here.”
He laughs at that, a soft rumble that rolls over his chest, and she finds herself idly running a hand along his scars. “Missed you,” she says.
Kairn’s hand closes over her shoulder and he pulls her in tighter. “I missed you too.”
In Your Arms
She’s clinging to him almost as tightly as she is to the unopened bottle, tears rolling down her cheeks. He squeezes her back as she sobs into his shoulder until she’s soaked him to the skin.
“Told him everything. Everything,” she keeps repeating.
“And I don’t think he believed a word of it. Not that it matters, because he doesn’t care.” Kairn has to dodge the flailing bottle when she drags the back of her arm across her nose with a loud snuffle. “Was right to stay away all these years, to think he wouldn’t want me back. Course he doesn’t.”
He’s still holding her, but suddenly it’s as if she’s sucked all the breath from his chest, as if the floor has fallen out from beneath him and he’s left to hang here in the air, cold and empty.
“What… w-what do you mean, he doesn’t want you back?”
“Oh, Kairn, I’ve been such a fool.”
She’s winding a hand around his neck, reaching for him with tear-streaked lips, and all he can think of is those lips on Rune’s.
“No,” he says, forcing a hand between them.
Lyssa freezes.
“I-if anyone’s been a fool, it’s me.”
Kiss & Make Up
“I want you.” As if the hand thrust down the front of her pants is in need of an explanation.
“But I thought-“
“I need you.” He’s got her pinned against the wall, nipping a path up along her neck while his hand worms its way down her belly. And she knows she could push him off of her easily enough if she wanted to. But there’s a look in his eyes she hasn’t seen before, certainly not on Kairn, perhaps not on anyone.
“Aren’t you the one that said we were through?”
“I don’t care what I said.”
She presses herself to the wall with a groan as his hand slides down to cup her. “This mean we’re not-”
Kairn thrusts his other hand under her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze, so intense it’s almost frightening.
“We’ll figure that out later.” There’s none of the stutter nor the hesitancy she’s used to with Kairn. He’s got his fingers tight against her throat, and then he’s pulling her in, taking her lips with his own.
On the Cheek
He’s got his bag slung over his shoulder, and he keeps readjusting his grip on the strap, fumbling for a proper hold with fingers that refuse to obey. But he’ll be damned if he’ll concede the next time Sethan offers to take it from him. He’s not that much of a cripple.
Sethan’s perched in the doorway, back braced against the frame, arms folded across his front, and one dark brow sharply raised as he looks back at him. But it’s Lyssa’s voice from behind that stops him short.
“Kairn?” She comes to a halt at the base of the stairs, her hand lingering on the rail.
“Lyssa.”
She curls a hand around the back of her neck, a gesture he’s come to recognize as one she picked up from Rune.
“Thought I’d say goodbye.”
“Oh. Right.” He gives a glance to the door to find Sethan seemingly preoccupied with the state of his own nails and turns back to Lyssa with a sigh.
“You were hoping to just slip out unnoticed?”
“I, uh, well, I figured I’d said everything I needed to last night.”
“Yeah.” She frowns at him for a moment. “So…you’re really going, then.”
Her eyes settle on his bag, and he makes another awkward attempt to wrap his hand around the strap before giving it up again. “There’s nothing left here…”
“I’ll miss you,” she says. Then she catches herself and makes a grab for his arm. “Not that I’m trying to get you to stay. I just…I will.”
Dodging her hand, Kairn watches it hang in the air, wondering what to say. No you won’t? I’ll miss you too? He settles for “You’ll be fine.” and leans in to press his lips lightly to her cheek. Not waiting for her to say anything more, he turns back to Sethan, who is finally looking his way. “Let’s go.”
Story : knights & necromancers
Rating : R (non-explicit sex)
Timeframe : 1260-1270's
Word Count : 2913
Malt Prompt : Thanksgiving - Falootin's cheese - And I need you now tonight/And I need you more than ever/And if you'll only hold me tight/We'll be holding on forever/And we'll only be making it right/Cause we'll never be wrong together
Cookie Crumbs for Sallow and First & Last
I gave Rune and Lyssa lemon chiffon and I thought I'd give Kairn and Lyssa a binge too. This covers pretty much the whole course of their relationship, some of which I've addressed before and some of which is spoilery. I'm not sure how well the continuity works, the prompts led it to be a little patchy, so I don't think it really works as a stand alone summary like the Rune/Lyssa one so much as a bunch of snapshots.
Come a Little Bit Closer
Smiling so tightly it makes her jaw hurt and juggling a pair of cups and saucers, Lyssa makes her way to the couch. The two of them are huddled there among the cushions, looking like they’d like nothing more than to disappear altogether.
Bone thin arms curled around her distended middle, the woman gives her tea a vacant, wide-eyed stare as it meets the table in front of her, while her companion glowers. “It’s good for you,” says Lyssa, with a nod at the steaming cup. “My friend, the tall one, he’s a healer.”
Wordlessly, the woman reaches a timid hand for the drink. She pauses, the cup halfway to her lips, and wrinkles her nose.
“Smells like shit, I know. But he knows what he’s doing. And I promise the rest of his cooking is much better. You like cookies?”
There’s a slight quirk to her lips as she lifts her gaze from the cup, like she might smile at that if she could remember how. “Cookies?”
“Yup,” says Lyssa. “Put some meat on your bones in no time. What about you?”
The man flinches from the teacup thrust his way, and for the first time, Lyssa takes a moment to get a good look at him. He’s staring back at her, murky green eyes set deep in a round face. Course, dark hair juts at all angles from the top of his head and all along his jaw, framing soft lips and an upturned nose. He might just be attractive if someone found him a comb and he stopped with the scowling. He throws up his palms, as if a cup of tea is something that needs warding off. “I-I, uh, I’m fine.”
“Nonsense,” says Lyssa, giving the saucer a shove into his palm.
The woman scowls at him over her cup as she lifts it for a sip. “Give it up, Kairn. We’re safe. Just drink your tea.”
Hard to Get
“Do you have any idea how hard it’s been to find you?”
Crouched in a corner, Kairn’s still trying to get over the fact that there’s a body on the floor, that she’s standing over it with her sword still drawn. “That…that’s sort of the idea, isn’t it? Not to be found?”
“By them,” says Lyssa, with a wave of her bloody blade at the dead bounty hunter. “I’m here to protect you.”
“And how was I supposed to know you were looking for me? Sham, don’t touch that!” he snaps, and the toddler snatches back the hand he was about to lay on the man’s boot.
“Oh,” says Lyssa, crestfallen. “You’ve got a point there.” Stooping to wipe her weapon on the fallen man’s pants, she brightens. “You know, now that I’ve found you, there’s no need to keep hiding, is there? We can just crash through any- What?”
“I, uh, I don’t think that would be wise.” Not that arguing with a woman who just killed a man and has yet to sheath her sword strikes him as particularly bright either. “M-maybe we should leave the crashing through things as something of a last resort, don’t you think?”
Tangled Up in You
Kairn’s shaking, out of breath, with a body freshly slumped at his feet. Reason tells him the commotion’s stopped, but the cries and the blows still echo in his head. When a hand closes over his shoulder, he jumps.
She’s a mess, her front sprayed with enough red it nearly blurs into her cloak and a thick cloud of ash strewn through her hair, and all he can do for a moment is gape. “A-are you…?”
Lyssa follows his gaze down to her blood-spattered front and addresses his concerns with a tight laugh. “Not mine,” she says. Her eyes, when they meet his again, are wide. “Are you…?”
All he can manage, as his breath comes rushing back in a deep, shuddering sigh, is a quick bob of his head. The next thing he knows, she’s in his arms, holding him fast, and he’s pressing his lips to hers.
Slip into Something More Comfortable
They’re twined together, a churning mass of limbs, sprawled on the floor of all places, trying to work out the traumas of the last few days the way Lyssa knows best. He’s got one hand up her shirt and the other in her hair, she’s got her nails dug in his back, and he’s hard against her, both of them frantically grinding against the cloth that separates them. It’s been so long since anyone’s touched her like this it hurts, and she closes her eyes and lets her need for him drown all other thought.
“Oh gods,” Lyssa murmurs, as he pries his lips from hers to plant them on her neck. “Oh, Rune.”
That’s when he pulls back and she finds herself staring into a pair of wide green eyes. Kairn doesn’t say a word; he just keeps gaping at her in silent horror. And then she’s fumbling for an apology, a flood of half formed phrases tumbling from her lips as the temperature of the room begins to rise.
Taking it Slow
He catches her by the shoulder as the purse slips from her hand into his, before she can turn away. Her eyes dart from his hand to his face, questioning.
“I-I’ve got dinner,” he says. “If… if you’re hungry, that is.”
She’s just about to lay her hand over his when he pulls it away. “I am, but…I wouldn’t want to impose.”
The coins in his hand suddenly seem a much greater weight, and she follows his gaze to the purse when he repeats, “Impose?”
“Don’t look at me like that. I already drank my share.” She pulls her cloak tight across her throat and she’s turning for the door, but he’s got her by the shoulder again.
“Please, we’re talking about a bowl of soup, Lyss. What could it hurt?”
Tender Loving Care
All he can say as she comes hobbling into the apartment with bandages peeking out the top of one boot is “Again?”
Lyssa shoots him a glare even as she flops down on the couch and props her injured foot up on the table. “You’re not painting on it,” she says.
Kairn’s already digging in a cabinet for a paint stick. “If you don’t want me to fix it, don’t come here wounded.”
“It’s not that bad.” She’s unlaced the boot and now she’s gingerly peeling back the leather. “Look, it’s almost…” she trails off as Kairn leans in, open paint stick in hand, to frown at swath of angry pink skin she’s exposed and then at her. “Healed,” she finishes, lamely.
Shaking his head, he seats himself on the edge of the table and scoops the swollen ankle into his lap. “You know, it’s a wonder you haven’t gotten yourself killed yet.”
“Never do see the other guy, do ya?”
Kairn swallows hard. “I’ve, uh, I’ve seen you fight before.”
“That’s right. You have.”
She flinches at the press of paint to her skin, and he’s trying to be gentle, but everything looks so puffy and sore. “How did you manage to walk on this?”
Whatever answer she would have given is swallowed by a yelp as he activates the mark. He already knows the answer to the next question, but he asks it anyway. “This time will you please see a medic?”
Notch on the Bedpost
It’s uncomfortable enough sitting in this strange kitchen, graciously accepting the hospitality of a woman he’s quite sure is none too happy to have him or the boy about. It doesn’t help that Lyssa has seen fit to still be in bed at half past ten, leaving him with her sister and her mixed messages.
“Would you care for some tea?” says Ski, with a sour look that suggests the last thing she’d like to do is pour it for him.
“No,” he says hastily. “No.” And then, just to show he’s satisfied with things as they are, he shovels a bite of cereal into his mouth and tries to smile around chewing it.
But if he thought dealing with Ski was bad, it’s nothing compared to Mara. This morning the girl is looking past Sham, who’s as absorbed in his own breakfast as Kairn would like to pretend to be, and fixated on him. “You must be a special friend,” she says.
Kairn slowly swallows his mouthful of cereal and looks her way. “Oh?” he says. “Why is that?”
The look she gives him is completely innocent, but it doesn’t soften the words a bit. “Because you’re staying at the house. Usually when Momma brings home guests, they just go to the barn.”
Between the Sheets
Neither of them has said a word for a while now, their lips too busy holding onto each other instead, while their hands explore. The candles on the bedside table surge and ebb with their breaths, bathing the walls in wild, dancing light.
He keeps looking at her, and staring into those wide, green eyes as their lips meet again and again is almost as exhilarating as the press of his body against hers. Lyssa slides her hands up around the back of his neck, twisting her fingers in his hair, and pulls him down on top of her as she sinks into the pillows.
Double Entandre
“Uncle Kairn, are you alright?” Seated at the table, the boy greets him with a sideways look as he comes staggering into the kitchen.
“Just feeling a little off this morning.”
Sham gives him a knowing nod. “Me too,” he says. “I think I’ve got a stomachache from too much pie. Did you have too much of Lyssa’s pie last night?”
“No, I di-” Lyssa’s bent low, her head thrust into the cupboards under the counter, and Kairn stops short, fixated on the swing of her hips and the way her nightshirt is riding up her bare thighs as she digs through the dishes inside. “On second thought, yes,” he mutters, raking a hand through his hair. “Far too much pie.”
Lyssa bobs up with a snicker, a mug in each hand. “Coffee?”
“Thanks,” he says, as she presses a cup into his palm.
“What did you in?” She’s smirking at him over her shoulder as she scoops the kettle up off the stove. “The third slice or the fourth?”
Fooling Around
There’s paint on her fingers, paint on her belly, a daub of it on her nose, traces at the corners of her mouth. She’s trying not to think about the bit that’s trickled down between her breasts.
Kairn’s underneath her, his face split from ear to ear in a grin. Lyssa doesn’t think she’ll ever be quite comfortable with the slimy, greasy feel of the paint as he traces the lines on her flesh, but she’ll never get over the way the magic makes him writhe and moan either.
He’s already exhausted a half dozen energy transfer forms, but she runs a hand down along his cheek, unleashing bits of heat from her fingers for good measure. It sends a shiver through her to watch as his eyes roll back and he nuzzles into her hand.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” he murmurs.
Lyssa laughs. “Only about fifty times so far tonight.”
Naughty But Nice
“I saw your woman the other day” is Reida’s greeting as she deposits her cloak and her bags in the middle of the forms Kairn’s been working on.
Kairn snaps to attention, the chalk falling from his hands and the hour’s worth of work she’s just smudged forgotten. “Did you see Sham? Is he with her? Is he alright?”
Dropping to her knees at the edge of the ring, Reida snorts as she starts rifling through her bag. “All concern for the boy and none for the bitch, huh?”
“Lyssa can take care of herself. It’s her ability to take care of a twelve-year-old that I question.”
“Oh, she takes care of herself, alright.” She frowns at the bag and gives it a slow pull across the floor, obliterating even more of his lines, to shove her arm deeper inside. “Don’t worry, she puts the boy to bed before she goes to the bar to whore about.”
“She wouldn’t.”
“You don’t look so certain.”
“Shut up.”
“You know,” she says, her lips curling slowly back over stark white teeth. “She doesn’t have to be the only one getting some action.”
Kairn’s only answer is a shudder as he retrieves his chalk.
Sleeping Beside You
It’s one of those mornings, like they always used to have, where she wakes up buried in the crook of his arm, breathing in the smell of him, and the only thing that could make the morning better is to repeat the process a few more times, and so she does. It’s about the fourth time she’s coming out of dozing, gently flexing her shoulders and burying her nose against his chest, that Kairn cocks his head and raises one bushy brow at her.
“Morning,” he says, his voice thick with sleep. “At least I think it’s still morning,” he adds, squinting at the curtains.
“Does it matter?” she says, curling an arm around him. “You’re here.”
He laughs at that, a soft rumble that rolls over his chest, and she finds herself idly running a hand along his scars. “Missed you,” she says.
Kairn’s hand closes over her shoulder and he pulls her in tighter. “I missed you too.”
In Your Arms
She’s clinging to him almost as tightly as she is to the unopened bottle, tears rolling down her cheeks. He squeezes her back as she sobs into his shoulder until she’s soaked him to the skin.
“Told him everything. Everything,” she keeps repeating.
“And I don’t think he believed a word of it. Not that it matters, because he doesn’t care.” Kairn has to dodge the flailing bottle when she drags the back of her arm across her nose with a loud snuffle. “Was right to stay away all these years, to think he wouldn’t want me back. Course he doesn’t.”
He’s still holding her, but suddenly it’s as if she’s sucked all the breath from his chest, as if the floor has fallen out from beneath him and he’s left to hang here in the air, cold and empty.
“What… w-what do you mean, he doesn’t want you back?”
“Oh, Kairn, I’ve been such a fool.”
She’s winding a hand around his neck, reaching for him with tear-streaked lips, and all he can think of is those lips on Rune’s.
“No,” he says, forcing a hand between them.
Lyssa freezes.
“I-if anyone’s been a fool, it’s me.”
Kiss & Make Up
“I want you.” As if the hand thrust down the front of her pants is in need of an explanation.
“But I thought-“
“I need you.” He’s got her pinned against the wall, nipping a path up along her neck while his hand worms its way down her belly. And she knows she could push him off of her easily enough if she wanted to. But there’s a look in his eyes she hasn’t seen before, certainly not on Kairn, perhaps not on anyone.
“Aren’t you the one that said we were through?”
“I don’t care what I said.”
She presses herself to the wall with a groan as his hand slides down to cup her. “This mean we’re not-”
Kairn thrusts his other hand under her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze, so intense it’s almost frightening.
“We’ll figure that out later.” There’s none of the stutter nor the hesitancy she’s used to with Kairn. He’s got his fingers tight against her throat, and then he’s pulling her in, taking her lips with his own.
On the Cheek
He’s got his bag slung over his shoulder, and he keeps readjusting his grip on the strap, fumbling for a proper hold with fingers that refuse to obey. But he’ll be damned if he’ll concede the next time Sethan offers to take it from him. He’s not that much of a cripple.
Sethan’s perched in the doorway, back braced against the frame, arms folded across his front, and one dark brow sharply raised as he looks back at him. But it’s Lyssa’s voice from behind that stops him short.
“Kairn?” She comes to a halt at the base of the stairs, her hand lingering on the rail.
“Lyssa.”
She curls a hand around the back of her neck, a gesture he’s come to recognize as one she picked up from Rune.
“Thought I’d say goodbye.”
“Oh. Right.” He gives a glance to the door to find Sethan seemingly preoccupied with the state of his own nails and turns back to Lyssa with a sigh.
“You were hoping to just slip out unnoticed?”
“I, uh, well, I figured I’d said everything I needed to last night.”
“Yeah.” She frowns at him for a moment. “So…you’re really going, then.”
Her eyes settle on his bag, and he makes another awkward attempt to wrap his hand around the strap before giving it up again. “There’s nothing left here…”
“I’ll miss you,” she says. Then she catches herself and makes a grab for his arm. “Not that I’m trying to get you to stay. I just…I will.”
Dodging her hand, Kairn watches it hang in the air, wondering what to say. No you won’t? I’ll miss you too? He settles for “You’ll be fine.” and leans in to press his lips lightly to her cheek. Not waiting for her to say anything more, he turns back to Sethan, who is finally looking his way. “Let’s go.”