Fic: Warrior's Wounds
I bring you fic AND pictures. This is what I did yesterday. Yeah, SO PRODUCTIVE! But they're pretty. And I need to chance my icon because Kilce's hair is BLUE and not PINK. The hair being a different color is important. I just need to figure out the words to tell that part of the story.
There are other pretties but I haven't written about them yet so I'm going to hold off on showing them off. And I have some setting pictures, as well. Incidently, I totally want to visit Cornell University some time because it's GORGEOUS if the pictures are a good indication!
Title: Warrior's Wounds
Prompt: 15. Auspicious for the writerverse Pen to Paper table
Word Count: 1248
Rating: PG-13
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): Cyril Ann/Xie
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Xie has escaped from prison and made his way back to Cyril Ann.
Cyril Ann stretched her arms out wide as sleep began to evaporate. It had been a long night but it was going to be an even longer day. She abruptly stopped scrolling through her mental calendar as she bumped warm skin with one of her arms. A wide smile spread slowly across her face as she rolled to her side.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" she asked in a quiet voice, sliding a hand over the bumps of Xie's spine. His skin was warm, even in the chill of the room. It had been too long since she'd last had the privilege of touching him like this. There was the after-effects of a bruise over his right kidney, sure to have been painful. The scab of a healing slice high on his ribs. For her. These were all for her.
When he didn't do more than mumble against the pillow, his face turned away from her, she kissed her way along his shoulder until she could burrow her nose against his neck. It was a pity she slept in a shift or they would be skin to skin. Even so, her body began to warm as they shared body heat. And then she began to grow too hot. Her hand grew clammy from where it touched his hip.
"Xie? Turn over for me, love." It took several attempts to get him on his back. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get him to wake up completely. The fever was burning him up from the inside out and his body using all its resources to fight it off.
As she got off the bed to assess the situation, she came to the conclusion that it wasn't so serious that she needed to hunt down a Healer. It would be hard enough to find one that would come to her rooms without also adding extreme secrecy to the mix. A known criminal, one who had only just recently been condemned and sent to prison in the most spectacular fashion, would be hard not to recognize. She didn't want to chance it. Losing Xie so soon after getting him back would kill her.
"Just let me be," he murmured as she struggled to finish undressing him. Whoever he'd stolen these clothes from certainly didn't want the filthy things back so she didn't hesitate to just rip the thin trousers away. Better they were burned so that all traces of his incarceration, and the germs he'd brought home with him, were taken care of completely. "I just need some sleep."
"You'll get your sleep but you're taking a shower first. All this dirt, I don't know how you stand it." Her voice faltered as she took in the state of the rest of his body. While she'd known that his stay in the Brig, one of the worst prisons in the city, was not going to be easy, she'd deliberately made herself forget that it would be painful and dirty. It was known for breaking people, or coming damn close.
Still, this was her Xie. Her beautiful, beautiful boy. As he deliberately kept his face turned away from her, she wondered just how much of that beauty had been marred. Or how much of the Xie she remembered had been twisted from his stay in that hell-hole. Still, he had come to her instead of hiding out in one of his many cubbyholes that dotted the city. Her rooms were not the safest place for him to hide yet he had come here. He had come to her.
A tug brought him up to a sitting position but he sagged so that she went to stand between his legs so he had something to lean against. His body pressed against hers with a comfortable weight, his head nestled just below her breasts. His hair was greasy and damp with sweat but she slid her hands through it as if she was petting him.
"Mine," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her weight.
Her eyes slid closed as she let herself drown in the sensation of being with him again. Of being his again. He had been so many things to her over the years. Teacher, friend, advocate, solid rock. It had been an auspicious meeting of minds and hearts when they'd both tried to hide in the same shallow doorway all those years ago. A failed thief and a scrawny fighter. They'd had to depend on each other to get away from the Honor Guard that time, each of them vowing that the other was ruining their chances but they would have both ended up beaten if they hadn't worked together.
In all these years, Cyril Ann never had gotten better at thievery but her real aptitude was in fleshing out the plans and instructing others how to carry them out. She used her words, just as he had encouraged her to on that first meeting. And she, in turn, had given him a place to stay that was away from the streets. Once he'd put on a few pounds of lean muscle, he'd grown to be a more formidable opponent so that fewer people wanted to test his fists.
His tightening grip, nearly crushing her to him now, brought her out of the memories and back to the reality of his fevered flesh. "You'll feel better under the water. Once you're clean again, you'll be able to sleep better."
"Will you come with me?"
Cyril Ann deliberately misunderstood his words. "To sleep? Yes."
"No. Under the water." He looked up at her, a mischievous glint in one of his dark eyes. The other was too puffy to open properly. The flesh around it seeped with infection. When he saw where she was looking, he tried to hide his head back against her body but she refused to let him move away from her gently probing finger.
"How long has this been infected?" No wonder he was running a fever. Or that he'd tried to hide this from her. This would most definitely take a Healer's touch but not just any Healer. With this much infection so close to his eye, it would take a delicate touch and a lot more magic than she'd ever had to pay for before. They were sure to be noticed if they tried to find help within the city walls. "How long?" she asked again when he pressed his lips together in a thin line.
"Few days."
"A few days? Billage! I've seen wounds like this after a few days and this is well past a few days. How long, Xie? Truth."
This time, when he fell back against her body, she let him hide. There were already more ghosts in his eyes than she was comfortable dealing with. "About a month. It was just a blackened eye, at first. Warden decided to make an example of me."
Her hands fisted in his hair as she bit her bottom lip against the rising tide of anger and nausea. She dropped to her knees so that they were almost the same height. This time, she didn't allow her gaze to wander to the horrid bruising but kept her eyes trained on his good one. "I vow to you, by blood and bone, that I will see this wrong avenged. You took my punishment and I will take your revenge."
When his forehead touched hers, she let her eyes close. "So witnessed," he whispered, binding them together once again.
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.
There are other pretties but I haven't written about them yet so I'm going to hold off on showing them off. And I have some setting pictures, as well. Incidently, I totally want to visit Cornell University some time because it's GORGEOUS if the pictures are a good indication!
Title: Warrior's Wounds
Prompt: 15. Auspicious for the writerverse Pen to Paper table
Word Count: 1248
Rating: PG-13
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): Cyril Ann/Xie
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Xie has escaped from prison and made his way back to Cyril Ann.
Cyril Ann stretched her arms out wide as sleep began to evaporate. It had been a long night but it was going to be an even longer day. She abruptly stopped scrolling through her mental calendar as she bumped warm skin with one of her arms. A wide smile spread slowly across her face as she rolled to her side.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" she asked in a quiet voice, sliding a hand over the bumps of Xie's spine. His skin was warm, even in the chill of the room. It had been too long since she'd last had the privilege of touching him like this. There was the after-effects of a bruise over his right kidney, sure to have been painful. The scab of a healing slice high on his ribs. For her. These were all for her.
When he didn't do more than mumble against the pillow, his face turned away from her, she kissed her way along his shoulder until she could burrow her nose against his neck. It was a pity she slept in a shift or they would be skin to skin. Even so, her body began to warm as they shared body heat. And then she began to grow too hot. Her hand grew clammy from where it touched his hip.
"Xie? Turn over for me, love." It took several attempts to get him on his back. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get him to wake up completely. The fever was burning him up from the inside out and his body using all its resources to fight it off.
As she got off the bed to assess the situation, she came to the conclusion that it wasn't so serious that she needed to hunt down a Healer. It would be hard enough to find one that would come to her rooms without also adding extreme secrecy to the mix. A known criminal, one who had only just recently been condemned and sent to prison in the most spectacular fashion, would be hard not to recognize. She didn't want to chance it. Losing Xie so soon after getting him back would kill her.
"Just let me be," he murmured as she struggled to finish undressing him. Whoever he'd stolen these clothes from certainly didn't want the filthy things back so she didn't hesitate to just rip the thin trousers away. Better they were burned so that all traces of his incarceration, and the germs he'd brought home with him, were taken care of completely. "I just need some sleep."
"You'll get your sleep but you're taking a shower first. All this dirt, I don't know how you stand it." Her voice faltered as she took in the state of the rest of his body. While she'd known that his stay in the Brig, one of the worst prisons in the city, was not going to be easy, she'd deliberately made herself forget that it would be painful and dirty. It was known for breaking people, or coming damn close.
Still, this was her Xie. Her beautiful, beautiful boy. As he deliberately kept his face turned away from her, she wondered just how much of that beauty had been marred. Or how much of the Xie she remembered had been twisted from his stay in that hell-hole. Still, he had come to her instead of hiding out in one of his many cubbyholes that dotted the city. Her rooms were not the safest place for him to hide yet he had come here. He had come to her.
A tug brought him up to a sitting position but he sagged so that she went to stand between his legs so he had something to lean against. His body pressed against hers with a comfortable weight, his head nestled just below her breasts. His hair was greasy and damp with sweat but she slid her hands through it as if she was petting him.
"Mine," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her weight.
Her eyes slid closed as she let herself drown in the sensation of being with him again. Of being his again. He had been so many things to her over the years. Teacher, friend, advocate, solid rock. It had been an auspicious meeting of minds and hearts when they'd both tried to hide in the same shallow doorway all those years ago. A failed thief and a scrawny fighter. They'd had to depend on each other to get away from the Honor Guard that time, each of them vowing that the other was ruining their chances but they would have both ended up beaten if they hadn't worked together.
In all these years, Cyril Ann never had gotten better at thievery but her real aptitude was in fleshing out the plans and instructing others how to carry them out. She used her words, just as he had encouraged her to on that first meeting. And she, in turn, had given him a place to stay that was away from the streets. Once he'd put on a few pounds of lean muscle, he'd grown to be a more formidable opponent so that fewer people wanted to test his fists.
His tightening grip, nearly crushing her to him now, brought her out of the memories and back to the reality of his fevered flesh. "You'll feel better under the water. Once you're clean again, you'll be able to sleep better."
"Will you come with me?"
Cyril Ann deliberately misunderstood his words. "To sleep? Yes."
"No. Under the water." He looked up at her, a mischievous glint in one of his dark eyes. The other was too puffy to open properly. The flesh around it seeped with infection. When he saw where she was looking, he tried to hide his head back against her body but she refused to let him move away from her gently probing finger.
"How long has this been infected?" No wonder he was running a fever. Or that he'd tried to hide this from her. This would most definitely take a Healer's touch but not just any Healer. With this much infection so close to his eye, it would take a delicate touch and a lot more magic than she'd ever had to pay for before. They were sure to be noticed if they tried to find help within the city walls. "How long?" she asked again when he pressed his lips together in a thin line.
"Few days."
"A few days? Billage! I've seen wounds like this after a few days and this is well past a few days. How long, Xie? Truth."
This time, when he fell back against her body, she let him hide. There were already more ghosts in his eyes than she was comfortable dealing with. "About a month. It was just a blackened eye, at first. Warden decided to make an example of me."
Her hands fisted in his hair as she bit her bottom lip against the rising tide of anger and nausea. She dropped to her knees so that they were almost the same height. This time, she didn't allow her gaze to wander to the horrid bruising but kept her eyes trained on his good one. "I vow to you, by blood and bone, that I will see this wrong avenged. You took my punishment and I will take your revenge."
When his forehead touched hers, she let her eyes close. "So witnessed," he whispered, binding them together once again.
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.