[ Darkness falls, and the room is carnage. A cellar somewhere, Nico presumes, though he's not paying attention to the details of the space as much as the bodies and blood painting it, the carrion of Ea's checkered past.
He finds that he feels nothing for them, the dead. Just the stillsame anger that he'd expressed in words before: you should have left her alone.
There are only three people alive now, sequestered by four stone walls and the grim silence of Nico's rage. Obviously, Ea isn't on the receiving end of all of this ire; Nico's attention flicks towards her, and it's pure relief that sits near his heart when he sees that she's still standing, red-stained but alive. Still beautiful, even in her ferocity.
It's the other one, the one that Ea called Elgar, who remains problematic. He watches the elf come to, groaning as he tries to drag his broken body over the dirt-covered floor, too close to Ea for comfort.
So Nico closes the distance, and steps on one outstretched hand, hard enough to feel bone yielding under his weight. The resounding sound of his screaming still barely registers; Nico tips his head to the side, as dispassionate as a hawk watching a mouse scurry by, and lifts his foot again.
This time, it lands squarely on Elgar's head, and the sick sound of his skull caving cuts off the last of the man's screaming. ]
[ The moment her eyes adjust to the natural light again, they focus on Nico. There's a whole room of bodies (and Elgar) between them, and the distance burns. She doesn't need more than a few seconds to quickly run the inventory. He's taken some damage, but the blood spattering his skin isn't his, because he is standing without any of the characteristic swaying of an injured person.
And then, she is locked into place as she looks at him crush Elgar's hand underfoot, her gaze on Nico rather than the ghost of her past. What does it say about her that she thinks he is hot as fuck when he does that dispassionate, predatorial head tilt?
She sees the foot rise again, her breath catching, and then - gone. Elgar is gone. They're all gone.
She sways on her feet a little, adrenaline rushing out of her in one swoop. She crosses the room over to Nico, her hand settling on his arm. ]
Hey. That's enough, don't turn him into juice. [ She's going to have to dig through some pockets to find a healing potion or two, by the looks of it. Her fingers graze a tear in his shirt, where an arrow had pierced him before, and she can't help the small, choked apologetic sound that escapes her. ] I'm sorry, I - I should've expected them to follow me, I don't know why I got complacent, and you're hurt, I've put you in harm's way, fuck -
[ There are injuries― pockmarks where arrows embedded into his back, when they were first ambushed― but the pain's been buried under six feet of adrenaline and fighting instinct, concern and confusion and anger. Nico is barely thinking about them, though, his brain rubber-band-snapping to Ea when she approaches him, her words a pleasant blur that cuts through the roar of his blood in his ears.
His hands are blood-slick; he wielded a shortsword like a broadsword in close range, and the aftermath of his violence is all over his fingers. Stepping away from the gore of what used to be Elgar, he pivots to face Ea, touching her bruised face with painful care, so at odds with all the dispassion with which he'd slaughtered half the room a minute ago.
He doesn't want her to apologize to him. Still masked and with his hands pulsing blue, he pulls Ea closer to him and presses his mouth to hers, tasting blood on her torn lip, cutting off anything else she has to say, because it hurts his heart to hear it. ]
[ She searches his face for answers that aren't coming as soon as he cups her face, the words dying off on her lips but a moment later.
Then his mouth is on her, and that deliberate lick against her lower lip feels like a 6th level Lightning Bolt straight to her core. (She realises that he must have licked the cut on her lip - gained mid-battle perhaps, or maybe someone backhanded her before the bucket of water.
Either way, he's licking her wounds clean. Feral. She's so in love it hurts.)
She inhales through her nose and pushes herself into him. Crushes her mouth to his with a desperate kind of hunger, grabbing onto the front of his shirt with one hand and curling the other over the back of his neck. ]
[ It's hard to project much with the mask still on; it's deliberate. Nico doesn't want to see the void-shaped anger behind the feathers, the two cloud-white eyes that are sure to be like twin storms still seething. So he leans into Ea instead, hands at her hips and gripping, kissing and licking into her bloodstained mouth until the taste of iron is subsumed by the taste of her, as warm and alive as he always remembers her to be.
He's panting by the time their mouths part, his lips flushed red. Like an animal, he licks the blood his fingers have left on her cheek, still trying to clean all of this violence off of her skin. ]
They never deserved you. [ He whispers. The subdued version of Aylin with her wings parted wide, Ketheric's corpse under her heel. A calmer, colder rage. ] They put you in harm's way.
[ She has nothing to apologize for. Nico kisses her again, tongue against her cut again, murmuring a muffled te curo to cast Cure Wounds with his mouth. Unconventional ways of using healing magic, but who's keeping track? ]
[ It's not as though she expects scorn from Nico. It may not have been long since they've come clean in Moonrise Towers, but she's grown familiar enough with his particular brand of devotion, of love, that she does not expect him to be shocked by the violence of her acts.
He doesn't know all of her past, but - perhaps he should. This is what she thinks, when the first kiss ends and she lets her head lean into the grip of his hands, her eyes fluttering closed. Hells, she wants to let him know all of her - does that make her a horrible, selfish person? The contrast between knowing she's likely to die and the selfish need to be loved anyway...
Put a pin in that, Nico's just cured her cut in the middle of a kiss. She whimpers against his lips, and surges further up against him, practically jumping into his arms. He can either catch her or not, she's going to wrap her legs around his waist anyway, and taste him, take his mouth in a heady and deep kiss. ]
[ He wants to know, of course. He wants to know all of her, not just the physical shape of her but what makes Ea tick, all the things in her past that have made her who she is now. He wants to know her future, too, and all the things she wants to be, will become. An all-encompassing devotion, made more intense by celestial instinct.
Hands fly up when Ea jumps, palms to her thighs to keep her in place as they kiss. Nico barely stumbles despite his injuries, holding Ea's weight as if she's featherlight― he only moves backwards to find a flat surface because it suits him, and he uses the wall for balance as he cranes forward, letting Ea claim him, opening himself to whatever she wants. His breath, his tongue, his pulse.
When they come up for air again: ] I love you.
[ A blessing and a curse in three syllables. Ea has doomed herself by getting injured in front of him; there's no escape from an aasimar who has bonded himself so thoroughly to someone else's safety. Nico sounds almost drunk on his own words, pressing them against Ea's mouth, her jaw. Reinforcing, compelling. Riding on a blood-induced high, and on barely-concealed concern for her wellbeing. ] I love you, Ea. I love you.
[ She gets it now. What it means to be stuck between a wall and a hard place - or person. Her breath stutters against his lips, but she recovers quickly enough to tighten her hold on his waist, ankles hooked together.
With the wall at her back, she can draw herself up to level with his head, and further up so she can cup his face in her hands and kiss all of her own devotion into him. They come up for air, and it washes over her like another round of hearing. ] I love you.
[ Easiest three words to say. No doubt in her heart that it's real, and true. She lets him kiss her again, her adrenaline rush running out and leaving her dazed. But smiling, because he keeps saying he loves her and she feels it, she does.
She's not looking at the massacre at their feet right now, only at the feathers of his mask. And impulsivity wins, so she leans in and kisses those feathers, lets them tickle her lips, and whispers the incantation to prestidigitation against them to magic them - and his face - clean.
Following that, a huffed laugh.] It's a good thing I'm no cleric, or I'd revive the bastard just to kill him again for hurting you.
[ The sensation against his feathers clues Nico back in to the fact that he's wearing them at all, but the mask stays; he's wary of letting Ea see all that fury underneath, the roiling fog of his eyes, the inhuman glow of his rage-trembling expression. It's easier to still them under the obstruction, even if the faint tremor of his voice might give it all away.
He's grateful when Ea magics their blood off. He doesn't mind smelling it on her, not usually, but not tonight. Right now, he can't stand smelling someone else on her. ]
It doesn't matter what he did to me, [ he whispers. Almost like a threat, directed towards a man who's already dead. ] He tried to hurt you. I was just another tool in his arsenal.
[ And he can't forgive that, not really. Nico may be used to being used, but not against someone, let alone against someone he loves. He kisses against Ea's jaw again, hitching her closer to his chest. ]
[ Poor Elgar. More of a nuisance than a threat, just like he'd always been - even in the old days, when Ea had been the favoured dagger of their Guildmaster, the elf had been ruffled by the idea of a young tiefling girl being better at the job than him. She can connect the dots fairly easily now, in the aftermath:
Blackbirds going leave the Guild either in a coffin or in a ditch. She'd taken out her biggest opposition to her decision to not be a part of that soul-sucking gang anymore, the Guildmaster himself, in the most backstabbing of ways. Taught him a lesson, too, in not being too overconfident and trusting his iron fist could keep everyone afraid of him, and obedient. She hadn't exactly stood behind for the lesson to sink in, but whatever.
His death was on her hands. The warehouse burning to ashes, also on her hands. But she'd left everyone else alive, trusting the ones who - like her - had always dreamed of leaving would take the opportunity to leave. She can connect more dots: Elgar seeing it as a chance to put himself in charge, building the Blackbirds for his own gain, until the island became too small for his ambition. Elgar coming to the continent, finding his way to Baldur's Gate. Maybe he'd thought he'd go after the Underduke next. Maybe not.
And hearing about the tiefling that had ruined his long game on the island, and thinking of taking revenge, and - she snorts under her breath. ] His main mistake is wanting to talk my ear off.
[ But then finally, the scattering of dots she keeps trying to connect fades away, scattered to the winds, as Nico kisses her jaw and she finally lets his words sink.
He hates it, the idea that he could be a tool. She hates it too. She cups his face in both hands, now clean, and looks down at him in this position. Mask or not, she thinks she can see down into his soul, can guess exactly the type of threatening storm that roils in his eyes. ]
It matters to me. [ Quiet, but clear. ] What he did to you, what anyone does to you - it matters to me. I would burn the world down if it guaranteed your safety.
[ She glances down at his mouth, an ache settling in the pit of her stomach. Want, yearning sort of want, coils around her throat like a noose. She has to force her eyes back up to his mask, the viccinity of his eyes. ] They might not be the only ones. I should tell you - I want to tell you everything about my past, but I'm selfish and afraid you won't want me after.
[ Nico has little empathy for Elgar; maybe that scares him, in a way. His lack of remorse for the gore he still feels under his foot and his inability to remember what the elf sounded like when he crushed his skull remind him that there's something wrong with him, that under the map of his skin, he's wearing something that doesn't look like everyone else.
It's more tolerable when Ea has her hands on him, when she tells him that he matters. All of this strangeness serves a purpose with her, when she looks at him and touches him and tells him that he's needed. Goddess, he'd threatened calling her mid-sex, but a part of him believes it. Rootless and unmoored, she really could be his religion.
Scarred, feathered, the scent of blood still thick on his skin even after the cleaning off: ]
I want all of you. Your past, your present, your future.
[ He whispers it. Someone who isn't familiar with Nico might find his cadence poisonous; too yearning to be normal, too gentle to be trustworthy. No one should really dote on anyone this way, should be so permissive without bringing morals into the equation, but. Well.
Sometimes, blood is thicker than water. Nico, with the single-mindedness of the divine, rubs foreheads with Ea despite the obstruction of his mask. ]
[ She exhales so slowly, breath shuddering out of her, fanning against his lips and ruffling the lower feathers of that mask. A part of him, not a disguise, he'd told her; the manifestation of whatever excess of magic that courses through his veins.
She can't believe she ever thought him confusing and adorable, when he now has her whole heart in his hand. Exhale over, the words sink in - your past, your present, your future - and the words stumble out before she can help it. ]
What if there isn't a future? What if I - [ She sucks in a breath, letting her eyes flutter closed. Her heart thuds in her chest, now that the dark thoughts have been voiced. She thought, sincerely, that she would not make it beyond the Absolute. Now that there's Orin, and Gortash, now that there are so many enemies to deal with in the city, she's not confident she'll make it to the Absolute.
And she's been keeping quiet on that, pushing Nico away, and it's not fair. Tell him, some part of her (all her, not the Emperor) whispers. Drives her forward. ]
I've been pushing you away because I thought it would make your heart break less if I die in the battles to come.
[ Her breath whispers against his skin; her confession is strained. Nico stays where he is, still holding her against the wall with his unfaltering hands, her legs wrapped around his torso, their hearts beating against their pressed-together chests.
The words are revelatory. Nico doesn't know what to do with them, at first, and struggles to interpret what Ea means by his heartbreak and her so-called inevitable death. Mostly, he can't imagine losing her― he tries, and the cold fear that runs through him pulls invisible drawstrings around his lungs. He can't breathe around it, can't think around it.
So he shakes his head. No. Almost childlike in its vehemence. ]
There's no less. [ He struggles to get even this out, like he can't imagine why she won't understand. ] I would die with you.
[ If not physically, emotionally. Some part of him will perish, irrevocably, with or without her pushing him away. ]
[ Her eyes snap open, narrowed. The reaction to that - Nico's declaration - is immediate. ] Absolutely not, you can't. [ Her grip on his face twitches, digging her nails into his skin ever so slightly, the reaction visceral. ] You can't die with me, I'll kill you.
[ A gentle reminder that her wisdom is mid.
And speaking of ungentle reminders? The very distinct possibility that he might throw himself into the abyss with her is making her want to stay alive. Nico isn't allowed to come under harm.
This isn't the first time she's chosen to live and survive for someone's sake. She feels a bitter taste in her mouth, pursing her lips around the indescribable feeling of that 180° spin she's going to do. ]
Alright - fuck it. We do our best to survive while taking down the Absolute.
[ That does, unfortunately, mean that they're going to go to Hells to steal the Orphic Hammer from Raphael, because the Emperor is convinced that the only way forward is for one of them to become illithid, which has been driven into her head as being equal to death. She won't ask that of anyone, and she's not going to do it herself. That astral-touched tadpole can wither away in the chest.
Maybe it makes her a hypocrite, or maybe tonight has been an awakening.
They're going to have to find Nico's armor and weapons, wherever the Blackbirds stashed it.
Unfortunately (maybe, sources?) she's not eager to let him go and do the reasonable thing. There's a fire burning in her veins still, roiling there; somewhere in her memory she sees the boot kicking Nico's head down again, sees her past coming back to hurt her loved ones, sees the glow in his eyes and that should not have hurt her. Not in her memory, she sees the aftermath of a bloody battle, one where their enemies were outmatched because Ea and Nico fight so well in tandem they have it down to an artform.
The most shameful thing, perhaps, is that it has left her aroused. And because impulse control is not a thing right now, the outburst ends with Ea crushing her mouth to his, deep and heady. ]
Edited (Im SORRY i keep editing I'm flaky about the drama and wanted/needed to write more) Date: 2024-07-13 08:44 am (UTC)
[ The storm keeps roiling between Nico's ribs; what should he do? Ea doesn't want him to hurt, but that's an impossibility― he doesn't want her to agonize over being the recipient of his devotion, and, by extension, his concern, but he has a feeling that she might.
His mask dissipates at the feeling of nails in his skin. Vulnerability shared for vulnerability given. Nico's not sure if the pale-white of his eyes are still glowing, but he can still feel the vehemence buzzing like white noise in his skull, responding to Ea's statement about taking down the Absolute, because he would.
He'd kill a God for her. He'd kill timeless entities with unspeakable power, if she only asked him to. And it feels like an ask, when she surges forward and claims his mouth, parting it open with hers to taste him; where he misses his chance to respond to her in words, he reciprocates with his eagerness to kiss her, her shoulderblades pressed up against the wall as he opens his mouth to let her in.
(Is he hard? He has no idea. He grinds up against her as if he is, though, because he needs Ea to know that she's needed.) ]
[ All she can think of, beneath the cacophony of buzzing, blood pumping, heart thudding in her chest, is that it's been too long. She let it go on too long, and she knows it's her fault and her doing, because Nico has never been anything but warm and loving.
He kisses her back, she drowns a needy whimper against his mouth, rubs her tongue against his and decides it has been an eternity. (So like a week.)
He grounds his hips against hers, she wraps her tail around his thigh like time and time again, mineminemine, and releases a panted breath against his lips. ] I want -
[ To feel him everywhere. To make up for lost time. To love him with the same wild devotion he (inexplicably, still) loves her. To fuck his brains out in a bloodied basement until they both cry.
Normal, non-dramatic things.
She withdraws from his mouth for a second, takes in the fury and beauty of his eyes, and inevitably her hips twitch, griding down. ]
You're as feral as I am, aren't you, love? [ Said so lovingly, and with wonder. One of her hands find their way to his mouth, thumb brushing again his lower lip. He kissed her after the battle, licked the blood off her lips and cured her mid-kiss. Yeah, he's feral. ]
[ "Feral" is funny, because it's literally true: all aasimar are slightly feral by nature, depending on how hands-on (or, mostly, hands-off) their celestial parents are. But Nico doubts that that's what Ea means, especially after that kiss, especially considering the mounting heat that he can feel between them, and he smiles despite the stormclouds still sitting behind the thin films of his eyes. ]
Maybe even more.
[ Is that a challenge? A threat? Who knows. Not that he underestimates Ea and how much she loves him, because he knows that she does― it's just that her coveting takes a different form, after all her hurt. Maybe she's never had an opportunity to show what that coveting looks like, not in any meaningful way that wouldn't come back to bite her.
Nico cranes forward and kisses her again, the contact quick but deep, ending with his teeth grazing along where he remembers the split of her lip'd been. Like he wants to taste her blood again, just so he can commit it to memory. ]
[ There is no slow simmer anymore, it's just a straightforward march to mind numbing desire.
If she could muster up enough shame, she'd feel it for wanting him like this - after a battle, Elgar's blood and brains still on Nico's boot.
(Gods, she remembers that moment again, realises that he did that because someone threatened her, and her whole perfect cunt clenches.)
She does not feel shame, though. ]
I'll call you anything you want me to call you right now.
[ She flicks her tongue across his lower lip, then nips it. A moment of lazy arousal, of simply savouring the kiss. ] I've missed this.
[ Her fault. She frowns for a moment, as the thought sinks in, and her need to give him something, cherish him, service him, anything he wants - it redoubles.
She draws back until the back of her head hits the wall and looks at him. ] Ask me for what you need - it's yours, but ask me for it.
[ He feels hot under the thin fabric of the tight pseudo-bodysuit that he wears under all that armor. All that bloodlust, boiled down to its basest parts. There's no space left in his head for introspection, nothing but the question Ea poses to him, which has a very clear answer. ]
You. [ Has there ever been anything else? Has he ever needed anything in his life before he met her? His hands are sitting by Ea's hips, keeping her lifted from the bloodied floor with ease, and the grip tightens just enough for the hold to feel intentional. Possessive, even. ] I need you to hold on tight to me.
[ A low hum, considering. Their foreheads bump together as best as Ea's horns will let them, and he looks into her glowing eyes, celestial to infernal. ]
I need you to not hold back. [ His voice gets softer, lower. ] Can you do that, love?
[ Easiest thing he's ever asked her to do. Her heart thuds behind her ribcage, her eyes burn into her, and she feels the whole structure impossibly fragile from the congruence of feelings. She rests her forehead against his, takes in a slow breath, and squeezes her legs around his waist as tight as she can, wraps her arms around his neck.
She feels small and breakable - two things that Ea has never liked feeling, ever since running from the guild whose (hopefully last) remaining members all lie dead at their feet - like the fast heartbeat and the want and the love could all smash her into bits.
Best of all, she wants to break. For him, always. ] I can.
[ A beat, and her tongue flicks against his lips again, before she decides she needs and craves the taste and feel of his mouth on her again and kisses him. A groan muffled against his lips, the kiss bruising and deep, her fingers climbing up to his hair to grab it. ]
[ She's a grabber― Nico likes that. Resourceful, knowing what she needs to take to survive. In the desperate push and pull of their emotions, there's a thin current of excitement that runs through him when he thinks about being on the receiving end of that fight, that she's fighting to keep him for her survival. That she'd claw at him, for him, with teeth and nails.
Fuck, Ea turns him on. He kisses her slowly, opening her mouth with his own to suck at her flushed lips, her hot tongue, paying attention to the sounds she makes, the way she shifts and grinds against his waist. Needy and adorable.
His brain's on autopilot by the time the contact breaks. An already-poor brain-to-mouth filter, completely broken by residual anger and more powerful arousal. He's only half-aware of the words he's speaking, honestly. ]
I want to make you come on my fingers again and again, [ is a little breathless, ] and by the time you beg me to take you, I want you to have forgotten about dying somewhere without me.
[ Oh good, she thought she was being subtle with the whole grinding against him, squirming between the wall and the hardness of his body, asking for it without words. But he reads her like an open book, thank fuck.
She shudders with need, by the time he tells her what he's going to do, her brain frazzles again and she whimpers. ] Gods, please - yes. You -
[ Is, and has been, unfairly good at making her forget her own name, so she has no doubt that she will forget she ever planned for the worst (dying, self-sacrifice, all that). Her world will come down to just Nico, against her and inside her, and her heart will beat again.
She licks her lips, looking at him. Sounded like a threat, regardless of how hot, so,]
[ "Punishment". Some part of him rebels against that, the insecure part of him balking at the notion of asserting authority, and yet―
―he hears it again, that whisper in his blood speaking to him in an arcane language. "Take what you are offered; you've been permitted." Something unknowable in him that wants, that needs, that would kill to keep.
His pulse pounds against his chest. Authority and greed and affection, he feels it all churn and boil in the pit of his stomach. Gods, he wants her so much. ]
Yes, [ he finally decides. ] I won't stop until you understand how afraid I was of losing you.
[ And, by extension, how much she's loved. Needed. How little it matters to him, the crimes she's committed in her past; not to downplay them, but they made her who she is now.
His voice is low, thick: ] Put your feet back on the floor for me, Ea. [ Gently commanding, gauging Ea's reaction for any discomfort or nervousness. ]
[ Pleasure lances through her like a heated blade, sinking deep ans fast. She lets out a shaky exhale and holds onto his shoulders, untangling her legs from around him to stand down.
Immediately the height difference is about one head, and she cranes her head to look up at him. ] Yes, love.
[ There's no 'sir', no 'master' - she's pretty sure Nico would rebel at the thought of being obeyed like that - but there is some deference here to be found. She's putting herself in his hands. She's trusting him. ]
[ They'll have to negotiate this a little better later, with clearer heads and in a place that isn't suffused with the scent of blood and viscera. It's likely that Nico will apologize later for this, finding it a vague overstepping of boundaries in hindsight, but he doesn't quite have the mental fortitude for self-reflection right now.
Instead: he trails his hand down Ea's front, chest to stomach, then between her legs. He hums at how hot she feels, fingers questing over her against her leggings first, the touch gaining in boldness until he feels bold enough to tug the garment down to her knees, baring her soft skin, her thin underwear. ]
Hold onto me.
[ More gentle suggestions, less authoritative this time. She feels wet already when he slides two fingers over her slit, rubbing her over her panties; it drives him a little crazy to hear the slick sound that the friction makes, how she seems to try to suck him in if he presses inwards. ]
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-07-06 10:05 am (UTC)He finds that he feels nothing for them, the dead. Just the stillsame anger that he'd expressed in words before: you should have left her alone.
There are only three people alive now, sequestered by four stone walls and the grim silence of Nico's rage. Obviously, Ea isn't on the receiving end of all of this ire; Nico's attention flicks towards her, and it's pure relief that sits near his heart when he sees that she's still standing, red-stained but alive. Still beautiful, even in her ferocity.
It's the other one, the one that Ea called Elgar, who remains problematic. He watches the elf come to, groaning as he tries to drag his broken body over the dirt-covered floor, too close to Ea for comfort.
So Nico closes the distance, and steps on one outstretched hand, hard enough to feel bone yielding under his weight. The resounding sound of his screaming still barely registers; Nico tips his head to the side, as dispassionate as a hawk watching a mouse scurry by, and lifts his foot again.
This time, it lands squarely on Elgar's head, and the sick sound of his skull caving cuts off the last of the man's screaming. ]
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Date: 2024-07-06 10:25 am (UTC)And then, she is locked into place as she looks at him crush Elgar's hand underfoot, her gaze on Nico rather than the ghost of her past. What does it say about her that she thinks he is hot as fuck when he does that dispassionate, predatorial head tilt?
She sees the foot rise again, her breath catching, and then - gone. Elgar is gone. They're all gone.
She sways on her feet a little, adrenaline rushing out of her in one swoop. She crosses the room over to Nico, her hand settling on his arm. ]
Hey. That's enough, don't turn him into juice. [ She's going to have to dig through some pockets to find a healing potion or two, by the looks of it. Her fingers graze a tear in his shirt, where an arrow had pierced him before, and she can't help the small, choked apologetic sound that escapes her. ] I'm sorry, I - I should've expected them to follow me, I don't know why I got complacent, and you're hurt, I've put you in harm's way, fuck -
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Date: 2024-07-06 12:27 pm (UTC)His hands are blood-slick; he wielded a shortsword like a broadsword in close range, and the aftermath of his violence is all over his fingers. Stepping away from the gore of what used to be Elgar, he pivots to face Ea, touching her bruised face with painful care, so at odds with all the dispassion with which he'd slaughtered half the room a minute ago.
He doesn't want her to apologize to him. Still masked and with his hands pulsing blue, he pulls Ea closer to him and presses his mouth to hers, tasting blood on her torn lip, cutting off anything else she has to say, because it hurts his heart to hear it. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 12:44 pm (UTC)Then his mouth is on her, and that deliberate lick against her lower lip feels like a 6th level Lightning Bolt straight to her core. (She realises that he must have licked the cut on her lip - gained mid-battle perhaps, or maybe someone backhanded her before the bucket of water.
Either way, he's licking her wounds clean. Feral. She's so in love it hurts.)
She inhales through her nose and pushes herself into him. Crushes her mouth to his with a desperate kind of hunger, grabbing onto the front of his shirt with one hand and curling the other over the back of his neck. ]
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Date: 2024-07-06 01:00 pm (UTC)He's panting by the time their mouths part, his lips flushed red. Like an animal, he licks the blood his fingers have left on her cheek, still trying to clean all of this violence off of her skin. ]
They never deserved you. [ He whispers. The subdued version of Aylin with her wings parted wide, Ketheric's corpse under her heel. A calmer, colder rage. ] They put you in harm's way.
[ She has nothing to apologize for. Nico kisses her again, tongue against her cut again, murmuring a muffled te curo to cast Cure Wounds with his mouth. Unconventional ways of using healing magic, but who's keeping track? ]
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Date: 2024-07-06 01:08 pm (UTC)He doesn't know all of her past, but - perhaps he should. This is what she thinks, when the first kiss ends and she lets her head lean into the grip of his hands, her eyes fluttering closed. Hells, she wants to let him know all of her - does that make her a horrible, selfish person? The contrast between knowing she's likely to die and the selfish need to be loved anyway...
Put a pin in that, Nico's just cured her cut in the middle of a kiss. She whimpers against his lips, and surges further up against him, practically jumping into his arms. He can either catch her or not, she's going to wrap her legs around his waist anyway, and taste him, take his mouth in a heady and deep kiss. ]
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Date: 2024-07-06 01:17 pm (UTC)Hands fly up when Ea jumps, palms to her thighs to keep her in place as they kiss. Nico barely stumbles despite his injuries, holding Ea's weight as if she's featherlight― he only moves backwards to find a flat surface because it suits him, and he uses the wall for balance as he cranes forward, letting Ea claim him, opening himself to whatever she wants. His breath, his tongue, his pulse.
When they come up for air again: ] I love you.
[ A blessing and a curse in three syllables. Ea has doomed herself by getting injured in front of him; there's no escape from an aasimar who has bonded himself so thoroughly to someone else's safety. Nico sounds almost drunk on his own words, pressing them against Ea's mouth, her jaw. Reinforcing, compelling. Riding on a blood-induced high, and on barely-concealed concern for her wellbeing. ] I love you, Ea. I love you.
back on my 'make prestidigitation available, larian, you cowards' agenda
Date: 2024-07-06 01:30 pm (UTC)With the wall at her back, she can draw herself up to level with his head, and further up so she can cup his face in her hands and kiss all of her own devotion into him. They come up for air, and it washes over her like another round of hearing. ] I love you.
[ Easiest three words to say. No doubt in her heart that it's real, and true. She lets him kiss her again, her adrenaline rush running out and leaving her dazed. But smiling, because he keeps saying he loves her and she feels it, she does.
She's not looking at the massacre at their feet right now, only at the feathers of his mask. And impulsivity wins, so she leans in and kisses those feathers, lets them tickle her lips, and whispers the incantation to prestidigitation against them to magic them - and his face - clean.
Following that, a huffed laugh.] It's a good thing I'm no cleric, or I'd revive the bastard just to kill him again for hurting you.
actually really weird that it isn't available tbh!?!?!
Date: 2024-07-07 01:36 pm (UTC)He's grateful when Ea magics their blood off. He doesn't mind smelling it on her, not usually, but not tonight. Right now, he can't stand smelling someone else on her. ]
It doesn't matter what he did to me, [ he whispers. Almost like a threat, directed towards a man who's already dead. ] He tried to hurt you. I was just another tool in his arsenal.
[ And he can't forgive that, not really. Nico may be used to being used, but not against someone, let alone against someone he loves. He kisses against Ea's jaw again, hitching her closer to his chest. ]
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Date: 2024-07-07 02:28 pm (UTC)Blackbirds going leave the Guild either in a coffin or in a ditch. She'd taken out her biggest opposition to her decision to not be a part of that soul-sucking gang anymore, the Guildmaster himself, in the most backstabbing of ways. Taught him a lesson, too, in not being too overconfident and trusting his iron fist could keep everyone afraid of him, and obedient. She hadn't exactly stood behind for the lesson to sink in, but whatever.
His death was on her hands. The warehouse burning to ashes, also on her hands. But she'd left everyone else alive, trusting the ones who - like her - had always dreamed of leaving would take the opportunity to leave. She can connect more dots: Elgar seeing it as a chance to put himself in charge, building the Blackbirds for his own gain, until the island became too small for his ambition. Elgar coming to the continent, finding his way to Baldur's Gate. Maybe he'd thought he'd go after the Underduke next. Maybe not.
And hearing about the tiefling that had ruined his long game on the island, and thinking of taking revenge, and - she snorts under her breath. ] His main mistake is wanting to talk my ear off.
[ But then finally, the scattering of dots she keeps trying to connect fades away, scattered to the winds, as Nico kisses her jaw and she finally lets his words sink.
He hates it, the idea that he could be a tool. She hates it too. She cups his face in both hands, now clean, and looks down at him in this position. Mask or not, she thinks she can see down into his soul, can guess exactly the type of threatening storm that roils in his eyes. ]
It matters to me. [ Quiet, but clear. ] What he did to you, what anyone does to you - it matters to me. I would burn the world down if it guaranteed your safety.
[ She glances down at his mouth, an ache settling in the pit of her stomach. Want, yearning sort of want, coils around her throat like a noose. She has to force her eyes back up to his mask, the viccinity of his eyes. ] They might not be the only ones. I should tell you - I want to tell you everything about my past, but I'm selfish and afraid you won't want me after.
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Date: 2024-07-12 11:21 am (UTC)It's more tolerable when Ea has her hands on him, when she tells him that he matters. All of this strangeness serves a purpose with her, when she looks at him and touches him and tells him that he's needed. Goddess, he'd threatened calling her mid-sex, but a part of him believes it. Rootless and unmoored, she really could be his religion.
Scarred, feathered, the scent of blood still thick on his skin even after the cleaning off: ]
I want all of you. Your past, your present, your future.
[ He whispers it. Someone who isn't familiar with Nico might find his cadence poisonous; too yearning to be normal, too gentle to be trustworthy. No one should really dote on anyone this way, should be so permissive without bringing morals into the equation, but. Well.
Sometimes, blood is thicker than water. Nico, with the single-mindedness of the divine, rubs foreheads with Ea despite the obstruction of his mask. ]
My love. What could make me want you less?
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Date: 2024-07-12 11:41 am (UTC)She can't believe she ever thought him confusing and adorable, when he now has her whole heart in his hand. Exhale over, the words sink in - your past, your present, your future - and the words stumble out before she can help it. ]
What if there isn't a future? What if I - [ She sucks in a breath, letting her eyes flutter closed. Her heart thuds in her chest, now that the dark thoughts have been voiced. She thought, sincerely, that she would not make it beyond the Absolute. Now that there's Orin, and Gortash, now that there are so many enemies to deal with in the city, she's not confident she'll make it to the Absolute.
And she's been keeping quiet on that, pushing Nico away, and it's not fair. Tell him, some part of her (all her, not the Emperor) whispers. Drives her forward. ]
I've been pushing you away because I thought it would make your heart break less if I die in the battles to come.
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Date: 2024-07-12 12:00 pm (UTC)The words are revelatory. Nico doesn't know what to do with them, at first, and struggles to interpret what Ea means by his heartbreak and her so-called inevitable death. Mostly, he can't imagine losing her― he tries, and the cold fear that runs through him pulls invisible drawstrings around his lungs. He can't breathe around it, can't think around it.
So he shakes his head. No. Almost childlike in its vehemence. ]
There's no less. [ He struggles to get even this out, like he can't imagine why she won't understand. ] I would die with you.
[ If not physically, emotionally. Some part of him will perish, irrevocably, with or without her pushing him away. ]
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Date: 2024-07-12 12:17 pm (UTC)[ A gentle reminder that her wisdom is mid.
And speaking of ungentle reminders? The very distinct possibility that he might throw himself into the abyss with her is making her want to stay alive. Nico isn't allowed to come under harm.
This isn't the first time she's chosen to live and survive for someone's sake. She feels a bitter taste in her mouth, pursing her lips around the indescribable feeling of that 180° spin she's going to do. ]
Alright - fuck it. We do our best to survive while taking down the Absolute.
[ That does, unfortunately, mean that they're going to go to Hells to steal the Orphic Hammer from Raphael, because the Emperor is convinced that the only way forward is for one of them to become illithid, which has been driven into her head as being equal to death. She won't ask that of anyone, and she's not going to do it herself. That astral-touched tadpole can wither away in the chest.
Maybe it makes her a hypocrite, or maybe tonight has been an awakening.
They're going to have to find Nico's armor and weapons, wherever the Blackbirds stashed it.
Unfortunately (maybe, sources?) she's not eager to let him go and do the reasonable thing. There's a fire burning in her veins still, roiling there; somewhere in her memory she sees the boot kicking Nico's head down again, sees her past coming back to hurt her loved ones, sees the glow in his eyes and that should not have hurt her. Not in her memory, she sees the aftermath of a bloody battle, one where their enemies were outmatched because Ea and Nico fight so well in tandem they have it down to an artform.
The most shameful thing, perhaps, is that it has left her aroused. And because impulse control is not a thing right now, the outburst ends with Ea crushing her mouth to his, deep and heady. ]
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Date: 2024-07-13 11:45 am (UTC)His mask dissipates at the feeling of nails in his skin. Vulnerability shared for vulnerability given. Nico's not sure if the pale-white of his eyes are still glowing, but he can still feel the vehemence buzzing like white noise in his skull, responding to Ea's statement about taking down the Absolute, because he would.
He'd kill a God for her. He'd kill timeless entities with unspeakable power, if she only asked him to. And it feels like an ask, when she surges forward and claims his mouth, parting it open with hers to taste him; where he misses his chance to respond to her in words, he reciprocates with his eagerness to kiss her, her shoulderblades pressed up against the wall as he opens his mouth to let her in.
(Is he hard? He has no idea. He grinds up against her as if he is, though, because he needs Ea to know that she's needed.) ]
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Date: 2024-07-13 11:57 am (UTC)He kisses her back, she drowns a needy whimper against his mouth, rubs her tongue against his and decides it has been an eternity. (So like a week.)
He grounds his hips against hers, she wraps her tail around his thigh like time and time again, mineminemine, and releases a panted breath against his lips. ] I want -
[ To feel him everywhere. To make up for lost time. To love him with the same wild devotion he (inexplicably, still) loves her. To fuck his brains out in a bloodied basement until they both cry.
Normal, non-dramatic things.
She withdraws from his mouth for a second, takes in the fury and beauty of his eyes, and inevitably her hips twitch, griding down. ]
You're as feral as I am, aren't you, love? [ Said so lovingly, and with wonder. One of her hands find their way to his mouth, thumb brushing again his lower lip. He kissed her after the battle, licked the blood off her lips and cured her mid-kiss. Yeah, he's feral. ]
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Date: 2024-07-13 12:37 pm (UTC)Maybe even more.
[ Is that a challenge? A threat? Who knows. Not that he underestimates Ea and how much she loves him, because he knows that she does― it's just that her coveting takes a different form, after all her hurt. Maybe she's never had an opportunity to show what that coveting looks like, not in any meaningful way that wouldn't come back to bite her.
Nico cranes forward and kisses her again, the contact quick but deep, ending with his teeth grazing along where he remembers the split of her lip'd been. Like he wants to taste her blood again, just so he can commit it to memory. ]
You may have to reconsider calling me "angel".
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Date: 2024-07-13 12:54 pm (UTC)If she could muster up enough shame, she'd feel it for wanting him like this - after a battle, Elgar's blood and brains still on Nico's boot.
(Gods, she remembers that moment again, realises that he did that because someone threatened her, and her whole perfect cunt clenches.)
She does not feel shame, though. ]
I'll call you anything you want me to call you right now.
[ She flicks her tongue across his lower lip, then nips it. A moment of lazy arousal, of simply savouring the kiss. ] I've missed this.
[ Her fault. She frowns for a moment, as the thought sinks in, and her need to give him something, cherish him, service him, anything he wants - it redoubles.
She draws back until the back of her head hits the wall and looks at him. ] Ask me for what you need - it's yours, but ask me for it.
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Date: 2024-07-14 12:28 pm (UTC)You. [ Has there ever been anything else? Has he ever needed anything in his life before he met her? His hands are sitting by Ea's hips, keeping her lifted from the bloodied floor with ease, and the grip tightens just enough for the hold to feel intentional. Possessive, even. ] I need you to hold on tight to me.
[ A low hum, considering. Their foreheads bump together as best as Ea's horns will let them, and he looks into her glowing eyes, celestial to infernal. ]
I need you to not hold back. [ His voice gets softer, lower. ] Can you do that, love?
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Date: 2024-07-14 12:37 pm (UTC)She feels small and breakable - two things that Ea has never liked feeling, ever since running from the guild whose (hopefully last) remaining members all lie dead at their feet - like the fast heartbeat and the want and the love could all smash her into bits.
Best of all, she wants to break. For him, always. ] I can.
[ A beat, and her tongue flicks against his lips again, before she decides she needs and craves the taste and feel of his mouth on her again and kisses him. A groan muffled against his lips, the kiss bruising and deep, her fingers climbing up to his hair to grab it. ]
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Date: 2024-07-15 09:09 am (UTC)Fuck, Ea turns him on. He kisses her slowly, opening her mouth with his own to suck at her flushed lips, her hot tongue, paying attention to the sounds she makes, the way she shifts and grinds against his waist. Needy and adorable.
His brain's on autopilot by the time the contact breaks. An already-poor brain-to-mouth filter, completely broken by residual anger and more powerful arousal. He's only half-aware of the words he's speaking, honestly. ]
I want to make you come on my fingers again and again, [ is a little breathless, ] and by the time you beg me to take you, I want you to have forgotten about dying somewhere without me.
I don't want you to think about that ever again.
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Date: 2024-07-15 09:16 am (UTC)She shudders with need, by the time he tells her what he's going to do, her brain frazzles again and she whimpers. ] Gods, please - yes. You -
[ Is, and has been, unfairly good at making her forget her own name, so she has no doubt that she will forget she ever planned for the worst (dying, self-sacrifice, all that). Her world will come down to just Nico, against her and inside her, and her heart will beat again.
She licks her lips, looking at him. Sounded like a threat, regardless of how hot, so,]
Is that my punishment? Surrender by orgasms?
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Date: 2024-07-15 09:38 am (UTC)―he hears it again, that whisper in his blood speaking to him in an arcane language. "Take what you are offered; you've been permitted." Something unknowable in him that wants, that needs, that would kill to keep.
His pulse pounds against his chest. Authority and greed and affection, he feels it all churn and boil in the pit of his stomach. Gods, he wants her so much. ]
Yes, [ he finally decides. ] I won't stop until you understand how afraid I was of losing you.
[ And, by extension, how much she's loved. Needed. How little it matters to him, the crimes she's committed in her past; not to downplay them, but they made her who she is now.
His voice is low, thick: ] Put your feet back on the floor for me, Ea. [ Gently commanding, gauging Ea's reaction for any discomfort or nervousness. ]
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Date: 2024-07-15 09:50 am (UTC)Immediately the height difference is about one head, and she cranes her head to look up at him. ] Yes, love.
[ There's no 'sir', no 'master' - she's pretty sure Nico would rebel at the thought of being obeyed like that - but there is some deference here to be found. She's putting herself in his hands. She's trusting him. ]
I'm not going to ask you to stop.
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Date: 2024-07-15 10:27 am (UTC)Instead: he trails his hand down Ea's front, chest to stomach, then between her legs. He hums at how hot she feels, fingers questing over her against her leggings first, the touch gaining in boldness until he feels bold enough to tug the garment down to her knees, baring her soft skin, her thin underwear. ]
Hold onto me.
[ More gentle suggestions, less authoritative this time. She feels wet already when he slides two fingers over her slit, rubbing her over her panties; it drives him a little crazy to hear the slick sound that the friction makes, how she seems to try to suck him in if he presses inwards. ]
So ready already, love.
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