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Post by Malakbel on May 18, 2019 22:30:47 GMT
They kept running and running; dashing through alleyways and empty streets, jumping through small bodies of water and fallen drunkards, dodging street prostitutes and thugs until the scenery began to change slowly but consistently, until they reached an area with more night life, with more light, until eventually the memory of the burning building was something on the background, smoke rising, and then they stopped running, and started walking as they left that part of the town and slowly drifted into another where the regular nights people were oogling at them with a mix of concern and curiosity for the most part. Winded, tired, wounded, he took that opportunity to pull the drow softly to the side and into one of the alleys out of the view of most people.
"Dhaunmyr"
Malakbel said then, smiling softly, but his tone was as firm as ever, his voice just as deep.
"It's called battle fatigue. It happens when people try to kill you and you face death. Time, and time again. Within a short period of time. Look into my eyes."
He stopped just in front of him and then locked gazes with him, the Yuan-ti's figure obscuring what was going on the background, the people walking by, he just kept staring at Dhaunmyr with those snake eyes of his.
"It's over now, those people can't reach us."
In truth, he wasn't the best with people. Mostly because he couldn't precisely feel things in the same way they did, it was an odd thing. But he tried, though it could be disconcerning at times for some people.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
The Yuan-ti asked with some concern, the blade he had given him had long since disappeared, turning into mist again.
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Post by enchilada on May 18, 2019 22:42:33 GMT
He got less jumpy the further they got into decent territory. Well. That depended on your definition of decent.
Dhaunmyr could focus again, he shook off the feeling that he wasn’t actually as in control as he thought. He was completely in control. He just didn’t want to admit what he had done. He... knew that. Deep down. Somewhere. He wished he could just forget. Maybe in the morning he would have forgotten.
He had better have forgotten.
He looked back at Malakbel, a slightly more steely glare than quiet locking of eyes, but Dhaunmyr didn’t mean it all so badly, just... it was better not to assume things. “My darling, I really do appreciate that you looked after me so well, helped me out, so on, so on, but, I really do know my way around combat more than you’d think, sweetheart.”
With that, he drew back, and tapped Malakbel on his nose. Dhaunmyr grinned at him, for a moment, then folded his arms. “I’m fine. Again. I’m not as fragile as you think. But.. you still... without you... I wouldn’t have even started running, so. I’m indebted to you.”
He hated to admit it, but without direction, Dhaunmyr froze up, he panicked, and he did the opposite of the correct things to do. Always, just, as a rule. He also hated admitting he needed help, ever.
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Post by Malakbel on May 18, 2019 23:26:32 GMT
His smile relaxed a bit, back to the way it was in the tavern
"You mean to tell me all this time you were secretly a drow assassin, master of the blade, here sent to seduce me? I mean I should have suspected, there were too many coincidences but I guess a part of me wanted to believe that it could be just a coincidence, that those kind of things could just happen"
He didn't seem to mind that Dhaunmyr tapped his nose, though he followed the slender finger with his eyes as if he was thinking to himself whether he should bite it or not. But he seemed to decide against it, a bite from him could be no fun sometimes. In truth that what he had said was one of the many, many contrived plots and possibilities he had thought of and then dismissed. He was ostensibly paranoid about many, many things. He just didn't voice them out loud, like many other of his thoughts. He stopped for a bit, then smirked back at Dhaunmyr.
"You can start to repay that debt by letting me walk you to your house, which I can only hope is in the opposite direction we just came from"
A small pause in his banter before throwing the comment his way
"I did notice it, though. Not many people would react that quickly when I hand them a mindblade... Not that I've ever done that in the past before. It's a very personal thing."
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Post by enchilada on May 18, 2019 23:50:36 GMT
“You know what? You’re right. Hands where I can see them, magic man.” Dhaunmyr grabbed Malakbel’s hands, and pulled him along as he walked backwards. He couldn’t help it, he was giggling again. He needed to stop being so calm around this guy. There was seriously a time and a place, and on the brink of a meltdown really wasn’t one of them.
Dhaunmyr froze, though, when the possibility of anyone knowing where he stayed came into the equation. It wasn’t — safe. He was supposed to keep alone. That was the point, wasn’t it? Oh — oh no. No thank you.
But he’d made a fair point, and he didn’t want to admit he was scared of Malakbel ever coming back. So he let go of one hand, and kept walking. He’d never felt trapped like that before. He was sure nothing would come of it, he’d only showed, so far, that he was a decent man. Dhaunmyr had shown he was a coward. He hoped that nobody except him could feel that. “Let’s go, then, I’ll take you to the inn. Did I mention I don’t live here? I’m a traveller. So like. I travel. Or at least. I was one. Maybe not so much anymore, but we can all play pretend and reminisce from time to time!”
Dhaunmyr was being too honest. He bit his tongue.
“Personal? I was under the impression you gave your sword to all the pretty elf boys you met. Am I that special? I’m touched.” He spoke, mostly to keep up appearances, but he did find himself funny, so it wasn’t all fake. For now. .
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Post by Malakbel on May 19, 2019 10:30:33 GMT
"Oh right"
He said and then chuckled shaking his head, with all the running and falling he had forgotten that Dhaunmyr was supposed to live in an Inn... or something ilke that had he not said something along those lines earlier? In any case, he shook his head almost in an apologetic manner, a strange gesture for him.
"Inn, house, same thing. Just so I can drop you someplace I feel it'd be safe. Suffice to say this has not gone in the way I had expected it to, though I'd be lying if I said I expected better. It's not the first time I run into these guys, their kind seem to thrive in every big city, it's like a kind of fungus that grows in the shade of buildings."
He let himself be pulled by the drow, briefly smiling as he thought the smaller elf would do something impulsive. Though it wasn't the case, he still retained that faint shadow of a smile for a couple more seconds.
"You're right, I do it all the time. It's a neat party trick. I can also summon a demon and make it dance for me, want to see it? It's perfectly safe, it's only broken free once."
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Post by enchilada on May 19, 2019 11:00:39 GMT
“How adorable, to think that you care about my safety. But how hurtful you could ever think so little of me. Tell me this was not the absolute best night out you’ve had, go on.”
Dhaunmyr laughed, he shouldn’t have been so at ease around anyone, okay, maybe Kara, he could just relax with, but this was a stranger! Half of his brain was screaming at him to just run, but he didn’t, he quieted it. He felt something else and it was even more dangerous than being in a dark alleyway, at night, with someone who had shown they had significant prowess with combat, and magic, and... there wasn’t time for that now.
Maybe, just for a minute, Dhaunmyr could let himself be in the moment, apart from any other thoughts, not paranoid, not anxious, not plotting along with whatever death was being put in place for him. That really was all he wanted to do.
“Oh! Well now I know who you really are, and, like I said, if I didn’t know you before, you must be so not worth mentioning that nobody ever decided to tell me about you while we were all lying on pillows and gossiping about everyone else we hadn’t known. I’m not sure I want a sword if it swings to anyone with a gentler demeanour than most — oh! Well. Let’s just get me home, and then, I’ll keep up the cycle of never mentioning you to anyone.” Dhaunmyr smiled, squeezing his grip on the yuan-ti’s hand, briefly.
They’d already ran a fair way, so Dhaunmyr wasn’t so far from where he needed to be. He wasn’t sure what any other intentions would be — he was tired, and he really needed to cry. He was at the front door of the inn — any further? He wasn’t going to... stop him, and he didn’t precisely let go, but his hand-holding was somewhat looser.
In the inn, near the stairs. His keys were out. He was ready to just get to sleep.
“So.” He didn’t follow it up with anything else.
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Post by Malakbel on May 19, 2019 12:17:36 GMT
He chuckled and thought about what he was saying, then he thought about inviting him to go back and see how many of them they could kill before being killed themselves. Then thought it again and decided it would be best then, to prepare beforehand and have a enough equipment at hand to make that fight worthwile. Then thought it again and decided that Dhaunmyr must not have been completely serious about that and that he should probably not invite him to nonchalantly kill humans like that. Though on the other hand... weren't drows like that? He would have to research more on the subject.
He let out a low, small chuckle at that squeeze and turned his head to the side to glance at the drow with a grin.
"Is this your way of telling me I'm going to be your little secret? Not very smooth Dhaunmyr"
Finally they reached the inn, not that he really knew if that was the place where he was supposed to be staying but whenever the drow felt safe would be enough for him. He stopped when he did, taking a quick assessment of the situation at and and the lack of murderous humans around, and then Dhaunmyr spoke again.
"So." He said
"I'll give you a secret worth keeping, then"
Replied then from that short distance and and with that hand against his, simply pulled him closer, leaning forward that small distance to steal a kiss; a slow thing, but not a long one since they were so close. It wouldn't be for long either, just something warmer for him to remember, intense, short, before pulling back slowly.
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Post by enchilada on May 19, 2019 12:55:55 GMT
Dhaunmyr was just — lost in the moment. There was so much that was remembered and lost.
He’d asked the first time. It was awkward and uncertain, and he’d been so gentle and worried and almost trembling. And Dhaunmyr had played it so cool, up by his door, because he thought — he thought he understood. He had been under the impression that every man on the surface was the same, they all wanted one thing, and Dhaunmyr had been okay with that. He’d been warned of that, like it was a bad thing. It just made it easier to read people. And he could read that man, he’d just tried to put together pieces that were not there, because somebody had told him they would always be there.
So this scared him. There wasn’t — there was no reason for a secret. Nothing about this would matter. In no way would it ever be repeated. As... lovely and calming and everything as Malakbel was. It was absolutely not happening again, so it wouldn’t change anything if he ever brought up him, or the men, or the kiss.
When he had ran away, there was something, wasn’t there? Dhaunmyr glanced at Malakbel’s lips to check if it had happened again.
“Red lipstick suits you. Do you want any more?” Why did he fucking ask that?
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Post by Malakbel on May 19, 2019 13:24:04 GMT
The Yuan-ti smiled to himself, satisfied, and yet almost in slight disbelief he had to say. The last comment from Dhaunmyr was probably the smoothest thing he had said so far during the night, he considered it. His thoughts went somewhere lewd. Then he chuckled. Then he laughed. That would be quite something; this already was one of the few experiences he'd ever had for something close to romance and he already had a lot to ponder about. And yet there was a reason he'd asked to accompany him back to his house where he'd be safe and not continued on towards his own. And that reason was not to steal anything else from him.
"Maybe next time if we ever meet again; hopefully without the angry mob."
He finally stood straight again, looming over him. He regarded the drow with a smile.
"Good night, Dhaunmyr."
He bid his goodbye and then turned around in order to leave, where the damp streets awaited and the spring winds blew their breeze on him. The streets awaited.
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