faderift | Post-Battle Blues

WHO: Taas + Open
WHAT: Taas deals with Stuff™ and Things©
WHEN: Backdated to after the dragon fight.
WHERE: Outside the Gallows, the docks, etc.
NOTES: Very mild gore vaguely described.

He was lopsided. That was what bothered him the most, really. It made his neck ache after a while and Taas knew he should make a decision wether he should cut the other horn as well or find a cap to balance it out. He wasn't sure why he was stalling, really. The other wounds were fine and had been looked over and healed, bruises and cuts a memory and his split ear neatly trimmed so it didn't wiggle like a badly cut piece of meat when he walked.

All in all, it didn't bother him. So why was he so hesitant about it?

The warrior sighs, rubbing his sore neck a bit as he heads for the training grounds haphazardly put up outside the Gallows, mace at his shoulder and a thoughtful look on his face. He should be resting, he knows. They just got back. He shouldn't be pushing himself in case something tore open or his horn core started bleeding again. Taas usually listened. He was a good soldier.

...right now he was just too damn antsy to rest.

(Maybe, just maybe it had something to do with the dragon's tooth in his pack.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cyril was pleased when he heard they had returned from the dragon hunt with all of the same people as when they left. He hadn't realized just how much he had been holding his breath while they were gone.

He thinks the training grounds are a good place to look for Taas. He might still have some energy built up after such a fight. That doesn't prepare him for the sight of one of his lovers with part of their body missing.

"Taas??" he asks, before he remembers that Taas can't hear him while he's behind him. He's usually really good at that, but seeing him with half a horn gone tossed reason out the window.

He comes closer and then waves to catch Taas's attention. What happened to your horn? he signs the second Taas is looking at him.

It's a weird mix of emotions, seeing Cyril. On one hand, his heart is making little somersaults in joy, while the other is just odd apprehension. Taas had never really cared about his looks, but a horn was a big deal.

Cyril liked to hold on to those, after all.

"Hey, kadan," he says softly, and the affection coming with that word sweeps everything else away for a moment. The warrior smiles, leaning down so that he can kiss the elf. There might be adrenaline in his blood, but damn if his heart isn't beating faster because of something else.

"I got slapped by a dragon," Taas finally answers with a somewhat awkward shrug that mixes pride and pain. "It took most of the damage, otherwise I would have broken my neck from that force."

Cyril's eyes widened a bit. "Well, in that case I'm really glad it was broken," he says. "Better your horns than your neck." He reached up and touched Taas's chest.

He smiled a bit, showing he was happy that Taas had returned. "That's going to be one heck of a story to tell too," he points out. Now that he knows that Taas is alive and okay he smirks a bit, clearly thinking that Taas being able to tell stories about fighting dragons is pretty hot.

"Does it hurt at all?"

The big warrior covers Cyril's hand with his own, holding in there for a moment. Weird, how such a gesture could just set his world right again. His anxious heartbeat calms and the rush in his blood lessens.

Cyril grounds him, and it feels like peace. Calm. Taashath.

He doesn't remove his hand until the elf speaks again, and he grins in return as he sees the smirk. "Damn right it will! How many can say they lost a horn to a dragon?"

Still smiling, he reaches up again to touch the stump. It wasn't too short, snapped at the bend of the curl where the horn tips started to reach forward, and essentially cutting it in half. "It doesn't hurt, but it throbs sometimes. There's a bone core in there, and it bled like you wouldn't believe."

He had looked horrifying, but it hadn't been life-threatening.

Cyril winces a bit at the thought but shrugs it off pretty quickly. "The fact that you got it from fighting a dragon is pretty sexy," he teases a bit. "You'll have to tell me all about the fight."

He flexed his fingers a bit, just enjoying how it felt to be against Taas's chest and hand. It was comforting, and a good reminder that he was really there.

Taas chuckles, the vibration traveling through his body and under Cyril's hand just as clearly as the sound. "I will, kadan. There's... one thing, though."

He steps back slightly so that he could rummage through the pack at his belt, his large fingers feeling unusually clumsy. When he finally manages to find what he was looking for, he holds up a thin but sturdy silver chain holding a small piece of what looked like a big fang - or at least the tip of one.

Dragon teeth were huge, and Taas wanted to make sure Cyril could hide it under his clothes if he wanted to. No need for it to get caught in bows and arrows.

"We talked, before... about tokens and kadan, and Korrin...and I finally had my chance to get one..."

Cyril's mouth falls open a bit. They had talked about doing this, but Cyril still wasn't entirely sure that Taas would ever present him with one. Somehow, the small bit of tooth already looks like it weighs more than any other object in the world. Slowly, he grins, ready to shoulder the weight.

"I hope that's mine," he teases a bit, not wanting to get choked up or stupid just because the moment was an emotional one.

The grin from the elf makes Taas remember how to breathe again, and he's smiling back, wildly and joyful. He leans over his lover and slips the silver chain around his neck and lets it latch in the back, just at the nape. Taas lets his fingers linger there for a moment, feeling the soft fuzz of white hair before he draws back so he can see the tooth rest below Cyril's clavicles.

"Kadan," he says softly, voice full of both affection and desire. "Wherever we are and whatever we do, we'll always be together."

Cyril breathes out as Taas puts the tooth around his neck. He hadn't even realized that he had been holding it in. When Taas pulls away and speaks of always being together Cyril's grin widens.

His fingers reach out and touch the tooth, as if double checking that it's there. "I guess you're stuck with me then," he adds. Then, after a moment, "Thank you, Taas."

"I love you." Those words still feel odd to say, but the truth of them are clear all over his face.

"I'm happily stuck with you," Taas says softly, putting a big hand on the elf's cheek and cupping it gently. Cyril looks nice like this, affection mirrored in that pale face. "...and I love you too, kadan. Thank you for letting me experience that feeling."

Finally letting go, he's reaching into his pack again. The warrior takes out a bigger tooth piece - although proportionally the same size as Cyril's - and puts that around his own thick neck. It's on a leather cord, twisted with black and red.

With his chest almost always bare, there was no way anyone could miss it.

Cyril has to admit, he loves the way that the tooth looks against Taas. He had worried, for a bit, that the tooth would feel too much like a claim but it doesn't really. Not at all.

It feels more like the silver ring that Sam made him. A connection, a way to remember that someone cared for him and that he cared for them back.

He grins and then reached up to touch Taas's tooth. "I didn't think you could look any more sexy and then you went and added an accessory and a cool broken horn."

It would never be a claim with Taas. Just like its original use, it simply meant that Cyril would never be alone, and that was exactly what he deserved - a connection, something to rely on even when they were far away.

He chuckles again, leaning his head down a bit so that the elf can touch his horn. It's still a little tender at the base and the part that has snapped is fairly jagged. "What do you think I should do? Put a cap on this or take them both down?

Cyril is very careful in the way that he touches it. He isn't sure how sensitive it is for Taas. He makes a note to learn a bit more about Qunari physiology if the opportunity ever arises.

"Oh. If you cap it we could design something really shiny and pretty couldn't we?"

Post-Battle Blues

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject