Partner

I've heard multiple times that AFF's reviews are doing strange things. I haven't tried reviewing myself (which is oh so bad I know) but it has spurred me trying to find a forum to work with on the site. I'll let you know if it ever works.

I wrote a chapter for Sequel last night and then, when the end came up, realised that Partners needed an update for that to work. So I wrote this. And yet. I'm still in a good mood.

Because he deserved it the perverted bastard.

Awkwardness for Mik. And for Lillow.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




“-hands off.”

Mik stopped just inside the apartment, eyebrow arching as he looked at Taln. The young man shrugged and looked pointedly at the man who Lillow had addressed. An older man with that artistic look to him.

“Publisher of some kind?” Mik asked Taln.

“They sent him to talk spread with us,” Taln responded calmly, “he’s touched Lillow twice, she’s had enough. He hasn’t listened to my warnings either so she’s taken it on herself.”

“Ah,” Mik looked at the man who huffed at the idea and leaned over the table.

It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. The man reached out and Mik watched in horror as he grazed Lillow’s ass. Mik’s blood boiled even as Lillow turned and snapped her head to the side. It was not a cock, it was not a curiosity, it was the way a cat’s head snapped when its prey moved. Her eyes narrowed and her hands came away from her sides.

He could have stopped it, he knew he could have stopped it. But Lillow was underage and his daughter and he didn’t want anyone thinking that they could screw with his family. So he just. Let it happen.

Lillow pushed the man back, almost playfully, and towards the emptiest spot on the dining room. A flick of her foot and the dining room table was kicked out from in front of Taln. It bounced off of the wall and Taln leapt up and snatched the chairs away from the Sidhe. She advanced on the man and he tried to retreat, making the mistake of putting his hands up to protect himself.

She didn’t pause for a thought. Lillow grabbed one of the man’s hands and twisted slowly, setting her feet as she did. The man tried to pull away but it was like an ant trying to move a building. Mik heard the snapping of the bones and winced even as Taln left the dining room in a hurry. Mik found the phone by his hand and picked it up, clicked the talk button and dialled Mari.

The man was screaming. Lillow looked indifferent to the entire matter, like she was doing an every day, mundane chore.

“Ambulance, immediately. Civilian hurt.”

“Why not stop it? She’s going to do severe-”

The man screamed louder and there was a squelching sound. Lillow looked at the object she grasped and dropped it to the side like she might a rotting fruit. It plopped to the ground and Mik turned his back on the sight.

Lillow had just twisted the man’s hand off. The man screamed and screamed and tried to run away, but Lillow caught him.

“Send an ambulance and a clean up crew. We can discuss facts later.”

Off went the man’s other hand. Lillow dropped it just as Paw walked into the room, rubbing his eyes. Paw stopped, hand over one of his eyes and blinked at the sight before him. He frowned, dropped the hand and looked at Mik.

“You are supposed to watch her!”

“I thought she was safe!” Mik snapped back, “I didn’t know he was coming, let alone the fact that he’s a perverted fucking bastard. Shit. Hohi-”

The male, as if summoned by his name, brushed past Mik and slid between Lillow and the man. Hohi actually looked upset that he arrived too late to take part in the action. He heaved a sigh and folded his arms, turning on Lillow. The girl was looking down at her clothing, muttering in an acidic tone in Sidhe.

Taln returned with towels and whipped one at Mik, “help me.”

“So he can be a perverted bastard and then sue us?”

“So we can see to him the people way,” Taln snarled at Mik, “death is too good for him. I say help me, you fucking help me.”

“Fine,” Mik snapped back, moving to the man’s side.

The man was babbling something about a psychotic bitch. Mik told him to shut up and he kept babbling. Hohi bent over Mik, Taln and the man and seemingly rapped the man on the head. The man’s eyes rolled up into his head and he was thrown into unconsciousness.

Mik tied the towel tight around the bleeding stump and Taln did the same to the other hand.

“Lillow, stop the bleeding,” Paw said coldly.

“No. He-”

“I don’t want blood on my floor, that stains. Stop the bleeding or you will be-” and a Sidhe word that Mik didn’t understand, he assumed it was similar to grounded, as Lillow moved and laid a hand on each of the man’s wrists. The bleeding seemed to stop instantly.

Lillow stood made a rude gesture to Paw and stalked to the bathroom.

“Mik, go see to her.”

“She’s about to be…”

“It’s fine, go see to her.”

“I hope you know that for people, this is really weird,” Mik responded to Paw, stepping over the man’s prone body, “fathers do not do this.”

“Usually the mother would, but while I have been playing the role of mother, she is upset with me and thus it is you who plays the role.”

“Good to know,” Mik muttered, moving to the bathroom.

The water was running in the bathtub and Lillow stood at the sink, washing the blood off of her. She glanced up in the mirror and turned a bright red colour.

“One,” Mik muttered, sitting on the stool by the door, “people father’s don’t do this, it’s awkward and unreasonable. But Paw says that the mother would usually do it but you’re upset with him and he’s been playing the role of mother so. That won’t work. So here I am. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t comment on your form or something, it’s completely… weird.”

Lillow lowered her head slightly. She tensed from head to foot.

“The last person who claimed to take on such a role raped me,” Lillow said to Mik, “and no one believed me but Souse. It was why I was declared adult before I was ready. Children who tell lies are severely punished, but a single female who tells lies just wants attention and will be cared for accordingly.”

“What happened to the man?”

“Souse killed him and took over the tribe. He wasn’t always leader, you know. That one was some how related to Souse, I wasn’t there long enough to know the relation.”

“Wait. Haven’t you been with Souse since…”

“I was three or four at the time,” Lillow responded calmly.

“You’ve been an adult that long?”

“Yes,” Lillow walked to the bathtub and turned the taps off, “as an adult and un-paired, the entire tribe watched me and I went with another unpaired female at all times. Turns out, that’s not how it actually works and Nave, she’s still with the tribe but doesn’t talk to you, stayed un-paired all this time to protect me. She’s got just enough power to notice things, but not enough to understand what is going on. So she knew what happened, but didn’t know how she knew.”

Lillow stood between Mik and the tub, her back to Mik as she stripped. Mik looked down at his lap and kept his eyes there until Lillow was in the water and almost out of sight. He shifted to the floor so that all he saw was tub and her head.

“I want Hohi,” she muttered, sinking lower in the tub, “You know, I could technically be sixteen but Souse is still making me wait another year before he’ll even consider it. Claims I was two when he found me. I think he’s a liar.”

“I think he’s quite like a big brother,” Mik responded calmly, “besides, if you were sixteen, how long before you and Hohi could touch?”

“Another year,” Lillow growled, “but you and Paw are-”

“An exception to the rule. We went by people courting, not Sidhe, neither you, nor Hohi are people and thus you do it the Sidhe way. Everyone else thinks the same thing and you know what it leads to?”

“What?”

Quiet, secret encounters. Taboo love. But Mik didn’t say that, “it makes you appreciate the physical even more when it comes around. It also gives you time to come to know him. How often do Sidhe break up?”

“After mating? Never.”

“People do it all the time. Cheating on each other, lying, hurting, we go physical before emotional or mental.”

“I suppose,” Lillow sighed.

“Can we talk about it?” Mik murmured, motioning to the doorway when Lillow looked over at him.

“He touched me, I warned him, then I tore his hands off. Now I’m upset with Taln. He should have let him bleed out before Paw could make me stop the bleeding.”

“Living without hands is worse than death to most people. Taln seemed to imply that he wanted the man to be tried by our courts, which would result in prison, no doubt, which… is painful without hands. Can’t exactly protect yourself without hands.”

“Possibly. I wanted to turn his flesh into pulp.”

“Taln’s?”

“The man.”

“Oh. Well… so did I.”

“Which is why you didn’t stop me.”

“Oddly enough, yes, I wasn’t afraid of you getting pissed at me, I was more afraid that people would see our family unit as weak and try it again.”

“Sounds very people of you. If Souse asks, say you were afraid the tribe would be seen as weak.”

“Only Hohi showed up though, that was odd…”

“Souse and Essuan are having sex and Violet and those other two went to the building for stuff and the others just…” Lillow shrugged, “they don’t have positions so they don’t really… you know. Work?”

“Souse should fix that.”

“After sex with Essuan.”

“When else would he deal with it, during?”

Lillow blinked at Mik, “people deal with stuff during sex all the time. It’s disgusting and inappropriate and disrespectful.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”


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