Partner

So as it turned out, yesterday was a friend's birthday. So. I was off and such and this morning... recovering... and such.

This was highly amusing. Though a bit difficult to write, but that could be due to several different things.

I'd like to direct people to the forum, once more, there aren't many people joined yet, so it is a bit slow, but the more people join, the more the discussion will pick up. Talk about pairings, about crazy impossibilities...

Start a thread just on the mistakes I make. The Whoot for example? or the typos. The lists of times I've accidentally called teh people humans.

Or pester me about other stories...

Read, Review and Enjoy.




Everything before the party was a blur. There was planning and moving and setting. It was a huge mess. And yet, it was a good time for the other partners to socialize with each other, a good time for Tuhn to show off what she could do. Mik hardly paid attention to the partners, too busy on the phone, too busy keeping Paw’s hands out of the candle flames.

As it was, he ended up having to leave the pool room and by the time he came back the party had started. Sort of. Most of the partners and Sidhe were gathered around the pool, talking amongst themselves. Rel, Muan and Paw stood together as Paw pushed Mik’s mother away from them, towards Mik.

She looked absolutely pissed.

Mik looked around, desperate for some kind of escape. There wasn’t one. His mother stomped up to him and crossed her hands across her chest. She had that look… like she had just met a soulless bureaucrat.

“Hi?”

“That boy is-”

“It doesn’t matter, mom, that’s in the past,” Mik said quickly, cutting her off, “whatever it is, whatever it was, it’s in the past and he doesn’t have the time to do anything more to harm you. Muan is taking up all his time.”

And just like that her anger melted away, “You’re right. I just. I saw him and I was upset. He’s never had a family, he doesn’t know what it’s like to have someone to ask you to sell your last connection to your dead son.”

“I… don’t think there are a whole lot of people in the world who know that,” Mik murmured.

“That’s true, I suppose.”

Mik looked past his mother, to Paw and Rel. The two were staring at each other. Muan was looking between the two of them, puzzlement on their face. Paw suddenly said something and motioned to Muan. The taller male was in the middle of rubbing at his temple. Rel looked at Muan and Muan got that look on his face. Startled, annoyance. Muan didn’t want Rel to know that… there was something wrong with his head? An ache?

Rel moved off towards the elder’s area, Paw and Muan drifted to the food. Paw was talking with his words and his hands, motioning to this and that and saying things in both Sidhe and people. Mik moved to the two Sidhe, travelling behind them as Paw began explaining about guesting. Paw was explaining, then, how a guest of the tribe was expected to act.

When they arrived at the start of the food tables, Paw looked over his shoulder slowly at Mik. Muan glanced at Paw and then turned to Mik. The Sidhe’s mouth came open and a sound that might have been a word came out. A word without consonants, except perhaps an ‘l’ in there somewhere. Randomly.

Paw motioned to Mik with a hand, “Mwuan, Mik, Mik, Muan. Mik te Paw. Muan te Rel.”

“Uhm…” Mik murmured, uncertain.

“Mean Mik is Paw’s, Muan is Rel’s,” Paw said to Mik before he turned to Muan and began chattering in Sidhe again.

Mik sighed and looked about the pool. Mari waltzed into the room with something in her hands. Mik’s heart skipped a beat as the woman looked around the pool and locked eyes with him. She immediately made her way towards him.

Around Souse, watching Essuan and Lillow play with the mesas in the pool. Past Violet sitting on a table, listening to several males try to woo her. Something she likely did to balance out the fact that there were fewer females than there were males in the tribe. A good deal of the males were on the hetero side of sexuality. They would pair off to relieve stress and anxiety, but without a single female to pay attention to them, they got antsy.

Mari held the document out to Mik as Paw turned to greet her. Mik thanked her as Paw smiled and waited for Mari to acknowledge him.

“All there, ‘I’s dotted, ‘t’s crossed,” Mari said, allowing Mik to take it from her hands.

“Wonderful.”

Paw’s smile grew wider, the Sidhe’s entire body screamed, ‘pay attention to me.’

“It will take effect upon the new year, like most things of this nature. It will need certain tending, again, like most things of this nature.”

“Wonderful,” Mik murmured, turning to Paw. The Sidhe ignored him, still looking at Mari expectantly, “Paw.”

Paw made a sound at the back of his throat, shot Mari a nasty look and turned to Mik.

“This is for you.”

“Me?” Paw frowned and held his hand out to accept the paper. The Sidhe unfolded it and began reading.

“Now. Technically a Sidhe can’t own land, as by law you still aren’t seen as sentient people, but-”

“Ease ours?” Paw looked over the document, eyes moving rapidly, “Ours?”

“Not… Yes and no. Through donations of certain sums of money, I’ve, with Mari’s help, obtained the signatures of each of the high priests of the priest lines. Thereby creating a sanctuary with the land that I’ve already purchased. Making it illegal for people to develop there, making it illegal to hunt or harm any Sidhe that is on that land. It will be a no fly, no hunt, no trespass zone. A crew, paid for by the lines, will keep watch over it.”

“Wheeesh land?”

“The piece I bought, a few days ago. It’s bordering on the military base, the only free land around there, I tried buying the base but it didn’t work. But if that is a long time tree, in a matter of decades it will have to be given over to the sanctuary, because half of it will be in the sanctuary.”

Paw grinned, “ours?”

“…” did he say ours or yours? But he was part of the tribe. “ours.”

Paw let out a high pitched sound and leapt onto Mik. Wrapping his arms tight around the man’s neck as Mik staggered back a step. The Sidhe chattered excitedly, hopping off of Mik suddenly as he waved the paper in the air and started nattering away again. Paw rushed off to Souse, waving the paper in the leader’s face as Souse frowned and watched stoically.

A nod, another nod. Souse was listening to the rambling, but also watching his mate and child. Something Paw said caught Souse’s full attention. The leader looked down at Paw and finally focused on the papers. After a moment Souse took the papers from Paw and batted the excited creature away. Paw crouched down at Souse’s feet. The tribe was a unit, what one owned, all owned.

Which would technically mean that if Mik owned it, the tribe owned it and he couldn’t really gift them the land. But this would ensure that the land stayed with the Sidhe, even upon Mik’s death.

Souse motioned to Mik and the man approached as he was beckoned, motioning in turn to Mari to follow him. Mik pulled to a stop a foot away from Souse, eyes cast down.

“This is for the tribe, to these Sidhe?”

“All Sidhe, legally, but,” Mik shrugged, “the Sidhe can deal amongst themselves, who is welcome and who is not.”

“Thus this tribe might make statement upon the land.”

“… yes.”

“Deliver these papers to the leader then,” Souse handed them back to Mik.

Mik frowned, looked down at the papers and held them back out to Souse, “leader…?”

“No,” Souse pushed the papers away, “go. Take them. To the leader.”

Mik was so fucking confused, all he could do was stare at the papers in his hand and wonder how detached he was from the Sidhe, if he didn’t even know who the new leader was. Or when the position of leader changed hands.

He glanced around at the Sidhe in the pool room. Not one of them seemed dominant. Not even Muan, who waltzed about the apartment upstairs like an arrogant pet. This was his. That was his. Oh yeah, that was his too. And that.

Yet here, with the other Sidhe, Muan was suddenly submissive, eyes down, making himself look small. Around and around. Even the partners suddenly found the floor very interesting. Mik looked at Paw, hoping for some direction, yet the Sidhe was simply staring off at nothing.

“I don’t know.”

Souse sighed out, “people unobservant. Come,” Souse reached out and gently led Mik around Paw, pulling the man towards the elder’s area, “usually Mik is very quick to understand this. Over here, here.”

Mik blinked at Rel, Koln and Taln. Koln and Taln stood as they approached. Koln glanced over the two of them and sighed out. Taln glanced at Souse and down at the papers in Mik’s hands.

“What’s going on?” the young man asked.

“I don’t know,” Mik responded. “I tried giving these to Souse and he said to give it to the leader,” the man looked around, expecting one of the Sidhe to be approaching the chairs. None of them had moved.

Souse snapped the papers out of Mik’s hands, bringing his attention back to Koln. The Sidhe held the papers out towards Koln and Taln. Both blinked at the papers for a long moment before Taln got that look on his face.

The one people got when they were forced to participate in something. The young man reached out and took the papers. Taln puzzled over them, reading it over before nodding.

“So. These are just copies of the originals, to be held by the leader in case people forget their promise. Why can’t you just give them to the leader?” Taln asked Souse, trying to hand them back to the Sidhe.

Souse stepped away from Taln, grinning at him. The young man looked puzzled, down at the papers, up to Souse and back at the papers. It was Koln who finally said, “oh,” and took a step back from Taln.

“The decision between the better leaders has been in air for a good time. Discussion and debate, arguing happens often but still nothing decided. This gift gives unique opportunity to allow leader to show self,” Souse explained, “te” and the hand motion that the tribe once used for Souse.

Taln?

Taln was the leader?


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