Soul Bound

Update two days in a row? Gasp! I can do this for a few more days before I'm in dire need of writing more but that's okay because I'll write more tomorrow night.

I like Ashun for how honest she can be, I also like her because most of the time when she says something that is hilariously funny, she's being completely serious. So when others start howling in laughter she just frowns and tries to figure out what happened. Or she thinks she's being helpful but she's frightening a male out of doing something stupid.

Anyways.

Read, Review and Enjoy.

Mel continued to wander the tree. When that didn’t work, he found Ashun, eventually and thankfully, and began poking the Elder until she growled at him. It was as Ashun growled that Mel got a very, very strange idea. He gave her a shove. Ashun bore her teeth at Mel but didn’t try to scare him off. Mel stepped on Ashun’s toes on purpose. The female cursed and swore and hobbled a little ways away, she glared daggers at him and then straightened.

“You are disrespecting me.”

“Something the leader is supposed to stop. Right?”

Ashun considered Mel for a moment, “very well, you may disrespect me more. But I will curse more.” Mel shrugged and cuffed Ashun upside the head. The female’s mouth dropped open, she stared at Mel, horrified, “I said disrespect me, not molest me! You are not my father, you’ve no right to touch me!”

Lou thumped down between them, pushing Ashun back as he growled at Mel menacingly. The male hunched down just enough to look Mel directly in the eyes, “Wass-you doin’?”

“Poking her to lure you in,” Mel growled back. He then folded his arms and put the argument behind him. This, Lou had said, was the Sidhe way, to leave the past in the past and for that time, at the very least, he was happy to do it, “you never said where you wanted to stay.”

“In the house,” Lou grumbled, then frowned, “is what Lou say.”

“Right, so I’ll just get Una to help me set it up. We’ll pull in the fire wood and clean the place.”

“Clean? No,” Lou shook his head, frown deepening, “Lou clean, put scent on everything so that all know big male own house. Mark territory. Mel and Una not clean, Lou clean.”

“Then you’d best get down to the village before Una decides to help. Otherwise the house will smell like perverted old man and the ass he’d like to get at.” Mel said, watching as the confused male turned into a bristling Sidhe.

Lip curled upward, Lou’s hair raised off his head, he seemed to grow larger at Mel’s suggestion. A growl rumbled out of the male’s chest, “No, Una no touch. Una touch, Lou. No! No touch.”

“Don’t tell me, go tell him,” Mel said, motioning away from himself. The moment the words came out of his mouth, Lou was gone, leaving Ashun and Mel alone in the tree. He glanced at Ashun, “did I just do something worse?”

“No,” Ashun said, considering Mel for a long moment before she made some decision about him and smiled just slightly, “what you said was just right. You redirected his attention away from you and towards someone who can handle Sidhe annoyance. He will poke Una and Una will poke back, it shall be amusing to the rest of us.”

“The… rest of us, that includes me, right?”

“No, you are the one we will be laughing at. Or, one of the ones. I know that people males have a problem when everyone is laughing just at them,” Ashun rocked back on her heels, looking Mel up and down once more, “you need to groom him. Brush his hair out, wash him down, he’s not cleaning properly. Take a hard brush to his nails, he’ll enjoy that. Likely. A stiff brush to his skin, with the right pleasure can change a boring wash time into something more exciting.”

“I don’t have any brushes-”

“Ask Una. Oh. I don’t sleep much during the winter, it actually wakes me up instead of puts me to sleep. So I’ll come visit you and I’ll bring my favourite treat!”

“Which is. What. Exactly?” Mel got the distinct feeling that he was walking into a trap. He should have known by the gleam in her eye. But Mel had never had a female companion, he didn’t know that he was stepping off the ledge until he was off and falling.

“Popsicles! It’s like an icicle only it has fruit added to it so that it has flavour, they are absolutely delicious.” Ashun grinned and simply looked at him.

“… I don’t get it.” Mel muttered, he considered the information for a moment, turning over what he knew in his head. “wait. Does this have something to do with the fact that you are really old by people standards and possibly knew me in a previous life? What could a popsicle possibly…” and then he thought about what an icicle sort of looked like, “oh no. No. You are not allowed to bring popsicles and why would you even bring that up, it’s horribly disgusting!”

“To bring popsicles as a house warming gift?” Ashun asked innocently, poking her index fingers together. It was then that Mel knew that something was up.

“So if I go to the common area and tell everyone that you’re bringing popsicles, not a single one of them will make a sneering comment about what Elder Ashun is planning on doing with poor innocent Lou? None of the women will get cranky because Elder Ashun is brining Lou a popsicle instead of them?”

“That’s just downright mean.”

“Yes, well, it did have a point.”

“Point being that the women are climbing over each other for the chance to rut with Lou and you would use that against me?” Ashun asked, one eyebrow arching upward.

“Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Lou has talked a little about how he is supposed to close the gap between your people and his people, to prevent the two from becoming separate people. But he doesn’t like anyone-”

“Oh! He needs a zsheeash, a male who mounts him as he mounts a female so as to bring around a child, that’s no problem. We’ve had that issue come up before. Males with very good blood are usually homosexual, they turn to their own kind for sexual pleasure. Apparently there’s a different chemical reaction between two of the same gender and two of different genders.”

“Never had that problem with a female?”

“Females are driven to have children, even if she does not find a male attractive, she will accept what is deemed the best blood and allow him between her legs for rut. The need for children tends to override the need for better blood in females, though. Males content themselves with children. Is there a male he likes amongst the tribe, eyes but won’t have?”

“The Death Master…”

“Oh, lovely. And females, anyone who almost fits?”

“You.”

“I am barren,” Ashun growled, “well, this will need a bit of thought. What I would prefer is if he spread his seed to many women but I will convince the other Elders to be satisfied with one child. You. Are alright with this?”

“I can’t imagine being with anyone besides Lou, but I like the idea of having children one day. His, mine… I mean, if we’re still together, it doesn’t matter. We’re both males, I would either have to force him to never have children, a fact which has been pointed out to be foolish, selfish and insane to push onto a Sidhe or come to terms with the fact that he’s going to be with a woman or I’m going to be with a woman.”

“You should have Mallia, that girl healer from the tribe.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“The pair of you would make lovely, adorable little kittens,” Ashun said quietly, “but if you feel uncomfortable around her, could I make a suggestion?”

“What?”

“Take that girl with you. She’s not meant for this soft life. Her father taught her to fight because she insisted on it, she can hunt and fish and do everything that a man can do because she found the chores of a woman boring. Mallia is a rare flower that needs more light than this little village will cast on her. Even if you decide not to have her as your woman, take her with you. Perhaps someone there would take her on, perhaps she will pick up a male between here and there. But in your village, away from all this, she will really bloom.”

“You’re saying I have a choice on her but taking her to my village…”

“You should.”

“You know, you’re the first person to actually consider what I want on the matter,” Mel said, “everyone else is insisting that they know my life. Me and Lou will be together and Mallia will be my surrogate and we’ll go back to my village and everything will be sunshine and rainbows.”

“Mel, what you need to understand is that people in this village are used to having their lives set out for them. This is a type of rest place for lost souls. Those that drift in are looking for someone to guide them and those born here accept the roles that are set out for them. They are contented with a quiet, easy life where they know before they can walk, who they will marry and what their lifelong job will be.

“Mallia and you do not fit into this norm of the village and yet neither of you upset the balance that has been created by Una. You would make a good pair, either as man and woman or simply as partners. Work with her, not against her because once that woman gets her feet under her, she’ll be seventeen hells unleashed on those who stand in her way.”

“That sounds like you’re still setting me up…”

“For revenge. Let her loose on a set of women and she’ll be cuffing people upside the head and twisting ears so fast their heads will be spinning. It will be highly amusing to the rest of us!”

“The rest of us in this case includes me, right?”

“Only if you stay out of her way.”

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