Sequel

One. I tried putting in tealight, as in one word, but my computer told me I was silly and this didn't exist. A tea light, just in case your region/country calls it something else, is a small candle in a metal tin that is slightly wider than a taper candle and usually less than an inch thick. ... Might be half an inch. I suck at measuring in inches. They're cheap and pack into plastic bags very neatly. They burn for a few hours.

Paw explained the Sidhe obsession with fire pretty simply. You don't need money to make fire and fire can't be mastered by people. We just think we've mastered it. Then we burn ourselves because we forgot that fire is hot...

Those who read Partners but don't read Sequel are going to miss something... right at the end there... adorable.

Possible chance I will update Sequel again today, I'm worried about it being the darkest night but I think I've figured out how it will go and now I'm quite excited.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




It was just after dinner when the elevator dinged. Koln and another man stepped off the elevator. Each held in his hands a box that had a bit of weight to it. Koln set his on the table and the other man, younger than Koln but older than Rel, set it on the counter. The younger man glared at Rel, brown eyes taking on a dangerous look as a hand moved errantly through light brown locks.

The glare turned to a lip curling up when Rel smiled at Koln. Jealous much? Rel would have pushed this issue, had Muan not been in the room. He didn’t want to trouble the Sidhe after the quiet day they had had together.

“What is this?” Rel heard the words as he realised he had done it again. He had asked a question that was meant for more than one thing. He was talking about the two boxes and about the other man’s look towards him.

Koln glanced at the other man, “Taln and I thought to bring you some candles that Paw picked out of the apartments for you. He seemed to suggest that you should light them all tonight. A darkest night celebration. Something about the light will perhaps… ehm…”

“That by lighting so many candles you may very well find your way on the dark path.”

The tone of the other man suggested that he either thought Koln was an idiot or that Taln wanted to escape from Rel’s presence as soon as possible. Before Rel and Koln had a chance to interact. Why, because Rel had smiled at Koln?

Was everybody and their dog gay, damn it?

But it almost made sense. A gay man amongst Sidhe can’t get females pregnant.

“Candles. Candles are good,” Rel said, looking at Koln and ignoring Taln completely as Muan moved to the box beside Taln. The Sidhe opened the box and stuck his head inside, his entire head, and gave several loud sniffs. Muan produced a large candle with dried flowers in the wax and looked at Rel. The man could only shrug, “where you would like them to go.”

Muan grinned his half toothed grin and took the candle to the area where he had moved all his potted flowers to. Taln followed behind Muan and helped the Sidhe shift things about yet again. The two seemed to get into one sided arguments quite often, all of them ending in “but Paw said…” Rel had no idea what Taln was doing to read Muan, but the man was doing a good job at it. The one sided argument mildly reminded Rel of how some people talked to their cats.

“Matches,” Koln produced a long stemmed match box and set it in front of Rel, “To light more candles. Once one is lit, likely he’ll start playing in it, most Sidhe do. Completely normal and why Paw sent this,” a large metal bowl that had obviously been used as a burning pot before, “Mari seemed to suggest that you might find this useful as well. Something about the toilets go to the sewers and the sewers are carefully sifted for lost items.”

Koln shrugged, having no idea and no interest in the mentioning.

“Then candles,” Koln pulled out two of the neatly packed bags of tealights, thus each two hundred pack was about the size of a textbook. He set them on the table beside the bowl and began removing taper candles and the small candles holders for them. The pillar candles came next. All of them were white, in varying sizes. Most had one wick, though some had two or even three wicks.

The other box held six black candles. At those candles Rel’s heart did a funny little flop. The darkest night, given that it was the realm of Rahl-ta and the shadow daemon, was the night that new deaths were announced. Once every… what would it be… twenty years? New deaths hadn’t been announced in such a way in almost a hundred years. The existence of deaths had been diminished to a gentleman’s club.

“Why are there…”

“Six black candles, one to represent each day of the week. Except Sidhe don’t have weeks and our weeks are seven days long,” Koln muttered under his breath, “He seemed to imply that you would understand how to work that out. When I went and questioned him on it.”

The others were, for the most part, white. There were a few that were coloured. Rel noted the one of each colour of the gods that came out and were set by the black candles, but he made no mention of those coloured candles. Some of the candles were like the one Muan had already taken. White with dried flowers in the wax.

“You have an obscene amount of dishes, you will have noticed. Use them for candle holders. Sidhe like breaking dishware to make it suit their purposes, so we all have extra. It’s not what we’ve been brought up to do, but it is quite handy, I must admit, to use a cooking pot as a flower pot instead of buying a new pot. And baking sheets make nice candle holders as well as the nifty fact that you can reuse them and decorate them how you please. Drinking glasses make nice candle holders as well. Mainly for tea lights. Essuan managed once to do it in such a way that the entire beer mug lit up the living room from one tea light. It was amazing.

“Anyway. Candles, them such and such. Mari said no fake flowers, it confuses the Sidhe and at this point, the less confusion for him, the better.”

“Mm,” Rel glanced over Koln’s shoulder and spotted Muan watching him. When their eyes met, the Sidhe’s face went bright red and Muan turned back to the plant he stood by, feeling a leaf between his fingers before glancing back at Rel to see if the man was still watching him, “that’s…”

Koln looked at Muan and then back to Rel, “He’s acting… strange…”

“And?”

“Like a boy your age…”

“I’m not a boy. I’m just… barely legal,” Rel growled, standing from the table.

Rel went through the cupboards and pulled out a few flat dishes. A few glasses and a bowl. He arranged candles onto this or the other one and placed each on the table. Muan finished adjusting his plants and took each of the arranged dishes one at a time, placing them about the room. Taln, for the most part, tried to get in Muan’s way, tried to push the Sidhe.

Poking him to see his reaction.

Each of the six candles Rel arranged on a round baking sheet in a circle, imitating the constellation that represented the deaths. This Muan set in what was becoming the center of the candle display. When all was set, and the sun was long down, Koln moved to Taln and very carefully corralled the man with his arm. Taln almost smiled before looking away and stomping to the elevator as if he were upset. Koln gave Rel an exasperated look and followed Taln to the elevator, using the key to bring it up.

“Have a good night, Rel, try not to think too much.”

About being alone for the holiday again? Rel gave Koln a weak smile, “I won’t do anything stupid.”

“Good. Because…” Koln sighed, “It might bring up his past for him and then. Well, that would be very bad.”

“His past? No one’s been very specific as to-”

“Because you aren’t allowed to know until he is ready to tell you,” Taln responded as the elevators dinged, “just like he won’t know about your past until you are ready to tell him. Like. A new beginning. A new chance at everything.”

That was when Koln kissed Taln. It was tame, it was obviously not as hot as the older man wanted, but it was a kiss. When it broke off, Koln pulled Taln onto the elevator.

“A new chance to trust,” Rel heard Koln muttered to Taln as the doors closed.

Rel couldn’t shake the feeling that those words hadn’t been meant for Taln.


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