Sequel

This took several hours to write. Mainly because I wasn't comfortable with what Rel was going to do and then in goes Muan, completely out of what I was certain would happen and...

Thank the gods Muan is there.

If you are wondering ... Mari was about to get off the elevator and Ashun all but tackled her to keep Mari from saying something to Rel. The Sidhe like dealing with such problems without a physical and verbal confrontation. They believe that people react better without knowing they are being helped. So. A subtle helping.

I'm thinking the purple flower isn't really working any more. Muan is going to have to find something else to elevate Rel's mood. Am I the only one who is really hoping that he realises that sex can make people all happy and purring like kittens?

Read, Review and Enjoy.





The elevator doors dinged. There was a moment of near silence as someone stepped of the elevator before Ashun dropped what she was doing.

“Time to go!” and there was the clatter of others dropping what they were doing and rushing to the elevator.

Rel ignored it, staring at the wall in annoyance.

Muan shuffled about the apartment for several minutes, between the kitchen and the plants and back again. Water was boiled and poured out. And several minutes later Muan sat on the edge of the bed. Rel adjusted his head to look, not at the wall, but at the crack where the bed met the wall. He didn’t want to deal with Muan.

“Lel,” Muan’s tone left no room to question. The Sidhe pulled Rel towards him and up. So he didn’t have to face Muan.

Muan’s hand came around and in it was a cup of tea with a wilted purple flower at the bottom and a leaf of mint floating on the top. Rel pushed the cup away and turned his head. Lips pressed against the crook of his neck, tongue darted over skin for the briefest moments before the cup was offered again. Rel didn’t understand how that worked. He rejected the drink, he was kissed instead?

He accepted the cup, more out of curiosity of what Muan would do than out of want for the medicated tea. Rel sipped, feeling the tingle down his throat and then the startling sweet at the end, as an aftertaste. Muan’s hand came under the cup and urged Rel to drink more. The young man drank the warm tea, gulping it as Muan tipped the cup ever further. Once the cup was empty, Muan took it away.

The tea made his head buzz and made him do a little gasp. Like he had been crying and suddenly he was by himself and realised there was no point to crying. Muan held him, pressing lips against his temple as he drifted off. He slept for what seemed a moment and then woke with the sun beginning its downward movement. Late afternoon.

Rel sat up, groaning and rubbing sleep from his eyes. He looked about the apartment. Muan was going about, collecting the bits left behind by their parents, putting it all away. As Rel sat up, Muan stopped, fingers reaching for Uhwan’s charcoal, and looked at Rel. The Sidhe looked away quickly and continued on cleaning the apartment.

He slid out of bed, flicking the blankets back up in a half attempt to make the bed. He shuffled to the kitchen and rubbed at his eyes again, looking in the fridge.

Meat, mushrooms, and beets. Protein and… iron? Gathered on the top shelf as Muan had taken to doing when he wanted something specific for supper.

The types of things a person who has suffered blood lose would likely need.

So Muan knew. And yet. Rel looked over at the Sidhe, bent and rubbing at something on the hardwood floor. Muan didn’t seem to care. To take care of him, yes, but that was just to keep him alive, because without Rel, what would Muan have? It was an entirely selfish thing to do. It wasn’t because Muan cared about him.

Rel felt himself wilt emotionally.

And there it was, back again. Like when his family seemed to think nothing was wrong, even when he was pale and started wearing long sleeved shirts in the middle of summer.

Rel ran his hands through his hair and closed the fridge, upset again.. He looking into the cupboards, wondering what he was going to make for supper, as he wasn’t going to make what Muan wanted just so Muan can be selfish and all that.

He couldn’t find anything he wanted to eat and his body was craving the mushrooms. Rel muttered to himself inside his head and closed the cupboard, turning to the rest of the apartment. Muan was ignoring him, turned partially away, studying a plant leaf. Every line of Muan read that he was ignoring Rel.

Rel looked down at the counter and then back at Muan. It was too carefully made. Muan was pointedly.

Rel bit his bottom lip and went immediately to the bathroom. He locked himself in and opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out the razor blade. He felt like crap. Again.

“Lel?” The bathroom door handle jiggled.

“Just a minute!” Rel called back to Maun.

Bastard was getting pushy.

But it wasn’t Muan’s fault. Being with someone else was a biological imperative. Muan had focused on Rel and so Muan was getting pushy but it would pass. Muan would move on.

Like everyone else.

Rel rolled up his sleeve and considered his arm. He could cut directly below the other one or cut the old one deeper.

CRACK.

Rel dropped the razor blade as the doorknob was torn out of the door. Muan flicked the door open and leaned against the doorframe, giving Rel a ‘really, that was supposed to stop me?’ look. The Sidhe folded his arms and watched Rel.

Which made Rel gulp and worry. No one had ever walked in on him cutting himself. When Muan stayed there, looking Rel up and down, Rel only worried more. He worried about what Muan was going to do to him. The idea that Muan might hurt him made him tremble like a leaf.

Muan pushed off of the doorframe and moved towards Rel, making Rel cringe back away from the Sidhe. Without touching Rel, Muan reached around him and plucked up the razor blade. Muan inspected it, turning it over in his hands, before bending around Rel and dropping it into the garbage bucket. Rel edged away from Muan, towards the outer wall of the bathroom. Muan snatched up the garbage bucket, looked inside and then turned it so Rel could see the broken razor with its three blades at the bottom. The Sidhe then turned to the laundry shoot and dropped the bucket down it.

“That’s not safe! Someone could-” Rel tried to protest but Muan’s look silenced him. He cringed back against the wall.

Muan approached Rel, pinning him there against the wall, pushing up against him. The Sidhe’s heated body against his own cool one made Rel shudder. Muan pulled Rel’s cut arm up and inspected the cut. Lips pressed tightly together for a moment before Muan flicked open the medicine cabinet and pulled out hydrogen peroxide and a box of cotton swabs. The male bent away from Muan for a moment and opened the bottle, dipping a swab into the bottle before taking Rel’s wrist and dabbing at the cut.

“Ow,” Rel tried to pull his wrist away but Muan held him firmly, “that hurts.”

Lips met his forehead for a moment before the swab was dabbed against the cut again. Muan cleaned the cut thoroughly before dropping the swab into the sink and closing the disinfectant. Bottle and swabs went back into the medicine cabinet and Muan pulled out a box of band-aids.

How would Muan know what a band-aid was for? The Sidhe pulled out several of them, looking at the size and then at Rel’s cut before shaking his head and stuffing it back into the box. Seemingly frustrated, Muan worked his jaw about.

When the Sidhe bent and licked Rel’s cut, the man cringed, trying to pull away from Muan. A moment later he was licked again and Muan pulled away, smacking his lips together. A finger poked at Rel’s skin around the cut and it felt…

Like there was dried glue on his arm.

Rel looked at the cut, puzzled. There was a glossy area around and over the cut. It was almost like one of those invisible, paint on band-aids that had been abandoned when it was discovered they were perfect breeding grounds for bacteria in their liquid form.

“Wha?”

“Lel,” Muan took his wrist and tugged Rel into the living area and to the kitchen. The Sidhe pulled open the knife drawer and looked at Rel, “Lel no.” the cheese grater was pulled out, “no.” and then the scissors, “no.”

“But I need those to make supper!”

“Muan,” the Sidhe motioned to himself and then the various cutting tools, “yes. Lel. No.”

“But-”

Muan let out a small growl and began digging in the cupboards. The Sidhe pulled out a bag of plastic utensils and shuffled through the utensils before handing Rel a knife, fork and spoon.

Of plastic.

Rel opened his mouth to protest only to have Muan duck his head and ignore the man as he dug about in the bag and pulled out another set of utensils. Muan would use the same eating things as Rel. But Rel was still being treated like a child.

Rel wilted even more. He needed to get rid of the emotions somehow and Muan wasn’t letting him use his usual means. It wasn’t fair at all. Not at all. He had let Muan have his tantrums and screaming fits and all that stuff and Muan wasn’t letting him…

The Sidhe was watching Rel intently. Rel felt the prickle of power as Muan poked around inside his body, wondering if this was yet another side effect of his healing. That the healings had made Rel unstable after they had been certain that Rel was better. The man clenched his jaw and slammed Muan back inside his own body in a flurry of power that was out of his control yet somehow did what he wanted.

And the emotions were dimmer. Rel sat at the table and put his head onto the top of it. It didn’t make sense. Muan sat at the table, beside Rel, and took Rel’s hand gently. The Sidhe kissed Rel’s knuckles. Rel turned his head on the table to look at Muan.

Muan just wanted Rel to be better


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