Partner

Despite not having the energy to write, I still wanted to. I actually wrote part of this the day before last, when I said that would be the last update. Then yesterday I added a sentence and found that I hadn't the energy to delve into the world and it would all be a jumbled mess if I tried and this morning I'm not much better. But... it's something.

For those of you reading Sequel... I keep trying to slide sex in there and it just never works. I mean, it is a prison after all. Which makes me sigh and give up to using it as an updater as to what is going on outside that Mik doesn't see. At least for a little while.

I haven't even got enough co-herent thought to add a paragraph or two about this chapter.

To Madrachadevvi: the reason I didn't use the wallbanger right away is because by the time you had posted, I was already nearly done the one with the cock ring.

The thing with Sidhe is that they do not think like people, while what Souse did was wrong, he was forgiven because Whisper forgave him, thus no one is supposed to bring it up. Mik's outburst might be forgiven, but Paw might face some steep punishment, either by Whisper or by Souse. Or the two days in lock up will give Souse time to think and he'll not punish Paw. We'll see.

Souse really isn't a bad guy.

So long as you aren't on his territory, eatin' his foodstuffs. Survival wise, he's the guy whose team you want to be on. For those NOT in the way of his family, he's a good guy. Paw just... got in the way.





The woman was infuriating. And Hohi trailing along behind her to do whatever she needed done did nothing but annoy Mik whenever Essuan’s back was turned. The male Sidhe stuck his tongue out at Mik and Paw or made faces. Paw giggled, Mik glared, Essuan pretended she couldn’t understand what was going on and even gave Mik a slap for being ‘too serious.’

Essuan pulled off the new bandaging and inspected the area, cleaned it with water and something that burned like alcohol. Mik tried to view the damage and she slapped his face away, the light thing of a person caught up in work and not wanting to be pestered. Her fingers found a spot on his shoulder that made him growl when she poked it, despite the pain it sent pulsing through him.

The entire time she chattered to Hohi about something. Her rounding belly brushed Mik’s arm and the man was truly afraid to move, considering what had happened the last time a tribe member had tried to touch Essuan. Sure, it had been that See fellow from the dominance issue, but Mik wasn’t going to risk even a graze with her brother’s watchful eyes constantly on her.

“Why isn’t he with Lillow?” Mik asked Paw as Essuan re-bandaged his shoulder, clucking all the while about the poor job people did with wrapping things.

“Because he needs next of kin to oversee it,” Paw responded calmly, quietly and a bit quicker than usual, “they do likely see each other but he is presenting the face that they do not, because that is what these courtship males do. Pretend that they’re doing everything right and give the one they’re courting a taste of the taboo, a place to express themselves openly.”

Hohi’s brow drew down.

“Hohi,” Mik turned his attention to the male, knowing that look too well from when he and Paw had been hammering out language differences, “Can Hohi speak people?”

The male’s lip curled up in a snarl and he looked away, folding his arms across his chest. It was the closest thing to a answer Mik was going to get and the man responded with a small grunt. Which might have had more to do with the fact that Essuan tied the bandage too tightly. She muttered something that might have been an apology and untied it.

“If he can get the language, why is Essuan having such trouble?”

Paw frowned, “Who said Essuan having trouble? Violet speak people fluently when she come visit Paw. But not to people. Paw. Paw speak people fluently,” with a motion towards himself as if reaffirming that who he meant was himself, “but then fall back on broken language like idiot. Make Paw not understand? No. Mean Paw either very trickster figure or Paw very clever.”

“Some would view it as you lacking respect,” Mik muttered.

Essuan went to the bag she had brought and pulled out a book, handing it to Paw. She rattled something off to him in Sidhe and the small male sighed and flipped through the pages.

“What, what’s she want?” a phrase book, perhaps?

Paw pointed something out on the page and seemingly read the passage out in Sidhe, handing the book back to Essuan before blinking at Mik, “herb book, says what good for people and what does for people. What else would healer carry around? Phrase book?”

Slip of the tongue. That was all. They happened to be thinking the same thing.

Mik looked at Hohi, who was standing and looking intently at Paw. The man turned his attention back to Paw and found the smaller male trying to look at anything that wasn’t in Hohi’s general direction.

“Does he have…” what had the Sidhe been calling it? “power?”

“What Hohi has is purely from experience and practice,” Paw muttered with an annoyed tone, “he chose.”

Essuan returned a moment later just as Mik was wondering what had happened to the female. She held a leaf in her hand and was looking at the image in the book. What she said out loud clearly indicated that she wasn’t certain that this was what she thought it was and something that involved waving the leaf around.

Considering the last time she had given Mik something? Mik groaned as he thought of the possibilities.

Hohi took the leaf and delicately bit the tip off of it. He chewed for a moment and made a disgusted face as he spat the leaf into his free hand. Whatever he said was slurred.

“What help with Mik’s pain make Hohi mouth go numb,” Paw muttered, just slightly amused, “Mik had best not think about it, and just take it. Pregnant healer twice as bad as normal healer,” the Sidhe hissed at Mik out the side of his mouth, all the while smiling sweetly at Essuan.

The female frowned at Paw and offered the leaf to Mik. Mik reached for it and she slapped his hand away, saying a long something. Hohi took the leaf from her, broke off the end and held that out for Mik to take. The man took it and popped it into his mouth, cringing as his whole mouth started tingling. The Sidhe all seemed to hold their breaths around Mik. The man swallowed when he was told to and rubbed his tongue on the top of his mouth furiously.

“That sparkle will pass in a few moments,” Paw murmured, tucking a blanket around Mik.

“Why do I need a blanket?” Mik muttered.

“Because Mik is sick and Essuan going to make him better, whether he want to be made better or not.”

“Don’t we have to wait until Souse is up and everything’s cleared up?”

“No.” Paw murmured just as Essuan launched into a garbled lecture. The female had to stop several times and think about what she was saying and seemed to backtrack and correct herself. Or repeat. She could have been repeating.

By the time she finished Mik’s mouth was no longer tingling, but everything else seemed dimmer. Paw sighed at Mik’s side and set a hand on his leg.

“What?” Mik muttered.

“Paw in trouble. Again.” Paw mumbled, shifting so that he could lay with his feet dangling off the side of the couch and his head set on Mik’s hip, “they know Paw told Mik. Mik not very good at keeping secrets.”

Mik sniffed and shifted into a more comfortable position, “We’ll make a tribe of our own.” it sounded foolish, his head was foggy and he wasn’t quite certain what he was saying, “I’ll be Paw’s tribe.”

“Like they’re going to banish a candidate,” Paw muttered angrily, using an odd accent that seemed to make his words twist about.

So Hohi couldn’t understand. Mik tried to look at the male, but ended up with his head on the armrest of the couch, looking out the windows of his apartment and to the building beside his. A drone flew off in the distance, its little lights blinking as its many cameras surveyed the ground below, the apartments around it and the sky above it. The drone came too close to the satellite dish sitting on top of one of the lower apartment buildings and it stuttered, information crashing into its hard drives. The drone spun in a slow circle, round and round and round, broken for an hour or so before its backup programs would kick in and it would continue on its way as if nothing had happened.

That was the Sidhe. Mik thought, or perhaps he was saying it, he had lost track of his mouth. Whirring about above everything and watching everything until something happened and they ended up spinning in slow circles, not sure what to do. Then one day they stood up, brushed off the seat of their pants the way the drone would carefully remove the information from its hard drive, and continue on as if nothing had happened. Being best friends with the people who shoved their faces into the mud and murdered their kin.

But then one day the drone would be stopped too often and it would draw to a sudden stop overtop of the city and just plummet downward. Causing mayhem and destruction if the city didn’t pull the drone down before it lost its electrical mind.

Mayhem and destruction. Chaotic order.

Didn’t make any damned sense.


.