Topic: A Terrible Tangent

Jaycy Ashleana

Date: 2014-08-04 19:40 EST
Immediately Following A Nightmare of a Wild Card

A very wet and very ? focused Jaycy flew home on black-striped silver wings, landing in a crouch at the front door. "Pslyder?" She called after easing wings once more into her back, tucking them away, and stepping through the front door. Her voice carried through the entrance way, seeking his answer.

"Here." The voice called from the upper bedroom. Not because of any raging machismo, it's just where he happened to be.

Quickly she bounded up the steps and hurried forth, coming to a sudden and slamming halt upon reaching the entryway to their bedroom. A hand lifted to the frame at her side as drops from the fountain dripped right onto the floor at her feet. She peered around for him from that position, seemingly ready to bolt again, voice gone silent and mouth gone dry as the "confrontation" was about to begin.

He stood there in front of the window, hands in the pockets of jeans, looking out into the darkness.

"Psly?" she finally asked, softly. "Want to start from the beginning?" She tried to keep the judgment from her voice; the flustered and fidgety nervousness his sudden admission brought upon her, but it seemed she was failing miserably.

"Never had much reason to think about it before." It wasn't quite the beginning, but he was more in a stream-of-consciousness mood at the moment. "Nothing ever seemed like it'd last long enough. Not until now."

"Mmm," she murred, in non-vocalized way of saying 'go on.' She took a step into the bedroom finally, folding arms across her chest.

"Been thinking on it since, well, around when the memory thing happened. Got me to thinking that hey ... I really might not be around forever." He'd quieted as he stared out into the dark. "It got me scared."

After a moment, she sighed and moved to him, arms uncrossing and turning out, to draw hands across his bicep. "Psly?" Look at me, she silently implored. The admission of his fright cut through her, softened her where she had a moment ago been her own ball of terrified knots. "Want to sit down?"

When he turned, his eyes ... wide open, pinprick shut. Pupils like little dots, dealing with the severity of the situation. "I wanted something from the both of us, just in case. . ." Something happens. Something bad. He didn't even think the words, but there they were. "Yeah. Let's sit."

Her gaze flicked to the bed but she quickly dismissed that destination. Not for this talk. So she drew him out toward the balcony, pulling open the closer of the french doors before guiding him to the two-seater bench there. "I can understand how you feel, love." She murmured, trying her damnedest to keep her tone gentle and supportive even while his words were setting off a maelstrom of a different sort within and she wanted to contradict what he was saying. A hand inched toward his, intending to slip within his larger grasp.

Gamely, he took a seat, letting her take his hand. Cool. Abnormally cool, even for him. "Yeah, I'd figured you might." He shook his head, letting his gaze wander. "You know a hell of a lot more on this subject than I ever will."

Wincing slightly, she looked away from him and toward the woods that their balcony afforded a view of. "What brought your mind to children when you thought about it, love?" She kept her voice at a whisper, kept her hand in his even while her own trembled. "When you meant you wanted something from the both of us."

"It's something I've never had. The desire to be a father. I remember mine, growing up. Remember losing him, watching him wither away with rage after the Night of Fire, where mom and my sister died." Ruefully, he shook his head. "I didn't want to be that guy, so I thought that meant I didn't want kids. Ever." He looked at her again. "I was wrong."

She winced at meeting his eyes, the movement from crown to the very tips of the hand he held, and swiftly ducked her head. "Do you think there are other ways you're have something from the both of us? Even beyond us having each other - literally - in our blood?" She finally looked up and smiled weakly. "Is this mayhaps an easy answer to something you want, instead of a right answer?" Will you regret it, will you regret me after it, stayed unspoken. "How long have you been thinking about it?"

"I don't know. I don't know what kind of a father I'd be, dealing with it full-time. I just know a lot about what not to do, from memories." Sucking in a deep breath through his nose, he let it out in a rush. "Consciously, for the past few months. Probably longer, without really knowing it. Hellfires, I don't even know if it's a possibility." He paused, a long and fretful moment. "I do know we know people who could find out."

"From what I've seen with you and the boys, Psly, you'd make a fine father. Even if it hasn't been full time." That statement carried more weight, more volume, for it was surer ground she stood on. "I've no doubt of your ability. You're a loving man and that would carry." She sighed, then, squeezing his hand. "Mayhaps before we see if there's any possibility to it, we should decide if we really want to have children." No, no, her mind inwardly screamed, but she locked that thought down tight.

Jaycy Ashleana

Date: 2014-08-04 19:43 EST
"Maybe we should see if we survive the next few months, before looking into the possibilities." Standing in a rush, he turned and thumped his hands down on the balustrade. Futility and frustration, not fury. It barely made a bump noise. "I just. . .hell I just wanted to tell you, that's all. Because if there's any way this drek goes pear-shaped with Dawn, and someone starts a hunt. . ." He couldn't finish.

"That too," she gently agreed. "But? if we let ourselves get lost in the possibility of what ifs and how horrible it would bes, she's actually won. You told me because you didn't want to leave it unsaid. Is it going to be any better for you to leave it unresolved? Will it not give you peace to have closure one way or the other?" She sighed, glad his back was turned because that meant he couldn't see the stream of tears lit by her own frustration and fear.

White knuckles gripped the railing. "At least now, I've gotten over being terrified of saying it. Over having it sit there like a lump, every time you've taken a job where I can't go along." Maybe he'd been holding this in for a bit longer than he'd said. Or maybe he was finally admitting it to himself. There've been a lot of harsh truths come to light recently.

She kept silent, unsure of how to answer him in that. There have always been jobs he couldn't go on, and it would be very hard for her to promise not to take more in the future. "Love?." she finally tried, then sighed once more when she failed.

"I had a girlfriend, once. From my time and world, though we were both here. That. . .that was the closest I've ever been to what I feel for you, Jaycynda. Given the chance, I'd skin the man who took her from me alive. If I lost you, lost this. . .There's nothing beyond that." Claws were emerging from his fingertips, sinking into the wood of the railing. "I don't want you to stop, because that wouldn't be you. I don't want Dawn to win, because. . . well, that'd mean one of us lost big." A nervous chuckle slipped out, then. "Great ghost, I sound like a spaz right now, don't I?"

A soft laugh. "No, Psly, you don't sound like a spaz." She stood and edged over to him, once more seeking contact by placing a hand on him - this time over those clawed fingers. "Listen to me. You're not sounding like a spaz. You're saying nothing wrong, and I'm sorry you've had to hold it in this long." Look at me, her mind voice crooned again. "Dawn won't win."

Muscles tensed, and the sudden crack of splitting wood sounded like a gunshot. "If I lost you, because of her. . .there's no force on heaven or earth that would save her. Nothing. I'll probably die, but I'll hold her hanging by her own entrails if she takes you from me." The sudden savageness of his response took him by surprise.

Jaycy yelped and hopped back, hand withdrawing as if scorched by hot flame made flesh. She stared at him and then shook the shock from her, stepping in and aiming a sharp slap at his cheek. "Psly. Love. Stop. You. Will. Not. Lose. Me." To her, at least. "Calm down. Please. Now you're sounding like a spaz."

It probably felt a great deal like slapping a rock. But it got her point across. The railing creaked when he retracted the talons. The surprise and the slap both drained the sudden rage away to a sullen bank of coals. "Yeah, I am." Visibly, though he didn't move, he was wrestling the demon back into the cage it'd called home for the past decade. "Sorry."

"Ask me if I'd stop taking jobs that you can't come to if you asked me to," she suggested, breathing slow and deep, feigning a calm that was opposite her queasy core. She'd start there, though, and try and drag this conversation away from the elephant known as the dragonelf.

"I'd love it if you did, but no, love. I won't ask that of you. Because that's not trusting you." Looking down, he inspected the split rail, lip curling a little in distaste. He'd have to fix that before it pinched someone.

"I just said, ask me if I'd do it if you asked me to," she intoned patiently. "You not asking is why I would stop, without hesitation." She didn't even give the rail a second glance, remaining focused on him. "Now?" let's try this again. "Ask me if it hurts me to know how much I've been unintentionally hurting you by you not being able to talk about this, and sending me off. Ask me if I'd do anything to stop that."

He let out a ragged sigh then, putting the bar back on the mental door. "Okay. I'm asking."

"I would. Anything." It may not have made any sense, her request, but at least it got him focused away from Dawn. "Now, ask me," her voice softened, "? if I want to have children with you." He needed to turn from the abject terror of losing her to the hope of the future. He needed something to hope for. But truthfully, she had to get past her own demons. She steeled herself for the question and the need to give the most honest answer possible. He needed that.

He froze. Literally, not even breathing for a span of thirty seconds. Just the pulse of the vein in his neck. "Do you?"

"I'm terrified of the very thought." Her gaze at least remained up, even though she trembled in giving the answer. "I'm so scared to say aye, and to have a child, and to lose you because of something I did." She couldn't stop the tears from sliding down again, but at least she had the courage and honesty to stand there and not pretend there was nothing traversing her cheeks.

Jaycy Ashleana

Date: 2014-08-04 19:44 EST
"Love. . ." When he turned to look at her now, his eyes practically glowed green-gold. "I can say this with absolute certainty. There is nothing, whatsoever, that would make me leave you. Not even hacking pieces off of me with that thing there." He nodded to the sword. "Ever."

"Psly?" A tremulous exhale. "I have two children by two different men. Both of those children live with their fathers because those men felt I was not good enough as a mother." She looked away, then, moving to rest a hand directly over the wrecked rail. Fingers closed about the wood shards, close enough to make her grimace as slivers dug into flesh. "Every day I hold that quiet fear you'll realize the same - that I'm not good enough - and move on. I want to say aye to this, to you. But?" she finally trailed off.

"But what? Love, I'm no prize either. Wrecked home, crime-ridden childhood." He had to laugh then, all nerves and fragile ego. "Fraggin' spirits, we make a damn pair, don't we?"

"You're a prize, Psly. You just refuse to believe it in yourself." She turned, letting out another breath. "I'll stop taking jobs you can't go on." She held up a hand to forestall his protests. "Not because you're asking me to, but because I want to do it that way. Because there will be plenty of time for me to get mad and run off in another huff and make you worry about me. I?" Damnit. How could she say no to something else that meant so much to him, but how could she say yes yet? Braid swished against her back as she shook her head.

Biting back whatever he'd been about to say, he sat with a grunt of frustration. "Damnitall. . ." Biting his tongue, to a certain literal degree.

"What?"

"It's not that I don't want you taking those jobs, love. I've. . .ah, hell." Raking his fingers through his hair, he took a grip, pulling skin tight, then let go. "You're crazy. So am I. I love you."

A shaky laugh came from her position by the broken rail. "I love you too." A beat. "Aye." The word seemed to burst spontaneously from her lips, and her eyes widened as she realized what she just said. "Aye," she repeated, a little more consciously. She even nodded.

Mental lock up, take two. "Okay." Much like she did, he nodded and repeated himself. "Okay. We'll get this done, and. . .I don't know. See if it's even possible, maybe?"

"With all of the various gods and beasts and monsters in this place, I have little doubt there's a way to make it possible," she droned. A moment later, the nervousness returned. "Are you sure?"

"Sure about finding out? Yes. Totally. Sure about trying? Hells, we practice enough. Sure about being a father?" He shook with silent laughter, the hysterical kind. "I'm fraggin' terrified. But am I sure about doing it with you? Yeah. I am. Crazy or not, I am."

"Mayhaps you could come kiss me, then, and make me feel better?" Her lips twitched as she watched his shoulders shift up and down with that insane mirth even as she continued to shake with the emotional exhaustion the conversation brought. "It'll give you something to do in the days, rather than sunning your life away, you lazy dragonman." Her own hysterical relief drifted upon her like a warm, blanketing fog and she couldn't resist teasing him. It seemed to have worked, at least one the surface. He no longer outwardly obsessed about losing her to Dawn. She knew, though, that deep down her own fears of the dragonelf winning were mirrored in him. He just, for the moment, had something else to grab onto.

Letting the laughter go on for a moment, he slapped hands to his knees and levered himself up, then reached out quick to take her for a surprising spin there on the balcony, kissing her long and deep, letting all that emotion flow down the link.

A surprised yelp came in the spin and she clung to him, arms curling around his neck to hold on both in spin and in kiss. She held him there, longer still than he intended, exuding a warmth in kind down the link between them - all her trust and her acceptance of all they were.

Letting his back come to rest against the wall, he just held her, feet dangling off the balcony by a few inches, keeping enough sense of mind not to crush her to his chest. "I don't always sleep, you know." Grinning the foolish grin of the few-marbles-short, he continued. "I do a lot of planning out in the sun."

"Oh, aye," she smirked. "Planning how long you're going to sleep in the sun and which pen you're going to get dinner from. Or how you're going to make love to me that night." She pulled back her upper body and unfurled her arms long enough to place a light, playful backhanded swat to his shoulder. "Take me to bed, man. Let's get practicing."

"Hey! I pick out good places for caches too, dammit. . ." The laughter returned as he pushed the door open, not letting her down as he turned. "Alright, wench. You asked for it, you're going to get it!"

(( Adapted from live play! <3 ))