[FIN] Pound Into Submission [Shikoba/Shaheen]

[medigel]

If he noticed her weakening attempts to stay ambivalent, he made no effort to jibe her for it; he was too weary at the moment to expend the energy. Shik didn't speak even through her pauses, stone still save for the occasional twitch of a wing or blink of an eye. The bandages hung from his hand, the sting of his wounds tingled, and the forming bruise weighted down half his face - all forgotten for a time.

And even when Shaheen finished he still didn't speak for the better part of several minutes, his eyes falling to lines in the ground in furtive contemplation. Her strange behavior, as well as her stranger markings, finally made sense. But it was hard for him to grasp the idea that someone could have survived such a calamity and come away with, in comparison to what could have happened, something so minor. And following that was a tinge for resentment that wasn't necessarily aimed at Shaheen, but at the explosion as a whole. If she could survive, then why . . . why hadn't they . . .?

The nails of one hand dug themselves into his palm with unexpected strength. He ran a tongue over his dry lips. "I was in a Lair," he answered, still fixated on the drawings, "just finishing the harvesting of Fear from a hamlet. I had no interest in our visitors from Amityville and thought them to be the cause behind the portal no longer functioning."

Another pause. Shik was very generous with those.

"Why did you keep this from me?" he asked with a stronger voice as his gaze shot up to meet hers. "You knew I believed something was off but rebuffed my attempts to understand."

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

Most of the others had been in lairs, it seemed, when the s**t had hit the fan. So he wasn't there. Did that mean he didn't know about the phoenix? Of what had become of all of their dead loved ones? She stopped her tracings in the dirt then wiped her hands off on her legs, though she was still splattered in dried blood, the deep cuts in her arms already scabbed and healing and barely even sore.

She suddenly decided she really didn't want to be talking about this. Even with Shik. Why she had even begun was beyond her. She had decided to keep this to herself and now she had shared far more then she was willing, and he had more questions for her, ones that she wasn't even sure she could properly answer. The whispers in her head were still being quite quiet for once, maybe even still recovering from the cacophony she had dealt with on the hunter island. That at least made it easier to focus. She rose back up to her full height, reached out, and tugged the bandages out of his hands. The fact that he was just sitting there and not doing anything to address his wounds was starting to bother her.

The worst of what she had done to him, besides the giant bruise on his face, seemed to be localized mostly to his stomach and chest, so she began there, giving him a warning look not to protest. She was not in the mood for it.

She kept her gaze down as she spoke, focusing more on wrapping him up, her jaw set and her face stony, her voice falling a little flat. She harbored her own resentment, and it was actually aimed at Shik even though she knew it was unfair of her to feel that way. He hadn't been there, and she had. He had survived just because he had wanted nothing to do with the students of Amity, and she had survived merely by chance, by a hairs breadth. He had no idea what she had gone through, or the things she had seen, and she didn't even remember all of it, because her brain somehow refused to recall much of what had happened, likely a defense mechanism to keep her from going insane. Well...it was really too late for that, wasn't it.

"It is not knowledge I wished to share just after arriving here." She stated. It was probably not the answer he was looking for, but it was the best that she had. "I didn't want anybodies pity, or for anyone to worry over me like some child. This is a disease, Shik. Do you understand that? It's not going away, and it's not getting better. It's getting worse." She yanked on the bandages probably a lot more forcefully then was strictly necessary as she tightened them up.

She tied off the bandage as she finished the work on his chest. "Besides, what could you possibly do to help me?" She placed the roll of bandages to the side, then rested one hand on his chest while reaching up to place the other on the swollen part of his face, tilting his head to the side, leaning up and forward to inspect it closer, probably hurting him but sitting comfortably somewhere beyond caring. She was utterly fascinated with the damage she had done to him, and was fighting the urge to poke and prod at his face.

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

Noting that imperious look, Shik merely raised his arms and rested his hands on the back of his head, content to let her do as she will if she was so willing. It left him more room to think.

Though what was there to think about? Shaheen was right, there was nothing he could do with that knowledge, nothing he could say or do to rid her or any others of this affliction. And there was nothing Shikoba hated more than being useless, even more so than an opponent he could not reach. A growl welled up in his throat as the bandages were wound tightly over his wounds. "The Hunters' final insult," he hissed between clenched teeth, equal parts soft and steely. Prey should not have been allowed to taunt their predators so.

As Shaheen then turned her attention to the bruise and touched it, he issued another growl, though weaker in intensity. Almost a murmur really. "Is there no way Medea could glean a way to fix this in her godsworn Trances?" Shik grumbled bitterly. "That is what she should have been doing, not galvanizing the foals of that damned school with the past!" And now they were welcomed among the Lost like they were kith and kin.

It was the students' fault, he decided, that all of this had come to pass. The Hunters would not have been as emboldened to dare attack their beloved Isles if they did not have both of their targets settled in one place. He curled a fist and beat the patch of stump beside him hard. Useless.

"I had no idea, Shaheen . . ."

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

Shaheen just gave him a shrug in response, giving in to temptation and increasing pressure on the side of his face with two of her fingers after he let out his soft growl, wondering if she could extract something even louder out of him...

Okay, this was clearly counterproductive towards the conversation they were having. She grudgingly let her hand drop away from his face, and the other from his chest, and sat back on her heels, now focusing on the cuts on her arms and the streaks of blood that covered them as well, wondering at what a mess she must look like at the moment.

"Medea does as Medea wills. I am sure she has reasons for all of the action she has taken, including allowing the students to join us. They are not so bad, really. Any one of them could be molded into a warrior. They are stronger then you give them credit for." She knew. She had seen them on the war isle, had studied them, had measured their worth in battle.

His fist slamming into the stump made her jump a little, the action startling her, reminding her that the man sitting in front of her was anything but gentle, even if his words previously had been murmured and more subdued.

"Well, now you know." She shifted her gaze to stare up at him again, her eyes narrowing. "This better not make you go soft on me, Shikoba. I told you once already that I don't need it, especially from you. I'd rather you treat me as you would normally."

And speaking of that, was there not one other thing she should perhaps bring up? "And....also with what happened earlier. It would probably be best forgotten about...." She was starting to flounder a little, the subject matter obviously a touchy one for her.

"It was a stupid thing that I did, and it should not have happened. I..apologize." There, she said it. She had been in the wrong, and was admitting to it, and was actually apologizing for it. The odd, uncomfortable feeling in her gut as she did so was not something that she was used to.

"I suppose that was also unbecoming a of a chieftain?" A small attempt at humor, to regain some semblance of normalcy between them again, her eyebrows lifting as she gave him a dangerous look, daring him to give the wrong answer to that question.

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

This time it was a guttural growl that came as a result of her exacerbation, and had Shaheen not taken her hand away when she did it would have been wrenched off. Instead she received a glare and nothing more. He did not like giving her that satisfaction, but he was, surprisingly, tired of fighting her for the moment. If she wanted to toy with him, fine. If she thought the students were not mewling babes to silence, fine. Better this than more screeching. And speaking of . . .

Shik shifted on the stump, wincing as the bandages pressed against several of the more tender wounds. "You spoke your mind as anyone is entitled to," he said, tilting his head up to look at her. "And you bested me in battle. There is no apology needed for either, Shaheen. If anything, I owe you one." With both hands on the stump, he pushed himself onto his feet, the eye on the same side as the bruise twitching, and from there Shik eased himself onto his less injured knee and left his head fall. Matted hair curtained the sides of his face.

"You had no reason to listen to my criticism, yet you proved me wrong regardless. I shamed myself today and many other days otherwise with my actions and words. You are worthy of your rank, Chieftain; else you would not be standing before me."

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

When he stood, she automatically followed, rising from her crouched position, her forehead set with a permanent set of creases as she frowned at him. He was only going to make his wounds worse, and just after she had done such a fantastic job of wrapping them! She was ready to chastise him, and not in a gentle way, but now did not seem like the time to do so. Especially not when he was falling down to one knee in front of her and---

Wait, what?

She stared down at him, her expression finally changing. Horrified. She was horrified by what he was doing. She shouldn't have been. She should have been pleased. He was finally bending. But...but it was after she had told him not to! Why did he never listen to her?

"Why do you always do and say the last thing I am expecting?" Her voice came out a hiss before she glanced around, looking over her shoulder, making sure that nobody was watching. An unreasonable anger was welling up inside of her again. All this time, this is what she had thought that she wanted from him, and now that he was doing it, she was nothing short of furious with him. Why now? How was she possibly supposed to deal with this right now?

"Get up." She commanded, but then realized that she had issued a command, and that he might actually do as she say. "I mean..stop." That was probably confusing. The war chieftain fought not to throw up her hands in complete and utter exasperation.

"What are you doing??" There, that would work. This was not what she had wanted. She had told him what she wanted. She had confessed something to him, and this was not what she had asked for. It was hard not to think that he was doing this on purpose, just to irritate her more.

Ol-j-man

*flails at Shik*

 

[medigel]

Shaheen wasn't the only one confused. Caught between both order and request, he lifted his head to look at her with a small frown, resting one arm over his raised knee to prop him up. "Giving deference," he answered innocently, wondering at the anger rolling off her. "Which I had not done since your first ceremony years ago."

Really, he wasn't trying to give her grief. He'd just somewhat forgotten how she'd said not to bend in the flurry of words she'd tossed his way, which was a minor detail in the impassioned haze from before as far as it concerned him. Whoops.

But the action was bothering her nevertheless, and with a quiet grunt the executioner hefted himself back onto his feet, tossing his head to rid his vision of hair. "What would you have me do instead, since it seems everything I do irritates you to some degree?"

Seussi

And that is probably the only time I'll ever use innocently for him XD

 

[Seussi]

"Right." She practically snarled at him. "You have not. I have been painfully aware of that fact every day since, by the way. Just...why now?" She shook her head at him, stepping back a little when he rose, staring up at him now instead of down, arms going up to cross over her chest.

"Not that I don't appreciate it." A smirk to go with the angry look in her eyes. "But it's a little hard to take you seriously when you do exactly the opposite of everything I say. Do not bend, Shikoba. Why ask me a question and then not listen to the answer that I give you." This was a nightmare. Truly a nightmare. They could go on like this for hours, days, weeks, months...forever. It was getting tiring. He was wearing her down. At some point, something was going to give.

What would she have him do instead.....

What would it take to get through to him?

She cursed inwardly. Cursed herself, cursed him, cursed what she was about to do.

She moved in closer to him, hands trailing up the bandages on his chest as she frowned to herself, letting her hands rest when they reached his shoulders, feeling the tension of the muscles beneath them. She then moved them further, linking them behind the back of his neck, tilting her head up to him, pulling against him just a little, inviting him down but not trying to force it this time as she had before. "I think that the answer to that question is right in front of you." She murmured. Enticing? Shaheen didn't really know the meaning of the word, though perhaps that was what she was doing. There was that fear though, that he would push her away. Reject her. Of course, she couldn't really blame him. She was horrible to him. They were horrible to each other. But maybe, just maybe, there was still time to fix that.

Ol-j-man

idek anymore.

 

[medigel]

"Why not now?" he retorted, his feathers ruffling. "Perhaps kneeling was too much for you, but respect was something I denied you for long enough; surviving the Fall opened my eyes to that." The more she questioned his actions, the more Shik wanted to toss what was left of the bandage roll at her in frustration.

Why ask and then not listen? If not from a genuine mistake or miscommunication, then just from rebellious bad habits. His head still throbbed, though, so it was probably the former. But he had sincerely hoped Shaheen would just let him have his rare moment of submission, take it for what it was, and leave it be. Maybe hold it over him at some other inopportune time.

Then again, that was probably like asking him to not be difficult, which he was learning today was also another core trait of his personality. There was never such a thing as "easy" when either of them were involved simply because of their very natures. He should've known that. He did know that. Stubborn, unyielding, clueless, brutish, that's what he was, a foolish, reckless jerk. That had always been him. That was why he preferred to work alone, why the lifestyle of an executioner had appealed to him so.

But . . . today, he decided, he didn't have to be these things. It was too tiring.

All of this he pondered as he stared into Shaheen's eyes, and at its end the uninjured side of his mouth twitched into a brief half-smile before he closed the gap between them, let his eyelids fall, and kissed her. Once again arms came about her, though at her waist rather than her head or shoulders; even if he'd wanted to, Shik didn't have the energy to throw her against a tree again. but he did have the strength to keep her all but pinned against him, though while distracted his nails might or might not accidentally dig into her skin uncomfortably.

Unless she was into that.

Seussi

CLEARLY

 

[Seussi]

Their personalities just didn't mesh. They never had. It was hard to tell why exactly. Were they too alike or too different? Certainly they had some very similar personality traits, but each seemed to react a different way to different situations. Always opposed, never agreeing, never completely seeing eye to eye. Maybe they each thrived on the conflict, and were thus destined to treat each other that way forever. Any time things did start to feel comfortable between them, one or the other of them had to do something to ruin it. Say something horrible, do something mean. She had always felt like it was all his fault, but now she could see that she was also to blame.

If he was being difficult about something, she normally had to be twice as bad.

But this....this was easy. There was nothing overly complicated about it. Perhaps later, in the aftermath, things would be a little weird but for now, for the moment that it was, at least....Shaheen just wanted the fighting to stop. Wanted to feel something besides anger and frustration. She wanted to just be allowed to give in, and to have Shik give in as well.

She was not disappointed.

His odd half smile brought some strange feeling fluttering up in her stomach just before he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. It wasn't quite as passionate as the first kiss had been, though that one had happened under slightly different circumstances. Still it was nice, and she could feel herself giving into it, giving into him, the tension of before melting away. He was pressing her body tight against his and she found that she actually liked that, and it made her push her lips against his all the harder, quite possibly hurting him considering the injury he'd taken to the face at her hands. Her own hands didn't tangle into his hair again like they had last time, but instead pressed into the skin at the back of his neck, fingers kneading against him, almost massaging, but also trying to keep his head locked in place. She felt the pain of his claws tightening into her waist, but it didn't bother her. It almost added to the pleasure of the experience, really. A little pain never hurt.

Eventually she did have to pull away, just a little, just to be able to breathe.

"See. I don't even feel like killing you right now." It was just a whisper, her eyes still closed, a genuine smile on her lips, still enjoying the feeling that giving in had granted her, before she greedily pressed her lips to his again, pushing against him, perhaps trying to back him up, or push him to the ground or well..something, anyways. She was really just playing it by instincts at the moment, having no experience with this whatsoever.

Ol-j-man

I don't know if this is even relevant but: weeeeeeee

 

[medigel]

Even though the battle had forced him to be so weak, there was something good to be had: weakness made him less tense. Shik had never realized how tautly he held himself until now, always guarding his emotions, always thinking like there was another battle on the horizon. Not there wasn't any merit to his suspicion: Shaheen had in fact broken off an eager tongue war that left him panting like a dog for air.

He was just about to tell her to stop talking when she obliged him anyway, and back in he went with renewed passion, his hands sliding down her body easily thanks to sweat. But when he felt Shaheen's insistent pressure, two thoughts came to mind almost immediately:

One, he was going to lose his balance.

Two, he was going to fight for control again. Yes, even when making out.

One eye opened just before he felt the stump brush up against the back of his knees, and he managed not to fall sprawled beneath her on it. Somehow, some way, he had enough semblance of mind to keep her occupied, just long enough to get a purchase on her hair.

And thus he ended their second round with a short yank, a mirror-image to Shaheen's own controlling grasp not long before. "How scandalous," the executioner mused in a husky tone after catching his breath, a feral grin on his blood-stained lips. "I didn't know you preferred beasts. Didn't I tell you to stay away from them?"

Did his mouth ache something fierce thanks to the bruise? Oh yeah. Was he in for pain? Ohhhh yeaaaaah.

-Seussi

Everythign is appropriate now

 

[Seussi]

She wasn't even really aware of where she was pushing him, just that she was trying to get closer to him, but really couldn't since they were pressed up against each other as tight as they could get. Her fingers did wind there way up into his hair then, but still worked their way through gently, as she did somehow have time to think that he was probably in enough pain without her adding more to it, even if temptation to do so was strong, especially considering she could still feel where his claws had dug into her, even if his hands were now tracing their way further down.

When one of those hands left her body, she didn't even think about it. She was far too busy with other things, like trying to figure out how to breathe without actually having to stop.

And then she was being jerked painfully away and what little air she did have hissed out between clenched teeth before she took a moment to catch her breath, her chest heaving, her eyes slightly blurred before Shiks face came back into focus. Her suspicions flared at that grin, her fingers unwinding from his hair and hands coming down to rest on his shoulders once more. Was he going to end this again as he had before? Was he so cruel that he would actually toy with her emotions like that? Pretend to want her and then cast her aside in a humiliating manner? She suddenly felt rather cold inside as she waited for what he had to say, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

But it was too hard not to let her own smile curve her lips at his words, and she relaxed slightly, feeling a little more comfortable with this situation then she had moments before. "And I told you I could manage to take care of myself." She responded, rather smugly, though at this point she had to wonder who held the upper hand here. He seemed to know more about what he was doing, and was clearly trying to take control. Shaheen hated to be controlled, but at this point, she also wasn't sure she was in much of a position to fight against him. She had wanted this, and he could easily take it all away.

"You know, if you wanted to discuss it further, we could try for a more private location." Her eyes flickered towards the tent, not all that far away.

Again, she couldn't quite believe what she was doing, or what she was saying. All she really knew was that Shik had stopped, and she didn't want it to stop. Not yet, at least.

Ol-j-man

Well, in that case!

 

[medigel]

Much as Shaheen had pressed her fingers into his bruise, so too did Shik tug just a little bit more on her hair to try and elicit that pained sound that made his blood flow so. Her first statement was just precious enough to make him wheeze with amusement. Such smugness even under these circumstances! It so befitted her he couldn't help but laugh. Yes she had gotten the edge in battle, yet here she was being puppeted about anyway by a man with enough open wounds on the upper half of his body to look like a bloody tiger.

Shihk followed her gaze to her tent, again chuckling when he caught her drift, though a little less so than before. "Is that so," he said as he turned back to face her, one brow quirked up. "Mmm . . . tempting." He appeared to think about it as his free hand rose up and began to lightly trace the swirled sigil of the Lost on Shaheen's cheek. "So very tempting."

He was clearly enjoying this seat of power Shaheen had given him and exuded his own air of superiority, smirking all the while. Several revolutions of the tracing happened before he came to a conclusion.

"But not tonight. I'd rather not stretch the wounds you so lovingly delivered before they properly heal, nor use up what little energy I still have. What point is there to go in at anything less than your best?" As if to chide her for not thinking about his health, the nail that had been tickling her cheek lifted and pressed a final dot in the very center of the image it had been tracing. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Seussi

Well I would but...

 

[Seussi]

Glaring at him for the extra tug, she removed a hand from his shoulder with the purest intentions of digging her thumb into where she knew his deepest wound to be under his bandage. But no. No. She was trying to behave herself...sort of. If how she was acting could even be remotely considered "behaving" anymore. She let her hand drop to her side, though her other still lay on his shoulder as she waited for his response.

The low huskiness of his voice when he spoke combined with the touch of a claw against her cheek, tracing in a spiral motion, caused goosebumps to break out up her spine, spreading down along her arms. And still he made her wait, in a way that was incredibly maddening. Was he intentionally trying to kill the mood? Her gaze shifted away from his face and downwards, noting the tree stump just behind his legs. Ah. So that was why he had stopped her.

Her gaze lifted again, her smug look fading, her face now looking much more stern. She was getting impatient.

Finally, an answer, but not at all one that she wanted to hear. "Oh." It was hard to hide the disappointment, and she mentally swore at herself for not doing a better job of it. But try as she might to find something wrong with his logic, to spin it around on him, she really couldn't find a way to argue against him. Especially when he was still distracting her with the tickling of a claw against her cheek.

"Yes, I suppose I would have to agree," she grumbled, a frown creasing her features once more, still trying to decide if this was some trick, and if Shik was toying with her, and if he actually meant to continue what they'd started at another time or if this had all just been one big mistake that shouldn't have happened and would never happen again.

"So then, what now?" She asked, eyes searching his face carefully for any hint that he was messing her around. "Wait, I think I know how this goes. I leave, you tell me you'll find me later, and I wait, but then you never come. Is that how it's going to be?" Her tone was accusatory, her temper which had been so disabled moments before flaring back to life.

Ol-j-man

And we're back to this.

 

[medigel]

Yes, logic was a terrible mood ruiner. Though not as bad as Shik.

Her disappointment was to be expected of course, but her last statements were not. Now both brows were furrowed and, not wanting to give her a second chance to try and break his wrist, released the grip on her hair. "I was going to say either part for rest or sit and talk like normal people," he said with a little edge creeping in his tone, "but clearly you have different ideas." Shik didn't react well to accusations, and the way she was going about it . . . Ah.

"You mean that ridiculous student event?"

Seussi

uh oh
Also it really says something when, after typing this, I automatically went to go roll dice.