[PRP] This is Not a Drill (Shaheen and Shik)[FIN]

[medigel]

Damn it, Shaheen.

Well this was just a home warming reunion. Honestly in any other circumstance he would have said his piece and left by now, but for some reason failing to drive Mardea out was . . . bothering him. Failing a task was of course not the best of feelings, but this was different. He had failed, and that meant being treated to a very awkward scene he could have prevented if he had tried harder. Or spoke better. Or something. Deities, this was a strange feeling.

Shik remained placid in expression throughout, happy to be ignored while he sorted through both their words and his shifting opinion on the matter. What, Shaheen couldn't give him any sign that she appreciate his attempts? There was a reason he wasn't vying for a higher position than being a close-combat killer. And oh, there went Mardea with her controlling habit - comparisons to himself notwithstanding. He watched silently as Shaheen backed away and brushed against him, and only then did he feel like entering the conversation. Or, well, forcing himself in rather.

"Someone's a bit late on the offer - the other half of the debt she owes me is that she's to be cleaning my home for a week," Shik commented, shifting his wings as if to stretch, though the way they fell back down hid the fact that Shaheen was now gripping his arm. "And since you've seen how bad this home is, I don't trust her to do a good job the first few tries, so she'll be staying under my watch."  

[Seussi]

Her fingers slid around his arm and gripped tight as she fought off the wave of dizziness and the sick sensation in her stomach. She had spent so much of her life letting her parents control her, and then had spent nearly a year thinking they were dead, getting used to the idea that she could just, for once, be free to act in whatever way she herself deemed fit. She wasn't exactly proud of some of her own behavior or choices, but at least they were her choices.

And now they were back, and as she had feared, they just wanted to take control once again. She was nothing more then a puppet to them. And she wanted to say something, to stick up for herself, to just grow a damn backbone already when it came to them. She had no problem speaking her mind to anybody else...so why was it so hard to do it with her mother?

Her pause as she attempted to gather her thoughts would prove to be a mistake. When Shik started speaking, she was at first grateful, because it meant he was buying her some time. But it was what he chose to say that had her eyes widening, her hand tightening around his arm until her nails were digging in. Silently she pleaded for him to just shut his stupid face up, because as much as she knew he was trying to help...

Wait, had he just offered to have her move in with him, however temporarily? More confusion added to the mix, though it was more like he was telling her rather then offering.

She was beginning to feel like some kind of object instead of an actual living being, the way these two were both behaving. Like a chew toy in the middle of a tug of war between two crazed animals.

And she thought she was the insane one.

Kisses and housecleaning. He might as well have just told her mother they were engaged, since that was the picture he was (likely unwittingly) painting. Still...it did offer her an out, did it not.....?

"Was it just a week? I'm pretty sure you bargained for longer then that, Shikoba. Much, much longer." Playing along and also getting more out of this strange deal, Why the hell not? He was rankling on her nerves, so it stood to reason she should be allowed to return the favor.

"In fact I was just getting my things ready to take to your place. Why didn't you tell me my mother was at the door?" She smiled up at him, sweetly, though there was no kindness in her eyes for him.They spoke volumes about how she and he were going to be having a nice long discussion about this later. A talk that likely involved a lot of screaming and possibly more then a little bloodshed.

Mardea just watched the exchange in what could only be described as stunned silence. They had actually stunned her. She couldn't believe this was happening, or that any of it could be true. But she had heard the rumors, had talked to witnesses that had confirmed seeing them together on what was more then what would be considered strictly 'friendly' terms. But it was so hard to tell, after hearing so many different things, what was true and what was false. If anything she expected some kind of medium.

But not this. This was worse then anything she had heard or expected.

Mardea let out a disgusted sound from the back of her throat, her lip curling back in a sneer as she spoke. "So this is it then. You." She lifted a hand and pointed to her daughter. "I've been hearing things about you. About how you've changed, about how you've become nothing but a weak and pathetic version of what you once were. That you are succumbing to your affliction faster because of it." She took steps across the room towards her daughter, the disgust in her voice palpable as she continued.

"I thought that because you had survived the fall that it meant that you were strong. We, me and your father, we finally felt like we had a daughter we could be proud of. One of the youngest to be raised to Chieftain in years, you had such promise. And here, now, you have thrown it all away." Her glare shifted now, over and up to Shik.

"For him?" She said it like he was the absolute foulest thing in the world, like she could have literally could not have done worse, because it wasn't possible to get much worse. "Or because you couldn't handle a few whispers in your head? Or was it a combination?" She shook her head. "If you go with him now, that will be the end of you. I can guarantee it." It wasn't said like a threat, more like a fact. "So no, I am sincerely not sorry to say that you will not be following through with whatever "bargain" the two of you have struck. You are coming home with me."

Shaheen took the insults as best as she could, though she winced back and began to almost shrink away, her shoulders hunching up. Was it all true? Did everyone think that way now? Probably, since it was true, wasn't it? The self doubt that constantly lay in wait inside of her swirled up, rising to the surface. Her hand slid off of Shikoba's as she backed up more, away from both of them now. She didn't know what to think, and her eyes closed as she hit the wall, and could go no further. She then buried her face in her hands as she began to whisper something over and over again, much like the voices in her head that began to raise in volume, all but drowning out the last of her mothers words.

And when she lowered her hands, her eyes seemed to almost glow, narrowed in dangerous slits at her mother. "No." The word was hissed. "We will not. That is not our home." She had pushed herself off of the wall, and suddenly lunged at her mother with a snarl.

Ol-j-man

lalala~

 

[medigel]

Shaheen wasn't far off in her object-treatment observation, but look he was trying to talk for once okay be grateful. He never said he was a great liar, let alone good at making up excuses on the spot like that. But he did, however, toss her a look when she extended her stay, though there wasn't much he could communicate before the mother of all b***h fights exploded in front of him.

"Oh, you know, because you asked me to," Shik answered rather casually as they went at each other. Don't mind him, he was enjoying the sight. Mardea could speak badly of him all she wanted, none of it was new - animal, beast, caveman, even illiterate once. But it was the belated realization that Shaheen had said "we" that caught his ear. She could have been just referring to the two of them, but . . . that was off. It sounded like - aw, hell.

"Ladies," the executioner said firmly after a moment, jumping in the middle of the fight at his own peril to tear Shaheen off her mother (after all, this wasn't the first time he had to man handle the chieftain; or get scratched by Shaheen; or otherwise wounded by her). "I appreciate you fighting over me, but the decision's been made. Mardea, why don't you go decapitate a child or brown-nose some noble or go ooze hatred for all living things in the shadows - whatever you do in your free time." He tugged at Shaheen's arm to pry her off, trying his best to give her a meaningful look like I'm tired of her s**t can we go now.

She wasn't even worth stabbing.  

[Seussi]

Shaheen wasn't remotely in her right mind anymore. The voices had, in their own way, taken over, spurring her into a certain recklessness that might have otherwise been avoided. She was like a cornered wild animal that had been pressured much too hard, too quickly, and there was one person standing in the way of her escape.

Wait, make that two people, now. Shaheen had nearly forgotten that Shik was still in the room when she first lunged at her mother, but the large man putting himself between them certainly brought her up short on her attack, though not before a few quick and sharp blows were exchanged, and her narrowed eyes continued to glower past him, burning into the woman that she very much at this moment wanted to destroy, and the look Mardea gave back to her was just as hard and dangerous.

Shik was speaking, but she couldn't hear him. Not right at first, at least. It took a moment to distinguish any other sound outside of the whispering voices for a time. But when she did finally hear him, it was enough for her to break her gaze away from Mardea's, and to glance up at him instead. It was enough to break whatever hold the voices had over her, for just a moment.

It was enough for Mardea to move, swiftly. Enough for her to find an angle, just enough room, to throw her dagger with careful precision, so that it's hilt struck against Shaheen's temple with a cracking noise that, combined with the sudden burst of pain, made the chieftain wonder if she had somehow just had her skull split open. Something hot and wet and sticky began to run down the side of her face, dripping to her shoulder. Her eyes had widened a little in surprise, for maybe half a second, before she staggered, her hand clutching for whatever part of Shik she could reach. Her head swam dizzily, the voices chased away by the pain that stung in the corners of her eyes. Tears threatened to fall but she somehow managed, by sheer force of will, to hold them back.

Mardea's dagger was already back in her hand almost as quickly as it had been thrown, and she was backing away towards the door. "She is broken, and is of no use or worth to me now. You can have her. You can keep her. Something so pathetic deserves nothing better then that." It was the last insult she would give, because as soon as she cleared the doorway, her wings spread behind her and she was gone, the sound of her beating wings joined quickly by another unseen pair, both of which were swiftly retreating until they were out of earshot.

Leaving behind a woman who was dazed and bloodied, who was feeling more then just a little disoriented from her hit to her head combined with all of the heightened emotions that had flown. A woman who finally just wanted to give in to whatever invisible force kept her from doing so on other occasions, and let herself just sag against Shik, wrapping her arms around him if he would allow it, intent on just pressing her face against his chest and closing her eyes against the pain, the whispers, the....feelings....? Whatever it was, she just couldn't bring herself to care at that moment, or to fight against what her body wanted to do. For at least thirty seconds, she was just done.

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

He had forgotten how accurate Mardea was with those small daggers.

Silence fell over him as the woman gave her last nasty hiss and departed along with her gods-forsaken husband, whom of course had been slinking around the perimeter; all Shikoba could do was glare after them uselessly. Shaheen had fallen all but limp against him and he couldn't move without displacing either of their balances. So for the thirty seconds she was unmoving, he kept her from falling and fought to stand straight as she sagged. He tilted her head a bit to appraise the wound, refraining from dabbing his fingers in the blood as was his perversion of habit. For once, he wasn't very smarmy at all.

Then it clicked that he had the ability to heal and, clicking his tongue at himself, indeed pressed his hand to the wound. In seconds of concentration a small soothing light emanated under his palm, sealing the wound and swirling her blood into a horseman's swirl until it too faded. "Here I thought you were too thickheaded to be wounded like that," he muttered as he helped set the chieftain on her feet, his nails gliding off the skind of her cheek as his hands came to rest on her shoulders to steady her; he fought to impulse to taste them for blood. "Can you stand proper or will I have to drag you out myself, Shaheen? I'm thoroughly done with this place, as I'm sure you are." It was the same arrogance as before, but at the same time a more mellowed out version. There might, might have even been visible signs of concern in his eyes even.  

[Seussi]

Thirty seconds. It was such a short amount of time that seemed to drag on forever, and Shaheen eventually attempted to push herself away, first lifting her head away from his chest, only to feel a warm hand against the side of her temple, a hand that she would have pulled away from if she wasn't so damned dizzy. As it was she did flinch away a tiny bit, and mumbled something that might have been a protest but was far too unintelligible for anyone to be sure.

But it did feel nice, that healing, to have the pain that throbbed against the side of her head so easily removed. His Fear infiltrated the wound and closed it off, soothing away the damage, a heat that eventually cooled off and left her feeling refreshed, steady, and able to stand on her own two feet without any support, which she did so now, pulling herself away from him as though the touch of his skin on hers actually burned instead of feeling so very right. The claws against her cheek left a shiver behind a shiver that ran down her spine, and her wings shifted restlessly against her back in response. She shrugged off his hands as soon as they came in contact with her shoulders, as she finally raised her eyes to his, scowling.

"I can stand on my own just fine." She sounded highly indignant for somebody who had only moments before been plastered against him, and would have likely been sprawled on the floor otherwise. Old habits died hard, perhaps? It was likely that her sudden anger was just a cover for her embarrassment over what had just occurred. And mellowed out arrogance or not, just the way Shik was now bossing her around, so near after her own mother had done just the same thing, set her teeth completely on edge.

She made an angry sound in the back of her throat, her teeth bared as she shoved herself away from him, and turned instead to stare out the open door. "What a mess you made of that situation, Shikoba." She muttered, reaching up with two fingers to feel at the area that had been hit with the hilt of Mardea's dagger, fingers finding nothing but slowly drying blood. "You should have let me take her down. I've done it before." Of course, that was how she'd earned the only two feathers that she let adorn her hair, by beating them both.

But that was before the insanity.

With a sharp shake of her head she turned back to him again, her scowl was gone, replaced with a more appraising look, one that so closely resembled Mardea's, her lips now pursed into a straight line, though the amusement that she fought to keep off of her expression won out and that straight line soon quirked up into a smirk. "You do still want me." It was like some long forgotten conversation had just made itself know once more. and had just come of nowhere. "You want to kiss me, you want me to move in with you?" The smirk was somehow equal parts cruel, mischievous, and amused, as though her emotions were still conflicting, even over something so simple as this.

But it was still a question. She was still so unsure where she normally would have been confident. The whispers subsided but they never completely went away. The doubts always lingered in the same realm with them.

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

"Mess I made?" Shik repeated with an affronted snort. "Your fault you decided to trust me with any sort of trickery while you ran away." He liked killing things to death, not talking them down, thanks. "Mardea wasn't worth it,Shaheen. The worst insult you can inflict upon an enemy is to ignore them."

Even though he would have happily helped the carnage along.

Speaking of destruction, the moment Shaheen got that look in her eyes was the moment he began to feel something curl up and die inside of him. The conversation topic was a like phantom feeling he had almost forgotten existed within, and given the lengths he had tried to drive the mad mother out . . . Deities above and below, he had painted himself into a corner. Shik met her smirk with a scowl as a sort of buffer to this soon to be awkward chat, quickly losing the visible concern; he had hoped she would have not heard what he said before. "Assuming you don't want to live alone here in this sorry excuse for a house . . . I suppose you can move in . . ." he muttered, crossing his arms.  

[Seussi]

Trust. The word alone was funny, since Shaheen lacked it so sorely as of late. Trust was something that had become sparse for the chieftain, something she held only for a select few.

Shik just happened to be at the top of that list, despite everything. As horrible as they might have once been to each other, as much as they enjoyed taunting, teasing, and making each other as miserable as possible on occasion, trust had always been there.

Did she trust him now, as he mumbled the words that made her smirk twitch up into something more akin to an actual smile? As a warm feeling grew inside of her, a foreign feeling, but one that seemed to persist despite her attempts at quashing it?

She moved closer towards him, treading lightly on the floor that was now stained with a small amount of blood, peering up at him with eyes that narrowed further, and a smile that only continued to grow. Like the cat that got the cream she couldn't have possibly looked any smugger.

"Well while that offer is just so very tempting." She practically purred, lifting a hand up to rest on those oh so muscular crossed arms of his, pressing down even as she raised herself up on her toes so that she could whisper in his ear, lips brushing against his cheek.

"I might just have to think about it, first."

Damned if she was going to make herself appear overeager again, or be damned if she was going to let herself be so easily manipulated as she had been before. Even if she knew that her teasing ultimately meant nothing, and she'd already knew what her decision would be, this was just a lot more fun.

And then as she pulled back, she only did so just enough so that she could press a kiss against his lips, because while she might have been the cat with it's cream, a bear still needed it's honey.  

[medigel]

He waited as patiently as someone like him could, stiff as a statue; the more her grin grew, the more his scowl did in turn. Shik did not like being on this end of a conversation, so of course she was going to thrive and take her sweet time. One moment screaming literal bloody murder at her mother, the next giving him a Cheshire grin? He didn't know what to expect as an answer now, other than it probably had some violent component to it - nails, a slap, something to do with her hands since no rocks were around to chuck at him. Shik was unconsciously bracing for it.

He remained stock still even as Shaheen leaned in and ghosted her lips into his ear, the only movement being his eyes following her. Even something as seemingly gentle as that wasn't going to put him off his guard.

The accented beginning of her response did nothing to make him believe this was going to be easy --really, he should have learned by now things never would be--but it was the end of it that made his brows raise. "Think about it?" Shik repeated flatly, his feathers puffing out slightly in frustration. "This isn't an offer I make lightly--"

And then just as he was about to devolve into a glare and repeated offer with a tacked on last chance clause, she didn't quite pull away. She very much did not pull away at all.

Shik was a little at a loss at the sweetness behind it considering his body was ready for, you know, stabbing or something of the like. Stunned, he felt one of his fists grow limp, curled as if to house a dagger but otherwise harlmess. He couldn't help but remain on the defensive for a few seconds, jaded as the executioner was, as if still expecting a literal stab in the back from this close little encounter. But when nothing happened, when he finally and fully realized she was just...kissing, nothing more and nothing less, his eyes began to slide closed just a little. Think about it, huh? Odd situation to be thinking in, personally . . .

But he would not let himself get dragged in. Not yet, not on the heels of that spat, and most certainly not in that house. "Conclusions?" he asked, pulling away with a wry but amused look. His wings had grown limp and relaxed in the moment, daring to brush one against one of her legs.  

[Seussi]

Apparently she had shocked him or something.

He was so tense, she could feel that the moment she laid her lips against his, and that tension didn't ease away quickly, or even very much, as the kiss continued on. She didn't want to think about it, though. She didn't want the whispers in her head to grab ahold of something so small, something so simple, and twist it around. She didn't want the insanity to warp this moment for her, to take it away, to make her feel unwanted. So she persisted, the kiss lingering on far longer then she had first intended. She persisted....until he pulled away from her, breaking it off.

She lowered her head. She eased herself back down so that she was no longer stretched up to reach his face. She opened her eyes to blink at a bare chest, as a strangely frustrated feeling rose up in her chest. Her hands had at some point found their ways to his shoulders, and she felt a strong urge to push herself away, to tell him to leave, because she had done it again. She had made a fool of herself again. He hadn't wanted that, despite what he had said to Mardea about it. It had all just been a cover. He didn't want her.

Why would he want her?

Her fingers were just beginning to flex against his skin, her nails just on the verge of digging in as anger and shame and doubt began to flood her, nearly engulfing her. Her lip was just curling back into a snarl, the lost look in her eyes quickly replaced by anger.

And then he spoke, and there was nothing scornful in his tone. Just...amusement? Her eye flickered up to his, the anger fading away as quickly as it had arised, her emotions back to their usual unpredictable tumult. A wing brushed against her leg, and unconsciously she shivered, and her hands moved away from his shoulders, her arms wrapping around herself as though she suddenly felt cold.

"You're an a**?" She piped up, clearly and very purposefully misinterpreting his question, her lips curling up again mischieviously.

"Also, I think....I will take you up on your offer. If you think you can handle having me around that much. You better be sure about this, Shikoba Len, because once you let me in, I'm not leaving."

It might have been a threat or a promise..or a little of both.  

[medigel]

There we go, that was the anger he had been bracing for in her eyes; just for a moment, but enough to remind him about the dangers of what action or lack of action could do to her fragile psyche; he half-expected Shaheen to headbutt him after resting her hands on his shoulders like that. Deities help him, he was no good with with moody. Shik did snort at her response, though, grinning as though it was a compliment and thoroughly unaware of what had gone through Shaheen's mind. "Good choice. Smart even."

He was surprised to find himself relieved when she accepted his offer, for that insinuated there had been doubt she wouldn't want to come along, and . . . when did that start mattering to him? Shaheen was always around and she would always be around. It made no sense to want to keep her around because that meant he was afraid she wouldn't be, and he wasn't--

"I can handle anything, Shaheen," he remarked with a cocky look, though the way he locked eyes with her suggested something beyond just arrogance - a promise to meet hers. "How long have I tolerated you before this, hmm? I keep telling you and you never seem to believe me. So count this as a test." He paused, then held his hand out in a rare gesture of civility. "You can kill me if I fail."

Because if anything would keep her here, if anything could best Insanity, it was the chieftain's fondness for maiming him.
 

[Seussi]

Damnit, Shikoba!

How had he ensnared her again so quickly? Well, if she really thought about it hard enough (which she was determined not to) she supposed she had never really disentangled herself completely to begin with. A few weeks, a task for Medea, and the realization that she could not do this on her own and needed the person who knew her better then anyone else to help her along, if he would.

And it seemed that he was willing. Willing enough to let her move in with him, even, which was surprising enough on it's own. She met his grin with a large one of her own, though it was a much more wolfish version, almost sinister in it's own way. Her eyes didn't leave his, as she uncrossed her arms and reached out to place her hand in his, like this was now nothing more then some kind of business deal that they needed to shake on. Or just..hold hands on, as it were.

"Sounds more like a challange, to me." Oh yes, sinister indeed. The elder cheiftain of war wrapped her fingers tight against his hand and pulled herself closer to him. "And a very generous prize if I win." It was probably hard to tell if she was trying to tease him or if she was being serious. It was probably always hard to tell just what she was thinking. She was unpredictable, on her best day, even before the insanity had dug it's claws into her. Shikoba definitely had his work cut out for him.

And there was no possible way she could ever thank him enough. For being strong enough and patient enough to deal with her crazy. For tolerating her. For standing up to Mardea. For giving whatever there was between them a chance. For his acceptance. Somewhere deep inside of her, buried beneath everything else, was a warm glow of happiness for all of these things, but it was a feeling that she was not yet ready to admit to out loud.

Her hand squeezed his a little tighter, and she glanced around at the bare walled room, her gaze suddenly becoming distant. "I'm ready."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

It was funny for Shik to not have an ulterior motive about something he was agreeing on for once. No manipulation, no teasing . . . While not direct, it had been a genuine offer for her to stay. They had almost always been around each other so really it wasn't supposed to be such a big deal to make sure this continued . . . right? Right. And it only made sense that, if he was part of helping her deal with her curse, he stick close by. Easy. Simple.

They were staring into each other unblinkingly, hands grasped, bodies close. For all Shik knew it was about to devolve into . . . something. The tense air made him leap to the conclusion of a battle again, and could he be blamed? Every other encounter of theirs had become a spar of some sort up until now. Even with good humor, the sight of that sinister look of hers was enough to color his own into more of a baring of teeth than an actual grin. Maybe they would always bring the animal out of each other. Wasn't that what War was about?

In that case, Shik considered it a milestone that they could agree on something and not stab each other.

"See? I can be nice," he said with a cheeky look. Rather than a hand squeeze, he turned to face the door and let his wing touch hers as he slid from her grasp. "Come along, then. I believe Mai has a bottle or two we can uncork to celebrate."

Because a drunk Shik and Shaheen was a great idea.  

[Seussi]

"Miracle of mircales, it appears so can I." She replied with a murmur, her gaze shifting back to him as he pulled away, hand easily slipping away from her grasp. When his wing brushed against hers, her own wing flared in response, feathers trailing across the bare skin between his shoulder blades, just the barest of touches.

As for his final words as they exited the small hut that Shaheen had once called hers, the cheiftain merely smirked, casting one last glance over her shoulder as they left. Alcohol. A celebration. Shik's sister likely to be a part of the party. The evening was young and already full of such promise for the spilling of blood.

"Sounds delightful." Her eyes glimmered with mischeif as she caught up to him outside, "But Nomi and Bacca are not invited to join." Her head cocked to the side and she gave him a sidelong glance as they departed into the night.

"Ever."

Ol-j-man

o/ finnnnnnnnnn