Redamancy

by T D Cloud

  It made Navidae’s eyes widen. He swallowed the bite and licked his lips, smiling at how nervous Khouri looked. “Did you really make this?” he wondered, picking up the small spoon to try a bite of the jam on its own. It was unlike anything he’d ever had before. He had eaten plenty of apples in his time, but the memory of them dulled in comparison to the jam itself. Those apples were somehow stale when put up against the vibrant sweetness boasted by Khouri’s jam. How did it taste so fresh?

  It’d been nearly a week since Khouri had left Sorin’s family home. The raw apples were only a day old and they couldn’t compare at all.

  “Mastha helped, but yeah. I made about fifty jars of it while staying at her house,” Khouri explained, latching onto Navidae’s arm. “So? Do you like it? Tell me already, Navi.

  Don’t be mean.”

  “It’s amazing, pet,” he said, putting Khouri out of his misery.

  He gave him a kiss on the cheek before going in for another bite. “I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed surface fruit more.”

  “I hope someday you can come above with me,” Khouri murmured, resting his head against his shoulder as Navidae enjoyed his snack. “There are so many things you can’t get down here, no matter how many times you send out your agents. I want to show you the sea. Reading about it… It’s nice, but it’s not the same.”

  A strange sensation fluttered in the pit of Navidae’s stomach at the wistful tone cooing in his ear. “Maybe someday,” he lied, knowing he couldn’t for a thousand reasons. “But don’t let thoughts like those bring down your mood, pet. Tell me, did you have fun? You said you made jam. What else did you do while you were up above?”

  Khouri bobbed his head eagerly, lifting it as he resumed his usual mood. “It was so much fun,” he rushed to say, his cheeks darkening to a fetching shade of violet as he thought back to all of his surface exploits. “We did a lot of jobs and then went to Sorin’s sister’s house to stay. I got to meet some of Sorin’s nieces and his nephew, and oh, Gods, Navi, they were so young. The eldest was only twelve! The youngest was eight!”

  Navidae raised a brow and snagged another bite of hrea, jam, and cheese. “You don’t say,” he said, barely getting the words out before Khouri overtook him completely with his excited chatter. So talkative, he thought, smiling warmly at his blackbird. He’d missed his voice dearly while he was gone. The manor was big. Sometimes too big. Khouri, however, never seemed to have trouble filling it with his voice, his scent, his presence—

  Khouri looped his fingers through the bracelet on Navidae’s wrist, tugging at it playfully to bring him back to the present. “We made so many of these on the beach, but this was my favorite that I made for you. Sorin has one too, a necklace, but I don’t think he wants to show it off in front of you.”

  “How silly of him,” Navidae murmured, kissing Khouri’s nose. “A gift from you is worth more than that.”

  Smiling, Khouri kissed his cheek. Just a little peck of petal soft lips and warmth. “Speaking of which, what’s got you playing nice with Sorin all of a sudden?” he asked. “He could’ve asked Dezik where I was. Were you fighting again?” “Of course not,” Navidae said, narrowing his eyes a little.

  “Hmm. I guess I didn’t hear yelling when I walked in, so that’s probably the truth.” Khouri furrowed his brow, his tone shrewd as he peeked over his shoulder at the papers littering Navidae’s desk. “Don’t tell me you’re having him help you with something—”

  Navidae held tight to Khouri’s waist and skidded the chair away from the desk, putting it at an angle so he could no longer see the letters. His heart raced, his mind struggling to keep up with instinct. Khouri yelped at the sudden change.

  “Getting a little too curious, aren’t you?” Navidae pressed, nipping at Khouri’s ear in punishment. “It’s nothing, pet. Think no more of it. Thank you for the break, but I believe it’s time for you to leave me be so I can focus on my work.”

  “But, Navi—”

  He was quick to cover Khouri’s lips with his fingers, shaking his head at the obstinate look Khouri wore. “No buts, blackbird.” Navidae gently coaxed Khouri from his lap, gesturing at the half-eaten tray he’d come in with. “I spent the morning with you and it’s put me behind schedule. You know the rules; I have to finish work before I can play. Put the rest of the snacks up for later. I think I’ve eaten my fill for the time being.”

  Khouri stood at the edge of the desk, clutching his shirt in his hands. He looked like he wanted to argue with him. “Can we eat the rest together?” he wondered a little bitterly, slowly picking the tray up and holding it close to his chest. “Later, perhaps. Once you’re finished.”

  Navidae glanced down at his stack of letters and couldn’t quite hide his grimace. “It’s best if you enjoy the rest on your own,” he said quietly, fixing his chair so it faced the desk properly. He could feel Khouri’s stare boring a hole through the side of his skull. “Or better yet, share the rest with Sorin. I’ve got my hands full with making these preparations. It’ll keep me occupied for awhile.”

  “Oh.”

  Navidae nearly winced from how disappointed Khouri sounded. His lover took a slow step away from the desk, hanging his head like a kicked pet. He paused before he got to the door, looking back at Navidae hopefully.

  “Will you… That is to say, will there be time tonight for us to play?” he asked, licking his lips unconsciously. “I’ve only just gotten back. I want to spend more time with you.”

  The heat those words would have normally induced was strangely absent. Navidae had a few guesses why, and they all lay before him in a neat, tidy stack. He closed his eyes and sighed, shaking his head when he longed to do the opposite. He had dozens of invitations to write, and then even more letters to answer in hopes of seeing his plan succeed. Tonight needed to be spent alone if he wanted to spend his tomorrows with Khouri still by his side.

  “I’m…” He sighed again, opening his eyes to take in Khouri’s wilting posture. “I’m really busy, Khouri.”

  Khouri stared at the floor. His knuckles were grey against the edge of the tray. His lips parted once, twice, closing each time. A tight knot of guilt lodged itself in Navidae’s throat when Khouri settled on bobbing his head and left without another word. The door closed behind him with a sharp, decisive snap, leaving Navidae alone but for his problems.

  He buried his face in his hands, Khouri’s gentle scent still clinging to his clothes long after Khouri himself had gone.

  He needed to get used to this weight on his shoulders; as far as he could tell, it would only get worse from here on out.

  Chapter Ten

  Sorin frowned as Khouri tossed down his cards, whooping victoriously from another sound defeat that had come out of nowhere. The brat shot Sorin a smug look, grinning like a loon in his high-backed chair. “You really aren’t good at this game,” Khouri said, adding insult to injury with evident glee. “Any game in fact. Is it the learning curve or are you just garbage at things that don’t involve hitting something to win?”

  “I think I’d rather be a good loser than a poor winner,” Sorin muttered, throwing down his own hand in disgust. The Drow cards were infinitely different from the ones he was used to, the rules to this game just as foreign, but he had thought he was winning for a minute there. Where did he go wrong?

  “That’s what they all say,” Khouri mused, reclining sideways in his chair so his bare legs were tossed over the armrest. He scooped up some cards and pretended to fan himself with them, giving Sorin a smug look. “Just admit it, Sorin. You’ve got a terrible poker face.”

  Sorin had a terrible everything as most people were so willing to tell him, and none of that made any of this any easier. One day of losing he could handle. Maybe even two, but at this point they’d been whittling away the week with cards and marbles and other weird Drow games that Sorin couldn’t even pronounce the names of, and Sorin could quite succinctly say he was sick to death of losing.

  It was just his bad luck
that he kept on getting suckered into playing anyway.

  “How do you even know what poker is?” Sorin wondered, crossing his arms as he glared daggers at the card table. He’d come to the sitting room in efforts to hide from Khouri’s onslaught of games, but the brat had managed to sniff him out like a hound regardless. “I thought we were playing Reth.” There went his dream of using this down time as a makeshift vacation away from Khouri's more exhausting antics.

  Khouri rolled his eyes. “Firstly, we do play poker down here. It’s not just a surface game.” He sat up a bit, propping his elbow on the armrest to lean his chin on his hand. “And secondly, I was playing Reth. You were losing spectacularly. Or maybe you thought you were winning? Did you confuse the rules for something else? Maybe you would have won if we played poker.”

  Sorin saw him glance at his losing hand, and he quickly threw his palm over top of them so Khouri couldn’t see the straight flush he had been working so hard to build. The suits weren’t the same on these cards, but they were close enough to give Sorin a false sense of security.

  “I think I’m done playing games with you for awhile,” Sorin muttered, flipping the cards before gathering the rest into a stack to clean them up.

  Khouri perked up, his eyes wide. “No, no,” he rushed, waving his hands in the air. “Don’t say that. Let’s play something else. There are a lot of other games I can teach you, so why don’t we try one of them next?”

  Sorin gave Khouri a flat look. “So I can lose again and suffer through another bout of you making fun of me? Yeah, I’m good, thanks.” “What if I promise not to make fun of you?” Khouri tried, pouting as he sat properly in his chair and brought his clasped hands beneath his chin. He was wearing some sheer, billowy shirt with sleeves that slid down his arms at the slightest change in direction. Coupled with his bloomers, he looked entirely too pathetic to deny.

  Which was probably the goal, Sorin thought mutinously as he stacked the deck and set it back down on the table. “As tempting as that offer sounds, I think I’d rather not play when I know I’m going to lose anyway,” Sorin said, sitting back in his seat as Khouri draped himself along the table pitifully. “I’ve put up with it enough already, haven’t I? Let me wallow in peace.”

  Sorin rolled his eyes when Khouri started to whine, and then averted them completely when Khouri lifted himself enough for his shirt to droop, giving Sorin an unrestricted view of his chest and the piercings hiding just beneath the spidersilk.

  “You’re no fun,” Khouri mumbled as sadly as any kicked dog.

  “You’ve said that before,” Sorin reminded him, “and here you are, wanting me to play with you anyway.”

  Khouri lifted his chin, his pout morphing into a frown. “Well, who else is there to play with? Who else is there for me to spend time with?” he asked, drumming his fingers on the table with more aggression than the topic probably warranted. “The staff hates me, Navi won’t leave his study, and I’m not allowed to leave the manor. You’re the only one here who’s as trapped as I am, so I would think you’d want a distraction too.”

  Sorin gave him a look. It wasn’t Sorin who had been moping around outside his bedroom door for an hour whining about being bored.

  “What?” Khouri muttered, avoiding it with a grimace. He dragged himself off the table to glower at the fire instead. The sitting room was spacious in a way most of the rooms tended to be but Khouri’s mood seemed to lower the temperature in it easily. “It’s the truth,” he said quietly, his expression going from angry to depressed in the time it took to blink.

  It was beginning to make sense now why Khouri had hunted him down so ardently. Sorin couldn’t really find it in himself to blame Khouri for being lonely, given the circumstances.

  Navidae did seem to work a lot even when there wasn’t political drama going on.

  “What do you usually do when everyone’s busy?” The manor was enormous. Surely there had to be things to do that didn’t require another person.

  Khouri tapped out a slow rhythm on the tabletop, biting his bottom lip. “I usually just read or sleep until Navi finishes work.”

  “That’s pretty boring.” And sad. Really, really sad.

  Khouri glanced at him with a small smile. “Why do you think I got fed up and ran off?” He sat up, his smile not reaching his eyes. “It’s hard to come back here after being above. Everything is so much more exciting up there. I never felt bored.”

  Sorin snorted at that. He had to wonder if Navidae felt the same way when Khouri was gone… Well, knowing him, Khouri probably never considered it. Far be it from Sorin to bring it up now.

  “Never felt bored? You complained constantly if I didn’t give you attention every few minutes.” He smiled when Khouri grinned, the mischievous gleam back in his eye where it belonged. “It’s not the Duskriven that bores you, Khouri; you’re just an attention whore.”

  His eyes widened slightly when instead of a snappy retort, Khouri just stood up.

  “Uh. Khouri?” Sorin began, skin prickling with unease. “I didn't mean—”

  He swallowed his words when the Drow moved around the table, lips curled into an unreadable smile. Sorin sat up a little straighter and watched him approach, tense and wary for whatever it was Khouri clearly had planned. He hadn’t offended him with that, right?

  “Don't backtrack now,” Khouri said, leaning over Sorin’s chair, his hands planted on the armrests in a way that made Sorin feel decidedly pinned in. “Not when you're right.”

  “Oh?” Sorin murmured, his voice low as he read the mood for what it was and what it seemed to be heading towards. It never failed to surprise him how quickly Khouri could switch into something like this. From some mopey, whiny little thing to this… this darkly intent creature bent on the carnal. “That’s a first.”

  Khouri smiled sweetly as he climbed into Sorin’s lap. “But you are; I want attention. If you don’t want to play cards, why don’t you just play with me instead?” Khouri whispered, his lips tracing the shape of Sorin’s cheekbone with unerring care. “No winning, no losing. Just us having some fun together.” “Is this how you kill time too?” Sorin wondered, his hands going to Khouri’s waist instinctively. His hips were moving in small little circles, grinding against Sorin’s lap to a rhythm he struggled to match. Khouri let out a breathy little gasp, grabbing Sorin’s hand to move it beneath his shirt and onto his bare skin.

  “It’s one way,” he answered, licking his full lips invitingly. “Sometimes it’s just a way to put me to sleep until Navi can give me all of his focus.” Khouri noticed Sorin’s frown and traced it with his fingers, leaning in to kiss him until it softened. When he pulled away, he looked into Sorin’s eyes and smiled. “But I want to have fun with you, Sorin. Right now, all I want is you.”

  They were in some sitting room. Some public space where anyone could enter if they felt the need. Sorin shifted a little in his seat, opening his mouth to say something. “Khouri…” Soft fingers covered his lips. Khouri leaned closer, the tip of his tongue wetting his own lips as he looked into Sorin’s eyes.

  Who moved first, Sorin couldn’t tell. Between one blink and the next the fingers were gone from his lips and they were kissing. Khouri’s dark, fathomless eyes closed, his chest meeting Sorin’s. Sorin drew his hands down Khouri’s smooth curves, feeling him through his thin shirt, squeezing his narrow hips. Khouri’s mouth parted for him in a soft gasp. Deeper. It went so much deeper.

  Something began to stir inside Sorin, warming him from his fingertips to his toes. Khouri broke the kiss and moved his soft lips lower, kissing and sucking the sensitive skin of Sorin’s neck as his hands made smooth, warm passes over his chest.

  The pace was tempered. There was no rush for this. Sorin spread his legs a little wider, sat himself a little lower in his chair, and sought out Khouri’s lips for another kiss that felt a right side better than losing had.

  “Mmm, Sorin,” Khouri sighed, his lips tracing the words against Sorin’s like a tease. Small hand
s tightened their grip on his shirt, tugging at him needfully. “Sorin, will you make love to me?”

  Sorin’s heart gave an abortive lurch in his chest. He was saying it himself now; asking for it by name, even. The blood rushed from his head, pooling far lower. “We’re in a sitting room,” he murmured, but his hands still touched, his lips following the line of Khouri’s enticing throat until he found his nape.

  “I don’t mind,” he said prettily, his eyelashes kissing Sorin’s cheek as they fluttered. “I just want it.”

  Sorin glanced at Khouri disapprovingly but Khouri just stared at him, eyes half-mast, his lips parted and mouth wanting. “I want it too—” Khouri instantly leaned forward, forcing Sorin to take him by the shoulders and hold him at bay. “But,” he said stiffly, shifting beneath Khouri’s negligible weight, “I’m not going to do that with you here of all places.”

  Khouri whined, crossing his arms as he squirmed purposefully in Sorin’s lap. “It’s more exciting doing it out of the bedroom,” he complained. “Navi and I fuck anywhere we want, so it’s not like you can’t do the same. No one who would see would care any- way.”

  Almost as if by divine intervention, the door across the room opened. Sorin startled, his heart catching in his chest as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t have. Khouri turned to see who it was. An excited bubble of Drow-speak fell from his lips, and the next thing Sorin knew, Khouri was tugging himself out of his lap and racing across the room towards the Lord letting himself in.

  “Navi!” Khouri exclaimed, throwing himself into his lover’s arms. Navidae let out a whoosh of breath, grabbing him around the middle to keep them both upright. “Navi, I was just talking about you.”