Depressiversary
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Devin, Bree
Date Posted: 3rd April 2007
Series: Saving Each Other
Characters: N'vanik, Talryne
Description: N'vanik marks a special day by getting drunk, and Loseth calls on Talryne for help.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 3, day 8 of Turn 4
}:Talryne? Could you come please?:{ Loseth's voice was plaintive. }:N'vanik is drinking the bad stuff and he won't listen to me.:{ Talryne hesitated for only a moment before putting down the book she was reading and walking to the door. **I'm coming. How much of the--the bad stuff did he drink?**
}:Enough to make him feel worse. Maybe he will listen to you.:{ The weyr she'd been given was close enough to N'vanik's that it didn't take very long to get there. **I don't know if he'll listen to me, but I'll try.** She knocked briefly on his door, but didn't wait for a reply. Not if N'vanik was in the state Loseth seemed to think he was.
"N'vanik?" she asked softly as she slipped inside.
He usually avoided drinking gin, because it had a way of making him feel more miserable. And there was also this: he could drink a good amount of other liquors, but N'vanik couldn't hold his gin. When Talryne arrived he'd barely drunk half the first skin, but he was already drunk. "Tal!
It's a special occasion! A turn ago t'day, my Wingleader died in Fall. I failed him, jus' like I failed you." He held the skin up in toast briefly before taking another drink.
Talryne closed the door softly behind her. "You didn't fail me, N'vanik." She didn't think he'd listen, but she had to say it.
"Yes I did. If we hadn't moved, you wouldn't've got hit. And I like you, and then I do stupid things like sleep with yer cousin. It should have been _yours_!" N'vanik took a sip, well aware that the more he drank, the worse he would feel.
She moved across the space between them slowly, wondering if she should try to take the alcohol away. He was drinking it like water. "What should have been mine?"
He looked at her for a moment. "Um . . . nothing. Nevermind. I don' know what I'm sayin'."
"Can I have that?" she asked, reaching a hand out for the flask. She had no idea if she was up to handling N'vanik in this state, but it was fairly obvious what the first step needed to be.
"No." He hugged the skin to his chest. "You don't get alcohol."
Talryne's temper spiked a little. "I don't want to drink it. I just don't you want to drink any more." She slid her fingers over his and tried to tug them away from the flask. "Come on, N'vanik. We can sit and talk."
"Abou' what? How I break everything?" His hands began to relax their grip on the flask. N'vanik felt terribly close to crying.
She frowned and tugged the flask from his hands. "You're just feeling this bad because you drank too much. Why don't we go sit down."
" 's not the booze!" he whined, rubbing a hand against the side of his face. "I deserve worse. I don't deserve you."
Gentleness wasn't working, and wasn't something she was very good at anyway. "Sit down on the couch, N'vanik, or I'm going to sharding put you there."
N'vanik slumped onto the couch and reached for the other flask on the table.
Talryne set the flask she'd already rescued aside and followed him to the couch. "No more drinking," she said sharply, grabbing his wrist. "Jus' let me finish the one." He made a weak effort to reach again.
Her fingers tightened around his wrist as she knocked the flask from the table with her other hand. "How about a new game. I get to drink as much as you do." The fact that he was so passive made her want to prod him until he struck back, just to prove that the strong, stubborn man she knew was in there somewhere.
His eyes widened. "No! You don't get to drink. It's bad for you."
She released his wrist and took several steps back, bringing one of the flasks with her. "Try and stop me," she challenged him as she opened it. The gin burned her throat as she swallowed it, and she shuddered as the fire spread out through her body. _Shards_ it was strong... part of her wondered how he'd even been on his feet still.
N'vanik jumped off the couch and nearly fell. Faranth, he was drunk! "No!" He grabbed the flask. "Tal, no! You--you can't!"
"Why not?" she demanded, snatching it right back. One hand landed in the middle of his chest as she swept one foot behind his and tried to trip him back onto the couch. "You get to do it, so I can, too! Fair is fair!"
He stumbled back and had to put a hand against the couch to keep from falling. "It's not the same thing!" he protested. "Sure it is!" It probably wasn't wise to take another sip, but at least she had his undivided attention. Besides, the alcohol didn't burn nearly as much this time. "In fact, it's a great idea. Maybe I'll get some alcohol of my own, and next time you come over I'll tell you all about how I ruined your life!" N'vanik got to his feet again and took a firmer grip on the flask. "Tal, please! You didn't ruin my life." He was suddenly feeling less drunk.
She glared at him, already braced to knock him back onto the couch. "We both drink or neither of us drink. Your choice, N'vanik." He tilted his head and gave her a pathetic look. "C'mon, don't do this."
}:Please don't drink any more,:{ Loseth added.
Talryne knocked him onto the couch again, but this time she went down with him, straddling his legs and bracing her hands on either side of his shoulders to keep him pinned. "You listen to me. I _killed my dragon_ N'vanik. I could drown myself in gin and it wouldn't ever stop hurting. If I can survive sober, then you can sharding well do it too."
"I'm sorry." N'vanik closed his eyes, fighting against tears. "You shouldn't have seen me like this."
Anger melted away and she slid her hands up to cradle his face. "You've seen me worse," she whispered, feeling as if everything was backwards. She had been the broken one for so long, able to do nothing but take from him. But now he needed her, and the feeling was more intoxicating than the gin had been. She kissed his forehead gently and let her thumbs caress his face. He reached up and pulled her head down for a kiss. _He_ was supposed to be strong, to support her when she struggled, but here he was being weak, and she was . . . **saving me.**
It wasn't any less intense than last time. The feeling of his lips against hers, his body underneath her... it felt like her nerves were on fire, and it had nothing to do with the gin. She made a soft noise against his lips as her fingers slid back to curl into his hair, but she wasn't scared this time. N'vanik pulled her closer, enjoying her reaction but wondering when she would pull away. And what he would do if she ran again. He slid his hand up under her tunic as he had done before. If she was going to have the same reaction, it was better to get it over with. She did pull back, but then her fingers slid to the ties on her tunic, her eyes finding his as she slowly unlaced them. "No more drinking?"
"No," he said quietly, watching her. Talryne hesitated with her hands on the final lace, the corner of her mouth twitching up into a smile that almost looked like her old self. "Are you sober enough to appreciate me?" N'vanik smiled. "Yes." The word was almost a sigh. "I'm suddenly feeling a lot more sober." He put his hands over hers and tugged at the lace.
There was no fear left as she let the garment slid from her shoulders. She was broken, N'vanik was broken... maybe together they could find a little peace from the guilt that chased them. It didn't seem to matter either way--she'd given in to her favorite vice. Hot desire slid through her as she leaned in to kiss N'vanik again, and this time there was nothing soft or tentative about it.
He returned the kiss with equal feeling, turning and laying Talryne down on the couch. His fingers hurried to remove his shirt and he let it fall without notice. One of his hands tangled in her hair as his lips trailed along her shoulder. Finally . . . _finally_ . . . This was much more intoxicating that alcohol.
It was hardly their first time together, but everything still felt so new. Overwhelming, too, but this time she didn't feel like she was drowning. Her hands slid over his shoulders and around his back until she could pull him tightly against her. Even as her lips parted on a moan of pleasure, her thoughts reached for Loseth. **I'll take care of him.** }:Thank you. He needs this. I think you do, too.:{ Loseth crooned. The feelings coming from his rider were very pleasant.
Before long N'vanik was reaching for the fastenings of his pants. He wanted to feel every part of her, every inch of her hot skin. But his movements once their clothing was gone weren't driven by urgency. He slid against her slowly, steadily, enjoying every sound she made, relishing every touch of her fingers. No one else made him feel like this.
In the end it was his eyes that undid her, the way he watched her as if her response to his movements was more arousing than the physical pleasure itself. No one had ever looked at her like that before. No one had ever moved against her with such torturous patience, so focused on her that he seemed to know exactly what she needed before she did. It was like nothing she'd ever experienced, and she knew even as she surrendered to it that things could never go back to the way they'd been before.
Last updated on the April 3rd 2007
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