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| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Shine comes back to the Shrine to reunite with Lena (and Bun) and the two of them face the painful fact of a world that separates people in love and puts them both in danger. ~3100 words. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
Lena sits on her lonely double bed — extra large, as it's meant for two pandaren — with a notebook in her lap and a pen in her hand.
Shine -
A fair amount's happened since I last wrote.
Lena sits back, considering what to write next.
I was imprisoned by the mogu, when they claimed a whole new statue army, but they didn't get a chance to torture me because —
"No," Lena says aloud, with a faint sigh, scratching it out. "Hell of a thing to write somebody who's tangling with a fear sha, without any way of helping me."
I went into the Vaults and nearly got killed by a mogu spirit —
That gets scratched out, too.
Baird and Melancholy are sweet on each other. Every time I look at them, I think of how much I miss —
That gets scratched out as well. Lena looks at the page, covered more with black lines than words, and rips it out angrily, tossing it to the side and starting with another.
Shine -
Suddenly Bun, curled beneath the desk on his tattered-shirt bed, lifts his head and makes a sort of bleating noise. He scrambles out of his nest and scrabbles across the floor to the door.
The door opens, and Shine steps in.
He looks… well, like Shine, though a little tireder, a little drawn, as though after an illness. He drops his pack on the floor — nearly atop the tanuki, sorry, Bun — and steps directly toward Lena, despite Bun's best efforts to trip him. "Hey, princess," he says hoarsely, and opens his arms to her.
"Shine," Lena says simply, though there's a weight of love and longing in the word. The notebook drops to the floor unheeded as she steps into his arms and wraps her arms around him with significant strength, as if to confirm his reality. She tilts her chin up, inviting a kiss.
He wraps an arm around her in return, crushing her against him, and takes her jaw in his other hand as he bends to kiss her. He kisses like a man who was drowning a moment ago and Lena is all the air in the world.
Lena collapses against him, as if he's the only solid point left in the world. There's a faint, soft sound in her throat, which might be his name again, or might be some expression of desire wilder and less coherent. She closes her eyes, yielding to the kiss completely, and making no sign of ever wanting it to stop.
If Shine's arm tightens around her any further they are either going to merge or someone is going to break some ribs.
He eases his hold, mercifully, after several long, honey-slow moments, and draws back from the kiss to kiss her eyelids, her cheekbones, her forehead. "Tides, I missed ye like starving," he tells her, low-voiced.
Speaking of starving, Bun has not yet been acknowledged, and has stood up to put his paws on Shine's leg and make outraged chuffing sounds.
"Like suffocation," Lena says in agreement, her voice a low, breathy whisper, as she trails her fingers down his back, then his sides, as she steps back enough to acknowledge the existence of Bun. There's a faint quirk of her lips, as she adds, "He missed you, too. Cried for you sometimes. I never tried to shush him, I understood."
Shine looks down at Bun and though his expression is stern there is a soft light in his eye. "Did ye cry for me? Ye were supposed to be a good soldier for your mother." He steps away from Lena just enough that he can stoop and pick the tanuki up; Bun immediately starts wriggling joyously and attempts to escape Shine's hold to clamber onto his shoulder.
"No, no, all right, that's enough for now," Shine says, and sets the tanuki down again. Bun attention over; Lena attention recommence. He steps close to slide his hands around her waist. "Tides, but you're beautiful to see."
Lena reaches up to curl her arms over his shoulders, hands touching behind his head. "I know we've been apart before, and we will be again, but… every time, I grow so hungry for you, thirsty for you. All the sweeter when we see one another again." She stares at him blissfully for another long moment, before her brow creases faintly, and she asks, "This mean the mantid are going to fight the mogu for us?"
A shadow crosses his expression at mention of the mantid. "I don't know if the mantid are going to do fuckall for us," he says wearily. "They're… a work in progress. I doubt they'll be free to help us so long as their own civil war's on, so our main objective's got to be stopping the swarm. Both to get their potential help and… to stop the swarm." He exhales and bends again to rest his forehead against hers.
"We're holding against the mogu and the mantid," Lena says quietly. "Been some developments, but we're still holding. And we'll keep doing it, for as long as it takes, to figure it out."
"Come here," says Shine roughly, and starts walking Lena backward toward the bed. "I don't want to talk about the mantid for a little while. I want you."
"I'm right here," Lena says quietly, yielding gently to his touch with a sweet smile, and letting him bear her backward. Then her gaze meets his. Her soft smile melts into a hungrier, more honest expression, as her eyes light with desire. In a fiercer voice, she says, "I'm right here, and I want you." Then her hands drop to his waistband, a sudden urgency leading her to address the most troublesome clothing first.
His hands are at her thighs as he drags her skirt urgently upward. He continues to walk her at the same time, until the backs of her legs bump against the bed. Her skirt is at her hips now, and he takes it by the bunched hem to pull her dress up over her head.
By this time, Lena's gotten his belt off with a practiced ease, tossed it carelessly to the side, and has already undone his trousers. However, she's perfectly willing to leave off this important task to aid in the expeditious removal of her own clothing. As the dress comes over her head, it becomes clear that she's wearing very little under it. Here in the casual comfort of her inn room, she is barefoot and braless, and only thin fabric panties remain.
Shine pushes her down onto the bed so that he can drag those panties off impatiently. He tosses them aside and steps back to finish pulling his own clothes off. "Beautiful Lena," he says to her roughly. "Beautiful wife."
"It's been weeks," Lena says, reaching towards his waist to pull him down on her. The desire in her eyes is obvious, a flush rising in her pale cheeks and reddening her lips. "I want to feel your hands on me. Your lips. Your everything. My husband."
He comes down to her heavily in a warm tangle of limbs, his hands already sliding on her skin. His mouth is on hers. He kisses her hungrily, and then breaks away and shifts on the bed to begin kissing his way down her throat, down her body. There is that sense of desperation in his need again.
Her hands touch him all over, exploring his flesh like she's discovering him all over again. And then as he begins to kiss down her body, she gives a sharp inhale of pleasure, twisting beneath him.
"Princess," he breathes against her skin. "I'm home."
TIME PASSES
Lena lies against Shine, her head on his shoulder and her leg still entwined with his. Her hand rest on his chest, feeling his warmth, the soft rise and fall of his breath. Quietly, she murmurs, "This is my favorite poem."
His fingertips trail drowsily up and down her arm. "Your favorite…?"
"Mm-hm," Lena hums, nestling more closely against him. "Just a thing… Baird and Melancholy talk of poetry a lot. And it reminds me of… things we used to talk about. Poetry enough for us — feelings over words."
Shine makes a soft sound and his fingers move into her hair, trailing through the ends of it. "Poetry enough for us," he agrees, his voice low and warm in the dark. "Or maybe it's poetry not enough. I don't see how ye could tie all this up neatly in a poem." His hand stills, just resting on her shoulder now. "Tides, I missed ye. Of course I missed ye. But — I don't think I can say how much." He pauses. "It's so dark over there, Lena. It's so dark and we didn't know anything, and it feels every minute like a hundred terrible things might have happened out here without our knowing. I was so afraid for ye."
"I was too, for you," Lena says, and buries her face in his shoulder for a moment. "At least here, we've got the Golden Lotus and Cobalt at our sides, and you surrounded by the mantid. I helped at the wall sometimes, looking out into those lands, imagining maybe you were there somewhere in sight, in the shadows."
She takes a breath. "We've had our troubles here, but nothing to worry over. We've all come through safe. Mostly that Zhao-Jin fellow, if you recall him. Still not sure what he's after here, and how to stop him. We didn't stop him getting a small statue army."
"An army? How small a statue army? What's he done with it?" Shine's hand tightens on her shoulder. "Here in the Vale?"
"A hundred," Lena says, with a low sigh. "And far's I can tell so far, just… fighting more. We're still holding. I dont know if he plans some big push or other, but it hasn't come yet, if so."
Shine is silent for a time. His grip on her shoulder doesn't ease. "I have to go back," he says at last. "To the Wastes. We can't… let the mantid think we're deserting. I feel like I should stay here, though. To protect against…." He falls silent a moment. "But maybe that's cowardice. Maybe I just want a reason not to go back."
"I'll be alright," Lena says, raising her head to gaze at him steadily. "I should also mention we failed to stop them because we got captured. Put us all in cages. But… we'd a scout from the Golden Lotus with us, one of the Softfoot brothers. He picked the locks. I've good allies, watching my back while you're away. As you do, when you're there and I'm here, I hope."
Shine tenses beneath her. "You were captured? Lena…."
"I'm alright," Lena says firmly, resting her hand against his cheek. "And I know if I hadn't been, if we hadn't got out, you'd have come for me. Soon as you heard."
"Aye, but when would I have heard, Lena? In time? How?" There is quiet anguish in his tone.
Lena doesn't answer for a long moment, and then she says, "I don't know, to be honest. How would I hear if the mantid turned on you, in time to get to you with a soulstone? We can't… can't see the future. Or even the present, far enough away."
His hand slides from her shoulder as he wraps his arm around her. "Lena," he says. "I don't want to go back."
"I know. I want to come with you," Lena whispers. "But we won't, will we?That's not who we are, to leave a thing undone. But come back to me, whenever you can."
"Give me something," Shine says. "To take back with me. Something of yours. To hang on to."
"Something of mine," Lena considers, rising up on one elbow and looking around. She spots her panties on the floor, and a discarded dress. Probably not the best options. "I'd say my bracelet, but that reminds me of you. One of my earrings, maybe? Or… a lock of hair?"
He trails his fingers through her hair, toys with the ends of it. "Aye," he sighs. "I'd take a lock of hair."
"Before we forget, before you have to leave," Lena pulls gently away from him and rises from the bed, showing no sign of shyness about her state of complete undress. She steps over to the desk, and opens the drawer. After a moment's consideration, she pulls out her usual focusing dagger. She holds it up next to her neck, and slices a lock of hair from behind her ear. She sets down the dagger and twists the hair into a coil, stepping back toward Shine.
He has sat up in bed, and accepts the coil from her wordlessly. He lifts it to his lips, and then draws the coil tighter, into a knot, and lays it on the little table beside the bed. "Thank you. Lena. I'll carry it."
She climbs back into bed, sitting across his lap on her knees and facing him, her hands on his shoulders. "How have you been able to come back? Will you again, or is this… the only time, till you've seen things through."
He sets his hands at the small of her back and slides them upward to her shoulderblades. "We ran into some pandaren. The Klaxxi sent us to negotiate with some pandaren. They're inhabiting one of the kypari trees just at the northern border with Townlong, because they mean to brew beer with the amber, and the Klaxxi want them gone. Instead of just handling it themselves, though, they sent us up there to negotiate with 'em, which seems like a pretty good sign as far as our relations with the Klaxxi go. The pandaren are being… stubborner. But they do have a kite master, so we're able now to get out one or two at a time for visits.
"We can't stay over here because we don't want the Klaxxi to get wind we're gone for long. It's… a long road, getting them to trust us. But aye. I'll come back, if I'm able. When I'm able." He bends his head to kiss the base of her throat and then her collarbone.
"Beer with amber?" Lena says, a touch incredulous, and then she's distracted for a long moment by the kisses, tilting her head back to give him better access. A thought occurs her, and she straightens a little, saying, "Like the amber that's sometimes sha-poisoned? Do you think that's a risk for the pandaren?"
He lifts his head. "I think the pandaren are bloody idiots — the one in charge, at any rate — so tides alone know what they'll risk. With luck we'll talk some sense into them before they do anything truly stupid. We can't have them jeopardize our efforts with the Klaxxi, so if we can't negotiate with them ourselves we may have to get in touch with the Shado-Pan or someone to come collect them."
"I bet they would, at that," Lena says with a slight twist of a smile. "The Shado-Pan certainly don't seem fond of people poking their noses in where they don't belong, especially when it comes to the sha." Lena shakes her head. "Any way you handle it's likely to be less brutal than the mantid would, though."
"Aye," says Shine, and bends his head to rest his forehead on her shoulder. "Progress that they asked us to handle it." His hands slide restlessly on the smooth skin of her back again.
"Progress, and every step of progress is a step closer to being together again," Lena says, resting her cheek on the top of his head. A little dreamily, she adds, "I've some other news, from this side. I went into the Mogu Vaults with a few others, Baird and Melancholy and Aszera, to see the soul library. And Baird and Melancholy are sweet on each other."
Shine lifts his head a little groggily. "Baird? Is sweet on her?" He sounds dubious.
"Mm," Lena says, with a little giggle. "I don't know if they think they're being stealthy about it, but they're about as subtle as smitten teenagers. Quoting poetry and the long looks and sticking close like they're tied by a thread. It's not any of my business, really. But it's cute."
"Tides a'mighty," says Shine, still dubious. "That doesn't sound like Baird." He is silent a moment. "She is… an unusual girl, I guess. Maybe he likes tiny hats more than I knew."
Lena shrugs. "Seems they're both wild for poetry. And fate, maybe? I feel like I try to keep up, with all that, as much as she tries to keep up with the fel magic and the combat."
"The poetry thing is new. For Baird," Shine says. "At least… I think? I haven't had much to do with the lad since he was… it's been six or seven years, I suppose, since I spoke properly with him. He does pick things up." His fingers trace the line of Lena's spine.
Lena arches her back invitingly. "Well, he picked it up just in time, then, to meet a girl. You'll see them when you're back, the eyes they make. The way he protects her, like when the mogu spirits attacked us. No idea where it's going. I assume they’ll sort it out."
"I'll see it when I'm back, I guess," Shine agrees distractedly. He's got his own business to attend to right now.
Lena hums quietly. "Maybe by the time you're back, we'll have the mogu pushed out of the Vale altogether."
"You'd better work fast, then," he says, and kisses the slope of her breast. "Because I don't intend to stay over there any longer than we have to."
"Have them fighting the mogu from the other side," Lena says, leaning down to kiss him. She whispers, "They can burn each other out."
"Hm," says Shine. It is not a thoughtful sound so much as a kissing-Lena sound, and then he is lying back on the bed and drawing her down with him. There are at least a couple of hours of visit left, and he does not seem inclined to spend them discussing the mogu any longer.
"You make a good point," Lena says, letting him draw her down. She braces herself above him for a moment to say, "Let's continue this conversation."