#oc: nilak | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nuchal · 7 years ago

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lofs: assorted

SERIES: Land of Four Seasons CHARACTERS: Aisuma, Gable, Nilak FORMAT: Drabbles RATING: PG - R-18 WARNINGS: NAUGHTY THINGS WITHIN IT’S LEGIT SUMMARY: Just events in their lives and, well... some other less wholesome things.

“It’s so cold.”

Aisuma glanced out from underneath the thick, fur-lined hood he wore to Gable. He was just as dressed up for the weather in the type of winter gear Aisuma and his tribe had always preferred, but he was jumping in place.

“We won’t be much longer,” Aisuma assured him, adjusting his grip on the fishing pole in his hands. Underneath them was a sheet of ice, pure ice that had once been a lake. They’d enjoyed the summer in this lake, swimming, but it looked nothing at all like what it had been. Aisuma had cut a circle out of the ice and they had been sitting here for the better part of several hours, him and Gable, patiently fishing away. So far, the count was at four, though Aisuma was optimistic he could land two more within the next hour at the rate he’d been catching.

Gable groaned a little, hunching his tall frame in on itself and peering miserably down at the hole.

“Weren’t you fine when we were in Mata?” Aisuma asked, glancing over at him as he readjusted his clawed grip on the rod, lightly tapping the reel with a forefinger. Gable’s expression twisted, his nose scrunching, before his expression eased into a sheepish smile.

“Well, I was trying to impress you back in Mata. Couldn’t go whining,” he said with a chuckle, tightening his hood by tugging at its cords. Aisuma flushed. “…even besides that, we were on the move, and it was easier not to notice when we were constantly moving.”

True enough. When he had been stuck in the cave with Nilak, he had thought he’d freeze to death even if he had managed a small fire.

“I’m an autumn elf at heart,” Gable said, putting a hand against his chest in tried and true dramatic fashion. Aisuma lightly jiggled the fishing rod. “I like moderate-to-cool temperatures, but not too cool, but also not too hot.”

That explained why he’d whined in the summer too, despite that being the land he worked as a ranger in for the longest time. Aisuma repressed a smile.

“Too bad, there’s no more one season lands anymore,” Aisuma said it in a joking manner but he sobered after the words came out of his mouth and he turned quickly around. “No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

But Gable only gave him a puzzled look and laughed. “Why are you apologising? You’re silly, sweetheart.” He reached over, rubbing his thumb against Aisuma’s cheek affectionately. “I know just how you meant it.”

Aisuma relaxed. Gable almost always understood. Nilak—well, they bickered now and then, though much less than they used to. Especially with Gable around to assure that neither of them misunderstood each other.

“I don’t miss Turja, you know,” Gable said abruptly. Aisuma’s eyes went wide. “Well, I know you worry about it. I’m sure you worry about Nilak, too. But we’re happy living here in the Middling—rather, we’re happy living with you. Even if the seasons are back to normal and that means I have to suffer through sweltering heat and awful cold.” He shuddered for dramatic effect, pouting his lips, and Aisuma laughed.

Standing, he pulled his pole from the water and retrieved his bucket and other supplies.

“Come on,” he said fondly, “let’s get out of the awful cold, then. We’ve got enough fish for the evening, so long as we dip into the stores a bit.”

Gable perked up, standing and moving to collect some of the supplies from him, tucking the ice saw under one arm. “Really? You know I’ll just keep complaining and whining, since you’re sweet to me like this even after I do.” He grinned mischievously, before jumping when a blast of cold air slapped him in the face.

“I think I’ll live.” Aisuma shook his head and reached out, grasping Gable’s hand firmly in his own as he led him from the ice.

Nilak would no-doubt be waiting impatiently for the two of them, and he’d have a good laugh at Gable’s inability to stand prolonged, still periods of cold. It sounded nice, Aisuma thought as he picked up his pace, hiding his smile down in his hood.

It was late. Aisuma stirred slowly, his thoughts sluggish and his body heavy. He hadn’t had enough sleep yet, but he had been in the middle of something… hadn’t he? What had he been doing before he drifted off? It was a mess and his mouth opened as though he were going to say something to someone, some company he’d had before he fell asleep.

He faded away back into sleep, reawakened when he felt sultry, far too hot to be bearable.

Squirming, he pushed down the furs that had been draped over him and opened his eyes. There was warmth at his back and, when he looked back, he saw white tufts of fur.

Nilak. Aisuma sighed and relaxed backward against Nilak, happy to allow himself to be spooned (though Nilak didn’t probably consciously intend to do so). Nilak often settled down back-to-back with him but he always ended up wrapped around Aisuma’s back, arms locked around his waist.

Hm. But, wait, if Nilak was here then where was Gable? Forcing himself to wake up enough to look around, Aisuma lifted up his upper body slightly (trying not to dislodge Nilak) and looked around the inside of the tent.

Empty. No Gable. Hrm.

Frowning, Aisuma settled down and strained his ears, listening. If he was quiet enough, filtering out Nilak’s breathing, he could hear soft humming from outside. There he was. Keeping watch. Aisuma wanted to go to him, tell him that he could take over for him, but he didn’t want to wake up Nilak… and Nilak would surely wake up. Chewing his lip indecisively, he flexed his fingers in the furs bunched low on his waist.

Nilak mumbled something behind him and nuzzled into the nape of his neck.

“Are you awake?” Aisuma whispered.

… Nothing. Asleep, then.

Frowning, Aisuma put his head back down and stared thoughtfully at the tent wall. Stared and stared, trying to figure out how to pry himself loose without waking Nilak, until he heard the tent flap being pulled, a cool night breeze sweeping into the tent.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Gable murmured, smiling. “You should go back to sleep. I can hear your thoughts all the way from outside, you know?”

Aisuma frowned. “It’s past time for my turn to be a lookout,” he replied quietly.

Gable snickered. “Well, try convincing Nilak to let you go.”

Aisuma pursed his lips.

“Just relax and get some more sleep. You fell asleep mid-conversation earlier, I think you might need the extra rest. And I’m happy to work a little harder for my tired lover.” Gable winked. “So long as you give me a kiss later in gratitude, hm?”

“I’m getting up,” Aisuma replied stubbornly, trying and failing not to feel embarrassed. Every time, Gable managed to make him feel flustered. No matter that he had been using sweet talk on him since the very beginning… it was embarrassing! He liked it, but it was still embarrassing!

“Sure you are,” Gable chuckled. “Go back to sleep. Or maybe I should just come in and cuddle with you too?”

“Both ‘f you loudmouths, shaddup,” the voice was more growl than actual voice, and Aisuma shivered in surprise. Nilak did speak right into the back of his neck, after all, and that flustered him worse than Gable’s sweet-talk. He couldn’t turn to see, but he imagined Nilak had opened up one eye, was glaring at Gable. “Ranger, get back to y’post… you’re annoying.”

Gable gasped, clapping a hand against his chest as if wounded. “Annoying? Me?”

Nilak snarled quietly, but he hadn’t loosened his grip at all—actually, had it tightened? “’Sides, don’t listen to him, Aisuma, he just went out to keep lookout.”

Aisuma blinked. “Oh?”

Gable smiled guiltily, shrugging one of his shoulders. “It’s no fun when you give it away like that. Well, I’d still like a morning kiss, okay?” Placing a long forefinger to his lips, he grinned, and then slipped backward out of the tent before Aisuma could do little more than blush.

“Annoying,” Nilak muttered again. He sighed into Aisuma’s neck and nuzzled hard right into it, to the point where it was too hard. “Goin’ back to sleep. You too.”

You’re not even awake, Aisuma thought. Nilak slurred his words when he was sleepy. If it was true, he probably just came in, too, had just fallen asleep (or within an hour) when Aisuma had woken up from the warmth. Nilak was like a furnace. Probably because he had lived in Mata, where you needed to stay warm in the unforgiving winter climate. He had lived up in the mountains, besides…

Nilak’s fingers were hot at his stomach but Aisuma laid his black-scaled hand over them as gently as he could so as not to awaken him, stroking. Nilak’s breathing had quickly changed to deep and regular, puffing to the back of Aisuma’s neck. Outside, Gable had resumed humming, soft but just loud enough so that Aisuma could hear it.

Definitely on purpose, Aisuma thought groggily, the last thought he’d have for that night.

“Aisuma? Hey… Aisuma,” Nilak muttered, his white hair wet and sticking to his forehead. He frowned as he leaned over Aisuma, patting at his cheek repeatedly as Aisuma continued to stare blankly up at the tent ceiling. “Snap out of it, would you?”

“Give him a few minutes,” Gable groaned, stretching out on his back and fanning his face with one hand. “He’s always doing the most work, our poor sweetheart.”

They lay in a damp, naked tangle in their tent, blankets bunched up underneath them, still breathing from exertion. Nilak ached in various places he didn’t feel like talking about, but he’d do anything that Aisuma wanted—and hadn’t disliked anything that they had done. Still, Aisuma was so spacey it was weird, his dark eyes barely open and his lips occasionally moving as he took gulping breaths.

Carefully, Nilak settled on his stomach next to him and curled up against him, putting his cheek on Aisuma’s chest with a frown.

He could feel Gable’s attention burning a hole in the top of his head but ignored it.

The hand at his hair, less so. He grumbled and batted it half-heartedly away from his hair, but Gable persisted, moving his hands through his hair, bunching it up and away, bringing it up together at the back of his head to tie. Nilak blinked, glancing up when Gable’s hands withdrew and he could feel the kiss of cooler air at his sweat-damp neck.

“…Thanks,” he muttered.

Aisuma breathed a winded, amused chuckle and Nilak startled. Looking up, he saw Aisuma had come back to himself and was looking down at him with a sleepy smile. “You’re cute,” he told Nilak happily, running a clawed finger over his cheek.

Nilak growled, but kissed his finger at the same time.

“You never do that when I call you cute,” Gable whined, slumping until he was closer, his hair spilling over Aisuma’s head and forehead as he leaned his head there.

“You’re not Aisuma, ranger,” Nilak sniffed. “Besides, I don’t like being called cute by either of you.”

Aisuma blinked open his eyes a little wider, looking curiously at him. “You didn’t like it before when I called you cute as I—”

“AAAAAH.”

Gable laughed, sound filling up the tent even more than Nilak’s screech of protest did. He whispered into Aisuma’s ear, “Don’t bring it up, sweetheart, he’ll die of embarrassment.”

“Ohh.” Aisuma nodded.

“Shut up, shut up,” Nilak snarled and mashed his face into Aisuma’s chest, determined to hide away. That meant doing his best to ignore the two of those (his) idiots, even as his favourite out of the two toyed gently with his hair.

“I’m still not sure about this.”

Nilak was the one to say it. Funny, Aisuma thought as he lay on his back, panting quietly and gazing upward, I should be the one with the objections if any were to be made.

Gable slanted him an amused look. He was shirtless, green hair a wild tangle around his face. He always looked his prettiest when he was mussed up, when his lips were red from kissing. His hand was petting along Aisuma’s thigh, and by now the rings he always wore were warmed by their bodies, the heat in their large, shared tent.

“What aren’t you sure about, dear Nilak?” Gable asked, chuckling and bending to kiss Aisuma.

“This,” Nilak said, voice a growl as he watched. In the beginning he’d always watched with a mix of reproach and hunger whenever Aisuma and Gable kissed—by now, there was no reproach. Perhaps a tinge of jealousy, but that disappeared quickly when Aisuma stretched out his hand toward him and Nilak ducked to nuzzle into his neck. “You aren’t really okay with this, are you, Aisuma?”

Aisuma turned his head to one side, huffing lightly into Nilak’s pale hair. “If I wasn’t, we wouldn’t have come this far,” he told him. “I’m ready.” A small pause, a doubtful look from Nilak and he added, trying to be humorous and lighten the mood, “Besides, the drinks at dinner helped relax me too.”

To his dismay, it seemed to have the opposite effect and Nilak raised his head, scowling. “I’m not doing this if you’re drunk—”

Aisuma set his jaw. “I never said I was drunk. I certainly wouldn’t want you to do this if I were, either,” he said, tone low and simmering heat, a subtle sign of agitation.

Nilak worried too much and Aisuma didn’t like being fussed over, so they always tended to butt heads on this point—it was funny, because it was borne from intense care and affection yet neither of them seemed to recognise it in each other. Gable watched their interaction with this in mind, smiled while sighing and rolling his eyes. Then he reached out to tangle one hand in Nilak’s hair, the other in Aisuma’s, gently tugging the both of them.

“Now, now,” Gable purred, “calm down, my lovely boys. We’ve come this far, and I’m certainly not backing out. We’ve been quite careful and meticulous, Nilak, so surely even you know it’ll turn out fine, won’t you?”

Nilak’s cheeks flushed and he glared at Gable, more so when Gable snuck a kiss and grinned playfully. Aisuma watched them both with a vaguely entranced expression.

“We stop if he says stop, ranger, or I’ll kill you,” Nilak snarled, all bluff and bluster because he knew Gable would stop long before, wouldn’t do anything Aisuma didn’t want. Pushy Gable could be, but he wasn’t insensitive and did not want to do any more harm to Aisuma than Aisuma did.

“Yes, of course, I know,” Gable said, flapping his hand before he looked fondly down at Aisuma, laying flushed and watching him. “Now, up we get.” He scooped his hands under his back, lifting him as he repositioned himself. Aisuma went, settling comfortably with his back to Gable’s chest, head fitted just so under his chin, his horns swooping upward as if framing Gable’s head in-between them. Gable tried not to shiver, feeling sensitive with just a bit of weight on his hips. He’d held back the whole night, had certainly helped both Nilak and Aisuma, and Aisuma had come undone more than once with four, five, more fingers working him open, preparing him. It’d been something they’d been working on for several nights, with carefulness that Aisuma said wasn’t necessary, but Gable and Nilak had refused to relent on.

And tonight, finally…

Nilak swallowed, shuffling forward on his knees, in-between Gable’s legs, Aisuma’s, and Aisuma watched him intently, eyes like jet ink.

“Who first?” Nilak asked as Aisuma wrapped both of his arms around his neck, kissing him gently at the corner of his mouth as if in apology for their almost-argument.

“You can,” Gable replied, struggling to conceal his strain. Nilak eyed him for a moment, but then he moved both of his hands, gripping Aisuma’s legs under his knees. Aisuma tensed, almost imperceptibly, and they all stopped.

“…I’m just a little nervous,” Aisuma said, in a very quiet voice, reluctant to admit it. “But I want to do this. I promise. I’m ready. Please, Nilak. Gable.”

“You needn’t beg me, sweetheart.” Gable pressed his mouth to Aisuma’s fine, dark hair.

Nilak flushed dark and looked away, biting his lower lip. Aisuma watched him, shivering as Nilak nudged closer without saying anything, tip of his cock fitting up, sliding along his ass first before finding his hole. Aisuma’s eyelids fluttered and Nilak dropped his forehead against his shoulder. “You promised but if you change your mind, say so,” he said, voice trembling and almost violent. “Fool Aisuma.”

But he kissed his neck with heart-melting tenderness as Gable’s hands replaced his own in holding Aisuma’s legs up, so that Nilak could guide himself in.

It was amazingly easy, Aisuma thought with a shudder as he sunk his claws into Nilak’s back. Nilak pushed and his body swallowed him and it must have been because of the last few nights, of Gable and Nilak relaxing him with fingers, so many fingers that he lost count, but this was still so much better, filling him up, satisfying in a way fingers couldn’t match. Seeing Nilak’s face twist with strain, his eyebrows tightly furrowing and mouth hanging open, was another something in itself. Aisuma groaned his name, pressing his face to the side of Nilak’s head.

And Gable sighed softly, watching them over Aisuma’s head, heart twinging with affection, envy, because he wanted to do that as well. He wanted to feel it—soon.

He wet his lips, watching as Nilak pressed in but, try as he might to be careful, Aisuma was ready and he sunk in completely in just moments. His eyes were wide, pupils blown as if he couldn’t believe it, wings at his back and his head shivering, trembling, half-uncurling and re-folding.

“Now me,” Gable whispered into Aisuma’s ear and Aisuma’s body jerked. He grinned and Nilak looked up in a flash, to give Gable a warning glance that wasn’t necessary at all. “Don’t hold your breath, sweetheart.”

Oh, was it a battle not to.

Aisuma wanted to gasp, hold his breath when Gable’s cock nudged where Nilak’s was already pressed. Nilak twitched, a tiny whimper bursting past his lips before he could help it, and it was the cutest thing that it very nearly distracted Aisuma entirely from what they were about to do. But, but, there was no forgetting—one of Gable’s hands had slipped own and his long finger slid inside alongside Nilak, as if to hold him open as he nudged his cock up and in.

Claws sunk in harder into Nilak’s back and he gritted his teeth. Good. It felt amazingly good, reluctant as he was to admit it, and he didn’t feel even the slightest twinge of disgust from it. It had been a mild concern, but Gable’s dick pressing in along his own, rubbing against his, the realisation that Aisuma was taking them both without complaint was too amazing, too much to ever feel the slightest hint of displeasure or dislike from such an intimate touch with Gable.

But—

He was too quiet, their Aisuma.

Nilak looked to his face quickly, sucking in his breath.

Aisuma’s gaze was unfocused, his lips trembling and mouth open, and occasionally they would twitch—in time with Gable’s gentle motions to rock himself inside. Nilak watched him intently, entranced, wondered if Aisuma was even seeing the two of them right now, and he didn’t look in pain, he looked… blissed out. His face was flushed redder than Nilak had ever seen, and he was…

So, so pretty.

Cupping Aisuma’s cheek, he kissed his mouth carefully, as if not to pull him from the trance, and Aisuma moaned and kissed him back sloppily, rocking his body.

“Hey,” Nilak hissed, shuddering, and Gable gasped too.

“S’good,” Aisuma muttered deliriously. “Kind of… a lot, but it’s good, I…”

Gable laughed shakily from behind him, his eyes tightly shut, fingers flexing tightly on Aisuma’s hip. “That’s good,” he croaked, and he was another one who was undone. It was a strange feeling to realise he was the one who was most there, Nilak thought, observing Gable’s swimming eyes and the way his pointed ears seemed to tremble.

“Don’t you two dare pass out on me,” Nilak grunted.

“Pass out?” Aisuma echoed. “No—mm… no way. I need to feel you both more.”

Gable shivered and laughed, his long hair spilling forward and over Aisuma’s shoulder as he pressed his forehead to the crown of his head. He’d stopped pushing in. He was already completely inside, and they were all still, absorbing, processing. “Try not to rile us up too much, sweetheart,” he mumbled and he seemed like he didn’t want to move for some reason. Nilak eyed him, then Aisuma, and decided he’d take measures into his own hands.

When he gripped at Aisuma’s hips with both hands, one set just above Gable’s, the elf gave him a wary look—and both he and Aisuma gasped when Nilak moved, rocking his hips, cock sliding both along Gable’s and along Aisuma, muscle twitching, slick with the liberal amount of oil they’d used. It was too much, but not enough, and he needed to feel more of this, Aisuma and (reluctantly) Gable too, was going to make them both feel like they belonged to him, make them really, truly unravel and lose themselves.

“Ho… hold on,” Gable whined, and Nilak snarled.

“If you’re going to come, then come,” he snapped, “but I’m going to make Aisuma feel good.”

“A—are you?” Aisuma groaned, voice as hazy as his gaze, tilting his head backward to look upward at Gable. As if he were going to answer, when Nilak was jerking his hips sharply, his mouth twisted into an animalistic grin, goading Gable on until he started to rock too.

He’d spent the better part of the evening doing the work. Had spent a long time coaxing his oil-slick fingers in and out of Aisuma, holding him, coaxing him to orgasm again and again. Nilak had helped, of course, but he’d insisted that Aisuma touch him, watching the both of them with their hands all over each other as Aisuma shot looks back at him over his shoulder, wanting looks, wanting to touch Gable but not getting the chance.

The look Aisuma was giving him now was too much. The friction was too much.

Biting his teeth down, he finally moved his hips and let go, Nilak huffing a soft victory and Aisuma groaning, doing his best to encircle Gable’s neck with one of his arms from the angle, rolling his hips as if he liked the new slickness inside him, the heat. How far he’d come from how reticient he’d been at first, reluctant to allow himself to show pleasure. It still happened in the beginning, but once he was kissing them, touching them and letting himself be touched, that was it, he was everything Gable had ever dreamed of, thought he’d never actually have.

But, he would be damned if it stopped here.

Gable leaned down as best as he could, grazing a kiss over Aisuma’s forehead. “We’re just getting started, Aisuma.” A pause, his lips curving into a shaky but mischievous smile. “I’ve just smoothed the way, haven’t I?”

“You—” Aisuma spluttered and, to Gable’s delight, laughed. It didn’t last long, not when a jerk of Gable’s hips coupled with Nilak’s had him whimpering and arching his back, but it was perfect. Everything was more perfect than he could’ve thought, and he wouldn’t have traded it for the world. Leaning his weight slowly on Aisuma’s back, he could really focus, curve both hands in to trace Aisuma’s body, finding his cock and pumping it gently, just a little added touch to the weight of two pumping in and out of them.

Their rhythm was shoddy. But, they made it work. Soon all Aisuma could do was pant, hanging on to Nilak for dear life, whimpering their names, like he were delirious. Just when one of them drew back, the other pushed in, but the best was when they pushed in at once and Aisuma couldn’t focus but for the stretch in him, his addled mind struggling to come up with a way to make them feel better.

He locked his legs around Nilak’s hips and squeezed and Nilak moaned, loud and hoarse, a sound he usually tried so hard to keep locked down. Aisuma smiled just for a second, then did it again and again but it drove him out of his mind too, to feel them even tighter in him, even better, and Gable’s hands were insistent and no longer stroked gently but squeezed and stroked him with purpose. His ears were full of their sounds, the smell of their bodies, and it was all so, so much…

Not wanting to be the first, wanting to make them come undone—at least Nilak, so close in front of him—Aisuma slid a hand down his back, claws ticking over feathers, downy fur, until he gripped Nilak’s ass. He always played as if he didn’t like it, but when he slid his scaled finger in-between, Nilak yelped his name and his cock twitched hard and that’s when Aisuma tightened up again.

Nilak clung, pushing forward against him, moving even in climax, desperately bucking his hips, hitting somewhere deep and making Gable have to strangle a sound.

He wasn’t sure if they both came at once but it felt it but he couldn’t be sure because he was, too, arching his back and clutching at Gable’s arm as it encircled him with one hand, gripping at Nilak with the other. Nilak kissed him hard, mouth open and panting, desperate, sucking Aisuma’s tongue into his mouth as his hips slowed in their frantic movements but didn’t yet pull out.

Neither did Gable, making due with mouthing Aisuma’s neck and stroking his spent dick gently, as though he weren’t convinced it was over yet.

But—if either of them thought they would get any sense out of Aisuma, they were dead wrong. The only thing he could do as his body cooled, was to exchange kisses with them as best as he could, vision swimming, vaguely aware of being well and truly theirs.

#s: land of four seasons #original fiction #original characters #oc: nilak #oc: aisuma #oc: gable

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nuchal · 9 years ago

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LoFS: my ot3 and lots of them

SERIES: Land of Four Seasons CHARACTERS: Aisuma, Gable, Nilak FORMAT: Drabbles RATING: PG WARNINGS: Swearing I guess?? There’s nothing that merits a warning here, unless you count emotional anguish. Or OT3s. SUMMARY: They’re my favourite. I can’t tell you how many drabbles I’ve written about these three. So here they all are in one enormous thing. They range from general to cute to emotionally fraught. Some are pre-relationship, some are post-relationship...

“Aisuma, you must be roasting in those clothes.” Aisuma looked up. Gable, sitting opposite him around the small fire he had built in order to cook them a meal, was gathering his hair into a tail at the back of his neck (though he didn’t tie it so it just slid loose). The elf’s eyes were open, curious, fixed on the heavy clothing Aisuma wore. It wasn’t as thick as if he were a native from the winter lands, but the Middling was in a perpetual state of cool, a mix of all of the seasons. It necessitated their clothing be always a certain density. “I’m fine,” he told him firmly. Truthfully? He was hot. He wasn’t used to the heat of the summer lands, and his clothes were ill-suited. However, he didn’t want to undress in front of Gable, no matter how generously or kindly he had treated him, offering to show him the way through the summer lands, or how they would soon be sharing food. Gable’s eyebrow lifted. “You think I don’t notice you sweating?” he asked, his tone lilting higher in what Aisuma guessed was amusement. He rose, dusting off the seat of his pants, and walked around to sit alongside him. Aisuma’s tail twitched, but Gable didn’t give it a glance, instead lifting a long finger to pull Aisuma’s hanging black hair off of his forehead. Aisuma tensed but didn’t do anything, feeling a small twinge of annoyance when he felt hair clinging to his skin. “See?” “I’m really fine,” Aisuma mumbled, trying to seem as stern as before. Gable just snorted. There was a click of a buckle and Aisuma’s clothes went slack around the neck. He slapped his hands (hidden under material) up quickly to grab at them and gave Gable an accusing look. Gable, smiling, just cocked his head innocently. “I’m just helping you out. Here, don’t be self-conscious. You’re small, but it’s no big deal.” “How small I am isn’t the issue…!” Gable just laughed and Aisuma contemplated smacking him with the sharp edge of his tail when the fabric loosened that much more—the crafty elf had found the toggles and with them unfastened, his clothing fell around his waist. Before he thought about it, he’d lifted his hands, and that was his mistake. So too, Aisuma thought, was telling Gable the only components of his curse were his tail and his horns. Gable’s smile disappeared, his eyes fixing on the long, sharp black nails on Aisuma’s hand. His fingers up to the first knuckle were black and looked strange, because they had been covered with thin scales. Thin enough one could make out the colour of Aisuma’s skin underneath, but present and unavoidable. Aisuma, wincing, moved to bundle himself back up but Gable had moved further into his space, staying his hand with one of his. Damn that Gable, he thought in an uncharacteristic moment of brutal self-consciousness. He was tall and lanky, and even though his hands were monstrous (or on the way to monstrous), Gable’s hands were still bigger than his. Hunkering his shoulders, he stared down at his lap and the bunched folds of his clothing where they fell, ignoring that he could see a few strands of Gable’s hair swaying at the corner of his vision. “…It’s not just the tail and horns, huh?” Gable’s fingertip, soft as the brush of a feather, grazed the scaly black skin of Aisuma’s finger. “…” He said nothing. Gable knew well enough. He heard the elf sigh over his head. “How bad is it?” Finally, he sunk back, though he was still kneeling in front of Aisuma. Aisuma shrugged his clothing back up, but Gable gave him a look that seemed to say it’s a little late now and he stopped himself. Giving in, Aisuma pulled the heavy outer clothes off, setting them aside, leaving him in just the shirt cut to his elbows underneath. Unsure what to do with his own hands, he curled his fingers together. “I’ll eventually turn into a monster,” he told Gable, matter-of-fact, and the elf twitched. “It isn’t as bad as it sounds. My mother is a monster. We’ve had this curse in my family for a long, long time.” Aisuma paused. “Our ancestors became monsters in behavior and thoughts, but we’ve learned how to retain ourselves. Now it’s just our bodies that end up changing.” “So this is…” Gable’s long forefinger touched the back of Aisuma’s awkwardly clenched hands again. To Aisuma’s great surprise, he lingered and kept touching. Looking through the dark fringe of his hair, he assessed Gable’s expression, but it was hardly disgusted. He seemed… well, Aisuma wasn’t certain, honestly. The smile that he had gotten used to seeing had disappeared as his forefinger followed down one of Aisuma’s blackened fingers. He could read the people who he had spent his entire life with, but he had a hard time with Gable. At the very least, Gable didn’t look at him in the same way Adrien did—with the feeling he was being pitied. It was enough to make his shoulders bunch and for a urge to blurt out that he wasn’t pitiable. Or, at least, he didn’t want pity. “Yes. The curse. It often starts from the feet, but it’s not unusual for it to start affecting the hands early.” Another matter-of-fact statement, but this was something Aisuma had known his entire life. Gable laughed faintly, a laugh as though something struck him as unbelievable. “You can talk about this easily,” he said. “My mother is a monster.” Aisuma paused and narrowed his dark eyes. “…Just so you know, she is beautiful as she is. She is very kind and gentle.” He had only ever known her as a monster. By the time he had been born, her transformation had been complete, so he had grown up with two sets of eyes looking down upon him, large scaly hands cradling him, had grasped the whip-thin tip of a tail and had fallen against it when he had walked. She had licked the scrapes on his knee with her tongue and they’d healed right away and he’d burrowed himself against her snout to his mother’s gentle snuffle. Gable’s expression softened and he shook his head. “I didn’t say anything. You’ve seen the creatures that live in my land. You’ve noticed they’re unusual, haven’t you? I love them all the same.” “…I apologise.” Gable laughed, and now it was the carefree sound Aisuma had heard several times from him already, when they’d been making their way across the colourful landscape of his home. “Don’t worry about it. I suppose I’m one of the first ones outside of your tribe you’ve told this to, are I?” his voice was unusually bright, but Aisuma didn’t linger on why that was for long. Gable wasn’t giving him the chance, for he had taken Aisuma’s hand in his own. “What is it?” he asked, frowning at that hand cupping his. “You’ll be searching for a cure for this curse of yours before you change, right?” Gable asked without answering. “All by yourself?” “That was my intention…” My ancestors have always done that, he opened his mouth to continue, but Gable was opening his own. “Then, I’ll come along with you and help. It’s more fun when you aren’t travelling on your own, isn’t it?” His eyes had narrowed, but it wasn’t an unfriendly expression, it was more like the narrowing of a playful cat, or like his mother when she was about to tease or scoop up his father. “Two heads are better than one, too.” “What…?” Aisuma’s mouth had gone dry. Gable was… what? “Really, is it that shocking? Don’t your tribe always do things for each other?” “Yeah, but that… that’s different!” Aisuma didn’t know what to say. He felt his tongue suddenly heavy and awkward in his mouth, like the words he could form with it would be paltry. So he closed his teeth together and stared at Gable, trying to discern his intentions. But there was just softness in his greenish eyes, his smile widening. “Don’t think too hard on it.” Aisuma jumped when Gable flicked his forehead with a forefinger. “If anything, you can just take it as my capriciousness! Okay?”

→

Gable straightened up, raising his head away from the ground. Around them, the trees were wreathed in haze and the acrid smell of smoke and fire drifted, carried from far away on the wind. “Looks like there was a fire in Jesen,” Gable said thoughtfully, his fingers tucking some of his hair behind one of his ears. Aisuma frowned at him and Nilak’s wings fluttered minutely before resettling against his back. “Isn’t that bad?” “It is, but Rogna’s got it contained. She’s used to dealing with fires over there.” The mention of the elf ranger made Aisuma relax slightly. “Jesen’s most susceptible to fires, ‘cause of all their dry brush and leaves.” Which Aisuma knew, so he just nodded. “What about your land, ranger?” Nilak spoke up. “Mine?” Gable brought his hand up to his chin, his fingertips stroking it. “It should be fine. Rogna’s got it taken care of for now, and Finley’s on his way to their border to make sure it’s not creeping over to his land.” At Nilak’s skeptical look, he grinned. “Don’t you worry, if anything happened to my Turja, I’d know right away.” He looked into the distance, as though he could see his summer lands from where they were currently—deep within the spring depths of Faeu. Then, clapping his hands together, he turned back to Nilak and Aisuma with one of his usual smiles. “Anyway! Let’s go. The hollow Finley told us about shouldn’t be very far from here.” Bringing both of his arms around Nilak and Aisuma’s shoulders, he urged them along until Nilak growled at him and ducked out from underneath his arm. Feeling strangely dizzy, Aisuma didn’t bother, letting that weight rest there, Gable’s hand dangling in front of his shoulder. After several minutes of walking in silence, he almost missed a step and tilted sideways, his weight falling into Gable’s side. “Aisuma?” Nilak was before him at once, frowning at the same time Gable tightened his arm around his shoulders, holding him up with his sheer strength. Sometimes Aisuma forgot that Gable had that, slender that the elf was. “I’m fine. Just missed a step.” However, Nilak didn’t look convinced and, in fact, glanced up at Gable. “You mustn’t have had much haze in the Middling, huh?” Gable murmured, his eyebrows knit. “Do you feel sick?” “My throat is…” Aisuma stopped. He grimaced against the tightness in it, and he coughed before he had any more chances to assure both of them that he was all right. He heard Nilak sigh and then the sound of his wings flapping. “Nilak?” Feeling a strange jolt of anxiety to see him rising slowly into the haze with it wreathing around him, he lifted one of his monstrous hands free of his poncho. Nilak’s gaze locked with his and softened minutely. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back. Gable. Take him to the hollow.” “Aye aye,” Gable said with a smile. He moved and, abruptly, Aisuma found himself being scooped up and cradled in his arms as though he weighed nothing (he didn’t, his tail alone was heavy enough). Spluttering, he slammed one of his hands against Gable’s chest in protest, but the elf was hardly stopped. “Now, princess, let’s go. Your knight’s going to find a river.” “River?” Aisuma stopped his struggling. Half because it made him dizzier and half because… it obviously wasn’t working. “That’s right. Don’t worry about it, just hold on.” He had to, because Gable started to run. He tangled his fingers in Gable’s shirt, lowering his head, each bounce that came with his steps not comfortable. In fact, he was desperately fighting another coughing fit. The elf moved faster and faster, ‘til the trees had blurred around them and then they were sliding downand Aisuma choked back a sound at the sudden drop in his stomach. “Sorry,” Gable said in a gentle voice above his head. “But we’re here. Look.” Aisuma did—the air was clearer here. They were in a dip, a basin of sorts in the landscape, with trees surrounding it. When he turned his head, he saw that they had slid down a steeper hill than he had thought. Gable hummed as he brought him into the hollow and, feeling tired, Aisuma shut his eyes and put his forehead against Gable’s shoulder once more. He didn’t know when he passed out but he woke up to the sound of wingbeats. Nilak had come back, and he carried a small basin with him, one Aisuma recognised as the one he usually drank from. He folded his wings as he landed, glancing around with a frown. “It’s not as good as Finley said that it was,” he huffed. He closed the distance between them—Gable had set up a rudimentary shelter while Aisuma was unconscious, and a cloth ceiling hung over his head, strung between tree branches. Aisuma watched Nilak’s pale hair sway as he knelt, setting down the basin and fishing something from it. It was a soaking cloth that he wrung out before offering it to Aisuma. “…What’s this?” he asked after a long moment. Nilak was looking at him like he expected Aisuma to know what to do with it. He had no idea. And he got to see Nilak frown at him, the usual are you stupid? expression that he thought had lessened lately. “You—just hold still. I’ll do it.” Nilak’s voice had gotten impatient, but he moved closer and lifted the wet cloth. It touched Aisuma’s cheeks, face, and he finally understood when Nilak tied it behind his head. It covered his nose and mouth and he breathed in damp air. However, it felt a little easier, even more since they were in the hollow. “That’s better, isn’t it? I didn’t think your body would be weak to haze and smoke.” Aisuma glared at him over the top of the makeshift bandanna (of sorts) and Nilak’s mouth twitched. “Aw, don’t pick on him, Nilak,” Gable chirped. “You think you’d be nicer, since you’re so worried.” Nilak stiffened and narrowed his eyes at him, his teeth gritting together. Pink had come into his cheeks and Aisuma felt a little satisfied seeing it, settling backward as he sucked in deep breaths through the cloth. “Shut up, ranger,” he bit out the words and sat next to Aisuma. Despite his attitude and his words up until now, one of his wings opened and it slid behind Aisuma’s back, enveloping him, the feathers at the tip sweeping his scaled wrist. It was thick and warm, fluffy and feathery both and Aisuma shut his eyes again, putting aside his compunctions in order to give in and relax utterly.

→

If there was one negative to be found in the wings that sat upon his back… it would be that neither Aisuma nor Gable could join him in the sky. Mostly Aisuma. Gable was acrobatic enough that he strove to keep up with Nilak when he was gliding over the trees, following him nimbly by making his way through the treetops themselves.

Aisuma, though. All he could do was walk and walk, plodding steadily along with his gaze fixed straight ahead of him. He neither looked up nor to the sides unless he was checking for danger.

Nilak had once scorned walking, for it took long and it was strenuous besides, derided those who had to rely on it to travel. However… these days, realising that he had to either fly alone or get used to walking, he was opting for the latter. Slowly but surely.

It wasn’t so bad, he learned. Walking alongside Aisuma, gazing upward occasionally, he felt smaller than he ever had before. Oddly, he didn’t mind. After all, he could walk while feeling the warm, companionable brush of an arm against his.

It wasn’t bad at all.

→

If, in Gable’s youth, you told him he would be eventually in a relationship (of sorts) with two people, he would’ve laughed. But, these days, there was nothing laughable about it. It was his reality. Certainly, their relationship was somewhat complicated. He couldn’t say that he loved Nilak beyond a sense of camaraderie, something familial about it. He was certainly cute, but the both of them knew they were here for Aisuma.

It was lucky that Aisuma accepted them both. Had it been one or the other, well.

Wouldn’t it have been hard to bear? Gable tried not to think about that. He liked to live his life thinking of good things that could be, not the bad things. Before them stretched a boundless future. Admittedly, the thought of Aisuma’s transformation brought with it it’s own kind of pain, but… he already knew he could never leave him.

→

Aisuma sat alone. He curled up, wrapped up in his own poncho, his arms curled around himself, his clawed fingers lightly digging into the sleeves of the shirt under the poncho. He stared off into nothing. To him, nothing reached his ears right now. To him, he saw nothing that he looked at. To him, it was all… All just…

I love you, Nilak had told him, fierce and quiet with blazing eyes. Be mine, Aisuma.

Gable, gentler, taking him by the hand and bringing it up toward his face. He didn’t kiss, just touched his forehead against black knuckles tenderly. I love you, you know. I always will, no matter what.

Aisuma made a sound in his throat, low and keening, miserable. He rocked himself and clutched at his own arms, wishing he could claw them open, but he couldn’t. Not with scales that nearly covered up to his shoulders and collarbone, hard and durable.

He didn’t want this. He didn’t want to deal with this. Wasn’t it enough for the three of them to be together? Part of him resented the two of them. More than part. He hadn’t responded to either of them, unable to. What was he supposed to do? Accept one of them and refuse the other? No. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t be the one who would split them apart. However, the thought of rejecting them still pained him.

Aisuma knew, of course. He knew his feelings for Nilak and Gable were deeper, stronger than he’d ever intended when he’d accepted them as his travel companions. But, he also knew he would never act upon his feelings, had resolved never to. So to hear that both of them felt for him that way…

He kept rocking his body without realising it, wishing for his mother, unashamedly sinking into that desire (though perhaps tomorrow he’d chide himself for his childishness). He wished to curl up between her front paws, as he had when he was a child, when he was hurt. Any time he felt depressed, he’d curl up there, warm and safe between her paws. She would be able to be there for him. Even if she had no advice to give him.

But, he had an inkling of what he needed to do. He had to turn down both of them. If both of them left, so be it. He would return to the way he had been at the start of his journey, alone. Bid to carry this burden alone. He had been ready to do that from the moment he had left home, it was only along the way that something had changed.

It might tear him apart if they both left him, but better that. Better that…

→

“Where’s Aisuma?”

Nilak was in a frenzy. He practically spat the words out as he stopped in front of Gable. They’d all gone their separate ways to pick up supplies for the night in the village, but after he’d told Aisuma what he did… Aisuma had said nothing, merely staring at him with a face Nilak couldn’t read and had never seen on him before, before turning and hurrying away. He assumed he’d gone to Gable.

However, Gable just shook his head. “I thought he was with you.” There was a pinched quality to his face, an unhealthy pallor to his skin, his mouth tense at the corners. He wasn’t smiling. For someone who was always smiling, this was…

Nilak narrowed his eyes. “What happened,” he growled, staring up at him. “You did something, ranger.”

Gable didn’t smile. He didn’t try to cover up his thoughts by laughing or saying something whimsical or ridiculous. He looked away, yes, but looked back and, with a bracing breath, he said: “I told him how I felt.”

“Fuck!” Nilak cursed, spinning away and slamming his fist against the nearest surface that wasn’t Gable’s stupid fucking face. “Shit!” Again, but he slammed his heel this time and he felt something give, though didn’t care to look at what he was destroying. Gable stood where he was, doing nothing, saying nothing. It took Nilak several minutes before he could bring himself to look at him. “What did he do.”

Gable’s mouth twitched and his gaze dropped. “Nothing,” he said, quietly. “He left.”

“Fuck,” Nilak said for the second time, grinding his teeth. His stomach was a pit, a knot, coiled into itself. “I told him too.”

Gable went ashen, his mouth opening as the implications struck him the same as they had Nilak. They had both told Aisuma their feelings. They might as well have each took an arm of his and pulled as hard as they could. Nilak could only imagine what was going through that idiot Aisuma’s head right now, what he was putting himself through. Because, Nilak was certain he felt something. He had to have. His looks sometimes, his expressions, the way he interacted with them—both of them—said that much.

And now this. They might as well have met up and decided to do it on the same day and then made Aisuma pick between both of them for all the good that this would do.

Nilak snarled and raked his hands through his hair, again and again and again. “You’ve got shitty fucking timing, ranger!” he hissed.

“No wonder he looked like that when I found him,” Gable was saying, faintly, not paying attention to him.

“Listen to me, damn it!”

Gable, reluctantly, switched his attention back to Nilak. Something swirled in his gaze—unease, guilt, all other kinds of emotions. “I thought you weren’t going to say anything,” he told Nilak, quietly. “I’d never intended to say anything myself, but with things as they are… I couldn’t help it.”

Nilak rubbed his palms over his face. Muffled: “You think I don’t know that? Ugh. Fuck.”

Gable brought his own hands through his long hair, sweeping it back, just for it to fall over his face again. “He’s not at the inn. I couldn’t find him anywhere. He must’ve just ran off somewhere.” Pause. “What if he decided to leave?”

“He’s not like that and you know it. He’d say something, no matter what,” Nilak spat, agitated, stirred up but not from anger so much as guilt. What had they done to Aisuma at this time? Especially this time. “Why did we both have to decide to be selfish today of all days?” He gnashed his jaws. “I’m not…”

…going to give him up to you, he was thinking of saying, but the words died. This wasn’t about that.

He stared at Gable, who looked back at him, his expression gradually beginning to calm. Nilak almost wished he had that kind of control. “We need to find Aisuma. But before we do, we need to know what we’re going to say to him,” he began, his voice slow, wording deliberate. Nilak had the feeling he wouldn’t like what Gable was building up to. “Nilak. We don’t need to make him feel like he has to choose between us.”

He was right. He didn’t like what Gable had built up to.

→

Gable lead the way— naturally. The summer lands of Turja was his territory.

Feeling too hot in the balmy air, Aisuma flapped one of his hands at his face, to waft what little breeze that he could. Gable glanced back over his shoulder, grinning. “Don’t worry, my sweets,” he said, “we’re almost there.”

Nilak made the face Aisuma expected him to make at being called Gable’s anything, and they continued onward, picking their way over a snare of roots and ducking under enormous fronds that Gable mostly held out of the way for them. He’d woken them both up this morning with a promise that he was going to take them somewhere nice, somewhere they could relax, though Nilak wondered what he was planning. He had to have something in that mind of his. He usually did.

He scrunched his nose and ruffled up the wings on his back, feeling them heavy with sweat. It was only at these times where he regretted fur and feathers.

“And here we are,” Gable announced grandly, stepping forward and holding a big frond out of the way. Before them—was a beach. Aisuma stared wonderingly at the nearly white sand leading down to clear, unrealistically blue waters, tentatively stepping from the shade and safety of the trees. Gable watched him, fondly, and grinned at Nilak when he decided to follow.

“A beach, ranger?” Nilak said doubtfully, but that clear water looked inviting. The beach was mostly deserted save for some stray seabirds, picking at crabs or insects in the sand. A few of these looked their way but they didn’t flap off, occupied with their feasting.

“A beach,” Gable replied brightly. “I bet the two of you have never gone swimming in the ocean, now have you?”

Aisuma gazed toward the water still, though his dark gaze shifted, attention caught by outcroppings of rock a short walk away that formed a rough jetty out into the water. Around the tip of it there were clusters of barnacles and in the water surrounding it, there were colourful corals just visible through water. Aisuma wandered away from the two a ways, black and clawed toes bearing his weight over the warm sand, scales thick enough that the heat was comfortable and not scorching.

“Of course not.” Nilak huffed, planting his hands on his hips.

“There you go. We’ll have a nice swim in the water, and then we’ll come and dry out on the sand. I’ve even brought blankets.” Gable started to hum happily under his breath, swinging his pack off of his shoulders. So that’s what he had gotten when they’d gone back to his house… He flicked out the brightly-coloured blankets to lay on the sand, wandering off in search of stones to weigh down the corners, and Nilak shrugged to himself and fanned his wings before trotting to where Aisuma crouched.

“Did you find something?”

Stopping behind him, he looked down and saw Aisuma absorbed, his chin resting in one of his monstrous palms. Aisuma’s attention was on several pools of shallow water, in which small creatures, brightly-coloured fish and snails and other things that Nilak didn’t recognise swam.

“Just this,” Aisuma replied. “I wonder what these are called.”

“I bet that stupid ranger knows.” Nilak crouched alongside him and looked over. It was rare these days to see Aisuma relaxed. He had so many things on his mind, unsurprisingly, so the glimmer of interest in his dark eyes and the softening to the corners of his usually tensed or pursed lips made Nilak think, in a moment of insanity, that Gable had had a good idea after all. “Do you want to swim?”

Aisuma tore his gaze from the tide pool to look over, smiling one of his small, reserved smiles. “Yes. Are you coming?”

Nilak snorted and smirked at him. “Of course. Gable’d try something if I left you alone with him in the water.” He paused to consider something else. “So, that tail of yours won’t make you sink, will it?”

Aisuma rolled his eyes and Nilak snickered. “Come on, he’s waiting for us.”

They stood up together, heading back to where Gable shaded his eyes and smiled, awaiting them.

→

“…I didn’t think you were even capable of getting sick.” Nilak took the now-warm cloth off of Gable’s forehead, dipping it into the nearby bucket of water, chilled with the large chunks of ice that bobbed in it. He could hear the sounds of Aisuma moving in the other room, cooking something in the fireplace, no doubt soup or another one of his tribe’s recipes for the sick. He had all kinds of weird remedies and recipes.

Gable coughed wetly and scrunched up his nose. “Well, that makes two of us.” His voice was low and nasal, but he sighed when the cool cloth was placed on his forehead.

“You’re whining less than I’d think you would, too,” Nilak continued, arranging the cloth against hot skin as Gable looked up at him. The elf merely grunted, a far cry from his usual smiles and playful jabs. This change was unnerving.

“The soup will be ready soon.” Aisuma poked his head into the room long enough to say so and Gable smiled at him at least, not that Nilak wanted Gable to go smiling at him or anything.

“Thank you, darling.” Aisuma ducked back out of the room (he’d grown accustomed to pet names) and Gable sighed, confiding to Nilak in a woeful voice: “I wish I’d be able to taste it.”

“It’s not like he won’t make it for you if you ask,” Nilak said as he picked Gable’s hair out of his sweaty face. Gable shut his eyes while he did so and Nilak leaned back in his chair, gathering his feet up onto it, his knees tucked against his chest as he yawned. When he finished rubbing the heels of his hands against his eyes, he saw that Gable was watching him.

“You should get some sleep. If you get sick, our poor Aisuma won’t be able to handle it,” Gable murmured.

“Like I’d make him take care of both of us,” he scoffed. Gable smiled thinly, closing his eyes and tilting his head backward against the pillows he was propped up on. “Hurry up and get better. You being so quiet is unnerving.”

“You taking such good care of me is just as unnerving.”

Well. He had to be feeling at least a little better, if he was up to saying that, with one of those smiles that annoyed Nilak on his dumb flushed face.

→

Aisuma’s tribe had settled in for the night. Overhead, the orange sky had started to be slashed with darker blues, a vivid violet. Aisuma was stretched out on the grassy ground, his paws folded underneath his head, his snout resting on top of it. His mouth was opened slightly, his eyes peering out from within his mouth, where his eyes were, fixed on the fire that Gable had built. A low buzz of chatter hummed in the background, from the rest of the tribe. “Say, Nilak,” Gable spoke up in a bright voice. Nilak grunted in acknowledgement. He was cleaning a fish, cleaning off its scales. He pulled his knife free, peering along the fish before, satisfied, he moved on to the other. He and Aisuma had spent the earlier afternoon fishing together. “Don’t you think that we should get along even better?” Gable continued, bringing his chin down into the palm of his hand. Aisuma raised his head slightly, cocking his head curiously. Nilak stopped and blinked over at him, confused. “What are you getting on about, ranger?” As though trying to ward off an impending headache, Nilak wiped his hands just so that he could bring one to his face, pinching between his eyebrows. Gable chuckled and stood from his position, coming closer to Aisuma and Nilak both. He paused, to gently run his hand along Aisuma’s head, fluffing a piece of his mane and giving him a tender look before sitting by Nilak. Aisuma, puzzled but curious, put his head back down on his paws, watching them both. “As Aisuma’s lovers,” Gable began, “we should get along better. I mean, we’ve already all cuddled together. You needn’t be shy about hugging me by yourself, or holding my hand.” Nilak flicked a fish scale at his face and Gable bwoof’d as it ricocheted off his forehead. Aisuma snuffled with laughter. “Aren’t you just being needy?” Nilak drawled. “Don’t be stupid. I have no reason to want to hug you or hold your hand.” “Or kiss?” “Or ki—” Nilak choked. Aisuma’s head shot back up, his jaws hanging open wider. In a second he was on his four feet, the large spiked, metal sphere on the end of his tail slamming against the ground enough to rock it underneath all of them. Nilak yelped, unbalanced. “H-hey, Aisuma…! Ranger, what the hell are you saying?!” “Come now sweetheart, don’t worry,” Gable said—he had turned to Aisuma, beckoning him closer. He hesitated, scraping his claws against the ground, his eyes narrowed and his mane bristling. “Come here, don’t sulk.” Aisuma closed his jaws and turned his head to the side, sitting back down instead where he had been and wrapping his tail around himself defensively. Gable grimaced and stood up, walking over to him instead, draping himself over his back. He crawled up until he could perch his chin between the horns on his head, looping his arms just underneath his jaw. “I didn’t mean to make you jealous. I love you, you know that.” Aisuma shook him off and whacked him with his paw for good measure. Gable, wincing, clutched his stomach before turning with an imploring expression to Nilak. “Don’t look at me. You’re the one who started saying stupid shit,” Nilak snorted. “Why would I want to kiss you, Gable?” Aisuma had stood up and marched his way over to Nilak, curling up behind him with his head turned facing away from Gable. Nilak, in a gloating move, leaned back against his body and arched his eyebrows at Gable. “I’m not saying you want to, just that you can.” Gable looked, googly-eyed, at Aisuma, but he was still being ignored. “That’s stupid. I don’t want to kiss anyone but Aisuma.” Nilak had gotten back to his fish cleaning, shifting just enough to lean back and press a kiss against the leathery skin of one of Aisuma’s shoulders as though he were proving a point. He got a glance and a nuzzle against his back. “So, you wouldn’t be interested in seeing that, Aisuma?” Gable shimmied closer, legs folded. Aisuma turned his head in his direction. Then, stretching out one of his paws, he scratched a series of symbols into the dirt. Nilak glanced at them idly, paused, and squinted at them again with a face. Do you want to kiss Nilak, Gable? “Hmm.” Gable frowned thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t be against it. He is small, and cute.” Nilak flung a piece of fish guts at him but this time Gable was ready and dodged it just in time. Aisuma considered, rubbing out the symbols before writing something else. Do you like Nilak? “Well, naturally. We’re friends,” Gable said with a smile. Nilak scrunched his nose but didn’t protest. “And we’re both in love with you. We’ll be spending the rest of our long, long lives together. I thought that, perhaps, we could all share everything with each other. Of course, even if myself and Nilak will never be the same with each other as we are with you.” Aisuma’s eyes blinked a few times—it meant that he was thinking. He turned his head to face downward, looking at the ground with his paw smudging out these symbols as well before he wrote some new ones. All right. Nilak shot to his feet. “All right?! Aisuma!” Aisuma glanced up at him and continued with his writing, undeterred by the way that Nilak’s feathers and fur were standing up. Only if Nilak ever wanted to. Otherwise, it’s no good. “Haha, no problem. I didn’t intend on forcing him anyway,” Gable chuckled. “Just in case we all get swept up in the moment sometime. And, of course, my warm arms are always open and welcoming.” He winked at Nilak, who fluffed himself up more before sitting back down, glaring back at Aisuma this time. “Why are you okay with this? You were mad at him just a second ago,” he grumbled. Aisuma nudged his head underneath Nilak’s arm and, while still with a sour expression, Nilak let him do so, stroking his fingertips along the top of his head. While cuddled up in this way, he scratched out some more symbols on the ground. Gable couldn’t see them from here, only that he saw Nilak cover his face with one of his hands in exasperation before smudging them out with his foot. A series of clicking sounds escaped Aisuma—he was laughing. “What?” Gable asked, eagerly. “What is it?” He had gotten close enough to them now that he could reach out and touch. “Nothing,” Nilak hissed. Aisuma clicked some more, his whole body shaking with it, and his eyes were glimmering with mirth. He reached out his paw and scraped some more symbols into the earth. I thought you’d become tired of me, Gable, at which the elf frowned. He brought himself closer and reached out, but Aisuma held up his paw to stay his motion. I’m sorry. I was just jealous, because I didn’t understand. “Because Gable’s lousy at explaining,” Nilak muttered. But I want you two to be happy, and to get along, more than anything. He hesitated, his claws scratching the ground before he added: Even love would be okay. I just want to be together forever, all three of us. Gable relaxed then and Nilak lifted his arm away so that Gable could pull Aisuma’s head gently into his lap, ruffling his fingers through his mane. “You needn’t worry about me—or us—leaving you. We’ve already been through the worst together, haven’t we?” Aisuma’s head cocked doubtfully so Gable gave his nose a little bonk. “Yes we have, silly boy.” Aisuma rumbled softly in the back of his throat in what was acceptance so Gable chuckled, lowering his head to rest on top of his, between his horns. “I doubt I’m going to fall in love with him, you know,” Nilak added, dryly. “But kissing’s fine?” Gable asked him brightly. Nilak kicked him hard in the shin and Gable winced, whined, while Aisuma clicked his laughter and nosed into Gable’s stomach.

→

You can’t live by yourself, Nilak recalled others of his kind saying to him. Watch me. He had said something to that effect, now hadn’t he? Those others, they didn’t know anything. They criticized Nilak for his anger, his suspicion, his aggression, even when those were the things that kept him alive. You could not be naïve and vulnerable when you lived on a mountain teeming with wyrms, dragons, and other beasts that would like nothing more than to bite you and rip you into shreds. His wariness had kept him alive. They lacked the same. Air-headed fools. He would like to think much the same about Aisuma—he would, except Aisuma was as different from them as he was from Nilak. He hadn’t known what to think of him. Here was a boy, a small boy, with serious eyes and hair that always cast a shadow over his face. Who bundled himself up completely to hide his curse away from the world. Yet, no matter how many things should make him angry, he reacted with a solidness that could be aggravating. Certainly, he quipped, he was sarcastic, he had no qualms with telling either of them when he believed they were being foolish. Nilak had seen him be annoyed, time and again. However. He didn’t get angry over what counted. Nilak was nearly double in size, from how his wings had expanded, the feathers and fur on his body standing up. His eyes were narrowed into angry slits as he and Aisuma walked through one of the many small villages of the winter lands. He could hear them. Oh, whisper that they may, but his ears were sharp, more so when he was listening for things purposefully. “Aisuma,” he growled, and Aisuma graced him with a brief sideways glance, “are you just going to keep walking?” “We’re not going to get back to the inn any other way,” was his reply. Strangely enough, it tempered some of his horrifically bad mood. Nilak’s feathers sunk down and his wings folded back to his body, at least, though his eyes were still narrow. “You know that isn’t what I’m referring to,” he said. “You’re going to have to be more specific.” Nilak hesitated. He looked around them again. A mother pulled her child closer as they passed—her eyes were fixed on the horns (branching, late into his transformation Aisuma was progressing) and to the hands that he could no longer hide underneath the expanse of his poncho. His reptilian feet with their long, clawed toes, and of course his enormous tail that ended in a sphere ringed with spikes. Nilak bore his teeth and brought himself closer to Aisuma’s side. “No matter how often this happens,” he said to him quietly, “why won’t you get angry? You ought to glare at some of them, at the very least. I know that you can’t not have heard them?” Aisuma looked at him properly now, with his dark, dark eyes. His mouth tensed, pursing into the sort of disapproving look he often gave Gable. Nilak drew himself up slightly. “It doesn’t matter,” Aisuma said at last, with a shake of his head. Rage sparked again, but this time at Aisuma’s inaction. He was content to let them say whatever it was they pleased about him? When they didn’t know anything, no, nothing at all— “If I saw me, I would be afraid too,” it was so soft as to be a whisper. At once, Nilak knew that he hadn’t meant to say it. The way Aisuma went rigid and then picked up his pace said that much. Letting out a small tch, Nilak hurried after him, caught one of his arms, and dragged him into the nearest alley. His leg hit against something or another, but it hardly mattered so much as crushing Aisuma’s body up against his. “What fool things are you saying?” Nilak asked him quietly. Aisuma refused to look at him. “Stop being understanding.” Nilak gave his chin a swat with two of his fingers, but Aisuma only clenched his jaw. He could be a damn stubborn thing, when he wanted to. He was stubborn in all the wrong places! “There’s no reason to sympathise with people who judge you just like that.” “I am a monster,” Aisuma told him quietly, pointedly. “As am I! What of it? Your family has been monsters as well, haven’t they? That damn word doesn’t mean anything anymore! It certainly doesn’t mean you deserve to have every old man and every brat whispering about you on street corners when you’re just minding your own business,” Nilak hissed, bringing his face close. Aisuma wouldn’t look at him? Fine. He would just make it impossible for him to see anything else. Though Aisuma’s changing body certainly made him strong, he hardly struggled, though he did jerk his head when he realised Nilak had pushed him back against the alley wall. “They don’t matter, Nilak,” Aisuma muttered, turning his head so that he, reluctantly, was looking into Nilak’s eyes. “Oh, no?” He snorted. “Don’t think you can fool me. You may not get angry, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel anything else, do you—” “What do you want me to say?” Nilak stopped. He had pushed too far. Aisuma’s voice had tightened. It wasn’t anger, it was something deeper, more raw. Pain. It was a voice that he didn’t hear from Aisuma much, and for good reason. Gable was so often present in order to mediate, to make sure one of them didn’t say something stupid. Nilak did the same for him. But, here he was, with Gable back at the inn, no-one to mediate. What did he want Aisuma to say? “I wish you’d get angry,” Nilak sighed. He couldn’t do anything but become honest, in order to avoid a fight between the two of them. It wouldn’t be the first, of course, but he’d be damned if he redirected the anger he had at the villagers onto the person it was tormenting. “I wish, instead of you allowing yourself to sympathise, you would be angry instead.” Aisuma’s expression changed, subtly, and he looked hesitantly up at Nilak, waiting for him to continue. Nilak was terrible with this, but he brought a hand to his face all the same, touching tentatively at the skin of his cheek. “You haven’t done anything worth fear.” No, that wasn’t it. “…You’re not frightening. There’s nothing wrong with the way that you look. Anyone should be able to realise that.” As if to show this… he touched Aisuma’s horn. The one, tracing it gently. He found nothing odd about it, nor his monstrous hands, or his clawed feet, or that deadly tail of his. His scales weren’t scary, nothing about him was scary, no matter what people or Aisuma himself thought. Aisuma was quiet, but he dropped his head forward until it nestled underneath Nilak’s chin. He leaned it against his collarbone and he just breathed there, quiet and still otherwise. Nilak slid his hand down Aisuma’s horn gently before cupping the back of his head, sifting his hair through his fingers repeatedly. He felt almost compelled to hush him, though Aisuma wasn’t crying and likely wouldn’t. He wasn’t the type. So he cradled his head and stroked his hair, smoothing it again and again. “And here I was wondering where you two had gotten off to.” Nilak glared up. There, at the end of the alley, with his hands settled to either side of the opening, was Gable. He was smiling in at the two of them, his eyebrows lifted, his head cocked to one side. Aisuma didn’t move immediately, though made a near-inaudible sound of acknowledgement. “Shame there’s not enough room in there for me,” Gable chuckled. “I’ll just be out here.” Here Nilak had expected more obnoxiousness. But, Gable turned his back to them both, his body blocking out any would-be passers-by. Was he doing it on purpose? (Of course he was.) Nilak looked back down at the form leaning against him and tentatively pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. “Sorry, for getting so angry,” he said to him, quietly. Only after meeting Aisuma could he think that his anger was no longer so necessary, so important for him to hold on to. “It’s all right. It wasn’t at me.” Aisuma’s head shook back and forth against his chest before he pulled back. In a moment that left Nilak as rigid as a statue and feeling hot, he leaned up to kiss the corner of his mouth gently before stepping out of his arms and walking down the alley. A knock of his hand against Gable’s shoulder had the elf moving to allow him out and Nilak, eventually, followed.

#s: land of four seasons #original fiction #original characters #oc: gable #oc: nilak #oc: aisuma #drabbles #my ot3 to end all ot3s #monster boy #elf

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