The air was wrong. Very wrong. More ash than air, it was thick with smoke and the smell of burning wood, filled with shouting and the clash of weapons. People were running, yelling, lashing out indiscriminately. Throwing things, shoving others, destroying property. It was a full-blown riot.
And the Grace Bridge was engulfed in flames.
It was not what Ruune had expected, waking up in the small hours of the night to the alarm being sounded and the scent of smoke all the way in their room deep in the House. Hastily grabbing their belongings and rushing out, she had been ready for the unrest, violence, and even for someone breaking in, but this…? This? The main bridge connecting the north and the south, This side and That, burning like a midsummer bonfire, flames reaching up and up and up, licking at the Heavens, its roar deafening, its heat scorching, its brightness blinding as it lit up the city that should be deep in peaceful slumber.
It was horrifying.
It was… magnificent.
“Ruune!”
Tikka’s shout reached over the clamour, pierced right through her heart, and she startled out of her stupor. She spun around to find Tikka, who parried a hit from a coal rake, before kicking the man wielding it in the stomach and sending him flying. She turned, found Ruune’s eyes, and it was like she had been kicked in the gut too.
Tikka was frantic. And desperate. And so, so scared.
She held out her hand, reached for Ruune but also… Also for someone else.
“Let’s go!”
With her heart in her throat, Ruune grabbed the hand, clutched it tightly in her own, and they ran. They ran and ran, first along the esplanade, then ducking onto the narrower side streets to hide from view. They ran and ran and ran, until the sounds of chaos started to fade away and Ruune could run no more.
They found one of the many parks dotting the northern side of the city, and promptly she collapsed onto a bench to catch her breath. It came out in puffs of white as she heaved, finally filled her lungs with clean, crisp air once more. Compared to the cacophony of sound at the House of Grace, the park seemed almost eerily quiet, only a distant echo of noise and the glow of the fire against the sky above the buildings any indication that anything was amiss.
“We should keep going,” Tikka said. She was pacing in front of the bench, glancing this way and that, her entire body tense and on the verge of snapping. She had her sheathed sword in her hands, hugging it tightly against her chest, her knuckles white from how hard she gripped it. “We need to leave the city immediately.”
“Heavens, let me breathe,” Ruune whined, closing her eyes and dropping her head against the backrest. “We don’t need to leave, the rioters won’t come all the way here.”
“Just like they didn’t go that far?”
She pressed her lips tightly together and gave Tikka a look. She wanted to be annoyed at her back-talk, but with how miserable she clearly was, she didn’t have the heart. Instead she said, “Their gripes are with the Matriarch and the House of Grace. And that is where they will direct their ire.” Tikka opened her mouth to argue, but Ruune held up her hand to stop her. “But,” she continued, and stood up, “if it makes you feel better, we can keep going and find a small inn somewhere near the city walls.”
Tikka bit her lip. Clearly it didn’t make her feel better, or at least not as much as she would like it to. “Fine,” she eventually agreed. “I suppose you have a duty to fulfil, or something, so we can’t just… go.”
“That’s right,” Ruune said, picking her pack back up. “I wouldn’t want the Matriarch to think something happened to us during all this. So we’ll wait for everything to settle, and then…” She waved her hand and sighed. “Then we’ll see what we can do.”
***
They did eventually find a place that accepted clients at four in the morning, though it wasn’t… exactly the kind of establishment that Ruune typically frequented, especially under circumstances like this. But it was very discreet, out of the way, and charged by the hour, which was actually quite convenient since they were only staying half the night.
The blonde woman at the front desk told them that if they needed anything, anything at all, to call on her and then wished them a pleasant night. Ruune smiled at her, internally bracing for the snarky comments from Tikka, but none emerged. She just kept staring at the front door absently, barely aware of what was happening around her. Even when they got to the privacy of their room, and Ruune closed and locked their door, it was still the same.
She stood in the middle of the room, still clutching her sword, still staring at the door. She was not seeing it though, her eyes glazed over, the slight frown on her face directed at whatever thoughts were coursing through her mind.
Ruune sighed. She set her bag aside, pulled off her coat and her boots and her woolly shirt, and laid them all down. And then she smiled.
“Tikka.”
She called the name as soft as she could, but Tikka still startled. She turned to look at Ruune, a mote of focus returning to her eyes, and blinked. Ruune held out her hands and gingerly stepped closer.
“May I?”
Tikka blinked again, her mouth forming words that didn’t escape into the world, until she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and nodded, a barely there movement.
Gently, so, so gently, Ruune closed the distance and took a hold of the sword. Tikka hesitated for a fraction of a second, before releasing it, and followed as Ruune led her by the hand to the foot of the single, large bed in the room. She set the sword to the side, then returned to Tikka, who simply stood there with her eyes still closed. She reached over again and pushed the coat off Tikka’s shoulders, pulled the shirt over her head, unclasped her leather armour. She let her fingers slide along Tikka’s legs as she knelt, and Tikka drew in a shuddering inhale. She still hadn’t opened her eyes.
Ruune untied her boots and helped her pull them off, tossing them somewhere in the direction of the door. As she rose, she again kept her fingers close enough to brush against the sides of Tikka’s legs, to feel the muscle underneath the fabric. Tikka really had such a remarkable physique… She still remembered the first night they met, of seeing that physique laid bare and bloody before her on a table, of feeling the heat of her skin as she stitched her whole again.
She’d thought it all a dream for one foolish moment, but could you really blame her? It was all so unbelievable, for a woman like this to not only exist but for her to bind her life to Ruune? And yes, it could be annoying at times ― heaven knew it was annoying at times ― but beyond that it was… utterly inconceivable.
That I would be so lucky…
“It’s not luck,” Tikka breathed and finally, finally, opened her eyes. They burned with her determination, but unlike the raging, destructive inferno on the bridge, it was a warm and steady fire, dangerous, yes, but not malicious. And it set Ruune’s soul aflame. “It’s Karma.”
So what else could she do, but grab a hold of her face and kiss her?
***
“I… really didn’t mean for it to go like this,” Ruune muttered into the crook of Tikka’s neck, filling her lungs with her scent, musky yet sweet. It was warm under the covers, warm where she pressed into Tikka’s side, warm skin against warm skin. She ran her finger down Tikka’s torso, tracing along faded scars from years of fighting.
“You didn’t?” Tikka asked, overly dramatic, and gripped Ruune’s side, making her jolt. “Could have fooled me with the constant lust that has radiated off of you since we met.”
“Stop that,” Ruune huffed, grabbing a hold of her wrist before she decided to start tickling. “And I meant today. I won’t pretend I haven’t been attracted to you this whole time, but…” She hesitated, but then propped her head up, resting her chin on her hand on Tikka’s shoulder, and looked up at her as genuinely as she could. “You were clearly upset by the crowd and the fire, and I just wanted to comfort you.”
“You certainly did that,” Tikka said, bringing her other hand up to cup her jaw. Her thumb brushed over Ruune’s bottom lip, and her eyes followed the movement hungrily. “I am exceedingly comfortable right now.”
“Is this a joke to you?” Ruune asked, then caught the tip of the thumb between her teeth. Tikka snickered.
“I think you know the answer to that.”
She did. Everything was a joke to Tikka. Except actually nothing was.
She let the thumb go as she sighed and rested her head back on Tikka’s shoulder. For a moment they lay there in comfortable silence.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Tikka tensed.
“Not if I have a choice,” she said.
“I understand,” Ruune assured. Absently, she fidgeted with the pendant around Tikka’s neck. The pendant she gave her. “I just thought it might make you feel better. I know I do whenever I put to words all the things that weigh on me.”
It was slightly hypocritical of her, she knew, since she hadn’t really told Tikka about her family situation either. At least in detail.
Tikka didn’t seem interested in commenting, so Ruune shook her head and said, “If you don’t want to, that’s fine. It seems like something quite difficult for you.”
“If you want me to, I will,” Tikka said then, which made her frown. “But I would prefer not to.”
“I…” she started, then paused. Why did that sit so wrong with her? “Of course I want you to tell me,” she said, and Tikka had already opened her mouth when she continued, “But only if you want to.”
It was Tikka’s turn to frown.
“I don’t want you to do things you don’t want to, just because I want you to,” Ruune said, and the frown deepened.
“I am constantly doing things I don’t want to because you want me to,” Tikka pointed out like it was no big deal. “Like coming to Karinne.”
“No, but that’s… That’s different.”
“Not really,” she said, and something sank in the pit of Ruune’s stomach. “You own me. And a directive is a directive, whether it’s something emotional or physical.”
“You… you’re not a slave,” she tried, but Tikka made a face.
“Not in the traditional sense,” she agreed and then shrugged. “But in a way…”
Ruune sprang up and pressed a hand to her mouth.
“Oh heavens,” she muttered, feeling quite sick suddenly. “It’s like I brought a sex slave to a brothel.”
Tikka all but purred at that. “Was I a good sex slave at least?”
And then she ran a finger down Ruune’s spine. She shivered, couldn’t help it, but spun around and snatched her wrist to stop her.
“This is not funny, Tikka!”
Tikka’s eyes widened slightly, caught off guard by the movement and the outburst, and Ruune screwed her own eyes tightly shut. She loosened her grip, but didn’t let go yet, until the hand shifted, and Tikka laced their fingers together.
She took a deep breath to calm down, then opened her eyes again.
“This is now a directive,” she said, locking Tikka in place with her gaze. She nodded, breathless. “Answer my question truthfully, without jokes and without hiding. A simple yes or no.” She nodded again, and Ruune nodded back. “Did you want to get physical with me?”
Tikka opened her mouth and inhaled, sudden and raspy. She blinked, her lids stuttering, her eyes roaming over Ruune’s face, and then, like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, the walls around her crumbled, a tension she had always carried inside her melted away, and she smiled.
“Yes.”
Ruune could not look away.
“Yes,” she repeated and then laughed. “I did want that. Ruune.”
And with the way she said her name, tender and wondrous and full of life, what else could Ruune do, but lean down and kiss her again.
***
Afterwards she made Tikka swear that she wouldn’t let her do anything to her that she didn’t want. They had a consensual partnership here, magically binding life-owing be damned. Tikka seemed very amused about the whole thing, but didn’t argue or make jokes, simply promised that she would always make it abundantly clear when they were doing something she didn’t like. Ruune had a feeling that would backfire on her spectacularly, but she needed to be sure. She did not want to add to the burden Tikka was already carrying all on her own.
By morning, news of the riot had reached all throughout the city, and it was the only thing people were talking about. Of course it would be, the main bridge had burned and the House of Grace had been attacked! There had been looting! And street fights! Something like that simply didn’t happen.
Not on This side anyway.
Ruune tried to pay them no mind as they made their way back through the city towards the House. It did seem like the city guards had eventually managed to quell the mob and though some windows had been smashed and the front doors busted down, there had been no casualties. Small blessings.
The square in front of the House was a mess. Rubble and trash littered the streets, broken glass and pieces of wood. The Grace Bridge was even worse for wear, fully collapsed in the middle. It would take ages to fix it, though luckily it wasn’t the only bridge in the city. A number of guards milled about, looking out for any further troublemakers, and the members of the Household had already begun slowly clearing out the square.
Ruune spotted the Matriarch by the broken front door, talking to what looked like a general.
“Come on,” she said, nudging Tikka slightly. “Let’s go tell her we’re fine.”
She started to walk over, but a hand gripping her sleeve stopped her. She turned to look back at Tikka, whose eyes were downcast and face ashen.
“I feel it again,” she whispered, and Ruune was immediately on high alert. She glanced around as discreetly as she could, but Tikka shook her head. “Not here. I don’t know where, but I feel him watching us.”
Wait…
“Him?”
Tikka was shaking, her breathing ragged, her whole body tense. She clutched her sword by her side in one hand and Ruune’s sleeve in the other, like lifelines to keep her from sinking into the dark abyss.
“I finally recognised it,” she managed. “That icy stare…” She did not move a muscle, but her eyes flicked up to find Ruune’s, burning with anger and regret and fear.
“It’s him.”
__________________________________
This part is dedicated to my bestie ica, for listening to me rant about the struggles of writing, and for giving me a banger opening line! Cheers!
For the two missing scenes, please subscribe to my onlyf-- *shot*
Anyway lmao, finally the tension broke, right? Took them long enough! But let's not get too cosy just yet, we still have 10 more parts to really fuck everything up :):):):):):)
Next topic is "Distance"
Pede out.
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