Blood of the Dusk Mother

Strangeness & Charm

ryuuzephyrus:

Perfect, he thought as he grinned, the side of his mouth revealing a sharp fang. Just as planned.

The sound of the object falling to the ground pulled Ryuu’s eyes toward it, but he quickly looked back at the mesmerized au ra. His grin wavered. The au ra’s long stride had brought him toward the bed in moments, and Ryuu was swallowed by his shadow. Sarangerel’s eyes seemed to beckon to him, glinting as if gesturing for him to move nearer. A phantom’s touch under his chin, claiming him.

As their lips touched, his thoughts fell away, a fistful of sand held over a canyon. He felt himself peering over the edge of that canyon, gaping at him with lust and the fear of that lust peeking through the cracks. His hands moved without his conscious command, first along the au ra’s big shoulders, then slipping lower to the curiously narrow waist. The hand against his abdomen projected warmth through him, and yet he shivered as his fingertips brushed bare skin. Shivered again as his tongue dared to flick a paint stroke against Sarangerel’s upper lip.

One hand slipped lower, to the leg that had framed him against the bed. He gripped the other man’s thigh, digging his fingertips into the firm flesh obstructed by fabric. His own veins knocked against his palms and deafened him to the soft breaths exchanged between their lips.

A shiver raced down Saran’s spine, a touch of ice scalding against the flame spreading outwards from his core. Ryuu’s hand upon his leg spurred him on. His fingers wandered across Ryuu’s abdomen, seeking to free the warm flesh from the tunic he wore, his own collar beginning to dampen with sweat. He trailed kisses along Ryuu’s throat, feeling the quickened beating of his pulse beneath his lips. He nipped his skin softly.

Saran shifted away for a moment to catch his breath, his fingers lightly skimming along Ryuu’s knee, an unconsciously beckoning gesture. The look in Ryuu’s eyes drilled squarely through the haze of clouds blotting out Saran’s thoughts. His hand froze. Oh. He had seen that look before; he had felt a similar touch to the one fiercely – and temptingly – gripping his thigh. Ryuu desired him, as she had. Ryuu captivated him, as he thought she had. He had been mistaken then. Was he mistaken now?

I want him, he thought, a ripple of unease twisting strangely with the yearning in his gut. He leaned back, breathing hard. What if it ended up being the same? Had he not felt that he had wanted it then too? Had it been curiosity, intoxication? He felt so burningly alive around Ryuu, more than he ever had around anyone. He didn’t want to risk losing that, not yet.

A watery smile touched his lips. Saran ignored the slight tremble in his hand as he stroked the curve of Ryuu’s cheek, thumb caressing the edge of his mouth. “Maybe, Little Bat… another night?” he suggested, trying to speak lightly despite the huskiness deepening his voice.

Strangeness & Charm

@ryuuzephyrus

Although their trek back to Ul’dah had taken a while, his desperation grew and pushed him along. He resisted the strong urge to tackle Saran to the ground once they finally entered the manor. The ghost of their kiss still stung his lips, the fire raging in his stomach stretching up toward his chest. How long had it been since he allowed himself to feel this way? Since he even had the chance?

Thoughts of the past swallowed him, and he followed blindly into another part of the manor. Ryuu blinked in the darkness for a moment before the lamp lit up the simple room. Saran could’ve been anyone. He could’ve intended to murder Ryuu, abduct him, do anything to him for all he knew. He looked around the knickknacks set about the room, items that typically indicated a cultured person lived there. Since when had he become so trusting?

The question terrified him, took him aback. No. This was a fling with a nobody like him, a nobody whom he may never see again after this. He sat on the bed, looking up at Saran, taking in his daunting appearance. The curvature of his horns, his piercing gold eyes; they penetrated his heart, his memory.

Too much thinking aggravated him. He shut it off, focused on getting what he wanted. Ryuu laid back in a rather unrelaxed position, one leg stretched out and the other bent at the knee. He pushed his shirt up to expose a section of his chiseled abdomen. He propped his head up with one hand, and raked the other through his hair. The au ra was standing around, staring at all his belongings like he was seeing them for the first time.

“You lookin’ for somethin’, big cat?” he said with a wide smirk.

Sarangerel picked up the Kharaqiq piece. It would serve his purposes well enough. Hearing Ryuu’s voice, he began to pivot towards the miqo’te. The moment he began to speak, his eyes landed on Ryuu. His words fell into abrupt silence. Caught off guard, all Sarangerel could do was stare at the man stretched out on his bed. The pose was inviting, and the slip of well-defined, taut, dusky abdomen was enough to erase all the thoughts from the au ra’s head.

He set the Kharaqiq piece back down. It missed the edge of the armoire, toppling onto the floor with a sharp clack. “It can wait,” Sarangerel said in response to the miqo’te’s question, drawn towards him by his charming smirk.

Standing at the edge of the bed, he leaned down, placing a hand under Ryuu’s chin. At last Sarangerel reunited their lips. The quiet ache roared to life again, shooting warmth through his body. His fingers hovered above the exposed glimpse of Ryuu’s abdomen for a moment, before he gave into the urge. The touch was light at first, tentative, and then grew more certain. Sarangerel placed his hand flat against Ryuu’s abdomen, reveling in the heat of his skin, the hardness of his muscles. He propped one knee on the bed as he leaned down further into the kiss, feeling fire ignite in his core.

Strangeness & Charm

#ryuuzephyrus #{strangeness&charm}

ryuuzephyrus:

His heart hadn’t ceased racing but it almost became natural, like it needed to fight hard to stay alive. A brief moment passed to catch his breath before he was drowned in another kiss, this time pulled into the other man’s embrace as though they hadn’t been nearly close enough before. As they parted again, this time much too quickly, a little whine escaped Ryuu’s throat before he was silenced by Saran’s daring touches.

Ryuu shuddered as firm hands grasped at his ribs, and he felt himself slipping away from clear thought. Desire burned hot within him, and although what he received was setting his nerves ablaze, it wasn’t quite enough.

The moon glaring down upon them reminded him where they were and how exposed he quickly felt. He looked into Saran’s half-lidded eyes only briefly before his gaze fell to his lips. There was something primal about the way Ryuu was spoken to in that low, slightly scratched voice. He could nearly see the ache to continue escape the other man’s lips.

“’Little bat?’” he said with a smirk. “Like I’d let you go home alone after that, big cat.”

He reluctantly slid away and stood first, keeping his gaze locked with Saran’s. His mind was clouded and images of what was to come fluttered about, making him more eager to find out.

A fiery ache had been kindled in Sarangerel’s stomach, its smoke making his thoughts hazy as the pair traveled back towards Ul’dah. It was a lengthy walk, and the urge to reach out and just grab Ryuu came and went in frustrating waves. The au ra felt as if his lips were still tingling with the pleasant pain of the miqo’te’s nipping fang, although it had grown faint by the time they reached the manor.

Unlocking the door, Sarangerel led the way through the darkened building. As they mounted the steps and moved to his room, Sarangerel felt a fresh wave of excitement, something that extended beyond physical. This wasn’t just a chance to revel in the embrace of someone who made him feel brilliantly alive and stimulated, but perhaps it was a chance to share something of himself with someone immensely intriguing.

It wasn’t just Ryuu’s looks that entranced him, Sarangerel thought, glancing over at the miqo’te as he led him into the room. So many questions were rotating through the au ra’s mind once again. Ryuu was so different from anyone else he had ever known. He had told him something interesting about himself out there on the sand, something personal. Sarangerel wanted to do the same.

“My room is this,” he announced, lighting a lamp. He paused and glanced around the room, trying to decide what to show Ryuu first. The raen scales, shimmering gold on the little table next to the large bed? He could tell him about how different xaela and raen were if that was the case. Or maybe the tiger bone knife he had bartered with a member of the Qerel clan for? Or the Kharaqiq piece? Or the Doman headscarf he had been given?

Strangeness & Charm

sarangereldataq:

@ryuuzephyrus

He wanted to know what Saran was thinking, but perhaps it didn’t matter. The Ala Mhigans had always looked at him like he was somebody’s mistake—and he was certain that he was. But Saran didn’t look at him like that, not once. Definitely not now. The way the au ra was looking at him made him feel like he was too visible, a stark sun against the dark desert. Saran reached out to touch him, his fingertips warm against his cheek. Ryuu quickly realized he wasn’t the sun—it was Saran. He was merely a match struck aflame.

His eyes fluttered closed, his arms slipping around the au ra’s narrow waist. At first his heart had remained calm, but he had soon felt the rapid pounding against his comrade’s chest, and it had awoken his own hammering organ to life. And then he suddenly stopped burning.

Ryuu glared into Saran’s eyes. Why’d you stop? He wanted to ask. Instead, he gripped the scruff of the taller man’s shirt and pulled him forward again, their lips colliding messily for a moment before Ryuu took control of the kiss. He wasn’t allowing Saran to get away from him this time.

In his rough insistence to continue, the tip of his fang nipped Saran’s lower lip. It shot a jolt through his nerves but he didn’t stop. Saran could think he was desperate or moving too quickly, he didn’t care. He kissed him firmly, his lips parted just enough to accept as much of Saran’s as he could. His fangs grazed the other man’s lips again, this time admittedly on purpose.

Ryuu grew short of breath and slowly parted from the kiss, only then aware that one hand was still tightly gripping Saran’s shirt while the other had slid up to the back of his neck. The fire in his eyes grew wilder as he gazed up at the au ra. Your move, he thought, a smirk lifting the corner of his lips.

Sarangerel almost misread Ryuu’s glare. But then suddenly he grabbed him and they were kissing again. Rough, messy, amazing. Sarangerel clasped Ryuu closer, an unexpected tingle of pleasure racing through him as Ryuu’s fang nicked his lip. He hoped he would do it again. Harder.

Breathless as he was, it almost seemed like it was too soon when Ryuu pulled away. Sarangerel’s body felt hot, his lip stung, and the moon may as well have been the sun for how intensely the heat between them boiled.

The fire in Ryuu’s eyes and the smirk curving his lips spurred Sarangerel on. He reached for him again, drawing him onto his lap, kissing him fervently, drowning in his flame. Emboldened, he allowed his kisses to travel, shifting away from Ryuu’s lips to his jaw, hands running over Ryuu’s ribs. The temptation to kiss Ryuu’s neck came upon him, but he returned to his lips instead, desiring the sharpness of Ryuu’s fangs and the fire of his kiss.

He pulled back, starting to feel a bit hazy, staring at Ryuu with low-lidded eyes. Sarangerel rested his hand against Ryuu’s face as he caught his breath. With the connection briefly fractured, thoughts began to slowly tip back into the au ra’s mind. It was late, very late. And he needed to be sure he was at the manor, able to attend to his employer’s needs come the morning. But he didn’t want to say goodnight to Ryuu just yet.

“I must get back to the manor,” he stated, his voice slightly husky. “Come back with me for a bit, Little Bat?”

Strangeness & Charm

“It wasn’t just the Garleans,” Ryuu answered, “The Garleans just kicked ‘em when they were already down.” He thought about the stories he’d heard of the Ala Mhigan monarchy and how it had grown corrupt. The Garlean Empire used the internal corruption to their advantage. Ryuu refused to blame them for their bitterness; not when they faced endless tyranny only to escape to Ul’dah, where corruption was all too common.

He turned to Saran, staring intently at him, trying to understand his mumblings. He knew nothing of this Hotgo the au ra spoke of, nor did he understand why Saran was calling himself selfish. “You helped those people when you didn’t have to. It ain’t your responsibility to feed ‘em and aid ‘em, but you did. That ain’t selfish,” he said.

Casting his eyes to the sky, he fell silent. Perhaps it was because Saran wasn’t from Ul’dah that, despite that he was evidently disturbed by the Ala Mhigans’ sickness, he was still inclined to help. But Ryuu appreciated it, regardless. It made him feel less alone, less like an outsider attempting to bandage an internal wound.

Ryuu felt the other man’s gaze against him, and he wasn’t sure if it was the staring or the question that had ignited his nerves. He shrugged. “My dad’s Ala Mhigan. Not that it makes me part of ‘em, I’m not. But I know—I’ve seen a lot.”

The starry sky seemed like it was trying to swallow him. He felt dissociated from himself, from the person who grew up with blood that he wasn’t able to identify with. Those feelings always chewed at the back of his mind, but it had been a while since he thought hard on them. He wanted it to stop.

He shook his head. “Sounds like you relate to ‘em more than you thought,” he mused with a slight grin. He met Saran’s gaze, and the embers of his nerves grew into a fire.

“That ain’t selfish.”

Sarangerel smiled over at Ryuu softly. The words were uplifting, even if his companion wasn’t fully aware of what he had truly meant by what he had said. He was selfish for being in Eorzea in the first place, but maybe that didn’t matter now. It couldn’t be changed. If the rest of his actions weren’t selfish, then perhaps that was good enough. Helping the sick Ala Mhigans had been jarring, but he had done it anyway. He was proud of himself for that.

Ryuu’s answer surprised him, erasing the smile from his face. He blinked quickly. So Ryuu was Ala Mhigan? At least in blood. Was he saying he was an outsider? Or had he simply chosen a different path the way Sarangerel had? He wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling it would be wrong to ask, no matter how harshly his curiosity nagged at him. No wonder Ryuu had been so angry when Mercer had made those comments. Sarangerel hadn’t said the best things, himself. “If you carry their blood, they must not be so bad,” he said, the soft smile returning. “I will do my best to care about the Ala Mhigans and ignore what the nobles say.”

At Ryuu’s next statement, he let out a small laugh. “Maybe so,” he stated, returning Ryuu’s grin. “Can’t think badly of something you relate to, yes?”

As Sarangerel met Ryuu’s gaze, his expression froze, the smile retreating. There was a strange light in Ryuu’s eyes, a silver fire he felt flash right through him, dragging at something deep inside his own being. Sarangerel felt ensnared by that fire, by the life within those eyes. The quiet moonlight, their shadows on the sand. He suddenly remembered the silencing kiss he had given Ryuu. He had felt something similar then. Yet this seemed to strike deeper.

He wanted to be closer.

Sarangerel turned towards Ryuu and lifted his hand, a bridge connecting them just like the tether of Ryuu’s eyes. He cupped the side of Ryuu’s face, stroked his thumb against his skin. Warm. Smooth. His hand slipped away from Ryuu’s cheek. He took hold of his shoulders gently, and pivoted him so they were looking at each other face to face. He stared down at Ryuu’s handsome features, at the strange fire in his eyes, and felt desire clench his heart.

Sarangerel leaned forward, and united his lips with Ryuu’s. His hands tightened on Ryuu’s shoulders, his heart racing. Is this ok? He wondered. What if Ryuu didn’t like it? He pulled back slightly, still closer than perhaps he should have been, their breath tangling, lips just barely touching. His every nerve urged him to continue with the kiss, but hesitance gripped him. It was up to Ryuu to decide if he wanted this too, or if he wanted to push him away.

Strangeness & Charm

Without answering, Ryuu shrugged. Life in Ul’dah seemed callous to outsiders, too. Who was he to judge the lifestyle of another? The Dataq must have had their reasons. Ul’dah’s reasons were different. It wasn’t about the good of the majority, despite how the nobles tried to color it; it was about superiority, selfishness.

Ryuu turned to Saran, studying his face as he spoke. He knew nothing of this Urumet, but it sounded like they were more willing to care for the sickly than the Dataq. Ryuu assumed that “carrying the Ala Mhigans on their shoulders” was figurative, that Ul’dahns should support their new neighbors instead of leaving them to die. He knew that should a massive Garlean attack happen in this region, the Ala Mhigans would be sacrificed first. Ul’dah wouldn’t hesitate to recruit them for battle where they knew survival was unlikely.

Saran met his gaze sternly, and Ryuu felt an unexpected flutter in his stomach. He stared back blankly, thinking of all his encounters with the Al Mhigans, recalling the times he witnessed them threatening people or stealing from merchants. It happened often in the slums of Ul’dah.

“Some of ‘em are assholes—hell, most of ‘em are,” he answered, turning his gaze to the sand. “But no one bothers askin’ why. Their home was taken, they got no power. They’re treated like dirt. And people wonder why they’re bitter. I don’t blame ‘em.”

His brow furrowed as he glared at the sand. “What about the nobles and merchants who cheat people out? Who kill others just for lookin’ at ‘em funny? The difference is they can afford to do that shit for fun. The Ala Mhigans do it for survival. ‘Cuz they ain’t given another choice.”

Some of them really were just bad people, he knew that personally. But to him it was no different than all the other bad people hiding under Eorzea’s skirt. Yet being Ala Mhigan forced desperation, and desperation looked bad to those who couldn’t understand it.

Lost homes. Bitterness. Sarangerel had seen these things beginning to take root in Doma, which was why he had taken to the sea and the continent of Eorzea. “All because of the three-eyed ones?” Sarangerel asked, voice muted. He knew they had begun establishing checkpoints across Othard; they had encountered a clan who had dodged a few by a hair, not wanting Imperial influence to intrude upon their lives. But the Dataq would be safe, wouldn’t they? They moved far too much to be caught. Not even Garleans would be fast enough to keep track of Sarangerel’s wayfaring clan. At least, that’s what he told himself.

Sarangerel frowned, digging up a palm-full of sand and watching the grains whisper through his fingers, settling back where they belonged, indistinguishable from those that had been untouched. “Nobles…are like the Hotgo?” he questioned, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. No, surely not all of them were. His own employer was paying him for honest work. And while he was meant to intimidate, he had hurt no one at this point. So Ryuu saw the nobles the way the nobles tried to make him see the Ala Mhigans. Sarangerel wasn’t sure what to think, but the suffering of the sick was still weighing on him heavily. These people needed help, as did those the Dataq had never slowed down long enough to aid…

“I’m selfish, but I’m trying to understand what you see,” Sarangerel admitted. Selfish, a word he had never associated with himself until his clan had called him that. He was starting to think they were right. And it bothered him deeply. But there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn’t find them again even if he wanted to, and he didn’t want to give up what comforts the nobleman was giving him.

“A life lived only for survival…is one where nothing feels like your own. Where you have no home,” he mused aloud, working through his thoughts. Maybe he could understand the Ala Mhigans, at least somewhat.

He looked towards Ryuu again, staring at his profile, at his eyes that gleamed bright silver in the moonlight, and felt his heart contract. “How do you know so much about them? How did you come to see what they’re really like?”

Strangeness & Charm

Ryuu was glad he was sent away to fetch the water while Saran stayed behind. The au ra wouldn’t be able to argue with him about the Ala Mhigans’ plight now, neck-deep in their sickness and troubles. He had to learn that they couldn’t just leave their problems behind, not when those problems followed them and created new ones.

After he returned, he helped provide water for the entire camp, catering to the sickly before moving onto the others. Saran approached him shortly after, looking rather sickly himself. Although Ryuu was hoping Saran would be surprised and disturbed by the Ala Mhigans’ poor living conditions, he hadn’t expected such a dramatic change in his countenance.

Nodding, he led the taller man out of the cavern, the cool evening air swallowing away the prior stuffiness. He looked at Saran, who inhaled deeply as if he had been underwater the entire time. Ryuu’s brow furrowed.

“Never seen a sick person?” he replied, baffled. Sickness was everywhere, even in Ul’dah, especially among the poor. There was almost no escaping it. “Many reasons. Some people got sick on the way over here from Ala Mhigo and are unable to recover. This place ain’t the cleanest, either. When you’re forced to sit in it, whaddya expect?”

He crossed his arms, studying his comrade’s face. There was no doubt they had treated Saran with disdain. At this point, receiving help from outsiders was almost an insult. He didn’t blame them for their bitterness; he shared in it, to an extent.

Ryuu looked out into the night sky. He sat in the sand a distance from the gate, patting the spot next to him for Saran to sit. “Nobody chose this. They’re caught between the Garleans and the Ul’dahns and no one wants ‘em,” he narrowed his gaze at the dark horizon, the shadowy dunes risen in the distance. “I don’t see how a man coughin’ ‘is lungs out is a threat to the city.”

#ryuuzephyrus #{strangeness&charm}

Sarangerel shook his head, eyes still wide, face still bloodless. The sneers and scoffs of the Ala Mhigan’s had barely registered with him, nothing but dull shocks compared to the reality of sickness. The au ra frowned, his companion’s answers troubling him. He crossed his arms loosely and stared down at the sand, rendered a murky marrow-pale in the moonlight. “Injuries, but never ails,” Sarangerel stated, mouth drawing into a line. “Dataq life sounds callous to outsiders, doesn’t it?” And it was. He had grown tired of it for a reason. The constant movement, the feeling that nothing was his, that he belonged nowhere.

He glanced upwards, noting that Ryuu had moved some paces away. Seeing him pat the sand beckoningly, Sarangerel strode forward, settling down next to the miqo’te, crossing his long legs. He stared over at Ryuu as he spoke, frowning. “He isn’t,” he conceded quietly before shifting his gaze towards the moon.

The moon – his namesake. It made him think of the Dusk Mother, the fire she gave to xaela blood. It was weakness on his part to balk at such sickness and squalor, to be rattled by it. Yet…was the true weakness turning away from it? Leaving those you called kin behind because they couldn’t stop coughing, or were no longer fast enough to travel with you? What of the clans that carried the elderly on their shoulders, honouring them, honouring their clan as they should.

“If only Ul’dahns were like the Urumet,” Sarangerel commented, somewhat lost in his thoughts. “Carry the Ala Mhigans on their shoulders. At least until they’re well again.” He looked over at Ryuu, brow furrowed. “I have heard only stories of refugees stealing and hurting others. I can see these people are hurting, too. They are not nice, but do they act as bad as the Ul’dahns say?” The stories likely had some truth, if so many believed them. Then again, he knew lies could spread like wind over the plains, taking root in clans and turning them towards hatred. Ozbeg had tried to do similar.

Strangeness & Charm

The fight ended quickly. Ryuu stood over his opponent’s unconscious form, grinning as the crowd shouted his victory. This was his first knockout of the season. He could feel himself getting stronger; perhaps the championship would be his after all.

By the time he had left the Coliseum, the sun was almost fully set over the desert, the splashes of orange in the sky slowly consumed by deep blue. Ryuu’s gaze was pointed upward and away from the building, watching as the stars began to awaken. A familiar voice clawed into his thoughts, setting his nerves ablaze.

“It’s the future champion!”

Brows furrowed, Ryuu turned quickly to see Saran approaching him with a grin plastered to his face. For a moment he had thought the nobleman was sending for him again, but he soon realized Saran had come for his own reasons.

“You were serious about that?” he scoffed at the au ra’s request, but it seemed like it wasn’t a joke. Ryuu studied him for a moment before sighing in resignation. “Then follow me. But I’m warnin’ you, look at anyone wrong while we’re there and you’re dead meat. And I’m not savin’ you.” He gestured for the taller man to follow him in the direction of Little Ala Mhigo.

After a trek through the desert, the walls of Little Ala Mhigo finally came into view. Ryuu saluted the Flame soldier standing by the gate and entered, the cool night air lost within the stuffiness of the cavern. The moans of the sickly echoed against the walls. Some of these people were strong, some were still capable of providing for what little family they had left; others were not.

“This is Little Ala Mhigo. Since most of the refugees couldn’t stay in the city, they slapped this place together,” Ryuu explained in a low voice. He glanced around at the poor living conditions, unclean and uncomfortable. It sickened him to think people like Farrell looked on, living in comfort while the underworld struggled beneath them.

The Ala Mhigans always gave him strange looks when he entered their home despite that they knew who he was by now. He knew they still couldn’t accept him and probably never would, but their acceptance wasn’t what he wanted anyway.

He nudged Saran’s arm. “C’mon, let’s see if anybody needs help,” he said. He approached a highlander who was doubled-over coughing while a woman sitting beside him put a hand on his shoulder. “Could I get somethin’ for ‘im?”