Infuriating
Just a bit from DnD yesterday with @zanidragon @empresstress13 and @shiftyarchfey that I felt the need to write. We had to make a deal with an asshole to get a vengeful ghost contained and put to rest, but since the ghost used to me my character’s friend she won’t leave it alone because she doesn’t trust anyone. It led to a fun little bit about being trapped in an inn room with a hot guy who has some issues, and I just needed to write about it.
---
The room was stifling, and far too small, and Naema wasn’t even allowed to touch anything. There was so much stuff! She just wanted to see, and she knew better than to take any of his things; she’d never get away with it. But her hands were idle, fiddling with the strands of various bits she liked the texture of that she wore in lieu of a shirt, and it was awful. Her strings of “beads” weren’t enough to keep her occupied any longer, even the ones she’d braided into her hair for added textural interest. She gave up on the beads and paced like a trapped tiger, but her seemingly eternal companion did not seem to notice.
You did it to yourself, she reminded herself as she scowled at the back of his head. You could have just given him the damn Jar of Ghost and hung out in the inn below. Could have asked Val to- No, not Val. Val had been dragged through way too much already. Val deserved a break, to go home and not have to deal with this latest shitstorm. It was why she left Val behind whenever she left town; she was too likely to get herself hurt, and couldn’t stand the thought of Val getting hurt too. Well, still could have just hung out downstairs, anyway. But now that I’m here, now that I’ve made this choice, I”ll be damned if I’m leaving.
She plopped down on the bed for a while, playing with the frayed edge of the blanket, but she made herself stop before she ripped it apart. Sliding to the floor with a sigh, she started stretching, hoping it would help her feel a little less trapped. Twisting her body, contorting into whatever weird shapes might make her feel better once her muscles were loose, was entertaining only for a little while. She hopped back up to her feet and trotted over to look over her companion’s shoulder for a while, careful to keep enough of a distance that his fucking snake didn’t try anything again. But whatever he was doing wasn’t something she was familiar with and it looked like he was reading what was essentially gibberish to her, a bunch of random letters strung into words interspersed with actual words, at least in the parts that were written in a tongue she knew.
Boring. He wasn’t this boring before. He was aggravating and haughty and intentionally obtuse, but not boring. She could at least be entertained by thoughts of throttling him, but now she didn’t even want to do that anymore. She sat on the windowsill beside him and lowered her upper body through it before he could complain that she was in his light. At least if he tipped her over the edge she’d have something to do as she fell…
But he didn’t seem to notice her. She sighed heavily as she gazed at the street far below, still absolutely covered in vermin for no apparent reason. She stayed there as the tingling in her head got more intense because at least it was some sort of sensation, something to think about for a while. She had to cross her arms to keep herself from losing any of her strings of “beads” to the nastiness below, but she stayed there and scowled at them as her face grew redder with pooling blood. Until she remembered the ravens. Oh, yeah, they were staring at her, all eight pairs of those creepy and too-intelligent eyes trained on her because she was the only one dumb enough to be seen outside, probably. Time to nope out of that.
She sat up too quickly, her vision going dark as she slid back down to the floor. She rubbed her eyes as sight returned and glared at her companion, but he was still absorbed in his work. He hadn’t even stopped for lunch, though she’d eaten something out of her bag. Finally, she decided it was enough. He wasn’t supposed to be this boring, and it didn’t suit his pretty face to be so still and focused.
She crawled over to him and ran her hands up his calves. “You’ve been at it for ages,” she purred. He didn’t acknowledge her. Her hands massaged their way up his thighs. “Aren’t you tired? Aren’t your eyes crossing from all the reading?”
“No,” Kharvas finally growled, the first acknowledgement of her existence since he chucked her out of his bed after mentioning their odd dream that morning.
Naema pouted for a moment before trying again, getting to her feet to drape herself carefully across his shoulders, hoping his snake was somewhere else. She ran her hands across his chest, warming him with her body. “Everybody needs a break,” she breathed into his ear. “Even weirdos reading strange books acquired from suspicious individuals.”
He looked at her for the first time that day, one brow raised and a smirk tugging at one corner of his lips. “This is how you attempt to seduce me?” he drawled lazily, and she grinned because she had his attention. “By calling me names?”
She trailed her fingertips lightly over his lips, watching the way the soft flesh yielded to the slight touch. “If I attempted to seduce you with flattery, you’d accuse me of being false. And you’d be right. Isn’t it so much more refreshing to be honest about certain things?” she asked, leaning close to speak above his mouth. “I want something from you. You want something from me. Right now, you could use a break. I want you to take a break with me because I’m going out of my head with boredom.”
“You don’t have to be here,” he began, but she put her fingers over his lips again.
“I know that,” she reminded him, now nibbling on his jawbone. “But here I am, and here I will stay, because I’m too stubborn for anything else. You need a break, I need a distraction. You’re an ass, but you’re also really hot. So here we are.”
His eyes danced and his lips curled. But he gave her what she asked for, and when her lips were swollen and her body was sated she laid peacefully on his bed while he resumed his work and was content to draw patterns in the drying sweat on her skin for the rest of the evening. “Ah, much better,” she sighed to herself, smiling at the back of his infuriating head.
