SFD – Part 2 – Something Completely Different

Part 1 – SFD – Something completely different

He thumped his fist against the roughly carved door.  Twice, three times, four.  The thick, heavy wood seemed to swallow the sound and his effort into itself, only a dull thud coming back to his ears.  Teran felt his lips twitch and a surge of rage whispered its desire to be unleashed on the unyielding surface.

Igni was a silent, still presence to his right.  As much for the other man’s sake as his own, Teran strangled the voice and punched the fury down deep into a tight, hot knot in his belly.

One breath dragged into two, and then three before the door swung open, silent on oiled hinges.  No one stood behind the door, guiding it, yet it slowed and stopped before it reached the wall.  The open portal beckoned, and Teran suppressed a snarl.  He cast a single glance back to Igni, who stared at the open doorway with wide eyes, his lips moving silently.  Teran ground his teeth and strode into the large room, leaving the other man behind him in the passageway.

Teran felt the texture of the worn rug beneath his bare feet and he approached the center of the room and turned to face the man standing on the hearth before a feeble fire.  The man’s back was turned, and Teran allowed his eyes to rake over the narrow shoulders and lean waist, and lower.

The door, still unattended, silently swung shut again, closing with as little sound as it had opened.  Teran shifted his gaze quickly at the movement, then curled his lip.  “Parlor tricks for the peasants?” he drawled.

Slowly, the lean figure turned to face him.  He had a youthful face, tan and unlined.  No marks were etched on his cheeks or round his eyes to mark the passage of even an occasional smile.  The skin of his brow unmarred by scowl.  It was as if he wore the mask of a human, but did not live as one.  His eyes were slightly large, and the bottomless black-green of raw emeralds.  They fixed now on Teran’s face, unreadable and alien.

Teran fought to keep the swirl of emotions that seized his gut from reaching his face.  The silence stretched between them until Teran felt the pressure to speak as a physical force pushing words into his mouth.  He clenched his teeth and pressed his lips together.  Still the man didn’t speak, blinking so infrequently Teran felt his own eyes beginning to water in sympathy.

“Those breeches…”  The words tumbled from his mouth, his lips curving upward for a moment before his brain caught up with him and Teran winced, snapping his mouth shut again.  But the other man’s expression had already changed to pained bemusement, abruptly human, and Teran let out his breath.

“Don’t,” the man said, finally breaking the fragile silence.

Teran smirked.  “You’re not setting a good example for the children,” he said, tilting his head toward the door and raising an eyebrow.

Timor tilted his head slightly, his face returning to unsettlingly smooth planes. “Like you?”

Teran felt the heat of anger flicker again in his belly and he tamped it down, forcing his own face into the familiar mask of arrogant indifference.

Timor crossed the room, his body moving fluidly, silently.  Teran watched, noting the curve of lean muscles under the worn leather that wrapped his thighs and hugged his hips.  Then he jerked his gaze away abruptly and clenched his teeth, steadying his breath.

Teran flinched almost imperceptibly as Timor raised his hand and brushed his fingers along Teran’s jaw.  “I missed you this morning.” His voice was a soft purr, but his eyes were dark, unreadable.  Teran felt his own muscles twitch against Timor’s fingers.

“Did you, now?” Teran pushed the corners of his mouth upward and raised an eyebrow, but his heart was beating harder and his body was tensed.

“You went to the Borderland.”

Teran was silent, but he could hear his own breath through his nose.

“It is forbidden,” Timor said in the same soft tone.

“And what good does that do?” Teran’s breath was coming more quickly, now, anger seeping through his walls of self-control.

Timor’s expression hardened for a moment before dissolving back to the emotionless mask.  “It protects us.  You know this.”

“It isn’t protecting. It is postponing. It is hiding.  It is waiting until it swallows us, too.”  His chest was heaving now, sucking air into his lungs.  “So punish me, again and again, the rule breaker, the defiant child, so everyone can feel safe, believe your are protecting us.  And I will go back, again and again, until it is actually true.”

Timor’s eyes darkened, the pupils eclipsing the dark green of his irises.  His own chest was heaving under his loose shirt.  Teran’s eyes widened just as the pain flared along all of the nerves in his body and his knees collapsed beneath him.  “Bender!” he gasped, snatching at Timor’s arm, even as he fell.

Abruptly, the pain was gone.  Teran sank to his hands and knees, beads of cold sweat still rising on his skin, his lungs heaving for air.  He dragged his eyes upward and saw Timor’s face twisted in a rictus of concentration, his gaze, distant, turned to the West.

Suddenly air seemed to rush back into the room.  The fire flared, and Teran sucked in a breath, hungrily.  The flood of oxygen made him dizzy, but he shoved himself to his feet as Timor staggered and grit his teeth, the blackness retreating from his eyes.

“Go!” Timor snarled, placing his feet firmly, pupils widening again, focus still to the West.

Teran ran.

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