Simple Solutions [Rhi!] [M]

[Draconian]

Such a simple phrase. To be careful had her turn her face away because it was such a simple instruction or request. It stirred something in her chest that was unfamiliar and she couldn't keep her mind off of it like she wanted to. It meant nothing serious, there was no deeper meaning behind the instruction. She'd stumbled, so Cadmus had told her to be careful.

Raizels mind would tumble over it, dissect it. Pull it apart and examine every strip of it because Cadmus had nothing to gain from her being careful. Instead, for a brief moment she just brushed her cheek to his shoulder and leaned a little more into him to keep her foot off the ground better.

"Of course I don't have a key," she said softly, "If I died and they found a key on me, I don't doubt it would get tried on every door and then the people inside of that building would absolutely be killed." Raizel couldn't live with that, "Usually I only have a few scratches and I'm not down here anyway, so... I just go in the window." It was a small shrug and she looked almost bashful.

Raizel gave Cadmus a level gaze, thinking of the state of her room and hoping she'd made the bed. "Alright," She gave his hand a squeeze and hobbled to lean against the wall by the door, "Be careful, the window's not locked but you need to wiggle it open, and Albert's a great guy but if you wake him up and there's just a strange man in his house he might have questions. Just say you're my friend - I don't give my name out so he'll know it's true. Maybe help you carry my sorry broken ass to bed."

It took a moment after she leaned against the wall before she slowly slid down it to sit on the ground, legs out and eyes closed while she breathed deeply, brows knitted in pain.

[Rhindeer]

Mm. Good point about the key. It also meant they needed to be extra careful here so that this...Albert...didn't get caught up in whatever mess they had gotten themselves into.

He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. His injury stung, but it was a superficial wound--mostly skin without cutting much into the muscle, though it was still seeping blood into his shirt. That was annoying more than anything; it seemed the world was out to ruin every set of clothing he attained. Oh well. His wound wouldn't impede him and that was what mattered.

"I'll do my best not to wake him," he said, looking over his shoulder at Raizel as she slid painfully to the ground. "Hang tight."

And then he began to climb.

The entire time, he couldn't help but think how much easier this would be as a gryphon. One good leap and he'd be up--but the window would be an issue, considering crashing through it was not an option, a talons weren't the best at delicately opening stuff without scratching the hell out of it. Then there was the issue of Albert. Gods forbid he hear the noise and decide to check in on Raizel in only to see a beast in her room.

So instead he sucked it up and dealt with the embarrassment of climbing as a clumsy human, slowly finding foot and handholds in the brick, slipping once or twice with a curse, and then leaning awkwardly to reach the window and pry it open with one hand.

Maybe he didn't wiggle it correctly or something, but it screeched and he winced. Shit, shit, shut up! He froze for a moment, shot a look back down at Raizel, and then more carefully wiggled it the second time around and managed to get it open enough that he could crawl and flop on through it.

He tumbled inside, hissing out a breath because that was way louder than intended, and rose to his feet and brushed himself off. The whole thing kind of made him appreciate Raizel's nimbleness, if this was what she had to do every time she came here!

Walking lightly then, tip-toeing across her room, he found the door and inched it open. Then he slid out, looked around, and crept for the stairs. Alright, so far so good. He was almost silent as he traveled down them until one of the middle stairs creaked loudly and made him cringe. Seriously? So he rushed the rest of the way down, abandoning stealth at this point, and unlocked the door and opened it for Raizel.

"Got it!" he stage-whispered to her, right as a voice gave a startled shout from somewhere behind him.

Because poor Albert had fallen asleep in his chair again, and yes, the noise had woken him.

[Draconian]

Raizel scrambled up with a grunt of pain when the door started to open, looking at Cadmus and flashed him a relieved smile when he whisper-yelled and Albert yelled. The momentary pause had her calm and all that extra pain that had been held at bay by adrenaline was more than happy to take it's proper place. Her arm throbbed. Her leg hurt in sharp throbs. A spot on the side of her head was starting to feel tender from when she fell before being carted away.

"Hello?"

Albert's voice was groggy and his footsteps could be heard down the hall. Fallen asleep in the chair because he'd woken up not too long ago and went to check on his guest but to find no one there. Usually there would be some sort of note. A heads up that he wouldn't have to worry about someone tracing his guest home. His hand went to the side of the hallway and looked to the open door, the strange person standing there.

"You're not Raizel" His voice was concerned and he frowned, standing in the hall, "What are you doing in my house?" Albert said, voice low, hand at his side holding something. Stalking closer, he gave a harsh shove to Cadmus to get him outside the door, hand fisting in his unwanted guests shirt. "Albert wait! He's my friend!" Raizel said and the hand let go of Cadmus's shirt.

Albert was a handsome man, his eyes an intense mismatched set of green and blue, his red hair pulled back into a ponytail with a weird feathery texture. Ears pointed and his pointed nails might have left more holes in Cadmus's shirt after grabbing it. "Raizel?" He stood in the doorway, took stock of his guest and then looked at Cadmus before holding the door open and moving to the side.

"Grab Raizel and get inside, quickly and quietly." Albert looked from Cadmus before he pressed his hand to his own face and rubbed at his eyes, tired and stressed.  "I'll bring you bandage supplies and hot water if you take her upstairs and be quiet," He sighed again and didn't look at either Raizel of Cadmus.

Furious at his guest. Angry at feeling stressed. Angry his guest got hurt.

Raizel looked at Albert and then at Cadmus, giving a little shrug when she hobbled over and leaned against the door frame, carefully avoiding Albert's field of vision, she was pale and gave a small guilty smile to Cadmus. "How's your back?" She said, voice soft, "I'll patch it up if you help me."

[Rhindeer]

Aw, shit.

He hadn't been so sneaky after all.

"Wait, I can explai—!" Cadmus started to say, but the man had his hand fisted in his shirt and was shoving him out, something sharp slicing through the fabric and into his back, stinging and bright, and for a moment he thought it was a knife or something. Couldn't say he wouldn't deserve it, after all the unnecessary trouble he had caused, but...but to be fair, he hadn't known it was Raizel! He hadn't intended any of this!

Guess it was bound to happen eventually, that things would catch up to him. And he would react the same way to an intruder in his space—who could blame him?

But he was still going to punch the man in the face if he didn't let go of him yesterday.

Thankfully, before things could escalate, Raizel spoke up and the man, who was younger and more attractive than he expected and not quite human, released him. Cadmus unclenched his fist and yanked away with an annoyed glower, then pulled at his shirt to examine the damage, because now his shirt was extra wrecked and it was already wrecked—and it had been almost new! Never mind that if this Albert had been more of violent sort, that could have gone very badly and he was a little too tired to deal with it.

He was also a little annoyed that Albert wasn't some old, decrepit thing.

He was too handsome.

And Raizel had been staying with him for how long?

Not that it mattered...

Albert ordered him to take Raizel inside, as if he needed to be told, and Cadmus decided that he wasn't too fond of the guy. There wasn't really a reason for it—aside from scratching up his back and his shirt and telling him what to do like he couldn't have come to that conclusion himself. But he bit his tongue, because he was a guest in someone else's home and had already made a bad first impression.

With a look over at Raizel, he went to her and offered her his unbloodied shoulder and wrapped his arm around her to help hold her steady. "Lean on me, keep your foot off the ground. You've been using it too much," he said, and slowly guided her into Albert'a home.

"Don't worry about me. My back's a little...spicy, but..." He lowered his voice, a sigh in his words. "I'm more irritated about the shirt."

He slid a look over at Albert as he passed him to get inside. "I'm sorry," he said, just to be polite. "I didn't mean to wake you."

[Draconian]

Albert frowned, licked his teeth inside his lips and quietly shut the door once the both of them were inside.

"I was up mostly, anyway. My eyes were just closed" He growled out, locking the door and moving to the kitchen, starting on boiling water and gathering some clean cloths and a salve. Grumbling quietly along the way like an angry parent whose child had been out all night after curfew.

Raizel's cheek pressed to Cadmus's shoulder and she gave a slight sigh to get the weight off her ankle. The walk up to her room took a bit with her heavily resting on Cadmus on the way up. Door open, it was a modest space. A bed, a desk and a bathtub in the corner. "Thank you," Raizel whispered, half one-legged dragging and half directing Cadmus to the bed before she broke away and sat down.

Quickly, her hand snapped out and she grabbed Cadmus's, looking down at the ground and she sighed and couldn't quite meet his face. "We'll patch you up and... You don't need to explain it to me, you don't owe me anything, but thank you." She chewed on her lip and sighed, head dropping forward, "it's your fault I got caught but... I would have died if I got caught any other time."

What a conundrum. Everything inside her wanted to be furious. "Take off your shirt, you have scratches so you'll be patched up faster. Then you can... Tell me how you fell in with them." Though she still held his hand, not letting him run away.

[Rhindeer]

Ughh, she was thanking him. Thanking him for helping her here when he'd almost gotten her killed. Unable to really look at Raizel, Cadmus sank onto the bed beside her--and then did look at her in surprise when she grabbed his hand.

He was expecting anger.

That might have been better than whatever this was. Disappointment? Sadness? Raizel was difficult to read right then, and it was making him antsy. Where was the anger? He had been bracing for that, ready for it--but this? This he hated.

And it was so like her to try to put others before herself even after everything! He wanted to argue that they should focus on her first--his guilt at getting her hurt was gnawing away at him like a swarm of stinging ants, and she was in far worse shape than him. But he also didn't want to push it, just in case it made the current mood worse.

Slowly, regretfully, he pulled his hand away and turned to look at her fully.

"I didn't really fall in with them. I'm not with them. I just..." He let out a sigh and pulled his shirt up and over his head, wincing as the fabric stuck to the blood slowly drying on his back and shoulder. He peeled it off carefully, then tossed the shirt aside. Yeah, it was pretty much a lost cause. The universe didn't want him to have nice clothes, it seemed.

"I sell my services to them. I sell my services to whoever will buy them. I'm not loyal to them or anything, they just...hired me." He paused. "A few times. They mostly just needed a tracker, someone who could hunt down people who owed them and rough them up a little." Another pause. "Or a lot. Usually a lot. Ah...I don't ask questions. It's not my place to judge who's in the right and who's in the wrong when it comes to human squabbles. People pay me, I perform a service, that's...that's it."

Dear gods that sounded awful when he said it out loud like that. He winced, running his hands through his hair before he looked up to meet her eyes. "I never intended you to get caught up in this--but you're unfortunately right. If it wasn't me hunting you, you would be dead. How did you get caught up in this? And why?" Impulsively, he reached up and lightly touched her hair, right over the spot where she'd been struck. He was gentle as he felt the swollen lump there, hating that he was responsible.

"They're a dangerous group, Raizel. They have connections all over the city. Surely you knew that?"

[Draconian]

He spoke and she digested. Turned his words around in her head and she wanted to be angry and blame him. Raizel wanted to accuse him of just being some ruffian bandit. There wasn't anything there though. There was the lingering sense that she should be angry and feel betrayed. It was a confusing turmoil of emotions but none of them were correct and Raizel just remained quiet. Looked thoughtful.

It took a large amount of effort not to flinch when Cadmus moved his hand to touch her head. Raizel couldn't stop herself from moving her head the tiniest amount but she put her back and let herself be examined turned the words 'human squabbles' over and over in her head. That did hurt a little bit. Felt a pang in her chest like she'd just been insulted and she looked up at Cadmus, looked at the scars and cuts on his chest before she met his eyes.

"I knew that," She whispered, giving a sigh, "I just didn't count on them being able to catch me." A soft shrug and she glanced away, "I got caught up in it because.... I have nothing. It's easy for me to risk myself for other people. Maybe the same thing you do but with more... Moral superiority." It was a jest and Raizel shimmied back on the bed making room for Cadmus to move, her one leg off to the side so Cadmus could seat himself between her legs.

Albert entered the room, a bowl of steaming water in one hand and a basket of cloths, salves and bandages in the other. "Don't get blood on my floor," He grumbled before setting them on the bedside table, his hair more feathering and his eyes sharp and birdlike, giving Cadmus a long look before shooting a glance at Raizel. He pointed to her ankle his hands clawed before he pointed to Cadmus, "Call me if you need help, but only if you need help. As of right now I'm running a shop and I'd much rather not look like an angry bird while I do it. I'm sure you can take care of it though."

The door shut with a little more force than necessary and Raizel sighed, feeling a little chastised before she leaned over to grab a cloth and dunk it in the hot water. Moving again so that she had a leg on either side of her companion, she made sure the cloth wasn't too hot before she placed it on his back to wipe up the blood. "I woke up one day in the forest," she said softly while she worked, "I didn't have a name." Her voice was distorted because she leaned over to grab the basket and bring it onto the bed.

"I knew things but... I don't know what I knew. Until I knew it." Raizel sighed softly and paused while she thought, "I'm skilled. Alarmingly so, even. I'm quick. I'm good with my hands and weapons. I'm strategic. I'm... Nothing." A small shrug and she folded the cloth over again, having cleaned the cuts Albert gave him Raizel went for the slice the arrow left. Her hand lingered under it and she was careful not to disturb it beyond cleaning it up.

"Why not make use of my skills for other peoples peace of mind when I have nothing to use them for myself?" Raizel finished putting the salve and bandaging his back before she leaned so that her chin rested on Cadmus's shoulder, her hands on his sides. "I got caught up in it because... I have nothing else to do. They pay me. I don't ask questions. Usually it's the underbelly of the city I'm gutting but..." A small shrug and she closed her eyes, fingers trailing ever so slightly up and down  where they rested on his torso, "People pay me, I perform a service." 

[Rhindeer]

"Moral superiority?" Cadmus repeated, a little amusement in his voice. Well. She wasn't wrong, if she was being selective about who received her services. He simply took whatever offers he received, if they paid well enough to be worth the risk, and that was that.

It wasn't his business. He was just a tool, he didn't pass judgment.

He shifted when Raizel adjusted, putting his back to her more, and couldn't help but jump a little when Albert returned, looking quite...ruffled. Literally, his hair looked ruffled almost like feathers. Cadmus's eyes narrowed as he peered at him and his bird-like mannerisms, his too sharp nails—and then the man all but confirmed.

Angry bird??

The door thumped shut. Huh. Of course it was obvious the man wasn't human, but...

What was with Raizel and collecting bird companions? Oh. Her nickname was The Raven, too, wasn't it...

Before he could ask about that, or make any comments, Raizel shut him up by starting work on his back. Cadmus hissed through his teeth, the warm water and rough cloth stinging a bit, but it was more the initial surprise of it that sucked. He listened as she spoke, quietly taking it in, remembering a little of what she had told him before—the scars on her back, the innate skill. He shook his head. Nothing? That was going a bit far.

"You're not nothing," Cadmus said with a frown, wincing a little when she started on the shoulder wound. "Whoever you were before and who you are now is the same person, just with fewer memories. Besides, you have a lot of talent for a nothing. I've seen what you can do. That doesn't just manifest from thin air—that comes from a lifetime of training and discipline."

He sighed when she was done, and tensed in surprise just a moment when she rested her chin on his good shoulder and trailed her hands on his sides, an eyebrow raising because...well, he was convinced she'd be pissed at him, and rightfully so! No, she probably just didn't realize what she was doing, and he was touch-starved enough that he wasn't going to point it out.

He leaned his head against hers, relaxing again. "You probably have a lot of people out there who are missing you."

He'd kind of missed her.

Ahem.

He straightened abruptly, realizing he was enjoying this and probably shouldn't be, and cleared his throat. "Ah, your turn. Let's get at that ankle."

[Draconian]

It made sense, that she'd been some sort of successful something once upon a time. Raizel went quiet while she thought on it, as she had before and as she will again. There was nothing there. When she tried to recall or remember it was the sensation that she'd lost something but had forgotten what it was.

It was infuriating that she had to look for something but didn't know what it was.

The comfort of his head leaning against hers made her heart ache, her hands lifted and had moved in slightly, hovering and about to wrap around before Cadmus pulled away with a clear of his throat talking about her injury.

"Of course," Raizel said in reply to him mentioning her ankle assuming from how quickly he pulled away he didn't want her touching him, "my apologies." It hurt like a bitch and she looked at it, a bruise starting to form, red, swollen and angry, the colour pulsing with her heart beat. Instead of offering the bandages to Cadmus, she drew her leg closer to herself.

Without the kind gentle movements she'd given the wounds on Cadmus's back, Raizel was precise in her care of her ankle. She'd poked it a few times to gauge the damage, wincing and going a little pale. The worst she'd did was gasp with her mouth closed before she slathered the salve on the worst looking part and tied it up.

"Could you help with my arm?" Raizel asked simply, having moved to sit beside Cadmus on the bed again instead of in the middle of it, drained and tired. Sad. She'd untied the top of her shirt to get her shoulder and arm out of the neck hole while staying decent, holding a bare arm with a bloody gash in it out for Cadmus to help with.

"I really, really want to be angry at you," Raizel confessed after a moment, her voice a little thick, "But I'd never been so relieved to hear anyone's voice before." Raizel paused for a moment, giving an instinctive involuntary shrug of her shoulders that hurt muscles she hadn't had to use since she woke up. "I'm sorry we met again like this, and I ruined a good gig for you."

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus waited as Raizel tended her ankle, making a face at the sight of the swollen thing. She likely wouldn't walk well on that for weeks—if she let it heal naturally, at least. What they did now was good in a pinch; after what had gone down, it wouldn't be safe to wander around at night banging on some poor healer's door. But he doubted Raizel was the sort that would want to "take it easy" for a few weeks, because he certainly knew he wasn't.

But that was a problem for the morning.

She finished and asked for help with her arm, and Cadmus quietly obliged. He soaked a cloth in warm water and held her arm steady with one hand as he cleaned the wound with the other, slowly and gently though he knew it would still sting. With the blood cleaned away, he smoothed the salve onto the wound, apologizing as he worked, and then tied a bandage around it firmly but not enough to cut off her circulation.

He gave it a soft pat when he was done and let his hand rest there, sucking in a breath at her words.

"Don't apologize. I have no love for those people; it's just money." Gods, that sounded awful. He grimaced. "I could say the same for you. I ruined your gig a little too, didn't I? And, er, nearly your life with it. Gods."

He let out a breath, realization sinking in. He hadn't really had time to think about it all—they had just been go, go, go since the moment he recognized her without a chance to take a breath. But now he just felt sick, knowing how close they had come to...shit. He had never really thought about how his jobs affected others. He tried not to. It wasn't his business. And this time, it hit way too close.

He looked at her, wincing. "I'm really sorry, Raizel. I shouldn't have left like I did or...well..." He shouldn't have lied. Shouldn't have omitted the truth. But he'd never thought they would get entangled like this. "I almost got you killed. You have every right to be angry."

[Draconian]

There was no hiding the winces or the tilts of her head to hide her face against her shoulder when the pain of dressing the wound set it. Her ankle hurt fiercely, but it was a dull continuous throb instead of the sharp bite of the cut. Raizel lifted her head and looked at the patch job when Cadmus pat her arm and then laid his hand there.

"Why are you sorry?" She said, frowning slightly, moving her free hand to take his and adjust herself so that her bare shoulder was pressed against his arm while she held his hand hostage in her own. "You're free to leave however and whenever you choose - I got a good rest out of it, probably the best I'd had in a very long time, so I'm not about to complain about it." Raizel took a deep breath and closed her eyes, looking out into the darkness of the room. The assurance that she could be angry was strangely comforting and she closed her eyes and rested the side of her head on his shoulder.

"How about," Raizel started, "We rest for now, and if you really want me to yell at you we can try doing that another way, hm?" She gave his back a pat and chuckled at her joke before she sighed and crawled away to flop onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I still need to kill them," she stated, her voice taking on a more serious tone, "does that bother you?"

[Rhindeer]

...Yell at him another way--oh.

Right.

It was her familiar chuckle that gave it away, and Cadmus snorted and rolled his eyes, fighting against a grin at that little spark of comfortable familiarity. But then she was moving away to flop on the bed, and Cadmus watched her settle for a moment before her question snapped him back.

"Killing them? Bother me? No. It only bothers me in that I think it's a terribly dangerous idea," Cadmus said as he slid down onto the floor with his back propped against the bed, already missing the heat of her body, but...well...he certainly wasn't going to make any assumptions here. They had shared a bed once, maybe shared a little platonic intimacy, and then he had ghosted her. Maybe it didn't mean anything, and maybe she was right in that he was free to leave whenever, but it still felt like a shitty thing to do. Even if he'd had his reasons.

He leaned his head back against the soft edge of the bed. "I wouldn't dream of crossing them on my own. That's not a one person job. There's a reason I worked with them rather than against them. I..."

He trailed off, chewing the inside of his cheek as a stupid thought struck him. It was an obvious one, but a stupid one. "Bad idea or not, stupidly dangerous or not, you have to do what you have to do regardless. I understand that and I'm not trying to dissuade you. But perhaps...if you needed it...I could help? Ah. Only if you wanted. I know I haven't been, er, the most reliable, or maybe even the most trustworthy, but...I do know what they look like from the inside."

[Draconian]

A soft sigh and Raizel sat back up to peer at Cadmus' head from his seat on the ground. She rolled his offer around in her head, to come along with her. "Like a team?" She questioned, her voice soft. Raizel had never been part of a team before, choosing to simply work alone.

She looked at the bandaged wound on her arm and flexed her fingers. Thought of the gash on her companions back. The ankle that was caused by him. Raizel shimmied to the edge of the bed and placed her hands on his shoulders, giving them a light squeeze and moving her head down so her mouth was beside his ear.

"You do owe me," she whispered, "my ankle is quite fucked up." Raizel backed away but kept her arms on his shoulders, "get on the bed Cadmus, you're only a cat sometimes. I need you well rested if you're going to be watching my back and divulging secrets." Raizel moved back, tucking some black hair behind her pointed ear and stifling a yawn before moving all the blankets down and in one fluid motion, removing her shirt. The fabric went sailing where it hit the close wall with a dull noise and onto a pile on the floor.

[Rhindeer]

A team.

Huh.

Cadmus was also used to working alone, but he also didn't hate the sound of that. More importantly, maybe this was evidence that Raizel didn't hate him as much as he thought she should?

Stronger evidence soon followed: the whisper against his ear that had her breath tickling her skin, the order to get into bed...Cadmus could only mope and play self-hating martyr for so long. If a pretty lady ordered you into bed, you did not ask questions, platonic or not. He paused only long enough to blink up at her in surprise, but she was right, they would need to be well-rested for this venture--

Aaand there went her shirt.

Cadmus followed it as it arced across the room, landing somewhere near his own, then slowly looked back at Raizel. He tried not to be too obvious about where he was looking, but couldn't help a quick downward flick of his eyes before returning them to her face.

Indeed, message received, loud and clear.

In a swift fluid motion, he slid into the bed next to her, wincing as he rolled onto his side and put pressure on his fucked up shoulder. But just like last time, it was a bit snug, and after shifting around to adjust himself and get comfortable, he ended up draping an arm across her middle rather than keep it scrunched against his chest. They had done this once before hadn't they, and it had been fine then. This was just more of the same, and this was as good as forgiveness.

Even though he still felt shitty, which made him strangely uncertain of the boundaries here.

"If there's anything I can do to make it up to you," he said as he finished settling in, "I'm all ears."

[Draconian]

Things were complicated.

The situation was uniquely complicated. Rational thought won over the pit of betrayal she'd initially felt. He hadn't known it was her. Hadn't tracked her down maliciously, the proof was how quickly he'd changed sides, how quickly he went from being her pursuer to her protector. Clearly had hadn't done it for money, which meant he felt guilty about having had done the persuing that lead to an injury.

Raizel lay awake for a time, head on the soap smelling pillow. At war in her own head how she should feel. Cadmus was feeling guilty, voiced again about making up for the injury. Raizel turned her face into the pillow before turning around to face Cadmus, making sure to keep his arm on her waist, simply because the weight of it there was comforting. The sun had risen and despite the curtains being closed, dim light filtered in on them. "I'll let you know if I think of anything, or you can let me know if you have any great ideas." Raizel placed a hand on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze and then gave a little wobbly smile that lasted for only a moment.

She turned around again, having not noticed he was on his wounded side. "We should get some sleep," and after tucking her back to be pressed tight to his chest and unconsciously taking his hand and holding it to her chest like one would hold a stuffed animal... Raizel was out like a light. Her entire being relaxed, breathing evened out, the only thing at odds with her sleeping form was how hard her grip on his hand tightened against her chest and the wild movement of her eyes under their lids.

[Rhindeer]

Right.

Sleep.

Easy for her to say! Raizel passed out quick as a snuffed candle, leaving Cadmus to lay there and contemplate his life choices. He stared at the back of her head, listening to the sound of her breathing and counting the beats of her heart against his hand. Yes. Sleep. That was an idea, but between the morning light filtering through the curtains, the throb of his shoulder, and the press of her body against his...

It was kind of impossible.

This felt...kind of like how things were.

Not that it mattered, he thought quickly as he squeezed his eyes shut and let out a soft huff into her hair. Truthfully, he shouldn't care about any of this. He'd really only known her for a couple days and now they were to be on a job together, that's all. It was all business and always was, really. But it was difficult not to nestle in a little closer to steal more warmth, her scarred back against his chest. And it was impossible to ignore the way she hugged his hand against soft skin.

Very soft skin.

Cadmus squeezed his eyes shut tighter, shoving the thought away before it could take off running. Indeed, he couldn't recall ending up half naked and in bed with any of his previous business partners, but as he finally drifted off, arms encircling her and cuddling close, he supposed there was a first time for everything.

[Draconian]

The room was so dark and were those... Stars?

Floating in darkness with pinpricks of light. Suspended in nothing. Raizel kicked a leg out but didn't move, instead she kicked the little stars and they rippled like they were suspended in water. There was so many lights but so much of nothing.

A red length of fabric was around her injured ankle, the loose end billowing out like it was caught on wind. Raizel looked down at herself, red ribbons around her chest, billowing out at her back like two wings. One was wrapped around her arm. They were everywhere and a sense of dread filled her. A sense of betrayal. Who put her here? How did she get here?

One of the stars glowed so brightly until it drowned out the darkness and suddenly... Raizel grasped and clawed at the ground, fingers dirty and bloodied. Everything hurt but nothing really did, the blood was slippery and sticky and the new lightness of her shoulders made it feel like she was going to fall up. It took great effort to get to the body on the ground. A familiar unfamiliar face, she knew she recognized it, the same way you'd look at someone in a dream. 'It didn't look like you, but I knew it was you'.

Who are you?

Her mind screamed that she knew this person. Her hand went from the shoulder to the neck and held it down, and Raizel felt herself lean down to kiss this betrayer at the same time she pressed a stiletto dagger to the ribs and slowly pressed in. The gurgle was satisfying when it finally pierced the heart... Was this a memory? Just a dream of revenge? The red billowing fabric didn't go away and now it was pouring from where she'd stabbed the dagger. The only thing she knew was a set of piercing green eyes above that gurgling familiar unfamiliar mouth. Then there was a loud cry and all the fabric burst into flapping birds and a rain of black feathers.

-

Raizel slept fitfully for a few hours, the occasional twitch of her hand against Cadmus's on her chest was the only movement until her eyes snapped open and she sat up, the sunlight through the curtains giving her an almost angelic back glow. Though her eyes were open, they were an unseeing ocean of blue. Her hand moved over his chest and pushed Cadmus onto his back, her hands moving under the pillows to push them back and out of the way.

One of her legs swung to straddle his hips and she moved her hand from his shoulder to caress his cheek before she placed it on his throat. Still delicate and gentle, it was a caress. The sweet touch of a lover. Raizel leaned down to press a kiss to his lips at the same time she held a dagger to his chest, the metal cold and sharp. At an angle, one good thrust and it would pierce his heart.

And then she stopped, hovering above him like a statue. Her hand at his throat getting tighter and tighter but she remained unmoving and unblinking.

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus slept like a rock--still and peaceful, the sleep of someone who hadn't slept in a good bed in, well...weeks. He was normally a light sleeper; usually he slept in places that might not be too secure so that warranted keeping an ear open for potential danger. Here, in a cozy room, in a warm bed tucked up against a person he may not know too well, but that he trusted well enough? He let himself sleep deeply.

Maybe too deeply.

He didn't immediately wake when Raizel turned him over, making only a low grumbling, complaining sound and trying to nestle back into the covers as the light hit his face. It was only when she straddled him and caressed his cheek that he roused, her weight atop him and the ticklish touch on his skin making his eyelids flutter, and then crack open in bleary confusion, too asleep still to be alarmed. The sunlight hurt his eyes as he peered up at her. Between his blurred vision and the way the light haloed her, leaving her a dark figure in the middle of a sunburst, he didn't recognize her at first.

Then she kissed him.

He recognized her scent before he registered her face.

"Rai...?" he started to say against her mouth, his heart stuttering with some strange mixture of tired confusion and cautious excitement--but then he felt it, something cold and sharp against his chest, and the hand that had caressed him so gently was starting to tighten on his throat.

Her eyes were empty.

Was she asleep still? Dreaming?

Oh shit.

Cadmus froze, and that cautious excitement quickly morphed into dread. Ah. Well. Maybe he wasn't quite as forgiven as he'd thought...

That was fair...

"Ah...Raizel?" Shit, shit. It was getting difficult to breathe, but thankfully she was pressing on his windpipe more than his arteries; it took significantly less pressure to make someone pass out with the latter than the former. Shit. She didn't seem all there, but there was no safe way to dislodge someone who had a knife pressed against your heart. So he did his best to stay calm and still even though he wanted to pry her fingers off and wrestle the knife away. 

"Raizel, wake up! I...I don't think you actually--" He coughed, and resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably. "I don't think you actually want to do this..."

He paused and met her eyes. "Do you?"

[Draconian]

Falling was a weird sensation. Especially when you were falling but there was no wind, nothing was moving. The body that had burst into fabric and feathers had the eyes change from green to gold. A familiar scar on the face before she dug the dagger in again, just a little bit. The name spoken was familiar but the way the mouth moved to say it was all wrong.

The pressure felt real and instead of before, when the dagger sunk right in, it felt wrong and like... Raizel blinked, her mind filtering the words Cadmus has spoken from the weird bird chirping it had turned into into real words.

She didn't want to do this, did she?

The warmth of the body below her had her hand tighten on the dagger, frowned at the tip of it was missing beneath flesh. It was a strange way to wake up, being sharp with panic but still so tired. Her eyelids felt like sleeping limbs and it took a great amount of effort for reason to push through, and the dagger stayed dug in and stationary while her mind returned to her body.

Confusion drew her features together and it took a long moment to process what was going on. "Cadmus?" She whispered, voice tired and confused, though her hand snapped away from his neck the hand holding the dagger was lifted and looked at before realization struck and she dropped it onto the bed beside them.

"What happened?" She whispered, panic making her voice breathy and soft, grabbing some of the blankets and pressing them to the wound she'd made on his chest. Raizel couldn't help it, when tears filled her eyes. The dream flooded back and she pulled the blanket away from the wound as soon as she pressed down on it to examine her companion further, a tear falling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, I- I was having a bad dream and I..." she whispered, hands moving on his chest, his sides, looking for more wounds. A flicker of the dream came back and she moved her hands to his neck, smoothing her thumbs over whatever discoloration she'd caused there. A small sigh of relief there weren't any cuts there and she moved her trembling palm back to the cut she'd left on his torso. It wasn't so deep to cause serious harm, but it was deep enough to bleed.

Shaking like a leaf, Raizel couldn't quite muster up the strength to move away. Instead, she leaned forward and let her head rest on his chest, staying silent and listening to his heart beat. "I'm sorry, I don't... know what happened, I can't feel my legs so just... bear with me for a moment and then you can ... stab me back or something."

[Rhindeer]

That was not the answer he wanted.

Fuck! Sharp, white-hot pain made his breath hiss out in surprise and for a second, Cadmus had the idiot thought that this was sure an anticlimactic way to go after a lifetime spent doing far more dangerous shit. He should have died a hundred times before this. He'd come close, nearly drowned in his own blood. Yet this was how it happened? Taken out by the same woman who had rescued him?

Despite every instinct screaming to do something, another instinct was stronger. Cadmus remained frozen, his pulse racing in his ears as his breaths came out in gasps--and not just because she was kind of choking him out. He wanted to throw her off of him, darkness edging at the corners of his vision, but he only balled his hands into fists. Stay calm. Stay non-threatening, like a predator baring its belly in submission. He knew how little force it took to slide a knife between ribs and into the heart. One wrong move and he would only help her with that effort, or startle her into it.

Maybe it was better this way: in a nice bed, straddled by a pretty woman, with her face as the last thing he saw, rather than bleeding out in a gutter somewhere as his sort tended to do.

Maybe he deserved this.

He couldn't blame her.

"Raizel--"

And then, just like that, she was back.

He saw her eyes clear and the confusion wash over her--followed by horror as she yanked her hands, and the dagger, away from him. Cadmus gasped, body jerking as he sucked in air and his vision cleared, and he started to reach for the wound but Raizel was quicker.

What happened? That's what he wanted to know! But for a moment he couldn't conjure up an intelligent thought if he tried and could only wheeze out, "I...I think Dream You dislikes me." 

She was checking him over and he let her as he got his bearings, his own mind racing as he tried to process what the fuck just happened. Nothing within her control, from the sounds of it--and as much as he knew he should probably be a bit pissed about this, he just felt...tired.

And she was crying...

A tear hit his chest and he looked up at her, felt the way she was trembling--and he felt thoroughly defeated as she flopped against his chest.

Fuck...why was he like this?

"I guess, er, maybe we're even now?" His voice was a little shaky. Despite his best efforts to remain outwardly calm, Raizel could no doubt hear his racing heart; it hadn't slowed much at all. He would take it to his grave before he admitted that she had scared the shit out of him. "You know. I almost kill you, you almost kill me..."

Another deep breath and he put his arms around her, fingers stroking lightly over her back as though trying to soothe her. His hands were a little clammy from stress, but he hoped she wouldn't notice. "Hear me out: maybe we could do a little less of that going forward?" He smoothed some hair back from her cheek. "Just a thought."