Author's Note: Another chapter in the adventures of Keiran and Kaiken, this time in Arathi Basin! Again, loosely based on actual events! Enjoy!
Sore Loser
It was a bright and beautiful day in the Arathi Highlands. The birds sang merrily as they flew through the crystal clear blue sky flecked with airy white clouds, a cool refreshing breeze blew through the emerald grass, and the sun shone a refreshing golden light down on the beautiful land. A terrible omen, one of the Forsaken Defilers guards had muttered as fresh troops marched past. Keiran, being prone to overhearing unwanted conversations by profession, overheard but paid it no mind as he filed behind Kaiken into the Defilers Den with the other Horde Soldiers who had volunteered their service to the Forsaken.
It really was a much better climate and a much more beautiful landscape than the arid border of the Barrens he had to admit, and he hoped his fiery companion would be in better spirits because of it. He glanced down at the top of Kaiken's black-haired head, an easy feat as the mage stood a good foot shorter than him, and smirked to see him already rocking excitedly on the balls of his feet with staff clutched white knuckled with excitement. The rogue smiled lovingly to himself, already ignoring the briefing being barked in garbled, froggy authoritative pontification, and leaned down to sneak a stealthy kiss to the side of his cheek.
"Good luck firebug…" he murmured sweetly.
Kaiken, having forgotten Keiran was even there with him, glanced back with a confident smirk.
"Hah! Like I even need it…" he snorted in response, "We'll see who tops the chart in killing blows this time!"
Keiran laughed and ruffled his hair as the briefing ended and several Defilers hobbled their way down the ranks to distribute Horde banners to fly at each of the Outposts to let the workers know it was safe to gather resources. The white-haired elf took his with pride and held it out reverently to gaze upon the symbol. He knew deep in his heart his people had made the right choice by siding with the Horde and he would serve with pride and ensure victory for the people who had been so accepting. He crumpled it against his chest with a fond sigh and turned back to his companion.
"Isn't it wonderful to belong again Kaiken?" he asked dreamily.
Kaiken, however, was already darting out the door, his banner stashed haphazardly in his sash and hands sparking with fire.
"Alright! Lets fuck up some Alliance SCUM!"
Keiran snorted and shook his head, running a hand through his hair and gliding soundlessly and gracefully out into the gated starting area. The crowd filtered slowly out with him and gathered, checking weapons, casting beneficial spells on one another and passing out other useful items. Even Kaiken felt charitable as he doled out skins of conjured water and loaves of bread for the long haul and plopped on the ground to drink himself. Keiran made his way to his side and crossed his arms over his chest as he surveyed the battlefield.
"You know I never understood why they gate us off like this," Kaiken pondered at length.
His partner raised his long brows and glanced down with a shrug.
"Fair play?" he suggested, "I mean it would hardly be fair to just… You know leave these gates open and let people charge in and out willy nilly…"
Kaiken rolled his eyes and whapped Keiran's shin neatly with his wand.
"Whatever… And you'd think a Rogue would be able to stealth and get past that even if they WERE monitoring… It's not like there's some force field keeping us in!"
Keiran thumbed his goatee and pursed his lips.
"You know I really never thought of it that way…"
Kaiken grumbled under his breath and finished his water in silence in the nick of time as the disembodied voice of the battlemaster rang out over the field.
"The battle for Arathi Basin will begin in thirty seconds!"
"I wonder where that guy even is…" Keiran muttered distastefully.
"Beats the hell out of me…"
The group tensed visibly and huddled at the gate which rattled ominously as limbs and blood-thirsty weapons grazed it. Keiran took the opportunity to whip out his vials of poison and dip his daggers with a confident grin and re-sheath them before checking he had all the flash powder he needed.
"Now remember asshole…" Kaiken interjected quietly, a look of concern masked by a scowl, "Stay with a group, this isn't like Warsong Gulch, you'll get chewed up and spit out alone."
He scoffed in response and crouched low, legs tensing and ready to take off in a sprint.
"I'll be fine! You can just sit here on your ass and turtle and defend the damn farm, and stick to the so called 'plan', I'm going to ensure we win this…" he replied smugly.
Kaiken frowned, but the gates had already swung open and the hunters had taken off channeling cheetahs in full speed with a pack of ghostly wolves behind them. With a flash of blue the Rogue sprinted past them and careened out onto the battlefield with a victorious holler, leaving Kaiken and the group in the dust as he broke away and headed West. Kaiken stopped as his Rogue lover predicted to guard the Orc Shaman who was gleefully raising his flag up the pole but he watched Keiran go worriedly, his brow furrowed and chewing on his lower lip.
The farm was a dead giveaway, there was no need to even pause to look at it, and he assumed if this group knew what they were doing they would head for the blacksmith next. He, however, had better plans. He alone headed straight for the perilous hill leading to the lumber mill with long white hair streaming and feet sure on the dirt path.
Once in sight of the empty banner pole he stealthed into the shadows and crouched down low to approach it. His ears stood completely upright, head swiveled from side to side as he searched for anyone who would steal the outpost before him, but no one came.
"Heh, imbecilic Alliance fools…" thought Keiran as he eyed the pole, "They couldn't win a battle if their mothers' lives depended on it!"
Sudden hoof beats sounded loud and frantic as they approached the hill and startled Keiran out of his focus on the flag. A lone female Draenei shaman wreathed in lightning panted as she charged toward the pole, her flag already in her hand and victory in her eyes. She too looked around nervously for any Horde that had gotten there before her and whirled her arms out to conjure a crystalline totem at her feet that pulsed dangerously with flame.
Keiran knew all too well exactly what it was and he swore under his breath as he darted out of range. The blue Alliance flag fluttered merrily as the young woman attached it to the line and hurriedly began to raise it, tail swishing behind her. She was completely and utterly unaware of the Sin'dorei lurking in the shadows, biding his time and waiting for her to make a mistake.
That mistake finally came when the fire totem's magic ran out and she watched it disappear back into the ground. She was entirely absorbed in making sure her flag was hung and ready as the human peasant workers rushed nervously to the scene and therefore fatally failed to conjure another. Seeing his chance Keiran seized it, darting forward and driving the hilt of his dagger into her back to sap her of her energy completely. The Draenei choked out a meek cry and slumped over, unable to move.
Ruthlessly, Keiran drew out both of his daggers and ambushed from behind, striking true into the woman's back and twisting his blades. She screamed and bucked backward; tail thrashing and balls of lightning exploding over the Elf assaulting her as he wrenched his weapons free. He twirled them elegantly in his hands, circled her before she could even recover and gouged deep into her exposed abdomen which sent the hapless creature buckling forward incapacitated again.
The drill was so simple it was almost like a math equation at that point in Keiran's head. Newbies always fell for it. A sinister strike here, ghostly strike there, lead her around in a dizzying loop of a dance until he could get a backstab or two in again and like magic it was all over before she could even remember her Earth Shock. She croaked weakly with her agitated sigh of defeat, rolled her eyes and slumped in frustration. This was her first time in a battleground and already she had lost. That was certainly the last time she let her group decide how to do things.
"Don't worry love…" Keiran purred into her ear, "You can always resurrect at the graveyard… Better luck next time…"
His hand tightened, eyes narrowed, and in a blinding movement he slashed through her entire abdomen to eviscerate her in a clean and rather critical finishing blow.
Her corpse fell on the ground with a satisfying thud beside him and Keiran wiped his blades clean in the grass as he strode boldly back to the flag. He yanked the blue banner down with a cackle of victory and promptly slashed it loose and hurled it off of the cliff. It fluttered brokenly as it plummeted but Keiran did not pause to watch. Instead he lashed his own colors proudly to the runners where it once flew and hauled it up into place.
It was a good plan all along and he had known it from the beginning. Kaiken would be blue in the cheeks once he found out that he had secured an outpost alone and the Defilers would certainly reward him. Much better than the fools who were battling tooth and nail down below at the Blacksmith surrounded by water and certain death. He put his hands on his hips and admired the flag a moment as the humans swiftly retreated back to the Alliance controlled stables.
Keiran stood proud, victorious for the moment and gave the banner a polite little bow as he began to fade back into the shadows, but as his form vanished there was a rush of air, a flash, and a sickening hiss as a sword cleaved clean and true through his chest from behind. The sound of the towering Night Elf phasing back in from stealth behind him was dull in his ears as he stared wide-eyed into the sky and clutched at the wickedly curved sword dripping with his blood. The other rogue moved just as swiftly as he had once he was exposed to rip his blade out and plunge the other in fiercely with a guttural snarl.
Keiran finally found his voice in a strangled, blood choked cry as the second blade lashed through his stomach from his back and finally crumpled to his knees. His vision swam with white in panic as he snatched his daggers back and forced his body to one knee. He drew in a dragged breath and whirled around, one arm lifting to block the second strike from the violet-skinned elf and the other plunging the dagger into his thigh. He howled in rage and pain and delivered a swift and brutal kick in retaliation to the smaller Elf's already ravaged chest which sent the battered rogue sprawling.
Breathing labored, wounds pouring blood hot and thick with every motion Keiran hit the ground on his back, hair splayed sadly around him in a tangled white halo, and lay still. He forced his eyes open only to gaze into the maliciously golden burning eyes of his distant cousin and the gleam of his blade as he raised it to finish him off. The Sin'dorei grit his bloodstained teeth defiantly and snarled as he spat in the face of death. A poor choice, the Night Elf thought as he wiped his cheek and brimmed with hatred.
Keiran could only watch time seem to slow for the white blur of the blade as it moved to strike him down, but from somewhere in the distance a furious scream of his name sounded faintly over the pounding of his heart and the rushing of blood in his ears. His head dropped to the side wearily, vision blurred in the delirium of looming death, in time to see the hurtling flaming ball of molten fury sail up the hill and plow directly into the assailant above him. It exploded with a flurry of flames and shrapnel and a hail of arrows soon found their mark in his burned body with a snarling sprinting Cheetah not far behind who leapt hungrily to sink her jaws into the rogue's throat.
The Troll hunter came coursing after her with an unholy guffaw of glee, followed closely by the same Orc shaman who had claimed the farm and finally a very familiar black-haired mage.
"Keiran? Keiran!" Kaiken screeched as he thundered up the hill.
Upon seeing the bloodied mess of his partner he screeched to a halt and slid on his knees to his side with his face white as a sheet. His hands immediately flew over the gushing hole in his chest and pressed down hard.
"Keiran! Shit, Keiran you IDIOT!" he snarled shakily, "I told you not to go off alone! I told you!"
He ripped the cloak off his back from the clasps at his shoulders and quickly pressed it into the wound, worry carved into his usually calm and stoic features. Keiran coughed and put a bloodied hand over Kaiken's as he opened his eyes only to be faced with his frantic partner's blazing scowl.
"I-I…" he sputtered with a wince before Kaiken clapped a hand over his mouth.
"No, you shut up until a healer gets here. You die on me I'll kill you myself!" he snapped tearfully.
"I tried…" he continued, "I'm… Sorry…"
Keiran simply smiled weakly and kissed into the palm of Kaiken's hand as darkness began to close in a heavy curtain over his vision. His breath rattled sadly in his chest, his lips mouthed silent words of love, and the sounds of the battle slowly faded to blissful nothingness. The last thing he saw before he slipped away completely to the shadows was Kaiken leaning in to scream silently at him and the Shaman kneeling at his side with powerful hands glowing brilliant green. He never even saw the Alliance reinforcements charging up the hill, or his banner torn from the post and tossed to the wind.
When the rogue came to with a start some hours later he sat bolt upright, eyes wide open and blazing brilliant green with muscles rigid as his hands darted for his blades. He failed to notice, however, that he was dressed in a soft cotton gown, his chest was tightly bandaged and he was in the quiet confines of the infirmary back at the Defilers Den.
"Where are my daggers? Where are the bastards?! Let me at them I'll show them a thing or two about-!" he started, but a firm grasp took him by the shoulders and pushed him gently back down.
He looked up to see a rather haggard looking Kaiken with a scowl on his ashen face as well as a thick bandage wrapped around his head and over his left eye.
"Just lie down idiot… It's been over for a while now…" the mage groused unhappily.
The sight of him was enough to shock the normally stubborn Blood Elf into compliance, never mind the biting pain in his chest.
"Wh-What…? By the Sunwell Kaiken what happened to you…?" Keiran asked as he reached up to cup his cheek worriedly.
Kaiken turned away and closed his good eye with a bitter smirk and a sneer.
"Bah, it's fine, just a cut, no damage to my eye really. Just my ego…" he answered virulently.
"Your ego?" continued his companion, "You mean… We lost?"
"We got our asses worked, that's what," Kaiken finished for him, "Complete and total gods damned shut out. We didn't even have a prayer…"
Silence was all that followed as Kaiken hung his head and Keiran lay still and stared blankly at the ceiling. Not even five minutes into the battle and he had lost a base, been taken out and cost several more of his allies including his beloved Kaiken the victory they so craved. Perhaps not single-handedly, he rationalized, but the guilt and the shame settled over him thickly and he turned away from his partner.
"I'm sorry Kaiken."
Kaiken's ears twitched, barely picking up the whisper, and he raised his head.
"Huh? Sorry? What the hell for?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"For screwing up. I know how badly you wanted to win and…" he trailed off, "I… Should have listened to you… Y-You were…"
Keiran stuttered as if his lips and tongue could not form the next word and Kaiken leaned down closer to hear.
"I was-?"
"You were… R-R… Ri…" Keiran sputtered, finally punching his pillow, "RIGHT. Okay? You were right… That was a stupid idea…"
Normally Kaiken would have leapt to his feet, cackled, danced and pointed at Keiran and done everything he could to remember that rare statement but at the moment it was so grimly far from funny it was chilling. He laughed weakly despite it and reached out to stroke back Keiran's long and obsessively well kept white locks.
"Heh, damn right I was…" he said in jest, "But whatever, we still lost… But you're alright. That's… Um… Whasimportan'…"
The last hurriedly slurred phrase was uttered under his breath with the utmost haste and discomfiture. The miserable rogue, however, did not even catch it.
"I should have at least helped…" he moaned into his pillow, "I was totally useless! I had that stupid base for like two seconds and then got slaughtered! One shot! Please don't tell me you guys lost the Lumber Mill for my efforts…"
Kaiken raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Several uncomfortable moments passed with him that way, Keiran waiting expectantly for an answer and Kaiken staring stone still and half-lidded until the rogue finally cracked.
"WELL?" he demanded.
"WELL you told me not to tell you so I'm not!" Kaiken snapped back.
Keiran threw up his hands with an indignant shriek and threw the blankets off.
"GREAT! Just GREAT! So I really WAS completely useless that round! Thanks Kaiken, I feel much better now!" he yelled.
Kaiken remained in exactly the same position he was before.
"Well you don't have to get all hysterical about it," he muttered deadpan.
Keiran, meanwhile, drooped into bed and curled on his side with his back to Kaiken in shame.
"Fuck… Fuck fuck and more fuck," he bitterly murmured, "It's not that. I just… I feel like I… Let you down… You were so cute earlier so excited and out for blood and wanting to win, and instead of sticking by your side and protecting you I go off and do something incredibly selfish and idiotic."
Kaiken flushed to the tips of his ears and his spine went embarrassedly straight and rigid as his hands tightened over his knees.
"Oh well. It's alright," he assured him shakily.
"No, it's not. I was useless, I contributed nothing, I was dead weight on the whole team," Keiran continued as he curled into a ball with a hand over his bandaged and aching chest.
Kaiken's lower lid twitched slightly and he reached out to shake his partner by the shoulder.
"Hey knock that off, you're supposed to be the one laughing and saying that the rest of the team pulled us down!" he insisted with a hint of a smile, but Keiran said nothing in response.
Seeing Keiran so dejected and gloomy when he was normally the one laughing, grinning and cheering him up was disturbing in a way the mage could not hope to describe. Henceforth, Keiran's silence even after his reassurance was nothing short earth shatteringly shocking. Kaiken's good eye went wide and he craned worriedly over the other elf.
"H-Hey… Come on Kei!" he insisted as he nudged at his shoulder again.
"Come on what?" came the moody retort.
"Come on and quit acting like this! It's creepy and you're freaking me out! You're supposed to be all obnoxiously cheerful and cuddling me like some stuffed toy and telling me how great I was!" he said, voice softening slightly.
Keiran's ear flicked and he glanced up with mild interest.
"I would, but I didn't even get to see you fight. Still…" he began, "Still that's yet another way I totally failed today… We're… Supposed to be a team…"
Not even Kaiken could think of a retort after that, and they both fell into an uncomfortable silence.
The rogue, feeling tragically victorious in the argument closed his eyes and curled into a tighter ball to try and sleep, but his partner in crime could not and would not be satisfied to let it end that way. He had curled and pouted after so many lost battles and it had always been Keiran's strong, warm embrace, his cheerful voice and his soothing lips that had made him instantly forget all about it. It was about time he returned the favor; the least he could do for someone who loved him as much as Keiran did, and for the man who was his entire world.
Kaiken smiled coyly to himself and inched closer to the bed to reach out and gently twine a lock of snow white hair between two slender fingers.
"You know, though… Kei," he started, sultry and seductively, "I saw what you did to that Draenei woman… Flawless as usual…"
Keiran's eyes snapped open and he twisted slightly to look up at the mage. Seeing the Cheshire grin on Kaiken's lips, his own could not help but tug at the corners to echo it.
"Well… That was too easy," he said uneasily, mildly flattered.
"Oh don't be modest now…" Kaiken crooned back as he stroked and petted the rogue, "It was really a work of art! And who else had the guts to go off alone? I mean it was a good idea. Cut them off, throw them for a loop-It might have worked if you'd just told a few other people so we could cover you, next time we'll get them for sure. You were fearless!"
His soothing, encouraging words finally coaxed Keiran to turn back to his other side with his legs draped alluringly over one another.
"Really? You think so?" he asked, the familiar puckish glimmer back in the corner of his eye.
"I know so… Plus you can't win them all you know. You're always reminding me of that."
Keiran finally managed a chuckle.
"That I do," he admitted, "I guess I had better take some of my own advice…"
"Damn right you'd better… Plus…"
Kaiken craned forward, cupped Keiran's face in his hands and pressed a slow kiss to his lips.
"This time… It gave me a chance to protect you. Instead of the other way around," he whispered.
Keiran's heart swelled with joy and he finally cracked the crooked, cheerful grin that always graced his lips.
"Well, I suppose I can't argue with that logic," he murmured, reaching up to drape his arms around Kaiken's neck and adding as an afterthought, "Plus the team was crap that time. Really dragged us down."
Kaiken laughed, his universe back in alignment, and nodded as he kissed his rogue again.
"Definitely…"
He barely needed invitation before he had crawled onto the bed atop Keiran, lips sealed to his and legs straddled round his waist. His robes drooped over one slender pale shoulder as he worked his hands under Keiran's infirmary garb and he clicked his tongue in disappointment at the bandages that obscured his view of his chiseled musculature.
"Tsk tsk… Look at you. All a mess," he tittered smugly.
Keiran's hands had predictably already found his thighs under his robes and he hiked them up around his waist with the familiarity of turning the pages of a book.
"Well, it is unfortunate yes, but that just means you have to get naked to compensate," he purred.
"You and your twisted Rogue's logic…"
Satiny fabric hissed against itself and Kaiken's sash was loosed. Freed from its prison, a tiny vial of lubrication that had once called Keiran's utility pouch on his belt home rolled down his lap and stopped itself pointedly beneath his navel. The Rogue snatched it between long fingers, confused, before he realized with a delighted smirk exactly what it was.
"I thought I lost this months ago!" he piped, "Heh, and to think, I didn't think you had learned anything from me…"
"Oh I learned from the best! Learned never to trust a Rogue to always be prepared that is," Kaiken quipped back with a teasing little butt of his hips into Keiran's.
The resulting happy moan was utterly delightful.
"You dirty little sneak thief…"
"Filthy lying scum…"
No more words passed between the two, for their mouths found much better things to do sealed tightly together with tongues twined and lips crushed close. Kaiken shoved the Rogue's shoulders pointedly down into bed and Keiran uncorked the bottle obediently. He tipped the sweet smelling oil onto his palm and reached between his legs to grasp his quickly awakening member with a cry and a silent plea for Kaiken's clothes to leave his body. The robe was a mere nuisance in his way, so Kaiken left it where it was crumpled over his hips. Function over fashion, as Keiran had more than once told him.
The soft cotton of Keiran's infirmary robe flung open at his touch where he was understandably left nude, and sighed at the sight of his engorged sex rigid and aching for him nestled behind the shocking white blaze of hair. He grinned down at it and lowered his eyes. His back arched like a wanton feline, nails like claws curved into Keiran's chest he raised his hips. Keiran's hands languidly traced down his body, following every curve and undulation and came to rest over his narrow coy hips, urging and pleading.
The Mage caressed, dipped, and teased, his own aching sex hanging ignored and mocking between milky white thighs. Keiran, enjoying the show but deciding he was having no more of his silly games, finally defiantly raised his own hips, jerked his tiny partner down with rough hands, and forced their bodies to collide.
Hard flesh pressed against flesh and both elves cried out passionately in bliss. Keiran's throbbing girth pressed longingly against the inviting cleft in Kaiken's hindquarters he reached behind him to angle his quivering erection toward his own entrance. With the blind accuracy of an expert marksman he guided Keiran inside of him and thrust his hips down to his with a decisive moan.
His head slammed back into the pillow with the searing, tight heat of Kaiken's body closing around his yearning arousal. It was an easy feat with the pleasing slickness of the apple scented oil coating him and allowed his sizeable length a flawless surge straight to the base. Coupled with Kaiken's comforting weight on his hips and his soft thighs pinned to his side, the frustration and self-doubt vanished in a glorious moment of blinding pleasure.
Nimble hands gripped firmly at his hips as he arched his back into his lover. His smoldering green eyes were half lidded and heels braced firmly into the bed, his hips rolling majestically for the slender form astride him to ride.
Kaiken moved with his rhythm and the solid girth stroking and pleasing. He shuddered and swayed back with long inky black hair draping, whispering over Keiran's thighs behind him and hips shoving hard down against the rigid shaft buried deep inside him. His nails raked down the Rogue's powerful and battle scarred body, leaving shocking light trails that soon burned a passionate crimson against his dark tanned skin.
They drew a feral hiss of pleasure from Keiran's lips and he lashed out, impassioned, to throw his arms around Kaiken's neck and crush him close to his chest, lips meshed to his. Sweat from the mage's forehead and temples dripped and mingled with his. The fiery scent of apples and sulfur that was Kaiken filled his flaring nostrils as he panted and clawed at his back in turn and thrust harder deeper up inside him.
He threw his hips down and ground out his pleasure with a fierce passion and desperation he would unleash only for the Rogue. With his erection curved proud and streaming up toward his belly he found within himself the hidden spot and ecstasy burst through his consciousness. A piercing scream rang through his cadence of grunts and moans which broke the steady rhythm of their copulation into a frantic heaving desperation.
Blood rushing in their long ears pinned back to their skulls, lips and teeth snatching and snaring one another, and thick virile cum pooling on twitching, shining thighs they finished each other. They came together, rose as one to the zenith and careened heedlessly to orgasm. Even their names, screamed on opposing lips on steamy breath, mingled to one as their bodies released; Keiran's seed filling Kaiken's body as his burst in hot rain over the man beneath him. One breathless beat passed between the lovers before, exhausted, Keiran's body went slack into the soft mattress and buckled the other atop him.
Kaiken collapsed at last, spent from the battle and the final exertion and curled against Keiran's chest. He closed his good eye and as Keiran's strong arms wound around his body a crooked smile cracked across his flushed lips.
"S-See?" he panted, "No need to be a sore loser. Sometimes losing is better."
Keiran grinned, flushed and satisfied, as he planted a messy kiss to the top of Kaiken's head.
"Yeah yeah…" he murmured.
Kaiken slipped gracefully from atop the white-haired rogue and curled contentedly beside him, but his arms stayed firmly around his warm body.
"Thank you," Keiran whispered lovingly against his ear.
"Anytime… You know it, anytime…"
Keiran chuckled and gave himself over to the fatigued sleep that nagged at his mind gratefully, hardly minding still smelling of battle and sex. They had lived to fight and love another day, and as Kaiken had so skillfully reminded him that was truly all that mattered. Together they could make the Alliance suffer for their crimes another round.