The Better Days

This is my attempt at adding to the Thane/Irikah library, haha. I simply wanted more stories of their everyday life together, and this is what I ended up with. Story will be updated more or less regulary, adding more chapters as far as my imagination goes.

Story is set before, during and after their, in loss of a better word, wedding ceremony. Before Kolyat was born, and before they started suffering the after-effects of Thane's profession.

English isn't my first language, so please bear with me if there are any spelling errors. Rated M for future chapters.

...

The sound of the door slamming shut made her stop what she was doing, and she froze to listen. There were rarely any visitors here, their house was positioned too far from the city, and he would never slam the door in such a manner. She put her book down beside her and quickly got up from the bed she'd been half-slouching in. The person in the hallway made a rustling sound, and a quiet hiss of a curse could be heard, followed by a thump.

Irikah quirked an eyebrow. She would recognize his voice anywhere; why was he sneaking into his own house? Badly sneaking, even. Still cautious, she walked slowly towards the hallway, tipping on light feet. A sour thought flew through her head, and she cursed herself for not being properly dressed, wearing only her undergarnments and a loose shirt - she hadn't expected him home until tomorrow.

Being drawn by the choices to hurry back to her bedroom and throw her nightgown on or running to the hallway to meet him, she fought a quick and silent battle with herself, before another loud thump distracted her and she automatically started walking towards the hallway again, this time pacing up a bit.

As she reached the hallway, she could see a shadow moving in the kitchen. She frowned once, surprised he hadn't heard her yet. More rustling sounds were heard from the dining area, and Irikah pressed herself to the wall next to the kitchen door, and cautiously peeked around the corner.

It was him. She let out a quick sigh of relief – who else would it be? He stood with his back towards her, being very busy going through the cupboards above the sink, obviously looking for something.

He still hadn't noticed her. A smirk crossed Irikah's face, and she tip-toed closer to him, trying to be as sneaky as possible. When she was only inches from him, she raised her hand and let her index finger slide in a wiping movement along his neck.

She chuckled as he froze, seemingly way too composed to even flinch. She felt his muscles tense under her hand, which was now placed on his shoulder, but that was all. No reaction. She felt that her scare had somewhat failed, so she gently touched his neck with her lips and whispered in his ear.

"Welcome home."

In stead of turning around to face her, he simply nudged his cheek against hers in a nuzzling movement, as a smirk crossed his lips. She could feel the slightly rumbling sound of a chuckle travelling up from his stomach.

"I did not expect you to be awake," Thane said, speaking in such a low voice that she could barely hear him. She was still standing behind him, one hand on his back, and she frowned at his words.

"Bet you didn't, otherwise you wouldn't have come sneaking into your own kitchen. What are we looking for in the cupboards, killer bedbugs?"

He let out another chuckle, louder this time, and finally turned around to face her. Irikah met his eyes at once, trying to scan his face for any clues to what he might have done this night. But as usual his face was like a blank paper, giving nothing away.

"As a matter of fact, I was just-" Thane abruptly interrupted himself as he broke eye contact with her and swept his gaze over her body. She could feel his sight linger at her shirt (sloppily hanging around her neck, exposing her left shoulder), move to her dark purple panties (with little black hearts spread over the fabric, in a very girly pattern), and finally stop at the excessive amount of bare skin she was displaying (not at all a proper amount of skin to show if you were a soon-to-be-but-yet-not-married-woman). Irikah could feel a blush coming creeping over her neck, and she lowered her gaze, waiting for him to scorn her.

He didn't. Instead he looked mildly nervous, apparently not at all expecting her to rush towards him in the middle of the night dressed only in her bed wear. Although not entirely comfortable with what she was wearing herself, Irikah was somewhat pleased by his reaction. Speechless was always good when it came to Thane, since it occured so rarely. She dared to peek up at him. However, as soon as she threw a glance at his chest, she let out a whimpering moan of horror, and covered her mouth with her hands, eyes huge with terror.

There was a huge, gaping wound slashed across his chest, dark brown in the middle, and with splotches of dried blood surrounding it. He was pressing his right arm tightly to it, possibly to prevent more blood from sipping out. When he saw the sheer horror in her face, he hurridly tried to explain himself.

"It's nothing, Irikah, you do not have to worry the slightest. I had wished to treat it before you saw it, but you took me by utter surprise." He stroke a hand gently over her cheek.

"B-but it's huge! You have to treat it at once!" She started to look through the kitchen cupboards like a hurricane, finding some alcohol to clean it with as well as a bandadge. They spent the next tewnty minutes on the kitchen floor, Irikah trying like a madman to treat him, and him trying to comfort her, coming with weak objections to her worry. Thane quickly stopped trying, however. He knew how persistant she could be when she had decided to.

When they were done, she helped him to his feet (oblivious to the fact that he had no trouble walking by himself, and that he as a matter of fact had walked entirely on his own through the city and back home minutes before). She muttered low curses as she pushed him into her bedroom.

"Irikah.. what are you, I am perfectly fine, I can assu-"
"Silence, you. I do not, and I repeat do NOT want to wake up every hour worrying over if you're bleeding to death in your own bed. You're sleeping in my room tonight, Sere Krios, whether you have anything against it or not."

As a matter of fact, he didn't have anything against it at all.

...

To be continued.