A/n- because everyone asked so nicely I thought I'd do another.
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: The next day; with a little more physical'ness and characterization.
Diaka
It was warmer that day, the second day; the dark rain clouds passed sometime during the night, leaving a wet blanket of stillness in their wake. No birds twittered, no animals stirred; only the city's stray dogs roamed the streets of the town, sniffing. Darkness had passed and had been replaced by a pale grey sky; the color of molten silver.
The woman lying face down in the oversized bed bit her lip, eyes screwed shut against the frames of light falling across her face. There was a hand on her shoulder, a warm palm on her cold skin; a prickling feeling.
"Nika?"
Nika groaned, trying to swat the hand away from her. "What?" She half whined half whispered, her head turning into the pillow. The hand upon her slowly slid away and she felt goose bumps. Slowly, she moved her head to the side.
47 was bent down, face close to his companion's. She wouldn't look at him, but her ear was close enough for him to speak and for her to listen.
"I'm going out. I'll be back soon. You should go out to the market around the corner; buy something to eat."
"Too early."
"Nika," exasperated, "It's almost noon."
Blindly, without looking, Nika's arm shot out, barely missing 47's tie. He jerked back swiftly. He could almost hear the smile forming on the woman's lips. "Go then," He heard her murmur, "I'll get something."
Eventually, she did get up, but only after Nika forced herself to watch the digital clock beside the bed tick away another twenty minutes. She wouldn't get up until he was gone and thus was forced into hearing the sounds of his walking across the floor and the sharp clippings of magazines being slid into hollow chambers.
She closed her eyes in faux sleep when 47 came to retrieve his jacket on the chair next to her side of the bed. Nika tried to breath long and rhythmically but the way he paused just beyond where she lay told her he knew what she was doing- or pretending to do.
A few moments later the door to the room shut with a soft, whisper's click,
Nika sat up, swinging her legs over the bed. She was naked, as she had been the day before, but her body felt drained, looked drained, as she curled into herself there upon the mattress.
Turning just a fraction, she saw 47's neatly tucked space where he had slept upon the bed. He had never drawn back the sheets, had never slept inside the warmth with her.
Nika gulped and for the first time, felt shame. Not for her bold nakedness, nor for her attitude towards him, but for what he must think of her. Salt mingled with her sweat as she tried and failed to will herself from crying.
After being drunk for so long, one forgets that the haze one feels at times is not the swath of alcohol, but the unaccosted starkness of sobriety.
A hangover was in full effect.
Getting slowly to her feet, Nika pulled on an t-shirt she had bought a few days ago from a local cart merchant, and bent down to the mini-bar. The tinkling of various glass bottles issued from the fridge as she pulled open the door.
Reaching for a travel size vodka, she stopped.
Despite the pounding in her head, the world felt alive and crisp; more so than it had in a very long time. Here she was, free to do whatever she pleased without the threat of violence or sex, and she was blurring it with absinth liquor?
Apart from the three bottles of water in the bar, there were more than twelve other small glasses filled with everything from cognac to scotch to whiskey. Nika took every single bottle and poured them down the sink.
Placing the empty bottles upon the table, she went into the shower.
OoO
Before 47 closed the door to the hotel room that evening, he had paused, if just for the briefest of moments, to reexamine the door's number. He was almost sure he had entered the wrong room.
Slowly, the door closed, and he breathed in a lungful of air, scanning the space before him.
The curtains were drawn back a little, enough so that light was allowed to illuminate the furnishings. The air, too, was different that day than before; fresh and of flowers.
There was a vase filled with an exotic looking bouquet on the dinning table.
47 drew his lips into a thin line.
What was she doing?
Moving further, into the bedroom, his hopes of Nika being at all manageable that night were instantly crushed when he saw the empty bottles of god-knows what on the table. Had she emptied the hotel's entire stock?
"Nika?"
"Oh, you're back." The sound came from the door to the bathroom.
47 took off his coat and brought a hand up to his tie, "I thought I told you to go down to the market, not drown yourself."
Her voice was curious, yet edgy, "What do you mean?"
He had expected her to be scantly clad again, as she had been previously, and he was prepared to lift his gaze, as he had been doing for the duration of the trip thus far. He was surprised when his companion appeared in very near normal clothing: blue jeans and a pale gold cotton shirt.
"What's that?" He asked harshly, perhaps more than he had wanted to, as he pointed to the wasted alcohol. The bitterness masked his surprise, and he was afraid she would notice.
Her smirk caused the dragon upon her cheek to move. "I got rid of it," she noted flippantly, "It was taking up too much room. I needed the space for the food."
"What food."
"Dinner, obviously."
"Dinner?" The incredulousness of his question caused her to frown.
"Yes, why? Did you have a better plan? Are we going out to eat again so that you can have a little more fun running around killing people?"
47 glared at her, but said nothing.
Nika shook her head, bringing up a perfectly manicured hand to her forehead, where she rested it. "I just thought it would be nice."
"Nice?"
"Yes, God, stop repeating everything I say you idiot."
They both stood, just for a moment, watching each other. She was the first to move, the first to blink, the first to make a truce- if it could be called that.
Nika lowered her gaze, something unaccustomed to her, and reached tentatively to rest her hand upon the doorframe. "I'm… sorry, I do not feel like myself today." Her accent rolled the words off her tongue and the tone of her own voice send a chill up her spine. No, she did not feel like herself.
He was before her in two strides. Lost in thought, she hadn't heard him, and by the quickness of his presence she was reminded of just how dangerous he was. She was staring at the red of his tie; it was consuming.
She didn't realize that she wasn't breathing until she felt his hand upon her cheek; his thumb upon the bone there. She gasped, shuttering, as the palm of his hand moved to cup her face.
"Nika-"
"Sorry- don't, I'll…"
Her voice died as his lips brushed the ink upon her skin just under her eye. She was quivering very minutely, afraid that the hand now pressing upon her right hip would somehow crush her or that if she moved, the moment would be lost, forever.
"You're fine," his voice was in her ear and she felt a thrill within her stomach; a tingling within her body.
Her eyes were closed, but she didn't remember closing them, she had thought that she had kept a firm stare upon the tie. They must have been closed because they snapped open as the kiss trailed down to meet her lips. The hand holding her face never gave but the other against the waist pressed her closer.
It surprised her that his kiss was in no way violent. Nika was use to the forceful way men had about her; the pressure of their tongues against her mouth and their roaming hands. It was endearing how cautious he was with her; it made her weak.
Slowly she parted her lips in a half grin, lazy and flushed with heat and excitement. There was a rush of air and Nika could feel the smallest of sighs from 47, as he captured her smile.
Nika's body was plucked from the ground without her realizing it, and she was placed upon the crisp bedding in one fluid motion, without 47 breaking contact. Slowly, her back was pushed down upon the comforter.
It was with great difficulty she was able to break from the kiss, "But I thought you didn't want-"
She trailed off as she caught sight of his eyes as he leaned over her. They were dark, lidded, and barely able to contain the flicker of desperate wanting within them.
47's breath hitched, and she was marveled.
"And I though," his voice barely audible, "you didn't care."
Nika let out a snapping sound, "Stop this then, if you're just toying with me. Last time you drugged me when I- when I… it's not fair."
He silenced her with another brief kiss, softer, just the merest brushing. "Nika, please…"
He was pleading with her, the very smallest hint of utter need within his voice.
Wrapping her arms around his neck she brought him down to her, down so his lips were on her neck and her mouth was at his ear.
"Then I won't speak… I'll listen."
She felt the weight of his hips upon hers and allowed herself to relax against his hands.
a/n- yay! So, I'm going for broke here and giving you a THIRD chapter. Check back for it!!