Title: The Ribbon and the Ring 21?
Author: Seraphim Grace
Archive: if you want it ask, I just like to know where they are. http/seraphim-grace. http/ Always appreciated and replied to.
Rating: 18 (This is an open rating so I don't have to worry).
Pairings: 1x2
Warnings: Angst. Some gore. Some incredibly bad French.
Notes: AU, and features necromancy.
Each of the boys has a female counterpart in this world, and in this chapter, we meet Trowa's.
Very mild lemon this chapter (3x0FC)
Pronounciation note: Calydon – Ka-lee-don
Eilonwy – Ee-lon-way
Nimue – Neh-moo-ay
Tobin met the Cadacus and Heero at the gate with Deakon, Duo, Trowa, Jored and Bunny in tow. "There is nothing in the palace to eat." He said deigning to ignore the bag of food that the Cadacus was carrying. "So we're going out to dinner, Josian is staying with Blondie, who still hasn't stopped with the vomiting shakes, and the Xingian boy is as well." Heero nodded, actually making sense of the tirade, "And Cameron's had his daily food parcel so I thought it might be best to take the rest of them to dinner." He beamed at the Cadacus.
The Cadacus blinked, "and why do I get the impression that you will be feeding the boys at the Scarlet Arches and not, say, the Royal Setter."
Tobin didn't even look abashed. "The food at the Royal Setter is always half cooked and comes in vastly overpriced and too small for such growing boys. You know as well as I do, or at least you did, how good the food at the Scarlet Arches is."
"And it has nothing to do with it being the premier brothel in all of Aatoria?" The Cadacus pressed.
"No," Tobin answered with a rather broad grin, "That's just a bonus."
Duo lowered his face into one hand whilst the other sought out Heero's. Heero just squeezed the fingers tightly but said nothing.
It was Trowa than answered. "We're going to a brothel?" He asked.
"No," Tobin said calmly, "the very best brothel in all of Aatoria if not the known world." His laugh was a little maniacal.
"It is fine, Trowa." Heero said stiffly, "We have been there before."
The Scarlet Arches had a name that suggested a much grander building, Trowa had suspected that perhaps it would be a vast palace, instead it was a rather nondescript town house with a sign that hung outside of two bright red arches, one inside the other. "Why is it called the Scarlet Arches?" He asked, Jored went bright red and Bunny giggled.
"You don't want to know," Deakon told him trying to restrain his own laughter. Heero and Duo only had eyes for each other.
There was a reception area, where Trowa had been led to believe, by talk around the circus and a set of romances that Cathy had left about the trailer, would be covered in shag pile carpet and young girls in very revealing, and possibly shiny, clothes, or their underwear.
There was a large man at a desk and a ring of cushioned chairs. The floor was wood panelled and there were murals on the walls, not cavorting lovelies as one might expect, but verdant forest landscapes with occasional bursts of wild life. "Welcome to the scarlet Arches," a woman in a long white, Grecian Trowa's mind supplied, dress. She had her hair piled up on her head and from it hung golden ribbons that matched the ones on her feet and hands. But in the centre of her forehead, fixed there by scar tissue, as an elaborate twist of silver and diamonds that hung between sculpted eyebrows. She was a lovely looking girl with pale skin and blonde curls. "I am Eilonwy," she said carefully enunciating the strange name so they would remember it. "Lord Tobin, will you have your usual?"
Tobin grinned, leaning back against the desk, "Eilonwy, my dear, the years have been kinder to you than to me, I see that laughter has only added love to the prettiest eyes."
Before Tobin had started speaking Trowa had assumed that Eilonwy was at most in her mid twenties but it seemed she might have been older.
Eilonwy batted him playfully on the arm, "are all the princes of E'berta silver throated and honey tongued?" She scanned her eyes over the boys, "I trust that they are of age."
Tobin grinned, "Eilonwy, you wrong me." He said in mock hurt, "each of them is, and besides," he leant in to whisper in her ear; she nodded in response. Trowa got the impression that he wasn't here for dinner.
"Gentlemen," she said with a smile, "Lord Heero, Lord Duo, if you would care to follow me." Heero looked at Tobin who nodded. Still holding Duo's hand in his own Heero followed her.
Eilonwy mentioned something to the goon at the desk who nodded and pulled a bell pull from a variety on the table, and then she led the two of them away. "They're married," Jored said from the side, "it kind of precludes some of the pleasures of this place. But they'll get a show," he sniggered, Then he took Deakon's hand in his own, "Tobin, we're going to use the baths." Tobin nodded, leaving Trowa and Bunny sitting beside him on the couch.
Another girl, in pale blue velvet that ended just shy of her golden knees entered, she had black hair and skin that was almost the same colour as Heero's and the same brilliant, almost obscene blue eyes. "Bunny!" She enthused leaning forward in a way that showed off the globes of her ass. Trowa was pretty sure she was not older than they were. Instead of the elaborate jewels Eilonwy wore this girl had a single shimmering stone in the skin of her forehead.
"Nimue," he enthused, kissing her back on the cheeks. "Have you?"
She nodded, smiling breathlessly, "in my room, I've set up the easel and everything." She took him by the hand.
"Bunny's been painting her since we started coming here." Tobin said to Trowa, "his paintings of her sell for a high premium."
"You don't feel a little," he paused, "exposed here?"
"You're safer in the Scarlet Arches than the palace." Tobin said dismissively, "if he," he looked at the bored looking man at the desk," didn't take them out with his crossbows first then I'm perfectly content that you could just snap their neck like a twig, and besides, you're a customer, not merchandise."
"I think that's what makes me so nervous." Trowa answered.
"Don't worry, Eilonwy has set Duo and Heero up in a private room so they can have that conversation you talked about earlier, Deakon and Jored are in the bath, Bunny is in the attic painting Nimue, and you and me can have supper."
"You mean you can eat here?" Tobin answered him with a laugh.
"Hello, Vivikan," a woman said from the internal door. Unlike the other women here she had no artifice about her, her hair was honey blonde, about the same colour as Trowa's and in loose braids down her back. She wore a pale leather vest and trousers but her feet were bare on the wood floor. She had leather bracers on her arms, and a belt around her waist with three large knives hanging from it. She was about the same age as Trowa but carried herself as if she was much older, and when she moved she showed off a pale expanse of stomach. "I will take this one," she said to Tobin taking Trowa by the arm, her grip was strong and forceful.
"I only brought him for supper." Tobin protested.
"Then I will feed him," she said, "after all do I not owe you the very earth, Vivikan." Then she left the room, taking Trowa firmly by the arm with her. Tobin didn't move to stop her either.
Duo let Heero lead him into the small room that Eilonwy had unlocked for them. There was a wide cushioned chaise longue that was facing a curtained window. Heero peeked behind the curtain and then closed the curtains flushing brightly.
"What is it?" Duo asked with a smile.
"It is a," Heero said, sitting beside him but making no move to open the curtains as he searched for the word. "Where men go to see women dance, and they pay."
"A peepshow?" Duo asked, Heero nodded. "Now I have to see."
He stood up but Heero pulled him back., almost unto his lap. "You do not, really." As Duo turned to complain he decided that Heero had his best interests at heart, and he rather liked sitting on Heero's knee with his arms about his waist, he felt safe and loved, and decided that rather than being curious about what was happening behind the curtain that he would much prefer to kiss his husband.
When the woman reached her apartments she almost threw Trowa inside and against the couch in the centre of the sitting room. "I have waited so very long for you." She launched herself at him even as she unpinned her braids so they fell in a mesh down her shoulders and neck. "So very long for this." Her voice was husky as she fixed him to the couch that she had thrown him unto with both knees and ripped open his points.
Later in the aftermath of what could only be called a collision Trowa lay in the wreckage of her gown and his clothes and stroked her cheek where it lay against his chest. "I don't even know your name," she said to herself. Her breath burned like fire against the scars on his torso where she was pressed against him where they lay on the couch. Her vest and his shirt had taken the brunt of the explosion, tearing into shreds beneath them. Never in his life had he met someone like her. He didn't think he ever would again.
"Nor I yours," he said softly.
"I must know," she said leaning up on one elbow.
"I am no one of consequence." He replied calmly wishing her eyes weren't so dark. He was a fool for a pair of dark eyes. They were green, like his own but dark where his were bright, like seas in which he could drown, or the dark heart of the Termigent. The overwhelming image he got of her was one of liquidity.
"You're someone of consequence now," she said smiling impishly, "you are mine and that makes you important to me." At that Trowa got the most awful sense of déjà vu as if she had at some point said that to him, that at some point they were important only to each other, but then it was gone and the present remained. "And I would like to know the name of my kitten."
"You could call your kitten anything," he said, "for I belong to you."
"Perhaps," she said leaning back again to his chest, "but there must be a name that others call you."
"I have been Nanashi a long time." At first she chuckled and then she sat up again.
"You belong to me now," she said pouting possessively, "you'll never not have a name again, you're mine."
"There were many who called me Nanashi."
"But they knew your name." She countered.
"Perhaps, but I don't know yours either."
"I am Calydon D'Amarat, heir apparent of Otranto and first of the Demon Slayers of Aatoria" She said proudly raising her chin so her half undone braid framed her jawbone.
"I am just a circus clown," he said trying to pull away from her but she had him fast against the couch's back.
"Perhaps," she said mocking him, her fingers trailing down his chest, "but I would know your name."
"I told you," he said, "I am no one of consequence."
"I must know." She protested.
"Get used to disappointment." He half laughed with her, he couldn't stay angry at her. "I'm not going to tell you."
She grabbed his chin and used it to pull his head down to hers. "Then I'm going to have to kiss you until you either beg for mercy or tell me your name." She was playing with him, and he could play too. She kissed him lightly once, twice then a third time, flickering lightning bolts of kisses, because it almost burned him where she touched him so great was his desire so soon. A fourth time. A fifth. She almost kissed him, touching him so briefly it was like a fly on his mouth. He fought the urge to take her head in both hands and kiss her properly. He would win this. Soon she would get bored and either kiss him properly or stop asking. He would take a new name. He would take a new name from her.
"Trowa," he said eventually under her onslaught of kisses. "My friends call me Trowa."
"Now that wasn't so hard was it," she said and got up and walked away from him.
"Is that it?" He asked, crossing his arms behind his head.
"For the moment, it wouldn't do you well to get above yourself, kitten." She pulled a robe about her shoulders. "You belong to me."
"Perhaps," he said using the word the way she did. "But I am not good at being owned."
"Perhaps," she said either not noticing or choosing to ignore the slight way he teased her. She pulled her hair from the robe. "But I'm not a fair master. Have a bath, I'll be gone about an hour. I've dallied too long as it is, but I had to know."
He stood up and walked over behind her, wrapping his arms about her waist and putting his head on her shoulder. "I have to go back to the palace," he said sadly, "but I'll see about getting you let in."
She laughed which gladdened him. "I'll break you, you know, I always break all my toys." Her tone was light and buoyant, "But maybe not you."
"Perhaps." He said. She kissed him and then left him standing there naked in the centre of her sitting room.