12th of First Seed 4E203
Three loud knocks.
That's the first thing Kaiya heard as she woke. She sat leaning against the door of Honeyside, the same door that was being jostled as whoever it was on the other side pounded against it with their fists. As the confusion that clouded her mind began to clear, the memories from hours prior came flooding back. Mercer's house. The light in the window. The conversation with Vald. She felt the cracks in her heart begin to pulse again, pain searing through her as if she was reliving the events that broke it in the first place. She must have fallen asleep against the door as she had tried to make sense of it all. Now there she sat, jolted awake from the knocking of the door she leaned against with no idea of what time it was.
She stood slowly, her body aching from the awkward position she had been sitting in. Her guest, whoever it may be on the other side of the door, continued to bang on the wood so hard she worried it might splinter. How impatient could they be!?
"Sweet Sithis I'm coming! You don't have to break the door down!" she yelled through the door as she stretched out her weary body, trying to get the blood flowing into all her limbs.
"Kaiya it's me!" she heard from the other side of the door, a booming voice that could only come from one person. Mercer.
"What do you want?" she called out with no small amount of animosity. "I thought you were busy!"
"Just open the godsdamned door Kaiya." His voice was weary, tired. She felt the familiar tug at her heart that his rumbling voice caused without fail and hated him for it at that moment. No matter how angry she was, she knew that voice would always be her weakness. Fighting her own reaction, she found herself swinging the door open for him, even if a part of her wanted to tell him to go away.
He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. His arms propped him up on the door frame, but he seemed like he was barely standing. He lifted his heavy head as Kaiya opened the door and watched as her face turned from angry to concerned at the sight of him.
"What's going on, Mercer?" she asked, fighting the warring emotions that ran through her. She was hurting and upset at being turned away from his home and hated him for that, but she could not deny the pull that his current appearance at her doorstep had on her. No matter what had happened before, he was here now and deep down, she loved him for it.
He practically fell into her as he stumbled inside, grasping her face to hold in his hands. He crushed his lips into hers, quickly moving to thrust his tongue into her mouth almost greedily. Despite her hesitation, she found herself responding to him, opening her lips to him and wrapping her arms around his waist.
Without breaking their kiss, Mercer spun them around and pressed her back against the door he had just come through. His body came alive as he pressed into her and a hungry groan ripped from his chest in response. His hands did not move from holding her face to him, but hers wandered eagerly. She pulled him closer by his leathers and clawed at his chest and back as she became frantic with her need of him.
He pulled back from her for a moment so they could both catch their breath, panting as they gazed at each other. "I need you." was all he said, his voice rough and husky.
"Then take me."
So much for being angry at him.
"It's sunrise."
Although she did not want to leave her current position with her head lying across Mercer's chest, she felt as the time was drawing near. Lying with Mercer in those quiet, calm moments afterward was almost better than the act itself. Mercer was sated, more relaxed, and sounded free when he laughed, as if nothing in all of Nirn could touch him. Kaiya found herself at ease, her body rid of its usual tension. These moments made all of the headaches that had accompanied their relationship worth it.
Kaiya let her fingers lazily glide along Mercer's chest as she laid there, tracing the outline of his scars and muscles. He ran his fingers through her hair with his gaze on the ceiling, although the faint crinkles at the corners of his eyes told Kaiya that he was happy.
"How did you get this scar?" she asked as her fingers moved towards his right side. The scar was jagged over his ribs but it looked old as if it had been there for most of his life.
She felt Mercer's chest move under her head as he laughed at the memory. "One of my first burglaries in High Rock. I learned that even if your mark is asleep, they may still carry a pretty nasty dagger."
"And this one?" Kaiya felt her lips curling into a bit of a smile as her fingers ran over the scar on his face that cut through his bottom lip. He turned to look at her as she touched his face, seeing her smile.
"Oh you like this one, do you?" he asked. His eyebrows shot up in surprise at the way she bit her lip as she nodded. "Dear gods, you do like it." He laughed now as she continued to run her fingers across the scar on his cheek. "Well I hate to break it to you Footpad, but it doesn't have a great story."
"Go on…" she urged.
"Well, it's the scar from when I learned not to underestimate women."
"That sounds like a great story to me!" she joked as she snuck a quick and playful kiss to his cheek.
Mercer sighed heavily as he continued. "Anyway, it was after I first joined the Guild. I had a mark that also happened to be a young, very pretty, woman."
"Slut!" Kaiya jokingly interjected.
"You jest, but that's not too far off from how I saw women back then. My plan was to just spend a little time talking to her and giving her attention and then when I held her in the palm of my hands, I'd make my move and get to have my way with her whilst robbing her of her quite valuable emerald ring in the process."
"Oh no," was all Kaiya managed to get out.
Mercer shrugged. "I was young and dumb and assumed that all women were just waiting for a man to save them from their manless lives."
"Oh no. Oh my gods I'm so nervous. What in the Oblivion did you do, Mercer?"
"Well, I came up to her in a tavern and started talking with her, doing my best to resemble someone who would be 'courting' a lady such as her. Then, once I felt I had put in my time, as it were, I leaned over and wrapped my arms around her and went to make my move." Mercer began laughing at the memory, shaking his head at his own naivete.
"She wasn't into it, was she?" Kaiya asked as she waited in suspense.
"No," he laughed openly now. "This move was so unwanted that she whipped out her dagger faster than I could even think to jump away, slashing straight across my face."
Kaiya sat quiet for a moment before bursting into laughter. "You thought you were being all smooth!"
"The really sad fact of the whole story," Mercer continued, laughter still present in his voice, "is that she didn't even realize I was trying to rob her. I really was just that bad at trying to seduce a woman."
"Well the fact that you're in my bed right now proves that you've gotten better at it at least." Kaiya laughed as she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek again.
"Mm hmm," he rumbled into her ear as he leaned to kiss her on the forehead. "Lucky you."
At that moment, the image of the second person in Mercer's bedroom floated into Kaiya's mind. Her stomach turned at the memory, crushing the fluttering her heart had done at the kiss he had placed on her forehead. He had gotten better at seducing women, that was obvious.
Mercer noticed her tense up next to him. "What's wrong?"
"What? No. Nothing. Um. What's this scar?!" She spat it all out in one rushed breath, searching for a way to change the subject. She was not ready to discuss this yet. It was still too raw. She didn't realize until she felt Mercer tense next to her that she had opted out of a difficult conversation for her straight into a difficult one for him. She had her hand over the most gruesome scar Mercer had - a dark purple discoloration that looked as if it were caused from a puncture wound. The skin around it was a mangled netting of scar tissue, the entire area directly over Mercer's heart. She had wondered since their first encounter where this came from, but seeing as it was right over his heart, it seemed a little too intimate to ask about.
"It's from an arrow." He spat out almost angrily.
"An arrow over your heart? Who did this? Why?" Kaiya asked anxiously. The thought of Mercer being in a situation that put him that close to death caused her stomach to flip. Maybe this wasn't a better line of conversation after all.
"I don't want to speak of this any more." She felt his arm tense around her, his grip tightening on her shoulder.
"What? Mercer what happened?"
"Betrayal." His voice was cold, offering nothing more than harsh reality.
They sat silent for a moment, both of their bodies taut from the stress of the change in mood of the conversation. Kaiya had once told Mercer that he didn't know what betrayal was. He had responded with "try me." She guessed this is what he was referring to and she had to admit, a shot to the heart was some pretty bad betrayal. It hurt her that he wouldn't tell her more, although she knew that not all scars were physical. Some scars didn't heal.
"It's sunrise," he finally said, breaking the silence between them. "You should get going to Solitude."
They both got out of bed and made their way around her home, picking up articles of clothing and dressing in silence. The tension was still palpable in the room, but neither knew how to break it. Kaiya was not certain that Mercer wanted to, and the thought caused a lump of fear to rise in her throat. She didn't know if she could handle it if he started pushing her away.
She obviously still had a lot to learn about Mercer Frey.
Once they were dressed, they stood facing each other in an awkward moment, both trying to figure out how they should say goodbye. Kaiya did the only thing she knew how to do in strained moments and tried to make light of the situation.
"Well this is awkward," she laughed humorlessly. "Look, can we just pretend that the last 10 minutes didn't happen? We were so good before that!"
"Sure," Mercer replied, but Kaiya could still sense the rigidity of his posture. "Be safe in Solitude."
"I'll do you proud, sir!" she joked as she saluted her Guildmaster, still trying to get at least one laugh out of the man. It didn't work.
"Report to me straight away when you return."
"Will do," she said as she approached him. She raised up on her toes in order to kiss him goodbye since he seemed to have no intention of bending over to meet her halfway. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she forced him to look at her.
"Hey, are we okay?" she asked quietly, although she swore Mercer could hear her heart beating with fear from what he might say.
"We're okay Footpad," he responded, and the first sign of softness towards her started to return to his features. He let one corner of his mouth curve upwards into his most endearing smirk before he reached up and grazed his thumb across her cheek. "Just come back to me in one piece."
"Oh I will," she smiled up at him. "I don't even want to think about how mad you'd be at me if I came back dead. You'd never send me on the good missions anymore."
At this he finally let out a laugh as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek, but that wasn't good enough for Kaiya. She grabbed his face and pressed her lips to his in a searing kiss, making sure he'd miss her while she was gone. Once she heard him grunt in pleasure at her ministrations, she pulled back and bit her bottom lip.
"Tease" he groaned, rolling his eyes at her.
"Well I've got to give you something to look forward to when I return." She winked at him before pulling away. Throwing her pack onto her back, she walked to the door of her home and stopped to look over her shoulder. With a smirk, she said her silent goodbye to Mercer before she made her way out of Honeyside.