Disclaimers and crap: See previous posts.
"Is me nose playin' tricks or am I smellin' fresher air?" Catti-brie's smile was hopeful. Drizzt glanced at Entreri. The assassin's eyes were cold.
Drizzt nodded and sliced the bat meat he had brought back from his hunt. He had learned that the less he said about what they were eating, the better the humans stomached it. He had begun identifying their food only as meat, plant or occasionally egg.
Entreri snagged the slice of meat from Drizzt's dagger with his own.
"So?" Cat prompted, interrupting his admiration of the man's graceful movement. "How many more days before we're seein' the sun?"
Drizzt shrugged. "I have yet to see daylight. Sometimes the wind will push fresh air far underground. We will see it when we see it." He glanced back at Entreri. Was that a look of relief that flashed across those fine features before he squelched the expression?
"It could be another ten-day still." He continued. Beyond doubt, that was relief in his eyes. Drizzt felt himself frowning with confusion. He had thought the assassin wanted nothing more than to see the surface again, to be done with the underdark and all things drow. It appeared he had been mistaken.
It was quiet and Drizzt leaned against a rock, listening to the distant drip of water and the breathing of his companions. He heard when Catti-brie woke, though most would have missed the slight noise. He noted with approval that she seemed to be learning more stealth. Perhaps it was the stillness of the underdark that made her not want to be heard.
"My watch." Catti-brie's voice was soft enough to not wake the sleeping man. Drizzt turned and smiled at her, and she rested a hand on his shoulder. Their eyes met and she nodded her head towards Entreri.
"Go get some sleep, elf." The affection in her voice spoke volumes. It was something less than approval and something more than acceptance. She saw his need, and saw that Entreri could meet that need, and she would not begrudge her friend his only source of peace.
Drizzt crossed over to the sleeping assassin, quiet as only a drow in the underdark can be. Slow and careful he settled down a hand's width away, just watching the man for long minutes.
In sleep the hard lines of Entreri's face gentled. The curve of his upper lip relaxed from its habitual sneer. The lines between his eyebrows smoothed, and he looked happier, and younger. Beneath the stubble of his cheeks, the muscles of his jaw lost their rigid clench. Still, the journey had been hard on him, perhaps harder than it had been on Catti-brie. His eyes were sunken with exhaustion, and he seemed to Drizzt to be thinner.
Sleep is just another thing I have taken from him without recompense, the drow mused. I have taken everything and he has asked for nothing...
Soft-looking lashes fluttered and grey eyes looked up into his. Entreri was not a man who had survived by being a heavy sleeper, and it showed in the speed with which his expression went from soft confusion to hard annoyance.
"What are you doing?" he hissed at Drizzt, the frown and the sneer and the clench to his jaw back on his face like a mask.
The ranger shook his head, and closed his eyes. He deserved that glare, yet he could barely stand to have it turned on him. He felt Entreri's hand on his wrist, and did not resist as he was pulled off balance to kneel; did not fight as he was coaxed to lie down on the sandy spot where they had made their bed this night.
Where will you go? He wanted to ask, but could not find the courage in himself to speak the words. His eyelids were heavy. If Entreri was only sleeping one shift out of three, Drizzt wasn't doing much better.
His reason for waking is me, Drizzt accused himself silently as Entreri wrapped around him, pressing his face to the back of the drow's neck. I take the sleep from him, and he gives it to me... the unfairness of it ate at the heart of his honor.
"Artemis..." the name sounded strange in his throat.
"What?" the assassin's voice was no warmer than it had ever been.
"I will not hurt you again," he whispered into the darkness. He felt a shiver run through his body. It had been many days since he had pushed Entreri to his knees, many days since he had almost done it again at the waterfall. He was too afraid of losing his control again to promise, despite the time that had passed since he had been conquered by his need. "If I falter, remind me of these words."
Entreri sighed behind him. "Be quiet and sleep."