Who: Riddick riddickr & Deirdre deirdreofamber What: Exploring the park. When: Sunday, April 5, afternoon Where: Loveless Park Rating: Audience Discretion is Advised Warnings: Riddick, Deirdre, vulgarity, crude commentary, general animalistic behaviors, a mongrel which will eat anything, they're just weird and wild. Sorry. Status: Closed/Completed GDoc
~*~
The wild woman wasn't a creature Riddick attempted to lead anywhere. She chose to come with him where he went, at her own pace, sometimes her pace matched his, sometimes she trailed behind, sometimes she raced ahead, but she was always her own. It was exciting to be able to spend time with her while she flew through life on feet made for walking the floors of palaces. Deirdre claimed she wasn't made for the hostile life of her royal family, but Riddick looked at her and saw a queen.
She could rule over him any time she liked. He'd gladly be her courtier even if he didn't know what the fuck all that meant. As long as it meant he got to bathe the royal person and fuck the royal pussy? He figured it was a fair trade for any other requirements which came with the job.
A chuckle escaped him as they circled the sign again: Loveless Park.
"Loveless Park, huh? Guess we'll fit right in. Or maybe not."
Riddick closed the distance between them to lift her by the waist, tossing her into the air to see her nearly fly before catching her again, swinging her in a circle. She weighed barely more than the amount of air she disturbed with her presence. It was hardly fair to be so fierce in such a neatly contained package. No wonder her people were all insane. They'd have to be if they were all as perfect as her.
"I'm willing to share a little love for the place. You? Want to find a space for ourselves? There's room in the back of the park where it skirts the edge of the city limits. No trails lead up to it. No one would get too close if we set the mutt to guarding and I imagine you've got more tricks up your sleeves than you want people to know about."
They would do alright together. They could make this place theirs. It wouldn't be hard. No one here had declared themselves any kind of leader or any kind of law. A police department wasn't something Riddick considered law. He figured this place could throw whatever at them. They'd take it out if they had to or kick it out one. Whatever it took. He'd do it. This place was a change of scenery.
That was all it was going to be if he had anything to say about it.
~*~
Deirdre moved through life, and its fascinating detours at her own pace. She liked to explore, even back home. These trips through space and time indulged in her curiosity and she found herself not as inconvenienced by them as she had been.
Riddick made it easier.
While she protested her upbringing, he treated her like the royalty she was. He didn't treat her like the royalty her family was, none of that backstabbing, wary sits the crown bullshit, but like she mattered and deserved to be spoiled.
She liked when he spoiled her. His methods.were much better than any pile of jewels. A brow arched lazily. "Interesting name" she mused for a moment before looking at him.
Her light airy laugh rang out as she was picked up and tossed into the air. She was agile and trusted him to catch her again, arms snaking around his neck as he spun her around.
When she caught her breath, eyes glittering, she smiled. "I think that is a perfect idea. I already like this place." Meaning the.park. She didn't bother with an innocent look.
"I have plenty of tricks up my sleeves."
*~*
Riddick rubbed his face against the exposed skin of Deirdre's arm. She was warm, warm from the sun, from this place, from her life. Her skin was better than warm velvet against his own. Touching her was a gift he didn't deserve though he liked to consider it as repayment for all the gifts he'd never been given in his life.
Ever.
No one gave a convict anything.
"I prefer it better when you don't wear sleeves."
It wasn't much of an admission. Riddick was certain Deirdre knew by now how much he loved her body. She was lush in all the right places with hollows, secret dips, sharp edges designed to intrigue and warn a man. There was nothing ordinary about her body. He knew better than to treat her as if she were some common slag. Whores never came as good as Deirdre.
They usually didn't come at all where Riddick was concerned. Too many rumors about what he'd do to them. How he'd hurt them. Debase them. Make them do things worse than animals.
None of those rumors were true, but Riddick didn't mind them. They kept the wrong sorts away from him. He had nothing he was willing to give to anyone who was willing to be paid for their bodies. Mercenaries were only whores with guns instead of holes waiting to be filled. All of them were on the same moral plane in his opinion; they could all go fuck themselves. That was his honest opinion on the matter.
Deirdre had respect. She demanded respect. She deserved respect.
She was different from some whore.
"You want to go back toward the wall? I think it'd be safest there. We don't want to get up on the wall. No one else does either. Our advantage would be we'd know where it started. They'd only be guessing. Least I'm thinking they'd be guessing. I've seen what you can do when left to your own devices. You're not half-bad as a decorator."
~*~
Deirdre smiled as he nuzzled her arm. She liked the feel of his skin against hers. She treasured their time together. Back home, men wanted her because of her connections, her power, or to get to those in power. Dating as a royal was never easy and in her family? They encouraged dating siblings and cousins. royals. Sometimes it paid to avoid the family. Although she genuinely cared for her one brother, but they were all so far apart in age half the time, it didn’t feel as ooky as it could. Although she found her brothers’ adorations of her sister Fiona to be too far over that line.
No, she determined, she was much happier here. Riddick was one in a million. She liked it that way. Deirdre smiled gently. “I know you do.” she mused at him as he said he liked her without sleeves on. She liked it that way too. She much preferred to be in short sleeves or sleeveless herself.
Riddick deserved respect. She thought so, anyways. She decided that he deserved it. He wasn’t the monster people thought he was. Sure, he was a bit of a wild animal, but that was a good thing in her eyes. She liked her men wild and fascinating. They made life so much more worth it. She wasn’t anyones whore, and that was a good thing really. She liked it that way.
She smoothed her hair out and nodded at him. “I think that would be wise. Give us a good backer, and enough room ahead to keep things secure for us. The mutt’ll help, of course, I’m sure he’ll like it out this way too.” she thought about it for a moment. “I don’t think anyone can have a clue how we work. It’s good for me that way.” she grinned a bit.
“Well yes. Thank you, I do enjoy making our home comfortable.”
~*~*
"Our home…"
Riddick savored the taste of the words on his lips. He let them echo in his ears and felt them rattling down into his chest where they built up a fire in his gut. Warmth raced through him, chasing the anger out of his veins to fill him with a different kind of fire. Everything was lava inside him. Molten. They might as well have been pressed together in the desert they'd come from again, melting into each other under the harsh sun.
He had never had a home.
The wild woman spoke of her family as if they were all a nest of vipers which didn't surprise Riddick in the least. All royals got their power by force as far as he could tell. It took bloodshed to maintain a crown. He didn't envy her the relations she had back in Amber, but the fact she'd once had a home? A place to lay her head which was hers? Riddick envied Deirdre that because it was all he'd ever wanted and the only thing he'd never been able to get for himself.
"I like the sound of that. Never had one of those before. A home. Wanted one. Tried. Think I'll manage it here? With you?"
He wasn't asking her for more of herself than she was willing to give. Every woman deserved freedom as much as any man did. Riddick was an animal, but he wasn't the kind who thought women should be kept in cages for a man's pleasure. Some of the most vicious animals were females. They'd do anything to protect their nests, their young, their homes.
Would this wild woman do that for him? Would she fight for him? She'd patched him up before. Cared when he was hurt. It was hard to tell how far loyalty lines ran when a man had never drawn any which had lasted.
~*~ Deirdre watched him quietly. She’d retained a little love for silence and watching people’s body language since their time in the desert. She found it fascinating that she could learn so much by merely watching facial movements or muscle tensing. She’d never thought of that before, beyond the basic tells of her family on who was going to jump first.
Fingers raked through her hair, tugging the strands into a semblance of order. Her hair tangled easily and she found that annoying. It’d turned into one of her thinking tells. She toyed with her hair when she was thinking deeply. It gave her fingers something to do while she organized her thoughts. And this was something she liked thinking about it.
She liked the option of a home with Riddick. Their camp had been inching towards feeling like a home. But this place gave them a little more to play with insofar as that was concerned. She weighed how she felt about homes - hers, she missed it and she didn’t all at once. His, how he really didn’t have one. Then a slow smile crept across her lips.
“I think you’ll manage it here with me.” she replied simply. She offered up that for him, not out of a need to make him happy, but because it made her happy. She liked the idea of sharing a home with him, making something from nothing and turning it into theirs.
Deirdre had decided that she extended him similar loyalty that she had to Corwin, it was rare for her family to form actual, lasting alliances even among those who were direct, full siblings. But she’d been fond of Corwin and had extended him far more trust than anyone else. It was that trust that she now gave to Riddick. She would fight for him, defend him, care for him and she expected the same from him.
~*~
Hope wasn't something a convict could afford. There were facts in the life of a convict, unalienable certainties which didn't differ from slam to slam. Most took a while to learn them all. Many didn't live long enough to get through a third of the list. Riddick felt often as if he had been the one who'd wrote the fucking thing. It was as if he'd taken the cause to a whole new level where living as a professional prisoner was concerned. He knew a few of the more horrific punishments were from direct contact with him.
Turns out guards don't like watching their buddies die.
Badly.
Riddick had never allowed himself to stoop so low as to hope. The absurdity of something being possible without it being tangible or a thing he knew he had a definite plan for? It was too much for Riddick to deal with on any level. All his patience ran out and quick when it came to putting his trust in some unseen potential. He knew facts as a convict. He knew how much weight he could lift, how far he could force his body to bend before something broke, how hard he could hit, kick, headbutt: Riddick knew facts.
Hope was something a man had to have faith for and Riddick wasn't certain he had faith even after his time speaking with Shirah.
"I'm thinking so, too. I'd say hoping for it, but I don't believe in hope. It's cruel. A lie. I never lie. You know that by now. Thank you for sharing yourself with me, wild woman."
For Riddick, that was absolutely poetry.
He felt as if he could be someone different for Deirdre if he had to be. He could find better words for her. Kindness. He could touch her softer. Riddick didn't have to prove anything to Deirdre. She didn't expect anything out of him except respect which he gave her seeing as she'd proved to more than deserve it. They were doing well together because they expected nothing. That was what people like them had to do in order to make a relationship of any kind work. They were too used to betrayal to trust. They had to keep it all simple, above the table, fucking without substance until they were certain substance could be had.
It would take time for them.
Riddick had a feeling they would get time if this place's welcome message was anything to go by.
This place had even given them jobs. Had to mean it was planning on keeping them around. Had to. He couldn't think about anything else.
~*~
Deirdre loved the information he dropped in his words to her. They were sparse and rare as gems, but that was perfect for her. She smiled a touch at his words, though. “Hope is a rare thing to be true and real.” she said gently. “And I prefer you to never lie to me, and I like that about you.” She smiled warmly.
Hope was a flighty thing, it rarely stuck around until the end. She’d hoped before. Hoped to escape but hope and prayers never got her anywhere, hard work and determination did. Slender fingers smoothed hair out of her eyes as she watched him. She didn’t think hope suited him. He was wild and animalistic, and animals didn’t hope.
She expected nothing from him except what he gave her. She enjoyed his offers to her. She trusted him to be honest with her. He’d never lie to her and she’d never lie to him. She was happier that way. It was refreshing to be honest with someone, someone who wouldn’t use that honesty against her. Not like her family would.
Dark eyes sparkled as she looked up at him. “No thanks are needed, I am pleased to be able to share myself with you.” she was honest as she slipped from his side to look around, and pick a new place for them. She loved the idea that this place gave them a chance. A job (even though she’d really never had one) and a start at a life that was theirs. Maybe this time things would go better.
She’d nurture that thought and maybe, just maybe, allow for a tiny sliver of hope despite the fact she knew better. It had to work, and she’d make sure it did if she had to beat this place into submission with her own bare hands.