Contessa says (deathiskind) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-01-31 09:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, elaine mallory, riddick |
WHo: Elaine *& Riddick
Where: her place
when: mid-january
rating: it's them, so medium high today
Status: Complete
Elaine was sprawled in the comfortable confines of a hammock stretched between two big trees. One lean, bare skinned leg was draped over the edge. Toes rested lightly against the dirt. Her right arm was stretched up over her head, fingers tangled into the rope, resting there. The weather was cooler than the usual but Elaine was truly summer's child and she dared the sun to try not to keep her warm.
Her skin was sun kissed, freckles dotting her shoulders, leftovers from the harsher sun of Afghanistan late last year. Her long hair spilled between the openings of the hammock and brushed the ground as the hammock swayed in a faint breeze of her own making. Her eyes were closed, a faint smile gracing her lips, even as she caught the change of the air currents.
Moments before he made his presence known, Elaine vanished, only the sway of the hammock was left behind. She'd gotten better since the first time she'd veiled herself for him. A puff of dirt as she pushed off the ground and scaled a tree. She maneuvered her way behind him, dropping down into the dirt. She knew he would out move her, but she aimed to catch him for once.
The air crackled as she broke the veil and aimed to knock him into the hammock, where of course she'd land on top of him, visible once more. All slender limbs, tanned skin, a bikini top and a pair of shorts so short the purpose of them was clearly not to wear.
"Good evening.” She let roll off her lips with a grin.
~*~
Magic was a gift from someplace Riddick didn't care about. He tolerated it in others; he appreciated it in Elaine. Her body was always a welcome distraction from the mundaneness of living. His world had shrunk to only her. It was getting harder and harder to stop himself from becoming overwhelming to her. She could push him away if he became too much.
It was impossible for him to deny the impulses to follow her, watch her, be near her always, always, always.
There was nothing else in the world except her.
Riddick allowed himself to be caught. They played games often. Stalking was a game when Riddick allowed it to be a game and Elaine tolerated his games when they amused her. He didn't mind falling under her weight. She was barely more than a bird landing on him. It was her choice to use her magic sparingly against him. It was his choice to keep his animal side on a leash in her presence.
"Good evening. Been a long hour since I last saw you, beautiful."
It was a lie.
He'd never stopped watching her. He'd only stopped doing it obviously.
~*~
Magic was much a part of her life now. She'd long decided that living without it was no longer an option. She needed it to breathe as much as she needed air. She understood how easily things became both obsession and addiction.
He was her addiction. His need to be around her didn't bother her. His methods of watching her weren't intrusive. It calmed the jittery fear filled portion of her brain, knowing that nothing could harm her under his watch. He protected her from everything that was dangerous out here.
Games had become part of their life. She found they kept her on her toes. Even if she never really won, she could use the tactics to win against regular people. She liked the challenge. Maybe someday she'd legitimately win against him.
“What a tortuous hour it must have been.” She teased as she laughed, eyes sparkling. Elaine leaned down to steal a kiss, pleased to be able to look him in the eye now. No longer must she worry about the Gaze, she was happy that she could share that with him.
~~~
"I can handle the torture if it means I get the pleasure in exchange."
He licked the taste of her off his lips. Sun. Pure sun was the taste Elaine offered when her lips warmed his; Riddick would let her perch above him until the true sun fell from the sky so long as she shared her light with him. They lived a simple life together even when they traveled to horrid places filled with death. Riddick wanted to see only life reflected in Elaine's eyes, in her face, coming from her mouth as warm as the rays of sunlight shining from the sun who was her slave as much as her master.
"Are you happy?"
Riddick asked because he wanted to know. He didn't ask questions he didn't want to know the answers to---prevarication wasn't in him. Animals didn't lie. They didn't have a reason to lie. Instinct drove him the way it drove all animals. His instincts were confused because of the witch. She spun the winds around him toward change. She had changed him when Riddick didn't think it was possible for him to experience change.
Evolution?
Maybe.
Change?
Doubtful.
~*~
She breathed warmth. Sun was part of her very soul. As long as there was sun she could survive. The promise of sun was what could keep her going in the long nights.
She relaxed as she licked the taste of his lips off her own and smiled at him. His question made her pause, she was curious as to what brought it on but she didn't ask that. She knew well enough that he didn't ask without meaning to.
He didn't make small talk.
“I am. Happy. Content.” Safe. She was safe feeling when he was with her. She gladly took him to the dark, vicious parts of the world. He was an anchor when she needed it most.
His question made her think and decide the next place she took him wouldn't be vicious and war torn. He has seen her come alive in her work. He deserved to see what she looked like it in nature that wasn't her home.
“Are you pleased with how things are?” Cautiously.
~~~~
Pain was something Riddick understood. He was familiar with suffering, torment, agony even. His life had been hard before he had learned how to walk. Joy was something Riddick felt too rarely to be able to identify it when it happened. Happiness was something he had given up on finding in life. The best he'd figured he would ever get would be contentment or fleeting moments of pleasure found in the way one found pleasure when one was an animal.
Flesh was the way an animal found its pleasure.
Food brought pleasure. Fucking brought pleasure. Fleeting moments -both of them- were the only thing Riddick could expect where pleasure was concerned.
"I have never been more pleased."
It was a lie as much as it was the truth. He'd been pleased when he had killed. Taking a life was the surest way to feel alive. Riddick had Dreams of murder. He had Dreams of being---whatever kind of animal he truly was in the world he belonged in which was surely not this one. He had Dreams. Elaine had Dreams. Those Dreams were not what kept them together. They were the reason Riddick knew he had to stay with the witch: leaving her meant they'd both sink into the clutches of a life they weren't meant to live again in this world.
"I want to be with you. Constantly. I want to breathe you in every time I take a breath. I want to smell you any time I catch a scent. I want to feel you any time I feel anything at all. Does that scare you?"
~*~
Elaine smelled the lie within the truth but she understood it. She knew what drove him, and she found no malice in the hint of a lie. She brushed the hair out of her eyes.
He grounded her when she could have easily vanished into herself as the Dreams swept through and turned her life upside down. But he was a reason to stay grounded.
Lightning flashed in her eyes as she listened to him and took in his words. She was sure that in another point in her life she'd have dismissed him as a creepy stalker. But now?
“No. It pleases me. It makes me feel important. Necessary”
~~~
"You are necessary. To me. I can't live without you. Not anymore."
Riddick reached up to touch Elaine's hair. She had pushed it away. He liked it around her face, hanging around them, shrouding them from the sun even as it burned as bright as the sun itself. Elaine was the sun he wanted in his sky. All the light Riddick could tolerate came from within the witch. He'd been born a creature destined for the darkness; he'd been reborn to love a witch who belonged to the light.
Rubbing a strand of her hair between his fingers, he murmured, "Fire. Your fire is always burning. I want it. I never thought I'd want the light or the warmth of fire. I hate the desert. I hate the light in my eyes. You? I love everything about you. The fire. The light. Summer. I even loved the damn desert when I was in it with you. What does that say about me?"
He knew the answers he wanted weren't anything in particular. All Riddick wanted was to hear Elaine speak to him. He wanted her to tell him she wanted him. He wanted to hear her say how he pleased her again and again and again. It was a desire as deep in him as the heart in his chest. Animals were motivated by instinct rather than heart, but Elaine made him aware of the heart in his chest as more than an organ to circulate blood.
The witch made his heart beat.
She was necessary to him.
~*~
Elaine had never meant that much to anyone before. She let him do as he wished with her hair. She liked it when he ran his fingers through it. She liked when he touched her.
She blushed when he told her he even liked the desert with her. She took in a deep breath, then let it out. “It says you're the darkness to my light. The winter to my summer. “ she slid to rest against his side, tangling her limbs with his.
“Can't say I've ever been anyone's sun before. I admit I like it “ she nipped lightly at him before nestling her head against his neck, warm and comfortable.
~~~
Wrapping his arms around her, Riddick gave in to the urge to hold Elaine as tightly as he knew she could handle. His arms felt grotesquely large in comparison to her slight frame, but Riddick knew he was the way he was because his purpose? Violence. War. Death.
He was the Death to Elaine's Life.
That was the part of their relationship neither of them wanted to talk about.
"I like it too."
Riddick whispered the words into Elaine's hair as it fell over his face. He felt warmed everywhere her body touched his own. The hammock began to rock them both as Elaine warmed Riddick and Riddick cooled Elaine, tempering them both. There really wasn't anything more to be said given their current predisposition. Time was their bitch in this place which meant they could simply hold one another and rock the sunlight away.
Life was easier when a man knew love.