Heirot

Vlad came in through Tenara's room. He couldn't hear anything from the bedroom thanks to their one-way sound barrier. He knelt next to Tenara's bed and watched her sleep. Her soft breathing and even heartbeat slowly worked some of the knots out of his nerves. He wanted to be in the next room, but something was holding him back.

Atul removed his clothing and climbed in bed with her, pulling his future wife into a very tight embrace. He cupped a hand around the back of her head as she hugged him, nestling her face into the crook of his neck. The king combed his fingers through her silver hair quietly, using magic to snuff a majority of the candles in the room out until only the bed side table had a soft dim glow emitting from it. "I'll lay with you," he vowed. "If Vlad cannot be close to you, I will be close to you. If he cannot touch you, I will touch you. And when his mind his healed... we will both be close to you."

Tenele nodded, taking his face in her hands and pressing her lips to his. "Thank you," she whispered, brushing fingertips across his cheek. She smiled at him. "Do you really think things will be okay?"

Atul nodded. "I do." He didn't have the heart to tell her he wasn't sure, or that he had been victim enough to Lelana's tricks to know how long the scar lasted. He wondered how Tenele would hold up if the man she loved and desired couldn't hold her or touch her for years to come. "No more frowning." The King's fingers tickled her sides lightly. Tenele laughed, trying to draw away, but he pursued.

She wrestled his hands and arms away from her body, which of course he allowed her to. He was stronger than her, if he wanted to he could have continued. She forced his hands down on either side of his head. "No," she told him firmly.

"No?" he sighed, stretching. "I'm not a dog. You can't order me. I'm king."

Tenele chuckled softly, glancing about the black corners of the room while she thought. "I can order you."

"Oh really?" Atul laughed. "And what makes you think that."

Tenele bent, hovering a few inches from his face. Her silver hair tickled his skin. "Because I'm a woman."

Vlad took several minutes to work up his courage to come to his lovers' sides. It wasn't so much that he succeeded as that he grew stubborn the instant he realized that was what he was trying to do. Why should he be nervous around his own wife? There was no reason to avoid them. They'd both accepted him and what had happened to him. End of story.

He stood and walked through the door to find Tenele pinning Atul down to the bed. Giggling was in the air. Vlad halted and stepped in slowly, a smile on his face.

Tenele was trying to keep Atul pinned down (and again he was faking it) when her husband entered into the room. She glanced up, smiling. Her smile faltered, only just a hair, and she sighed. "There you are," she greeted. "Did your talk with Sinead go well? I've been schooling Atul on the fact he has to obey my orders."

"Fine," Vlad smirked. "We have a habit of ruffling each other's feathers." He drew his shirt over his head smoothly and dropped it on the stool next to his wardrobe. "As for orders, Atul, you're free to order as you please. But she's equally free to overrule you," he teased. He dropped to a seat on the bed next to them. "Just as I'm free to inform her that your thighs are ticklish. I'm very observant." He smiled deviously.

Tenele's eyes lit up.

"Oh! No, no, no!" Atul went to grab her hands before she could twist her body around to attack his legs. She moved fast, and he was torn between laughing and trying to drag her away. "No."

"No?" Tenele replied in the same tone he had earlier. "I am not a dog. You can't order me. I'm queen."

"Not yet!" Atul laughed, drawing her hands away and slinging her sideways close to Vlad. He wrestled her into the mattress, pressing his naked body into the silk gown she wore. "There, that's better. No more tickling."

Vlad smiled, continuing to go about undressing while the two rough-housed next to him. When he was in his usual nightclothes, or lack thereof, he slid in next to Tenele and drew the disheveled sheets back up to cover his more temperature sensitive bedmates. He lay face to face with Tenele, and his leg swept forward to coil around hers. When they were entwined the way he liked, he rested into the pillows and reached out to stroke her hair behind her ears. Seeing her beautiful expression melted the shadows in his eyes. He stared at her quietly in his weird vampire stillness.

Tenele settled in next to him, and the world around them seemed to go so very quiet. Atul pressed into her back, curling an arm around her waist. She stared at her husband, fixated on his red eyes. She was afraid of making the wrong move, of making him feel uncomfortable. But, he was naked with her. He was pressed closely to her. He was staring at her. Maybe things weren't as bad as she thought. Still, she didn't press her luck. She didn't try to embrace him more, as she normally would. She didn't even move to kiss him good night. The beautiful woman gave him a soft smile before she gently shut her eyes.

Atul snuffed out the last remaining candles, and the room went black.

"I'm so glad to be home and in a bed," he sighed against her shoulder, nipping lightly at the skin.

Vlad broke the stillness, no longer frozen in his patient gaze. He noticed it wasn't quite the same way she normally treated him, but there was no way to tell if her rapid heartbeat was nerves or if it was just the result of wrestling with Atul. He wasn't satisfied. He wasn't close enough to her, to them. He shifted his whole body forward and upward on the bed, so her face aligned with his collarbone. He drew her securely against the crook of his neck, and his arm snaked tightly around Atul's shoulders. He kissed Tenele's hair. "Goodnight. I love you both."

Tenele enjoyed the embrace so much, felt so much relief, that she started crying before she could get herself to stop. She didn't made a good show of it. It wasn't sobbing, but the tears fell anyway. She swallowed the knot in her throat, tried taking in deep breaths to calm herself. She blinked her eyes to dry them, the lashes fluttering lightly against his skin. She didn't think he'd ever want to hold her. She thought it would hurt him to be this close.

Vlad felt her breathing and heartbeat change noticeably. He knew her moods and her smells and her sounds. He knew when his wife was crying. This time, he didn't know why. His hands migrated from Atul's shoulders to encircle his wife. Cool fingers caressed between her shoulderblades, quietly reassuring. He tucked his head down to kiss her forehead, her cheek, her nose, her eyes.

Tenele snaked her arms around him. She was so confused. Didn't he want distance from her? Didn't her presence make him remember awful things? But, she loved him. She wanted his arms tight around her. She decided not to question it. She tilted her lips to meet a kiss as it went for her cheek.

Vlad was pleased to accept her lips against his. In the back of his mind, he found himself planning what he would say if she needed more from him tonight. He hadn't figured out yet how to make love to her without raping her in his mind. The thought made him tense, but he held onto her tightly, refusing to let himself let go. Something in her kiss and the tremble of her lips made him sure this was about him. "My love... You're okay... Tell me what I've done," he asked softly. He knew perfectly well that he'd done plenty to hurt her...the question was which thing was the sticking point. Things like anxiety and fear and desperation and guilt wanted to creep into his thoughts, but instead he felt his heart level out, cool and blank. And not by choice. The feelings were budding one moment, and buried the next. He felt good about that. Tenele was his focus. If he could avoid hurting her, he could figure himself out any time.

Tenele shook her head. "Its nothing you've done," she whispered to him, snuggling into his form. "I'm just sad that you are hurt, and that being with me hurts you, and I am afraid of making you uncomfortable. I don't know what is allowed, and what is not." She hugged him tighter.

Vlad held her a little tighter. He didn't know the answer to her questions either. His weakness was hurting her. He had to stop letting this bother him. Seeing what it did to her to see him this way confirmed what he already knew. It was time to stop moping and move forward.

"Everything is allowed. The worst is past, and I'm much calmer now that we're home. You can see I'm relaxed tonight, can't you? I won't be uncomfortable. You're my wife, and you make me deliriously happy. You should touch me as you please, if you're ready for the consequences," he teased.