Longing

Pestilence is copyrighted to Sallie Drazzi

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Pestilence had never really been happy in this world in the Sixty-Fourth Realm. It was nice to be around all his Horsemen friends again, especially since it had been so long since the four of them were together, but the world had no real need for Pestilence. There were inoculations and penicillin, and as a result he felt a lot less real in this Realm. It meant he spent a lot more time with War or Famine – even Death if he would catch a few moments of his time.

Mostly though, it was War, which was a bad idea, Pestilence knew. War knew just how he felt, and he took it personally if Pestilence was depressed or unhappy. So Pestilence would feel guilty and become lower in spirits, War would get more frustrated and so the pattern went on.

Pestilence had spent near enough a week just lying on his bed, totally depressed, but Tanji was making him come out of himself and meet other people in the house. The Fire Demon was just being another person to talk to too. Pestilence knew that was what he needed so he was more than happy to go along with it, with strict reminders to War that he didn’t own the little blonde.

So it came to this, sitting in the living room with a small Kouryou on his lap. Chance was the new baby of Damael and Calm, an adorable little Kou with Damael’s face and a shock of pure-pink hair. Pestilence loved babies, and really he felt maybe the most comfortable he ever had in this Realm as he played with the little child. He was more than happy to duplicate the gold ring around his neck time and time again to surprise the little baby.

Chance puckered up fa’i’s little face, pouting cutely at Pestilence as the ring count got to eight. The little Kou had decided that Pestilence was up to the strange duplicating ring.

“Ya confounding that poor baby,” Tanji sniggered from across the room. He was not in his best health, very skeletal and ill looking and as such had just been force-fed by Jenii. Now he was leaning against the larger Demon, using him as an arm-rest; so when Pestilence looked up to look at Tanji while he was talking, he had to look at Jenii too.

Quickly the Force returned his attention to his rings. “And me too, do not know which is original anymore.”

Tanji smirked, “Oh yeah. I see that would be a problem-” The small Fire Demon cut himself off with a squeak as his living arm-rest moved.

Pestilence tried not to giggle. “Are okay?”

“Yeah. Jus’… great,” Tanji pulled a face and then glared at Jenii. “Idiot ‘nii.”

Jenii didn’t even seem to notice, just sitting back down further along the couch, arms crossed over his chest, eyes closed.

Pestilence caught himself gazing and looked back down at the baby on his lap. Chance blinked at Pestilence in surprise. One of the pale little hands was resting on his arm’s pulse-point and suddenly that was beating very hard indeed. Pestilence giggled softly and merged all the rings into one again, distracting the infant again so he wouldn’t have to explain that.

“Is a good working relationship of some kind there,” Pestilence said to Tanji again. Mentally he had to reprimand himself. He knew he was only trying to pursue this conversation in the hopes Jenii might say something to him; an actual sentence, just a word, any of that would be pure heaven to the little Force. He couldn’t hope for more than a word, Jenii was straight, apparently with strong feelings for Lane’s mother – but just one word from the Shadow… He could hope for that at least.

Tanji looked up from rubbing his side that he’d landed on, as if the couch had been made of needles instead of soft leather. “Tortuous, horrible some kind of relationship,” He snorted, picking up his empty plate and flinging it in Jenii’s direction. “Bitch.”

Pestilence winced slightly as the plate hit Jenii, although he didn’t think much of it. War and Famine threw worse things at each other after all. Besides which, Jenii was a huge, respected Warrior, and he continued to sit there blankly, like he hadn’t even felt the plate. Pestilence forced himself himself not to point it out, for a whole five seconds.

It was five seconds until enough blood welled in one of the cuts inflicted to run down Jenii’s face. Pestilence managed not to just flounce over and start wiping at those wounds, but he couldn’t battle against all the concern that brewed inside him, “Are you okay?”

“Hnnn.” The large Demon actually deigned to open his eyes and glare at Pestilence, making a very aggressive grunt.

Pestilence almost could have missed the grunt, lost in pure overwhelming joy that those dusky red eyes were fixed on him, even in anger. They were such gorgeous eyes, like the deepest red of a sunset, they just sent something so warm through Pestilence and he knew his pulse was hammering again.

He forced himself to drop his gaze though, before he stupidly started to flirt with the straight man he was crushing on. It took an ungodly amount of effort to keep his eye down on Chance and not trail them back up Jenii’s body to his eyes – a standard flirting technique that would not go down well here.

“Don’t imply he’s wounded, just ignore it,” Tanji offered with a nervous grin.

“Ah… am sorry,” Pestilence said demurely, already aware where he’d slipped up. He couldn’t say he minded so much, maybe the Shadow was mad at him, but he’d looked at Pestilence. That was surely worth almost as much as being spoken to would have been.

Jenii didn’t say anything, not even a noise. No acknowledgement of the apology in any way. He was probably back to sitting in that imposing manner again.

Tanji was more than happy to chatter to Pestilence though, make up for his Bodyguard’s silence. “Punch, knife, sword, anything honourable is ooookay. But bleedin’ ‘cos of a plate?” The young Demon giggled.

Pestilence smiled a little. “Yes, see. Is more a… me kind of injury. Not big, obviously tough fighter’s kind of injury.” He mentally kicked himself again, he shouldn’t compliment Jenii in such a clearly flirting manner just to try and get him to notice him again. He’d had his moment and now he had to let it go.

Tanji didn’t appear to pick up on the flirting, so at least that meant that Jenii hadn’t either. “Exactly, he’ll be okay. Tis merely a flesh wound.”

“Oh, of course,” Pestilence agreed, returning his attention to playing with Chance and Chance’s toy bunny. The little Kou was so very sweet and loveable and Tanji was being so chatty and friendly – yep, this was definitely the most comfortable he’d felt in this Realm.

His eye flickered casually to look at Jenii a moment before returning to the bunny being pushed into his face. As comfortable as he could be being attracted to a man who so clearly wasn’t interested anyway.



Reverse Longing - Jenii's point of view

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Jenii was irritated.

Well, generally, irritation was constant, but now it was even worse. He had a wriggling and nearly starved Tanji in his lap that required force-feeding. He had most certainly not taken on this bodyguard duty to play parent to a sulky and angstful child of a demon. And yet that was what seemed to have happened.

Protecting the Dragon Prince would redeem some of the wrongs he'd commited in his years, that was honourable. This however, this was degrading. It was only slightly less degrading than wasting away in some bed too sore and weak to move. He'd had more than enough of that, he wasn't going back to that bed. He might have been well past the life expectancy for his species, but there was life in him yet, he had no intention of dying any time soon.

So he required this annoying little brat of a Prince, for his redemption. Somewhere, beyond the irritation, Jenii really did admire the boy. There was definite potential there, under all the annoying childish shit.

Jenii faltered slightly in his force-feeding of said annoying little shit, eyes flickering to the side to check for movements, paranoid and alert as his battle training had required. There were sounds in the kitchen, and that was where the scent was coming from.

It wasn't any sort of cooking. It was a warm musk, with a scent of energy underlying it. A magical being. Jenii would have mistaken it for demon if not for the "higher" scent of the magic, the less base, less animalistic, more refined. Such a scent was more toward Reikai beings, or the immortals he had recently come into contact with. Considering this was a household full of such Forces, it was likely one of them.

However, out of all the Forces he'd yet encountered, nothing struck him quite so much as this scent.

There was that warm musk overlaying the scent of high energy, a solid base for the myriad of other scents that made each total, personal scent distinct from another who might have that same high energy musk. There was a light tinge of blood, salt, linens where the body had resided for several days, suggesting much time laying about recently, and a more recent air of the outdoors, of equines and all that myriad of scents.

Jenii knew there were equines in the back field, would have known by the scent even if Tanji had not told him. There were a few of these Forces that cared for those equines, and this was one of them. That was interesting in and of itself, since Jenii had a similar love for equines.

The scent grew stronger, footsteps bringing that being into the room. Jenii didn't have to look up to know that, he just took in that wonderful scent, closing his eyes to concentrate on it better.

"Pesti," Tanji drawled out with a whine, "you'll save me."

"I do not think I should help you... get freed," the Force struggled a bit, still learning English.

Jenii knew that voice well, would have known it was Pestilence without Tanji referring to him by name. That voice was soft and heavy with a First Realm accent, making it even more alluring and exotic. It was a light, almost happy sound, even when there was no such emotion present.

"Sorry," Pestilence apologised, "But you don't look very... fit at the moment. Should you not be eating?"

Jenii gathered in every word, every syllable, studying the patterns, the rhythms, the pitch, memorising it all. It was beautiful, like a song. Then he realised the meaning of those words, grunting and getting back to feeding the brat in his lap.

"Argh, scarry bitch," Tanji bit at him, unimpressively.

"Do you want me to go while you're eating?" the Force asked.

"No, stay and talk. Was watching Damy's new baby there, if you wanna do that while I get tortured?"

"Er... okay," Pestilence sat down before picking up the infant, not trusting his clumsy self to handle it. There was a delighted giggle from the Kouryou child, sparking a happiness in Pestilence's voice. "Hello Chance, no uni for you to pet today, sorry."

"Never know, she might come find you," Tanji joked, fighting off another bite of food by biting Jenii's finger. Jenii shook him off and replaced it with food, infinitely more irritated. He wanted to concentrate on those scents, that voice, not have to baby this brat.

"Hopefully not... I spend a lot of time with her this morning."

Jenii grunted softly to himself. Definite equine lover. He drifted a little, listening to the sounds Pestilence made more than the actual words, passively encouraging Tanji to talk rather than eat just so he could hear those melodic noises. Talking with Tanji and playing with the infant made him happier, the notes brighter, warmer, even more enticing.

Eventually the Tanji portion of the conversation irritated him, so he began feeding the boy again in hopes of silencing him. Unfortunately, he quickly ran out of food to shove into that annoying mouth. The Prince tossed a blanket over him and leaned against him.

"All gone, you go away," Tanji snuggled happily.

Jenii tolerated it for a moment, but soon the blanket was too much of a barrier from everything Pestilence and he had to move. Tanji's little form thudded down into the space where he had been, the Shadow General taking a post at the far end of the couch, arms folded over his chest, eyes closed.

Pestilence was attempting not to giggle at Tanji, those little noises that couldn't quite be contained bubbling up around his words, "Are okay?"

“Yeah. Jus’… great. Idiot ‘nii.”

Jenii ignored it, despite sensing a rather nasty glare being thrown his way. He was busy listening and scenting Pestilence. He adored every inhale, taking his time in doing so, savouring every scent that came to him. He rushed the exhales slightly, hating them, not wanting to push those tastes away, but it was a necessary portion of breathing.

“Is a good working relationship of some kind there,” Pestilence was saying to Tanji.

“Tortuous, horrible some kind of relationship,” Tanji snorted, picking up his empty dinner plate in a flash of anger and flinging it at Jenii, "Bitch."

Jenii had sensed the movement, but didn't even bother dodging it. It was nothing, merely a light dinnerplate shattering against his temple, not even worth flinching over. The warm trail of blood running down the side of his face was ignorable in favour of all things Pestilence.

“Are you okay?” Pestilence directed the words toward Jenii.

Jenii couldn't have ignored that, those beautiful words, laced with concern aimed at him. Such a wonderful Being as that was concerned about him? Certainly the little Force knew of warrior pride, that such a small wound was nothing, and yet he had still asked, as if unable to stop himself.

“Hnnn.” Jenii couldn't bring himself to put all his thoughts into words, using and gathering that anger against himself. This creature had spoke to him, he deserved a proper response, and yet he couldn't. When he opened his eyes it was a glare that was fixed on Pestilence, one he couldn't help.

Pestilence was beautiful beyond words, dark, rich-earth skin, spun-golden hair, expressive amethyst eye. There was no way Jenii could look away from that gaze. So it was a good thing that Pestilence dropped his head down, returning his attention to the baby against his chest. Jenii continued looking at him, ready to close his eyes the moment Pestilence looked up again, not willing to be caught openly staring. Luckily the Force didn't look up again, concentrating almost too hard on that child to be natural.

The brat Prince was more than happy to pick up chattering again, eliciting a few more of those lovely words from the Immortal. Jenii almost appreciated him for that, being able to watch that mouth form the words, those full lips part to release them, the subtle body movements that went with them.

Then there was a small smile, just a bare upturn of those lips, "Yes, see. Is more a... me kind of injury. Not big, obviously tough fighter's kind of injury."

Jenii tilted his head slightly. This Being was complimenting him? It almost seemed that way. And the smile suggested thoughts beyond the words, positive thoughts toward the Shadow warrior. Perhaps even attraction.

Jenii snorted softly, closing his eyes again. That was absurd, such a beautiful Force had no interest in him.



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Index