No Need to Choose

It's a quiet evening in the residence that Dolan and Andelena share. The scent of freshly brewed tea is thick in the air, and Zeke sits comfortably across from the woman with a cup in his claws. The sith drinks it and its just cool enough now that it is not too uncomfortable to drink. He's chosen one of the sith-friendlier places to sit, his tail curled around him comfortably. "Now that pleasssantriessss are asssside Andelena, how have you been?"

His voice is gently curious, but holds just a touch of his mien as a healer inside it. "Thisss one knowsss that sssuch ass you and Dolan deal with isss not eassy to live with." Thus the reason that he had brought some food as an offering and guest-gift with him. Sometimes amid all the fighting one does not have time for the niceties of home-cooked meals.

Andelena looks exhausted. It's the kind of exhausted that's paired with excitement and worry in one awful throuple for the ages, which results in Andelena looking exhausted-excited and exhausted-worried in alternating measures. She takes a healthy gulp of her tea and downs it. "Mmm. I've been okay, really. I think. I'm not at the point where I'm ready to scream and pull the head off the next guy who asks me if I give a shit about the difference between shades of colors that might as well be the same fucking thing, so there's that."

She puts her teacup down on the table and rubs her head. "Not just the wedding stuff, though. I mean. Bry's out there chasing down demons and I'm--I mean, I'm doing what we've been wanting to do for years. Just feels weird sometimes to let him go off and do that again when..."

She goes silent. And then she stares at her teacup again.

"He better not run off on me like he did the last time," she mutters.

It's at that moment that there's a thumping up the stairs of someone taking the wooden stairs two at a time, at great speed.

"He will not." Zeke says with a certainty that perhaps is not deserved - if Andelena herself is displaying otherwise. Yet, he knows Dolan in his way well enough to feel that the certainty is warranted. "Thisss one hasss ssseen the conviction in him. Hisss care for you. He isss determined to end thisss threat and to..."

There is hesitation here a moment as Zeke seeks the right word. "Marry you." He is proud of himself for using the right one. He's been making great effort of late to lessen his accent and learn the proper words so that he does the ceremony proud. "Are you truly unscertain, or isss that the whisssper of darknesss?"

His eyes turn to the door at the sound of steps and he shakes his head. "Another time." He doesn't want to break any confidence given to him.

"It's not me that's uncertain," Andelena replies. "It's like a shadow--"

And then there's the sound of steps on the stairs, and Andelena grins quietly to herself. "And like Daeus's brilliant fucking light, the shadow's gone. Fuck me sideways, what timing."

She goes over to the door and throws it open, looking around to expect Dolan's there on the other side. "Baby?" she calls out. "Y'there? Zeke's in. Stopped by for tea."

It is indeed Dolan, flushed and sweating, breathing hard, but looking rather like the cat who got into the cream jar. He is clad in the outfit he wore to Verna and Auranar's wedding, minus the sling, and added a longsword at his hip in a new-looking, tooled leather belt, and breathes like he ran halfway across the city.

He fairly grabs Andelena, plants a kiss full on her mouth, and leans back to look at her, chest heaving, but for some reason, not grinning. "Brightest of days, baby. I've got everything I need to throw both of the bitches under a Selentian prison." He doesn't appear to have heard her comments about Zeke yet.

Out of politeness and habit, Zeke rises to his feet as Andelena does so. The door opens and for a moment he's tense, enough that he takes a half-step forward when someone comes in and grasps Andelena. For just a second instinct... but it washes away in the recognition of Dolan kissing his fiancé. The sith-makar relaxes subtly and nods. He doesn't interrupt the greeting, not even at Dolan's words.

Well, there's usually a few contexts where a kiss like that full one on the mouth happens as a greeting, but with Zeke here, Andelena can't necessarily default to her usual reaction. She doesn't want to anyway with the words that Dolan tells her.

"You wha--"

... Nevermind, the reaction is actually not that dissimilar to her usual reaction to a full-on kiss on the lips. She returns that kiss with all of its intensity, and then she says, "Get in here, babe, because that sounds _good_ but not for everyone and their own shitty fuckin' mother to hear."

Andelena slips back inside the apartment and closes the door behind Dolan once he's in. "Okay, spill. How're we nailing them both?"

Over on the wall, Deliverance sighs. "Phrasing."

Andelena makes a face. "Agh. Fuck, you're right, Livvie. Okay. How're we throwing them under the prison so hard that they don't come back out, babe?"

For a moment, that cheeky grin of Dolan's blossoms across the mobile half of his features, tugging at the other half. "Listen carefully." He strides inside and lets her close the door behind him. "Brightest of days, Zeke," he starts, his voice still breathy, sobering almost at once on seeing the lizard. "Look, you mind if I strip? I came here from the Highbridge at a dead run, and these clothes ain't made for that. I feel like I'm covered in glue." Indeed, the fine fabric clings to him.

"Anyway, listen carefully. We've got two choices. Gale's in town for the wedding, or he's likely to be a sacrifice to Aza's daughter. If he's there when Aza gets back to Selentia, he's probably -" he cuts off the word sharply. "Tel and I just forced the truth from Aza Chidea, the woman calling herself Lady Derwes. Your mother traded Gale for a touch of youth. Demons are possessing her and her head chef. I'm not sure about Gale, but he's probably under some kind of compulsion. She's a servant of V, and a willing one. When I asked her if she wanted me to throw the demon possessing her out, both she and the demon said no. I didn't argue, I ain't dressed to fight."

Zeke blinks at the fount of information that Dolan is pouring forth. It's a little much for the sith to follow in honesty. He's gotten better at understanding Tradespeak, but he still has trouble when people talk as fast as they possibly can and Dolan... Is hardly breathing through the words at all. The blue-scale settles the tea on the table and rumbles out far more slowly his response. "Dolan. Yessss. Make your-ssself at home. Clothesss. Breathe. Would you like sssome tea? Rabbit perhapsss? Thissss one brought food."

"Baby, baby, you know I'll always say yes to getting you out of your clothes," Andelena says with a smirk on her lips, "but Zeke's right. You're going faster than when we were teenagers."

Then she realizes right after the fact--low blow. "Obviously not a problem these days," she adds as she reaches to go help Dolan out with his clothes. "Breathe, baby."

If nothing else, Andelena's words throw verbal ice water over Dolan's head. He stops short, blinks, and flushes bright red, the roaring firewagon that were his words and thoughts crashing into the proverbial brick wall, leaving him standing helplessly in the wreckage. Clothes are for a moment forgotten, until Andelena starts to help. "I - uh - sorry." The apology is directed at both of them.

Zeke glances at the tea for a moment. "There iss no need to apologize Dolan." He murmurs, not wholly understanding the subtly of the moment. What he does understand is that Dolan might well not want him present when undressing; and that this might be the source of Dolan's sudden seeming discomfort. "Thisss one can leave yesss? Allow you the privacy of your home."

"Nonsense. I mean--" Andelena's turn to get red, although it's paired with a chuckle. "I mean, yes, this is our home, but Bry and I can just go get changed in the bedroom and it'll take all of a few minutes. I promise, because if we do _anything_ else, it's gonna be a lot lengthier than that, and that's not a nice thing to do to a friend."

She leans in, kisses Dolan on the cheek, whispers something into his ear, and then goes to lead him into the bedroom for a change.

For a moment, Dolan looks like nothing so much as a fish out of water. "Um, nonsense, Zeke, I ain't got nothing you ain't seen. I just - yeah. I ain't quite expect that." Still mentally flailing, he grins like a boy as he lets himself be led into the bedroom, calling over his shoulder, "We'll be back in a blink."

When the pair emerge, Dolan looks a lot more comfortable in a pair of old trousers and a loose, unbleached shirt that he seems to wear seldom outside of the house. He keeps shaking the fabric against his back, though, as if it is itchy in some way, but he has at least seemed to regain most of his equilibrium in that time.

"Sorry, Zeke. I could definitely use some of that tea, and probably some of the food as well. It's just - that was more than I expected."

Even though he is a guest, Zeke is... well, unusually prone to acting the part of the host. He offers a wag of his tail at Dolan's words, seeming pleased that the other man seems more comfortable. "Isss there sssome-thing wrong with your back?" He inquires as he begins pouring tea and using his free claw to open the basket he had brought with him. The tea pours quickly and he pulls out a full plump and cooked rabbit from the basket, though it is carefully wrapped and needs unwrapping from the paper around it before it is fully visible.

He sets it on the middle of the table for the pair to share and offers the newly poured tea to Dolan.

"I mean--you said something about coming all the way from the Highbridge in a dead run? I'd be thrown out, too," Andelena replies to Zeke as she walks up to the table. She takes up her neglected teacup and takes a heavy sip from it. "Tell me from the beginning what all happened, baby?"

Composing his thoughts, Dolan takes the teacup in both hands and sips from it. "Just the fabric," he explains to Zeke, after a long sip. "It's pretty light." Zeke and Andelena will doubtless remember that light touches on his back tend to be uncomfortable at best and triggering at worst. His eyes are on the wrapped rabbit, surprised, and he shoots a quick glance at Zeke as if both touched and surprised. After all, the smell is clear enough, even if he cannot see it. "You ain't have to do that, Zeke, but it's mighty kind of you."

He sets aside the cup and leans forward to unwrap it. "You caught this yourself?" Surprise mingles with real gratitude in the words. "Anyway, so Tel and I found out from Aza's servants and hired help where she was, and when she'd be alone. Between Tel's spells and the Knight's blessings, we were able to get her to answer some questions and not lie. She tried to evade the shit out of us. Didn't work."

"So - she's not herself a demon, but she got possessed by one and then let one get her pregnant. Her daughter Rida is the result. She's a half-demon, and V's got plans for her, but I'll get to that in a minute."

"She struck a deal with your mother - a touch of youth in exchange for Gale. Seb was possessed too, I s'pose to be kept quiet once they found out he was talking to you, Andie." He finishes the unwrapping. "Got a knife handy, baby? Need to carve this."

Zeke settles back into the place that he'd been sitting before, his tail telling his pleasure as surely as a smile would have given away a soft-skin. "Yesss. Thisss one caught it and cooked it. It isss sssimple fair, but thisss one thought you two might appreciate a meal that you did not have to buy or cook." He nods to the pair and picks up his tea.

He listens after those words, not saying anything but rather being attentive to what is said to him. Disgust colors his expression as the words continue however and he shakes his head. Once Dolan is done he mutters low almost to himself. "To bear the child of a fiend... Ssssuch a thing isss..." He shudders.

Andelena has a similar reaction to Zeke, shuddering. "I... You know, I didn't _think_ that was a thing to be scared of. Now I am. That... That's abhorrent on so many levels."

She shakes her head and retrieves a knife that's used for the occasional cutting of meat, handing it carefully and safely to Dolan at his request. She looks appreciative at the cooked rabbit herself, but it's clear she's thinking more about the Lady and what's been discovered.

"My mother..."

She looks at the knife that she's handed at Dolan like she's picturing it going into someone or something.

"Sold her son for a touch of youth. Right from the horse's mouth. And you know, I always thought--she's capable of that. She's fully fucking capable of that. But man is it the shittiest fucking feeling to be _right_ about it." She looks at Dolan. "We're throwing them before a tribunal as soon as possible, yeah? We _have_ to now."

"Yeah. But listen, baby." Dolan takes the knife and starts to carve the rabbit up with the skill and expertise of a farm kid, pieces set aside on the butcher paper. "Aza is using your mother. She's possessed now, too, and she's funneling your family's money to Marsward. Yeah, she was stupid and selfish, and Aza's used it against her. Aza said as much. "She has no idea that only half of her decisions are hers."

He glances quickly at Zeke, to make sure the makari is comfortable as he works. "If we don't get to Gale before Aza does, he's probably on the sacrifice block," he says seriously, eyes wide and worried. "Baby, I ain't leaving your brother to that. I can't. I ain't leaving _nobody_ to that fate." He shudders, hard. "I - I almost want to do it now. Speak the vows and do the formal ceremony. I ain't dare let her get to him first."

Zeke growls a short word in response to Dolan's concern. "No. Thisss one will sssend sssome-one to get thisss Gale from where he isss. You? You will marry." He looks at Dolan seriously. "You dessserve thisss happinesss Dolan; do not sssacrifice it. Both things can be done."

Andelena understands in this moment both Dolan and Zeke's words. But it's Dolan she addresses first. Her hand goes to rest gently on the hand that isn't carving up the rabbit. "I know, baby, and--as much as Gale was an asshole to me and Seb growing up, I don't want to leave him to that fate either. Not at fucking all."

She looks to Zeke now. "But--Zeke does have a point. If we can get Gale, _and_ we can have this wedding--and we can--then we should. We're going to make it right. We're going to get married at long damn last--and we're going to make sure nothing like that happens to Gale."

Her eyes soften. "And this--this is why I _want_ to marry you, Bry. Because it's you, me, and the Knight. It's about defeating fiends and saving people who didn't deserve their bullshit."

"I ain't care if he's an asshole or not. I ain't leaving _nobody_ to demons." If nobody else in the world, the two in this room now should know why Dolan says that. He continues to finish carving up the rabbit as he talks. "But - uh. I ain't rightly think of that. Prob'y better if we ain't seen there just now. But - think Tel'd go? Maybe Lana, if we asked? I mislike the idea of askin' for something like that, but - maybe I can take out a Guild job or somethin'." He still seems very much torn.

"Ain't nothing I want more than to marry, and have that party. Speaking of, Zeke, you coming to that? We're throwing a party afterwards. I -" He stops, hesitates. "V's planning of using Rida as a host, a more powerful one than an ordinary mortal," he explains. "That's their other interest besides the Red Maw. The Red Maw's most of it."

Zeke considers a moment everything that's been said. "Both can be done. Both will be done." Zeke's green eyes are firm. "Thisss one will take out the requessst. Ssso that you are not assssociated with it. Thisss one will asssk thosssse that thisss one knowsss to sssave your nessst... brother."

The right words. "Thisss one will even come to thisss gathering yesss?" A flicker of nervous-excited tail. "Thisss one isss honored to be invited. Now... You ssshould eat. Every-thing elssse will wait."

Until tomorrow.

-End