Breathless

Log Info

• Title: Breathless

• Emitter: Dolan

• Characters: Andelena, Dolan

• Place: Soldier's Defense

• Summary: The formerly betrothed Dauesites recuperate from the macabre puppet show in the lower markets. Dolan's recovering from his grievous injuries and Andelena's keeping him company in the Soldier's Defense as they discuss what happened. Then the conversation turns slowly to their relationship. Dolan brings up that he abandoned her and Andelena's guard finally breaks down. The two rekindle their relationship and fall asleep together in the hospital bed.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- Dramatis Personae =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-    
Andelena             6'0"     180 Lb     Human             Female    Redhead with steel-grey eyes and powerful build.                           
Dolan                5'10"    174 Lb     Human             Male      Brown-haired human with scars down his face.                              
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

It nears midnight. There is no such thing in the crowded Soldier's Defense as a room to oneself, but Dolan at least has a cot. Ordinarily, they would have stitched him up and sent him back to the Temple, but he'd gotten lightheaded and dizzy on the walk to the Soldier's Defense, so it was deemed best that be rest the night here, rather than attempting the walk across the city. Divesting him of clothing, magic, and armor had revealed deep, nasty, magic-inflicted gashes across his shoulder and arm, and down his right side. The healing that Andie had done had sealed the worst of it and stopped the bleeding, so cleaning and binding them was deemed enough for all but one, and the last was stitched readily enough.

He lies now in the cot assigned him, staring at the ceiling, listening to those around him sleep, although he has yet to come down from the adrenaline rush, and tension in his face and body suggest that he still hurts some. The prosthetic eye has been removed and replaced with the eyepatch, while he is here, although it is to hand if he needs it.

And Andelena, the woman who saved his life so many times over and prevented him from bleeding out, sits right next to him in a chair she had requested to be brought in. She had made a command, after all, and like a good commander, she'd see it through.

Except, well, now it was just the two of them in a hospital filled with sleepy and wounded people.

Andelena clears her throat to dispel the silence. "So. Kinda like old times back there, huh," she says. Or asks. It's halfway between the two.

For a moment, Dolan doesn't answer, still staring at the ceiling, a million thoughts running through his head. Finally, he does. "Yeah. I saw all three dolls move at once, and then I got a good look at him, and I knew something wasn't right." Without the tension and pressure of remaining vertical, he seems perfectly alert, and turns his head towards Andelena, to face her fully. "That poor bastard," he laments quietly, something haunted in his tone, haunted and a little angry. "Someone took him for a ride. I want to find out who."

"Me too," Andelena says, looking up at the ceiling too. "Don't get me wrong. What happened back there was fucked from dawn to dusk. But I wanted to make sure that man made it out alive. Judge the piece of shit who took him for a ride and not him."

She sighs and turns her steel-grey gaze to Dolan again to meet his gaze. "After all, you told me to get my compassion back." There's a little smile that accompanies that.

The little smile that she wears is reflected on Dolan's lips, and this time, in his eyes. "I don't suppose it ever left." For a moment, there's that gaze again, a gaze that holds open adoration and genuine affection - and this time, juts a hint of fear. Just a hint.

"I just wanted to get those gems out of him," he admits, then drops his eyes again. "Magic makes this a whole new game, doesn't it." It's not a question.

There's a fond look in Andelena's eyes too. But she seems to remember herself and her face goes into the crook of her elbow. Cough.

"Well, yeah, of course it's different. We're not talking about thieves popping the jewels out of Lady So-and-So's tiara," Andelena says sarcastically. She's not looking at him as she leans back in the chair, an arm lazily hanging over one side. She's mostly just looking at the tiles--graduating in reverse from ceiling staring to ground staring. "It's... Way more complicated. Fuck, it might even be above our heads."

She presses her lips into a thin line again.

"But we can figure it out. Together." There's the refrain again.

It's the last word that hits home for Dolan, and his eyes go to the blanket that covers him, fingers of his free hand plucking at it nervously. "I - I'm amazed that you want to do anything of the kind," he admits, very quietly, almost a whisper. "After what I did to you ... amazed - and grateful."

He trails off, not quite able to meet her eyes.

"We can be partners together--you know, in Daeus's light--without being partners," Andelena says. It sounds somewhat like something she's rehearsed.

She straightens up herself in the chair and sighs. "I'm just glad I got you here and you're safe. Honestly." Then her mouth shuts tight again.

For just a second, Dolan's expression crumples, but then he smoothes it away, nodding mutely and smoothing the edge of the blanket. "Yeah," he answers, just as quietly. "We still work well together. That hasn't changed." The words are laced with a sad acceptance, and he changes the subject abruptly. "You helped a lot. I couldn't hit those little dolls for shit."

Andelena seems to freeze as she hears his sad tone. She lets out a little sigh and shakes her head, looking away from Dolan still. The copper-blonde hair moves with her, eventually resting to sit on the head of the chair when she leans her head back.

Then she laughs. "Don't worry. I could hardly get them, either. God, it felt like we were back in the Temple together, training with wooden swords. You were a couple of inches shorter then. I was a little shit."

"Yes, but we were doing drills, not chasing handspan-tall little evil spellcasters," Dolan points out, a smile coming unbidden to his lips at the memory. "Although if Master Arnaiel had thought of that drill, he'd've done it. We sure did everything else." He sighs. "It seems so long ago and far away, Andie. But - it hasn't changed. We still work together. I don't need two flesh eyes to see when something isn't right. I - think it's His will."

"I really never had a doubt about that--working together, that is. Or about it being His will. I asked to find you, after all. He answered and... gave you to me." Andelena's pause is one accompanied by a quick lip chew. She does it again.

Finally, she asks, "Answer me honestly, Bry. What did you do the night we were supposed to get married?"

If there was anything that Brydion was never able to do worth a damn, it was lie. The seniors at the Temple had put that to good use, somehow - they'd never asked him to. In fact, he'd made it clear that he was expected to do the opposite, and from it, he's drawn power somehow. Now is no different, and he just snorts quiet laughter. "Sleep," he answers openly. "Andie, I don't think you understand. When that cult caught me -" He trails off and swallows hard, looking away. "I was to be the sacrifice to that demon. If whoever that was hadn't shown up when they did, may His holy light follow them always..."

"I was in bed for weeks after that, Andie."

Andelena listens, nodding gently with his words. Of course he'd answer truly, but the heart is a fickle mistress. "I kind of figured," she says after a moment. "But you know, that night--this is going to sound like the most pathetic fucking thing in the world..."

She pinches the bridge of her nose. "I got shitfaced. Absolutely fucking shitfaced. I picked a guy and told him that he was going to either be okay with being called Brydion Donnely or he was not going to get lucky. He ran off, of course. I mean, not only do men usually run from me, but that's an insane thing to ask someone. To pretend to be someone else. My drunk ass wanted my wedding night and then I swore I'd be 'over you', so when I saw you in the middle of tumbling the noblewoman I was so convinced you'd made off with, I could comfortably punch you in the face and then I could just... walk off and live the rest of my life. Obviously, none of that's happened."

She looks at Dolan for a long moment. "I just, I don't know. I don't even know why I asked you that or even told you that. Just... felt compelled to."

Dolan's remaining eye closes, for a long time, as the sense of what Andelena is saying sinks in. The sheer amount of pain he caused sings through those words, balance with something else in his expression that he doesn't share immediately, twisting it into a mask of guilt. "What else would you think? It isn't like I left any other impression. And I did it on purpose. I wanted them to leave you alone. To leave you out of it. That's all I could think about. Don't let them find her, I don't have time to warn her."

"Nothing's going to change the fact that I abandoned you. Even though I did it to protect you."

"And nothing's going to change the fact that I fucking suck at protecting you," Andelena snaps back, her hand flying back from her face as she leans forward, almost looking like she's about to fly out of her chair. Her words are loud enough to make a sleepy patient nearby groan a little.

Andelena looks just as guilty on two counts. "Sorry," she says.

She sinks back into her chair again. "Sorry. That... fucking slipped out of me. But that's what I've been thinking all this time since you told me. Maybe if I'd come home earlier--maybe I could have saved you. Maybe we could be married right now. Maybe you wouldn't be sitting here in a hospital because some wooden fucking dolls decided you were the best target and not me. I can't hate you because honestly, I think I hate myself a little for assuming the worst of you all this time when you were always the best thing that happened to me."

She puts a hand to her mouth and she shakes her head again. Tears brim in her eyes. Finally, the cracks are showing.

"Andie..." Moving carefully, Dolan sits up, gritting his teeth, and turns as much as he can towards the Sunguard, letting the blanket fall unheeded around his waist and supporting himself with one fist in the bed. "Or we might both have been caught. We can't get lost in what might have or might not have happened. "I tried to call on His justice to free the old man, when I realized what the dolls were. I was always going to be their target. I just had to stop the spellcasting, and I didn't do that. It's my own fault. I saw what it was trying to do, and I knew how dangerous the spell it was trying to cast was."

Slowly, he moves himself over in the cot, making room for Andelena to perch on its edge, if she wants. "I care more about what happens now, Andie. I know I don't deserve this, but - I want to try again. I know you won't trust me right away, and that's okay. Maybe if we carry on as partners in his light ..." He swallows hard. "Maybe someday. When you're ready. I never stopped loving you."

Andelena looks like she's about to bark at him to get back in bed as the hand that covers her mouth drops to her side, but her tear-filled eyes glance over at the other patients in their beds, and Dolan keeps talking. She listens to him without interruption.

And then he says the magic words. The tears fall down her face and she gets up from her chair to sit beside him in the cot, close enough for them to comfortably embrace--the closest they've really been physically to each other since their reunion.

"I thought I told you to rest," she says first, her steel-grey eyes staring into both his human eye and his eyepatch.

How many times has she told him that after he's gotten injured? Nothing changes, but nothing's stayed the same.

But then she puts her hand around the fist that's propping him up on the bed. "Brydion Donnely, you piece of shit, I hate you sometimes," she whispers, before she kisses him gently on the lips.

Those were in fact the words that Andie had responded to his initial confession all those years ago with before she pushed him to the wall and kissed him deeply on the lips.

Nothing will change. Nothing will stay just the same.

The single gesture is enough to take Dolan's breath away. Just like the first time they'd kissed, and every time since. He smiles against her lips as he returns the gentle kiss, his skin warm against hers as he reaches out to pull her closer. It's an embrace that expects nothing, asks nothing, and is meant only to give and receive comfort. If she lets him, he strokes the copper-gold curls with his free hand, using an arm that is a good bit stronger than it was to pull and keep her close. "May I never again give you reason to mean that," he whispers in her ear.

There's a moment where it feels like Andelena might pull away from him. But she remains there, his arm wrapped around her as she accepts his affection. Her eyes are closed, just accepting this moment.

"I sure hope so," she replies, a grin spreading across her face. "Frankly, I'm going to be fucking pissed if you exploit my weakness and confess to me again a third time."

But she gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Just don't be an idiot and run from me again. If we're doing this--and we're doing this--then we're going to the altar and saying our vows after killing that fucking demon. Deal?"

Dolan laughs against her, softly, and opts instead to murmur in her ear. "Deal. No more horrible thoughts, all right? There's only one woman I want. Besides, why would I want to confess to her a third time? She calls me a piece of shit every time I do." He returns the kiss on her cheek then, and leans back just a little, gingerly, so he can look at her. "I intend to kill more than one demon, if we're going to chase down magic." Pure joy and relief brims in his eyes and in the smile that threatens to split his face in two. The scarring modifies it some on that side, but it's still there.

Her eyes are still filled with tears, but she's grinning just as much as he is, just as joyful as he is. Andelena chuckles. "Only because it made me feel just as weak at the knees as it did the first time around," she says. "You always said you'd find my weakness when we were sparring and then you did. Jackass."

She puts a hand to his face as she says, "Oh, darling, we're gonna kill all of them for what they did to you," she says, her voice still full of mirth. But there's a conviction in there. She means it.

But her eyes do wander down to his chest. "I guess I can't complain too loudly, though. You're pretty built these days. That's kinda hot, I'm not gonna lie."

Then she seems to realize that they're still in a hospital. "Umm. Shit. ...Think they'll let you out early?"

Mischief glints in Dolan's eyes at the more earthy commentary. "If I'd known you liked it that much, I'd've studied the greatsword years ago." His free hand reaches, then, to wipe the tears from her eyes with a gentle thumb. "As for finding your weakness, I still haven't found it yet. Maybe one day I will."

He blinks suddenly, his smile fading, the joy faltering, but the gesture is one reorienting himself. "I am sure they'll let me make dawn prayers if I ask, it's pretty crowded - but maybe I'd better lie down."

"Well, let me lie down with you then," Andelena says, letting go of him. "After all, it's been a hot minute since I held you like a teddy bear. You always used to sleep better like that."

More like she always slept better holding him. But she seems pretty serious about the offer. "Might be kind of cramped, but we've slept in worse beds together. You remember that little inn that offered us what was basically a converted broom closet that one time?" she says, already putting herself down on the bed. "I'm pretty sure the bed in there was smaller than this."

If she thought she was going to get any objections from Dolan to sharing a bed with him, she is sadly mistaken. He willingly releases the fist into the bed and makes room for her, although she knows where he is injured, and will know that she will need to be careful. Still, it's been a long time since he was held like that - and the truth is that the both of them will sleep the better for it.