A First Time for Everything, Cal/Ashmael

[thrihyrne]

So the dear heartofoshun stepped up to my request plate and requested this: Give me a Wraeththu ficlet! I'm thinking about Ashmael and Cal. It can be any kind of interaction that you choose. Doesn't have to a big aruna scene if something else strikes your fancy, of course, I wouldn't complain if you wrote one.

This does have aruna, though it's not super-explicit. Set a few days after Cal has come to Immanion and sent Thiede off into another astral plane. Thanks so much for the request!

Title: A First Time for Everything
Rating: General
Fandom: Wraeththu
Pairing: Ashmael/Cal
A/N: self-beta'ed. Short. 1355 words. Cross-posted to raythoo


A First Time for Everything

I heard the chime of somehar's approach and looked up, surprised. The Hegemony meeting had concluded two hours ago; I was only here in my office to finish up a last bit of paperwork before returning to my house. I needed to pack for Galhea, a soothing task after all of the uproar that had happened in recent days. An unfamiliar sound came to my ears, that of worn boots on marble. I was used to hearing hard-soled shoes, or the occasional soft swish of satin slippers. The form who lounged in my doorway hadn't exactly swished there, but his entrance got my attention.

"Calanthe," I observed. "Is there something I can do for you?"

A smoky smile drifted to his lips. "Doubtless there is. I just wanted to come by and wish you safe travels. I hope that your endeavour in Galhea goes well."

What the hell did he really want? My mind buzzed on alert, wondering if the Tigron had said something of import during the meeting that I'd missed, having been focussed on the sheer mechanics of taking a phalanx of Gelaming soldiers through the Otherlanes.

"Thank you, tiahaar. Megalithica is still unsettled, as is Immanion, thanks to you. But you're here now and I'm sure you can clean up your own mess."

I'd not meant to be so blunt, but I'd seen Vaysh too many times of late and I was on edge. Besides, I didn't owe Cal anything beyond loyalty, I supposed. I served Thiede, even if he appeared to have… vanished. He could reappear at any point; I knew that well.

"Oh Ashmael, I know I can. Do you have any sheh?" he asked, walking uninvited toward my liquor cabinet like a lodestone to true north.

"Yes. Help yourself," I said, even though he already had the bottle in his hand. "I'll take some, too."

He brought a small glass to me, filled to the brim. How he could saunter like that and not spill a drop was beyond me. Cal could appear otherworldly at times, but I knew he must be har, nothing more or less.

"To Wraeththu," he said, toasting me.

"To life," I countered.

We both drank deeply. As I cradled my glass he sat down, crossing his ankle on his knee and looking expectant. I sighed.

"Don't you really want to know why I'm here?" he asked, his body a sinuous question mark.

"I thought you'd told me."

He quirked his lips and gazed evaluatively at me.

"You know it's more than that. I'm scandalous! You said so yourself."

I thought back, and corrected his statement. "I said the stories about you were scandalous. Are you proposing to act that way in front of me? Now that would get the gossips' tongues wagging."

A feral light lit Cal's violet eyes, and I realised that despite my healthy wariness of him, even I might be taken in by his wiles.

"You're intrigued."

"You're absurd."

He slammed back his sheh, stretching out his legs so that his crumbling boots were on my desk, ankles crossed. He moved with the grace of a wild cat, but he was more dangerous, a python, perhaps.

"I'm intriguing," he announced, taking his glass and drawing it down the centre of his chest where his shirt conveniently was unbuttoned to the navel.

"So you and all Immanion says."

I finished my sheh as well, and in a rare show of my powers, brought the bottle to me by sheer desire of will. Cal smirked, but the wild creature in him continued to stir. He wanted something from me, but surely he didn't want me…

"Why do you act so skittish around Vaysh, Pell's… assistant?"

All humour left me.

"I'm not discussing that, not now, maybe not ever. Now tell me what you want, or sit there and drink sheh and imagine you're dangerous."

"Oh, but I am dangerous."

His eyes flickered from my face down my torso and back again. He licked his lips.

"For Ag's sake, Cal," I barked. "I'm not some naïve or star struck har who thinks aruna with you is one of the wonders of the world. I have business to take care of, and you're wasting my time. I'm not saying that you're not provocative, because you are. But I have quite enough on my plate and I don't need you lurking in my office just to wish me well. Surely somehar else around here is desperate for your company."

To my surprise, he pulled a battered fan out of his vest pocket and waved it in a decidedly masculine fashion. He seemed impressed at my diatribe, but I wasn't certain and frankly, didn't care. Parallax and I had dinner plans; I needed to make sure my boots got shined. I did not need Cal har Uigenna har whatever the hell who'd managed to banish Thiede from this plane, standing up and walking toward me. To my chagrin, he managed to make the obscene seem quite desirous.

"I'm sure there is," he purred, leaning in so his liquor-scented breath blew in my ear. "Maybe I'm here because I'm intrigued. You're so very businesslike, Ashmael. All work and no play makes for a dull har… yet you're razor sharp." The last words were murmured into my ear before he nibbled none to gently on the lobe.

"You don't seem to think that's a bad thing," I said, moving my drink before he knocked it over as he straddled my lap. With one hand he cupped my jaw and with the other, he palmed the bulge of my awakening arousal.

"No. I hear you like horses," he husked, standing up long enough to magically shimmy out of his skin-tight pants. "I always did love to ride."

The innuendo wasn't lost on me, especially when I saw him, powerfully soume. I'd decided not to resist— Cal was a creature of his own making, and I'd not taken aruna since the catastrophe this har had wrought. I unlaced my leathers and shoved them down past my ass. For a moment I was struck by a crazy fear: what if Pell came by, right now?

"Everyhar else is busy," Cal said before sinking down on my ouana-lim. My last coherent thought was that if he told me he could read minds, I wouldn't be at all surprised. He certainly could read my body as though it were a well-worn tome. I felt like a thoroughbred, being rushed toward a rough, triumphant finish. Sharing breath with Cal was eating fireworks. He broke away from my mouth when I bucked up into him; he howled with berserker laughter and his fingernails were claws sinking into my shoulder blades. My chest heaved; I felt like my bones were water.

"You're something else," I managed to say, staring into his eyes where so many hara apparently had drowned.

"Yes, but so are you. General."

He made the word seem indecent. Seeing as how he held my ouana-lim in a tender but vice grip, I had to admit that I liked it.

After wiping the sweat from his forehead, Cal eased up and off my lap with the grace of a cat. I couldn't quite move, even though I needed to clean myself up. Eventually my body obeyed my commands and with a shaky hand, I took a long swallow of sheh. Cal had already dressed and was putting on his boots when he flashed me a roguish smile.

"There was something you could do for me. You just did it."

I'd tucked myself in and stood, pulling my pants back up. I gave his lithe body a long look, thought about what would potentially be a long and challenging mission in Galhea, and let a rueful smile settle on my lips.

"Maybe we'll do it again sometime."

Cal pursed his lips, gave a noncommittal shrug, and walked to the door. He paused, turned around, and in a voice as serious as any I'd heard him use in recent Hegemony meetings, declared, "You can bet on it."

Life in Immanion had become very, very interesting indeed.

Comments

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Many thanks! I used to write loads of Wraeththu and am having fun rediscovering them. Nice icon, too. :)