AU for _deadlydance_, set immediately after "The Price"

[birthrightgreen]

She wasn't nervous. She had nothing to be nervous about. It wasn't like it was a romantic evening. They'd just worked so hard on the case, working to catch the rabid witch who'd been slaughtering innocent males. And they had, with Jaenelle's help. Now Jaenelle and Daemon were back on their honeymoon and she...

She was here in Amdarh, back how she had been, nursing the bruises Falonar had left. So, why, exactly was she changing her dress? The one she had on was perfectly acceptable. She was going out dancing with a friend. She could use a friend right now. What she couldn't use was a male thinking he was just going to sweep in and carry her off.

Not that he was probably thinking that, but she was suspicious.

He was a male, and years of seeing them abused by her own sex still hadn't made her trust them as a gender. Then again, she didn't trust most people.

With a growl at herself, she finally settled on a black dress with enough slink to impress and a enough swirl to make a statement on the dance floor, no matter how elegant and formal. Hair pinned half up, the rest left down. If people stared at her ears, so be it.

She was ready. It was going to be fun. She kept repeating that. Fun. With a friend.

Just a friend. He wasn't expecting anything. He wouldn't be that foolish.

She just wished she knew what he wanted.

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He took another bite as well.

Just a hint of teeth scraped metal.

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Her fingers tightened on her spoon, and she reached to sample the berries.

She popped one into her mouth, tongue darting out to lick the juice off her index finger.

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The back of his jaw locked.

Rainier lifted up another spoonful of the dessert, and offered it to Surreal.

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She leaned forward with a smile, slowly tasting, then taking the custard off the spoon.

"It's good."

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"Of that I have no doubt."

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Her smile was slow, warm, curving first her lips then making it to her eyes.

"You have no idea, sugar."

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If she wanted to push, then he could play. At least here, in this way.

"Do I want one?"

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"All knowledge is worth having," she said for the second time that night, though the phrase was a bit different when she wasn't talking about museums.

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He raised an eyebrow. Another smile.

"Have you forgotten what I teach?"

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She chuckled, leaned in a little closer. "Have you forgotten what I did for over 300 years?"

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In truth, sometimes he did.

"If this is an attempt to get me to exchanges stories? I am not going to bite."

Then? That way? Her?

He needed to find his center again, and quickly.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"Mmm. Trading stories is bad for business." Not that she was in it and not that she hadn't once or twice.

But not with him. She was sorry she'd even brought it up, except...not.

"This training you give...was not something given to free males in Terreille."

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He nodded, taking a bit of the dessert for himself again.

"That's true," Rainier agreed. "And maybe that is why sex so often gets turned into something ugly, and abusive."

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She slipped back in her seat, eyes mildly shuttered against the memories that brought surging up. Hers and others.

"Maybe."

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His eyes didn't leave hers.

"And what do you think of the males here? Besides being -- what did you call us? Pains in the ass?"

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"You seem...different." The tone was grudging, and her eyes betrayed mild distrust of that appearance. A deep-seated wariness. "More willing to be pains in the ass."

Which meant fussing. But fussing males generally took no for an answer instead of forcing themselves on someone.

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"It's not something that we are willing to be," he felt the need to correct. "It is what we are. Surely the boy you saved today taught you that? Blood, and Service."

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She nodded slightly, in acknowledgment.

"It's been lost in Terreille. Males are a threat."

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His eyes shadowed.

"That isn't entirely their fault."

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She bit back the snarling comment that sprang to her lips.

"Not all of them."

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He openly studied her.

"But some of them?"

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"What the witches of Terreille did to males for centures twisted a lot of them up where females were concerned," Surreal conceded, thinking of Lucivar and Daemon, eyes far away. "But something was already wrong with those that delighted in preying on children."

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"And what was wrong with those there, can still be wrong here." His voice was deceptively calm. "But it is not something that is tolerated. Or allowed to continue."

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"Whereas there, it was encouraged," she said quietly.

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His voice was not dangerously low.

"We take care of our own."