Work Text:
There was something about the late summer air, the slant light in the evenings echoing the few rooms in her city that had been above ground, that made Aludra think of the courting rites she had learned as a girl.
Jaela was yet to complain about them: so far most had been small gifts of posies in a flower language Aludra struggled to translate from the hardy rock flowers of her home to the local floodplain growth. With the chill that had started threatening in the nights, though, Aludra had been keeping the skins of a few oversized rabbits that they had cleared out of an abandoned building last week. Her sewing skills had never been up to much, but the thought of tacking purple thread through the white furs made her grin.
She was shaken from pleasant imaginings of a certain special lady in a white coat and hat (and nothing underneath, if they could ever take a day for the two of them) by the sudden splash of something falling into the river. Aludra jerked her head up, ready to draw her hammer, and almost immediately relaxed when a familiar voice started yelling.
Whether the yelling helped was none of Aludra’s concern. Nor was whether fish blood would satisfy Blooddrinker. She started back towards the line of bushes which may yet contain some purple stuff that would serve to dye thread.
***
The inn they had found was only a mile or so from the nearest town, but Aludra had spotted some unfamiliar plants surrounding it and had managed to persuade everyone to bed down here for the night. The smell of blood and beer from the bar had been enough of a draw for Thom, and Harper seemed excited about some doohickey mounted on the side of the upper floor. Jaela had just smiled and agreed in a way that made Aludra feel… keenly.
Her mother's voice ringing dimly in her head, she fumbled through an excuse to disengage from Jaela over dinner and went rummaging in the greenery. The old advice that had only ever been meant to round out her education was finally paying off, and when Aludra felt her toughened hands grasp the base of a cluster of berries that were very nearly her favourite shade of purple, she felt thoroughly grateful.
Sending up a quick note of thanks to whatever nature spirits were listening, she packed all she could find into her Bag of Holding and headed back inside.
Harper was talking to an elf at the bar. The whirlpool he had created in his tankard didn't seem to be impressing her as much as his eyes were, but he maintained it while continuing to talk. And talk.
Thom had sat down on his own in the inglenook and was either communing silently with his sword or had taken too much silverweed oil. Either way, he wasn't causing the kind of disturbance that would get them kicked out.
Aludra had used to worry that she had to do these babysitter patrols for her friends, but she had come to terms with it. It still baffled her that both Thom and Harper had the kind of social skills that would let them charm their way out of almost anything and they just didn't, but whatever. It would be weird if they were all good at the same things.
Jaela wasn't in the bar, so Aludra headed upstairs.
The room (only one room for four of them, and it always felt safer but come on) that was theirs for the night was spacious and bright, the sole large bed palatial compared to some places they'd bedded down. Aludra felt as she had done frequently in the past couple of strangely peaceful weeks; that she had wandered into a dream.
Jaela sat with her eyes closed, the white swirls on her skin seeming to glow in the evening light. Her posture was familiar, and Aludra fretted for a moment over what could have made her girlfriend need to meditate so early in the day. The feeling passed quickly and gave way to excitement.
Meditation isn't the same as sleeping, but Erathis knew that this was probably the closest thing Aludra would get to privacy and leisure for days or even weeks. She loved her party but eating together, sleeping together and taking the same bathroom breaks were giving her no opportunity to give her beloved a proper courting.
Reaching under the bed and examining the chamberpot, she determined both that it would probably be clean enough to crush the berries in and that ‘probably’ was not acceptable. The wardrobe contained nothing of use. An increasingly desperate search of the cupboards found them barren as well.
And so it happened that Jaela became conscious of her surroundings somewhat earlier than she had hoped. Aludra’s voice came from somewhere behind her, mild swear words and frustrated humming sounds making Jaela want to giggle. She kept her eyes closed for now. It would be so nice to bask like this for a while, in the sunlight and Aludra’s presence.
A short while. Soon Aludra had stopped her stifled clattering, but had not left the room. The sounds of the bar downstairs hummed along with no indication that they needed to go and join a fight. Jaela felt goosebumps lifting on her arms and shivered a bit, swallowing loudly in the relative quiet.
She let herself settle back into her body for a moment before turning her gaze to where she knew Aludra was.
“Hey, Alu-,” Jaela managed before she realised what she was seeing.
Aludra had laid out three of the plates they used while travelling. There were some berries on one, something unpleasant-looking on the third, and the second had a dwarf crouching over it with a spoon in her hand. She seemed to be frozen mid-mash and her eyes were wide open and locked on Jaela.
“Making dessert?” Jaela asked, fighting to keep her smile at normal levels.
“Uuhhh”, said Aludra. Her spoon dripped a little bit and she did not move.
“Can I help?” Jaela prompted. She didn't recognise the berries but she knew that Aludra was an accomplished woodswoman and had no doubt they would be delicious.
“No!” Aludra had turned bright red, and her eyes now looked ready to fall out of her head. She plopped down from her crouch to sit on the floor. “You weren't supposed to see it yet!”
Ah. “I'm happy to see it though! This is a good thing.” Jaela slipped out of her pose and off the bed, approaching Aludra, intending to kiss her frown away and swap it for an even brighter blush. Aludra flailed her hands over the plates for a moment, obviously in a panic, and flipped the plate with the unpleasant-looking… thread? Vine? It was hidden under the plate by the time Jaela was close enough to touch Aludra.
She instead sat on the head of the bed, looking at her girlfriend where she sat in the corner of the room.
“I'm sure it'll taste amazing.” A thought struck her. “Is it because there won't be enough to go round? I could help you find more berries, if you want?”
Aludra turned to look up at Jaela, finally setting the spoon down. She looked about ready to cry. “It's not, it's not a dessert for everyone, it's a present that's just for you. I couldn't find the right colour until today and you… you deserve it to be right.”
“A present?” The joy on Jaela’s face made Aludra want to cry, to spit, to scream at the sky, to make love to Jaela until they both dropped dead of exhaustion. She wasn't supposed to KNOW yet!
“Have I told you about how I was betrothed?” Aludra felt guilt squirm in her throat as Jaela’s face registered surprise.
“It was mentioned.” A pause, and Jaela slipped off the bed to sit behind Aludra. Bare purple arms came around her trunk and gently pulled her back into the cradle of Jaela’s legs. A section of black hair fell down around them as Jaela tucked her cheek against the top of Aludra’s head.
“It wasn't so bad. He was from a good family, he was polite, he stuck to the courting rules even though he didn't really have to. My parents and his had agreed it, and he could have done practically anything as long as he didn't really piss me off.
“But… ugh, it's gonna sound like I'm so spoiled! The courting gifts we gave each other were... bland. I would give him bouquets of whatever was growing near my family's house, and he would give me whatever he could buy at the market. I just wanted to court you properly. When my grandmother courted my grandfather she secretly built him a house and managed to keep it secret until it was ready.”
“You've been courting me? Is that what the flowers have been about?” Aludra felt a warm kiss press against her braids and hummed an affirmative. “That doesn't seem fair.”
Jaela felt her lover's considerable muscle tense as though to pull away, and quickly added, “I should be courting you too, right? That's the tradition?”
“Yeah, for dwarves! I don't want to make you do anything.”
“You aren't.” Jaela’s nose was nestled right into Aludra’s hair now, her long legs stretched out around Aludra’s sturdy form. “What if I close my eyes while you tell me what I need to know about courting you,” (Aludra was sure Jaela would feel her pulse accelerate even through her armour) “and you can do whatever and I won't see?”
The hesitation went on for long enough that Jaela registered the pattern of a bird singing outside. It repeated.
“I could put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door as well.”
***
And so it came to be that when Thom stumbled upstairs some time after midnight, the door was marked with a glowing rune and would not open further than an inch.
Suspicious. Thom leaned on the door while the tavern downstairs seemed to have shifted up a notch in volume. It didn't budge. With a disgusted noise, he pushed his snoot against the door to peer through the gap.
All he could see was a sliver of a picture in the low lamplight, but he grinned when he realised what he was seeing.
Jaela was sitting on the floor, blindfolded, with her chin tucked down into Aludra’s hair. Aludra’s lucky butt was planted right between Jaela’s legs and equally lucky head was nestled back in Jaela’s chest. Her arms were stretched forward between her own legs, moving slightly. She also seemed to be speaking, though there was no chance of Thom hearing what she was saying.
Thom sighed and turned back to find Harper. At least if he was going to sleep outside he could drag Harper with him.
***
Harper hadn't had any luck in asking the bar-elf about the Stormteller they had seen from the road. Their room hadn't seemed to be the one that could access it either, so he was planning to get another few ales in him and go housebreaking. Innbreaking. Whatever.
A familiar scaly presence edged into his awareness. Thom sat down on the bench next to Harper and put an armful of tankards down in front of them.
“Wanna get a room, just the two of us?”
Harper raised an eyebrow at Thom. “Why?”
“I just think it's about time we made our relationship official.”
Harper kept his body language open while Thom scooched closer, waiting for the next part. Thom had pushed a large bare leg up against Harper’s leg before:
“...and the ladies are getting busy in our room and they've locked the door and I can't get in.”
Harper finished downing his first ale and picked up one that Thom had brought. “Getting busy?”
“I don't know, it looked kinky. Sweet kinky, not my kind of kinky. You wanna go and peek?”
“That's disrespectful and gross.” Harper glanced up at the bar, where the elf was serving someone. “Sort of, yeah.” A jangle of terror ran through him even as he said it.
“Great! I'll get us a room first.” It went unspoken that they might need somewhere to barricade themselves if they were caught peeking at their friends.
With a faintly hysterical hope, Harper imagined drinking Thom under the table and blacking them both out on the bench right here. Thom was already out of his chair and talking to the bartender.
He slurped loudly on a new tankard of what turned out to be mead. The heavy sweetness bloomed inside his mouth and seemed to carry directly up into his brain. His terror ebbed slowly, fading into the layers of sediment Harper had so carefully accumulated through his life.
When Thom came back he was armed with a new room key, an armful of tankards and a freshly slapped grin. Harper glanced back at the elf, who seemed puzzled but not angry. He felt a smile of his own slip onto his face and let himself lean sideways onto Thom’s scaly shoulder.
He heard the slur in his voice when he said “If you want to bring her back to the room, you need to clean up aaaall the fish guts.”
“Nah, I'm just looking to get a good night's sleep.” Harper looked up at Thom.
“So you don't want me to get nakey and then rub our nakey selves together?”
“Your nakey self is gonna be worthless after these… seven drinks. You didn't want to take her up to the room?”
Harper shook his head, leaning it down to another (his eighth?) tankard. He sipped it slowly but never removed it from his mouth, taking a few minutes to tip it all down. When he surfaced the few dozen tankards on the table had emptied.
“I think a good night's sleep sounds better.”
Thom finished the last of the drinks and grabbed Harper’s wrist. “After we see the girls.”
It would later be said (by Harper) that Harper flew up the stairs behind Thom like a banner, but it would also be said (by Thom) that the description doesn't quite do justice to the underarm carry that Thom performed.
It could be agreed by everyone in the party that falling through the door of the room, waking both Jaela and Aludra from their spot curled up in the bed and getting down to no kind of kinky business, was the best possible outcome.
They still slept in two different rooms that night, but only after Harper had ruined a family's night by wrecking the door to their room.
With an etching from the Stormteller and the imprint of its original power (now a long wrung-out echo) still tingling on his palms, Harper rolled over and snuggled into Thom’s chest. It wasn't weird.