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It was very late at night and it had been a while since the Playful Charlatan had closed. Marissa and Alyrstaire were both sat opposite each other at a small table in the middle of the main room, by themselves. They had been drinking heavily, having some sort of contest of whose tolerance was stronger. The other lodgers of the tavern had gone to bed long ago, and all was quiet as the two tieflings drunkenly bickered with each other.
“I am CLEARLY less drunk than you!” Alyrstaire slurred, leaning heavily on the wooden table in front of him as he clutched his tankard with one hand and gestured wildly with the other, pointing at Marissa aggressively. His sleeveless robes were open and showing off his bare chest and stomach as normal, and his white hair fell naturally around his face and shoulders; it was slightly messier than normal. Marissa threw her head backwards and let out a loud and hearty cackle in response.
“Absolute BOLLOCKS! You’re wankered, mate!” she yelled teasingly, too drunk to be aware of the volume she was speaking at. She too clutched a tankard in one hand, but the other arm was leant back casually on her chair. Her bright blue coat was draped over the back of her chair, her black waistcoat was unbuttoned, and the sleeves of her puffy white blouse had been rolled up to her elbows.
“Oh yeah? You wanna fight about it?” Alyrstaire smirked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Marissa mischievously. A sly smile crept up Marissa’s face, seeing a familiar spark in Alyrstaire’s eyes, the spark that only appeared when Alyrstaire was in a reckless and impulsive mood. Marissa loved it when he was in this kind of mood, she always had the most fun with him when he was like this. She swung her head back and swallowed the remainder of her drink before slamming the tankard down on the table.
“Alright! But none of your werewolf bullshit, and no magic either!” Marissa declared, staggering up from where she was sat and clumsily kicking her chair out from underneath her. She threw both of her hands onto the table and looked at Alyrstaire, grinning wildly. Alyrstaire’s eyes lit up and his face also carried a wild and excited grin.
“You’re on!” Alyrstaire said, before he too necked the rest of his drink and threw the tankard to the side. He pushed his chair slowly backwards and shakily got to his feet, his face becoming stern, top lip curling upwards slightly. Both tieflings locked eyes and stood there for a few seconds staring each other down. Marissa had taken a wide stance and her arms were curled around at her sides, hands balled into fists. Alyrstaire was hunched forwards slightly, knees and elbows bent, palms facing inwards with his fingers curled round in a claw-like position.
Slowly, Alyrstaire started walking towards Marissa, not breaking eye contact. Marissa saw this as an attempt to be intimidating, but in reality Alyrstaire was just trying to make sure he could walk in a straight line without falling over; the intimidation factor was just a bonus. Weirdly, Marissa did feel slightly intimidated by this action, as well as sensing a hint of something else beginning to rise within her.
When he got to the table that they had previously been sat at, he grabbed it by the sides and roughly pushed it to the side and out of the way, still not breaking eye contact, even if he did lose his balance slightly. Marissa didn’t notice him losing balance but she did watch him push the table, and as it clattered to the floor and the tankard on top bounced along the wooden floorboards, she felt that same something bubbling up inside her chest and her gut, a feeling that she never expected to occur in relation to Alyrstaire. She blamed it on her very drunk brain being stupid and tried to prevent her eyes from lingering too long on his exposed biceps and chest as he wobbled back to the stance he was in before he flipped the table. Luckily for Marissa, Alyrstaire appeared too drunk to really notice where she was looking.
Alyrstaire took another step forward before Marissa suddenly leapt forwards at him, mouth open wide as she yelled a fearsome drunken battle cry. This took Alyrstaire by surprise and he didn’t react in time before a dark red fist connected with his cheekbone. He staggered to the side and clutched onto the turned over table to prevent himself from falling over, as Marissa landed from her leaping punch. She landed on the balls of her feet, and if she had been sober, she would have remained on them, but after a bit of arm flapping and tail swaying, she lost her balance and collapsed forward onto her hands and knees. Marissa clutched her head as the floor spun and wobbled wildly in front of her eyes.
Finally recovering from that surprisingly hard punch, Alyrstaire stood up as straight as he could and turned to face Marissa. He went to laugh triumphantly at the sight of her on the floor, but suddenly he was very focused on Marissa’s butt. She was wearing rather tight, dark purple trousers and that combined with the position she was currently in, the roundness of her behind had been greatly accentuated. He stared wide eyed with his mouth hanging open slightly; had Marissa always looked this good? Alyrstaire could fuzzily hear the sober version of himself aggressively yelling at him to ‘snap out of it! Ugh stop that’s so weird!’, but his focus was entirely on looking at Marissa’s butt and there was nothing Sober Alyr could do to stop him.
Once the floor had stopped spinning, Marissa staggered slowly to her feet and spun round to face Alyrstaire. As soon as his gaze had been broken, Alyrstaire blinked a few times before remembering that he was currently in the middle of a fight. He looked up at Marissa and his face shifted back into one of aggression. Marissa for a split second had seen Alyrstaire staring at her butt but she was too drunk to really think about it. So she lunged for another punch while once again screaming, but this time Alyrstaire was ready for it. He somewhat sloppily caught Marissa’s closed fist in his hand, but he was too intoxicated to successfully stop its forward motion. Alyrstaire’s arm was pushed backwards behind his shoulder as Marissa’s arm continued forwards, causing them to both lose their balance. Alyrstaire instinctively grabbed the flipped over table behind him with his other hand to stop the pair of them from completely falling over, but Marissa did end up falling onto his chest.
Her chin rested on his sternum, just below his collarbones and perfectly in between his scale-covered pectoral muscles. After all motion had stopped, Marissa only then realised that her other hand was pressed against Alyrstaire’s stomach, where she felt firm and well-toned abdominal muscles. Her fingers twitched slightly, wanting to feel them better but deciding that doing this in the middle of a fight was not a good idea. In that moment, she also became very aware of her chest, neck, and chin touching Alyrstaire’s own chest, sensing his surprisingly hot skin against her own. She knew that Alyrstaire was well toned and had decent muscles, but she had never paid this much attention to his body before, and once again that feeling quickly rose up from her gut to her chest as time had seemingly come to a complete stop. The two briefly looked at each other with wide eyes, recovering from their almost-fall. They remained with their eyes locked like that for a few seconds before Alyrstaire suddenly pushed Marissa off of him, growling slightly as he did so. But Marissa didn’t let go of his hand and used the momentum to duck down and throw Alyrstaire over her head, letting go just as he rolled over her shoulders.
Crashing comically into some chairs, Alyrstaire let out a high-pitched yelp as he collided painfully with the furniture. He rubbed the back of his neck as the room spun around him, giving him a slight headache. As he slowly sat up, he realised that his head felt a lot heavier than it should have done, so he raised a hand and came into contact with the wooden leg of a chair that was caught on one of his horns. He let out an exclamation of confusion as Marissa began to cackle loudly. Eventually, Alyrstaire managed to dislodge the chair from his horn and in his frustrated state he sloppily threw it at the wall, where it forcefully shattered into what seemed like a million pieces.
He turned back towards Marissa, about to get to his feet and continue the fight, but once again his gaze became fixed upon her. She had turned to face him and was standing there confidently, a dextrous hand resting on a curved hip as her rounded face was lit up in victorious laughter; she was swaying on her feet and her laugh was loud and obnoxious. Her bobbed ebony hair had been roughed up by the fight and her fringe had parted wonkily, but Alyrstaire still saw an attractiveness there that he had never seen before. Once again, he could faintly hear the sober version of himself screaming at him, and once again there was nothing that Sober Alyr could do.
After a few attempts of trying to get back onto his feet, all of which were accompanied by more cackling from Marissa, Alyrstaire snapped himself out of his stupor to quickly charge at Marissa, seizing his opportunity. She screeched as he caught her by the shoulders and pushed her backwards, staggering slightly as he struggled to come to a stop. Surprisingly, Marissa managed to not fall over, despite her drunken feet stumbling and her tail thrashing around wildly trying to find balance. She steadied herself by holding her hands out, and once regaining her balance she looked up at Alyrstaire with a determined, drunken grin on her face. Alyrstaire’s face at first carried an expression of confusion, before it very quickly melted into one of surprise as Marissa decided that it was her turn to charge at her opponent.
The two collided together and tumbled to the floor, rolling through tables and chairs as their scuffle continued. Eventually, they ended up with Alyrstaire on his back, and Marissa sat on top of his abdomen, straddling him as her hands pinned him down by the wrists. They looked at each other, both with huge grins on their faces and both of them breathing heavily, out of breath from their fight; Alyrstaire wriggled a little, trying to break free from the pin.
As their breathing gradually slowed, their grins slowly disappeared from their faces and their eyes gradually looked at each other with more intensity. Marissa could feel that feeling once again bubbling around inside her body as she instinctively began to lean forward, unaware that she was doing it. Alyrstaire’s mouth parted and his breathing hitched suddenly, no longer trying to break free. Time once again seemed to come to a complete halt.
When suddenly their mouths collided.
***
Alyrstaire’s bleary eyes slowly opened and instantly winced as a thin blade of sunlight poked through a gap in the curtains and hit the corner of his eye. This did not at all help his aching head that was throbbing with an intense hangover. He groaned and slowly lifted an aching arm before pressing the base of his hand against his forehead. Through squinting eyes he stared up at the ceiling above him, coming to his senses, trying to remember what he did the night before. Alyrstaire thought about not leaving his bed at all that day since he felt so terrible, but then he thought about how much Marissa would tease him about it, since she was always better at dealing with hangovers than he was.
He was just about to make an attempt at sitting up when Alyrstaire heard a muffled groan from his left, causing his eyes to snap wide open, arm fixed in position. He tilted his head as much as his horns would allow and slowly moved his eyes over to see who exactly was next to him in the bed. Marissa was face down in her pillow, lying completely on her front and with her arms tucked underneath the pillow. Alyrstaire’s nostrils flared as he then noticed that the pillows and the duvet were covered in matching purple silk covers, with lace decoration around the edges; definitely not the bedding that he had on his own bed. He only really started to panic when he saw Marissa’s bare shoulders just over the edge of the duvet.
Fearing the worst, Alyrstaire stared at the ceiling again. He had to look under the covers, he simply had to know if the worst had indeed happened. Taking a deep breath, Alyrstaire tightly clutched the top of the duvet by his chest with both hands, before looking down and slowly lifting up the covers. A yelp escaped from his mouth as he saw his own completely naked body lying there before he quickly lowered and pulled the covers up to his neck. His mind began to race as he heard another muffled groan from Marissa next to him. Alyr glanced over again to see Marissa turn her head to look at him with bleary eyes. After a short pause, she screeched and turned on her side, also tightly pulling the covers up to her neck.
“Alyr! What are you doin’ here?!” Marissa yelped, staring at Alyrstaire with wide eyes. He was staring back with eyes just as wide. There was a pause while they both stared at each other in fear.
“I’m not very sure, but…” he hesitated, looking down at the purple duvet he was gripping at. Marissa followed where he was looking.
“Wait…” she said, and much like Alyrstaire did earlier, Marissa slowly peaked under the duvet and clapped a hand to her mouth while the other returned to clawing the covers up to her neck.
“Yeah… exactly,” Alyrstaire said slowly, not moving his gaze, his eyes still wide in fear.
“Please tell me we didn’t, I know that I can get like that sometimes when I get pissed but surely I would know not to do it with you, surely!” Marissa said, shaking her head and gripping at her hair. Alyrstaire’s gaze flicked up and landed on the wooden footboard of the bed.
“I think we might have,” he said quietly, going tight-lipped as he stared at the splattered stain. Marissa glanced over and once again clapped a hand to her mouth, only this time it was to cover up a shriek of horror.
“Oh gods no that’s DISGUSTING!” she yelled through her fingers. “That’s like doin’ it with my brother UGH!”. She started to gag.
Alyrstaire internally breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had seen Marissa as a replacement sister for a while now and he had wondered if she saw him as a brother. However he had never wanted to admit it since that would involve showing affection and being caring and vulnerable. These were the kinds of emotions that Alyrstaire hated and the thought of actually outwardly expressing said emotions made him feel sick. But definitely not as sick as he was feeling now as he stared in shock at the ruined footboard, which he had just noticed had cracks in the wood where someone had been gripping at it very tightly. He didn’t want to be looking at it, but for some reason his eyes were fixed in place, unable to move.
“Yeah… doing it with a sibling,” Alyrstaire said quietly, nodding his head slightly in agreement to Marissa’s sentiment.
“Alright, we NEVER talk about this, ever. This never ‘appened. It’s just a bad dream that weren’t real, and we never speak of it ever again,” Marissa declared, gesturing with a free hand and looking at Alyrstaire pointedly. He was finally able to tear his eyes away from the mess of a footboard to look at Marissa. He furrowed his eyebrows and nodded furiously. Neither of them wanted to think about what had happened the night before. They both lay there for a bit, still shocked that their drunken selves actually decided to go ahead with the incredibly stupid idea.
“Okay I’m leaving. Don’t look,” Alystaire said, awkwardly trying to be his usual aggressive and commanding self but unfortunately he was still overwhelmed with embarrassment. Marissa nodded before taking a pillow and slapping it onto her face as she flopped onto her back, duvet still by her neck. Alystaire hesitated, just checking that Marissa really wasn’t looking before sliding out from under the covers. As he wandered around the room, picking up his crumpled clothing from the floor, he got a glance of his body.
“Ugh, I’m going to need a shower,” he muttered, lips curling back in a grimace.
“I DON’T WANNA KNOW!” came the muffled, singing voice of Marissa from underneath her pillow. Alyrstaire winced a little, he did not intend for her to hear that.
After collecting all of his clothes and balled them up into a pile he was able to carry in one hand, Alyrstaire walked over to the door and slowly pushed the handle down with his free hand. He peeked through the crack to look down the hallway and thankfully, it was empty. Just to make sure, he opened the door a little further so he could poke his head out and look at the other doors in the hallway. All were closed, and there was silence.
“Right, I’m gone, I was never here,” Alyrstaire said as he briefly turned back to look at Marissa, to which she just held a thumbs up in reply.
He stuck his head out of the door again, checking that the coast was clear one more time and focusing on his room which was down the other end of the hallway. Alyrstaire sighed, readying himself for the sprint, before in one swift movement he swung round the door and darted down the hallway, the tuft of fur on his tail covering the parts that needed to be covered. He stretched his free hand out to the golden door handle and grabbed it, barreling straight into his room and kicking the door shut behind him.
“Thank fuck, I made it,” Alyrstaire breathed, throwing his head back in relief. “Now for that shower.”
***
When Alyrstaire came down the stairs and entered the main room of the tavern, it was mid morning and the sun was pouring through the large windows. It was empty and quiet, with the only person in there being Marissa, who was now fully clothed and cleaning up the chaos that the two tieflings had caused the night before. She looked round to see who it was, and upon seeing Alyrstaire she finished putting a table back in the right place before rushing over to him.
“Oi Alyr, do you remember the fight?” she asked in a hushed tone even though there was nobody else there to hear her. Alyrstaire had to think a little bit before answering.
“Uh, yes I think so,” he replied, looking around the room. Surprisingly, not as much was broken as he thought there would have been. “Oh I do remember throwing that,” he said, pointing at the shards of chair on the far side of the room. Marissa looked at what he was pointing at.
“Yeah, you know I expect you to replace that. Or at least give me the money to buy a new one,” she said sternly, turning back to glare at him as she placed her hands on her hips.
“Yeah yeah I know,” Alyrstaire said, rolling his eyes and flapping a hand in response. “I don’t remember much after that however,” he puzzled, bringing a hand up to his chin.
“Bollocks, I was hopin’ that you would have, because I also don’t remember anything after that,'' Marissa said irritably, turning to look at the broken chair in the hopes that it would jog her memory. “Oi listen,” she started, looking back at Alyrstaire, “I know we said we wouldn’t talk about it again but not only does my headboard have cracks in it, it’s got fuckin’ scorch marks on it too!” She was once again speaking in that hushed tone but this time it had more of a hissing quality to it as she laid into Alyrstaire.
“Wait, it does?” he said, head snapping to look at her wide eyed. He couldn’t help but smirk as he was trying to hold back laughter, but a few splutters did escape his mouth. Marissa slapped him on the arm.
“This ain’t fuckin’ funny! That shit’s expensive I gotta get it replaced now ya prick!” she spat, snarling slightly. Alyrstaire continued to giggle.
“Oh come on! It’s a little bit funny,” he snickered, bringing a hand up to his mouth as his shoulders shook.
“Mornin’,” came a calm voice from the stairs behind them, causing them both to yelp in surprise and spin round in shock.
“Oh, Kathra, it’s you,” Marissa said, relaxing. The tabaxi walked slowly past the two tieflings as she inspected the room.
“Hmm, you two didn’t make as much of a mess down here as I thought you would,” she said with a tone of pleasant surprise. Marissa laughed.
“Yeah! Normally we wre-”
“I don’t know whether I can say the same for your room though, Marissa,” Kathra cut in, flatly, turning to look at the pair with a raised eyebrow. Both were caught off guard by the comment and there was a flicker of fear across both of their faces, before they gave Kathra a look of fake confusion.
“What are you on about? We weren’t in my room last night,” Marissa smirked before shrugging her shoulders at Alyrstaire.
“Yeah, what gave you that idea?” Alyrstaire sneered as he shared the bewildered expression with Marissa.
“Oh, well first of all I saw you two running down the hallway last night, giggling like horny teenagers, Marissa you were half-naked, also I didn’t get much sleep last night because I could hear a lot of different noises from the other side of the wall. All of them were very, VERY, loud, by the way. Oh and Alyr I also saw you run into your room this morning… naked,” Kathra explained matter-of-factly. She was trying her very best to keep a dead-pan expression throughout but the pair’s gradually collapsing facade as they got more and more uncomfortable caused her smile slightly. The three of them stood there in silence, Kathra looking back and forth between the two tieflings, waiting to see how they would react next as Alyrstaire and Marissa shuffled awkwardly, their faces a mixture of horror and embarrassment.
“Honey, listen, we were incredibly drunk and neither of us remember anythin’ that happened last night but we’re both disgusted at the whole idea of what happened. So, it would be great if you never brought this up ever again, because we for sure ain’t gonna mention it again! I nearly threw up this morning!” Marissa said, smiling painfully. Alyrstaire said nothing, his face was scrunched up and his tail was swishing about.
“Sure,” Kathra agreed, shrugging. Marissa grinned.
“Brilliant! Thank yo-”
“But I’m not going to stop the others from bringing it up and teasing you about it, because they will,” Kathra interrupted, the smile returning as Marissa’s face fell.
“You sure they heard-”
“Would you two care to explain to me what happened last night?” The instantly recognisable disapproving tone of Vyvyan resonated from the bottom of the staircase, causing Kathra to stare down at Marissa teasingly and the small tiefling to look back up at the tabaxi in fear.
“Fuck this, I’m leaving!” Alyrstaire declared, throwing his arms up in the air and striding over to the front doors of the tavern. Marissa whipped her head round to glare at Alyrstaire.
“Oi! Alyr! Get back ‘ere! You can’t let me deal with this by myself!” she yelled at him fearfully, but all he did was walk out of the doors backwards and throw up two middle fingers at Marissa. She waved a backwards-facing V sign while mouthing ‘fuck you’ in return. She then slowly looked round at Vyvyan, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs with both hands on her hips. She looked very tired and absolutely furious.
“Well?” the dragonborn said, tilting her head. Marissa smiled at her with a sickly sweet smile and then took a deep breath…
...before bolting for the front doors.
“HEY! COME BACK HERE!”