Sive & Lyselin

A/N: Life has been incredibly unkind to me in the past week, and the muses have made room for some unexpected stress- nothing life-threatening but also something I'm not entirely comfortable talking about. I am not giving up, just unable to complete the Selene short I was hoping to have finished for today. I hope a little snippet into Sive & Lyselins standalone story will tide you over until things settle. This was written a looooong time ago and I have hopes of rewriting it one day, but if you like it, there's plenty more where it came from :>

 I hope you all are having a better week than me (but if not, hugs abound, we will make it through) :')<3

By midday they had left the small village behind them, the stiff small talk at their backs. The heat rose through the valley and just below its peak, they followed a thin dirt path as the sun glared at them. Lyselin wiped the sweat that ran down her neck, her hair gluing itself to her skin like a blanket over her already overheated back. It was frizzy from the sea, and way too long for her liking.

"You wouldn't have another one of those hair-bands?“ She squinted at Sive’s back. He stopped with his hand on his knee, leaning on the steep hill they were yet to walk. He let out his hair with a devilish smile, the dark tresses unfurling like a silk curtain from his bun.

"Oh, please, you don't have to!“ Lyselin raised her hand to see against the sun, the other raised flat to stop him, halfheartedly. She couldn't help but stare, the contrast of his hair on the gold of his skin begging for attention.

"I always see that I carry two," Sive stretched out his hand to gift Lyselin one of the braided strings, "one never knows when you need an extra leather strap." He had the gall to wink at her. She narrowed her eyes at him, accepting the hair tie. She placed it in between her teeth, mimicking Sive- it tasted ever so slightly of seawater and smoke. They stood there, the sun openly gawking at them as they at each other, wrapped in silence as the grass whistled in the wind around them.

Lyselin snorted a laugh as Sive's intensely warm, wandering eyes started doing funny things to her gut. He was a handsome man, and it had been a while since she simply enjoyed herself. That was what Vaelindor was for, to leave the battles behind her and live the last years in peace, while she still had the chance to run, or to dance. Anything not involving a sword. She winked back at him, her fingers catching on another snag in her gathered hair. She forgot about Sives sly ogling for a second as she struggled - her arms already tiring- fingers slipping on the tie making the knot impossible to complete. Sive took two confident steps to her as her brows furrowed in frustration, his chest a wall of heat behind her as he coaxed the leather strap from her fingers. She reveled in the feel of it, of his calloused hands collecting her hair again, light scrapes along the sides of her neck, behind her ear. The touch was over as soon as it started, with Sive twisting the mass of her hair, folding it in on itself before fastening a low bun. He fanned out the hair, creating a makeshift cover from the sun's glow on her neck.

"There you go," his hand landed on her hip, gently twisting her around. He pulled a lock of her hair to frame her face, adoring the freckles that raced to reach the surface of her pale skin. The bridge of her nose was an angry red, as were the peaks of her cheeks.

"We should at least think about walking back down the valley. The sun is unrelenting in Vaelindor. Preferably, we should be asleep under a tree right now. What do you say?“ His eyes bored into hers. The wind caught on her dress, traveling between her thighs like a soft caress. She was very aware of the hand that still rested on her hip, so light, yet with the weight of an anchor.

"Let's walk," she said, nodding towards the top of the hill they were climbing. "We are so close! I want to see the view." She shifted her weight to lean into his palm, her shame apparently left behind in Riven. His smile beamed at her as stepped back to unbutton his shirt, throwing it over Lyselins shoulders when he was done.

"To protect your skin from the sun, or you won’t have any left by the end of today.” His smile was innocuous, his eyes watching her trace her gaze along his tattooed hip, through the valleys of his muscles- he had a big scar carving its way in the middle of his chest, right over his heart and down to his navel. A question formed on her lips, but Lyselin swallowed it back down like sour milk, turning on her heel to stomp up the remainder of the hill. She could do with a bit of ogling, but she would draw the line at history. Today she wanted to live, to feel the wind whipping up the waves below her; to see the horizon in its most honest hour, to at least try to forget whatever lurked in the future after spending the last year obsessing over it. She set a fast pace after looking over her shoulder, offering Sive a soft smile: apologetic almost. His eyes were busy wandering over the shape she carved against the sun, and down her shaded back, how her dress folded over her curves as she walked. Ogling was fine. The tender emotion nestling in her chest was not. 

The sun had blanketed itself in narrow clouds as they reached the peak, the air dense from the heat even here. They watched over the cliff's edge as the wind picked up, the height sending Lyselin’s head swimming when she looked down on the waves. She stood only an arms length from the edge. Sive approached her side and placed his warm palm against the small of her back.

“She is beautiful,” Sive hinted, his gaze lovingly sweeping over the sea before letting his eyes drift over Lyselin’s profile. She knocked her elbow into his side, and he made a show of getting his breath caught. She snickered at him.

“That is the peak of Anunath,” He pointed to the obvious shape in the distance, the volcanic island shuddering in the heat. “The volcano at the heart of Annath. Annath, where raiders trade their well-earned spoils, often for more supplies to continue sailing the sea. And fruit. Annath fruit is fucking magnificent.” The clouds blanketed them in shade for a moment and she could see the coast more clearly; she imagined docking her ship in a port of Annath, too, when she was all done with the excitements of Vaelindor.  Sive continued, “Volcanic grapes, bannards, cocanath- ” He slipped into Vaelin as he searched for the names in common, his hand traveling over his prickly jawline.

“Coconuts-” Lyselin lit up. “That is what your hair smelled of! Leith once brought oil of coconath for my leather bracers. Once upon a time. It smelled like what I thought Vaelindor would smell like."

"Did it live up to expectation?" Sive quirked a brow at her.

"No." Lyselin laughed. "It smelled awful in the harbor, apart from the food. Even that felt tainted by the stench of rotting fish. And mold." 

"Like home." It tugged on the corners of his lips, a soft smile splayed as his eyes wandered over the sea. "I did not expect that I would be back so soon. But I am rather enjoying it."

She handed Sive his shirt back as a chill wind nearly whisked it off her shoulders, but not before burying her nose into the bundled fabric. "You smell nice, though. That's a win for Vaelindor." She pursed her lips to keep from smiling. The winds were picking up now, the afternoon sweeping in with promises of rain. She rubbed her thighs together. "Let's go take that nap beneath a tree. I want to see the evening bazaar later."