21. snapshots

[daimd]

01 – Walk
The Chief asks where he is going, and he says first East and then North, but he is going anywhere, and the Chief only promises that he will be missed.

02 – Beauty
The ever-present longing to twine his fingers through that hair, now pulled up and out of his reach, is slowly replaced with the smouldering desire to stroke the smooth ivory of the base of that neck.

03 – Catch
He wants to box up every sidelong glance, every teasing smirk, every toss of the head, every crook of a finger, every breathless whisper—every little thing to keep forever, safely with him for ever.

04 – Speak
He says it every day, but sometimes, the silent methods say it best.

05 – Lack
He makes no apologies for himself: he is an orc named Daimd, a creature lacking in all grace and subtlely, and yet even for that he is satisfied.

06 – Mine
In one of his dreams, his tongue is cut, his fingers severed, his tendons lacerated, and only when he is utterly, utterly helpless does a single finger grace his cheek, and he wakes to beautiful, familiar mirth.

07 – Laugh
The high, crystalline laughter thrills him to the core, and he adds his low, rumbling bass to it, revelling in the utter perfection of their music—not a song, but.

08 – While
He meditates on the past, the Chief and his tribemates and Valm, and settles on the fact that they live happily idle, while he wanders; he meditates on the future, the cold blue of the sun half-heartedly rising into the sky and the silence of his sleeping love behind him, and he smiles.

09 – Youth
It was distinctly after he first looked into the newborn face of the very first child that claimed his blood that he stopped feeling young.

10 – Stay
Some mornings become whole days melted away beneath the sheets, and even as someone who loves the sunrise, those mornings are always among his favourites.

11 – Fill
A tangle of limbs, skinned knuckles and low laughter moaning against stone walls; he needs nothing more, nothing else.

12 – Distraction
He knows he is supposed to be a part of the joke (and he is, he is), but the smirk pulls him to other thoughts, and he sighs deeply.

13 – Fear
He thinks, sometimes, that he should have been more disturbed by Yoouk's death, but in the strangest way, he thinks it the best end his half-brother could have had.

14 – Crash
His hands are restless, his throat hoarse, his thoughts distant, and at the slightest touch, he trembles.

15 – Look
“Here, Daimd,” they always said as they pressed children in his direction, and he never raised his hands before Valm.

16 – Begin
The first step was hardly his to take.

17 – Second
So his footfalls fell in line with those of the weaving, wandering blood elf before him, and he smiled at the sway.

18 – Violet
He kneads the bruises, for the hissing and twisting they elicit, and he grins.

19 – Candy
Salted skin and copper blood mingled together on his tongue, and he knew nothing that tasted sweeter.

20 – Nothing
He has spent days, now, thinking of nothing but the fact that he cannot know, because Quinn is not his addiction, and even so, it would not be comparable.

21 – Familiar
But he circles back with the matter tucked away, and gives himself fully to his elf, his back to the gaping chasm that closes only in intimacy.

22 – Show
“Ask me, and I promise you, I will show you all that I can.”

23 – Day
So long as they kept a fair distance, Daimd could be persuaded to admit that he had a strange fondness for wolves, though he could not be begged to explain why (but his clumsy evasion said everything).

24 – Ask
“You have everything I can give you—ask for the world, and I will show it to you.”

25 – Hair
Bare shoulders, swathed in red, and bare teeth, sunk into his shoulder, start him, and he is—

26 – Think
Bare chest, bare hips, and bare lust stop him for the barest second, and then he is all fire.

27 – Home
“What keeps you?” Valm cried, showing her rare temper, “Why won't you be my father?”

28 – Loud
She stood shaking with fury, staring at him, and he remained still, listening to the buzzing of insects mingle with the subdued hum of magic in his veins.

29 – Travel
Daimd thought of the future, the world he'd never seen and the people he'd never met, and thought the answer was obvious.

30 – Damage
She spit on the ground and turned sharply from him, and he wondered if he'd finally broken their bond this time.

31 – Strength
He knew orcs stronger than himself but he knew he had the strength to hold tightly when he needed to, and precious little else mattered.

32 – Together
To the sleeping darkness, he whispers, “Is this what you wanted?”, meaning a hundred different things.

33 – Push
Would that I had you here, Quinn, so I could tell you the way I told them: they could never hope to use me as a means to possess you or move you, because you're stronger than they think you are, and they refuse to open their eyes enough to see—and that, they didn't appreciate, but even these mage hands can form fists.

34 – Safe
He slept rarely, when the bed was his alone, but always with his back towards the door, knowing, knowing simply.

35 – Private
He counts the bruises, the bites, the scratches—each one a bright, public secret, defiant before all their stranger staring.

36 – Light
I'll find you again, Quinn, I promise; I'll walk without rest.

37 – Big
The bonfires draw him and his wild need, the way they always do, and he soon finds himself delirious in the pleasure of the oldest tradition.

38 – Want
Distantly, he considers hiring someone—a skinny, half-dazed blood elf, or some ample, full-bodied orc—but, but instead he rolls over and breaks his wrist on his dearest memories.

39 – Law
From time to time, he is reminded of his blood debt, due for the rest of both their lives, and he wonders if there is enough he could ever hope to do to repay it.

40 – Canine
It's efficiency, not cruelty, that leads him to loose bolt after bolt of magic, killing outright before any creature can reach him.

41 – Truth
“I could pretend,” He grins, teeth bared on warm skin, “but we both know I'm an awful liar.”

42 – Smoke
He coughs mightily, knowing that he would always choose this choking, flame-scarred battleground over idyllic green woods.

43 – Order
He knows a hundred and a hundred more ways his blood elf arouses him, but none so simple as that one phrase: “Come here.”

44 – Feel
He stares at the fetid ruins above their Undercity, and his lips curls; their kind fills him with disgust, but he will not put words to why.

45 – Through
The backlash lances through him like a pike, and he falls in silence as his body jolts out of sync with itself.

46 – Finish
“Here is where it ends at last,” he thinks with relief, and before his brain is split, he makes a promise.

47 – Race
He bared his teeth to strangers and let Quinn do the talking; let them think him an animal.

48 – Need
“I love you, Quinn,” (in the elf's absence he feels the need to repeat it over and over) “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

49 – Splash
The sudden streak of bright red across the dirt and that choke—he is a frenzy, pulling magics from the deepest of his recesses and firing them with violent, single-minded purpose.

50 – Thrill
To the sleeping darkness, he whispers, “Is this what you wanted?”, knowing the answer.