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[hellorhighwater]

NEIL BLAIR
Black Fire of the Night Dragon
Kingslayer
Dragon Mage

(Spillover for threads, muse contact, mun contact--circle all that apply.)

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Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

"I don't want you to leave." As raw as she felt right now, the prospect of trying to be a smartass or snark at him was beyond unappealing. He'd have to deal with her being genuine and on the nose. Hopefully it wouldn't send him into a tailspin.

She gave him her foot willingly too, let him move it this way and that as any competent doctor or healer would. There was no suppressing the wincing and owing, but there was no blinding, screaming pain. Just enough for her to manage, "I take it back. Touch my foot again and you can leave," but then catch his gaze and smile pathetically.

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

The lack of buffers that were her biting remarks was something he enjoyed--and when she did snark at him, she just got a grin in return.

Followed by him reaching out deliberately to run a finger gently, rebelliously along her instep.

"Nah, seriously--this we can fix." he assured her, setting her foot back on the ground carefully. "It'll take some time, but I can use magic to speed the healing similar to the headache trick. Now lemme look at that gorgeous face..."

Shifting closer, Neil took her face between his hands and carefully tipped it towards the light, one thumb straying up to gently test the areas he could see some swelling beginning.

"See you got smacked in the schnoz here--any pain with pressure?"

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

In truth, she was relieved about the ankle. She could teleport around if she had to, but the level of deception she had to engage in to avoid the wrong people learning she could do it wasn't good for her. Lies weren't black magic, but deception fed the urges.

Her face...as long as it didn't look like she'd gotten a beating, she didn't care. And since she could hide any bruising easily enough with a glamour, she'd shrugged it off after holding ice to it for a short while. It would heal. Now, though, with Neil's fingers on the swelling, it ached enough to make her lift her hand to his reflexively to make him stop.

"A little. Did it bruise while I was trying to sleep?"

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

"Nah, I've just been hit enough times myself to spot it." he replied, tapping the bridge of his nose--with a very subtle defect at the bridge she would spot if she gave it a closer look, indicating a previous break--before he drew one hand away from her face and flicked a ball of fire into being, rolling it onto the back of his hand as he had with her headache before he curled his glowing-coal hand against her cheek.

"And it's not gonna bruise--this I can fix, hang on..."

Neil's eyes fell shut as he concentrated. Following his magic as he channeled heat into her body, he sent his awareness into her body again, focusing on the abused cartilage and soft tissue...it wasn't all that different from a migraine, controlling the blood flow, and if he really concentrated he might be able to patch some of them the way he sealed his own wounds, with a little bit of heat...

The warmth that pulsed beneath her skin, spreading not just across her face but down the back of her neck, began to burn just a little along her cheekbones and the bridge of her nose while he worked in silence, but gradually the heat began to cool, and as he pulled his awareness out of her veins and tissues, he actually smoothed both thumbs over the bridge of her nose with gentle pressure as he held her face--the pad of each thumb, shockingly, freezing cold as it touched her skin.

"Sorry sorry sorry," he apologized softly, repeating the action, "just wanna ease the pain--and help with the swelling."

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

Her face did hurt while he worked his heat magic over it, and she swore she could almost feel the vessels being cauterized as the heat burned through and around them. But it was a minor pain, nothing compared to what she'd felt the day she'd earned the scar on her mouth he seemed so found of. In fact nothing by comparison to the bite he'd delivered in the shower three days ago, but she declined to tell him that, because it would only hurt him.

She made no sound while he worked over the damage but gasped at the freezing chill from his thumbs. She hadn't known he could do that, and fuck-damn that was cold. Still she bit her tongue until he stopped and then murmured, "Thank you, love. You're good to me."

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

"I'm a bastard for surprising you with that." he snickered, leaning in to kiss her forehead gently before drawing back to smile at her. "But trust me, it's better than scrunching up to brace for it."

Dropping his hands--which had started to go dangerously pale, specifically around his thumbs, Neil rubbed them together briskly as he channeled heat back into them, warming up again.

"Took me years to learn to do that--ice my hands." he explained with a smile that was pure mischief. "Night Dragon taught me how to draw the fire into my core so I could travel through the tundra without freezing to death...so of course I figured out how to use it to prank my buddies in the barracks. Slow my heart rate, cool my skin--fake corpse. Trust me, it was fuckin' hilarious when I was sixteen. Figured out how to pull all the heat out by the time I was...twenty two? Twenty three? Somethin' like that. Anyway, it's a fun trick: fire mage with cold hands. Helps with icing injuries, shit like that."

Not unlike he had with her headache, the stream of chatter wasn't his usual babbling, just a soothing stream of background as he finished restoring the heat of his hands, then continued his impromptu triage of her curse-inflicted injuries.

"Anyway, most of this I'll just help you heal in bed--I want that ankle elevated." he finished, shifting to get to his feet so he could move around the bathroom. "Just one more thing, and we're done...whatever that gum did, there's still a chunk in your hair, right by your ear. Not big, but you sleep on that and you're gonna hate life in the morning...damn it--where's your brush, Beloved?"

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

Truthfully, Regina felt a little woozy after the cold shock and she was grateful for the steady stream of conversation to give her something to focus on. Especially when he moved off the bed, the jostling of the mattress left her a little nauseated from the pain.

"On the dressing table," she said after the wave of it passed and dutifully didn't reach to see how much gum was left in her hair. She'd trust Neil to get it out. If she had to, she could glamour her hair until it grew back. She'd considered hacking it all off earlier when--

"No, wait. It's in the bathroom. I used it earlier when I was getting the rest out." A soft frown at the pain in her head from calling out and she added more quietly, "Will you bring me water, love, and the aspirin?"

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

"On it, Beloved!" he called out over his shoulder as he did just that, retrieving all three from the bathroom before returning to her with a glass of water, the brush tucked into his back pocket--and the whole bottle of aspirin.

"Couldn't remember how many you gave me--and I can't take medication like a regular person, so figured I'd let you dose it out." he explained with a rueful grin, settling behind her on the edge of the bed. Contemplating the piece of gum, he thought for a moment...then gave up on conventional methods, and any hope of being remotely impressive for the moment and combed his fingers gently through her hair, speaking the spell he used for translocation.

Holding out one hand, palm extended, he waited for the tiny flurry of coal bright ash to emerge from her hair as he carded his fingers through it, the wad of gum reappearing neatly in his hand. Grinning, he leaned forward, pressing himself against her back to show her the gum.

"Here, this'll cheer you up." he declared--then promptly ignited a dragon fire flame in his hand to obliterate the offending was before he straightened again, then took up the brush to start working it through her hair with sure, steady strokes to make sure he hadn't missed any pieces.

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

"Most modern drugs are two tablets per dose. I don't know why they don't just make them one, but it seems to be something of a constant. Maybe people think a single pill can't be effective and default to two, so they split the dose for safety."

It was the same sort of not exactly nonsense babble as he'd given her before, she realized, along with realizing he probably didn't care or need to know. Then again, Charlie or Arya could get sick and she might not be around. It wouldn't hurt for him to know, and the kind of day she'd had, being able to say anything at all to him was a relief. To have him here without having to worry she'd hurt him.

She did smile when he annihilated the gum in her hair; it would've been handy to be able to do that earlier. "Gum tentacle monster. It tried to give a few people unscheduled prostate exams." Then the brush began to work its purely mundane magic and she let out a soft, quiet sigh as her shoulders relaxed.

"Thank you, Neil. I... really needed you tonight."

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

Neil tried to picture the gum monster trying to shove tentacles...he stopped immediately and failed to force back a shudder before he resumed brushing Regina's hair for her. The way the tension bled out of her shoulders with a sigh shoved the air out of his lungs--not with lust, but with the force of what he felt for her. The love, the tenderness that threatened to rupture his lungs was violent, not something he ever believed love or tenderness could be.

The brush paused again so he could bend his head and kiss her shoulder. As he did, he whispered a spell against her skin. Fire flashed in his eyes where she couldn't see, but a tiny ripple of energy would be visible, a soft coal glow passing through her skin before it faded to nothing.

"Summoning spell's permanent now." he explained quietly, rubbing a hand along her arm as he pressed his cheek to hers for a second. "Say my name when I sleep and I'll wake up--speak my title when I'm awake, your title, and I'll know you need me."

In light, or in dark--if she wanted her dragon knight, Neil would be there.

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

"Dragon knight," she murmured into his ear, unsure whether the spell would work when he was close enough to touch and not particularly caring. He said she should speak his title and he would know she needed him, and she needed him now, tonight, right now, as much as she had ever needed anyone, at least in recent memory.

As hard as it was for her to admit needing anyone or anything, the summoning spell was an extraordinary gift. Because now, whether it worked in her presence or not, she only had to say, as she did a second time, right now, "My dragon knight," and he would know whether she could expose her vulnerability or not.

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

He felt it as she spoke the words--that need, that burning ache cutting through him like a knife, making his breath catch and compelling him to press his face against the curve of her neck and drop the hairbrush just so he could loop his arms around her shoulders and pull her back against his chest. Maybe that was a bad idea, adding that component--to know the nature of her need, to feel danger or pain or even just that desperation he'd felt in her that first night dreams of Henry had brought her to his bed.

He'd done it because of tonight--if she couldn't call, he'd know if blood would be shed. Now, it just drew her to him, made his soul burn to wrap her up and keep her safe and lay himself open so she could wear him like armor to protect her from everything.

In the absence of that, he just held her, whispering an oath in the dragon tongue she might recognize even before he translated.

"Unto the death of the stars, and the reign of night over all the realms."

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

Well, that answered that question. Not only did it work, but it worked to let him know how she needed him, or what she needed, on some level. Just then, with his arms wrapped around her, his soul bared for her, she couldn't bring herself to be sharp about it, but she did need to ask, "Just how precise is your awareness with that spell?" because while she was happy to have him know if she was in danger, hurt, or afraid for her/the children's lives, she wasn't remotely comfortably with it revealing her emotional state to him.

Love, honesty, sharing vulnerabilities didn't remove her need for emotional privacy. If anything, it heightened it. Telling him what she felt or asking him to meet a specific need had to be her choice.

But it didn't stop her from melting into his embrace and letting her tired, heavy eyes fall shut, while she waited for his answer.

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

"Broad strokes." he assured her, lifting his head just enough to kiss her temple. "Danger, injury, pain--mental or physical. And only if you activate it--only for a second."

And because he'd seen enough to know, because he had the same issue himself...

Giving her a little squeeze, he nuzzled the crown of her head.

"I just know you, that's all." he added softly. "I mean--not everything--but I know where to start."

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

Satisfied, Regina nodded and tucked her head to his shoulder, the exhaustion of the day beginning to demand its due. It had to be after one am by now and unless she called in 'cursed,' she had to be at work before nine.

"You know me better than almost anyone," she murmured, passing her hand over his abdomen and back up to rest on his chest. "But a woman needs her secrets." Which was completely and utterly beside the point, and she only said it to tease him, but a jaw-cracking yawn cut off any further verbal sallies.

Like a sleepy child, she rubbed her eyes with both hands and then gave a bleary, pleading look that traveled from him to her pillows and back again. "Right now, love, I need sleep."

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[hellorhighwater]

"Yeah, you do." he murmured, grinning as he kissed her forehead. "C'mon, cutie--lay down, just gonna get my shoes off."

Urging her to lay down, knowing he'd catch hell later (but fuck it, she was goddamn cute when she was doing the wrung out little girl thing), Neil reached down to tug off his shoes, skinning off the t-shirt he'd thrown on over his usual pajamas consisting of gym shorts. Promptly sliding beneath the covers, he reached out to drag her into his arms, curling himself against her back with his arm around her waist to keep her close--making himself a human shield to protect her back while she slept.

"Get some rest, Beloved. I got you, 'kay? Bad luck rears its head again, I got more kisses where that last one came from." he murmured, kissing the back of her head with a deep sigh as he felt himself start to relax back into that place of deep, restful sleep he hadn't known existed until he met her.

Re: 9/23: Regina's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - around midnight

[fondofapples]

Fortunately for him, she'd all but drifted off as soon as her head hit the pillows, so it would've taken far, far too much energy to snark at him for calling her cutie of all things. Besides, if she was totally honest, it was kind of sweet. Annoying, and if he did it in public she'd bite his face off, but in bed when she was this tired, it was sweet.

Instead of complaining, she elbowed him gently in the ribs and then snuggled down into her bed. For good measure, she drew his hand up to her mouth to kiss it, then tucked it beneath her cheek. She wasn't usually one to want holding in her sleep, but tonight, she'd take it, his heat would soothe stiff and sore muscles from twisting and falling. And his presence, his nearness, would ward her dreams.