Work Text
Kiwi gently shut the door behind him before leaning against it, holding his hand out to K'thriss. The warlock mirrored the gesture and reached to touch, to explore, as per request of both mother and son. At his chest, the Lizard King quivered, more eager perhaps than K'thriss himself was.Ligotti, increasingly willing to get into the spirit of things, snaked up the length of his arm and flung itself forward to bridge the gap between K'thriss and Kiwi. Kiwi flinched at its touch, meeting eyes with K'thriss briefly as if trying to gauge the familiar's purpose from its master's bearing. K'thriss gave a tiny shrug. Ligotti's recent behavior was one of many small mysteries in the warlock's life, no more comprehensible than a jar of eyeballs, a girl imprisoned in a locket, or half of the salvaged and possibly mystical attachments they'd acquired for their cart. The tension in Kiwi's face faded and he peered at the tentacle with an uncertain fascination.Alas, while the spirit was willing, the approach was ill-advised. Ligotti writhed from one arm to the next, dagger still clutched in its coils. Kiwi hissed as the blade parted cloth and drew a thin cut down his arm, instinctively jerking away to dislodge the tentacle. Flung against the wall, it hit with a dull, meaty weight and dropped in a tangle to the floor."Ligotti?" K'thriss inquired, a hint of concern and admonishment in his tone. The twisted appendage peered out between loops of dark flesh, shamefaced. As much as anything without a face and far too many eyes could be shamefaced, that is. Satisfied that no damage had been done to his familiar, K'thriss turned his attention to Kiwi's arm."Are you hurt, Friend?"Kiwi grimaced. "Nah. Startled me is all. It's just a scratch.""I apologize. Ligotti has grown very…attached to that dagger." He cast a mild look of disapproval at his squirming familiar. He was hardly one to quibble over odd attachments, but considering how much trouble Ligotti's brandishing had caused lately, it seemed appropriate to at least make an effort at discipline. The tentacle quivered at the disappointment of its master, yet clutched at the blade with even more vigor.Kiwi inspected his arm, which sported a long line of red, the torn cloth of his shirt hanging limply to either side. "Don't worry about it. I've gotten worse from angry cats."K'thriss nodded. His experience with cats had been limited to primarily the gargantuan variety, so perhaps his frame of reference regarding the wounds such beasts could inflict was slightly skewed. He drew closer to examine the ruined sleeve, gently pulling the pieces together as he murmured a quick Mending spell.The threads knitted neatly, a simple task compared to weaving the shards of a broken world into a new whole. Pieces, parts, all disconnected. If only it were that easy for everything. In many ways, that's what he was. Shattered pieces. Arcane spells, cavern ceilings, the smell of caves, these things he knew with such clarity, and yet there were fragments of himself missing. Torn away by the careless and callous hand of Omin Dran. How many years of knowledge were gone? How much progress lost?"K'thriss?"He looked up, grim thoughts fading as he hastily met Kiwi's eyes, vaguely embarrassed at his lack of focus. His thumbs moved in soft circles on the repaired cloth, as though seeking untended tears. Kiwi deftly captured his hand, entwining their fingers like the threads mended moments before."You seem very far away. Nervous?"K'thriss chuckled weakly. "I've never done this…that I know of, at least.""It seems like something a person would remember," Kiwi said wryly."You'd think that, wouldn't you?" A note of sarcasm. A flash of bitterness. Of bile.Kiwi caressed his cheek. K'thriss made an effort to soften his expression. Their faces grew close."I hope what we do together will be very memorable," Kiwi said lowly. "Will you allow me a kiss?"K'thriss leaned forward in assent. It was a meeting of mouths. An exchange of wetness and disparate tastes. A click of teeth. A collision of noses and awkward angles to match up parts that did not fit.Kiwi laughed softly. "You weren't joking about being new at this." He sobered. "Was that…your first kiss?"K'thriss thought a moment. "Perhaps? Why? Is that…important?"Kiwi seemed quizzical a moment. K'thriss could not tell if it was his question, or himself, that was so puzzling. "Well…Some think so. I suppose new experiences are all important in their own way.""That's fair." Perhaps that was the true purpose of this interaction. A chance for novel discoveries of a more intimate nature. Such an approach appealed to K'thriss' inquisitive mind. Emboldened, he asked, "What else shall we explore?" He was starting to feel a little giddy, tantalized by the thought of new memories to fill in the gaps of lost ones. Kiwi's face took on a mischievous cast, a warm glow of color spreading across scarred, pale blue cheeks. He wetted his lips, considering."I can think of a few places to start."The Lizard King twitched against K'thriss' skin, and though it was hard to say for certain, K'thriss felt sure it had exclaimed, Finally! ******
It had been a meshing of pieces not built for such tasks. An absurd repurposing of body parts that somehow were applied to activities contrary to their usual applications. A meeting of limbs. It was laughable and ridiculous and awkward. There was grunting and sweat and wetness. Tastes of salt and bitterness. Pressure and parting. Expulsion of breath and of liquid. Overwhelming sensations, overflowing, a haphazard loss of control without clear purpose.The result being a humid room, sticky skin, and stained cloth.K'thriss did not know if it had been what Kiwi had hoped for. For himself, he had no frame of reference to judge. For a moment, there had been…a sense of fullness? Or perhaps a sudden emptiness. Either way, it had been fleeting, and now he was left feeling filthy and vaguely disappointed. Or disappointing. Much like his experience with that drink -- the alcohol -- a brief euphoria that made his disgust with this shallow shell of meat and weakness all the greater after.There was a barrier here. A boundary he could not cross. A hole in his chest ever seeking some connection, some link, but never finding it. He had tried before. Kept trying. Yet for all his reaching out, it seemed the only friends he could truly trust were the ones he crafted…or the ones he wore. Omin and Davine had already betrayed him, twisted his extended hand of friendship against him. Around his neck, the choker weighed heavily, a token of how far his companions extended their faith in his judgement. The sting of Walnut's scorn as she shared her people's Greatest Secret still hung in his mind.All his pieces spilled out for display, giving all, yet receiving nothing.There was an emptiness that lived here. Was that why he sought The Ur? To find a being greater than himself and become part of something lasting? Or did the hollow spaces within his heart simply wish to join a larger void? Was his aim for knowledge, or dissolution? The being he served was like the ceiling of a grand and monstrous cavern, shrouded in darkness, so far beyond reach that no ray of light could find it. Only the tips of jagged stalactites hanging low enough to be perceived hinted that it was there.The space between.He was hungry to subsume himself there, driven to be devoured by a loneliness so vast that it could consume itself, and leave behind no fragments to mourn or despair.K'thriss chanced a glance at Kiwi, lying next to him on rumpled sheets. Spent, staring at the ceiling, his expression empty. This healer of lost and ghostly children. This maker of weapons who wished to mend broken hearts. Did he feel satisfied with their exchange? Or was this yet another shattered trust? A shout into an empty cave that gave no echo."Friend?" K'thriss asked, his voice a hesitant whisper. A fragile question, repeated back and back and back through every remaining shard of his piecemeal memory. Kiwi's eyes flickered in his direction. A strained smile."Of course. Friends."Relief. A brief respite. Yes. Of course. Still friends. Still that. K'thriss closed his eyes, falling into the deep meditation of his race.It wasn't enough to keep the pieces together, but it was the best he had.