Whenever life was going well for Wren, something skittered under the rug he was walking on to trip him. It changed on any given week. Last week, everyone had collectively stopped talking to him for so long that he'd thought they didn't want him around anymore. When he'd confronted Tala about it, demanding that he be told what he'd done to push people away, the man hadn't even known about it. After some confusing arguments between Tala and Shan, Wren was informed that Tala had been snapping at anyone who got near him, so they'd just chosen to distance themselves.

Since Wren had returned, Tala had gotten exponentially closer. A little too close, Wren felt at times. Everywhere he went, Tala was just there. Wren used to go to the kitchens to work alone with the nomads, but Tala asserted himself into them. Worse, Tala started asking about food, cooking and such, things vampires neither did nor needed to do as they didn't eat solid food. The nomads were as confused as Wren, but Rin glued herself to Tala's side the moment her leader asked something of her, getting really excited to share with him.

Wren got jealous.

Like an idiot.

Part of him wanted to pry them apart, and not for the reasons a normal person might think. Rin touched Tala, and Wren had immediately wanted to pluck her fingers off him. Somewhere along the line he'd gotten possessive of Tala. At least he had years of grand mage and infiltrator training to keep his cool under pressure.

Or people would stop talking to Tala too.

They were a pair.

Today was one of those days where someone had pulled the rug completely out from under him, and as he headed to bed, he noticed Tala's eyes lingering on him like he was a lingerie model. Wren blushed as Talamayas crawled the lines of his shoulders as he disrobed, and it drove Wren to pull the undershirt back up. It wasn't like they slept in the nude; Wren just changed out his undershirt to sleep. Did Tala want to see him naked? There was certainly something possessive about Tala's treatment of him, but Wren wouldn't even know how to ask if the man was interested in such things. Any time Wren had mentioned Tala doing anything rated higher than PG, he'd nearly crushed his throat.

"Wren," Talamayas called to him when he noticed Wren was avoiding him as best as he could in their tiny storeroom. There was an inquisitive look in Tala's eyes, and Wren wasn't sure where this was going. Talamayas was usually straightforward, but he'd been a little strange lately.

"What's up?" Wren asked, deciding to remove his under shirt before this got any weirder. It needed to be washed after the hot day out in the sands.

Tala trailed over and sat on his side of the bed, pulling up his feet to sit cross-legged. For a minute, Tala fidgeted, looking away from him as if searching for words, and then ran his hand over his hair in frustration when he seemed to not find the ones he wanted.

What in the world was he thinking about? It was painful to watch Talamayas think sometimes, since the man never did much of it. Torture was straightforward and never begged question, and Tala stuck his foot in his mouth more than he thought about his own words.

"How do you like to be touched?" Tala finally asked, and Wren reddened before leaning away from him. Was that why he'd been ogling him? A frown crawled Tala's features, and Wren hissed in breath through his teeth.

"Touched how?" Wren asked, unsure of where this was going.

"Intimately. What else would I ask about?" Tala's frustration showed in his creased brow and how tightly he crossed his arms across his chest, as if he needed them locked up to have this conversation. "I don't know how to be... affectionate. With how I am, I've never had the desire to spend any time with women in ways that normal men might. I was just wondering if you might explain how that sort of thing works."

It sounded so practical coming from Tala's lips, like something that could be mapped out, and Wren wasn't even sure why Tala was considering such things.

"Why are you asking me?" Wren asked, trying to prod the intentions out of the question. Did the man want to touch him that way?

"You're the person I'm closest with. I don't trust anyone else with my... inadequacies. Is it not something you can answer?" Tala's frustration sank to a look of defeat, and Wren sighed. Tala hadn't been forthcoming at all, but it was just too much to see the proud man downtrodden.

"Tala, affection and intimacy aren't exactly something you explain. When you're intimate with someone for the first time, it's more about exploring your feelings. No one tells humans how to touch and feel. They learn from experience, by touching and seeing what the other person likes. Do you understand?"

"The words, yes. Application, not so much." Tala groaned as he flopped back on a pillow and dimmed the lights in the room.

Wren was hesitant to join him for sleep, but there wasn't really another option. In the course of explaining, he'd also failed to get a new under shirt. It left him bare on the bed as he covered himself with the thin sheet they used as a blanket in the warmer nights.

Sitting there with Tala an arms width away thinking about strange things was nerve racking. Wren would say it was almost more comfortable when Tala slid his arms around him from behind and snuggled up against his back in the dark. That was normal. Tala's cool skin warmed against Wren's until they were comfortable, and just as Wren was slipping off, Tala moved.

It was nothing more than his fingers, trailing a slow line down from Wren's shoulders to his elbow, and Wren's breath came quicker. Tala didn't stop, running his fingers down to the end of Wren's arm to match his fingers with his before sliding off and pressing his hand to Wren's chest. There, Tala tucked his hand into his abdomen like he usually did when they slept, but he stretched his grip to see how much space his hand took up on Wren's stomach before lifting it. The feel of Tala fingertips crawling over every scar that marred him hitched Wren's breath, and Tala stopped.

"Does this bother you?" Tala asked into his neck, the words breathing steam onto the skin of his shoulder.

"N-no," Wren said. "It's just... different."

Wren gripped the sheets more tightly as Tala kept going, lifting his hand up to graze his pectoral muscle, before his palm found Wren's throat. Wren choked out of nervousness as Tala's fingers wrapped it like they had so many times before in the dungeons, but he merely rubbed his finger down the dip in his throat and climbed back up to cradle Wren's chin.

They were so warm, Tala's hands on him, but also gentle, something Wren had never seen him display. As Tala ran his hand up Wren's face and smoothed his palm over his cheek, resting it there in comfort, tears gathered in Wren's eyes that had Tala freezing in an instant. A growl rolled out of Tala's lips, more steam escaping his lips in a haze like it did when Tala was frustrated, but Wren couldn't bring himself to look at him. Instead, he raised his hand and touched Tala's, calming him at least enough to silence the aggression.

"You said it was okay to touch you," Tala rasped, clearly on the edge of snapping at him again.

"It is," Wren said as he tried to gather his thoughts for words that this man would understand. It wasn't what Tala thought, but how was he to explain it to a man who barely understood affection? Tala knew emotional pain from his mother's loss, but he likely wouldn't understand the racing feelings in Wren's own mind.

No one had touched him in decades, not like that, maybe not ever.

Every time Tala's fingers had grazed him prior it had been in pain, perhaps possessiveness as they got closer, and on occasion he'd slung an arm around him and pulled him closer. All of that though, it had been normal, rougher, friendly albeit, but not like this. It was something else to feel Tala's timorous, hesitant touch as he explored him, to know that Tala had it in him and wanted to learn how to be that way. What he the driving force for that? The one changing Tala to desire such things?

"If you don't want this, I will stop, Wren," Tala said when Wren hadn't come up with anything. "Just don't lie to me."

"Tala, I'm not lying," Wren sighed into the blankets.

"You're upset," Tala said stiffly.

"Yes," Wren ran a hand up his face. "I'm not used to touch like this. That is not to say I dislike it or that I'm frightened, Tala. I just don't know if I like it."

Tala growled again, frustration strengthening the dark magic pressed to Wren's skin. "I don't understand."

"That makes two of us." Wren chuckled, and Tala pressed his forehead to the back of Wren's neck. The man was at a loss for words as much as Wren was. "You can touch me, Tala. Not all tears are sadness. I was overwhelmed more than anything. It is strange being caressed after all of these years, especially by you."

"Do you not want my touch?" Tala asked with an emotion that was hard to read. It was brittle, like if Wren pushed him away now, Tala would never come back. This was important to Tala, and he seemed frightened of rejection.

"I haven't had the leisure to want anything for quite some time," Wren said, but he glided his hand over to find Tala's where it had idled behind his back. "I can see wanting something if it's you."

Tala's hands came around him, one snaking under his body and wrapping him like an anaconda, both nearly crushing Wren against his chest from behind. "Tell me those words aren't a lie." Tala begged into his neck, his lengthened fangs treading the side. "Tell me it's okay to want this without guilt. Every time I've touched you since that first time in the dungeons, I've wondered if I wasn't warped and forcing my compulsions on you."

"I still don't know why you want me, but I am okay with it, Tala," Wren whispered into the darkness, wrapped in the last pair of arms he ever expected to desire him. He still killed Tala's mother nearly every night he slept, and Tala wanted him.

"I suppose that is something I can't explain to you, as you have trouble with this," Tala breathed into the back of his neck as he left his pulse to speak. "You... hold power over me in a way no other has ever come close. I can't explain why or where it came from. I didn't expect you to not hate me, and once I realized that, I guess I got lost in trying to dissect you for meaning. In the process, you burrowed under my skin and got inside of me. You're so deeply ingrained that I can no longer live without you."

"That sounds like I'm a parasite." Wren cringed on the image, and Tala's chuckle shook them.

"You are," Tala said it as if that were reassuring. "I want more of you inside of me," Tala whispered into his neck as his fangs pressed on a vein.

"Tala, I know you meant my blood, but you need to know how lewd that sounds."

Wren's words weakened in strength as Tala ran a hand up into his hair and pulled it gently back to tilt his head and bare his neck. It was something else to give into Tala's touch, to allow him to control him, and Wren gave in to it as Tala's free hand travelled down across his stomach and secured him to his body.

Then Tala just stopped–body wrapped around his, fangs at his throat, and with a hand gently massaging his scalp. It drove desperation through Wren that he'd never felt before. For the first time, he wanted Tala to bite him, to mold him into his body and smother him in dark magic and the warmth he'd siphoned from Wren.

"What?" Wren pleaded, but only silence answered. "Please don't stop, Tala. I want this. You have to know that."

That god damn silence.

"I know," Tala whispered into the skin of his neck. "I just wanted to feel it coming off your body, Wren Song." Tala's chuckle made Wren want to punch him, but the feeling was lost as the man's fangs sank into his neck.

A guttural groan escaped Wren that had Tala arching into him as he clutched his face to his hair and drew Wren's essence into his mouth. Their magic mixed in a tangle that took Wren over, and he reached back to wind his hand in Tala's short hair. A growl shook Wren's neck, but the way that Tala brought his other hand up to caress Wren's face showed that it wasn't hostile. They both lost themselves in the moment, and when Tala retracted his fangs, he wasn't sure what was up and down anymore. The only sensation was Tala's tongue licking the holes he'd left behind in a lewd swirl before he turned Wren's face to his.

Tala looked into his eyes, crimson pulsing as he tried to make sure he hadn't upset Wren. Once he did, he smiled awkwardly and pressed his forehead to his with a low purr of affection that he'd never heard from Tala before. It was such a possessive and yet warm gesture of the man's desire for him that tears brimmed on Wren's eyes again. This time, instead of growling, Tala ran his thumb across his cheek to steal them, and then he licked them off his finger.

"Wren Song, I want you to be mine," Tala said with seriousness, his lips dipping near a frown.

"I am yours, Tala. You say it all the time," Wren answered with a small smile. "I'm a bit choiceless with how you'd kill anyone else who got close to me."

"Yes, but I want you to want it, agree to it, and mean it. Is that possible?" Tala ran a nervous hand through his dark hair, and Wren found he liked this side of him. It was honest and also entertaining how terrible he was at such things.

"Very well, Talamayas Sol," Wren said with a small smile, wrapping his hands up around Tala's neck. "I am yours, body and soul, and I'm quite all right with that. There is something charming about your single minded focus on me, and your desire to keep me safe and included in your family. I have no reason to decline you when you ask for it so earnestly, Tala."

"You mean that?" Tala asked as if hearing it once wasn't enough.

"Yes. If that is what you want, I–"

The door to their room slammed open and Shan stepped in without even so much as a hello. Tala yanked the covers up and covered Wren even though the only thing bare was his chest, and Shan had seen that a hundred times in the baths. Tala pulled his lips back for a snarl, but it froze as he saw his general's serious expression.

"What is it?" Tala asked, standing immediately.

"The council, Talamayas. They are here." Shan's dark eyes showed how upset he was with their visit, and even Wren knew that the vampire council was bad news when they decided to do house calls.

"Dammit..." Tala moved to the wardrobe and had Wren dressed in a high collared sleeveless top of his people in record time, and Wren blushed from the care the man put into buttoning the loops and brushing his long red hair back from in front of his face.

"The vampire council wants something?" Wren asked.

Shan looked to him, glanced at Tala as he stood and helped Wren to his feet, and then refocused on him with a strange dip in his eyebrows. "Yes."

Wren frowned when the man did not say more as to what.

"It's about you," Tala said with a deep-set frown, dressed as formally as one could get without a shirt on. Even the vampire council couldn't shake him from his long white pants that flared and bunched at his feet, and nothing else but Tala's tattoos on his chest, a sun and claw marks in red ink. "Your presence will no doubt be required, but don't speak or do anything unless I give you permission."

"I've caused you trouble?" Wren asked, worry sinking in. All this time, Wren had thought he would end up dead after all was said and done, but he'd never imagined Tala might suffer defending him. "This is this about my fighting your kind?"

"You'll find out in a moment. There is no need for me to repeat it. Come." Tala extended his hand out to him, and Wren accepted it with a further blush as Shan watched them. It was uncanny for Shan to be quiet, and that further banged the nail in the coffin on this situation.

If he had to die after all, so be it.

Just please don't let them hurt Tala.

Word Count: 2946