A DRINK BEFORE BATTLE (MxM)

In a spacious infirmary tent, Yanek very carefully unbuckled Sevei’s maille tunic while a doctor busied himself preparing antiseptics, bandages, and stitching equipment.

“It’s really not that bad,” Sevei complained. “I don’t think he got any organs. If you could just clean me up and slap a bandage on...”

“How about we let the doctor make that call?” Yanek said gruffly, still not pleased that Sevei hadn’t waited for him before getting himself in trouble.”That Lorie may not have killed you, but the General sure tried.”

Sevei remembered the wounds on the dying Loranarian soldier and shuddered, wondering what his own back might look like right now.

“Good job on this maille, then, Yan,” he said appreciatively.

“You said it,” Yanek agreed.

“Don’t blame him, though,” Sevei added. “It was an accident. I told him to cover me, then I got in his way.”

As Yanek began to pull the maille down Sevei’s arms, the tent flap whipped aside and Urskatha flew in, his eyes blazing with fury and... fear? And he still hadn’t managed a shirt. He stormed up to Sevei and Yanek. His eyes were on the maille in Yanek’s hands. He grasped it and ran it between his fingers as the doctor came over to help Sevei remove his tunic.

“This has lead in it,” he stated, clear dissatisfaction in his voice.

“I guess,” Yanek replied. “It blocks ethereal energy, doesn’t it?”

“You can’t wear this,” Urskatha insisted. “Get rid of them. All of them.”

“Now wait a minute,” Yanek protested. “Do you have any idea how expensive these were?”

Urskatha shook his head resolutely. “Long term, it will harm your health, and could eventually kill you,” he explained, pointing to Sevei’s bleeding side. “It’s too weak to stop a weapon, and if the lead gets into your blood, it’ll kill you even faster. Where did you get these? If an Alchemist sold them to you, they should be barred from practicing.”

Sevei exchanged an expression of surprise with Yanek and, holding his side, sat down on the bed behind him. Then a horrific realization dawned. “Do I have lead in my blood now?” he asked.

“Most likely, yes,” Urskatha said grimly. “I can do something about that. You and you-” he glanced between Yanek and the doctor. “Get out.”

With a stalwart, “Yes, Sir,” the doctor immediately obeyed the General’s order, but Yanek wasn’t having it.

“Yan, it’s alright,” Sevei assured him. “I think he’s the expert here.”

After a moment of consideration, Yanek gave a begrudging nod. “I’ll be outside,” he said, eyeing Urskatha skeptically.

“Go get the night watch organized,” Sevei called after him as he made for the exit. “I want triple the guard on camp tonight. And collect all of that maille!”

“Dear Gods, that was so much money!” Yanek shouted as the tent flap closed behind him.

“Think we might get any of it back?” Sevei chuckled.

“It’s a criminal act to sell defective goods to the military, so, maybe,” Urskatha replied. He pulled Sevei up off of the bed. “You need to stand.”

“It seemed to work, though,” Sevei said cheerfully. “I saw the other guy, and I don’t feel that bad off at all.”

Urskatha’s arms snaked around Sevei’s waist, one hand sliding up to pass a light circle over his back. The skin there felt sore, as if it were sunburned, but with no serious injury.

Sevei’s mind blanked with surprise at Urskatha’s sudden proximity, at the sensation of their bare skin sliding together, both still heated and sweating from the fight. His lips fell open silently.

“You’d be better off with a leaded shield,” Urskatha said, his voice low and resonant, “and vigilance when my kind are around.” Then he pulled Sevei snugly against his own body, and one hand moved down his side, coming to rest over the open wound.

Sevei felt his lungs tighten again, his breath hitching as their cheeks brushed. “What are you doing?” he asked, his voice hushed and hoarse.

“Holding you up,” Urskatha said right beside his ear, causing Sevei to shiver. “This won’t be pleasant. You should prepare yourself.”

“Prepare... for what...?”

Then Sevei screamed.

The blast of ethereal energy Urskatha forced into the wound fractured into hundreds of minute, searingly hot corkscrew tendrils, threading their way into Sevei’s veins. They moved fast, flooding throughout his body in an instant. The pain was excruciating.

Sevei’s spine went rigid, and he rose onto the balls of his feet, gripping the other man by the shoulders as he involuntarily arched backward like a bow. Urskatha held him around the waist, preventing him from falling, and kept his hand firmly pressed over the wound as he fed a steady stream of energy into him.

How long this went on, Sevei couldn’t tell. He had lost all sense of where he was, let alone when, or if he even still had any existence. It did stop eventually, and he fell forward onto Urskatha, wrapping him in a tight hold and clinging on desperately. His head dropped heavily onto the man’s shoulder.

“Am I still alive?” Sevei groaned.

“Mm,” Urskatha replied. “For now.”

“Alright. That wasn’t so bad, then.”

“We’re not finished. I just needed a rest.”

Sevei’s mind was a scattered mess, but some faraway part of it knew that didn’t sound good. With great effort, he lifted his head and frowned. “What is this costing you?” he asked, concerned.

Urskatha shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “You might not be if we don’t continue.”

Sevei nodded absently. He was sure he should think more about this, but he couldn’t. “Alright then,” he whispered.

“Ready?”

Once again, the energy tore through him and he was wracked with torment. This time, he clenched his jaw tightly and managed to hold back any screaming, but just barely. At some point, the sharp edge of the pain abated somewhat, and was chased by a glowing warmth that seemed to wrap around him and stroke him soothingly even as the spiraling tendrils continued to harrow his circulatory system. He lost himself in this ebb and flow of affliction and comfort as the warmth moved down his limbs and suffused his core, creeping into his pelvis.

His eyes flew open as he suddenly became hard – harder than he’d ever been in his life. It was not pleasant. His member seemed determined to distend beyond its capability, feeling as if his skin would burst and peel away at any moment. An incomprehensible, raw, animalistic sound erupted from his throat. His head pitched forward, and he caught the muscle of Urskatha’s shoulder between his teeth, digging in hard.

Urskatha grunted into his ear. Sevei drew a sharp breath against his skin and loosened his jaw. He thought he should feel bad about doing that, but he really wanted to do it again – wanted to hear that sound from him again. Instead, he began to suck gently at the spot he’d bitten, the tip of his tongue smoothing over the indentations his teeth had made.

In that moment, any sense he had of any pain inside or of any world outside melted away, and there was only this – the skin under his lips, the taste of sweat on his tongue, the heat of the man holding him close, their hearts pounding together, the harsh labor of their breath. Sevei began to move his lips further up Urskatha’s neck.

“Stop that,” Urskatha growled.

A rebellious flame was lit in Sevei’s aching heart. “If I don’t?” he murmured.

Another burst of energy blazed through his body, twisting sharply through his veins again, and bringing with it an even more unbearable surge of that agonizing arousal. Sevei screamed again, but whether in pain or pleasure, he couldn’t say. Somewhere along the line, this suffering had turned into absolute euphoria.

When Urskatha retracted the energy, Sevei’s arms fell to the sides, hanging there like wet strings. He tried to lift them, but they would not obey his command. His knees buckled, and the arm around him tightened its hold, the only thing now keeping Sevei on his feet. In this posture, his pelvis was pressed firmly against the other man, and he began to squirm. Urskatha sighed.

“We’re almost finished,” he murmured. “Can you take one more?”

Sevei gasped at the provocation in those words, at what they did to his uncooperative body. His head lolled back, and he tried to focus on Urskatha through glazed and delirious eyes.

“I want more,” he said, his voice cracking through his parched throat. “I want you.”

Urskatha gathered him close again, and his breath carried a tinge of laughter.

“Who has time to think about that right now?”

This time, Sevei could do nothing but lean limply against him, unable even to brace himself against the pain. When it came, he welcomed it. He opened himself to it completely, allowed it to fill his lonely heart and have its way with him.

He understood that this infuriatingly magnificent man was firmly ensconced in his heart now, and that... that pain would make this seem like nothing at all.

“Yeresym...” he sighed. “Yeresym... please...”

The flow of energy ceased abruptly.

Urskatha gently lowered Sevei down onto the bed, lifting his feet up to lay him down and guiding his head onto the pillow. He arranged Sevei’s unresponsive arms, folding his hands together over his chest.

“Is it over?” Sevei asked breathlessly. His mind was still swimming, but he was beginning to regain some lucidity.

“You’ll need to rest for at least two hours,” Urskatha answered.

Sevei could turn his head, but nothing else would move at all, and his lower body was still impossibly and painfully inflamed.

“How am I supposed to rest like this?” he groused.

Urskatha patted his hands. “Don’t do anything that might open your wound,” he ordered.

“Anything... wait...” Sevei’s mind suddenly snapped to full clarity.

Urskatha rose and made for the entrance, his boots thumping heavily across the tent’s wooden floor.

“Did you do this to me on purpose?!” Sevei called after him. “You... son of a...”

Urskatha was gone.

Sevei lifted his head, the only thing he could move, and banged it back into the pillow, his face contorting with incredulous, indignant frustration.

“FUCKING ALCHEMISTS!!!”