for Corbie

[st_rummer]

Curnen's bawdy song followed them for a way, but faded from their hearing well before they reached Coby's room. The sign on the door said Tall & Short and after using his key, Coby stood to one side so Corbie could enter first. "Barbie Dream House pink, circa, I don't know, 1990-something." The room was, as he'd hinted, floor to ceiling pink, with only small amounts of cream or gold to keep it from being completely monochrome.

Comments

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Better," Corbie allowed. "But..." she chewed her lip as she considered how to put this. "I wish it'd stop hurting. But I'm scared that if it does, it'll be 'cause I'll start forgetting."

[st_rummer]

"Nah." Coby shook his head briefly against the pillow. "That's why you remember them with people. It won't hurt as much, but you'll still keep them close."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"My teacher had to be saved from a mugging by tiny hookers," Corbie blurted. It was not her first memory of Felix, but it was the moment that he'd really entered her life.

Also, it was funny.

[st_rummer]

That got a laugh, but only a short one, followed by a sincere, "Well yeah. Tiny hookers are fierce. They have to be."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"We do," Corbie agreed, like she hadn't just admitted something about herself by saying that.

But before it might have a chance to become a Thing, she just told the story. How Felix and she had met the night before and she'd directed him to a cheaper hotel thinking they'd never see each other again. But then that day he'd gotten his stupid self lost because he could get lost in a teacup. And because he went about dressed like a carny barker in a city where everyone wore neutrals some idiot two-bit gangster by the name of Sunny Pingree decided to try his luck and so there's Felix pinned to a wall when he's got more than enough manage to handle himself and he's half a head taller than all of them. But no, it took the interference of half a dozen tiny women threatening to jack up their prices so high that none of those boys would ever get fucked again if they harmed a hair on Felix's head. And then Corbie'd had to walk him home.

She exaggerated of course. How pathetic Felix had been, how fierce Emily had been--except Emily was actually pretty scary when she wanted to be--and by the time she was finished she was giggling uncontrollably as she remembered the dumbfounded look on Felix's face.

[st_rummer]

Coby caught the admission, but was way more interested in the tale that followed. By the end he was laughing along with her. "So you're a good samaritan as well as a wizard, huh?"

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Mmm, yes and no," Corbie admitted with a shrug. "I offered my services as a local guide in exchange for magic lessons. We were both desperate enough it worked."

[st_rummer]

"And by local guide, I'm guessing you mean you kept him from wandering into too much trouble. Magic lessons sounds like a fair trade."

There was something teasing at the back of his mind since Corbie was telling her story, but it was just a vague feeling. Whatever it was, though, either it would come to him later or it wouldn't. Trying to track down those thoughts never worked, or they dragged up other shit too, so Coby didn't try.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie grinned. "Basically. That's why Mildmay supported it anyway." Poor Mildmay, who had been too sick even to sit up let alone trail Felix around the city.

[st_rummer]

"Mildmay?" Coby snuggled closer. "Don't take this the wrong way, but there are some strange names in your world. Mildmay... I've only ever heard of Corbie from a song, and you're a drop of sunshine compared to that."

He considered a moment some of the other names she'd mentioned. "I did meet a Felix once. Green velvet trousers and all."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie smiled. "Technically it's short for Mild-may-your-sufferings-be-at-the-hands-of-the-wicked. His momma was in a cult or something."

And... yeah, green velvet trousers was exactly the kind of nonsense Felix would wear. "Must be something about that name."

[st_rummer]

Coby laughed, and then, "I shouldn't laugh. I could have been Moonbeam or Sweetgrass or something. Hippie parents." Nothing but fondness in his tone. He'd lucked out having parents like Beth and Lin, and he knew it.

"Something about what name, Felix? I don't know, you'd remember him if you ever met. Flame red hair, tattoos, the whole thing."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Already giggling at the idea of anybody named Moonbeam, Corbie started laughing openly. "Were his eyes fucked up, too?"

[st_rummer]

He hadn't really thought about the guy from Fin's party for awhile. It'd been... Christmas before last, maybe? Yeah, had to have been, because he was confused by the surfers on Coby's ugly sweater. So it took a moment for Corbie's question to click, given Coby wasn't known for the clearest of memories.

"Now you ask, yeah, one blue, one gold. Like even his eyes had to be more colors."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie went completely silent and still, suddenly reeling. It was absolutely fucking impossible, and yet-- "Felix... Harrowgate?"

[st_rummer]

She froze, and Coby wondered what he'd said that upset her. Then... But... How?

"Yeah. But... Fuck. Timey-wimey shit is confusing."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie started laughing again, a sound that had no real amusement or joy it in so much as 'well, fuck me.' The kind of laughing you did because if you didn't laugh you were going to start crying, and she'd already cried and she was not going to do that again.

[st_rummer]

Coby didn't have any idea how he could have met the guy who taught her magic, when they were from such very different worlds. But right then, with that brittle, edged laugh all that was keeping Corbie together, how didn't matter. He held her, his wing still cutting off the rest of the world, and let her work through what he could only imagine was some very fucked up not knowing how to feel.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie laughed in a way that sounded very like sobbing and then sobbed in a way that sounded very like laughing, her feelings tumbling over each other so fast that nothing came out on top and stayed there.

So she just held on tight as she tried to ride it out, but it wouldn't stop. It didn't exactly hurt, but it didn't feel good either.

Ultimately, she just swallowed the noise down and kissed Coby, trying to anchor herself in something much less confusing.

[st_rummer]

Kissing worked. Coby kissed back with a banked heat intensity that let her focus on nothing else if that was what she needed, one hand cupping her cheek, while his other arm held her close. And inside he cussed out once again who or whatever had brought them here, and the strange connections they found.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie sighed into the kiss, almost the softest moan. "Please," she whispered when she pulled back. "Please, I don't want to think about it anymore."

[st_rummer]

That was something Coby could help with, and gladly. He rolled over her, propped up on one arm leaving the other free to roam her body as he kissed her again deeply. Filling her senses with touch and taste and sound of pleasure, so there was no room left for thinking.