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_rummer]

Coby had been thinking about Corbie when he said it, not himself. He had Curnen, and getting to know her all over again. And he was making friends here. Even Kash, grower of mighty herb and needing to imbibe, hung out with him on the regular in need of chill. It was all good.

He turned his head to kiss her fingers. "You don't have to be on your own. I know it doesn't help with the people you miss, but it's not nothing."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie smiled faintly and took her hand back. "Thank you." She hesitated a moment before adding softer, "I'm trying."

[st_rummer]

"That's all we can do." Coby tucked her closer to him.

"You listened to me going on about Anael." He'd only touched the surface of what made Anael so amazing, but there was only so much talking about a beloved while in bed with someone else. "What about you? Would it help, talking about the special ones you miss?" There had to be some, just from what Coby'd seen of Corbie already. She'd be the type to love quickly and deeply - family, friends, lovers. It was why he was sure Anael would like her so much.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Well, there ain't a guy, if that's what you mean," Corbie murmured, her lips quirking in a tiny smile. Not while she was in school, not those boys. Not that a couple of them hadn't tried, and she'd fucked a couple of them, but even so. "Or a girl," she added on, just to be clear. She wasn't into women that way.

[st_rummer]

"That's a shame. Unless you were too head in your books studying magic to bother with guys." Corbie was adorable, not to mention talented and enthusiastic in bed. Coby could see himself growing very fond of her in no time.

"But we all can miss people who aren't groin-buddies. My parents should be a few hours by car..." he propped himself up on an elbow, thought for a moment, and pointed, "That way. If we weren't cut off from them."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie's face softened into an expression of sympathy. "Never knew my parents," she admitted quietly. "No clue if they're dead or not, just by the time I remember anything, it was me and my grandmother. But..." she squirmed. "I miss my teacher. And his brother. And Julian." She bit her lip. If she started listing names, she'd go on for a while yet.

[st_rummer]

Coby kissed her shoulder softly, and stroked a hand over her golden curls. "You don't have to talk about them if it makes it harder. But when it helps to remember and share them with someone else, if it does, I've got shoulders to cry on and wings to cocoon in."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"I..." And that should be the last thing to make someone cry, but Corbie felt tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. She could bear hardship well enough alone, she'd had to, but she hated it Some people were meant to be islands, solitary, contained, cat-like. Corbie was precisely the opposite of that. She rooted herself in others, in belonging to other people even if it was only a little.

Even so, she felt damn stupid crying right now. Just because she knew what she wanted didn't mean asking for it was ever easy.

[st_rummer]

He wouldn't have said if if he hadn't meant it, and when he saw the shimmer in Corbie's eyes, Coby tucked her closer and shifted his wing so they were cocooned snugly. As kinked as he was for Anael's wings, he'd found comfort in their closeness, their ability to shut everything else out, and now he could give that to Corbie. He didn't try to shush her, or tell her everything was okay. He held her and kissed the top of her head, and tried to show she wasn't alone.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie snuggled close and let herself cry softly, even though she didn't rightly know what she was crying about. It just felt really good to let herself do it and not be alone while she did.

She didn't last very long. "... Thank you," she murmured. "I'm not sure where that came from."

[st_rummer]

Coby gave her a squeeze. "Yeah, I mean it's not like being here any of us have reason to need to let it out eventually, or anything.

"Feeling okay now?"

[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."