(Tamsin jumped Dyson once to help him forget Bo for a little bit. Dyson doesn't intend for things to go that far but he wants to help his partner who is hurting after her break-up with the succubus. But things have a habit of getting out of hand. Takes place after Tamsin leaves Bo after the break-up scene in 5X7. Tamsin/Dyson.)
(Note: I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Valkubus shipper but7 at the same time it's obviously not going that way. I don't see Dyson and Tamsin as any kind of long-term lovers but they have grown to respect and like each other as partners and they do share the same heartbreak.)
He walked quietly into the Dal, his eyes searching the room. Anyone else would have had to let their vision grow accustomed to the dim room after the bright sunshine but his wolf eyes did that instantly. He had spotted his quarry immediately; he just wanted to know if anyone else besides her was there. There wasn't.
She was sitting on the first stool, her gaze looking off into nothingness. He knew what she was seeing. Had he not sat right there and looked at the same vision in his own mind's eye?
She gave no sign that she had seen him but he knew she would have been aware of his presence the instant he came through the door. He walked up to the bar and leaned on it as she tossed off the shot glass full of dark smoky liquid and refilled it from the bottle in front of her.
"Hey partner."
"Hey yourself." She pushed another shot glass over in front of him and filled it. "Wondered when you'd be here."
He picked up on her choice of words. "When" not "if". Well, he WAS her partner. Dark Fae and Light Fae had nothing to do with it anymore. Not when it came to that. She knew he'd find her and she had been waiting on him. He picked up his glass, tipped it to his lips and let the liquor flow down his throat.
And then he dropped the shot glass on the bar, grabbed his throat and started coughing.
"Good God Tamsin what the hell is this?"
"Good isn't it?" The Valkyrie said as she righted his glass and topped it off again.
"It tastes like something scraped off moldy hides that had been piled out in the sun for a year or two."
"Yep, that was what I was going for." She tossed off another drink. "Ahhhh. Perfect. I asked for something with a lot of kick that no one else ever dared drink."
Dyson shrugged and drank his. The second tine around it wasn't nearly as bad. It was still bad though. Not like the Irish whiskey he had shared with her that night it had been his turn to get wasted. He mentioned that.
"That's not fair to bring that up," she objected. This time she looked at him. "So are you going to hop on my stool with me now that you've brought it up?"
"No," he replied simply.
"Why not? I did it for you."
"Yes you did. And it was what I needed but I don't think it's what right for you now."
"How would you know?" the Dark Fae woman demanded. Almost immediately she changed her tone and the subject. "Do you remember that other time when you said you hadn't felt that alone in centuries and that it felt good?" He nodded and she went on. "Did you mean it? Did it feel good to be alone?"
"No. The only thing that felt good was the alcohol."
"The only thing?"
"Well up till that moment," he smiled. He tipped his glass towards her in salute, half seriously half in fun and sipped it. Bad idea. He swallowed the rest. If you drank it in a hurry it was better.
"But you're not going to take me to bed?"
"Yes I will. But not like you're thinking. You need to sleep it off. Come on I'll take you home." He winced as he remembered where she had been living.
"Yeah."
"Sorry." He stood up and gently took her arm. "You can sleep it off at my place."
"Why this is so sudden Dyson." Tamsin staggered and tried a flirtatious smile that came out more as a leer.
"Come on partner."
"Okay but I'm bringing the bottle. I paid for it. I think."
"Suit yourself." Dyson made a mental note to check with Trick about that in the next day or so.
Somehow they made it to his apartment. Not that Tamsin was that falling down drunk, in fact she seemed to be sobering up much quicker than he would have believed. But she kept wandering off towards other people along the way with comments like "Hey he's pretty cute" and "Damn Dyson look at the legs on that woman". He tried to simply steer her back on course. He DID sigh once at about the fourth or fifth time at which she glared at him "You're the one that won't sleep with me. Probably not even if I got on a ledge this time". But they finally made it.
He rummaged through his stuff until he found an oversized tee shirt left by some other female guest and then had to pointedly turn his back as she insisted on getting undressed in front of him. Her sigh was three or four times louder than his had been.
"Spoilsport."
He knew reasoning with her was never going to work so he didn't say anything. He just pointed her to the bed, fortunately with reasonably clean sheets and he headed for the couch. He pried off his boots and settled down, a quickly snatched pillow under his head. Of course, just as he started to doze off there she was. He sat up as she plopped down at the other end.
"Dyson."
"Yes Tamsin." Damn it. She would sit cross-legged and the tee shirt wasn't long enough in that position to hide the fact she had left her underwear somewhere else. He wrenched his attention back to her face. She gave him one of her patented smirks for a moment and then her expression turned to that of a lost girl.
"Dyson it hurts."
"Yes it does." He couldn't help it. She was that forlorn, that lost. He moved down and took her in his arms. She wasn't a Valkyrie at this moment, she was a woman who had fallen in love and found out it wasn't returned. Not like she had hoped for. And he knew just how she felt. He stroked her hair.
"Why? All my lives and I've never been in love before. And it felt so good and now it feels so bad. And it's all her."
"I know." He held her tight and squeezed. She lifted her face to his and their eyes met. She kissed him.
"Tamsin." He tried. She was his friend and his partner and she was vulnerable. But his body was responding even as he tried to find something to say to defuse the situation.
"Stop thinking," she whispered just as she had that other time. "You're always thinking."
He wasn't thinking. His body and her body came together and now he kissed her back. He turned slightly and stretched her out on the couch. Her hands pulled at his shirt, dragging it out of his pants. He tugged the tee shirt up, almost frantically and tossed it to one side, leaving nothing but Tamsin under him. The instant her hands were free again her fingers were at the front of his pants, undoing them. She pushed down and he twisted wildly until he could kick them and his underwear away.
As urgent as his need had become he managed somehow to control himself. He wanted her but even more he wanted this to drive the memories, the heartache, away at least for now. His body urged him to fall on her, to enter her body and spend himself in her right now. He forced that urge down. He kissed her again but this time softer and gentler than the driving ones before. He also slipped his body sideways and held her close but without being mere inches from penetrating her. That would come.
Tamsin wrapped her arms around him. Bracing himself on his elbows he cupped her face and rained countless little kisses over her face before beginning to work down. His memories of the other time they had been together were understandably vague but her breasts were just as lovely as he thought they were. He ran his tongue over one and then the other, beginning at the already hard nipple and the swirling around and around in increasing circles until he had explored every inch of both of them. He dove into the valley between them and pressed them together. Her hands found the back of his neck and played with his hair. Her moans had softened but now were beginning to build again and her body strained up against his.
"Dyson. Now partner."
He entered her as though he was coming home. They moved together, hips circling as he thrust into her. Both of them took their time, allowing each of them to lose themselves in the other. The passion built bit by bit; their gasps and cries urging them on. The build began and took them in its grasp. He knew, she knew, when the time was for them to give in and their coupling became unrestrained as he plunged deeply inside her and she lifted to meet him and fill her need. The wave reached its peak for both of them together and it carried them off to a place where there was no loss, no sorrow, no failure.
When Dyson opened his eyes the room was full of sunshine. He looked around. Sometime during the night they had moved from the couch to the bed and had started over again. He had woke up a time or two but fallen back to sleep each time, reassured by the soft breathing of the sleeping Valkyrie next to him.
She was sitting on the edge of the bed, fully clothed now but close enough she could touch him.
"How are you doing champ?" she asked.
"I think that's my line," he replied.
"Yeah, well I won't say I'm good but I'm better. Now I need to get going. After all, I have to find a place to live."
For a moment he thought of suggesting she stay here but rejected it almost immediately. That wasn't what she needed. As though she could read his mind she nodded.
"Exactly Dyson. I don't need a crutch. Neither did you that time. Just a way for the pain to go away for a few hours with someone who cared enough to be a friend."
"It gets better," he told her.
"God I hope so." But there was a little smirk on her face now and more than a hint of the old Tamsin. She leaned over and kissed him. She rose and headed for the door. Once she reached it she stopped and turned.
"See you at the prescient. Oh and Dyson?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks partner."
(The End)