🔥🐉

HEY Y’ALL, I’M HERE. I LIVE.

Antonio: Stefan?

Stefan: *blushes* Yes?

Details are irrelevant in moments like these; Salome does not abandon. Once an attachment is made, whomever it is to will find themselves tethered to her like the autumnal gales that Salome so instinctually chases year in and year out, simply to feel their chill upon her angular features. For there are some things that you cannot change about people, and though she wears her pride like a knife just under her sleeve, so does she too wear her loyalty. And that will never be altered.

Salome has spent too much of her time fighting to be free, and knowing the bitter pang of what that has wrought, to leave those who give their love willingly. But Nina is wise from her many years of life – and the flight response is palpable in every inch of taut muscle beneath the mortician’s hands – and working against that, too, takes a deep well of courage. Nor does it go unnoticed, because how could it?

So when she doesn’t reciprocate her nigh kiss, Salome doesn’t push. 

In fact, when the tears prick at her companion’s eyes instead, she quickly drops her hands to Nina’s petite shoulders and rubs small circles with her thumbs. Her ability to sooth has always been rubbish, if she’s honest about it anyway, but it won’t stop her from trying.

God, she’s the worst. Why does she always do this; push every boundary to mere millimeters of shattering? Her forehead resting against the smaller’s as a ragged sigh breaks from her lungs.

How can Nina think she’d ever leave?

“Are y'a Nazi?” she muses absently, with a tone that seems more listless than she intends. Fingers carding through her lover’s hair, pushing it behind an ear. “Because unless y'have killed millions of my people, I don’t see any reason t'be scared of you, Nina. Y'forget that I happen t'come from t'most despised group of people on t'planet, it’s not exactly in my nature t'hate anyone.”

[ this isn’t something she often tells people, not unless she’s trying to make a joke; but this isn’t the time for jokes. salome is serious and nina is terrified of what salome might do when she finds out. people weren’t dragons, that’s what humans believed. dragons were fictional, dragons were just stories made up to scare children and to make fairy tales interesting. they were villains and dangerous and monsters. ]

[ nobody stayed with the dragon. nobody loved the dragon. ]

[ salome’s hands drop onto her shoulder, rubbing comforting circles, and nina chokes on a whimpered sob. she reaches a hand up to her face, wipes hot tears out of her golden eyes. the taller drops her forehead against nina’s, and the dragon’s fingers absently stroke over salome’s cheek softly. ]

“listen, i know i’m awesome, but it is crucial to me that you understand this: you’re awesome, too. not as awesome as i am, but you are pretty cool.”

@dragonbitvh / sc.

   “Have you ever tried biting a whateverthehellIam? It’s hard to say for sure you wouldn’t be mildly toxic. That’s just science, Neen.” God, she was a lightweight. It wasn’t even that she’d taken a proper toke; this was second-hand of the worst degree. Pre-infernality Ms. Cross was as straight-edged as the driven snow, to mix metaphors. No weed, no fancy drugs, hardly even booze. Shots of emotional energy, of pure, unrefined soul went straight to the gut; as such, anything influencing them hit Riley hard. That was how she’d explain it to herself later, at least.

   Had Riley been laying her head in Nina’s lap for a while? It seemed madness that she wouldn’t have been. Such a comfy lap. Soft. With most thoughts of providing that moan gone, she nuzzled her face against Nina’s torso.  “How come since you’re made’a scales, your thighs are so squish?”

[ nina’s brows crease. ] ❛ well no.  bu’ i don’t have venom or nothin’.  they’re jus’ for show.  and bitin’, for attackin’ or ... otherwise things.  they’re about as dangerous as shark teeth, no venom, jus’ pointy, an’ y’know there’s a lo’ less o’ them, jus’ two, not like a whole mouth full’a‘em. ❜ [ albeit, it was too bad that there wasn’t any poison behind it. could have been useful. instead they were just sharp and she cut her tongue open on them too many times from not paying attention. ]

   Boy. So excited to pipe up with her skills. Endearing, but a little sad. Somehow, Riley got the feeling that Nina didn’t have too many opportunities to be herself. Hard to say if it was the charm that even broke through that barrier. “I’ll put’y’ on speed dial, then. Hey, just hold on one second, whats-yer-name, I need to call my hoarder friend to make sure this rope-bondage thing you’re into so bad isn’t going to cut off blood circulation. That’s eroticism, right there.” Maybe it’s the altered state taking the edge off her charm, but Riley shook her head a touch at Nina’s teeth thing.

   “See, but I’m not convinced that you can’t inject venom with those suckers. Tell y’what, I’ll warm up some tofu for you to gnaw on. Wrap some leather around it, too. Just let me know when you’re gonna do it, and I’ll ready up the most libidinous moan you could ever hear. Like chocolate for the ears.”

[ nina just grins brightly. ] ❛ well i mean, it’d certainly be excitin’, right? and i’d be happy to help. never actually seen what’chu do. i mean, i know the basics, but i’m no’ sure what t’ expect if i walked into such a thin’. ❜ [ it’d been a long time. she didn’t exactly ‘get down an dirty’ with just anyone. sure, she had a lot of affection to give, but she was far to worried about people finding out and being scared of her whole dragon thing, so it wasn’t easy to find a lot of partners. ]

“Oh, okay. Sorry.” He feels kind of silly for making the assumption. “I was just gonna tell you something funny that happened to my friend. It’s kind of a weird story, I guess, but I think it’s funny.”