fic: Testing Links and Limits
Sep. 14th, 2017 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beekeeperofedenSummary: After a series of near-disasters emphasizes the importance of clear communication, Drizzt and Dahlia have a necessary conversation about their relationship and where its limits lie. Pre-OT3 (Dahlia/Drizzt/Entreri)
Wordcount: 2123
Note: The disasters referenced in the summary are the diverging point of this AU. However, they don't actually occur in this fic. This fic is entirely aftermath.
It had been a long, quiet walk back to Baldur's Gate. When they returned to the city an hour before dawn, Drizzt and Dahlia had both passed out, catching up on the sleep they'd avoided during the chase. When they finally woke up to late afternoon sun through the window, they went downstairs.
Everyone else was already there. Afafrenfere had new bruises on his knuckles. Ambergris was pacing and pointedly avoiding any route that would take her close to the monk. Entreri lurked in a far corner and looked like he had rewrapped the handles of all his knives instead of sleeping. Drizzt settled in a chair next to him and spread his chainmail across the table, looking for broken links. He found several before realizing he had no idea where in Baldur's Gate he could get them fixed.
Dahlia sat across from them with a bowl of peppery-smelling soup and slice of bread, and Drizzt's stomach growled. She took a bite of the bread and grinned at him. Drizzt glanced at the growing crowd of people in the room and realized he'd been so distracted he hadn't noticed when the sun had set. By the time he'd cleared his chainmail out of the way, Entreri had left and returned with a drink and two bowls of soup. He set one bowl on the side of the table that was vaguely closer to Drizzt, which Drizzt interpreted to mean that that one was for him.
The soup turned out to have lentils, onions, and goat sausage in it. For a while, there was no conversation.
"You were already gone when I woke up," Drizzt said halfway through his soup. Dahlia had finished hers already and was leaned back in her chair, head like she was trying to pay attention to every conversation in the growing murmur of the crowd.
"Hmm?" she asked, still looking distracted. Drizzt repeated his statement. "Oh. I wasn't really tired."
Entreri snorted in disbelief. Drizzt raised an eyebrow. Dahlia shrugged and eyed a trio of bards walking by and arguing about chords. When they were past, she said "I checked with some of my contacts in the city. I wanted to know if there were any other bounty hunters here."
"There aren't," Entreri said. He smiled ghoulishly. "I made sure. At least," he amended his statement, "there are none working for the Netherese. There are plenty of other bounty hunters, but none we need to worry about."
"Who did you check with?" Dahlia asked, attention fully on the conversation for a brief moment. "Graamos Sheepskinner is reliable when you can get him sober."
"Davneiros, down by the docks. He has some cousins down in Calimshan who owe me a favor."
The conversation turned to various contacts and information brokers and went entirely over Drizzt's head. He ate his soup and let himself bask, for a moment, in the knowledge that he hadn't lost everyone. Not yet.
"What about Zanaramos the Nimble?" Dahlia asked. "He might know--" Entreri shook his head and took a sip from his mug, only to look down in mild surprise when it was empty.
"Died last year." He tapped the edge of his cup and stood up. Dahlia's eyes lingered on him as he walked away, and Drizzt frowned at the sudden feeling of discomfort in his gut. Dahlia glanced at him.
"What is it?" She flashed a grin. "Jealous?"
"What if I am?" Drizzt admitted. She scowled, levity evaporating.
"Then I would remind you that we have no obligations to each other. I've made you no promises."
"That isn't how it works." Drizzt had been on the surface long enough to know the social expectations, he thought. The days of grasping for any thread of understanding he could find were long behind him. But that surety felt elusive and unsturdy, now. Like walking on ice in the spring, there was no way to know how safe his footing was.
"It is for me." Her eyes softened as she realized how much of a loss Drizzt seemed to be at. "I thought you realized. I am not yours to claim. If that's a problem, you need to tell me."
"That is not how it worked with Catti-brie."
Her voice developed an edge to it. "Well, I'm not Catti-brie."
"I know."
They were silent for a moment. Dahlia spoke.
"Is this something you can accept?" Am I something you can accept?
Drizzt looked over to the bar where Entreri was, but Dahlia tugged his gaze back to hers.
"This isn't about him. This is about you and me." Her hands settled softly in his hair. "It could be anyone. For either of us."
Drizzt found he still wanted to look away to where Entreri was standing. Dahlia pulled him back.
"Not. About. Him. Would you feel this threatened if I were interested in a night of fun with the handsome redhead with the ax or that woman with the interesting scars?"
"You don't just want a night of fun with Entreri. The two of you are--" he trailed off, unable to explain. Dahlia sighed.
"He understands things about me that you never will. That won't change if I don't sleep with him." He stiffened, and she ran her fingers along the back of his hand. "You and I have a different kind of connection. You don't know what lives in my nightmares, and that's a good thing. It's part of what I like about you." She kissed him softly.
Drizzt was quiet.
"You told me about that elf woman, Innovindil. Did you love her less after you found out Catti-brie still lived? What would you have done, if they had both survived the war?"
He looked away.
"You don't have to answer now." Dahlia squeezed his hand. "But I need to know eventually."
Drizzt thought about it. Tried to imagine how he would feel. He didn't feel any revulsion or jealousy at the idea of Dahlia having sex with someone else. If it wasn't about sex but emotional connection. . . he shook his head in frustration and confusion. Neither he nor Catti-brie had forsaken their other emotional connections when they married. They still had friends and discussions with them that they could not share with each other. If Innovindil had lived, she surely would have been one of those friends.
"I do not know, truly."
"We could just try it out. See how you feel afterward." A flash of a reassuring smile. "Especially if you aren't threatened by the idea of me flirting with one of those lovely strangers."
"Flirting?"
"I could go test the waters. If at any point you need me to stop, give me a hand signal." She made a slicing motion with her fingers in demonstration and made gentle eye contact. "We can discuss where that leaves us afterwards."
Drizzt breathed slowly and considered it. "Very well."
Dahlia stretched, then walked over to the table where a hard-eyed woman in leather armor was laughing, twirling one coin over her scarred knuckles with an easy confidence. Dahlia stole the bottle in front of her, took a drink, then leaned in to talk. Drizzt couldn't hear what she was saying, but the woman laughed instead of attacking her and pulled out the nearest chair.
They leaned near each other, twirled their hair, flashed their teeth. Dahlia seemed genuinely joyful, and Drizzt smiled in spite of himself.
Eventually, Entreri returned. He glanced curiously at the women. By this point, Dahlia had slung an arm over the other woman's shoulders and was tracing the bared muscles of her upper arm.
"Meeting an old friend?" Entreri guessed, pouring a glass of something that smelled acidic into a pair of wooden cups. He pushed one towards Drizzt. Drizzt shook his head.
"Testing a theory."
Entreri raised an eyebrow, but didn't inquire further. He leaned against the wall and seemed to take longer than usual examining every stranger in the room. Shadows under his eyes suggested that he hadn't rested since the disaster the previous day. Drizzt attempted to smother the idea that had been lingering ever since they'd returned to the inn, but failed miserably.
"You'd be safer if you stayed here," he ventured. Entreri scoffed, eyes still on the nearest exit.
"Of course I would. You never draw any negative attention or potential enemies," he said dryly. On the other side of the room, Dahlia was whispering something in the woman's ear.
"If they'd caught you on the other side of the city, we may not have known until the trail went cold," Drizzt said.
Entreri's jaw twitched. He took a deep breath before abandoning his surveillance of the doorway.
"Why should you care?" He studied Drizzt's face. "I am not one of your friends, and you've taken pains to assure me that I owe you no debt. If I get dragged off to Netheril or the nine hells, it's none of your affair."
Drizzt couldn't think of a way to say 'but I do not want you to go to the nine hells' without sounding childish. He settled for smiling mysteriously. "You'll understand someday." And so will I, I hope.
Entreri rolled his eyes like he had at similar comments in Port Llast, and Drizzt restrained the urge to grin. Entreri must have seen it anyway, because he scowled.
"This place needs to have a room, first," he said. "I'm not bedding down with any of you. Seeing you in the day is bad enough."
"I am certain there's something." Before they had gotten Entreri's dagger back, Drizzt had taken such statements at face value. Now, however, Entreri had no reason to linger, and Drizzt had started to think that his hostility was reflexive, rather than genuine.
Entreri didn't look any less skeptical, but he didn't object when Drizzt went to track down the innkeeper.
After another hour,they had already retrieved Entreri's belongings from the other inn and were halfway through a game on the tavern's battered chessboard; Drizzt was losing badly, too distracted by Dahlia's words earlier to put up a proper defense. He was also fairly certain that Entreri was cheating. Across the room, Dahlia and the woman both stood up, still leaning into each other's space, grinning wildly. Dahlia glanced over at Drizzt expectantly. Well? her expression said. Are you going to stop me?
Drizzt paused with his hand over a chess piece, feeling for lumps or unsettled regions of his emotional landscape, but he found nothing. The unpleasant tug he'd felt earlier in the night was completely absent. He smiled and shook his head helplessly. Dahlia wrapped her arm around the woman's waist and they vanished into the night.
Drizzt looked back at the board and realized a bishop and a rook had gotten switched while he was distracted.
-
Much later, Drizzt had won two games to Entreri's three and retreated to his room feeling victorious anyway. Slightly thereafter, Dahlia returned. She smelled of sex and sweat and old leather. She crawled in next to him with a satisfied smile.
"Well?" she asked.
"I think I should be the one asking you that," Drizzt countered. Dahlia smirked.
"She was lovely. Apparently she's the first mate of a pirate ship. They painted over the ship's usual name in order to come into port." Dahlia rolled over so he could see her smug grin. "Apparently I made such a good impression, she invited me to join the crew."
"That must have been some discussion."
"There wasn't much talking." She kissed him briefly, and her face became serious. "Now, tell me. How do you feel about this?"
Drizzt leaned back and thought about it for a minute.
"I expected to be upset," he finally said.
"But you aren't."
"No. You're happy. You're here. I wonder if I was worried that I'd lose you."
Dahlia laughed. "And yet, here I am. Not lost." She kissed his neck and whispered suggestively, "Not even tired, really."
"Are you sure you aren't tempted to run off and join that woman's ship? You could travel the world, raid merchants, fly the black flag."
"Only if you're coming with me."
"I do not believe I was invited." And he had seen the results of pirate attacks far too often to ever join their number.
"Damn. Then I guess I won't be sailing the high seas."
"If you want sailing, we could always go hunting pirates, instead. There's always merchant vessels who need extra guards." But the suggestion was a hollow one; he wasn't sure that he was ready to do that again without Catti-brie to join him. Dahlia shrugged.
"I prefer land anyway. Beds on ships are so tiny." She shook her head in mock sadness. Drizzt laughed. With the conversation effectively resolved, they found a more sensual use for their mouths.
Wordcount: 2123
Note: The disasters referenced in the summary are the diverging point of this AU. However, they don't actually occur in this fic. This fic is entirely aftermath.
It had been a long, quiet walk back to Baldur's Gate. When they returned to the city an hour before dawn, Drizzt and Dahlia had both passed out, catching up on the sleep they'd avoided during the chase. When they finally woke up to late afternoon sun through the window, they went downstairs.
Everyone else was already there. Afafrenfere had new bruises on his knuckles. Ambergris was pacing and pointedly avoiding any route that would take her close to the monk. Entreri lurked in a far corner and looked like he had rewrapped the handles of all his knives instead of sleeping. Drizzt settled in a chair next to him and spread his chainmail across the table, looking for broken links. He found several before realizing he had no idea where in Baldur's Gate he could get them fixed.
Dahlia sat across from them with a bowl of peppery-smelling soup and slice of bread, and Drizzt's stomach growled. She took a bite of the bread and grinned at him. Drizzt glanced at the growing crowd of people in the room and realized he'd been so distracted he hadn't noticed when the sun had set. By the time he'd cleared his chainmail out of the way, Entreri had left and returned with a drink and two bowls of soup. He set one bowl on the side of the table that was vaguely closer to Drizzt, which Drizzt interpreted to mean that that one was for him.
The soup turned out to have lentils, onions, and goat sausage in it. For a while, there was no conversation.
"You were already gone when I woke up," Drizzt said halfway through his soup. Dahlia had finished hers already and was leaned back in her chair, head like she was trying to pay attention to every conversation in the growing murmur of the crowd.
"Hmm?" she asked, still looking distracted. Drizzt repeated his statement. "Oh. I wasn't really tired."
Entreri snorted in disbelief. Drizzt raised an eyebrow. Dahlia shrugged and eyed a trio of bards walking by and arguing about chords. When they were past, she said "I checked with some of my contacts in the city. I wanted to know if there were any other bounty hunters here."
"There aren't," Entreri said. He smiled ghoulishly. "I made sure. At least," he amended his statement, "there are none working for the Netherese. There are plenty of other bounty hunters, but none we need to worry about."
"Who did you check with?" Dahlia asked, attention fully on the conversation for a brief moment. "Graamos Sheepskinner is reliable when you can get him sober."
"Davneiros, down by the docks. He has some cousins down in Calimshan who owe me a favor."
The conversation turned to various contacts and information brokers and went entirely over Drizzt's head. He ate his soup and let himself bask, for a moment, in the knowledge that he hadn't lost everyone. Not yet.
"What about Zanaramos the Nimble?" Dahlia asked. "He might know--" Entreri shook his head and took a sip from his mug, only to look down in mild surprise when it was empty.
"Died last year." He tapped the edge of his cup and stood up. Dahlia's eyes lingered on him as he walked away, and Drizzt frowned at the sudden feeling of discomfort in his gut. Dahlia glanced at him.
"What is it?" She flashed a grin. "Jealous?"
"What if I am?" Drizzt admitted. She scowled, levity evaporating.
"Then I would remind you that we have no obligations to each other. I've made you no promises."
"That isn't how it works." Drizzt had been on the surface long enough to know the social expectations, he thought. The days of grasping for any thread of understanding he could find were long behind him. But that surety felt elusive and unsturdy, now. Like walking on ice in the spring, there was no way to know how safe his footing was.
"It is for me." Her eyes softened as she realized how much of a loss Drizzt seemed to be at. "I thought you realized. I am not yours to claim. If that's a problem, you need to tell me."
"That is not how it worked with Catti-brie."
Her voice developed an edge to it. "Well, I'm not Catti-brie."
"I know."
They were silent for a moment. Dahlia spoke.
"Is this something you can accept?" Am I something you can accept?
Drizzt looked over to the bar where Entreri was, but Dahlia tugged his gaze back to hers.
"This isn't about him. This is about you and me." Her hands settled softly in his hair. "It could be anyone. For either of us."
Drizzt found he still wanted to look away to where Entreri was standing. Dahlia pulled him back.
"Not. About. Him. Would you feel this threatened if I were interested in a night of fun with the handsome redhead with the ax or that woman with the interesting scars?"
"You don't just want a night of fun with Entreri. The two of you are--" he trailed off, unable to explain. Dahlia sighed.
"He understands things about me that you never will. That won't change if I don't sleep with him." He stiffened, and she ran her fingers along the back of his hand. "You and I have a different kind of connection. You don't know what lives in my nightmares, and that's a good thing. It's part of what I like about you." She kissed him softly.
Drizzt was quiet.
"You told me about that elf woman, Innovindil. Did you love her less after you found out Catti-brie still lived? What would you have done, if they had both survived the war?"
He looked away.
"You don't have to answer now." Dahlia squeezed his hand. "But I need to know eventually."
Drizzt thought about it. Tried to imagine how he would feel. He didn't feel any revulsion or jealousy at the idea of Dahlia having sex with someone else. If it wasn't about sex but emotional connection. . . he shook his head in frustration and confusion. Neither he nor Catti-brie had forsaken their other emotional connections when they married. They still had friends and discussions with them that they could not share with each other. If Innovindil had lived, she surely would have been one of those friends.
"I do not know, truly."
"We could just try it out. See how you feel afterward." A flash of a reassuring smile. "Especially if you aren't threatened by the idea of me flirting with one of those lovely strangers."
"Flirting?"
"I could go test the waters. If at any point you need me to stop, give me a hand signal." She made a slicing motion with her fingers in demonstration and made gentle eye contact. "We can discuss where that leaves us afterwards."
Drizzt breathed slowly and considered it. "Very well."
Dahlia stretched, then walked over to the table where a hard-eyed woman in leather armor was laughing, twirling one coin over her scarred knuckles with an easy confidence. Dahlia stole the bottle in front of her, took a drink, then leaned in to talk. Drizzt couldn't hear what she was saying, but the woman laughed instead of attacking her and pulled out the nearest chair.
They leaned near each other, twirled their hair, flashed their teeth. Dahlia seemed genuinely joyful, and Drizzt smiled in spite of himself.
Eventually, Entreri returned. He glanced curiously at the women. By this point, Dahlia had slung an arm over the other woman's shoulders and was tracing the bared muscles of her upper arm.
"Meeting an old friend?" Entreri guessed, pouring a glass of something that smelled acidic into a pair of wooden cups. He pushed one towards Drizzt. Drizzt shook his head.
"Testing a theory."
Entreri raised an eyebrow, but didn't inquire further. He leaned against the wall and seemed to take longer than usual examining every stranger in the room. Shadows under his eyes suggested that he hadn't rested since the disaster the previous day. Drizzt attempted to smother the idea that had been lingering ever since they'd returned to the inn, but failed miserably.
"You'd be safer if you stayed here," he ventured. Entreri scoffed, eyes still on the nearest exit.
"Of course I would. You never draw any negative attention or potential enemies," he said dryly. On the other side of the room, Dahlia was whispering something in the woman's ear.
"If they'd caught you on the other side of the city, we may not have known until the trail went cold," Drizzt said.
Entreri's jaw twitched. He took a deep breath before abandoning his surveillance of the doorway.
"Why should you care?" He studied Drizzt's face. "I am not one of your friends, and you've taken pains to assure me that I owe you no debt. If I get dragged off to Netheril or the nine hells, it's none of your affair."
Drizzt couldn't think of a way to say 'but I do not want you to go to the nine hells' without sounding childish. He settled for smiling mysteriously. "You'll understand someday." And so will I, I hope.
Entreri rolled his eyes like he had at similar comments in Port Llast, and Drizzt restrained the urge to grin. Entreri must have seen it anyway, because he scowled.
"This place needs to have a room, first," he said. "I'm not bedding down with any of you. Seeing you in the day is bad enough."
"I am certain there's something." Before they had gotten Entreri's dagger back, Drizzt had taken such statements at face value. Now, however, Entreri had no reason to linger, and Drizzt had started to think that his hostility was reflexive, rather than genuine.
Entreri didn't look any less skeptical, but he didn't object when Drizzt went to track down the innkeeper.
After another hour,they had already retrieved Entreri's belongings from the other inn and were halfway through a game on the tavern's battered chessboard; Drizzt was losing badly, too distracted by Dahlia's words earlier to put up a proper defense. He was also fairly certain that Entreri was cheating. Across the room, Dahlia and the woman both stood up, still leaning into each other's space, grinning wildly. Dahlia glanced over at Drizzt expectantly. Well? her expression said. Are you going to stop me?
Drizzt paused with his hand over a chess piece, feeling for lumps or unsettled regions of his emotional landscape, but he found nothing. The unpleasant tug he'd felt earlier in the night was completely absent. He smiled and shook his head helplessly. Dahlia wrapped her arm around the woman's waist and they vanished into the night.
Drizzt looked back at the board and realized a bishop and a rook had gotten switched while he was distracted.
-
Much later, Drizzt had won two games to Entreri's three and retreated to his room feeling victorious anyway. Slightly thereafter, Dahlia returned. She smelled of sex and sweat and old leather. She crawled in next to him with a satisfied smile.
"Well?" she asked.
"I think I should be the one asking you that," Drizzt countered. Dahlia smirked.
"She was lovely. Apparently she's the first mate of a pirate ship. They painted over the ship's usual name in order to come into port." Dahlia rolled over so he could see her smug grin. "Apparently I made such a good impression, she invited me to join the crew."
"That must have been some discussion."
"There wasn't much talking." She kissed him briefly, and her face became serious. "Now, tell me. How do you feel about this?"
Drizzt leaned back and thought about it for a minute.
"I expected to be upset," he finally said.
"But you aren't."
"No. You're happy. You're here. I wonder if I was worried that I'd lose you."
Dahlia laughed. "And yet, here I am. Not lost." She kissed his neck and whispered suggestively, "Not even tired, really."
"Are you sure you aren't tempted to run off and join that woman's ship? You could travel the world, raid merchants, fly the black flag."
"Only if you're coming with me."
"I do not believe I was invited." And he had seen the results of pirate attacks far too often to ever join their number.
"Damn. Then I guess I won't be sailing the high seas."
"If you want sailing, we could always go hunting pirates, instead. There's always merchant vessels who need extra guards." But the suggestion was a hollow one; he wasn't sure that he was ready to do that again without Catti-brie to join him. Dahlia shrugged.
"I prefer land anyway. Beds on ships are so tiny." She shook her head in mock sadness. Drizzt laughed. With the conversation effectively resolved, they found a more sensual use for their mouths.