Happy Pictures
Log Info
- Title: Happy Pictures
- Emitter: Dolan
- Place: Andelena and Dolan's apartment
It's on the late side when Dolan returns to the cluttered upstairs flat the two of them share, but it's not immediately identifiable as him, from the sound. The sound on the stairs is more one of *thump*. *thump*. *thump*. *pause* *thump*. *thump*. *thump.*
Andelena is curled up on the couch with Patches as the collective of noises comes up the stairs from outside. She was looking quite comfortable and then... Quite concerned. Granted, anyone dressed in a full suit of armor in their own home has plenty of reason to be concerned, but those noises indicate a certain kind of approach.
"Okay, baby, let's go," she murmurs as she picks up Patches (who protests with a tiny mew) and sets her back down onto the couch, rising up with a hand on her sword as she approaches the door. It's an abundance of caution that's well-warranted in times like these.
She unlocks the door and opens up it up, just a little, so she can peek out from the crack.
It's Dolan, all right, working his way up the stairs with a look of mixed agony and concentration, and boy, is he ever a sight. He is positively covered in wood splinters, the left side of his breastplate is dented in, his right leg and left side and hip covered in fresh blood, the weapon belt fairly drenched with it. He does not seem to be putting any weight at all on that right leg, and he grits his teeth as he jumps up each step.
"Bry!" Andelena's eyes go wide as she recognizes her man in his abused and battered state. She swings the door wide open as she goes out to the stairs. "It's okay, baby, everything'll be okay," she assures him. "Let me help you up."
From the doorway, Spot creeps up to the open door, then she sees Dolan and Andie approaching and bolts back further into the apartment, her wide kitty eyes as surprised as Andelena's.
"It's fine, baby," Dolan grits out by way of greeting, jumping up another step. The words are breathy and shallow. "We got the fucker. The thing harassing the camp was a demon tree." A glint of amusement twinkles through the pain in the brown eye, acknowledging just how ridiculous that sounds. Another hop, and he reaches out to let her help him up the final step. "Damned thing hit like a siege engine."
Once she can reach him, he allows her to help, shifting his weight to her.
Andelena raises both brows in confusion and alarm. "A demon tree? They're fucking infesting the plants now? What the fuck." She sighs heavily as she helps Dolan up, able to help both of them up the stairs with the power of him on her form.
"Guess that explains the splinters but... Damn. We're gonna be at it for a while with the cleanup, baby." Andelena doesn't mind one bit, but she is certainly concerned for Bry's wellbeing from the sound of her voice.
"I was - afraid of that." Dolan gasps in the middle as the pair make it over the threshold, and he turns just enough to close the door behind them. "The shoulder held, though, baby. I went two-handed on it. It didn't like it, but it held, even when the damn thing threw me." There's real hope, there, and he lets her put him where she wants him. "I've had some healing, but that thing hit everyone, and I've exhausted my spells. Can you help me get this off?"
"Your shoulder held?" The hope in Dolan's voice is echoed in Andelena's as they make it inside the apartment. "And even when you went two-handed on it? Oh baby, that's fucking terrific. That's progress."
She immediately gets to undoing his armor, gently and carefully, assessing the full extend of the damage as she gets it off of him. "There wasn't a healer in the group besides you, I'm guessing?" she asks.
"There was a Sunblade, but it was me and her and that was all." Dolan appears to be content to let her do most of the work, picking a wood splinter out of his hair and then dropping his pack to the floor. Hands go next to the filthy weapon belt, which drops to the floor atop the pack, and he lifts his arms carefully to let her pull the armor away.
It looks as of a tree branch stabbed him in the leg, and in the left side close to his hip. Deep and nasty-looking bruising beneath the dent in the armor suggests a cracked rib or two, and there are several other smaller bruises to match it. Whatever did this was strong and hit hard.
He leans then, carefully, against the wall, not wanting to get blood on the sofa. "She got hit even harder than I did."
"That tree fucked you up hard," Andelena murmurs as she assesses the wounds. Once she finishes pulling away the armor, she starts on the layers underneath, just enough to let her get to the bloodied wounds and bruising.
"I'm gonna start healing, then we'll get you cleaned up, alright?" Her voice is soft and gentle as she looks into Dolan's eyes. "Change you into some clothes and have you rest."
"Yeah," Dolan mutters, helping as best he can with removal of the rest of the layers. "We got it, though." Not even a wood joke? He must really be hurting. "Better just heal it, baby. It's probably dirty as anything."
Once he's divested of everything, the damage is clear. What's also clear is that he has no business being on his feet. The stabs are confirmed, along with a reveal of the full extent of the bruising. It's - a lot.
"To the hells with the clothes, baby," he mutters, pushing his weight back onto the one foot with an effort. "Healing, bath, and a bed sound like a damned fine idea. It was funny," he goes on. "That palisade I started the last time I was out there is nearly an honest wall by now. They've done a lot. Seems like a lifetime ago."
Neither half of the Daeusite couple are cracking jokes about wood, and that's a clear signifier about how seriously they're both taking it. The wood's carefully removed where it's embedded into the skin, and Andelena murmurs an incantation of healing, requesting for their Knight to grant her aid--and He answers, the light and warmth blooming from her hands and tending to his wounds.
"Sounds like they've been pushing hard out there," Andelena replies once she's at a point where the wounds and injuries are mended and will heal the rest of the way on their own. "It does feel like a lifetime ago. We've been embroiled in so much shit since then. Let me get you off your feet, Bry, because you need to rest."
She goes in the direction of the water closet, preparing a bath for him all the while, adding medicinal salts to the waters. Thankfully, both cats appear to be wary of the beast that holds water, so they are currently staying away from the humans... For the moment.
It takes some doing to get everything closed, but by the time she does, Dolan can at least walk normally, and breathes a long sigh of relief. He's still hurting, and will for a few days, but that is only a thing to be borne. "Thank you, baby, and the Knight," he breathes when she is done, and follows her into the water closet, ignoring the remains of the ruin that is much of his clothing. The good news is that the piercings embedded in his skin were spared the strike that bruised his side and chest so badly.
Such is the life of the adventurer.
"They have. They're serious about it, and damned if I know why. That Felwood is one evil place. Leftover from the Demon Wars, or so they say," he remarks as he enters. He'll want some help to ease himself into the bath, but when he's safely in, he lets out a groan of relief. The cats are for the moment ignored.
Andelena helps Dolan in and smiles broadly as he gets into the bathwater. She steps away and begins to undo some of her armor--notably, the gauntlets--as they're the parts that would be most likely to make contact with the water if she was to help him with cleaning. Which she does, as soon as her arms and hands are bare, she starts preparing a washcloth by soaking it in the water and wringing out the excess.
"Means that good people like you and I are needed there," she says. And then she smiles fondly at Dolan. "Let me get your hair first?" Like Dolan would turn down a scalp massage from the girl he's been in love with since he was a teenager.
Never. "Right now, you can do anything you want to me, baby." Dolan has sunk into the bathwater, and only as an afterthought removes the artificial eye from its socket. It takes him a minute to do, but when it is done, he offers it to her to put aside without comment. Usually he's pretty picky about where he wants it put, but today he doesn't seem to be paying much attention. "You should make sure that armor doesn't rust," he adds, closing his other eye.
Andelena takes the artificial eye and the pieces of her armor that she's taken off, putting them far away from where the water would make contact with them. She returns to the bath and takes up the washcloth again, working it into Dolan's hair and giving him the sort of tender care and affection that she really does reserve only for him.
"I'm just glad it didn't get your piercings," she adds with a small smile. "That would have been a bitch and a half to deal with."
"Yeah," he agrees with a sigh, submitting to her ministrations with closed eyes, the sort of vulnerability that he reserves for when they are alone as well. "The breastplate does a pretty good job of protecting them usually," he remarks, relaxing into her touch. "I don't think I'd like to have them part of a wound, though." A pause. "Andie, honestly, they're amazing. They remind me they're there, all the time, and I don't slip anywhere near as much."
A wicked little grin finds its way to Andelena's face. "And they're fun to play with," she teases. "But really--I'm glad we went into that shop, then. You deserved to have your body back, Bry, and I think that's why you haven't been slipping as much. It's yours again. I'm just the lucky lady who gets to play with it, too, you know?"
She pauses for a moment in her massage and scrub to lean down and kiss Dolan's cheek. "And hey--coming this summer, I get to be the lucky married lady. How about that? I can finally say most of the rites without fucking up, too. I think I'll be ready once the day arrives."
"Not half as lucky as I am." Dolan's grin comes despite closed eyes. "You can play with my body anytime." Not that that sounds like a particularly good idea right now, given the fast-approaching sleepy tones in his voice. The kiss softens the smile. "Good. Are we throwing some kind of a party afterwards? Or do I get you all to myself?"
Andelena snickers a little, moving down to continue cleaning (and taking care with the sore parts). "We're having a party, but it's gonna be the most damn informal thing ever. People are gonna drink, have a good time, and you and I are probably gonna leave halfway through to go fuck each other's brains out at home. I can't picture doing it really any other way--I'm not about to suffer through five hours of boring-ass wedding speeches from some distant cousin like the kind of weddings my family would get invited to."
There are a lot of those, although that isn't unusual these days. Dolan tenses a little, but lets her continue, chuckling softly. "I'm good with informal. I don't know shit about weddings, baby, and simple suits me just fine. I'm still going to dress up, just because you need to know what you're getting."
He goes quiet, then, thoughtful, and still hasn't opened his eyes. "You know, baby? I'm still trying to picture you in a noble's gown, and I just can't. I wonder what you look like in a corset." A smile comes to his lips, and he turns himself a little to make the cleaning job easier. "I think it'd be pretty damned sexy."
Andelena laughs just a little. "A corset? I haven't tried to wear one of those in... Fuck, probably about fifteen years or so? Mother liked to make me feel worse about my body by giving me clothes that were too small for me. The corset was a rare exception--but she'd always order the maids to cinch me in as tightly as possible, and that hurt."
She looks thoughtful for a moment, her hand with the washcloth dipping into the water again. "But wearing that dress to the wedding, babe? It made me feel amazing. Because it was something I actually had a say in and designed to be comfortable for me. So, hey--I'd be happy to give a corset another shot."
"If you felt half as amazing as you looked in it, baby, you'd float up to the sky." Dolan's smile is soft and dreamy through a closed eye, clearly picturing things. Happy things. "So long as it doesn't make you hurt, baby. I don't want you to hurt, yeah? Your mother was horrible. I'd love to see you in a corset, though."
Yep. Definitely happy pictures.
"It won't hurt if I don't lace it to the sadistic degree that my mother wanted me to be at," Andelena reassures Dolan, smiling for his happiness. "I'm not a girl under her thumb anymore. And I have a man who gives a shit about my wellbeing and comfort that'll be helping me in and out of lacing it. It's not hard. You're just pulling strings, and you get to stare at my ass." She knows that last phrase seals the deal.
She knows Dolan too well. "I get to stare at your ass? I'll lace all you want, baby." That smile that Dolan wears does not waver. It's a sleepy, relaxed, happy thing that is the hallmark of a man with really nice pictures in his head right now. "I'd better get my clothing sorted, and a couple of other things," he murmurs. "After all, it wouldn't be a wedding if I didn't put rings on us both."
"Heh, and I better get an outfit sorted, too, otherwise I'll look pretty fucking stupid when you're putting a ring on me," Andelena replies. "Yes, I'll wear a dress to our wedding. It'll be more gorgeous than the last. I have no fucking clue what it'll look like yet, but that tailor of Telamon's knew what he was doing."
She pulls her hand back up from the water and wrings out the washcloth, the cleaning about as done as it can be. "Bry, you look absolutely worn out," she says with a soft smile. "Let's get you up, dry you off, and then you can go snuggle in bed with the girls." Because of course, it wouldn't be home without Dolan getting loved on by the cats that aren't his.
"You'd never look stupid," Dolan counters, finally opening his eyes and ducking his head to wash the last of the soap from his hair. He straightens and, with a groan of effort, pushes himself to a standing position, letting the water cascade off of him. "Shades, I wouldn't complain if you showed up to the Temple altar in your birthday suit." He grins wickedly, with a tang of weariness to it. "Zeke might, though, so better you didn't do that. I can't wait to see what you do pick." He steps out onto the mat with care and another groan, and holds his hands out for a towel.
Andelena grins just as wickedly as she observes the water running down him. If it wasn't for the fact he'd gotten beaten as hard as he did by a demon tree, it's clear she had other things in mind beyond simply tucking him in for bed. So, she hands him a towel. "Yeah, I don't know if sith-makar blush, but that's not how I want to find out," she replies with a snicker. "I better get ready for some rest myself."
Dolan's laughter joins hers, and he catches the towel and begins to dry himself off, moving a little less stiffly than he did. "Thank you, baby," he murmurs. "I don't really want to find out, but if he hasn't blushed yet, I doubt he will. I can kind of tell when he's embarrassed, though." Rub rub rub.
In reasonably short order, he is as dry as he is likely to get. "I'm not doing anything tonight, baby," he adds honestly. "I hurt too damned much. Curl up with me?"
He knows perfectly well that the cats - who are probably off sniffing his armor and gear - are likely to come join them, and snuggles are always welcome.
"I'm not doing a damn thing tonight, either," Andelena replies with a grin, taking the towel away from him and replacing it with her hand. "Other than curling up with you, that is."
She leads Dolan out of the water closet and into the bedroom, where, well, there's two calico kittens cuddled up in an adorable heap... On Dolan's side of the bed, where they like it best. He smells nicest of the two, apparently, or one can only guess. Either way, Andelena grins as she sees the two. "Heh. They're joining us, it looks like, Bry."
The lone brown eye softens with affection, and Dolan snorts very softly. "You almost hate to make them move," he tells her, but moves towards the bed. He'll hurt tomorrow, there's no doubt of that, but now is the time for sleep. "Get up, you two," he tells them, sitting down on the edge of the bed and ruffling fur.
In short order, cuddles, blankets, and sleep for all happens, not necessarily in that order.