IC CONTACT

[allgotrabies]

Hey, it's Annie, you know what to do.

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[madaboutit]

"An' that's what ya are fer me," he tries to explain. "Bein' here with ya." Sweeney glances up to the ceiling for a moment. "Bein' what I am when I'm with you. Bein' myself." He lifts his hand to tuck her hair behind her ear.

"Bein' with you, when ya see me naked, e'en with my trousers on. When ya see me like no one else does, an' ya not only accept it, you crave it."

"Barróg keeps me safe. Keeps me from gettin' too close ta people who can hurt me." His lips tighten for a moment, concerned about the admission.

"An' that's you." He offers the faintest of shrugs. "She hates that ya can get ta my underbelly." Sweeney's lips tighten again. When his voice comes again, it's barely a whisper.

"An' that's the heart of our fear 'bout you." He shakes his head. "But I'm facin' that fear. Bein' with you...it's worth it."

[allgotrabies]

Her hand is still just below his sternum, still in the space that took his life.

Her desire to protect her pack is a given. But with this pack it's unique. Her ferocity over Connor is very different from what she feels about Sweeney here, now. With Connor it had been righteous anger at men who treated him as disposable.

Sweeney, though. The risk for him is her, and she doesn't know how to protect him from herself, but she's trying.

"I want you to be safe with me," she whispers back, too close to him right now to dare speaking any louder.

[madaboutit]

The sound in his chest is soft, like a chuckle that never escaped. Sweeney rests his hand over hers and looks up.

"Whad'ya think this place is?" He offers with a soft curl of a smile.

"This is me, givin' you a place ta be you. With me, when ya'll have me." It's certainly not his place as it is hers, but it's also for them.

"This is a place ta drop the bullshit an' just try ta let ourselves be ourselves. Where it doesn't matter if we fail, 'cause it's just us here. 'Cause we can be safe here."

[allgotrabies]

She tucks her head against his chest, feeling so much and so complexly that she resorts to the nonverbal language of her people. It's comfort and it's submission and it's a promise wrapped up in the simple movement of lowering her gaze to be nearer to him.

"D'you know, that time in the boat, was the only time Solvang did anything without me moving him?"

[madaboutit]

Sweeney's hand shifts to cradle her head, encouraging her place against him. "Don't know," he pokes gently. "I was enjoyin' the bit b'fore that with him wrigglin' around in yer shirt."

He kisses her hair, encouraging her to continue, just wanting to get a touch of levity in before what he expects to be a bout of something darker.

[allgotrabies]

A soft laugh. "I would've just taken my shirt off if we weren't being watched." She shifts her weight, letting herself lean against him.

"Most people seem to really miss having their daemon around. I mean I miss seeing 'em all. But mine, I don't feel like I even really saw him. We didn't talk. He slept, I think. The whole week pretty much. Now he's gone but I don't know what I'm supposed to be missing."

[madaboutit]

He listens and reflects on the idea.

"I don't think you hav'ta miss him," Sweeney answers honestly and with the faintest of shrugs.

"You already know yer tryin' ta scrape pieces together ta f'gure out what ya have ta work with." His brow lifts, silently asking if he's making any sense.

"Ya don't need a cat snake ta tell ya yer strugglin' with that. Maybe he wasn't pushin' you 'cause ya already know ya need the pushin'. An' it's takin' all ya got an' then some. Makes sense ya wouldn't have that much energy ta give him."

[allgotrabies]

She nods. She wants that to be the case: a sign that she's exhausted, not that her worst suspicions are true.

Annie looks up and catches sight of one of the potted plants, and it makes her smile. Maybe her soul is half-dead. Maybe she'll never gather enough pieces of herself to make another whole person. But she sure as fuck felt alive when he brought her in here, and she can let herself imagine it would have pleased the mongoose, too.

"Tell me something fun you and Barrog got to do?"

[madaboutit]

Sweeney arches his brow down at her with a cautious smile.

"Ya mean durin' the week, or e'er?"

[allgotrabies]

"I meant during the week, when you could carry her with you." When she was there to do hedgehog-y things, and there to keep him in line. "But if you've got a wicked story that's past that week I'm all ears."

[madaboutit]

He chuckles more freely at that.

"Most of those involve me waking up hungo'er with spines all up in me." Sweeney's hand gestures lower, implying his genitals. "Her doing her best ta save me from myself."

There's a slow sigh as he considers the week. It'd been tame overall. Maybe the thing with Tiffany, but that was more 'weird' than 'fun'. He shrugs.

"Not sure my Warden was 'xpectin' ta see her drinkin' whiskey from her dish on the bar." That's probably the closest, which seems disappointing in hindsight.

[allgotrabies]

"Well he shoulda known. Whiskey is delicious."

She lays back a bit, letting him free aside from her hand on his hip. "I want to start making my own. I thought about, I don't know. Selling all the weed Tess gave me, but I don't want anything."

And she isn't the type to trade in IOU's. "But I actually like whiskey so I figure, might as well start making it myself. Then I don't have to bum off you."

[madaboutit]

Sweeney lets her draw back without protest, allowing himself to enjoy the grass and stare at the ceiling.

"It gotta be whiskey?" he queries idly. "Or any booze suit yer needs?"

[allgotrabies]

"Not wine." She's never liked it anyway but grapes are finnicky things. "I know how to make whiskey 'cause of that breach. After we got back I kept studying it. Why? You got a request?"

[madaboutit]

He licks his lips with a bit of a mischievous shrug.

"Let's just say I make have picked some stuff up in port. Whiskey's more complicated, an' I'm not sure I have 'nough stuff ta build a still, but I got plenty of shit ta try makin' beer an' wild fruit wine."

Sweeney takes a slow, teasing breathing. "Know it ain't yer wheelhouse, but if yer lookin' fer a partner, I'd pay."

[allgotrabies]

"You're Pack. I can't make you pay." Which brings her back onto her side to look at him. She knows it isn't as simple as that for him, which means at a minimum they have to find that middleground.

[madaboutit]

Sweeney remains on his back, but turns his head to smile at her playfully.

"That the case, then why ya worried 'bout bummin' from me?" He arches a brow, knowing how hard it is to not be able to have things both ways.

But he can see that mark, clear as day, and that doesn't mean nothing.

The rest of the Pack pays. But her...she's looking at that fucking soft underbelly.

[allgotrabies]

She feels a twist of hope. "Is that okay with you? If you and me just...don't pay, don't keep score?"

She won't ask him to view the rest of the Pack any certain way. He is, as she's said, a special case. Things with him are more effortless and more natural, and the thought of keeping a tally system between them is jarring when what she wants is his happiness. (Of course this means if he's more comfortable with the old system, she'll abide by it. He is not a wolf even if she has to remind herself sometimes that he isn't.)

[madaboutit]

"Hmm..." He mulls it over, even though his dimples speak to the fact it's all for show.

"I get ta keep my trousers?" It's a joke, but rooted in honesty. What he's offering is huge thing for him, and he still needs some things that are comfortably familiar to anchor onto.

[allgotrabies]

"Long as they open where and when you want 'em to, sure," she gives him a playfully magnanimous wave.

"You don't have to say yes. We're going at your pace too, right?"

[madaboutit]

"Aye." The word is simple, but carries the sincerity and weight of much more than that.

"We're both givin'. That's how this shit works." Sweeney rolls his eyes dramatically, all in good fun. "Little Miss No-Strings-Attached."

[allgotrabies]

"Hey, hey, I said I wasn't going to try to make you into my boyfriend, I never said I didn't like you," leaning in to kiss him and nip at his lip. A touch more sober, "You're a very hard man not to get attached to."

[madaboutit]

Back at the beginning, there had been the promise of no feelings, just sex. And yet here they are.

"All evidence ta the contrary," he assures with some level of mock bluster.

There's a moment following where he thinks, then his gaze dips slowly down her, and then back up. His hands move to his waistband and he arches his hips up enough to get them back up over his hips before he wiggles his braces on. The buttons and the rest of him is in no way addressed.

He looks back to her with a devious grin.

"Just in case."

[allgotrabies]

She laughs, "Oh I see how it is-" and gleefully tackles him back into the grass.

[madaboutit]

His laugh comes far more freely than normal. After a moment, Sweeney catches her by the shoulders, holding her above him as he stretches his head up to nip at her lip.

"I was hopin' fer a few more lessons, if yer open ta learnin' a bit more." He arches his brow with a hint of wickedness.

"Though if ya just wanna wrestle off a bit of energy, they'll wait just as easy. I ain't gonna complain."