![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perfectworrytitle: You Try To Dig Deep, But You Couldn't Get In
fandom:drkotobuki's shiftverse
community:![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
writerverse
prompt: Phase #3: Challenge #22: Weekly Quick Fic #7 ("another world" + "scars")
word count: 483
pairing: Shujin/Nikos, Shujin/Layla
rating: PG13
summary: Shujin reflects on his lost love, his friend with benefits, and the meaning of scars.
In Shujin's world, scars were earned; they meant something. Every scar had a story, a lesson learned: bravery in war or a mistake not to be made again. Scars weren't self-inflicted, at least not intentionally, and they weren't merely decorative.
But here was Nikos, asleep beside him in bed, full of punctures only for the sake of aesthetics. Shyly, Shujin touched the earrings that lined Nikos's cartilage; from the top of his ear down to the lobe was decorated with a series of little silver hoops. There was another one in his eyebrow; one in his tongue that clicked against Shujin's teeth when they kissed; and others in even more interesting places… Shujin had winced in sympathy when he first saw them, though Nikos assured him they didn't hurt any more.
When he was still just a man, Shujin had scars he wore like badges of honor. Every blacksmith had shiny pink patches and welts on their hands and arms; some unlucky ones had them on their faces. Like a guild's emblem, a blacksmith's scars marked him as a master of a trade who earned his skills and proved them in a trial by fire.
The scars Shujin carried today were hidden. The eye and arm he lost that night, all of those years ago had been returned to him in the deal he made with the goddess of death, but he didn't forget the lessons he learned from them.
The worst of his scars would never heal. He kept those wounds carefully bandaged and never looked at them too closely, except on nights like this when he lay awake.
Nikos shifted against him, stretching and then snuggling back down next to Shujin in his sleep. His breath was on Shujin's neck. Shujin lay still so he wouldn't wake Nikos; he didn't want this man to see him with his defenses down and the memories creeping up on him in the moonlight.
He remembered her hair tickling his neck when she curled up against him. He remembered kissing every one of her freckles. He remembered…
Layla. What would she think of him now, with a man in his bed? Nikos was so unlike her, his sweet wife. He was sharp where she was soft. He was brash where she was calm. He drove Shujin to his wits' end while she had soothed him.
But Nikos was alive, and Layla was dead.
Shujin bit the inside of his lip and wiped his eyes with the had not trapped underneath Nikos sleeping beside him.
Or maybe not so deeply asleep; Nikos took Shujin's hand in his own and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. It was so chaste and tame that it broke Shujin's heart. Nikos embraced him more fully, hugging him close in the night, and that was how Shujin woke the next morning.
Nikos wasn't Layla, but at least Shujin wasn't alone.
fandom:
drkotobuki's shiftverse community:
writerverse prompt: Phase #3: Challenge #22: Weekly Quick Fic #7 ("another world" + "scars")
word count: 483
pairing: Shujin/Nikos, Shujin/Layla
rating: PG13
summary: Shujin reflects on his lost love, his friend with benefits, and the meaning of scars.
In Shujin's world, scars were earned; they meant something. Every scar had a story, a lesson learned: bravery in war or a mistake not to be made again. Scars weren't self-inflicted, at least not intentionally, and they weren't merely decorative.
But here was Nikos, asleep beside him in bed, full of punctures only for the sake of aesthetics. Shyly, Shujin touched the earrings that lined Nikos's cartilage; from the top of his ear down to the lobe was decorated with a series of little silver hoops. There was another one in his eyebrow; one in his tongue that clicked against Shujin's teeth when they kissed; and others in even more interesting places… Shujin had winced in sympathy when he first saw them, though Nikos assured him they didn't hurt any more.
When he was still just a man, Shujin had scars he wore like badges of honor. Every blacksmith had shiny pink patches and welts on their hands and arms; some unlucky ones had them on their faces. Like a guild's emblem, a blacksmith's scars marked him as a master of a trade who earned his skills and proved them in a trial by fire.
The scars Shujin carried today were hidden. The eye and arm he lost that night, all of those years ago had been returned to him in the deal he made with the goddess of death, but he didn't forget the lessons he learned from them.
The worst of his scars would never heal. He kept those wounds carefully bandaged and never looked at them too closely, except on nights like this when he lay awake.
Nikos shifted against him, stretching and then snuggling back down next to Shujin in his sleep. His breath was on Shujin's neck. Shujin lay still so he wouldn't wake Nikos; he didn't want this man to see him with his defenses down and the memories creeping up on him in the moonlight.
He remembered her hair tickling his neck when she curled up against him. He remembered kissing every one of her freckles. He remembered…
Layla. What would she think of him now, with a man in his bed? Nikos was so unlike her, his sweet wife. He was sharp where she was soft. He was brash where she was calm. He drove Shujin to his wits' end while she had soothed him.
But Nikos was alive, and Layla was dead.
Shujin bit the inside of his lip and wiped his eyes with the had not trapped underneath Nikos sleeping beside him.
Or maybe not so deeply asleep; Nikos took Shujin's hand in his own and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. It was so chaste and tame that it broke Shujin's heart. Nikos embraced him more fully, hugging him close in the night, and that was how Shujin woke the next morning.
Nikos wasn't Layla, but at least Shujin wasn't alone.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-02 02:11 pm (UTC)8DD kjfdaskjl
write more write moar write moarr
/rolls around around around * ^ *