damned_institute | Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

There were still too many things on Armand's mind for him to truly relax. The morning with Alec had been a help. And seeing that TK was going to be well helped him know that it was time to work out something else, but what? He'd already, without success again, tried to reach one of the club leaders about his sole idea of something new and different. Maybe it was hopeless.

There was no way he was going to play with paper and glue like a small child, and he glared at the nurse as best he could until she gave up on the idea. There was a free chair in the Sun Room--in fact, there were many free chairs--where he settled down to see what the new patients looked like. Prisoners, not patients. He felt bad that he had to remind himself. Even if he was crazy, he wasn't going to give in to Dr. Landel's game, not today. He nibbled on an overgrown cuticle and kept an eye on the room. No dozing today.

[for Citan]

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"I'm sor--" Keman cut himself off automatically. Valyn didn't want to be apologized to. Right.

He leaned back in the chair, staring at the hands folded in his lap. They weren't shaking anymore. That was good, he supposed. "It has. Been a long day, I mean. And it's not over yet." He just wanted it to end.

All of it.

"It's never over in this place," Valyn said, tightly. He couldn't look at Keman. He couldn't take another reminder of what he'd lost. What...they'd lost. And all that was still left to lose.

"Keman, I honestly simply want to be left alone. I thought you had a woman to take comfort in. Go pester her."

He could use a woman to take comfort in himself, so to speak. Anything to just let something out. It would probably be a better idea than trying to goad Keman until they were shouting at one another.

Keman had been about to apologize (yet again) and walk away from Valyn, but then he had to go and say something like that. The dragon turned back to the elf, glaring at him. "My woman?" he spat. "She's not my concubine. I don't own her."

Valyn's expression didn't change, but inwardly he groaned. Ancestors, he hadn't said concubine, had he? He'd only said 'your woman', which he felt was a perfectly accurate description of the girl.

"I simply didn't wish to offend your virgin sensibilities by calling her your lover," Valyn responded, coldly. A small part of his mind, one that clung to rationale, was warning him that he was headed down a bad road. He knew where this was going, and he was simply going to allow it.

"Though I suppose it would be unfair to call her that, either. I doubt you'd even know what to do with a woman in bed."

Keman dragged a hand through his hair, trying to control his temper. Valyn was probably just baiting him. He couldn't let it get to him.

"Valyn, she's not my...I don't even think she knows that I feel that way about her. Not all relationships are about...mating." Some could be strictly intellectual or emotional, right? A meeting of minds and spirits. Not...bodies.

"It's none of your business."

"Of course they are," Valyn said, dryly. "It's nothing but a physical passion, a mixture of natural desire and a need for physical pleasure. Color it with whatever you'd prefer, but that's all that it comes down to, without politics." His green eyes flashed a bit dangerously, and in his depression and desperate need for something, he went to the one subject that he knew would garner the response he sought.

"Even your sister realized that."

Don't let him get to you, the rational part of Keman's mind was telling him frantically. He's trying to get a rise out of you. He's lashing out. He's suffering too, and he needs to take it out on you. You did the same to Mother when Shana was first banished, didn't you?

Rationality did not win out, in the end.

"You will take that back, elf," he said hotly. Keman's face was as full of anger and passion as Valyn's was blank and cold. "Now."

Valyn stood up, his shoulders thrust back. "And why should I?" he asked, hating himself but unable to stop. "I'm only speaking the truth. For ancestor's sakes, Keman, the girl couldn't be alone with me for a moment before she was trying to worm her way into my trousers. That's hardly anything romantic or whatever fairy tales you'd like to concoct to make bed sport any more than it is."

It was, in all reality, a particularly ridiculous thing to even be discussing. But at this point, the argument didn't matter. What did matter was that Valyn was feeling that heat, that he heat he knew signaled he was going to snap soon.

Perhaps it wasn't healthy, and perhaps it did make him just like his father, but it was the only way he knew.

Keman snapped first. As much as he hated himself for it, he couldn't hold back. Valyn knew exactly what to say to truly infuriate the dragon.

So he hit him. Hard.

As much as it hurt - and Keman's punch did hurt - Valyn was grateful for it. It was like breaking a dam open. Eyes narrowed and the taste of blood in his mouth, Valyn hit back, not holding his own strength in check this time. This was what he needed. If he was lucky, Keman needed it too, and there would be little awkward apology time after wards.

He went for Keman's jaw, years of watching the gladiators train and sparring with Shadow giving him some knowledge of how to hit.

Physically, Valyn was much stronger than Keman was in this form. Even with their powers so diminished in this place, that much still held true. Valyn's hit struck Keman a little higher than the elf had intended, but it hit hard enough to make the dragon stumble back, blinking away the black dots that had suddenly filled his line of sight.

But not for long.

Yelling curses, Keman lunged at Valyn again. This time, he didn't even bother punching him...he just tackled him, knocking them both to the floor.

Valyn responded in turn, forgetting everything he knew about fighting. This wasn't some carefully planned and choreographed gladiator fight. This was simply a brawl, raw and fueled by emotion. He kicked and scratched at Keman, spitting out a few of his own curses as well as he went down under the currently two-legged dragon.

He didn't care if he got sedated. Not at this point.

Keman didn't know much about fighting, so there wasn't really much to forget. He clawed at Valyn, trying to get his hands around that pretty, pale throat. He felt...detached, like he was standing outside of himself, watching the fight. Distantly, he was aware of someone shouting, but he didn't know if it was him or Valyn doing it.

The nurse rushed across the room, accompanied by two orderlies. She was in a panic, because it had been her job to keep an eye on them, and had daydreamed just long enough for the fight to begin and to escalate.

"Aubrey! Calvin! What on Earth has gotten into you!" She began to quickly prepare a pair of syringes. The two orderlies moved to either side of the pair, one pulling Keman's arms away from Valyn's throat, then pulling him off the boy. The other got Valyn to his feet, holding him by the arms.

As soon as both the young men were safely restrained, she injected each of them with a dose of sedatives. "Make sure they're apart from each other for the rest of the day," the nurse instructed the orderlies.

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Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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