"By all means," She's still leant forward as was, and never liked to give back the ground she took. "But I'll give you a fair warning, the last time someone tried to do something about my being ruler, they didn't like the price I made them pay. I tend to..."
But she is smiling, without particular ire. Finding the exact words, that she lets sit. Her finger taps on the side of the cup. One, two, three. "... not give out for a while."
Teren rises, setting her glass down, and steps toward Lakshmi with an odd grace for someone so tall and so pointy.
"The bootlickers and fanatics?" she asks, tilting her head calculatingly, "or someone else?" She stops when she's all but standing over the other woman, surveying her with a shrewd look in her eyes that isn't quite a smile.
She tilts her head up, and the rest of her follows, sitting back into the chair. That roll of her shoulders, exposing the long line of her throat. Chuckling briefly as she does so, that had to come back to bite her eventually. But she is no more ashamed of it now then she was then.
"... I am not good at holding my tongue."
Her hand lifts, idle, moving the white strip of fabric that had fallen away back up her body, covering herself in absent habit
Or maybe to watch, where it was that Teren was watching.
"That much is clear." Teren catches sight of the shifting garment, glances at its adjustment, then gives a snort of amusement and turns, going back to pick up her wine glass and refill it without asking (but then she at least refills Lakshmi's as well). "You're prepared to answer, then, for the things you say." She leans against the windowsill and takes a sip. "Or you've had good bodyguards."
"Both, I never hid behind others and for it, my people stood beside me."
Her head nods in thanks as Teren fills her cup. She doesn't rise to follow her. Stays and watches her move, how she shifts. That straight forward way she behaved that Lakshmi so earnestly admired.
"But when your words are that you will not abide to watch the suffering of those around you," her drink is deeper, harsher, well Teren undoubtedly knows who ends up truly paying the price.
"Then I suppose you'd better be ready to stand by them," Teren concludes, looking back to Lakshmi with a glint in her eye. "You saw to their suffering, I'm certain? Gave of your own table?" She might be sarcastic, but it's not clear yet.
Ah, - and rather than being particularly angry about it. ( Spent it all up, perhaps? ) She presses her lips together, picking around the words both carefully and directly.
"It might be easier to understand if I say that I was born a servant's daughter. I never forgot that, no matter what else became of me."
She watches her over her shoulder, carefully to see if she was going to bite about it.
"Weren't we all." Though not overtly hostile, Teren is unmoved, swirling her wine around as she pins Lakshmi with her gaze. "Yet, unlike some, you became a queen." Some of the play has gone out of her tone; she's noticed how Lakshmi dodged the question. "And how fared the servants under your rule?"
"Shall I put on a thick Orlais accent, and talk about my own grandness?" She snorts, not faltering in meeting her look. Lifting her cup to her lips, then dropping her eyes to look into the wine. Debating the truth of it -
"The truth, is I suppose, I did what I could and I didn't care for the titles, the names, the palaces. I'll let those that come after me decide if I truly helped. But..." Because the simplest of it was: "They were my people, and I loved them. I was honoured to be their Rani, their Lakshmi - and nothing else mattered to me apart from that."
When Lakshmi's tone changes, some of the tension is broken, and Teren backs off. This candor is, perhaps, what she was hoping for; genuine feeling, acknowledgement of suffering, not the usual lip service royals pay to keep their subjects from beheading them.
Taking a few more steps toward her, Teren strokes a hand over the top of Lakshmi's head, closing it in a tight but not painful grip as she tilts the woman's face up towards hers. "It's a pity you left them," she says, and the words sound genuine, though her expression is calculating, a little inquisitive. If this isn't something Lakshmi wants, she's welcome to protest, pull away, anything she likes, and Teren won't pursue.
Ah - Lakshmi goes still, moving with the gesture because at the very least, her hair is a good hold. It is thick, rather than soft. "Perhaps not too much, I did jump into the fade trying to get back to them and my duty."
Because she doesn't stop her hand, though her own lifts, to catch Teren's own by the wrist. Bracing, not to drive her away but meets her eye firmly. It is tempting, she quite likes Teren, quite enjoys her company, and would not object it. "My heart belongs elsewhere, but I ended it with them... and otherwise, I will always be Rani." But for all that she means it, and perhaps wants to sound unaffected - her tongue swipes her bottom lip, swallowing down. "I do not wish to use you or mislead for my own selfishness and admiration of you. Only do this if you know it goes nowhere and you can not ask me for anything else."
Surprised isn't a common look for Teren, but Lakshmi definitely threw her for a loop, at least momentarily. Her eyebrows arch as the woman speaks, but she catches her meaning easily enough. In answer, she leans forward, knee coming out to catch her on the bed as she pushes Lakshmi onto her back, again, only as much as the latter is willing.
"The heart is of no concern to me," Teren gruffly answers, her dark eyes betraying nothing.
Willing is hardly a problem, she falls back onto her elbows, her body laying out in front of her. One leg catching on the side of the bed, leg curling up.
"Good." She doesn't wait for a second in response, her barefoot lifts. That faint chime of her anklets from under the white skirts. Lifting her toes to grab Teren by the belt loops and yank her firmly down to step between her legs. "As long as we're settled." Her brow lifts and there's an easy to simplicity to that she doesn't have to pretend about anything, and just gladly rake her eyes down over Teren in the same sort of blunt admiration of her.
Teren is wearing her normal night time ensemble: a sort of dressed-down version of her Warden uniform, a tunic and trousers with a long belted vest, a scarf over her thin neck to stave off the cold and provide additional coverage. There's nothing terribly sensual or interesting about any of it-- on the contrary, it evokes the same practicality and straightforwardness by which she lives. She makes no move to be rid of any of it even as Lakshmi tugs her down, but she does smirk in quiet amusement at the woman's enthusiasm.
One hand slips down a thigh left bare by the bunching upwards of the gown, short but well-kept nails dragging along the tender skin en route to the leg's base. Teren's other hand, still in Lakshmi's hair, knots a bit tighter, and she shifts to be kneeling more comfortably, pinning one of Lakshmi's legs with her own.
She hardly needs any more incentive to enjoy herself. Lakshmi's head rolls back into her grip, arching her back up in the sheer indulgence of it. Because she didn't mind her in a uniform and wasn't that the problem half the time? Why she usually wound up with men. Liked the practicality, how it feels rough to her leg when she slides her leg to hook around her waist, even when she's pinned. That sort of wound up strength that she could sink against.
But as Teren pushes the material out of the way, it loosens, the careful tuck of pleats low around her hips coming loose. Not that it gives anything, for the way it drapes around her. But it does expose that little fluttering jump of her belly in reaching to her roaming hands.
Teren's hand ventures perilously close, but she doesn't quite go for its target, not yet. Instead, she traces a circle with one long finger, thoughtfully watching Lakshmi's face and preparing to tease her for as long as it takes. A grazing touch here, a pinch on the inner thigh there, enough to begin building arousal without ever fully addressing it. Not yet.
She's an impatient woman, always had been, doesn't like being played with more than she's the one who calls the mark. But for the first moments, she's happy to let her eyes close, let her head roll back into the bed. Her hands stretch up behind her on the bed. Because well - truth of it: besides the many wraps of material about her body, there isn't anything else particularly in Teren's way. Nothing to stop how she shivers, that one thready sigh of relief of being touched at all. Gripping around her hips with the hard set of her leg to make sure she didn't get any ideas.
Because - like a woman used to having servants, or either way, living in houses where the poor barely had one room between a family - she doesn't seem to mind being watched or concerned for the display without Teren undressing. Rather, when her eye cracks a sliver, looking up under thick dark lashes, lips party thinly, there's a faint challenge. That meets her eye and the sound is barely that. One beckoning moan that, go on then, is more challenge than in earnest.
Impatience will get her nowhere with Teren, who smirks to herself at the little sounds the woman is making. Go on? She will, when she pleases. For now, she releases Lakshmi's hair in order to use both hands on her knees, pushing them outward as she herself lowers to the ground. Then, a clawlike grip pulls Lakshmi to the edge of the bed, hot breath and a teasing, exploratory tongue here to meet her, flicking in and then out again in the practiced, rhythmic motions of someone who has definitely done this before. Her hold on Lakshmi's thighs is tight, nails pressing into the soft flesh, perhaps enough to leave faint bruises on anyone who wouldn't heal them immediately.
More was the pity for that - there is a sort of savouring of them, she had always liked to it, a half a lifetime ago. That sort of pride to poke at in the morning. Feel the ache of when she moved about in the rest of her day pleasantly. But - those were the choices she'd made.
Which as much as her sigh is mournful when the fingers leave her hair, she's happy to return the favour. Her hands drop, catching against the hollow of her thighs to find Teren's hair, scraping through it roughly as she anchors herself there. There isn't much else to do. Teren's grip is an anchor that stops anymore than the barest twitch of her hips. And when the inevitable comes as suddenly as it hadn't, she - "Shit."
Her fingers curl in, harsher than someone else might want to. Less than the most Teren can take, she's sure. Because if she wasn't aroused before this, she was now. That unmistakable pool of heat that trickles down her limbs. A click over like Tesla's motors, that twist of lightning that builds up inside a rifle's barrel.
There it is. And here this is, all the chaotic neutral energy Teren can muster: she pulls her head away with a cruel glint in her eye, not minding much that Laskhmi's fingers are digging into her scalp. Here she drums her fingers gently at the base of the woman's thigh, taking care to never let her stop thinking about it.
"Be still," she says in a low purr, ensuring that her breath is pointed exactly where she wants it.
Well, damn. It's unbecoming for a Queen to whine, but she most surely does. Her fingers twisting and gripping tightly in her hair like she means to shove back somehow. Her hips twitching for the contact they are denied. All those hard, scarred muscles that even where they are hidden below her clothes, under Teren's hands - are scarred by claw marks, bite marks, gunshots and swords.
All different sorts of battlegrounds. But this one surely is one just now.
Fuck you, except, she definitely already was. What little control she had right now, and it takes considerable effort to get her breathing even, to force her hips back and down and not squirm against the hot, tickling breath. Looking down her body meeting Teren's gaze that is somewhere between I hate you, and I want you.
This merits an actual smile, but it's quite easily interpreted as cruel in its amusement. She meets Lakshmi's eyes squarely, relishing that look, her fingers venturing closer, then in, curling slightly in the pursuit of pleasure more than penetration-- then withdraws. Her mouth returns a few moments later, to play the same game as before: dipping in, out, ever dancing around where she knows Lakshmi wants it, but never landing there long enough to make it count. Not yet.
It takes a monumental effort to do what she's told. Which - given what Teren had watched her say to their commanders - no doubt could be appreciated by the present company for the rare occasion it turned out to be.
Not that it was endearing her too said company, as she's split between breathless prays when her fingers, her tongue, dance close, and swearing worse than a Whitechapel doxie when they move away again. The only thing that can't be helped no matter how she tries to keep still is the physical twitch when Teren strikes sensitive nerves just too well. Her legs jolting where they're pressed down, her fingers twisting in, all of her breath driven out of her lungs before she can desperately suck it back in.
"Damn you," it'd be far more serious a curse probably if she wasn't wet against Teren's tongue, and utterly unable to stop how the end of the word turns into a moan of sheer frustration, bubbling out of the back of her throat.
Plenty have said worse and probably meant it less, if they're being honest. But there's something about reducing a queen to this state that is its own reward, not that Teren is one to gloat (apart from smirking like a piece of shit, at least), and after it looks like Lakshmi is about to hyperventilate she finally decides to end the poor woman's suffering. In total contrast to all the teasing, Teren's final motion is an authoritative thrust of several fingers, pressing directly onto that sweet spot as she holds Lakshmi's legs apart with her free hand and her pointy elbow.
She wants neither soft hands nor kind words, wants nothing that could be mistaken for less than this. The harsh dig and the breath out of her lungs like she's been punched. With it, her back bows, her head driving into the pillows as she physically rolls, lifts. Arched up like her bones twist inside her skin.
With it her fingers hold to her hair, still, gripping hard. Open, unable to be anything less than so. Each cry pitches, louder, higher. Holding onto her like she was breath itself.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2018-11-15 10:21 am (UTC)But she is smiling, without particular ire. Finding the exact words, that she lets sit. Her finger taps on the side of the cup. One, two, three. "... not give out for a while."
no subject
Date: 2018-11-16 06:45 am (UTC)"The bootlickers and fanatics?" she asks, tilting her head calculatingly, "or someone else?" She stops when she's all but standing over the other woman, surveying her with a shrewd look in her eyes that isn't quite a smile.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-16 08:38 am (UTC)"... I am not good at holding my tongue."
Her hand lifts, idle, moving the white strip of fabric that had fallen away back up her body, covering herself in absent habit
Or maybe to watch, where it was that Teren was watching.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-16 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-16 09:17 am (UTC)Her head nods in thanks as Teren fills her cup. She doesn't rise to follow her. Stays and watches her move, how she shifts. That straight forward way she behaved that Lakshmi so earnestly admired.
"But when your words are that you will not abide to watch the suffering of those around you," her drink is deeper, harsher, well Teren undoubtedly knows who ends up truly paying the price.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 02:49 am (UTC)"It might be easier to understand if I say that I was born a servant's daughter. I never forgot that, no matter what else became of me."
She watches her over her shoulder, carefully to see if she was going to bite about it.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 03:43 am (UTC)Some of the play has gone out of her tone; she's noticed how Lakshmi dodged the question. "And how fared the servants under your rule?"
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 05:08 am (UTC)"The truth, is I suppose, I did what I could and I didn't care for the titles, the names, the palaces. I'll let those that come after me decide if I truly helped. But..." Because the simplest of it was: "They were my people, and I loved them. I was honoured to be their Rani, their Lakshmi - and nothing else mattered to me apart from that."
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 05:13 am (UTC)Taking a few more steps toward her, Teren strokes a hand over the top of Lakshmi's head, closing it in a tight but not painful grip as she tilts the woman's face up towards hers.
"It's a pity you left them," she says, and the words sound genuine, though her expression is calculating, a little inquisitive.
If this isn't something Lakshmi wants, she's welcome to protest, pull away, anything she likes, and Teren won't pursue.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 05:31 am (UTC)Because she doesn't stop her hand, though her own lifts, to catch Teren's own by the wrist. Bracing, not to drive her away but meets her eye firmly. It is tempting, she quite likes Teren, quite enjoys her company, and would not object it. "My heart belongs elsewhere, but I ended it with them... and otherwise, I will always be Rani." But for all that she means it, and perhaps wants to sound unaffected - her tongue swipes her bottom lip, swallowing down. "I do not wish to use you or mislead for my own selfishness and admiration of you. Only do this if you know it goes nowhere and you can not ask me for anything else."
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 05:35 am (UTC)"The heart is of no concern to me," Teren gruffly answers, her dark eyes betraying nothing.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 05:58 am (UTC)"Good." She doesn't wait for a second in response, her barefoot lifts. That faint chime of her anklets from under the white skirts. Lifting her toes to grab Teren by the belt loops and yank her firmly down to step between her legs. "As long as we're settled." Her brow lifts and there's an easy to simplicity to that she doesn't have to pretend about anything, and just gladly rake her eyes down over Teren in the same sort of blunt admiration of her.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 06:09 am (UTC)One hand slips down a thigh left bare by the bunching upwards of the gown, short but well-kept nails dragging along the tender skin en route to the leg's base. Teren's other hand, still in Lakshmi's hair, knots a bit tighter, and she shifts to be kneeling more comfortably, pinning one of Lakshmi's legs with her own.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 06:45 am (UTC)But as Teren pushes the material out of the way, it loosens, the careful tuck of pleats low around her hips coming loose. Not that it gives anything, for the way it drapes around her. But it does expose that little fluttering jump of her belly in reaching to her roaming hands.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 07:28 am (UTC)Because - like a woman used to having servants, or either way, living in houses where the poor barely had one room between a family - she doesn't seem to mind being watched or concerned for the display without Teren undressing. Rather, when her eye cracks a sliver, looking up under thick dark lashes, lips party thinly, there's a faint challenge. That meets her eye and the sound is barely that. One beckoning moan that, go on then, is more challenge than in earnest.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 07:42 am (UTC)For now, she releases Lakshmi's hair in order to use both hands on her knees, pushing them outward as she herself lowers to the ground. Then, a clawlike grip pulls Lakshmi to the edge of the bed, hot breath and a teasing, exploratory tongue here to meet her, flicking in and then out again in the practiced, rhythmic motions of someone who has definitely done this before.
Her hold on Lakshmi's thighs is tight, nails pressing into the soft flesh, perhaps enough to leave faint bruises on anyone who wouldn't heal them immediately.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 08:00 am (UTC)Which as much as her sigh is mournful when the fingers leave her hair, she's happy to return the favour. Her hands drop, catching against the hollow of her thighs to find Teren's hair, scraping through it roughly as she anchors herself there. There isn't much else to do. Teren's grip is an anchor that stops anymore than the barest twitch of her hips. And when the inevitable comes as suddenly as it hadn't, she - "Shit."
Her fingers curl in, harsher than someone else might want to. Less than the most Teren can take, she's sure. Because if she wasn't aroused before this, she was now. That unmistakable pool of heat that trickles down her limbs. A click over like Tesla's motors, that twist of lightning that builds up inside a rifle's barrel.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 08:15 am (UTC)"Be still," she says in a low purr, ensuring that her breath is pointed exactly where she wants it.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 08:54 am (UTC)All different sorts of battlegrounds. But this one surely is one just now.
Fuck you, except, she definitely already was. What little control she had right now, and it takes considerable effort to get her breathing even, to force her hips back and down and not squirm against the hot, tickling breath. Looking down her body meeting Teren's gaze that is somewhere between I hate you, and I want you.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 09:02 am (UTC)Her mouth returns a few moments later, to play the same game as before: dipping in, out, ever dancing around where she knows Lakshmi wants it, but never landing there long enough to make it count.
Not yet.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 09:22 am (UTC)Not that it was endearing her too said company, as she's split between breathless prays when her fingers, her tongue, dance close, and swearing worse than a Whitechapel doxie when they move away again. The only thing that can't be helped no matter how she tries to keep still is the physical twitch when Teren strikes sensitive nerves just too well. Her legs jolting where they're pressed down, her fingers twisting in, all of her breath driven out of her lungs before she can desperately suck it back in.
"Damn you," it'd be far more serious a curse probably if she wasn't wet against Teren's tongue, and utterly unable to stop how the end of the word turns into a moan of sheer frustration, bubbling out of the back of her throat.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 09:34 am (UTC)In total contrast to all the teasing, Teren's final motion is an authoritative thrust of several fingers, pressing directly onto that sweet spot as she holds Lakshmi's legs apart with her free hand and her pointy elbow.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-24 02:54 am (UTC)With it her fingers hold to her hair, still, gripping hard. Open, unable to be anything less than so. Each cry pitches, louder, higher. Holding onto her like she was breath itself.
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