#S'Lemley

[philosophicalphangirl]

S’Lemley

Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana fic, major spoilers up to episode/chapter 5. S’Lemley fluff.

As the campfire burned low, with everyone else asleep, S’Lethkk still couldn’t put the thoughts out of his mind. What if he blamed me… What if they had gotten hurt… Why couldn’t he just have stayed out of trouble? Why… Why wasn’t I there… I should have been there. He tried one more time to fall asleep, hoping things would be better in the morning. His mind would be rested, refreshed, and seeing more clearly. Things would be brighter in the morning, right? But that was just wishful thinking, and he knew it. It never worked out that way; at least, it hadn’t the last few nights. Ever since he heard the cursed word “Kinagytus”.

He heard a quiet, shrill gasp on the other side of the fire pit.

“Lemley?” he whispered.

“Oh, S’Lethkk…” she replied, equally as quiet. “I was just… you know, stretching. My arms.” She quickly raised her arms and pretended to stretch, letting out a yawn.

“More like stretching your lungs,” he chuckled. She laughed in reply, slightly embarrassed. “Bad dream?”

“Oh, you know… The usual. Magical stick, glowey hands. Chasing me. Weird, right? Like that could have come from anything real… at all...” she implied, sarcastically.

S’Lethkk sighed. “The staff… I’m sorry. I didn’t know… I didn’t know it…”

“Scared me? Yeah, well, let’s be honest,” she chuckled, “what doesn’t? It’s just me, little ol’ Lemley. Can’t even do sleep well.”

“You do a lot more than you think,” he stated compassionately.“Yeah, coming from Mr. Bucket over there,” she teased.

“Hey, one time!” he retorted good-naturedly, but a bit too loudly, causing Aankia to stir lightly in her sleep.

“Shhh, quiet! They’re sleeping,” she whispered intently.

“Oh, right…” he whispered back, humoring her as she walked over and sat down next to him so they could talk more easily.

“… Thanks,” she said, after a pause.

“For what?”

“The… you know, the compliment and everything.”

“Oh… Yeah,” he smiled, looking her in the eyes as much as he could in the dim light.

Another pause. “I… I’m sorry. About K’Lath.”

He smiled again, this time more sadly. “Thanks.”

“I wish,” she spoke slowly, “I could have gotten to know him…”

“Yeah… So do I… I think he would have liked you.”

“Really? Do you think so? Well, I mean, who doesn’t, really?” She gently whipped her short, pink locks behind her shoulder, but apologized after a pause. “I’m not really that great, I know,” she smiled relentingly.

“I think you are. My brother would have thought so as well. I… I’ve been around, you know. I know a good thing when I see it.” As if it were an afterthought, he added, “When you first found me, that… That wasn’t the first bit of trouble I’d gotten myself into.”

“Really? Tell me about it!” she asked, excitedly. “Or, oh… You probably don’t want to talk about it, do you?” she realized awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I should go back to sleep.” Lemley started to get up, but felt a gentle hand pulling her back down.

“No, it’s just… There’s not that much to tell. I was looking for my brother, you see. I just… wasn’t welcome many places where I might have found him. At least, my Saurian half wasn’t.”

“Oh… I understand… Sort of.”

S’Lethkk chuckled lightly. “Got in a lot of fights,” he added, still with a smile on his face.

“Did you win?” she inquired brightly.

“Most,” he answered, his eyes full of happy memories. “But not all.”

“Oh… I see…” she trailed off. “Hey, how come you’re still up? I mean, I had my dream that woke me up, you know, forlorn hope and all… Did it give you nightmares, too?”

“No, not really… I just… can’t sleep.”

“Too much light? We can probably poor some water on the fire to make it--”

“It’s not the fire… but thank you.”

“Yeah, ‘course… It’s your brother, isn’t it?”

He let out a sigh. “Yeah.”

“See, I know things,” she smiled, simply but compassionately. “I’ll bet he loved you.”

“What?”

“Your brother! He was probably on his way to find you when he… You know…”

“Yeah… Yeah, maybe he was.” S'Lethkk paused. “Doesn’t much matter now, though, does it?”

“Of course it does! I’d hate to think my parents… Well… I’m sure he loved you, your brother. How could he not? I mean, c’mon, you are pretty great. He probably forgave you a long time ago. You know, for whatever it was that you did. Or that he did. Or…” she trailed off.

He paused reflectively. “Thanks, Lem. I… I think I needed to hear that.”

“Yeah, you know…” she slapped his arm gently, “friends, all that…” She stood up.

“I… I just wish I fit in here more.”

“What do you mean? You fit in with us great!”

“Well, there’s you and Aankia, yeah… You’re good friends. And then Kiliel, she… She understands all of us. She helps, she fights, and she’s too short to get in the way of anything,” he joked. “But me, I’m… In addition to being the only man here – other than Jeremy, that is – I’m just… Mr. Bucket.”

“Hey, now…” Lemley sat back down. “I was just joking, you know me…”

“Yeah, but you’re right. I don’t do much. I don’t fit in. I’m the one who put us all in danger with the Kinagytus, and all for my dead brother.”

“That was our choice, S’Lethkk. We wanted to help.”

“And you did. But if something had happened… It would have been my fault. I don’t belong here, I do more harm than I do good. Like I said, I know something good when I see it, and I also know when I’m… kind of… ruining it.”

“Keep thinking like that and you’ll end up alone for the rest of your life,” she stated bluntly, deciding that for once it was okay to be serious. “You lost your brother, I understand that… Really. I do. I lost my parents… Twice. And it was my fault, at least the second time… But then I found Aankia. And then… And then we found you. This…” She paused for a while, then inhaled and continued. “I loved my Saurian parents, I really did. They raised me. They were all I ever knew. But we were never really… a family, you know what I mean? This… The four of you… You’re the only family I’ve ever known. Aankia, Kiliel, you, even Jeremy. You’re a part of this family now. There’s no getting out of this one, we won’t let you,” she chuckled slightly. “This is your home. Here. With us, wherever we are. I’m not letting you go anywhere.” She placed her hand on his. “Unless it’s to sleep, of course. That, you can do. And probably should, actually. Did you know that you go crazy if you don’t sleep? It’s because of dreams. I learned that once. If you don’t dream, then you lose your mind. Though, you can lose your mind from a dream, depending on the dream…”

S’Lethkk chuckled. “I’ll try my best not to go crazy, then.”

“You do that.” She stood up with a smile.

“…Lem?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek, but instantly made a face. “Blah, scales… Never kissed scales before.”

He smiled. “At least you don’t have to live in them.”

“Aankia says they’re not so bad… They look good on you,” she complimented, slightly awkwardly, but neither one minded. “Goodnight, S’Lethkk.”

“Goodnight, Lem.”

They both fell instantly to sleep, uninterrupted.