Mine.
Won.
xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
Warnings: GACKT IS LOVE! Wait…
that’s not a warning. Oo, there’s violence in
this chapter! :O Enjoy it! XD
Pairings: Kiros still needs to get laid.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that’s not
mine. And unfortunately, no one pays me to write this stuff.
Author’s Notes: Oh no! I’ve run out of
hand-written stuff. That means I have to actually write on the computer now
with this fic. Heh
happen, I just have to write it… Ner…
Mine.
Chapter
Twenty-One – Won.
“/We can’t lose
him! He’s too close!/” Krerah lamented as they wove
their way through the trees, Seifer close on their heels.
“/We have to keep him away from camp
replied grimly, knowing how Kiros would react if he lead an Outsider back to
their teepis. He touched Whipcrack, but the bird was
panicking and refused to acknowledge him. He saw Krerah was having the same
problems.
“/They smell
gunpowder and leather. They’re afraid!/”
“/Whipcrack, stop! Turn away!/” Whipcrack ignored him
for the first time in a very long time and they soon pelted into camp and right
through it to where the flock ranged. Only then did the chocobos slow and stop,
panting with their heads hanging low.
and Krerah pushed their way out of the group in time to see Seifer drag on
Kiros exited his teepi, took in the
situation and instantly demanded; “/Get him off his chocobo and bring him to me
But Seifer had un-holstered his gun and was
brandishing it.
“/Stop!/”
approaching braves. “/He’ll kill them, Kiros!/”
Kiros leveled a vicious glare at
braves. They surrounded Seifer and Knightly, but didn’t move too close. Kiros
strode over to
and back handed him.
“/You brought this upon us
“/No, Kiros!
Krerah tried to argue.
“/A task assigned to your takers
(1)
“/It’s not their fault either,/”
“/Yes, you did,/”
Zell’s voice now growled from behind him. “/And I am
“/Nor I,/” added
Ahshey as they
and Krerah turned. Both takers stood with their arms crossed over broad chests,
and Ahshey continued; “/You are a bad influence,
lips.
“/You, I will deal with later…/” Zell muttered
to
taken still, after even so long. I have a right to him!/”
Kiros grumbled, but the gathered natives
were murmuring their agreement, and he knew he could not say no.
“/Have him, then…/” the chief muttered, and
disappeared back into his teepi, washing his hands completely of the matter.
“/Come with me,
demanded and strode through the milling natives towards where Seifer sat his
chocobo, gun still in hand. “/Tell him what I say./”
“/Put down your gun, Landstealer
“He asks you to put your gun away,”
tugging at the loincloth that barely covered him. He felt suddenly shy in the
face of Seifer’s head-to-toe clothing, and the signs
of the civilisation he had left.
“How do I know I won’t be killed?” the
Sheriff wondered, finger twitching against the trigger when one of the natives
shifted his feet.
“/We have more honor than this
Seifer looked between
into their relationship, and what it consisted off.
possibly noticed the matching symbols on their shoulders.
“He says they got more honor than that.
They ain’t gonna harm you.
He swears it.”
“And I’m supposed to trust
“You ain’t got
throat…”
Seifer growled, but he put up his gun.
“/Good.
“Sheriff, Zell says you have no
“/Ah!
“He says you got no right to come after me
because I belong to him and he already beat you once.”
“Tell him to get fucked. I’m taking you home.”
“/He says he’s taking me home…/”
Zell bared his teeth, glaring viciously at
Seifer.
“/You are
home!/”
“I am
home…”
“/And if he doesn’t leave in the next ten
heartbeats, he won’t leave alive./”
“And if you don’t leave in the next ten
heartbeats, you won’t leave alive.”
“Some honor,” Seifer growled, watching
Zell remained silent and the cowboy counted
heartbeats, though he was certain his was beating at least twice as fast as his
taker’s.
- - - - - - -
The man stood his ground for which Zell had
some grudging admiration, though he’d never admit it. At the tenth heartbeat,
he smirked at the Outsider on his chocobo.
“/Very well,/” he
said,
translating rapidly. “/I’ve the right to kill you here and now for pursuing a
taken whom you already lost one fight for and, moreso,
for pursuing a Marked taken. However, since you are, afterall,
an Outsider and not trained in civilized
behaviour,/” The natives all snickered around them.
“/I will be lenient and give you the chance to defend yourself
The Outsider curled his lip and his chocobo
danced on the spot, showing the nervousness and tension his rider refused to
let cross his face.
“/Come down from your bird and face me
weaponless, like a true Warrior. If you win, you may kill me and take
kill you and keep him./”
“/No!/” he cried,
while the Outsider looked on in confusion, not having got a translation of
anything beyond ‘if you win’.
“
Zell barked. “/Know your place and do not argue with
me! Tell him the last of what I said!/”
“He said…”
trailed off.
Zell could understand his
Outsider would never best him, so what cause was there to worry for his death?
taker. Of that, Zell was certain.
“/Tell him!/” he
ordered, briefly showing
his teeth – something that he hadn’t been forced to do for some time.
“He says… if you win… you can kill him and…
take me, but if he wins… then he can kill you and keep me…”
his own hip.
The Outsider growled something about not
being able to keep people because
they weren’t owned, but he swung off
his chocobo.
“/Very good,/”
Zell said as his people moved back and someone took Knightly. A murmur went
around the gathering, an almost carnival like atmosphere beginning to grow, and
Zell could hear them placing wagers. Most of the crowd favoured
him.
The Outsider took off his hat and jacket,
displaying muscled arms and a sleeveless shirt that clung to his chest. One or
two taken gave approving exclamations.
Someone came forward with a brightly
painted, feathered stick and Zell spoke over it in the lost tongue.
“/Now,/” he said,
nodding to
to translate. “/As our fathers have always done, here I show the Deciding Space
gouging a deep line with the stick. He gave it back when he was done and faced
Seifer. “/Here are the guidelines, as you don’t know
them. You mustn’t step out of the circle, or you forfeit and I win. No weapons.
Nothing is prohibited save attacking of the groin and eyes. To win, you must
either gain a hold that I can’t break, send me out of the circle, knock me
unconscious or outright kill me./”
Seifer nodded shortly.
- - - - - - -
He realised, suddenly, that his clothing
provided the savage with extra hand-holds, and wasted no time in stripping to
his smallclothes. (2) He was fairly certain he didn’t imagine the giggles and
low whistles of appreciation he received, but he largely ignored them. One of
the savages called something to Zell who smirked, tossing his head a little
before he crouched low, hands upraised.
The man with the painted stick struck the
ground between them and Seifer didn’t need to understand them to know he cried
“begin!” before retreating outside the circle.
The savage he now faced gave him a
cock-sure little smirk that made his blood boil, then
barked what could only be “translate” at
“/You were beaten
once, yet you come back for more?
This time I will not spare your life
“You won’t get the chance to spare it or otherwise,
savage,” Seifer replied with a snarl,
watching
to make sure he translated. “I’m
going to kill you!”
“/Your arrogance will once again be your
downfall, Landstealer,/” the
savage growled and struck at Seifer. His speed shocked the breath from Seifer
in a figurative sense while a broad shoulder drove it from him in a more
literal sense, cannoning into his abdomen with amazing power. They both hit the
ground from the force, Seifer beneath the savage who smirked and buried his
teeth in Seifer’s shoulder. The Sheriff howled and
pushed Zell bodily off him, rolling to stand. The other man wiped blood from
his mouth as he stood, still smirking.
“/You will die
here…/” Zell said with conviction. The translation was delivered in a far more
wavering tone.
Seifer was shocked. When the savage had
said anything was allowed, he hadn’t
thought that would extend to something as dirty as biting. He watched his
opponent, trying to regain his breath, and made out as though he couldn’t. Zell
flew at him again, but this time Seifer was ready. He put out a leg as he
stepped to the side and Zell yelped as he crashed to the ground.
Seifer leapt on his back and got him in a
headlock, tightening his grip until the savage was choking and then still
further.
“Who
will die here?” he hissed. Zell went limp, still, and
the savage Seifer had first seen him with in the forest restrained him. The
sheriff loosened his hold and gave a shocked cry as the man he thought had died
exploded beneath him, throwing him off with ridiculous ease.
“/You are too sure
of yourself, as I said. Your arrogance is your failing,/”
Zell growled as he stood over Seifer, a foot pressed to his chest.
- - - - - - -
But, Zell reflected in the next five seconds,
so was his own on rare occasions, this being one of them. Seifer’s
hands came around his ankle and jerked, not enough to pitch him off his feet,
but enough to send him staggering forward over the Outsider’s head. He whirled
and they faced each other again.
His gaze briefly caught on
the elbows as he gripped the native’s wrists, pale and scared.
if by some exceptionally unlikely chance
I lose, Krerah and Ahshey will take him into their furs. In the next
heartbeat, he realised that wasn’t the case, because he had given the Outsider
permission to take
away. That thought galvanized him. He would
not leave his taken to return with
the Outsider!
Seifer came at him again, and he didn’t
waste time. A hand flashed out, grabbing the man’s throat and Zell used his
considerable strength to drive him into the ground. He straddled the Outsider
and grimly wrapped his hands around his throat, pressing thumbs to his
windpipe.
“Mine…” he snarled as Seifer’s
hands scrabbled uselessly at his own. “Mine.”
A hush had fallen over the camp, but it was
suddenly broken.
“Zell!”
man’s cry, and entered the circle to the collective gasp of the gathered
natives.
“/Zell, please!/”
his taken begged, falling to his knees before Zell.
“/You cannot interfere!/”
Zell exclaimed, mortified by his taken’s blatant
disregard for the Old Law. “/Leave the Deciding Space!/”
“/Now
“/Zell…/”
for him now to disobey. “/Please… please, don’t kill
him…/”
“/It is my
me what is mine, when he has already
been warned, and beaten!/”
“/I know!/”
taker, but he… he’s here because of me.
It’s my fault. He doesn’t –
and I love you and you take care of me. He thinks I’m held captive! Zell… you
would do the same if you believed I were somewhere against my will
Zell stared at his taken, his beautiful,
his heart cried out at the desperation in the sky-blue eyes.
home… And the native knew.
“/I think you are here against your will…/”
he murmured and he stood, leaving Seifer gasping for breath.
Zell who barked orders that Seifer be fed and rested, but kept guarded at all
times.
“/Zell!/”
reached the native’s teepi; “/Zell, I’m not-/”
But Zell didn’t let him finish instead
claiming his mouth for a fierce kiss that made the cowboy’s knees literally go
weak. He knew, now, what was best for his taken…
“/
he murmured as he lay his cowboy down.
fingertips sought out newly-formed bruises and he made a soft sound of apology
when Zell hissed in slight pain. But the native only pressed kisses to his
throat and removed both their loincloths, pressing against
“/Zell… I’m s-/”
“/Shh…/”
Zell blinked back tears as he kissed a tender trail down to
taken should be worshipped.
relaxed beneath him, giving a happy sigh then gasped when his taker’s mouth
traveled up to catch a gold-hooped nipple. His
cowboy’s hand came to his hair and a soft moan issued from that elegant mouth.
“Mmm…”
mouth and the fingertips that came to the other nipple. A shiver danced just
below his skin to leap out in a twitch or shift of his body every so often when
Zell’s other roaming hand touched the right spots.
“/I love you…/” Zell whispered firmly, now
stretching out atop
and burying his fingers in auburn hair.
Ai! He was
beautiful. The way his hands curled around Zell’s waist was just perfect. He
made the perfect noises, moved the perfect ways, smiled
the perfect smiles. Ah, yes. He was everything Zell had always
“/Zell, what’s wrong…?/”
the native stroked and touched everywhere with a reverence that stunned them
both.
“/Nothing…/” Zell lied. “/Relax…/”
“/But you… you see-eem…
oh…/”
Zell had wrapped a hand around
stroking, preventing the cowboy from considering at all how he seemed.
He made love to
so far as to wake him from sleep to do so.
took the native long to stir his passions. He kept asking what was wrong, but
Zell would tell him to sleep and he was so exhausted, he didn’t argue.
Zell didn’t sleep at all, but spent the
entire night watching
sleep – when he wasn’t loving him. He knew what had to
be done, but that didn’t mean he liked it.
- - - - - - -
(1) Kiros is really mean in this fic… T_T
I’m sorry Kiros. I luffles you!
(2) -dies- Funniest word ever.
- - - - - - -
Author’s Notes: Ooo…
what’s gonna happen?!