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Her fingers slid around his arm and gripped tight as she fought off the wave of dizziness and the sick sensation in her stomach. She had spent so much of her life letting her parents control her, and then had spent nearly a year thinking they were dead, getting used to the idea that she could just, for once, be free to act in whatever way she herself deemed fit. She wasn't exactly proud of some of her own behavior or choices, but at least they were her choices.

And now they were back, and as she had feared, they just wanted to take control once again. She was nothing more then a puppet to them. And she wanted to say something, to stick up for herself, to just grow a damn backbone already when it came to them. She had no problem speaking her mind to anybody else...so why was it so hard to do it with her mother?

Her pause as she attempted to gather her thoughts would prove to be a mistake. When Shik started speaking, she was at first grateful, because it meant he was buying her some time. But it was what he chose to say that had her eyes widening, her hand tightening around his arm until her nails were digging in. Silently she pleaded for him to just shut his stupid face up, because as much as she knew he was trying to help...

Wait, had he just offered to have her move in with him, however temporarily? More confusion added to the mix, though it was more like he was telling her rather then offering.

She was beginning to feel like some kind of object instead of an actual living being, the way these two were both behaving. Like a chew toy in the middle of a tug of war between two crazed animals.

And she thought she was the insane one.

Kisses and housecleaning. He might as well have just told her mother they were engaged, since that was the picture he was (likely unwittingly) painting. Still...it did offer her an out, did it not.....?

"Was it just a week? I'm pretty sure you bargained for longer then that, Shikoba. Much, much longer." Playing along and also getting more out of this strange deal, Why the hell not? He was rankling on her nerves, so it stood to reason she should be allowed to return the favor.

"In fact I was just getting my things ready to take to your place. Why didn't you tell me my mother was at the door?" She smiled up at him, sweetly, though there was no kindness in her eyes for him.They spoke volumes about how she and he were going to be having a nice long discussion about this later. A talk that likely involved a lot of screaming and possibly more then a little bloodshed.

Mardea just watched the exchange in what could only be described as stunned silence. They had actually stunned her. She couldn't believe this was happening, or that any of it could be true. But she had heard the rumors, had talked to witnesses that had confirmed seeing them together on what was more then what would be considered strictly 'friendly' terms. But it was so hard to tell, after hearing so many different things, what was true and what was false. If anything she expected some kind of medium.

But not this. This was worse then anything she had heard or expected.

Mardea let out a disgusted sound from the back of her throat, her lip curling back in a sneer as she spoke. "So this is it then. You." She lifted a hand and pointed to her daughter. "I've been hearing things about you. About how you've changed, about how you've become nothing but a weak and pathetic version of what you once were. That you are succumbing to your affliction faster because of it." She took steps across the room towards her daughter, the disgust in her voice palpable as she continued.

"I thought that because you had survived the fall that it meant that you were strong. We, me and your father, we finally felt like we had a daughter we could be proud of. One of the youngest to be raised to Chieftain in years, you had such promise. And here, now, you have thrown it all away." Her glare shifted now, over and up to Shik.

"For him?" She said it like he was the absolute foulest thing in the world, like she could have literally could not have done worse, because it wasn't possible to get much worse. "Or because you couldn't handle a few whispers in your head? Or was it a combination?" She shook her head. "If you go with him now, that will be the end of you. I can guarantee it." It wasn't said like a threat, more like a fact. "So no, I am sincerely not sorry to say that you will not be following through with whatever "bargain" the two of you have struck. You are coming home with me."

Shaheen took the insults as best as she could, though she winced back and began to almost shrink away, her shoulders hunching up. Was it all true? Did everyone think that way now? Probably, since it was true, wasn't it? The self doubt that constantly lay in wait inside of her swirled up, rising to the surface. Her hand slid off of Shikoba's as she backed up more, away from both of them now. She didn't know what to think, and her eyes closed as she hit the wall, and could go no further. She then buried her face in her hands as she began to whisper something over and over again, much like the voices in her head that began to raise in volume, all but drowning out the last of her mothers words.

And when she lowered her hands, her eyes seemed to almost glow, narrowed in dangerous slits at her mother. "No." The word was hissed. "We will not. That is not our home." She had pushed herself off of the wall, and suddenly lunged at her mother with a snarl.

Shaheen wasn't remotely in her right mind anymore. The voices had, in their own way, taken over, spurring her into a certain recklessness that might have otherwise been avoided. She was like a cornered wild animal that had been pressured much too hard, too quickly, and there was one person standing in the way of her escape.

Wait, make that two people, now. Shaheen had nearly forgotten that Shik was still in the room when she first lunged at her mother, but the large man putting himself between them certainly brought her up short on her attack, though not before a few quick and sharp blows were exchanged, and her narrowed eyes continued to glower past him, burning into the woman that she very much at this moment wanted to destroy, and the look Mardea gave back to her was just as hard and dangerous.

Shik was speaking, but she couldn't hear him. Not right at first, at least. It took a moment to distinguish any other sound outside of the whispering voices for a time. But when she did finally hear him, it was enough for her to break her gaze away from Mardea's, and to glance up at him instead. It was enough to break whatever hold the voices had over her, for just a moment.

It was enough for Mardea to move, swiftly. Enough for her to find an angle, just enough room, to throw her dagger with careful precision, so that it's hilt struck against Shaheen's temple with a cracking noise that, combined with the sudden burst of pain, made the chieftain wonder if she had somehow just had her skull split open. Something hot and wet and sticky began to run down the side of her face, dripping to her shoulder. Her eyes had widened a little in surprise, for maybe half a second, before she staggered, her hand clutching for whatever part of Shik she could reach. Her head swam dizzily, the voices chased away by the pain that stung in the corners of her eyes. Tears threatened to fall but she somehow managed, by sheer force of will, to hold them back.

Mardea's dagger was already back in her hand almost as quickly as it had been thrown, and she was backing away towards the door. "She is broken, and is of no use or worth to me now. You can have her. You can keep her. Something so pathetic deserves nothing better then that." It was the last insult she would give, because as soon as she cleared the doorway, her wings spread behind her and she was gone, the sound of her beating wings joined quickly by another unseen pair, both of which were swiftly retreating until they were out of earshot.

Leaving behind a woman who was dazed and bloodied, who was feeling more then just a little disoriented from her hit to her head combined with all of the heightened emotions that had flown. A woman who finally just wanted to give in to whatever invisible force kept her from doing so on other occasions, and let herself just sag against Shik, wrapping her arms around him if he would allow it, intent on just pressing her face against his chest and closing her eyes against the pain, the whispers, the....feelings....? Whatever it was, she just couldn't bring herself to care at that moment, or to fight against what her body wanted to do. For at least thirty seconds, she was just done.

Thirty seconds. It was such a short amount of time that seemed to drag on forever, and Shaheen eventually attempted to push herself away, first lifting her head away from his chest, only to feel a warm hand against the side of her temple, a hand that she would have pulled away from if she wasn't so damned dizzy. As it was she did flinch away a tiny bit, and mumbled something that might have been a protest but was far too unintelligible for anyone to be sure.

But it did feel nice, that healing, to have the pain that throbbed against the side of her head so easily removed. His Fear infiltrated the wound and closed it off, soothing away the damage, a heat that eventually cooled off and left her feeling refreshed, steady, and able to stand on her own two feet without any support, which she did so now, pulling herself away from him as though the touch of his skin on hers actually burned instead of feeling so very right. The claws against her cheek left a shiver behind a shiver that ran down her spine, and her wings shifted restlessly against her back in response. She shrugged off his hands as soon as they came in contact with her shoulders, as she finally raised her eyes to his, scowling.

"I can stand on my own just fine." She sounded highly indignant for somebody who had only moments before been plastered against him, and would have likely been sprawled on the floor otherwise. Old habits died hard, perhaps? It was likely that her sudden anger was just a cover for her embarrassment over what had just occurred. And mellowed out arrogance or not, just the way Shik was now bossing her around, so near after her own mother had done just the same thing, set her teeth completely on edge.

She made an angry sound in the back of her throat, her teeth bared as she shoved herself away from him, and turned instead to stare out the open door. "What a mess you made of that situation, Shikoba." She muttered, reaching up with two fingers to feel at the area that had been hit with the hilt of Mardea's dagger, fingers finding nothing but slowly drying blood. "You should have let me take her down. I've done it before." Of course, that was how she'd earned the only two feathers that she let adorn her hair, by beating them both.

But that was before the insanity.

With a sharp shake of her head she turned back to him again, her scowl was gone, replaced with a more appraising look, one that so closely resembled Mardea's, her lips now pursed into a straight line, though the amusement that she fought to keep off of her expression won out and that straight line soon quirked up into a smirk. "You do still want me." It was like some long forgotten conversation had just made itself know once more. and had just come of nowhere. "You want to kiss me, you want me to move in with you?" The smirk was somehow equal parts cruel, mischievous, and amused, as though her emotions were still conflicting, even over something so simple as this.

But it was still a question. She was still so unsure where she normally would have been confident. The whispers subsided but they never completely went away. The doubts always lingered in the same realm with them.

Trust. The word alone was funny, since Shaheen lacked it so sorely as of late. Trust was something that had become sparse for the chieftain, something she held only for a select few.

Shik just happened to be at the top of that list, despite everything. As horrible as they might have once been to each other, as much as they enjoyed taunting, teasing, and making each other as miserable as possible on occasion, trust had always been there.

Did she trust him now, as he mumbled the words that made her smirk twitch up into something more akin to an actual smile? As a warm feeling grew inside of her, a foreign feeling, but one that seemed to persist despite her attempts at quashing it?

She moved closer towards him, treading lightly on the floor that was now stained with a small amount of blood, peering up at him with eyes that narrowed further, and a smile that only continued to grow. Like the cat that got the cream she couldn't have possibly looked any smugger.

"Well while that offer is just so very tempting." She practically purred, lifting a hand up to rest on those oh so muscular crossed arms of his, pressing down even as she raised herself up on her toes so that she could whisper in his ear, lips brushing against his cheek.

"I might just have to think about it, first."

Damned if she was going to make herself appear overeager again, or be damned if she was going to let herself be so easily manipulated as she had been before. Even if she knew that her teasing ultimately meant nothing, and she'd already knew what her decision would be, this was just a lot more fun.

And then as she pulled back, she only did so just enough so that she could press a kiss against his lips, because while she might have been the cat with it's cream, a bear still needed it's honey.

Apparently she had shocked him or something.

He was so tense, she could feel that the moment she laid her lips against his, and that tension didn't ease away quickly, or even very much, as the kiss continued on. She didn't want to think about it, though. She didn't want the whispers in her head to grab ahold of something so small, something so simple, and twist it around. She didn't want the insanity to warp this moment for her, to take it away, to make her feel unwanted. So she persisted, the kiss lingering on far longer then she had first intended. She persisted....until he pulled away from her, breaking it off.

She lowered her head. She eased herself back down so that she was no longer stretched up to reach his face. She opened her eyes to blink at a bare chest, as a strangely frustrated feeling rose up in her chest. Her hands had at some point found their ways to his shoulders, and she felt a strong urge to push herself away, to tell him to leave, because she had done it again. She had made a fool of herself again. He hadn't wanted that, despite what he had said to Mardea about it. It had all just been a cover. He didn't want her.

Why would he want her?

Her fingers were just beginning to flex against his skin, her nails just on the verge of digging in as anger and shame and doubt began to flood her, nearly engulfing her. Her lip was just curling back into a snarl, the lost look in her eyes quickly replaced by anger.

And then he spoke, and there was nothing scornful in his tone. Just...amusement? Her eye flickered up to his, the anger fading away as quickly as it had arised, her emotions back to their usual unpredictable tumult. A wing brushed against her leg, and unconsciously she shivered, and her hands moved away from his shoulders, her arms wrapping around herself as though she suddenly felt cold.

"You're an a**?" She piped up, clearly and very purposefully misinterpreting his question, her lips curling up again mischieviously.

"Also, I think....I will take you up on your offer. If you think you can handle having me around that much. You better be sure about this, Shikoba Len, because once you let me in, I'm not leaving."

It might have been a threat or a promise..or a little of both.

Damnit, Shikoba!

How had he ensnared her again so quickly? Well, if she really thought about it hard enough (which she was determined not to) she supposed she had never really disentangled herself completely to begin with. A few weeks, a task for Medea, and the realization that she could not do this on her own and needed the person who knew her better then anyone else to help her along, if he would.

And it seemed that he was willing. Willing enough to let her move in with him, even, which was surprising enough on it's own. She met his grin with a large one of her own, though it was a much more wolfish version, almost sinister in it's own way. Her eyes didn't leave his, as she uncrossed her arms and reached out to place her hand in his, like this was now nothing more then some kind of business deal that they needed to shake on. Or just..hold hands on, as it were.

"Sounds more like a challange, to me." Oh yes, sinister indeed. The elder cheiftain of war wrapped her fingers tight against his hand and pulled herself closer to him. "And a very generous prize if I win." It was probably hard to tell if she was trying to tease him or if she was being serious. It was probably always hard to tell just what she was thinking. She was unpredictable, on her best day, even before the insanity had dug it's claws into her. Shikoba definitely had his work cut out for him.

And there was no possible way she could ever thank him enough. For being strong enough and patient enough to deal with her crazy. For tolerating her. For standing up to Mardea. For giving whatever there was between them a chance. For his acceptance. Somewhere deep inside of her, buried beneath everything else, was a warm glow of happiness for all of these things, but it was a feeling that she was not yet ready to admit to out loud.

Her hand squeezed his a little tighter, and she glanced around at the bare walled room, her gaze suddenly becoming distant. "I'm ready."

"Miracle of mircales, it appears so can I." She replied with a murmur, her gaze shifting back to him as he pulled away, hand easily slipping away from her grasp. When his wing brushed against hers, her own wing flared in response, feathers trailing across the bare skin between his shoulder blades, just the barest of touches.

As for his final words as they exited the small hut that Shaheen had once called hers, the cheiftain merely smirked, casting one last glance over her shoulder as they left. Alcohol. A celebration. Shik's sister likely to be a part of the party. The evening was young and already full of such promise for the spilling of blood.

"Sounds delightful." Her eyes glimmered with mischeif as she caught up to him outside, "But Nomi and Bacca are not invited to join." Her head cocked to the side and she gave him a sidelong glance as they departed into the night.

"Ever."