I - Inebriated
Written for @lordoftherazzles, my beloved friend <3
Words: 1 k
Characters: Dwalin x Nori
Warnings: Alcohol, drunkenness, sexual references...
“Another round,” Nori called, his voice just a smidgen too loud and too fuzzy around the edges.
“Ya really shouldn’t,” Dwalin warned him, but when the innkeeper raised his eyebrows in his direction, he nodded his bald head twice in silent acquiescence, nonetheless.
He knew that he should have stopped his friend from overindulging, but Nori had a mind of his own—moreover, and Dwalin knew that this thought was much less selfless than he would have liked to believe—Nori got handsy whenever he had had enough to drink.
Better me than someone else, the burly dwarf tried to persuade himself of his own morality, another might not understand that Nori does not necessarily mean it when his nimble, skilled, and thieving hands slipped into pockets that were not his own.
Yes, he was merely trying to keep his friend from spending the night in a dilapidated dump or, worse, in a holding cell, awaiting their king’s disappointed indulgence.
“What are you brooding about? Is this not a wonderful evening?” Nori interrupted his thoughts, letting those hands Dwalin had been thinking about a little too often and too intensely travel down the broad, strong back of his drinking companion.
Dwalin nodded distractedly, but he was not entirely convinced of that though—the seductive smile of the tavern wench and the watered-down ale in fact did nothing to dispel the deep-seated insecurity roiling in his stomach.
They all knew that Nori was a slippery customer—he came and he went as he pleased and nobody thus far had ever tried to retain him, not even his brothers, so who was Dwalin to presume that he could change that?
“’was just wondering how we’ll get ya home,” he muttered, not entirely honest, and tensed as Nori’s right hand slipped under his tunic to trace the intricate tattoo he knew so well—Dwalin had fallen into the trap of giving in to Nori’s half-drunken proposals more than once.
Not tonight though—no, he’d bring his friend home and go back to his own chambers. He was too old and too tired to be taken for a fool.
Dwalin did not like to admit it but the awful feeling that had overcome him every time he had woken up alone after a night out with Nori was not anger or disappointment—it was hurt.
Of course, he had long since realised and accepted that he’d never be married and sire heirs for the kingdom, but he considered himself nonetheless worth more than a few sloppy kisses and hasty strokes in a haze of alcohol and fatigue.
“Ow,” Nori whined. “Does that mean you will not take me to your rooms? They’re much closer, you know?”
Already, his eyes had the wicked, mischievous sheen that a mixture of lust and ale always gave them and Dwalin averted his own to avoid being lulled into the magic of Nori’s magnetic charisma.
“Not tonight,” he said. Never again, he thought but he didn’t have the heart to speak the words and start a discussion he could not win, especially not when Nori’s tongue had been loosened by many a tankard of ale while his own was dry and heavy as lead.
“Why? Have I angered you?” Nori pushed away the half-full mug in front of him resolutely. “I can stop if it upsets you.”
Dwalin frowned; it was a ludicrous idea that he—a dwarf of standing and of rank—would be distressed by the sight or the company of a drunken friend.
“What is the matter, sweetling?” Modulating his tone until it dripped like poisoned honey into Dwalin’s befuddled mind, Nori slid closer, never extricating his hand from under the guard’s garments. “You seem more sullen than usual—do I have to worry?”
“What would you worry about?” Dwalin asked morosely—he was sure that the thoughts of inadequacy that plagued him had never once occurred to his friend. Nori was so terribly confident in the amorous domain, another thing that made Dwalin—a fighter rather than a lover—slightly uncomfortable and insecure at times.
“Oh you sweet, old badger,” Nori purred. “I see it is high time I leave behind the jolly tavern and the cool ale to tend to you. Won’t you tell me what upsets you so?”
“You’re having me on,” Dwalin grumbled, turning away to get out from under that lovingly caressing and cruelly teasing hand. “I am tired of the games.”
The bone-deep weariness in his tone made Nori sit up straighter as the sobering effect of a nameless fear crept up his spine. “What are you talking about, mate?”
“You’ll come to mine, we’ll fool around, and then I wake up alone,” Dwalin whispered in an urgent hiss. “I am growing too old for that kind of foolishness.”
Nori cocked his head, a few strands of fiery hair falling seductively into his handsomely flushed face, casting enchanting and enigmatic shadows across his deceivingly open mien. “What part do you object to? Me coming by or you waking up alone? One, we can easily amend but the other, I am afraid I am unwilling to give up without a fight."
When Dwalin merely pursed his lips in a bout of his famous taciturnity, Nori sighed deeply. “I love you, you know that, right? I love you for all the ways you let me be myself and I am really sorry if you thought I didn’t just because I am not the kind to leave flowers behind. Anyway, you’d go ask every florist around if I had stolen the bouquet.”
“You’re drunk.”
“Aye,” Nori giggled. “Fools, children, and drunkards are said to speak pure truth. As I am all three of those, you can trust me. You do trust me, don’t you?”
“About as far as I can throw you,” Dwalin grunted, but his eyes grew soft. “Let’s go home you childish, inebriate fool. I am willing to give you another chance—tomorrow morning, you’re either there to repeat these words to me stone-cold sober…or you’re not.”
“Hmmm, Fundinson,” Nori laughed, slinging his arms enthusiastically around the thick neck of his drinking companion. “I’ve never taken you for a betting man, but damn, I accept the challenge.”
“What do I win then?” Dwalin grinned, mellowed by the astonishing turn of the conversation.
“Me, of course, and…we’ll see then. You think that you’re going to win, so you do trust me. That’s all I need to know.” Swaying slightly, he poured his ale onto the ground without the slightest hint of hesitation. “May Mahal take the ale, I’ll take you.”
@fellowshipofthefics: here's my entry for today :D
-> Masterlist
Lots of love from me <3
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