Wedding Bells (AU, for gunslingerqueen) (NSFW)

[toweredingly]

Roland had woken with a headache and a sinking sense of cold dread, and neither were because of the large amounts of whiskey and graf he'd drunk the night before. It was a familiar feeling; the same steady almost-fear settled into his bones whenever he saw a battle looming. But battles could be fought with gunfire and cold rage, with all thought pushed aside and the world coming at you moment by moment. Today was worse. Today was politics.

He'd set aside his usual jerkin and jeans for more formal gear. The suit itself wasn't so bad, but he felt naked without his guns at his hip. It would have been good to have their comfort, even if he had no intent of using them. Their weight had always been like having a part of his father still with him, and all the gunslingers of their line before him. Now, when he most felt need of that reassurance, he had to set it aside. Clean-shaven and well-heeled, with his hair pulled back into a queue and his feet rubbed by the hard leather of new shoes, he felt like another man - and one even less capable of facing all that lay ahead.

The wedding was in the morning, before the real Fair-Day began. Then things would take their usual course; the castle flung open to the people, the feasting and singing and Fair-Day riddling, with raucous good humour and doubtless a few fights. That was manageable. He had lived that every Fair-Day for his whole life. What frightened him, more than he would ever admit, was the part that came before and after.

"You look more like a man going to put a noose around her neck than a ring around her finger," Bert commented in his ear, bringing him back to the present. For his part, Bert looked perfectly at ease in formal wear, sauntering about and regarding Roland with a critical eye. Whatever dark mood had been slithering about under the surface, he seemed to have excised it for now.

Roland answered with a grunt, looking back ruefully at the gunbelt hanging over the back of his chair, and closed his eyes for a moment. "Is there a difference?"

"Dinh or no dinh, I'm not beyond punching you. Just for once, Ro', try to stop living in whatever darkness is going on in that bony head of yours, and relax." For once, Bert wasn't smiling. He slung an arm around his friend's shoulders, looking at him closely. "She's not Susan. I kennit, Ro'. But she's what Susan would have wanted for you. Carry that with you, at least."

"Thankee, Bert." Patting Cuthbert on the back, Roland shook his head and started towards the door. Towards the Hall of the Ancestors, where Burtock Hattlen waited in lieu of a dinh, where Alain was standing by with a ring.

The hall was filled, to a casual eye, but Roland saw the empty spaces more than the full. No Cort, no Vannay, no Stephen Deschain in the high seat. Many who should have been seated in the best places were gone. Somehow, that made it easier to settle his mind, straighten his spine, and wait steady and watchful at the front of the hall for his bride.

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[gunslingerqueen]

He didn't give her enough time for a decent look over but she would agree with that natural born ease anyway. Of course Roland was beyond attractive but as she said before, a body was a body, the specifics came from other avenues, which was why she was pretty damned glad to finally be naked herself.

But it seemed he had his own plan, and it wasn't a bad one. She squeaked a little at being lifted, and then laughed softly without interrupting their kiss somehow, maybe by magic. "Show off," It was muttered affectionately as he trailed down, and then followed by a sharp moan. The bed had been her overall goal here, for her own reasons, but what decent woman would say no to this? Not a sane one. She allowed her fingers to card through his hair, down his neck and to his shoulders while she braced her shoulders against the wall, and snaked one hand between them without interrupting him. She didn't press him into her, that would be to easy and devoid her of any chance to tease even slightly. No, pressing him against the very obvious slick between her legs so that it was easier to stroke his length was far more appealing, and also a personal call back. 'Settle for his hand' her ass!

[toweredingly]

The sound he made against her skin might have been a laugh or a groan. Bucking his hips against her hand, he slipped his mouth around one nipple, his teeth closing on it in a grip too soft to be called a bite, tonguing at the skin as he sucked. Shifting his grip on her thighs so he could support her one-handed, he brought his other hand up into her hair, pulling her head back just enough to kiss his way back up her throat.

"So much for saving your wrist," he commented in her ear, nipping at the lobe of it, and sighed hoarsely, shifting his hips again. "Fuck. You're good."

[gunslingerqueen]

Either was just fine, especially concerning how unbearably rare his laughter happened to be. She only sped up with each passing second with little concern of stamina or if it might result in waiting a while longer, there was pleasure in pleasing someone else, too. The real testament to her skill was that she didn't stop even as he put his mouth to good use and left her moaning, loud and almost gratefully.

"It can-" Talking was a skill that took genuine, hardcore brain power now, how depressing. "Can take one for the team, it's worth it." Forget whether he might cum early, if he kept playing with her neck and hair like that she would go first, but that was so anticlimactic! And therefore, completely unacceptable. He could do as he liked, she shifted her hips as much as she could against the wall so that the head of him might press against her and even just that was enough to make her tremble from top to bottom. If he thought touching was good then what they both wanted would be spectacular. They had all night for foreplay if it really meant that much to him, so why wait?

[toweredingly]

Roland glanced down, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a half-smile as he did so. If she was impatient, well, that did him just fine. He wasn't feeling the most patient in the world, either, not with her moaning and trembling and warm against him. Not after everything.

He pushed his hips up, slow and deep, letting go of her hair to steady himself against the wall. For a moment, he stayed just there, exhaling slowly, his forehead not quite touching hers. Then, moving his hand to her breast again, he leant in and kissed her, hard and passionate, as he started to move. Never one to do things by halves, he set a hard pace from the start, driving her up against the wall as he kneaded at her breast.

[gunslingerqueen]

"Oh!" Three months without proper sex and that's what comes out of her! For a very brief second it just sounds so weird, 'oh' like she had never experienced this before, like it was a surprised exclamation mixed with a pleasured cry because she was nothing if not the vocal type. But that was only for a second and she needed the moment to readjust as much as he did. It felt so damn good it could almost make her stupid.

When she kissed him back it wasn't nearly as controlled as before. There was not such thing as lack of expression, not in a kiss of all things, but now she was so blessedly lost in the feel of him fucking her. Almost defiantly she pushed her chest into his hand, spread her legs a little wider to better wrap them around his hips, all an effort to feel him as deeply as physically possible, it didn't matter if it might leave her walking funny later, she wanted it. "Roland, more - hard as you can, please--" And then there was, of course, the shamelessness of her words, the near mindless call of them because of course he wouldn't stop but it just came out of her anyway. She tugged at his hair and probably couldn't keep quiet to save their lives and didn't want to, didn't have it in her to feel bad about it when he was actually very good at this.

[toweredingly]

With a little grunt in the back of his throat, he obliged, sweat starting to prickle at his skin as he sped up, using the hand on her ass to reposition her. Hearing her plead like that, the way she said his name - it would have taken a better man than him not to be both satisfied and aroused more than ever by it. He ducked his head, his breathing coming a little short now, and sucked hard on the curve of her collarbone, with every intention of leaving a good solid lovebite for her to remember this by. Not that he expected it to be an isolated incident. Not from the way she was moaning and pleading, and how good she felt around him.

With some difficulty, he managed to raise the pace a little more again, pounding into her with all he had, and pulled away from her shoulder. He wanted to watch her when she came, and if that wasn't soon, then he was losing his touch.

[gunslingerqueen]

Sometimes all it took was that little extra bit, combined with the fact that, no, as far as Nariko and the rest of her body knew it his touch was perfectly fine. A hell of a lot better than she had assumed it would be. So if he wanted to watch her then that's what he got because it hardly took another handful of seconds.

She didn't mean to dig her nails into him and it might have been a blessing that she had enough sense to avoid the side that was hurt. She did mean the constant call of his name though, a near unending, almost holy rush of RolandRolandRoland, higher and higher until there was no such thing as speech for her. She writhed and held onto him for dear life, and while there wasn't romantic love in her eyes there was certainly passion and there wasn't anyone but Roland in her mind and certainly only him in her. That was something and it lasted a good few, long minutes, and if he kept going till his own end and didn't pull out of her then, fuck, that'd just be absolute perfection.

[toweredingly]

Roland let out a slightly strangled little sound as her nails dug into his skin, his sharp eyes on her, a little unfocused with arousal. Fuck, but that was hot. He didn't stop thrusting, although he slowed a little as she peaked, as much for the sake of his muscles as for anything to do with her. Stopping hardly seemed like an option just then. He might have the self-control, if he tried, but he wasn't about to strain himself over it, and his body had its own ideas. His breath was starting to hitch, his skin slicked with sweat as he pressed her up against the wall with all his weight, covering her mouth with his.

It was a couple of minutes before he came, letting out a low, guttural sound into the kiss, his whole body shuddering up against her. His hand had found its way back up into her hair, where it clenched spastically for a moment, then relaxed.

When he pulled away, gasping, he was smiling. For perhaps the first time she'd seen, there was no darkness behind it. It would return soon enough, but for now, it had been washed away. "Better?"

[gunslingerqueen]

She heard him but had no time to dissect whether it was a good or bad noise, she was so focused on herself and how he looked at her and how for the briefest second that sparked something that had nothing to do with sex. Thankfully it didn't survive very long, couldn't when she hit the apex of it and if really, if he hadn't slowed down then it was half likely to have kept going on and it was too early to end up that worn out. Caught between the wall and him she didn't have any choice but to keep kissing, no other way to help him to it, so she focused wholly on that. Both hands ended up in his hair and messing it up the way she had wanted to since one particular moment over a week ago.

A couple minutes or not, she wasn't in any sort of a rush and there was something to be said for feeling it happen a little slower until he came. What really got her was his smile and this time it didn't bother her that it was so disarming. She just grinned, bright-eyed and happy in a way that she hadn't felt in months.

"I think I'm supposed to be asking you that," Her voice was airy and thin, but inherently cheerful. "Much, much, much better." She didn't know how he might feel about littler forms of affection, if he would prefer that she not do anything, but she risked it and kissed his neck, made a little trail downward while she spoke, "Good to know that I don't ever have to fake it!"

[toweredingly]

"I hope you wouldn't, in any case." He didn't protest at her kisses, but slowly pulled out of her, moving to set her back on her feet. His breathing was still a little ragged, but only a little; he was fit, and he recovered quickly. "If ever it reaches the point where you have to pretend, I'd sooner know about it." He said it gravely, as if he were worried she might not take it on board, and leant in to kiss her on the forehead.

It was good to see her like that, satisfied and smiling. Maybe it was strange that the first time he felt like he'd made her feel at home was right after fucking her up against a wall, but he wasn't about to complain. Even as the relaxed contentment of his afterglow began to withdraw, the reality of the situation creeping back in, it was worth something to know that something today had gone well.

His thumb traced the mark he'd left on her collarbone, and he smiled again, just a little. "If this goes on," he mused aloud, "we'll both be carrying each other's marks for weeks." There were worse things.

[gunslingerqueen]

She paused and winced a bit at his exit. She had never liked the feeling much but he couldn't hold her against the wall the entire time, so she chose a spot she liked best and set about giving him a mark, too.

"That you would say that at all means that will never be the case." Because an attentive lover, one who would hear and honest opinion that was not meant to hurt feelings, was always a good one. "Just know that we share that thought." Certain things were what they happened to be but she would be damned if he ever had to try and be with another woman to be physically satisfied. She could at least get that much right.

She only paused to grin, her forehead temporarily resting on his shoulder. His contentment might be ebbing but she was still a ball of barely restrained affection. "I like that idea, feel free to leave as many as you like, wherever it pleases you." She returned to her personal mission, this time aiming up a little higher, biting with the littlest bit of force to really make it last, while she gently pushed them forward and hopefully towards the bed. Better than standing, and better for what she wanted to do. There was probably at least a bit of time before anyone came knocking, right? Hopefully.

[toweredingly]

Roland let himself be guided back towards the bed without complaint, his fingers weaving into her hair as they went. "Harder for a man to lie about such things," he commented, looking down at her. "We wear it rather more obviously than you." Which seemed particularly appropriate, since his cock, while still soft, was already to starting to twitch its interest again. If the night went on as it seemed like it might, he thought dryly, he would be too tired to move from bed for days after.

Just at the moment, that didn't seem like a particularly horrific fate. If nothing else, it kept his responsibilities off his mind for the time being. Sitting down on the bed, his legs splayed, he ran a hand down her side, enjoying the warmth and solidity of her. Yes, he could definitely go along with this.

[gunslingerqueen]

"True," But it was harder for a woman to go out and find someone else for pleasure. At least it would be difficult for her. A man could have someone else and she doubted anyone would care much about her displeasure for it. But that was a complicated topic for a number of reasons, better to leave it for some other time, or possibly never.

Better to enjoy how easy things were now, and that she could take her time enjoying and getting to know as much of him with her lips as possible. His neck, his collarbone, the length of his chest and farther down still, she touched before she kissed or licked, but there was no major part left untouched. It gave her time to be thorough in the way she needed and, young or not, it was an extra bit of time for him, too, so that by the time she dropped to her knees again he might not need her hand for very long before the obvious occurred.

[toweredingly]

Resting back on his elbows, Roland watched her, still as stone, his skin prickling pleasurably under her touch. He was tacky with sweat, his hair all mussed and any semblance of his earlier neatness gone. It suited him rather better than the sharp outfit and slicked-back hair.

Sure enough, by the time she worked her way down that far, he was most of the way to hard again, and it was starting to tell in his breath, which had lost some of its evenness. It only took a few seconds of her stroking before his cock stood to attention again, and he looked at her with a certain light in his eyes, sitting up a little straighter.

[gunslingerqueen]

The silence hardly bothered her, he could have been babbling about almost anything in the world and she might have just given him the most distracted responses. In her own way and with many more tasks than just this, she could be single-minded. If her actions didn't make that clear then maybe the coy smirk she gave him would, an answer to the shift in his posture that she couldn't have missed.

But she took her time with it all the same, her fingers didn't stop just because she parted her lips and traced her tongue along the base of him and worked up, far too light and careful to be satisfying, too deliberate to have been anything but the tease that it was. And for those first few seconds, at least, she never looked away from those unfair, blue eyes. When her lips met the same space as her hand it only meant switching off, her lips wrapping around his tip, her hand touching as her eyes finally closed. Teasing was fun but there was an ulterior motive to this. The best thing anyone could do was find every little pleasure and weakness and then not only shamelessly exploit it, but find ways to make it new. It was just a matter of finding the littler details, but maybe he was beginning to see the extent of her dedication.

[toweredingly]

She was good. He wasn't about to pretend otherwise; wasn't about to hide the shiver that went up his spine when her tongue brushed against the hypersensitive skin. Once upon a time, when he had been younger and less experienced (not to mention less well-used already), that alone might have been enough to bring him off, or close to it. As it was, he just half-closed his eyes, relaxing into it, one hand sliding down to toy with her hair. She was good. And, with that initial urgent need gone, he was more than happy to let her show that off for as long as she liked.

At some point tonight, he reflected as a particularly sensitive spot tugged a little gasp out of him, he was going to have to repay the favour. She looked good on her knees, but he thought she might look just as good from a vantage point between her legs. Besides, the way she was teasing cried out for revenge.

For now, though, he settled into her ministrations, twisting his fingers into her hair and occasionally letting out a low, voiceless sound of appreciation when she hit a particularly sweet spot.

[gunslingerqueen]

Even if her general appreciation for sucking a man's dick - especially one she actually liked - had been nonexistent Nariko would have always enjoyed this just for the sake of getting a reaction. Men that were entirely silent during sex were vaguely menacing and not to be trusted, and also no fun at all as far as she was concerned. For Roland a gasp or sigh might as well have been her equivalent to a true moan so in that moment she was nothing short of pleased with life.

She hummed appreciatively when he played with her hair but otherwise concerned herself with enjoying this for as long as possible. For her that meant working farther down, running her tongue along his skin, sucking with no regard for how loud or even lewd it might be. Eventually both hands settled easily on his hips as she moved shallowly, working him and out of her throat in small bursts at first, to get used to it and to, y'know, not pass out. Being conscious was pretty sexy most of the time, in her opinion.

[toweredingly]

That hum resonated right to the core of him, and he let out a little groan, his fingers tightening for a moment on her hair before he relaxed again. It was far from the first time someone had sucked him off, but he had to appreciate her dedication to it, if nothing else. For the moment, with her mouth warm and wet around him and her hair thick and soft against his fingers, the universe focused down to the two of them. It was a profoundly gratifying feeling, for someone who'd spent so long lately with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Part of him whispered that maybe that kind of complacency was dangerous, that in the past when he had let the world focus down to so little, it had led to nothing but pain. He tensed a little at the thought, but it was easy to salve with the feeling of her lips and tongue. One night. He could have one night.

[gunslingerqueen]

They were about as close as two people could be and she wasn't so closed off in her own purpose that she was magically incapable of paying attention to things that were not Roland's cock. She looked up at him evenly but didn't stop, being overly worried would invite too much trouble. Besides, that little shift could have been a number of things, she was no mind reader after all, but in case his own decision wasn't moving enough there was that look in her eyes. The shut up and let someone else take care of you for once look.

Hopefully he would listen because she was done teasing, now she just wanted to make him come again. Playing around was slow and unhurried, everything else was instinct and intelligence. If he could honestly think through how quickly she sped up and the gratuitous implementation of his weaknesses, all of which she remembered and put to use no matter what it required, a curl of her tongue here or there, pressing, sucking, didn't really matter. If he couldn't have one night he could certainly have one damn blowjob.

[toweredingly]

As distractions went, that ranked pretty highly. He groaned aloud, both hands in her hair now, his hips bucking a little against her, and any thoughts of pain and war driven out for the time being in favour of the waves of pleasure she was sending through him. Later, looking back on it, he would be impressed by just how fast and easily she had learnt his sweet spots. For now, that level of cogent thought was just a little bit beyond him.

Even with how recently he had come, it was only a few moments before he was gasping, his fingers tight in her hair, his eyes closed. "Fuck!" he ground out through his teeth, and spilt out into her mouth, his back arching. "Fuck," he repeated a moment later, falling back against the mattress, and let out a little huff that might have been a laugh. "Thankee, sai."

[gunslingerqueen]

There, see, that was the improvement she had wanted! Good job, Roland, good job! And to herself as well, of course. For the most part she wasn't surprised by any of it, hell, he was basically polite about it, he didn't even force himself down her throat. If that wasn't kind then she didn't really know what was! If she wanted to do anything but swallow, she could have, he was very clearly at the edge and then suddenly very clearly over it. But she hadn't done this in a while and he was her husband and she wanted to and that was all that really counted.

She let him go to sit up and kneel on the bed beside him, catching an errant bit off of her lips and licking it up. "Roland, we're married, and you know my name well. 'Na-ri-ko', you can even say 'Riko' if it makes you happy. Not that you should be thanking me for something I've wanted to do since yesterday, even before that kiss." To her they were well beyond this 'sai' business, though she understood that he might have meant it in a particular way, considering, so she still grinned and still kissed his forehead. "Better?"

[toweredingly]

"You have a mouth that could drive a man mad," Roland replied, meeting her eyes, and turned his face up to kiss the mouth in question. He could taste his own salty bitterness on her lips, when he bit down lightly on her lower lip. "Don't mock me. You can see damn well that I am." He smiled a little, running a hand back through his sweat-slicked curls.

A moment later, there was a knock on the door. Sighing, Roland got to his feet and slung a sheet around his waist, looking down at her. "Well, I suppose now we both stink of sweat and come, there are worse times for a bath."

[gunslingerqueen]

"And to think you're the lucky man that gets it all to yourself." She groaned gently, but bite or not she laughed easily at that. "Oh, I just wanted to be completely sure of it, that's all!" If they hadn't been interrupted she would have started what might have been the most epic kissing session Gilead's walls would have ever seen, but there was that knock.

"Probably," She grinned and found the blanket she had made since he had the sheet, and unfolded it enough to at least cover the important pieces. That she was visibly naked from a side view was no big deal. "But I was going to ask you to join me no matter what so it worked out very well!"

la la la ruining everything again~

[toweredingly]

Roland smiled back at her as he went to go and answer the door. His smile, though, vanished when he found that there were two people there. The maid with the water buckets was easy enough to deal with - he just stepped aside to let her in - but Alain was there too, grim-faced and with blood on the collar of his shirt. Roland didn't let out the curse that rose to his lips, but he tensed visibly, looking back over at Nariko with his face back to its usual grim mask. "Hold that thought," he suggested, scraping his fingers back through his hair, and turned back to Alain. "What is it?"

Alain's eyes flickered briefly to Nariko, his colour rising, and he lowered his voice a little. "They know you have it. And they know what it does, how it corrupts. Roland. Someone's been through your study."

And there went any remnants of contentment. The hairs on the back of Roland's neck prickled, and he glanced back over his shoulder at Nariko and the maid. "Did they take it?"

"No. Though the mess is considerable." Alain fingered the blood on his collar, half-closing his eyes. "It's singing out to them, Roland. He was headed straight for it. Whatever we do now, it can't stay there forever."

"We'll find a better place tomorrow," Roland said, after a moment's thought, glancing back at Nariko again. "We can't afford to move it tonight. Not with all this still going on. Can you keep watch on it tonight?"

Alain grimaced. "It scrapes at the inside of my mind like nails on glass, Roland. But I'll watch over it, aye." Again, he looked past Roland at Nariko. "Cry pardon. I didn't mean to interrupt."

they just can't ever have nice things

[gunslingerqueen]

Who could have ever thought that she might loathe that expression more than the first time she saw it? Certainly not her. Still, Nariko waited and did her best to retain some hope that it wasn't really that bad. Maybe a complicated scuffle, maybe something to do with Jacquard, but she knew that wasn't the case even as she smiled politely at Alain, still doing nothing more to hide herself.

The maid did her job while Nariko caught snippets of their talk, and answered every glance that came her way with a raised brow. Did they expect her to be somewhere else? Or to magically fly up from the bed and attack one of them? She wasn't exactly in a state to run off. But for Alain, who had already survived the formality of the wedding itself and now this, she could manage to brush off the irritation. "I know, Alain, I hope you are alright." She wasn't so far off that she hadn't been able to bend a bit to catch sight of the blood.

Genuine concern or not, though, the sooner Alain was gone the sooner she would be tasked with figuring out the state of her husband. If she trusted her instincts and the lines of his body then she would be forced to admit that there might not be any reclaiming the calm they'd found. But what were instincts? Annoying, that was what they were ... And hopefully wrong.