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Sandcastles and Fireworks	By : DarklingWillow & BronxWench Category: +M through R > Neverwinter Nights Views: 1524 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: We do not own Neverwinter Nights, nor the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Chapter List
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Yuji tossed back the rest of his whiskey, and put the glass down by the place setting in front of himself, then turned back to the elf. “So, tell me a bit about yourself? What is it that you do, exactly? Sorcerer doesn’t tell me a lot, just so you know.”

Vale looked at Yuji, and then drank the rest of his Armagnac in a single swallow. “Let’s see. Sorcerer is pretty much the foundation for what I do. I’m part of a mercenary guild of mages. We hire ourselves out to serve as protection for realms which need our services. Currently, I’m the Captain of the Guard in our tower, which means all the battlemages report to me. I’m also a newly minted member of our governing council, so my title is Captain Councilor of the Guild of Many-Starred Cloaks, or the Cloaktower for the sake of brevity. I’m the chief spymaster, and I use magic to infiltrate the enemy government and operations. I lead raids on enemy territory when necessary, and I report only to my guild, although I’m expected to make nice with the current Lord we’re serving, which is probably the hardest part of my job. The second hardest part is all the paperwork. It’s nothing but parchment, although my assistant is getting shockingly good at forging my signature.” Vale sat back.

Yuji stared at the elf, listening intently to every word, but at the same time, he studied the blond’s face very hard trying to determine if Vale was making fun of him. But then he grinned and tilted his head a little to the side. “So,” he said, his grin growing wider. “You’re basically the illegitimate love child of James Bond and Harry Potter, but in a cloak? And with a sidekick? Damn, I wish my job was that much fun.” Yuji grinned even wider when he realized that it was quite unlikely that Vale knew who either James Bond, or Harry Potter were.

Vale looked at Yuji, obviously puzzled by the references, but he shrugged and grinned. “There are a lot of fun parts to my job, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I started working with the Cloaktower when I reached my coming of age at 100 years, so it’s been my only job.”

The blond elf paused as the waiter returned with the wine, pouring both white wine and red for Yuji and Vale. “So, what do you do, when you’re not attending writers’ retreats and confusing random elves?”

Yuji coughed a little bit when Vale mentioned at what age he had joined his Cloaktower, but he decided to let it slide as he heard his great grandmother’s voice in his head, telling him, “Oh, but the elves live for hundreds of years, Yu-chan, and they never age. Not until they decide they’ve lived long enough, and go to join their gods in the other place. An elf isn’t even considered a proper grown up until he’s a hundred years old. So you, my pretty short stuff, still have a long, long time to wait before you’re even close to being an adult.”

Yuji grinned again and waved his hand dismissively in front of his chest. “I’m nothing special. I’m a high school music teacher,” he said, splaying both his hands out to show the elf his long, slender fingers. “My father wanted me to be a surgeon, actually. But…” Yuji paused and turned his hands over to look at his palms, lost for a moment in his own thoughts. “I had… an experience, and decided that I wanted to live my own dreams, instead of my parents’ dreams. So, I studied music and went to university to become a high school teacher. So, now I’m a high school music teacher.” Yuji dropped his hands to hang limply down from the table and the back of his chair, almost as if he wished they were not there to get in his way. But he smiled at the blond elf and laughed a little. “Not nearly as magical as being a Captain Councilor of the Cloaktower.”

“You do know music is something almost sacred among elves?” Vale said with a quick grin. “I’m not exactly sure what a surgeon is, but I can tell you, music is as important to us as breathing. In my home city, where I grew up, there are gardens, and every garden has musicians. It always surrounds us, but we never take it for granted.”

Vale took a swallow of his red wine. “You also have really good wines and liquors here. I’m enjoying this immensely. Of course, you probably think I drink like a dwarf, or maybe not, if you haven’t met a dwarf.” He chuckled, and sampled the white wine, purring a bit.

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know what that is,” Yuji said with a small apologetic smile and took a sip of the red wine. He could not hold back the little sound of surprise, his eyes growing wide for a moment. “Shit, that is good. Believe me, wine back home isn’t half as good as this. We’re kind of bad about wine. Japanese rice wine, now that’s an art form, but wine like this, we’re still quite ignorant about.” Yuji took another quick little sip, then put the glass down and propped his chin up on the palm of his hand, his elbow on the edge of the table. “A surgeon is a doctor who cuts people open to fix them from the inside, basically. You do know what a doctor is, right? It’s a person who heals people, kind of. My father is a doctor, he specializes in a disease that is very prevalent in our world, called cancer. My older brother is a doctor who specializes in diseases of the heart. And my sister is a registered nurse. A nurse is like a doctor’s assistant, but really, they save the doctor’s asses most of the time, and do the things that the doctors pretend they don’t have time to do.” Yuji stopped and bit his lip, his brows furrowing a bit, and he grabbed the glass of white wine, glaring at it as if it had somehow insulted his very existence as he took a quick taste of it.

“Sorry, I’m being an ass,” Yuji said, turning back to the elf, and splaying his right hand out again, to show off his fingers. “Do you have pianos in your world? I play piano. I started learning that when I was four years old. And you know, my great grandmother used to say that. That music is as important as breathing. I guess that’s why I never gave it up. Because she encouraged me to keep at it.” Yuji stopped again and tried to smile but the smile did not reach his dark eyes.

The waiter arrived with their dinners, placing their respective plates in front of them silently. Along with Yuji’s lobster, there was also a small bowl with a lid on it, and a smaller plate, as he had asked for.

“This looks amazing,” Vale murmured. “I hardly know what to taste first.”

Yuji was visibly relieved when the waiter appeared with their food and he smiled at Vale as he breathed in the glorious smell of the food. “Try the meat first, since that’s what you wanted,” Yuji said and picked up the chopsticks resting in front of the place setting. “I’ll try the lobster first, and then we’ll share, alright?” Yuji lifted the lid off the rice bowl and took a small bite of the rice, sighing softly when the perfectly sticky rice was just the right texture and the exact right sweetness when he chewed.

Vale paused for a bite of food. “So, tell me about those piercings your friend Satoshi wears.”

Yuji purred loudly as the lobster all but melted on his tongue, and he ignored Willow’s giggle behind him. He knew exactly why she was laughing at him, and right at this moment he did not care. “You need to taste this, Vale. This is as close to heaven as we’re going to get, I think.”

Yuji took a sip of his white wine and looked over his shoulder to check on Kansas and Satoshi, the little imp awake now, leaning heavily against Satoshi’s side and picking at both their dinners, while Satoshi was still utterly lost in Sand’s blue eyes.

“What would you like to know about them? Satoshi has six piercings in his lower lip, and one in his eyebrow, and the one in the bridge of his nose is called a pressure point piercing. It helps him with headaches. He used to have two in his other eyebrow, but one of them tore out, and the other got bad, so he had to let it heal shut. I’ve actually forgotten how many he has in his ears, but I think it’s two on the left side, and one on the right. I’m so used to them, that I just forget they’re there, really,” Yuji said with a grin and a shrug of his shoulder, nibbling at a bit of vegetables. He heard the dark haired elf gasp behind him and Satoshi’s shy, nervous giggle, and that reminded Yuji. “Oh, and he also has one in his tongue. I think that one is my favorite.”

Vale’s eyes widened. “In his tongue?” It was not hard to see what was going through the elf’s mind as he thought about that piercing. “Oh! That would be...wait…” He looked at Sand, and his grin grew bigger. “Well, if those two manage to steal some time together, I have a feeling the moon elf is going to be very happy.” He pretended not to notice the quick look Sand shot in his direction. “Do you, um, have any piercings?”

Yuji chuckled softly when he saw the light bulb go off for the blond elf, and responded with a wonderfully cheeky, “Don’t be silly. Get your mind out of the gutter.” But then he smiled and shook his head. “I am sad to disappoint again, but no, I don’t. I don’t even have pierced ears. I guess it’s the needles…” Yuji stopped and put a bite of lobster into his mouth, looking down at the food for a moment while gathering his thoughts.

He smiled when he looked up again and shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t. I’m not the biggest fan, and also, I couldn’t have any since I decided to become a teacher. You can’t get hired anywhere as a teacher, back home, if you have piercings or tattoos that could be seen. We’re horribly backwards that way, I guess.”

“Ah,” Vale said. “Of course, I didn’t stop to think different cultures view things differently. We have no problem with tattoos, and some of the elven races are quite fond of piercing things like nipples and navels. I don’t have either, myself, but it’s not really because I have any objection to them. I just never had a reason to get a tattoo, or pierce anything.” He looked at Yuji. “You don’t disappoint, you know. Quite the contrary.”

Yuji laughed softly and pointed to the corner of his mouth, where there was a tiny dimple just below his lip. “I had one, you know, a long time ago,” he said and grinned. “When I was in my last year in high school Satoshi convinced me to have a lip piercing done. But then I had to take it out, when I had my experience, and after that I decided not to put it in again, because I wanted to become a teacher. And I also have never found a reason to tattoo myself.” Yuji glanced over his shoulder at Satoshi, then leaned a little closer to the elf, lowering his voice a little. “Satoshi has tattoos, and his nipples are pierced too. He likes the pokey bits, to be honest. And I am sure you can guess why he chose to pierce his mouth so much.”

“Honestly? I have no idea, other than the tongue, which I can sort of figure out. But I don’t think I’d want to be poked by all those spiky bits.” Vale looked slightly dubious. “I thought about piercing my nipples, once, but I sobered up the next morning, and rethought it. He was just a fling for the night, someone to take the edge off so I could focus on my work properly.” He blushed deeply. “I wasn’t very good at relationships, I guess. I mostly wasn’t interested.”

“I know that feeling,” Yuji admitted with a small shrug, followed by a soft sigh. “I wasn’t exactly known for my fidelity. Here, you’ve got to taste this.” Yuji changed the subject as he lifted another bite of the succulent lobster with his chopsticks and did not even give Vale a chance to say yes or no, as he brought the bite up to touch the elf’s lips. And without even realizing he was doing it, Yuji opened his mouth a little bit and made an ‘aaa’ sound, exactly like he had gotten in the habit of doing with his daughter lately, when trying to coax her into eating. Behind them Willow started to laugh brightly, and only then did it occur to Yuji that he might have done something silly.

Vale looked at the chopsticks, more than a little confused when Yuji tried to coax him to open his mouth. After a moment, he figured out what was expected, and opened his mouth for Yuji.

“Oh, that is really good.” The blond elf looked at Yuji and tilted his head slightly. “The sound you made, is that a custom for your people? I’m sorry if I didn’t respond correctly.”

Yuji blushed dark crimson as Willow burst into gales of laughter behind him and he sighed softly as he shook his head. “No, that’s not a custom in my country. That’s something that you do with little kids when you want them to eat, usually,” Yuji admitted, and hid his face in his hand. But then he looked up, his eyes wide and he added in a rush. “My nephews. I have nephews, and my friend has a little kid, and I’m sometimes trusted with feeding them. And sometimes, the only way to get them to open their mouths is to do that. I’m sorry. It just came out, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me.” Yuji bowed his head in shame, and hoped with all his might that Vale’s next question would not be whether Yuji had children of his own.

“I have nephews as well. Well, I have one nephew, and Sand has two nephews, but they feel like nephews for me as well, if that makes sense. We elves tend to like children, although most don’t have more than one or two elflings. We’re long-lived, so it seems frivolous to have lots of elflings.” Vale speared a bite of the beef to offer Yuji. “Here, try this. I think you’ll like it.”

Yuji took the bite of tenderloin, recalling just in the nick of time that he had noticed how Vale had never let his lips touch the tines of his strange fork, so Yuji bit into the meat clumsily and pulled away a fraction to free the meat off the fork. Then he chewed with a blissful sigh, bringing his hand up to hide his mouth when he said, “Oh, gods, the day I manage to cook beef that perfectly, I’m going to just give up cooking.”

“As if you ever cook,” Satoshi snorted behind them, and Yuji laughed.

“That is true, I am wholly dependent on my microwave, rice cooker and the tea maker,” Yuji admitted, still covering his mouth with his hand. He swallowed and took a good sip of his red wine, then said loud enough for Satoshi to hear him clearly. “As for the spiky bits on that one, don’t be intimidated. It does take a bit of practice, but it’s really funny how fast you get used to them. And then when he takes them out, it makes you wonder where they all went.”

“Yuji!” Satoshi cried out in horror behind them, but Yuji just started to laugh as Satoshi waffled to Sand something about just ignoring Yuji.

“I’m going to be spoiled if all the food is this good,” Vale admitted. “I can’t cook at all. Really. At the Cloaktower, I just head down to the kitchens when I’m hungry, and the cooks take care of me. I have quarters there, as part of my office. The most I can manage is tea, and sometimes even that’s subject to lapses of attention. My assistant laughs at me. I’m sure he can cook, and do all sorts of other practical things I’ve never mastered.” The elf shrugged, grinning cheerfully. “At least I remember to eat, which puts me one above Sand, who has been accused of living on tea and moonbeams. He does make good tea, though.”

“Then he and Satoshi will get along swimmingly. Satoshi loves good tea, and he forgets to eat too,” Yuji said and lifted his white wine to offer a toast. “Here’s to good food, and having skilled people prepare it for us, who are utterly incapable of so much as boiling water.”

Vale raised his white wine. “An’coia,” he said. “To life!” He touched the side of his glass to Yuji’s glass. “There’s an inn in the city which makes wonderful food, and it’s almost as good as this. I have a feeling I’ll go there more often, just to remember this night.” His cheeks grew slightly pink. “And maybe to remember other things, too.”

“You say that like you’re just dying to take all of my clothes off, and doing naughty shit with me,” Yuji said with a purr, then lifted another bite of the lobster to Vale’s lips, grinning when the elf had to open his mouth to accept it, and then Yuji reached out with his chopsticks to steal another bite of the beef.

Vale nearly choked on the lobster, his cheeks a deep rose color. “I’m not quite sure I meant to give that impression, really. I mean, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested, but I also don’t make a habit of jumping into bed with people a few hours after meeting them. Or at least I’d rather not do that, unless I think it’s not going to mean anything in the morning, if that makes sense.” He stopped, and ducked his head a little, a shy gesture. “I haven’t had many serious relationships. Two, really. Some short ones, but only a handful. I’m not very good at casual sex, I think, so I guess this is sort of a warning that I might not be so good at a vacation fling?”

Yuji smiled and put his chopsticks down to take a sip off his wine. “I don’t make a habit of it either. Not any more, at least,” he confessed, and took the elf’s hand gently. Yuji pulled the slender hand closer, admiring the silken skin, and then he pressed a kiss to Vale’s knuckles. “Consider that my promise, that we will find the time to get to know each other a little better during the week? I would love to spend more time with you.” Yuji hesitated for a moment, then jerked his head in the direction of Willow, Satoshi and Kansas behind them. “And I have only had two serious relationships in my life too. Well, three, if you count the little one.”

Yuji gave the elf a sweet smile, certain that he was either making the biggest fool of himself, or the strange heat he was feeling in his heart was showing in his eyes.

“I’ll hold you to that promise,” Vale said, his voice barely a whisper. “We’ll find the time.”

Yuji smiled, surprised by the way his heart jumped in excitement at those words, but anything else that the beautiful elf meant to say was drowned out by a sound coming from the other table.

Yuji was standing up before he even fully registered what he was hearing, but the alarm in Satoshi’s voice yanked him back into reality.

“No, Sweets, no, don’t. Keep it in,” Satoshi said hurriedly as he stood up and pulled Kansas to his feet, waving a desperate hand at Sand. “No, no, don’t, he’ll freak out if you touch him. I’ll deal with it.”

“I’m sorry,” Yuji said to Vale as he turned towards Kansas and Satoshi, and bent down quickly to pull Kansas’ arm over his shoulders. “Come on, little one. Take a deep breath for me.”

“I can’t…” Kansas wailed, limp as a noodle as he clung to Yuji’s shoulders, but still trying to move his legs.

“Sure you can,” Yuji said and pulled Kansas into his arms, Satoshi already clearing the way ahead of them towards the bathrooms. Yuji turned quickly towards Vale and said, “I’m sorry,” again, then raced off towards the bathrooms with Kansas in his arms.

Willow turned around on her seat, watching her three men go, then she looked at the two elves and asked quietly, “Did he throw up?”

Sand shook his head, his eyes wide. “No, but I do not think he felt very well at all. Perhaps I should not have let him eat so many voratae, or perhaps it was what he was drinking. It is very sweet, and sweet things can make you feel intoxicated faster, I find.”

Vale watched Yuji go, dinner forgotten in the hurry to help the young man called Kansas. Vale said nothing when Yuji left, not even when he felt Bronwen sit on his other side.

Willow sighed a little, looking towards the bathrooms quickly before she bowed her head to the two elves. “I am sorry. He was eating too fast, and he’s jetlagged, so he was getting drunk pretty fast too. He still has problems with eating, the poor thing,” she said and stood up with a polite bow. “I’ll go check on them. Please excuse me for a moment. And I do apologize for them.”

“Of course.” Sand stood and bowed his head. “There is no need to apologize. Bronwen explained travel methods to me, and I can only imagine how exhausting the journey was for you all. Please, think no more about it.”

Bronwen leaned close to Vale, murmuring into his ear. “You like him, don’t you, my pretty sun elf?”

Vale never looked away from Yuji as he left, but he nodded. “I don’t know why, but he makes me feel… something.”

Willow hurried through the restaurant, knocking on the door of the gents’ restrooms, calling out softly in Japanese. “Yuji, are you there? Is he alright?” She pushed on the door a tiny bit to peek inside, and let out a squeak when the door was pulled open.

Yuji sighed as he pulled the door open and Willow practically fell into his arms. “He’s alright. He’s returning pretty much everything he’s eaten since lunch, I think,” he said and pulled Willow inside so he could close the door again as the restroom echoed with the sounds of Kansas’ purging.

“Dear gods, that bad?” Willow said and stepped inside the restroom proper, seeing Satoshi’s ass sticking out of one of the stalls, Kansas’ little feet sticking out between Satoshi’s legs.

“I wasn’t paying attention to what he was eating,” Satoshi called out, without looking up, then continued to soothe Kansas, the youngster crying as he heaved again.

“No one’s blaming you, love,” Willow assured him, and turned to wrap her arms around Yuji’s waist, tucking herself into his embrace. “Take him down to our room when he’s finished, and try to get him to sleep. I’ll ask the kitchen if they can send down something to soothe his tummy, alright? What would you like, love?”

Yuji kissed Willow’s fragrant hair, holding her close as they listened to Kansas sob and cough.

Satoshi righted himself and turned to look at them over his shoulder. “Ask them if they have Calpis, and some Powerade, or Aquarius. Two Monsters, in the orange or the white cans. And could you ask them if they can boil some rice until it’s mushy and bring that to our room, along with a pot of green tea?”

“I don’t like that,” Kansas whined into the porcelain bowl, and Satoshi rolled his eyes as he turned back to the little imp, adding in a tired tone,

“And a bucket. We’ll need a bucket.”

“You going to go down with them?” Willow asked, and smiled up at Yuji, one hand rubbing his back.

“I think I should at least help him carry Kansas downstairs,” Yuji agreed and leaned down to kiss his wife lovingly. “I should go apologise to Vale-san, shouldn’t I? I ran off so abruptly.”

“I’ll apologise for you, and you can always come upstairs again, once you have the little one settled,” Willow answered, and lifted up on her toes to steal another sweet kiss. “I think they all understand.” Willow turned to Satoshi as he came out of the stall, Kansas leaning heavily on him as they made their way over to the sinks. “And don’t worry about having embarrassed me or anyone else, alright? They’ll understand. I’m going to stay a while longer. Is that alright?”

“Of course it is,” Satoshi said with a sigh and helped Kansas sip some water from the tap to rinse his mouth. “I’m going to stay with him, though. Can you go ask the kitchen for me…?”

“Of course, love, of course,” Willow said and hurried over to stroke Kansas’ hair quickly. “You go down to our room, and I’ll ask someone to send all that stuff down for you.” Willow leaned over to kiss Satoshi softly on the lips, then turned back to Yuji. “And you, my love, you come upstairs again, if you want.”

“I will,” Yuji said and kissed her one more time. “Please explain to Vale, will you? And get him a drink from me? He likes Armagnac.”

“I will, love,” Willow promised and stole one more kiss before she hurried out of the bathroom again, and went in search of a waiter to ask about Satoshi’s tummy remedies.

Once she had made sure that the hotel kitchen could deliver everything requested to their room, she went to the bar and ordered a wine for herself and Bronwen, a cup of sake for Sand, and a glass of Armagnac for Vale before she returned to her table with the drinks and her most sincerest apologies to the two elves and Bronwen for Kansas’ abrupt departure.
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Sandcastles and Fireworks