Work Text:
Vargo pulled back from the hello kiss and looked around the room. "Where's Grey?" The original plan had been all three of them spending the evening together.
"He decided we should have the evening to ourselves, since he's been taking up so many of mine."
Vargo wasn't about to complain, instead pulling Ren closer. "And what should we do with our evening alone?"
Ren pulled back with a grin. "I was thinking Nitza."
"Nitza." Vargo deadpanned. He thought about it for a moment, and realized she was probably going somewhere with it. "And what would we bargain with?"
Ren's mischievous grin lit up her whole face. "Clothes, of course. One article of clothing for each point the other scores."
"Well," Vargo drawled, thinking about it, "if the alta insists."
They set up the game at a side table in the parlor, and the more Vargo thought about it the more fun he realized this could be. They both played it safe with their first hand, and only gained a few points each. Vargo undid his cufflinks and set them to the side, and shortly added his cravat pin to the small pile. And waited.
He knew he'd played right into her hands when he saw the smirk start to curl across her face, once she realized those were his offerings to match the three points she'd won.
"I was so hoping you would be a sly bastard about it." She slipped off the ribbon holding back her mass of braids and slowly set it on the table. "I have been in need of a wash." Another tie followed, from the end of one of her braids. As he watched her slide her fingers through the braid, unbinding it completely while continuing to give him a lazy, self-satisfied smirk, Vargo realized he hadn't seen her hair unbound since the wedding. Presumably, no one but Grey had.
Attempting to distract himself from that thought, he said, "We'll reach nitza by the time you're done with all those."
Somehow, her grin grew wider, and she picked up her cup to toy with it playfully. "Oh, didn't I say?" She took a small sip, and lowered her cup enough to say, "We're not going to nitza," another sip, and he knew she had him exactly where she wanted him, "We're going until someone breaks." He knew by the sparkle in her eyes that this time, when the cup went up, it was mostly being used to hide the wicked grin she was sporting.
"Well then," he reached for his cards, his own grin spreading, "if that's how you want to play."
He didn't go easy on her, but she wasn't a slouch by any means, and she knew just how to distract him. Three rounds in he'd given up three rings and a boot, while she had traded off untying braids and discarding clothing. She had 3 more braids undone, and had taken off her panel belt and the boot and stocking for her left leg, which she then dangled over the arm of her chair, swinging it every now and then to draw his eye. If he was counting correctly, he had to win significantly more points than she did to get her to the point of no longer having anything on, so it was with a smirk on his face he ended the next round with 7 points taken to her 3. He slipped off his other boot, his cravat, and his jacket, laid them neatly over the back of his chair, and waited to see what she would offer up.
She undid one braid with agonizing slowness, dropping the ribbon onto her growing pile with a smirk. And another. And a third, this time one that had an ornament. She carefully added the Dreamweaver feather to the pile on the table, and Vargo realized he hadn't accounted for the ornaments in her hair.
He was so fucked.
Still, that was only 4, and he waited to see what else she would pick. Her other boot and stocking he expected, but her skirt was a surprise. Her shirt was long enough to cover, but that didn't help when she threw both her legs over the arm of her chair, smirking at him the whole time, with her hair falling around her shoulders in waves.
He almost broke right then.
He reached for his wine glass, for anything to distract from sight before him, and almost choked when a devious thought hit him. Nothing said losing a point was the *only* time to remove something. He set his glass down and, instead of dealing the next round, began carefully undoing the buttons of his vest.
"What are you up to?"
Vargo bit back a smirk. "Just getting a little warm in here, is all." He watched her eyes tracking his hands as he started on the buttons of his shirt, and the little flutter of disappointment there when he stopped halfway down. You're not the only one who can play dirty. Her eyes continued to rest on his chest as he leaned forward to grab the deck, the open part of his shirt gaping. "Ready for another round? Or do you want to call ninat?"
Her eyes snapped up to his own. "Oh, I will not be the one calling ninat." She grabbed her own glass and took a fortifying drink. "Deal."
The next hand was played fast, Vargo winning 5 points to Ren’s 4. He slipped out of his socks, vest, and shirt, tossing them onto Ren’s pile of clothes rather than bother with placing them neatly as he had before. He took up an insolent, sideways lounge in his chair. Ren took her time undoing three more braids, eyes busy roving his body as her fingers slid through her hair. She dropped the three ribbons and sorzas mark onto the pile on the table, and then paused in the middle of reaching for the second to last braid. Instead her hands changed course, slipping up under her shirt and coming out a moment later with her breast wrap. It, too, was tossed onto the pile of clothes, and she took up the deck to deal the next hand.
She got distracted more than once, had to redeal the cards twice, and was biting her lip hard enough to bruise by the time Vargo took up his hand. Not that Vargo was unaffected by the sight before him. This was going to be the last hand for both of them, he thought to himself, straightening up in his chair.
By the time it had registered with him that Ren had slapped down her cards she was already pulling his own out of his hands and climbing into his lap, greedy hands digging into his hair to pull him in for a bruising kiss. Then it was scrabbling hands, both of them working to get him out of his trousers and into Ren’s dripping warmth, frantic and needy the both of them.
He was blinking stars from his eyes after only a handful of strokes, but Ren followed him quickly. She collapsed into him, burying her face in his neck and panting for breath. He pressed a kiss to her hair and stroked his hands up and down her sides, suddenly very glad he had started keeping changes of clothes in Westbridge. These trousers were in need of a wash now. "I feel like a randy teenager, falling apart so quickly."
Ren laughed into his throat before pulling back to grin at him. "Why don't you come upstairs and we can confirm you have far more stamina than some randy teenager?"
~~~
It was many hours later, both of them having proven to their satisfaction that they had far, far more stamina than a pair of randy teenagers, that they finally let the sweat cool completely and their hearts beat back to normal. Ren was tired and sore in the best of ways, and also in desperate need of a wash. She thanked the Faces she'd had the forethought to fill the bath earlier in the day as she slipped from the bed- and straight onto the floor, her legs refusing to hold her up.
The thud, and her following laughter, roused Vargo from whatever half-awake state he'd been in, and he poked his head over the side of the bed to blink tiredly down at her. "I ent sure I'd fair any better." Ren dragged herself upright on legs that wobbled but did, with some effort, hold her up. She held her hands out to Vargo.
"I am in need of the closehorse, and a bath. Come make sure I don't drown?" He groaned but followed her over to the little tiled room off the bedroom and set up the warming numinat while Ren made use of the closehorse and undid the last of her braids. She set her ties and marriage charm down on the little table she and Grey had set aside for hair care implements, hesitating for just a moment before picking up the comb. She turned and offered it to Vargo, hoping her smile looked playful and not uncertain. “Helped you did to make my hair a rats nest, you can help to fix it."
He took the comb and tugged her over to the pair of stools set aside for just such a purpose. "It would be my pleasure." They sat in silence for a while after that, and Ren relaxed into the gentle comfort of having someone she loved taking care of her, even in such a small way. "I hadn't realized how long your hair had gotten- that sounds stupid out loud. Ignore me."
Ren was too tired to stiffle her giggle. "Grey says the same thing, when I take it down after a long stint of it being all piled up on top."
Vargo finished running the comb through her hair and wrapped his arms around her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I know you two have been more traditional about your hair than most, so, thank you.” The warmth of his arms seemed to settle all through Ren, gentle and comforting, and she settled back into his embrace for a long moment. After a few minutes of gentle silence she took the comb from him and turned around, gesturing for him to do the same.
“Your hair is also a rats nest. Let me fix it?” His answer was to press another kiss to her brow and turn around on his stool, and she set to work gently untangling his black locks.
Once that was done the water was warm enough for a bath, and Ren pulled out a buckets worth to do a quick Liganti style scrub down with before stepping into the bath proper. Vargo followed suit, settling into the bath behind her and pulling her into his arms. This night was apparently going to be full of long, gentle silences, and Ren was fine with that, settling into the circle of Vargo’s arms and enjoying the time spent together. There was a larger purpose to the night, however, so eventually she broke the silence with, “Help me wash my hair?”
“Of course,” Vargo responded, warm and amused and thoroughly distracting. He was gentle and through with washing her hair, and obediently turned around and let her do the same for him. They stepped out of the bath and dried each other off, Vargo being just as gentle and through with drying her hair as he had been with everything else. No towel alone was going to dry her hair fully, however, so eventually she grabbed a few things off the table of hair implements and pulled Vargo back into the bedroom to sit with her by the fire.
Once Ren deemed her hair dry enough her scalp wouldn’t itch for it being put up, she turned to Vargo and held out one hand. “Would you help me put this back in?” Dangling from her fingers was one end of her marriage token, along with a pick to help section out the hair to be braided.
He reached out and gently touched the grey end, not yet grasping it. “You sure?”
Ren felt like her heart had taken up residence in her throat. “Yes.” He wrapped his fingers delicately around the end and gave a small tug, but Ren didn’t let go. Instead she held out her other hand, palm up to reveal what it contained. "Think you any would notice if a second charm joined this first one?" Vargo’s eyes flicked between her face and the two marriage tokens in what Ren had come to think of as their colors. She watched him swallow once, twice, before a deep laugh was pulled from him.
“You never can do anything the easy way, can you?” He reached out and plucked up one of the tokens from her palm, and Ren relinquished Grey’s to him. “This whole night, just to ask me to marry you? Were you worried I’d say no?”
Yes. But she wasn’t going to admit that out loud.
Instead she gave him a cheeky grin. “’Not a casual affair’ is a far cry from ‘married’. Besides, I’d get bored without at least one plan full of moving parts to occupy me.”
“En’t the Setterat and being the Black Rose enough to occupy you?”
“Clearly not.”
Vargo just huffed a laugh and turned her so he could start the work of braiding both marriage charms into her hair. Once he was done she did the same for him, pulling the hair for the braid from behind his ear. It would be easy to see any time he pulled the top of his hair back, as he’d taken to doing of late, but also harder to spot when his hair was down. “No need to make it easy on them.”
“You just like being a shit stirrer, that’s what this is about.”
Ren bit back a grin. He knew her so well.
Vargo pulled her to him and pressed a kiss into her hair. “My whole heart,” he reminded her, “for my whole life.” A promise he’d made to her, for the two of them alone.
She brushed the token now braided into his hair as she smiled up at him. “I know.” That token was a promise she was showing the world, that he meant no less to her than Grey did. “And you have mine.”
~~~Ninat~~~