Rikmóðr
Rikka had not been a late bloomer. In truth, her adolescence had begun rather early, and she had been looking forward to outgrowing her cubbish figure even before that. Long before, it sometimes seemed. One of the main reasons she had been looking forward to growing up was that she planned, once she was old enough, to get her brother-in-law to fall in love with her.It wasn't as creepy as it sounded. His younger sister, Seqineq, had married Rikka's older brother, Raskogr, so while he and Rikka were technically in-laws, there was absolutely no shared blood between them, and Seqi and Rask hadn't even had any cubs, so it wasn't as if there was even mingled blood between their families. Other than the part of the wedding where Seqi and Rask's blood had been combined but that didn't count.
Anyway, her plan was to show up at his den looking amazing and seduce him. She was pretty confident that she could handle the looking good part, because she knew she had grown up attractive, but she was a little less confident about the seduction. She kind of hoped once she expressed her interest, he would take the lead there.
Brummen
Brummen was in trouble. He hadn't even done anything, and yet he was in trouble. This wasn't a new state of affairs for him. He was constantly being scolded for something or other. It was, he had concluded long ago, his lot in life to be unfairly persecuted, especially by the lionesses in his life. So he was never surprised when his mother or one of his sisters or any of the lionesses he had taken up with snagged him and pulled him aside for a brief scolding.His most recent scolding, however, had seemed particularly unfair to him, as Seqi had spent the better part of a very uncomfortable half hour telling him that one of her husband's little sisters, Rikka, had a terrible crush on him, and if he so much as thought about taking advantage of the young lioness, Seqi would see to it he was ruined in the pride. She'd made similar threats before, but something about the way she uttered this one made Brummen fairly certain she would go through with it.
So it was more than a little awkward when he answered a salutation and found an adolescent lioness with the look of Rask's family standing outside his den, fur groomed and figure...well. Brummen had been under the impression from Seqi's lecture that the girl would be a cub, and this lioness did not look like a cub. He began to think that maybe he'd been too quick to assure his sister that there was no way he would do anything.
Rikmóðr
Rikka had nearly fled in the time between calling out her greeting and Brummen's appearance at the entrance to his den. Staying had been an act of will, and now that the large reaver's dark figure was before her, she was grateful that she had been brave enough to remain, despite her misgivings. Just seeing him this close practically took her breath away. Practically, but not completely. She caught a whiff of his personal scent, which was amazing, but beneath it she could also smell his den, which was...not."It's a good day to die," she greeted him, doing her best to keep her tone low and sultry. Her nerves made her vocal chords tight, so it was something of a struggle. "Won't you ask me in?"
To be honest, if the odor she'd smelled when he appeared was actually what his den smelled like, she was a little dismayed at the thought of taking part in a seduction surrounded by that scent, but she had a plan and she was going to stick to it. She had not failed to notice the surprise in Brummen's stance when he saw her, nor the look in his eyes which indicated he'd liked what he'd seen.
Brummen
"Come in," Brummen said automatically, rendered obedient by his dismay.One thing was certain. He was definitely in trouble. He could not even begin to calculate how much trouble he was in, only that he was in a lot of it. More trouble than the weight of the Stormlords' massive balls. This girl was supposed to be a silly cub with a cute crush, not a cute lioness asking him to ask her into his den. Seqi definitely should have warned him about that. If things went...well? Poorly? However things went, he would absolutely be laying the blame on Seqi for failing to adequately prepare him for this scenario in her warning.
The slim younger lioness brushed against him from shoulder to him as she strode past him into his den and he swallowed. He couldn't see her expression very well, but he thought she seemed a little hesitant. Good, because that contact had put Brummen's senses on edge and he was already having a harder time worrying about the trouble he was going to be in if things happened this evening. He swallowed again, trying to clear her intriguing scent from his senses and failing utterly.
Rikmóðr
Stormlords, Brummen lived in squalor! She knew it wasn't a particularly romantic thing to be thinking on such a momentous occasion, but Rikka couldn't help it. She couldn't imagine how anyone could choose to live like this. Of course, he was probably out on vikings pretty frequently, and perhaps he simply didn't spend enough time in his den for it to be an issue. A wife, or at least a serious lover, would undoubtedly prompt him to take more pride in his living quarters, she told herself."There was something I wanted to ask you," she said in response to his question about whether there was something she needed. Her answer was the more flower-blooded of the two which had immediately sprung to her mind, but she simply didn't have the guts to say she needed him, just blatantly like that.
Although...she'd also planned to initiate some smalltalk, ease into the whole seduction thing, but she wasn't so sure that was the way she wanted to go anymore. It would mean prolonging the amount of time she spent sitting in this sty of a den, and despite her ardor for Brummen, she was not enthusiastic about the state of his home, or the idea of being in it for an extended period of time.
Brummen
Brummen followed Rikka into his den, feeling sort of helpless, like a snake-charmed hare. He'd felt like this before. Frequently. It was how most of the lionesses he took up with ended up in his life. But this lioness was supposed to be off-limits to him, on pain of...Seqi hadn't actually specified. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Especially if she never found out. Stormlords, he was in trouble."Ask away," he said, trying to sound avuncular and mostly just succeeding in being loud, as usual. And babbling a little bit. "But I'd think with your brother being a lawspeaker and all, you'd want to be asking your questions of him. He's really smart, Rask."
The fact was, Brummen was uneasy with the way Rikka seemed like she was not planning on leaving in the immediate future. He was uneasy with the way he didn't much mind the idea of her hanging around for a while. She certainly looked good, standing there in his den, looking at him with those big, gleaming eyes of hers. And she smelled amazing. Seriously, what was that?
Rikmóðr
It was at this point that Rikka's plan began to come apart. She had not expected Brummen to start babbling like a nervous lion her own age. Perhaps she should have done. After all, there was a difference between their ages, and they were kind of related. It wouldn't be completely unexpected for him to be uncomfortable with the fact that they were obviously attracted to one another, and if she'd been older and more experienced, she would have been able to work with that, but she wasn't."It's not the sort of thing I'd ask Rask," she said, stalling while she tried to get her nerves together and figure out how to get back on script. "I mean...Brummen. You probably hear this all the time, but you're very attractive. At least, I've always thought so. And I'm pretty sure you think I'm attractive. What I'm saying is, I want to be with you. Um. Tonight."
She just barely managed not to cringe as she added those last desperately awkward words. Almost certainly she shouldn't have spoken them, but it was too late at this point to unsay them. Instead, she forced herself to step closer to him. Close enough that it would be almost nothing for her to bury her nose in his thick, dark mane and not have to smell his den any longer.
Brummen
Well, there it was. Brummen closed his eyes, hoping that if he wasn't looking at her, it would be easier for him to tell Rikka the lie he ought to, which was that he wasn't interested. It didn't help. It just made him more aware of things like the sound of her breathing and how close she stood to him, and how easy it would be for him to lower his head and inhale that intoxicating scent of hers. Once again, he swallowed, and it came to him that whatever he said next, he was going to screw up."Rikka," he began carefully, keeping his eyes closed despite the apparent uselessness of the gesture. "There are all kinds of reasons why you and I shouldn't be together, especially not tonight, when you're so...so young."
Weak. Pathetic and weak. He could hear every member of his family laughing at him in the back of his mind. Well, those who weren't calling him creatively vile names for what he was increasingly tempted to do. When he spoke again, the mental voices fell absolutely silent with what could only be astonishment at his decision-making skills.
"But honestly not a single one of them makes a damn bit of difference to me right now. You smell so good."
Rikmóðr
Rikka had been afraid she would have to argue, defend her youth, maybe try to put the moves on Brummen (not that she really had any moves). When he'd closed his eyes, she was certain he was getting ready to deny her and ask her to leave. She had not expected that he would drop his head to nuzzle her neck, and then act swiftly to give her exactly what she had asked for.Actually, she hadn't expected things to be so swift in general. That was...something of a disappointment. Not that it hadn't been nice, and it certainly hadn't put her off the idea, but a bubble had burst in her mind, and suddenly Brummen no longer seemed like the nearly-unattainable picture of leonine perfection he had for much of her young life. He just seemed...like a nice enough lion with a loud voice and disgusting den. She really hadn't expected that. She'd expected that it would be magical and they'd realize that they were meant for each other and, well, that wasn't what happened.
"I should probably be going," Rikka said after she'd lain alongside Brummen on his smelly skins for as long as she could stand to. "This was great though. Thank you."
Brummen
"It was my pleasure," Brummen rumbled truthfully.Brummen had enjoyed himself, and he was pretty sure Rikka had, too, and so he was a little baffled by her hasty retreat. Perhaps, he reasoned, she was embarrassed by being so forward with him, but he really didn't mind that. He also didn't much mind that she was leaving, since she wasn't leaving in tears or anything. He'd had plans for the evening, and she definitely would've disrupted them if she'd wanted to stay the night.
He wondered if he ought to ask her not to say anything about what they'd done together, but he decided that would probably hurt her feelings, and if she wasn't crying now, he shouldn't say anything that might push her in that direction. He also decided that maybe he had best avoid her from now on, just in case. He made this decision while smiling in his most affable manner and bidding her (a permanent) farewell.