Dragon Flame Pain - Resolution

[R-Gii]

Leviath sat at the table at the Grand Winglin Palace Restaurant glancing out at the waiters milling about and customers chattering to and with eachother. Date night with Cindy had always been a pleasant experience in the past, but lately, things had become... complicated between them.

As he sat there waiting for Cindy to arrive at the table so they could order their food, he couldn't help but notice, Cindy sure was taking awhile in that bathroom, and Leviath could only guess what she was doing in there.

Probably standing in front of the mirror and admiring herself again, Leviath figured - not that he was surprised, she tended to be fascinated with... certain aspects of herself, and she always found time to admire those certain aspects of her ladyhood quite frequently, even when the timing certainly did not call for it. Not that he blamed her, she had some nice aspects of herself down there, and he could appreciate a lady who liked her lady-self like she did. Besides, at least when she was busy appreciating herself, it helped spare him from some of the... uncomfortable situations that had arisen from her "appreciating" him.

Not likely, he grumbled to himself, once she starts on herself, she'll start getting on about how we contrast eachother, and what better way to contrast us than by throwing pain at the place she didn't-

Leviath snorted irritation. What a memory.

It had been a few months since the flame pain and freeze pain incidents, and Cindy's stomach was growing ever bigger with her egg. Leviath still couldn't comprehend that that kind of sheer agony had happened to him, leaving him screaming and writhing on the floor like it had. He shifted his legs, imagining the pureness of the pain all over, but still unable to believe it; he knew how it had felt, could image the acute searingness of it all with undeniable accuracy, but somehow, something in his mind had blocked him from being able to process it as if it had actually been a real incident, that it had not just been some horrific imagined memory he'd cooked up in his most demented fever dreams.

Not a good memory.

 When Cindy finally arrived at the table she had that amused smirk on her face, confirming Leviath's suspicions as to why she'd been gone so long. She gave him a sly look, and he looked at her unimpressed - though he was totally impressed, she did have a body to be proud of. He nodded at her with a grunt of greeting as she sat down across from him. There was a moment of awkward silence, then...

"Had a good time in there?" he asked.

"Phenomenal," Cindy replied.

Of course.

Nothing more to say, Cindy picked up her menu, and Leviath continued to look at his. Silence filled their table.

After a moment, Leviath glanced up at Cindy, and she glanced back at him, before, wordlessly, they both turned back to their menus, both of them wanting to break the ice, but neither sure of what to say.

"Anything looking good?" Leviath asked finally.

"Well, I'm really liking the look of this Viridian Snapper," Cindy replied.

"Yeah, hmm," Leviath said, checking that item on his own menu, it looked fine, but not his thing.

More silence.

Leviath looked at Cindy, and despite everything that had happened lately, he thought that she still was so pretty tonight. Noticing him watching her, she glanced back, giving him that sly look she always gave, letting him know she found him very attractive too. At least it was something.

Then abruptly, her talon slipped, she fumbled for the menu, but it fell out of her talons and onto the floor under the table.

"Let me get that," Cindy replied, bending over and ducking beneath the table.

Leviath heard Cindy shuffling around a few seconds, sounded like she found it, then silence. She gave a sudden snicker.

"Cindy," he asked, shifting his legs awkwardly; he had a pretty fair idea what had amused Cindy in that way down there, and he was pretty sure it had to do with him.

Silence.

"Cindy."

Finally, Cindy pulled out from under the table, and straighted up in her seat, the amused expression on her face, mixed with a sense of physical admiration, confirmed everything.

"Yes, sweetheart," she replied innocently.

Leviath just gave a grunt and went back to his menu. Cindy did the same.

After a moment, he lowered the menu once again and looked at her. She really was so pretty tonight, and seeing her this way just filled him with a melancholy sense of longing.

Leviath sighed. Ever since that incident with the flame pain and... that other one, an awkward silence had grown between them. He was glad to spend this time with her, but he didn't know what to say, there had been this ice between them (the second incident quite literally being a block of ice not to forget to add, he remembered painfully), and he wasn't sure how to break it. He admired her so much, he really did, but the fact that she could put him through so much pain like that and just be fine with it...

But then he looked at her, and his heart softened, he didn't feel angry really, he realized, not even betrayed. He liked her personality the way it was, her sense of humor, the things that she found amusing, all of it was part of what made her so attractive, without it she would lose a large part of who she was. How could he want that?

So he fell back into silence, once again at a loss at how to fill this rift that had grown between them.

But he had to talk to her, just because he liked that she liked that didn't mean he wanted her to think it was okay. He didn't want her to change, but he also didn't like pain, and if he couldn't trust her in their relationship, then how could they be the best for eachother that they could be?

They needed to talk.

So, Leviath took a deep breath and started.

"Listen Cindy, we need to talk."

Cindy looked at him for a moment, and then the amusement from earlier faded from her eyes. Finally she looked down. "I know." She took a deep breath, "Where do we start?"

"Let's just get straight to the point," Leviath said.

Cindy nodded.

"Cindy, I know you like how I'm..." he cleared his throat - a strong dignified dragon doesn't like to admit it, but he couldn't avoid admitting it - "sensitive down there- I like how you like that I'm sensitive down there..." He paused, "I just don't like being sensitive down there myself."

He shifted.

Cindy shifted in her spot as well, looking away, beginning to feel a bit guilty.

"Not like you have much choice."

"That's not the point."

"I know."

Silence.

"Your order please?"

Cindy and Leviath looked up to see their waiter standing beside their table, pen and pad in talon. Cindy and Leviath looked at one another.

"Yes," Cindy said, turning her attention to the order, "I'll have a large Viridian Snapper please, grilled, with a side of... Fried lizard tails and - what are those? Those Nine-Island Cucumbers?"

The waiter nodded confirmation.

"Okay, that. And give me a Bloody Scarlet as well," Cindy finished.

The waiter jotted it down and turned to Leviath. Leviath looked again at his menu.

"I think I'll go with one of them roasted half-cows," Leviath said, "Medium rare. And I'll also take some of those fried lizard tails, with... Just give me one of them baked potatoes, with chives and cheese and all that good stuff. And you know what, I'll also take a nice cold tequila, don't forget the lime." Yeah, he deserved something for himself.

"Very good sir," replied the waiter dragon, jotting it down, before leaving the two of them again to eachother's company.

In the silence, Cindy again turned her gaze from Leviath.

"It's not that I like to see you in pain, it's just..." Cindy struggled for the right words, then gave up, "Okay, I like to see you in pain," she said, trying to suppress a chuckle, "But it's not like that, you're so unique and handsome, and the fact that you can experience something that I can't... I just have to give it to you, you know."

Leviath flinched, thinking about how it felt being "given it."

But somehow something about Cindy's words still fascinated Leviath, he wanted to hear more. He looked at her closely.

Cindy continued, "Every aspect of our lives, I can put myself in your talons, imagine what you're feeling, but this one thing, I can't. It's so foreign to me that I can't help but admire that," she was giving him those eyes again, "and I just have to make you feel it, you know, so I can make you know how much I admire you down there." She fluttered her eyes, "Perhaps you'll even feel as much admiration for my 'down there', knowing why I could never feel the same."

Leviath sighed. He couldn't deny it, he did admire Cindy... in certain ways, and the flame pain incidents only served to remind him of how unique she was from him "down there". The fact she wanted him to admire her as much as she admired him, Leviath couldn't hide the fact that that was certainly very hot.

But Leviath wondered if maybe her obsession with... their differences was too much, regardless of how much it helped make her attractive. He couldn't deny there were times lately where she'd taken it too far.

"But it hurts!" Leviath cried.

Cindy suppressed a laugh, "I'm not going deny, seeing you roll around like that, screaming your head off, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen," But then she looked deeper into his eyes and a feeling of sympathy came over her; this was her husband, and she wanted the best for him. She knew on some level her antics had caused him pain, but not being able to understand what it had felt like herself, it couldn't hurt hurt, could it. To her the pain had always been a comical pain, it hadn't been real, but that's not how Leviath had really experienced it, was it? The pain had probably been so real and excruciating, if she had actually been him, she would've wished she had been dead.

And that hit her even harder than it had before. In an instant, she had burst out into hysteric, uncontrollable laughter; she stumbled out of her chair and onto the floor on all fours, using one of them to hold her stomach. Guests all over the restaurant turned to look at the spectacle.

The woman is a complete psychopath!

"I'm sorry," Cindy struggled, "I know it's not fair to you, but I just can't help it." She snorted and held up her talons for the watching dragons to return to their seats. Taking in deep breaths, she tried to regain her voice, "But if you don't want it anymore, I know I have to... at least I still got the memories." Then she burst into hysterics all over again.

Leviath flinched. He hated the memory of being in pain like that, so why was hearing her laughter over it so attractive?

Because it's from her perspective, not mine, Leviath realized. To her he was an attractive guy in the most amusing situation imaginable, screaming his head off about a ridiculous scenario happening to the most personal aspect of his male self. And he liked it when she looked at him that way, he liked it when she found admiration for his personal self. 

But that doesn't make it right.

When Cindy finally recovered, she returned to her seat and looked at Leviath calmly, "But you're right," she said, "No more flame pain, or freeze pain, or whatever pain again. I'm sorry."

Then the two of them fell silent.

Their server brought in their meals (obviously not too thrilled to be serving the "crazy table" tonight), they thanked him, and as they started eating, Leviath finally broke the silence.

"Here's the deal," he said.

Cindy looked up, mid bite into her snapper, and swallowed.

"Flame pain," Leviath continued, "Five minutes, I don't want to be down there a second longer."

Cindy looked at him in surprise, "Wait, you're really saying this?"

Leviath said nothing, just looked at her evenly.

"Okay, then ten," Cindy bargained, picking up the rhythm of the thing.

Leviath grumbled, silently agreeing to Cindy's request.

"My favorite song is 5 minutes," Cindy continued, "if you imagine that you'll only be burning there as long as it takes to listen to your favorite track, it'll make it too bearable, it has to last long enough that you lose track of time, and even another second is too much to endure, for it to have maximum impact..." Cindy noticed Leviath's expression and backed up a bit, "Okay, too far, sorry-"

"Ten."

Cindy looked at Leviath, but he said nothing more. But what in tarnation was he agreeing to?!

After a moment of silence, Leviath pushed forward, "And I don't want it to happen more than once a..." Leviath hesitated, he really didn't know how frequently he could stand it, obviously he couldn't stand it at all, but that was kind of the point, wasn't it? "A month," he said finally. "And most certainly not on work nights."

"No work nights," Cindy agreed.

"Then it's settled," Leviath said, "Now I don't want to hear any more about it."

Then Leviath turned away and went back to his Half-Cow.

As they ate, Leviath glanced back up at Cindy once more to notice her smiling at him sweetly. His face relaxed, and he gave her a kind nod in return.

"You know," Cindy said, "once you're done down there, whenever you recover, I'll even lay in your favorite position for you," she added.

This caught Leviath's attention, "On your back, legs slightly apart?" he asked.

"Just the way you like it."

Leviath grunted consolidation.

So, the two of them settled back into their dinner, and though they were both lost within their own thoughts, the ice between them seemed to have finally broken.

As Leviath watched his wife eat, admiration for her softened his heart, she really was quite a woman - maybe a bit wild - but she sure was quite the experience to have in his life, he really did love her.

She looked at him back, and he could see in her gaze the same look of loving admiration for him that he had for her. Their relationship was complicated, the two of them, but he knew ultimately, they would work things out.

About a week later...

Leviath lay there deep in his sleep in their cavern, as peaceful as he could be, breathing in, breathing out, deep refreshing unconscious air, when-

He felt the ignition of heat, a sharp explosion of pain in the most sensitive part of himself that his body wasn't prepared to take. His eyes jerked open, his body already flailing; right there in the opening of his back legs, flaring bright as daylight...

"FIRE!" He roared, "IT'S BURNING! IT BURNS! MY SENSITIVE PLACE! MY B***S***!!!"

And Cindy just burst into laughter - she couldn't help it, his wild squirming was just too funny.

"MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" He cried. The flaring pain was too much, he couldn't take it another second!

"Sorry," Cindy said, "Centrum Oil sweetheart, it will continue to burn for exactly ten minutes, not a moment more, not a moment less, so I suggest you settle in with your pain, and embrace your helplessness."

Leviath jerked his head back and roared sheer agony, writhing helplessly on the floor, his body no way it could bear another moment of this, but all he could do was unable to stop it.

TEN MINUTES! His mind howled, unable to comprehend that unspeakable horror.

And ten minutes it would be, no amount of helplessness, or writhing, or begging for mercy would stop that, for this was Centrum Oil, and Centrum Oil could not be changed.

And Cindy just laughed, pure amusement over the man she admired most.

What a PSYCHOPATH!

So why did Leviath find that so hot?

Not as hot as the flame in his most sensitive place though, and for that, he could only scream.

She was totally going to owe him that pose after this.

What? I said they'd work things out, I didn't mean they'd actually be perfect. Maybe you need to see a marriage counselor.