[FIN] Scars of the Past

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran nodded agreement and folded his hands comfortably behind his head as Abel's fingers wandered over his skin, and then purred as his friend kissed his skin. "I must have been about that yes, I was unlucky that they got in between my ribs... unlucky and perhaps a little cocky. It went up into my lung," he freed a hand to vaguely gesture the diagonal angle. "And though I said I was unlucky and cocky I was fortunate enough to see them and move quickly enough that they got that rather than up and under the left side. That would have been rather more disastrous." Being stabbed in or near the heart was definitely a bad time. "As it was, yes, I spent some time unable to move a lot and then some more as you have also experienced; short of breath, weak at first, and I am sure you can guess how well I enjoyed this as a teenager!" He had been proud though, he had got the job done.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Traces of a smirk tugged at the lips Abel pressed to Zevran's scar, though rather than give in to the temptation of responding to his friend's pleased noises he left another slow kiss on his skin instead. That didn't stop his eyebrows from twitching down or the hum of displeasure he voiced. They'd been aiming for the left. They'd been aiming to kill him. Had he killed them instead? Probably. It left him feeling.. rather complicated. He didn't like death, hypocrite that he was, but he couldn't help but feel glad his friend had lived - though survived might be a better word - so he kissed the scar one final time, long and slow, before lifting his head enough to rest his cheek on the back of one hand while his other hand's fingers traced idle circles around the scar. "Only a little more disastrous," he quipped, knowing full well how lethal such a stab could be, but then he chuckled a bit. "I can only imagine how frustrated you were! I'll bet you enjoyed it not even a little bit."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Heh, indeed, but I got better." Zevran smiled a little to himself and reached down to stroke Abel's hair. "You're leaning on another interesting one by the way," he added with a soft chuckle. By now Abel was probably fairly familiar with where some of his scars were but they'd never spoken of them before. "This one is under a tattoo but you should be able to feel it, it is sunken and quite round. Why not see if you can find it?" Zevran smirked, they might as well make a game of it no?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The hand in his hair brought a softer, warmer smile to his face, but the expression he aimed at his friend a few moments later was curious. "Oh, am I?" He asked, his gaze drifting back down over the other man's form and shifted back a little to get a better look. While he'd grown quite familiar with his friend's various tattoos and scars over the past few months, he had yet to memorize all of the latter. The one Zev hinted at rang a bell, though, and even if it didn't his tattoos helped matters considerably. Abel's fingers glided over his torso until they reached one of his friend's numerous curved tattoos, and ran his fingers over them slowly, thoughtfully, even though he could see the dip in his skin at such close range. "This one, you mean? How'd you get this one then?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah, you discovered it, we have a winner!" Zevran grinned, propping himself up just a little on one elbow so that he could see Abel more easily. "That one was a bullet, the exit wound, there's another scar on my back a little higher up where it went in. It took a couple of surgeries to patch that up but I healed faster in the end from that than the lung injury." He remembered it hurting more at the time but that was probably because he'd been more afraid and shocked, being shot in the back was not the nicest of surprises and certainly not when you hadn't experienced a really serious injury before.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel chuckled a bit again, smirking lazily up at his friend for a moment or two before shifting his gaze back down to the little scar hidden beneath a tattoo. Zevran had told him before just why he got tattoos over certain scars and not others, and it was something he remembered quite clearly. "I can tell, it looks like one you'd get from a bullet. It must've been pretty bad in its own way, then, even if it healed faster; I know I wouldn't particularly want to be shot in the back."

...not that getting stabbed in the back was much better, of course.

All the same he leaned down to kiss the scar for a long moment or two. "How long ago was this one?" He asked in a murmur, barely lifting his head up to ask the question before gently pressing his lips back on the marked skin.  

[TawnyAngel]

Yes, this was definitely a good way to wake up. If he was going to keep getting kisses perhaps he should give Abel a tour of more scars? "It was bad, made quite a mess of my intestines," Zevran agreed with a wry huff of breath as he started to stroke Abel's hair again. No need to mention the part about guts poking out because of the damage to the membrane that kept them all together. Eugh. "This one was a couple of years before the previous, quite an upsetting experience at the time," Zevran said in the manner that one might comment on slightly inclement weather.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Another furrow of his brow, another displeased hum as he pressed another tender kiss to the scar, lingering another couple of seconds longer than usual. "Damn," he sighed as he drew his head back - though not so far that Zev couldn't keep touching his hair - and traced the small, circular indent with his eyes again. That would've made him about sixteen or so. Far too young to be shot, and in the back too... He could only imagine how frightening the experience had been. It had at least been unpleasant enough for Zevran to see fit to hide the marks it made under tattoos. "I'll bet it was pretty upsetting, yeah. Was that the first time you've been shot?" With that question posed, he left one more soft kiss on the scar in question. He felt it needed a little more attention than the last.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran chuckled softly and scraped his short neat nails gently over Abel's scalp. "More or less? I was grazed once before... If I remember rightly it was a few months before this one but I think that scar has disappeared now, it was on my outer left thigh. You could go and see if you can find anything if you like! Though I am enjoying where you're kissing at the moment." The memory of the injury was rather unpleasant but it wasn't one that often came to mind, and he didn't feel troubled by it just now with Abel's gentle voice, and soft lips on his skin.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel's eyelids fluttered shut with a contented sigh, and he rested his cheek on Zevran's abdomen and simply enjoyed the feeling of his nails running through his hair. A few moments later - long, pleased, contented moments - he shifted his head so he could kiss the small scar again. "Mmmmh, if it's gone now I probably won't find anything, though if you want me to look I'll happily hunt for it for a while. Later, though," he added, and with it he also added one more lengthy kiss to Zevran's skin. "I think I'm rather enjoying kissing this spot, too." One more kiss, and then, "What scar's the worst one? Or your least favorite," he amended after a moment -- and another kiss. This one in particular seemed like a pretty bad one, but he didn't know if there were ones Zevran liked even less. He did have multiple scars hidden beneath multiple tattoos, after all, not just this one.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, least favourite?" Zevran's smile faded to a thoughtful frown and he lay back down. Humm. "There are some burns under the tattoos on my back and the inside of my right thigh; I do not like those ones particularly," he said slowly after a pause, in which he had decided to be truthful rather than being evasive or lying. "They were not serious injuries compared to some of the others I have had but acquiring them was particularly unpleasant, so I would have to say they are my least favourite but not the worst I suppose."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"The worst and the least favorite don't have to be the same," he pointed out before he kissed the small, circular scar one last time before pulling himself up beside his friend again. His hand glided up over his torso until it came to rest over his cheek and he leaned in close to press a kiss to his temple like all the kisses he'd left on his scars; soft, tender, lingering. Burns, though... Scars like those were rather distinctive, or so he'd always assumed, and while he thought he knew which ones Zevran was speaking of... "Here, roll over," the blond requested in softer tones, even going so far as to gently nudge the other man's shoulder, "let me see." As curious as he was about just how his friend had acquired them, he felt the question could wait a few more moments.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran tutted and did as he was told. "You just want to look at my arse," he accused lightly, lying his hands on the pillow and then his cheek on top of them.

The scars in question weren't immediately obvious - unlike the pale lines running down his back where Estoque had lacerated him - but a closer look at the curving black tattoos on his back would reveal five raised oblong scars each about two inches long and about half as wide with smooth edges at varying locations. The curves of the tattoos had presumably been chosen specifically to run over the top of them.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Well I could say 'no I don't' but we both know that's a lie," he chuckled, offering his friend a brief smirk before he rolled over as bid. Once he had, Abel's colorful eyes quickly set about tracing the various curved lines scattered about his friend's back, searching for the scars in question... though he did spare a few kisses for his more recent scars. His fingertips ghosted over the largest of the tattoos and found the burns much quicker than his eyes would've, though once his fingers found them his eyes did too. As he rubbed his thumb over one of them - there seemed to be a handful of them - from one end to the other. The knowledge that the burns were almost assuredly deliberate was more than a little distressing, but he quieted it quite firmly lest it manifest in his voice. "How did you get these?" He asked quietly as he leaned down to kiss one of them gently - very gently - then added, "If you don't mind me asking, that is. You don't have to tell me if you'd rather not."  

[TawnyAngel]

Mmh. Zevran closed his eyes and relaxed deliberately as he debated with himself, did he mind? No, he didn't, but surely this would just upset Abel? But it had been somehow comforting to share some of the other things he had, maybe this would be as well.

"Ahh... I was sent out on a job by one of the masters but it went a little awry," Zevran said with a humourless chuckle after a rather lengthy silence. "I was supposed to... get close to him if you follow me but he had been tipped off and instead I was taken prisoner. He tried to extract from me the details of the contract, which I refused to give. He burned me, and a few other things, and then fortunately my comrades arrived having realised something was wrong. The job was done, they patched me up, and then we went and got extremely drunk. Technically speaking it was quite the success, we were well praised for it." And looking back he was sure, he was almost sure that Rinna and Taliesen had been genuinely worried about him and truly cared that he had been hurt. He hadn't thought about it at the time, because you didn't, but now... Was he just painting over the past with nostalgia, trying to make it better than it had been? Memories could be unreliable things at times.