#but next to Eder it's clear that Kai is awkward and stiff and formal compared to absolutely anyone besides Aloth | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

haledamage · 5 years

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Rhitober, Day 20

(continuing from the prompts here, this time: balter for Kai & Eder :) using my modern au Cafe Nua setting because I love it and don’t visit it enough)

“Kiki, we’ve talked about this.” Edér had to yell to be heard over the thrumming, relentless beat of what Kai called music.

She lunged for her phone to turn it off. The sudden silence was startling and vast in its wake. “I’m sorry. You said you wouldn’t be home for a few days.”

Edér shrugged, clearly not actually annoyed by being awoken at 3am in such a way. “I got in about an hour ago. You okay?”

“Yeah.” He raised a pale eyebrow, disbelieving, so Kai said again, “Yes. I just… had another one of those dreams. I think they’re scared of you, my dear. I don’t have them as often since I moved in here.”

“Maybe you just feel safer with me around.” There was no arrogance in the way he said it, no bragging or insinuations. He just stated it as a fact.

The most terrifying part to Kai was that he was right.

Edér washed away the subject with a curling stream of pipe smoke, the sweet-acrid scent of it mixing with the aroma of sugar and baking things that filled the kitchen. “How many batches of cookies you made so far, Kiki?”

“Just two. Well, three. Third one’s in the oven now.” She indicated the cookies in question, a plate of ginger biscuits and another of snickerdoodles sitting on the counter. Edér grabbed one of each and leaned a hip against the counter, looking content.

“You know, I wouldn’t have a problem with you doin’ this if you had better taste in music,” he said once he was done eating. “If you’re gonna wake me up before dawn, at least give me something I can dance to.”

“You can dance?”

He shrugged. “Sure, anyone can dance. I ain’t any good at it, but that’s not the point.”

Kai, who had been raised to believe that nothing was worth doing if you weren’t good at it, bit her lip to keep from replying. She watched as Edér seemed to come to a decision, and he walked over to where her phone still lay on the counter and unlocked it, scrolling through as if looking for something. She considered protesting, but she’d gotten used to his loose interpretation of personal boundaries by now. He wouldn’t go into anything private, and if she really had a problem with it she could have fingerprint-locked her phone by now and she hadn’t.

He finally found what he was looking for and music filled the kitchen again, something upbeat and buoyant.

Edér held a hand out to her. “May I have this dance, Watcher?”

Kai shook her head. “Oh no. No way. I don’t dance.” She lifted her hands up in front of herself as if it ward him off, but he took the opportunity and grabbed her wrist, pulling her onto his improvised dancefloor.

However bad they may or may not have been individually, Kai and Edér were terrible dance partners. What he lacked in finesse, she matched in rigidity, and by the time the timer went off for the last batch of cookies, they both probably had bruises on their feet. But, eventually - very eventually - she started to relax and have fun, which was probably the point he’d been trying to make to begin with.

She tried to teach him to waltz, the closest thing she had to actual training in the art. Kai didn’t know how to lead and Edér didn’t know the steps and the room was too small for it, but they tried to make it work anyway.

It ended, perhaps inevitably, with them covered in flour after knocking the bag off the counter.

“You ever thought of dying your hair, Kiki?” Edér grinned, trying to clear flour from his pipe. “White’s a good look for you.”

“Is it?” Kai dipped her hands into the pile nearest to her and rubbed the flour across Edér’s face, leaving a trail of white powder across his nose and cheeks. “Oh yes, I see what you mean, dear. Very dashing.”

She made an undignified squawking sound as he picked up a handful of flour and threw it at her.

#rhitober #day 20 #is that a weird place to end it? maybe #is that where it really wanted to end? yes #or go on for another 4k words but that I think defeats the purpose of the daily prompts if I turn it into a whole fic #I love Kai and Eder's dynamic #especially compared to Kai and Aloth #because with Kai and Aloth she is very much the cooler and more relaxed of the two #because Aloth is as unrelaxed as a person can get #but next to Eder it's clear that Kai is awkward and stiff and formal compared to absolutely anyone besides Aloth #and I just love that #this is way too many tags oops #thanks again anon <3

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