Ties that Bond

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

Today was the day. At least she hoped that it was the day. She had made plans for it even if she didn't let Tobias in on it so he could plan ahead. Fact was she never thought of giving him an advanced warning until she had gotten up this morning and started getting ready. He had told her before that he would do it and that was enough for her. Maybe he would assume she would want to on a day of a full moon but then again one could never know. After she had taken care of business early she set about braiding her hair. Just how many she wasn't sure, but it was a lot and it had taken a few hours to do. The braids on the frame of her face had muted silver beads woven in here and there. She dressed in a simple pastel grey dress that fitted the top and loose around the hips. zipped up the back and as always covered her feet. the only other thing she had was that silver chain and it was about her waist. Once she was done she went in search of Tobias, literally following her nose until it lead her to the porch. Slowly opening the door she looked out.

He was there. Had been there, since after lunch. He worked weekends sometimes but not often. It wasn't that there was no work offered his way. It was his choice not to take it. Leaning up against the wall of the building he was sitting on the ground. Where he sat was shaded now but it hadn't been earlier. He had some red over his tan to prove it. Hippy dirty dreads reached down to the bottom of his ears and were almost as long as they used to be before he'd gotten that haircut when Uncle Teddy died. He was wearing a white t-shirt. Had a band name on it. Phish. The sleeves of the shirt were cut off. Only other thing he wore were green cargo shorts that were ones pants before he cut the legs off at the knees. Hadn't brought his hookah out with him today but that didn't mean he didn't have a smoke before he came out here. Eyes were closed. Hands and fingers working at the bongos in front of him. No where on the two drums were safe when it came to banging them to make sound. The song had beat, but it wasn't fast. In his mind he was doing a mantra to the rhythm.

She couldn't be as silent as her mother, but she could be quiet and that's what she was as Ryanna slipped out of the door, holding on to it a moment or two so it settled into place without much disturbance. Then she stepped lightly forward, skirt whispering with her movement. He was playing the drums. She liked it when he played them and suddenly she was reminded of the time she was spying on his from the window. As she moved closer his attire was taken in. They really were different people - at least in the way of their dress, but that didn't really matter. Ryanna stayed quiet, listening to his music, and took up a position opposite of him on the other side of the bongos Being sure not to be in the way of his feet she crouched down, balancing on the balls of her feet, and folded her arms over her knees and watched him. She'd speak once she found a spot in the rhythm to not do too much damage to his focus.

He didn't hear her coming. His drumming definitely helped out her stealth. Every six to eight beats a change was worked into the music. A couple hits of the hand that were harder, then a quarter rest before he started back up again. It all had meaning to him. Drumming was his way of working things out. It was a lot simpler than the other things she'd watched him play. The sitar was serious sh-t. When she knelt down that's when he knew someone was there. She was close enough that he could feel it. Didn't meditate as much as he did without having some awareness outside of the physical body. He didn't open his eyes still. What he was drumming didn't change. Except for one thing - on that next sixth beat hand beat something other than the drum. His hand hit either her wrist or knee instead. When the next sixth beat came around he moved to do it again. Aiming for her opposite knee. With his eyes still closed he was showing off. From touching her with the first hit he knew it was her. He knew her body well enough. He didn't say anything yet. But he smirked. Still chanting in his mind. He wasn't wearing his gloves. They were in his back pockets.

Ryanna was of a mind to simply sit there and feel the pats of his hand against her. Even if he couldn't see it she now had a broad smile upon her face that would have made a normal person laugh if they wore it. But she didn't laugh that would have interfered with his rhythm. The gloves was something she noticed, but his taps didn't last long enough for her to see if there was an actual change to his body or not. So now she studied.. Studied the beats and the movement of his hand. She was watching and counting the rhythm. Her eyes were slightly widened and she had a feel of playing a game. It was fun to her. The next time his hand went to make contact with her she had all intents of grabbing it.

He couldn't see the smile. But he would've guessed it was there. People who smiled, their auras were different than people who walked around pissed off. She might not feel it with the taps but he wasn't absorbing anything right now. If he was holding on to the metal absorption he had been the past couple months he'd break the drums. Now it was every four beats that got a heavy hit of his hand or fingers. What ever Tobias was chanting was working itself to the hallelujah. Most of the downbeats were hit against either of the drums. But he did reach out to give her a whack again on one of them.

One. Two, and she tried to catch his hand! Whether she failed or not this time she couldn't help the trickle of laughter that came from out of her mouth at the combination of the two actions, his whacks and her attempts to catch him just so she could get his hand. Her laughter always had a musical quality to it unless it was forced and this one wasn't. Her head tipped from one side to the next, a few of the braid falling down over her shoulder as she continued to look at him. As her laughter faded out she spoke. "Today, Tobias. I want to do it today."

Beat-beat-beat, Beat, Ba-beat. That's how the drumming ended. All done one-handed because she caught his other one. The drumming ended faster than it would have if he was still out here alone but he'd gotten through the meat of the chant. Plus what she said was a reason to stop. He opened his eyes. The question he was about to ask got sidetracked by her hair. He grinned. "Look at that. Trying to copy my style." All those braids were kind of like dreads. Just not as dirty and woven instead of twisted and knotted. "I like it." He did. Made her look a little hippy like him. Now he got to the real question. "Right now?" Wasn't asked as a bad thing. Just so he knew what was coming and when.

Next she'll wear a gypsy skirt, put a bandana around her head and join him in a smoke. If that was the type of person she was but that thought didn't quite cross her mind. Not quite. She held on to his hand and found herself caressing it with her thumb before she stopped and loosened her fingers to let the hand go. "Braiding it allowed me to clear my head." And it did. Took a lot of patience too. You could say I'm joining your style.. for a while." Who's to know how long she would keep it up. "The process.. he told me it would take twenty-four hours. So I don't see why we shouldn't get started now. Unless there was something you wanted to do first.. and things you wanted to know." pausing for a moment. "I've done some... practicing…with Connor, you saw him that day at breakfast. The broad shoulders man with the bald head? He helped me a bit with the Lycan in me." That was something she wanted to tell him

"Always good to have something that helps with that." She braided, he drummed. And did a couple other things to clear his head and work through his daily sh-t. Can't be weight down by that stuff or else it owns your life. He learned that the hard way. He let her touch his hand like that. Figured it was because it was the first time she'd touched him in a long time that she was touching just him and he knew that was no small thing. "Twenty-four hours?" Damn. This was as heavy duty as a day at the ashram. "Does this include a meal plan, or is this a fasting kind of deal?" He could handle it either way but she knew he ate a lot. And drank a lot. So if there was gonna be none of that he had to be prepared. "Good." About Connor. Had to ask though. "Are you telling me that because I'm going to get a taste of the Lycan in you?" He remembered that the bond had deep links and that meant he'd have to handle the lycan in her in that way but she didn't know if she meant for a real deal meeting too.

De'Ryanna drew in a slow breath and exhaled it just as slowly. "This bond, Tobias is.. a deep connection, as I told you before. We don't have to fast for it or anything like that. You will.. feel what I feel and once the bond is transferred to you, I won't have the buffer, as I do now, that helps to contain the Lycan in me." She wasn't fully aware of the fact that Benjamin had let go of nearly all that hold and she had been keeping herself under her own power. "And tonight is the night of the full moon. It's when that side of me in the strongest. Whatever I'm feeling, unless I'm really good at suppressing the emotion from myself, you're going to feel. The same with you. I won't have your ability and you won't have mine but... the tendencies." Leaving it there for a moment. "You're going to feel all of me."

"Sounds good. So long as there's dinner in there somewhere." He came off as casual but that didn't mean he didn't take what she said to heart. They'd had that talk before about what this bond was like, why she needed a bond like this, and the rest of it. Maybe it was because of what he'd been through up to this point that he wasn't too worried about it. Maybe he was underestimating what she felt with the Lycan stuff. Tonight they'd find out. He grinned. "Just get me through the night without ripping a wild animal's head off and we'll be alright." He assumed she had urges like that. What she didn't know was he'd dealt with urges like that before. Weren't tied to being an animal but that's what made it worse in Toby's mind. That when he'd dealt with that sh-t before he didn't have that kind of reason. There'd been no excuse to make the behavior look cleaner than it was.

"I don't... think... you have to worry about .. that...." Said slowly and with a bit of a grim as she thought about tearing off a wild animal's head. "My hunts are usually clean cut. I haven't hunted as a wolf before...." if she had then the outcome would probably be a lot different and she could even be more violent. She started to chew on her bottom lip. "I am female and so my urges are a bit different. Violent, but only for want to be conquered." If he caught her drift. Her eyes had gone from looking at him face to down to his chest and studying the shirt and the rest of his chest. "And I haven't felt your skin in a long time." Focus.. she would focus... and it took a bit of effort to pull her eyes from his chest and back to his face. "But if my urges cause you to be violent.. then we'll only feed off the other."

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

"For want to be conquered? You?" He didn't know about that. She was one strong woman. He could see her goading on someone to conquerer her and then changing her mind at the last minute and slapping the crap out of them for even trying. But that's what he liked about her. "I get you." He did. All of what she was saying. Including the implied stuff. If that's how some of the 24 hours was spent did she think he wasn't going to complain? Sh-t. She wasn't the only one who hadn't done any feeling in a long time. She was ogling him and he was smirking. See? When he'd called Ryanna an ogler that one day at breakfast he knew what he was talking about. "So where do we start this?"

She couldn't help it, looking at him as she did. He was her first and he was attractive so why not? Starting to reach out to take his hand she changed her mind and stood instead. "Not here. There are too many people here." If she was going to do this she wanted to be away from the Inn, or in her room. But right now away was more preferable. On her feet she brushed her hand down the side of her skirt. "Do you need to put your drums away. Perhaps you'll want to take it with you since you've already proven you can play with one hand." She fingered the silver chain that was around her waist. "I'd like to go to the forest to start. We have to bind our hands together. I'm .. not exactly sure how to do that. Perhaps we can do that together."

Damn right he could play with one hand. He was going to leave the drums behind but since she suggested he could take them, he would. They were tucked underneath his one arm after he stood up. "Bind our hands together?" Did she have rope with her or something? That's what he was looking for when he looked her over. Even though the look-over spent some extra time in certain areas. "With that?" Tobias nodded down at the silver chain. He'd caught her fingers playing with it. "We'll figure it out. The woods are fine by me." He was wearing his birkenstock's but so long as they weren't going to climb a mountain or trees or something he'd be fine. "Let's go drum naked in the wild, Sister. Get you dancing so crazy your braids get tangled in tree branches." That's how a real hippy did it. He gave her his smart-ass grin.

She had been ready to walk, was slightly calm and together and then came that comment. That last comment about naked in the wild and dancing. She took the dancing to me anything but a solo act and if he was in her mind at this moment he would know what she was thinking. Though, maybe he wouldn't need to be in her head to know. Ryanna turned and stepped to him, fingers cautiously pressing against his chest at first before her hand flattened out. She stepped a bit closer and lifted her hand to just barely off his shirt. "You know Tobias....." She was speaking softly and pulled in a full inhale of his scent before her head tipped up to him. "You're not wearing your gloves, and our no touch agreement is nearly over. Does this mean that when I slap you, you will full the full effect?" She didn't touch him, but her hand was slowly moving upwards towards his neck.

She took it that way because she had her mind street walking. When she reacted the way she did, he knew how she'd interpreted his words. He nearly laughed. It was funny to him when he'd meant it literally. Maybe he'd take her to a concert sometime, one of those set up in a field in the middle of nowhere and play music come rain or shine kind of festivals. Then she'd get his meaning. The idea of watching her dancing with a whole bunch of other dirty hippy chicks while good music was playing sounded pretty damn good to him. He'd look into it. "What it means is when I slap you back my hand will sting." He smirked. Free hand clasped her shoulder to turn her around to face the direction of the woods, fact that he wasn't wearing gloves not stopping him. "Forward march Ryanna, before you get your sweet ass in trouble." No way she was going to talk to him like that without getting some of her own sass back.

"Already in trouble..." She turned around, and kept that grin until she was away form him so he couldn't see it. Might be strange but she liked it when he talked to her like that, maybe because he knew the when and didn't say it i a derogatory manner. She'd hit him, he'd hit her back. She'd tear at him, he'd tear at her back. No complaints from her. To help give her hands something to do - as they were itching to grab hold of him - she undid the clasp that held the chain she was wearing together and pulled it from around her. Ryanna began wrapping it around her own wrist as she started to walk. "You know Tobias.. I don't even know how old you are.. or your favorite food. I'm prepared for the depth of this commitment.... and I don't want you to think that I will now invade your life. Perhaps only your personal space here and again." Talking.. talking was good as long as she stayed away from certain topics. She looked up towards the sky to watch the sinking position of the sun.

It was part of why he talked her that way. She got him like that. And he figured it was part of her being conquered thing. They were tit for tat with that stuff and it's what made it work. If she ran away crying every time he said something like that to her he would stop talking like that. "I've had things invade my life, Ryanna, so believe me when I tell you that you knocking on my door more often isn't gonna be the Battle of Normandy for me." It was a history reference, an Earth one too. Hopefully she'd get the meaning though. "You're gonna be able to try on all the skeletons in my closet and you're thinking about how old I am?" He smirked. He dropped his hand from her shoulder once they got walking and he was sure they'd be going to the woods. "I'm twenty-six. My favorite food is whatever makes you put on an apron."

It was funny when you looked at like that, the asking age question, and that's why she chuckled and looked over at him. Eight years older than she. That wasn't bad. "I've always wanted to know. That's not something I will know without you telling me. So I had to ask." She could ask a lot of questions but some of them would be answered soon enough. She was slightly disappointed to feel his hand leave her shoulder, but she told herself that it didn't matter - soon she would have her feel of him. There was a comment to be made about the apron, but she was keeping it to herself before her mind wandered too far down a different path. When they got to the woods Ryanna started off towards the falls, she could hear the trickle of the water in the air. "Your senses may increase, once we're bonded. Or it may seem like it. I can hear the water from the Falls not far off, you'll know that I can hear it and the thought of the Falls will be in your mind as well. For some people, the Sedai and her Warder, senses and things like that can get confusing as to if it is their own or the others. Over time it's easier to tell it apart..."

He laughed. Short blast of laughter. "You could've found out. It's easy to dig up dirt about my family." He got why the information was nicer coming from his own mouth though. He nodded at what she told him about the senses. "Good to know. I kind of have a feeling that our thoughts are not going to run the same tracks." He could be wrong though. Maybe their wavelengths were more similar than they knew. Sudden thought had him smirking. "And hey, I'll know when you're PMSing before the fact now, so that'll keep me from getting slapped." He laughed. Couldn't help it. Most guys would kill to have that heads up before it was too late.

He was right, he would know. A nice red flag alert for him when she was in a bad mood. As long as it didn't put him in one. And if he suddenly had a craving for lemon bars and yogurt he would know why as well. That was, what she considered, the 'fun' part of it all. Though it could be awfully frustrating as well having thoughts and feelings that were not your own in your head. "And I'll try not to make it a personal mission to bombard you with distracting intimate thoughts and feelings while you're at work." That was an interesting thought... could she do that. It was a curious button she shouldn't play with but now that the thought was there.... she stopped when she neared the same clearing she had come to before, the day she last saw her brother. The waterfall was near and there was it's collective water at the base surrounded by rocks. She felt very relaxed here amidst all of the trees and the quiet of nature. It also afforded a good view of the sky that was slowly turning. "Here. we should do it here. The earth calls to me here. It is.. one of my elements." Stopping she turned to him, her left arm from wrist to elbow was wrapped in that chain. She was standing still but internally she was nervous.

"You do and I'll be sure to get jackhammer duty." Bet she'd like that wouldn't she? Nothing like feeling the jerk of a jackhammer for hours to set someone straight. That's why he looked smug. For all the time he'd been at the Inn he'd never come out here. When he ran he went in other directions. Maybe his next run he'd come out here and follow the river down. "Sure. Sounds good to me." He wasn't going to argue. She knew what was going to happen better than he did so he'd trust her judgment. "What does it mean to have earth as one of your elements?" Normally he wouldn't have asked. But if it was going to mean something to him after this bond he figured it was a good idea to know.

Jackhammer duty. While she might not have known what that was - she wasn't into tools, that was her foster sister's department, it sounded like something that would be funny and annoying at the same time. Wars.. The two of them could have lots of mini wars of doing things to the other. But that's not what bonding was about and she wasn't that immature. So she might do something from time to time but it was all in the way that they played. "In simplest terms…the Sedai have elements that they can plug into. the five elements. I have great strength in Earth and Water. It means that I can cause the ground to swallow you whole and close it up again, or drown you without having to take you to that water. " he got the jist right? "But that would kill you and I'm prevented from doing that. When I.. use the abilities I have…I'm.. I'm not sure if you will know or not. I was never taught the full scope. I think it's different for the people involved." as she spoke she started to unwind the chain .

He nodded. "Fair enough." He wasn't the type of person who expected answers about everything. He used to be. Took the ashram and a couple more years after that to let that part of him go. Or to at least make peace with the fact that answers don't always come when you want them to or at all. Since they were at the spot he set his drums down. While she was busy with the chain he was looking up at the sky. It was getting dark out and he was thinking of that one Michael Jackson video. And just about every other werewolf movie he'd seen. He'd never been with a Lycan before right in front of the full moon. Least he didn't think so. If he had they didn't tell him that they were that and hadn't done anything to let him know. First for everything. He looked back down at her. "What do I need to do?"

She wasn't going to suddenly start popping bones and growing hair out of her skin and seek to rip out his throat. At least she hoped not anyway for that would be a very interesting experience. Chained to her , he tried to fend her off while she's clawing at his neck in the not-so-sexual or friendly way. "Which hand to do you prefer? I'm right handed so i prefer to have it free." And what if he wanted his right hand free? She was already offering her left arm to him. "We have to bind our hands. Perhaps.. perhaps we should hold hands and we can wrap it around our wrist and arm." They could do it together." She laughed a bit. short lived. "I'm reminded of a three-legged race. only with the arms tied together. We're going to have to do everything for hte next twenty-four hours together. You're right.. that is a long time." She wasn't panicking. She was suddenly thinking of things like, going to the bathroom, showering didn't bother her, but she thought about her chores and it was causing her heart rate to increase. "Your room.. my room. I didn't think about that." Her mind had thought about one thing though and for that activity being bound together wasn't a bad thing. "If this was a normal bonding all this wouldn't be needed." she looked at her hand, to him, to the silver chain.

"Every guy's his own three legged race." How was that for crass? One of those comments that came out before he could really think about it. Could be his way of being nervous letting his mouth run off like that. That image did help him out though. Made him adjust his position so that they were standing shoulder to shoulder. She wanted her right hand free. He'd give her his right. Being a musician though he was right-handed he could do a lot with his left and was pretty comfortable with it. His right hand clasped her left. "Hell I don't think this is about being comfortable, Ryanna. In that case why bother with a room at all? Shower, food." He pointed to the river and then the grass in that order. Was he serious? Halfway. He'd lived through harder conditions. "Nothing worth it s'ever easy." He looked up at her. He was being serious now. "Relax, Ryanna. This isn't some big inconvenience to me. Shouldn't be to you either. Just roll with it."

She liked to plan and be prepared and she suddenly thought that she was neither of those things. "I've been connected to him for so long.. but this is my choice." she was saying that more to calm herself. "and I choose you. Because it's my choice." Having the choice was important to her. Very important, which may be why she stressed it at the end and also gave his hand a squeeze. She was about to feel someone's influence that she had ever since she could remember leave and have it replaced with something new To her that was a big and nearly frightening ordeal. "I'm ready." and she was not going to think about any other symbolism that came to her mind that dealt with the tying of hands together. she wasn't... she wasn't. Ryanna offered him the other end of the silver chain, she did this with her left hand reaching under their connected hands.

"Yeap. Your choice. I've got no say in the matter." He grinned. He was braid pulling. Look at all the braids he had to choose from now if he really wanted to pull her braids. Course he'd only have his left hand to do it with after they got tied up together. Some things came to his mind too when it came to tying hands together but she wasn't the only one not saying anything about it. Instead he took the offered end of the chain, doing his work of wrapping it around on his side as she offered it back to her. "There's no song we need to sing, or any chanting or anything?" Because now he was thinking back to that one show with the witches. Charmed. And just about any other movie or show he'd seen with magical stuff in it. He had abilities but they were in his genes. Stuff like this was out of his element.

"Don't be silly." she said that rather quickly. "Unless you wanted to chant. You'll feel a pull." As she said that he began wrapping it around his side and she did the same as it was offered back. It was making a sort of X between their hands. When the chain moved around her wrist to make the first hold she felt a .. burn on her skin. At least she thought it was her skin. It was in the area the chain rested. "Maybe a burn." Her eyes widened and she blinked a few times and stood up straighter. She knew what the burn was, it was Benjamin's. The heated fire that he passed through her and that was inside of her now. "It won't burn you. From what I know of Bonding.. you can feel yourself being bound." She made the loop and passed it on to him again. Ryanna tightened her hold on his hand.

”Don't be silly? Don't be silly huh? Well scuse me Sister." Said as he took the chain back. Winding it the same way he had before. He was going to follow the pattern she was setting up until she told him to wrap it differently. When she straightened he looked over at her. "You okay?" He wasn't seeing anything from her or feeling anything from her but with how she reacted he was wondering if she was seeing his skeletons already. He hoped she didn't run away screaming. And since she said he could chant if he wanted to he would. "Ong Namo, Guru Dev Namo." All the words were the same note except for the forth which was higher. The words ran together all said in one breath. He expected to get slapped for it, but he was serious. She had her way of relaxing and being calm about this, he had his.

She didn't mean it in the offensive way, the silly bit, a lot of people expected her to chat and do elaborate hand gestures and songs in order for her to do anything. He started chanting and she looked over at him. "I'm sorry." Humility. She was going to get a heaping helping of that wasn't she, though Ryanna had no trouble in saying sorry when it was warranted. The burning sensation would slowly start to travel along the chain and reach the chain that was around Tobias so he could share in the experience. From her estimation it would probably take about two more passes for the chain to be fully wrapped. But nothing would be felt from the other until the wrapping was complete. Right now it was only the burn and the binding feeling that would pull around them both. She was curious as to what the sounds he said meant. The burning wasn't new to her but it was making her remember when that feeling was around her waist. She shut her eyes and breathed out slowly.