Consequences of a Kiss (2)
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Kane
Date Posted: 4th February 2026
Characters: P'yanka, Yorok, Tembo
Description: Peyanka’s father discovers his illicit liaison with Tembo
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 13, day 16 of Turn 12
Notes: Notes: Directly follows Consequence of a Kiss (1)
But the brandy had made them bold and clumsy. Their shoulders bumped again, and Tembo caught his sleeve, tugging him closer with a grin that Peyanka could feel more than see. Peyanka’s pulse hammered, his skin too hot despite the wind, his thoughts spinning between this is wrong and this is everything.
At the steps that had seemed to come out of nowhere and far quicker than they should have, Peyanka misjudged the height. His foot caught and he lurched forward with a startled sound, hands flailing for balance. Tembo grabbed him, steadying him with both hands, and the contact sent a bright, dizzying jolt through Peyanka’s chest.
“Shards,” Peyanka whispered, half laughing, half horrified.
Tembo pressed his forehead briefly to Peyanka’s shoulder, shaking with silent laughter. “Quiet,” he mouthed, eyes bright.
A squawk cut through the night.
Glint, perched somewhere above, likely on a beam he’d been told a dozen times not to land on, had decided this was an excellent moment to announce himself to the world. The little bronze’s voice was shrill and indignant, the sound of a creature who felt personally affronted by the pair’s attempts at secrecy.
Peyanka froze. For a heartbeat he could only stare up into the dark, dread flooding him so fast it nearly sobered him.
“Glint,” he hissed in a fierce whisper. “_No_.”
Another chirp.
Tembo slapped a hand over his own mouth, shoulders shaking with the effort not to laugh. Peyanka shot him a look of pure accusation.
“Sorry,” Tembo mouthed, eyes wide and gleaming.
Peyanka made a frantic shooing gesture at his firelizard, who fluttered down in a bronze blur, landing on Peyanka’s shoulder with offended dignity. Glint crooned loudly, as if demanding praise for his vigilance.
“Go,” Peyanka whispered through his teeth. “Go hunt. Go… go anywhere else.”
Glint trilled, nipped at Peyanka’s collar in protest, then launched himself away with a flap of wings and a final, scandalised chirp that felt like a parting insult.
They stood in the sudden quiet, both listening.
No footsteps. No voices. Only the thud of Peyanka’s heart.
Tembo leaned in, lips almost brushing his ear. “See? No one woke.”
Peyanka’s laugh came out thin. “Not yet.”
Almost.
Almost safe.
Tembo’s hand slid into his again, fingers threading together with a confidence that made Peyanka’s stomach twist. He turned his head, drawn like a fool, and Tembo was already looking at him, already waiting.
The kiss was soft at first, a brush of lips that made Peyanka’s breath catch. Then it deepened, hungry and dizzying, the world narrowing to warmth and salt and the faint taste of brandy. Peyanka’s hand clenched in Tembo’s shirt as if he might fall otherwise.
A shutter flickered and Peyanka’s eyes went wide, his blood turning to ice. Tembo’s face was pale in the moonlight, his mouth parted, breath coming quick. They broke apart so fast it felt like being torn.
Inside, a low murmur, Mawani’s voice, Peyanka realised with a jolt. His mother, half asleep, sharp with suspicion.
Then Yorok’s.
A grunt. A muttered complaint. The heavy shift of a man rising from bed because someone else insisted he should.
Peyanka stood rooted, unable to move, as if his feet had been nailed to the stone. Tembo’s hand tightened around his once, hard.
“Go,” Peyanka mouthed, though he didn’t know whether he meant Tembo should go or whether he was begging his own body to do it. Adrenaline made his heart race but the brandy had wrapped his head in the cotton wool of indecision.
Quicker than expected, the door latch creaked and the door swung open. Fast and hard. Yorok peered out into the night, brows creased with irritation, expecting perhaps a drunken fisherman or stray. He was not unused to receiving emergency patients at odd hours but an actual patient would have knocked, not skulked around his porch.
Pale moons cast just enough light.
Enough to illuminate Peyanka’s face.
Enough to show his hands still caught in Tembo’s shirt, their closeness, their guilt.
Enough.
Yorok’s expression changed in a heartbeat: confusion, then disbelief, then something far sharper. His eyes narrowed as if trying to force reality into a shape he could accept.
His gaze snapped to Tembo.
Recognition struck like flint on stone.
That boy is my patient.
“Peyanka?”
Peyanka’s stomach dropped so hard he thought he might be sick. His father’s voice cut through the night like a blade, pitched higher than Peyanka had ever heard it. The name was not spoken like an accusation, but like a question ripped from someone feeling utterly betrayed..
Peyanka flinched as if struck.
Tembo squeezed his hand one last time, a desperate, trembling pressure that said I’m sorry and I can’t and I wish this were different all at once. Then he ran. He moved like someone fleeing a storm, stumbling with reckless speed before disappearing into the dark.
Peyanka did not run.
His father’s gaze had him frozen.
Last updated on the February 7th 2026