Bite Marks are Love Notes Written in Flesh

She gave her usual sarcastic response, Rodolphus none the wiser to any hints of a foul mood. Towering over her she looked like a doll, her cheeks pink with chill. He could have picked her up and flung her over his shoulder with ease. When they were younger, back when she still feigned distaste for him and the things he did to her, she would put on a pathetic excuse for a fight whenever he manhandled her like a savage caveman, dragging her back to a secluded enough location and having his way with her. As they grew older – and she, at some point, must have realized her little play acting was fooling no one – she didn’t bother putting up a fight most times when Roddy flung her over his shoulder like a ragdoll. Occasionally there would be a little laughter, a swat on his bum from hanging vantage point, and she would call him by the nickname she thought no one noticed her use; Dolphus. It was all too obvious that she was obsessed with him, which made the outcome for the weekend that much easier to predict. His plans were in motion, but they were still freshly arrived. No need to rush things.

She called him a desperate puppy as his large hand wandered up the front of her shirt. He found her breast in his cupped hand, his brow rising. “Puppy wants to play with pussy,” he replied, a devilish curl forming at the edge of his mouth. Raising his cigarette to his mouth, he inhaled then turned his head away from Dorcas to blow the smoke off a different direction. “Too busy for a shag and some pizza?” he followed up, turning his head back toward Dorcas though his eyes never left her. “Concurrently, if you'd like. I wouldn't mind eating a slice right off your arse.” His grip tightened ever so slightly around her breast and with his other hand he brought his cigarette back to his lips.

This sort of display he hadn’t seen from her in a while and it honestly shocked him. “What the fuck is your problem, then?” he asked, earnestly. He’d set up this entire holiday, planned the location and entertainment all specific to her liking, and still she was pissed off about something. But what? “You’ve not got any plans with friends, I asked. So don’t pull that shit with me!” He hollered at her back as she walked away but it wasn’t enough. Rodolphus flicked his cigarette angrily off into the snowy mounds alongside the walking path. Then he followed after her, catching her easily with her tiny legs and grabbing her around the upper arm, pulling her towards him. “What the fuck is going on, Meadowes? I love that you’re a crazy bitch and all, but you’re just throwing a wobbly for no sodding reason! Fuck, do you have any idea how hard it is to plan a holiday you won’t bitch about? You’re fucking impossible.” She truly was. He had gone to great lengths to ensure this was a special weekend for them – their first proper Valentine’s Day and they were actually going to spend it together. He wasn’t tied down trying to make Bellatrix happy or convince the rest of wizarding society that their marriage was a success. He had ruled out all tropical locations because of Dorcas’ insane dislike for sand – which severely limited his choice of Lestrange-owned properties as they had quite a few islands, and he had tried avoiding revisiting any place he’d already taken her. And here she was having a strop like a toddler over Merlin knows what. He was really rather put out by the suddenness of it all.

Some days it was Dorcas’ impossibly tight trousers that refused to come off that did Rodolphus’ head in, but at the moment it was just Dorcas herself. She was throwing a tantrum out of bloody nowhere and he couldn’t even shut her up by shoving his cock in her mouth unless they both wanted to end up with hypothermia. It was a very inconvenient place to this sort of foreplay. “You wanted it a fucking hour ago,” he remarked harshly, his grip remaining firm on her arm. “You want to go to Japan? We’ll go to fucking Japan, then. You want Greece? I’ll fucking buy you the damned country!” His fist tightened around her upper arm as his anger grew. He’d practically bent over backwards in having this trip arranged for her, and by that he meant that he told one of the servants to set it all up, but he’d picked out the setting on his own and gave some instructions here and there, as needed. He was a lot more involved in planning this holiday than most any he’d ever been on. Gold would typically afford the wealthy the ability to go wherever they wanted at the drop of the hat and be, at minimal, happily content.

Dorcas had really lost the plot. Here he was, spoiling her with a weekend designed specifically for her liking, offering not only to take her on more holidays but also to buy her a small country – a legitimate offer if there ever was one. And how did she respond? Rodolphus’ grip on her arm released instantly but he was too late to block her. The heel of her palm made contact with his nose with a thick crunch, blood pouring out only a moment later. “What the absolute fuck, Dorcas!” He didn’t know if it was broken or not, but he wouldn’t have put it past the Auror. Her tenacity was typically something that attracted him, even when it was directed at him, but this was nothing like the foreplay they usually engaged in.

Grabbing for her hands, he managed to wrestle her drink glass away from her and throw it off the path where it fell somewhere alongside his now soggy cigarette but as he lunged at her, the force of his body caused them both to topple over. In an attempt to stop himself from landing completing on top of Dorcas, Roddy stuck out his right arm. The force of their fall nearly knocking the wind out of him didn’t stop him though, his left hand tore at the hidden pocket of her sleeve where he knew her wand would be. “You’re a fucking crazy bitch, you know that?” He’d called her as much in a complimentary tone on a number of occasions. This time, his intent wasn’t as obvious. The front of his shirt, not to mention the snow below them, was dotted with his blood, as was his face. "Fucking women!" He looked absolutely deranged.

Managing to disarm her, he pulled himself to his feet, looking down at her. Without her wand, she had no way of leaving, thus he could leave her here on the snowy path to get herself straight while he tended to his nose. As he walked away from her toward the villa, in possession of two wands and broken nose, it felt strangely reminiscent of their first holiday. She’d not broken anything during that first vacation away, but he had hidden her wand and trapped her there until she’d cooled off. He had thought they were past this point after all these years but Dorcas was always full of surprises. Even when he thought he knew her, she pulled a stunt like this.

Rodolphus called for Ader as soon as he crossed the threshold of the holiday home. His boisterous yell caused the throbbing pain in his face to increase and he groaned as he made his way into the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror. A gory mess of blood, reddish-purple skin, and thick eyebrows in a seemingly permanent scowl. He was none too pleased with Dorcas in that moment, and leaving her alone on the mountain side to wander was the kindest of the possible options he was thinking of. They were miles from any other homes and the nearest town was a full day’s hike if you weren’t using some faster means of travel. Dorcas wasn’t exactly dressed for a full day of snow shoeing but in that moment Rodolphus didn’t really care.

“An ice pack!” he shouted for Ader who had appeared just as his master took up yelling again, then disappeared quickly to fetch some ice without so much as comment on Rod’s looks. Setting the pair of wands on the bathroom counter, Rodolphus turned on the faucet and began to wash his face. Ader appeared a moment later with a blue pack of ice, along with some hand towels, bandages, and a pain potion. Roddy grunted at him as he swatted the elf away and took to tending to his face. “She’s broken it, the fucking cunt.” He muttered threats and curses at his absent girlfriend as he stopped the bleeding and cleaned himself up. When he was done he had the makings of two black eyes, a bandaged nose, and a severe need for a drink.

“There’s a whole bag of coke gone to waste,” he complained to himself as he rummaged through the dresser where his things had been delicately unpacked for the weekend. Dorcas’ clothes hung in the closet and she had a drawer for her knickers and other delicates but mostly the dresser played temporary apothecary to Rodolphus’ drugs and elixirs. He moved the sealed bag of white powder and found the small vial of silvery liquid he’d been looking for. Pulling the stopper, Rodolphus swallowed the potion quickly, trying to avoid inhaling the strong scent that would no doubt burn his nostrils. The effects worked quickly and soon Rodolphus was humming, a slight smile on his face. He left the remainder of the elixir uncorked on the top of the dresser and picked up his glass of scotch which was nearly done. He would need another refill soon, but he’d already had two glasses before this one and still Dorcas had not returned. Were he not in the beginning stages of a euphoric high, he would have been concerned for her safety but as it were, he was mostly horny.

“Where is she?” he asked Ader, despite him not being present in the bedroom where Rodolphus had been relaxing for the last 30 minutes. He waited and heard no reply. “Ader!” The elf appeared only a few moments after being summoned. “Where. Is. She?”

“Ader does not know, sir.”

“What the fuck do you mean ‘you don’t know’? I know you’ve brought her a coat. You didn’t leave your mistress in the snow without a coat, did you, Ader?” Rodolphus plopped onto the bed, careful not to spill his drink. “Just tell me where you saw her last, for fuck’s sake. And fetch my boots.” Rodolphus sank back against the mountain of pillows that lined the headboard and took another sip of his drink. “Oh! And hide that,” he said to Ader as the creature answered his earlier questions and summoned his master’s boots from the wardrobe.

“Hide what, sir?”

“Meadowes’ wand. And if I find out you’ve told her where you hid it for anything less than a sodding dragon attack, I will have you skinned alive.” He took another sip of scotch, nearing the end of this glass and approaching having to make a decision about which to do first; rescue Dorcas or refill his drink. “Tell the cook to have a pizza ready when I return,” he shouted after the elf. Sucking down the last of the liquor, Rodolphus set the empty glass on the table and bent over to pick up his boots. The same action earlier would have caused him quite a lot of discomfort, but Rodolphus was properly medicated now and hadn’t noticed a thing.

Boots laced and his own wand in hand, Rodolphus apparated to the last spot Dorcas was known to be walking. The snow was thick here and he could make out her footprints easily. He tracked her for several minutes as if she were a wild creature he was hunting. Finally spotting her another several feet down the mountain side, Rodolphus found it quicker to apparate to her than try and follow her on foot. He certainly wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of running after her. Grabbing her from behind, he placed a hand around her waist and one around her neck. “Don’t struggle,” he whispered as he turned on his heel and the pair disapparated. They reappeared minutes later in the warn lounge of the villa where Rodolphus released her and instantly turned to find the bar cart.

Ignoring Dorcas’ childish mocking tone was easy – he did it often enough. Between his girlfriend and his daughter, the infantile reactions to the most mundane occurrences were only to be expected. She was very much like Aurora at times, though honestly, Rodolphus had to admit that there were some days when Aurora was the mature one. He refilled his drink and returned to the bedroom where, by now, Dorcas had strewn her clothes across the floor and by the sounds of it was having a shower. He might have joined her had he not had too much experience with Dorcas’ hellishly hot showers, the idea of which as his face was bruised and battered, seemed like a whole sort of pain Rodolphus wished to avoid. Instead, he finished off the euphoria potion he’d started earlier and reclined on the bed with scotch in hand. By the time Dorcas emerged from her shower, a pizza would be set at the foot of the bed and Rodolphus would either be too drunk to bitch at her, or too high to remember he was even injured at all.

Rodolphus had shut his eyes for only a moment as the liquor and the elixir mingled, making his head a lovely sort of fuzzy. He smiled gently and soon his head was lilting to the right. He was asleep before Dorcas exited the shower and passed through the bedroom; a snoring Roddy and pizza with pineapple on half laying on the bed.

Not sure how long he’d been asleep, and not even sure he had been sleeping at all, Rodolphus awoke and looked around the room. It took him a moment to recognize where he was. It was dark now, but the pizza was still warm. He’d not been out too long. “Babe?” he called toward the clearly unoccupied bathroom. There was no answer. Dorcas’ clothes had been picked up from the floor. His drinking glass had been taken away. The stopper on his now empty euphoria potion vial had been replaced. The room was properly sorted which meant Ader – Dorcas wouldn’t have cleaned up after Roddy if she were still in a piss poor mood, but Rod wasn’t thinking of her sour mood. He was still feeling the effects of his elixir, the pain potion for his broken and very badly bruised nose was holding strong. He was just the right amount of stoned to whip out his wand and levitate the pizza along in front of him as he went to find where Dorcas was.

She had clearly been in the lounge. The lights were set low and she’d practically built herself a pillow fort on the sofa. Rodolphus traced a route through the air with his wand and directed the pizza to set itself on the table between the sofa and the TV. He was getting warmer, but with Dorcas clearly planning to cozy up to a few dozen cushions on the sofa, he had a pretty good idea of where she might be. He found her heading toward the kitchen and caught up with her easily. “I ordered pineapple on your half,” he said as he came up behind her. “How you can stand to eat that rubbish is beyond me.” His hand instinctively moved to caress her bum as he leaned against the counter. The bruising around his face made his eyes appear lighter, their natural caramel color reflected in the kitchen lights. “Are you wanting something other than pizza?” She always had a pizza when they spent the holiday together, though in fairness they’d usually spent the days following Valentine’s Day together – this would be their first time actually seeing each other on the day of (or day prior to, as the case were) since they were in school.