They spent hours after the battle with Ifrit combing through the castle, determining which rooms were safe enough for human habitation and which needed to be condemned. The surviving rooms were divided up for the night; Rydia, Luca, and the strange man dressed in black ended up in a room little bigger than a closet.
Luca set Calca and Brina to guard the door and promptly fell asleep. Rydia assumed that the man Edge suspected was Golbez likely did the same, but she lay on her back with her hands behind her head, unable to close her eyes. The futon was comfortable, and she was used to Luca's snores, but the whole castle smelled of smoke. The smell clung to the blankets and pillows, and that scent just made her think of him.
Rydia was no stranger to magical power. She was arguably the most powerful black mage residing on the blue planet. She'd cast Meteor against Zeromus, not once, but twice, and lived the tell the tale. She knew and loved the feeling of the magic building in her body, condensing in her chest until her body could no longer hold it and she released it out against her enemies.
But what she and Edge had done today was similar but at the same time completely different. Harnessing Rubicante's powers, elemental fire in its rawest and most primal form, was something to which even the forbidden Meteor could not compare. The casting had left her reeling, punch drunk from feeling so attuned to both the wild flames and Edge. She'd felt him during the casting, felt his ever fluctuating emotions: his frantic concern for her well-being, his begrudged respect for Rubicante, and his satisfaction as he commanded the power that had once left him flat on a cold cave floor. By the end of the attack they were both singed and panting but elated at the same time. He'd turned to her, his eyes bright, and she was left certain that if Ifrit and the others hadn't demanded their immediate attention, he would have taken her right there on the castle floor.
Gods, she ached for him.
She sat up and pushed the thin blanket she'd been been given aside. Luca continued to snore, but their mysterious companion sat up as well. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said softly. "Just having trouble sleeping. I'm going to find Edge. I probably won't be back."
If it were Luca asking, she'd likely lie and say she was feeling choked from the smoke and needed some air, but the stranger had always given her the impression that she could strip and dance on the table and he'd not even blink. Edge thought his stoic demeanor was irritating at times, but Rydia found his steady temperament refreshing. And indeed, though she was all but admitting she was on her way to a midnight tryst, he simply bid her goodnight and tunneled back into his covers. If he really was Golbez, well... she quite liked him.
Calca and Brina didn't even offer a blip when she passed outside the door, and neither did any of the shinobi guards roaming the halls. And as she navigated the ever confusing passageways that led to Edge's room, the royal guards let her pass with nothing but a wink or a knowing smile. She reached his door, passing a smirking Tsukinowa, and slipped into his room.
Even here, high in the tower, in a room so few were allowed to access, the smoky smell pervaded. Rydia walked over to the bed and found Edge sprawled on top of the covers, missing both his shirt and his mask. She took a deep breath at the sight of all that skin out on display and climbed up and crawled over to him.
He let out a delicious groan when she straddled him, his hands immediately reaching up to clench the skin between her skirt and her stockings. His thumb caressed the front of her thigh, but he kept his eyes closed. "Would that I could wake up to this every night," he murmured, voice still raspy from sleep.
Rather than replying, Rydia leaned forward, bracing her hands on either side of his shoulders, and lowered her hips against his. She found his body already reacting to her presence. She smiled and rocked her hips back and forth, gently, barely brushing against him. That got him to finally open his eyes. "Tease," he accused, but his voice was playful, and he retaliated by sliding his hands up under her skirt.
Rydia allowed it, and let him pull her down and roll her over so that he was hovering over her. "I can't believe you're able to sleep," she told him as he went to work on her neck and whatever bit of skin his lips could find, his touch warm on her skin. "I can't stop thinking about what we did today." Edge wasted no time flicking open the clasps of her dress, and she lifted her hips to allow him to slide the fabric down. He settled on top of her, and she heaved a sigh of relief as their skin made contact. Crystals, his chest was so warm, as though the liquid fire they had brought forth together was still burning through his veins, and she told him as much, voice breathless with want.
His lips were tracing a line along her breasts, but at her words, Edge stopped and looked up at her. "So I take it you could feel me the way I could feel you?"
"Yes," she told him, before moaning as his hands started to wander. "And I've been craving you just about every minute since then. And everything smells like smoke, which should repel me, but all it does is make me think of that fire and you. I had to come find you before I lost my mind."
His fingers stilled, and Rydia whined at the loss before lifting her head to glare at him, finding a smirking face looking back at her. "So you admit that you need me, for once?"
"And you call me a tease," she snapped, clamping her thighs together and trapping his hand between them.
"Well," he said, and then damn him, he chuckled and tickled the back of her thigh. "It's not every day I have the most beautiful woman in the world crawling into my bed, begging for my attention. This is an occasion to be celebrated."
Rydia was about ready to smack him, but then he pushed himself up to capture her lips. And the way he kissed her, deep and hot, as though he would love nothing better than to consume her, swept any half-hearted ire away. When he released her lips, they were both panting. "I know what you mean, Rydia," he whispered. "Calling that fire up, knowing that you were right beside me doing the same, knowing that you were burning inside just the way I was, left me absolutely dazed. Just when I think I can't love you any more, something like this happens, and I realize that I'm still just learning just how much I adore you." The declaration did nothing to calm Rydia's ardor; instead it fanned it into the same inferno that they'd experienced earlier. She didn't let him say anything else, capturing his lips instead, letting him know without words that she needed him, and she needed him now.
It was the kind of sex she loved best, where they were both just trying desperately the draw the other closer. She wrapped her legs around his hips to urge him deeper, begged him to take her even harder, and whispered words of encouragement as he obeyed. There was no teasing now, just the steady rocking of their hips as Edge focused on her mounting pleasure. She crested quickly, and as she cried out his name, he climaxed with her. They were both slick with sweat and short of breath, and yet Rydia refused to let him pull away from her. "No," she gasped, when he tried to pull away a second time. "Just let me hold you."
He listened this time, placing his weight carefully so he wouldn't crush her, allowing her to draw him close into circle of her arms. They stayed there in a lazy embrace as their bodies cooled and their breath returned to its normal pace. After they were both completely calm, Edge dropped a slow, sticky kiss on her collarbone. "That was nice," he mumbled, and Rydia had to smile at the sleepy tone of voice. Once sated, he was always quick to slumber. She kissed his hair, whispered that she loved him, and let him roll off her.
She cleaned herself up in his adjoining privy and then returned to find him struggling to stay awake. Leaving her clothes where he'd tossed them in a scattered heap by the bed, she curled up next to him. He slung an arm around her, which surprised her, as he'd never loved that particular position, claiming it left his shoulder sore and made using his second katana difficult. But it seemed he wanted her as close as she wanted him, and he pulled her back against his chest and tangled their legs together.
He obviously meant the gesture affectionately, but Rydia couldn't help but find herself once again aroused. His skin was still so warm. Though she tried to calm herself, reminding herself that the stress of the day had taken its toll on the man behind her, making his rest a priority, she couldn't help but squirm. Which of course did not go unnoticed.
His hand caught hers. "Rydia," he chided, but she could hear the amusement in his voice. "Believe me, I am not complaining, but even I have to admit that it has been a very long day."
"I know," she whined, reaching her free hand behind her to catch his hair. "I just can't help it! I don't get how you can be so relaxed when I'm still on fire!"
He huffed a laugh against her shoulder and pressed a kiss against her skin. "Well," he said, and pulled his hand away from hers to allow it freedom to wander its way down to where she was aching and ready for him. "Today has been full I things I never expected. First, I learned to respect the archfield I once despised. Second, I gained the powers that he once used against my castle and my people and used those powers to protect them. And third, that same power has led to the woman I love suddenly becoming an insatiable little nymph. You're going to keep me up all night, aren't you?"
"And so what if I do?" she asked, before gasping and arching her back as his fingers found that exact right spot.
Of course, he then abruptly withdrew his hand, but Rydia had no chance to complain as he pulled her up and around, until she was again straddling his hips. His hands spanned her thighs, and the look on his face, dark and intense, made her feel oddly shy. "Rydia," he said, his voice as serious as his face. "I would love you all night, every night, if I could. I would love you in this room, in this castle, whenever you wanted. I would give you anything you ever asked for. I would give you the world, if it's what you desired. You know I would, if you would just let me. All you need to do is ask."
She had no response to that. He knew she had no response to that. So instead of waiting for her to speak, he pulled her down, and Rydia dug her nails into his shoulders, hoping that the rekindling lust would help distract from the sudden urge to cry.
Notes
I've been watching a Let's Play of TAY before I go to bed, which is where this came from. As much as I don't take the game very seriously, when you look at it, it's really sad that so little has changed for the characters over 17 years. So that's where this came from. Planning on three to four quick chapters; we'll see what happens!