Wow, I'm posting something new! Been a long time. I've been gone and editing my butt off. But anyway, here's something. It's short and pure fluff, because I felt like it. Don't die with all the fluffiness, because you have been forewarned. Please, please, please leave a review!
Words: 832
Characters: Numair, Daine
Time: After RotG
Genre: Romance
Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to Tamora Pierce. Not me.
A soft tickling on his nose woke him, far earlier than he would have liked – the opportunity to sleep past dawn was a rare privilege. And he had been intending to take full advantage of it.
But he had no such luck. Sleeping with a wildmage had it downsides, though they were vastly outweighed by positives. Opening his eyes, Numair saw a tiny ball of fluff curled on his chest, its tail flicking lazily across the mage's face. A familiar pygmy marmoset – along with a chipmunk, a fox, a family of mice, and more sparrows than he could count. All in his bed, cuddling close to the small woman beside him.
An ordinary morning.
The woman beside him sighed a little in her sleep, shifting just enough so that she was snuggling a tiny bit closer to Numair, yet she still managed to disturb not a single furry or feathered creature. It was quite astonishing. Well, she was quite astonishing.
She had wild brown hair that somehow managed to fall gracefully over the pale pillows and sheets of their bed, always looking beautiful – even with bits of hay or animal droppings included. She could pull it off when her hair was being blown in a thousand different directions by a fierce winter wind or when Thayet spent hours trying to pin it up for some fancy court event. Her eyes, too, were interesting in that they could be kind and warm, or blaze with a furious passion that would mean plenty of harm to any person who was unfortunate enough to be in her line of sight. Over the years he'd come to know their blue depth as well as he knew the feel of his own Gift. Still, he couldn't pretend that he could always read them well – he couldn't even begin to count the number of times he'd either misread her and made some dreadful mistake because of it, or else had been completely unable to read any emotions in her eyes at all.
Now she moved again. Daine's mouth twitched, and, while curling into a tighter little ball, she muttered something nearly incomprehensible.
"Don't let the apples steal my books."
No, it was comprehensible. Just completely illogical. Numair grinned widely and had to suppress a snort. He really loved this woman sometimes.
Daine turned her head, nuzzling softly into Numair's shoulder. Her slow breaths tickled over his exposed skin, just like Zek's fur. Only far less annoying.
He loved this woman all the time.
Yawning, Numair ran a hand through Daine's hair and kissed the tip of her delicate nose. Her nose was the only thing about her that could be described as "delicate" – in almost every other aspect, Daine was as far from delicate as it was possible to be. Which was – usually – a very good thing. But he hated it when she would run off on her own in battle, drain herself to save one of the People, risk her life for someone else. It was part of her nature, part of what he loved about her.
Suddenly she opened one stormy, sleepy blue eye and smiled. "You're staring, Master Numair."
"You're beautiful," Numair said flirtatiously, winking. Gently, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, but she shifted until her lips met his, tasting sweet with sleep. A few sparrows chirped indignantly from under the sheets.
"Shush," murmured Daine kindly, pulling her lips away for a second and blowing a short breath across the sparrows' feathers. They twittered and took off, leaving the other furry creatures to brush against Daine one last time before returning to their homes.
Numair didn't have time to say a word before she was kissing him again. Slowly and sweetly, like they had all the time in the world. Grinning, Numair cupped her face in his hands and pressed light kisses to her cheeks, her eyebrows, her lips. A flush crept over Daine's pale skin.
"Love me that much?" she murmured with a teasing smile.
"Love you that much," whispered Numair, kissing her ear. He knew from experience that it was one of her weak spots. "That much and more."
She shivered and snuggled closer, wrapping her slender arms around his neck. "Love you too."
Numair knew he would never get used to hearing that. From her. Ever.
He kissed the top of her head and wrapped an arm around her waist. It wasn't long before he completely lost track of the time – Daine might have fallen asleep again, curled in his arms. Peaceful and calm, Numair felt like the world had stopped around them, leaving endless time for him to hold his magelet, safe and whole and warm in his arms.
Suddenly a shriek from the foot of the bed made both mages jump up and glance quickly at each other. Numair watched in trepidation as Daine's face broke into an impish grin. That smile had been the death of him many times over.
"Someone's going to need to feed Kitten."