"We should not stay long, my lady."
"Or what? You'll talk to me of politics until I'm so bored that I fall asleep and you can haul me back?"
"Mayhaps."
Say'ri lowered herself to sit in the lap of the tree Tiki had chosen during their long walk, on the shade-cooled roots, close enough to be companionable but careful not to touch her charge. It was an idyllic day. A breeze stirred the treetops on the other side of the meadow and dandelions stuck up between her boots as she stretched her legs out.
She was never one to let such brilliant nature go unappreciated, and had a fleeting thought of painting it, but neither was she one to put her duties aside for pleasure.
"Though you do so dearly love your breaks, Lady, and I wish thee a thousand of them, I've documents to attend to when I return."
"But you haven't returned yet," said Tiki. "So there's no sense in thinking about them now. You should rest too, you know."
"I should stay ever vigilant."
Granted, the lazy hum of a nearby bumblebee was already threatening to undo her words. Say'ri leaned against the trunk to watch as Tiki began to pick some of the messy yellow flowers around them, allowed herself to stare a moment. The Voice was more beautiful than the trees or the grasses or the blossoms, to be sure. Say'ri thought she'd like to paint her as well, just once, but immediately shoved the thought away, ears pinking. Tiki had already made it clear that she'd like that very much. It was all the more reason for Say'ri to stop thinking about it. Life was complicated enough without divine teasing.
When her hands were full of flowers Tiki returned to her side and nestled against her shoulder. Say'ri tried to even her breathing.
"Perhaps I'd like to hear about politics after all," Tiki said. "Tell me about Chon'sin."
There was something like mischief in her voice but Say'ri didn't need to be asked twice. She launched into detailed reports about the new trade route with Rosanne, the reorganized tax system, the tariffs, the heightened goals for literacy, and then she couldn't talk anymore because while she'd been distracted, Tiki had shifted her face close, so close their noses brushed, so close that all Say'ri could see was the ethereal firefly-light green of her eyes.
"My lady?"
Tiki's only response was to bring their lips together.
It was gentle and soft and very slow. Say'ri wondered if the gesture was natural for dragons, an un-typically unromantic first thought, but then Tiki pressed close and there was the light patter of a hundred dropped dandelions against her lap, and Say'ri put the question aside for another time. She closed her eyes and focused on the warmth of her mouth, the slight sharpness of the teeth within as she grew bolder, the smooth brush of air against her cheek each time Tiki exhaled. It was so pleasant that Say'ri didn't know how many minutes passed before she remembered herself, and wrenched away.
"We mustn't," she said, trying and failing to keep her voice steady.
"And why not?"
Say'ri pulled back a little more to look into her eyes again. Surely Tiki wasn't serious.
"A thousand reasons, upon a thousand more, and myriad as the shapes of snowflakes."
"Such as?"
Her arguments seemed shattered before her like a crystal glass, with their first kiss so fresh in her memory, and she struggled to draw a piece that would cut sharp enough to cut out her point.
"It is blasphemy," she said.
"And I forgive it. Next?"
Say'ri blinked at the quick dismissal, the closest she'd allow herself to a cringe. All those nights of guilt over the sacred being before her, and she was to be pardoned so easily? Without any penance? She took a long, deep breath and then moved to tuck a strand of Tiki's hair behind her ear.
"Permit me a question of mine own, if it pleases thee. Dost thou seek pleasure purely, along with my humble friendship? Or wouldst thou have my friendship evolve into a different creature?"
"I told you I find you to be a beautiful person, Say'ri. I would have you by my side. I don't know how much clearer I can be."
Nor how much crueler, Say'ri thought, to tempt her with something she would have to refuse, for Tiki's own sake.
"Such is the next, then," she said with shaky finality. "I am happy to be a friend to thee, but I cannot be anything different, let alone anything more intimate. Thou knowst that I will die."
"Everything dies eventually."
"Mine is not an eventuality," Say'ri argued, perhaps more hotly than she should've. "It will be upon thee in a moment. And I...I find you so beautiful too. I could not bear to leave you with a sense of loss."
"Loss is natural," Tiki retorted. "You've lost both parents and your brother already. Would you take back ever knowing them to erase that pain?"
"Nay, and perish the thought!" The words burst from her before she could stop them. Finger by finger, she unclenched her hands from how they'd fisted in the grass. "But the difference is paramount. Afore you can blink, death will claim my wretched soul and so too kill my suffering. 'Twil end."
"And time will end mine," Tiki said softly. "I have more time than anyone in this world. If Marth's death taught me anything, it was that."
"But at what cost? A thousand years of leaking tears in thy holy slumber?"
Tiki shrugged, and Say'ri watched the motion push her long hair from her shoulder, to tumble down her back. "What is a thousand years to a dragon? I can't say what all the pain is worth, but...all I know is that right now, when I think of him, I feel joy and gratitude. Fondness so deep I can't help but smile. I will always miss him, but it no longer hurts me in the slightest."
Though she resented herself for it, Say'ri believed Tiki. Her lady's tone was nothing but ardent and true. She tilted her head to shift her own hair, and studied Tiki through the dark curtain of it. "Do you say this to ease my conscience?"
"I suppose I can't expect you to understand. Humans don't live long enough to fathom what time time truly means."
"Still, I have sworn a solemn oath against your pain," Say'ri said, as her last, reluctant protest. "Even the slightest amount. Even if it means sacrificing everything I want."
She fiddled with the ends of the embroidered sash around her waist. Tiki's fingers took hers carefully, the nails crystal-bright and dagger-sharp. There was a flash of emerald as the setting sunlight caught the scales dusting the underside of her wrist.
"Then allow this," said Tiki. "There will be an interlude of hardship, yes. But in the end, in the very end, being with you will always be a good and happy thing for me. Because that's love."
Say'ri squeezed her hand but the reflexive motion was like a key unlocking a door, sending a flood of feeling through her. She leaned forward and kissed her again, still gentle but unable to restrain her rawness, and Tiki made a noise in her throat that was more purr than human moan. Their fingers twined hard and Say'ri moved her free hand to fumble with the ties in Tiki's hair. Tiki's arm snaked around her waist. They broke apart naturally, studying each other's lips, and Say'ri felt it would be indecorous to not say something that would make the moment official, but for the moment she was too giddily breathless to think of anything.
"Yes, then," she finally managed. "If this is truly your desire, let us not waste a moment. I am thine."
"Forever," Tiki assured, and Say'ri kissed her again, pressed her back into the grass, and there was no more talk of politics that day.