A/N - I do not own FFXV. Not beta'ed, srry for errors.
After the Fall.
It is in the languid calm following their frantic lovemaking, when thumping hearts quiet down, tempest breaths become shallow and the roaring blood stills, that he asks if he can sculpt her.
Aranea slowly rolls over onto her back, breasts bared to the cool breeze blowing in from the open window, allowing the sounds of their coupling to be carried into the streets, shamelessly, without a care in the world, and squints at him in the darkness.
"Sculpt me?" she says, confused but intrigued.
Ignis moves closer, reaching out and finding her face with unerring accuracy. His long, supple fingers land on her brow, jump over her eye, just grazing her fluttering lashes and trace down cheek and finally come to rest on her lips. Aranea playfully parts her lips, sucking his fingers into her mouth and running her tongue around their tips. She can taste herself on his skin.
Ignis lets out a pleased sound and slowly moves his fingers in and out of her mouth, echoing the actions of their bodies not so long ago.
"You are so beautiful," he whispers, "your features are perfection and they never cease to intrigue me. I would like to try and preserve them for posterity."
"In case I kick the bucket?"
"I – no, and yes."
It has taken a long time, but Aranea has managed to bully Ignis to speak his mind when around her, his whole mind, even if it is less than flattering. One of the first things he admitted was that he is sometimes unnerved with how he behaves around her, and Aranea just kissed him and showed him her appreciation, because he can be all the stoic and calm advisor he wants when out in the world, but when it is just the two of them, she wants all of him, the shallow and the deep, the beautiful and the ugly. She's greedy in that way, and she thinks it's good for him, and she has made it her personal mission to save him from himself.
And she had been more than rewarded for her efforts. Each time she thinks that she has him figured out he reveals a new side of him. Like this request to sculpt her.
"Don't worry, I plan to hang around for a long time," she says with a wry grin that she knows he cannot see. However, her voice carries her emotions clearly, and Ignis shifts, gripping her arm and drags her close, draping her over his chest and bringing her face inches from his own.
"I could not bear to lose you too," he whispers, and brings his hands up to frame her face. His right eye is open, as if he sees her on the canvas of his mind, painted by memory and the sight of his hands.
"I have never modeled before," Aranea replies softly. "It might be fun."
Ignis pulls her down to him with purpose and kisses her with a fierceness that can still take her by surprise even after years of co-habitation. Perhaps that was what drew her to him in their place, the fire that smolders beneath his prim and proper facade. Ignis is carefully controlled passion, but she has been fortunate enough to see him burn bright and unrestrained. She prides herself on the fact that she can draw that fire out in him.
She responds in kind, wrapping her arms around him and ravaging his mouth with her tongue. Finally the need for air separates them, and Aranea rests her forehead lightly on his.
"But you better do me justice; I want our grandchildren to know that their granny was a looker."
He tense under her, and the stunned look on his face is absolutely adorable. Aranea would never admit it, but she savors moments like these, where she manages to pull the rug out from under her scarily-smart lover. She is not one for sweet nothings and red roses - not that there are any left in the darkness - she knows what she feels and she trust Ignis to take care of his own heart and not stick around if he does not feel appreciated.
Aranea carefully dispenses her affection, like slow drops of honey, but perhaps it's time to crack open the whole comb.
They don't often discuss the future, because unless Noctis comes back there is not much to discuss. But she knows with absolute certainty that whatever future she does have, she wants to spend it with this man.
"I shall endeavor to do my best," he says slowly, his voice carefully neutral and yet he cannot hide the longing. She knows that he loves her, and that he yearns for more, through he has never voiced it.
"I know you will," she says and presses a light kiss to his cheek and continues down his face and neck and bites into his collarbone.
Ignis moans in the most needy way and she smirks. Oh, how delighted she was when she discovered that he likes to be bitten, and in naughty places as well.
She does not continue her downward track, though. She is not really trying to distract him, rather to goad him on.
"I think there is a flaw in your reason," he says slowly. Aranea snickers.
"Oh, do enlighten me."
"You seem to have skipped a generation. For us to have grandchildren we need to have a child first."
"You genius you! How about we set to work correcting that logical fallacy right now?" she replies teasingly. Ignis frowns for a moment, and then his whole face lights up. She swears that even his eyes brighten, the cloudy green making her stomach twist in sudden sadness for what he has lost, remembering vividly how those eyes used to look at her, alive and green as leaves.
"Are you certain, Aranea?" he asks in that honest, serious voice of his that gives her shivers.
She replies in the only way possible.
Later, he does sculpt her, elegant fingers gliding down her features and mirroring the planes in soft clay. The first attempt is not bad, but he discards it with a snort of disdain, and sets to work again. Ignis is a perfectionist, after all.
IgnisxAranea is my new obsession. There is just something about their chemistry that is so engaging and sexy and fun! I mean, Ignis is a stiff and Aranea is a crowbar coming to break him out of his shell. I'll try to explore more of their different facets.