Elias was many things. Monster, magus, medicine man, to name a few… but he wasn't what one would call, despite his age, experienced.

This was what fascinated him about humans. They could live such short lives and fill it with experiences that he couldn't even fathom.

Skills, he could obtain. His form of shadowed observational study worked quite well for many centuries. Some things, however, needed to be experienced first hand.

Like desire.

Oh, he'd coveted, before. He'd wanted (and gotten) what he wanted, many times. But sexual desire was something entirely different.

The causes and symptoms seemed to be fairly simple, so he wasn't sure why he was only experiencing them now, after hundreds of years, but… he was.

And it was because of Chise.

When he'd bought her, he'd not considered her any differently than any other human. She was to be observed and interacted with, so he could further his education on the species in his long-standing, continuous quest to become more human. He'd not thought, at the time, that it was possible for him to feel sexual desire for a human.

Parts of his body thought otherwise.

The first indicator had been his breathing. She smelled like green, fresh things and he wanted to roll in her natural perfume like a hound. Every time she drew near, he was compelled to breathe deeply. When she had started to show evidence of more than just cursory interest in him, his breathing stopped, then quickened.

The second indicator had been his temperature. He'd always been warm-- the cold simply did not affect him the way it did humans-- but recently, he'd noticed a general warming of his body in her presence. More deeply, he'd acknowledged when she'd been gone to make her wand off in the land of dragons, that she warmed some intrinsic part of his psyche that relayed his emotions. If his emotional output could be compared to ice, she was thawing him.

The third indicator had been more difficult to realize. His body started physically manifesting desire for Chise. Strange itching in his lower back, tightness in his chest, a fluttering in his stomach… it had all confused him until one day he noticed they were all accompanied by the other two indicators.

The most confusing physical manifestation had been the most obvious: his erections.

He'd been a functioning male for centuries, so his cock's inflation was nothing new, but he'd never had such a visceral reaction to something, or rather someone, before. Every so often, his body would cycle through hormones and that organ between his legs would be extra sensitive to clothing, or his hand when he urinated… but this was very, very different.

Before, he would easily distract himself and the dull ache would go away. It wasn't important enough for attention and was a bit of a nuisance.

Now, he had to hold his robes closed to try and hide it from sight. Now, what used to be an annoying dull ache, sometimes hurt so sharply, he couldn't move.

Cold showers, long walks, reading-- nothing abated it for sometimes hours at a time.

As of that very moment, he was experiencing the longest time he'd ever had an erection, and he was starting to become worried. Deflation draughts were potentially dangerous, due to the ingredients used, and might cause permanent deflation. That was nearly tempting, and he left his study-- where he'd gone to hide from Chise and her incredibly revealing green bathing suit -- heading to the stairs and eventually the workroom to do just that, when his apprentice collided with him at the top of said stairs. He reacted out in concern to keep her from falling, but as he did so, pulled her close.

"Ow! Elias, I'm so sorry! Um…"

Too close. She'd felt his erection. He was slightly astonished that she'd recognized it so easily, but then, perhaps he'd not been hiding them so well as he'd thought.

She was lovely in her embarrassment and it helped absolutely nothing that she'd blushed adorably. He cleared his throat and held her away from his body as he doubled over, not so much in pain --his pain receptors were rather more tolerant than that-- but to try to hide the leap his hardened member had made right before her beautiful emerald eyes flew down to look.

Her breath hitched and her eyes widened in surprise, "E-Elias?" She looked back up to his face in what seemed like surprised curiosity.

As he was forming an explanation, trying to decide between that and a distraction, he looked more closely at her reddened skin and realized the change in hue was not entirely due to embarrassment. He quickly decided to use that as a distraction tactic. "Chise, are you sunburned?" As he waited for her reply, he took in the beet-red tone of her shoulders and nose and the overall burn tinging the rest of her visible skin a dark rosy color. Her normal fresh green smell was slightly singed. His concern quickly overwhelmed his personal dilemma and the relief of one worry led straight into the onset of another. "You are! Did you not use the zinc ointment I gave you? Where is Ruth?"

"Um, well… It-it was so thick and uncomfortable. I don't know where Ruth is. I haven't seen him in a few hours."

"Are you not uncomfortable, now?" He decided to let the comment about not knowing where Ruth was slide by. The familiar was either sulking from not being able to control Chise, or hiding from Elias' reaction to her in such a state.

"I was pretty hot outside, but now that I'm inside, I'm getting a little cold." She ran her hands over her arms in a display of being chilled. "I was going to get a shirt out of my wardrobe." She nervously scooted around him to do so, and he let her go, but he decided to follow her. Could she not feel the serious burns on her skin?

As soon as he reached the door to her room, he saw her try to pull a t-shirt over her head. "Ah--OW!"

Elias sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "I should, by all means, let you suffer. I specifically told you to use the zinc ointment to keep from getting burned. Your fair skin can't handle the humid summers, here."

His robin huffed with defeated shoulders and threw the shirt on her unused bed, where it lay crumpled in a heap with the collection of things that had come to stay on her bed now that she slept with him. Books, a CD player, several women's magazines and an array of hair ties were scattered across the counterpane haphazardly. The sight of her genuine intention to keep sleeping with him softened his upset at the harm she'd done to her skin and he silently walked over to her.

Gently taking her hand in his, he brought it to his mouth and positioned it so he could heal the burn with his tongue. She snapped her head around and stared at him with an uneasy expression.

Their eyes locked as his tongue slid slowly from her wrist, up the fine hairs on her forearm, to the roughened texture of her elbow. He repeated the action to cover her entire forearm, but somewhere along the way, a simple service of healing his puppy became something else. He slowed down fractionally and savored her skin. The somewhat singed smell was alleviated just there and her normal verdant scent filled his mouth, slightly intoxicating him.

Her breathing increased with his and he wondered if the heat rolling off her body was entirely due to the burn, or if it was like his own warmth and keyed to her nearness.

He stopped at the final swipe to her elbow and looked to her to see if he had permission to keep going, but she pulled her hand out of his grasp and dried it off with the shirt she'd recently discarded. Her lower arm was now a shade of beautiful golden tan, instead of barely ripened tomato.

They stared at her arm quietly for a moment before he regained his senses.

"Doesn't that feel better? You've known my tongue-- or, more precisely, my saliva --has healing properties."

"I know."

He reached for her hand again, but she shifted a step away. He was slightly hurt, but waited for her explanation. Learning to wait had been difficult, but a worthy pursuit in dealing with her. Chise rarely disappointed him.

"I'm just…" She turned to look into the vanity mirror above her dresser drawers. Turning this way and that, she took in the state of her skin with a frown. "I didn't realize I was so burned. It's my fault, I'll just deal with it. It's only fair." He was lost in admiring the rounding curves of her thighs and buttocks, wondering what those hills would taste like, when she turned back to him. "You told me to use protection, and I didn't, so it's only fair that I suffer for it."

He remained silent in contemplation. One part of him wanted to push the issue and just lick her skin healed, but the other part of him-- the one currently ruled by his raging hormones --warned him that if he started down that path, the results may not be… controlled. Already, his body was keening for another taste of her sunshine-flavored skin. Too soon, his erection would return. If she were to ready herself, come to him directly once the pain of her skin asserted itself… perhaps she would more easily forgive him his body's reactions.

He took a deep breath and thought through exactly what to say to her to gain the path he wanted from her. "There's no need for you to suffer, my puppy, but I will accede to your wishes. Come to me if you change your mind." There. He'd planted the seed.

To further drive his point home, he left her alone and headed once more to the workroom.

He knew from the state of her burns that she'd be miserable without some sort of intervention, and his tongue would be the fastest route to relief.

A shiver ran down his spine as he wondered if perhaps it might lead to another sort of relief.

He quickly shut down that train of thought. Chise was kind and showed him affection, but she never seemed to want… more. He'd caught her looking at him several times, when she thought he couldn't see her, but he couldn't tell what she was thinking and she always kept to herself.

He wished that would change. It would be so much easier to gauge what she was thinking if he could get her to talk more.

Shaking his head, he lined up a few helpful herbs to work on a salve if she decided not to take his offer. Regardless of her reasoning, he couldn't have his bride suffering.

Xoxoxo

Chise seemed to hide the rest of the night. After dinner, when she was shivering at the table in a loose oxford shirt and some sort of greasy concoction slathered over her skin, she'd disappeared somewhere in the house. Elias looked to Ruth for explanation, but the grim just sulked on the sofa by Silky as she worked on darning a sock. Baffled by this, he decided to turn in for the night and headed for the bedroom to change into his pyjamas.

As he opened the door, he saw her gingerly removing her oxford shirt. She was standing by the bed shivering, wincing at every movement as she peeled the woven cotton off her body, where it had stuck to the gathered moisture pulled to the surface by the burns.

"Here, let me help you." Quickly walking to her side, he waited for her acknowledgment before reaching for the collar of the unbuttoned shirt.

She turned to look at him out of the corner of her eye, unable to turn her head very far due to the tightened and damaged skin on her neck. After a silent moment, she lowered her hands and nodded.

He concentrated on being as gentle as possible as he pulled the lightweight material away from her body. In the hours since she'd come inside, her shoulders had turned a raw plum color, indicating severe damage. He almost made his offer again, but held his tongue, so to speak. She would ask when she was ready.

One sleeve was released, then the other, and the shirt was free, but slightly yellowed from either her burns or whatever she'd put on them earlier.

"What have you used?" No need to clarify, she'd know what he meant.

"I bathed in tea, then applied a heavy moisturizer."

"The one we made over winter?"

"Yes."

"Ah." While it wasn't a bad choice, it wouldn't be very effective. The moisturizer was magically inert, so would still take a long time to fix the issue. The tea was an interesting choice. On a lighter sunburn, it might have actually worked, but this was so far gone, she'd likely made the damage worse.

He wanted to heal her so badly, but he again held his tongue. He instead chose to admire her very revealing bathing suit. When he'd first seen her this morning, he'd been shocked, to say the least. He'd not seen her so nude since the day he'd bought her, and had gotten used to her modest style of dressing.

The moment she stepped outside that sunny summer morning and announced that she wanted to work on a tan, he'd been briefly immobilized.

His breath caught, he felt very, very warm, and his body nearly went haywire. He'd fled inside, using the excuse of obtaining the zinc ointment to try and compose himself.

Her skin looked like silken cream and the dark emerald of her two piece bathing suit complemented her striking coloring admirably. Her body had softened and grown out of her childishly thin frame into a woman's body.

A very enticing woman's body.

That he now very much wanted to lick from head to toe.

Xoxoxoxoxoxo

They settled into bed quietly. He shifted away from her so as not to hurt her, but kept a close eye in case she needed help.

She shifted, hissed and grunted several times, unable to find comfort in her state. It was very difficult to refrain from just pinning her down and fixing the issue, but that idea came with another idea that woke his cock… so he withheld.

Another groan from her as she slowly, gingerly moved into another position indicated that her level of frustration was growing.

He looked in the dark for her beautiful face and was surprised to find her staring at him. He waited.

"Alright, fine."

"What is fine, Chise?" He wasn't going to let her squeak by without actually saying it.

"Would… would you heal my skin, Elias?" The look in her eye was somehow edged with shame, but he was in no mood to make her feel worse. She'd punished herself enough by waiting this long to ask.

She was on her side, facing him, so he reached for her left hand again. Sliding his hand under hers, he carefully lifted the slender arm away from her body, which was still clad in the green bathing suit. He tilted his head, looking over her for a good place to start. Her burns had darkened all over and she was shivering in bed. The night was warm and she'd not used a sheet, so she must be miserable.

"Where would you like me to start?" His eyes met hers and she looked ready to cry. A sharp feeling twisted in his gut and he barely refrained from pulling her close.

"I don't-- I don't know. I hurt everywhere."

He looked down at her in pity, "Where does it hurt the most?"

She whispered so low, he almost couldn't hear her, "My shoulders, I think."

Thinking through the best way to reach her without hurting her more, he suggested, "Can you sit up and face out? I should be able to heal you without hurting the rest of you if you do so."

She didn't even respond, just sniffled and sat up, swinging her legs over the side of his massive bed to wait for his attentions. Her hair had fallen out of her hair tie as she tossed and turned, so he reached for the small bit of elastic that lay on the sheets and went to pull her hair out of the way.

A hissing gasp preceded Chise ducking her head away. Her hand slowly came up and gently felt the top of her head. "Oh, no."

The top of her scalp was burnt as well. He sighed and knelt up behind her, easily reaching out his tongue to lick the crown of her head. She made a slight noise of discomfort, but when he was done, her scalp was a healthy shade again. He quickly tied her hair back up to get it off her neck, then immediately went to healing her nape and shoulders.

Moving quickly to try and control the sexual undertones, he was also careful not to go so fast as to cause more pain. He was in a race against his own body and every little sigh Chise released in gratitude was fanning the flame that grew with every swipe of his tongue. He'd finished with both arms, her shoulders and upper back, then sat back to contemplate what to do with the tie of her bathing suit top. Should he ignore it? Untie it? He slid one gloved finger under the string of material and she winced. He glanced up at her head to see if she was going to say something, but then looked down to see that she was burned under there as well.

There was a quiet, still moment where he waited for some sort of protest from her with his hands obviously pulling at the tie, but none came. He deftly pulled at the string and let the two pieces fall to her sides.

He waited again for a response that again didn't come. Her breathing seemed slightly increased, but he couldn't be sure as to the reason. He reached his muzzle down to start his lick at her lower back, pulling up to the line of healed skin. Muscles twitched beneath his tongue as he continued around the girdle of her back and as he finished that section of skin, he looked down in curiosity at the line of her bottoms. Was she burned there? Ashamed at the idea of his excitement at her expense, he thoughtlessly reached up and untied the strings at her neck to check for burns there.

Chise squeaked and grabbed her breasts to hold the material up. His tongue finished a quick path across her neck and he took hold of her shoulders to indicate she should lie down. She followed his direction but a shocked look on her face with some unknown emotion glittering in her lovely emerald eyes made him pause and sit back. Her entire body was tense, with her knees lifted and pressed together.

He watched her, and she watched him. After a few minutes, she relaxed her legs and laid down flat. His eyes roved across her body again, looking for the least dangerous place to begin.

"Could…" Chise started roughly and cleared her throat. "Could you do my face, next?"

He huffed in amusement. This was likely going to be awkward, but they might as well get it out of the way. Leaning over, he used his core strength to hold his body away from hers, flanking her now-healed shoulders with his large hands. Slowly opening his mouth, he reached out and gently flicked his tongue across her forehead, her eyebrows, down to her eyelids, softly down the bridge of her nose. With playful inspiration, he licked the tip of her nose. She quietly giggled.

He licked across both cheeks and her jawline, then came to her ears. She tensed again as the tip of his tongue traced out the shell of each ear and shivered as he came back to lick under her chin before delicately tracing out her lips.

His breathing intensified. This was dangerously close to kissing and the thought of slipping his tongue between her soft lips was tantalizing. Oh so carefully, he outlined her lips and then swept a wet trail across the soft petals of her mouth. He couldn't help but slow his path at the corner of her lips and savor the returning sweetness of her healed scent. As his tongue followed the seam of her mouth, her lips parted with a soft exhalation and he… he just stopped.

He wanted to fill her mouth with his tongue, but…

But…

Would he be able to stop?

With a convulsive swallow, he sat back, shaking with the effort of stopping himself from ravaging her innocent mouth. He looked to her for some indication of what to do next and was surprised at what he saw.

Her eyelids drooped, shadowing the gemstone glitter of her eyes and despite the recent healing of her cheeks, they blushed brightly. Her wet lips parted and something twisted inside his belly, low and hungry, at the sight of her tongue dipping out to lick her lips. To taste his saliva? To mimic his kiss? To invite more? He stared, unmoving, waiting for a stronger indication. During his not-kiss, his cock had indeed hardened almost painfully and he could do nothing to hide it in the cut of his trousers as he knelt beside her.

Slowly, bravely, she looked down to his lap and he watched her face avidly. Her enticing lips parted and her hands shifted on her chest where they were still holding her bathing suit top tightly. His eyes flared as her hands let go, lifting with her arms over her head. The green fabric clung to her rounded breasts, still maintaining her modesty, but with the silent invitation to remove it.

True, he'd seen her nudity before, but on that first day, he'd not…

He'd not cared so much for her and her opinion of him.

He took a deep breath, willing his inimitable control into presence. "Chise, where would you like me to heal you, next?"

The true meaning of his words lay heavy in the air between them. What did she really want from him? Up to this point, he'd not touched her legs, so when she didn't answer right away, he reached for the leg nearest him and pulled her foot up to his mouth. He looked to her for approval and she nodded.

A sweet, floral scent wafted up to him as he contemplated her foot. It twined through his thoughts as he wondered if she was ticklish. He dismissed the scent as resulting of her healing and quickly swiped his tongue across the bottom of her foot before wrapping a deft lick around her big toe. It wriggled slightly and she gasped, but did not pull away. He thoroughly healed around each of her toes and looked back up to her again before laving up the arch and across from the spine to the instep. Her mouth had dropped fully open and she was arching her back slightly. His greedy gaze took in one pert nipple peeking out from under one side of the swim top. The soft curve of the underside of her breast kept his focus as he healed her ankle and up the entirety of her calf to her knee.

The position he held her in was not lost on his libido and he clutched her ankle firmly as he leaned down to lick a path up the back of her knee to the fold of her buttocks. Her breath was heaving into the silent bedroom and that sweetly floral scent was most powerful as he reached the bottom of his path.

His great heart beat hard in excitement. She was-- Chise was experiencing desire, too. This was her scent of arousal. That stunning realization had him sit back and roughly speed through healing the outside of her thigh before situating his still-kneeling body between her legs and lifting the other foot to start over again.

This time, his hand ran gently down her calf as his tongue caressed her toes.

"Elias?"

Her soft voice was breathless and his answer was drugged with desire, "Yes, Chise?"

"T-take off your gloves, they scratch."

A deep, resonant growl filled the air and he propped her foot against his chest as he did as she asked. His now-bare hands lifted her leg again and as he finished healing her ankle, he straightened her leg up to the ceiling, letting his hands follow his tongue on its path all the way down the back of her leg. His cock was pulsing in his pants, filled with need and urged by the sweet sounds his delicate robin emitted to the night air. As he healed the outside of her other thigh, he noted that he'd avoided getting too close to her pelvis. Perhaps subconsciously he knew it was too much.

He looked up to her again and her hair had fallen out of its tie. Her hands were still by her head, but she teased her own mouth with the backs of the knuckles of her left hand. Her bright eyes opened in mere slits and he inhaled at the sight she presented.

The green top had fallen completely away and he could see the geometric shapes he'd not healed yet as the redness ended at the creamy perfection of her breasts. Coming to his knees, he braced his hands beside her waist and leaned up to lick her chest, sternum and belly. As he came down to the last bit of green material, her knees bent and she braced her feet at his knees. He stopped, wondering if she was going to wriggle away and put a devastating end to their… their… foreplay.

Technically, now, she was fully healed and the beautiful golden skin beneath him smelled divine. Not a bit of singed skin was left, and he took in deep lungfuls of her aroused floral bouquet. His thumbs spread out, towards her body and slowly played with the soft skin of her obliques. Her feet braced again at his knees, but she merely shifted her hips… down. She moved down the bed, wrapping her legs around his hips, then waited. His hands turned and held her torso, his adventurous thumbs sliding up to tease the underside of her breasts. She shivered and her mouth fell open.

"Surely, you're not done, yet?"

"Did I miss a burn, somewhere?"

Her low purr sent his mind reeling. When had she become this sexual creature that lay beneath him? Had he done this to her? He breathlessly asked, "Where?"

Her small hands hesitated and as she watched him, they slid down her chest to cup creamy handfuls of skin, presenting the reddened tips to him. "Here," she whispered.

A rush sped down his spine and he groaned at the tightness between his legs. Unashamedly, he reached down and adjusted himself but that proved to be a mistake. His cock had now been acknowledged in front of her. She bit her lip and lifted her hips a little.

Helplessly, he followed her request to 'heal' her 'burn', even though he was sure it was stoking the fire between them, not banking it. The tip of his tongue met the ruched bud she held in her hand and the sweet cry she called out just carried him farther down the path. His teeth gently came down on her breast, holding it more tightly for his tongue to ravish. Her still-clothed pelvis tipped up towards him over and over, faster and faster, as he mercilessly tasted his fill of her sweet skin.

Her cry of frustration when he let go was immediately followed by a wanton gasp for air as he dove for the other breast and gave it the same intense attention. He wasn't sure if she climbed up to him or if he dropped down to her, but he found himself curled down awkwardly as his hips pressed down into the mattress just below the crux of her thighs. The heat between her legs pressed just below his belt buckle and he wondered what she would think if he undressed, too.

He went to pull away to do just that, but she held him tightly down and pressed her entire body against his. His arms wrapped around her body and he had a moment of clarity before his mind sank into the depths of desire like the beast he was. "Chise."

"Mmm?" she purred against his shoulder.

"Where else do you burn?"

(to be continued!)