Author's Notes: This is a little late for Valentine's Day, but right on time for Love is in the Air. Three couples, three one-shots of their holiday. First up are Lorel and Tzun'do, which have sadly not gotten near enough love lately.
High above Stranglethorne Vale, a lone stormcrow wove her way through the warm air currents. It might be full winter in the human lands, but here in the jungle, the air was perfect: warm with just a hint of chill, just enough to warrant pants or long sleeves. And unlike the impending spring, the humidity had evened out for the winter. The weather was beautiful, the season was her favorite, and Lorel's mood could not be more foul as she wheeled a tight circle and shifted form just as she landed outside the nearly-invisible clearing. She literally hit the ground stomping, and yanked a hand through her tangled white hair as she strode towards her house. She bypassed the front door entirely, and went directly down to the bathing pool behind the garden gate. She grumbled to herself as she pulled her boots off on the way.
"Stupid...fucking...hippogryphs." Lorel pulled her shirt off over her head in one violent motion, wincing as it caught her ears. She didn't even pause as she tossed it to the side of the path. Somehow, when she had agreed to help relocate the hippogryphs to their new pen, she had gotten the lot of mucking out the old pen. Which hadn't been cleaned in years, by the state of things. She was covered in old giant bird shit and sweat, and then right as she was about to leave, one of them had charged at her and knocked her right into the water trough. She didn't have to double check her clothes as she chucked them off: they were completely ruined, and most likely her boots as well. And she liked these boots, too.
She had stripped completely by the time she made it to the bathing pool, and without hesitation, dove in. The water was warm against her skin as she swam all the way to the other side, and then back to the dock. Her muscles were sore from all the hard work today, and while she might normally do a few more laps, she was just ready to be clean. She scrubbed herself thoroughly with soap, and then leaned back against the dock lazily as she washed her hair. She'd been in the bathing pool at least twenty minutes, and she was still alone. She cast her eyes about the sides of the garden and the house: everything was silent and still, at least as still as it could be in the jungle. She dunked her head under water and rinsed the scented soap out of her hair. She flung her wet hair back out of her face and again peered around the pool.
"Zane?" she called, half-expecting him to jump out of the bushes and cannonball into the pool. She turned a slow circle, pulling herself up onto the dock. There were a stack of towels sitting on the dock, and she scrubbed one through her hair thoughtfully. Oh, that's right. Zane was staying over with Araleigh tonight. Lorel's mood, which was already foul, turned south. It was the Love Festival tonight, and Araleigh had insisted on taking her son for the weekend so her and Tzun'do could celebrate properly with no interruptions. Except apparently her cycles hated her, and she would have to avoid sleeping with her husband this weekend entirely or double up on her preventative herbs. Lorel scowled as she threw the wet towel down onto the dock and stomped up to the house without a stitch on. It was the Love Festival, she had the night off, and they were kid-free for the weekend, and she couldn't even get laid. Stupid fucking fertility.
She slammed the back door open with more force than was necessary, and headed right into the kitchen. She was irrationally angry with her body. She assumed it was some kind of karma: she had spent so many years sleeping around from person to person, and because of it, she was now blessed with hyperactive cycles. She could get pregnant every single year if she so desired. But she did not. Her sisters-in-law might be happy to be housewives, or have a houseful of kids, but she liked her autonomy. She liked her freedom. And Zane, well...Zane was like his father. And his mother. And both of them together ran her ragged nearly every day.
Thinking about Zarabethe and Mae deflated her temper slightly as she poked around the kitchen and found a lone pomegranate sitting in the fruit bowl. It wasn't their fault she was fertile and they were not. Wishing it was switched was kind of shitty of her. Lorel ripped the pomegranate in half and dug out the juicy seeds as she thought. She had to take the preventative herbs a few hours early for them to even work, but no one else was home yet. She hated them: they gave her a headache and she felt even more irritable. But she could suck it up for one night. She filled a cup up with water and then opened up the herb cabinet. They weren't in front where she usually left them. Grumbling, she set the pomegranate down and hoisted herself up onto the counter. Even thought the cabinets were sized for humans, they were still almost too tall for her to see properly. She dug through the cabinet, and then in irritation took everything out of it completely. Where the hell was it?
Not even bothering to clean up her mess, she hopped down off the counter, her bare feet slapping the bamboo mat. It might be in the bedroom. More likely she was out though, and that meant her weekend was decidedly ruined. She picked up the pomegranate and continued picking at it as she stomped past the kitchen table. She paused, backed up, and did a double-take. There was a bright orange tiger lily laying on the table. She had missed it entirely on her way in. She picked it up, inhaled its scent, and grinned. It could only be from Tzun—tiger lilies were their running gag now. She took it with her as she started to the stairs up to the loft, and stopped again. Sitting on the bottom step was another one. She picked it up and added it to the first, and looked around the bottom floor of their house. There was no sign of anyone being here: everything was in its place, and there were no more errant flowers. Zane's toys were even picked up off the floor. She drew her eyebrows together as she slowly started up the steps. Everything looked a little too clean, actually. She thought her husband had had paperwork in town to do today: now she wondered what exactly he had been up to.
Halfway up the steps, there was another flower. This time, however, it was a long-stemmed mass of oblong petals called a bird of paradise. Lorel giggled as she picked it up. Tiger lilies and birds of paradise. It was almost too romantic, like Tzun had taken advice from a romance column. Still, it worked: she was a mass of giggles as she picked up another bird of paradise from the top steps. The previous one was orange, and this one red.
The top floor of their house was bedrooms: two small ones to the left, and their larger one to the right. She turned to the right, and outside the door to their bedroom was an arrangement that made her gasp. An extravagant bouquet of dark purple orchids was arranged, with a few tiger lilies and birds of paradise stuck in to accent it. The entire upper level was awash in its perfume. Lorel crouched beside the flowers, breathing in their heady scent, and abruptly caught the scent of something else, something right behind the door. She carefully toed around the flower arrangement and pushed the curtain back from their bedroom.
"Tzun, you lying bastard, I know you are in there-" And stopped because there was Tzun, no doubt about it. There could definitely be none other than her half-troll husband sprawled lasciviously across their bed, from the dark blue-lavender of his skin to his mane of bright red hair. But what made her sink against the door in a peel of delighted laughter was the fact that he wore absolutely nothing.
Except a bright red ribbon tied in a jaunty bow around his masculinity.
Tzun gave her a wink as he nodded her way. "I see ya already dressed for da occasion."
For a moment she leaned against the door frame, holding her sides and laughing uncontrollably. When she could speak again, she waved a hand vaguely at both him and the flowers.
"Who told you to do all this?"
Tzun shifted on the bed so that he was sitting up. "Jeth mighta given me da idea. Do ya hate it?"
His expression had wilted so much she set the flowers she was holding onto the dresser and quickly strode across the room to him. "No, no, I adore it." With him seated on their floor mattress, she had to bend down to kiss him, which was a nice difference. He brought his hands up to slide around her waist, and reality hit her all at once. She yanked back abruptly.
"Fuck! My herbs! We can't do anything right now, I can't find them."
Her husband reached up and smoothed one large finger over her cheek, and his other hand slid down to cup her ass as he pulled her back to him. His eyes didn't quite meet hers as he spoke.
"I thought mebbe we could forget about dat right now."
Lorel groaned aloud in half pleasure, half exasperation as he nuzzled her belly, raking his tusks across the delicate skin there.
"You know we can't forget it, Tzun, if you even look at me funny this weekend, I'll get pregnant."
She froze, suddenly feeling very immune to her husband's touch.
"That's what you want, isn't it?"
His voice was muffled against her skin. "I don't see why ya hate it so much. Ya be da most beautiful pregnant woman in Azeroth."
"Wait a minute." She pushed her husband's head away from her so she could think clearly. He met her eyes finally, and she could read the frustration there, although she could tell it had little to do with her reluctance to go to bed with him. She climbed onto the bed with him and sat on her haunches beside him. She made a sweeping gesture from her shoulders to her feet.
"Let's get one thing straight: my body, my choice."
"I know dat, pet." Tzun looked so uncomfortable she felt a twinge of guilt. He stretched out beside her on the mattress and turned away from her so that he faced the wall.
"Jus' forget 'bout it. We don't hafta do anything."
Lorel was not having that. She climbed bodily over her husband, sitting herself so that she straddled his massive chest. Even though he kept his arms crossed, his eyes raked over her naked form.
"Ya not helping the situation, pet."
Lorel crossed her arms to match and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you being this way?"
His stubborn expression was the same one she saw on her son's face more often that she liked.
"I'm tired a' dis. You takin' the herbs that make ya feel bad, havin' ta step around ya cycles all da time...can't we jus' let it be for once? Can't we just enjoy each other wit'out schedulin' it in?"
Lorel threw her hands up in exasperation. "Just so you know, without the schedules and the herbs and all that, we'd have six kids by now. How much sex do you think you'd get with six kids, huh? Not a fucking lot."
"You didn't take da herbs for a year before we got Zane. I be thinkin' ya are over reactin'."
"And I don't think you properly appreciate how difficult it is to be pregnant, especially with your massive progeny."
Lorel could feel herself getting too worked up. The sexual tension in the room was enough, and now they were both angry. Her cheeks were flushed and she could tell that Tzun'do was not unaffected. At this rate, it wouldn't matter what herbs she took or not: this would end up in a wrestling match, and not a platonic one. As if Tzun could read her thoughts, he switched topics and uncrossed his arms, cupping his hands lightly around her ankles.
"All dis worryin' be stressin' ya out. I want ya ta have fun, not countin' days and hours and brewin' tea."
His words must have distracted her more than she thought, because all of a sudden his grasp on her ankles tightened and he sat up abruptly, flipping her onto her backside in his lap. She glared at him upside down as he leaned down and buried his nose into the crook between her shoulder and neck, right where he often told her that her scent was the strongest.
"Besides," his voice was barely audible and sent shivers down her spine. "Ya have no idea how good ya smell right now."
"Hormones." Lorel croaked out, her voice rough in the back of her throat as she tried to remember why, exactly, she had been resisting in the first place. "Your rut is not my problem."
"'Course not," he murmured and then he nipped the skin right at her throat. Lorel let out a surprised gasp, arching her neck against his teeth. He pulled back from her, his face as mischievous as ever. He scooped her up in his big hands only to set her down soundly on the mattress before standing up. "Guess I'll find another way ta deal wit' it."
He barely made it a full turn around before Lorel made a flying leap and landed on his back, digging her nails into his skin.
"Don't you dare," she hissed into his ear. She could feel his chuckle deep in his chest as she wrapped her legs around his neck. "You went to all this trouble for a Love Festival present: I'm at least going to unwrap it."
It was well into the next morning when she identified the random crinkling sound under their mattress and pulled out the bag of herbs. She lobbed them weakly onto her husband's face: that was all she had the energy for after the night they had just had.
"You hid them, didn't you."
Tzun had jumped awake as the bag hit his face and his eyes registered guilt as he carefully set them beside the bed.
"I was plannin' on givin' them back, if ya insisted."
He rolled over lazily and wrapped his arms around her, burying his nose into her neck. His breath was warm and soothing and nearly lulled her to sleep again as she listened to him breathe. He pulled her close, and gently kissed one of the bite marks on her shoulder.
"Ya really do smell good tho."
"And you are a slave to your dick." Her voice held no venom at all as she snuggled closer to her husband, admiring a few bite marks on his own torso. He petted her head for a moment, and was so quiet and she lifted her head to see if he was even awake anymore. His golden eyes burned into hers as he smoothed one finger along the length of her ear.
"Look, pet, I don't want ta make ya do anything ya don't want. I'm sorry for trying to take ya choice away."
Lorel silenced him by grabbing the bag of herbs off the floor and throwing them unceremoniously out the bedroom door.
"Shut up and kiss me, Tiger Lily."
