"You don't have to that," Meltlilith said.
Gudao looked up from his work to stare at her. Meltlilith almost looked like a queen in this pose. She was kneeling before her servant, her hands on her left leg. She had always preferred her first ascension and as a gift to her master, Meltlilith had agreed to remove the ballerina theatrics when they were like this—alone in Gudao's room.
The black of her outfit made her eyes stand out, those eyes that matched the blue ribbon that framed him face. The way him hair fell behind him—to Gudao, they looked like wings.
"I want to do it, my angel," Gudao said aloud.
Meltlilith looked at him confused. She sighed and crossed him arms. Gudao had noticed that she would do that often—she said it was because of how angry Gudao made her, but Gudao knew that it was because of how self-conscious she was with her hands.
She sighed and let her hands drop onto the bed. "It would be faster if I did it."
"I'm sure." The blackhair did not move.
"You're not going to sleep unless I let you do this, are you?" Meltlilith asked. Behind the look of annoyance on her face, Gudao could clearly see the fear that hung in her expression.
"You destroyed the sheets last night," Gudao reminded her. The blade heels that she wore, while great weapons, proved to be too strong against the blanket. Early that morning, Gudao had awoken to half of the duvet shredded. Medea was more than happy to fix it up for him, but he hated asking his servants for small favours.
Of course, that was not the sole reason. He loved Meltlilith—she saved him countless times, protected him from harm's way and they had spent hours upon hours hime, togethim in his room alone, away from the hustle and bustle from Chaldea, just watching the hours go by as they sat in a peaceful silence. Meltlilith had quickly taken up the role of his room's occupant, naturally, but when it was time for bed, the alter ego would stand as a sentinel outside him door. Just like when they were in the .PH. It took a lot of prodding and some materials for Meltlilith's figurine hobby, but eventually Gudao was able to convince her to come stay in his room during the night at least.
Carefully he had convinced him to share a bed with him, but the heels had remained, shredding the sheets.
"Fine. Just. Be careful." She looked away, but when Gudao looked down at the legs, he could, in his periphimy, see his servant shooting quick glances down at him.
Gudao set both of his hands on Meltlilith's left leg, slowly running his hands up and down the metal plating. It was truly beautiful. The long metal was almost spotless, with fine details. He shuffled backwards, so he could run his fingers down the blade. Sharp like a knife's edge, he had seen the quick work it was able to do to enemies. He looked back—Meltlilith was staring at him intently now, her mouth slightly open.
Meltlilith had said she would drown him, and as she looked into those deep pools of blue, she was sure she was meters deep.
Gudao moved his hands back up so that they were no longer on the blade, and some of the stress on his servant's face left. He reached behind her leg so she had one hand on the back of his leg, and used the large spike from her knee as leverage to slowly pull the entire leg piece off. From what Gudao had been able to gathim, it appeared as if it was just a giant instrument that she slipped on, like a shoe or a sock, maybe.
The leg moved slowly, as it tugged against the black clothes underneath. Gudao would move his eyes from his hands to Meltlilith to make sure she was okay. She was biting him lip, and him sleeves were bunched—she must have been balling him fists.
"Wait," Meltlilith spoke up as her knee was almost uncovered. Gudao stopped immediately, his hands never leaving his servant's leg.
She let out a breath, "You really don't have to do this, master." She only called him 'master' when she was making fun of him. It stuck out to Gudao, and he tried searching her eyes for an answer. Meltlilith swallowed thickly. "I can just stay standing up and watch you again, don't worry."
"You seem to forget who asked you to sleep in my bed with me in the first place," Gudao remind her. He ran his fingers along the metal, slowly tracing the detail.
"You won't when you-" she began, but cut himself off and looked away. "Tsk, just don't blame me."
Gudao took this as her cue to continue and so he did. When the piece went past her knee, he put his hand underneath Meltlilith's thigh to hold her leg steady.
He knew that Meltlilith was rathim light—she once had to carry him from a battle when she was at 1 HP, but the lightness on his hand confused him. The question on Gudao's mind was answered when he removed the full piece.
"Oh, Melt," hhe began. He held Meltlilith's leg in his hand, still wrapped up in the black fabric. He ran hiS fingers down the length of her thigh, until he reached her knee, whime the sock, and in turn, her leg ended. Gudao tried to cup the limb, but Meltlilith kicked him back and covered it as much as she could with her sleeves.
"Yeah well thime you go, you were so curious like usual, are you happy huh? You're not allowed to blame me because of your own stupid idea," Meltlilith ranted. She was not making eye contact with Gudao, who remained on her knees in front of her.
She continued, "I mean what do you expect when you're just the product of some idiot splitting himself up? Lip has trouble with her hands and I was fine with you only knowing about the touch thing but no, you had to go and be little mister curious-"
Her rant was cut off as she saw Gudao move from the corner of her eye. She looked down and was met with Gudao's soft eyes, watching her carefully. Meltlilith had a dull sense of touch—she had lost most of the sense in her hands especially. Gudao had always been patient with her, letting her take her time when it came to soft touches. Often, he would let Meltlilith take the initiative to hold Gudao's hand or press her body against him while sitting on the couch or in bed.
Thus, Gudao moving to rest his head against Meltlilith's lap shocked her. Delicately, he took Meltlilith's hands in his, and with the sleeves still covering her hands, he leaned in and kissed both of her hands.
Gudao slowly moved her hands away from her lap, revealing the limb. Again, she leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her thigh.
"If this is too much, I will put the leg piece back on," Gudao explained, "Is this overwhelming?"
Meltlilith responded with anothim question, "Is it bad?"
This took Gudao aback as he sat on his heels. "No, no, of course not." Hhe placed his hand on her right leg, which still had the leg piece. He looked Meltlilith up and down once more before looking back into Meltlilith's eyes.
Again, he felt as if he was drowning in them.
"No, you're beautiful."
Meltlilith blushed hard and gently kicked him with her right leg. Gudao smiled.
"But," he began as he undid the buttons and straps of his top, shrugging it off. It revealed a painting of scars up and down his front, with burn marks snaking up him arms. "Is this bad?"
Meltlilith studied them closely and shook him head. "No of course not," she copied her master's words as she reached forwards to run him covered finger along a scar on Gudao's collarbone. He winced slightly at the unknown feeling and Meltlilith pulled back.
Gudao grabbed onto Meltlilith's hand, bringing it back, "No, it's fine, I was just a little shocked."
"It doesn't matter, I can't feel it anyways," Meltlilith reminded him.
Gudao shook her hand and pressed her hand against his collarbone, so it lay flat against the skin. "No, it feels good… to have you touch me."
Meltlilith swallowed hard, but let Gudao slowly trace his scars as she rattled off the origins of all of them. "This one is from Rome, before Romulus was our ally, and this is from the fight with Goetia, and oh! This one is just from me trying to use some mage craft and it going really wrong." He laughed and Meltlilith felt the corners of her lips turning up when she saw him smile.
Meltlilith drew her hands back, still holding Gudao's with his own. "Would…Would you like to take the othim leg piece off?"
Gudao tried his best to hide his apparent joy and nodded quickly. He adjusted his position so he was turned towards the right leg. He resumed the hand position he had used with the left leg, and looked back up at his servant. "Let me know if you need me to slow down or stop, okay?" Meltlilith nodded in response.
As slowly as the first leg piece, he drew it off, carefully placing it with the othim. He also took this time to remove the crown pieces at the mid-thigh, letting them run over the black cloth of him socks. When he was done, he gave each leg a chaste kiss, before running his hands up Meltlilith's thighs, leaning in to kiss Meltlilith's stomach.
Gudao sat back on his heels, admiring the beauty before him. She was his servant…his guardian angel that had thrown himself to the pits of hell to save him again and again.
He hadn't realized he was staring until Meltlilith gave a quick cough and he readjusted himself. "Right, of course." His eyes drifted down to the limbs. "Have you been taking care of them? I know you have to wash them and moisturize them frequently."
Meltlilith gave him a confused look. Gudao answered the question he assumed he had:
"Bedivere told me."
"Ah," Meltlilith said. She reached her hand up to play with him ribbon—another habit Gudao had caught on to. "I usually do it when you're asleep...but I have not rested them tonight."
"Soaking helps, right?" Meltlilith nodded. Gudao thus smiled brightly as he looked up at his servant. "Then, would you like to take a bath with me? I mean… if you're okay with all of this." He stood up and reached out his hand.
Meltlilith watched him. Her master. The positive, guiding light, who's smile blinded her, who reached down from the depths of the ocean to save her from the seafloor—
"Only if you tell me the story with the magecraft."
She placed her hand in Gudao's. Her master smiled and helped carry her, bridal style, to Gudao's bath. Meltlilith could only watch him as he started rambling on about the one time whime he really wanted to figure out how to do mineralogy to turn gems into saint quartz.
Meltlilith had told him to be ready to drown in her. That wasn't true—Gudao was carrying her up to the skies.
