Disclaimer: The characters in this story are copyrighted by other people. I am using them without permission but with no intent to harm.

A/N: In this story, Albel doesn't wear a prothesis.

Truces, Part 4

Knowing that her presence in the palace was unremarkable but his was not, Nel made a point of dragging Albel through several of the public areas so that, should anyone comment to Claire or to the Queen, they would hopefully add that Nel was just doing her duty in playing tour guide for their new ally. She wasn't stalling for time now that the decision had been made and she couldn't retract it. Not at all. For his part, Albel did behave himself, in his own unique way. He grunted in a non-committal manner at appropriate moments and didn't glare too much at the soldiers they passed in the halls. Considering his ready repertoire of cutting comments, Nel thought that was better than could be expected.

Dammit, she was stalling.

Just get it over with, Nel told herself. He's thrown you off balance for weeks with his – attentions? flirting? – with whatever game he's playing. Let him have what he wants and he'll leave you alone. There are more important things to concentrate on right now–

He murmured quietly, "We don't have to do this." Sensitive words, perhaps, but the tone was his usual one of disinterested scorn, making the comment pure challenge.

Nel's back stiffened. She was tempted to ask Albel to repeat himself, but she had heard him fine the first time and he knew it. "Worried about your stamina?" she mocked.

"Hmph."

"Come on," she said crossly, and marched towards the wing that held her private quarters. She didn't need to look over her shoulder to know he was smirking.

-

They met no one before reaching her private quarters. Although Nel was grateful for the lack of witnesses, she was also fairly sure someone should be on patrol duty. She made a mental note to check the roster in the morning.

She didn't bother with a backwards glance as she crossed the threshold into her rooms. Albel was close enough on her heels for her to feel the warmth from his body. As soon as the door shut behind them his arms wrapped around her from behind, his mouth pressing against the side of her neck. He was far more aggressive than men of her own country. Perhaps the novelty was why she tolerated his touch? Folding her arms over his, she leaned back against him, letting her head loll against his armored shoulder. "Careful," he murmured, not moving his mouth from her skin. "Don't want to lock armors again."

"I'm holding still," she pointed out. "Isn't that what women from your country do? Stay as quiet and still as possible?"

"Oh, some of them can be quite vocal."

Reversing his hand to lace his fingers through hers, he raised it to his mouth. She tilted her head up to watch him trace the visible outlines of the rune partially covered by her bracer. "Careful, yourself. You don't want to accidentally trigger something."

Albel dropped her hand as if it really were on fire.

Nel chuckled. "Don't tell me that's one of the things 'they' say about runes?"

"That women with them can spontaneously combust if you touch them the wrong way? Yes." He slanted a wary glance down at her. "Not true?"

"That would be telling."

"Hmmm." The hand still on her midriff splayed, digging in and bringing her more firmly against him. "Hold on to your secrets while you may," he said against her ear, the low husky tone sending shivers through her. "I plan on discovering all of them tonight, even if I get burned in the process." Two of his fingers found the seam between her tunic and leggings and began softly circling against her skin. Albel stroked back up her arm with his other hand, fingers lightly dragging, cupped his palm over her shoulder with a gentle squeeze before sliding his fingers over her collarbone, pressing against the rune just under it. It warmed to his touch faster than the encasing flesh. He felt it as well; shuddering, he buried his face against her neck. He appeared to have quite the erotic fascination with her runes. Bringing her own dangling hand up to cup against the side of his head, Nel absently wondered what else 'they' said about women who bore them.

She had to give Albel full marks for finesse. Had she ever imagined what the opposing general would be like as a lover (which she most adamantly had not, ever), it would be that his lovemaking would echo his speech, cold and brief and often inconsiderate. Instead it was more like his swordplay, precise and elegant. He lightly bit down against the leather that covered the juncture between her neck and shoulder. Nel's fingers clenched into his hair. Oh, so elegant. He did know all the right spots–

"Nel."

"Umm?"

"This isn't the most romantic thing to say, but I'm getting a terrible crick in my neck." The arm around her waist tightened in an attempt to lift her up a bit. "And for such a tiny creature, you're rather solid. I don't think I can keep you hefted up to my height for very long."

"That your subtle hint that we should lay down?"

Lifting his head from her neck, Albel grinned into her eyes. He had amazing lashes, so dark that his eyes appeared lined with charcoal. "If you're willing to climb onto a step-stool, I'll be perfectly happy to spend more time making out in your foyer." He rested his chin on top of her head, holding her in a loose embrace. "Actually," he murmured after a minute, "this is nice, too."

Who are you and what have you done with Albel Nox? thought Nel, but she once more folded her arms over the one looped around her waist as she rested against him. It was rather nice just to be held. "How old are you?" she asked abruptly.

"Twenty-four. You?"

"The same. I thought you were older."

Lazily he traced an invisible line from her elbow to mid-bicep and back again, barely moving his fingers to do so. "Thought you were, too. Hard to guess someone's age when you're trying not to be skewered." He gave her arm a light slap and dropped his arms, moving away so suddenly Nel had to take a step to maintain her balance. "I'm ready for the 'lying down' part now."

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Nel nodded and walked further into the room. Her sleeping area was kept meticulously clean by the domestic staff. Albel brushed past her, bending over the table next to the bed to turn down the light. Nel raised her brows. She would not have taken him for one that needed 'atmosphere.' He turned to look at her, his gaze slightly challenging. Shrugging, Nel unhooked her high collar and prosaically began to undress.

For a little while he simply stood and watched, eyes shadowed and breath shallow. When she took off her bracers and peeled off her shoulder guards, his breathing hitched. He reached out and lay the tips of his fingers against the newly-revealed runes in her upper arms, lightly tracing the patterns. "Did this hurt?"

Nel really wondered what fantasies Airyglyph males wove around runes that made Albel focus more on her arms than her chest. "I don't remember. My talent was discovered early, so I was very young when I was granted the right to bear runes. I've heard that receiving one burns." His hand slid up her arm to cup her shoulder as he lowered his head, but when Nel broke the contact by pushing her wrist against his forearm Albel immediately released her and stepped back. "I'm not interested in getting scratched up," she told him. He looked at her blankly. There was a metallic "ping" as she tapped one nail against his armor. Albel blinked, then nodded and began to work off his own outfit.

Although heavy armor encased his left arm and a metal collar encircled his neck, for the most part Albel's protective gear consisted of leather reinforced with metal strips. He was wiry rather than muscular, whipcord thin without a gram of fat anywhere. When he bent to remove his boots and leggings, the two cloth-covered braids fell over his shoulder, nearly reaching the floor. Nel touched one of them, fingering the satiny covering. Dark hair wreathed his head, but the end of the braid matched the blond spikes that brushed his shoulders. She wondered if the two-toned color was natural. "Do you ever unwrap this?"

Albel straightened up, his expression sardonic. "I do have to wash my hair once in a while. It's a pain, though." He caught her face between his hands, fingers sliding behind her ears, thumbs smoothing against her cheeks. "I love your hair. So vibrant. So unusual. I could always pick you out in a sortie."

"I'm lucky to be alive, then," Nel said dryly. "You're going to get another crick in your neck."

He paused, face hovering six inches over hers. "Can't have that," he agreed. One hand left her hair to trail down her neck and trace lightly her spine. Stepping closer to her, Albel bent his knees as fingers tightened under her hip. Suddenly she was plastered skin-to-skin against him, her feet leaving the ground when he straightened, her wide eyes staring directly into his. "Much better," he said huskily before covering her mouth with his.

He kissed like it was the only thing that mattered, mouth pressing and moving gently, tongue lapping at her lips. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, Nel mimicked his movements, sipping with soft suction. Shuddering, Albel tried to deepen the kiss. Nel clamped her mouth closed and pulled her head away. "Don't. Don't like that."

"Really?" He sounded breathless but amused. "Hmph. No wonder you kiss like a virgin. I'll have to work on changing your mind another time." Rubbing his nose against hers, he backed up until his legs hit the bed. Deliberately he fell over, twisting so they both landed on their sides. Nel rolled onto her back, panting lightly, arms crossed over her waist as she looked over at Albel. He propped himself up on one elbow and gazed at her body, eyes going first to the violet-hued rune under her collarbone. He seemed very fond of that one, Nel thought with an inward smirk. This time, though, his eyes dipped lower, lingering on her breasts before sweeping down her body, traveling up slowly. Sword-calloused fingers lightly covered one breast, spread so the side of one rubbed against the protruding nub. "I wondered what color your nipples were," he said in a low, intense voice. "Red as your hair? Pale as your skin?" He lowered his head to touch his mouth against the swell just over his fingers, then moved his hand to allow his lips access, suckling strongly but briefly. Shifting, he pressed his mouth against her stomach before lifting his head to stare into her face. "Anything else you don't like that I should know about?"

"I'll let you know. You?"

"Oh, I like everything," he purred, "especially here," and he touched her with both hands, fingers spread and pressing, stroking along the planes of her body," and here," down her strong legs, to the knees and up again, "and especially here," and the fingers on her thighs moved to her wet center, and Nell gasped and dug her hands into the bedcovers. "I like everything so much, I don't know where to begin. Suggestions?"

"You're doing fine," Nel managed.

Shifting again, but leaving his fingers where they were, Albel pressed his face to the side of her neck and nibbled along her elegant throat. Dimly thinking she should participate as well, Nel forced one of her hands to release its death-grip on the cloth underneath her and raised it to Albel's shoulder, pushing. Grumbling in his reluctance to release her, he allowed her to slowly roll him onto his back. She hovered over him for a moment, eyeing his long, smooth torso and narrow hips, wondering where to start. When she placed her fingers in the middle of his chest, he sucked in a breath and covered her hand with his. "Don't touch," she scolded him. "My turn." His eyes widened and his hand fell away. Under her touch, his heartbeat accelerated.

When Nel straddled him at the waist, he touched her thighs as if to hold her by them but she shook him off. "Do I have to tie you down?" she threatened. The sound that squeezed from Albel's throat was somewhere between a grunt and groan. He flung his arms out to the sides as if he didn't trust himself, palms facing upwards and flexing compulsively.

She started by drawing abstract patterns against his flat pectorals. "Your nipples are darker than mine," she commented, rolling her thumbs over them lightly. After glancing at her breasts as if to compare, he closed his eyes in an effort to maintain control. He was breathing through his open mouth now, the light sheen covering his body facilitating her touch. Nel scooted back a bit and felt his tumescence against her rear. Reaching behind her hip, she pressed it against her skin and watched his teeth dig into his lower lip. For a moment she played with him, testing the weight and girth. "You're thick."

"You make me that way," Albel gritted, opening his eyes to stare sightlessly at the ceiling.

Nel slid off and knelt next to his hips, studying his penis. Fully erect, it arched towards his stomach, swollen and tender-looking. She touched the velvety flesh underneath the head, startling another strangled sound from him. Wrapping her hand loosely around the shaft, she rubbed the tip delicately with her thumb, then lowered her mouth. Albel jack-knifed to a sitting position at the first moist touch, propping himself up with locked elbows as he gasped repeatedly. She started to suckle the tip, but within a few seconds he grabbed her under the armpits and dragged her up, hauling her against him as he kissed her with blind hunger. For an instant his grip was bruising, then it eased as his mouth softened against hers. "Too much," he murmured.

Pressing her knees against his hips, Nel could feel the ridge of muscle trapped between their bodies, hot and damp against her stomach. "Like this?" she asked.

"Yes," Albel hissed.

She raised to her knees for leverage, freeing his erection and garnering another painful-sounding groan from Albel. One of his hands smoothed across her skin until it reached the small of her back; the other cupped her head, fingers threading restlessly through her hair. Teasing him, Nel lowered herself but purposefully missed, sliding him against the slick folds of her body. Bending his head, he bit off two words into her ear – "Finish it" – before burying his open mouth against the side of her neck.

"What's your hurry?" she chastised lightly, scratching her nails lightly across his shoulders. He shuddered with restraint, nipping none-too-gently against her flesh. Reaching between their bodies, Nel gripped him firmly, fingers caressing the loose skin. "You're at the edge, aren't you? Maybe you should just let go."

"You'll get yours," he mumbled insistently between scattered kisses along her neck. "Do it."

Positioning herself more carefully this time, Nel started to sink around him. She had to steady herself by digging into his shoulders. He was wide; the stretching sensation stung. Pressure was exerted at the small of her back as he coaxed her to take it further, whispering disjointed phrases of encouragement against her skin. Panting a little from exertion and discomfort, Nel grimly bore down until she encased him fully.

As she paused to catch her breath, she felt fingertips smoothing away the frown lines on her forehead. "Relax," said Albel, sounding more in control of himself. He pulled back a bit to grin at her. "This is the good part."

With one arm locked by his side for support, he touched her everywhere with his free hand, feathering light touches over her runes, shaping and molding her breasts, lightly etching his nails across her stomach and thighs. All the while Nel remained still with her head slightly bowed, her arms loosely looped around his neck with wrists dangling limply, quite over her discomfort but enjoying the slow churning of pleasure that was beginning to spread from a point deep within. When she finally ventured a small flex of her hips, the effect on both of them was electric. Albel gasped then moaned, his hand stilling and his head falling back, while the pleasure within her coalesced into platinum-white heat. Suddenly she spasmed, fingers flexing and relaxing in mid-air as her head lolled loosely on her neck.

When she came back to herself, Nel found him watching her, his lids so heavy only a gleaming sliver crescent indicated his eyes were open at all. His fingers feathered across the rune on her chest before Albel grabbed her shoulder and pulled her against him. "Again," he whispered. Smirking a bit, Nel kissed his smooth throat and began to move. Every few strokes she had to pause to savor another pleasurable spasm, and every time that happened Albel would groan out broken words that made no sense. His patience snapped and he abruptly reversed their positions, pulling almost completely out of her and driving back in with force. Gasping, Nel wrapped her arms around him and bit into the flesh over his breast as he shuddered and shouted out his release, pressing her deeply into the mattress. Collapsing, he rested heavily on her for a minute before shifting his weight down and burying his face between her breasts, mindlessly mouthing at her flesh as he panted. Eventually his breathing steadied and he stilled. "Shall I stay?" he asked.

He did sound more than half asleep. "For a while, if you like."

"Hmmm." Albel moved his weight to the side, nuzzling his face against her neck, one hand loosely covering her breast. He was asleep within minutes. Feeling sticky and a bit claustrophobic, Nel shrugged out of his light grasp and turned onto her side, facing away from Albel. Blanking her mind, she started to count backwards from one hundred, drifting off herself somewhere between 'forty' and 'thirty'.

He wasn't there when she woke up, which was as Nel wanted it.

However, Albel was not done with her yet.