It's time for some angst with the pharaoh and his wife.
The sun's rays woke Mencheres from his slumber, the bright light coming in from the curtains to glare straight into his gaze. With a flick of his power, the light became muffled and he relaxed back into the bed. Kira still slept contentedly a few feet away from him, her head completely buried into the pillows.
Mencheres disagreed with the distance between them, his arm reaching out to curl around his wife's waist and pull her back against his chest. His long dead heart gave a jolt of pure terror as a familiar head of black hair emerged from the pillows.
He physically flung himself out of bed, his sudden movement jostling the woman who was not Kira and dragging the blankets off the bed with him. His terror slithered through his veins when the woman picked her head up to glare at him with cold eyes. The same eyes that he had rolled over to meet every morning for two millenium before their separation, leaving him to wake alone for nine hundred more years.
Patra continued to glower at him, the familiar hatred in her gaze not sending the pain through him that it used to. His focus was entirely on Kira. Where was she and how was Patra here?! Had Patra somehow faked her death? Or had one of her worshippers sold their soul to bring her back? Had she done something with Kira?
His power lashed out at the last question, wrapping around Patra's throat in obvious threat. Even with his power primed to snap her head clean off, she didn't lose her glower. "Really Menkaure, this is-"
"Enough. I know not how you are here nor do I care for the answer. Where is Kira?" His ability shook the walls with rage and terror. Had Patra done something to her out of a twisted sense of jealousy?
Patra scoffed as much as his ability allowed. "Who is Kira?" Her eyes glinted with a familiar, dangerous jealousy that years ago Mencheres knew was the precursor to a violent fit of temper. Had he still been under her thrawl, he would have bent to that gaze and done anything he could to cut the inevitable off. Patra had never needed a reason to throw herself into a rage, she would invent infractures that he had supposedly done and he would have to apologize for things he would never even contemplate doing to appease his then wife.
He wasn't under her control anymore though. His power tightened and Patra showed uncertainty for the first time since he had woken. His voice rang with his rage, "Don't play coy with me. Kira is my chosen wife and you should be dead."
Patra's features twisted into a rage that used to spell out pain for him years before, but now it merely cemented his assurance that she had done something to Kira.
When she spoke, her voice was so cold ice could have dripped off of every word. "Apparently you were dreaming of cheating on me with another woman. This Kira does not exist or if she does she won't for long. Did you forget our laws oh husband of mine? I am allowed to kill any woman you lie with."
His power flexed around her mouth, promptly shutting her jaw as his terror dropped into a soul deep dread. Could he have imagined Kira and their relationship? He had been alive longer than most vampires, it was possible that his subconscious had momentarily broken and had offered him what he wanted most. A loving and understanding wife to share his life with.
His dread fell away to despair as the truth set in. Patra was still alive, which meant Bones had yet to kill her and his dream was just that, a dream. The feeling of loss that ravaged his very soul made a pink glaze cover his eyes. The woman from his dream had been everything he had ever wanted in a wife, but it wasn't real. His reality was as it always has been, a cold wife who would love nothing more than to see him dead. As he deserved for his part in her first love's death.
The remembered love that he had felt from Kira made an ache start up in his chest. To have such a small taste of the love he craved and then to wake to his cold and hateful wife was a blow he hadn't been prepared for.
His despair, loss and pain rolled together into a tangled mass of emotion. The force of which made him slide down against the wall behind him until he sat with his head leaned back against it.
As the icy pain crawled through his veins, he dropped his power from around Patra's mouth. He would pay dearly for all of what he had done since waking, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. A flash of blond hair and a joyful laugh further tore at his heart. Let Patra kill him, maybe his afterlife would have the woman from his dream.
The form of his wife lunged for the blade under her pillow, standing tall and proud as she stormed over to him. As she stopped in front of him, raising the knife as she prepared to slant it into his chest, he could only close his eyes and wait for the blow. Another flash of blond hair and loving eyes made a smile tug on his lips as the blade bit into his chest.
As the cold grip of true death tightened its hold on him, he relished in the visions of Kira and the warmth they brought. His life may end, but at least the ending was pleasant…
Mencheres jolted upright in bed, his mind clearing of sleep in the time it took him to glance around the room. The familiar wallpaper and bed greeted him, to his confusion. How much of it had been a dream? What was real?
The thought of Kira had him lunging out of the bed. She must be real, he couldn't have imagined such intense emotions. But as he looked around and found no traces of the belongings he remembered that supposedly belonged to her, despair swallowed him once more.
He supposed he should be happy that it had taken over forty five hundred years before he had his first mental break. Most vampires reached theirs every century or so. His despair was interrupted by the sound of water not far from him. Before he could puzzle out what he was hearing, Kira burst through the door to the bathroom. Her eyes swung wildly around the room before landing on him.
Mencheres stared at her in disbelief, he had been so sure that she had been a dream. But here she stood, staring at him in concern as her scent soured with worry. In the next instant, before she could begin to move toward or away from him, he lunged over to her and wrapped himself around her form.
He ignored the water that dripped onto him from where their skin met, too focused on inhaling her lemony scent and running his hands over every inch of skin he could reach. Relief poured through him, warmth dethawing the previous ice in his veins as reality came back to him in a rush.
Patra was definitely dead, Kira was real and he had married her at the earliest convenience after their fight with Radje. Never before had he felt such relief from waking to reality being better than the horrors his mind concocted.
Kira, for her part, returned the embrace even as her confusion kept building. She had been taking a shower when suddenly their sire bond had ripped open and soul wrenching pain had brought her to her knees. She hadn't wasted a moment, abandoning the still running shower to check on her husband who she knew was the source of the emotions.
When he had seen her his pain had vanished to be replaced with a relief so potent that it almost brought tears to her eyes. Now that she stood tucked into his embrace, she had a hunch about what had happened. She had nightmares in the past where waking up she had thought Pete was out of jail and still married to her. If her guess was correct, Mencheres had just had something similar. And if the tear tracks going down his cheeks were any indication, it was a bad one.
Not pushing him to talk, Kira raised her arms to cradle his head against her shoulder. He had buried his nose into the junction of her neck and shoulder, inhaling her scent steadily as he used it to anchor him to the present.
Her fingers gently wove into his hair, raking her nails lightly against his scalp in a form of massage as he steadied himself. It was only a few minutes until he pulled back, but it felt like an eternity.
His eyes were misty to match the pink trails smudged on his cheeks. Kira raised both of her hands to cup his face and brush the trails away. His hands came up to bracket hers, pressing them into his jaw with more force as he closed his eyes to soak in the feel of her skin.
It pulled on her heart seeing him like this, but from experience she knew to just let him go at his own pace until he was calm again. If he felt like talking with her about it, then she would listen but she wouldn't try to drag it out of him. She already had an idea of what had happened, and if it upset him to think about then she didn't need details. She tightened her grip on his face, knowing how much touch helped her in the past pull herself back to the present and out of her nightmare.
He relaxed under her palms, practically melting when she pulled him down to her level to lay kisses across his face. Her mouth wiped away the last of his tears as she brushed feather light kisses over his nose, across his forehead and down each cheek. When she pulled back to gauge his emotional state, his eyes glowed with adoration that she could feel through the bond.
He cupped her hands and intertwined their fingers before pulling them off of his face. His voice was grovelly with emotion when he spoke. "My adored, I apologize for interrupting your shower-"
She wiggled one of her hands free to gently shush him, "There is absolutely nothing you have to be sorry for and a shower is easy to go back to. You need me, so there is no where else I should be."
His shoulders relaxed at her affirmation, but his face still looked haunted. In an attempt to preempt any pain he would feel from retelling his nightmare before he was emotionally ready to, she crooned. "I'm guessing you had a nightmare where your reality was all twisted up. I used to get them all the time. If you want to tell me about it later then I'm here, but for now…" She tugged on his hand gently leading him toward the still running shower. "How about you join me in the shower?"
Mencheres had no words for his gratitude or his appreciation of her words, so he opened the bond to allow her full access to his emotions as he nodded in agreement. "Yes, that sounds like a brilliant idea." His voice was still weaker than he would prefer, but it was steadily getting stronger.
As she stepped into the shower with their hands still linked, she pulled until he joined her under the spray. His habit of sleeping naked negated the need to remove any articles of clothing. Mencheres tilted his head back to allow the water to work into his hair, the droplets feeling comforting as they fell on his face.
Kira bent to pick up his hair soap, working some into a lather before sliding it into his scalp. Starting from his roots, she moved slowly downward until she had soaped every inch of his hair. Once finished, she gently tilted his head back with her hand working as a guard to protect his eyes from the soap as she wove her other hand through his tresses. She continued her actions after the soap was out, the sight of his eyes shut in bliss as her hand carded through his hair sending relief through her body. She never wanted to see or feel such despair from him again.
Reluctantly, Kira picked up the conditioner and began to lather it into his hair. She would prefer to keep up her massaging but then she would never finish the shower and Mencheres looked like he could use some peaceful sleep.
Nodding in satisfaction once done, she tugged him out of the spray to give the soap a chance to sink in. She reached past him for his body wash, the non scented soap allowing his natural dark spice scent to come through as she began to lather it against his chest. Starting at his neck, she inched her way across his body.
Kira learned early on in their relationship that while Mencheres loved bathing together, showering was his second favorite water based activity. While she enjoyed their shared baths, she personally preferred this. The feel of his muscles under her hands contracting and tensing as he reacted to her touch made a smile curl across her lips. There were very few things she loved more than taking her time to explore his body, and washing him down gave her the perfect excuse to do it at length for as long as she wanted to.
After she finished washing him, everything from his shoulders down to his toes, avoiding his groin for now until she knew where he wanted this shower to go, was clean. Her hand hovered over his length, her nails trailing against the cradle of his hips as she waited for him to open his eyes.
The stygian gaze slowly opened to meet hers, a thin line of green around the black glowed brightly as he watched her. She dropped a kiss to his mouth, pulling back before he could deepen it. "How are you feeling?" They had nights like this before, whether it was her reeling from a nightmare or him, and it had become a habit for them to do this. Ask the other how they were feeling before instigating any type of sexual activity. If they wanted to just sleep then there was no pressure, but if they wanted more or the feeling of being connected together in the most intimate way possible then it was an option.
At first when he gripped her hand, stopping her nails from brushing against his groin, she assumed tonight would be a calmer night. However as his hand guided both of theirs down until his length rubbed against her palm, she knew that it was quite the opposite.
He wasn't completely hard yet, but with his go ahead she could change that. He released her hand and pulled her flush against him. One of his hands tangled into her hair as his other dropped to between her legs.
Kira bit back a gasp as his fingers carefully prodded along her entrance, making small circles on the nub just inside her opening before starting a slow and shallow rhythm of thrusting. She distracted herself from the feeling by focusing on his pleasure.
Firmly wrapping her fingers around his girth, she felt as he pulsed in her palm and started to swell. The feeling sent a shot of heat down to where his fingers still worked, making her pause momentarily to shudder at the sensations he was causing.
Refocusing was difficult, but she was determined to make him feel the same pleasure he was giving her. Using the water from the shower, she began to glide her hand up and down his length, tightening her grip as she moved only to loosen it when she pulled away.
A deep, throaty groan came from him as she picked up her pace to match the one he had set between her legs. Just as she felt her walls start to clench and his length grew heavier in her palm, Mencheres pulled back with a groan.
"The only place I will be spending myself is inside of you." His eyes were pure green as he said it, further lighting the fire of arousal in Kira's stomach.
She barely got a nod out before he was lowering them both to the shower tiles. He braced her back against the floor and moved to hover over her, lifting her legs to wrap around his hips. Once they were secured, he dropped one of his hands behind her head to cushion it from the hard tile before using his other hand to maneuver his length against her core.
When he paused to take in the sight of her spread out for him, Kira tightened her legs and pulled him forward. He let out a hiss of pleasure as he sank the first few inches into her welcoming heat. Her legs gripped his sides as his length stretched her to her limit. No matter how many times they joined together like this, he always filled her to an almost painful degree.
Kira had always laughed at those women who bragged about their partner's penis lengths. It was the girth that was important for the woman's pleasure, not the length. Although if the man didn't know how to use his equipment then it didn't matter how well endowed he was, it wouldn't feel good for the woman.
Mencheres pressed forward again, sliding the last few inches in before bottoming out, immediately retaking Kira's attention and making her throw her head back in bliss with a gasp. This was her favorite part of making love with him, being so intertwined together that she could feel him everywhere both inside and out. She had never been this close with anyone else and she had no desire to be. It was saved solely for him and she would have it no other way.
After his initial penetration, he slowly pulled back out. Her walls gripped him as if trying to pull him back and Kira clenched her inner muscles just to hear him moan above her. Abandoning his previous objective of pulling back, he reburied himself to the hilt.
He picked up the pace of his thrusts until Kira had to wrap her arms around his neck to keep herself steady on the slippery floor. A high pitched gasp broke from her throat when he shifted his angle to grind his hips against her nub on each thrust. Her gasp spurred him on as he increased his speed until he was barely pulling out of her before moving back in.
Mencheres looked down at Kira, her hair spread out on the floor behind her like a halo with her eyes shut tightly from her pleasure. The sight dragged him to the edge and sensing how close he was, he growled. "Kira, open your eyes."
Brilliant green eyes that matched his own met his gaze, but even through that light he could see her love for him. He bent to capture her mouth as he reached down to pinch the nub between her legs. She screamed her pleasure into their kiss, the sound sending a primal triumph through him before he shuddered above her.
With a final thrust, he buried himself deeply before tearing his mouth away to groan out his climax. His hips jolted with miniature thrusts as he shook off the last of his orgasm before slowing to a stop. He rested for a moment, basking in the feeling of their connection as both he and Kira calmed from their peaks.
He knew they should move to get up soon, but the comfort from their connection and the love he could plainly see in her eyes made him linger. Kira grinned up at him, her arms twining around his neck as she pulled him into a languid kiss.
When she pulled back, she tugged on his hair that was still coated in conditioner that they had been too distracted to wash out. "As much as I enjoy our current position, we need to finish cleaning your hair and this tile really isn't comfortable."
At the mention of her discomfort, he separated from her before guiding both of them to their feet. He dropped a kiss to her forehead as her fingers began winding through his hair to get what was left of the conditioner that hadn't been washed down the drain during their previous activities. "Apologies, my adored. Are you feeling sore?"
He dragged his mouth back to her ear, speaking in a breathy tone that promised more of what they had just finished with. "I could kiss it and make it better or if that doesn't work, possibly a massage?"
A shiver rolled down Kira's spine at the images the words painted. Yes that did sound nice, but first. "You can do anything you want to me later, but first you need more sleep and I think a movie night is in order. You had a rough night and I think some cuddling will work wonders for you."
Mencheres hummed his agreement, he would never turn down the chance to relax with his dark lady. The joy he received from that was different than when they made love, but it was equally as pleasant.
Kira flicked the water off, she locked their hands again before dragging him out of the shower. "I picked last time so it's your turn this time. Just let me dry you off and you can get everything ready."
Before she could grab the towel, Mencheres beat her to it. Wrapping the fluffy material around her shoulders, he began patting her dry. "I have a counter offer, we dry each other and then go pick the movie."
He worded it like a question, but he was already toweling her down. Kira shook her head in exasperation and affection. Her husband was the most touchy feely person she had ever known and she loved every minute of it.
"Counter offer accepted." She grinned impishly as she turned for him to get her back, his hand lingering on her behind before she playfully chided. "Mencheres, no. Movie, remember?"
The hand left her behind to continue patting her down, once done he handed her the towel. As she brought the towel over the plains of his chest, Kira understood why he enjoyed small intimacies such as this. Just like in the shower, it was another reason to touch him and she would enjoy every minute of it. If the rest of their lives were spent like this then she would consider it well lived.