Ritsuka stretched as she woke up from a delicious morning nap. It was always hard to get enough sleep when deployed, so anytime she didn't have anything else planned, she snuck back to her room after breakfast and snuggled back under her covers. Most of the time Mash didn't let her get away with such indulgence for long, but occasionally she did, and today had turned out to be one of those days. Why, it must be past lunchtime by now!
Twisting her torso on the bed and arching her back as she clasped her hands over her head, Ritsuka heard the door of her room slide open and glanced over with a big smile for her kohai. But instead of Mash's return smile, she met the wide eyes of Sir Bedivere of the Round Table.
Ritsuka squeaked and sat up, blushing as she tugged her pajama top back down over her torso and then covered her face in embarrassment. Of all the people to catch her in such an uninhibited state, Bedivere, whom she'd had, well, a crush on ever since he'd appeared in the summoning circle. (Before, really, but she knew too well the perils of feeling That Way about somebody met in a singularity. Not that she'd ever felt quite That Way about anybody else—but she'd learned to appreciate, cherish and above all not get too attached…)
The door slid open and closed again and she peeked though her fingers to see Bedivere had departed. Confused, she lowered her hands, wondering what had just happened.
Somebody knocked on her door. A smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, Ritsuka smoothed down her top and said, "Come in!"
The door opened to reveal Bedivere, in what passed for casual clothes: a purple tunic with golden buttons over bloused trousers tucked into gray boots. His fair skin revealed that he too had been blushing recently, just a little. A look of exaggerated surprise crossed his usually solemn features. "Master, you're still abed? I'd heard you dined in the cafeteria hours ago."
Laughing, Ritsuka slid to the edge of her bed and kicked her feet. "I went back to bed!"
A line creased Bedivere's brow. "Are you ill?"
"No, silly. I went back for fun!" She stood up and then lost her balance and sat down again at the strange expression that crossed Bedivere's face.
"Oh, ah, um, should I—?"
Ritsuka covered her face once more as the implication of what she'd said hit her. "Maybe you should go out and come back in again."
"Mmf," he said, and the door opened and closed.
As soon as it did, Ritsuka scrambled to her feet and raced around, getting dressed while kicking some older laundry under her desk. Dammit, usually she only had Mash in here!
The third knock came as she was tugging on her skirt. She took a moment zipping it. She had Servants to cause shenanigans, so she really didn't need to do it for herself. "Ready!"
The door opened and Bedivere stepped smartly in. "Your designated Mash-substitute reporting for duty, sir!"
"Mash-substitute?" Ritsuka asked, confused. She'd seen Mash at breakfast, she was sure.
"Miss Mash asked me to take her place this morning as your aide, as she required regular medical maintenance," said Bedivere with the dazzling smile that always left Ritsuka feeling slightly stunned.
Wait… "Did she?" She scrambled for a calendar and frowned at the blank line. "She didn't—oh." The frown became a grimace as she realized what must have happened. "Ah. I see." 'Regular medical maintenance' my ass! Mash… I swear to God I never mentioned him more than anybody else, so how did you know?
Quickly she closed the calendar and turned her grimace into a half-grin as she returned her attention to Bedivere. "I guess so! But you didn't have to take her place, you know? I'm perfectly capable of driving myself through a day now and then. And this is supposed to be downtime for recently deployed Servants, too."
Bedivere's mouth twitched. "She told me that if you didn't have somebody to watch over you, you'd drive yourself to exhaustion." His gaze went over Ritsuka's shoulder to the bed before meeting her eyes again. The hinted smile broke free. "I suspect I may have misunderstood what she meant. Yet I'm here and there's no place else I'd rather be right now." His new smile was smaller but no less powerful for Ritsuka, drawing her forward a few steps unconsciously.
"All right," she managed as she caught herself. "I'll never say no to a friend's company if I can avoid it." She blinked. "That's not right. I meant I always enjoy a friend's company. I, uh, I just woke up," she added weakly.
Once again his mouth twitched and his green eyes sparkled. "So I've observed. Shall we walk while we discuss your plans for the day? You might find your head is clearer away from your bedroom."
See? Ritsuka told herself as she followed him out. See? He also believes we're friends, as well as Master and Servant, or at least he didn't argue. Friends is good. Especially when friends comes so easily. Unlike with some of these cranky dumbasses.
As they strolled down Chaldea's corridors, Bedivere said lightly, "I'd meant to remind you that, like Mash, you need to take care of yourself. But I see now that you have a more balanced care for your health than what I'd seen on missions."
"I certainly want to do it more days than they let me get away with it," Ritsuka said, with a self-deprecating laugh.
After an extended pause, Bedivere said in a slightly strained voice, "I too have felt that way." He shook his head a little, frowning.
Just as Ritsuka was about to ask what was wrong, his face relaxed. He took a deep breath, gave her a friendly sidelong look and said, "Now, although I'm but a poor shadow of Miss Mash, I'm here as her designated substitute. Today, I am your attendant, your butler. I am your Servant today in every possible sense of the word. Ask me for anything I can give you."
When Ritsuka didn't immediately answer (she was struggling to not track Mash down and shake her silly for setting up this extremely nerve-inducing situation), Bedivere said, "I understand often you train in the simulator, or monitor remnants from the Singularities?"
"Most of the time," muttered Ritsuka, still collecting the thoughts Bedivere kept scattering.
"Ah," said Bedivere, almost smugly. "That fits with the Ritsuka I thought I knew. You change out your teams, but we do talk to each other, Master. In that case, I propose we take a small trip of relaxation to a place I know."
"Even knowing I was relaxing all morning?" Ritsuka teased.
"Well, if you feel you've had enough rest, Master, I'd just have to make myself available to you on another day." His voice was low and amused. "But I don't think taking the afternoon off occasionally would make you a sloth. Remember your health."
There was really no chance Ritsuka was actually going to reject time spent with Bedivere, which was probably what Mash had been counting on in her nefarious plan. "Yes, that's a good excuse. Where's this place of yours?"
A little while later, Bedivere guided Ritsuka down a nighttime beach, occasionally touching her elbow or wrist to adjust her away from some small peril. The surf crashed into the shore on her left while in the near distance a campfire blazed cheerily.
"It's Tristan who discovered this beach," Bedivere confided as they walked through the cool sea-scented night. "But I've come here with him before and I know he won't mind you visiting either. There's also another place nearby I'd like to show you later."
Ritsuka inhaled the salt tang of the sea. "Not what I expected, honestly, but it's nice."
Bedivere's eyebrows went up and he looked self-conscious. "Did I raise your expectations too high? I'm sorry."
Then, as they reached the waiting campsite, Bedivere turned to the sea. "I wasn't sure how I felt about the place on my first visit. I came along because Tristan likes having somebody to rant at. But there's something about staring at that horizon where the night becomes the sea that just… drains away all my cares. For a little while, at least." He flashed her an encouraging smile.
"I might fall asleep again if it's too peaceful," warned Ritsuka, settling down on one of the flat stones near the fire and letting the flames warm her back as she looked at the wine-dark sea.
Settling on another rock, Bedivere smiled. "If that scenario comes to pass, I'm prepared to offer what aid and comfort I can. Tristan's fishing supplies are here, though, if you're interested in an alternative."
"No, that'd put me to sleep even faster!" She rested her chin on her hands, looking out at the slivered horizon, and listening to the crash of the surf. It was nice being around only Bedivere like this. Although she was certain nothing else would come of the privacy, she'd have to thank Mash rather than beat her up. Her kohai was a welcome shadow most of the time but this scene would have been about the two of them if she'd been there, while Bedivere would have faded silently into the background.
Ritsuka glanced over and met a gaze that had been fixed on her with an unanticipated intensity. "It's beautiful, in its own way," she offered.
"Yes," he agreed, as if his mind was elsewhere. "And you're much quieter than Tristan is."
Grinning, Ritsuka said, "Oh, I don't have to be."
"I know," said Bedivere hastily. "Believe me, I'm not complaining, Master. Tristan is a cherished companion, but I was just thinking how well you fit here, sitting with your face to the darkness and your back to the light, like the guardian you are."
"And you beside me," added Ritsuka seriously. "You make me sound so noble, Bedivere, but I've never been alone through everything I've gone through. Not even once." Unlike you she couldn't bring herself to say. She knew he had scars that would never heal, even if some she only guessed at.
"Yes," said Bedivere, smiling ruefully. "You certainly aren't lonely."
Slowly she said, "No. Not often." Her throat dried up before she could add That doesn't mean I don't sometimes want more.
Instead she managed to admit, "But it's nice to be someplace like this with you."
Once again a strange look crossed Bedivere's face and she suddenly panicked, trying to figure out how she'd inadvertently embarrassed herself this time. But she'd meant every word of what she'd said. Had it been too much? Did he regret bringing her here, to this dark, isolated inlet?
Ritsuka jumped to her feet, desperate to escape such a horrifying thought and convince him she hadn't said anything significant (even if that was a lie). Kicking off her shoes, she bounded down the shore to where the surf soaked into the sand.
"Master?" Bedivere sounded startled.
She flashed a smile at him over her shoulder. "I'm just going to wade in the waves a little. What's the point of visiting the sea if you don't get your feet wet?"
The water was damn cold, but its served admirably to drive away any hints of sleepiness and to focus her on the here and now instead of silly daydreams. She exclaimed, "Woo! Brrrrisk!" and her voice echoed off the cliff walls that mostly enclosed the inlet. Then she stomped her feet until the spray rose to the skirt she had bunched up in her fists.
Glancing back at Bedivere, she expected to see a look of amusement on his face, but instead he looked oddly wistful, his green eyes intent on her.
Impulsively, she held out a hand to him. "Come on. It's not that bad!"
His eyes widened and then he shook his head. "It's not my place. I'm only here as your aide, Master."
Ritsuka looked down quickly. "Oh, right. Playing with me not in the job description." Her feet were slightly numb from the chill, but she drew back a foot to kick at the surf.
Too late, she discovered the waves had eroded the sand beneath her feet, leaving her balance precarious. Too late she discovered slightly numb feet didn't recover well from precarious footing. She kicked and fell backward in the same graceless movement.
The night sky flashed before her eyes, ocean spray glittering against the faint stars. Then something hard caught her around the shoulders, pressing her side against a warm chest. Bedivere's hand wrapped around her waist, his fingers brushing over her bare skin as once again her top rucked up.
He stared at her from only inches away, his eyes wide and worried. Ritsuka realized he'd moved from his rock like lightning to catch her in his silver arm before she could land badly on her back.
She gazed up at him, frozen first in shock and then like a deer in headlights as she became achingly aware of his fingers at her waist, the rise and fall of his chest against her arm, and how she could count every one of his fair eyelashes.
His nostrils flared as he inhaled. The worry faded from his lambent green eyes, replaced by something else: a spark of fire that made Ritsuka feel hot all over. His metal fingers tightened at her shoulder, while his thumb stroked the tender flesh of her abdomen. Meanwhile, Ritsuka tried desperately to get control of her racing heart and raging hormones.
It was only when she felt his sweet breath on her face that she realized he'd been drawing closer and closer. Then his lips brushed softly over hers.
As her mind went completely blank, his palm flattened against the bare curve of her waist, sliding up a few centimeters so the entire breadth of his big hand pressed against her skin. His tongue flicked over her mouth and then slid gently between her parted lips.
For a long moment, Ritsuka lay across his arm and bent knee as he kissed her, wondering if she was dreaming, hoping if she was she'd never wake up. Her entire body felt like a live wire in his embrace. She had no idea what to do. But he did. His tongue and lips teased hers, focusing the heat racing through her deep in her belly. Coherent thought had never seemed farther away as his thumb continued to stroke the skin of her ribcage just under the curve of her breast.
Then a particularly big wave rushed the shore, splashing her calves even though she'd lifted both feet from the cold water. The spray speckled her cheek and made Bedivere lift his head. He looked as dazed as Ritsuka felt. Slowly a stricken look grew in his eyes before he closed them for a long moment.
When he once again opened them, he looked pained but distant. Carefully he set Ritsuka on her feet again just beyond the range of the surf, while he remained kneeling on one knee in the breakers. Lowering his head, he said quietly, "I'm sorry. Perhaps we ought to return to Chaldea now."
"No!" said Ritsuka. She wasn't thinking clearly, but her instincts told her that if she agreed meekly and went back now, something precious she'd been close to grasping would evaporate away. "No, not yet."
Bedivere glanced up at her, his eyes hooded. "I'm not fit—"
Ritsuka didn't have to listen to that. She bulled ahead with the same determination that had conquered singularities. "You said there was someplace else you wanted to show me. We're not going back until I see it."
He stared up at her, his face expressionless. She tapped her bare foot. "Come on, stop kneeling in the surf. Just because you can't get a cold is no reason to show off." Then she backed up the beach until she found her own shoes and sat down to put them on again. She concentrated hard on brushing the sand off every bit of her feet instead of thinking about how he was still staring at her.
When his booted feet appeared in her field of vision, she said brightly, "Where are we going next?"
"There's a path up the cliff," said Bedivere, in a voice bereft of his earlier friendliness. But it wasn't a cold voice, either. It was the voice of a man determined to do his job, no matter what had just occurred. Ritsuka slipped her feet into her shoes while considering that, and then bounced to her feet.
"All right. Let's go."
Without the little touches he'd used to guide her to the campfire, he escorted her to the path and indicated she ought to go before him. It was a narrow trail and a reasonable request, and having him out of her line of sight made it just a little bit easier to think through what had just happened.
He'd taken her to this dark, lonely inlet. He'd unexpectedly kissed her. And now he seemed to regret it. She didn't get it. It wasn't like a comedy skit where he'd slipped and fallen on her; it wasn't like she'd tricked him into the Pocky game. It had seemed pretty deliberate from her perspective.
Furtively she ran her fingers over her lips, the tactile memory still very strong. She probably shouldn't suggest they do it again until she'd worked out why the first thing he'd said after had been I'm sorry. For one, she'd probably start crying if he refused. Confusion was a hell of a lot better than rejection.
At the top of the cliff, the wind picked up, rippling across a rolling meadow with a few scattered large trees. As the wind gusted, she could hear the rustling of the leaves from where she stood. The odor of the earth beneath her feet teased her nose, along with the distant scent of fresh water. The night sky seemed much brighter and closer up here.
Ritsuka put her hands on her hips, looking around. As Bedivere stopped beside her, she said, "I know it's nowhere near as vast but somehow this sea of grass feels bigger and emptier than the ocean down there."
"Mmm. In a good or bad way?" A little of his previous companionableness had crept back into his voice.
"I don't know," Ritsuka confessed. "I don't think I'd like to be here alone for very long. I'd probably start singing really loudly or something."
"Ah," said Bedivere. "It's quite similar to a certain place in Britain. A tranquil place, where my mind always races like this wind." He sighed. "I usually come here to renew my resolve and reinvigorate my soul. So perhaps this isn't a place of relaxation for me, either."
Ritsuka snuck a glance at his profile and then looked away when she met his green eyes instead. Quickly she asked, "How does a place like this do all that?"
"Ah," he repeated, and fell silent a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was distant. "My Britain was not a peaceful place. Even at the best of times, it experienced so much strife, and there were many victims I could do nothing to save. There was one… Princess Helena of Brittany."
He paused for a moment and then shook his head before continuing. "At one point her uncle the King had spoken of our betrothal, but before anything came of it, the Giant of Mont Saint-Michel kidnapped her. King Arthur and Sir Kay accompanied me to hunt the giant down and rescue her."
Now Ritsuka could detect the tension in his neck, his shoulders, even his curled fists. She wanted to touch him and remind him she was there for him—and before he'd kissed her, she would have done it without a second thought. But now… now she didn't know if she'd make it better, or worse.
"The King and Sir Kay defeated the giant. I won't diminish their effort and say they did it effortlessly… but they did it. I, on the other hand, left them to save the princess and… I failed. I was too late, too… powerless. I found only her corpse."
At that, Ritsuka couldn't stop herself from gently brushing one of his clenched fists with a single finger. His hand opened and he caught her fingers convulsively before pulling away. He looked down at her, though, his green gaze steady. "I don't deserve your comfort, Master. I failed to save the people dear to me. Helena, and my King at Camlann…" His calm voice roughened. "I brought you here, to this place where I am most reminded of how weak and powerless I am, so I could… swear to protect you as I failed to protect them. Instead… I betrayed your trust, just as I betrayed theirs."
He turned toward her, his gaze so intent she didn't think he realized he'd taken both her hands in his own. "Only that once with you, I devoutly pray. I shall keep myself at a distance from now on, and… and if you do ever lose all trust in me, please know I will never, ever fail to protect you."
Ritsuka's brow furrowed. "How did you betray my trust?"
Bedivere's green gaze darkened. He brought one hand up to her face, his fingers sliding against her hair as his thumb caressed her cheek. The slightest pressure tilted her head up toward his as he slowly bent toward her. Then, when he was close enough that she could feel his breath across her wetted lips, his eyes widened and he jerked himself away from her so suddenly she swayed.
Turning away, hunching his shoulders, he said, "Like that. Please, let's return to Chaldea before I make things any worse."
"Not yet," said Ritsuka absently, and his shoulders hunched further. "Bedivere… I don't think of that as a betrayal?"
With a frustrated shake of his head, he said, "Then you're even more innocent than I suspected."
It was really not the right time for blushes but Ritsuka's body didn't care. She demanded, "Is that so bad?" and then added in a stifled voice, "Is that why you stopped?"
He gave her a sharp look. "No! I stopped because I never meant to… Luring you to a place like this and then taking advantage of you is the act of a cad and a scoundrel. I shouldn't have even considered this location. I'm sorry I did."
Ritsuka stared at him for a long moment, her mind working furiously. He met her gaze briefly before dropping his eyes again. Finally she took a deep breath and said, "You told me earlier I could ask you for anything in your power today."
"Yes," he said, without raising his gaze.
"All right," Ritsuka said, nervousness twisting her stomach. "Then kiss me again, and this time don't stop."
Slowly Bedivere looked up. "Say that again?"
Wringing her hands together, half terrified out of her mind that he'd push her away in disgust, she repeated, "Kiss me! Don't stop!"
Before the echoes of her voice had faded, he had both hands, one metal, one flesh, on the sides of her head and his mouth was coming down on hers. He tasted her lips for a moment before his mouth stilled. Then, his words tickling her lips, he said, "But I will stop, I swear, as soon as you command."
Ritsuka responded by wrapping her arms around his waist and pushing up on her toes. Her teeth clacked against his own and his silver hand slid down to her back while he once again adjusted her head with his other hand. Then, taking the invitation she'd presented to him, he began to gently and delicately explore her mouth.
They stood there for what felt like a long time, simply kissing, before he broke from her mouth to kiss down her neck. His warm hand had drifted from her face down to her hip and up again, curving against the hot skin of her ribcage under her top. Then, as he kissed under her ear, his hand moved further up, palming her breast through her bra.
The shock of sensation made Ritsuka gasp, her fingers digging into his lower back. He once again stilled, his mouth soft against her neck, his hand a steady pressure against her breast as he waited. Both the touch of his mouth and his hand created a thread of fire that sang through her, narrowing her attention to just those two points.
He whispered, "Ritsuka?" and his low voice became a third point of obsession.
She tried to focus on him with her eyes, but everything seemed so bright and she gave up. "Yes," she mumbled. "More."
His hand pressed harder against her breast, squeezing gently, as he once again kissed her mouth with renewed passion. Then he was unlatching her bra and his hot fingers stroked directly across the delicate skin at the tip of her breast. Ritsuka's brain temporarily shut down as lightning seemed to crackle from her chest to her groin.
When she came back to herself, she'd pressed herself hard against him, kissing him back with fierce abandon. When, after all too brief a time, he pulled both his mouth and his hand away from her, she whined like a child before demanding, "Why did you stop? I didn't say stop."
Bedivere stepped a little away from her, spreading a cloak onto the grass like a blanket. His fair hair was disordered and he glanced at her through one of his long bangs. "Because if I go on, soon I'm going to be kissing parts of you that might be awkward while standing up."
Ritsuka worried her lower lip with her teeth, watching as he concentrated on smoothing the blanket. Her legs felt trembly and she felt hot and fretful. When he finally seated himself on the blanket and looked up at her, she barely waited for his arms spread in invitation before throwing herself on his lap.
He caught and positioned her, before tugging her top over her head. The cool night air raised goosebumps on her skin, but the solution seemed obvious to Ritsuka. She began working at removing his tunic, too. His buttoned like a jacket rather than going over the head, and as she worked at the fasteners, he ran his warm hand up her back and pressed his nose into her hair.
"Ritsuka," he murmured, as if just saying her name gave him pleasure.
She flushed, concentrating on the buttons rather than the muscled chest revealed beneath. This was the right thing to do, the thing she wanted to do. His hand on her back was an exciting reminder of where else his hand could be. But she was suddenly also keenly aware that she was sitting in the lap of Sir Bedivere of the Round Table, that most faithful of King Arthur's knights, topless as she removed his own clothes.
As soon as she opened the final button, though, he shrugged out of the tunic and laid her back against the cloak-covered grass, kissing her once again—but only for a moment on her mouth. Then he was moving down her throat and through the valley between her breasts before returning from below to press soft lips around even softer flesh. The tip of her breast, already semi-erect from his previous caresses, became painfully hard in his mouth.
Meanwhile his warm hand had moved down to the bottom of her skirt and started sliding up her thigh underneath. At first it was an almost ticklish distraction from his mouth, but as his hand moved higher and his fingers squeezed the back of her thigh, she gasped as another thread of excitement joined the storm already swirling in her core. And when his fingers slipped up from underneath to stroke her inner thigh, she cried out despite herself as something in her seemed to melt.
Then his fingers brushed against her panties and she wriggled uncontrollably, instinctively trying to encourage more pressure. This was the place where all the threads of pleasure and excitement came together in a single knot that she needed him to touch.
In response he pulled his hand away. Once again she whined, and he responded by kissing her mouth as his hand ran over her stomach and once again brushed over her core through her panties. She bucked her hips upward and for a moment felt a maddening burst of pleasure as one of his fingers pressed against that knot. When he moved his mouth to her other breast and pressed down with his finger again, Ritsuka thought she might have screamed.
Then he was pulling her panties down one-handed, still resting most of his weight on his silver hand. When he'd dragged them down to her knees, he once again put his hand against her core, this time pushing his fingers into the thatch of fur there. Every hair he tugged against became a note in a symphony of arousal, such that when one of his digits slipped between her folds and stroked along the slick wetness, it felt like exactly the right thing to happen next.
"Please don't stop," she begged, driven by the growing urgency in her core.
He moved his mouth to her ear and whispered, "I won't." Thus reassured, she gave herself over entirely to what he did to her. She could soon no longer distinguish what he did with his mouth and what he did with his hand, only that wave after wave of pleasure swept through her, each one blurring into the next until finally that sense of urgency exploded through her into a sweetly perfect sense of completion.
When she came back to herself, Bedivere held her very close in his arms, his nose buried in the curve of her neck. It took something hard pressed against her thigh—something other than his silver hand, for that was carefully underneath her—for Ritsuka to realize that Bedivere had sought to please her without taking anything for himself.
She turned to look at him, frowning. He met her gaze and pulled away, his eyes shadowing with worry. Her scowl deepened and she said, "Why didn't you…?" and slid her hand down to his erect manhood, still hidden within his pants.
His pupils dilated, the black almost consuming the green, as she touched him. He licked his lips before saying, "Because it wasn't part of pleasuring you."
Ritsuka stroked her palm up and down the intriguingly hard shape. Then he was kissing her again, harder and fiercer than before, before dragging himself away. "You don't need to… I can… Later, I'll…"
In response, she tugged on the waistband of his pants and slipped her hand within.
"Oh, sweet heaven, Ritsuka," he mumbled as her fingers stroked down and encountered the shaft rising from the nest of wiry hair.
"I want you to put this in me," she said firmly, giving a little squeeze for emphasis. The little motion seemed to electrify Bedivere, so much that at first she thought she'd hurt him. But when he was kissing her hard again, pressing her back into the blanket, both his hands running over her breasts, she decided maybe it hadn't been a yelp of pain after all.
Then her skirt was crumpled around her hips, her thighs had been pushed apart and Bedivere had stretched himself fully on top of her, supporting most of his weight on his hands. Hard, hot flesh pushed against her core, and his green eyes were hazed with passion as he looked down at her.
"I want you so much, Ritsuka," he whispered.
"Yes," she said. "Here I am. Don't stop."
He pressed himself into her slowly, sliding easily into an opening well-primed from her previous pleasure. When he seemed to be in as far as he could go, he paused, looking down at her intently.
"I'm fine," she told him fiercely. "Let's do this."
He nodded, and then laughed a little. "That's the Ritsuka I know…" He withdrew most of his length and pushed in again. This time Ritsuka gasped as he rubbed against something strange and sweet. And as he once again fully penetrated her, that knot of pleasure stirred and she moved her hips to increase the fiction.
In response he inhaled sharply and thrust into her again, this time harder and faster. Then he was pounding into her. Once again each individual sensation, from the friction to the scents of crushed grass and his sweat, merged together into something almost supernaturally transcendent, overloading her every nerve until they screamed together.
Then he was yanking himself from her as he sat back, his hand wrapping around his member. He jerked twice and fluid spurted from the tip, landing somewhere on the cloak to Ritsuka's side.
She blinked dazedly, utterly confused and still half lost in afterglow. "What…?"
Bedivere stared down at what he'd done in bemusement, and then gave a short, wry laugh before stretching out on Ritsuka's other side. "Old habit," he murmured as he gathered her close.
She gave him a crooked eyebrow and he chuckled again. "When I was part of the Round Table, I had my fair share of ladies to please. But it never seemed… chivalrous to saddle any of them with my bastard."
"Oh." Past lovers… Ritsuka decided not to think about that too hard. "But that's not a concern now, since you're a Servant."
"I suppose not," he said.
"So next time…" She trailed off, wondering if he'd want a next time and then wondering what he thought of her now, after she'd thrown herself at him so blatantly. "I mean, if we do it again… uh, do you want to do it again?"
"Ah," he said. "Not right this moment, please."
"Oh," repeated Ritsuka doubtfully.
His fingers gently stroked her hyper-sensitized inner thighs and he added, "You'd regret it later." Then, in a more seriously voice, he said, "Ritsuka, you know how I feel now, and you've given me an irreplaceable gift. But you don't have to—"
"What?" she interrupted. "I do not know how you feel. I don't even know if you like me now. I made you do this to me, didn't I? Took advantage of your offer to do whatever I asked, for my own selfish reasons? Is this just… just the service of a Knight of the Round Table?"
He blinked at her with that adorably startled look he had sometimes. "I love you. How could you not know that now?"
Ritsuka kicked him gently in lieu of hugging him so hard he couldn't breathe. "You're the one who thought kissing me was a betrayal, you dork." Then she butted her head against his chest, snuggling against him as she played his words over and over in her head.
He rubbed her bare back, nibbling on her hair. Eventually, he said, "What were you saying about if we do it again?"
She peeked up at him. "Do you want to?"
With an exasperated sigh, he repeated, "Not right this moment, Ritsuka. Give your body some time." Then, his cheeks coloring, he added, "But yes, later, I very much would."
"Great!" She grinned at him. "So next time you can finish inside. It's gotta be better than what you did this time."
Then he was hugging her so hard she could barely breathe. She suspected it was to hide how red his cheeks were. "All right," he whispered.
"Can't… breathe…" she croaked, and his embrace immediately loosened, worry briefly clouding his eyes before he smiled gently at her.
She wriggled until she could rub her nose against his. "All right. I'm fine with delaying the—" and she thrust her hips against his stomach meaningfully, "—for now. But you know what doesn't hurt at all, and we could keep doing all the way back to Chaldea?"
He opened his mouth to say, "What?" and that was when she kissed him.