This story is a rewrite of my original story focusing around Riveria and Bell. So to everyone who came over from there, welcome back and welcome to everyone new!
This story will focus on a romance between Bell and Riveria and is mostly write from Riveria's perspective.
Beware: This story is intended for a mature audience! While the story won't be as explicit and outright lewd as the original, sexual themes and interactions will happen, since I simply view them as a natural part of a romantic relationship and would therefor like to include them.
With all of that said, I hope you can enjoy this (updated) story!
"Hah. Finally some time to relax…" Riveria mumbled, letting out a sigh as she slid down into the water. She was currently bathing in the small lake down on the 18th floor of the dungeon that Tiona had discovered and introduced to the familia during one of their past expeditions.
At first Riveria had joined the other girls bathing here, but as she noticed that the other elves weren't able to relax around her (as per usual), she had stopped sharing this lake with them a long time ago, now only using, it once both the other girls as well as the men of the familia had had their turn.
It was almost night time, or well at least what would be seen as night time down here on this floor of the dungeon and it had taken her up until now to find a free moment to come here and relax. Truth be told, if it weren't for Aiz and the others urging her to take a rest, she would probably still tend to her duties as a leader of the familia or work herself to the bone in some other way. With the incident of a certain white haired adventurer and his party joining their group, her workload had naturally increased even further…
"Bell Cranel huh…?", Riveria mumbled as the image of a boy flashed through her mind. She thought back to when she and the other high ranking members of Loki familia had witnessed his fight with the minotaur on the way down into the depths of the dungeon. Even someone with as much experience as her had been awestruck by this simple, yet incredibly beautiful fight of raw wills. If there was such a thing as heroes in this world, she would have no doubt that he was one of them or at least had the potential to become one at some point. To top things off, it was undoubtedly his display of courage and heroism that had allowed her and the other high ranking members to prevail in their desperate fight against the corrupted spirit on the 59th floor. Now of course it was thanks to everyone giving it their all, not just because of Bell's fight, but nonetheless there was no way they could have prevailed in such a harsh battle without this vision of a true hero, one who kept on fighting against an overwhelming force, not budging in the slightest no matter how desperate the situation, flickering in their eyes. For that she wished to thank him wholeheartedly. In addition to that, she felt a little guilty for reading his statues back then, when he had passed out and been completely defenseless. Sure, she hadn't read all of it, but still she had been too curious to hold back in the heat of the moment and she felt bad about it… These thoughts kept filling her mind when suddenly…
*Crack*
Riveria quickly stood up and spun around into a combat stance, expecting a monster to disturb her bath, after all she didn't have any guards with her like the other people of her familia when they bathed. Of course Riveria wasn't exactly well suited for something savage like hand to hand combat, but she was a level six after all, so there was no way she would lose to a monster on the 18th floor. That is also why she didn't bother asking anyone to guard her, not wanting to get others mixed up in her business, taking up their time. But when Riveria faced what she expected to be a monster, she found herself facing…
"Bell Cranel?", Riveria burst out, unable to hide her surprise, immediately dropping her combat stance. Bell Cranel, the boy she had just been thinking about slowly stumbled out of the forest, looking like he had just ran a marathon.
"Huh? Miss Riveria…?", was the only reaction the boy gave before his eyes began trailing down Riveria's nude body. Of course he immediately started blushing like crazy, closing his eyes and dropping to his knees, begging for forgiveness: "I AM SORRY!"
At first Riveria didn't understand what he was apologizing for, too surprised by his sudden appearance to fully comprehend what was happening, but slowly it dawned on her what he was referring to. Immediately she covered at least the most private parts of her body with her arms, dropping back down into the water to hide the rest of herself as best as possible, her cheeks almost equally red, if not even redder than Bell's.
Before she had any chance to say anything though, she heard voices in the distance, the voices undoubtedly belonging to elven members of Loki familia.
"They are going to murder him!", Riveria thought, knowing fully well that he wouldn't be leaving with his life if they caught him, at least not if they found out he had seen her in the nude. Now she certainly didn't know why they were mad at him and chasing him through the forest like that, but if there was one thing she could tell for sure than that these elves would never forgive him for catching a glimpse of Riveria's nude body, regardless of it being an accident and why they had been chasing him in the first place. Even if she tried to tell them it was alright, they wouldn't forgive him and so, not wanting to see the adventurer that had saved herself and her familia be killed by the very people he had saved, she made a snap decision. Before he had any chance to sprint of again, she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the lake, tightly pressing him against herself. Of course he was caught off-guard and tried to scream in surprise, but she quickly covered his mouth with one of her hands.
Now there they sat in quite the awkward position. Riveria had wrapped her legs around Bell's lower body to pull him underwater as much as possible while she used one hand to hold his mouth shut and the other to tightly press him against her, his hands being trapped in between their two bodies, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you want see it) both of them ending up with his palms being pressed onto her nude chest.
As luck would have it, nightfall came right at that moment, just mere seconds before multiple elves came bursting out of the forest, scanning the area for the fleeing white rabbit.
"Lady Riveria?!", one of them cried out, quickly averting her eyes from the nude high elf in the lake. Soon enough the rest of the elves became aware of Riveria's presence too, averting their eyes as if not to sully their leader. It was only because of the elves being so shy around Riveria as well as how tightly she hugged Bell that his pursuers didn't notice him right then and there. It was exactly what Riveria had hoped for.
The elf Alicia who had first noticed Riveria, apparently the leader of the chase asked: "I- I am sorry my Lady, but did you perhaps see Bell Cranel running through here?"
"Bell Cranel? No I am afraid I haven't seen him." Riveria answered with a cool and indifferent voice.
"I-I see. In that case we are sorry for disturbing your bath!", the elven maiden cried out, before quickly turning on her heel and dashing off into the forest again, her comrades following her example quickly, all of them soon continuing their search for the poor boy. Now obviously they had their suspicions, given that they all had heard a loud noise earlier, almost as if someone had fallen into the water but… who were they to doubt the words of Rivera? If she said that she had not seen Bell Cranel then they could only believe her!
Riveria waited a few more moments, all the while tightly pressing Bell against her body so he wouldn't do anything stupid that might alert the other elves again, before finally releasing the boy, breathing a sigh of relief.
Naturally Bell was completely dumbfounded, as well as embarrassed by the current situation. "T-Thank you!", He earnestly thanked Riveria, before adding: "I- I mean for saving me not for pressing me against your body! O-Oh not that I didn't enjoy that too! I- I mean-!", soon turning into an apologizing, stuttering mess.
Meanwhile Riveria had gone back to covering up her body with her hands. Nonetheless she tried to calm the embarrassed rabbit down, despite her own shame of having someone she hardly knew, a human no less, touch such intimate places of her body: "I-It's alright Mr. Cranel! It was my decision after all!"
After a while, both of them fell into an awkward silence. Finally, somewhat calm again, Bell got up from his sitting position in the lake again, preparing to leave, as he knew he was making Riveria feel exposed and uncomfortable. However, before he could leave Riveria called out to him: "Stay here Mr. Cranel!" Of course Bell was confused by that, looking at Riveria in amazement. Naturally she blushed even harder being stared at like that. "I- I mean you have to stay here for a little longer so the other elves will be gone from this part of the forest.", the blushing beauty added.
"O-Oh yeah, I suppose that would be wise…" Bell said, awkwardly averting his gaze from Riveria once again, realizing once more that he had been staring at her like some sort of pervert.
Once again an awkward silence spread between them as Riveria did her best to sink deeper and deeper into the water so Bell wouldn't see even more of her body and Bell tried to find somewhere to look that wouldn't make things even worse between them. Although he had to admit… it was definitely tempting to look at her!
Finally Riveria decided to break the silence. With a hint of shame still lingering in her voice, Riveria asked: "Say… Mr. Cranel, why were they chasing you?"
Hearing her question, Bell stayed silent for a moment, before hesitantly answering: "Well… as you might know already there was this incident involving me and Hermes a few hours ago…"
"Yes I am aware of that. From what I have heard you already received a scolding for it did you not? So why were you chased again? Besides, I believe it was concluded that the main culprit was Hermes anyway, wasn't it?", Riveria said, not yet seeing his point.
"Yes! But… well elves are very prideful so they weren't willing to let it go so easily…", Bell admitted, though he quickly added: "N-Not that there is anything wrong with being prideful! I-It's great! E-Everyone should have as much pride as elves do!", once he realized that he was speaking to an elf right now…
Riveria couldn't help but chuckle a little due to Bell's nervousness. It was strange really, despite being in such an awkward situation, he was able to make her laugh… To begin with it was quite weird that it was Bell who seemed to be the most embarrassed here and not the nude elf hiding her body in the lake…
"You don't need to be so nervous Mr. Cranel. You didn't do anything wrong. I know painfully well just how prideful we elves can be.", Riveria said, trying to calm the flustered boy down a little. "While it is good to act dignified and reserved, pointless pride can easily lead to your downfall. That is something I have learned throughout my time here in Orario and it holds true for everyone, not just elves."
Bell let out a sigh of relief, glad that Riveria was a calm and understanding person, unlike many of the other women in Loki familia…
In his state of relaxation, he asked: "Say… would you mind calling me Bell? It… feels kind of weird to be called 'Mr. Cranel' all the time. I am really just a rookie, so I can't say I deserve such honor…"
Riveria closed her eyes, thinking that he was really underestimating himself, however she still accepted his request: "Alright then… Bell."
After a few moments of silence, she too told him: "In that case, please call me Riveria as well ok?", though with a slight smile on her lips she added: "Oh, don't do that in front of the other elves though. They will get angry with you again if you do."
To Riveria, this request wasn't a big deal since she didn't like all the formality of being a royal anyway and she thought, since Aiz had a connection with Bell it would only make sense to be on more casual terms with him. Well… at least as casual as you could get after you were seen naked by the other party…
Bell gave her a wry laugh as he imagined what they might do to him if he referred to their leader and vice-captain in such a casual way. Unlike Riveria, he certainly felt more troubled by her request… nonetheless he decided to honor it! After all, how could he say no to the woman who had saved him just now?
Remembering the elves that had been chasing him, Bell told her once again: "Oh that's right! Thank you for saving me earlier Miss Ri- I mean… Riveria….", thinking that his earlier apology was lacking and hadn't properly conveyed his gratitude.
Riveria, happy to be thanked, was quick to shoot down his apology though: "Pay it no mind. It wasn't such a big deal. Besides, if I hadn't helped you out things would only have gotten worse and you weren't even at fault for this in the first place"
Bell for his part was glad that Riveria could see it in such a simple way, but still he wasn't quite satisfied by hearing that, the reason being…"No it was a big deal. I… I know how elves feel about others touching their body and not only are you an elf, you are a woman too! I- I can't imagine it was such a simple thing for you!"
As both of them were reminded of the situation just a few moments ago, both of them slightly blushed, though naturally they didn't notice the others blush as they weren't facing each other…
"W-Well I- I guess it was a bit… embarrassing…", Riveria admitted.
"B-But there is no need to worry about it! It was my decision after all! A-And I have learned to deal with other people touching me from time to time! Such a thing is necessary for an adventurer after all!", she added afterwards, not wanting Bell to feel bad about it.
Bell was of course still unsatisfied by her words, after all the shame in her voice had most definitely been enough to show she had been hurt after all! "I-If I can do anything to make up for it, please let me know!", Bell requested, hoping he could help her out in some way…
Riveria on her part was prepared to let it go really but… from the information she had gotten about Bell up to this point, she could tell he wouldn't just forget about it until he repaid her for his rudeness. Really and that after she was the one that should be grateful to him…
"In that case… how about you wash my hair?", Riveria suggested.
"Huh?", was Bell's reaction to such an odd request all of a sudden.
"I… It's a bit troublesome to wash hair as long as mine alone so…", Riveria said, making up some excuse as to why she would need Bell's help here…
Of course, knowing very little about women, Bell was gullible enough to believe her made up words.
"O-Ok.", he hesitantly agreed to wash her hair. It was a bit strange that he would agree after they just talked about how it would be uncomfortable to have someone else touch Riveria's body, but… considering that he had seen and touched much more intimate places than her hair just a little while ago, none of them seemed to be too caught up on that.
Riveria and Bell stayed silent for a moment…
After that, almost as if both of them understood what they would need to do, Riveria slowly lifted her body up again and brought it closer to the lakes edge for Bell, while Bell turned towards her again and knelt down behind her.
As Riveria's body was still submerged in water down from her stomach, Bell had his hands at just the right height to wash her long, green hair now…
He slightly gulped and hesitantly reached out his hands. Just before he made contact with her, Riveria's clear voice called out: "Bell!"
Hearing his name being called, Bell let out a small shriek, afraid he had done something to offend her yet again, already apologizing before he was even aware of what he had done: "I am sorry!"
In contrast to his state of panic though, Riveria turned her upper body around towards him, one of her arms hiding her chest from him as the other one reached to grasp his hand. She gave him a smile that only further enhanced her inhuman beauty, telling him: "Don't be so scared Bell. I asked you to do this for me ok? You aren't doing anything wrong.", in a gentle voice. Of course she too was embarrassed, evident thanks to her red face and even more so the tips of her long ears turning red as well, however she still had enough composure to calm Bell. In a way, she felt like Bell was just a child, afraid of being scolded, so she inevitably felt the urge to comfort him for some reason! Looks like she adapted to her role of "Mama of Loki familia" more than she wanted to admit…
And her words seemed to have an impact too! Bell took a deep breath and lightly grasped Riveria's slender hand to reassure her. Undoubtedly the fact that she had been willing to hold his hand despite how she must have felt about a non-elf touching her body had helped calm Bell down a lot…
Bell now extended his hands, this time not hesitating anymore as he lightly touched Riveria's hair. Riveria turned back towards the lake again, to give Bell some room to work.
Surprisingly enough, Bell was rather good at washing her hair! He had definitely exceeded her expectations!
Of course that wasn't due to some kind of experience or talent, it was simple because of how gentle he treated her! His hands flowed freely through her long hair, every once in a while cupping up some water to pour it over her, even then taking care not to get any water onto her face.
It felt very relaxing to Riveria and she soon found herself letting out soft sighs as her shoulders lost their tension and she even forgot about her earlier embarrassment. It just felt so… strange, but also nice to be handled in such a gentle way. Bell touched her hair and head as if she was some delicate work of art, almost as if he were afraid of breaking her apart with his touch. The only people to have ever washed her hair aside from Bell were the servants of the Alf family back when she had not yet left her forest with Loki, but she had to admit… even her best friend Aina hadn't been so gentle with her!
Riveria was a reliable leader and, in a way, an object of worship to many. She was seen as a strong individual and capable person, so everyone just naturally assumed she could handle herself and take some damage as well, a claim that she wouldn't even refute. Well everyone seemed to assume that, everyone other than Bell… Of course he didn't say it, in fact if she were to ask, he would most definitely answer in a way similar to everyone else, after all he too knew just how amazing she was, but… still just his touch alone made it clear that he saw her as a frail girl in need of protection within his heart, even if he didn't know it himself.
Silently Bell continued taking care of Riveria hair as she enjoyed this new found feeling inside her chest for a while longer…
Eventually she interrupted the silence for some idle small talk. "Say Bell, what is your relation with Aiz?", Riveria asked, curious to learn more about what her 'daughter' had been up to with him. Sure, it was clear she had helped him train, but… was that really all? Aiz had shown a lot more emotions and interest when it came to anything related to Bell, which was something quite surprising coming from Aiz of all people, so she seemed to have a deeper bond with him than just being a training partner.
Bell's hands tensed up as she mentioned Aiz, something that Riveria naturally noticed. For now she didn't mention it though. Instead she waited for Bell to talk on his own…
"I…", Bell began, trying to find the right words to describe his connection to Aiz. Obviously he wouldn't just tell Riveria he was in love with her! As a vice-captain she would never approve of a relationship between their familias, even less considering how the matter would be viewed by Loki and Hestia… at least, that was what Bell thought. Unlike his expectations though, Riveria actually wouldn't have minded if he wanted to be Aiz's boyfriend, in fact she would have been glad about it! After all, Bell seemed like an honest and pure person and Aiz seemed to hold some interest in him too, not that he would notice since he barely knew her after all…
Either way, Bell eventually found the words to reply: "I really like her. She has helped me out a lot with her training. Without her help I could have never survived fighting that minotaur. I have nothing but pure admiration for her."
"Hm… I see…", Riveria simply replied, clearly sensing that there was more than just that. She decided to ignore it for now though. Even if she talked him into trying to confess to Aiz, she doubted it would work. While Aiz definitely liked him, it was hard to tell whether her feelings were of a romantic kind or not. In fact, Aiz herself probably had no idea how to feel about him!
"I think this should be enough. Thank you Bell, you really did a great job", Riveria finally said as she pulled her head away from him and gave him a bewitching smile once again, partly to reassure him as she was sure he would think he had done a bad job, but also simple because she was happy with how he had treated her…
Of course Riveria had been right, Bell had definitely thought he had done a bad job at washing her hair, well at least that was until he saw said smile blooming on her face.
Seeing her like that, he too couldn't help but flash an innocent smile at her. Strangely enough, taking care of her hair had helped him calm down a lot as well…
Smiling at one another, they seemed to be lost in the moment as none of them uttered a word or tried to turn away.
"Well… I guess I should go back to camp now huh? I hope the other elves aren't mad at me anymore…", Bell finally said as he snapped back to reality after their exchange.
Riveria too came back to her senses after that, nodding her head in agreement: "Yeah, you should return soon, otherwise others will get worried about you.", though still, taking into account the personality of the other elves, Riveria suggested: "How about you let me go first though? I will try and see if I can calm them down before you return ok?"
Hearing that, Bells eyes lit up a little. He was quick to agree to her suggestion: "Yes that would be great! Sorry to trouble you again Riveria, but… I can only rely on you here…"
"It's fine really! You can count on me!", Riveria reassured him.
After that, yet another silence spread between them…
"So… w-would you mind… turning around so I can get dressed?", Riveria asked, blushing once more as she made her request.
Realizing that Riveria was still nude, Bell of course quickly turned away, his own face flushed red as well once more, telling her: "I- I am sorry! I totally forgot!"
Once Bell had turned away from her, Riveria got out of the water, quickly drying her wet body before putting her clothes back on again, hurriedly trying to calm Bell down once more: "I-It's fine Bell! I- I mean it's not like you didn't see my body already!", though of course an attempt like that in which Riveria too was barely more composed than Bell, only backfired…
Feeling the awkwardness between them ever increasing, Riveria quickly dashed off towards the camp, telling him: "J-Just wait for a bit! I will take care of things!"
Despite how the situation ended though, Riveria felt like her first private meeting with Bell hadn't been so bad after all. Remembering the feeling she had when he had been washing her hair, she couldn't help but allow a small smile to form on her lips as she dashed through the woods…