She swung her nail from the left, but Tiso masterfully deflected her blade with his shield, and then used her own momentum to knock Tamer off balance, she barely managed to catch herself in time to block his subsequent blows.

They've been at this for some time now, the clashes of her nail against his shield echoing off the cavern walls, the exhaustion of the sparring session weighing heavily on both of their bodies. Tiso was definitely making progress, Tamer could remember disarming him in a matter of minutes when they first started training, now it felt like a good while had passed since they began their latest fight

The air was getting heavy under her helmet, but that was the least of Tamer's worries, deciding that Tiso and his shield were too close for comfort, she feigned a blow with her nail and then jumped back, clearing some distance between them.

The two ants began circling each other, neither willing to make the first move. Tamer briefly considered ditching her helmet but in the end, decided not to, she could endure a bit of stuffy air if it meant not getting her head split in two.

But as it turned out, the head was not the part of her body she should be worried about. A devious smirk suddenly appeared under her opponent's hood. Before she had the time to react, Tiso spun around and sent his shield spiraling through the air in her direction.

If Tamer had anticipated this maneuver, she could have tried blocking the attack with her nail, or jumping away, but it was now too late for that, a sharp pain exploded first in her legs, and then in the rest of her body, as she was swept off her feet and impacted hard against the ground.

~ Ow! Godsdamit, ow...

Śhe cursed under her breath while attempting to get up! She should have seen it coming, especially with how he boasted about this earlier. Tiso was a bit rusty with his shield but eager to try it again in real combat. He couldn't help but brag about all the inventive ways for its use in combat he had come up with, one of which was this particular maneuver.

Ideally, the shield was supposed to sweep the enemy off their feet (or cut them in half, depending on whether the blades were deployed or not), and then return to the sender in a semi-circle.

But as mentioned previously, Tiso was still a bit rusty, so the shield only succeeded in the first half of the task, and then tumbled to the ground itself behind Tamer, leaving Tiso defenseless.

He looked at her, she looked at him, a hot second passed in total silence.

Tiso sprinted towards his shield, trying to avoid his opponent, but Tamer wasn't about to let this opportunity slip through her fingers, in spite of the sore limbs, she launched herself at him and tackled the other ant to the ground, they rolled around for a bit, each trying to gain an upper hand, until she finally pinned him down and laid her blade on his throat, making him freeze in surrender.

For a while, they stayed like that, both panting heavily from the exhaustion.

~ I won ~ she said eventually, lifting her sword from Tiso's neck and laying it beside them, suddenly she thought that her opponent was strangely red under his hood, it puzzled her initially and she thought that maybe he was angry at his loss, but soon realized the ambiguous position they were in, with him being pinned underneath her, was likely to blame.

Tamer's lips morphed into a smirk underneath her helmet, when was the last time somebody found her genuinely attractive? She couldn't remember. People mostly found her terrifying at the arena, this was an intriguing change. She had to take full advantage of this opportunity.

She had to tease him some more!

~ Say Tiso ~ She lowered herself even closer to him, until their bodies almost touched, immediately making him more flustered

~ I'm kinda sore after that, aren't you? I know a certain hot spring not far from here, it's well hidden so we should have it all to ourselves, what say you?

He was too stunned by the sudden proposal to say anything, so Tamer just grabbed his wrist and dragged him along.

Soon they arrived at their destination, a small pod of pleasantly warm water was nestled in a small cave, it was well hidden so one had to know its location, or be very lucky to find it. The very water seemed to glow pure white, creating a fantastic spectacle of light with the steam which was rising out of it. The hot spring was making the whole place warm and cozy, and the gentle murmur of water was soothing to the ears. An ideal place to unwind after a long day in the colosseum

Tamer used to come here often when the realities of living in such a brutal place were becoming too much, but she never had anybody to share it with. Tiso was the first, and she couldn't quite figure out why. Why him that is.

This was her secret, her respite, a small piece of heaven for her alone. There was another hot spring in the colosseum, but that one was smaller and crowded with smelly fools, who didn't want her there and she didn't want to be there either. Especially not when she had this one all to herself, so why did she just bring him off all bugs here? Just to tease him?

Oh right, the teasing.

Smirking to herself, Tamer told Tiso to get comfortable, noting that he was still a bit red in the face. This quickly changed to a full-on blush when she started casually undressing right in front of him.

It's not like there weren't many bugs who wore little to no clothes of all, but Tamer usually did, plus she was an ant just like he was, and let's not be modest, those cave dwellers had nothing on her sleek, agile body, and from the look on Tiso's face, he agreed.

Seemingly, Tamer was paying him no mind, but underneath her helmet, she was grinning like mad, and making a considerable effort not to burst out in giggles at his face, which was reddening inversely proportionally to how much of her body was covered. Finally, it was time to take off the helmet, and she needed a few seconds to contain the grin before unfastening the latches and gently pulling it off.

Right away she took a deep breath, happy to finally take in air unfiltered by its metal bars. Taking a while to enjoy this sensation, she then looked back at Tiso, who was still standing there still in his clothes, not even realizing he was staring.

But there was something weird with him too, Tamer expected him to be ogling her body, not that she'd mind much, but would still use this opportunity to scold him. Instead, she found him looking directly at her face, with eyes wide and the blush so permanent, his head shined like a red bulb from underneath his hood.

This baffled Tamer a bit, as this wasn't what she was expecting at all, something about his face and the way his eyes shined made her feel weird, she could feel a warm sensation slowly starting to spread across her own cheeks. She quickly turned her head away from him, determined not to let him see anything, walked slowly towards the pond, making sure to sway her hips seductively, she could practically feel his gaze following her all the way.

She gently lowered her body into the spring with a content sigh, the feeling of hot water on her body immediately made the after-fight fatigue start melting away, sometimes she could swear these were magical somehow. Tiso however was still frozen in place.

Tamer knew it was her who lead him into this state, but honestly, enough was enough

~ Oh don't stand there like a statue! Hurry up and get in! ~

This broke Tiso out of his trance, and he scrambled to get his clothes off as fast as possible. Tamer watched him pull his breastplate off first, and then carefully remove the rest of his clothes. Finally, the hood itself came off, but Tamer was much more interested in the rest of his body, namely, how incredibly stunning he was.

His body was lean and athletic, a perfect combination of strength and agility, all this training and sparing was paying off, his body was like a sculpted marble masterpiece, a statue of an ancient god of war brought to life by some powerful magic.

~Holy shit~ She said to herself, softly, so Tiso wouldn't hear ~ Was he always this hot under there? ~

And the scars, she was surprised at how many there were, some on his arms and legs, but more on the torso, and even more on his back, did he gain all of them during his battles? Some for sure, she had endured her fair share of blows, but it was clear he had a turbulent past.

Tamer could see his chitin shine where it was whole though and just kept looking as he approached the pond until she felt a familiar warmth once again spreading across her cheeks. Although it was too late to stop the blush, she still snapped her head to the side, pretending not to be interested in him at all.

How was she supposed to know her plan would backfire like that?

She heard the soft water splash as his body entered the spring at the other side, and couldn't help sneaking quick glances at his half-submerged form, observing the light reflecting exoskeleton, refracting on the outline of his muscles.

He was even hotter up close.

No one said anything for a while, and they just sat there in uncomfortable silence, listening to the ripple of water, it was him who finally broke it.

~ Sorry for earlier, I didn't mean to stare just… I didn't expect you to have such a pretty face… ~

Upon hearing this, she snapped her head back at him, completely failing to contain the wide blush spread across her face, luckily Tiso must have read this as a sign of anger rather than anything else, as he was quick to correct himself.

~ N-Not that there was any reason for me to think you weren't pretty, I mean I just never saw you without your helmet, before, and it caught me off guard it's all-

He was rambling, the ant warrior, usually confident and sure of himself, was rambling. Tamer might have enjoyed this more, was she not busy feeling this weird tingling in her chest

She couldn't remember the last time someone called her pretty…

~ Well, thanks. You're not so bad-looking yourself you know ~

Her eyes once again wandered over to his body or at least the part that was sticking above the water. The spring water was creating the most beautiful gleam on his strong che-

Suddenly she was reminded of the blush still on her face, it was likely even redder now, she needed to hide it from him, but don't make it too obvious at the same time, an excuse was needed to turn her head away from Tiso, and it was needed fast. The other ant was pretty dense, but even he was sure to figure something out if she continued to stare at his gorgeous body while her head glowed like one of nightmare god's torches.

In her haste, she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind

~ Would you mind washing my back for me? ~

…

By the Wyrm she hated that hot mouth of hers sometimes...

Well, there was no turning back now, metaphorically speaking. Tiso was too stunned by her request to give a coherent answer, so she took the initiative, and turned her back to him.

Maybe it wasn't… ideally what she had in mind, but it would suffice. She had her excuse not to look at Tiso's perfectly sculpted body, and he'd likely get even more flustered in the process! Maybe she could turn this around after all!

She allowed herself to smile at those thoughts, convinced that she could still win this (sudden and unexpected) contest of who could out-fluster who. Until she felt Tiso's touch on her chitin.

He had been frantically searching for something to say in this situation, but by this point, the more sophisticated parts of his brain had all but shut down. So, having found nothing, Tiso decided to simply get it over with and approached the other ant's backside.

The feeling of his hands massaging, pouring water over her body could not be put into words, it felt as if he was wearing velvet gloves, enchanted by some great old god to be the ultimate tool of comfort and pleasure.

Tiso, of course, was understandably quite tense. No great massagist in the first place, the suddenness of the request and the nature of the situation had him shaking nervously, although he tried very hard not to let it show.

It's not like he hadn't seen bugs naked before, half of the husks wandering Hallownest streets and tunnels had little to no clothes, even those who retained their senses didn't care for covering their bodies all that much. So why did he feel like his heart wanted nothing more than to burst out of his chest and run away as far as possible?

His companion meanwhile felt like she was melting, even as she could feel the nervous twitching of his hands, his sharp breaths, and uncertain moves, Tamer had to stop herself from moaning out in pleasure. As she searched for a reason for her unexpected sensitivity, it occurred to her that she couldn't remember a time when another bug had touched her, without murderous intent that is.

There was Diabol of course, her loyal pet/battle steed, but unfortunately, he wasn't built for comfort. To put it simply she was desperately touch-starved, and there really couldn't be a worse time for such discovery.

She had suggested this in order to hide her wild emotions from Tiso, but it seemed her plan was backfiring spectacularly again, to back out now could lead Tiso to suspect something was wrong and would be like admitting defeat, also she really didn't want him to stop...

Yet another distraction was needed, one that wouldn't have any side effects like this. Anything manual was out of the question for sure, something to take her mind off this wonderful feeling and turn Tiso's attention away from her body, and its involuntary responses. Something sad to distract her from those nice feelings in her belly, whatever they were called, and she knew just the thing...

~ Say Tiso ~ She began, fighting to keep her voice nonchalant and calm

~ You've shared your past with me, but I've yet to return the favor. Would you like to know how such a nice ant like me ended up in a place like this? ~

This was technically a question, but Tamer didn't wait for Tiso's answer, instead, she jumped right into telling the story, bringing back memories she buried deeply so long ago…

~ I was a soldier too, not very high up the ranks, but I had potential, or so I was told. My kingdom was a good one, a place you could call home, with just laws and virtuous rulers. I was proud to be a part of it and swore to defend it against all that would threaten its peace and its people. And I did… or tried to at least… ~

She gave an involuntary sigh as inevitably the memories started coming back. She didn't think much about her old home these days, it's been a long time, and the details blurred together. Still, they brought a sense of melancholy and sadness with them, sitting at the pit of her stomach

She brushed the feelings aside, it was no time for sentiments

~ We were attacked by a rivaling kingdom, ruled by a despot king, or was it a queen? Anyway, long story short, we put up a good fight but lost in the end. I led a small group of refugees out of our (taken) capital, sneaked past enemy camps, and escaped into the wasteland. We wandered around aimlessly for a while, before hitting Hallownest. The colosseum to be more precise ~

She could remember the relief, the elation she felt and saw at the faces of her companions when their small group chanced upon a civilization that was willing to take them in, or at least not attack them on sight. She could also remember how short-lived it was.

~ Imagine our dismay when we learned of the plague taking root in the kingdom, we just couldn't catch a break it seemed, still, the king was supposedly working on a 'cure' of sorts, so in the end, we decided to stay at the colosseum until the threat has passed ~

~ At the colosseum? ~ Tiso spoke up for the first time in a while

~ Surely you could have found a better place to stay? It doesn't seem like the best choice for a refugee camp~

~ Believe it or not, but the Colosseum of fools used to be a much more hospitable place in the past, the whole 'of fools' part wasn't a thing back then. It was simply an arena where warriors of the kingdom could test their abilities and show off. Myself and some others decided to earn money for our group by taking part in the battles, it wasn't to the death back then ~

Tamer made a short pause to catch her breath, the only sound in the cave was now the soft dribbling of water, as it slowly ran down stalactites and dropped onto their counterparts below. Tiso has stopped washing her back, and his hands now clasped over her shoulders in a reassuring manner

~ Anyway you can probably guess what happened next. The disease never did go away, and in time reached the colosseum as well, that's when it started changing you see. It became a target for bugs whose dear ones succumbed to the plague and those infected themself, bugs who didn't have anything left to lose. They searched for a new start, or a way to go out in glory before the illness could take their minds away ~

Tamer fell silent again, the tale was having a greater impact on her than she anticipated, and her voice had started breaking a bit towards the end, long enough to expose how she really felt. She took in a deep breath, steeling herself to finish the story. But before she could begin again, Tiso's voice, unusually soft, reached her ears

~ You don't have to finish if it's too much, you know... ~

She looked back over her shoulder, the look on his face was that of genuine concern. Some part of her wished it was mocking instead, this at least would be easier to deal with.

~ Don't worry, I made my peace a long time ago, and it's not even as bad as yours was so there. Anyway, you can guess what happened afterward, the colosseum slowly but surely gained the qualities it possesses now, and a new reputation to go along with them. I'm the last one of the ant refugees who made their way here all that time ago. ~

Tamer finished as fast as she could, fearing that her tone might again betray her true feelings. Once more, the dribbling water was the only sound heard in the cave, the two ants simply sat there motionless, contemplating the story and the feelings it invoked.

Tiso wondered how this revelation made him feel about his companion, he didn't expect to find this more vulnerable side to her. In the past Tiso would probably say that it was pathetic and unfit for a warrior to show weakness, turning it into a basis for his contempt and scorn.

But after everything that has happened, he found himself appreciating this softer side, and was thankful that she trusted him enough to share it. It took a lot of faith in another bug to open up before them in this cruel and bitter world.

Tamer on the other hand was struck by a different sort of realization.

She didn't think her own history would have such an effect on her. Time heals all, but the recollection still brought her a fair deal of sorrow and a hint of pain, especially since she brought this one on herself. Seems like time isn't such a great doctor after all

But perhaps it wasn't all bad, since it provided Tamer with a new perspective on certain things. It made her realize that there are worse fates in life than letting your feelings be known, especially if they were as insignificant as a little attraction to an (indubitably handsome) friend.

Having arrived at that conclusion, Tamer allowed her body to relax, going as far as to lean against Tiso, making him freeze in shock. Done with her petty games, she allowed a soft smile and a red tint to spread across her face, allowing herself to enjoy their bodies touching.

Snuggling up closer to her object of attraction, she could feel that Tiso still hadn't let himself loosen up, deciding to help him with that she addressed the issue.

~ You know Tiso if a girl goes that far herself it probably means that she doesn't mind a bit of physical contact. I'm not going to rip your throat out, so stop being tense like a web string already and loosen up a bit ~

Initially, it didn't seem as if her words had any effect, but gradually she felt her companion release the tension from his muscles and embracing the moment. Eventually, he went as far as to embrace her as well, putting an arm around her torso, gently at first, as if testing the waters. Seeing no negative reaction from Tamer, he advanced further and gently squeezed her closer to his body.

Glancing up she could see a stupid, happy grin plastered all over his face. She made no effort to hide her own good mood and leaned closer herself, almost snuggling up to him.

They stayed like that for a few seconds, content to just sit there in the warm water and enjoy each other's company. It was a perfectly relaxing and comfortable moment. At least until she felt Tiso tense up again.

Her first reaction was annoyance, couldn't Tiso just get over it and… but this was something more, he wasn't just tense, he was almost panicking, and in a split second she knew exactly why as the reason for his panic poke her in the lower back.

The blue ant froze in place like struck by a spell, now he was dead for sure. Oh, why did it have to happen now? Things were going so fine! But that part of his body had its own mind, and apparently decided that it wanted in on the action.

With terror he watched her turn around to face him, then looking down at the cause of all the fuss, clearly visible through the water, the tip was even poking above the surface.

She looked down, then up at him, then down again, the expression on her face still and unreadable. He was quietly saying his last prayers, when of all things she started to… giggle

He stared at her in shock as she continued to laugh, finally calming down enough to speak.

~ *snrt* You know Tiso, we probably should have seen this coming earlier… I mean it was the only logical conclusion to this set-up. I'm actually impressed you managed to control yourself for so long, I know my body tends to have certain… effect on males... ~

As she spoke the last words Tamer edged closer and closer to him, until their bodies were almost touching and he could feel her quick breath on his chitin.

~ ...and you're not so bad yourself you know ~

His heart was racing like an express stag beetle, and his little friend was twitching to the rhythm. What was even happening? He didn't think it was possible but he was becoming even more aroused by the second, he didn't know how much longer he could keep his body in check.

~ You know what else has occurred to me? ~ Her tone was sweet and sensual, drilling further into Tiso's mind and body ~ You and I, we both are probably the only two, sentient, sane ants in gods know how many miles. It would be a shame… to waste... such an opportunity ~

She said, drawing out the words, as her lips edged closer and closer to his, but before the deed could be done she suddenly pulled away, leaving Tiso hanging.

~ Unless, of course… you'd rather we don't…~ Tamer said, apparently wanting to mess with him for the last time.

But by this point, Tiso has had quite enough of her games.

He was willing to conduct himself, at the beginning. She invited him to this place, which was clearly important to her, and he was willing to put a great effort into behaving himself to repay this act of goodwill. He exerted impossible amounts of self-control around her gorgeous form, not proving himself capable of proper conduct. Even when her true intentions became clear.

But enough's enough, in an instant the old Tiso resurfaced, or perhaps he just dropped his inhibitions. His hands shot forward, grabbing her by the arms. She made a yelp as he pulled her close against his body until their lips met in a fiery kiss, one that went on and on, until they both resurfaced to get some fresh air.

They sat there for a moment, bodies close against each other, deep breaths gently caressing their chitin. Tiso and Tamer gazed into each other's eyes, her filled with passion, his with newfound determination

~ Yes. I do ~

Tamer smiled at those words

~ Good answer ~ She replied as they both looked down, at the appendage that begun the whole thing so suddenly

~ Well then, let's get started ~

Wooo it's the 10th chapter already, ah how the time flies

I hope you enjoyed laughing, as I stumbled with my words trying to write something at least resembling a romantic moment. You didn't expect that last part did you? Or maybe you did, you probably did. I remember reading a comment about how this was one of the few Tiso/Tamer fics with no porn in it, I've debated with myself on whether to include actual smut in the chapter or leave only it implied only. In the end, I decided not to, but maybe there will be a 'lost chapter' after the main story is finished ;)