Keiji takes it upon himself to comfort Felicia while her sister attends to other duties in the Astral Plane.
This new entry is set after the 'Confidant' chapter and serves to expand upon the relationship between Felicia and Keiji. I'll move it into its correct position in the story once more people have read it. Do enjoy and your feedback is appreciated.
Affection
"I won't be gone long, Felicia," Flora reassures her sibling. Her voice is as though a distant echo.
"I know you won't, Sister. Just take care not to overwork yourself, alright?" Felicia petitions with a hint of concern.
The twin maids' chatter awakens your cloudy mind. Groaning groggily, you shake off the weight of sleep. A few blinks straighten out your foggy vision. You're in your humble tent. With all too much effort, you sit upright. Gods do you dislike the sensation rising from a lengthy slumber all too often brings.
Noting another's warmth beside you, you look left.
Felicia sits next to you, dressed in her smallclothes with the blankets pulled up to her chest. You imagine she's snuggled beneath the linens more for comfort than warmth if her Ice Tribe roots are anything to go by. Flora stands over the rug at the tent's center, meanwhile. Save for the open front buttons of her blouse and sporting bare feet, she looks almost fully dressed and ready to leave for the day.
"Morning, Keiji," Felicia greets you, looping her arm through yours and holding onto you. "Did you sleep well?"
"Better than I oftentimes do, yes." You glance now to Flora. A memory of the kiss you shared last night flashes through your thoughts. You smile for Felicia's sister, a gesture she returns before slipping on her shoes. "And what of you, Flora? You look as though you're in a hurry."
"That would be because I am," the blue-haired lassie clarifies. She pauses lacing her heeled shoes and stands up straight. Reaching into the front most pocket of her clothes, she takes out and flashes a paper note in front of your face. "A messenger arrived while you two slept - one from Lady Corrin. He requested that one of us join our mistress at her treehouse in the Astral Plane."
"Corrin has need of us?" you ask, catching a glimpse of the Hoshidan Kanji on the paper's front for just an instant before Flora whips it away.
"She does. Just one of us, though. To go through the finer details of our plan in the Ice Tribe Village before Ryoma gives the order to march."
"Sister volunteered herself," Felicia chimes in. "So you might rest some more in preparation for the journey."
"That I did," Flora confirms with a nod. "Which means you and Felicia will have to keep each other company for the day. I won't be back until morning."
You have no problems looking after Felicia while her sister discusses preparations for the march toward the Ice Tribe Village with Corrin. Still, for Flora to be gone all day surely means that Corrin wishes to go over the plans in agonizing detail. For safety's sake, you imagine.
"It sounds to me as though our mistress is yet uneasy about the mission," you speculate.
"I get that feeling, too," Flora agrees with a glassy smile. "All the more reason I do what I can to put her worries to rest."
"That's typical of Her Ladyship," remarks Felicia with a small frown. "Always worrying about others more than herself."
"Indeed," you follow. "We're supposed to cater to her needs." Corrin's fear over you choosing to lead the newest vanguard is proof of that.
"Too true," Flora agrees. "Anyway, I had better be off." She leans over and kisses Flora's forehead. Then she does the same for you. "The two of you keep well and look after one another until I'm back, alright? I imagine you'll manage just fine without me until morning," she chuckles.
Felicia smiles brightly. "Of course we will! You take care, Sister."
"Indeed, you have a pleasant day, Flora," you add.
Flora nods for you both and steps out of the tent.
With each magical treatment, a small fraction of the sight returns to her working eye. Having received several days of attention from a camp shrine maiden, she sees things reasonably well if she stands close to them. A blessing in some ways for the girl. A curse in others. She has taken again to bathing and going for little walks outside without much issue. Unfortunately, she also dwells all too often on both her disfiguring scar and sightless eye. Selena's gruesome gifts.
Sitting opposite you in the mess hall for dinner, Felicia pokes at her sliced salmon with a fork and a glum expression.
You want nothing more than to make the poor lassie smile.
"What ails you, Felicia?" you ask, reaching over and touching a caring hand to her shoulder.
Felicia sighs, nudging aside her plate and leaning closer to you. "I feel like everyone's looking at me..."
"Because of your eye, you mean," you say in a low voice, mindful of her displeasure.
"Uh-huh." Felicia nods.
Best you put the girl's mind at ease so she stops fretting.
"Barely a soul has looked your way since we came in; you may rest assured of that." You lower your hand from Felicia's cheek and rest it atop her hand softly. "And even if they were, they wouldn't see anything with the nice handkerchief you're wearing."
A black handkerchief with white floral patterning. A gift bought especially by Flora from a Macarath market stall to cover her sister's injured eye.
Felicia smiles a glassy smile and ties your fingers with hers. "You're just saying that to make me feel better. I know you are."
You shake your head adamantly. "I promise you I'm not."
Again, Felicia sighs, squeezing your digits. "...I appreciate you trying to comfort me, Keiji. Really I do. I think I'd rather return to your tent though."
"That's quite alright by me. If all of this is still too much for you then we can head back whenever you're ready."
"Thank you. Can we go now, if you don't mind?"
"But of course."
You stand from your chair and walk around the table to Felicia. She then carefully gets up from her seat and steps closer. You fasten your arm through hers securely and the two of you set off out through the open door. Outside, you help Felicia down the decking steps one at a time. Once she's safely down the two of you set off across the eastward leading dirt path toward your tent.
The journey back from the mess hall took a longer than expected. You traversed the path extra carefully so Felicia didn't lose her footing along the way. You also change into your eveningwear upon returning, since the sun. A pair of shorts and a vest top.
Meanwhile, Felicia stands in front of the mirror across from your bed. She too has changed out of her usual servant's attire and dressed down to her usual lacy Nohrian-styled smallclothes. Having removed the handkerchief protecting her fatally injured eye from view, her injury is on show at its fullest.
You sit on the edge of the bed across from her with one leg folded over the other. Worry and guilt both fill your heart.
"Are you alright, Felicia?"
The girl sighs exhaustedly and shakes her head. "No, not really." She shuts her blinded eye and runs a careful index over the scar trailing her eyelid to her right cheek. Again, she exhales and hugs her arms around her middle for comfort. "My face looks awful... I don't know how you and Sister dare look at me now," she adds with a whimper. "Then there's my eye itself. It's repulsive, Keiji... I'm repulsive."
Harder your guilt-ridden heart beats. If only you'd been a fraction of a second faster when she and Selena thought.
You stand from the bed and don a thin smile. "No you aren't, Felicia." You reposition yourself behind the girl. Looping your arms around her waist, you pull her gently to your chest. She relaxes into your embrace with a shiver and shuts her eyes. "What's a scar in place of your life...?"
"Y-You don't think I look ugly...?" Felicia poses weakly, as though she's afraid.
"Not at all," you answer, placing a soft kiss against her cheek. "If anything, I'm grateful you're still alive. Having to hold you in my arms while you bled and bled was horrifying, Felicia. Honestly, I feared you would die in my arms if the healer took but a second longer than she did."
"...If I didn't have two left feet then I wouldn't be in this mess," Felicia reprimands herself scornfully, frowning. "Now here you and Sister are, stuck watching after me while the shrine maidens work their magic. I feel like such a burden."
"You're not a burden to-"
"Just last week you were still dressing me, Keiji. Not to mention you and Sister took turns helping me outside so I could pee," Felicia recalls dejectedly.
"That maybe so. But we did those things because we love you, Felicia."
"I still feel dreadful about it..."
"Well don't. Flora attends to the needs of others for a living, and as for me..." A memory of days long passed flashes through your thoughts. You envision kneeling at the bedside of a frail young man in the spare bedroom of your family home. A friend from a very different time in your life. "Let's just say I'm familiar with helping care for those who cannot care for themselves. I'm happy doing so again for somebody so precious to me."
"You've cared for someone like this before...?" Felicia wonders with surprise, opening her eyes.
"I have." A touch of hesitation grips you. You've not opened up about this part of your past before. "...A young man in training to become a ninja. A disease robbed him of his legs, and it fell to my mother as one of the region's best healers to administer his treatment. The two of us became fast friends over the many months he lived with us. I also became rather close to his sister as well."
"...I see. You really don't mind, then?"
"Not at all. Which is why you should stop being so cruel to yourself, Miss Felicia," you say warmly.
"I-I'll try, Keiji. But only if you do something for me first..." Felicia's cheeks pinken, and she shudders within your arms. "I-I want you to prove you still find me pretty." The maid slips free of your embrace and turns around to face you. She then cups your cheeks in her palms and inches her face nearer yours. "...Please, make me feel good," she pleads at a whisper, blushing furiously. "...Just like you did on the night I first shared your tent."
Her request makes your heartbeat quicken. "...You're sure you're up for it? I don't want to strain you while you're still recovering."
"Umm-hmm." Felicia nods. "I want us to. And besides, I'll be leaving for your hometown before too long - so goodness only knows when I'll see you again."
"A parting gift - something to bind us during our time apart?" you pose with a smooth undertone.
"Exactly... And I want to go all the way this time, too. If you want to as well, I mean."
The red core within your chest hammers with vigor. Nervousness too. "...Will I be your first?"
"You will, so don't be too rough with me, alright...?"
Your nervousness persists. "And you're absolutely certain you want to?"
"There's not a doubt in my mind. When I'm with you I feel special, Keiji. More than just some clod with two left feet who's missing an eye..."
You frown deeply at your childhood friend's self-loathing. "I really wish you wouldn't say such things about yourself."
"Make me feel good. Then I'll stop."
Felicia presses her mouth to yours, silencing further protests. Pushing her chest to yours, she deepens the kiss and moans with satisfaction. Your world and everything in it comes screaming to a sublime halt, and you surrender to your feelings. Sensations. Desires. Felicia's is so perfectly soft.
Wanting to please, you cup a palm to her petite behind and squeeze her sinful flesh. You're rewarded a satisfied hum for your attentiveness, and she somewhat clumsily touches a gentle hand to your crotch. You guide her hand within your shorts and likewise slip yours beneath her undergarments.
Felicia parts your lips with a smack and gazes into your eyes alluringly. "Let me return the favour for all you've done for me..." She begins stroking and teasing your manly weapon with the palm of your hand. She's slow. Attentive. Deliberate.
A shiver races down your spine and a heated groan trawls from the back of your throat.
"Feels nice...?" Felicia coos teasingly.
"Gods yes..."
"Lovely, now you be good and let me serve you, okay?"
"As you wish, Miss Felicia..."
The maid tugs your shorts down to your ankles with her right hand. With her left, she continues working you.
You step out of your undergarments. A slave to the pleasure betwixt your legs, your thoughts slur into a messy stew.
Quicker and quicker Felicia pumps your blade all the while, her hand becoming sticky with your satisfaction.
Harder and thicker your swell between her digits.
Greater. Greater. Greater still.
You want to burst. A second more and you'll drench the devoted lass with your manly love.
"Are we near the bed?" Felicia asks heatedly.
"Y-Yes..."
The lassie releases your manhood. An instant of relief for your battered defences. "Guide us to it, and then sit down on the edge," she half-commands.
"Alright." You remove your hand from beneath Felicia's undergarments and hold onto her. Then you guide her to the foot of the bed and sit down.
Felicia remains standing, however. "Hold me, please."
You bring your hands to Felicia's waist and keep her steady. She then pulls her undergarments down and steps out of them. Next, she snaps loose her bra clap and reveals her fair sized breasts to you. Her cheeks darken to a deep and empowered red. "Do you like what you see?" she asks sheepishly.
"I do indeed," you answer, kissing one of Felicia's mounds. She giggles in thanks.
"Good." The maid snags one of your hands and cups it over her most special of places. You brush your fingertips against the bushy patch of pink hair you find there, earning an approving hum from your lover. She then ushers your digits lower to her slick, lust-drenched opening. "Touch me, Keiji..."
You lean away from Felicia's chest and lower your eyes to her feminine flower. "It would be my pleasure."
You slip a finger inside Felicia, and she whines graciously. You then ease the digit deeper inside and massage her womanly walls with steady, swirling motions. The lovely lass throws her arms around your shoulders with a second stronger whine, holding onto you tightly. Intent on satisfying, you keep up your pace. Tighter and tighter Felicia clings to you all the while, blissful wetness oozing from her and making your palm sticky.
Seconds fritter away. Felicia's lustful whines build to empowered, amorous moans. Her womanly flesh - soaked with delight - squelches at your every touch.
"K-Keiji... I- I want you. I need you," Felicia pleads. "...Inside. I want you inside..."
You slow your massaging and peck Felicia's cheek. "You're ready?"
"Mmm-hmm. Please, Keiji. Don't make me wait.
"Alright then." You slide your love-drenched finger out of Felicia and fasten your arms securely around her waist. "I want you to wrap your legs around my lower back and hold onto me as best you can. Can you manage that?"
"You betcha. I'll give it a try."
Felicia focuses her working eye on you with extra attentiveness. She then kicks her slender legs upward rather deftly and manages (aided by your firm grip) to coil them around your lower back. Looping her arms around your shoulders for added support, she wraps her body around yours snugly and closely. So snugly and closely in fact that your aching weapon prods her soft and rounded bottom. "Does this work?" Felicia asks sweetly
"Perfectly, just perfectly," you answer, pecking her lips. "Now all we need do is line things up a little bit better. Lift your behind just a fraction, if you would?"
"Okay." Felicia does as you request. "How's this?"
"Wonderful." You unthread an arm from around Felicia's and reposition your weapon so its tip touches against Felicia's feminine blossom. The two of you share a pleasurable shiver as you do. "There we are. Now all you need do is ease down and press your pelvis to mine."
"You aren't going to thrust?" Felicia purrs, wiggling her hips and teasing her flesh against yours.
You bite the corner of your lip and grunt, "N-No. Not with this being you're first time. We'll work at your pace, dearest Felicia."
"Like a true gentleman," she hums graciously. "...Are you ready?"
"Ready."
"Okay then." Felicia breathes in and out to steady her nerves. "Here we go. Together."
You and Felicia share another short kiss. A second passes. Two. Three. Then Felicia eases herself down.
The girl's womanly heat envelops you; it consumes you. Bittersweet sparks crackle down your spine as the she stretches to accommodate all that you are.
"How is it?" you ask caringly, kissing the bridge of your lover's nose.
Felicia gazes into your eyes adoringly. "Stings a little, but it's nice too. I should move my hips now, shouldn't I?"
"Only when you're ready, and if it hurts too much then do tell me. We'll stop."
"I will." Felicia giggles sweetly, cupping your cheek. "You needn't sound so nervous, Keiji."
You chuckle for the girl. In part to ease your unrest. "It shows, does it?"
"It sure does. Almost like it's your first time too."
"I just don't want to hurt you, that's all."
"And I appreciate that, really I do." Felicia clamps a finger to your lips. "But like I said earlier, it's my turn to serve you. So please, just relax. I'll make us both feel good, so you needn't worry about a thing."
You nod.
Felicia withdraws her finger. "Wonderful. Then here goes nothing." She presses her pelvis to yours, pushing you deep inside of her. Her nails digging into your back, she belts out an empowered cry of delight. You too let out an elongated groan and sloppily kiss the nape of her neck.
A second buck of Felicia's hips melts your thoughts into a lustful puddle. A third has you ensnared by her transfixing heat.
Four. Five. Six. Your vision blurs with ecstasy.
"Gods, it's so gooood!" Felicia cries.
Stronger your pleasure builds with every grind of the girl's hips.
From this day onward, the two of you are as one. Whatever transpires at the Ice Tribe Village, you will always have this moment.
A gift. Something to treasure.
To be continued...