Vignette

(The last chapter went way over my typical word count. Here's the rest of it. Still rated M, though. Obviously. – Nas)

It was late morning when Ailith awoke but the room was still quiet and dark, so she didn't have much of a sense of what time it was. At some point during the night, someone had come in and restoked the fire, which now burned brightly in the hearth. Crackling warmly, she could distinctly hear the hissing and popping of new logs as they settled into place. Aside from that, the only other sounds in the room were the low hum of a forge vent high in the stones overhead and the gentle whisper of Nuada's breathing.

Buried somewhere beneath the blankets, she smiled despite herself. He was still pressed against her; lying on his side facing her, with his chin resting on the top of her head. The deep, slow, breaths she could feel raising his chest told her that he was still completely, and quite comfortably, asleep.

Snuggled against him, with her cheek just above his heartbeat, Ailith sighed with contentment. Quiet, contemplative, moments like these were few and far between with Nuada but for the time being it was just nice to enjoy the intimacy and the unmistakable show of trust from a man not especially given to easy companionship. It was intensely satisfying to have him so close; to feel him like this, where no one else could reach him but her. Careful not to disturb him, she brought tentative fingers up to absently trace a deeply scarred line that started just above his hip and ended near his tailbone. It must have been a horrific wound in its time but it was old and faded now.

There were several of these scars she took the moment to gently follow. One traversed his midback to his shoulder blade and another curved around his lower ribs to his stomach, where she found it especially gratifying to leave the mark and run the back of her knuckles several times against the musculature of his abdomen. From there her hand lazily drifted up his chest and onto the side of his neck. When Nuada then casually reached up and entwined his fingers with hers, she blushed.

"Did I wake you?"

"Yes. But I don't mind."

She stroked his hand, nuzzling into him when he tilted his head to look down at her.

"What were you thinking about?" He asked, his voice still soft and relaxed from sleep.

"Oh, I wasn't really." She snuffled. "Just enjoying the peace and quiet."

"Hm."

"And…just noticing some of these, I guess." She touched the scar at his hip again. "Where did this come from?"

"Bayonet." He replied.

She stopped short and lifted her head to meet his gaze. "A what?"

"Bayonet." He repeated. "It was during the first Great War. We were raiding the castle ruin Rötteln near Lörrach for the vestments that had been stolen from the Autumn Court the year before. The resistance was better prepared than I was anticipating."

She fingered the raised flesh again, feeling the subtle roping of the scar tissue as it twisted into the muscle. These scars told stories indeed!

"And this one?" She swept up his side to indicate the wound at his back.

"A rock fall, actually. On the slopes of Hvannadalshnjúkur."

She scowled.

"In Iceland." He clarified.

"What were you doing there?"

Nuada smiled and brought his hand down to caress her face where it still laid against his chest. "It's a long story. I'll tell you sometime. If you really want to hear it."

She did, but at that particular moment, what she wanted even more was for him to continue touching her. With a sigh, she reached out again and with more obviously sensual purpose, began to stroke his back; drawing light fingernails up along his side until she could feel the skin beneath tense in response. When he shifted, she happily writhed against him.

"Ailith." Came the resulting growl. "What are you doing?"

She smirked; her face pressed down so that he couldn't see it. "I want you again."

"Ah. Well, then…" A phrase which turned out to be a complete sentence as Ailith felt her lover raise up so that he could pull her further beneath him. It also wouldn't have mattered if he'd had anything else to say either way, as he was cut off when she pressed her mouth to his, stealing both his words and his breath.

They had kissed before, but there was something new in this one: the first tentative expressions of love. Ailith put her hands on either side of Nuada's face and tried to deepen the kiss, pulling him down to her. It took him a moment to respond, as it seemed it always did, but once he regained a semblance of momentary control he gently pulled back, breaking the contact.

"Álainn." He whispered. His familiar language once again slipping through as his excitement rose. "Agus mise." (Gaelic: Lovely. And mine.)

Her hands did not leave the sides of his face as she searched his eyes. In them, she found a tumult of emotions; deep, raw emotions that he had only rarely given voice to. Nuada was somewhat cursed in this way. He would always have a war waging between his mind and his heart, even in the moments when he was at rest.

"It's alright," Ailith whispered, her hands moving back to tangle in the hair at the nape of his neck. "You don't have to fight here. You'll never have to fight here." She kissed him again softly, and this time he did not resist being drawn to her. Nuada had never felt the need for physical contact so much more that he did now. Before Ailith, he had usually rejected such offers or had taken what little comfort he could from his connection to Nuala. But now, he could drown in her; in the sensations of her body against his, in her arms, in her mouth, or inside of her.

He kissed her back; first gently, then urgently. She delighted in running her thumbs over his ears and he growled; a deep, primal sound at the back of his throat. She caressed the soft points, and his heart began to race faster. He wanted this almost as much as she did, it would seem. Somehow, they managed to reposition without breaking the contact. His hands slid up the insides of her thighs, encouraging her to open up to him quickly as he settled on top of her again, and hers alternated between stroking his neck and touching his ears. It was a little unnerving; he had not thought that they would be so sensitive for something like this.

Ailith broke their kiss long enough to take in a sharp breath and calm herself beneath him. Nuada soothed her with gentle, compassionate, touches; her rounded hips and angular shoulder blades grew prickly as his fingers delicately danced over heated skin. She shivered involuntarily when he breathed softly into her ear, "I need you."

She grabbed his face and kissed him once more, and his hands slowly slid up from where they had been resting on her hips to brush against her breasts. Her skin burned beneath his fingertips, and when he cupped her in his hands, she pressed her chest into him with an arch of her back, thoroughly enjoying the press of his weight against her. His eyes had gone dark with passion as looked to her for guidance in their next steps and she simply nodded ever so slightly to answer his silent question.

Nuada pushed himself up by his arms on either side of her head; both so that he could watch her but also so that she could watch him. She put her hands on the curve of his spine as he leaned down to kiss her again, pressing his forehead against hers.

"Are you ready?" he asked, his voice shaking a little.

"Yes." she agreed, moving her hands downwards slightly to rest on his lower back.

He took her slowly this time; easing in to her and allowing her time to get used to the feel of him as they joined. She was tight and hot and he savored the ability to appreciate each sensation now while the Geas did not have such an overwhelming hold on him. After a moment of stillness, he slowly withdrew himself part-way, enjoying the way she hissed as he did so. Her fingernails dug into his backside as she pulled him back to her; he thrust forward again, and she gasped.

They began to move together, creating a slow, steady, rhythm that built back on itself as each moved in time with the other. She braced her hips to meet him as he moved; both offering up muted gasps and moans as they reached new heights of pleasure. Ailith's moans slowly became louder, and she buried her face in his neck to try to quiet them. She needn't have done so. The sounds she made as he slid in and out of her were precisely what he wanted to hear and the soft mewls she gave into his skin had him near to breaking.

Within minutes, she was close to her end however, and her rhythm faltered as she desperately tried to urge him to go faster. Nuada complied, taking her quickly but maintaining the full measure of each thrust so that she would be forced to take him in completely before he withdrew again. It was exactly what she needed and Ailith gasped his name as her eyes fluttered closed and she clenched her body around him.

He continued to move inside her while she climaxed, drawing it out for as long as he could for her. One of her hands was buried in his hair, the other digging into his side on just the edge of painful but even he was hard-pressed not to moan in response to the tight contractions of her body around him. After a few moments, he heard her sigh in his ear as she went limp beneath him. He wrapped his arms around her, without removing himself from her, and held her close as she tried to steady her breathing.

"Dear gods…" she said at last, "…Nuada?" She realized that he was still inside her, and still hard. His breathing was also strained and she could detect a slight tremble in his shoulders where he maintained his balance. He was clearly near to release but why hadn't he? Why had he gone so still?

"Why didn't—"

"I wanted to see you." he told her, his voice breathless and his pale skin flushed.

"And I didn't want to…" He stopped talking when Ailith suddenly pushed him forcefully sideways. They rolled ungracefully over, tangling into the blankets, but ending up so that she was on top of him. She had even managed to keep him inside of her, despite the fact that she had nearly taken them both right off the side of the bed.

"Well then," she smiled down at him, delighting in the look of relative surprise on his face. "I think it's finally my turn to see you."

He bit back a playful growl. "If that is what you want, my lady." He was a little uneasy with the way she was grinning at him but if Ailith wanted to take her pleasure from him in this manner, he had no real objection. She leaned over him and touched his ear with her fingertip, tracing up from his earlobe, along the edge, to the point.

"It is." she whispered into it.

Their rhythm started up again, and Nuada's hands found Ailith's hips as he clung to her, demanding that she move with him, though she would have anyway. He was trying as hard as he could to temper his responses. He was so much stronger than she was and he didn't want to accidently hurt her by completely losing control. But the Wild in his blood was quickly overtaking him again and his instincts were driving him harder into passionate abandon. He didn't know where this reckless and frenzied need to possess her was coming from, but the necessity of their mating was near to defeating him utterly.

"Let go," she breathed into his ear, as though she were reading his mind. Nuada squeezed his eyes shut, trying to resurface from whatever depths he was descending into. He was awash in the heat of passion; drowning in desire as he tried to move with her without being too rough. Gasping for what would feel like his last breaths, without losing himself to the darkness. Preparing to give up his entire life force to her if that was what was asked of him.

But he was too far. He had balanced so precariously on the edge for too long and he could no longer hold back the tide. Roughly, Nuada lifted Ailith up and pushed her back into the bed, then picked up the pace even more than before. All he could hear was their desperate heartbeats, and the sharp impact of each thrust against her as she could do nothing but accept him. All he could feel was her body against the length of his; her tight, wet walls convulsing around him, her breath on his cheek, her hands in his hair. All he could do was move with her, on her, inside of her.

Suddenly, he was lost to it all and he climaxed, coming harder than he had known before; growling her name and several other indelicate words in his own language. With every last bit of his strength, he gave his seed in long, agonizing, pulses that left him senseless and irrational. It felt like it went on forever. When it finally released him, he collapsed on her, not even having the wherewithal afterward to shift his weight so as not to pin her.

Nuada felt as though he hadn't slept in weeks, which, for the Fae was not necessarily impossible but was considered to be rather unhealthy. He was so tired and his body had begun to ache to the point of utter exhaustion. But, behind all of the pain and weariness, he found himself to be uncharacteristically happy. He felt almost elated. The ecstasy he had felt in this night and day of pleasure lingered as pinpoints of light in his mind, bringing a small smile to his lips as he finally pulled himself off of his lover and moved back to her side.

His mouth turned to a frown when he saw the teeth marks on her shoulder that he didn't remember giving her, and the already-purpling bruises along her hip where he had dug in his fingers and held on to her as he had reached his peak. But, though she noted his concern, Ailith only smiled up at him with a bemused kind of look.

"It's ok." She chuckled. "I've given you a fair number of them that I am sure Nuala will be scolding me about later."

"Perhaps." He calmed, bringing his hand up to rub gently at the worst of them. "I'm sure she'll be none too pleased about being woken up at odd hours by all this as well."

Ailith looked askance at him, smiling wryly despite his ruminative tone.

"Well, I'll make it up to her somehow later." Ailith turned to face Nuada again and gleefully snuggled back into his chest beneath the warm blankets he was in the process of pulling back over the both of them.

"Hm." Was his only reply as she felt him begin to relax again and soften into sleep once more.

But as the room quieted again, Ailith twitched and startled. There was a sound coming from somewhere far in the distance. She reflexively pulled Nuada close, who, for his part, did not seem to notice anything amiss and who merely responded by absently wrapping her in his arms as he continued to drift off. But there it was again. Far away. Indistinct. Like the sounds of people talking in hushed tones more than two rooms away. Ailith glowered unseen but tried again to discern where the sound was coming from.

Soon enough it began to fade away again and she wondered whether or not she had actually heard it at all. It was just a few repeated syllables, from what she could make out. Like a Name. Like all the Names she knew that arose out of her senses and perception. But a Name that was not quite a Name. It was as though the world was beginning to speak something new into existence and had just then trailed off into other thoughts. A Name that was half-formed, not quite put together just yet…. coming from somewhere…arising out of nothingness…. deep in her own subconscious mind.