Dusk had fallen by the time they reached a clearing, and, exhausted, Pharen slung her pack to the ground, trying and failing to yank the bedroll out of it. Fen'Harel smirked, watching her struggle with it, and noting that she had forgotten to untie the tie at the side to keep it from falling out during the day's trek. Finally frustrated, "Dread Wolf take you!" was exclaimed as she threw the pack across the forest floor, barely grazing over the fire he had built during her struggle. Fen'harel snickered and began laughing wholly at the curse she so easily thrown out. As soon as he began laughing, however, she covered up her mouth with a loud gasp and looked at him apologetically.
"I am…so sorry. I didn't…Creators, I…" Pharen buried her face in her hands, blushing all the way to the roots of her hair. "It is quite alright, da'enansal, I assure you that is by far not the worst thing I have heard today." His laughter subsided eventually, and she eventually was able to look him in the eye again. "You brought us out in the middle of nowhere for a reason, I hope?" he asked, finally.
"I did, and I hope that I can give you a little more insight into myself by doing this. Here, lay down," she instructed, gesturing to a place next to her. Fen'Harel eyed her warily, but lay where she pointed in the grass. She extinguished the small fire, and lay down next to him, her arm brushing lightly against his as she did. Above them, the sky was crystal clear, every constellation that had ever been created was visible, seemingly only for them.
"My clan once camped at a place that was at the very edge of the sea, and I used to steal away in the dead of night from the aravels to sit next to a statue of Fen'Harel at the edge of the cliff. I would talk to the statue, ask him for guidance, to make my steps swift, to protect us, to protect me." Pharen stretched her legs, brushing her bared feet against his leg as she spoke; she noted he did not shrink away, so she continued.
"One night as I sat there at the cliff's edge, I was trying to count the constellations, trying to name them all. I couldn't sleep and my only friend was the one I had at my side, my Fen'Harel. I thought I'd heard him speak to me, telling me one day I'd see those constellations again with him, and he would tell me what they all meant. Even ones I didn't know. I sat up, staring at the statue, thinking I'd gone mad because statues don't talk and I was just lonely. Then I realized something." She sat up and laid on her side, facing him and twining her legs with his own.
Fen'Harel himself was having trouble focusing on her words, his gaze lingering on her lips, hearing her, but not listening to her. He was headed for trouble, and he knew it. "What did you realize, da'enansal?" He breathed, so close to her he could smell the flowers in her hair.
"Whoever I thought of at the literal end of the world was the one who held my heart. Where space meets time, where parallels never end, where I'm small and insignificant to the world, but in the world, someone is significant to me. You, Fen'Harel. You're who I thought of at the end of the world, both in my time with the Inquisition, and that night at the edge of the cliff. You've held my heart for as long as I've known the stories of the Dread Wolf. I don't think you're a god of deception. I think you're just misunderstood. And I understand, because everyone abandoned me, too, when I needed them most." She was so close to him now, she could feel his breath mingling with her own.
Pharen leaned in, cupping his cheek and searching his eyes for a denial of a show of affection from her. Finding none, she met him halfway and closed her eyes, giving him an opportunity to refuse, to retreat. She parted her lips slightly in anticipation, hoping against hope that he understood what she was trying to say under the starlit sky. When his soft lips found hers, she knew that he understood. The softness quickly turned to need, the smoldering embers in her belly growing into a fire as she felt him press her back into the grass, a thigh in between her own.
Pharen looped her arms around his neck and twined her fingers in his hair as he kissed her, moving her legs apart to accommodate his larger frame. He teased her, drawing her lower lip into his mouth and gently biting in hopes of being rewarded with a soft moan. His deft fingers soon hook through an opening in her tunic, nearly ripping it open in his quickly-retreating patience. Pharen smiles, and reaches for him with a free hand and lacing her fingers with his own. Squeezing his hand gently, she asks him to look at her.
He meets her gaze, stilling his advances and curling his fingers around her own. A question lingers, a hesitancy in his eyes. Pharen rolls her hips against his, forcing a low growl from his throat, and she lifts both legs around him, locking them securely at his back. She coaxes him down to kiss her once more, before bringing his ear to her lips, and whispering, "Felas, ma fen." Fen'Harel allowed himself yet another low growl, this time in a near-failed attempt to keep himself steady. Calling him hers, in this setting, under the stars, he could not help but feel an urge to possess her, to make her his own, to ensure she never went back to her timeline.
He ground himself against her, slowly, as she had asked, eliciting a small, breathless moan from the woman beneath him. Fen'Harel smiled softly, cupping her face in his palm, before kissing her gently once more. He realized she had unhooked her legs from around his waist and was now removing her smallclothes, already having discarded the leather trousers from earlier. Within moments, she was bared to him fully, a sheepish and shy smile creeping across her face.
Fen kissed her forehead softly, whispering in ancient elvhen how beautiful she was, and how he had never needed a mortal as much as he needed her, and that he remembered the first night they had watched the constellations. "You are beautiful, ma vhenan." The endearment falling from his lips was not necessary, but it felt natural; as he said it, he felt both his physical heart and the heart he held in his arms fill with joy.
Quickly discarding his robes and laying over her once more, he positioned himself at her entrance, locking his gaze to hers, asking silently for permission. Instead of giving permission, however, she surprised him further. "Fen'Harel," she began, "You should know that I've…never…" she bit her lip, and he shushed her by kissing her gently once more. "If you do not wish to, I understand. I simply thought my older self would have been elated at the prospect of having you." She shook her head. "No? Then…I left before…" Pharen nodded her head slowly.
She couldn't stand the sadness on his face, and cupped his cheek once more. "Ma vhenan, I've belonged to you always, whether it's your future self , your past self, or you right now, as long as it's still you, I'm happy." Fen'Harel grinned and gently pushed himself inside her heat, focusing on her face to ensure he was not hurting her. There was only a brief moment that she tensed around him, her brows furrowing slightly, before the pleasure broke through the surface.
He kept his pace steady while he toyed with her nipples, watching her expressions change from love to lust in seconds. "Look at me, da'enansal. I would see you undone." Pharen's eyes widened, her blunted nails digging into the flesh of his back, and her thighs tightening around his waist. His grin turned wolfish, leaning down to her neck and biting down in the soft valley that was her neck and shoulder. She moaned obscenely, pulling her thighs to her in an effort to bring him deeper.
He happily obliged, increasing his speed and depth for her. He knew she was close; he could feel her heartbeat beating in time to her walls tightening around him. "Garas, ma da'enansal! Garas!" Pharen arched her back off the grass, yelling for the Dread Wolf to take her. Fen'harel listened, making her his own that night. As he emptied himself deep inside her, he felt a complete, as if a part of his life he hadn't known had finally come back to him. Slipping out and pressing his forehead to hers, he whispered words he had never meant for anyone to hear but her. "Ar lath ma, vhenan." Pharen smiled weakly, and curled up against him in the grass, her head on his chest, finding contentment in his heartbeat under her ear. Fen'Harel pulled one of her arms over his stomach, and lay his arm around her, casting a ward with his free arm so they could sleep there for the night. She softly whispered back, "Ar lath ma, Fen'Harel. Ma da'enansal." The irony did not escape him as he smiled and pressed a soft kiss to the crown of her head.
Fen'Harel settled down, truly happy for the first time in centuries, and eased himself into the Beyond, so that he could spend more time with his heart. Unbeknownst to either in their sleeplessness, a pair of crazed eyes narrowed from the edge of the wood. Someone had seen.