Spoils of War

Episode XIX: Sanentye

Under the violet night sky scattered with glittering stars and several moons, Tala could almost have been wearing a white gown if Din had only glanced at her. But, of course, he was gazing (albeit in keen worry and confusion). Why had she fled the tent like that? And what did she mean she was leaving Nevarro? Just previously he'd been in total bliss, skin to skin with the one he loved, looking into her eyes, asking her to marry him for real—a moment out of his most wild fantasy. Now he felt afraid, and the dream was shattered. Fourteen years of wanting her and building up the courage—and now she had dropped a bomb on it all.

Wrapped in the hastily grabbed sheet she'd gathered modestly around herself, she looked over her shoulder and paused to see him in quite a different state than usual: only in his pants, with undoubtedly wild hair and a worried face. Her face showed worry too, but his appearance made the faintest conflicted smile briefly shadow across her features. After hesitating, Din chanced drawing closer to where she stood beside the glowing embers of the abandoned fire. Her eyes didn't leave him until he got close, and then humiliation sank her gaze low.

Cast soft orange, her face wore morose features as her energy stayed low and nervous. "…I shouldn't have run out like that," she murmured apologetically. "I'm… embarrassed." It made Din sad to hear that, and sadder because of the sudden gap he could feel between them. How could this be happening after finally being so, so close to each other?

She stared into the fire then chanced a look at him with nervous, solicitous eyes. It was the kind of look that told Din she needed reassurance. He needed reassurance, too.

He closed the distance tentatively and then put his arms around her despite his racing thoughts and anxiety. He sighed in quiet relief when she didn't push him away. She exhaled tension too, letting herself be embraced. It banished some fears. Tala wasn't rejecting him and he didn't think she regretted having sex—something else was going on here. He'd known her for well over a decade and now that he thought about it, she did use to say she was leaving 'someday' quite often. Then it had tapered off until she'd stopped mentioning it at all. Somewhere along the way he'd stopped believing she would leave. Why would she leave him now of all times? Pressing a long kiss to her forehead in heartfelt hope that they could fix this—or that he'd misunderstood—Din's mind continued to go haywire. He made himself stay calm and gather facts.

"Since when are you leaving?" he asked in a hoarse whisper, afraid of the reply. "And why?"

Tala stiffened and pulled back, instantly upset again. "I was gonna tell you, Din, a bunch of times—then I just didn't, because I was afraid to ruin things!" Realization appeared in her deep brown eyes then she let out a grimacing sigh. "…And now I have."

He could relate to the self-loathing he heard in her voice. He'd felt the same way trying to get out his love confession. "It's okay," Din said genuinely, even though nothing was. He let his hands hold onto her with the same quality of reassurance his voice offered. It was hard to stay calm, but he made himself for both their sakes. "Nothing's ruined. Just… explain. Please. Why are you leaving? And when?"

Sadness descended onto her face. She was disinclined to answer but finally did. "Soon." Din's heart twisted, even though he'd kind of expected that sort of reply. How soon? Devastation mounted as he waited to hear why. Was it his fault? Had he done something? Was it because Kizzo's was destroyed? Because of the sparring club drama with Joza?

Tala lingered in his arms, her gaze one with his until she pulled away and retreated by a couple of steps, twisting the sheet idly at her chest where her hands held it close. Her anxiety was palpable and made him anxious too. "For a long time now… especially since everything with Ord… I can't stop thinking about certain things," she admitted cautiously. "Feeling… empty more and more." Every word sank Din lower. Her tense, beautiful stare went into the fire. He could sense that what she was saying was difficult to verbalize and intensely honest. "I've spent a decade and a half on Nevarro…" she continued somewhat vacantly, "and I've done nothing with that time."

Din immediately frowned. Had he heard right? Nothing? "That's not true," he protested, wondering what sort of delusion she had put herself under. He approached by a step or two helplessly. "Hapa's? Your mechanic career? You've helped the Tribe for years, and not just with deliveries! And what about Kal-Bruna…?" Tala had been like an aunt and sometimes even a mother to the girl. Their relationship was very special.

A soft expression crossed Tala's face. "Yes. You're right." For a moment, she visibly dissociated from the conversation to simply gaze at Din's face until she realized what she was doing. Sighing, she uncomfortably returned to her discontent. "I'm proud of those things, of course I am… but I was always supposed to do more." She could have been ill from the look on her face as her hollow stare lingered on nothing specific. "I wasn't supposed to be the only one who got away. I'm selfish and it bothers me. More than I can say."

Realization dawned like a light being switched on, leaving Din wondering how he hadn't immediately understood.

"… Your sisters."

Guilty eyes blinking back a thick gloss of tears cut to look at him. "I've spent years knowing I need to help them and not doing a damn thing. So when everything went sideways a few days ago, when I should have died then didn't… I decided it's time to stop sitting and waiting for the magical cue. Hell, maybe almost dying was the cue. I have to go find them, Din. I've needed to this whole time. You saved my life all those times for a reason. I gotta stop sitting on my hands."

While he could certainly hear the ruthless determination in her voice and understood a personal mission damn well, Din was dazed. "You… never said much about it," he managed, trying to figure out how to even begin to wrap his mind around this new information.

Her eye contact lingered, and her voice was soft. "There's a lot you haven't said much about, too." Din sagged. She was right. Grieved, her face contorted. "I think about them every day, Din."

And yet she spoke about them barely ever.

…I'm that way with my parents, Din realized with gutted sobriety. Difference was, they were dead and only existed in the untouchable reaches of history. Tala's sisters were living. Standing straighter as he had an epiphany, he inhaled and set his features. If he was in Tala's shoes, Din knew he would want the exact same thing she did. He would feel the exact same way. Therefore, this was abruptly an easy decision to make even if it did feel out of the blue. "I'll come with you. Mandalorians stick together." And he said it that way on purpose, too.

Outright surprise jumped onto her features. A doubtful but touched silence passed. "How can I be a Mandalorian if I'm not wearing armor and covering my face?"

The opportunity for a lighter moment appeared and Din pointed the irony out teasingly. "Well, I don't currently match the description either." Hiding a halfway smile, Tala considered him appreciatively, briefly looking at his bare torso and then back at his face with a demure quality. It sent strong feelings through Din, and briefly he felt a twinge of shyness as his mind flashed back to the threshold they'd crossed. The sounds she'd made. The way she felt. The magic of kissing her. The most intense and connective sexual experience he'd ever had. Clearing his throat modestly, Din sidestepped the thoughts, absently acknowledging that yes, she had quite the spell on him and he wanted her again a thousand times—but that had to wait.

He approached more closely until they were face to face so she could see how much he meant this: "Your heart is one of ours. Don't you feel it?"

She hesitated, taking a long time to reply. "I'm not sure." Her face told him she very much wanted to know more about him seeing her as Mandalorian but she looked off and huffed, leaving it alone behind for the time being. "Din, you can't come with me. Who would take care of the Tribe? Paz? We can't both leave." She made quite a face when suggesting Paz then took a long, serious second before drawing in a bracing breath. She was apprehensive. "But that's beside the point. You can't come. This is something I have to do alone. Without you there to save me."

He felt instantly confused and even a little wounded. "…We save each other," he protested. "I don't understand."

She was abruptly frustrated. "Because if I don't do it, if it's not all me, I won't know I did it. And that's important." Tala clenched her jaw, old anger and powerlessness glinting in her eyes. "I grew up being told I was nothing and no one without a man over me. Dictating my life and putting me in my place and doing what I was told I couldn't. My sisters are still in that. And kriff, I haven't fully escaped from that feeling—not until I do this and prove them wrong, dead or not. Who else is there to do this? It's just me. Esha didn't teach me what she taught me so that I could make money winning fights sometimes on a planet where I ran away and hid on. She taught me what she taught me so that I could liberate. She thought it would be Vorus that I fought for. Instead, it's going to be my sisters." Her somber tone shifted, becoming firm despite trembling emotion. "This is my calling. My proving ground. Din, I am never gonna be okay until I do this." She took a long pause, sadly taking in his dismayed, stunned expression. "Only one of us can say they've had time on their own out there becoming themselves. I need this more than anything, and I know the timing is beyond terrible, but—" She came up with nothing else except a haggard shrug and profound sadness. The principle in her voice was so unexpected to him. So authentic. So from the heart. And thus, Din was devastated. Tala studied his reaction with grief and love alike. "I have to face this. Or I'll spend the rest of my life as half of myself."

He shook his head, bewildered as he tried to comprehend. "…This just feels like it's coming out of nowhere."

There was a quiet, forlorn sigh. "I know. I'm really sorry." Guilty regret made her look drawn and avoidant. "I guess I hid things behind a mask too. Even from myself, sometimes."

A brief, loaded silence was born between the two of them in which Din grappled with this new information, shocked at how taken by surprise he was. His mind began to fire on all cylinders as he actually considered the idea of what she was saying she wanted to do. "What you're talking about would take a lot of time, and learning, and setbacks. I mean, we're talking years." It only got worse the more his brain computed. "And you could easily be killed, or imprisoned, or—" Din halted, needing to go no further with this terrible line of thought and all the disastrous doomsday endings he envisioned. "Yeah—no, I can't get on board with this."

She was gentle but absolutely unmoved. "You have to, Din."

Heart in his throat as true panic descended, he swept a hand to indicate the fearsome, dangerous galaxy she'd never been in. "Tal—so much could happen to you out there!"

So much melancholy showed on her face. "How do you think I feel every time you take off into the sky?" The faint way she asked and the look in her eye made Din instantly understand she was deeply familiar with the feeling he was having. Yet again crestfallen and taken aback, he could come up with nothing to reply. And then she said the last thing he expected: "This is the Way."

Shock bolted down his middle. Din gaped, momentarily speechless and even insulted before he found himself sputtering: "No this is definitely not the Way, Tala!"

Her softness took on an edge. "When have I ever tried to stop you from your work?"

Din's tone hardened too. "The work I have to do that pays for my Tribe's survival?"

She made a face. "Because money isn't involved, it's not important? It's important if I say it is!" After saying that with fire Tala cooled, making herself vulnerable. "This is to pay the currency of my soul." Din gaped to hear it put like that. Tala silently debated before she chanced a soft murmur with a deep stare that saw right through him. "And besides. We both know you need to be out here like this. You weren't meant for living underground. You'd never be happy like that. You'd suffocate." To be so brutally and correctly read like that, Din felt himself flare defensively. Tala took his change in expression incorrectly. "You're angry," she decided glumly, then went back to self-loathing. "And why wouldn't you be? You finally break the Creed and show me your face then instead of a happy ending, I'm… off on the next transport, more or less."

Din shook his head right away. "No. I'm not angry, I'm scared." Their eyes met. His voice weakened and his defenses fell away. Everything seemed to slow and get more intense. Din's heart pounded harder as he really thought about it. "To lose you. To not be able to protect you if you need protecting. To come home to a planet without you there anymore." Din had to quash down emotion and tears at these thoughts. With a haggard sigh, he ran a hand through his hair—something he didn't do a lot. This was all foreign and complicated and confusing. After a moment, he found himself admitting what he'd realized a few moments back. "I remember when you said you'd end up leaving all those years ago," he murmured thickly, speaking from the most tender place in his heart: "Guess at a certain point I thought you'd decided to stay. And that it had something to do with me." Shame made Din droop. "And maybe it did, but who the hell can wait as long as you did? Maybe you're the one who should be angry," he muttered, becoming bitter and angry at himself. "The man who loves you waited too long to quit being a coward and now he's fucked it all up again."

A surprisingly stern hand reached out from her sheet and took him by the chin, gently demanding eye contact. "You are not a coward, Din Djarin." Some of the feelings of doom melted away. "It took bravery to do what you did tonight," she insisted resolutely. "You didn't fuck anything up. I did." Her hand floated down and her face contorted as hurt she'd suppressed for a long time was allowed to surface. "I've loved you for years, Din. Years. You're right. That's what's kept me on Nevarro all this time. You." She nodded as if to silently tell him that his assumption that she stayed because of him was actually incredibly valid. Din felt warmth blossom and emotion grow as Tala continued to explain but with shame this time. "When Joza broke up with me, I realized I'd only been in a relationship with him to try and stop hurting over you. Try and forget you." She hung her head, attempting not to cry. "I'm the coward."

Din took her by the arm with fierce gentleness, coursing with emotion—both at her confessions and because he never wanted her to feel bad. "That word doesn't belong in the same galaxy as you do."

His intensity and touch created a semi-stunned silence in which her eyes explored between the two of his. "Well it wasn't right of me to do that," she finally said, quieter than before.

She wasn't the only one regretting a decision or two from the past. "It wasn't right of me to push you away like I did, either." Din's hand drifted up to apologetically touch Tala's face and neck.

Briefly, the two studied each other, mutually regretting the unchangeable past. After a long silence, Tala's features turned decidedly concerned. "But don't you regret showing me your face if I'm just leaving?"

His heart sank heavy as a stone. There were uncountable regrets. But there was one larger than the rest: "What I regret is not acting sooner."

She reacted with incredulity. "You broke the Creed."

Din chuckled weakly. "Trust me, I didn't forget." His eyes stayed on hers, and there he saw all the years of love between them, a love like he'd never known existed had bloomed. Nothing else made as much sense to him except this: "We love each other. And the situation is complicated." He swallowed a sudden lump in his throat, overwhelmed by what he felt. "But this is right," he whispered hard, referencing the bond between them. The love shared. The most important part to remember. His gaze dropped to her hand where it loosely rested outside of the sheet. He took that hand in his. Their gazes met. And fuck. Din realized his love for her meant he only had one stance he could possibly take in this situation. It was jarring how much could change in one night. He found himself laughing out helplessly in a brief soundless breath, blown away at what he was about to say. What he had just realized.

Tala eyed him curiously at the way he was shaking his head. "What?"

Din sighed in defeat. "Look, I don't wanna let you go for one kriffing second and I don't know how the blazes I'm gonna get through this. But if you're telling me this is what you need…" He sighed again, committed to following through on his decision to let her do this. With his support, no matter how much it hurt. "It's yours." He held himself up chest-first, but not without a lot of conflict on his face. "You're a warrior just as much as I am. I won't hold you back from your path."

Deeply touched surprise showed, then plentiful gratitude and love… the same things he felt for her. She searched for words, eyes shining up at him before she pressed herself to his body, nestling to his chest and tucking her head underneath his chin. "Thank you."

With eyes closing and senses trying to memorize the feeling he'd dreamed of for years, Din circled her in his arms, wishing to the gods she'd change her mind. "You sure I can't come with you? Not even a little bit?"

She shifted and pulled back, making eye contact again. He could see the 'no' before she said it. "I have to do this alone." Her statement wasn't without apprehension and fear and regret. The urge to protect her was more intense than ever.

But Din nodded, accepting the hardest pill to swallow in existence. When he thought about it more, he became rueful. This had come first circle, hadn't it? "Guess that means it's my turn to wait," he murmured, tracing her hair at the edge of her face. "And I will. As long as it takes." His words made Tala's every emotion shine in her eyes: Disbelief. Awe. Deep affection and devotion. It melted Din as only she could. "I love you," he murmured helplessly, touching her hair despondently and putting his forehead to hers. She was so beautiful and he loved her so much it hurt. He breathed her in, afraid for the day when she was no longer with him.

"Sanentye," she murmured through a choked throat, eyes closing. You bless me. Tala's emotions were becoming more intense, eyes pooling when she opened them again. "And I love you." She touched his face, suddenly trying to suppress tears of anticipatory grief. "I don't know how I'm gonna get through this either…" she admitted in a feeble whisper.

It was so hard to hear her sorrow. Din displayed strength he didn't fully feel. "We'll figure it out," he pledged while dreading when she was no longer where she was right now: in his arms. "And we don't have to think about it right now," he reminded. "Honestly… I'd rather not." She nodded silent agreement, studying his face with what he swore was a mixture of despair and deep yearning. That's how he felt, too.

Under starlight with faces and hearts bare, Din contemplated Tala for a few long seconds, understanding how much he loved her in a new way. He would wait. However long it took. No question about it. But! Thank kriff the waiting wasn't right now. This trip was to last a few more days, and once they returned to Nevarro Din guessed Tala would need to tie up some loose ends there, which meant a little more time together. He would savor every moment of it. "Let's stay in tonight right now," he suggested quietly, hungry for the comfort of closeness with her. Anything to forget, just for a little while, what they'd discussed here tonight.

Almost tangibly it hovered: the energy that existed nowhere else in the galaxy except between them. The energy they were finally allowing themselves to act on and acknowledge. Din touched her head again, studying her tense eyes deeply the entire time. "We've both wanted this for years, right?" he whispered.

Transfixed despite her lingering distress, Tala nodded softly. "Yeah."

Din nodded back with a pull in his chest. This was hard. "Then I think we should be together while we still can be." He couldn't think about the future. Not yet. Not tonight. "Make some memories we can have for when things get hard."

It seemed like she had been thinking the exact same thing. "Yes," she choked out, readily kissing him with an abruptness and passion that took his breath away and made his stomach jump. Din readily received it, marveling at the addictive feeling of her mouth and his—a sensation he'd waited a lifetime to experience. He tightened his arms tenderly around her and they mutually deepened the kiss. He groaned lowly to feel her tongue against his, a wildfire of heat spreading through his body as his veins pounded.

They kissed each other with mouths and bodies as he ran a hand through her loose hair, tangling fingers in and making her gasp when he experimentally clenched, his other hand cupping the softness of her butt and pulling, grinding against her and eliciting another moan from both of them. Thanks to the way her hands grabbed at his body and face, the sheet slipped off Tala, leaving her naked against him.

Going crazy underneath the escalating typhoon of lust, Din hefted her up around his waist with her legs and stumbled them back toward the tent but they didn't end up making it—tripping in the dark on the spongy land, Din managed to topple them to the ground without incident. The fall didn't bother either; they carried on, wordlessly deciding the ground would do just fine. The moss was plush like a soft blanket underneath them as Tala's nakedness pressed up into Din and she fumbled at the only thing standing between them: his trousers. Panting into his mouth and whining for him, Din was halfway blinded by the howling madness of desire for her. He fumbled at his pants too and the second it was possible he thrust in as she pulled deep and they both cried out, making love for all they were worth. It was desperate and earnest this thing they were doing to each other, it was fervent and impassioned and Din was overpowered in every last way by the zealous way they found wild, primal synchronicity.

It was astonishing to be so entirely connected to someone, body, mind, and soul. Din was dizzy with euphoria and the feeling of belonging. Of oneness.

Unbelievably, Tala sounded close to the crescendo within a minute or two of the encounter beginning, and so Din rushed to help her reach it by doubling his efforts. She moaned his name into his mouth and clung to him as mounting gasps told Din she was about to climax. He heard someone crying out in surprised pleasure then realized it was him—together, they came harder than last time, wrecked by delirious pleasure the kind of which Din had never even known existed.

When it was over, they were left to pant against each other in the quietness of night. After catching his breath against her shoulder and marveling at what had just happened, Din raised his head and found her gaze even though it was dimmer here than by the fire. He could see a crooked, fond smile on her face. "Well, if we're making memories, add that one to the bank," she joked, still breathing heavily.

Din smirked down at her, so in love he didn't know what to do with himself. It made him feel silly, light, and free—grounded and lifted at the same time. "And this one," he said mysteriously.

He saw the question forming on her face as he hauled her to her feet then swooped in, throwing her over a shoulder to shriek protest and delight at the same time. Chuckling, he carried her naked the few steps into the tent and carefully let her down, but she tripped him with a fighter's foot sweep. He tumbled to the tent floor and she pounced on him—which was even more ridiculous than usual because of their nakedness. But neither cared. There on the floor beside the cot, the two came to stillness together and fell into a moment of cherishing the other with eyes and hands, then kissing slowly with feeling for a long, languid moment.

"How are you so good at kissing, by the way?" Tala asked after, sending him an unintentionally cute, quizzical look.

He smiled, gently grasping her chin between thumb and pointer finger. "Spent years and years thinking about how I'd do it if I had the chance," he murmured, hoping she understood the only person he'd ever fantasized about kissing was her.

She looked coy and flattered and impish, still flushed from sex. "And?" she goaded. "Is it as good as you thought it'd be?"

Din could be impish too. "I need to refresh my memory," he joked, then leaned in and kissed her again, savoring every incredible second. It was the most in-sync feeling, kissing her. The sweetest, most unbelievable thing.

Sleepiness soon took over the pair and they managed to drag themselves to the cot and cuddle up under the covers. Tala fell asleep first, and she looked like an angel. This is what true happiness feels like, Din realized. And dank farrik, he could get really used to this. His mind reminded him he better not. He pushed that thought and the terrible way it made him feel away.

Soon, he drifted off into deep sleep beside the woman he loved—another moment out of his wildest dreams. That did indeed count for something.

The Next Morning

Din woke slowly to a bright tent and the sound of birds and the breeze outside. On his chest, Tala had an arm thrown and her cheek rested against that arm as she watched him gently. "Morning," she greeted.

His hand found hers. "Morning," he returned, hazy and pleasant images from last night floating across his waking mind, making unexpected shyness crop up in the light of day.

She deliberated then lifted her head and craned, kissing him soft and sweet. Din easily leaned in and briefly, there was nothing else in existence besides that kiss and her nearness. Some part of him still couldn't believe this was all happening. She seemed to feel the same way. After parting from that kiss she shifted, nestling into his side. "I can't stop looking at you," she said, causing him to wonder exactly how long she'd been doing it. Studying his steady eye contact closely, she tilted her head inquisitively. "Does it feel weird?"

To be helmetless with another person? "Well yeah," he said, shifting and touching her face affectionately. "But not as weird as I thought it would. Think that's 'cause it's you."

His comment touched her, and she went back to blissfully contemplating him, eyes traversing his features at leisure then arriving back at his gaze eventually. "You have the most beautiful face I've ever seen."

He chuckled, feeling a blush rising. She was probably just being nice. "Funny," he said, turning her compliment around. "That's what I think about yours." She snorted out a laugh and rolled her eyes briefly, endearing him to her even more. Din heard it pop out of his mouth: the longings of his heart. "You know, you could still marry me," he reasoned quietly. Her smile slowly faded. "Before you leave." He found her hand, running his thumb across the knuckles and trying to explain it. "One together. One apart." That's what he wanted. That's what was supposed to be between them. He saw how apprehensive the subject made her. "Just think about it."

She was studious for a long moment, silently trying to figure it out before asking out loud. "Why? Why do you want that with me?"

He heard old fears there and tried to reach out to her past those. "It's what we are," he whispered. "It's what we're supposed to be. Don't you think?"

She didn't confirm or deny. It looked like she was thinking about it. "Would it change anything between us?" she asked after another long ponder.

The question gave him wild hope he had to temper. "Well, you couldn't get mad if I call you my wife in public anymore." The lighthearted answer made her chuckle before Din gave her a more serious, heartfelt response. "I'd like to live together," he admitted, feeling nervous to disclose the things he'd kept secret for so long. "Once you're back, obviously. Other than that… would anything change? No." Anything they needed to figure out, he knew they could and would.

Tala was becoming anxious. "Din, if I don't come back from this—"

"You come back." Din was unable to go there with her. "You're smart. You're a warrior. You're quick on your feet. You come back."

Tala protested again. "But you might meet someone else and—"

He cut her off again. "Someone else doesn't exist. You're it. Rest of my life. I'm serious, Tala." She blinked and said nothing else, too overwhelmed. Din realized maybe he needed to back off. "Yeah, kinda heavy topic for first thing in the morning," he said, propping up onto an elbow to look down at her for a moment. The more tense, worried energy began to dissipate, and Din cracked a tiny grin down at her. "Come on. I have an idea. We're gonna wake up the right way." He sat then stood, giving Tala a significant smile and holding a hand out for her. "You won't need your clothes."

She smiled back with a very suspicious squint. She took his waiting hand without question though and let him lead her outside where he got a bar of soap from one of the supply crates then motioned to the incredibly cold water nearby. She gaped, caught the soap when he tossed it to her, then gasped through a smile when he plunged right in with a whoop.

After talking her into joining and then getting over the initial shock of the cold, Tala agreed that it did feel energizing and amazing. The pair washed with the soap, got distracted with kissing, then Tala couldn't stand the cold anymore they lay in the moss-warmed sun and dried there, naked and clean and carefree, mutually marveling in quiet awe at how different today was than yesterday.

It was then that Din got up the courage and admitted to her there was something he really wanted to try. Tala identified the sensual tone in his voice, asking what it was. He hemmed and hawed a bit then bashfully asked if she liked oral sex, and her honest answer was she didn't know—she'd never let Joza do it, but she was quite interested in Din giving it a go. He swallowed his nerves about not knowing how and went for it, because this (like kissing), he'd imagined doing to her for years.

Eager and nervous and very stirred, Din let his mouth taste its way down her body to his final destination where he quickly found the patterns and touches that made Tala gasp and moan and grab his hair. He must have been doing something right because her little whispered encouragements of yes and more and just like that became unintelligible at a certain point and then she came, riding his face just like he'd always fantasized. Afterward, Din rested his cheek on one of her thighs, watching her face with both wonder and arousal. She was incredible, and he wanted to make her come a hundred thousand times more.

After a few moments of recovery, Tala returned the favor for Din—mentioning first that she was nervous too because she'd never given oral sex. Surprised and even more excited than before, Din had to admit she was naturally gifted—or, maybe it was something to do with loving someone and wanting very much to please them. Either way, yet again, her doing that for him was worlds different than any other encounter he'd ever had before and he was left a blissfully pathetic, breathless man sprawled on the ground. They lay in the moss sleepily for some time after, cradling each other and soaking in what had been missing for so long between them.

In the secrecy of silence, Tala's mind lingered on his marriage proposal.

Author's Notes: Happy Valentine's Day. XOXO! And wow, a chapter that didn't (quite) end with a cliffhanger! Enjoy it while ya can, friends. Sorry for any typos. I am tired and writing is hard lol.