Countless times Hestia had found herself awake in bed at night, not alone in all the space of the sheets but not really connected to the body she shared it with. Beside her, Bell would be sleeping soundly, another world away in his dreams. When she did sleep, her own dreams he was showering her with affection. Holding her close and whispering sweet nothings. There was more to her dreams than that, so much more, though she would always wake at the best bit and be greeted with the ever-present darkness of their bedroom and reflect on the dream. About the imagined day of wonder, their slow cuddly rise from bed and the soft kisses that lasted all throughout the morning as they got ready for their day in the city. A trip to the spas finished off by three little words and a night of untamed passion.

It was a wonderful, very private little dream of hers and she always held out hope that it wouldn't always just be a fantasy. If she was honest, with the arrival of Aiz Wallen-whatever she had gotten a little worried he would forget about her, even more so when the little fiery supporter joined up. That's not even considering that almost every woman in his life seemed to have caught the love bug, and were a lot more forward about getting his attention as well.

She would always have the advantage of being both his Goddess and his roommate but that wasn't proving to be enough. She had nearly given up on being close to Bell, until recently. Her white-haired hero had been acting strangely as of late, getting close to her in the best possible way, and then acting stranger. Bell had worried her to a point of tears over the past couple of days. Though he gave her very good reasons to worry, she still felt a little overdramatic. It didn't matter, wrapped in his loving embrace, she understood why he acted the way he did.

"You weren't supposed to find out this way." He mumbled "I tried to find the right way to tell you. I just-" he trailed off, unable to find the words to properly explain himself.

Hestia would be lying if she said she didn't have her own fantasy of his confession, but then and there, she didn't care. "It doesn't matter how you say it, Bell, I love you too."

Tears began to form as he hugged her tighter. This is what he was aiming for in a roundabout kind of way, to make Hestia happy, and he had done just that. He looked down to see her with her face still burrowed into his chest. A thought occurred. His outburst may have ruined any chance of surprising Hestia with a confession of his love for her, but it didn't mean that all he had learnt was to go to waste. That was for another time. Right now, Hestia was happy and he wasn't about to press his luck.

He stroked her long silky hair as he held her. The world around them seemed to come back into focus as they both came down from the sudden moment of truth. The niggling pain of the tackle finally came to the forefront of Bell's mind, he rubbed his lower back.

"I'm sorry I hurt your back."

"It's nothing, Kami-sama," he smiled, refusing to let little soreness wasn't going to ruin the moment. She returned his gaze and smiled just as widely. She couldn't help but rock back and forth in his arms. They sat for a time, neither really speaking where nothing more needed to be said. Still, however unspoken it was, their combined desire for that second step of intimacy clung to the air.

For this at least, Bell was ready.

Delicately holding Hestia's chin, he guided her to face him. The goddess stared back at him, her bright blue eyes shining as brightly as the moon. There was no hesitation from the Goddess and a long-awaited kiss was shared in that moment. He had wanted the kiss as much as she did, and she wanted it more than anything in the world. Her supple body pushed his to the ground and their tongues danced together, their lips parting only for air.

In between the collision of lust, Bell grew slower in his actions. It was then Hestia suggested perhaps they move along to which Bell agreed.

What they shared was magical. Even as they both rose to their feet and collected the bags they couldn't help but replay the moment. The foods were mostly undamaged from their sudden journey to the ground. Without the utilities to cook or the know-how, simpler foods were usually bought to see them through until the end of the week when they would buy a tavern cooked meal. Bell retrieved some bread rolls for the pair of them and they sat themselves down on the couch hidden away in the bedroom and ate.

"Bell, these past couple of days you've been acting weird. Was it… because of me?"

He nodded. "I'm really sorry. It wasn't fair what you went through, and I swear I didn't mean to make you upset."

His words made Hestia smile. She moved over and took her place on his lap. "I'm not mad. How could I be? You were just doing your best to tell me you cared."

"More than that," he added, "I wanted to please you, make you really happy."

"Oh?" She didn't want to admit it, but her earlier talk with Hephaestus jumped to mind, "But you already please me."

"N- no, I meant the other kind of please."

There was no mistaking that, Hephaestus was right on two accounts now. Hestia squealed with internal excitement. "Pleasure me?" She asked, sarcastically innocent in her suggestion of the word.

"Yes. That one. I asked for advice from Welf and other adventurers at the Fertility Inn." He couldn't see it, but Hestia was now grinning ear to ear.

"What did you learn, Bell-kun?"

Were he not so flustered, he would have noticed the change in her tone of voice.

"Wolf told me what not to do, about "how to treat a lady". The adventurers at the bar said there were techniques. Using my fingers and my tongue."

His goddess certainly liked the sound of that. She hadn't always wanted to try sex with another person. Freya had talked it up many times, and it just sounded messy and uncomfortable. It didn't overly interest her, not until Bell came along and got her uneventful life really started and she'd been after him since.

She giggled softly, "We could train together like you and Wallen-whatsit. I'm sure we have a lot of techniques to practise."

Not needing any further prompting, Bell's warm hand glided smoothly up Hestia's thigh and met her panties. His finger traced her thinly guarded slit up and down as his other hand fidgeted with the buttons of her uniform.

"B-Bell!" she moaned, "What are you doing?"

He leaned forward and whispered into her ear "Practising."

There was a breakthrough with the buttons and Bell's hand slithered through the opening to her bra, her annoyingly tight, all constraining bra. As he circled along the top of her breasts, his mouth met the nape of her neck with a kiss. Defeated by the bra Bell instead focused his efforts on Hestia's lower half, gently pushing his finger inside of her womanhood. The teasing of her entrance stopped but the love pecking hadn't. Hestia had turned as best she could to face him. "Bell" she cooed and he kissed her. Bell wasn't forward in his kiss as much as Hestia was submissive to the moist touch of his tongue mixed with hers.

With great regret, she pulled herself back from his touch. She didn't want to, she could feel his member hardening against her body, but now wasn't the right time.

"Bell, maybe save this for later. It's been a big day and we're both pretty tired." Bell smiled, relieved that he could get some rest before put all his preparing to use. "Besides," she went on to say "the next two days are for rest. You don't go to the dungeons and I don't go to work so we have more than enough time to be close and practise those techniques you told me about."

It was agreed that after what had transpired, both the emotional release upstairs and then the sexual anticipation downstairs, a good long night's rest was in order. Both he and she made for the bed. They stood opposite sides and watched the other undress. Bell, not wrapped in three layers of uniform, was finished before Hestia and had resisted the urge to help unclothe her well enough to wait for her in the centre of the bed. She wasted no time in joining him. Her soft breasts pressing up against his chest felt wonderful and he wrapped his arms around her. They locked lips a dozen times more until they lost themselves to sleep.

A.N. A fourth chapter, who'd though it? Well, chapter 4 and a half really, I wanted to let you all know that the story hasn't been abandoning, thought about it, but I didn't plan on it. I'm sorry it took as long as it did, there're a thousand and one reasons for its delay, my own dwindling interest in the story being one of them. However, now that things are back on track I'm more invested in getting it done and hoping to get the other half out and reading smoothly sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, what did you think of this bit of chapter right here? Did the interaction between the two meet your expectations, did it go above and beyond or did it fall flat? Do let me know in the reviews