The Tea Sorcerer
Solace

When Garfield woke up the next morning, he was undeniably warm.Outside his window the sounds of early morning had started to take root. Roosters called out, birds began to chirp, and the sound of people waking to start their daily chores could be heard from his neighbors. Through all of this, he couldn't deny the delicious feeling of warmth pressed against him, weaving through his soul until he was unable to tell where it began and he ended. He could have laid there all morning and simply wallowed in that delicious feeling.

The warmth around him shifted and Garfield's eyes flew open in shock. Oh. Right. He stared into a wealth of dark, blue-black hair that curled around his fingertips and smelled of tea.

Raven.

He felt a blush creep up his neck before he could stop it, and she shifted again in his arms. A strange, content noise escaped her throat as her fingers wove through his own, bringing him closer. She pulled the covers up over their shoulders and pushed her body back into his.

"Good morning."

Garfield panicked. What did he say? What was he supposed to say? They had… His thoughts drifted off as he closed his eyes, remembering the flashed of her skin against his own, her lips pressed against his, the arch to her back, the way his name sounded when it fell from her mouth, filled with passion… he remembered all of it. Garfield shifted again, trying to stay calm as she rolled over to look at him from beneath the folds of the old, faded quilt.

"Are you alright?"

Her dark eyes were wide and innocent, and he felt himself falling into her before he could stop. His lips crashed against her own and he found himself desperately milking another moan from her mouth, running his hands over the smooth alabaster of her body, and doing whatever he could just to hear the glorious sound of her voice again. He could have laid here and done this all day - delighted himself with the secrets of her body within the privacy of his own home.

Finally, he forced himself to pull away.

"We should stop…" Her voice was low and breathy, but there was no real weight to her words. It was as if she was saying them for propriety's sake, not because she believed in them. "It's morning and you have chores today…" There was a long, slow pause and she tore her eyes away from his face, sadness lining her features. "And I have to return home."

Right. Home. Her home. Her home which was not his home.

"Stay one more day."

Garfield felt his eyes widen as those words escaped his mouth of their own volition, and he suddenly wished he was anywhere but inches from her shocked face. Swallowing his fear, he forced himself to reach out to her again. "Stay one more day, Raven. I'll put off my chores for today, and we can stay in bed all day. You don't even have to move."

Logically, he knew that his pleading sounded coarse and a little bit lewd, but he wanted to hold onto this warmth she possessed. He wanted to feel it pressing up against him both innocently and sinfully. His fingers curled around her hair, and he kissed her again, his mouth moving over hers as if to trying to convince her to stay. "Read to me all day if you want, and I'll lay here and listen… and when you get tired, just stay in my arms and sleep… but… just… don't go."

He could feel the tears pricking against his eyes in spite of his ragged attempts to contain them. He didn't want her to leave him, not now. Raven had stayed with him (something Tara had never done), she had talked sweet things to him as they fell asleep, murmuring stories about Metrion and Zinthos, and talking about her life in the forest. There was a longing in her words that he couldn't quite place… but as he listened harder, he heard the sound of her deep, implacable desire for friends.

A desire for him.

"I… I want to , Garfield. Truly, I do." She reached out and ran her fingertips over his face, kissing along his jaw before pulling back. "I want to stay with you… but my home isn't here. My home is half a day's journey away."

"So, I'll come with you." He captured her mouth in another kiss. "I'll leave everything here and I'll go with you into the woods." His breath caught in his throat and he pulled back farther from her. "I can't lose you."

"Lose me?" Raven pulled back, and a low chuckle erupted from her throat. She let a rare smile spread across her lips and she placed her hand over his heart, pulling herself even closer to him. "Garfield Logan, I'm afraid you will never lose me… not ever. I will be as close to you as I possibly can, but you have to respect my distance until I am ready."

It took Garfield a long while to fully decipher her words. When he did, his face darkened and his hands tightened around her waist. "Are you telling me that… that you want to be close to me?"

She smiled again. "I am telling you that while my situation is… complicated at best, I promise that I do not want to have such a wide separation between us either. Please, give me time to sort out my affairs and we can talk about this at a later time."

He felt his heart swell with joy, and he wanted nothing more than to roll her under him and take her again. He wanted to explore her body over and over until every part of her was known to him. This wasn't the same kind of lust he had felt with Tara. This was his way of expressing love, and his way of telling her that he would always be next to her.

Garfield reached out to touch her again, but the rooster in the back garden crowed loudly next to the window, making him jump in surprise. He groaned as he realized that it truly was time to get up, and threw a hand over his eyes in defeat.

"I don't know what to say."

"Say nothing." Raven pushed his hand out of his face and kissed him. "Just come and visit me soon. And don't make me wait too long."

With an air of finality that effectively ended the conversation, she rose from his bed, his white bedclothes falling from her nude body as she hunted through the darkness of his room for her own clothes. Raven dressed slowly and packed her things quietly as he got his own self ready for his day. It was as if they were both trying to draw out the morning, as if they could hold off the inevitable. But, Raven had to return to her place in the forest, she told him so.

Just before she was about to leave, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him tight against herself, whispering into his ear. "Do not be a stranger, Garfield Logan."

With those words she walked off into the early morning sun, leaving a stunned, love-struck Garfield in her wake.

It wasn't until several hours later that he realized two very important things - she had chosen not to pick up her bowl from Victor, and she had stolen his scarf.