Rikimaru woke the next morning to a beautiful sound he hadn't heard for a long time. Still half asleep he smiled before he registered what it was that he was hearing. His girl was singing! She was outside and she sang the song he had heard the first time he had seen her in her orchard on the clearing in the forest. It was so long ago but it was still his favourite song.
He reached for his pants but they were kind of icky with the now dried cum. He pulled a new one out of one of the trunks in the house and then he silently crept to the door to peer outside.
His girl was sitting in the grass with a dress in her lap, patching some holes. She looked content and carefree, the sun making her hair shine in a soft brown with lighter streaks, her eyes sparkle and her skin glow. She was the most beautiful creature Rikimaru had ever seen and he couldn't get enough of looking at her. His eyes travelled over her, now knowing what lay underneath the cloth, how magnificent her body was, her soft skin, her perfect curves.
The tunes of the song wafted around him and he felt enchanted by this tiny girl. Without a conscious thought he walked towards her and sat next to her on the grass. She stopped singing and smiled at him.
The Stealth Assassin leaned forward and kissed her. And before he could stop himself, before his mind could conjure the fear he had had before, he said the words that laid his soul bare: "Jayne. I love you. I love you with all I have. You make my heart beat and my soul sing. You are my safe place, where you are, there I feel at home. I think about you first thing when I wake up and last thing before I fall asleep. When I'm away I want nothing more than to be with you again as fast as possible. I could watch you for hours and listen to your singing forever. There is nothing I wouldn't do for you, just to see you smiling. You are the part of me that has been missing my whole life and only now I feel complete. I belong to you. Forever."
The girl looked at him with wide eyes. She laid her palm on his cheek, her thumb stroking over his skin. "Riki, that is the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you. I'm sorry, but I don't have such nice words for you."
The Assassin froze. But before he could react otherwise, she continued, now smiling. "I love you, too. I simply cannot put it into such beautiful sentences. But," now she laid her second hand on his other cheek and pulled his face closer, "just because I don't say it with so many words doesn't mean it is less true." Then she kissed him. It was a tender kiss and Rikimaru thought he could feel how she put her love into that kiss.
His body relaxed again. For a moment there he had thought she didn't feel the same. He had thought she might make him look like an idiot. But he had had to tell her. He had become a love-sick fool, not the best trait for an assassin, but when his girl kissed him like that, when she had said she loved him, too, it wasn't so bad.
They separated but didn't move apart, their bodies still touching. The girl smiled. "I almost cannot believe that someone like you fell in love with someone like me, but I'm really happy. I think this is the best day of my life." She slung her arms around his body and laid her head on his shoulder. Rikimaru pulled her on his lap, wanting her as close as possible. "I think this is the best day of my life, too."
They cuddled a little in silence. The Stealth Assassin was glad everything was well. He had been so scared about telling her but he was glad he had done it. He was so happy at the moment, he thought he could fly. Everything felt perfect.
She straddled him to kiss him again, which made the skirt of her dress slip high. She had never been the one to initiate a kiss before. Maybe she had been afraid, due to her inexperience. Or his confession of love had made her more confident. Whatever it was, he thought he had been a fool to wait so long with both, the sex and the confession. Because he liked her new confidence.
The girl began to rub against Rikimaru's growing arousal, making it absolutely clear what she wanted. And who was he to deny her a wish? Slowly he undressed her, taking his time to caress every part of her body. She was beautiful and he enjoyed looking at her, touching her. When he laid her on the ground, him on top, and pushed into her, she was hot and wet, so ready for him. She sighed and lifted her hips to pull him in deeper. The Assassin shuddered at the pleasure he felt about simply being inside of her.
He kissed her and started to move, slowly gliding in and out of her heat. She sighed into his mouth and grabbed his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin from time to time. She moved with him and it didn't take long before she tensed for a second and then came, holding him close while waves of pleasure made her body vibrate underneath him. The Stealth Assassin was in control throughout it all. He wouldn't join her yet but get her to at least one more peak. He had enough self-control for that. So he remained still, waiting for her to relax again.
But then his girl moved her hands to his head, brushing through his hair. That by itself was no problem but her fingers found the base of his horns and though he had absolutely no feeling in the horns, the base was extremely sensitive. The fingers of one hand tapped against one base lightly while the other hand circled around the second one, rubbing over the place where horn and head met.
That was the moment all his control dissolved. He just had to move. Pushing in deep he groaned, the hands on his horns intensifying everything until there was nothing except the pleasure his girl brought him. When he came it was like nothing he had ever felt before, the orgasm ripped from his body making him almost black out with its intensity.
Rikimaru felt completely drained, too weak to hold himself up and not crush Jayne underneath him. So he rolled to the side with the last bit of strength. He had again lost control. He! Somehow his girl was able to pull him out of his ever-present calm. But at least she didn't seem to mind as she cuddled closer now, sighing softly.
They lay on the grass in front of the house, her head resting on his shoulder. They looked in the sky, the girl tracing tiny circles on Rikimaru's arm over her stomach. They were silent for long minutes, both catching their breaths, their heartbeats slowly going back to a normal rate.
"I want to take you to a safer place." The Assassin was thinking about what he had to do to keep her away from harm. Because he couldn't live when he was afraid about someone taking her all the time. And he definitely didn't want to lose her again. So he needed help. He had abilities to hide himself, he could find places that were unknown to anyone but he had nothing to ward such places, to make them more secure or inaccessible. It would be best, if he could place traps around their house and anyone who would try to get through would die or otherwise hindered to get through.
Of course he could build mechanical traps but they could be spotted and disabled. It would be best if it were some kind of magical traps. For that he needed help. He went through all creatures he knew and which would be willing to help him in his head. At the moment he was relaxed and content. It was nice to lie there like that with his girl.
He had never been one for cuddling, he seldom had time for that. And he had never wanted to build a closer relationship with anyone, so what was the use? But now it was perfect, with his girl it was so pleasant, he thought he could stay like that forever.
Who could help him with warding a house and the ground around it? There weren't many who were able to create magical traps. And even less, who he wanted to ask for help. Because he had to trust the one who helped. He would know the way through the traps.
Then he had an idea: there was an assassin, a woman, who lived in an extremely secluded place. He didn't know where it was, maybe nobody did. But he knew that she had warded her place with magical traps. He hadn't talked with her very often but he knew that she wasn't interested in anything besides her studies. So she wouldn't care if he had someone he wanted to keep safe.
She wasn't the most approachable of creatures but which assassin was? The Stealth Assassin decided to contact her first. Maybe the Goblin Techies could help, too, but he was a tad too crazy for the Assassin's liking.
It was about two weeks later when an almost-gone-crazy-at-having-to-leave-his-girl-in-the-swamp-alone Rikimaru got a reply from the Templar Assassin. She told to meet him in some small village in the north the Assassin had never been to before. But since he didn't have much room, or patience, for any negotiations at this point he simply went to the flight master and mounted a griffon to get to the village.
He was twitchy and on edge through the whole flight. It would take him too long to get to the house in the swamp in case something was wrong and his girl called him. But she didn't call and the flight didn't take too long. The griffons were extremely fast and it was a good way to travel.
In the village he spotted the Templar Assassin immediately. She was standing in front of an inn, a tiny woman with blond hair by her side, both talking to a huge man with a full beard and pelts as clothes. The blond woman didn't react to the landing griffon. The man looked over and frowned as he saw no one dismounting. The Assassin didn't look but Rikimaru could see the slightest tension appearing in her body. She slipped a little to the side and now she was standing between Rikimaru and the woman.
It was a protective move and though it was useless against the Stealth Assassin, it told him much. The woman was important to the Templar Assassin. He didn't know why she had brought her to the meeting with him because he would never put his girl into a situation where he didn't know the outcome. He could as well be a danger to the Templar Assassin and the woman.
But Rikimaru didn't care about the blonde. Or the bearded man. He walked up to the small group and went visible a few steps away.
The man blinked in astonishment but the Assassin and even the blond woman, who had given absolutely no indication that she had known someone was there, didn't react surprised at all. The woman smiled at him while the Assassin adjusted their positions.
"Hello Templar Assassin." Rikimaru didn't step any closer. They weren't enemies but they hadn't really interacted with each other before. Better safe than sorry. "Thanks for meeting me so fast."
The Assassin simply nodded at him but the blond woman stepped forward, completely ignoring the protectiveness of her companion. She held her hand out to Rikimaru, her smile bright and friendly. "Hey, I'm Rylai. Nice to meet you. Lanaya said you need help with something? Come, we can sit in the inn, I have special privileges there and we can get a room where it is impossible to eavesdrop."
After shaking her hand he followed her inside. He had heard about her, she was the Crystal Maiden, the Queen of Ice.
They discussed the terms of the warding in no time. The Templar Assassin agreed to help him and Rikimaru suspected it had much to do with the Crystal Maiden. The Assassin simply didn't care enough about others to help but the Maiden did. She asked a few personal questions about both the girl and Rikimaru, some of which the Stealth Assassin avoided to answer. The two women didn't need to know anything personal about him to ward a house for him. But he sensed that the helpfulness of the Maiden was strongly connected to her liking him and so he tried to remain as friendly as possible. He would never be like that if the matter would only concern him, but since the safety of Jayne was at stake, he would even kiss the woman's feet if it would gain him what he wanted.
The women agreed to help him ward his house with traps. And though only the Assassin would place the traps, the Maiden would come with her. For some reason she wanted to come. Rikimaru wasn't exactly happy with her wish. He didn't want any more creatures than absolutely necessary to know about the place where he and his girl lived, but he didn't say anything since she had been the one to agree to help him.
They even agreed to directly join him on his way back. The Stealth Assassin had thought about changing places, about getting another house somewhere else before placing traps. But the creature who had been at their house had found nothing and no one else had been there since then, so it was as good a place as any other. The girl was comfortable there and so he had decided to stay.
They flew to the nearest place of the house in the swamp a griffon could reach. The Templar Assassin and the Crystal Maiden sat on a mount together. They definitely were in some kind of relationship, the way they interacted with each other, how the Assassin always wanted to protect the smaller woman, how they cuddled closer on the flying mount. And they looked good together, Rikimaru thought. He wondered how they had met and what had brought them this close together. Because the Templar Assassin, just like himself, wasn't someone looking for a relationship. The Queen of Ice must have had some really good arguments to convince her. But when he saw the Maiden smiling at the Assassin, he realized that she had never had any chance to resist her. Just like himself with Jayne.
For him and Jayne it had taken ten years and more than one situation where he had thought he had lost her. He would like to hear the story of the two women. But they were no friends and he had no right to even ask such a personal question.
In the swamp the Stealth Assassin had to make a conscious effort to remain visible while guiding the women to the house.
His girl was nowhere to be seen but when they stepped on the solid ground around the building she opened the door and stepped outside. She stopped after only two steps, smiling but seemingly unsure about what to do. It would have been awkward with only her and the two assassins, but with the Crystal Maiden in the group it was no problem at all. The Maiden rushed forward, her smile bright, and took her hand. "Hi Jayne, I'm Rylai. I'm here with Lanaya." she pointed at the Templar Assassin. "She'll put a lot of traps around your house to make it safe here. It will take a while so I thought I could get to know you a bit. I'm so curious about the woman who was able to make the Stealth Assassin so protective." She leaned a little closer. "It even seems as if he is in love! That is so cute."
Jayne looked at Rikimaru. Her eyes were wide and she clearly didn't know how to react. The Assassin wasn't so sure either. He was extremely social for an assassin but the Crystal Maiden was different from anyone he had ever met. He felt completely out of his element with her. She had even known which language she had to use.
The Templar Assassin next to him sighed. "Rylai. Can't you see that you are crowding her? Give her some space! She is alone with the Stealth Assassin all the time, you can image she isn't used to the amount of words you just used. She probably hears them in one week normally, not a few minutes."
The Crystal Maiden put her hands on her hips and turned around. She frowned a little. She clearly wanted to say something but then she looked at Rikimaru and her frown vanished. "Yeah, you are probably right. I'll just sit there," she pointed to a place on the grass near the wall of the house, "and try to be as silent as he is. And as you are."
While she did as she had said, the Templar Assassin now turned to Rikimaru. "You have about five to ten minutes before she starts talking again. Either you give her something to read, that normally keeps her quite, or you prepare yourselves for an onslaught of questions and stories by then. I'm off to do my work." She waved at the Maiden, getting no response, and vanished into the swamp.
Rikimaru looked at the Maiden, who was pouting now, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she stared into nothing. His girl came to his side. "Why did she come, too? She and the Templar Assassin don't seem to like each other very much."
"Oh no, I think they are in a relationship."
"They are?" Looking at the Maiden, too, she thought about it for a moment. Then she smiled. "Oh, they said those things for fun. To mock each other!" Without waiting for a reply she neared the seating Crystal Maiden and took a place by her side. "Hi, I'm Jayne. I'm sorry, I didn't want to appear rude. I'm not used to having people around and I wasn't expecting you."
And just as the Assassin had predicted, the questions began. But Jayne answered them all willingly enough. The Stealth Assassin was still standing there, which was kind of strange. So, since he had nothing else to do, he simply sat on the other side of his girl, leaning against the wall at his back. He took her hand, interlacing their fingers. It didn't matter if the Maiden saw it, she already knew that they were together. His girl squeezed his hand and he thought she was glad that he was there. She gave the impression that it was okay for her to talk to the Maiden like that but it was new and she wasn't completely comfortable with it. His closeness made her relax a bit and she leaned against him as she listened to the blond woman.
Rikimaru closed his eyes, blending the voices of the two women out to listen to the sounds of the swamp. He tried to hear the Templar Assassin but he wasn't completely sure where she was at the moment. She was good, but he hadn't expected anything less. With her traps around his house his girl would be completely safe.
"Riki." The girl had turned towards him. "Riki, Rylai has invited us into her palace in the north. I have never seen snow and ice, can we go there one time?"
The Stealth Assassin felt a little thrown off by the question. How could their conversation turn from answering simple questions to an invitation to one's home within a few minutes? He couldn't remember anything similar with any creature he had ever talked to. The Crystal Maiden smiled at him and he thought she was amused by his confusion just now. "You know," she said, "You don't have to ask him for permission. You can simply join us later. I'd love to show you something new after you have been at the same spot for years."
Now Rikimaru frowned at the Queen of Ice. Of course she was right. But aside from the fact that he didn't want his girl to go somewhere without him he would like to be with her when she experienced something new like snow and ice. Until now he hadn't thought about showing her things or taking her places but of course she didn't want to stay in this swamp for the rest of her life. And now someone else had offered to show her a new place and the way she was smiling she was excited about the idea. Damn, he should have thought of that.
Jayne squeezed his hand while shaking her head. "I want to come, but only together with Riki."
He didn't hesitate. "And I will come with you, of course. If you wish, even today." Because he would do everything for her and if she wanted to go to the Maiden's palace, they would go.
Just then the Templar Assassin appeared from the swamp. She sat down next to the Crystal Maiden but didn't react when the blond woman kissed her on the cheek. That was the moment, though, when the Stealth Assassin realized that she wasn't wearing a half mask anymore. Her face wasn't covered like it used to be and it made her look more approachable. He would bet that she didn't go outside like that when she was on a mission but only when she was with the Maiden.
And though she hadn't visibly acted after the kiss, Rikimaru thought there was something, on another level, a flicker in the air around them, as if they could communicate with each other telepathically somehow. Since the Templar Assassin used energy he knew nothing about, it could be possible.
She addressed him now. "I placed some traps in a circle around the house. But we have to walk along the edge of the ground you want to make inaccessible. And there is the problem of the water. I can place the traps inside but the effect will be dulled through the liquid. Since here is a lot of water I think the ring of traps should be wider than normal. Does the waterline change often here? Are the paths you walk always the same or do they change?"
"I'll come with you." Rikimaru stood up. He wasn't totally comfortable with leaving his girl alone with someone. He knew it was dumb to be afraid of the Crystal Maiden hurting his girl. He knew that she was totally and completely good. Some creatures were like that, just like his girl. She was like that as well. Strange that he, as an assassin, was drawn to someone like that, and the Templar Assassin was, too.
The two didn't talk very much, only what was necessary. Then the Templar Assassin continued to place her traps and Rikimaru went back to the two women still sitting in front of the house. They were talking and laughing and his girl looked so happy and carefree, he knew that he would go with her to the Crystal Maiden.
He felt a little sad for a moment that someone else could make Jayne laugh like that. Until now it had been all his. Then he was ashamed about thinking something like that. Especially when in that moment she looked at him and her features changed, only the slightest bit, but now she smiled in a way she definitely only did for him. There was that special sparkle in her eyes, a deep rooted joy that appeared every time she saw him.
And when he sat next to her again and she took his hand, her fingers stroking over his skin, like it was the most natural thing in the world while still talking to the Crystal Maiden, he relaxed, calling himself stupid for being jealous at the blond woman for making his girl laugh.