Of Storms and Mana Transfers (Ritsuka x Jalter)

by AGeekyWriter

Trudging through the streets of this small pseudo singularity Jeanne Alter finds her mana expense pushed to the limit dealing with a rampaging monster. As the fight rages, Jeanne Alter finds her mana dangerously low. Ritsuka and Jeanne Alter must confront their feelings or she might disappear completely this time.

HELLO once again my fellow Jalter x Ritsuka obsessed oomfs...(or just Jalter fans and Ritsuka fans separately. Idk). A happy Jalter Friday to you as this is published.

I've been meaning to write some more intimate scenes with this pairing for a while, and this is finally my first (published) crack at it. This initially started as its own separate warm-up I've been working on alongside a few other short stories that have all unironically finished completion recently as this. Both of the others are shorter than this one. Eventually, the warm-ups and ideas got flushed out enough for me to make them their own one-shot stories. Therefore: THIS HAS NO CONNECTION to my main ongoing Volcanic Summer Fic.

I can give you 183265 things for what inspired some of the mindset of the two characters going into this story. The similarities I'm sure with other unmentioned stories will not be noticed. At all. for sure. wink wink nudge nudge.

Jokes and respectful citations aside, that may have been what inspired the tone of the vulnerable honesty that I wanted to invoke within both characters. However, this story is uniquely its own from that inspiration despite the aforementioned similarities.

It has been quite some time for me since I've written a scene like this or even made the attempt. As normally I prefer long character-focused story arcs before reaching situations like the one you'll find yourself reading below. That being said, I hope you all enjoy it! I for one had a blast writing this, and the two upcoming one-shots to follow. Again all disconnected from the main body of work in the Summer Fic.

My summer Fic has three chapters completed that are unpublished that I'm hoping to get to soon within the next month for editing. But I have no idea when to expect a publishing date for that.

As always you can find me AGeekyWriter on Twitter or x where you can watch me repost about fate a lot, fail to flirt with cosplay girls, and see me give occasional writing updates. I do try to be a little funny. And then you can always catch me every Wednesday with my friends on the CheapSeatCritics Podcast where we review movies, shows, and shorts where we break down and critique things to a very unnecessarily thorough degree.

Without further ado: Of Storms and Mana Transfers

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It was the streets of an ancient stone city with a river running down its center. Night had fallen, and it was pouring rain amidst moonlight. Even now she could hear her master at work in the distance. The sounds of clambering steel, and air alight with magic. As it had been for hours, as beasts, monsters, had come for him and her alike.

He crossed the river with the rest of the servants to deal with the larger problems. She had been left to deal with the smaller ones.

The ones that were coming to kill her were also trying to cross the river. But the Avenger Jeanne Alter had done her job. All those beasts and monsters were paste or burnt corpses.

Only now the plan had changed, since just when she'd finished clearing those enemies out, a powerful shadow servant appeared.

Jeanne Alter could taste blood on her lips as she angled her sword upright towards them, the cool night air instantly flush with heat from the flames that spewed forth. She would've grinned but it hadn't worked the first time she'd tried it, nor the hundred times to follow after. It brought her only a few seconds, she pressed her heel into the ground, feeling it crack as she burst away with great speed, and swung herself around in the air, rematerializing her flag pole.

She saw the ground where she'd been standing crushed, the pulsating dark undulations of a black ichor clung to the shadow's giant axe sword.

Of all the things that Shadow could've mimicked, it had to choose the strongest hero in Greece.

Even as she landed with a huff in the rain, she felt blood drip from her brow into her eye. It came for her again.

Just my luck.

Her lances were powerful enough to pierce the skin, but they'd done little else but slow it down. Even now as she manifested them with two fingers outstretched above her sword handle towards the hulking shadow, she watched five pieces of its skin. Two trying slamming into the leg of the herculean beast as if to break up its run.

Though instead of running it prana burst towards her like she'd done to get away. The axe sword swung wide right at her side, leaving itself exposed to her weapons while it attacked.

She took advantage, feeling herself grimace as she raised her flag pole to block the axe sword swing from cleaving her clean in two.

Not that it matters.

She stabbed her sword through the beast's left shoulder feeling the strain of effort it took to push her weapon under its skin, still capable of blocking anything short of A-rank attacks from mana-infused weapons.

She felt the strain of herself being punted away by the blow of the axe. The ground and her armor cranked and clammering as she slammed into the empty street, her momentum carrying her as she bounced and felt new sores and wounds open up along her side. Fresh awareness seemed to hit her and her amber eyes went wide looking up quickly.

Feeling the adrenaline kick in from that ethereal sense servant battle instincts granted her, and realized that it was already on top of her again. Its oversized hand grabbed her torso.

As quickly as she could muster, more lances formed slamming into the arm holding her as the shadow squeezed.

Her amber eyes went wide, raindrops pattered the beast unflinching. The pain suddenly enveloped her chest. Air couldn't get in or out, and if she'd been human, her torose and inner organs would've been crushed along with it. An anguished scream filled the air until it had stopped. Its hand dropped her, immobilized by the lances she'd lodged into it with her hand. The fall was short as it freed its other limb to swing that axe sword down at her as she was falling.

She caught it at the center of her sword and it again sent her sprawling away skidding across the concrete.

A human would have been nothing but a bloody smear.

She coughed several times, sucking the air back in that had been squeezed out of her. She could taste more blood in her mouth. The feeling of the cold rain pattering on her clothes soaking her all the way to the skin with cold.

Jeanne Alter looked to her right recognizing the building she'd been flung into. It had been cleared only half an hour ago and even as the Shadow's beastly roar filled the evening streets as it pulled her lances free from its arms and legs, she dematerialized them one by one as it did, sparing herself the mana strain.

It was clear who was coming out the better the longer the fight drew on.

But the bridge was near. She could see it. She bit her lip wanting to take a step towards it, but dematerialized her flagpole again. She hesitated to make for that bridge. The respite rapidly came to a close.

Trust was such a difficult thing.

"Hold the bridge Jalter! We'll be back."

"I can't hold it forever! There are worse than just beasts and skeletons out here now you know?!"

"Not forever, just long enough."

A beat of quiet had passed between them as her amber eyes flicked to him. Those blue eyes were boring into her as he stepped closer to her and grabbed her fingers.

She flinched half a step back straightening upright.

"I trust you Jeanne Alter…hold this side and I'll come back for you."

She swallowed, taking a breath. "Alright…but you better damn well hurry. It's bad luck to leave an evil dragon witch waiting."

"Wouldn't dream of it…"

The sword axe thundered through the second floor above them as it slammed it down where she'd been standing.

She blew out a foggy breath. Then she jumped with all her might and slammed her gauntlet-covered fist into the shadow's jaw sending them through several rooms of the building right back out to the other side. Stone and wood fell around them as she landed back on the ground with a huff.

Her arm shook, still vibrating with the blow and she shook her hand with a wince.

Damn.

The damn herculean shadow servant was already starting to right itself.

With another huff, she got a running start.

It had just finished standing up, but it was damned fast, its giant sword axe cut through the air in almost an instant. Her amber eyes followed it, bringing her sword to bear the blow deflecting with sparks just to her right into the ground again, only this time it was there to stay for just a few seconds more.

It just had to get Hercules' reflexes too!

Two of her lances slammed into the beast's wrist as she plunged her sword into the oversized shadow's collar again, drawing forth another spurt of blood. She knew she had to be quick and ripped her sword back bringing her arm up and blocking the punch of their free arm sending her skidding away into the rain.

She remained upright even though her metal-heeled boots grinded along the stone. It slowed her enough so that when her shoulder slammed into the side of the building, no indents or cracks.

One of the softer blows she'd received thus far that night. With a huff she came at it again, the ground ripping as the shockwave rippled through the air, knowing her lances wouldn't keep it in place forever. Intending to bring her sword down as hard as she could on the damn thing's head, she swung her sword overhead.

It caught her sword with its spare hand but as to not waste her momentum she slammed her armored fist into its jaw again with enough force sending another resounding crack into the air. The two lances nailing its other arm to the ground were ripped free with the arm. The shadow went tumbling away into the next building across the road, disappearing into the burst of rubble.

Rain poured around her as she fell to a knee grabbing her shoulder. Fingers squeezing the bicep of the arm that had punched the beast away. The strain and soreness were mounting and she could feel fast her mana doing quick work of trying to dissipate all those wounds and sores all at once. She was still gasping for air, filling the brief silence. It was a strange feeling to have as a servant.

"Tch, damn." She huffed out a breath.

A sign of strain.

"Jeanne!"

A cold chill washed up her spine knowing and recognizing the sound of the voice. She'd turned and despite the sores in her muscles, she saw just the faint figure of him taking shape around the corner from behind a building at the end of the alley.

The stone cracked against the force of her heel as she pushed herself as much as possible. She stopped only a foot short of him. The burst of wind blowing about them from her movement.

Ritsuka's blue eyes were wide on her, "Jeanne?" His words were barely a whisper next to the crack of the air. She yanked him toward her and over her shoulder and bounded off again. Just in time for another one of those piercing roars of the shadow to come through the air.

She ground her teeth.

Just when I was getting used to the idea that he shouldn't come back for me…

Those blue eyes of his were wide and intense as he tried to straighten himself over her shoulder.

And now he was in danger because he actually kept his stupid promise!

She landed for what she hoped was out of sight and threw the moron as gently as she could manage. "IDIOT why didn't you call ahead?!"

Ritsuka winced on the ground, "Ow…sorry, I got worried and decided to come and scope out the situation."

"Where's Mash?!"

"At the bridge." Ritsuka quickly picked himself up. It was one of the things she respected about him.

She pointed to the building, "Get in there and find someplace to hide. I'll hold it off, as soon as you get the chance you-"

Her words died in her throat as she felt his hand wrap around hers and she felt herself pulled along behind him.

Idiot!

She wanted to yell at him and rip her arm away.

His hand is warm.

But it was too late now.

He tugged into the building and back out of the rain and his breath was starting to quicken. Once they were in the abandoned stone building out of the rain a few more seconds went by as he pulled her deeper into the room.

Another second had passed before she finally managed to tear her arm away. She had half a mind to smack his hand while she was at it, speaking through gritted teeth at him so he understood well her irritation. "What are you doing?"

"You're hurt and you need a moment before that thing finds the both of us." He looked at her pointedly and when she had made the gesture of starting to protest he gently touched part of her bicep that was exposed.

It was tender.

"Ah-" She bit down on her lip, preventing any more of it from coming out. Her expression smoothed after another second as desperately ignored the pain that simple touch had inflicted. "It doesn't matter, master, I have strength enough to fight it long enough for you to get back to that damn bridge!"

Ritsuka's blue eyes looked at her calmly. "You shouldn't be so willingly putting your life on the line-"

"FUFUFU Look who's talking moron! I'm the fucking servant, it's my job to give my life if needs be-"

A roar pierced the air again much closer, and then there was the sound of the stone street being smashed up only a block away.

Jeanne Alter's expression quickly turned to worry as she looked towards the openings of the stone building they'd walked into.

Ritsuka grabbed her hand again and pulled her in deeper.

She hissed out a breath.

He led them around the corner away from the door they came in through, and walked her over to one of the small lantern lights that were still on. His touch was firm but not forceful when he tugged her chin up to look at the gash on the side of her head. Those blue eyes were full of that seriousness that could come about him during missions as he looked her wounds over more closely.

"Don't value yourself so little. You have nothing to prove." He spoke quietly.

"Tch," the noise of irritation came out.

Of course, he doesn't understand that. What else could I possibly expect from someone who always sees the good in people?

Her amber eyes fixed to his blue ones as if it had been a dare for her to look away.

Of course, I do.

His hand was warm on her chin too. She noted how careful he was avoiding her open wounds and, despite the firmness in his fingers, how gentle the touches were as he looked over her wounds. She didn't even want to waste the strength to fight him and pull away. It was better saved for that damned shadow. She clicked her teeth and her nostrils flared.

Her temple stung and blood stained her white locks and dripped over her left eye. She had shearing wounds on her cheek with smudges of dirt. Under her chin wasn't much better, another abrasion on her left side to match the one in her hairline.

And that was just what he could see at that moment.

She could feel the others around her body.

"Can you still see?" He asked, more gentle in tone than he'd been a moment ago.

Jeanne Alter took a deep breath and spoke quietly to match his tone, she hesitated to tell him, and in a way that told him all he needed to know. It made her answer more honest than she should've liked. "I'm more worried about my wrist-" She held up her left hand. The one that had been brandishing her flag pole, and the one she'd been returning mana-infused mele punches with.

He nodded once and Ritsuka's gentle tone suddenly had a twinge of firmness back to it. "Stand still."

She obeyed and her amber eyes followed his hand in the low light, his hand fell right into that space between her neck and chest pressing gently against those chains wrapped around her neck and the tatters of her shoulder cloak over her. She tried not to wince from the soft touch. A monster had been squeezing the whole center of her body only a moment ago.

"You're sweating…" He commented.

"I've been busy." She bit out, trying to stay quiet.

Ritsuka nodded again and correctly made the choice to let that conversation go. He closed his eyes for a second. A green flash emanated from his hand. And it took an effort from him and a bead of sweat formed upon the rain droplets pouring from his hair. A vein started to push upwards in the corner of his forehead and he grimaced.

Jeanne Alter felt a small swell of relief wash over her.

Her heart rate started to slow and the wounds that she'd been worried about…were for the moment starting to disappear. She'd only just closed her eyes to try and relax a little into the sensation and savor it.

Then he made a choking sound.

Her amber eyes went wide and she grabbed his wrist to push him away.

He was out of breath and he coughed, "Best," He huffed, "I can manage-" He paused again, his shoulders going up and down as she'd realized his body had worked itself to sudden excretion. His shoulders moved up and down as he tried to catch his breath. His fingers grabbed at the area around his heart.

And she could feel through his glove he was warm like he was starting to burn up.

She clicked her teeth, and then her amber eyes went wide. Recognizing why it had hurt him so much. "Why didn't your mystic code support you?"

"It's out of juice." Ritsuka huffed a small quiet laugh at her.

She blinked and felt a shiver go up her back staring at him mouth agape. She grabbed him in turn roughly by the shoulder to steady him upright. It was her turn to look him over to make sure the idiot hadn't burst any important blood vessels.

"I'm afraid this useless mage is all you've got for the moment."

"Shut up," She mumbled. Jeanne Alter was trying desperately to ignore him. She lifted his arm running her hand along his side doing a quick mana sense that would cost her virtually nothing. It was something she'd seen Nightingale do all the time. It was something she'd demanded to learn when she got that nurse alone.

"You know how to look for over-stressed magic wounds?"

A pout formed on her lips. She could hear the tentative question in his voice. "Nightingale gave me instruction." It wasn't a full body search, just his torso, arms, and his back down to his hips. "I had a feeling you would be so brazingly stupid one day-" she felt her lips twist a little. "It's stupid to push yourself so needlessly-" She cut herself off.

Her amber eyes glared at him.

Ritsuka chuckled quietly into the air between them. "I'm lucky to have you, Jeanne."

"Tch," She bit her lip and stepped away when she'd finished. Her cheeks were starting to warm, and this time she could tell it wasn't from either excessive mana use or exhaustion. Then she materialized her sword and started walking back the way they came. Only his hand wrapped around hers again and she was tugged back.

"No, not yet," Ritsuka whispered.

She hissed, "If I can lead him away, it will get you the time you need to get to the bridge. Let go of me-"

"Not yet," He breathed out a little more tensely.

She could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin and she became freshly aware of how close they were. He'd pressed her back against the wall, and he was holding her there. Her amber eyes went wide on him with another cold shiver running up her back.

He was staring at her intensely. "Atalante is finding a perch…" Ritsuka took a deep breath and looked away from her.

But she didn't remove his arms, still trapping her half in an embrace.

Her blush started to worsen.

Moron.

But it was comforting, she had to admit. The warmth of him so close compared to the ice-cold rain still pouring outside. This close she could sense the faint use of mana as he was reaching out and contacting other servants. She resigned herself to that brief comfort of warmth and laid her head back against the stone just a little further away from him.

Even if it was comforting, her wounds were aching. The moment spared her a bit longer allowing her servant's small healing factor to work its own magic. Some of those smaller abrasions and bloody cuts were disappearing. She reached up and touched her rain-drenched bloody brow and made sure not to wince as Ritsuka observed her.

She pulled it away and saw the blood on her fingertips.

I probably look worse than I feel.

She rubbed her metal fingers together, taking a deep breath, and closed her eyes letting that healing factor brief respite do its work. It would've been peaceful listening to her master's breath and pouring patter of rain along the stone roads and buildings, if not for the next roar the shadow beast let loose.

Now it was much closer, maybe a building away.

Jeanne Alter could hear the loud crashes of stone breaking and toppling so close, but she couldn't see it. She reached out gently with her senses and correctly found the beast to be only one building away. Her amber eyes flicked out wide looking pointedly up at Ritsuka. She would force her way past him if she had to.

Ritsuka grabbed her shoulder gently while still speaking to someone else when chatting. "Alright, make it quick…" Then he gave his full attention to her. "When you engage it, try to force it towards the bridge."

She clicked her teeth, "That's where you'll be…" She hissed.

"And Mash, and others. Atalante will give you as much fire support as she can muster." He grinned at her and slowly peeled himself away. The proximity and warmth he'd been passing on to her, left too.

Her fingers twitched and she stared at him.

Ritsuka smiled at her, "I'll take off at the first opportunity…" She realized that his hand had been wrapped around hers, the both of them holding her sword hilt. She'd only noticed more pointedly when he let her sword hand go too. "And don't do any more than you have to Alter. You have help waiting for you."

She swallowed and nodded once.

Just a little while longer. I can manage that.

Jeanne Alter used a mental map to gauge how long it would take him. She just had to manage a few minutes and try to avoid as much direct hand-to-hand combat as possible. Her fire didn't affect it, even if it was unaffected by the rain. Her lances could pierce its skin, seemingly an a-rank defense, but they seemed capable of killing it.

The best options are probably to aim for limbs restricting movement, and possibly the eyes.

Ritsuka still stood in front of her, eyeing her. "If it comes to close combat, it might be best to employ your lances more conspicuously?"

She lifted her head, her ahoge bouncing atop of her head with the movement, an indication she was listening. Jeanne Alter cleared her head quickly of whatever other thoughts that might've been.

"With Atalante in the game, it'll have to worry about her bow. You could get away with hitting it from different directions that might pull at its attention." Ritsuka nodded at her. "Any advantage right?"

Right.

She nodded at him.

He touched her shoulder again, "I trust you Alter, I have a spare command seal, reach out if you need it."

Jeanne Alter bristled at the idea of her being the reason he wasted one. The idiot would probably give an excuse of worry and smile stupidly at her. She would've opened her mouth to retort but the very building they were in shook, and the doorway that they'd come through started cracking and crumbling with stone.

She pushed him away more forcibly, as hard as she could without tapping into her servant strength, and put her finger to her lips.

His blue eyes went wide and he nodded crawling back as far into the corner as he could manage. She watched him scan the room they were in locating his exit out to the back alley.

Good, out of sight enough.

A breath of relief escaped her at that, knowing her master would survive this encounter while she took the damn thing head-on. Her mouth twisted and heard the shadow's heavy footsteps against the floor.

She spared one last look at her master watching him slip out the open door into the rain, running down an alley out the window. Then with narrowed eyes and a deep breath, she whirled the corner brandishing her sword.

And saw that the shadow wasn't even looking at her, instead they jumped through the building, the stone crumbling like paper around its body.

Jumping towards the alleyway.

A cold hand settled around her heart and her eyes went wide.

She was a step behind using prana to jump forward to where the shadow had been, stone and wood fell around in the cloud, and with glowing amber eyes, she angled again jumping after it.

All in a split second.

The unruly beast's sword axe came down toward him.

Ritsuka was staring wide-eyed trying to scramble back from the force of the blow, the ground got kicked up around him, and the small scattering of stones from the narrow miss kicked up into his arms as he covered his head.

The world slowed for a second as she saw a bloody line form just under his left cheek. And those wide blue eyes looking onto the shadow. Not with fear, she noted, but with anticipation.

The damn fool trusted me to save him!

It was fast, adjusting the angle of its axe sword, meaning just to hit the human with the flat end of the blade quickly since the sharp edge still faced the ground where he'd been.

She grinned a little, tasting froth and blood in her mouth. Feeling her combat instincts come to life her sword slammed into the shadow's axe, sending shockwaves through the air, stopping it in its tracks.

The shadow hadn't flinched off step, from her catching the blow and instead leaned toward her, swiping its arm down at her.

She ducked it and curled her fingers into a fist, and like before, with all the mana she could muster, slammed it into the shadow's right cheek, feeling the force of it crack against her joints as she sent it sprawling into the adjacent building with a loud crash. And two lances after it.

And then she landed on her feet with a huff of icy breath into the cold rain. Beside her, she could hear the building they hid in starting to collapse more vigorously. Her mouth twisted and she spun around to look at Ritsuka, suddenly remembering that blood stain.

Relief flooded over her.

He grabbed his shoulder, his cheek still lightly bleeding. She could see as well the dirt and grim on the mystic code along his sleeves from the damage the shadow had kicked up with its narrow miss. Ritsuka's blue eyes were wide on her and then he nodded at her. "Go! And start counting!"

Ritsuka ran past her and rounded the corner. He was too focused now on the other bond. "A? Did you see that?"

Jeanne uncurled her fist as she watched him go, sprinting at full speed. She had her best guesswork on how long it would take him. She felt her anger and bitterness rising again to fuel her prana. Her mouth twisted with rage and her amber eyes narrowed towards the plume of debris the shadow had kicked up from her blow.

Despite all the anger, she was just happy to have gotten to him in time.

Her mouth twisted as she jumped across the street into the building in a flash, her sword at the ready.

It won't get that chance again.

The lances she'd managed to lodge into the beast gave away its location to her. And that was how she followed it up instantly with another strike, her sword however caught the edge of its blade. And it forced her up into the collapsing second floor.

She fell onto her back and with a groan rolled over and was given no respite. The axe sword collapsed the whole building around them into stone and wood chunks.

And she was forced back out onto the street with the next strike. It was quick but she sensed it ripping her lances free, which she returned away to blue dust particles the instant they were out. She huffed out a breath and watched it close the gap.

She put both hands on her sword, the only way to truly match its brute strength blow for blow, and caught three attacks, a thrust, a side swing, and an overhead.

On the last one the ground crater around them, and she grit her teeth, trying to hook her hilt along the edge of its oversized weapon forcing it to once and grinded their weapons together as she slid down the length of the blade with sparks getting as close as she could, cutting its shoulder with a groan of effort.

But it had been bait, she saw its hand going for her forearm, and she danced away, the axe sword carving the stone street just beside her, meant to turn her into a stain.

Then finally, the sky opened up.

Jeanne Alter didn't quite breathe out in relief, but she knew better. Where many monsters and foes would've been felled by such an onslaught, a facsimile of the great Greek hero Hercules would scarcely be slowed down.

Even still, the arrows that Atalante had sent couldn't have been better timed as they slammed and explosions reverberated out in the street behind her. She ran under the cover of the arrows back towards the bridge, feeling her once more that reverberation and it was instinct that had told her to re-summon that blackened white flag.

So she did, conjuring it quickly.

And her eyes widened as she saw the beast land right beside her, sliding with its momentum, feet kicking up stone and dirt, and those eye slits were dead on her.

The blow was quick, and she'd caught between her sword and polearm, but the strike was powerful enough to send her crashing into the building. She felt the stone and wood tear at her armor and hardened servant skin. Only a few left actual bruises and only one became an actual wound.

Another dead human.

With a grunt, she pulled herself up and saw the beast had disappeared from where she was looking. And then looked up with all the alarms of her servant skills, mana, and natural instinct screamed at her.

And saw it coming down toward her.

Even as Atalante's next volley collided with the shadow above her she saw those explosions knocking its attack off course.

Around her she gathered her flames and lances she was going to slam that damned thing with enough force to buy her master a minute more. She mentally tallied and her mouth twisted.

Once more the building collapsed around them, it swung through the walls that she used as cover like paper. It swung through the columns she threw at its face. And she took her openings where she could find it, feeling the strain as she sliced across the shadow's stomach. In place of blood, black ichor seemed to fall onto the ground.

It had worked for a short time, but it responded by merely attacking everything and anything around it until it had caught her again. She ducked the first blow, and an entire side of the building wall crumbled under the feat. She slammed her fist into its stomach and aside from the force of pushing it back, it appeared altogether unaffected.

It caught her sword with his and lashed out spitefully; a large kick with its foot.

She caught it on her vambrace, but it still threw her out back onto the street and into the pouring rain. She felt the wall crumble behind her back.

Paste again.

Her mouth twitched ignoring the aches and sores that came of it, and once more reconjured her flag now out in the open. Blood and rain dribbled from her brow over her right eye. And it was in those bitter few seconds she realized something dangerously important. Her game of attrition for whatever the hell the others were planning would be dragged on a little longer.

Shit, how could I be so careless?!

Even it emerged from the cloud of rubble in the rain and arrows flew at it, deflecting off with its nimble sword swings. She saw the bridge now behind it the distance growing with each bout.

Now it's in my way.

Her lips trembled, hoping almost that it would charge right at her. She knew it was only luck that allowed her to save Master from its attack only moments ago. Now it would have a considerable head start.

It came charging toward her, no prana burst, no great display of speed, it just started sprinting right toward her. But she threw that worry away, focusing on how the hell she was going to get past it.

She tried the simplest thing first, moving at the last second, deflecting the sword away with her flag pole, and ran past, again aiming her sword for its head, this time though, it only caught the beast's arm as she brushed past. She broke out into a spring realizing she needed to get closer for Atalante.

The roar echoed across the streets from behind her and she flinched, her combat instincts screaming at her.

Jeanne prana burst into the next building, not caring about crashing through the stone wall. Her amber eyes looked back,

And she saw that the shadow had left a crater where she'd been. Worse yet, she could see its eyes tracking her without flinching.

An arrow exploded on its head.

She twisted herself landing upright, dispelling her flag pole.

Then it was there on top of her again.

Shit.

The damned thing was a beast and it was just as agile as the original. Just as strong as it seemed. And while it didn't possess resurrection, of that she was certain, it possessed a healing factor that rivaled it.

Her arms felt strained after deflecting three blows, she swirled fire about herself. Though as a distraction, it wasn't working anymore. She could feel how little her fire was affecting the damned shadow. As well, she saw how blatantly it was ignoring her vengeful flames. It was for her the best possible outcome.

She smiled tightly, knowing she could get off at least true use of her noble phantasm on it, using the fire as its cover.

I just need to survive until then.

Ritsuka would, of course, be against the extra strenuous mana used that it would cost her. But she knew he wouldn't complain if it was how she'd won the fight.

Once more the house fell about them, she caught the axe sword and guided the blow over her head. And got it close once more, under its guard. Eyeing the chest for the target.

Then her eyes went wide.

This time it was ready for her and it dropped its hand in front of its chest and allowed her to run her sword through, even as she tried to stop. Its hand was big enough to grab both her wrists holding her in place.

Goddamn it! It doesn't even have a dulled version of the Grecian hero's combat instincts!

She saw the axe sword coming, and she knew it wouldn't let go, she could feel it starting to crush her hands and her sword hilt all together at once. The pain flared up her fingers and even still she tried to get away. Instead, her attempt had only landed her next to the only bits of an intact part of the wall. She bit on her lip and prana jumped only a foot against the wall.

It squeezed its muscles harder around her hands and the handle of her sword, and she bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood instead of screaming in agony. She prana burst against the wall, pushing off with great force, slamming her knee into the face of that shadow with all the strength she could muster. The movement avoided the axe sword meant for her death.

The shadow's eyes once more tracked her movement cleanly, but the force of the blow knocked its grip loose, and it threw the beast about thirty feet out of the current house and into the next. It wasn't long before it was upright again.

Her fingers were shaking around her sword hilt, her amber eyes wide on the beast. Her mana rushed to repair the damage that might've been done.

She flinched hearing it roar.

I'm still being ground down.

Her lips twisted, even if it was obvious before, now it was a certainty. She couldn't take strikes directly for several seconds more.

And it was still in her way.

Her mouth twisted darkly, feeling the surge of mana required of her to get her noble phantasm off. It was her best chance to get by the damned thing now, even if it doesn't kill the beast. It was strong enough to even make the real Hercules have to dodge or risk all of its labor's resurrections. She needed to make sure it was a sure first hit, and that she still had enough to continue the basic mana healing that her servant factors provided her. At a quick pulse, a test of her mana, she knew she'd had enough for one and plenty in the tank to deal with other monsters that might crop up during the fight.

Blood dripped out from between her armored gauntlets.

My hands…

Her nose wrinkled.

It's getting harder to hold the sword.

Arrows sliced through the air and a dozen or so impacted the shadow as it stood right back up to look at her.

Jeanne Alter, however, knew better by now. With twisted lips, she jumped out into the street again as explosions ripped away at the shadow from both where it started, all the way into the house where she'd just been.

And the rain of arrows stopped.

Once more she rematerialized the flagpole, trying to flex her fingers around it.

Come on…just a little bit longer!

The shadow came for her and attacked her with two wild swings, that she prana jumped away from. She angled higher hoping to give herself a better view of the bridge, and Atalante a chance to use extra firepower.

It worked only partially. As the beast matched her height almost instantly she cursed and barely avoided the attack mid-air as she fell away. Her fingers shaking from her grip on both sword and flag pole. "Tch, bastard!"

She fired two lances at it, as the next hail of arrows slammed into it mid-air.

Jeanne Alter landed with a crack and started running as fast as her legs could carry her. It was out of the way and she was going to take every advantage of it. Her lips twisted, reaching out to their bond. "Master! I hope you've made it to the bridge by now!"

Crashes through buildings came following after her quick enough to send shivers up her spine. This time there had been no warning, as she felt the air shifting around her as it used great speed to have already closed the gap.

Her amber eyes went wide as she turned to see.

The axe sword was already coming for her.

I really am going to have to use everything just to get by it.

She grit her teeth, bringing her flagpole up, and catching the oversized sword, preventing a fatal blow. But the force of it was more than enough to send her crashing through wood and stone again.

Jeanne Alter's eyes now never left that infernal thing. Glowing amber eyes peering at it through the hail of the arrows, able to perfectly perceive that monstrous shadow through explosions that ripped in the air around it.

I can't turn my back on it.

Then a sort of calm came over her as she looked down at her wrist and the twitching stopped. She sucked in a breath of cool air.

"Jeanne!" His voice came to her as if he'd been standing beside her. "I'm almost there. Do what you have to! Just make it!"

Another stone house fell around her as she was thrown free landing this time more awkwardly along her back.

The beast followed, slamming the sword axe down where she'd been.

She rolled away kicking its leg as hard as she might with her own.

The beast fell to a knee at the snap that filled the air.

Alter quickly followed up the attack with another strike, but the axe sword caught her blade.

Amber eyes went wide, as the beast with great agility, swung a leg out toward her, leading with its knee. It slammed into her left hip with a crack. She rolled across the rainy stone roads feeling the scrapes under her chin. She winced and watched it stand back up normally as if nothing had hit at all.

The shadow seemed to pause, and then check the movement of the leg she'd hid.

Jeanne Alter blew out a bitter breath, knowing it was difficult for her to see the actual damage she was dealing in return during their exchanges. Though her sword and brow had stains of the shadow's blackened blood ichor, it was, by all appearances, in much better shape than her.

But she had the distance now and the straight away of the road. Even with Atalante's arrows arching across the sky from her next volley, her lances were at the ready. She mentally unlocked the seal to her noble phantasm as the golden glow of her amber eyes shimmered for a fraction of a second peering through the rain at the beast.

Then it sprinted at her, kicking up the dirt and the rain.

Jeanne Alter could feel the rush of adrenaline unlocking the seal gave her. Her lips twisted wide into a sadistic smile at the thing lining itself up for her. She angled her sword pointing at the beast, the white flag blowing in the wind beside her.

She stood beaten and bloody in the rain much like the beast did now bearing down at her.

"Fufufu, he gave me permission you stupid hideous thing!" Her smile grew wider as already the flames started forming, sizzling the rain in the air, unabated by the storm tearing about them. "The time of retribution has come!"

The beast could sense the air shifting with the fire growing out from the ground unabated at her feet as if unnaturally leaking out into the world away from her. She could taste the froth in her mouth as the image of it came to her mind of how uncomfortably close it had gotten to killing her master.

Arrows slammed into the beast with enough force to crack the air apart as if Atalante understood enough to buy her just the extra second.

The anger boiled over, imagining just that slightly different scenario where she'd been only a step behind and seeing her master as a red stain along the stone buildings. More mana leaked away as she straightened upright standing taller in the rain. And at last, the dragon's vengeful fire took shape.

"This is the howl of a soul filled with hatred! La Grandement Du Haine!"

Her voice echoed above the storm and lances and spikes, and pyres appeared, impaling the beast even as it got closer. One, two, then its foot got caught. She could hear it ripping flesh as it then got impaled thrice at a time. The flesh of the shadow immolated before her and its movement finally ground to a halt.

Only two feet away from her, its sword arm was stuck and immobilized with the rest of it, and as she continued to immolate it from inside and out she stepped away huffing out a breath. Her amber eyes went wide, a sort of dizziness struck her and she stumbled two steps to the right.

Damn.

"Tch-" She clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth forcing that feeling of fatigue away.

I'm burning through too much mana in one night.

Black ichor stained her stakes and poured in great quantities onto the stone street. Her metal heels clicked as she took a step away. Then the blackened blood disappeared from the ground and it drew her eyes right back to its form in totality.

Her fingers twitched around her flag pole and she shook her head clear of those damnable thoughts. She eyed the shadow, eyes narrowing.

Not disappearing?!

Her mouth dropped for a second, her fire starting to die away.

And its arm twitched. She flinched as saw its impaled head turn toward her, she bristled as she felt those inhuman shadow eyes on her.

Jeanne Alter turned on her heel and started to run. The point of the phantasm was to get on the other side of it towards the river bridge. It couldn't get in her way for the moment and she hoped that it would be enough.

Atalante's arrows arched through the air overhead, a volley meant to take advantage of the fact that the beast was stationary for a moment.

Shit.

Her mouth twisted, "Master!"She spared a glance back over her shoulder and saw an explosion of debris through the evening air. What mana she had left that she wasn't putting towards healing her wounds, she put towards her limbs so that they might heal faster and carry her more quickly to where that bridge was.

The shadow had done a good job of pushing her further and further away.

Just my rotten luck.

Then his voice crackled through their bond. "Alter! We're ready for you!"

She couldn't help the small touchstone of relief at that, knowing he was safe. She prana jumped to speed herself up. She'd been five streets away. Now she was four streets away.

Then she was three, and her armored heel caught the edge of a rubble piece and while she didn't lose her footing, she stumbled holding herself up against the wall. Her body was burning, she realized. Her fingers twitched as her amber eyes went wide.

I can't be that low?!

The cold rain on her skin felt like it was ice as she gasped for air, out of breath. It was a human thing to do when they overexert themselves.

No no, I can't be that low…

She was Jeanne D'Arc Alter, born from the grail at Gilles's wish. Her mana store was meant to be nearly inexhaustible. Her fingers closed and she hit the stone wall. She pushed off and started running again towards that stupid bridge over the river. "Damn-"

And explosions were drawing closer.

Her amber eyes went wide, and a shiver went up her back at the thought. Feeling rain and warm blood still dripping from her brow. She brushed the white hair back out of her eyes and dared to look back behind her once again.

It can't have mimicked Hercules's curse of resurrection too, could it?

Her mouth twisted together with worry. There was a precedent of shadows getting latent abilities but never to the scale of the actual servant. She knew how many lives she could take from Hercules, she'd done it as part of her training at Chaldea.

She could take ten with one use of her phantasm on a lower setting. All out would've seen her fell the Grecian berserker with all his labors.

But if it is still walking around-

She flinched hearing the roar drawing ever closer. With a groan, she took off again and managed to make it from three streets away to two streets away. Tracing their fight through broken and collapsed buildings as she went. Scorch marks, and stone upheavals of the roads.

And at last, the bridge was in sight again.

The air around her rebounded with a crack.

It was only instinct that she turned to see with her flagpole raised.

The shadow was already mid-swing, its shoulder brushing through the stone building beside him as if it hadn't slowed down at all to account for it. One of its arms seems barely connected, almost skeletal, like its left leg. She could smell the leftover ash coming from the beast now that it was so close. She could see pools of black bloody ichor and interweaving magic as that healing factor she'd worried over seemed to take full drastic effect.

Perhaps the healing factor prevented death altogether?

This time the blow swept her upward, knocking her back and off her feet right into a stone building she'd been bypassing. She felt the shock going up her arm, barely recovered from when the beast had crushed it, now dealing with aftershocks of having to tank a blow head-on. With the mana strain she felt, she considered herself lucky that her arm hadn't snapped at the pain that reverberated up her muscles.

The flagpole was dispelled again now that she was within the building. Her sword hand had recovered enough, but her flagpole hand had not. That pain lingered through the blow, and she couldn't feel her back or shoulders. Another cut had opened up horizontally on her cheek, just beneath the eye.

"Damn it!" She brought both of her hands to the hilt of her blackened and red sword, still intent on the follow-up attack that was practically right on top of her once more.

She'd both hands on her sword blocking the overhead strike but she saw too late what opening it had intended to create. Its fist was the size of her torso and it slammed right into her abdomen. Her eyes went wide, and even through the metal, she could feel her body buckling almost from the blow.

Blood and spittle came from her lips as it sent her flying down the road. She felt the stone and dirt digging into her skin as she landed unceremoniously with a coughing fit. She desperately tried to get air back in her lungs.

So this is what it's like?

Her muscles burned and watched it coming toward her, blood dripping once more from her brow, the wound on her head freshly re-opened.

To fight the impossible?

Her mouth twisted as she avoided the first strike. An arrow hit the shadow's head, and her lance slammed its sword arm, nailing its weapon to the ground. It bought her only seconds of an opening. She took it aiming for its head.

But it learned too, and it had fallen for the same thing twice in a row during the fight. For this third time, her luck had run out.

It moved its head, avoiding the sword, and its arm grabbed her bicep and slammed her back into the pavement making another crater. Her eyes went wide barely having time to grasp that it was already over her.

And, it slammed its foot down hard enough into her to shatter every bone that might've been left in her armor plate over her abdomen. The ground behind her body cracked and gave way to the blow. And this time when she coughed onto its leg it was more blood than spittle.

How does he always do it I wonder?

More arrows rained on the beast.

She swept fire over them as arrows and her lances slammed into its body, that twitching burning crawling up her right arm, as the mana in her body worked in overdrive to keep her alive, conscious, and still capable of fighting. The pressure of it came down once more on her stomach.

And again on her head pushing her face through the stone behind her, creating more tears and cracks through the stone ground, the crater's widening. The wounds on her head opened wider. The warmth of her own blood is a contrast to the cold rain. Once more the ground gave way to the blow.

At last, the pressure seemed to abate and in her refusal to let go of her sword, she stabbed it with all her might through the shadow's calf.

I can't see out of my right eye.

Her vision was blurred from the biting pain that accosted her body, but she could still make out her lances that had skewed the beast, keeping it in place. Another one of Atalante's arrows slammed its neck with an explosion that kicked up smoke.

Still fear gripped her heart, her legs barely responded to her as she moved, recognizing her chance to escape.

She was so damned close to that bridge where her idiot master was. She stumbled out of the crater and fell forward. With a huff, white hair covered her expression, and she grabbed her abdomen with her fingers. The metal was busted and the damage was extensive. She winced and coughed out again blowing her wet hair away from her lips. The rain dissipated her cover quickly and she would have cursed if that too wasn't exhausting.

Died again.

Her lips twisted as she ground her teeth together, looking ahead of her.

She heard the axe sword whirl above, cutting through rain and the air with a sheen. Her eyes widened and looked up just in time to see its hand reaching for her again.

On a shaky leg, she prana burst away. Five lances came down on the shadow this time, focusing on its legs to keep it in place for as long as she could manage. Too focused on that, too wounded to manage anything else, she crashed back onto the ground, rolling across the stone road feeling more abrasions and scrapes on her skin.

The smaller wounds were counting for more now because it was the major ones that were draining her mana.

"Guh-" She twisted herself upright trying to get her hands back under her. Her muscles and fingers were shaking on the ground. From the distance she got as little as it was, knowing how fast it could be closed. She turned and saw.

The beast was moving still, but it wasn't moving as quickly. Her noble phantasm and the way she'd stabbed it again had slowed it. And better for her it didn't seem to be going away so quickly. However, even without a prana burst, it was making far better headway than her.

It deflected incoming arrows as it started running toward her.

Jeanne Alter waited, mentally wrapping mana around her next lance, and even as she did a cold vice grip seemed to grab her heart. The strain was like a shock through her system. Her eyes went wide as she realized how heavy her body seemed to feel to her.

I'm running out?

She struggled to get onto her knee and it took what felt like forever. But even as she'd gotten that one foot under her, she saw its hand reaching for her.

The axe sword was deflecting arrows.

It grabbed her face and threw her back to the ground, another crater forming around her. Through that cold rain and loose strands of hair falling away from her face due to rain, she saw the bridge was just to her right.

And she saw Ritsuka standing there with wide blue eyes peering right at her, at the far end of the river. He grabbed at his wrist and she could see the glow of a command seal coming to life.

It used its sword again to defect arrows and this time it grabbed her whole left foot, hand large enough to hold her to the ankle, and squeezed as it swung her wildly around. An agony shot through her as she felt all the bones and muscles of her foot being turned, wrung, and broken. Several more cracks went through the air as she was slammed and rag-dolled into numerous things.

It was like she was burning, she realized. Like her whole body was on fire from the inside out. The thought had died away quickly as the more immediate problem reared its head again. She felt herself slammed into the ground, the nearest stone building. Her face dragged through stone as her arm grew numb. She expunged what little mana she could into that lance she'd been trying to form in the back of her mind.

"By my command spell, I order you-"

"Ritsuka-" Her chapped and bloodied lips muttered the name like a fleeting comfort feeling the power of the command spell reach out to envelope her like a warm blanket. She barely felt the fact the monster had dropped her to the ground and stood over her.

Her lance had formed, and it slammed through the shadow's head, not killing it of course. But it had stunned the damn thing. Just long enough as arrows prevented the axe sword from doing anything else.

Now that it was closer, she could see Atalante's arrows had changed, they were of much better quality.

She closed her eyes.

"-come to me, Jeanne Alter!"

Her eyes went wide with tension.

Idiot.

She fell against him and his arms wrapped around her.

"Sorry, just hold on!"

He's warm.

She wrapped her fingers around his shoulder. "Moron, now it will kill us both!" She felt a panic grip her heart, her body not responding to her demands. She needed to protect him. She needed to get him out of there. She realized she couldn't see him clearly. But she felt him shake his head in answer.

There were other more immediate worries. She couldn't stand on her left foot, and only one of her arms was responding to her without much pain as she tugged at the fabric of his mystic code. Then there were the blows that had been dealt to her abdomen that made her keel over, unable, for the moment, to hold herself upright. With her other more wounded arm, she grabbed at the armored plate around her stomach.

And winced, thankful that the cold rain was hiding her feelings better than she normally would.

"Don't you trust me Alter?" She could imagine that nervous grin of his. That one she liked could inspire confidence. Finally, with an effort she managed to turn her head and see him, he was looking at her from the corner of his eyes.

Of course, I do.

"You should've run." She said through labored breaths.

Thank you for saving me.

"Idiot why couldn't you just run-" She coughed and choked on the taste of bile and blood in her throat. She was tired she realized, resting her cheek on his shoulder and leaning further onto him. She was hurting, sore, and tired.

Thank you for waiting for me.

In that haze, she realized she was suddenly off the ground. She forced her eyes open again and saw that she was in his arms and off the ground. There was little his hands could do about avoiding wounds now that she was held securely against him. Belatedly she also realized she was bleeding from her brow onto his mystic code. It was also easier for her to see him this way. She smiled a little, looking at how the low light and the rain transfixed those glowing blue eyes. He was looking hard at the other end of the bridge.

She followed his eyes and saw that the one end of the bridge she'd been at, was now wreathed with cursed flames that seemed unaffected by the downpour. And the Hercules shadow was there. Like her looking worse for wear. Its limbs still seemed gravely wounded left over from her noble phantasm. But its healing factor prevented its death, just as her noble phantasm left curses with wounds. It was offsetting and putting the beast in a state of perpetual healing or it would die.

It was closer to them, trapped on the bridge as it lumbered towards them. And she saw Achilles scorch past with a blue lancer in toe. Overhead, more arrows rained down on the beast who was continuing to slow. And it was now still virtually trapped on the straightaway, with no buildings to shield itself, and only the river beneath them.

Jeanne Alter finally allowed herself a true breath of relief and rested her head against him. The others as a group were more than enough to defeat the hollow shell that had been left over. And all those aches and sores were making her slip away into the realm of unconsciousness. Her body strained for mana and a fever haze started to wash over her. "M-master..."

She felt his grip firm on her and she could feel herself being hugged closer. "I've got you. Irisviel is waiting for both of us."

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

The Chaldeans had set up camp for the night. The shadow servant Hercules had fallen, but not before giving Achilles and Cú Chulainn a good and fast bout. The former was by all appearances mostly untouched for having been punted from his chariot and thrown through a few buildings. Achilles had special skills to deal with that. While the latter had a few dirty scrapes that the rain washed away. Mash herself needed time with Irisviel for her arm, from one of their other battles that night.

For now, however, the main pressing concern was Jeanne Alter. Who was burning up with something akin to a high fever in his arms. Even when the cold rain had stopped pelting her skin, she was still sweating. And her wounds had stained him and his clothes. There was a look of genuine concern when he'd turned Jeanne Alter over to Irisviel.

Ritsuka had a hand over his face. The other was resting on his knee, still stained with her blood. Still stained with his own. He could feel that warm trickle from his arms. Slow, and easily aggravating when he rested his arm in an awkward place.

"Ritsuka-"

Her voice had reached him when he saw her lying there at the other end of the bridge. Even before he'd used a command spell, he could see the damage that had been done to her and he nearly tunneled vision because of it.

"Ritsuka-"

Jeanne Alter's voice had reached him again even amid that command spell. It was a voice of acceptance. It was a voice of worry. A voice of comfort. A voice of elation. It had reached him just when he thought his command spell might be too late. For just a second he saw her in its arms whipping her about, that long hair dragging out behind her. The rain had turned to blood for all but an instant.

His lip twitched while sitting out in the rain without the cover of anything overhead outside of his tent because he hadn't thought to bring her anywhere else.

Irisviel was still inside.

His fingers twitched.

There was a fear he realized much closer to this heart than he'd noticed in months prior. Sure it was easy to be around Jeanne Alter. Her abrasiveness to others was like a charming facet to him. Her threats and beratings were covers of course about how devoted she was to protecting him and saving humanity.

And for just a second, he thought their little meet-up in that stone hut was going to have been the last time. Just for a second, he thought all of those simple things would come crashing to a halt. Even when he'd gotten to hold her, it wasn't until she spoke enough that he started to feel better about his choice.

The guilt remained.

But at least it lacked for just this once a consequence.

It had been his orders she was listening to when defending the bridge. It had been his stupid choice to go see her without warning. A choice she'd paid the price for. Ritsuka forced himself to breathe out a small sigh of relief looking up into that rainy sky above him. Mentally repeating those calming words to himself he didn't realize how much he desperately needed to hear.

She's alive.

She's alright.

She's going to be okay.

The rain pattered his face falling down his cheek, washing away the stains of her blood. The cold was like ice on his own wounds and bruises.

Boots approached across the ground, soft and wet with each step. Black, which for their current group on mission, was enough to limit it to two people.

And Mash is already asleep.

He was slow about it...but eventually looked up and saw Edmond standing in the rain beside him, a cigarette in his mouth. The hat provided all the cover he needed over the smoke. "Master, you should get inside, you could get sick."

Ritsuka smiled, "Actually, Da Vinci says the mystic codes will help with that." Then his mouth twitched. "And you shouldn't let Irisviel catch you with that."

"Tch," Edmond waved it off.

There was a quiet that settled around them as he seemed to take another whiff of his cigarette. If one was quiet enough, Ritsuka was sure he could hear Irisviel's quiet movements in the tent behind him and her occasional gentle soothing hums that often overcame her when she was in work and care mode.

Edmond tapped the cigarette once, ridding it of the excess burnt residue still clinging to it. "She'll probably be fine."

Ritsuka took a deep breath and straightened himself up. Edmond was watching him carefully, no doubt ready to report anything to either Da Vinci or anyone else who might need to be informed about his thoughts.

"I know," He agreed slowly. Their master's lip twitched, "I know that…logically anyway." He felt his fingers twitch and he looked down once again at the blood that stained his hands. The rain was slowly washing it away as he turned the palm back upright. "But…I fully admit…" His mouth twitched. "I didn't know how much I…I mean I knew but I…" His fingers curled and he felt his words clog into his throat.

What if she did disappear?

What if that was it?

It would've been all my fault.

Edmond seemed to straighten up.

Ritsuka noticed and then looked over and saw Irisviel step out of the tent flaps. Her smile was strained, he could tell.

She looks tired.

Her eyes scanned the small campsite, and paused for a long moment on Edmond, no doubt taking note of the fact he was smoking. But those eyes fixed themselves on Ritsuka. "Let's have a look at you now master." She peeled back the opening to his tent making room for him to come back inside.

His brows knitted together. "W-what?"

Then he saw her expression come more firmly. And it was as if another bout of pain hit his arms as she grabbed his hand and held his arm firmly as if the answer was obvious.

"Oh…right." He tried to smile.

She pouted at him.

Ritsuka had been insistent that Alter be tended to first. Irisviel didn't push back much on that choice given the difference in Jeanne Alter's condition compared to his. But she was one to worry until everyone had had their turn.

Her red eyes flicked back to Edmond. "How many times must I say it?"

Edmond blinked and huffed out a few chuckles. In response he flicked the brim of his and turned away, stomping on his cigarette as he walked away in the rain. "Good night master, the shielder and I will compile a report first thing in the morning."

He nodded and allowed himself to be dragged back into his tent behind Irisveil.

The inside was warm, filled with the heat of a few lamps to keep it well-lit. All within easy reach of his bed roll. With blankets and his gear already all splayed out for the current occupant in them.

However, a blush started to form when he saw, piled neatly to the right of his bedding, the clothes of her Avenger spiritron dress. The black fabrics with red dyed edges were so easily noticeable that he felt his eyes transfixed more to that than his own bedding. It was a simple conclusion to draw on if her spiritron dress was outside of the bedding and away from her.

It's wrong of me to look right?

Irisviel carried on as if not paying any mind to the scenario currently playing out in his mind.

When did it get so warm?

Ritsuka touched the edge of his cheek again, wiping away the excess rainwater that had poured onto him, as Irisviel dragged him to sit on his knees right beside his currently occupied bed roll. Making his plan of averting his eyes so much harder to carry out. He could see the forms of her legs under the blanket.

His healer carried on without paying him any mind. "Take off your shirt, and remove your tank top." The command was simple and Ritsuka could feel a blush rising to his cheeks. "I had to do the same with her to tend to her wounds." Irisviel seemed to be blatantly ignoring his discomfort almost.

She misses assassin Emiya…and is probably tired.

Irisviel stared at him.

He blinked and nodded once, starting to fumble for buttons and straps.

Her expression smoothed, "I've healed her wounds. Regrowing bones and damaged organs too…she endured a lot." She hummed and looked over at the pile of clothes and armor. "But that's not the main issue right now…"

He was about halfway through, his uniform much more loose around the collar, falling open to the center of his chest.

Irisviel's touch at his wrist pulled his attention squarely back to her. "The issue is her mana…she's very low. Worse, she's not accumulating any back from what should be her connection to the Chaldea system."

"But Chaldea-"

"The storm is interfering with the connection somehow." Irisviel's fingers firmed around his wrist. "So she's not out of danger yet." Her lips twisted a little as she looked down at the avenger's sleeping form.

Ritsuka followed her eyes and saw Alter tossing and turning in her sleep.

Sweat glistened along Jeanne Alter's skin. Her breaths were labored as if she'd just finished a long exercise. Her brows were furrowed with a wince as she seemed to bite down on her lip. It was also as if she were squeezing her eyes shut, bracing herself for something. He also could see her bare shoulders exposed above his blankets.

Once more he felt his face warm and his pants started to feel tighter.

"Keep stripping." Irisviel's voice turned a little more clipped. She wasn't angry or frustrated with him, but he could tell there was slight irritation that she hadn't been able to perform her duty yet. Irisviel wrapped a bandaged talisman over her arm quickly as if checking it against something. Whatever the result, it disappointed her in some fashion. Then she took a breath and looked right at Ritsuka. "In fact master, there is a chance Alter's condition will only deteriorate if the storm doesn't clear."

Ritsuka rubbed his shirt through his wet hair and his blue eyes flicked to Irisviel beyond the one drop of water handing at the end of one of his short hairs falling over his eyes.

Irisiel was staring at him.

And a distant thunder boomed.

A whimper filled the quiet of the tent and Ritsukas almost immediately went to the source.

Alter's eyes were squeezed shut and she was grinding her teeth together as she turned onto her other side. Sweat gathered and fell from her brow. It looked like she was in pain. Ritsuka could only guess that it was due to the lack of mana or a nightmare. But either way, the pain in the expression was obvious.

He bit his lip.

Irisviel's head tilt brought his eyes back to her, "Hold out your arm."

Quietly Ritsuka obeyed, and this is when he got to see the excesses of the damage. His skin from his forearm to shoulder was marded with scrapes, scratches, and discoloration. It looked much worse than he'd thought it was. He hadn't had much time to look at it. That worry was still tightly wrapped around his heart. His eyes went back to Jeanne Alter.

And he thought about her bloodied and dying in the street. And he thought of her naked in his bedding. It made him feel warm, despite the cold chills on his body. It made him feel angry and disappointed in himself. It also made him feel nervous at the sight of her.

Clearly, his healer was irritated. "You cannot take such risks."

"I understand." He said.

"You have responsibilities." She grabbed his arm and tugged him closer.

"I know-"

Irisviel then reached out and grabbed his chin. Her voice raised to a shout. "Look at me!"

His blue eyes went wide and he did as ordered. Ritsuka caught his breath and he saw those narrowed red eyes with anger at him.

"You were lucky today! We were lucky today!" Her mouth started to twist. "You were lucky she was willing to risk everything just to make sure you had the chance of getting away! And you were lucky that not only your plan worked, but that she'd worn it down enough to make our job easier!"

I shouldn't have gone to her by myself.

He winced as her fingers gently went over his wounds.

I…only wanted to see her.

Irisviel took a deep breath, and the outpouring of her emotion seemed to cut short. "I'm happy you are both alive and well master." She forced herself to relax, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that it was already on your mind…"

Ritsuka nodded quietly.

From his healer's fingertips, came a soothing and green glow, that slowly began to make all those wounds along his arms disappear. The close encounter with that shadow aside, it had been an eventful day enough to where he had other wounds. He was going to and from place really quickly to bark orders to servants.

All of which was only made easier because he'd asked Jeanne Alter to hold the bridge. It allowed defeat in detail to all their problems in piecemeal.

I owe her my thanks.

As Irisviel worked on his arm, the other he rested on his lap, hand balling into a fist.

"In fact master, there is a chance Alter will only deteriorate if the storm doesn't clear."

His own lips started to twist and he finally managed in the quiet. "How can we help her?"

His nurse seemed to pause and smile at him. "There were several methods that came to mind for mana transferring. However…" The tension gave way to her tired expression. "After seeing how you look at her, I think we all can rest easy as to the method."

Ritsuka stared and as the seconds ticked by, he felt his cheeks starting to warm again.

"Oh good, it looks like you don't need an explanation." Irisviel then gave an airy sort of laugh, the kind that stiffened Ritsuka to his bones.

He nodded numbly now struggling to get that image of her naked in his bedroll out mind. Because even Irisviel had noticed by now, he couldn't stop looking at her. Once more he felt his pants starting to tighten with a restriction.

Those slender legs shaped by his thin sheets.

The shapely curves of her chest protruded even as she lay on her side against the sheets.

Ritsuka smacked himself and took a deep breath.

She's not going to be happy…right?

Irisviel seemed to understand as she watched him. She offered him a small and thin smile. It did its part in helping to ease him. "Master, I would have suggested other methods, if she wouldn't be amenable to you either. And the directness will save us time."

He stiffened and then forced himself to relax. "I forget how good of a mum you like to be to everyone so you tend to notice things…" Ritsuka took a breath and realized that the intention of the statement had been a comfort he hadn't realized he needed or wanted to know.

Jeanne Alter…would be willing?

It wasn't something he honestly expected of her. Jeanne Alter was abrasive of course, but she didn't like getting too close with people. Ritsuka thought it was overwhelming for her, as it intertwined with a sort of embarrassment, or intertwined with whatever made her not like getting close to people.

"She'll really be okay with it, you think?"

"Yes, I do," Irisviel said encouragingly. Then he felt his heart start to drop as Irisviel so obviously seemed to consider something. "To clarify, I don't think she would be willing to do it with anyone else…except you." The white woman smiled with a small grin. Slowly she let go of his arm, now fully healed. And grabbed his second, continuing to finish off the healing process. "Only your arms are injured right?"

Tentatively he touched his cheek where that bloody graze had been, but Irisviel had healed it before he went outside. Ritsuka swallowed and he looked at Alter sleeping with that pained expression. "A few scrapes on my legs, nothing so serious."

Irisviel hummed, seeming to catch on to the fact he didn't need her to look over them right now. However, with the way she was looking at him in suspicion, he doubted he would get away with it.

His eyes flicked back to Alter just as a wince came from her tense expression. Her eyes remained closed.

It's not…like I haven't thought of her that way before but…

"She's been repressing it for both of you for a long time now…it will…take some time for her to admit it." She leaned over and brushed some of Alter's white hair locks out of her eyes. Then she seemed to scoot away and there was something in Irisviel's eyes that sent a shiver up his back. "And since all her wounds are healed, all those spots in her body are a little more tender."

This all seems too fast.

Ritsuka felt his heart skip a beat, and he belatedly started to focus on what Irisviel had said. She'd told him outright that Alter had feelings for him. Feelings she'd been dealing with, repressing, or whatever else.

He almost refused to believe.

But he wanted to.

The more he thought about it, the more his heart started to beat. The more the thoughts of holding her in such a way didn't seem so far-fetched. It made him feel like a giddy young man just thinking about it.

Irisviel tugged at his attention again, a quick and more forceful grab of his hand holding his palm upward. He hadn't even realized she'd finished healing his other arm. But she held something up for him to see. It looked like a small piece of candy. "This," She said growing serious, "Is a stimulant." Those red eyes were sure to hold his gaze until he nodded with understanding.

He started blushing, wondering if it was starting to be a bit much. Ritsuka found himself wondering if Irisviel always just carried those sorts of things around. Or if Irisviel was simply taking the time to play matchmaker with extraneous steps.

Then his train of thought was broken.

"I refuse."

Her voice was labored and it was clearly strained through gritted teeth. It seemed even those two simple words had taken a lot out of her.

Those amber eyes were fixed on him, but not on his eyes. She was staring at the whole of him, and he could feel her eyes darting along him.

Ritsuka felt himself blush, realizing he was stripped of his shirt. He wanted to berate himself for being stupid into thinking that their conversation was private. It was foolish to think that she was asleep and instead was only just conserving her mana. It had been a state he'd seen servants in before.

Even though speaking seemed to take effort, she managed it anyway. It was that stubbornness of hers that he'd admired. "Irisviel," Jeanne Alter tried to narrow her amber eyes towards their healing caster. "Why is he here?!"

He blinked, "You're in my tent."

"Why?!" She demanded.

Irisiviel sighed, "Because he wouldn't let you out of his sight until you got your turn with me. And he refused to get treated himself until I'd fixed you up." The red-eyed homunculus woman seemed to straighten up. "And because his tent was more spacious. Frankly, I'm glad of it Jalter, you needed the help."

And Ritsuka winced as those amber eyes went to him with a fury. They roamed his figure up and down again, and he tried to ignore the reflexive impulse to cover himself. It manifested in the twitch of his arms that he kept tightly fastened to his sides at all times.

"You moron!" She cursed as she tried to sit up and fell back in an instant, her body shaking as if that strain had been too much. The blanket that had been over her up to her shoulders had fallen to her collarbones. A sort of crazed look went over her amber eyes and she looked at Irisviel. "W-what's happening to me?" Her breaths started to become more rapid. "A curse?"

"Jalter-" Irisviel tried calmly.

"One of those poisons then?" Alter's fingers were shaking and there was a look that Ritsuka could only describe as paranoia that had come over her expression.

"No, it's-" Irisviel's brow twitched.

"S-shit! Shit SHIT SHIT!" She turned onto her side, trying to get her hands under her. "I f-fucking knew it. Gilles did something to me again, didn't he? What was it this time?"

Irisviel's lip twisted as she forcefully grabbed Alter and pressed her back down into the bedroll, as thunder boomed, closer than it had been before. "NO ALTER! Nothing happened after you were brought to me!" Her mouth started to twist and she held the avenger firmly until those amber eyes held a degree of certainty.

Jeanne Alter seemed to stiffen looking up at her mouth agape. "Then-"

"Ritsuka guarded the entrance outside while I was with you the whole time. Bluebeard isn't even here remember?!" Her mouth twisted a bit further. "And it's your mana, nothing more. You're out of it, and your tether to Chaldea is being interfered with due to the overhead storm!" Then she paused, forcing herself to take a deep breath.

Quietly Irisviel straightened up and let Jalter's shoulder go. "I would've moved you…if this wasn't the safest place you could possibly be at the moment."

There was a long pause between the two of them as understanding slowly started to creep into Jeanne Alter's expression. Her eyes narrowed sharply onto him.

Ritsuka had a lot going through his mind at that moment. Suddenly feeling horribly guilty about this whole thing. His blue eyes flicked to Irisviel and he could feel the weight of that little candy sitting in his palm.

Irisviel isn't playing matchmaker right now, she's genuinely concerned.

It was a quiet reminder to himself as he tried to calm his heart.

"I-I refuse-" She breathed out again. "I refuse to do it with someone like him!" Her lips twisted at him, she gritted her teeth at him as if that very thing had taken effort to scream into the quiet of their tent. Those amber eyes tried to fix themselves onto Ritsuka to not leave him with any doubt.

An ache formed in his chest.

And that is that…

He swallowed a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. Ritsuka would reel his emotions in. He needed to do it. Ritsuka could let her rejection of him sink in later. He had to let it sink in later so that he couldn't dwell on it right now.

She turned away from him, burying her face into that pillow.

Refusing to even look at him.

That ache turned into a gaping wound.

Don't cry.

Irisviel's red eyes were wide on him.

He hissed and took a long breath. Blinking away the water that had formed in his eyes. Ritsuka refused to let them loose. "Jeanne," He tried gently. "You're going to disappear if…-" He cut himself off. Then he took a long breath, his fingers trembling.

I don't want to hurt her.

He swallowed again.

I don't want to do something to her she doesn't want.

Finally, his expression straightened and his breath, while shaky, came out steadier than it had a moment ago. "Look, Jeanne, I don't want to do this to you either."

###Jeanne Alter###

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why did I say that to him?

Jeanne Alter's voice wouldn't answer her anymore. She tried. Nothing came free as she watched her words sink into him. Unfiltered and unabated with nothing to soften their blow. And she couldn't help it as those words jumbled. In a short few seconds of time in which she'd meant to clarify, she'd gotten distracted again.

Her amber eyes looked him over, the rain glistening against the lean muscles of his shirt. It made her mind go blank and her mouth fell agape.

Coward.

She swallowed and twisted her head around to face away from him. Those lecherous thoughts filled her mind. Jeanne Alter pictured herself grinding her body along that lean frame of his muscles. She could imagine the stiffness of them as she squeezed her skin against his. She blew out a breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

An arm under the blanket went up to cover her nipples.

The sensation she realized of holding them had made it so much worse. She doubly realized what it would be like to have him touch them instead. Him digging his nails in would hurt her, but it would be worth it right?

Ritsuka blew out a tense breath. "Jeanne," He tried gently. "You're going to disappear if…-" She could hear him swallow even as she focused on trying not to look at him. Tried not to think of how exposed she was.

There was another beat of silence as her fingers curled into the sheets of the blankets hiding herself away.

Coward.

N-no! I like him without all the pain and suffering it would bring.

Her fingers were almost sore from how hard she was holding onto that thin sheet over her form. She'd moved one of her hands-free. It was getting far too damned hot she realized too. Her hair was starting to stick to the skin of her neck.

And his voice cut through her thoughts like a blade through butter.

"Look, Jeanne, I don't want to do this to you either."

She bristled at that. The way she'd been bracing herself for something like it had been ongoing from the start. Her eyes opened again as she stared off silently to the side of the tent, and she could hear the quiet patternings of rain just under her breath as she forced the tension of her body to unwind.

He doesn't want to do such things with me?

She didn't cry. There was no point now that his feelings were out in the open. And now it seemed, it was too late to take back what she'd said to him. Her mouth twisted at herself.

There was no point in it now.

She squeezed her eyes shut again.

Don't cry.

Don't cry.

Don't cry.

She gritted her teeth and wanted to bite down on her tongue.

Did I ruin it?

It was the obvious question to ask herself now. Wondering if she'd just ruined any shot of him seeing her in that light. She wanted to curl up and disappear now more than ever.

Or did he never want to see me that way?

Jeanne Alter thought of their dancing, their doujin making in the summer, and their time spent together. The time only a few hours ago when they were so close she could smell him as she was pressed up against the wall. She'd wanted to kiss him before at the dance. And she realized how quickly her chances had plummeted away.

What's there to see for an evil dragon witch?

I'll disappear anyway!

There was the sound of movement that seemed to draw her attention outward. She could feel froth form in her mouth from anger. She was going to tell that stupid healer off for even suggesting such a thing. She should've known better if Ritsuka didn't see it that way. She should've known better than to expose her so…

And the words died in her throat, coming face to face with him having moved much closer to her. Her breath hitched in her throat too as her amber eyes went wide.

Ritsuka had grabbed her hand, above the sheets.

No doubt he could feel how hard she was clinging to the sheets. He interwove his fingers through hers and gently squeezed.

She stared at him.

"But we have to try something…shouldn't we? You are going to disappear…" His expression as he looked down at her was one of earnest worry. Those blue eyes had fixed to her amber ones.

This idiot…

Her lip twitched.

Still worrying over me?

She thought about the way his hand had grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the street and pouring rain back in the city. The way he held her until she had support in place, outwaiting the monster.

Even if it's him…

She couldn't help but wonder if she was really up for it. All her notions regarding such matters were practical in the case of the mana transfer. And delusional as a gift from her so-called creator in Gilles who implanted her with memories that would fuel her creation. It made the prospect so unspeakably terrifying to her too. She hoped Ritsuka couldn't detect the subtle twitches of her fingers while he was holding her hand.

Even if it's him…

Jeanne Alter swallowed a cold and bitter truth. Thinking once more of that distant dream as her body continued to overheat. A byproduct of her currently disrupted link with Chaldea. He was still shirtless and she could see his muscles much closer now.

And even with her grasp to hide them, she could feel her nipple stiffening against her arm under the blanket.

She bit her lip and tried to force away the conundrum of all these cascading feelings.

Afterall. There was no way he'd even want to kiss her now. It had been a fleeting dream of course, but that now had all been confirmed.

"Jeanne, I don't want to do this to you either."

It had made her feel so unwanted in an instant. She wished she could evaporate into thin air. Even if he had to do all those other things to her, would it be worth it to have him kiss her? Could she get that from him at least once? Even if he wanted nothing to do with her after all of this.

Her movement felt sluggish as she grew red and sheepish. Her legs curled a little toward her chest under the blankets. She breathed out slowly, feeling as if her body was overheating already with the strain of her lack of mana.

Childish.

She tossed the thought aside. He wanted to save her life and she was thinking about needless things such as that. Once more she tried to avert her eyes from him, squeezing them shut as tight as she could muster.

"Alter…." His voice had turned away from that clipped forceful sensation he'd said when he spoke earlier. The complete opposite of those repeating words in her head. "I'm sorry you were put in this position…" He closed his eyes, and his fingers tightened around hers. "So let this be how I make it up to you."

Her brain focused on that, and she took a breath.

I saved his life and now he wants to ensure mine.

Her lip twitched and she realized too. This was probably her only chance now that she would have to get him to kiss her. Her only and last chance if she accepts. She forced herself to take a deep breath.

Kissing is a part of it…right?

She finally found her voice. "F-fine…master…" She took another deep breath and seemed to curl tighter into the blankets. Her cheeks were warming again. Jeanne Alter pressed her lips into a line and tried to avert her eyes away from that shirtless form of his.

But even if it is him…

A breath of relief filled the tent.

Jeanne almost froze at the sound of it and her amber eyes flicked to Irisviel who'd still been in the tent. She gritted her teeth, feeling a certain anger starting to rise at that other woman's growing smile. And judging by the way Ritsuka's hand had tensed in hers, he'd also forgotten she was there.

Irisviel's shoulder slumped forward. "Great…then I shall leave you both be." She stood up and cleared her throat. And though there was only a slight tint on her cheeks to match the two of them, she spoke matter of factly all the same. "Just remember, for practical reasons…on the mana transfer being successful…that you both have to climax…"

Jeanne Alter's blush worsened.

Even if it is him…

The caster smiled and gestured to Ritsuka. "It…likely will need to be multiple times…to get her back to normalcy."

"Tch-!" Then before she could swear at her, Irisviel left with a smile on her lips humming to herself as if she were none the wiser. Leaving the two of them alone in his tent. For a stretch, neither of them spoke.

Jeanne Alter could feel her headache getting worse. Just how in the hell was she supposed to enjoy it? She closed her eyes and her frown deepened a little more. She pressed her lips into a line as she felt them starting to tremble.

I'm…scared?

Ritsuka sighed, and at last seemed to straighten and she watched his every movement carefully with all the scrutiny she was willing to risk at that moment. He grabbed the edge of the sheet her hand was still clinging to. He seemed to let out one last deep breath. "May I?" He asked gently.

She didn't trust herself to speak. Jeanne Alter only nodded, biting her lip hard enough to leave indents with her teeth.

With her silent permission given, he slowly peeled the sheet of his bedroll away. She quickly shoved her hand that had been holding his, back underneath the blanket covering herself and squeezed her eyes shut, her body tensing as she felt the sheet slide away. It was as if she was bracing herself.

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

His pants seemed to only grow tighter and his blue eyes now roamed her body as her eyes had been roaming his. Her body glistened and he could see the indents over her nipples were her hand, and arm were swishing against her chest as if to hide his eyes from them.

With her other hand, she covered her crouch.

Even with that, it left very little to the imagination.

She's god damn beautiful.

The words never quite reached his throat, finding himself speechless and star-struck that even now, she was so beautiful. For him, there was an unwinding of tension too as he slumped forward a little on his knees. One last breath of relief escaped him and he smiled down at her even if Alter couldn't see it.

Her wounds are healed, just as Irisviel had promised.

Ritsuka shifted again, his knees were finally on his bedroll, and off of the hard ground.

He saw her shift a little with the indent of extra weight on the bedroll now beneath them. And he watched her tense. Those nails of hers were digging deeply into the side of her left breast, the right arm pressing inward almost harder. She pressed her knees together, and he could hear how erratic her breathing was.

His mouth twitched. "Jeanne?"

Her erratic breaths seemed only to get worse.

And he tried to steel his nerves. A moment ago she'd refused to look at him. Especially now that they were in this together, he couldn't bear the thought of it.

"Jeanne, look at me." His voice was gentle in its firmness. It was clear he was asking her rather than telling her. Ritsuka hoped that it would be enough and he could sense the hardening of his own heart as his pants only grew tight. The fabric was now an irritation over that budding warmth of his shaft.

Slowly and still biting her lip, her amber eyes flicked open to look at him. "W-what is it?" She frowned at him and then looked down at herself. He realized only just a fraction of a second too late where her mind had gone. "Do…I…look that bad?"

He was quick to shake his head. "No…I think you look beautiful."

It's a shame then…that she's stuck with me.

Once more he smiled at her, hoping to defuse whatever tension ailed her. However, he noticed that it seemed to only make it worse.

Stuck with me…a barely competent human.

Just a few feet away now, he watched her expression twist. Under her breath, he'd barely heard the first word out of his mouth. He hadn't had time to properly register it, but he knew that it was all there was. "Then what?" Her voice was clipped, and it started turning sharp as if she were starting to bear claws at him.

She's already fed up with me.

Distant thunder boomed.

Doesn't want to do this with me.

But he'd done it. She'd been clear with him that she didn't want to do this with him. So he was going to look at it partially like it was an opportunity. How could he not, with how wonderful she always was? Now he just wanted to make sure that it wasn't as uncomfortable for her as she was clearly bracing herself.

"Jeanne," He asked gently again. "I'm going to touch you…is that okay?" His fingers balled into a fist at his side, mostly out of her sight. Ritsuka felt his stomach starting to fall. Feeling horrible almost for being excited, knowing this wasn't what she wanted, knowing that it was him she didn't want.

And he felt bad for how much he was aching to put his hands on her.

He averted his eyes, his face red.

Her breath was shaky and she seemed to gather herself up to it. "Y-yes…"

Ritsuka had already thought deeply about where to touch her first upon seeing her. It was after his mind had taken him from the beautiful curves of her chest, and the smooth warmth of her thighs. The thoughts that made his mind go almost rabid and feral. It wasn't anywhere particularly lewd where he wanted to start.

Irisviel had warned him about the tenderness of freshly healed skin. He could feel it on his arms too. It was like a heightened sensitivity almost from the wounds she'd healed. It was a sensation that would persist probably for the next hour at least.

He scooted himself closer and tensed when he heard her breath hitch and saw her bite her lip.

She seemed to flinch right before his fingers touched her skin.

It gave him pause only for a few seconds longer.

Then he ran his fingers gently from her belly button to her hip, dragging them gently across the surface of her beautifully smooth skin. She was warm to the touch which he knew to expect. Even still he hadn't expected to feel so wonderful.

Her breath hitched and he caught her staring at him with a look of surprise. Evidently, that touch was not one she expected.

Ritsuka made no move to withdraw her hands, still covering herself up. He scooted himself just a little closer now, their knees practically touching as he approached her from the side where he'd been sitting beside her. He did the same with his left hand, gently moving from her belly button, and over her arm she was using to cover her sex.

Her legs closed around her own fingers.

In that deafening quiet, her breaths grew heavier like his own.

He felt his brow twitch and it felt like his pants around his waist would burst, throbbing with each slow movement he'd made, trying not to agitate himself. The first breath he released was a shaky one, as his fingers dug gently into the skin on her hips. Even if the position he was in was awkward.

The image of all those wounds of hers were aching in his mind.

He breathed out hard, spit in his mouth as he felt that froth and anger just at the very thought of them.

She stiffened, he realized, as his fingers traced from her navel to hip again and again.

He thought of her being hit there again and again like she had been.

It was something that needed to be said, and he found his voice hoarse and his eyes stinging with tears that he refused to shed. He found himself gritting his teeth.

Jeanne Alter was looking at him with wide eyes with an emotion he couldn't quite place. All he knew for certain though, was that made her flinch when she met his eyes. She bit her lip to prevent the trembling of it. And it had emboldened him all the more.

Those amber eyes never left his fingers when he'd finally released his firm touch on her navel and hip.

Her whole body seemed to jerk away from his fingers as they got closer to their destination and she winced, squeezing her eyes closed.

Only, as gently as he could manage, he touched her cheek...cupping her face for a moment.

###Jeanne Alter###

Abuse was something Jeanne Alter was keenly familiar with. It was easy to imagine with all the specific wishes and evils that had supplemented her creation that she would've gotten something wrong. At least she understood that it was partially wrong.

Sex was something she understood practically of course. The important bits on how to pleasure a man.

There was the way she could recall that versions of Gilles had treated the girls he'd once spent time with. Memories real or injected into her upon birth she wasn't sure. But she could remember the wounds, the black eyes, the skin discoloration, the scratches, and the blood.

All things that were…she concluded…at least in part to be normal…right?

It was why she'd refused him so. She loved him, and with that, knew she had burnt every bridge to even dream of that world he liked back.

And she didn't want to be on the receiving end of doing that. She didn't need to see him in such a cruel light. When the only good thing that had happened to her risked doing something like that, she knew it would wreak havoc on her mind. Jeanne Alter knew it so desperately that it made her deathly afraid.

Because his touches on her navel were soothing.

And she enjoyed it.

A fact in which she'd mentally prepared the exact opposite.

I'm scared.

Her breath turned shaky.

Pain she could bear. Pain was like an old bitter friend.

But this?

Her overheated and exhausted body, filled with some lingering aches, sores, and tenderness, started to grow even warmer. She could feel her short white hair sticking to her neck and the sides of her cheeks.

Her heart started to beat quicker as she watched his hand getting closer to her. She bit down harder on her lip to try and stop it. In retrospect, she looked at the idea of Ritsuka doing those sorts of things to her seemed absurd. Even if he didn't want to do this with her, her master had never been anything other than nice to her.

She flinched, and still winced as she felt his hand on her cheek. His thumb brushed across the skin under her eye, to the side of her nose. Then moving, so that the webbings of his fingers were tucking her hair between them. Her body was still bracing itself for a turn that she wasn't so sure was coming anymore. Her shaky breaths paused as she watched him.

And she saw him struggling with bitter anger in his eyes.

It made her heart stop.

He could feel his hand shaking on her skin.

That fear seeped back in, and she slowly realized that he was tormented by emotions. She bit her lip and wanted to curl up. Only that thing she worried over never came, his hand was only firmly touching her, shaking with the unwanted or unruly twitches of his arm. She swallowed and turned her eyes on him.

Ritsuka was probably still oblivious to those unneeded worries and instincts.

But his voice was hoarse like he was barely holding back all the emotional turmoil of someone who'd had a hard day. Someone on the verge of breaking down, but still holding themselves together because it was expected of them.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Jeanne." She heard his voice crack, his breath shaken. And then it smoothed as the seconds went by.

Her heart stopped and her eyes went wide as she was staring at him. Something pulled at her, lulling her. Her amber eyes rolled back as she closed her eyes. His hand on the side of her face was digging gently into her skin, tender skin that had been healed. His other hand began to trace her skin from her hip to thigh.

She opened her mouth to speak but found nothing had come out. Her face flushed red as she realized she was going to make a noise that would sound feral like an animal in desperate need of his proximity.

Happy I'm okay?

Tears collected once more unbidden.

But he doesn't want this with me…

Her mouth twisted. She wondered how he could be so kind to her even now when she was being so damned selfish for wanting this despite that. Slowly Jeanne Alter leaned into his touch on her face forcing herself in turn to breathe out a slower and relaxed. "I'm…happy you're okay too Master…"

I should be in pain.

Her lip twitched.

But it feels…

Slowly Ritsuka started to move around her. His hand that had been cupping her cheek left her and she watched him position himself closer to her legs.

That warmth had spread to her core, tucked away between her thighs, tucked away under her hand. Her hand was trying desperately to keep still to avoid agitating that budding warmth that had gathered there. However, Ritsuka's hands had trailed downwards to her thighs.

She heard him take a deep breath, once more smoother than the last. "Alter, can you…sit up?"

Jeanne Alter tested the limit of her body at that moment. It would cause her strain. She shook her head slowly, "Sorry…" She whispered. "I…can't…I can barely…" She huffed out a warm breath. "Manage…"

He hummed slowly but understandingly. "T-then I'll…take the lead for now…" She watched him trail off.

Her grip over her chest twitched at that. Her nipples strained against the underarm she was using to cover them. Those amber eyes went wide on him again and those hands seemed to catch one of those tender sore spots on her legs and she bit on her lip as a noise almost escaped her throat.

Slowly, her legs parted and her fingers started shaking again knowing exactly where he was looking. She averted her eyes from him, feeling herself blush despite the heat overtaking her body. Even when she averted her eyes, she could still hear his breathing, listening for the sound of him removing his trousers.

But that sound hadn't come. Instead, she felt the warmth of his breath on her leg, right along the heat of her inner thigh. Jeanne Alter felt his tongue on her thigh. Her eyes bulged open again, realizing quickly his intent.

His fingers wrapped around her wrist, the hand still covering her sex against her fingers. She bit her lip, realizing he hadn't pushed her hand away. She stared gawking at him.

"Alter," He commented gently, kissing the back of her hand. She could feel his nose on her skin and her body almost twitched at that feeling.

But he didn't ask her to move her hand.

He was waiting for her.

And then she got hit with a double realization. The fact that Ritsuka had kissed her twice now, once on her inner thigh, and now again on the back of her hand. That thing she had wanted had been fulfilled in an instant.

But she grew warmer.

What the hell is happening to me?!

While she contemplated, she felt his hand once more slide over her leg, firmly grabbing her foot, the one that the shadow had crushed completely from angle to heel. Ritsuka's fingers dug into her skin.

And it was with that she'd learned just how tender her body was after Irisviel's healing.

Her body jerked unbidden and a moan escaped her lips unbidden.

Jeanne Alter slammed a hand over her mouth with a breathless squeak. She was making a damn fool of herself now she knew. She'd almost winced at herself for it, returning her eyes to look at him. Those amber eyes squeezed closed for only a few seconds before opening back up those blue eyes wide on her as she covered her lips.

Those blue eyes of his, and his gentle soothing touches had stopped.

She looked down and saw her exposed breasts, those red marks she'd left from her grip were obvious on her white skin.

"You look beautiful." He said to her again, his eyes turning up just a little to meet her.

His fingers gently unraveled around her foot and grabbed her ankle too.

"Mmm-" Her brows started to narrow. "Master-" She huffed out of breath.

That other hand of his had never left, the gentle hold on her other wrist, the one that was still asking for her silent permission to continue.

Her words had lodged in her throat, unable to speak.

There was a long pause.

She then felt his lips and warm breath now on her ankle.

She curled her toes.

His hand holding her wrist loosened.

Her bare leg was brushed against the side of his hip, as he angled in a little closer. He pushed one of her legs gently back and to the side, and with the other, he hooked over his right shoulder. Dragging his fingers along both calves, he kissed her knee, which now rested on the crest of his shoulder.

Her breaths grew even heavier.

"Jeanne," He spoke gently into the air. He said her name in a way that she'd never heard before. Like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Like she was some art piece or some great beauty. And that she was all he ever wanted.

Her breath had hitched at the way he'd said it. So endearing and insistent it was, that she bit on her lip.

Wants nothing to do with you.

But I…can pretend…right?

On her other leg, his hand had pushed her knee back, one leg over his shoulder, the other wide right. It spread her with a shiver.

And all the while his fingers went from firm to gentle.

His fingers slid back down across her thigh, and her leg bent with him as he leaned forward over her. His lips trailed a small line, pausing only to give two kisses. One at her belly button, the other at the underside of her breast.

She covered her lips and her face grew warmer because of it. And she could feel her fingers shaking, nails clamping down on the skin of her cheek.

He's warm.

His next kiss was right under her nipple, brushing the stiffness and it sent another charge of shock through her. A muffled cry escaped her lips, and she could taste the palm of her hand on her tongue.

Her boobs bounced freely this time when her body jerked, her nipple wrapped in his lips as she felt his tongue dance over her.

Something was building she realized with a shaky breath as her body settled again. With one hand over her lips, she squeezed her eyes shut.

Why did it have to be this?

Ritsuka switched to her right breast and did the same thing, suckling gently. She was more prepared for it this time and managed to rein in her body's twitches, as her hips bucked her core and knuckles into his leg.

It made that feeling of something building worse. Her eyes bulged wide as she grabbed him, now one hand to cover her mouth, the other to hold his hair. Even if she left herself exposed now, she just needed to pull at his attention.

It would've been easier if it had been pain.

"Your breasts are beautiful Jeanne."

"Idiot-" She tried to grit her teeth. "Just get on with it…" She squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't…"

Why is it so…exhilarating?

She bit her lip and brows furrowed.

Ritsuka left kisses for her nipples and went back down, kissing her smooth skin, and his hands followed, pressing firmly down along her chest. Her fingers dug into his scalp and her lips tasted wet.

She huffed, "Can't you just put it inside me and be done with it?"

He doesn't want it with me.

Her teeth bit down on her lips harder, this time the pain shocked her just enough back to reality.

That's right.

She breathed out. It was all she could do to remind herself that it was for a purpose. To remind herself that he had no want. That all this was pointless if he didn't have sex with her in that practical way that she understood. Even with all the new sensations that were surprising her, it was still about making sure she lived through the night.

But again, she could hear no ruffling of his pants, a sign of what she would have to take. And it was unexpected, as she realized where his head was just before it had happened. She could feel the warm breath of his trailing across her skin.

And he ignited her body alight with a kiss of his lips to her labia, and again to her clit.

Her eyes bulged open again. "What are you-!" She flinched as another lick went over her. "Ah-". She clamped a hand over her mouth shut once again. Her knee, still resting over his shoulder, bucked into his cheek, and his fingers firmly dug into her high pulling her away.

Oh-

Jeanne had a sharp intake of breath as waves of pleasure washed over her. Her nails dug into his scalp. Even though she was deprived of mana and strength, it was a bodily impulse she couldn't control, and her wrist was shaking.

His tongue worked slowly until it seemed it had touched every part of her between her thighs, from the base of her vulva to her clit, she felt warmth spread like a glow through her. And that build from earlier had intensified. Another moan escaped her lips just when she relaxed her hand against her mouth.

I'm not supposed to feel this good-

A bitterness started to rise, only to be tempered by pleasure.

Why does it feel so…

Her thoughts faded into a sort of haze, as her body jerked, her breasts bouncing with her as she twisted a little. Ritsuka seemed intent on letting those reactions course through her, his hands firmly holding her in place while he ran his tongue over her and around her.

Jeanne felt as if her body was squeezing with pleasure, her muscles tensing and untensing with each stroke of his tongue. His lips kissed her, outlining her the way his tongue did. And the way his fingers dug into her tender skin, only elated her further.

The feeling of build-up was terrifying and exhilarating all at once.

But she knew he wouldn't hurt her. She knew that with certainty now after all that had happened. She could barely speak, and her finger squeezed his hair again. "M-master-" She managed between huffed breaths. Covering her lips again realizing he hadn't stopped yet, as she felt his tongue push into her.

But it's still wrong-

Her hips bounced towards him, and his firm hands kept her in place.

She could feel a haze over her mind.

Maybe it's not normally supposed to feel this way?

Somehow she knew if she didn't speak what she wanted, then she wouldn't get a chance to. Whatever that build-up was, was slowly consuming her and it was getting harder and harder for her to think straight.

"Ah-" she bit down on her lip as quickly as she tried to release her hold on her lips. "M-master-" She huffed out more insistently. Her fingers tugged at his hair this time, feeling the slight strain in her mana-deprived muscles.

This time he finally looked up at her, pulling his lips and tongue away.

Jeanne Alter couldn't believe she wanted to whine about it. Her body slumped almost with relief that it had for only a moment stopped.

He waited a few seconds more.

"Y-you're supposed to…exchange sexual fluids w-with me." Her voice was breathy and she found it had been difficult to say. He paused leaning closer.

Her legs bent around him as he did, feeling a bulge in his pants throbbing and hot, pressing against her thigh, and she felt herself spread almost needily as he leaned upwards toward her face again. It sent shivers through her.

"I know." He whispered and then he looked sheepish with a blush. "I…just wanted to make sure you felt good first…"

Jeanne Alter stared at him.

Is it really supposed to be like this?

His left hand wrapped over her breast, and with the other he suckled at it, pulling away with a pop that made her moan.

She clamped down over her mouth again. Her core ground against his knee as if begging for more.

And she watched him trail his kisses back down to her clit, and continue right where he'd left off.

Whatever it was she was so damn close now that she could feel the tension spread over her body. The fast wet motions of his tongue, the firm grip on her tender skin, the jerking twists of her body. Her boobs bounced as her hips bucked.

She moaned harshly into her mouth she could feel saliva and heat from sweat on her expression as finally that build climaxed. Her first instinct had been to clamp down and fight it. But it was like pushing against inevitability.

Amber eyes rolled back as she collapsed back flat on the bedroll. His tongue worked away at her core, drenching it in warmth and saliva. It sent waves of pleasure through her, and she squirmed in place. She moaned and screamed his name through her clamping hand.

Ritsuka-

He groaned at the feeling of her nails digging into his skin.

And at last, it had passed flushing away and her limbs were shaking. Convulsions wracked her body, and Ritsuka held to her firmly, as if not to allow her a reprieve. She was shaking too with shock.

W-hat?

She squeezed her eyes shut.

Why is he trying to make me feel good?!

Oh gods she could still feel him working his tongue around her and in her. "F-fuck." She huffed covering her lips again.

She squeezed her eyes shut harder.

Why does it have to feel this way?

It would have been easier to reconcile that he didn't want her if it had been a painful experience like she'd anticipated. But that was the opposite of his every intention it seemed. He was, even now, worrying about her like he always did. He wanted to make sure that she was okay. Like he always did.

She was flushed with all sorts of emotions.

Even as her body started to relax once more, she could feel his tongue still licking away at her. Her breaths were hoarse as already she could feel those pleasurable waves crashing through her.

She sniffed into the air and he couldn't see through the blurred vision of her tears. Jeanne Alter would've slammed her fists into something if she thought it wouldn't strain her further. The best she could manage was grinding her teeth.

A sob wracked her body.

All this for someone he didn't want?

Those movements of his tongue stopped and she realized that he'd heard her. She felt like a damn fool. Of course, that idiot would notice the overwhelming spill of emotions passing over her.

It hurts.

His fingers formed their grip on her thighs. "Alter?" He asked gently.

It hurts.

Jeanne Alter spoke knowing it would confuse him, but she couldn't stop it. All those words that had been lodged in her throat came loose. Her voice cracked. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm…s-so sorry…" She couldn't see him, but she could imagine that concerned look of his.

She wanted to imagine something on his expression that would speak to annoyance. It would have helped her reconcile.

But he would never.

"I…I-'m s-sorry." Her mouth twisted. "I didn't want to make you do this for me…" Her bitterness rose into her mouth. "Y-you deserve better-" She cut herself off realizing that was only part of what she'd meant.

Why is it so hard to think?

Her mouth twisted.

I wish he wanted me.

And it was in that thought it had all aligned for her, why she felt so miserable. Jeanne Alter was in bliss but that misery had only compounded on her enjoyment. Her amber eyes went wide as if she'd be shocked with a surprise. Tears still staining her cheeks as she finally saw Ritsuka more clearly.

Worry was on his expression like she'd imagined.

Then she finally found a space to breathe between the crying. "I'm sorry you have to do this with a selfish dragon witch like me-." Her mouth twisted and she could feel her tears coming anew and she squeezed them shut. "I'm such a-" She almost growled with frustration, but it had come out as the shaky breaths of a sob.

"Alter?" Ritsuka said more urgently, "Jeanne," he tried again more gently.

"But you said you didn't want this either right?" She sniffed again and she could feel her heart bracing.

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

He'd fallen quiet in an instant as he watched her. Ritsuka's worry about why she was crying had been matched only by a sudden relief that had filled him as he figured it out. Sherlock had once told him that he needed to get better at reading people because it was something that could save his life in the future.

Here it had served him simply to understand.

Ritsuka had wanted to laugh at how obtuse they'd been at the start. "Oh…Alter…" He leaned in closer, his hand holding her right leg off to the side went to her cheeks. Her body was still warm to the touch.

He felt her stiffen and those amber eyes flicked up to him.

She's scared.

That much should have been obvious from the start he realized with the way she was reacting to every little thing he did even now.

She's self-conscious.

He brushed one of her tears away with his thumb. "Oh Alter…I always thought you were beautiful."

Her amber eyes widened, staring at him. "But…"

Ritsuka nodded, "I admit…that this…is an unexpected turn of events. And this is no way how I ever dreamed it might go…" He grew sheepish for a second and he felt a blush coming to his cheeks. The butterflies dancing in his chest grew worse.

I…suppose I understand that feeling.

He didn't want to screw up.

Slowly, he took a deep breath. "I didn't mean for you to think I didn't want this with you. I'm sorry…I should've phrased that better. I…was getting overwhelmed…" He felt his mouth twitch and he straightened up a little. "But I have wanted to…be with you for a while. It's just... " He tilted his head for a second, searching for the right words. "I couldn't stand the thought of hurting you, or being the one that hurt you."

Her right leg had scooted closer now that he was hanging over her a little. He could feel her fingers tighten on his hair locks and the other, gently traced down his chest to his abdomen.

She sniffed.

Gently he ran his thumb along her cheek again and slowly, he felt her lean into his touch.

"I'm s-sorry too." She whispered, "I had the wrong idea about…t-this." Her lips twitched and she didn't quite smile but he could see some of that worry finally leave her.

He straightened a little and his blue eyes went wide.

Does that mean…?

Ritsuka didn't want to get ahead of himself.

But she had protested strongly?

Jeanne Alter took a deep breath. "Y-you want to do this with m-me?" The cries she was desperately trying to keep buried snuck out and broke up her words. Her shoulders were shaking and he knew she hated being vulnerable. If it had been any other time or any other topic she probably would've snapped at him to leave.

He tried not to fill with sudden excitement at the hope that had been in her voice.

The want that had permeated the air between her words.

Ritsuka nodded, "I do…"

The sign that it was mutual.

"R-really?" She breathed.

"Yes."

Her stiffening and tense muscles finally seemed to relax just a little more. The stiffness never quite left, but he could feel her fingers pressing urgently into his skin drawing him closer. He was close to her now.

Ritsuka traced a finger from the corner of her lip top of her cheekbone. All he could think about was how her lips might taste. It was a near-blinding hunger that threatened to overtake him. Restrained only by the fact she hadn't given him her permission yet. They were both still in shock after all.

###Jeanne Alter###

Her damned body was so useless to her right now. It would've normally made her bitter, despondent, and angry. However, she found Ritsuka to be getting closer to her like she wanted anyway.

He wants me?

Her amber eyes were glistening in the low light and she could feel his breath getting warmer, drawing closer.

He wants me.

An elation started to spread through her at the very idea. Just then she was certain she had the wrong idea of what this would be like from the start. And if it was going to be like this the entire time with him...

She could almost feel her whole body squirm with anticipation. It was feverish with a haze and lust she'd never experienced before outside of her most distant dreams that she dared to have.

It is embarrassing and stupid, and-

Jeanne Alter wanted to nuzzle into his hand as it cupped her cheek.

It's so warm.

Her sex felt alight pressed against his knee.

Ritsuka's lips were so close now she bit her lip. She feebly grasped onto his skin despite her depletion of mana, trying to urge him closer as she tried to push that overflow of emotion to the side just long enough to form a few words. There was that look in his blue eyes that made her heart dance, and her chest ache with writhing nerves.

The way he looked at her with all that same caring and stupid worrying he always had when seeing her.

Oh gods he really wants me.

It was enough to send another shiver through her as finally her throat was forcefully unclogged. Her eyes were on his lips. Imagining what they would do to her all over again if they had kissed her on the mouth this time. A completely different sensation than she imagined. The thought of his tongue pushing and rolling around in her mouth.

Her mouth started to water with anticipation.

"K-kiss me".

It had been the driving force behind what had convinced her to do this in the first place. But now, it was the first kiss of many. Now it wasn't out of some desperate dream she wanted to fulfill and keep. Now it was going to be the first memory she had of him being like this with her. It made her feel giddy.

"As you wish." His warm breath blew across the skin of her lips.

A second passed before that distance closed. She could feel his smile as their lips met.

He wants me!

That warm sensation in her started to build again and she felt her eyes roll back wanting to give in to that simple touch of his. That simple feeling of their kissing.

It wasn't chaste, quick, or light. It was everything she dared to think of only in her dreams. She felt his tongue roll into her and press her around. It continued until her lungs started to burn, saliva dripped from the corner of her mouth, and it felt like steam was coming off her when their lips finally parted.

Her fingers dug into his hair, the other started tugging at the belt around his waist, sick of feeling fabric grinding up against her.

Ritsuka tugged gently at her hair, kissing the corner of her lips, and the underside of her jaw. His hand tucked her nipples in the webbing of his hand.

Her body twitched.

Despite that moan that escaped her lips, she found her body once again distinctly unable to perform that simple task. That lack of mana was really starting to get to her. And if not for Ritsuka's pleasurable touches and urgings, she had little doubt her headache would be far worse…that she would be in more pain.

But the problem was her hands struggled to pull even his belt buckle apart.

I really did go all out…

And it was worthless.

We won anyway.

Ritsuka kissed her again as they parted, this one more chaste than the previous. But it had brought her eyes to him.

"Hurry." She huffed at him.

He deserves attention too.

Jeanne Alter bit her lip a little more tightly as she tried to catch her breath. Feeling a sort of dizziness in her mind. "I w-want you to-ah!"

His knee ground against her again, and she moaned into his mouth. The grip of her fingers in his hair were shaking. The grasp of her fingers on his belt she tried to tighten. She closed her eyes again hoping it would desperately be another long kiss. But it was painfully short she thought compared to that first one still.

His thumb wiped saliva at the corner of her mouth.

There was a pause as his hand cupped her face again. There was a firmness of his fingers that dug into that extra tender skin, sending another shiver through her.

His response was quiet and hoarse. "As you wish…"

That voice.

It sent a shudder through her being left with little doubt that he would fulfill her request. It had been filled with assurance to her too, reinforcing that belief he would never hurt her.

He kissed and suckled on each nipple for five seconds more, his hand still holding her face, thumb in the corner of her mouth. His other now daring towards the edge of her naval once again, slipping between her thighs.

She twisted and jerked, and whined when he pulled away.

That haze of her mind as she tried to keep her eyes on him. But he'd moved just out of her reach, even as she outstretched her arm towards that blurred silhouette of him beyond the bounds of her legs and chest.

She could hear the rustling of him finally removing his pants. Jeanne Alter shook her head twice trying to shake the blur from their sight. She wanted to see it when he was finally done. The question of what makes a man.

Jeanne Alter had seen something like it before, tying back into understanding the practical necessities of what they were about to do. Even if she had horrid misconceptions. That too was something she was even now struggling to come to terms with. Her eyes were wide as she saw him now.

In the lamp light, it seemed to exaggerate the glisten of sweat that rolled down his skin.

The warmth in the tent seemed to squeeze in around them.

She watched his cock twitch and stared. Jeanne Alter couldn't help that she was staring at it. Somehow it was better than what her frivolous imaginative mind had dared to come up with. She thought back to that time in summer when Ibaraki had given them a steamy doujin idea. Embarrassingly she'd thought about it a lot back then.

Finally, her amber eyes fixed on his face, like herself, she could see a small blush on his face, almost sheepish.

Jeanne Alter opened her mouth and then she quickly clamped it shut. The last thing she needed to do was accidentally say something incredibly stupid to him, right?

He leaned closer, and this time, she could feel its throbbing warmth right on her thigh as he got closer.

Her body seemed to react with anticipation.

Excitement?

She bit harder on her lip.

For this?

Misconceptions had been one thing to deal with. But her body was reacting in a way she had not expected at all. All those nerves could be bundled under that one word of excitement. She wondered if it was bad to feel it with such anticipation. To go so quickly from worry over her feared misconceptions…to this.

The biting on her lip came undone as he ran his fingers from labia to clit.

She was wet for him.

And she whined.

"M-master…" She dared to voice. Her breathy huffs continued as if trying desperately to cool the feeling of overheating.

Ritsuka paused for a moment, and she saw him blink something back into those blue eyes. There was just a twinge of difference in them from a second ago, now that they were both completely bared out to one another.

"Jeanne…"

Her breath hitched.

"I'm…sorry that it's under circumstances like this…" He trailed off and looked away for a moment.

She shook her head once, unable to form the words properly she'd wanted to say. Not trusting herself to say much of anything after what she'd told him. Instead, her fingers firmed on his wrist, the one on pause, resting on her navel, the base of that palm still emanating heat to be felt from her clit.

Jeanne Alter shook her head and tried again. "It's o-okay."

Ritsuka seemed to relax a little. He nodded back at her, seeming to understand that it was meant to be a comfort.

Still, she mentally berated herself.

Her body went stiff, as he spread her leg onto his shoulder again, and with his other hand pushed her leg back, and out of the way.

It stretched her again and she bit down on her lip to prevent herself from moaning just as at his touch. Just the touch of that throbbing heat of his pressing up against her so close. Her toes curled and uncurled.

Both of her hands dug into the bed roll.

And finally, the head of his cock seemed to press against her clit. His hands dug gently into the sensitive bits of her skin. Her body jerked and twisted as the shock wave went through her. Her eyes bulged as an unruly moan escaped her lips.

There was a quick pause there as she covered her mouth. Feeling heat rolling off her in excess from the movements. Her hips bucked towards him, pressing the throbbing warmth of his member against her labia.

She bit her lip as she shivered.

Ritsuka groaned, his fingers digging into her firmly on her navel as he pressed her back down against the bed, again right where she was extra sensitive.

"Ah-!" She tried to cut herself off. And it had worked only partially. "M-master!" Her mouth twisted as she outstretched a hand towards him, touching his skin. Her breaths were coming in heavier with each passing second.

She felt the heat of him, and those throbbing twitches pulled away slightly. The head of his cock dragged gently along her as he readied them both. The firm grasp on her navel went away, and back to her legs.

She was dragged closer.

Her toes curled and uncurled.

"Jeanne-" His voice strained with emotion. It was tense and spoken with an intensity that pulled at her attention.

Her amber eyes flicked to him.

"Ready?" He asked, and she could see the corners of his lips turning upwards in a small smile.

Jeanne Alter could feel all those nerves of hers clash with her excitement at that moment. Again one of her misconceptions was lost in an instant. She is looking into those blue eyes of his and all she saw was his eyes for her. With shaking fingers outstretched towards him, he took hold of them and squeezed gently.

Then after a deep breath, she bit her lip.

She managed a nod, not trusting herself to speak.

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

Even from the touch of his cock along her skin, he realized he was already very very hard. It had strained him even when he finally managed to rid himself of his pants. Every twitch and touch against her smooth skin set him alight with a lust he desperately reigned in.

Just a little longer.

Jeanne Alter was patient with him, just as he was with her.

He didn't want to screw this up. The pressure of her not returning feelings to him may have gone with her admissions. Just as his own admissions had seemed to make her be able to bear it easier. She wasn't trying to hide or suppress her reactions as much. She didn't seem as shocked. She had been eager for her kisses.

Ritsuka however suspected that he wouldn't last long given that she'd already grinded her core along the length of him. It had ripped a groan from him that he would not soon forget.

He squeezed her fingers gently, and with his other hand, he ran it over her one more time from the head of her clit to the base of her labia, pressing his palm against her flat.

Her breaths shuddered, and her body shivered.

And those amber eyes never left him. She was intent not to look away from him for this.

Ritsuka pushed the head of his cock into her. Her warmth wrapped around him instantly and he hissed out a groan. Already he could feel sweat forming on his brow just from that alone. The heat was as exhilarating as it was comforting.

The pleasure sent throbbing twitches through him.

Jeanne Alter likewise beneath had tried to still herself, though her muscles still writhed at his touch. Her other leg slid closer wanting to wrap around his hip. He pressed it down again.

Her knee on his shoulder moved more freely since he was still holding onto her fingers. He felt her squirm.

She's so warm.

Her walls were already contracting around him as if to squeeze him

"Ah-" She bit down her lip as she twisted more.

Ritsuka took several deep breaths, feeling a sort of strain as both his body urged him to go deeper, and Alter was anticipating more. He could feel her walls around him, growing devilishly warmer.

Enticing him to go even further.

He groaned as he pushed in a little further, slowly, allowing them both to adjust to one another. With her outstretched arm, he opened her hand up and wove his fingers through her hand's webbings.

F-fuck she's so warm.

Her fingers tried to squeeze them back, but he could feel a sort of weakness in them and it worried him.

Ritsuka started to lean forward over her, pushing himself now that he felt firmly inside her. The feeling dared into the inseparable, becoming one with her. The throbbing twitches of his cock strained him and he could feel it coming quickly.

She convulsed, pumping her hips out toward him as he leaned down over her. Pushing her hand back beside her head.

He wet his lips kissing her breasts.

And he pushed inside her again, finally reaching the end of his length.

"O-oh f-fuck-" She cut herself off again. Trying to bite down on her lip.

Ritsuka winced as he felt his cock being squeezed by all that warmth. The fingers of her other hand were clinging to his hair. He brushed his other hand up close to her lips, and she instead pressed her lips around his thumb. He moaned with more intensity as he felt her tongue over his thumb.

He hadn't even started trying to find a rhythm as just her body's warmth adjusting to him and flooding over him finally. With a huff and sort of building pleasure strained his throbbing warmth inside her.

Ritsuka cummed into her with a heavy groan.

###Jeanne Alter###

She nibbled on the edge of his thumb, her lips wrapping around it. Alter hoped that it would quiet some of her moans filling the air. She ran her tongue over his finger too as she felt him push deeper.

Jeanne Alter squeezed her eyes shut, as she felt that build-up around her core already wracking her with convulsions. She was going to feel that again. The grip on her face and the corner of her mouth grew firmer.

And her eyes bulged wide as within her she could feel that throbbing member of his twitching against her walls, seeming to grow warmer and bigger. "M-master-" She cut herself off again with a moan. And it poured into her, she could feel that budding warmth of his flooding her in an instant.

"Ah-!" She gave into her own build-up in that instant, her hips bucking with convulsions as she twisted and released. His hand turned her face upwards toward him. Her hand clinging to his hair as he felt his tongue rolling over her stiffened nipples. That bodily tension unwound as she climaxed, her breaths deep and heavy as she warily eyed him.

Then those blue eyes flicked to her, his movements still deliberately slow.

But he left that warm length of his inside her as he leaned closer.

Her mouth opened as if trying to let out excess heat before he closed the distance between them.

He pressed his tongue back inside of her between her lips.

She leaned back as he pushed her back against the bedroll again, feeling her body starting to relax more and more around him.

Oh, gods…I don't want him to stop.

That realization snuck up into her heart.

He pressed her palm back against the bedroll and she gripped onto the fingers between the webbings of her hand harder. Only more aware of it as he pulled away, saliva between their lips as she watched him back away.

His blue eyes fell to her hand, "Your grip feels better…" He managed between heavy breaths, getting air back into his lungs. As if to pull her attention more he squeezed her hand's webbings, gently.

Her blush deepened and she tried then to channel anything to her body. She felt a sort of relief wash over her sore tenderness when she did. A sign that the mana transfer had worked. But she winced at the reality of it. She was nowhere near normal to function.

It meant Irisviel had been right about it needing to be multiple times.

Her mouth twitched and she bit down on her lip. She strained her core muscles and found that she couldn't sit up still. She bit her lip and wanted to curse. Jeanne Alter desperately wanted to hold him more, to be closer with him. This stupid mana supply issue was getting in the way of that.

Only his other hand brushed her skin. Her amber eyes fixed back onto him.

She leaned into his touch.

"It's alright Jeanne. I'm not planning on going anywhere." Ritsuka smiled a little and gently he eased himself back out.

Despite her attempt otherwise, she whined at him, her fingers firming her grip on his hand. She wanted to hold his hand against her face. The request was unspoken of not wanting to pull out of her, not wanting to leave her. She wanted to bask in their shared warmth a while longer.

He grew slightly embarrassed at that, gently dragging his fingers across her skin to the valley between her breasts, and spread his fingers and palm along the center of her chest. That request too, was unspoken as he pushed her gently, quietly asking her to stay right where she was.

Not that Jeanne Alter could muster enough strength to move yet. Her brows knitted together and she felt a pout forming at him. It was short-lived, however, as he started sliding back out again. Her expression twinged, her body still hyper-sensitive to that simple movement going on inside her.

She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip.

And then he was out.

Her body relaxed for a moment but only for a moment. She watched him lean away from her, letting go of her hand too and she could hear him fiddle around with clothes off to the side while she felt a bead of sweat form on her brow. Her lips parted once again, and her heavy breaths filled the air as if she were breathing out steam.

She felt dampness at the corner of her mouth left over from their kissing. Jeanne Alter could sense her body burning through the mana their sex had provided. It almost evaporated as quickly as she'd had it. But already she could sense her condition improved even if slightly.

More than that, her core ached. She could feel a dampness forming down there again, that heat spreading through her. She couldn't stop her imagination. She wanted Ritsuka to gently tug her hair. She wanted Ritsuka to kiss every part of her skin. To tuck her nipples into the webbings of his hands and squish them. To pick her up and hug her to him when his cock came into her. She even wanted him to hold onto her toes the way he'd been holding her hand with interwoven fingers.

She bit her lip just thinking about it, knowing how tender that foot was because of how the shadow had crushed it, and now how it was freshly healed. In his grasp right now, it would elicit a feeling that might drive her mad.

All of this built up to one singular realization that had coursed through her with such bristling speed that it frightened her.

Her want terrified her.

Jeanne Alter bit down on her lip a bit harder and risked another look at him knowing all those thoughts might come burrowing through her again.

Ritsuka threw his pants once more back into his pile of clothes and he was back to being within touch of her. He lifted one of her legs over his shoulder again, this time, resting her calf there. And with the other, he pressed against the bedding.

She shuddered as she felt herself spread open for him again. It was as if her entrance was pulsating with near anticipation and heat. Jeanne Alter realized her mouth was still hanging open and closed it licking her lips.

I didn't expect this.

He was glistening just a little in the low light, his toned muscles reflecting to her.

Handsome.

His blue eyes were piercing and had a depth to them that she could hardly remember noticing before that moment. They looked at her with some bemusement and more importantly with an affection that made her heart start to sputter.

He's looking at me like he loves me.

She felt heat rise to her cheeks and blushed bright again. Jeanne Alter covered her face with the back of her hand looking away. "Don't look at me like that-."

Ritsuka's low chuckles filled the air between them. Then he held something small and white aloft for her to see. "Irisviel's gift." He explained.

Relief swelled in her at that moment. Jeanne Alter had that fear in the corner of her mind too. That even if he'd promised not to leave, somehow that simple exchange would be all there was.

That pulsating heat passed over her body again in a wave. She realized that her wish for this night, though unquestioned and unknown until just that moment, was answered. Jeanne Alter was going to get what she wanted.

More.

She nodded once at him.

Ritsuka smiled, "I'm glad she gave us this…" Then she watched him blush, growing sheepish. "I'm uh…I've struggled with how beautiful you are before."

"Moron! Don't say things like that-" She cut herself off as she felt her cheeks turn a few shades redder. Jeanne Alter had to tear her eyes off of him realizing that she was only growing warmer by looking at him. She covered her eyes too.

He always thought I was pretty?

She felt his lips on her ankle.

The tender one, hanging over his shoulder by the calf.

Her eyes bulged open again her body going stiff. She stared at him.

Ritsuka hadn't swallowed the pill yet, but she watched him take a deep breath. "I'm all yours Jeanne Alter, if you'll have me?" He tried to smile a bit more, but he was still sheepish

"Yes!" She blurted out quickly and then grew more flustered. "I mean…uh…" She trailed off and tried to wrack her brain. "Shut up idiot!" Her lips twisted with a fluster adorned on her cheeks. "I…already agreed…" She winced at the sound of her own voice.

She heard him chuckle just a little.

It made her want to grind her teeth together. She was acting like some stupid love-sick girl and she fucking hated it.

But there was just that way he was looking at her.

Her lips parted and closed.

Ritsuka kissed her ankle again and then she watched him swallow that pill. For a moment all he did was just look at her. She could feel her eyes roaming her similar to the way she'd been doing with him.

Only he was more brazen, as those blue eyes of his traced down the length of her body. She could feel herself starting to burn with hungry anticipation. It was almost reflexive, as her need began to grow under the gaze of those ever familiar blue eyes.

She grabbed her breasts, pressing against her nipples with a palm sending those pleasurable signals through her body. Her toes curled and she huffed out, growing impatient.

In reality, it hadn't been long of a wait, but it had felt like forever. Jeanne Alter had now moved from worrying and despairing oover his feelings for her into a desperate and hungry craving that she wanted him to satisfy. A craving she knew with certainty only he could satisfy. She bit on her lip to prevent the moan.

Ritsuka didn't wait any longer. Firmly he wrapped his hand around her tender foot and ankle, squeezing against her skin.

The moan slipped free from her lips again.

He ran his fingers between her toes, clutching to her foot's webbings. Reflexively her toes curled around him, squeezing against his skin.

Jeanne Alter forced herself to breathe out slowly as her heart pounded in her chest increasing with veracity. She watched him get closer and closed her eyes giving in to the sensation of him tending to her again.

She felt his lips angle across her right nipple, and with his other hand, his nails dug gently into the soft skin of her breast around the other. Her body twitched in response, and she closed her other leg around him even as it was tucked back toward her, as he pressed in closer to her.

The head of his cock poked the edge of her labia.

His fingers left her breast only when he was close enough to kiss her on the lips again, his hand pressed down against the tender center of her navel. Like everywhere else on her that had been healed, she could feel her pleasure run through her.

Oh gods-

She bit her lip again trying to prevent that needy moan. It came anyway unbidden as that pleasure shocked through her, building like pressure on her once again.

His hand had left her foot. And now she felt it trail from her heel, his thumb brushing the back of her knee, all the way down her thigh. Until the base of his palm brushed her clit, and then she felt his fingers spread over the whole of her vulva, gently pushing her skin apart.

It sent jolting shocks through her pleasure. She moaned needily feeling that burning warm haze grew with intensity in hunger.

Her amber eyes narrowed towards him. His shoulder rested under the crook of her knee once more and his hand touched her jaw, angling her lips towards his.

And his tongue wrapped up hers as he kissed right on the lips. She wrapped an arm around him, snaking her fingers back into his hair. Her other hand's nails dug into the skin of his other shoulder, where her leg wasn't resting.

She felt the head of that throbbing warmth brushing her again, and its hardness was apparent to her without even having to look.

Yes-.

Their lips parted and she left her tongue out for him as an open invitation for him to come back. He did, pulling her tongue in between his lips. That warm flush on her cheeks from ear to ear, as she delighted in her tongue being wrapped up with his.

It stopped only when they both needed air again. This time she managed to hold in her whine, but her breaths were raspy and heavy.

He adjusted himself, and she felt the head of his cock drag across her skin to where she opened.

The moaning noise turned an ugly wet sound as she parted for him, his cock sliding back into her. Her toes curled again, her fingers digging into his skin a little bit harder as if trying to brace herself for that feeling overtaking her mind.

His lips moved back to her breasts, sucking away until they were painfully hard, and he pulled away with a distinct pop, her breast bouncing.

"Ah-!" She writhed as he pushed his cock further in. Her hard nipples now brushing against his toned chest. The closer he got to her the more she wanted that very feeling. The feeling of their bodies pressing so close together.

It was quicker this time she noticed, her body more readily adjusted for him. Already she could feel her body tensing and untensing with pleasurable intervals as the length of that heat pushed deeper into her. What little discomfort that had been there was now gone in favor of something far more feverish.

Her walls pressed in around him and she delighted in his groan as he finished pushing in.

He's so warm!

She huffed out a few tense breaths, kissing desperately the closest thing of his that she could find. That hand that had returned from her breast kissing his fingers. The sensation didn't last as they intertwined her fingers.

He leaned over her, and she could feel her legs being pressed back. The weight of him seemed to push him even further, and he kissed her again on her lips. Feeling her whole body squished between him and bedroll was near enough wind that tension all the way back up as that pleasurable mass neared again.

F-fuck.

She whined and moaned between his tongue over hers. Jeanne Alter closed her eyes trying to focus on that sensory sensation of him pressed up against her in every possible way. "M-master!" She cut herself off as already she could feel those pleasurable sensations grow with intensity just with the warmth of him inside of her, just with the way her skin was pressed up against him.

There was a firm touch to her chest again. Ritsuka groaned into her ears sending shivers through her. His breaths were heavy and his voice was low as he spoke to her. "I'm going to start." He whispered almost breathlessly to her. She could hear the tension in his voice.

She nodded at him, and he pressed their foreheads together, that heat only growing, as she could feel his throbbing twitches in her.

The movement he'd promised started as he pulled his hips away, his cock sliding away in her. Like before the movement was slow, and her body adjusted to that feeling of him. And then with a grunt, he pushed it back in.

Her breasts bounced a little, still held firmly in place mostly being squished against his chest.

But that singular movement alone had been enough. Her core flooded with heat and she dug her nails into his skin and moaned. Her head rolled back away from him, her lips parting with a huff as she gave into the pleasurable waves overtaking her.

Her walls clamped down on him, pushing pressure on the girth of his cock, as her body formed around him. He grunted in response, and his fingers tightened around her hand. It somehow made it even more blissful.

She convulsed once, his other hand had come back up to her, gently gripping a handful of her white hair and tugging her lips a little more sideways to his. His thumb pressed into her cheek, once more on that tender side of her face. And all of it had only intensified her climax as she released and passed through to the other side. The blur of her vision started to clear after as she forced herself to open her eyes once again.

How is it that I could ever have been so wrong?

The friction of his movement inside of her paused, and she felt the smile of his kiss on her skin before she saw it. His warm breath over her lips, paused only a few inches away. There was an intensity of affection that once more made her heart continue to sputter.

The pause however allowed her body to settle once more, relaxing against him. Her lips parted to ask him why he was looking at her that way. Only he kissed her, pressing her head back into the bed roll. Her eyes rolled back and she felt their tongues intertwine again. He tasted so wonderfully warm.

Then with a groan, he pulled away from her lips.

Like before she left her tongue out as if trying to vent that heat swirling around her head. Only to be stopped when that hand holding her hair gently touched against her cheek. It caught her by a little surprise. "M-master?"

The next kiss was not one where she got wrapped up in sensations, it was quick and chaste. And it left her wanting more.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay?"

Her heart stopped and she stared at him in surprise.

Why would he be asking me that?

His knuckles gently dragged across her cheeks and she realized they were damp. Panic filled her at that moment. Since it had happened once already, she didn't want him to misunderstand. She opened her mouth to speak and nothing came out. He'd caught her crying again and that panic filled her when those words clogged in her throat.

She tried to move her hand, and as if sensing her distress about limited movement. The hand he'd pinned with interwoven fingers beside her was moved closer to her cheek so she could feel it herself.

The dampness beneath her eyes.

Am I?

She wondered.

Ritsuka kissed her other cheek between her fingers while she was resting there.

"But…I…thought," She shivered and bit down on her lip. Wondering how she was supposed to phrase any of her words coherently for him. "I mean…"

"You're okay?" Ritsuka asked gently.

"Y-yes." She said firmly. She felt his cock twitch still inside of her and she huffed out a long deep breath for herself. "I…admit-" She bit on her lip as she felt him adjust a little against her and that throbbing heat inside of her shift with him. "Ah-...I admit." She started breathing a bit more heavily again. "I'm a little overwhelmed."

She enjoyed the way his thumb brushed against her extra tender cheek wiping away the tears that escaped her eyes. Tracing perfectly the line of the bloody mark that had been there before all this had started.

Oh gods-

The panic remained in her eyes.

This can't be love, could it?

A quiet fear wrapped itself around her heart.

Love is a different step-

One she realized she was in no way prepared for.

Ritsuka kissed her chin, still caressing her with every touch. And while their bodies were still pressed together, he made no moves to rush her along. "I'm sorry this is all happening so fast-" He nodded against her pressing their foreheads together. He chuckled a little at her, kissing her nose. "I…I'm…overwhelmed too…"

Her lips twitched into a small smile at his comfort.

It's very…him.

That warmth of his shaft continued to bask inside her, and she could feel it twitch inside of her, pressing against her and about her. She closed her mouth, biting her lip. Her body shivered in response, wrapped up against him. She nuzzled against his nose since their foreheads were still pressed together.

"Tch…idiot." She took a deep breath. "Thanks," She whispered. "I'm okay…"

I have you.

"I…" She bit on her lip still feeling hesitation. All she could do was hope he didn't notice. Even still as she was relaxed against him, she became so fixatingly aware of her nerves even now. The shakes in her fingers. The pounding of her heart. With a flushed expression she avoided looking at his eyes. "I… appreciate your…sweetness with me." Jeanne Alter smiled against his nose. Kissing him delighting in the heat they were sharing.

You make it bearable.

"It's made it…easier." She breathed out slowly and forced herself to relax even further against him.

She felt his lips trace up her jawline.

Ritsuka smiled at her only an inch away from her once more. "If you need or want me to do anything for you, please tell me." He looked a little sheepish for a moment. She believed he would be blushing if his face wasn't already so red.

After all, she was naked, warm, and pressed up against him. He was still inside of her. She bit her lip feeling that friction sliding around inside of her again. She winced with pleasure as the quiet noise escaped her lips.

His kisses turned quick and chaste as he moved his hips away from her.

Her breath turned shaky as if bracing herself again.

The thrust was still slow like before, but she realized her body had adjusted again and the pleasurable build was once more starting to ramp up. Just the warmth of having him inside of her had already pushed her from her previous release into starting to build for the next.

Her legs were still squished between them, and her toes curled in the air behind him.

Jeanne Alter bit her lip contemplating for only a second, several things that she might want him to do for her. Things she wanted him to do to her. "This…just keep doing this…" Her mouth twisted a little, and her body clenched as he thrust into her again. "Ah-!" Her lips parted letting out hot air, her forehead still against his.

He licked her lips.

She liked this and for the moment was unwilling to give it up. Further, she couldn't do much else quite yet. Her grip on his skin was still feeble, she could tell. Almost weaker than normal humans. But that would change as time went by. "A-and- don't -fff." She cut herself off for a second feeling her body twitch with warmth again. Her amber eyes looked right into his blue ones.

"Don't stop!" She dared to beg him. She closed her eyes as a third thrust drove into her and her boobs bounced against his skin. And he pushed away only a little, and this time the movement allowed her breasts to bounce more freely.

"Okay." He kissed her neck again.

Like before he intertwined their hands again, pinned against the bedroll just beside her. She shivered around him and against him as he kept that slow rhythm.

He grunted at that feeling.

It made her smile, "Kiss me-" She'd only gotten the start of her request out.

But it was enough, as he closed that short distance between them, the heat of their foreheads sharing a glisten of sweat. His lips captured hers again and once more their tongues pushed one another around.

He thrust into her at a time when her mouth was opened and her tongue was out against his. Her moan was more audible and her amber eyes widened while looking into those blue eyes of his.

Yes.

As they parted for air she breathed out a shaky breath, her fingers shaking against his skin. Then, when she inhaled, she could smell only them in the room. Those Chaldea cleaning products oozed from him with his more natural smell. The air smelled of sweat.

His hips started to move a little bit faster.

She could feel the intensity of that friction and throbbing heat building up with ever more clarity. It was making her feel feral, her veins coming alight in her with that intense friction-driven pleasure between them. The realization of it being all she wanted and only ever dared to dream about was within arms reach.

Treating her with all that warm affection she knew him to be capable of. Now it was directly focused solely on her. She meant to milk it and savor it for every second it was going to be worth now. It was a greedy and selfish feeling that bubbled up inside of her, threatening to explode.

And yet she couldn't hold him tightly like she'd wanted

Already it was an addiction she wasn't sure she knew how to deal with.

Yet she wasn't able to show it back to him.

Yet.

He thinks you are worthless./

For once it was easy to ignore such repeated doubts and quarantine them off into silence in her mind. Just the feeling of him, the smell of him, the taste of his saliva. His hands trailed down along her skin. "Ah-!" She cut herself off again not wanting her moans to be heard from around them. The heat abated only a little when he started to sit upright.

Hesitantly her fingers let him go, as he once more pushed into her, and he leaned upright.

Their intertwined hands remained, but with his free one, he grasped it around her leg resting over his shoulder.

She felt his lips kiss her knee.

His fingers dig into the soft skin around her thigh.

Alter heard him grunt with an exasperated and strained moan of his own.

His cock rubbed against her walls and she felt her fingers curl further. "F-fuck-" She cut herself off again. And the formalities slipped away with each passing second. "R-Ritsuka-" She said his name at the edge of a pleasurable moan, and that heat she could feel inside of her, thickened, and she could feel the blood-rushed muscles of his cock poking around in her, seeming to shift. A sign of how close he was to bursting inside of her again.

Her breasts bounced freely, and with her other hand, she grasped her nipples squeezing them between the webbings of her fingers. Her body aching with further anticipation of another flood of warmth to overcome her.

She bit on her lip and tried to clench, realizing she wanted to hold on, just a little longer as she felt her own warmth flooding to its limit. The wet ugly sounds were heard between their hard breaths and her moans. Jeanne Alter was stubborn this too was a fact that Ritsuka knew all too well, and there was a way she finally managed to fix her eyes back on him.

Tracing the glistens of his sweat from his chest to his blue eyes.

His grip on her thigh started to tighten, and his hold on her hand started to press further back into the bedroll.

He's so close.

Wet continuous and rhythmic slaps filled the air as the motion continued between them. And she moaned desperately trying to hold on, biting on the back of her finger as she realized that playing with her nipples now would only have made it more obvious.

She closed her eyes and could hear his grunts and tense groans as he pushed himself for her. She bit her lip.

Yes-

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

His throbbing and twitching cock almost strained against the warmth of her insides. He could feel the sweat clinging to the edge of his hair, making it slicker on his skin. "Guh-" Ritsuka felt his body shake with satisfaction as he let go squeezing her thigh, instead moving to hold himself upright as he leaned back over her.

"Jeanne-" He whispered into the air, just before he could feel his pleasure about to release, cutting into his thoughts.

There was just that those amber eyes of hers would look at him whenever she could manage to hold his gaze for long enough. He didn't begrudge her the fact that she couldn't. It took every ounce of courage he'd had to keep holding her amber eyes whenever she looked at him. To not shy away from watching the way her bosom moved, from watching that ahoge on the top of her head bouncing with every movement.

The way she squished her nipples, wishing he could do the same. The way she bit her finger as those amber eyes fixed on him with intensity.

Her breasts bounced freely, unrestricted from either their closeness or each other's touches.

But he wanted to hold her hand, and he wanted to hold onto her thigh. An impossible choice he'd made only for the moment; to not hold every part of her at once.

And it was the way that those amber eyes looked at him. Full of affection and wonder at his very presence. It was one of the reasons he could never deny his attraction to her. The way her eyes would convey her true feelings whether or not she tried to hide them. Those prolonged looks she would give him when waiting for him to do anything. Or when she simply was watching him lead other servants and wait her turn.

They were soft as they looked at him now. More vulnerable he thought, than he'd ever seen them. As if terrified and elated all at once.

Overwhelmed.

But she trusted him completely. That too, was what came in her eyes as she fixed her gaze on him.

Yes-

Her body convulsed, and at last, he couldn't hold it back any longer. "Gruah!" He bit down on his lip, just as his tension released.

And he could feel their warmth flooding about and intermingling with one another. But he didn't stop yet, even as his rhythmic thrusts started to slow. He groaned as he pushed forward a little, bending her leg back again so he could kiss her skin.

Her convulsions continued and she could feel himself being squeezed again as she twisted and jerked with another moan that escaped her lips.

Ritsuka kissed her nipples, tucking one gently between his lips, running his tongue along it. As he finally felt his cock strain and twitch with emptiness. It was accompanied, however, with a new sensation. He felt his eyes go wide as a sort of soothing feeling started from the base of his shaft as he slowed himself back down closer to a stop.

He felt his cock harden once again, full-blooded. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open in surprise. And even with the brief clarity in his mind, he was acutely aware of how unusual the sensation was. A cool warmth compared to the heat that swirled around the length of him flooding over both of them.

Jeanne Alter moaned out of breath, her body twitching. He could feel her body adjust around him a little more. Her amber eyes fixed on him and still out of breath as she watched him sitting back up. But it was apparent that with some confusion on her expression, she was noticing too.

He was still inside of her after all.

She bit her lip and didn't say anything as she caught her breath. With a small break afforded to both of them for just a moment, she whipped the sweat off her brow, and pushed white hair back, clearing her forehead for a moment.

A bead of glistening sweat was on her nose.

He moved.

She flinched, biting down on her lip. She looked at him again with that same look that had sent him over the edge. Gently he reached out and cupped her cheek, tucking white strands of her hair between his fingers.

He smiled at her, "You can move a little more…"

She stiffened and realized what she'd done, by clearing her forehead of her hair. "Y-yes…I suppose." Her face fell a little and she flicked her eyes away from him.

Ritsuka was quiet. "That's a good thing…" He smiled at her, combing his fingers through her hair. As the tense seconds passed, he felt that cooling sensation starting to fade again to bask in that familiar warm feeling.

Then with a groan, Alter started to shift a little as if testing her whole body's movements. "Ah-" She was quick to bite down on her lip, as her eyes seemed to bounce at all the various parts of their bodies that were still touching. As if more accurately aware of each single one of them, and the sensations that they had filled her with.

He saw her put an arm back and push herself up with a wince and a staring. His cock twitched inside her, enjoying the movements she was making. But he realized it was making it difficult for her to move.

Ritsuka bit down on his lip too, preventing a groan trying to make it easier for her. He started sliding out of her.

Only she grabbed onto his wrist.

And he stopped.

Her fingers tugged at his skin.

The first thing he felt was relief washing over him, that her grip was stronger than before. Still weak compared to when she dragged him around by the hand now and again. It was clearly strong enough to get the message across.

His eyes went wide upon meeting those amber ones.

He felt his cock twitch with the way she looked at him.

"N-no…" She whispered. Her body shivered as she pushed herself up a little further, and quickly he grabbed her shoulder. "Don't…" She huffed out a breath and suddenly he could see a flicker of embarrassment cross her features. Jeanne Alter looked away from him, pressing her lips into a line. "N-not yet."

She pushed herself back down the length of him and she whimpered quietly with pleasure. Breathing out a long breath tensely as she shivered around his cock again. Her amber eyes peered up at him.

Ritsuka nodded once, "As you wish." He tilted his head a little, smiling at her.

Slowly she unwound her fingers from their intertwined hands against the bed and he pulled her arm up so it was on his shoulder. Slowly, with an effort she dragged her calf off his shoulder so it was on the ground.

The break was nearing its end as he grabbed her other arm and helped her sit up, clearly what she was going for. And it bent his cock upwards a little as she finally managed to sit somewhat up right facing him.

It was an awkward position.

He looked between them resisting the urge to kiss her for a moment longer, biting down on his lip burying the feeling for a little longer. Though with the hardened strain coming to his warm twitching throbs inside her, he knew it was going to get harder to do just that with each passing second.

Ritsuka tried to think, "Put your legs over mine…" Her breaths grew terser for a second. He tugged her a little closer, wrapping one arm around her waist, the other, behind the nape of her neck.

Jeanne Alter's brows knitted together for a moment and then she nodded, understanding.

That's when he gave in and kissed her again. Even if it had only been a few minutes, iIt had been too long since he tasted her sweet plump lips. Her warm tongue tasted of faint ash and some drink she'd had last. The touch of her tongue pushing against his. They also felt considerably warmer than his own body, which was the very opposite of what he was used to.

From his brief interactions with her when they had touched or shared hands, she was always running colder. He thought it was some cruel twist of irony because of how her main affinity seemed to be with fire.

It was probably the mana strain.

But tonight she felt so warm to his touch, and it sometimes made it difficult for him to concentrate. They parted only for air, saliva still sticking and twisting in tangles tying them together.

Then their lips closed against one another again.

With one hand snaked around her back, the other tugged gently into her hair. He could feel her hardened nipples pressing into his chest with her bosom.

His cock twitched again.

Her hands snaked around his shoulders wrapping around him.

They hadn't even made that move he suggested yet to put them in a slightly less awkward position. And he could feel that alarm bell fading into the haze of the haze of heat growing between them.

If I don't do it soon we're both going to forget.

He managed to pull himself away just enough, the trail of saliva falling over their bare chests. Their warm breaths glazing over one another's skin. Ritsuka took a long breath for himself and firmly grabbed her thigh and hefted her leg up enough to slide his right leg underneath her.

Jeanne Alter moved her hips a little sliding away pausing as she winced with a small moan. Then she started sliding down the length of him fully again.

He tightened her grip on her thigh as she settled her leg back down.

She moaned generously for him, her tongue still out. And she leaned all the way forward too pressing her forehead against his chest. He could feel the strain it caused her that she was forcing her through, the grip on his back tightening. Her fingers and arms shook against his skin and she rested her cheek on his skin.

"S-sorry…" She mumbled out between breaths.

Ritsuka chuckled, kissing her hair, that ahoge of hers ticking his face as he did.

With quick adjustments, her thighs were now resting on his, as they sat facing each other and pressed closer.

He hummed into her ear. "That's a bit better isn't it?"

She drawled a hum back, and she moved her hips a little again. "S-sorry." She whispered again and he felt her nuzzle into his chest all the more, his lips brushing over her forehead. Her limbs weren't shaking as much, as she was better situated.

Ritsuka gently gripped the locks of her white hair between his fingers and pulled her back just enough to look at her.

There was that haze over her eyes as she forced herself to meet his blue gaze. "What are you apologizing for?" He leaned a little closer kissing her over one of her eyes gently and again on her nose.

She shivered, as she moved her hips.

He felt himself throb inside of her and this time he didn't hold back the groan. His breaths grew heavier once more and he had to force himself to eye her. He leaned his head in closer, kissing her chin and jawline.

She too was breathing heavily, but she forced herself to breathe out a bit slower. "It's ah-" She bit her lip and she squeezed her eyes shut. It lasted only for a moment, and he could feel her body's movements around him, small as though they were. After a second she huffed out a breath and looked at him. "It's all I can-uh- manage-." Her clipped words were all he was going to get for the moment.

It was enough.

Ritsuka kissed her again, gently wrapping his arm around her back to keep her close. "You're doing better-." He smiled at her. "And that's all that matters to me." He kissed her lips again, keeping it chaste.

Though a part of him delighted that her lips trailed after his for a few centimeters after they parted again. Her grip while weak was still firm against his skin.

He forced himself to breathe out slowly.

So she's still feeling self-conscious.

The idea that popped into his head was driven by mountains of testosterone and the fact he was holding Jeanne Alter of all people, naked, and like puddy in his arms, thinking only of him. It was an idea that he would've felt embarrassed about only a seemingly short while ago when Irisviel had first dragged him back into the tent.

That he would simply need to have sex with her enough to either forget those smaller worries. Or give her enough mana so that she could feel as if a much more important participant.

Mentally he slapped himself anyway.

She is feeling horrible because she thinks she isn't being good enough.

He chuckled as he pressed his hand behind her neck and pushed her yet closer. Feeling those soft breasts of hers squishing against his chest delighted him. His nose dragged along her skin until his lips reached her ear. Ritsuka dragged his fingers through her sweat-licked white locks of hair, and gently applied a firm pressure with his grip as if to hold her firm.

"You're beautiful." He whispered.

He could feel her body shiver around him and in his arms. Her nails gently started to dig into his back.

"You're very sweet sometimes too." He kissed her at the edge of her hairline. He kissed her earlobe next. "And you will always be more than enough for me."

Jeanne Alter's breath shuddered against his ear and he felt her lips against his skin, on his shoulder. He felt her head turn as she kissed the edge of his jawline. That ahoge dragging along his cheek. "S-still-"

Ritsuka continued with a smile on her skin. "You have nothing to worry about." His hands trailed a bit lower, down past her shoulder blades to her lower back. "You don't have anything to prove even now."

This time he could hear her breath hitch as she froze stiff in his arms.

I have to remind myself of that thing too.

He kissed her gently again as he tried to push those testosterone-filled thoughts away. He knew exactly where it was coming from too.

Jeanne Alter was with him, a normal human after all. But she could've made it obvious that she had feelings for any of the other real and walking legends that they worked with regularly.

It's hard to admit those feelings sometimes.

Gently he moved one hand back up to her hair and tugged her away just enough to see her eyes. They were flush with unshed tears and he kissed them gently.

He was delighted that his kiss tickled her nose, making a small giggle erupt from her wall of clamped down emotions.

"I feel it too." He assured her, that hand firming against her tender skin. He looked right at her so that she understood fully. He made sure to see the way those amber eyes started to widen as he continued. "I don't know if I'll be enough either."

She could feel his warm breath on her, and the movements of her hips once again drew their attention as they both leaned into one another with their small breathy sounds of pleasure.

Once again their foreheads were pressed together.

Then she nodded at him quietly, the movement small, and he wondered if he would've been able to see it without her head being pressed against his. This time she kissed him, capable of closing at least that small gap enough.

He felt the smile on her lips as he supported the nape of her neck, his thumb brushing into her hair. The arms she'd wrapped around him, interlocked behind his back to hold herself to him.

This time it was he who moved his hips.

She moaned into his mouth, the rumblings of her throat, intrepid vibrations from her as she refused to part so quickly this time. Her tongue pushed into his mouth as he moved his hips again.

When the kiss ended, and they both sucked in air, her body's shivers against him delighted him with a smile.

Both of his hands dug into her hips, his thumbs pressing gently into her navel. It was, he remembered, a very tender spot for her right now. It was some of that parting advice that had been left to him.

She shivered at his touch, while he traced his fingers along the soft tender spots of her skin. She leaned away, her weak grip as firm as she could make, trusting his hold on her to be strong enough. Arching her back as she leaned away. Hair falling from her face to hang out behind her head. Jeanne Alter was biting her lip with a distinct hardness.

It presented her breasts and nipples up higher and he could feel his mouth water with anticipation. Not waiting for an invitation as he gently lifted her hips away from him, pulling her away from his cock and grunted as he pulled her back all the way down to its base.

Her sex was still so warm around him, and it was, again, going to drive him to a more animalistic state. Her eyes bulged back open as she huffed out a longer gasping whimper this time as he'd moved her in that slow rhythm from earlier.

Ritsuka had waited until those amber eyes were on him and suckled on her hard nipples once more, running his tongue over her skin.

She shivered and jerked with a twisting motion. He wanted to see all of her expression as it twisted, the water in her eyes. The needless embarrassment that she still had. She realized this and her amber eyes narrowed towards him, unable to hold their glare for long as he went from her right breast to her left. Doing the same thing, suckling until he pulled away gently with a loud pop.

Her moans grew louder and one of her arms rested at last over his shoulder.

I can't believe I'm so lucky.

He made sure to smile wide as he dragged her lips against her skin, so she knew without a doubt the smile that was there.

The simple thought of it still made him giddy.

She likes me back.

It was something he could see returned with fervor in between her moans, and embarrassed glances. Things she was forcing herself past for the sake of this. It warmed his heart too, that she was willing to be honest with him. She rarely was so direct about anything concerning her feelings toward him.

Whether it's just circumstance…or something real…

He traced his nose along her skin inhaling that sharp smell of her. Embers of a dying fire. Ash. All caked neatly with a hint of sweet softness he couldn't possibly think straight enough to identify.

I'll remember this.

He raised her hips again, firming his grip on her torso, repeating the motion of lifting that part of her body, and then pulling her suddenly back down along the length of his cock. She stiffened upright this time as she fell back towards him, crushing the stiffness of her nipples against his chest.

A wet slap reverberated in the air again, and then again.

She's so light.

He winced this time as he pulled her hips back in.

Jeanne Alter tried to get closer to him, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed his neck, and jawline. "Rit-" A pant came between the words. "-sukAH!" In his arms, she could feel her body shaking again with anticipation, her fingernails dug into his skin.

And it made him want to pick up their pace.

He took a break only to kiss her, wet, messy, and prolonged like before until his lungs started to burn. And when he did, he whispered her name in turn, low and gravelly, with an edge of hoarseness in the back of his throat. A haze fell over his mind as he pushed and pulled her by her hips.

Her lips traced his jawline, her fingers firming against this skin, the quiet plea to not stop. She licked his cheek and pressed her nose and the side of her face against his, her body clenching and unclenching in his arms.

Slowly, Ritsuka slid his fingers past her hips and down farther past her lower back, where her skin suddenly grew more plump and softer. He could feel her stiffen, still wrapped between his arms, and he could also sense her surprise as his fingers dug into the softness of her rear.

Much to his delight he realized it would be easier on him doing it this way.

"F-fuck-." She whispered low into his ear. "You're so warm-" Her breaths shuddered in his ear. And his only regret was that he couldn't see her eyes for that moment. But he didn't need to turn to see her embarrassment. He could hear it at the edge of her voice and he felt himself slowly giving over to the idea.

Ritsuka, now with a better grip on her, continued to push and pull her. Their thighs slapping together with each wet noise that filled the air. With a tighter grip on her skin, he spread her out from back there too as he continued.

He picked up his pace with a grunt. The wet slaps grew louder, as he held her close. Then her moans turned unbearable and he took it to mean she was close. Feeling her body convulsing, twisting and jerking in between her arms.

Saliva dripped from the corner of her lip when she came back to his lips to snag another kiss. Both hands of hers cupped his face as she pressed them together. "Don't stop-" She grit her teeth and pressed her forehead against his. Then the tension in her face instantly loosened as she fell against him.

Cute.

He smiled at her, kissing her closed eyelids.

Beautiful.

He picked up his pace again, feeling his erection starting to strain again with tension as his own pleasure began to build up in excess. One of her hands had moved back to his shoulder, and he could feel the pressure as she tried to support herself, pushing up.

How did we ever dare to hold off for this long?

###Jeanne Alter###

This time when she came on him, she didn't try to hold herself back. The last of her lingering doubts had finally been assuaged. He was intent on having no regrets about this with his honesty, and that was what she would give him in full. While the fears were still there, the nerves that wrapped around her heart like a cold chill against the warmth of the moment, they would not influence her.

Even if it's out of necessity.

The firm grip of his nails in her cheeks spread her open again, as he pulled her back down the length of him. She twitched and twisted, shaking with a moan. The ecstasy wracked her to her core, sweat glistening on her brow from their shared heat of ever closer proximity.

She at last had willed herself to grab both sides of his face as firmly as she could and straighten his lips to kiss him again. Jeanne Alter wanted to feel as much of him as possible while giving into that pleasurable build once more.

Even if he couldn't hear it, she moaned his name against his tongue. Even if he couldn't see it fully, she allowed herself to more freely look upon him with affection just as he had never stopped doing so from the start.

I won't shy away.

Coward.

I won't shy away.

She squeezed her eyes shut as that ecstasy exploded over her and her body shook, twitched, gyrated, and jerked in between his arms that were still firmly wrapped around her. She had the taste of his tongue in her mouth. Her breasts ground against this chest with each motion. She had that throbbing warmth inside of her convulsing and wet cunt.

The terrifying thought, like before, crashed over her mind as the climax started to fade.

More.

Her eyes were wide with ecstas clarity as she managed to pull away long enough to get air into her lungs as she parted with him from a licking pop. Realizing only then with belated horror and wonder she'd been sucking on his lips.

Jeanne Alter caught his blue eyes staring at her, and a wider smile started forming. With his arms around her hips, he pulled her back towards him.

She realized then as she was squeezed gently against his frame, that the movements of him inside of her hadn't stopped. Her eyes widened with shock, realizing he hadn't slowed down yet. She moaned again against his lips.

Her core started to ache with craving heat.

More.

The thought in her mind terrified her and she was unsure of how to deal with. But oh gods did she want to give in. She didn't want him to think less of her for all those lecherous thoughts going through her mind like a rush.

But he wants me.

The fervor was returned in excess, all those thoughts shaken from her mind instantly. She realized he was tugging at her tongue and suckling on it. Her eyes were wide and she could feel that embarrassed heat go to her cheeks.

And she couldn't bask in that either, as she felt herself pulled around the length of his cock once again and it pulled her out of her embarrassment. She hadn't even finished coming down from her climax yet, and her body twitched and moved of its own accord around him. He let her tongue go with a pop the same way she'd done to him.

"F-fuck!" She fell against him again. "Ritsuka-"

His warm chuckles in her ears had only made it worse. He kissed her ear lobe and the locks of her hair. That ahoge of hers, brushing against his nose. She rested her arms over his shoulders, her body still shuddering with small convulsions.

And already that pleasurable heat was palpable.

Oh god yes!

Then he moved more rapidly, his fingers still clutching onto her. Instead of pulling and lifting her, he moved his own hips.

He grunted in her ears.

That wet slapping noise increased with vigor and veracity.

Jeanne Alter didn't resist this time that elated feeling as the new rhythm pushed her further and further towards another climax.

"M-master-" She cut herself off, biting her lip. Her eyes were fixed on him but all she could see clearly of him was that haze. Her thoughts and senses were filled only with him. The sweat, the rain, the rubble. The smell of his hygiene products. The smell of their sex on top of all of that already.

It had been nearly overwhelming before.

"Ah- Ritsuka-"

"Jeanne."

But now it was an intoxication that threatened to overwhelm her hearing that wet ugly noise as his body pressed against hers. His cock moved in and out of her at a rhythm that made him groan. The twitching throbs of him inside her as he slowed. All between her own moans and that haze that falling over her mind like a blanket.

I can't think straight…

"Please-mmnh-don't stop Ritsuka-"

I didn't expect you to have this effect on me-

"Jeanne-"

That wet, messy noise slowed only for a second. Only long enough for her to grasp the sweat glistening on his body. The muscles under her fingertips, straining with excretion as his heavy breathing rolled over her skin. Breathlessly he kissed her, dragging his lips on her skin. She could hear and feel his rapid heartbeat to match her own.

Her core twitched around him. She too was breathing rapidly sweat from the heat slicking her hair, to her skin at the base of her neck and her cheeks. His lips suckling at her nipples and leaving gentle marks as he suckled on any part of her skin he could get his lips in reach of.

She dug her fingers into his hair, still resting her arms around him.

All of it inservice to the next climax she felt in sequence to the last. She bit her lip, trying to hold it in just a moment longer. But it was those sweet whisperings of her name that still pulled her over.

I don't deserve you.

She didn't hold herself back as her cries filled the tent and his ear. And this time she felt his throbbing member twitch inside of her again. Tension strengthened as it bulged with the excess of his seamen spilling over into her. That warmth spread through her like before, as she convulsed with her own pleasure.

"RITSUKA!" She dug her teeth into his skin.

Her sex flooded out from her too, spraying the skin between them, staining the bedroll with a deepened wet stain as it convulsed, flushing out of her.

Warm.

And he collapsed back out of breath.

She fell with him, still wrapped in his arms, and not wanting to part with him. Her body still wracked with shakes and shudders as she rested against him. Her muscles for the moment were unable to even grasp him firmly her face resting on his chest. Her tongue was out against his skin as if it were helping to vent that steaming heat wrapped around her body. That haze still settled over her mind as she looked up at his chin.

Ritsuka's eyes were closed as he aimed to catch his breath.

She huffed out her own breath and weakly grabbed his chin. It pulled at his attention. She stretched her neck up and kissed his lips, wanting to feel his tongue on hers again. The warmth of his breath in her hair. Her body strained as the curtain of her short ashen hair fell around their faces.

Tired and breathless still, his fingers gently dug into her skin, sliding up from her ass to her hips, tracing along her skin pressing in all those tender spots along her servant body that had endured so much only hours ago.

Jeanne Alter couldn't help but shiver at the warmth of them together. Her ear resting against his chest on top of him again when they parted agian.

She felt full, with him still inside of her. She dared not to move for a moment, relishing in that too. The high of that pleasure still coursed through her as she came down. Then his arms firmed their grip around her back. Intent on squishing her as close to him as possible. A movement she didn't fight for the moment.

He strained his head to look up.

She looked up to follow and found his lips gentle on her brow.

She smiled wider again, still sheepish. "Idiot-" She huffed.

Then the grip around her back tightened, and he thrust his hips again, pushing his cock into her again.

He grunted.

She let out a meowling noise at it, "S-stop… a minute." It was half-hearted, but still filled with a sort of plea that pierced the air, in contrast to all that she'd said earlier. Jeanne Alter tried not to flinch when those blue eyes came onto her.

Ritsuka stopped like she had asked. She saw the curiosity in those blue eyes and she smiled a little, her heart fluttering. It was that same look he'd given her since the admission of feelings they shared.

More?

If nothing else, she wanted to bask in that fact. Even if it had been circumstance. She knew she would remember this. She would find a way whether or not the throne dared to try and take the memories from her. She would remember this, and relish that she'd been so lucky as to have Ritsuka look at her like she was everything.

Sometimes I have been afraid to even dare to dream.

Jeanne Alter gently tapped his chest that she was still laying on, feeling the warmth of her sex still twitching with that same insatiable request from even earlier, begging for more. His arms unwrapped from around her back and instead wrapped around her face, tugging at those tender spots on her skin.

It sent another shiver through her as he brought her head a little closer, and their lips together.

But this…

She smiled into his kiss and at his firm touches and caresses.

When they parted, the saliva ended up on his chin and neck as she was lying on top of him. She nuzzled closer. She tried not to be sheepish and avert her eyes as she spoke. Something she'd failed at in nearly every conversation that had ended with only more love and affection being shared between the two of them. Not caring it was sweat-covered and damp with saliva she settled herself back down against the crook of his neck.

…is so much better than I could've ever imagined-

He chuckled, "Hm?"

She stiffened against him.

That hadn't been out loud, right?

With some hesitation she dared to look up a little at him, past his chin and at his eyes She traced fingers along his skin upwards gently grabbing his jaw.

Those blue eyes were on her and flushed with a small embarrassment. "That's…good." He smiled at her with those blue eyes filled with some confidence.

And with that, she realized that she had indeed said it out loud. She tensed at the warm touch of his fingers around her.

"I…still worry-"

She inhaled quickly. "Don't look at me!" Her face flushed with a whole different kind of embarrassment. In an instant she wanted to disappear, contrasting in her with the fact she still was basking in the feeling of their connected bodies. "Don't you dare you idiot!" She gritted her teeth at him.

He averted his eyes as she asked.

And moved, feeling her body twitch around him, and his throbbing heat pressing against her as she did.

She huffed out a shaky breath at him and pushed his face to keep him looking away from her. Against her bosom, she felt the rumbles of his laughter starting deep in his chest, and could feel it manifest all the way into his throat.

How could I be so stupid?

She felt her eyes well in an instant.

He knows you're weak.

"Tch. Not a word to anyone!" She growled out.

He moved his hips a little either on purpose or because he was trying to adjust.

The end result was the same.

A short breathy moan slipped out between her lips. As her other hand dug into the skin around his clavicle. She pressed her lips into a line starting to pout at him.

Though he couldn't see it, with the way he winced a little, he clearly knew she was pouting at him. "Sorry-" He spoke quickly. "You're just so warm Jeanne." Even after he spoke, those warm rumbling laughs continued. And it simultaneously made her envious, bitter, all the while it was calm and relaxing all at once.

It riled her up a little. She averted her eyes looking away from him still holding a firm grip on his chin. "Yeah, well so what if I'm enjoying it!" Jeanne Alter squeezed her eyes shut as she could feel her eyes watering with further embarrassment. Her breath shuddered on his skin, her body still pressed against his. Her mouth twisted a little at him, still holding his jaw to push his face away. "So what if I thought about stuff like this before-"

"W-with me?" He asked.

"Bien sûr avec toi idiot! Who the fuck else would I ever think about?! Who else takes time out of their day to worry about an evil dragon witch!" She huffed out of breath and a sudden quiet fell over the two of them as she breathed heavily.

Quietly his fingers combed through her hair and cupped the side of her face. The movement was slow and gentle as he cupped her face. Her grip on his chin loosened and those blue eyes flicked to her.

She still felt flushed with embarrassment. "W-what about you?!" She managed an evil grin widening on her expression. "Aren't you going to admit that you're enjoying yourself too?!" Jeanne Alter let his jaw go and grabbed the wrist of his hand that was tangled in her hair, cupping her cheek.

It's unfair…if I'm the only one to accidentally admit it.

Ritsuka still smiled at her. "I would've thought that would be obvious?"

She pressed her mouth into a line further. Much to his apparent amusement as he smiled at her wide, ear to ear. He brought her chin closer and pressed his kiss to her nose right between her eyes.

It didn't alleviate all of her pout. But her lips twitched as she tried to prevent the instinct to smile like a stupid love-sick girl at his every action when it came to her. A feeling she realized that was growing more difficult to contend with each passing second.

Then Ritsuka craned his neck, and gently turned her head, so his lips were pressed against her ear. The warm breath and feeling of his tongue made her shudder. His low voice matched the breathless tone as he finally finished catching his breath.

"It's better than I ever dreamed of, Jeanne Alter."

She shivered at the sound of that sentence. Each syllable made her heart thud a fair bit harder in her chest to the point where it started to ache. But elation was at the core of it. A contentment. And of course relief, for that lingering doubt that she still wasn't good enough. He'd laid them all to rest once more.

She felt the smile on his lips as he dragged it along her skin, and pulled away just a little.

It was an admission that he'd both enjoyed her and that she'd not been alone in letting herself think of this sort of thing before with her.

She turned her head back to him and straightened his lips, to hers. Jeanne Alter made sure he could see her smile. Her master had earned that from her at the very least before she kissed him again. Their warm breath brushed on each other's lips for a moment and she bounced between gazing at his sharp blue eyes.

Good.

One of her hands went up and firmed a grip on his hair, brushing that glistening sweat away with her palm as she did.

His hands had snaked around her again so when she came to kiss him, his hands held her in place. That hand dug gently into her scalp, the other, the nape of her neck.

Her hard nipples dragged gently across his chest.

Ritsuka's hips moved.

She moaned into his mouth and forcefully pressed her face into his, pinning him with a kiss of her own. And with heavy breaths and saliva trails, they parted. His thumb brushed gently over her eyelid, their saliva once again staining his chin, while he rubbed some from the corner of her mouth into that tender cheek of hers.

She shivered again. This time since it had already been incidentally admitted she took a deep and nervous breath. "You're handsome-" Her voice came out slow as if to stretch every syllable of those two words into a long sentence.

He hummed, smiling his thanks. "And you've always been beautiful to me." This time it was he who kissed her again, craning his neck a bit. It was more chaste and quick.

It was instinct, as she lingered after him a few centimeters as they parted again. Her amber eyes opened back up to look down at him. He had that stupid, idiotic, trademark, that he could deal with anything, smile of his. It was small, but it was no less effective at conveying his emotions. The sort of smile he reserved for more quiet moments.

"You've got more of your strength back I've noticed." He raised an eyebrow up at her.

Jeanne Alter blinked, nodding once, then twice. She had for the last several minutes been more active. She tested it again just a little pushing off his chest gently. With a huff she straightened up, straddling him.

She felt herself constrict around his cock as she did.

They both moaned into the air as she straightened up over him.

"Hah-" She bit down on her lip to prevent the needy moan as that heat built up around her core once more. Tenderly she touched her clit, her cool palm against her navel. She shivered at her own touch, her body still very sensitive to all the work her master had done, and seemingly will continue to do.

Ritsuka's breaths were tense and slowly grew steady as Jeanne Alter held that position of straddling him.

"Ah-" She pressed on her naval a little, and she could feel the fullness of his cum swirling about her. She was dripping down her thighs and onto his skin as she'd sat up. Her mouth opened and closed and she looked down at her master lying between her legs.

His expression was starting to smooth and he smiled at her with one eye closed.

Idiot.

She smiled down at him as she tested her muscles slowly. Jeanne Alter slowly brought her legs closer, around him, squeezing his hips. That throbbing twitch inside of her was enough to tell her she was doing good. Her mouth twitched a little into a grin to match him just a little. Her hands propped herself up on his chest.

Even these simple movements caused her strain.

All the sores her body had accumulated were felt in excruciating detail as she ran further, smaller tests along her body. Squeezing her toes together, breathing, and sitting upright on her knees.

His hands grabbed her hips as if to steady her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Jeanne Alter smiled a little realizing, at least now she could start returning his affections with more vigor. She wrapped a hand around his fingers at her hip and peeled them away. She brought it to her lips and kissed his fingers. With his other hand, she intertwined their fingers together once more and couldn't resist smiling down at him.

"I'm…much better now." Jeanne Alter bowed her head a little. "T-thank you, master." She flexed her fingers around his wrist not wanting to let either of his hands go. Her breath hitched as her heat started to once more turn into want and longing.

Even she could see that the danger for the moment had passed. That was unequivocally a good thing. The headache of the mana strain was nearly gone if her ability to move around now hadn't been enough of a clue to her.

But she could feel the sores along her body, a sign that she wasn't through the woods completely. Not with that storm raging overhead.

In the quiet, she tuned her ears to listen. The downpour of rain had intensified, pitter pattering along the tent's tarp. The distant thunder still sounded faint and distant. She started to blush at the thought of all their noises.

The others probably heard us.

She felt him stir a little beneath her.

Another bead of liquid from their sex dripped down her other thigh, drenching their skin yet further.

His breath hitched too. "If Irisviel was smart…" He forced himself to take a calm deep breath. "She would've cast silence over the tent the moment she left." Ritsuka smiled a bit more bemused at the idea.

Jeanne Alter snorted, trying to ignore those frayed nerves even now. "She…ah-" she huffed slow. "She did come rather prepared, didn't she?"

A bead of quiet passed and Jeanne Alter swallowed hard. She finally managed to bring her eyes back down to look at him. She shuddered around him as if this distance from him was making her colder.

The heat was just a little thinner from where she was sitting above him. Slowly, she guided a warm hand of his over her right breast and grabbed his wrist to keep his fingers there. She felt him tense under her just a little.

She forced herself to meet his blue eyes. Her mouth furled around what she'd wanted to say. "I'm…not out of danger yet…" Jeanne Alter trailed off a little, looking at him. She realized that wasn't what she'd wanted to say. But she trusted him enough now to take the real meaning behind it.

More.

Ritsuka's fingers were stiff in the webbings of her hand, but slowly she felt them firm their grip. The hand she was holding over her breast dug its fingers in with gentle firmness, her nipple tucked between the webbings of his hand.

Electricity spread through her at that touch.

Her amber eyes widened a little.

"I know." He whispered a little breathless, shifting his hips a little again, underneath her.

She bit on her lip to prevent the moan. However, her expression still twitched, forcing her to exhale heavily. Jeanne Alter steadied her eyes on him as she held herself sitting up on him for a minute longer.

"Good." She whispered out between heavy breaths. Not only did she not want to stop, but there was still that fear in the back of her mind about what might happen if that connection didn't re-establish itself soon. And of course, she didn't want to stop yet. She'd only just got ahold of him in this way.

Both remained unspoken.

With a huff and that biting indent on her lip growing with pressure. She pushed herself up with her legs. Feeling him sliding away inside of her, and then with moans from both of them, she eased herself back down atop him.

So warm-

Her mouth blew out a long and tense breath. It was a wet and sticky sound as she eased herself back down over him. Jeanne Alter felt her whole body clench and unclench with the movement. She leaned into his hand, pressing her breast further into his grip and her hand tightened around his wrist.

Ritsuka.

Her mouth started to water as she leaned forward.

The hand on her hip applied more pressure.

And she moaned again.

With her other hand, she pressed it against his shoulder, holding herself up. Another breath escaped her lips and she could feel saliva dribbling out from the edge of her lips with her next movement, doing the same as before, sliding up and down on the length of him.

Plap

Plap

Plap

Three times she did it, slowly finding her own rhythm as he'd done for her. Jeanne Alter found that feeling blissful as it spread through her. Her fingers dug into his skin, and she enjoyed his fingers digging into hers with that same gentle firmness into all those tender spots along her body.

Oh god-

"Master-"

She let his wrist go to pinch one of her own tender spots along her chest. It jolted her as much as his hands.

One of his hands roamed its way to her collarbone, pressing against her skin where a wall had broken across her hard. She let out a heavy breath between shudders, as she looked at him beneath her.

"Jeanne-" He said breathless, a moan escaping his lips.

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

Plap

She came down on him again, and it took effort to stop him from twitching and throbbing at the feeling of her motions.

"Tch-" He gritted his teeth and his eyebrows furled and unfurled with tension lines. The temptation to move his hips made him almost vibrate with anticipation. However, that was a feeling he buried deep, recognizing that Jeanne wanted to have her turn on top. She was also struggling with it in her own way.

He could see by the concentration lines forming on her expression that she was determined to do it this way for the moment.

She shivered as she followed through with motion again and he could feel her body's shudder as they rubbed together at their hips. It was warm and she made motions to rub their skins together too.

The only thing he wasn't liking about this position was the fact he couldn't kiss her lips or her breasts as they gently bounced with each motion.

Ritsuka trailed his free hand from her clavicle back down to her hips and dug his fingers once more into her skin, steadying her and pleasuring her all at once. He squeezed his eyes shut focusing on that warmth and wetness between them. "Huh-" His body filled with tension, and loosened again, opening his eyes back up on her.

How did I get this lucky?

His eyes fixed on her bouncing bosom, that bouncing ahoge of her hair.

With strained effort, he moved his hands away and propped himself up on his elbows. He couldn't stand it any longer. He wanted to kiss her.

However, she pressed her hand down on his shoulder pushing him back down against the bedroll. Her body had shivered at his small movement, and her bounce came down slower as she squeezed his cock in her.

Ritsuka's whole body seemed to twitch. "I want to kiss you-" He said breathlessly.

"Guh-!" She huffed out a breath and with her hands on his shoulder, she rolled her hips again, dragging herself up and down. "Shit-" She huffed in another quick breath. Then she looked at him with those amber eyes. The same ones that could look at him and drive him right to the edge.

Need.

He forced himself to breathe out slowly.

Lust.

She obliged and leaned down to him, her short white hair leaned forward like a curtain, a small curtain over their faces as their lips met. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders intent to keep her there as long as she wished.

All for me-

Her tongue was desperate and full of fervor he'd noticed. She liked twisting and turning against him, pressing harder against him than in their previous kisses. He didn't mind and smiled against the corners of her mouth. She had grabbed both of his shoulders to steady herself as she rolled her hips again, now parallel to him, as she laid atop him.

It pulled his cock in a different way.

It made him twitch and moan.

She smiled into their next kiss, no doubt feeling an edge of satisfaction he noted. He dug his hands into her scape and tugged her hair back and up. Ritsuka could feel the shudders of her body along his. Her hard nipples brushed against his chest.

He kissed the underside of her chin.

Her fingers dug into his skin with greater tension.

She rolled her hips faster.

Ritsuka winced and closed his eyes. Feeling the throbbing twitching heat of his cock responding to her motions. A bead of sweat dripped off his bow and he could feel his heart rate starting to pick up once again, his heavy breaths growing more tense and rapid.

He managed to sneak one more long-lasting kiss from her lips until it left him sore. There was a pop as he could feel the wetness left from her tongue around his mouth. Slowly, her hands going back to his chest, she gently pushed herself back up.

Ritsuka in turn loosened his grip on her hair and allowed his arms to slide back down to her hips.

When she came down and up on him again, he saw her breasts bounce, feeling his mind go almost blank as the warmth flooded over him. He almost had to shake himself off. Both of his hands gently applied pressure to her soft and sensitive skin, her hard nipples were pressed against his palms.

"Rits-AH!" She shuddered. He could see those amber eyes peering down at him with intensity, and he felt that pleasure continue to stir inside of him.

She picked up her pace too, that frictional heat building. He forced himself to keep his eyes open on her. He wanted to watch her because she was so beautiful and sexy. Only it seemed to cut itself short, as her rhythm broke. Her convulsions and her moans came over her while she was on top of him.

He could feel the flood of heat from her sex as she was shaking on him.

Ritsuka leaned up, this time with no one pushing him down, curling his abdomen with a grunt, and kissed her nipples, sucking on them roughly.

He wrapped an arm around her back and he smiled, lips around her breast. With the other, he snuck between their abdomens and played with her clit at the edge of his fingers.

She was shaking her head violently from side to side. Her hair waving with motion she wrapped an arm over his shoulders, and the other had gotten caught between their chests as he got closer.

"Fuck-!" Jeanne Alter hissed out.

He didn't stop as he felt her squeeze for breath against his skin, her diaphragm expanding and contracting quickly. Wetness flooded between the warmth of their bodies and amber eyes flicked back open looking right at him with a tender softness in them. Her head fell forward against him and he could feel her nose against his forehead and her heavy breaths.

Ritsuka smiled into her right boob, feeling her hug him closer, almost squishing him against her nipple. He obliged and worked harder, his ear pressed against her chest enough to hear her heart over her moans and heavy breaths.

"Idiot-" She whispered breathlessly. "Ah!" Her body shuddered against him even as she started coming out of the other end of her convulsions and needy moans. Until she rearranged herself a little, her arm that had wrapped around him came back around to his front and gently started to push.

He pulled away from her breast with a pop, enjoying the shudder of her body against him and loosened his hold around her back.

Gently she eased him back against the cot in between her heavy breaths.

"Jeanne-" He managed between breaths, feeling that throbbing heat of his twitch, begging for more friction between them. Ritsuka closed his eyes and could imagine the convulsions around her core. The tightening and squeezing of his cock inside of her. She must've not realized how close he was.

She grabbed his forehead, fingertips in his hair, the grip firm before gently brushing his sweat-licked black hair back, and out of his face. "It's overwhelming." She admitted again blowing out hot air against his skin.

He nodded.

She laid on top of him for a few lingering minutes more. Both of them moved their hips, both unwilling to still separate. But she remained as still as possible for a few minutes more, basking in the rush of her most recent climax.

For him, the heat of their excess sex might be enough to drive him over his own climax. She had him bent with her body again. It wasn't uncomfortable, but there was constant pressure on him even when neither of them moved.

Just her muscles and cunt squeezing him.

He brushed her white locks behind her ear as he looked at her face again. Her expression was flushed as it had been since they'd started. She seemed to be focusing on something other than his face. She still flinched at the sudden touch of his fingers in her hair, but the relaxation was almost instant too.

And with those amber eyes looking at him so lustfully, and his throbbing cock twitching again. It took every ounce of control not to immediately start up again.

Her voice was nervous this time. "S-sorry. I was…hoping that…" She trailed off for a moment and then quietly turned her head up to look at him. "That it was good enough-" Her breath hitched as she swayed her hips gently.

Ritsuka barked with a quick laugh.

She didn't know.

She stiffened, startled.

"Jeanne, you're amazing." He huffed a little wanting to quickly reassure her. "If you'd kept going I would've been putty like you." Ritsuka's blue eyes softened while looking at her expression. His fingers combed through the white locks of her hair again. He kissed her gently on her forehead, craning his neck to do it. Then again at the white hair, he dragged away with his fingers. "You need to stop apologizing."

She shuddered a little and she averted her eyes. Her face flushed red as she started to push herself up again. Sliding herself back down the length of him again with a slow and tender motion.

Ritsuka recognized that look of determination. He couldn't resist chuckling at it, even though the pleasurable tension interrupted the thought. "The- uhm-the point is that we enjoy each other…" He said slowly.

Jeanne Alter froze, her face turning redder than he'd ever seen it as she squeezed her eyes shut, and she settled herself back up to where she was. "Y-yes…" She breathed out slowly and then her lips pressed into a line. "But…I uh…need you in order to…" She trailed off a little and averted her eyes.

Wanting more.

He nodded, deciding to cut right to the heart of it, recognizing their current wants as something that they shared.

It had been a long while since Ritsuka had read up on mana transferring with sex. It wasn't the most efficient method as he recalled, but it was more often than not, the preferred one. There was, unsurprisingly, plenty of reasoning and evidence for how it worked. One of the prevailing theories is that climaxing at the right time, together, would improve the mana transfer's smooth transition.

Somehow, he suspected, neither of them were going to care much else about efficiency, the best method. They had both made admissions if indirect and he wouldn't shy away from being honest.

He took a breath and nodded at her sitting up, her lips out of reach only for the moment. Her skin glistened with a glow in the lamp light. "I want more too," Ritsuka whispered.

She froze again and there was a look of surprise on her expression.

Surprise at what?

Whether it was at the admission or the reinforcement of the idea that he returned those affections to her in fervor, he didn't care. Ritsuka smiled at her again, allowing himself to feel a little nervous underneath her, his hips and cock literally between her legs.

It twitched and throbbed in her.

Jeanne Alter made a noise, covering her mouth with the back of her hand as she averted her eyes. He could see that blush trailing out a little farther across her cheeks. "Pervert." She muttered under her breath. Though he was certain he could see the edge of her lips turning into a smile. Her fingers glided across his chest over his heart, brushing the dampness away.

Patiently he waited another full five seconds before finally at last those amber eyes flicked back to him.

She let out a shuddering breath and grabbed a handful of her left breast. And then with a deliberately slow motion, she started up again.

He bit down on his lip to prevent his instant reaction. However, he could see her smile as she blew out another long breath, smoother than the last.

Once again the sounds of their wet sex filled the air, heavy slow wet noises as Jeanne Alter came up and down the length of his shaft. She bit her lip, and her eyes had filled with a determination that was both amusing to him, and arousing. He chuckled at her expression and breathed out with tension in his voice. "You're so fucking warm-" His body twitched at her movements.

Her smell of embers and ash filled the air with their sex. That hint of other things he could quiet place but it aroused him further.

She kissed him like before, sucking on his tongue, angling her body's motions once more. They parted when gasping for air. "You're s-so good to me-" She inhaled and he watched her nostrils flare only a meter away while she steadied herself upright on him once more. Slowly her hands moved away from his face.

He tried to follow suit, hands loosening her hold on his back as she pushed herself up using his shoulders as leverage.

"Mess-" She managed through heavy breaths of her own. "-of me." Jeanne Alter squeezed her eyes shut through one of her motions.

He ran a hand up her thigh, thumb brushing a bead of sweat away from her navel. Ritsuka managed a nod as he could feel his tension winding up to such proximity again. "Agh-" He growled a little, his thumb pressed against the hardness of her nipple, squeezing her hip.

Ritsuka's body twitched, loving the feeling of her body's movements around him, those increasingly intense warm throbbing twitches inside of her. The way she felt around him.

His growl turned into a moan, and his fingers wrapped tighter on her skin. She came down on him with that same rhythm as before as she was picking up her speed. Jeanne Alter leaned down a bit closer to him.

She grabbed his wrist on the hand over her breast, and pulled his hand closer, making her grab her skin a little harder. Her eyes looked down at his blue ones as she tried to pick up her pace a little more.

Those wet noises filled the air with their moans.

Those amber eyes.

Ritsuka wanted to shiver at that look she was giving him. There was so much more in them than words could ever say. "Just like that-" He managed between a groan as he could feel his tension bubbling over.

Her amber eyes…

And like before his warmth flooded over into her. He delighted in tingly excitement; as she kept going for several seconds more, overflowing with him, screaming moans into his ear. He could feel it dripping and churning along his cock as she blew out another breath. He squeezed his eyes shut only for a moment as he leaned his head back.

He didn't know when it had happened, as both of his hands grabbed her hips, and he thrust thrice more into them as he grunted in pleasure. "Huh-!" Ritsuka grit his teeth as finally, throbbing cock's twitches came to an end.

And he breathed out slowly.

Jeanne Alter was shivering and twitching. "So warm-" She managed as she fell forward again onto him. Her white hair clinging to her forehead matted still with sweat from their heat. "Ah-" She started to lift a leg.

Ritsuka could feel her knee sliding up along his skin to her chest.

The sudden rush of cooler air against their core added a whole new feeling into that mix between them.

He felt her tongue in between gentle kisses along his clavicle and jaw.

Ritsuka felt himself twitch as he finally felt the last of the tension leave his body lying there underneath her. He relaxed, and wrapped an arm around her, melding their forms together as much as possible.

Much to her surprise, and a moan of delight, she snagged an arm under the crook of her knee, to stretch her leg out further, and it seemed to stretch her around him just a little too.

She shivered and looked at his wet lips.

Then with one last effort, he tugged at her body. She didn't fight the motion, but she did steady herself against him, allowing him to drag her up along his skin. And slowly, he lifted her off of him.

That throbbing member of his seemed to harden again with the movement, and perhaps with protest as he lifted her off of his cock. Jeanne Alter moaned on him, and he felt the gentle movement of her body writhing atop him. She kissed him, gentle, quick chaste, on every part of his face. His forehead, nose, eyelids, the corners of his mouth, his jaw, his cheeks, and of course against his lip.

The kisses were slow and sluggish as she dragged her nose and mouth across his skin.

He kissed where he had easy access, returning it.

And they parted, but only just, and he could feel her spilling the contents of their sex, drenching his crotch.

She moaned at it, managing to snake one of her hands between their bodies, and he could feel it sliding down to play with her clit, her knuckles making circular motions. She shivered on him, her mouth open on his skin.

He suckled at her tongue and followed her hand with one of his own, leaving her knee propped on his leg, he slid his fingers down her thigh, increasing her shivers much to her delight. With his other hand, he gave only one last pull on her body, dragging her bosom across his chest, and then grabbing her hair to straighten her face towards him.

She had saliva at the corner of her mouth just before they kissed again.

Finally, his hand reached the edge of her labia, brushing gently around its edge earning him a look of want. She pressed their foreheads together and nodded. "I'm already close-" She hissed out and moaned, as his fingers gently parted her pussy, fitting inside easily. Ritsuka could still feel that warmth dripping slowly out, and around his fingers as he pushed inwards.

Then he curled his finger upwards.

And her whole body tensed with a rush. "Oh-ff-uck-" She slapped her other hand against his shoulder as she tried to straighten up.

But he'd already done it again, and she collapsed against him.

"There-!" She whispered.

###Jeanne Alter###

Time had passed, and neither of them had bothered to keep track. The only certain thing was the sound of that light rain she could hear above them ever so slightly and occasionally. The longer it went on, the more comfort she slowly started to find the whole experience.

She never really considered love even as an option for herself.

Jeanne Alter had dreamed of Ritsuka before of course. The only person who ever continued to stand by her despite everything she'd once been trying to do to him. And really she thought, it should've been obvious what her feelings were from the start. Wasting months of time in repeating weeks together on her doujins. Their dances they snuck occasionally together whenever they could.

Really what girl wouldn't want him?

There was that thought too that had crossed her mind somewhere in the heat of their sex as it continued into the long sleepless night.

A thought that had burned in jealousy still because any other girl might come along and try to snag him too.

Humanity's best mage.

It in part drove that vigorous pursuit in her feral desire to please him. She wanted him, perhaps needed him to like her so overtly that she would never feel that threat arise from the corner of her heart. She'd cried about it like before with him.

You'll never be enough.

Jeanne Alter had kept feeling him getting hard in her, next to her, around her. Even when they had been smart enough to move from the bedroll to something else, in order to avoid making the spot where they would sleep so drenched from their sex, they were a few seconds apart and she noticed his erection poking against her skin.

And it fueled her determination to be there for him to please him. It was exhausting in the best way possible.

"I think the stimulant…could use work." He said between heavy breaths. "I'm getting sore…in every spot but that one…" his airy laughter brushed against her ears as she slowly uncurled from her latest convulsions against his chest.

She'd been the little spoon, and she had to admit loving the intimacy. The way his hand rested around her jaw to angle her as needed, pulling and tugging at her had now relaxed against her skin. All she could smell now was him and nothing else. His thumb brushed the edge of her cheek, some sweat or other sticky mess that had been there.

There had been a point where she'd rested in a spot with their stains on it, but she hadn't cared. He'd probably rested in some spot the same way she had.

Her body twitched.

Not good enough.

"Jeanne?" He asked breathlessly.

She slowly turned her head to look at him. His face was closer to her and before she could voice any assurances her lips were wrapped up in his. She realized her lips were getting sore like his. But she didn't fight it.

"I'm fine," she said, tucking herself closer. Her head resting on his bicep, she turned to face him and ran a finger down his sweat and sex-stained chest. "You?" She managed.

He nodded at her, nuzzling and kissing the corner of her mouth. Her hand was wrapped up in his, intertwining their fingers.

Jeanne Alter didn't flinch at the touch and even smiled. Licking her lips.

"How's your mana?" He asked and like so many times before during this night, he gently brushed her white locks back behind her ear.

That question made her freeze up, but with an arm wrapped tightly around her, it quickly turned into a soothing comfort she relaxed herself into. She also had turned to look him right in the eye and could feel her blush worsening. "Better-" She admitted. Forcing herself to relax again. "I'm…doing much better." She smiled a little at him. "I can…still throw you across that river bridge if you want me to?"

He hummed, chuckling against her skin. "I don't think I could let go of you for long enough."

She shivered at his touch. Worried still about those jealous thoughts that she wanted to tell him of. Worried now that her body was fast getting used to him. There was that twitch of his cock, as it hardened between her thighs.

"We can take a break-" He whispered

"No!" She said, definitely far louder and quicker than she intended. She clamped a hand over her mouth.

But he noticed.

It was too obvious her stance of defiance without reason. No reason but the obvious one that was lying between them. Her mouth twitched a little as his fingers brushed against her nipples sliding right back to her cheeks to angle her a little.

She didn't fight the motion, only averted her eyes.

Ritsuka sighed a little, "Still worrying?"

Her breath hitched.

She bit her lip a little, making a displeased face.

Why is it that he can read me so well?

"Jeanne?" He tested into the air.

Her mouth twisted a little.

"Look at me?"

That voice of his is too damn soothing too!

Slowly she did, her eyes were brought back to that handsome face of his, that small smile on his lips. Those blue eyes fixated on her. There was a glisten of sweat trailing from his temple. His hair was messy, clinging and matted to the sides of his head, twisted in every awkward way because of how she'd run her fingers through his hair over and over, gentle brushes one way, tugs in another.

Gentle lips brushed her forehead. "As often as you need." He reminded her.

She blinked and looked away, "Idiot."

Ritsuka hummed and kissed her lips again, she pushed back a little as their tongues danced together. Without excess in mana, she found that she was little more than a normal human still. Her body's needs, aches, and sores remained ever-present. The warmth of her core started to spread again.

With their hands no longer intertwined. She tried not to shiver or moan when the head of his cock brushed her wet labia. It came out as a shaky breath, her eyes squeezing shut as she arched her head back against his bicep. Once more her nose brushed along the skin of his shoulder as he shifted her up.

Her body tense with anticipation of him again.

She bit her lip.

Ritsuka paused again, his warm breath on her lips, her breasts pressed against his chest, being squished together again.

She shivered again just from the heat as they pressed together.

"Are you sure you're okay to continue?" Ritsuka asked again.

Jeanne Alter felt a twist of emotions run through her. That same unneeded jealousy as to why she felt it necessary for the reflexive immediate acceptance to continue. The other part of her, that never thought to be in this position. To be worried over when it came to such an emotion she thought fleeting. That distant dream that had become for the moment reality. It made her heart dance and ache in her chest.

She had almost tensed in anticipation for that voice to hound her again. Those doubts and ever-present fears. But she found it never coming as those blue eyes remained fixed to her. The growing warmth of their bodies pressed together again. She forced herself to breathe out slowly and nodded. But honestly was the order of the day since their misunderstandings. "Y-yes. I'm okay…"

The admission held no small amount of its own surprise as that voice continued not to hound her even after she spoke.

Was it his eyes?

He hummed in a way in which it was conveyed to her that she didn't quite believe her. But he obliged her gentle and quiet request. The origins of their body, as once more, his cock slid through that wet and slick entrance of hers.

Or is it just him?

Jeanne Alter felt her pussy react almost instantly to that familiar warmth, as she found herself aching and craving him yet even more. She bit down on her lip and felt her body twist as he slid all the way back into her. Her moan was deep and guttural as she grabbed his shoulders.

Their rhythm picked up again.

She was wet, sticky, and oh so tantalizing excited with anticipation.

But so was their exhaustion more apparent. Ritsuka couldn't keep up as much as he had during the start. And since she couldn't burn through that gift of his mana so recklessly, neither could she. It had led to an unspoken compromise when one of them needed the extra rest for a few minutes longer.

She moved her hips when he needed a break from moving his. And when she found she couldn't move due to either overwhelming pleasure, or just exhaustion of her own, she was grateful for him to take the lead.

Already she could feel herself about to cum around his cock again. She too recognized his throbbing twitches enough, to feel that particular way it seemed to bulge a bit bigger just before his own climax.

His hand was still on her thigh, just beneath the knee holding her aloft. The digits pressed against her skin with that same tender firmness. Those blue eyes were boring right into her as if refusing to look anywhere but her face. Her hard nipples brushed and ached against his chest, the friction between their bodies elevating the feeling.

And they both came again with twitching wet bodies and rough exhausted moans.

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

Ritsuka's rapid beating heart and heavy breaths had finally started to calm back down. Jeanne Alter's toes curled and uncurled, right in his face. Her slender legs were stained with all the handiwork of them both. With hands gripped around her ankles he gently pried them up a little further.

I lost count.

Her body twitched against him. He peered down at her wet pussy, still dripping on his chest. Her knees fell over his left shoulder, and his nose brushed the skin of her ankles as he tried to sit himself up. Rituska couldn't deny that he enjoyed the feeling of their bodies' friction.

Right now he could feel her warm breaths at the base of his cock, her hands and arms resting on his thighs. She shuddered at his touch on her ankles. "R-ritsuka-" She warned carefully. She turned her head a little, eyeing him out of the corner of her eyes. He could feel himself grow a little bit harder again at those amber eyes peering at him.

I love her when she is determined.

He huffed a small smile at her. It was easy for him to guess why she didn't want to be moved much given the lecherous state of both of them. They were both grinding down to a slow and sluggish exhaustion.

I love her…

He winked one-eyed at her teasing, just a little. There was no point in trying to hide anything from her now. He made sure she was watching as he kissed the big toe of her left foot.

Those amber eyes stared at him more pointedly. He couldn't deny the feeling of elation that passed over him at that look.

Jeanne Alter this time had been the insistent one. She remembered back to when this whole night had started when he'd licked her and suckled at her labia, clit, and her vagina. When he only wanted to make her feel comfortable first, by making her feel good. She believed she should have a turn doing the same oral stimulation for him before they called it a night. That cunninglius at the start, is what was now sparking this last effort from his avenger.

Now they both waited, still catching their breath. Slowly he felt her weight shift a little on top of him. Her breasts brushed against his belly button, and he could see her back arch a little as she pushed herself up.

Ritsuka was sore in his shoulders, but that didn't stop him from pulling her toes closer. He was sure to grab those tender spots on her skin as he'd done so that whole night. He liked it when she gave him that look of strained patience at a time like this.

"Uh-!" A moan of pleasurable frustration escaped her lips as he felt her fall a little forward again, her bosom squishing against him. She shivered and this time no words escaped her lips as she turned to eye him over her shoulder again.

He rubbed his fingers through the webbings of her toes as they curled around him. He kissed her other big toe and licked the edge of her foot. While he did, he squished her that foot again, gentle firmness as his digits dug into the arch of her foot and around her ankle.

Her other foot, kicked upwards, out of his reach for the moment. His other hand brushed gently, up her sticky wet thighs, and parted her sex a little more.

She shivered. "Nnguh-" Her warm breath against his skin grew more rapid. He could feel it along the length of his shaft. His cock twitched as a few of her white locks brushed against him. Her warm breath was anything but smooth as she seemed to pause looking at him. Not at his face, but at his warm throbbing and twitching sex.

Ritsuka slowed his fingers along her skin as she shivered again. There was no need to rush her or tease her. He worried for a moment, knowing he couldn't see her face. All he could feel was a nervous breath along his sensitive skin.

Scared?

He considered that possibility briefly as he forced his hips to keep completely still with every warm breath she had over him. She'd been obvious about distinguishing her practical knowledge and inexperience from earlier just as he had been about his. They had both missed a few cues throughout the night. They had spent much of their time together just working through those nerves with this whole night's affair.

Nervous for sure.

She was so close to him, that he could feel the slow steadying of her warm breaths. He didn't need to see her to know what stealing her nerves had looked like. He'd seen it throughout the whole night.

For his part, he had little doubt that she would commit to it at the end. He knew with certainty that she would because of that competitive side to her. That same thing that was giving her doubts despite his reassurances.

Ritsuka made one more mental note as he applied gentle pressure to her foot once again, and traced his fingers gently up and down her wet and sticky inner thigh. But again made sure his movements were slow so as not to push her.

That was the last thing he wanted to do now, as they lay together near the end of the night.

The rain too, had turned a little more gentle.

But it was obvious the ethereal storm, whatever it was, was still in place. The thunder had been right overhead for a time, but it had moved off, booming in the distance like it had when this whole night had begun.

Ritsuka wished he could comfort her from where he was lying. He'd wished he could run his fingers through her hair from where he was. It wasn't his first choice, wishing he could have a full view of her. However, he gathered that this way would be easier for her and he did not wish to dispute her comforts.

After all, a glimmer of hope had surged into him. An idea that was certainly to get him called an idiot or stupid from her. The simple idea was that this was simply going to be the first time, instead of what he'd feared at the start. That it would be the first of many more nights to come, spending time with her. That this was not going to be just a mana transfer emergency, but the start of something new.

They had already admitted their latent feelings…even if that idea went unspoken even now.

Furthermore, he didn't regret gently massaging her feet. From their stains of sweat and touch of his lips, he could feel her feet twitch at his handiwork.

Her breath had at last steadied along his warmth. His cock twitched with anticipation, detecting the subtle change in her preparedness.

Her white hair brushed across him again. He could feel her breasts drag gently across his skin as she lifted herself like before again.

This time he waited to continue his gentle squeezes on her tender foot, slowing them down to a gentle stillness. His fingers were still pressing up and against her thigh, but his progress of moving slowly towards that leaking wet spot of hers between her thighs had also for the moment been halted.

I don't want to make it harder for her. She wants to do it at her own pace.

And then it happened, with a slow deliberate movement. He wasn't sure what he expected, but that touch was well worth the wait.

It was her gentle fingers that touched him first. Two of them gently brushed the head of his throbbing heat. That wet stickiness that stained her, from thighs to all around her core, stained him up and down the length of his cock, down the base of his shaft. It had been in and around her many times that night.

It slid from the tips of her fingers, dragging along her skin till it was pressed against the palm of her hand.

He groaned with pleasure for her. A way to tell her that she was doing well, and he could hope it helped with her nerves.

She pushed his shaft gently from one side to another, her palm brushing along his sensitive skin.

Ritsuka tried not to shudder, forcing out an even breath.

Then she wrapped her fingers slowly around him, giving him a gentle but firm grip, feeling only maddening elation.

Ritsuka shivered and craned his neck a little to see what he could of her. However, the closest he could see of her face was that ahoge centered on her head. "Mmm-" He forced himself to relax back after his sore muscles, appreciating the way he wanted to sink into the soft ground of his tent, wanting Jeanne Alter's touch to be what lulled him to sleep. Her gentle pushings and pullings against his skin send more shudders through his body.

That wet noise persisted in the quiet around them for a few seconds longer before her hand finally pulled away.

His fingers tightened on her right ankle, once more against her sensitive one. Expressing his approval by other means.

Her body shuddered on top of him.

She hissed out another moan. "Ritsuka-" She warned again, her warm breath drawing closer to his cock and then away again.

Ritsuka smiled tiredly, chuckling a little into the air. "You're too damn pretty for me to just lie back and ignore Jeanne." He shivered again focusing on her close warm breaths. As if to double down on his point a little more, his hand trailed upwards a little closer to her entrance, still leaking on his chest.

Her toes curled around his fingers again, her body bracing again with anticipation. He smiled a little and kissed her ankle again.

Jeanne Alter's fingers squeezed his thighs in response.

It was those little things he really loved.

Finally, her warm breath drew closer again and reflexively he braced himself. Her fingers wrapped around his base, a gentle massage to and fro. His fingers drew closer, knuckles brushing the base of her labia, and across her vulva. Her entrance was warm and still very sensitive, seeming to have reactions of its own in anticipation of his touch.

And her lips pressed gently against the head of his cock.

Ritsuka's breath hitched.

She's soft.

It was quick, chaste, as she'd done nothing more than kiss him. And he felt her warm breath recede away.

He bit down on his lip to prevent the groan.

Then it was only a single finger that tilted him, rubbing her knuckle gently up the left side of him, and down the right.

Teasing?

Ritsuka smiled looking straight up.

Even if she is…

Her lips kissed him again while the palm of her hand rested over the tip of his cock. This time it was the base of his shaft, near where his shaved public hairs might've prickled against her chin. And this time she ran her hand down and trailed her another two kisses up in the opposite direction.

His smile widened with delight, his fingers danced around the edge of her wet entrance. And he could feel the hot air from her slow moan flowing across his skin. Ritsuka resisted the urge to crane his neck and see.

Then there was a pause for only a moment in her movements. Her shudders from his fingers translated to a gentle squeeze of his cock.

He grunted and his eyes went wide.

For him every firm grasp and touch from her was intense.

No wonder she felt competitive after that.

He wanted to huff a laugh at himself.

But that singular thought faded instantly, her warm breath drew closer again and this time warm saliva came from her mouth gently covering the head of his cock, and her hand that went to smother and rub it in.

It was enough to begin that build-up in earnest very quickly. His breath hitched as she closed her hand around him, still pressing her palm gently against his sensitive skin. Another kiss, just beneath his fingers, electrified him.

But it was the feeling of her tongue that next made him moan.

###Jeanne Alter###

"Oh-Jeanne-" He caught his breath with a hitch.

She smiled into her next gentle kiss. His warmth brushed against her cheek, poking into strands of her hair as she maneuvered herself a little to the right around it. The smell of their sex drenched his cock. It was almost intoxicating in its own way, to smell herself on him where she'd been connected with him for so long.

He was drenched for lack of better words. Cum was already left in droplets along his shaft. Cum from them both. It was sticky and warm to her touch. This thing that had made her moan countless times. Firm to the touch as she rubbed her palm over him, and her fingers down along him. Yet soft too, welcoming in a way with all those strange intoxications that were running over her; smells, bodily chemicals.

Her kisses made her more nervous than she realized, still having avoided taking him entirely into her mouth. She watered her mouth and let out her tongue over him. Until it started to drip onto him. Then she sucked the rest of her spit back in as she leaned closer again, feeling that wet stickiness against her cheek as she kissed the side of him.

Her warm breath was as steady as she could manage to make it.

Jeanne Alter's smile welled a size bigger at the sound of his moan. Taking pleasure in the fact that she was doing a good job so far. His fingers finally probed her vulva again and she felt her amber eyes widen at the feeling. She bit on her lip and moaned against his cock. Her brows knitted together, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

This time she managed a deep shaky breath, as his fingers continued to gently tease her.

She shifted up and started to gather saliva again. Her heart was beating in her chest and she could feel her face flushed with embarrassment. Jeanne Alter was relieved he couldn't see her face right now. It frustrated her that she wanted to thank him, and it egged her on further realizing her whole disposition was embarrassing.

But patiently he waited, even through the slow motion of her fingers, and the gentle kisses that made him grunt every few moments. His own fingers tracing her sex gradually slowed to a stop again.

She bit her lip a little and refused to admit how pleased she was at him for that. Slowly, she lifted her head again, his cock brushing her nose, and her lips as she pulled away.

It was then, she touched her cheek and face with her other hand, feeling that sticky wetness on her own skin. That smell so close, that it elated her with both excitement and increasing nervousness.

He would tell me if I was bad.

She brushed her fingers together and took one last deep breath. Slowly she rolled out her tongue again and suspended herself over the head of his warm twitching member.

Get over yourself, coward.

She flinched a little as she angled in closer again, this time leaving her tongue out. The movement was slow, and every short centimeter felt so much longer to her for just an instant. And then it was over.

Her tongue pressed against him.

Jeanne Alter tried not to flinch as she stared at her action, plain before her. Barely enough time had passed for her to register as her tongue seemed to twitch, pressing flatter against him. The taste of him was sweet, salty, and dirty all at once. Full of a strangeness and uniqueness that she hadn't quite pictured it to be.

But somehow she wanted more.

His fingers pressed into her only a few seconds later. She nearly missed his pleasurable moan beneath that warm feeling that cascaded through her like another unquenchable fire. Her tongue retracted off him as she curled her toes around the hand still holding her foot.

F-fuck!

Her moan was rough and needy, and her face forward pressing against him again. That warmth poked into her soft skin, enticing as it brushed up against her nose. She took a deep inhale allowing that feeling to wash over her.

His fingers moved slowly, but clearly had no intention to stop, judging by the way he twitched against her cheek. The firmness of his fingers as they curled in her. She winced as her body started to stiffen.

"mmm-muah-!" She was quick to bite down on her lip and force out a slow breath.

Then she stuck her tongue out again, trying for a different spot. Pressing her tongue along the middle, this time she dared to do a little more. She ran her tongue along him, licking from the center part of him, all the way to the head, leaving a trail of saliva in her wake.

His body shivered under her.

Jeanne Alter felt giddy with delight that he liked it.

So she did it again, with less time between her two previous attempts as she slowly acclimatized herself to the task she'd given herself.

With a grasp of her fingers around his cock, she tilted it a little to the right, and back a little to the left, licking either side of him.

She paused only to kiss him and whether he would notice or not, he let him brush against the upturned corners of her mouth to know that she was smiling. Slowly almost half of those nerves had faded and that rapid beating of her heart started to slow.

As much as it could anyway, with him slowly pushing his fingers around inside of her, teasing her ever closer to her own pleasurable climax. Those little feelings were often the only thing that gave pause to her otherwise smooth movements next to him. Pausing to shudder against him, as it pressed against her nose. Pausing to moan while her tongue was against him, having to lick while her tongue still reflected the shudders and movements of her body, with small uneven movements of its own.

"Jeanne-" He drawled through a strained breathy voice.

She shivered in delight at the way he'd been saying her name the whole night. Not once had the novel worn off. Jeanne licked him from the base of his shaft to the top, her hand grasping him firmly. "Ritsu-" His fingers curled again, and they tugged at her body's need mightily. His name once again turned into half a moan.

I need to finish this soon, or he will make puddy of me again-

He seemed to extend into her with his long fingers, with shivers and shudders wracking along her body, building pleasure inside her. Now he was playing against her like an instrument he'd spent the whole night simply exploring and fine-tuning.

He was playing with her so perfectly that the harmony of pleasure seemed only to intensify realizing how hot and warm his shaft was still pressed against her lips and tongue.

Jeanne Alter pushed her lips back together "Guh-!". Those fingers of his digging gently into that tenderfoot of hers still in reach. A foot she'd not dare pull away from him even now.

Because she really really enjoyed it. So selfish she realized that desire that had burrowed into her heart, the way he touched those tender parts of her skin that had, hours ago, been sore spots of pain.

I'd want him anyway.

She slurped her tongue against him. Knowing that he couldn't see that giddy look on her expression. That would've only brought her more troubled thoughts.

Finally, she managed to focus her eyes on the head of his cock again. Having run her tongue over him several times, having put it off until she was ready as much as she could manage. She let her warm breath wash over him as she drew close.

She parted her lips at the head of his cock, taking it in only by the first few centimeters. She closed her lips around it and licked her tongue against him while it was isolated in her mouth. It twitched against her.

Alter pushed her hair out of her face.

Taking another deep breath around him, her nostrils flaring in the corners of her vision as she tried to focus.

He shivered.

That feeling of haze once more seemed to flow over her, as that throbbing warmth rested in her mouth's opening. She breathed slowly around it curling her tongue under it as she slid herself down further. The easiest part of it down, a full third of his length easily fitting and resting in her mouth.

That's when she suckled on him gently, as he did often against her nipples and clit.

He moaned her name like poetry.

She smiled around him.

His hips bucked a little, pushing a little more unexpectedly into her mouth.

She tensed her amber eyes wide, as it went back to where she'd intended to stop. Her first real start to an oral completed she pulled away again, being sure to leave all that saliva from her suckling against him dripping from her lips as she pulled away.

"Sorry-" He said, from behind her. "Caught me off guard somehow-" Ritsuka's voice came from behind her. And she could detect a hint of tired exhaustion coming from him in his own way now. At the sound of his voice, she held a small smile on her expression when she turned to eye him over her shoulder.

He had one eye closed and a small grin looking back at her.

Gently his fingers stroked down in and around her.

She shuddered. "Ah-!" Jeanne Alter blew out a heavy breath. "I will try to do more…" She said feeling a flush of heat and embarrassment rushing to her cheeks even as the words left her mouth. Quickly, she flicked her gaze away so that he couldn't see.

Beneath her, she gently started to feel him relax again.

"I'll try to prevent-" He hissed a little just as she gently pushed his cock to one side. "-that…I'm sorry for the discomfort…"

"It's…" She felt awkward. "Alright…" Jeanne Alter left that conversation there. Trusting him completely to keep his word. Furthermore, she wasn't sure what someone was supposed to say in response to that.

And it made her heart flutter.

Stupid idiot moron!

He was worrying about her even now.

Now when she was far better, with all the mana she could muster, but had to keep in store for the long hall given the storm. Now, after hours of this had left him exhausted. Now when he knew full well she was okay.

Medb could do better.

She was grateful he couldn't see her face at that stupid thought that had plunged into the forefront of her mind like a poison. A stupid vision of Medb having this sort of night with him. A vision of her not needing to take her time. A vision of that stupid queen who exudes nothing but confidence seemingly in every aspect.

So once more she looked down at him, so close to her, still sticking upright. Her fingers brushed the head of it. And it seemed to draw her in like it had before. That warmth and the intoxicating hormones seemed to fill the air between them.

More.

Jeanne Alter blew out a slow breath, as a sort of determination filled her heart. Her goal had changed just a little as she forced the panic away in her heart looking at the length of him. This time taking a more thoughtful measurement.

That she wanted to take all of it at once in her mouth.

That would leave no doubt.

But those stupid nerves made her freeze as soon as she got close again. It wasn't a hard reset like it was when she started a few minutes ago. But that barrier was there again. The only thing that gave her peace of mind was the fact that Ritsuka had slowed the movements of his fingers to a stop once more.

Though they were inside of her, and she was acutely aware of his slow and rhythmic movements inside her, and his other fingers resting against her labia and vulva, avoiding her clit, it had given her the respite she needed to properly collect her thoughts.

Simultaneously, it filled her more with the want to complete that goal she'd now set for herself. That barrier burned away in her far quicker, overcome with want and that stupid vision of Medb stuck in her head, smirking at her as if she were in the same room.

She licked the head of him again, her fingers straightening him toward her lips, and brushed him into her mouth again. This time resolved to pull him in further than before. Having already decided she didn't need to do it all in one go. She slid down the length of him and breathed slowly warm air around him.

It throbbed in between her lips, and against her tongue. Her mouth salivated around the length of him.

Rather easily, she managed to get half of him in between her lips.

That was good enough for now, as his fingers began to pick up their motions along her.

Jeanne Alter forced herself to remain focused as she was once more contending with pleasure as much as she was trying to give it. She suckled on him gently as she pulled away. Taking another deep breath when she'd finished.

His fingers didn't stop, so neither did she stop hers.

They motioned up and down the length of him. A couple of times within the same rhythm in which he was easing in and out of her. She could feel his body tensing with anticipation which delighted her as much as his fingers tended to her.

She leaned in close and spat on him. Then she closed her mouth around him again, just in time to hide the worst of her moans. Jeanne Alter didn't get as far as she'd liked this time though, once again as that concentration was dashed, by an adjustment of her lower body.

Jeanne Alter was moved, backward. His fingers seemed to grow deeper, as his grip tightened around her foot. She breathed out a breath of surprise over him which came as a whine peering behind her to see just what the hell he was up to.

His face was much further between her thighs.

Her body stiffened, as she realized his intention. "W-wait-" She huffed out.

And he paused his movements and she could feel his lips on her thigh. But there they paused after he tenderly squished her soft skin off around her left thigh, his lips pressed against the other, both inner parts drenched still with stains. "Hm?"

Jeanne Alter felt all those nerves clog into her throat again. "Uh…just wait… please? No lips or tongue at least?"

Her body shivered as that firm grip of his trailed her from knee to hip, and worked again on her inner thigh. Her body braced reflexivity as if anticipating his touch of lips and tongue to penetrate her. Or that throbbing heat, brushing her cheek. She licked it out of the corner of her mouth.

"As you wish," Ritsuka said simply and his warm breath grew a bit more distant, but his body still remained tense.

Jeanne Alter blew out a breath of relief. "Please…just wait until I'm finished…or you're close…" She looked away from him pointedly so he couldn't see her face.

Ritsuka was quiet for a few seconds more, his hand hadn't stopped his massage. And the fingers inside of her had slowed once more. "Okay." He said quietly. He kissed her ankles.

Before her knees had been resting between his armpits. Now they rested above his shoulders and it brought her core in a much easier range for him to please her too.

During their exchange, however, another idea popped into her head. One born from that practical knowledge with little experience. She remembered seeing something of it in a more perverted section at Servfest.

She breathed out her warm breath along his length again, but this time her hands pushed against her hard nipples as she dragged her boobs along his skin.

His cock was settled, nestled between her breasts.

His fingers moved in her.

She pressed her breasts together around his skin sending another spike of dangerously blinding pleasure through herself as she closed her lips around the head of him. Her amber eyes bulged wider.

Shit.

As pleasurable though it was she moved away from it, as her body was shaking already from his movement. She bit the inside of her cheek to prevent another needy moan from escaping her lips. This was supposed to be about him, and right now her breasts were too sensitive and it would be too easy to lose herself.

It also, she realized, wouldn't allow her to suckle on the whole length of him, if she were nestling him between her breasts.

Next time.

The thought had come simply and unbidden. The expectation formed as an afterthought she barely noticed it come and go.

Next time.

Jeanne Alter's lips closed around the length of him again, and her fingers started to pick up their rhythm once more.

This time she managed only a centimeter more than half of his length, once again licking away at his skin while she breathed slowly around it, before suckling away it in her mouth. This time not pulling away.

She inhaled through her nose, savoring the onslaught of smells and sensations.

And the feeling of him twitching and trying not to buck his hips, keeping his promise as she knew he would, turned her on even more. It was forming a dangerous cycle she knew, with no hope of stopping it.

That fear of there not being a next time still had wormed its way into the back of her mind.

I need to be good enough for more.

She pulled herself off taking deep breaths in through her mouth, and gave Ritsuka a moan from her as her body shuddered to his fingers. It was all she could manage as the saliva dripped from between her lips, unable to form words at how much she fucking loved his fingers curling inside of her.

That unquenchable fire burned hotter with each passing second.

Again, she wrapped her lips around the length of him working her hands on the space she didn't cover, up and down, turning friction into that oh-so-sweet pleasure for him.

He moaned louder. "Jeanne-!" It seemed to bulge and twitch violently for a second more in her mouth.

Jeanne Alter took more of him in her mouth. Now, her mouth filling full, wrapped around the length of him. But again it was what she could easily take in easily. The head of his cock was now angling towards the back of her mouth.

She pressed her lips closed and suckled again.

His fingers started to move a little bit quicker.

I should match his pace.

With another shudder of warm pleasure cascading through her, she started to use her fingers a little faster. She brought her lips down around the length of him too. That one was a bit harder for her to manage quickly. But she did, the feeling of him going in and out between her lips growing more…normal.

His cock was firm in her mouth as she suckled on him.

Pulling away, now, his cock was drenched with her saliva and her tongue sore from all the kissing and moving it had done. Then she came back to him quickly, not wanting to let him rest for long.

But keeping the motion up and down now strained those sore muscles that she hadn't supplied with mana.

It worked her to exhaustion.

Then she went farther down the length of him.

Both of their heavy exhausted moans increased with frequency.

She could feel her vision start to blur as she continued to the motion, pushing herself as far as she could down the length of his shaft easily. Her fingers worked in the absence of her mouth when she came up for air. Once more she rested on the length of him as she rammed it in and out of her lips again.

His fingers were pressing in and out of her rapidly, elevating her moans around his cock, her shivering tongue against him in and out of her mouth. Saliva dribbled from her lips around him when she pulled away to suck air in. Without looking back at him, she knew he had to be close again.

She parted her lips whispering his name roughly filled with all the excitement she mustered even with exhaustion plaguing her. "Right-ah-there!" She ran her fingers up and down the length of him again and closed her mouth around him. She hadn't made it to the end of him yet and she was determined too before he came.

Or just far enough that her nose would press against him.

Jeanne Alter wasn't used to it, and she was still getting used to it. She squeezed her eyes shut and could feel her vision blurring again as she suckled down the length of him again, going past that point which had been easy for her, only a quarter of it left. The first choking sound escaped her, her throat vibrating around the length of him.

Damn it!

Her mouth twisted a little, but she had to pull away again

His fingers still moving in and out of her sex at a steady rhythm, brushing against her clit a few times when he pulled out now for a longer stretch. The convulsion that pulsed through her made her moan around the length of him as she came back down.

She had found her rhythm as well. Coming and going, still giving herself time to recover from choking around him. Jeanne Alter's nostrils flared when she tried again all those smells hitting her through her nose, going down as far as she could again. This time she'd gotten much further. But she choked again on him, her mouth filling so full of him, that it seemed to clog all of her senses.

She could hear his groans from behind her as she pushed herself yet further down the length of him. Her fingers dug into his thighs for the moment only.

Only she found she couldn't see beyond that blur of her vision anymore. Her face felt warm like steam. Even breathing through her nose did little to cool her as she continued to choke on his cock.

But she was nearly there, she knew she had to be.

"Ah-Jeanne!" His body was tense under her fingers and she delighted in it.

Her vision cleared only just long enough to see how close she was. Only a couple of centimeters away from completing her task. She pushed further or tried to at least, finding the discomfort and her body with little mana annoying.

His fingers moved faster and she could feel that inevitable build already reaching its limit. Her waist was shaking, and her body was shuddering with each small second even when he dared to slow and pull his fingers away. She could feel how hard her body was working to keep his fingers working inside of her.

It only irked her to work faster as she braced herself for holding it in.

Pulling up for air and sliding back down to the halfway mark twice and in quick order. Suckling on his skin again until that discomfort faded just enough for her to try again. Her vision cleared too only for a moment. That haze locked in over her expression. Those few seconds had felt like forever as Ritsuka was already making her feverish. Her wet sticky noises and exhausted moans filled the air whenever she tried to catch her breath.

Messily and unevenly they whispered their names to one another in the low light of the tent.

Jeanne Alter steeled herself and went for it again, choking along the length of him and tightening the grip of her fingers. His throbbing twitches made him bulge in her mouth as she suckled on him.

That haze settled in quickly again making it harder to focus. Feverish even as her climax quickly approached.

Still, her vision blurred and she could feel her eyes watering so much that it was threatening to spill over again. Jeanne Alter inhaled through her nose and gagged again as she tried to feel the strain in her both her mouth from sucking on him, and her neck from going up and down.

Worthless.

Shut up!

She was so close she knew only those last centimeters remained. Jeanne Alter had stopped suckling on him, as her liquid dripped out from between her lips against him. She squeezed her eyes shut again trying to muster up anything more.

"Grrrhah-!" His voice was hoarse and strained. "Alter-!" Jeanne Alter could also hear the intensity of his voice. The tension in his muscles seemed to multiply. The warmth in her mouth seemed to twitch and throb harder.

After blinking enough of that blurred vision away she pushed herself down. Her saliva continued to slip free from her mouth onto him. Despite how tightly her lips sealed around him when she sucked on him gently, some of it continued to slip free.

It was more difficult than she wanted to admit.

It would be stupid to use her servant mana for something so stupid right?

Medb wouldn't need it.

She coughed over him.

Damn it shut up!

She let go of his thigh and slid up just a little, enough to wipe her eyes and grab her hair pulling it up. With her vision again momentarily clear she looked, staring feeling her eyes wanting to roll back.

The warmth was so soothing it could lull her to a sort of sleep. That would be if her body wasn't already leaking in anticipation of her cumming soon. She slid back down to where she was stuck and held her breath.

Pushing herself.

His body reacted to her effort by twitching beneath her and those gentle thrashes he was barely suppressing.

Her vision blurred again and she finally finally managed to get to that last centimeter. Her mouth was full, she was gagging and choking on him. The heat of him seemed to eliminate over into her body making that haze worse. All she could think about was that last little measure of length that would satisfy her goal.

Her lungs began to hurt as she was already in for a long coughing fit, and her neck muscles were locked. It was filling to the point it made her feel stuffed. But coming down against harder ramming him into the back of her throat. And it had worked for just the briefest of seconds, as that last bit disappeared by half.

Her nose brushed against his skin.

Her throat vibrated.

Exhausted, tired, and on the verge of her next enthralling climax, she felt encouraged that she really could get there. One last effort would be all she needed. But still, that voice nagged her even in her exhaustion.

Quickly she pulled away from him to catch her breath. Trying not to let her shoulders shake, she desperately clamped down on her emotions enough to hide her sniffles. Broken up by her pleasurable moans Ritsuka continued to earn.

F-fuck-

It felt like she was holding on for dear life as her muscles tensed, holding it in for just a few seconds more.

Then she came down on him again, ramming him back into her throat as much as she could manage. Each time getting her closer, each time she suckled on his skin as he pulled away.

Finally, she got there, her vision was blurred, and still, she had continued unabated to let her eyes water. Her nose brushed his skin, her brows, knitted together, now unwinded with tension. As saliva left a trail on him.

At that moment, that throbbing twitching in her mouth intensified, Ritsuka's fingers dug into her skin rougher, and her mouth suddenly burst, filling with his cum. That warmth and sticky taste filled her from the back of her throat to her lips as she sucked and pulled away from him still.

She couldn't hold on anymore either feeling her body shaking in protest at her trying to hold on to what was happening. Ritsuka true to his word had only added his tongue at the very end, to drive her climax all the way home with more pleasure.

She coughed in between her moans as cum and saliva dripped freely from her lips.

With tired mewls of pleasure, at last, she collapsed down beside him again with tired exhaustion, but with no less a satisfied smile on her lips.

Her legs bent towards her and she became aware of his warm wrapped around her as he drew closer to her. Her body shivered at the movement and he slowed, recognizing her want to bask in the moment. He only moved her legs off of him.

He groaned as he sat up.

She was still trying to catch her breath.

His hand grabbed her shoulder.

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

No matter how well that stimulant had worked in giving Alter what they needed, Ritsuka himself didn't have much left in him. Nor was there anything about what just happened, just as there was nothing about how he'd licked her at the start, that had anything to do with transferring mana.

It was all about just pleasing the other.

His sore arms were now almost painful to move. He huffed out a groan trying to shake his head free of the body aches and pains that afflicted him as he sat up. He gently moved her legs off of him and to the side. His leg was still trapped between her breasts.

And he could feel her labored breaths against the base of his cock as she was desperately trying to catch her breath. Her chest heaved against his skin with every breath.

The effort it took him to sit up was perhaps an embarrassment he would rather forget, but he managed it all the same. He winced as an ache sprung through his shoulder, but even still, he managed to reach her. Gently he combed her white hair from her eye, tucking it behind her ear as she started to tense at his touch.

It lulled her amber eyes back to him. Those amber eyes were blinking slowly, and her mouth was still open as she breathed in and out, heavy, wheezy, and hoarse. Another coughing fit overtook her as her body shook against him. Slowly however she managed to turn to, pulling away from his crouch her head was still resting.

She snuck a kiss and a lick at the base of his cock.

She followed his fingers slowly as she turned to lay facing him. Her face was covered with the mess she'd made of him. It was obvious how little she cared to try and clear it from her face at that moment. Jeanne Alter's amber eyes looked at him with something between exhaustion and inquisitiveness.

He brushed his fingers through her hair again as she sank her head back down against his thigh.

But what made him swallow was the red cracks in her amber-colored eyes and the trail of wetness that started at them trailing down her cheeks. He recognized it for what it was, evidence of how hard she'd been working for that last bout of the night.

Tears.

Ritsuka hummed down at her. "We should…sleep."

Jeanne Alter managed a nod, finally managing to move one of her hands, wrapping it around his wrist. Her chest heaving for air was finally starting to slow. But the message behind her grabbing him was clear; she didn't want to be away from him at any point during it.

He raised her hand to his lip and kissed her knuckles, despite all those aches. With his other he cupped her cheek and brushed the mess away, and one of those tear trails too.

Jeanne Alter didn't fight his movements a single bit, as slowly and surely, he arranged her upright. Her knees had been arranged beneath her to help her sit up. Those amber eyes of hers rolled onto him when she'd finished sitting back up. She winced, biting her lip as his fingers probed her gently along her hip.

She coughed one more time.

Ritsuka was looking at her worried. "You didn't have to go that far."

His hands were gently and firmly holding her up by her face as he lowered her back down. She untensed her body slowly as her weight was pressed against him. While the rest of his fingers were lost in the locks of her messy, wet, cum stained matted hair, his thumbs and palms cupped against her cheeks, brushing the trails of her tears away.

"I've got you alright?" He whispered soothingly.

He gave her a quick chaste kiss on her nose and then, over her eyes when she closed them. His thumbs brushed gently over her closed eyes, two wiping away what remained.

"S-sorry." She whispered again. She shuddered against him uncontrollably. He felt her fingers dig into his skin wanting only to be pressed up against him.

Shit. Something spooked her.

She hissed at herself.

"It's alright~" He whispered soothingly. Ritsuka snaked his arm fully around her waist and hugged her close, letting her for the moment hold onto him with all the non-mana-supplied strength she could muster.

The warmth of her so close once more threatened him with sleep, not something he wanted while he was still sitting upright with her weighing on him. He stifled a small chuckle into the air, kissing the side of her lips.

Whenever he got close, she kissed him too. He felt her lips on his jawline puckering and unpuckering. Then his neck when he adjusted them both again. It had been smart to move away from their bedroll for the rest of the night after their first few bouts. But now it became an issue as it lay within arm's reach and not beneath them. Comical giggles filled the air as they tried to arrange themselves.

His chest heaved with the effort as if those small arrangements alone had been enough to send him into a labored frenzy. Though while he did the heavy lifting as it were, arranging them both together because they refused to separate, Jeanne Alter had managed to gather enough strength to arrange the bedroll beneath them before they both fell on it.

Trusting now that Ritsuka wouldn't let go of her like she'd wanted, she also arranged a thin sheet over them. It wouldn't do anything to keep them warm, but they had done plenty to warm each other already and keep it that way.

Gently he lowered them both back onto the bedroll, heaving to arrange his legs first, and then drag her legs closer.

She blushed at him, a small pout forming while she said nothing.

Ritsuka took the chance while she was distracted to kiss her again.

"Idiot." She managed.

He hummed, "I still can't help you are beautiful…" Ritsuka arranged them as comfortably as he could manage.

Jeanne Alter took that time to run her fingers through his hair wiping away some of the remaining damp beads of sweat. "M-moron." She huffed out and pressed her forehead against his chest. But she giggled when his fingers touched her lips, just as she giggled with how he asked her to arrange her legs.

"Around yours." She mumbled out.

He sighed a little.

I suppose I should've expected.

She curled her toes against his shins while wrapping her legs around one of his. He was sure to run his fingers over her tender toes and foot but made sure not to do anything that would want to drag them both out of the lull of sleep now plaguing ever closer.

Gently Jeanne Alter combed his sweat and sex matted black hair out of his face. Then it was her turn to give him chaste quick kisses.

He enjoyed them as they trailed up his neck, his jawline, his nose. His closed eyes. Ritsuka didn't fight the wide smile that she knew he could see.

They were both exhausted and unwilling to fight sleep anymore. His thumbs probed the corners of her mouth as they lay curled against one another. She managed to squeeze her fingers against his skin again. Looking at him with tired and slow-blinking eyes, she knew too, he was going to fall asleep quickly.

Ritsuka was just fine with that.

For that moment, it was well worth it to see her smile through her exhaustion at him. They settled in, finally, to sleep wrapped in one another's limbs, not bothering either to dress or wash until morning.

###

It had stopped raining and that was the first thing he was really conscious of. The next was the warmth that had enveloped him with light piercing the tent from outside that made him wince as if he'd turned the wrong way. But slowly it lulled his eyes open as the smells from last night's activities reached him.

Jeanne Alter was still there with him and judging by the way she was sitting up with her knees hugged to her chest, she'd been up for a while. He couldn't see her face, but after blinking away some of that morning haze he could see the indents of her fingers on her skin.

Ritsuka wordlessly grabbed her hand and started gently pulling.

Her breath had hitched and she'd sat up startled. Her amber eyes followed down to his expression still tucked in the bedroll.

His touch remained insistent.

She followed slowly until her arm was wrapped around him again and she was lying down beside him. Her face was turning red with each passing second because she hadn't dressed and his fingers brushed along the side of her breasts.

Wordlessly still, he wrapped his arms around her again and hugged her close.

"W-we should get started about our day…" Her mouth twitched.

"No we don't…the others and I cleared out the rest of the area while you held the bridge last night."

She bristled and he wrapped his arms around her tighter. "But-then without the storm then shouldn't we-?"

"It's alright." He whispered with a small smile then he kissed her, quickly. "I don't think I'm quite ready to part from you just yet." Ritsuka smiled into her skin so she could feel it. His hands tightened on her.

She was stiff in his arms, but slowly he felt that tension leave her body. Slowly, she melted against him and he could feel her arms wrapping around him in turn slowly, her grip slowly tightened as well.

He smiled.

"Okay." She whispered.

A few seconds of quiet passed, "You're still alright?"

"Mana wise?" She asked.

She felt him nod his head.

"Good enough…slowly improving. I can feel Chaldea's supply to me once more."

Ritsuka allowed himself to breathe out one more breath of relief.

They remained tangled for nearly another full two hours unwilling to part, and possibly falling back asleep to get yet more of it. It was easily late morning by the time they woke up proper, and wondered what the hell they were supposed to do about not only cleaning up their mess, but the fact that Ritsuka was reluctant to dress back into his clothes until he'd at least rinsed off.

They both concluded that they could sneak out to the river.

Only when they were just about to sneak out, they discovered that everyone else had already returned to Chaldea.

Which was probably…the best scenario to avoid any embarrassing mishaps.

They both paid a quick visit to the river rinsing themselves off in what was, Jeanne Alter described, the coldest shower rinse she'd ever taken. She was shivering when she sprinted back out of the river and slammed into him to wrap her arms around him.

He chuckled and returned the hug.

"How-are you not cold!" Jeanne Alter demanded.

Cute.

"Oh I'm freezing-" He gave her a grin. "I was j-just better at hiding it." He let out the jitter just once so she knew he was telling the truth.

"Idiot." She muttered.

But neither made a motion to part until they were back at camp.

After another half hour cleaning up their stuff, and getting dressed, they were finally back at Chaldea.

###Jeanne Alter###

She was trying to fight her blush and averting her eyes from Ritsuka specifically as they both stood before Da Vinci. She could feel Ritsuka's eyes occasionally turn to her. But she'd locked her neck, refusing to look at him.

Now that she was dressed back into her gear, her sword at her hip, and that she had mana, the spiritron dress had repaired itself. The tears made from the battle last night against the shadow were gone with only a few exceptions. Her bicep was exposed, now covered with her hand. And another near her ankle. And of course, she felt increasing embarrassment for just how much Ritsuka had seen of her the previous night.

Her mouth twisted a little as she felt Ritsuka's head turn toward her again. He was probably worried about her. It made it more difficult to keep her composure. Her stupid fluttering heart wasn't helping either. She grimaced a little, tightening her fist at her side.

The genius that Da Vinci was, and that smug look on her expression had already clued Jeanne into the fact she was well aware of all that had transpired.

It's not like we did it by choice!

At first.

Shut up!

Jeanne Alter glowered at the floor while Ritsuka delivered the full report that the others had started. Edmond and Mash were in the command room too, willing to wait and share whatever they could to fill in the gaps in the information.

She quietly squeezed her bicep, while her other fingers balled into a fist at her side.

Da Vinci sighed, "Well in any event great job both of you. With the unexpected appearance of a shadow servant, Jeanne Alter made the right choice. And with the unexpected interference from the storm…" Her lips twisted a little. "I think it was some quick thinking on both your parts to…figure out what to do." She then turned to Jeanne Alter. "You're dismissed unless you wish to add anything?"

Jeanne Alter gripped her bicep tighter. Her black cloak swayed as she turned away. "None," She didn't want to give Ritsuka a lingering glance. All she wanted to do was escape the room as quickly as possible and not have to think of how stupid she'd been throughout the whole affair.

So what if we both have feelings?

Thinks you're weak and useless.

Leave me alone!

She'd barely reached the door when she heard him call out to her. She stiffened and turned slightly but once again didn't look his way.

"Great work. I mean it." Ritsuka said.

Jeanne Alter didn't have to turn around to know that the stupid idiot was smiling at her. So she merely nodded and waved off her shoulder to return back to Chaldea. Prepared to continue on as if nothing at all had happened. It was for the best for her at that moment, continuing on back to her room.

Only it didn't go as planned at all.

That stupid Saint was waiting for her and asked her out to lunch where they sat quietly across from each other.

Jeanne D'Arc stared at her with those blue eyes. "So…can I expect any nephews and nieces to be cropping up into my life soon?"

She spat out her drink, coughing. "N-no! What the hell?! Why would you even ask that?" Her eyes narrowed sharply.

Was that idiot talking about it or something?

The Saint smiled, "I overhead Edmond earlier when talking to a few of the others. Saying you were probably going to want some space." Her teasing smile faded into a more genuine one. "However, while I respect your boundaries, of course, it's my job to tease you and make sure you're okay."

"No one asked you, stupid saint!" She balled her hands into a fist under the table, making a mental note as well to punt Edmond through a few walls. Even so, it didn't make the question any less irritating.

Not like servants could have children anyway.

Santa Lily had been, up until that point playing with some toy Marie Antionette had brought her. However, she bounded over with sparkles in her eyes. "Oh! Please say yes Alter! I promise I'll be a good older sister! No, I promise to be the best older sister!"

It was enough to make her groan standing up from the table. "You're both idiots!"

Jeanne grabbed the younger Santa Lily and hugged her from behind, much to Lily's growls and dismay. Pushing against the ruler's cheeks trying to peel her off.

In much the way that Jeanne was known for sometimes she was very blunt. "And how can you be a good older sister if you won't let others hug you, hm?" She closed her eyes and smiled so sweetly at the smaller Santa that it probably would've made any other servant faint.

Santa Lily was devastated but her motions stopped, and she puffed out her cheeks in a pout as she just forced herself to sit still in the saint's firm dotting hug.

Jeanne Alter had enough and she made to leave.

But the saint called after her. "You weren't referring to Lily as an idiot were you?" That sly smile returned as she peered at Alter. It made her stop in the doorway with that stupid suggestive tone she managed to keep hidden even from Lily.

She however didn't care.

Stupid saint!

Jeanne Alter rounded at her from near the doorway. "So what if I think he's an idiot too!" She pressed her hands against either side of her head and scratched away at her hair. "GrAAH! This whole thing is so stupid. If only I'd been smarter during my fight it would've been an issue to begin with!"

Her normal self nuzzled Santa Lily one more time before releasing her. "Go on, go find Jack and Nursery, I'm sure they are looking for you!"

And the pout that had been there, had vanished instantly. "Okay!" She bounded off past Jeanne Alter and out the door.

Jeanne sat up a little straighter. "So there is a problem then?"

She blinked and realized she had slipped up. The last thing she really wanted was the stupid saint involving herself in any way more than she already was. "Tch…" Slowly and calmly she forced herself to relax under the scrutinizing gaze of those piercing blue eyes. They were softer and gentler than his at times, but the fact they were a reminder of his eyes still bugged her. She averted her eyes. "N-no. There isn't an issue."

The saint stood up and took a few steps toward her. "I…see." She spoke slowly and carefully. Her blonde braid swayed with her movements. "Then why not talk to him and clear it up?"

It would be better not to involve myself.

She breathed out slowly.

Even if it's something I…

"I said there wasn't an issue." Jeanne Alter said pointedly before turning to leave through the doorway.

"Alright," The saint spoke carefully. Alter heard the clink of the armor around her shoes going back to some other part of the room.

Slowly Jeanne Alter blew out a breath of relief as she reached the doorway.

"It's normal, you know?" The saint said.

The doorway slid open again and she peered back at the ruler now picking up some blankets that had been thrown to the floor from Lily. She carefully folded them over her arm and met Alter's questioning glance into the room.

"It's normal to not know what to do next." The saint smiled faintly as if thinking of a memory that Alter couldn't touch. Then those blue eyes seemed to refocus on her. "If it makes you feel any better, he has the same worries you do now." She tilted her head as if to think about it. "Although, I think he will know what to do in short order."

Jeanne Alter stood there a few seconds more.

Her fingers curled again into a fist as she crossed the threshold of the doorway, not saying another word.

###Ritsuka Fujimaru###

Da Vinci peered at him. "What is it, Master?"

He took a deep breath, "Nothing."

Somehow saying I can't get Jalter out of my head wouldn't be the right thing to say.

The master inventor genius exaggerated a look of narrowing her eyes at him. Making it obvious she didn't believe him. He tried not to flinch or wince under that scrutinizing look. Somewhere between the disapproving look of a parent, or a sibling that simply knew better than him.

Ritsuka tilted his head, "I'm just…recovering."

Da Vinci blinked and grinned. "Must've been quite a workout then?"

Leave it to Da Vinci to get right to the heart of the matter.

He smiled a little, more to make a joke at himself.

And to me for thinking I could play the fool.

"It was…" Ritsuka said, deciding to be honest. "I'm still a little worn out being the little human that I am." He dared to grin a little.

But it was still nice…wasn't it?

However, he was starting to question if it was worth it. It was easy to notice that she was avoiding him now. Tracing his steps over and over in his head had led him to the conclusion that he'd done nothing wrong. Nothing at least that struck him as so obvious that he could try to mend it easily.

It still felt like he had done something wrong.

Ritsuka took a slow breath. There were several driving principles behind the reason to speak to Da Vinci specifically. He had in the heat of the moment more or less confessed feelings to Jeanne Alter several times throughout the night and he needed someone to help him work through all that stuff. A lot of what he needed to say or talk about was directly related to that.

The genius painter and inventor snorted, finally setting down the little device she'd brought to tinker with her. "What did you come to see me for?"

However, one thing is equally important.

He nodded at her, "Did you figure out what caused the mana supply issue?"

Da Vinci nodded, "Yes, we think it had something to do with the weather harmonics spreading through the turbulent ley lines of the area…" She tapped a few buttons on the table separating them and a small hologram came up between them. She drew a line along the map that turned red. "We think…because this…thing was so close to turning into a real singularity, but we stamped it out so quickly that the energy sort of backfilled…clogging the pipes so to speak of the leyline."

He followed her finger to the edge of the leyline. "It popped…or burst, and filled the storm with an energy we couldn't easily break through."

Ritsuka nodded.

She smiled. "It's unique and it is unlikely to happen again." Then her face grew a bit more jovial. "No more excuses to sleep with pretty girls struggling with their mana supply."

He scratched the back of his neck feeling his face warm. "I'm…not sure I'd want to sleep with anyone else."

It hung in the open air as if he'd dropped a pin for them to both keep their ears out as they listened against the ground. He also felt shocked that he'd admitted it so openly all at once. The real reason he wanted to visit.

Because I have to tell someone.

Da Vinci's mouth had fallen open with surprise at him. But then her expression slowly smoothed and she rested her in her hand propping herself up onto the table. "Well then…this is unexpected isn't it?"

Ritsuka took a deep breath and braced himself for what he was voluntarily getting into.

###

Unsurprisingly. The advice that he'd been given, boiled down to the simplest idea. The one he already concluded was probably the best choice, now reinforced by that talk he'd wanted from a friend.

Talk to her.

Ritsuka took a deep breath, his knuckles against the cool metal of the door to her room. Quietly he tapped it, the soft metal thumps against the metal on his knuckles seemed deafening in the empty sterile halls of this particular Chaldea hallway. He swallowed and knocked again, this time managing to find his voice. "Jeanne?"

And if the quiet knocks had been deafening compared to that quiet, his voice seemed only to exaggerate it. There was only the quiet hum of Chaldea's atmospheric system.

He knocked a third time and tried again, leaning in closer to see if he could hear anything on the other side. After a few moments, he looked a bit more nervous than he had only a few minutes ago.

Either she isn't here…or she isn't willing to chat.

Ritsuka took a deep breath and spoke, just in case it was the latter. "Sorry…I only wanted to talk." He stepped away brushing his fingers over the door separating them. He'd been in her room a couple of times before, but never for anything serious. The same could be said for her visiting him.

He had checked around her usual spots as the evening rolled in. The cafeteria, the training simulators, and sometimes the library or workshop when she was researching one of her next offshoot little projects in preparation for the next manga or doujin. He'd gone everywhere short of visiting the Shinjuku remnant. If she'd gone to hide out there, he would have to wait until tomorrow to speak to her as most of the staff were already turning in for the night.

But it was a plan, and despite the setback, he promised he would talk to her.

He'd nearly rounded the corner, stepping out into the outer hall where it curved, and spotted a familiar figure.

Jeanne Alter was right outside his door facing away from him, looking pointedly at that metal doorway as if it were her only obstacle. Then after a few more seconds had passed, she lowered her head as if looking at the floor.

Ritsuka froze silently, eyes going wide as if to brace himself for something. For her attention be it scorn or anything else.

Only nothing came.

A few seconds more passed and he was then certain Jeanne Alter hadn't noticed him at all.

Her fingers were curled into a fist at her side and she raised it to his door and stopped short. Ritsuka watched her physically wince and her arm twitched just short of following through with the motion of knocking on the door.

It fell back to her side again and her head seemed to sink lower.

Ritsuka didn't know how long he was captivated by her. But he counted the motion of her trying to knock on his door several times.

Each time she seemed to shrink.

He could see that courage of her own starting to dwindle.

Something swelled in him, knowing that she had gotten herself to the same place he had. A place where they could talk. He wasn't about to let either of their courage go to waste. He took a deep breath and swallowed.

She worked up the courage to be here too.

Then he rounded the corner as he'd normally planned his boots echoing quietly across the floor. And pretended to notice her just as she'd turned to see who was coming down the hall. "Oh, there you are, Alter." He grinned a little at her, or rather he tried. It was on the smaller side for his smiles.

Even then, it should be expected that it didn't work.

She'd gone stiff as a board.

He blew out a relaxed breath as he came to a stop a couple of meters away. Carefully, Ritsuka decided he wouldn't be teasing her for finding her and watching her outside his door. Not yet anyway.

She could retreat away if I did that.

Jeanne Alter grabbed the side of her arm and started squeezing.

It made Ritsuka want to hug her.

"I…uh…" Jeanne Alter tried and as she stumbled over her words he could see that confidence waning yet even more. The black armor around her avenger clothes was dispelled, leaving only those flowing black and red clothes.

It allowed him to see how hard she was squeezing her arm.

"Trust me…" Ritsuka gave an encouraging nod at her. "I haven't figured out…how I wanted to say anything either."

Her stance was still stiff but her eyes widened a little toward him.

Ritsuka held out his hand a little past the line halfway between them. The gesture was an obvious one. He tried to smile again, this time he thought of managing something far more genuine than before. "All I know for sure is I wanted to talk to you."

She struggled a bit more than he did. Jeanne Alter looked from side to side down the hall, and he could see the tension in her throat. Like the words that she wanted to come out were refusing too. "S-sorry." she managed again.

Gently he brushed his fingers over her knuckles, the hand that was balled into a fist at her side.

She took a deep breath and suddenly when she looked at him determination, like she was about to charge headlong into another battle. In her glowing amber eyes, he found his heart starting to pick up its pace.

###Jeanne Alter###

Her lips curled as she jutted her chin out and she firmly grabbed his hand before it could leave hers alone.

The squeezing on her bicep stopped.

I got this far right?

Jeanne Alter had buried the range of emotions causing her turmoil, all away in an instant. She was looking at his lips and it was all she could think about; how sweet they would taste. The thought was comforting to her in a way.

She tugged him by his wrist a step closer angling her lips upwards toward his. Her amber eyes fixed onto those started blue ones.

Coward.

She breathed out slowly.

He was looking for me too.

Ritsuka took the hint and gently returned the firm grip on her hand. He looked nervous as she could see his face turning red.

It was probably just as red as hers.

"I…want you to stay." He whispered now that they were much closer.

Her mouth twitched those jumble of words recycling in the back of her throat constantly as she tried to find the right thing to say. But eventually, she settled on something near the truth of it. She could hopefully get to what she wanted to say later., but for now, this would have to do.

"I…want you to make me." She quivered a little, biting her lip.

She watched his blue eyes return to that calm understanding she was familiar with. Her heart was racing in her chest, but now it was her nerves she realized. It was simple anticipation with the way he looked at her.

He waited no more and finally kissed her again for the first time since the previous night. A small taste test for what was to come. It was quick and chaste, but he didn't let go as they both moved into his room, closing the door behind them.