A/N: Spooky season intensifies and double update is a go! Looking forward to your feedback!
We've updated this, and No Strings on Me! Hopefully each get some good feedback; we're switching things up a bit on Saturdays until we hit November.
Which brings me to another point, there will be no updates for the Fourth and Fifth of November due to personal reasons. Sorry about that! I desperately need time to relax.
If by some miracle this story -Love Bites- makes it to 1,100 reviews -very close presently- it would mean the world to this tired old man and really inspire me, despite with all the site glitches. I know, I know, begging for reviews, but I really do write for feedback, and these glitches are doing me in...sorry...
Speaking of glitches!
Can anyone see this? Its impossible to tell anymore. I can't work properly with all these these bloody 503 site glitches! They've ruined my inspiration and made writing a struggle, both here and on A03. I was feeling so very INSPIRED before the glitches began at the beginning of the month.
Now? Between all this crap with the site and the drama with my job, now I just want to curl up in a corner and cry. Still, here I am. Looking forward to your feedback~!
I think I've kept you waiting long enough already, dear reader. As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes, or memes. Not a wit or a one! They're tributes to legends far greater than little old me.
And speaking of which, there's a Green Goblin rooftop tribute from the early 2000's for the madlads who remember.
It just fit so darn well. Remember, Miranda is a sneaky witch...
Here we go.
"I want you."
"Oi. At least buy me dinner first."
"Is that all it will take to secure your loyalty? Very well! Then let us have a feast!
"I WAS JOKING!"
~?
Eleventh Bite (Temptation)
"Let us speak privately."
Naruto's guard was up the moment Mother Miranda uttered those fateful words.
To be fair, any man with an iota of common sense would be wary after hearing something like that. A decent man would've politely denied her, made their excuses, and walked away. Likewise, any sane man would've taken one look at this so-called "Mother", told her to fuck right off and run for the hills while hollering at the top of their lungs.
They definitely wouldn't follow said madwoman into her private chambers.
They certainly wouldn't "take a seat" and let her catch a shower.
They absolutely wouldn't leave her alone.
Not for the first time, Naruto conjured a knife from his sleeve and contemplated driving it into Miranda's skull, kill her, bury her corpse, and salt the earth for good measure. Alas, he couldn't do either of those things at the moment, no matter how much he might wish otherwise. Or rather, he could, he supposed. It wouldn't even be difficult.
There was just one problem; Miranda would revive herself within the hour.
Alcina claimed she was functionally immortal, and while had yet to test that personally, he wasn't willing to risk her family existence-nor that of Donna-on a whim that may or may not work out. Short of spawn camping her corpse and killing her repeatedly for the rest of his life, there really wasn't much he could do stop her at the moment.
So follow Miranda he had, if only to find a way to remove her quietly, aware from prying eyes.
He didn't want anything to do with her lab, too dark and dank and cold, but this place, at least, was comfortable enough in its own right.
For a crazy priestess, Miranda seemed to pride herself on having rather cozy quarters here in the chapel; decadently dark drapes hung before windows and walls of mottled creme, allowing just a hint of full moonlight to peek through, illuminating a queen-sized bed draped in crimsons silk and a long blue-glass bottle of wine set out near the dresser. The invitation was implicit, utterly obvious. He made a point of looking away from that, letting his gaze wander elsewhere in favor of surveying his surroundings.
A number of strange, intricately carved pillars held up the ceiling, but he couldn't quite shake the eerie feeling he felt when he gazed upon them.
Stranger still, she'd strewn a great many pillows about the room with seemingly no care for where they wound up; there was a mound of them stacked in the rightmost corner near a thick bookcase filled with strange tomes he couldn't read. He'd since claimed one such cushion, planted it atop an ornate oak chair for comfort then dragged the later over to the lone table in the room, atop which a pair of empty wine glasses awaited.
If this was Miranda's attempt at seduction, it wasn't going very well.
If anything it seemed downright clumsy.
What was he to make of that?
"Be wary. She's up to something...
"Relax." He huffed at Kurama's warning. "I don't trust her."
"You should."
His gaze snapped to the right just in time to see Miranda emerge from a side room.
His throat went dry.
Damn.
Her hair was still damp from the shower, shining ever so faintly in the low light.
She'd abandoned her ornate robe and forsaken her clumsy headdress in favor of a long white shift, just the sort of nightgown a village girl might've worn a hundred years ago. It stopped just shy of her ankles, concealing nearly everything and anything from prying eyes. She probably thought it looked scandalous, but after all he'd seen in the Dimitrescu household, if was almost refreshingly vanilla. Really, she looked almost normal.
Although...where in blazes had she hidden those massive knockers under her robes?!
"Surprised?" Miranda ran a hand through her damp hair, bemused by his behavior. "Don't be. Outside, I have a reputation to maintain; an image to cultivate among my faithful. Here in my sanctum, away from their prying eyes, I can be as I wish." She looked away from him, a faint tinge of pink dusting her cheeks. "Please don't mind my ankles."
Was she blushing? No. Impossible.
A pause followed, as she considered him, and he, her.
In that moment he felt... what was the word? Uncomfortable? No that wasn't quite it. On edge perhaps?
Regardless, he remained wary of her all the same.
Pacing past him, she retrieved the bottle of wine, padded back to the table, and sat before him.
"There." She took the twin glasses and began to pour, first for herself, them him, seemingly ignorant of his attention. "This is much better, wouldn't you agree? We can be as we truly are."
He didn't move, not even when she offered him a bottle of wine.
"Thirsty?"
Someone clearly was!
He shook his head instead. "...I'm just fine."
Miranda granted him a small, indulgent smile. "Dear boy, if I meant to poison you, we would not be having this conversation."
"As if you could."
He'd meant it as a jab, only for her eyes to light up. "You're immune to poisons, then? Fascinating. What else are you capable of? Regneration? Duplication? Or perhaps-
"I'm capable of getting angry." his voice fell flat, making his irritation clear. "Wanna see?"
...my apologies." she surprised him again by dipping her head ever so slightly. "At the end of the day, I am a scientist. Its in my nature to be inquisitive."
Much to his chagrin, she took up her glass and drank from it a moment later. When she didn't drop dead or pass out in the next thirty seconds, he reluctantly deigned to sample his own.
Strangely fruity with a sweet after taste that lingered on his tongue. He'd never had the like before.
"No toxins or poisons," Kurama was quick to reassure him. "You're good."
'Ol fox would never lie to him; seemed Miranda was telling the truth.
Satisfied, he downed it in a single gulp.
Miranda huffed a laugh.
He set the glass down and squinted at her. "What's so funny?"
"You, silly boy." she hid a giggle behind her hand. "You're meant to sip wine, not guzzle it like juice."
Now it was his turn to flush, even if only for a moment. What the hell was going on here? He'd expected demands and a haughty bitch that needed to be smacked down. Not...whatever this was supposed to be. Certainly not quiet conversation and a nice drink. Alcina had warned him about Miranda; said she was a perverse matriarch, a scientific genius, a madwoman. But she'd shown none of those tells, here. It almost felt like as though he were speaking to a completely different person...
"Pour, then." he offered her his glass.
Miranda hummed happily and did just that.
He allowed her, waiting for the other shoe to drop, only to be annoyed when it didn't.
"Tell me of yourself."
He crossed both arms before his chest. "You first."
"I suppose that's fair; I did invite you hear, after all." she drank slowly, savoring her wine before continuing. "To start, I am over a hundred years old-
Naruto nearly fell out of his chair! "You don't look a day over twenty!"
She preened a little. "Kind of you to say, but it doesn't change the truth. I have spent these last ten decades working to revive my long-lost daughter through he Megamycete an organism which breaks down and absorbs the consciousness of those who have perished. I have experimented on hundreds of people, just to find the right vessel."
Well, that was a lot to take in, but surely-
Miranda wasn't finished. "I even tried to increase the efficiency of finding a vessel by creating a parasite I called Cadou; there were some, like Alcina, who were so very close to being perfect, but none of my experiments came to fruition. Most turned into Lycans...
"The hell're those?"
"Feral beasts." she made a noise of distaste. "You've yet to meet any, as I've kept them well away from you. Let me finish my tale before you judge me. I was once approached by an organization that said they would assist me. I gave them some of the mold and my daugther's DNA. But all THEY created was another defect. Eveline." his curiosity was piqued by that last bit, and he silently filed the name away for later use as the self-proclaimed mother rambled on. "Still, she was...not a complete failure. I learned of another thanks to her, and I know she will be the perfect vessel.
Aha. And now they came to the meat of the matter. "And this vessel is...?"
Her smile flashed out at him, sharp and cold. "Allow a lady some secrets. If I revealed the entirety of my schemes to you, you'd surely seek to stop me."
He most certainly would. This woman, what veneer she might try to project...she clearly wasn't sane. She'd freely admitted committing what were essentially war crimes in the name of science. All those lives, destroyed, if not outright ruined, and for what? All for the sake of bringing back a daughter long since dead. She would kill or savage countless more if left unchecked.
Monster.
"I see the look in your eyes." Miranda poured him another glass, then drank her own, "You think me mad."
He grunted and downed his drink, idly aware of the low ringing in his ears.
"I am not mad," she argued. "I am horrifically sane. I know what I want, and I am prepared to sacrifice everything to gain it. Even negotiate, where need be. Such is why we are here." a wave of her arm indicated her chambers. "I could have ripped you from Alcina's arms and caused chaos untold, yet here I am, making nice.
Did she expect him to be grateful?
She saw his disgust. "Would you rather I try to kill you?"
He thrust his glass at her, demanding another drink. "Ain't the killing I'm worried about...
"Fair." She granted him a nod and poured like a good hostess. "Any battle between us would be most destructive for our surroundings. I daresay we'd bring the village down around us."
And then some. He chose not to say that. Provoking her served no one.
"But it doesn't have to be this way." drawing herself back, the cult leader ran a hand over her full bosom and smiled at him. "We need not be enemies."
"Is that so?"
"It is." her head bobbed eager, mistaking his question for acceptance. We can be friends." She crossed one long leg over another, briefly revealing a tantalizing expanse of skin within as she smiled at him. "I can be a very good friend." You're an amazing specimen, Naruto. You and I are not so different.
"Really?" he scoffed. "Last time I checked you were a murderer."
Miranda tilted her head. "And you are not? How many have you killed? Do you even remember?"
Naruto bit his lip to stifle a grimace. Alright, his hands were hardly clean as a shinobi, but there was a difference! "I only kill when its necessary."
"As do I," she tried to argue. "I do not take any more pleasure in dealing death than you do-
"No," he spat, "You just kill those who get in your way and warp the mind of others."
Here at last, her smile faded as her face closed down. "I am trying to be civil."
"Are you?" anger bubbled up in him. "Hard to tell. It doesn't matter. I chose my path. You chose yours."
The wine glass cracked in her grasp, sending wine running over her fingers. It looked like blood.
"You can choose another." Raising her stained hand, she offered it to him. "Join me. Imagine what we could accomplish together. What we could...create."
Her free hand glided a path down well past her stomach, the meaning implicit.
"Or we could destroy." Her face hardened when he didn't respond, full lips pressing into a thin line. "Cause the deaths of countless villagers in selfish battle again and again and AGAIN until the Village burns and we're both dead. Is that what you want?"
He drew on the natural energy in the air, in response and nearly choked. There was so much of it here in this place; but it was darkened, twisted, tainted.
Miranda tilted her head, pale strands of hair falling over left eye. "Do you have children, Naruto?
The silence was his answer.
"I thought not." she shook her head, setting her hair swaying. "You're much too young. But suppose you did. Suppose you had, lets say a son. Or perhaps a daughter. Maybe both...
He didn't have to. The memory of Donna's hallucination haunted him to this day, something she still apologized ceaselessly for.
...now imagine losing them." Miranda crooned. "Picture their life being torn from your grasp, watching them eke out their last breath in your arms, while you are powerless to save them."
He flinched ever so slightly.
Miranda saw it, and her hand fell back to the table.
"You know of what I speak." the edge of her sharp smile was blunted, if only briefly. "You caught a glimpse, didn't you? Or perhaps had a hallucination."
Anger roused itself with him, but he leashed it and refused to rise to the bait; with an effort, he reached over and gripped his wright wrist, holding it tight. The pain centered him, if only for a moment.
"Donna, no doubt." Miranda surmised, reading into his silence far too well for his liking. "Her abilities were quite something even before you enhanced them. She made you see something you didn't want to see, experience your worst, most primal fear. I do hope you punished her for it."
Clever girl. Dangerous girl. Had to be careful here.
"It matters not what you do with her," Mother Miranda clicked her tongue, briefly irking him. "You can have as many brats with her and the others as you wish. Have a horde for all I care. I ask only this." her hand reached across the table to touch his own, trailing fingers stained by wine and glass across his one. "Give me one as well. A new daughter to replaced that which I have lost. Do so, and I shall abandon my current plans."
He leaned back, pulling his hand from hers. "You're insane."
"As I have told you once already, I am not." she shook her head. "I sometimes think madness would preferable, but no. My mind is my own."
...no. He wasn't convinced.
He turned away.
Miranda wasn't having it; she sprang to her feet and embraced him from behind, all but pressing her body against his, full bosom burgeoning between the shoulder blades of his back. Her lips ghosted tenderly across his neck and he shuddered; and not entirely from revulsion. Evil, wicked, vile though she might be, Miranda was a beautiful woman. His body recognized that, even if his spirit remained torn.
"Give me a child," she whispered in his ear, nuzzling his cheek with her own, "And my Village is yours. I will be yours. We will be as gods among men."
Really, it would solve a great many problems...and that, as they say, was precisely the problem.
Naruto blew out a short, sharp breath. It was a tempting offer.
Tantalizing. Tempting. Troubling.
He just had to betray himself.
Alcina would be heartbroken if he bedded Miranda of all people before her. She was already restraining herself for the sake of her dear daughters. Oh, she would make her excuses and say she was fine, but he knew she'd be hurt by this treachery. To say nothing of Bela, Cassandra and Daniela. Donna was finally starting to make progress, too. This would undo all of that.
Damn his noble heart.
"I wish only for the return of my daughter. My darling Eva." Miranda reached down, threaded one of her hands through his, palm to palm, fingers to fingers. "There is nothing I would not do for her, no life I would not take, no city I would not burn, no world i would not destroy." her voice was a plea, now the desperate begging of a mother who'd lost that which a mother should never, ever lose. "I've already waited so long. Please don't make me wait much longer. I can't wait to see my true child again."
There was nothing wrong with Miranda's inherent desire to be reunited with her child, but she'd twisted it into something dark. Dangerous. Devastating, even.
Knocking her up sounded like an easy solution on the surface; but who was to say she'd honor her vow? Her emotions were a shifting, unstable mess, nearly impossible to read. For all he knew, she could be lying, yet she sounded so sincere...
"And if she isn't?"
'Oi! Don't you play devil's advocate on me!'
But maybe he had a point; to deny Alcina's "Mother" here and now threatened to destroy everything he was trying to build.
Stall. Delay, somehow. Make a plan.
There had to be a way, surely...!
"I need time to decide."
Miranda tensed against him, still holding tight. "How much time?"
How much will you give me? But he didn't say the words. He absolutely did not dare.
To do so -to reject her outright- threatened to start a battle that, while he would undoubtedly triumph, would see the Village torn down and set ablaze. Miranda had not threatened such, nor implied it, not directly, but he'd seen what grief and jealousy did to people. Pain made monsters of even the most noble hearts and Miranda was no saint. If pushed too far, she'd rain ruin down on everyone and everything around him.
Such a troublesome woman...
In the end, he thankfully didn't have to come up with an answer; because she answered for him.
...a year." she whispered against the back fists tightening against his jacket. "I can wait a year for your answer. But no longer. Do we have an accord?"
Naruto exhaled in long suffering sigh. Was he making a mistake, here? This was gonna come back and bite him, just knew it. And yet...
"You'll have my answer in a year." He made certain to phrase his response carefully, just in case.
A year. Yeah, he could figure something out in a year, surely.
Miranda blew out a heavy, heady breath into his back. It sounded suspiciously like a sob of relief.
'Don't read into it, Naruto!'
"I accept these terms," she muttered into his back. "But...before you go, I would give you a taste of what is to come."
Releasing him, she darted around to face him fully and leaned in. Her mouth found his, barely a feather's brush, only to fall away a moment later, leaving his lips tingling.
It was...surprisingly chaste. Wait, was she actually being shy-
"There!" Miranda stepped back and jerked her gaze away from his, presenting her back to him in a desperate bid to keep him from seeing her face. "Let it not be said that I am a wanton woman. You've had your taste. Be off with you, now!"
He leaned over and found her cheeks were pink, her shoulders shaking more than a little.
Huh. Was she actually being sincere, here? Maybe she was genuine.
If so, he kinda felt bad for her-gah! No! Don't be fooled!
Shaking his head, he pivoted and turned to depart.
"Naruto."
He paused with an annoyed roll of the eyes, one foot halfway over the threshold as Miranda's fitful voice called out to him, begging for his attention one last time.
Although she didn't dare face him directly after what she'd just done, her voice still remained clear and strong, veritably vibrating with suppressed energy. "There is nothing more powerful in this world than a mother's love. You would do well to remember that."
Her peace said, she vanished in a whirl of dark feathers, leaving him to dwell on on her words.
Naruto stormed out, shaking his head, hoping he'd made the right choice.
Because at the end of the day...Love Bites.
A/N: Miranda, no. Bad Miranda. That's not how you seduce someone...
...or is it? Mama wants her baby back AT ANY COST and heaven help you if you get in her way.
The real question here, is...was she being sincere there, by the end? Hard to tell, isn't it? Hope you're enjoying this. Would you like weekly updates to remain? Do let me know~!
So? Should this continue to be a story? Yay or nay! Really need to hear from you guys and girls here. Helps a lot. Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story...and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular...? Well, I'll not be able to continue it. I'm working two jobs with ever-increasing hours so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy. So by all means, speak up! Your voice matter! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustains me. Without them, I cannot write a single word. Simple as that.
So by all means, speak up! Raise your voice! Make yourself heard! Your reviews matter!
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review Would You Kindly?
And enjoy the previews!
They're mostly the same. Mostly, but not all.
And spoilers for the DLC, though I'm sure everyone's played it by now.
(Previews)
Alcina wasn't best pleased.
"You're alright?" she fussed over him endlessly, checking him for wounds. "She didn't try to take a piece of you?"
"M'fine...
That didn't stop her checking him over again. "What did she say to you?"
"Weeeeell...
Daniela rode him with a gasp, hips arching against his own...
Aha! At last we meet!
...I'm guessin' you must be the Duke."
"Indeed I am! A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"You can't just take a kid!"
"I did her a service. The poor girl's practically feral. No one in the village wanted to look after her."
Little hands reached for him. At least, he assumed he was reaching. Naruto sighed.
"Well, she is kinda adorable-ouch! She bites!"
"I was first!"
"First at what?" He sat beside the girl.
She tucked her knees into her chest, bunching up her blue dress. "...who're you?"
Ethan Winters...buddy, you really shouldn't be here...
EDIT: Hope these made you smile, and have a wonderful day~!
R ~!