In Kuroinu

"You're irresponsible."

I'd been crossing the inn's courtyard after dinner, heading for my room, when she stepped out from behind the stairwell like she'd been waiting there. Her arms were crossed and her jaw was clenched and her ears were flat against her skull and she'd been working herself up to this for hours. Maybe days.

"You treat this like a game," Llusse said. "Filia. Tianne. The innkeeper's daughter. You just- you walk around like every woman should fall at your feet and they DO and you just- you're-" Her voice was rising and her hands had dropped from her crossed arms and her fingers were curled into fists at her sides and she was shaking. "They're not TOYS, Haruto. Filia is the party leader. Tianne is a priestess. They have responsibilities and duties and you've got them both wrapped around your-"

"Llusse."

"WHAT."

"You're crying."

She stopped. Her mouth was still open on the next word and her green eyes went wide and she touched her face. Her fingers came away wet.

She stared at her hand.

"I'm-" Her chin was shaking. "I'm NOT-"

She ran.

She was fast. Elf fast. She was past me and through the courtyard gate and into the street before I'd taken a step. I followed. She'd gone left toward the edge of the city where the buildings thinned out and the tree line started and I tracked her by the flash of blonde hair in the evening light.

The forest swallowed her. I slowed down at the tree line because crashing through dark woods after an elf who didn't want to be found was a good way to run face-first into a branch, and because she needed the minutes more than I needed to be fast. I walked. The ground was soft with old leaves and the evening was cooling and the city was behind me, muffled, and ahead of me the forest sounds were settling into their night patterns.

I found her about fifty paces in, sitting against a tree with her arms around her knees and her forehead pressed against them. Her hair was hanging over her face and her shoulders were hitching with breaths she was trying to control.

I sat down next to her. Close enough to be beside her. Not close enough to touch.

"Go away," she said into her knees.

"No."

Silence. An insect was buzzing somewhere in the canopy. The light was going blue between the trees as the sun dropped.

"I don't want to be number three on a list."

Muffled. Thick. She didn't lift her head.

"There's no list."

"There IS." Her head came up and her eyes were red and wet and furious. "Filia first. Tianne second. Then the innkeeper's girl you spent one night with and who got your power like a party favor. I KNOW how numbers work, Haruto. You told me 'no rush.' You told me 'whenever you're ready.' And the whole time you were-" She stopped. Wiped her face with her sleeve, rough, angry at the tears. "You were fine. Waiting. Because it didn't matter to you whether it was me or someone else."

"That's not true."

"It IS true. You don't need me specifically. Your power works with anyone who's willing. I'm just- I'm an option. I'm one of many."

"Llusse."

"Stop saying my name like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you-" She looked at me and her green eyes were bright and wet and her ears were scarlet and her mouth was open and she stopped there.

"Then don't do it because there's a number," I said. "Don't do it because the power needs it or because Filia did it or because you think you're falling behind. Do it because you want to."

She stared at me. The forest was quiet and the light was dim and her eyes were searching mine and her jaw was tight and her chest was rising and falling too fast and her ears were the reddest I'd ever seen them.

She grabbed my collar.

Her fist twisted in the fabric and she yanked me forward and her mouth hit mine and the kiss was hard and angry and her teeth caught my lower lip and bit down and I tasted copper. Her other hand found the front of my shirt and she pulled me off the tree and onto the ground and she was on top of me, her knees on either side of my hips, her hands pinning my shoulders to the dirt.

"I do want to," she said. Her face was above mine and her hair was falling around us and her eyes were wet and fierce and her grip on my shoulders was strong enough that I'd have had to work to move her. "I want to and I HATE that I want to and if you tell anyone I was crying I will put an arrow through your throat."

"Eye."

"What?"

"You said eye last time. Throat is an upgrade."

"SHUT UP."

She kissed me again. Harder. Her mouth was hot and her tongue pushed past my lips and she was shaking, her whole body trembling against mine, and her hips pressed down against me and she could feel me getting hard and she made a sound against my mouth and she pulled back and sat up and started undoing her tunic.

Her fingers were shaking. She fumbled the first clasp and cursed under her breath and got it on the second try and she pulled the tunic off over her head and threw it onto the ground beside us. She was wearing a thin undershirt and she pulled that off too and she was bare from the waist up, small breasts with pale nipples tight in the cool air, her ribs visible when she breathed, her stomach flat and lean with muscle from a century of drawing a bow.

She glared at me.

"Stop smiling."

"I can't."

Her ears turned a shade of red I didn't know ears could achieve. She reached down and unlaced her leggings and kicked them off with more violence than the garment deserved and she was naked on top of me in the dim forest light, elf-pale and lean and shaking and furious and her ears were beacons and she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen and I was grinning at her like an idiot.

She reached down between us. Her hand found my cock through my pants and her grip was firm and rough and she worked the laces open with one hand while the other stayed planted on my chest, holding me down. She freed me and wrapped her fingers around me and stroked once, hard, and her eyes went wide for half a second when she felt how hard I was.

"Don't," she said.

"Don't what?"

"Don't say anything. Don't be charming. Don't make a joke. Just-" She lifted her hips and positioned herself over me and the heat of her pressed against the head of my cock. Wet. Hotter than I expected, and the slickness against the tip made my hips push up and she pressed her hand harder into my chest. "Just shut up."

She sank down onto me.

Her jaw clenched. Her eyes squeezed shut. Her hands slammed flat on my chest and she took me in one push, tight and wet and hot, and her thighs shook against my hips. She sat there with me buried inside her and her chin was lifted and her teeth were gritted and her whole body was rigid.

Her elf ears were practically glowing.

She was tight. Tighter than Filia, tighter than Tianne, and the heat was different, hotter, and the grip of her was fierce even sitting still. My cock throbbed inside her and I gripped the grass beside my hips because my hands wanted to grab her and she hadn't said I could.

She started to move. Up. Down. Her hips lifting and dropping in a choppy aggressive rhythm, her hands flat on my chest, her jaw locked. She was riding me like she was angry at the concept. Her breasts moved with each stroke, small and firm, her pale nipples hard in the cool air. The wet sound of her dropping onto me was loud in the quiet forest and every time her hips came down a sound came out of her that she tried to swallow and failed.

"Nn- shut- ah-"

Telling me to shut up when I hadn't said anything. She was telling herself.

I put my hands on her hips.

She froze. Looked down at me. Her eyes were wild and her hair was a mess and her face was flushed and she was breathing hard.

She didn't tell me to take them off.

I gripped. Pulled her down harder on the next stroke and she gasped and the sound echoed off the trees and her hand flew to her mouth.

"Mmph-"

I did it again. Pulled her hips down and thrust up to meet her and she clenched around me so hard my vision went white and her muffled moan vibrated through her palm and her thighs squeezed against my hips.

"Take your hand off," I said.

"No." Muffled. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her hips were grinding down against mine, her body overriding the rhythm she'd planned. She was getting wetter. Each stroke was slicker than the last and the sounds were getting louder, the wet slap of her hips against mine and the obscene squelch when she rose up and sank back down.

"Llusse."

"I said NO. I'm too- I can't be- nn-"

I pulled her down and rolled my hips against her clit and her pussy clenched around me in a long squeeze and her hand slipped from her mouth and she gasped, loud, and the sound went up into the canopy.

"AH- damn it- I can't-"

"You can."

"Shut UP-" She was riding me faster now and her rhythm had lost its angry precision and become messy and desperate. Her hips were rocking in circles, grinding down on me, and her head was tipped back and the tendons in her neck stood out and she was loud. Every thrust punched a sound out of her. "Ah- ah- nn- ah-" She hated it and she couldn't stop it and her ears were red and her face was red and tears were on her cheeks again.

I gripped her hips hard. Pulled her down onto me and thrust up, deep, and held there, grinding against her clit. Her thighs clamped. Her stomach went flat and hard. Her mouth opened and she was looking at the treetops and her ears were trembling.

"Haruto- I'm- don't- ah-"

I thrust up into her. Again. Hard. Her body jolted on top of me and her nails dug into my chest and her pussy was squeezing around me in fast rhythmic pulses and she was right there.

She came.

The cry was sharp and broken and she got her hand up too late. The first half rang through the forest, high and raw, and then her palm clamped down and she shook on top of me with her eyes squeezed shut and her thighs trembling against my hips and her pussy contracting around me in hard fast pulses. The Blessing pulsed. Warm. Strong. Stronger than Natalia, close to Tianne's. Llusse's body was soaked in magic and the transfer hit me and my hearing sharpened and the colors in my peripheral vision jumped and every nerve lit up.

She was shaking. Her hand was still over her mouth and she was looking at me from behind it and her green eyes were wide and wet and horrified.

She'd been loud. The insects had gone quiet. The forest had heard every second of it.

I reached up and pulled her hand away from her mouth. She let me. Her lips were swollen and trembling and her chin was quivering.

"I hate you," she said. Her voice cracked on the second word.

I pulled her down against my chest. She went. Her face pressed into my neck and her body was still shaking with aftershocks and her arms went around me and she held on tight and her breath was hot and wet against my skin.

I put my hand on the back of her head. Her hair was tangled and damp with sweat and her ear was hot under my palm.

She was still clenched around me. I was still inside her, still hard, and the pulse of the Blessing was warm between us.

"I hate you," she said again. Quieter. Her arm tightened around my chest.

I didn't say anything. I held her and she held me and the forest settled back into its sounds around us and the sky was going dark through the branches above and her heartbeat was fast against my ribs.

Her ear twitched against my palm.

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