In Kuroinu

Filia was in my doorway before I'd finished pulling off my boots. She'd washed off the road dust from Hadern and changed into a clean shirt and her hair was loose and damp and she closed the door behind her and turned the latch.

"I've been thinking about you all day," she said.

She pulled her shirt off over her head. One motion, arms up, fabric gone, dropped on the floor beside the door. She was bare underneath. Her body was familiar to me now and the specific details registered like they always did with Filia. The calluses on her sword hand and the smooth skin of the other. The scar on her left side from training she'd done before I was born. The way her stomach flexed when she breathed. Small breasts with nipples already tight.

She pushed me onto the bed. Both hands on my chest, a shove that used her full weight, and I went back onto the mattress and she climbed up after me. Her knees settled on either side of my hips and her hands planted on my chest and she looked down at me and her blue eyes were clear and focused.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi." She leaned down and kissed me. Warm and certain and she tasted like the mint tea she'd been drinking and her mouth knew mine by now. Her tongue found mine and her hips pressed down and her hair fell around us and she pulled back after a while and her lips were wet.

She sat up. Reached for the hem of my shirt. I helped her get it off and she ran her hands over my chest and her callused fingers traced the lines of muscle that hadn't been there a month ago. She'd mapped this chest before. Each time it was different. More defined.

"You're staring," I said.

"I'm inspecting." She pressed down with her hips and I was hard under her and she could feel it through my pants and the corner of her mouth came up. "The hero's equipment needs regular maintenance."

"You retired that line."

"I'm bringing it back."

She worked the laces of my pants with efficient fingers and freed my cock and wrapped her hand around it and stroked once, firm, and her grip was confident and unhurried. She knew the pressure. She knew the angle. She.d learned this.

"Mm." She stroked again, thumb circling the head, and her eyes were on mine. "I thought about this during the briefing with Leonora today."

"Flattering."

"She was explaining patrol schedules. I was thinking about your cock in my hand."

"Filia Shiora. Party leader. Strategist."

"Shut up and take your pants off."

I kicked them off. She pulled her own down and off in the same motion she'd used to take off her shirt, functional and fast, and she was naked on top of me. The lamp on the bedside table threw warm light across her skin. I put my hands on her thighs and her muscle was taut under smooth skin and her legs were strong from years of swordsmanship and she was warm everywhere I touched.

She reached between us. Lifted her hips, positioned me, and the head of my cock pressed against her. She was wet already. The heat of her against the tip and then she sank down.

Smooth. One descent. She took me all the way in and settled with her weight on my hips and her eyes closed for a second and her lips parted. Her pussy was hot and wet and familiar and she squeezed around me once, deliberate. Her greeting.

She opened her eyes. Looked at me. And started to move.

Filia on top was different from anyone else. She rode with the same focus she brought to combat. Her hips rolled in long controlled circles, finding the angle she wanted, adjusting by fractions, and when she hit the spot that made her breath catch she stayed there and worked it. Her hands were flat on my chest and her arms were straight and she used the leverage to grind down on every stroke and the wet sound of us filled the room.

"Nn-" Quiet, under her breath. She bit her lower lip and her hips went faster.

I gripped her waist. She pushed against my hands, her rhythm tightening, her weight dropping heavier on each stroke. Her pussy clenched when she bottomed out. Every time she dropped her hips the slick sound was louder and her skin was getting hot under my palms, sweat starting where my fingers pressed into her waist. My cock was throbbing inside her and the slow grind was building the pressure and I was getting harder to hold still.

Her breathing went shallow. The hitch in her rhythm when she got close. Her jaw was working. I knew this face. The tendons in her neck pulling tight. The set.

"Haruto-" Her hands pressed harder into my chest and her hips went from circles to short hard drops, taking me deep on every one, and her thighs were flexing against my sides and her stomach was tight and her eyes were locked on mine.

I pulled her down. Hard. She gasped and her hips ground against mine and I thrust up into her and she made a sound that was loud for Filia, a sharp "ah-" that she swallowed and then couldn't swallow when I did it again.

"Right- there- nn-"

I held her hips and thrust up to meet her and she leaned forward and her hands found my shoulders and her nails dug in and she was riding me fast and messy with her eyes squeezed shut and her jaw locked. The wet sounds were loud now, filling the room, and her breasts were moving with each stroke and sweat was on her chest.

"Ah- ah- Haru-"

She came. Her head threw back and her back arched and she pulled my hands to her waist and held them there, pressing my grip into her skin, and her pussy clamped around me in long rolling contractions and her mouth opened on a sound that came from her chest. The Blessing pulsed, small and warm and familiar, an established-partner transfer that settled into both of us.

I came inside her. Her pussy was still clenching and I pressed up into her and held there and the orgasm moved through me in heavy waves and my grip on her waist tightened.

She collapsed.

Her chest hit mine and her weight settled and her face found the spot on my neck that she always found, the hollow beside my collarbone where she fit, and she breathed. Long and slow and her body went loose on top of me.

"Mm."

I put my arms around her. She was warm and damp with sweat and her hair was spread across my chest. My hand settled on her lower back. Her skin was hot under my palm.

She traced my collarbone with one finger. Lazy circles.

"You fought well today," she said.

"Hadern."

"Mm. You've gotten faster. Your footwork is still bad but the reflexes are saving you."

"Thanks for the compliment."

"It IS a compliment. Your footwork was terrible before." She shifted on me and her hips rocked and I was still inside her, soft now, and the motion was idle and warm. "The village elder sent word to Leonora. The report matched ours from the farmstead. Same marks. Same weapons."

"Same source."

"The queen's taking it seriously. Leonora told me a messenger arrived from the north while we were at Hadern." Her finger stopped on my collarbone. "The Shield Alliance is requesting aid."

There it was. The northward march. The road that led toward Celestine's seven fortress-cities and Vault's mercenary company and the betrayal that was going to tear the continent apart.

"What kind of aid?" I asked. My heartbeat was faster than it had been during the sex.

"Military consultation. Intelligence sharing. They know Lesdea has a hero now." She lifted her head from my neck and looked at me. Her blue eyes were serious and she was still naked on top of me and her hair was messed up and she was the party leader even lying on my chest. "Queen Sophie wants us to go. As Lesdea's representatives."

"Us."

"The hero party. You, me, the others." She put her chin on my sternum. "Three days. We leave in three days."

Three days. Then north. Toward the Shield Alliance and Celestine and Olga and Vault and every nightmare I'd been reading about since before I landed here. The women up there didn't know what was coming. Alicia, Claudia, Maia, Prim, Kaguya, Luu-Luu, Celestine herself. They thought the war was about Olga's monsters. They didn't know about Vault's plan. They didn't know about Maou's forces pushing in from behind.

I was going to save them. I just had no way to explain how I knew.

Filia was watching my face.

"You look like you expected that," she said.

"The reports have been pointing north for weeks."

She held the look for a second. Then she put her head back on my chest and her arm went around my ribs.

"Three days," she said again. Quieter. Her fingers were tracing shapes on my skin.

"Three days."

The lamp was burning low. The window was dark and the city was quiet outside and Filia was warm on my chest and in three days we'd be on the road toward a war that I knew the shape of and she didn't.

Her breathing was slowing. Her body was going heavy against mine.

A moth had gotten in through the window crack. It was bumping against the lamp glass, over and over, trying to reach the light.

I watched it until Filia's breathing evened out. Then I closed my eyes.

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