In Kuroinu

The knock was so quiet I almost missed it.

I'd been lying on the bed with my boots off and my shirt still on, staring at the ceiling beam that had a knot in it shaped like a face. My mind was bouncing between the northern road and the seven fortress-cities and whether Mila had actually gone to bed or was downstairs repacking something for the fourth time. We'd come down from the roof an hour ago. She'd gone to the kitchen. I'd gone to my room. The inn was dark and quiet and the knot in the beam was staring at me.

The knock came again. Two taps. Barely there.

I opened the door and Mila was standing in the hallway in a sleeping shift that fell to her knees, thin white cotton, loose around her shoulders. Her feet were bare on the stone floor. Her ears were flat against her head and her tail was tucked behind her, pressed against the back of her leg, and she was holding the hem of her shift in both fists.

"I know the power doesn't work the same with me," she said. She was looking at my chest, not my face. "I'm not a fighter. I don't have combat abilities or magic or anything that the Blessing can-" She swallowed. Her tail pressed tighter against her leg. "But I still want..."

She trailed off. Her ears twitched.

I took her hand.

Her fingers were cold. I wrapped mine around them and pulled gently and she came through the doorway in a single step and I closed the door behind her and the latch clicked and we were standing in my room with the lamp burning low on the nightstand and her hand in mine.

"Forget the power," I said.

Her eyes came up to mine. Wide and brown. Wet at the edges. Her ears lifted half an inch off her head.

I kissed her.

Her lips were soft and she tasted like the mint she'd been chewing, a habit she had when she was nervous, and her mouth was warm and her body went rigid for a second when my lips met hers and then she melted. Her shoulders dropped and her free hand came up and gripped the front of my shirt and she pressed into me and kissed me back and her tail uncurled from behind her leg and hung loose. Her heart was hammering against my chest through the thin cotton of her shift. Her breathing was coming in short pulls through her nose between kisses.

I cupped her face with both hands. Her cheeks were hot under my palms and her ears were still low but they were moving, one tilting toward me and one toward the door like she was checking that nobody was coming. I kissed her deeper and her mouth opened under mine and her tongue was tentative and she made a small sound in the back of her throat, barely audible, and her hips pressed forward against mine.

She felt me. My cock was half-hard and thickening against her stomach through my pants and she went still for a second when she registered it and then her hips pressed closer.

I pulled back. Her eyes were half-closed and her lips were wet and her chest was rising fast under the cotton.

"Okay?" I asked.

She nodded. Fast. Her tail gave one uncertain wag behind her.

I reached for the collar of her sleeping shift. She went still. My fingers found the tie at her neck and I undid it slowly, pulling the cord loose, and the cotton slid off one shoulder. The rise of her collarbone. The beginning of the curve of her breast. The room was warm from the lamp but goosebumps ran across the skin I'd uncovered and her nipple tightened under the cotton that still covered it.

She reached up and grabbed the shift at the front, holding it against her chest.

I stopped. Put my hands on hers. Her fingers were gripping the cotton hard enough to whiten the knuckles.

"Hey," I said. "We go at your pace."

"I want to. I just-" Her ears pressed flat. "They're small."

She'd been comparing. Probably for weeks.

"Mila."

"Mm."

"Let go."

She didn't move. Her tail had stopped. Hanging behind her. Still.

I leaned down and kissed her forehead. Between her ears. My lips brushed the base of her left ear where the soft black fur met her hair and she shivered so hard her teeth clicked. The fur was incredibly soft under my mouth, finer than her hair, and warm.

Her grip on the shift loosened.

I kissed along the edge of her ear. Down to the tip. The fur thinned there and the skin underneath was pink and sensitive and when my lips grazed it she let out a shuddering breath and her hands fell away from the cotton and it slid down her arms and caught at her elbows and her breasts were bare.

Small. And perfect. Slight, her nipples dark pink and already tight, and her waist was narrow and her stomach was soft with a slight curve below her navel. A faint dusting of the same fine black fur that lined her ears ran along the tops of her shoulders, almost invisible in the lamplight. She smelled like bread from the baking and herbs from the packing and underneath both of those, warm and clean and her.

She started to cover herself again and I caught her wrists. Gently. Held them at her sides.

"Don't." Her cheeks were dark and her ears were flat and her eyes were on mine. "You're beautiful."

Her tail wagged. One slow sweep. Then another.

I kissed her mouth again, slower this time, my hands leaving her wrists and sliding down her sides. My thumbs grazed the outsides of her breasts and she inhaled sharply against my lips. I traced down to her hips and pulled the shift the rest of the way down and it dropped to the floor and she was standing in front of me in nothing, her hands hovering at her sides like she didn't know what to do with them, and her ears were pink and her tail was swaying and her breathing was shallow and fast.

I picked her up. Her legs wrapped around my waist by instinct, her arms going around my neck, and she weighed nothing and she was warm everywhere her skin touched mine through my shirt. I carried her to the bed and laid her down and she looked up at me with her hair fanned on the pillow and her ears out to the sides and her tail curled beside her.

I kissed her neck. Down to her collarbone. Her skin was warm under my lips, warmer the further down I went, and her pulse was fast at the base of her throat. I kissed between her breasts and she sucked in a breath and her hand found the back of my head. I kissed her left breast. Took her nipple in my mouth and she made a sound like she'd been hit, a short involuntary "ah" that she cut off by pressing her lips together. Her nipple was tight and responsive and when I circled it with my tongue her back arched off the mattress and her fingers dug into my scalp. I moved to the other one. Sucked gently. Her hips shifted underneath me and her thighs were pressing together, squeezing. Her tail was beating a rhythm against the bed, fast irregular thumps that she had no control over.

I kissed down her stomach. She flinched when my lips crossed her navel and her hand tightened in my hair and the tail beat got faster. Lower. I kissed the crease of her hip and her thigh muscle jumped under my mouth and she was breathing in small harsh pulls through her nose. The closer I got the more I could smell her, warm and wet, and her thighs were pressing together.

I put my hands on her knees and pushed them apart. She let me. Her hands fisted the sheets on either side of her hips and I settled between her legs and looked up at her.

Her eyes were squeezed shut and her ears were flat against her head and her chest was heaving. She was biting her lower lip so hard the skin around it had gone white. Her pussy was wet. Visibly, the lamplight catching the slickness on her inner thighs, and the heat coming off her was tangible against my face.

I put my mouth on her.

"Ah-!"

Her hips came off the bed and her hand left the sheet and found my hair and gripped. I licked up the center of her pussy, slow, flat tongue, and she was wet and the taste was clean and warm and faintly salt and her thighs clamped against the sides of my head. Her tail started thrashing against the mattress, hard enough that the vibration came through the bed frame into my chest.

I found her clit with my tongue and circled it. She whimpered. High, thin, pulled through her teeth, and her hips rocked up into my mouth. I circled again. She was so wet that my chin was slick and she was getting wetter with each pass, the taste spreading, and the sound of my tongue against her was audible in the quiet room and she heard it because her ears went flatter and a flush crawled down her neck.

"Haru- that's- nn-"

I pressed my tongue flat against her clit and held it there and she made a sound that broke open, louder than anything before, and her hand left the sheet and slapped over her mouth. She was looking at the ceiling with her eyes wide and her hand clamped over her lips and her chest was heaving and her other hand was gripping my hair and her hips were still rocking into my mouth. Her ears were burning.

I slid a finger inside her. She clenched around it instantly, tight and hot and wet, and I curled it forward while my tongue kept circling and she made a muffled sound behind her hand, her whole body shuddering. Tight around my finger. Squeezing in involuntary pulses that matched her breathing and when I curled against the spot her hips bucked hard enough to push my head back.

"I'm- oh god- I can't- nn-"

All of it muffled by her hand and her jaw was working behind her palm, teeth clenching and releasing, and her thighs were shaking against my head and her stomach was tight and her tail was going wild, thumping the bed so hard the mattress was bouncing. I worked her clit faster and my finger curled inside her and she was clenching in rhythm with my tongue and her breathing was gone, just sharp hitches through her nose, and her hips were grinding against my face with a desperation she'd be mortified about later.

She came. Her hand pressed hard against her mouth and a high-pitched sound escaped anyway, thin and barely contained, and her pussy clenched around my finger in waves, deep contractions that pulled at my knuckle, and her tail went rigid, straight out, trembling, and her hips locked against my face and her back arched off the bed and she held. Held. Her body a bowstring and the sound behind her hand getting higher and thinner until it broke into breath and she collapsed.

I kissed her inner thigh. She was breathing in long hitches, her hand still pressed against her mouth, her eyes glassy. Her tail had gone limp on the mattress. Twitched once, twice. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and looked up at her and she was staring at the ceiling like she'd never seen one before.

I pulled my shirt off. Her eyes tracked the motion, dazed, dropping to my chest and my stomach. I was hard. Had been since the ear-kiss. The ache had been building through every sound she'd made and her taste was still on my lips and my cock was straining against my pants. I took my pants off and her gaze dropped and her ears went flat and then slowly, slowly came back up.

"Oh," she said. Quiet.

"You okay?"

"Mm-hm." Her tail twitched. She reached for me and her hand landed on my chest and slid down over my stomach and stopped at my hip. Her fingers were trembling. "I want-" She swallowed. "I want you."

I moved over her. Knees between her thighs, my weight on my arms, and the heat of her body rose up against my skin. She looked up at me and her brown eyes were dark in the lamplight and her ears were halfway up and her hands came to my shoulders and she pulled me down and kissed me. Longer this time. Slower. Her tongue found mine and she kissed harder, her fingers digging into my shoulders, and her arms were trembling.

I reached between us. Lined myself up. She was soaking from the orgasm and when the head of my cock pressed against her she sucked in a breath and her fingers dug into my shoulders and her legs came up on either side of my hips. Wet heat against my tip. The quiet of the room. Her breathing shallow and fast against my mouth.

I pushed in. Slow.

Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened and a sound came out that was quiet and strained, a small "oh" that kept going as I sank deeper. Tight. She was tight around me, her pussy gripping as I went, and she was wet enough that I slid but the friction was real, her body adjusting, giving way by degrees. I went inch by inch and her breathing got shorter with each one and her face changed, her brow pulling together, her lips pressing flat, the strain visible. When I was all the way in she buried her face in my shoulder and held on and her whole body was rigid under mine.

I stopped. Let her adjust. Her pussy was clenching around me in small involuntary pulses, tight enough to feel each one from root to tip, and her breath was coming hot and fast against my neck. She was small. Her body slight under mine, her legs thin around my waist, and I was conscious of my weight in a way I hadn't been with the others.

"Okay?"

She nodded against my shoulder. Her arms were tight around my back and her face was hidden and her breathing was evening out in slow deliberate pulls.

Her tail lifted off the bed. Curled around my calf. The fur was soft against my skin and the grip was tentative, and she didn't seem to know she was doing it.

I moved. Slow. Pulled back halfway and pushed in again and she made a sound against my shoulder, a quiet "ah" that was more breath than voice. Her pussy gripped me on the outstroke and released on the push, the tightness shifting with each movement, and she was wet and getting wetter, the friction easing. Again. Her hips shifted under me, tilting, adjusting the angle, and on the third stroke her legs came up fully and wrapped around my waist and she pulled me deeper. The change in angle let me slide another half inch and her breath caught and her nails pressed into my back.

Her hips matched my rhythm. Rolling up to meet me, instinctive, and her pussy was squeezing around me on every stroke and the heat was incredible and the sounds she was making against my shoulder were getting less restrained. Small broken things. "Nn-" "Ah-" Muffled into my skin. Her tail tightened around my calf every time I pushed deep.

I kept the pace slow. Matched to her breathing, her grip, the tension in her thighs. When her hips pushed harder I gave her more. When her breath hitched I held still and let her come to me. Her ears pressed flat when I went deep. Twitched when I pulled back. Her tail tightened on the push and loosened on the pull.

The wet sound of us was getting louder in the quiet room. Each stroke slicker than the last. She heard it too because her face pressed harder into my shoulder and her breathing went ragged and her ears were hot against the side of my neck.

Her arms locked tighter. Her legs pulled me closer. Her face was still buried and she was holding on tight, tighter than she needed to, her fingers digging into the muscles along my spine. Her whole body clinging.

"Deeper," she whispered. Against my ear. So quiet I almost didn't hear it. Her voice cracked on the word and her ears pressed flat and the heat of her blush was on my neck.

I pushed in all the way. Held. Ground against her and a sound vibrated through her chest into mine, a low hum she wasn't aware she was making, and her arms locked tight and her pussy clenched hard enough that pulling back was work.

I pulled back. Thrust in deep. She gasped. Again. Deeper. Her hips met mine and the wet sound of us was the loudest thing in the room and her legs were locked around my waist and her tail was gripping my calf and her heart was hammering against my chest.

"Haruto-" Quiet. "Right there- please-"

I held the angle and gave her what she asked for. Deep steady strokes that pressed me flush against her on every push. She was biting my shoulder now, her teeth through the skin, and her body was pulling tight underneath me, every muscle contracting toward the center. Her arms locked and her legs locked around me and her tail squeezed my calf. Her ears flat and trembling. Her breathing had stopped. No sound. No movement except the rhythmic lock and release of her body around my cock and the deep steady strokes I was giving her and then-

She came.

Every muscle at once. Rigid. She held me inside her and her pussy clenched in deep rolling waves that pulled at me from the inside and her jaw locked against my shoulder and her teeth set hard into the muscle and nothing came out. No sound. Her back arched off the bed and pressed into my chest and her tail gripped my calf so tight the muscle twitched and her arms were crushing and she held, held, held, rigid and trembling against me.

Then a sound broke through. High and thin. Pushed through clenched teeth, not a moan but the ghost of one, and it faded as she released.

All at once. Every muscle went loose. Her arms fell to her sides. Her legs unlocked from my waist. Her tail unwound from my calf and lay flat on the bed. She was breathing in long ragged pulls and her eyes were closed and her whole body had gone boneless under me.

I thrust into her. The aftershocks squeezing around me, tight and rhythmic, and the pressure I'd been holding back through every slow careful stroke crashed forward and I pushed deep and came inside her and my arms shook and I pressed my face into the pillow beside her head and breathed and breathed and breathed.

The Blessing pulsed.

Softer than the others. A warmth that spread from where we were joined and moved through both of us, gentler, more diffuse, and it settled into places the previous pulses hadn't reached. My ears. The back of my sinuses. The fine hairs on my arms. The room got louder. The lamp flame flickering. The inn sign creaking in the wind outside. A cricket somewhere in the wall that I'd never noticed before.

Mila's eyes were open. She was staring at the ceiling and her ears were straight up, rotating slowly, and her pupils were wide.

"I can hear everything," she whispered. "Haruto, I can hear-" She turned her head and pressed her ear to my chest. "Your heart. I can hear your heart. It's fast."

"You're under me. It's going to be fast."

She smiled against my chest. Her tail gave one slow wag. Then another. Then a steady quiet rhythm against the sheet.

I kissed the top of her head. Between her ears. She made a soft sound and pressed closer and her hands came up to my ribs and held on.

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