In Kuroinu

Mila had set the table before anyone asked her to. Four plates, four cups, a pot of stew that smelled like she'd been cooking since we left that morning, bread that was still warm, and a pitcher of water with lemon slices floating in it. The lemon was new. I didn't know where she'd gotten lemons.

She was standing at the head of the table when we walked in from the evening training session, her hands clasped in front of her and her tail going at a pace that suggested she'd been rehearsing this moment. She was wearing a clean apron over a traveling dress I hadn't seen before, and she'd tied her hair back with a cord that matched the dress. She'd put effort in.

"I'd like to formally request to join the party," she said.

Filia looked at her. Then at the table. Then at the stew.

"You already set a fifth plate," Filia said.

Mila's ears flattened. "I was... being optimistic?"

"She's been feeding us for a week," I said. "She packed our food for the den mission. She had dinner ready before we got back. If we don't let her join she's going to follow us anyway."

"I would never-" Mila started. She stopped. Her tail slowed. "I would absolutely follow you."

Llusse sat down and pulled a plate toward her. "Fine. She cooks. I'm hungry. Can we discuss this after eating?"

"That's a yes," I said.

"That's an 'I'm hungry.' Don't read into it."

Tianne smiled. "Welcome to the party, Mila."

Mila's tail went so fast it was a blur. She made a sound that was half laugh and half squeak and then she busied herself ladling stew into bowls, leaning across the table to make sure everyone had bread, adjusting the lemon water pitcher so the handle faced outward. She'd arranged everything within reach.

The temple dining hall was small and the stone walls made sound bounce, and with Mila refilling plates and Llusse arguing with Filia about routes and Tianne eating in small spoonfuls between them, the room was louder than I'd ever heard it.

"Eastern route is faster," Filia said. "We can reach Feoh in two weeks."

"Eastern route goes through marshland. My bow is useless in close quarters with no visibility."

"You did fine in the cave."

"The cave had corridors. Marshland has no lines of sight at all. It's mud and fog and I can't shoot what I can't see."

"What about the western road?" Tianne asked.

"Western route adds a week but goes through open country and forest edge. Better for Llusse's range."

"I didn't say I preferred-"

"You prefer the western route," Filia said.

"I'm stating tactical facts."

"The western route it is," Filia said. She looked at me. "We'll need supplies. Mila, can you handle provisioning?"

Mila's ears went straight up. "Yes! I'll make a list. How many days? What's the terrain like? Does anyone have allergies? Llusse, do elves eat differently than-"

"I eat food, Mila."

"Right! Of course. I just wanted to make sure-"

"Food. Regular food. I'm an elf, not a different species."

"You are technically a different species," I said.

Llusse's ears went pink. "Shut up."

Tianne reached across the table for the bread and her sleeve pulled back and the faint glow at her fingertips was there, the healing magic she kept warm without thinking. It flickered when she caught me looking and she pulled her sleeve down.

A moth had gotten into the dining hall through the window and was circling the candle in the center of the table. Nobody moved to swat it. It kept going around, tapping the glass, pulling away, going around again.

Mila brought out a berry tart for after the stew. She'd made it herself, she said, and her ears were flat while she waited for reactions and her tail was going in tight controlled wags.

"This is really good," I said.

The tail went nuclear.

"Llusse, do you want a piece?" Mila asked.

"I already had one."

"You had two," Filia said.

"The first one was small."

I grinned at her across the table and she looked at the wall and ate a third piece. Her ears were pink but the tart was gone when I looked again.

The candle in the center of the table was burning low by the time we finished. Mila started clearing plates before anyone stood up, stacking them on her arm with practiced ease, and she hummed while she worked.

After dinner, Tianne and Mila cleaned up while Llusse disappeared to do whatever Llusse did in the evenings, which based on weeks of observation was sit in a tree and not admit she was watching the temple courtyard. Filia had said goodnight to the group and left the dining hall first and I assumed she'd gone to her room.

I was wrong.

I was in the hallway heading to my room when a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me through a doorway.

Filia. She shut the door behind us and put her hand flat on my chest and pushed me backward until my shoulders hit the wall. She was in her combat outfit, hair still pulled back from training, and she was smiling. A real one. The kind she'd only started doing after the first night.

"The power needs maintenance," she said.

"You rehearsed that."

"Maybe." Her hand was still on my chest and she stepped closer and her hip pressed against mine, warm through the leather of her outfit. "Is that a problem?"

"The opposite."

She kissed me. Confident. She knew where her mouth went and how to tilt her head and she didn't hesitate. Her tongue pushed past my lips and her hand slid from my chest to my belt and she pulled it loose with one tug. The leather hit the floor.

I grabbed her hips. Hiked up her skirt. She'd taken her leggings off at some point between dinner and now and there was only skin under the fabric, her thighs bare and warm under my hands. She'd planned this.

"You came prepared."

"I'm the party leader. I plan ahead."

I lifted her. She wrapped her legs around my waist and her back hit the wall beside the door and she was wet when she pressed against me. Already. The heat of her soaking through her smallclothes against my stomach. I pushed the fabric aside with my thumb and she made a sharp sound through her nose and her grip on my shoulders tightened.

She reached between us and pulled my cock free. Her callused fingers wrapped around me and stroked once, firm and rough, and I was hard before she finished the stroke. She lined me up and the head pressed against her, slick and hot, and she tilted her hips and I pushed into her.

She bit down on my shoulder.

The sound she trapped there vibrated through my collarbone. She was wet, slicker than the first times, her body already familiar with mine, and I slid in deep in one stroke. Her legs tightened around my waist and her heels dug into my lower back and her breath came out hard through her nose against my neck.

Fast. I held her against the wall with my hands under her thighs, the muscles in my arms straining with her weight. She had her arms around my neck and her face buried in my shoulder. The wall shuddered with every thrust, a dull thud that someone would hear if they were listening, and her thighs were flexing as she used her legs to control the depth, pulling herself up and dropping back down while I pushed up to meet her. The wet sounds were loud in the small room. Her skirt was bunched between us, fabric caught against my stomach, and the leather of her combat top creaked where it pressed against my chest.

"Harder." Muffled against my shoulder.

I drove up into her. Harder. The angle was deep from below and each thrust pushed her up the wall and she slid back down onto me and her pussy clenched around me and her nails dug into the back of my neck.

"Ah- there- right-"

The sound escaped past my shoulder and bounced off the stone walls and she pressed her face harder into my neck but the next thrust pulled another one out of her, louder, and she gave up trying to muffle it and just held on.

Faster. My thighs were burning from holding her weight and thrusting at the same time and sweat was running down my back and her body was hot and tight around me and every time I bottomed out she squeezed and the friction dragged along every nerve. Her breathing was ragged against my neck, fast punched-out exhales on every stroke, and her fingers were digging into my shoulders hard enough to bruise.

Her jaw clenched against my shoulder, the tendons in her neck going tight. The set.

"Haruto-"

She came. Her pussy clamped around me in hard pulses and she shoved her face into my shoulder and the sound she made vibrated through my collarbone, low and sustained and she couldn't stop it. Her legs locked around my waist and her body went rigid against the wall and I thrust into her twice more, deep, and came. The power pulsed. Smaller than the first times. A warm hum that settled into my muscles and faded.

Her legs loosened. I lowered her and she stood on shaky legs and leaned against the wall for a second. Her skirt was bunched at her waist and her face was red and her hair had come partially loose from the tie. My cum was on her inner thigh, a warm line that she could feel because her jaw tightened when it ran down.

She smoothed her skirt and fixed her hair. Straightened her collar. Composed in about five seconds. Filia could go from fucked-against-a-wall to party-leader in the time it took me to catch my breath.

"Good," she said. "Maintenance complete."

"You definitely rehearsed that."

"The party leader is allowed to have a catchphrase." She opened the door.

Tianne was in the hallway.

Filia stopped. Tianne stopped. They stood there, Filia in the doorway with her skirt still crooked and a flush on her neck, Tianne holding a tray with two cups of tea and a small jar of honey, her brown eyes moving from Filia's face to the open doorway behind her.

Filia met Tianne's eyes. Held them. Her chin came up. She didn't fix her skirt. She didn't explain.

Tianne's lips pressed together. She didn't speak.

Filia walked past her down the hallway. Her footsteps were even and unhurried and she didn't look back.

Tianne stood there. The tray was steady in her hands. Her face was composed. But the vein in her throat was pulsing fast and her knuckles were white on the edge of the tray.

"I brought tea," she said. Her voice was level. Controlled.

"Thank you."

She walked into the room. Set the tray on the small table beside the cot. Poured two cups with hands that were perfectly still. She held one out to me.

I took it. Our fingers overlapped on the ceramic. Her fingertips were warm and her eyes came up to mine and she held on. One second. Two.

She let go. Picked up the other cup. Sat on the edge of the cot.

"You don't have to drink it here," I said. "If you'd rather-"

"I want to." She sipped her tea. Her eyes were on the far wall. "I don't mind."

I sat on the floor across from her because the cot was small and because sitting next to her right now would be too much for both of us. The tea was good. Chamomile with the honey she'd brought. The cup was warm in my hands.

"Your ribs," she said. "From the den. Are they still sore?"

"You healed them."

"Sometimes the bruise comes back if the healing was rushed. I was... I left it incomplete."

"It feels fine."

She nodded. Sipped her tea. The room was quiet. Through the window, Llusse's bowstring was going, faint and rhythmic. Shooting in the dark.

"Tianne."

"Yes?"

"Thanks for the tea."

She looked at me. Her brown eyes in the candlelight, the scar above her eyebrow, her hair loose around her shoulders. She looked tired and she held her teacup with both hands like she was trying to absorb the warmth.

"You're welcome," she said. Then, quieter: "Goodnight, Haruto."

She left the cup on the tray and walked out. Her footsteps were soft in the hallway. The door stayed open behind her.

I drank my tea. It was still warm.

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