Work Text:
“I can’t believe you’re allowing me to observe the Rite of Renewal,” Milo gushed as he followed Kida into the sacred cave where the Heart of Atlantis dwelled, his arms overladen with writing materials and reference books. “It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”
Kida cast a cheeky smirk over her shoulder at him, the glow of the great crystal floating above them casting a pulsing blue light over her dark skin. “Considering it’s only witnessed by a queen and her consort, and we only have a new monarch every few thousand years or so, you might think of it as a once-in-many-lifetimes opportunity.”
When they reached the center of the chamber, he knelt on the ground and spread out several sheets of blank paper and a pen and laid open the Shepherd’s Journal.
“I hope you know what exactly you’re supposed to do. The Journal is terribly vague on the details,” Milo said as he thumbed his way to the correct page. “All it says is that it’s some sort of fertility ritual done to bond a new queen to the Heart of Atlantis…”
“The word ‘fertility’ doesn’t quite encompass the whole meaning,” Kida explained, then she uttered an Atlantean word that Milo was definitely going to have to ask her to spell for him later. “It’s fertility, true, but it’s also vitality, longevity, and existence itself. The crystal gives the Atlantean people their life force, but its queen must feed it her energy to keep it alive, energy raised by the queen and her consort.”
Milo held up his pen, ready to document every detail of the event. “Great! So where’s your consort?” he asked.
Kida simply gave him a meaningful look and held out a hand to him, and it took him longer than he was proud of to understand her intent.
“Y-you mean…you want me to be your consort?” he stammered.
“Of course,” she laughed kindly, and as he took her hand she raised him to his feet.
“I, er…I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do, though,” he said, his heart suddenly thundering in his chest, but she was unphased by his hesitancy. She slipped her arms around his middle and looked up at him expectantly.
“All you have to do is excite me,” she replied with a playful grin.
Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was his own disbelief that there was a beautiful woman entwined in his arms, but Milo could only stare at her blankly until she quirked up a silvery eyebrow at him.
“Excite you?” he repeated, his voice cracking embarrassingly before realization crashed down on him. “Oh. Oh!” And rather than make even more of a fool of himself, he leaned down and kissed her. He loved the way she tasted, like a slightly salty breeze over a clear blue ocean, and he savored it until she pulled away just enough to murmur, “Smart man!” against his lips before diving back in.
Then the crystal at her throat began to shine and gravity began to fade away beneath their feet, but Milo had far more important anthropological pursuits to occupy his mind.