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“And where is it you think you’re going?” The gravelly voice of Estinien caught her off guard, nearly sending her to her knees in sheer surprise.
The Rising Stones already had one cryptid roaming its halls (that being Urianger reading to himself at all hours of the night), and could certainly do without a second, more haunting figure. But alas, Estinien was now officially a member of the Scions whether she agreed to it or not.
Grumbling to herself, she turned on her heel, fully prepared to argue her case until seeing the distance between them. Or lack thereof. A towering shadow of a man hovering before her now, brows knitted together as usual. Estinien was one of the few people she was required to look up to physically, his Elezen heritage only naturally making him a head or two taller than she.
“I uh… A walk?”
Estinien blew out a sigh, rolling his eyes with apparent annoyance. “A walk?”
“Yes.”
“At this hour?”
“Perfect hour for walks.”
“Even after Carteneau?”
“Need to get some energy out after that.”
“So it’s off to a lordling's bedchambers, is it?”
“Yes — Shite!”
Immediately Estinien’s features broke into a victorious grin. Kiri cursed and slapped her hands to her reddening face. Already she could feel the tops of her ears and the crest of her cheeks begin to burn from embarrassment. Admittedly she was never too good at straight out lying.
“Certainly one way to expend energy.”
“Shuddup.”
---
Together they had drawn a bath, their clothing discarded haphazardly on the mosaic tile. From a small bowl they delighted in fresh strawberries and cherries she had purchased along the way. The room filled with steam and the subtle scent of lavender mixed in the water. But neither entered the bath, instead focusing on each other while they sat on the ledge of the large tub. With only a single candle to see by, Hien let his hands explore the expanse of her back while she tucked her legs close to her chest, facing away from him.
“Should I have known you’d come to me with your wounds, I would have practiced medicine.” He teased her, dipping a spare cloth in clean hot water before applying it to angry red gashes across her back.
“Never too late to begin.”
Luckily for her, all her injuries had been minor. The worst was a long tear down her back from Lunar Ifrit's claws. With all the going ons of battle and the discovery of depleted aether around the towers, she had little time to notice her own wounds. And even then, without Estinien having mentioned it, all the injuries she had endured might have gone unnoticed until she undressed for a bath.
Still, Hien treated her like a delicate flower. His rough fingertips swept across her shoulder blades with a whisper of a touch sending chills down her spine and her eyes fluttering. When he stumbled across another new scrape it was with practiced patience that he brought the wet cloth to her skin to clean it. She hissed from the initial sting but was always comforted by his soothing voice at her ear.
“Should I have Yugiri tail you the next time you walk onto the battlefield?” He asked, humming with laughter while his thumb gingerly brushed a blossoming bruise on her shoulder.
In return she stifled her own chuckle, grimacing when even that roused a new ache in her body. “You don’t trust me and yet you’re here alongside me, nursin’ cuts and bruises as well, aren’t’cha?”
“None nearly as remarkable as yours, I’m afraid.”
“Shame,” Kiri began, resting her chin on her drawn up knees. “I like guys with scars.”
“Is that so?” Not missing a beat, Hien drew his arms around her and kissed the plump crest of her cheek. “Have I not shown you the one on my forehead?” He kissed her cheek again when she smiled. “Or my shoulder for that matter? Certainly I have more, if you’d like to look.”
Between them both they had an entire galaxy worth of scars. A roadmap that outlined their entire past. But it had never bothered them. Instead of shying away from the stories that marred their skin, they found comfort in them. Well into the latest hours, when the candles were pooled with wax, Hien would trace her scars and she his.
She tilted her head, silver hair falling over her shoulder when she turned to look at him. Even now she could see the slightest cut upon his cheek. It wouldn’t leave a scar, as many of her own wouldn’t, but still she took up a cloth to clean it for him. He winced but never once broke eye contact with her, watching her with fascination and a warm smile on his lips.
There was intimacy in these moments, even in the shared silence. It made her cheeks warm, his eyes on her so intensely. And when he took her raised hand in his and brought her palm to his lips, her heart raced. A hummingbird in her ribcage as she sighed.
“I love you,” He released her hand and instead swept her silver hair from her neck slowly, peppering the crook of her shoulder in a flurry of snow soft kisses.
His lips were warm against her skin, every kiss only affirming his affections for her. The way his hand guided her head, encouraging her to lean on him, to expose even more of herself to him, had her breathless.
Such small gestures. Actions they’ve both participated in numerous times before; and yet the enchantment of it was never undone. Her heart would flutter beneath her breast; a breath caught when his arms eclipsed her and drew her against him.
The kisses dusting her shoulders steadily became bites; teeth dragging across her skin before returning to the rose petal soft kiss. He explored her shoulder with his lips, trailing the slope of her neck, and finally settling on her jaw. The scruff of his beard against her tender skin encouraged a shiver from her, alongside a hum of stifled laughter. The corners of his lips curved, she felt it against her skin as he kissed her again and again before purposefully rubbing his cheek into the crook of her shoulder.
She bit back the urge to laugh, knowing she would regret it when the aches returned. “Hien — ”
“So vulnerable is the Warrior of Light to tickling.” He mused, apologetically kissing the spot he had teased her. “Should your enemies discover your weakness, I’m afraid you’re done for, my love.”
Kiri leaned back further, regardless of the sting of her injury as her back pressed into his abdomen. His smile only encouraged her own as she moved to match her lips against his. “Then you’d best not tell anyone.”
---
Morning arrived much too soon. The room became aglow as the sun began to rise. In curtains of light it fell across their sleeping faces, tiny motes of dust becoming stars that hung in the empty space.
Only when light dappled across her resting features did she begin to stir, the sunlight warm against her bare skin. Her eyes fluttered against the bright morning touched interior. Quietly her pillow drew in a breath, waking not long after her. His arms tightened around her middle as he stretched, she could feel every muscle of him beneath her before he eased back into bed.
She had fallen asleep in his arms, her head against the apex of his chest. It was the best position to hear his heartbeat after all; a sweet lullaby as they both drifted off. But now, legs tangled and hair strewn wildly from the night before, she pried herself free of his arms. He argued, of course, grabbing her middle and pulling her back down with a chuckle.
Kiri dramatically gasped, matching his laugh with her own. “Must you be so greedy in the mornin’?”
“Aye. Or else you’d leave my bed to chase yet another adventure.” In a blink he had wrestled her completely to the bed, his hands finding hers and lacing their fingers together tightly. He hovered over her, successfully pinning her before capturing her lips with his.
To be off without so much as a single goodbye would have broken her heart. She loved these early morning moments when they were both still only partially awake. His kisses were messy in these hours, but unhinged in a way that made leaving their bed a near impossible task.
His hair fell heavy around his face and cascaded over his shoulders, just shy of tickling her bare skin when he broke their breathless kiss. With the glow of the morning sun a halo in his raven hair, Kiri found herself unable to look away. How desperately she wished to reach up and run her fingers through that hair of his, unbound and disheveled from sleep.
If only she had mastery over time itself. To keep moments like this frozen forever. That his hands may never leave hers cold and empty; his smile to never fade. The warmth of their time together was like days in the summer sun but it was fleeting. Torn between responsibilities they both bore.
He must have seen the way she studied him, with such an ache in her chest knowing their time together was nothing more than sand between their fingers, his hand squeezing tight hers.
“If I could stay…” She murmured sorrowfully.
Sharlayan would be her next destination. Although the maps she had seen of it painted the island only a hop and a skip away, she knew the distance would not be quite that simple. Further yet from Doma. What would await her on those distant shores? Briefly her mind revisited the towers dotting every conceivable piece of land; to Fandaniel and her beastly ‘friend’.
But it was Hien’s gentle touch, his hand gingerly holding her cheek against his palm, that brought her back to the here and now. Back to the cozy bed they shared and his soft expression alight in the morning sun. His thumb traced her bottom lip with a touch like feathers.
Neither wanted to admit that their responsibilities would see them part. To speak it aloud was akin to cursing. Rather, Hien leaned down and instead let their thoughts fall unspoken and kissed her. Soft and slow, intimate in a way that made her heart swell until it felt ready to burst.
He drew away after a long, quiet moment, reluctant to release her, and resumed his gentle caress of her cheek. She tilted her head into his touch.
“If I may,” His voice broke the silence that had fallen over them, his tone soft and low. Carefully he brushed his thumb against her lips once more, drinking in the sight of her as his lips worked to find the words he searched for. “I have a request, for I fear this may be one of our last moments of respite for some time.”
Kiri watched him closely with raised brows. A request from Hien, especially when alone where he could be himself, was often humorous in his own way. Asking to bring back sweets from distant lands that they could share while she regaled him in all her adventures. But this moment seemed different. His eyes were intense but bright, all but sparkling with whatever request he had envisioned to ask of her.
He bowed his head once more, his forehead against hers. “No matter what you encounter on this adventure, no matter what awaits you at journey's end, promise me… Promise that you will return home safely to me. That you will not go where I cannot follow.” He broke only to draw a heavy, shaken breath and kiss her deeply. “I want to hear it all upon your return. Straight from your lips and not words on paper.”
A tear fell from his cheek to hers, mixing with those that she had already begun to shed hearing his voice quake and tremble to say these heavy words. The hand that she still held tightened around hers, his other having slipped into silvery white hair.
The weight of his request made her heart squeeze and her breath catch in her lungs. There was no promise of a morrow. They both knew this truth all too well and yet… And yet. She tilted her head and kissed him through her tears. He responded eagerly and almost desperately, finding an unspoken passion there on her lips.
When at last they broke to fill their lungs, Hien brushed his palm against her damp cheek, clearing away her gathered tears before scrubbing away his own. Kiri touched his cheek with feather soft fingertips, following the crest of his features down to the scruff along his jaw.
“‘Tis a fools request, I know. But I ask it as a foolish man in love.”
“Foolish indeed.” Smiling, Kiri closed her eyes. “I promise, I will come home to you.”