Work Text:
It was the beginning of a typical day in the realm of the gods.
The sky was still dark as his majesty the god of darkness had not yet released his wife from under his cape. The only thing illuminating the world were the stars that the queen had embroidered on it.
Dregarnuhr looked at herself in the mirror, realizing it was time to pry the loving couples apart and start the day. She rang her bell, whose magical power granted that it would be heard by anyone in the realm, prompting everyone to leave their warm and comfortable beds.
After one last kiss to his goddess of light, the god of darkness parted ways with her to have his aide bathe and dress him. The goddess' aides did the same, making sure to subdue the shine that enveloped her whole being, or her very presence would blind anybody trying to look at her.
Soon after, they reunited in the grand hall, where everybody was gathering to have breakfast.
"My dear... you look as radiant as ever." he said, offering his hand to escort her.
"And your darkness is as bottomless as ever, my dear." she replied, taking his offered hand.
"Oh, please..." Leidenschaft rolled his eyes at the couple. "As if you two weren't cooped up in bed until a quarter of bell ago..." It was difficult to keep one's marital activities a secret when they caused the sky to literally turn black.
"Leidenschaft!" Interjected Schutzaria. "This is not something to be spoken of at our dining table!"
Leidenschaft rolled his eyes again, but said nothing. His little sister's prudishness was notorious, after all.
"Speaking of which... Flutrane isn't done freeing Geduldh yet?" asked the queen after noticing the empty places in her offsprings' table. She did not ask about her son in law, but it wasn't like she didn't care for him. She simply knew he would be wherever Geduldh was.
"So it would seem..." Leidenschaft trailed off. It was rare for them to be late. Despite the... intensity of Ewigeliebe's love for his youngest sister, his older one was usually able to wash away all the ice and the snow before it was time for breakfast.
The goddess of light nodded in acknowledgement. She wished sometimes Ewigeliebe would leave Geduldh alone for a bell, so she could hear the tales of their nightly exploits straight from her mouth, instead of depending on what Flutrane could guess from the way their bedroom was covered in ice.
"What about Mestionora, is she still visiting Erwaermen?" asked the god of darkness.
"She is." It was Schutzaria that spoke, anger clear in her voice. "Mother! Father! She doesn't listen to me anymore when I tell her not to go. We can't allow our only niece to get so close to a man when she hasn't even had her coming of age yet. Allow me to take care of him, so she would never fall victim to his treachery!"
'Here we go again... I suppose it's her fault that Mestionora fights with Ewigeliebe every time he covers her mother in ice...' the supreme couple and Leidenschaft thought at the same time.
"Relax, my dear. He still sees her like the child she was when you gouged out his eyes." the queen tried to pacify her.
"And he's buried in the ground up to the waist, he wouldn't be able to do anything even if he wanted to." her husband finished for her.
It was clear Schutzaria was not satisfied with the answer, but before she could further complain, a voice interrupted them.
"Lady Mestionora may be still underage, but her beauty is on par with all the fair ladies of her family. Life sure is unfair to my former peer..."
"Beischmacht..." the god of darkness said, taking the lead of the conversation before his daughter could start threatening the frosty god for his remark on Mestionora.
"Allow me to apologize for the interruption, I came here on behalf of my master." Beischmacht said, kneeling down with a flourish. "Yesterday night Lady Flutrane went to spend the night at Vantole's place, but it seems she is too hung over to leave the bed and come free Lady Geduldh from tonight's ice. My Lord would like to request either the queen or Lord Leidenschaft's assistance, if possible."
"Those depraved..." Schutzaria muttered, but the goddess of light standing up from her seat interrupted whatever complaint she might have.
"Leidenschaft, come with me. My everlasting love, you stay here." The goddess of light said, slightly tilting her head toward her daughter.
His majesty nodded, understanding what she was getting at. As he watched the three of them go, he wondered if Beischmacht's arts could do something to help his middle daughter smooth her edges a little.
~ ~ ~
"It's rare to see one of your genus shiver..." Leidenschaft commented, watching Beischmacht with concern.
"Hhm..." He said, closing his eyes as he walked, willing the unpleasant sensation to pass. "Someone, most likely his Majesty, must have wished me to approach Lady Schutzaria..."
"Oww... My condolences, pal." Leidenschaft gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulders. He still remembered vividly what had happened many centuries prior. He had taunted Beischmacht that his arts wouldn't work on his second sister, to which the other god, feeling his honor was on the line, had responded by trying to seduce her. Suffice to say, he counted himself lucky to have escaped with his tool still attached.
The goddess of light watched them out of the corner of her eyes, but said nothing. To think that, out of her offsprings, the once boisterous Leidenschaft would be the most poised one, the only one to take killing sprees and night escapades in moderation.
They soon reached Geduldh and Ewigeliebe's abode. As expected, the cage of ice that enclosed it gave it a shiny appearance under the sunlight.
"Mother in law, Leidenschaft, thank you for coming." Ewigeliebe greeted them. "My apologies for... the situation." he said, gesturing to his house.
The goddess of light sighed. "Seriously, you two... you've been married for how many thousands of years now? You still act like newlywed..."
Before her son in law could do or say anything, the queen raised her hands, making the sun shine brighter and warmer. "Don't worry, I'll free her in no time..."
"You surely cover her in more and more ice every year, bro." Said Leidenschaft, looking at the ice fortress with appreciation.
"I know..." Ewigeliebe said, a resigned look on his face. "I just can't help myself. Whenever I see her with her hair down, framing her sweet face, cascading down on her bountiful mounds and reaching down to where life begins..." He trembled, closing his eyes to picture the image of his naked wife, eagerly waiting for him to make love to her. When he opened his eyes, he started marching back into the house, but was stopped by an hand on his arm.
"Hold your horses, bro. Have you forgotten the agreement you made with Mother?" Leidenschaft asked, watching the snow that was starting to fall around the other god.
Ewigeliebe deflated. His brother was right, he had agreed on abstaining from sex when the sun was high in the sky, to give his irresistible wife time to recuperate. "I haven't." He sighed and turned to watch as the ice encasing his house quickly melted away.
"I'm done!" The goddess of light declared before long.
The three gods -Beischmacht had prudently disappeared when his Lord had started praising the graces of his wife- moved inside the house and toward the bedroom, where Geduldh was starting to wake up from her hibernation. Leidenschaft waited outside, guarding the door.
"My love, a very pleasant morning to you." Ewigeliebe greeted his wife, moving to give her a quick kiss. He was blocked by his mother in law's hand.
"At least wait until she is completely unfrozen, would you?" She chastised him, pointing at her daughter's abdomen, where many droplets and filaments of his snow were still clinging to her.
"Wasn't it washed away?" Asked Geduldh, trying to look at her belly.
The goddess of light touched a clean spot on her daughter's navel, finding it much colder than what an unfrozen goddess' skin should be. "Seems that not even my sun was able to completely defrost you, my dear." She then turned to her son in law. "Her womb is still frozen. Just how many times did you put your ice in her fireplace?"
"Just a couple..." The god said, averting his eyes.
"...of dozens..." Geduldh continued for him. "Tonight he was... very motivated." She looked at him with a blush on her face.
The goddess of light resisted the urge to roll her eyes. A couple of dozens inside and, judging by what she could see, another half a dozen outside. 'Seriously... These two are hopeless.'
"Let's move her to the window, let the sun shine on her skin." The supreme goddess said.
"But... Others would be able to see her then..." Ewigeliebe looked at his mother in law as if she had asked him to cut off all his limbs.
"Would you rather leave her like this until tomorrow?" She stressed the last word, to make him understand that, unless they were able to remove the ice that covered her, there would be no sex that night.
As her mother and husband argued, Geduldh felt a very slight tingling on her belly, where the latter's snow was.
"Uhm... Mother? Could you please take a look at what the humans are doing here?" She pointed at the area whitened by the snow. "It feels... ticklish."
The other gods both looked at her, trying to guess what was happening. After a few moments of wondering, the goddess of light called out to her son.
"Leidenschaft, have Seheweit bring you his tool." She then turned to Ewigeliebe, looking ready to cover his wife in ice -real ice- to keep her from another man's eyes. "Don't worry, we'll only borrow the tool, I will be the one using it."
That seemed to calm him down a little, but he still seemed ready to kill anyone who would cross the door of his and his wife's bedroom.
Shortly after, the tool was delivered -Ewigeliebe personally went to retrieve it outside the room, and only after Seheweit had moved out of the house- and ready to use.
The queen operated it, using her own shine to make her daughter's skin brighter and easier to look at. Seheweit's tool, that was in this case being used as a magnifying glass, showed the images of a forest, bustling with heavily dressed humans climbing on pure-white trees.
They were taking turns to heat the branches with their bare hands and make some fruit-like things fall down to be harvested. The adults were telling the very little ones how they would later extract the milk out of them, and how sweet it was.
"Are those trees... my snow?" Ewigeliebe wondered out loud.
"I... think so." Answered Geduldh.
"They are going to eat those fruits?" Asked the goddess of light, not wanting to believe what she had just heard.
"Well, I can understand them." Geduldh said, proud for some reason. "Ewi's snow tastes really good."
That seemed to crush the god's thinking ability once again. He bent down, whispering in his wife's ear that she tasted even better, before he kissed her as if they didn't have an audience.
The supreme goddess closed her eyes, counting to ten. She lifted one of her sleeves, revealing a part of her skin that her attendants had not covered with the foundation used to make her shine less brightly, and moved her forearm over her daughter's belly.
The ice trees started to melt under the brightness of the sun, and soon they stretched tall in the sky and disappeared. The humans seemed to know what was going to happen, because they managed to jump down from the trees before losing their standing.
The goddess of light sighed once again watching the two younger gods kiss passionately. With Seheweit's tool in one hand, she used the other to capture Ewigeliebe with bands of light, forcibly pulling him away from his wife.
"Mother..." "Mother in law..." the two of them called out at the same time.
"Did you forget our agreement? No sex during the day." she said, marching out of the room with her son in law in tow.
"But she looks so beautiful right now..." Ewigeliebe whined.
The goddess of light ignored his complaints, carrying him all the way outside.
~ ~ ~ A few day later ~ ~ ~
"By the way" Flutrane started as her sister's attendants helped her get dressed, "whatever happened the other day, when I couldn't make it to defrost you?"
"What do you mean?" The effusion-prone couple asked in sync.
"For the sake of... Brother, I get that those knockers could make any man's head turn blank, but you need to release her every now and then." She purposefully ignored the murderous glare her brother in law shot her when she said 'any man'.
"Mother hasn't spoken of anything else at our tea parties ever since then. She even scolded me when I tried to force a change of subject by saying I already knew." Flutrane said to her sister before turning to her brother in law. "And Schutzaria! She seems even more intent on murdering you!"
"What... had she been talking about?" Ewigeliebe asked tentatively, fearing his untamed passion for his wife had finally managed to make his mother in law angry at him.
"Snow! She has been repeating nonstop how sweet and tasty snow is!"
Ewigeliebe and Geduldh looked at each other. If the queen was going to try it out herself, she could have at least let them continue...