Chapter Text
" it's the tenth gift you have given to me this month. Explain your attitudes spider."
It's been two months since hornet had been staying in pharloom; or better to say that she has been disturbing Lace's privacy.
After the monorach's death , lace had been experiencing something she had never wished to...
They had no choice but to see each other two times per day ,lace needed silk and hornet had it.
" I thought you would... Like it "
Hornet wasn't looking into her eyes , she had hunted a small prey and brought it to Lace's place ; the meat was fresh and seemed to be washed with water several times.
Lace allowed her to come inside her bellhome , She had been living in that old and cramped bellhome until she could scrape together enough rotaries to buy a house.
It was obvious Hornet was beaming with delight, yet she was doing her utmost to maintain her stoic composure.
Lace said nothing else; she accepted the meat and went to look for a frying pan to cook it in.
They have spent hours in silence, which was the best decision for both of them.
Whenever they spoke, it would either end in a fight or they would threaten each other with death. Eventually, they concluded that they should spend most of their time in silence.
" This share of the meat is yours; thanks for the gift."
Lace said and passed her the plate of meat , hornet nodded and began to eat.
Her mandibles, her fangs ... Lace was interested to look , all of them were like sharp knives; it was a question for her that why did she even carry a needle with herself when she had such hidden weapons.
She didn't question it no longer, busied herself with the meat that hornet had hunted specifically for lace , weird gift .
A few minutes passed until both had finished their meals; then, Hornet broke the silence.
"Pale one , I can sense the lack of silk in your body. I am planning to make a bigger silk spool so ...."
" So you won't need to see me more than once per day ... Am I right spider ?"
lace gathered the empty plates to wash later at her leisure; she still didn't know why she still couldn't lower her guard near someone that had saved her before, she hated herself.
She herself knew that if she kept up those stinging remarks, she would rot in solitude forever.
" Lace. Visiting you had became my favourite part of the day."
Lace didn't even realize why the dishes slipped from her hands the moment she heard those words from hornet.
" Don't move from where you are , I don't want your threads to be snagged" hornet said and bent down to clean the broken dishes , lace even if wanted to could'nt move. Some part of her was shocked , she stood there till hornet was done ,without even blinking. What did hornet meant by that ? Was that another ridiculous display of sympathy?
" Are you hurt ?"
Hornet asked , she looked worried; lace hated this look on her face.
" Why... Why are you saying that it's your favourite part of the day ? Watching me suffer to live without someone's help is something you are interested to ? You ridiculous spider..."
" You're so pretty "
Hornet said, hoping to see a new emotion in Lace's face ; to her bad luck lace just turned away to curl up on her bed, she couldn't see anything from this distance.
Hornet wanted her , as her mate.
Lace wanted her , To be more precise, it's better to say she wanted her out of her bellhome.
Lace didn't say anything else , just sat on her bed waiting for hornet to come and renew her silk. Hornet told herself maybe tomorrow she will be ready to ask her for it, well this lasted for three years to happen.
Three years passed till she felt ready , she decided to not tell herself the same sentence; For about three years, she had been telling herself, "I'll ask her tomorrow."
And now she couldn't hold herself from asking.
It took years for them to finally make a small friendship with each other , or at least that's what hornet had been calling it.
Lace had been acting much warmer with her lately, they could sit hours with each other without growing tired from one another.
Hornet had even took her to hollownest with herself , something hard to imagine but to her suprise lace didn't even nag about the way.
Sometimes lace would even rest her head on her shoulder, which was her greatest success.
She told herself that she would be a perfect pair for her , their long life spans ... She wouldn't die like her last mates did, she couldn't stop dreaming about living with her till her last breath.
" Lace . There is something that I wish to discuss"
Hotnet had never felt this ready , all she had to do was to ask her for a mating , how hard could it be?
She told herself that the worst answer will be a "no".
Lace was sitting Infront of her , both were waiting under a piece of wood for the downpour to ease up a bit—as was always the case; in such heavy rain, lace couldn't simply cross.
Greymoore never looked this beautiful to hornet , or maybe Lace's beauty was the reason she had such thoughts.
" What's the matter spider ?" Lace asked , but didn't stop playing with the little wooden box that hornet had given to her , it was filled with her favourite fruit. Mossberries.
Hornet had spent hours in mossgrotto, and she hadn't stopped searching till all those Mossberries were picked up.
Her natural instincts told her one thing , if the gift that spider offered is good enough then there would be no doubts that the mating process will proceed smoothly .
Hornet took a deep breath before answering her , after three years she finally was feeling ready . But before she could say anything else ... her natural instincts forced her to make a purring sound , causing lace to lean a little closer with a smirk on her face.
" Oh poor little morsel ~ are you in the heat of mating?"
" I... I no ... I mean yes but I ... I just wanted to ask if you would like to spend the night at my bellhome. And no... Uhm this voice wasn't ...isn't because I ... I don't have any interests in mating it's just ...a noise "
Hornet never wanted to hit her head into a wall this much , she truly was in heat and yes she wanted lace. And her mind automatically had given her a wrong answer that was hard to be fixed,a terrible mess. Lace looked confused, She shrugged and went back to eating the berries.
Who was she trying to fool ? She was the daughter of monorach, if there was one person that knew about spiders it was lace.
Hornet knew she wouldn't answer till all those Mossberries are eaten , she decided to give her attention to Lace's beautiful hair instead.
A part of it was out of her headdress, white and beautiful.
Hornet once had accidentally touched it , she never knew such a soft thing could even exist. She wanted her , now.
Hopefully lace was done eating, hornet made her self ready for the answer.
" Hmmm little spider ~ do you have extra blankets in your bellhome?"
...
" so tell me spider ~ "
Lace was laying on her stomach right beside Hornet , deeply gazing at their claws that were clasped together. Hornet patiently was waiting for her to complete her sentence.
" Do you really want to pair with an empty husk like me ?" Lace asked and leaned closer to press herself to Hornet's chest , causing hornet to burn from the excitation.
Hornet was in one of her most critical moments , totally because the things she had been dreaming for three years were happening right Infront of her eyes; all those gifts that she had made to catch lace's eyes were finally working.
Lace was laying beside her on bed , hornet had done everything she could to attract her attention just to bring her to bed.
" I... I ...." She was never like this before, she couldn't even talk. What had happened to her? Now was the moment she had been waiting for this moment for almost three years , just to feel numb ?
" Hmm Seems like you suddenly remembered you don't want to ..."
Lace gently turned back to where she was laying before , hornet gripped her claw tighter to not let her get any wrong emotions.
" I ... won't call you a husk." finally she said something , lace smiled and came closer; closing any space between themselves.
Hornet began to purr as she felt lace's soft body near herself , she was too close.
"Tch tch ... Spider dear, What is this ridiculous sympathy? I'm made of silk... Just enjoy yourself tonight with my body and I'll leave. that's what you need , after all it's your nature... Am I wrong?"
" pale one , I truly want to have you as my mate. "
Hornet said and pressed her mask to Lace's forehead, deeply drowning in her eyes.
" Oh spider ... Allow me to give you a small reminder first. Mmm you clearly don't want the whole pharloom to talk about the way that you had fallen for your former rival ... Do you? I'll give my body to you and when you're pleased, I'll make sure to leave "
" Silken one , let them say whatever they want.I am not talking about my sexual needs; I am talking about my interests. I wish to spend my whole life by waking up beside you , we will be perfect pairs for each other . Trust me ."
Hornet's was serious about her decisios,but it only caused Lace to laugh maniacally before answering.
Lace had been born to kill and bring silence to pharloom, she was her mother's best puppet ; there wasn't a single bug that didn't know this fact. Even after years , she could feel few of them were still scared of her.
And now , someone that she had tried to kill and rip her apart was asking her for the act of mating, to be pairs and never leave.
" You'll regret your choices hornet."
" I won't"
Hornet's voice was confident, she used to hate lace yes , but the only reason she had survived from the monorach's claws, again was lace.
Indeed their first month together was all by force , just because hornet knew she couldn't leave lace alone specially when she required silk to keep living,to breath , to see, to feel.
Lace's whole life depended on silk and without hornet she couldn't have survived for three years.
Hornet at the beginning of their relationship would come for small visits to make sure she doesn't need any silk but then ,after one month of knowing lace she had fallen in love . God knows all the things she had tried since then to get the attention of someone that she clearly used to hate . She had decorated her bellhome with things that lace liked , she had stayed up late preparing gifts for her and whenever lace had flirted with any other bugs , hornet had burnt from jealousy.
She was well aware that lace could live hundreds of years without aging, perfectly matching her long lifespan.
"Will saying no, mean that I no longer can get silk from you?"
Hornet was dispatched, she took a deep breath before answering
" I would always give you as much silk as you need , no matter what happens between us tonight." Hornet had prepared herself for a no . She wanted to grip her waist and pull her closer to not let her leave but she had promised to never force her into anything same way that lace's mother did .
" Well little spider ,So You thought my teasing is over..." Lace paused and leaned closer, hornet could feel the smell of roses on her soft clothes. she prepared herself to hear "no." But to her suprise lace said something else.
" Spider spider ... You kept me waiting for so long ."
Before hornet could guess her next move, lace pushed her off the bed.
Hornet fell headfirst on the floor with some blankets on her horns.
She was able to hear the way lace was pounding the bed and laughing hysterically at her, sprawled flat on the floor like a rug.
Hornet couldn't find out where was the funny part , she had confessed her love to lace and now all lace had done was making fun of her by playing with her emotions.
she got up to sit beside lace on the bed, then she tilted her mask and blinked several times at her confusedly.
" Lace ?"
Lace wasn't looking at her; having finished laughing, she had started pulling off her white gloves to set them aside on the bed.
And also , hornet was able to see her hair after so long as she placed her head dress beside her gloves. As soon as she removed her headdress, her hair cascaded over the bed like silver waterfall. As white as snow.
Then, with a coquettish air, she lay down on the soft blankets and dramatically ran her hands over her stomach.
" Oh spider dear , aren't I attractive enough to make you start? Or maybe your plan is to just sit there and look till sunrise"
Lace said with a playful tone and spread her legs .
" But you didn't answer to my feelings?"
" Oh spider dear, I don't know what else I must to do to convey the message that I want you to help me with my clothes."
Lace then winked at her , hornet still looked confused .
" Pale one ,so if I'm not mistaken about your recent behaviour , the answer is yes, am I right?"
" Oh spider dear ... you make me forget how fool you can be sometimes.yes Indeed . Now go ahead , enjoy yourself"
....
Hornet opened her eyes , her vision was blurry and her head felt dizzy. A sliver of light was visible beneath the cracks of the bellhome's door, indicating that the sun had risen several hours ago. And beside her , the naked form of lace was laying ; eyes were still closed while their arms were wrapped around each other , Lace's head was resting under her chin and with each one of her breaths she could feel a small heat on her neck. She was soft , god's above hornet couldn't describe how soft she was
For hornet this was ... unbelievable.
The last time she had a mate for herself was hundred years ago , she couldn't even fully remember their face. And after three years of staying in pharloom, she had finally found a mate for herself after years , her former rival had shown her the hidden sides of her emotions that hornet never thought she would get a chance to see one day.
She ran a hand through lace's hair, which was spread out across the bed.
Soft.
Soft and soft.
Hornet wrapped a lock of Lace's hair around her claw and squeezed; these silky strands were something she had longed to caress for three years.
She wanted to play a little more with them till lace is still sleeping, She let some of her hair fall through the air and watched closely as it settled onto the bedsheets.
" Hmmm spider..." Lace groaned , she was still sleeping so a little more playing with the hair wouldn't hurt.
Hornet held lace's hair closer to her eyes to carefully examine its softness; every strand of white hair gleamed like silver.
Soft and pretty. Soft and long...
"Hmmmmm" lace let out a soft groan as a sign of being awake.
" Morning lace, sorry if I bothered you." Hornet felt a little shy to confess how much she was interested in soft things, but even if she hadn't said a word it was obvious for lace .
"Hmm I can wear my head dress again if you're annoyed~" Lace teased , she knew hornet was deeply enjoying and planning not to show it , she simply wanted to force her to pour all those feelings out.
" I don't think if you have to bother yourself by wearing that head dress pale one ... I believe it's so pretty"
" Whatever you say my little spider ~ now... Give me a new nickname , I'm tired of this heartless ways that you call me. Child , pale one , silken one... So so boring. I'm not even a child and I don't like to be reminded about what I'm made of" lace said and rolled to keep her distance away from hornet , causing hornet to already miss the warmth of her body.
" I don't see where the problem is lace , what else am I supposed to be calling you instead?"
Hornet leaned a little closer to hold one of her claws and kissed it.
"Oh hornet dear you are so creative during the times that you are focused on fixing your tools but how is it that when it comes to your mate , lack of ideas is all you can mention?"
Lace dramatically looked away and placed her free claw under her chin.
"Well.... Uh... Shaw"
" A what ?"
" Shaw ."
" Hornet dear that's not even a nickname .Think twice spider "
" My white mushroom?"
" You know... I believe lace is enough. Just call me lace like you always did "
Hornet nodded and leaned closer to cuddle with her , lace didn't seem to be pleased with the nickname hornet had given to her but didn't protest .
" Hey spider ~ may I touch the furr behind your neck ?"
Hornet paused before answering , it wasn't easy to trust any bug to play with her neck.
" You may but not behind my mas- prrrrrr~ "
She couldn't hold herself from purring, at least didn't have to hide it when she had already mated with her. She buried her face in Lace's bare chest , soft.
It was hard to not fall sleep again , specially after the long night they had spent together and the tiredness was still stuck to her.
Soon lace could hear her purring sound being replaced by snoring .
" Sleep well my spider..." So she joined her without any arguments.