[Landing in the rokushin courtyard as opposed to at the Forbidden Gate, or gods forfend, the courtyard near the ministries, meant all the courtiers who poured out for their reappearance were the very ones trusted to walk and serve within their empress' private quarters.
Gyokuyou led them and though the chief handmaiden would never scold her mistress, the worried face she pulled turning to relief was enough to draw out Youko's swift apology and explanation. This was followed by the immediate suggestion of fetching the Taiho, an idea and complication Youko rapidly dissuaded her of, stating that they were tired and hungry, and how they should likely eat a meal with meat in it which Keiki shouldn't be present for. The last was the flimsiest excuse, but as her word was law, there was little for them to do but send word of her return and the suggestion that the empress and her kirin have tea once she was rested.
The last of her requests was for the private bath in her quarters to be filled, the food to be left on the table in her antechamber, and for everyone to retire with her apologies for worrying them. The last point got a fair amount of pushback from Gyokuyou, the usually mild woman insisting it would be against protocol for the guard to withdraw. The compromise became their stations being moved to what Youko considered a respectable distance from her chambers.
There would likely be some whispers about the Imperial Kei's guest and the lack of quarters made up for him, but not today. She would not hear them.
Today, everyone moved as Youko asked of them, and she was allowed to fall into the quiet next to Calhir while her servants finished filling the basin of her bath with hot water. It wasn't quite as comfortable it had been flying home, held tight against him in the wind, and maybe that is because of the loss of connection. Maybe that is why she slips her hand around his fingers.]
[ In truth, he'd had that feeling - 'we made it' - a while ago, when they'd descended out of the high mountains. The rest had been comfortable for him, just as she had thought. Or maybe the emphasis was on the 'we', and this very moment. Because- ]
I'm amazed you had the energy to hold them off. I thought I'd have to try my luck sneaking in after they let you sleep.
[ And he wasn't sure that would have led to anything, at that, because... he did think she'd honestly need her sleep, after what they'd been through. But here she was, getting things ready for them. And rather obviously too, from his perspective. It did have the effect of making him feel... wanted. And eager. Enough so that he had to watch how he stood around the attendants. Wouldn't do to have them see him hanging around half-hard ogling the empress... ]
[Even if she is being too obvious, she doesn't care. The rokushin is her home now. If she wants to fight in the gardens, she has the authority. If she wants to drink on the roof, she has the authority. If she wants her servants and guards far enough away so they have some privacy, she has the authority.
And there isn't long to wait thankfully. Her servants clear out of her quarters in record time after delivering the last of the bathwater and the covered platters of food. She can hear Gyokuyou's faint well-wishing from the entryway, a soft 'Please take your ease,' before the doors shut and the sound of footsteps ebb away.
Her hand tightens briefly on his, a smile blooming on her face at the mental image of Calhir trying to sneak in.]
I don't know if I would have had the heart to wake you if you were asleep. But to be by your side, yes.
[ He draws their hands up - far up, for her - and kisses her fingers, slender between his. His eyes study her face, eager to know her desires. If she wasn't just off days of travel, if he had a little more experience of her, he might have swept her up and carried her to bed then and there - something of that desire shows in his eyes, the gold shining down at her. But as things are, he's happy for her to take her time and enjoy... everything in front of her right now, in the order she wishes. ]
[This is the problem with such new territory. She isn't clear on the signals and boundary lines that come with it, so she stands there just this side of helpless as he presses kisses to her fingers and looks down at her with hunger in his eyes. Maybe what they talked about in the cave — maybe the way he touched her in the cave — is too present for any other outcome in this moment.]
I don't want you going hungry... but those platters do keep hot for ages.
[No matter what they do, they can't stand on the veranda forever so she heads in, gently pulling him along after. Not wanting to separate even for the handful of steps it takes to enter her quarters properly.]
[ He follows after... and then he is scooping her up, carrying her to the bed. That aside about the platters was enough for him to decide. He'd only mentioned the food so that she wouldn't feel like she was putting him off if she wanted to eat; he already knew what he wanted first. ]
I'm not thinking about my stomach right now.
[ He gives her a kiss, but it's not a long one; he lays her out as soon as he arrives, and pulls off his clothes, sitting next to her naked in a blink. To him none of this is 'moving fast' since he's barely touched her, yet... but he hasn't really thought that Youko might think differently.
Then again, after everything that happened on the cave, Youko could very well think he's taking his time. ]
[Fast. There is barely time to adjust to being cradled in his arms again before he is laying her down. She makes a brief, uncharacteristic squeak upon deposit, something swept away by his kiss and how rapidly he gets out of his clothes. Being left completely overdressed, heart pounding and slick, there was no plan but to join him no matter what he chose.
Sitting up, she kicks her boots off and as she folds her legs under herself, she starts removing her hard won, dry clothing again. Only now there is good lighting for him to see her, for her to see him seeing her, and even if she wants this, that makes her movements a little slower. She watches him as she removes her outer robe again, as she starts peeling open the last layer between her skin and the air, wanting to see his reaction this time.
[ A small smile plays across his lips, though it's less at the sight of her body itself than the way she reveals it, how carefully she watches him. Not that he isn't eager to oblige. What he mostly felt up on the mountain, the hard and the soft and the subtle curves that make up her shape, he now can match to the sight of her in light, laid out before him instead of glimpsed in part as they pressed together.
Though thinking about the feel of her does spark a certain desire to refresh his memory, link the sight and shape, and he reaches out a hand to touch, between the parted folds of her robe, his open hand broad against her chest. ]
[Youko draws back just a hair's breath before his hand makes contact, with an apologetic look following immediately after. It isn't fear, but shyness, and it burns wildly along the tops of her cheekbones and down her throat. It is different when she isn't trapped in the dark and can anticipate him touching her, can see the smile on his lips.
Shrugging her shoulders out of the under layers, she scoots toward him, putting herself into his hand bit-by-bit. Bringing her hand up to touch his, to let her trace his skin while she focuses on trying to breathe steady.]
[ Eager sometimes, hesitant at others... he isn't so hopelessly impatient as to need an apology for that. In truth, the moment of visible tumult, of vulnerability, makes her choice to be with him feel like just that, a tangible decision. And though there have been others that have backed away from him in fear before, he doesn't think to worry that she will do the same now. He thinks that was settled on the mountain.
And it is sweet how she leans into the hand herself, lets him feel that slightly nervous breathing. ]
You can touch me too, Youko.
[ Not just his hand, he means. As he is touching her. ]
[That is prompting enough for her to find some of her nerve, to shift that little bit closer to him and that little bit further into his touch, to reach out and run her fingertips along his upper thigh. To skin along the bend to the inner edge. Her lips part slightly as she works to reconcile the skin she felt against her in the cave with what she sees now.
She idly thinks she should have grabbed things from her vanity before he scooped her up.]
[ Perhaps she can tell where she touched him before; from where feather gives way to scale, where the larger scales on his thigh give way to the incredibly fine armor at his joints. Then again, there's a lot to pore over. His long legs and the width of his wings may make him look somewhat slender by comparison, but compared to someone her size his hips are still rather broad. There isn't any too-overt reaction to the simple touch, but a puff of breath from his nose and a soft thump from his tail fractionally rising and falling show he's... paying attention.
The hand on her chest presses against her, not feeling but coaxing her onto her back. If she does want something from that vanity she'll probably want to speak up before she winds up trapped in place... ]
[It is too easy to let him guide her down, even if she laments the distance put between her and feeling her way around his thigh, anxious excitement all but written across her face. She shifts her shoulders against the plush bedding, her bed feeling somewhat unfamiliar in this context. Her thoughts threaten to turn to wondering if her hair won't be in the way, and hoping the tie on her trousers won't prove a problem for his hands, and all throughout glancing up at him and away to the vanity.
It is probably better if they have them than not. Even if Gyokuyou thought she wouldn't need them — now, yet, ever? — the younger servants had decided it was better for Youko to have them than not. The small lacquer box would escape most notice if not for being ostentatiously decorated with mother-of-pearl.]
Calhir...? There's a black box right there, on my vanity? Can you grab it?
[ His hand stays on her as she lies back, and lingers even after she makes her request, as if hesitant to leave, before relenting. ]
Of course - this one?
[ He asks as he scoots over and carefully picks up the box, presenting it to Youko. He wasn't sure if she'd have anything ready, but it seemed the court provided, one way or another. ]
[Curling onto her side, she goes about sitting herself up on her elbow enough to take it from him, expression more than a little wooden as she opens the lid. The interior she exposes houses a row of glass bottles, each filled with colorless liquid, and a ceramic jar.
She holds onto the box for another thirty seconds or so, eyeing the contents like they might explode, before holding the box back out to him and looking up at him coyly.]
[He is out of luck if he's hoping for a shrinking potion. Her handmaidens likely had money on her needing them for someone smaller and local. Youko points to the vials, her face flushing a deeper color remembering the first time she had them explained to her after mistakenly thinking they might have been perfume oils.]
Let me know if you want that one. [ 'Excitement.' ] I... think I'll do well enough without.
[ He certainly doesn't look like he needs the help right now. He sets the box down to the side, across Youko. Somewhere he's less likely to accidentally crush it or something. And since that does conveniently leave him with a hand on either side of her...
He leans down, nose touching Youko's for a brief second before he turns his head and his mouth covers hers. ]
[That stray precautionary thought dealt with, turned into a prepared provision, frees Youko up to lower herself back onto the mattress, but then she is nose-to-nose with Calhir. It is only milliseconds, long enough to register him, his golden eyes, being that close and how his arms framed her in, before his mouth was on hers to the tune of —]
Mm—!
[Surprise turning quickly into something delighted, hungry, her arms wrapping blindly — one and then the other — around his neck, urging him down with her. Pulling him with her comparatively small weight. This is easier to succumb to. She parts her lips for him, wanting to taste him on her tongue again, feeling too long parted since the cave.]
[ His tongue is there, momentarily overwhelming as he presses in to find hers, but once he does he's more restrained, tip teasing at her and retreating, drawing her out.
He's solid, immovable at first as she tugs at his neck, but only because he's shifting the rest of his body closer to her on the bed, and then he sinks down obligingly, chest heavy but warm against hers. Small as she feels against him, he's hesitant to give her too much weight, but all the same he wants to enjoy that contact, the warmth of her and the alternating softness and definition of her body. ]
[Every retreat is met with a noise of objection, a soft chase, the eager stroke of her tongue. Playing right into his strategy, but she couldn't care less if it gets her more of him.
The slow collapse he affords her — his body on top of hers, his chest pressing down against her and bringing all its warmth with it — makes her smile into their kiss, her fingers curling in his feathers. The feel of the fine scales against her belly, the weight he lets her have, get a soft moan from her. Her hips shift under him, her arousal a louder, more insistent animal with a bed under her back and his promises lingering in her ears.]
[ Once she's given chase she finds him less retiring, tongue meeting hers and twisting around it. It's long and agile and it feels like it could seize hers completely, but he keeps up that pattern, of falling back occasionally to encourage her to pursue as well.
The motion of his body against hers is something less deliberate; the way her hips move against him, bring them together, simply feels right, and he moves with her to complete that alignment, his body fully over her, settled between her legs. Even if the yawning gap in their heights means her hips yet only have his middle torso to strain against, it serve as another echo of that promise to stoke the flame. ]
[If he wanted her mind to slip back fully into the warm haze that enveloped them in the cold, the coil of his tongue around hers is making quick headway. She is entering that dim awareness of the sounds his mouth is muffling from her, the needy, wanton moans, the whimper pushed against the roof of her mouth.
Having him, any amount of him, settled between her legs is good and keeps Youko as behaved as she is likely to be until she is allowed out of the bottom half of her riding outfit. Preferably — her imagination dictates, and makes her hips rock up against his weight, a sweet groan following close behind — peeled out of them by Calhir himself.]
[ And how would she feel if she knew he was testing the waters, seeing how she reacted to that tongue before he put it to other uses? To that inquiry, her stifled moans are all the answer he needs. It's only that they also make him hesitant, a little, to break the kiss, and he keeps up that loving embrace of her tongue, sliding and teasing, hoping to hear more...
Until that buck of her hips reminds him that, for all she may enjoy the distraction, the delay could still be a torment for poor Youko. The sweet kind he doesn't entirely dislike delivering, but when she's really spent the whole day waiting it's more appropriate to be in a giving mood, isn't it?
So his lips part from hers, drawing back - and then his tongue follows, the second it takes to unwind from hers and make its sinuous retreat confirming for her eyes just how long it was. His nose brushes hers again as he speaks: ]
Am I making you wait too long, Youko?
[ It sounds like an honest question, for the most part, but there is just a hint of that teasing impulse in there. ]
[It is entirely too soon for her to be so heated, so out of breath, so desperate sounding, but kissing him, feeling more of his tongue than before, and watching the length of it slip out of her mouth — he found and flipped her switch.
There is too much honesty in how she moves under him, shifts up against him, cradles the back of his head and tries to bring him closer. Closer, more, touch, taste — insistent, and ready. She doesn't want to be teased, even if it is his specialty. Wasn't she already teased? She pants softly, shakily against his lips, nosing back against him.]
Yes—! Calhir, please—?
[The whine in her own voice makes her eyebrows draw together, embarrassed. She drops her voice, her next requests made just for him. A secret something that makes her arch up against him.]
Please touch me again. Touch me like you promised?
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Gyokuyou led them and though the chief handmaiden would never scold her mistress, the worried face she pulled turning to relief was enough to draw out Youko's swift apology and explanation. This was followed by the immediate suggestion of fetching the Taiho, an idea and complication Youko rapidly dissuaded her of, stating that they were tired and hungry, and how they should likely eat a meal with meat in it which Keiki shouldn't be present for. The last was the flimsiest excuse, but as her word was law, there was little for them to do but send word of her return and the suggestion that the empress and her kirin have tea once she was rested.
The last of her requests was for the private bath in her quarters to be filled, the food to be left on the table in her antechamber, and for everyone to retire with her apologies for worrying them. The last point got a fair amount of pushback from Gyokuyou, the usually mild woman insisting it would be against protocol for the guard to withdraw. The compromise became their stations being moved to what Youko considered a respectable distance from her chambers.
There would likely be some whispers about the Imperial Kei's guest and the lack of quarters made up for him, but not today. She would not hear them.
Today, everyone moved as Youko asked of them, and she was allowed to fall into the quiet next to Calhir while her servants finished filling the basin of her bath with hot water. It wasn't quite as comfortable it had been flying home, held tight against him in the wind, and maybe that is because of the loss of connection. Maybe that is why she slips her hand around his fingers.]
We made it back.
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I'm amazed you had the energy to hold them off. I thought I'd have to try my luck sneaking in after they let you sleep.
[ And he wasn't sure that would have led to anything, at that, because... he did think she'd honestly need her sleep, after what they'd been through. But here she was, getting things ready for them. And rather obviously too, from his perspective. It did have the effect of making him feel... wanted. And eager. Enough so that he had to watch how he stood around the attendants. Wouldn't do to have them see him hanging around half-hard ogling the empress... ]
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[Even if she is being too obvious, she doesn't care. The rokushin is her home now. If she wants to fight in the gardens, she has the authority. If she wants to drink on the roof, she has the authority. If she wants her servants and guards far enough away so they have some privacy, she has the authority.
And there isn't long to wait thankfully. Her servants clear out of her quarters in record time after delivering the last of the bathwater and the covered platters of food. She can hear Gyokuyou's faint well-wishing from the entryway, a soft 'Please take your ease,' before the doors shut and the sound of footsteps ebb away.
Her hand tightens briefly on his, a smile blooming on her face at the mental image of Calhir trying to sneak in.]
Would you have really tried that?
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[ He draws their hands up - far up, for her - and kisses her fingers, slender between his. His eyes study her face, eager to know her desires. If she wasn't just off days of travel, if he had a little more experience of her, he might have swept her up and carried her to bed then and there - something of that desire shows in his eyes, the gold shining down at her. But as things are, he's happy for her to take her time and enjoy... everything in front of her right now, in the order she wishes. ]
The food smelled good coming in.
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I don't want you going hungry... but those platters do keep hot for ages.
[No matter what they do, they can't stand on the veranda forever so she heads in, gently pulling him along after. Not wanting to separate even for the handful of steps it takes to enter her quarters properly.]
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I'm not thinking about my stomach right now.
[ He gives her a kiss, but it's not a long one; he lays her out as soon as he arrives, and pulls off his clothes, sitting next to her naked in a blink. To him none of this is 'moving fast' since he's barely touched her, yet... but he hasn't really thought that Youko might think differently.
Then again, after everything that happened on the cave, Youko could very well think he's taking his time. ]
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Sitting up, she kicks her boots off and as she folds her legs under herself, she starts removing her hard won, dry clothing again. Only now there is good lighting for him to see her, for her to see him seeing her, and even if she wants this, that makes her movements a little slower. She watches him as she removes her outer robe again, as she starts peeling open the last layer between her skin and the air, wanting to see his reaction this time.
Wanting to see what he thinks of her.]
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Though thinking about the feel of her does spark a certain desire to refresh his memory, link the sight and shape, and he reaches out a hand to touch, between the parted folds of her robe, his open hand broad against her chest. ]
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Shrugging her shoulders out of the under layers, she scoots toward him, putting herself into his hand bit-by-bit. Bringing her hand up to touch his, to let her trace his skin while she focuses on trying to breathe steady.]
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And it is sweet how she leans into the hand herself, lets him feel that slightly nervous breathing. ]
You can touch me too, Youko.
[ Not just his hand, he means. As he is touching her. ]
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She idly thinks she should have grabbed things from her vanity before he scooped her up.]
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The hand on her chest presses against her, not feeling but coaxing her onto her back. If she does want something from that vanity she'll probably want to speak up before she winds up trapped in place... ]
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It is probably better if they have them than not. Even if Gyokuyou thought she wouldn't need them — now, yet, ever? — the younger servants had decided it was better for Youko to have them than not. The small lacquer box would escape most notice if not for being ostentatiously decorated with mother-of-pearl.]
Calhir...? There's a black box right there, on my vanity? Can you grab it?
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Of course - this one?
[ He asks as he scoots over and carefully picks up the box, presenting it to Youko. He wasn't sure if she'd have anything ready, but it seemed the court provided, one way or another. ]
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[Curling onto her side, she goes about sitting herself up on her elbow enough to take it from him, expression more than a little wooden as she opens the lid. The interior she exposes houses a row of glass bottles, each filled with colorless liquid, and a ceramic jar.
She holds onto the box for another thirty seconds or so, eyeing the contents like they might explode, before holding the box back out to him and looking up at him coyly.]
You... should put it somewhere you can reach.
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[ He looks inside in turn. He's certainly seen similar before, but when it's just a row of unlabeled vials he can hardly be sure what's what. ]
Are these for... easing the way or excitement?
[ Maybe she has, like, an actual shrinking potion. Because if he's honest, that would probably be for the best. ]
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Easing the way. [And then the jar.] Excitement.
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[ He certainly doesn't look like he needs the help right now. He sets the box down to the side, across Youko. Somewhere he's less likely to accidentally crush it or something. And since that does conveniently leave him with a hand on either side of her...
He leans down, nose touching Youko's for a brief second before he turns his head and his mouth covers hers. ]
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Mm—!
[Surprise turning quickly into something delighted, hungry, her arms wrapping blindly — one and then the other — around his neck, urging him down with her. Pulling him with her comparatively small weight. This is easier to succumb to. She parts her lips for him, wanting to taste him on her tongue again, feeling too long parted since the cave.]
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He's solid, immovable at first as she tugs at his neck, but only because he's shifting the rest of his body closer to her on the bed, and then he sinks down obligingly, chest heavy but warm against hers. Small as she feels against him, he's hesitant to give her too much weight, but all the same he wants to enjoy that contact, the warmth of her and the alternating softness and definition of her body. ]
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The slow collapse he affords her — his body on top of hers, his chest pressing down against her and bringing all its warmth with it — makes her smile into their kiss, her fingers curling in his feathers. The feel of the fine scales against her belly, the weight he lets her have, get a soft moan from her. Her hips shift under him, her arousal a louder, more insistent animal with a bed under her back and his promises lingering in her ears.]
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The motion of his body against hers is something less deliberate; the way her hips move against him, bring them together, simply feels right, and he moves with her to complete that alignment, his body fully over her, settled between her legs. Even if the yawning gap in their heights means her hips yet only have his middle torso to strain against, it serve as another echo of that promise to stoke the flame. ]
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Having him, any amount of him, settled between her legs is good and keeps Youko as behaved as she is likely to be until she is allowed out of the bottom half of her riding outfit. Preferably — her imagination dictates, and makes her hips rock up against his weight, a sweet groan following close behind — peeled out of them by Calhir himself.]
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Until that buck of her hips reminds him that, for all she may enjoy the distraction, the delay could still be a torment for poor Youko. The sweet kind he doesn't entirely dislike delivering, but when she's really spent the whole day waiting it's more appropriate to be in a giving mood, isn't it?
So his lips part from hers, drawing back - and then his tongue follows, the second it takes to unwind from hers and make its sinuous retreat confirming for her eyes just how long it was. His nose brushes hers again as he speaks: ]
Am I making you wait too long, Youko?
[ It sounds like an honest question, for the most part, but there is just a hint of that teasing impulse in there. ]
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There is too much honesty in how she moves under him, shifts up against him, cradles the back of his head and tries to bring him closer. Closer, more, touch, taste — insistent, and ready. She doesn't want to be teased, even if it is his specialty. Wasn't she already teased? She pants softly, shakily against his lips, nosing back against him.]
Yes—! Calhir, please—?
[The whine in her own voice makes her eyebrows draw together, embarrassed. She drops her voice, her next requests made just for him. A secret something that makes her arch up against him.]
Please touch me again. Touch me like you promised?
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