Chapter Text
Lae’zel would be a liar if she tried to pretend she did not... enjoy the impromptu visit from Gale. At first, she had been only slightly vexed at his sudden appearance. Then admittedly nervous as she worked with him to ascertain measurements and plans for improvements to the home. Shadowheart had been almost frightened of others encroaching on their home. Would Gale be exempt from this? Luckily, it seemed he was.
Still she noticed Shadowheart was a bit hesitant at first, before she got comfortable once more. It was-… odd. She could somehow relate with her bonded. To have your own space- then to share it with another… then to have others in it? Strange customs… stranger still that she herself is easing more into such things.
Gale’s visit made it clear to her how strange it felt to her, to have such camaraderie when battle is not at hand. She hadn’t understood the neediness of the others to be so social when they were trying to survive, but now she sees it has some value. It threatens to make her feel bitter to how much of her life in the creche sought to make everything adversarial... even if she had once thrived in such.
Shrugging off her shirt with a faint growl; she finishes disrobing, before finding herself looking once more in the mirror. Not for vanity, but sheer curiosity, wondering if there is more to her she doesn’t see. To scan over where she often feels her joy’s lips on her skin.
As if to conspire against her; she hears her joy in that moment- in a piercing shriek. It seizes her heart as she lunges for the facilities- slamming into the already ajar door. Making it clap against the wall with a thunderous bang. She makes it to the shower, finding her joy flustering and sputtering as she turns the dials. Her bare skin marred with a quickly spreading flush.
“Lady of silver; Lae’zel! Did you put a hole in the wall?!”
She steps closer moving to grab her joy’s arm, to steady and look over her. Eyes scanning her naked skin, damp and cold from water that was turned off before she even got to her. No wounds, no blemishes or bruises unfamiliar.
“That is not the issue” her words are hurried, eyes narrowed in concern. “Are you harmed?”
“No” Shadowheart whines, seemingly more embarrassed. “It- I turned the wrong damn dial and the water was ice cold.”
There is only a moment before she understands what transpired. She leans at her, eyes squinting as she examines her. “You are telling me you made such a sound because of cold water?”
Shadowheart squeaks a bit in protest, tugging at her, pulling her into the shower. “Don’t make fun of me!” A shy smile grows despite her joy’s embarrassment, her breath coming out in a soft giggle.
It makes her soul sing she thinks, seeing Shadowheart happy in this simple moment. There is a part of her that wants to admonish her, to ‘tease’ her and earn more of the fluster. Instead, her hand moves and cups Shadowheart’s cheek, thumb brushing over skin.
Before she can think to even say anything, she sees the glint in her bonded’s eyes, a familiar sense of dread hits her... just before the ice cold water does. It’s her own fault- not watching the ex-sharran’s cunning hands.
“Tsk’va?!” She spits; voice hitting a higher pitch to her own ears.
It is colder then she’s experienced she thinks, but her joy’s echoing laugh warms her chest even as she feels as if ice water was channeled by Gale in spite. She doesn’t think, and grabs Shadowheart and turns them both to the water.
“Lae’zel?!”
Despite the way the water makes it harder to keep hold; she manages too. She’s not sure that Shadowheart actually wants to break free and the idea thrills her as she struggles to keep her from turning the cold water off.
“Do you like being frozen?!” She shrieks as she struggles to get away from the water.
A rare chuckle escapes her, Shadowheart managing to push back and get Lae’zel against the cold tiled wall. “No, but I will not pass up the chance for revenge, even against my bonded.”
Rather then reply, once again her joy does something that catches her off guard. Shadowheart puts all of her weight against her, kicks a leg up to make her foot catch a dial. It manages to stop the water, but also puts them both off balance. Lae’zel breaks the slip and fall-- tumbling down. Her skill with athletics being the only reason they land so easily, her joy in her arms. They’re a tangle of cold and wet limbs. Shadowheart unable to stop her own bubbling giggles from breaking finally into a soft musical laugh, even as she shivers a little.
“You vex me.” She finds herself mumbling, softly and without the edge such words would normally have.
With a twist and roll, Shadowheart lays over her, to gaze at her. “I’m sorry” she says, but her wide grin doesn’t serve to prove her words true. Her loosened silver hair draping down a shoulder. “Let me make it up to you?”
Deeply sighing, she nods, noting the way her joy’s eyes light up. Shadowheart gets them up and prepares a bath instead. She thinks it is stupidly self indulgent of them both, a shower is quicker and more efficient, but it doesn’t stop her from allowing it. No, far from it, after everything a shared bath is simple… and welcome.
Watching the way her joy looks when she steps in to the water first and eases down makes her consider perhaps baths are more efficient somehow. That errant thought almost makes her blame the tadpole for these thoughts, but it’s long gone now. No, this is all her.
Comfortable, Shadowheart gives a shy and sweet smile and beckons her in. She could insist to keep some scraps of her pride intact, but she relents far easier then she’d normally want for pride and climbs in. Allowing Shadowheart to eagerly guide her to rest against her.
“May I take care of you for once?” Shadowheart asks, voice almost a whisper.
She isn’t sure how much time passes or if it even exists after that moment.
It was with that simple offer she has ended up willingly pliant in Shadowheart’s hands and with what felt like the bone density of a myconid. She’s only rueful in her mind; and only for a moment. Unable to focus on staying contrite because of her joy’s hands as she washes and caresses over her skin.
Those healing hands just kept kneading over her jaw and shoulders. Sliding over skin, the water kept warm from magic that she just knows Shadowheart keeps renewing. Her back to Shadowheart’s front, her joy’s lips pressing over her jaw, arms keeping her close.
A faint giggle makes her tune back in. Eyes fluttering, had she been sleeping? Close to it? Gods how shameful it is that her bonded has tamed her so. “There it is again.” Shadowheart whispers, she hums in question, her body too slack to speak in the moment.
“You’re purring… can’t you feel it?” Shadowheart’s voice sounds quietly jubilant, as if she found some deeply secret treasure that was hidden away.
She should pull away in insult, admonish the woman peeling down all her walls with each caress. But... she can feel it. She can feel that strange, alien thrumming once again in her chest. This was what? Only the second time? In this moment however, with her joy holding her so, she doesn’t want to hide away and explain it to herself.
“… I do.”
Another giggle makes her ears twitch, but she allows the comfort to continue. The petting and the sweet feeling of Shadowheart’s worshiping of her body. It makes her recall she had been watching Peck… noting he does this purring sometimes. She even found herself scanning the books that Shadowheart and gotten about animals. She tilts her head then, to gently nuzzle into Shadowheart’s hold… and allow herself to let out a soft grumble.
As she suspected it catches on the soundless rumbling in her chest, making it not so silent,… and she feels the subtle gasp from Shadowheart. “Lae’zel? Are you-” she tips her head in a nod. That strange rumbling being more-- pronounced- not quite a growl or grumbling...
The hug gets just a faint bit tighter as Shadowheart plants small kisses over her cheek and jaw. “Thank you.”
She should thank her. This would be humiliating if it was not for the fact they were alone in a bath. It still is in a way, hearing something she never really knew c ould come from her. She allows Shadowheart to continue her work, even as she drains the water for the sake of their own skin. They lay there as her joy draws the “purring” from her chest. Till its a distinct ly, albeit quiet, rough rumbling that seems to innocently elate Shadowheart .
Its hard to understand that you had never known true comfort until you are in the middle of it. Her body, mind and soul feel light. Warm. Like the arms she rests in are like the water that cleansed her skin moments ago.
“I don’t want to get out.” Shadowheart’s words are mumbled into her neck, and it stops her inward considerations.
T hey’re almost dry she realizes. As she focuses, the cursed purring seems to fade. She doesn’t say much- but she pushes herself up. Her hands moving to tug and encourage Shadowheart to cling to her and she does.
“I’ve trained you well.” She mumbles to her joy, as she stands with weak legs.
Shadowheart lets out a very indignant huff, but doesn’t let go. Legs wrapped around her waist, arms around her shoulders. Cheek against cheek. “Trained? That’s rude,” her joy mutters. It makes her smirk, as she carefully walks the long trek from bath to bed.
G etting up into the bed, she flumps down and rolls to her side, Shadowheart forced to go with the action with a soft huff . “ You do not get to complain.”
A wiggle and a few grunts is all she hears for a moment- ears twitching. The n the blanket gets pulled over them both and she lets out a heavy sigh. “This is the wrong side,” she mutters.
“We’ll manage for now.” Shadowheart replies, cuddling into her back. Arms wrapping tighter around her. “Thank you, my love.”
It’s infuriating how hard it is to gather herself to ask anything, her body melting into the hold, her world melting into one of comfort. “For what?”
“It was sweet-… you putting that effort into your purring.” She growls and can feel the way her joy’s lips break into a smile against her skin.
It’s strange ; she had to fight herself on many things. To fight the urge to ignore and hide this new thing about her ? It makes her feel exposed. This purring was f oreign to her and everything she knew about herself . She’s never seen or heard this from any of her kind. She never read it was possible. It was just something never mentioned. For all she knows this is just her. This is some sort of defect that would make her weak in the eyes of who she thought she was all those months ago.
She feels Shadowheart press more into her, her lips pressing firmer into her shoulder. “I love you, Lae’zel.”
… The heat that gathers in her chest is almost overwhelming as is the way it spreads from there to her face and ears. To her gut and lower. If not for her energy being so completely drained, she is sure she would make good on her desire. To work out the fluster she knows mars her own skin.
It made it worth it- letting herself purr for Shadowheart. To make her happy to gratify her with this... mere vibration she somehow did. Adjusting, she moves to take one of Shadowheart’s hands from where it sits, to let their fingers link together. “I love you as well, my joy.”
Feeling the long exhale against her skin from her joy makes it clear how much she appreciates the words. “We will have to get up soon. To make dinner.”
A soft giggle and a hum of agreement is all she gets and she knows her joy is fully content and dead set on this… nap ritual of Faerûn. For once she understands the allure of such an activity and slowly allows herself to indulge.
Its far too much. The softness of the bedding under her feels wrong. Her body is use to firmness and structure of rock that was carved out for the other hatchlings. Somehow she manages to stay still enough, resisting the urge to fidget. Eventually it builds to much, the urge to do anything bubbles in her chest and she moves to get up… only to catch the faintest of sounds.
“Lae’zel?”
Her voice is almost too quiet, but its the timidness of it that gives her pause. She turns to her, and she sees the woman who lays beside her. Her black hair framing her face and chest like the finest of murals, her tired eyes seem almost afraid. “Is it me?” She mumbles, sounding still half asleep.
“No.” She finds herself muttering back, twisting to reassess things, to properly rest on her elbow to keep gazing over the woman now half under her. “I am- unaccustomed to these… beds. They-- It is-- too soft.”
The Last Light Inn didn’t have the finest of beds, from what she was told anyway, but they were still all too decadent for her. This was not the carved rock of K’liir. Or even the thin bedding she allowed herself during camping throughout this ordeal.
She sees the flicker of disappointment in Shadowheart’s eyes. “That’s… why you were sleeping outside with Karlach?”
It was for many reasons, she tells herself she didn’t want to lose her edge, but seeing Karlach’s hidden sorrow of being isolated from the others certainly helped her choice. So she gives a simple nod, and she feels the way that Shadowheart starts to withdraw from her, to let her get up and to head for somewhere else to sleep. Once this would have not been an issue, but since getting into these shadowed lands, Shadowheart had been distant. Feeling her pull away like this is somehow is too much and suddenly, she is not sure if there will be another time. If Shadowheart will not hide away in the darkness too long one night-
“I will manage.” Her own voice is far more resolute then she meant it to be.
If that was a problem, she didn’t see any objection in Shadowheart’s eyes. If anything it seemed to soothe her. To calm her in a way she wasn’t expecting. The tightness in her own chest seems to ease as she settles back in and hesitantly put an arm around the cleric. That earns a soft sigh into her skin and the feeling of the cleric melting into her hold.
So she struggles... but slowly manages to fall asleep despite the too soft bed. Despite the way her body sags and melts into the sinking of-
It’s a weird feeling; her hair moving suddenly. Almost like being out in the open when an errant breeze blows by. Her eyes flutter open, narrowing into a focus to see Shadowheart smiling down at her, fingers sliding through her hair.
No words are exchanged for this moment just yet. Her joy’s finger tips dance from hair to her ear, then to her cheek. She keeps watching her as she does it, the expression on Shadowheart’s face seems to be peaceful and happy.
“Sorry,” she murmurs, “you looked uncomfortable.”
Rumbling faintly, she pushes up, the blanket pulled over them sliding a bit. “Just a dream--… or I suppose a memory.”
Shadowheart’s eyes twinkle with curiosity an eyebrow raising along side it. They’re alone now and she capitalizes on it, leaning to press her lips at her joy’s brow. It makes the woman erupt into soft giggles- fingers sliding to run and play with one of her ears.
It makes warmth creep into her own chest, as she tilts her head to allow it. A shiver of pleasure running down her spine as she struggles to keep her eyes open and on her bonded.
“Do tell? Was it sexy?” Shadowheart teases, though her curiosity is evident in her tone.
She merely lets out a soft scolding tone- “chk, if it were I would be doing something about it.”
That seems to get a grin from her bonded, who moves to pull away and get up. “Fair, I suppose.” She says with a sigh, “we’ve slept long enough- dinner needs to be made before Scratch comes to demand it.”
This makes her growl in just the faintest bit of annoyance, her body already lamenting the loss of Shadowheart’s hands. “Very well, at least it will be faster with the cooking- device.” She grumbles, was it a stove? Oven? Both- she doesn’t remember.
The musical laugh from Shadowheart makes her ears twitch. “Oh yes, but you’re banned from it.”
Excuse you? Her head tilts, incredulous as she looks to her joy, watching her dress in simple clothes to go about the rest of the day. “Banned. What?”
“You think I don’t remember you melting it the first day because you wanted to make it cook better?” Shadowheart asks, her tone low and eyes squinted at her playfully- but with a bit of a challenge in her tone. “You’re banned from using it for a week, so you get use to the pace of proper cooking times.”
Before she can argue, Shadowheart sweeps in with a kiss to the cheek, and moves to go on and make dinner- or at least manage it? It only takes a moment for her body to finally move to dress after, huffing as she goes.
“It would have been more efficient!” She argues, hearing her joy laugh as she goes downstairs. She grumbles, grabbing clothes and dressing complaining under her breath. Those runes should have worked if not for the weird runes the mages who made it used. Knew she should have insisted-
Bah. She sighs, glancing to the dresser. She pauses, the mirror catching her gaze. Rather, her reflection does. She notes her body is still strong, eyes sharp and keen. It’s only now she sees that she’s not... tense or faintly frowning. No, in fact- she seems pleased…
Its ease she realizes, the warmth she had felt from the small moments with her joy does seem to reflect off of her. The knowing that the strange feelings she built for the half elf wasn’t just welcomed- it was returned in full. She was always wound tense, but with Shadowheart… she feels eased. Safe. To have another be at her back that she can trust completely.
She doesn’t bother to look back at the mirror as she heads down to be with her joy. What she doesn’t see doesn’t bother her anymore.