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For the first time in the nearly half a year that she has spent in Askr, Edelgard is not alone when she awakens. She had worried slightly, as she had fallen asleep, that the presence of another in her bed after so much time alone might unpleasantly startle her in the morning. Instead, as awareness finds her with the sun’s first early rays, she feels languidly relaxed and a bone-deep contentedness.
Pressed against her back, her wife slumbers on.
Byleth, Edelgard had discovered early in their marriage, sleeps much like a cat. At times, as if subconsciously attempting to make up for her long life of sleeping on bedrolls or small, stiff dormitory cots, Byleth would stretch out in her sleep to take up as much space on their luxurious shared bed as possible, her body twisted into curious and nigh-unnatural shapes in her quest to claim as much of the mattress as she could. At others, Edelgard would awaken to find her wife entangled with her, having pressed into her warmth as closely as physically possible in the night. The only consistency was that Byleth always seemed to be touching her in some way, even if it was just an arm splayed awkwardly across her chest or a foot tangled against her ankles.
Edelgard had rather missed her morning surprise of discovering what position her wife had taken in her sleep and had no qualms to finding her tucked comfortably against her back, one arm tossed bonelessly around her midriff in a loose hug. Edelgard relaxes in the unconscious embrace, willing plans for the day’s work from her mind, just enjoying listening to her wife’s slow, deep breaths.
A particularly strong inhale and a shifting behind her alerts her that Byleth has joined her in the waking world. Edelgard turns her head just enough to plant a soft kiss against her shoulder. “Good morning, love,” she greets warmly, still basking in the glow of finally spending a morning with her wife again.
Byleth hums contentedly in response, stretching against her back as she chases the sleep from her body. Edelgard watches as the arm that had been wrapped around her stretches out in front of her, fingers splayed out and straining as Byleth works the muscles in them, and she has to suppress a chuckle as she considers just how apt her comparison of her wife to a cat is. When Byleth is satisfied with her stretch, she brings the arm back around Edelgard’s waist, this time in a deliberate hug as she places her own answering kiss against Edelgard’s shoulder. “Mmm. ‘Morning,” Byleth greets in return, fingers tracing lazy patterns across the soft skin covering the hard muscle of Edelgard’s abs.
Even with the thin fabric of her nightdress keeping it from being true skin-to-skin contact, and even though it is an idle gesture, the ticklish touch across her vulnerable stomach wrings an involuntary shudder down Edelgard’s spine. Byleth draws in a surprised breath and pauses her lazy ministrations, fingertips frozen just above her navel, and Edelgard is grateful that Byleth can’t see her flushed face. It may have been quite some time since she had had any contact with her wife, but having such a strong response to such an innocent touch is still rather mortifying.
Byleth seems to have a quite different opinion of her reaction. She pulls Edelgard even tighter to her, curls into her completely, and another pleased hum releases from her throat. “Missed me that much?” The tone is mostly teasing, but there’s an unmistakable hunger to her words that forces Edelgard to suppress another shiver. Byleth slips her hand quickly under Edelgard’s short dress and returns to tracing patterns on her stomach, but her movements are much more deliberate now.
“You already know that I missed you,” Edelgard ripostes, refusing to acknowledge her wife’s implication. She knows she’s fighting a losing battle, especially considering half of her mind is currently dedicated to willing Byleth’s playful fingers either further up or further down her body, but she’s not eager to admit to her own growing desperation.
Byleth’s endeared chuckle is so light, Edelgard feels it against her back more than she hears it. She buries her face into Edelgard’s hair so she can place a kiss directly to the sensitive skin behind her ear. With her lips still placed there, she whispers, “I missed you too, El,” and what’s left of Edelgard’s determination to retain some amount of dignity swiftly melts in a flood of warmth and affection.
Byleth’s fingers continue stroking against her stomach, alternating between teasingly light touches and hard drags against her skin. She drifts lower and lower along Edelgard’s body, her fingertips swiping mere centimeters above the band of her smallclothes before she gently scrapes her nails back up along the planes of her abs. When the muscles in Edelgard’s stomach jolt in response, Byleth makes a sound that’s half satisfaction, half arousal.
Edelgard’s focus is so completely trained on those clever fingers, she doesn’t realize that Byleth has snaked her remaining arm under her body until there’s a fist tugging lightly at her nightdress just over her chest. “Lift this up for me?” Byleth requests, trailing a line of kisses against the back of her neck. Edelgard doesn’t trust her voice not to be obscenely husky, so she shows her agreement in action, swiftly grabbing the hem of her nightdress and tugging. It’s a little awkward to pull it up, especially with Byleth’s arms wrapped around her, but with enough determined wriggling she finally has it bunched up around her neck, leaving her mostly bare to her wife’s attentions.
A thanks is whispered against her neck, and Byleth’s free hand moves to touch exposed skin - but not where Edelgard wants her. Nails trace light, electric patterns along her sternum and up the valley between her breasts, goosebumps raising in the trail she leaves. But even as Edelgard’s breathing grows more and more irregular, even as another shiver works its way down her spine, Byleth remains determined to drag her game out. Her other hand dips lower, finally breaching below Edelgard’s smallclothes, but she seems content to merely play with the thick curls of white hair there rather than venturing to the spot that Edelgard aches to feel those fingers.
“You are a terrible tease this morning,” Edelgard chides breathlessly, resisting the urge to cant her hips up to meet her wife’s hand.
There’s a warm puff of an amused exhale against the nape of her neck, followed by another kiss. “Perhaps I just missed touching you,” Byleth replies, tone completely lacking in remorse. But the hand trailing between her breasts moves to indulge her, at last moving up to play with the peaked flesh of her nipples, drawing out a satisfied sigh from Edelgard. She’s not as sensitive there as her wife, but the touch still feels good, and it still sends a thrill of excitement straight to her core, just from the mere fact that it’s Byleth that’s touching her like this.
Byleth’s fingers expertly continue on their task, alternating light tweaks and grazes with hard pulls and pinches, further riling Edelgard up while Byleth revels in the small whines and sounds she makes. What Edelgard does not suspect is that the ministrations are just as much a distraction as they are a warm-up; when the hand in her smallclothes suddenly dips down to her folds, as ready as she is for it, it draws out a gasp of surprise. Behind her, Byleth moans as she runs her fingers up and down her slit, feeling exactly how wet she is.
She moves her fingers back upwards and Edelgard is close to begging her to return them, but the words die on her tongue and are replaced with a sharp cry when Byleth moves her attention to her clit, slick-wet fingers rubbing slow, broad circles. Edelgard turns her head into her pillow and bites down on the soft fabric, partly to have something to do with her mouth and partly to muffle the moans that she can no longer suppress.
The needy sounds that do escape from her only serve to encourage her wife; the soft, sparse kisses to the back of her neck turn frantic, Byleth’s teeth grazing against her nape with every other kiss as Byleth loses her restraint. The hand in her smallclothes dips lower again, two fingers teasing at her core for a few delicious moments before plunging into her, thrusting slowly deeper as Edelgard spreads her legs further in accommodation. The first desperate hitch of Edelgard’s hips elicits another moan from the woman behind her, delivered right by her ear, and is soon followed with whispered praises and more desperate kisses and nips to the back of her neck.
Byleth presses her palm against Edelgard’s mound as her fingers continue working her, giving her the chance to stimulate her clit when she rolls her hips into her wife’s hand. Edelgard happily takes that opportunity, grinding against her warm, calloused skin with every short buck of her hips, panting quick breaths into the pillow between her teeth as her body grows unbearably hot and tension continues to build in her core.
Byleth is just as eager for her impending release as Edelgard herself is; warm breath tickles the hair at the nape of her neck as Byleth’s own breathing grows desperate, and the hands working her body increase their tempo. “El, yes,” she practically hisses, voice strained as if it’s her being touched. She fervently presses back against Edelgard as her hips continue to roll against her hand. “Yes, I love seeing you like this.” It had been a rather pleasant discovery to learn that Byleth’s naturally generous personality extended to her behavior in bed; she enjoyed her partner’s pleasure just as much as her own, if not more so, and always eagerly chased the noises she could extract from Edelgard as she worked to unravel her.
And Byleth was damned good at unraveling her. The fingers within her curl just so, her palm presses down with just enough delightful pressure and rubs against her in tight circles, and it is all Edelgard can do to bite down against an undignified whine as her pleasure finally crests, body shuddering with release. Byleth clings to her tightly throughout, continuing to thrust her fingers slowly enough to help her ride it out without being overstimulating.
She keeps her hand between her legs until Edelgard’s body relaxes, the tension of her climax leaving her in a deep, contented sigh as she releases the pillow from between her teeth. Byleth places another kiss, soft and tender, at her neck and another accompanying one at her shoulder, and Edelgard hums appreciatively at both, too relaxed to attempt to form words. The hand between her thighs slides out of her slowly, leaving uncomfortable trails of rapidly-cooling slick along her pubic hair as Byleth withdraws from her underwear - now stretched out to the point that they hang loosely around her hips, but she can’t quite bring herself to care about that at the moment.
When that same hand disappears behind her and Edelgard hears the unmistakable wet sounds of her wife cleaning off her fingers in her mouth, she has to repress yet another shudder. There’s a quiet but obscene pop behind her when Byleth slides those fingers out from her lips, and then the hand returns to its original lazy position at Edelgard’s stomach, now wet with saliva rather than Edelgard’s arousal. “Hmm. I’m eating you out next time,” Byleth states, as casually as if she were commenting on forecasted weather.
Edelgard flushes and bats lightly at her wife’s arm, her muscles still weak in her afterglow. “You are utterly incorrigible,” she chides playfully, earning only an amused huff from her wife. She tries to turn to face her, but Byleth’s arms tighten around her, holding her in place against her front. “You will have to let go if you want me to return the favor,” Edelgard reminds her, trying once more in vain to twist around.
Pressed against her back, Byleth makes a noise that’s almost petulant. “In a minute. I want to hold you for a bit.”
And encircled in warm arms, feeling Byleth’s restored heartbeat thumping lightly against her back as her wife cuddles against her, Edelgard is all too happy to acquiesce to that request.