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Far beyond the wide-open shoji screen doors, a muddle of magenta and tangerine hues melted into the deep, amethyst twilight. The moon and stars twinkled over the two figures sitting out on the veranda, the two teacups steaming between them, and a single manual that'd long been discarded in favor of simply enjoying the moment.
There, Kris and Ralsei were shaded underneath the sweeping, wooden eaves of their own secret hideout. It was a shrine among many that populated this blossom-rich world, high upon the tallest hill overlooking the endlessly vast fields down below...
Knees drawn close to their chest, Kris clutched their shoulders, staring out into the fleeting twilight. Even now, their mind still swam with the blur of events over the past hour. And yet, their skin still tingled with the grounding gentleness of Ralsei's paw as he quietly led them through a shortcut that not even the SOUL could reach.
They needed this, and he knew. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere hidden...
Somewhere, just the two of them.
Noelle had been so instantly enamored by the gardens that not even Susie could resist being pulled into the wake of her frolicking, giggling shenanigans. Watching them, a pang of bittersweet envy had snagged Kris's heart.
"Fahaha! This dream is sooo much fun!!!" Noelle's nose was scrunched with glee, wading through the sea of stems with her white dress smattered in pollen. Her hair caught the blaze of the sunset, this bright, orange halo setting her entire silhouette alight. "I'll catch up with you guys later! I wanna make a flower angel!!"
"Hey, I'll take any excuse to crush a butt-load of flowers underneath my body," Susie chuckled, a scythe of a grin splitting her face. It didn't take much convincing for her to dive straight into temptation, belly-flopping into the warm, plush blanket of flowers before flailing her limbs like windshield wipers—
"Hey!! No fair, you got a head start!!" Noelle called, playfully flopping over beside her and following suit...
The girls' laughter had been as light and free as the flurry of golden petals dancing in the breeze...
Looking out over those rolling, mauve hills, Kris wondered if this was the closest they'd ever get to feeling such freedom. Within this world, the stuffy, floral pungence of Dad's flower shop hung constantly in the air. It was as if every inhale was a suffocating reminder of the bitter secrets they kept buried deep within themself...
And they might've suffocated under the pressure, if not for Ralsei's kind words and gentle touches lightening their burden along the way.
"Are you feeling all right, Kris?" He'd asked in private while Susie was busy scaling a cliff, "Please remember that you don't have to carry everything all by yourself... We're here, ok?"
When their rampantly eye-watering hay fever made it near-impossible to navigate the fields, he trotted beside them with Heal Prayer on tap and a whole box of tissues to boot. "You don't have to force yourself, Kris. Maybe... Susie can lead for a little bit while you recover?"
"Yeah. Wipe your snot, dumbass," she'd scolded. "I'll find us a way outta here. Even if this damn garden DOES go on forever. Screw these plants for messin' with your weak-ass sinuses."
Unable to hold back their tears (mainly because of the triple-digit pollen count), they couldn't have been more thankful. And that thankfulness had nearly spilled over as Ralsei took their hand and whispered in their ear,
"Let's go somewhere quiet for a moment, shall we...? I'm sure they won't mind."
Discreetly leaving the SOUL in the girls' care, Kris was more than happy to follow Ralsei's lead.
As blossom-laden branches rustled overhead, their heart overflowed with all the things they wished to say out loud to the boy beside them. The boy, whose rose-quartz eyes traversed the same night sky as theirs, yet sparkled with a reverent clarity that they'd never seen in him before. The one they'd found their heart drawing closer and closer to with every passing hour of this brand-new adventure...
The one whose right shoulder looked so comfortable and inviting, only a single tilt of their head away.
Rather than saying anything, Kris held their silence as if it were the most precious gift in the universe. Warmth blossomed in their chest as they lingered, admiring that special, unburdened expression of his. They rested their head upon their drawn-up knees, letting themself relax as the final glimmers of pink and gold faded from sight...
They knew this world was nothing but a temporary stop. They knew this life was no longer theirs.
But if only they could, they'd spend the rest of their time watching the colors of the sunset shift across his face...
The rest of their life, they'd spend right next to him, just like this.
"I've never seen one of those before," Ralsei spoke softly.
He lifted his chin, his white fur bathed in the moon's pale luminescence. Kris watched on as he continued to stare up at the sky, a serene smile gracing his features as he leaned forward on the flats of his palms.
"What... other beautiful sights exist in your world, I wonder?"
His reverence was magnetic. Through those rose-tinted lenses, he looked as if he could reach out his arms and swirl the stars around if he so pleased. With only a gentle sweep of those magical fingertips, Kris believed he could conjure a reality so breathtakingly beautiful, its splendor would soar far beyond anything they could ever hope to show him in the Light World...
But his words hung untethered between them, heavy yet hollow.
It was the mutual acceptance that he'd never be able to see it for himself, bound to his fate as a transient illusion of this world.
Amidst the silence, Kris's mind lingered upon his question. It didn't matter where Ralsei went. He always found beauty and goodness everywhere and in everything around him, no matter how modest or unassuming...
...which was why their thoughts drifted so easily to the autumn hush of Hometown.
Under the September-blue of Light World skies, Susie and Ralsei would follow behind them as they drew closer to the lake. Through the tree-lined tunnel of vermilion opening out towards that sparkling, azure horizon, they'd trudge all the way up the hill until their legs were ready to give out. The chill of the earth would seep into their clothes as they sat by the edge of the water, enveloped in the rich dampness of cold moss and smoky tree sap. Just the three of them, soaking in the sounds of the dense leaves rustling overhead, the twittering birdsong...
interrupted by the occasional plop of Susie 'skipping' rocks.
Stifling their cackles behind their hand, Kris would watch on as Susie would sigh, defeated. "...I can hear you trying not to laugh, dumbass."
And tucked in between, Ralsei would be there, sitting quietly. Smiling out at that vast, twinkling lake, enamored by the way the sunlight bounced off its surface...
while Kris would be enamored by the way it sparkled in those calm, peach-blossom eyes.
After that, they'd lead the gang past the garishly red double-doors of QC's, into the grease-laden air of their favorite childhood diner. They'd revel in Ralsei's clueless fluster at the counter as he relinquished his choice to whatever Susie was having (without knowing any better). Squeezed into the leather booth seat, he'd happily kick his legs while perched by the window, drawing tiny hearts in the white fog of his breath...
"Quit vandalizing my drawing, idiot!! Kris doesn't need THAT many hearts around their head???"
He'd giggle to himself, retreating back to his own drawing in the glass, "Aww, Susie! Did you want me to draw some hearts around your head, too?"
And when their food finally arrived, Kris would immediately burn their tongue on their salt-encrusted, mustard-doused, triple-cooked fries, while Susie wolfed down her entire meal in one worryingly ceramic, yet explosively juicy CRONCH. Meanwhile, Ralsei would sit paralyzed, stunned speechless at the mountainous burger plated before him, its intimidating stature overflowing with enough condiments and lard to supply an entire fast food franchise back in the Dark World...
"Erm... Susie? What exactly was your order, again...?"
"Oh, y'know, the usual," she'd shrug, thumbing the burger sauce from her lips before licking it off casually, "Told 'em I wanted a Double Triple Bossy Deluxe on a raft, four by four, animal-style, extra shingles with a shimmy and a squeeze, light axle grease, make it cry, burn it, and let it swim."
With a surprised blink, his mouth would fall open, an astonished grin trembling at the corners.
"Don't they serve... food, here?"
Kris sank deeper into their folded arms, concealing that slip of a smile tugging at their lips. Their eyes softened upon the boy who'd been the center of their entire world from the very moment they'd arrived. The night breeze carried a soft ripple through his fluffy, white fur. It flowed lightly through his long ears, making him look weightless. Their eyes followed the gentle ebb and flow of his chest as he took a deep breath of the cool air, stilling himself...
His gaze continued to traverse the stars as he freed his next words into the universe...
"The moon is beautiful... isn't it?"
It was hard to put into words, but...
That crushing fragility in his voice made their throat tighten.
Because the moon up above, this brilliant yellow beacon veiled in wisps of indigo clouds...
was as beautiful as it was nonexistent.
And something about that pressed the weight of regret deeper into their chest.
When their answer didn't come, his gaze flitted down.
"I'm... I mean, I know it sounds kind of silly, but after watching the sunset with you, Kris, I... suddenly wished to know what such a thing would look like. In the Light World."
His lips trembled with a remorseful smile.
"And... what the real moon looks like, too. I imagine it must look even more enchanting than this one, even if I'll, um... never get to see it..."
He curled his fingers in his lap. His legs hung off the edge of the veranda, disappearing into the shadows below.
Like the last glimmers of gold along the horizon, his smile had now faded completely.
Kris bit back their heartache at the sight.
"...sorry, Kris, I didn't mean to make it about myself all of a sudden—"
"I want to look at this one for a little longer," they whispered.
His breath stalled.
And their gaze didn't waver.
"...For as long as I can."
He turned to look at them, the starlit sheen in his eyes spilling over in a single blink.
"Kris..."
And once more, they shivered internally at that aching fragility in his voice—
Because however long they had left, they both knew it would never be long enough.
Because in another life, this was the boy whose hand they were supposed to hold in secret under the table at QC's.
In another life, this was the boy they wanted to bring home to Mom. Bring to their dining table, bring to church, write his name on his very own prayer candle—
bring into their bedroom and snuggle under the covers until his face would combust with sheer, blushing joy...
He was supposed to be the only one they shared their sugary popcorn with during movie marathons. The one they were supposed to make out with on the couch after midnight, backdropped by only the snowy fizz of TV static, and Susie's monstrous snores...
This was the boy that was supposed to follow them to the ends of the earth, but
all of those visions slipped and shattered noiselessly in the hollow of their chest.
Because they were powerless against the guilt of a seven-year promise. They knew Dad was somewhere far out there in those fields, expecting them— and they had no choice in the matter.
But watching Ralsei's tears roll down his cheeks...
At least, he was powerless, too.
Carefully sliding their cold teacups behind them, Kris scooched along the smooth, polished wood of the engawa. Ralsei's eyes widened. Hips nudging against his, they were close enough to hear the shiver in his breaths, the hitch in his throat as they...
... lowered their weary head upon his shoulder, and slowly, slowly rested their eyes.
Warmed in the gentle rays of his presence, Kris didn't care if something like a normal life was so hopelessly out of reach for them anymore. They knew they were far too gone for such a reality. But at least, for just right now, he was still here, and nothing else mattered. Fate would have to keep on chasing them— they were just going to keep on running...
If only to buy one more night, exactly like this.
Ralsei deflated with a shuddery sigh, coupled with a few more falling drops of starlight pattering onto his knees...
And then, they felt his gossamer fur press against their temple, the reciprocated weight of his head as he leaned down against theirs...
"Then... I won't look away either," he whispered.
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Concealed underneath the sheets was a tangle of legs, a symphony of sighs. Feather-light caresses, lips on lips, clothes torn away and strewn aside—
"Let's do it tonight," Kris breathed, "wanna know what it's like, before...before—"
"I understand," he panted, fingers sliding in between their thighs, "oh, wow, Kris, you're... already this, um... wet..."
Claiming the futon in the middle of the room, they'd carved out their own hushed sanctuary where only the two of them were allowed to exist. Eyes closed, Kris pulled him closer, arms bunched around his shoulders as they completely lost themself in his lips, his paws—oh, grinding their clit against his paw—
"You're so pretty, Kris..." he whispered, his words so tiny and vulnerable as they fanned their cheek, "please can I, um... is it okay if I..."
In between breathless kisses, he clumsily took his shaft into his grip, rubbing his leaking tip against their inner thigh, this flame-hot sweep of skin-on-skin. Impatient, Kris broke their kiss, taking matters into their own hands as they wrapped his fist with their own. Swiftly angled their hips, a careful shift of their knees around his waist as they positioned themself closer—
"W-wait, Kris— p-protection??" Ralsei froze, panic flashing across his face— "I know a spell that can—"
With a heated sigh, Kris gritted their teeth. "Forget it, it doesn't matter if you... It doesn't matter in the end. I don't fucking care."
Claiming their place in his lap, they rolled him onto his back, straddling his body with their thighs pressed flush either side of him. From above, Kris drank in the view of that rose-pink hue staining his entire face, the worshipful sparkle in those wide, awestruck eyes. As if drawn in by his devotion, they descended into the crook of his neck, sinking heavy, wet kisses into his snow-white fur...
"...just, want you, right now," was the plea they muffled into his shoulder, his fur quickly growing damp as they buried more kisses there, "wanna forget there was anything else inside this body, just need you to..."
Scrunching their fingers into him, they shut their eyes and registered the striking cadence of their own heartbeat.
This built-in countdown. The ticking seconds, a futile race against the prophecy...
Fleeting paradise. A one-time showing.
And with Ralsei finally pinned underneath them, they could almost trick themselves into believing this night was eternal.
"Take me."
A helpless whimper rose inside his throat.
Unable to focus on anything else, Ralsei guided his length forward as Kris lifted themself to hover above. Both in sync. Both locked in. Kris was so close right now. Kris was so pretty when they were in control. Kris with their straight, dark hair framing that delicate face, that wired nervousness trembling behind voracious, cherry-red eyes. He watched the frantic thrum of their pulse jumping in their neck, every shaky rise and fall of their shoulders. Cyan skin shadowed under the blanket, that quiet hitch in their breath the second they
connected.
"Th-then, I'll try my best to..." he whispered, voice trembling, "I want to show you... exactly how you deserve to be loved, Kris..."
A look of determination crossed his face as he pushed through. Kris's face scrunched momentarily, tentatively...
Before they lifted themself off, retreating with a look of uncertainty.
"Is it... the right place?" Ralsei murmured in confusion, his face burning as they slid their wetness around him, these slick teases of their pussy softly enveloping his tip...
In...
Off.
On...
and off.
"Y-yeah, just..." Carefully, they readjusted again. Brows furrowed as they guided his hand out of the way, taking over. "Sorry, it..." They pursed their lips, deep crimson flooding their cheeks as they attempted to lower themself from a different angle, "it big..."
His stomach flamed with arousal, in direct contrast to those cool, slender fingers curled around the base of his shaft and— gosh. His sagely patience slipped from his usual prophecy-sworn grip, channeled into the way he bit down harder to hold himself back. With a shuddery exhale, he screwed his eyes shut, sparing himself the lewd sight of Kris trying to 'calibrate' themselves...
"Take all the time you need..." his voice strained.
"Y-yeah..."
They pressed the weight of their palm flat against his fluttering chest, their knees bending, lifting...
—and then, came their astonished gasp.
...His sigh of relief.
Kris, sinking down, breathed a cross between a sigh and a moan. Ralsei couldn't believe his eyes, peering down at the place where their bodies combined, lava-hot adrenaline coursing through him as his heart quaked at the sight...
Full-hilt.
"It... it's in," they mumbled, pausing with a twinge in their features. Gingerly, they glanced down at their stomach, the outline of a bulge faintly visible through their skin. A gulp rippled through their throat, hesitance ghosting over their tense expression. "D-don't... move."
Fangs piercing his bottom lip, he nodded wordlessly. Feverishly. Stifling heat engulfed his head. Kris's pussy felt so overwhelmingly warm. So tight, and slippery, so unbelievably soft as it clamped down on his aching hardness, almost too much for him to handle—
"Kris..." he panted, pleading eyes flicking up to meet theirs.
He searched their face. Searched past their flushed cheeks to the tension creasing their brow, the overwhelm jittering behind those crimson eyes...
He reached up, trembling fingers sweeping a strand of hair from their damp forehead.
"You're doing... perfectly, Kris..." he whispered.
They mustered a small, labored smile in response.
His heart ached at the sight.
They looked so pretty, when Kris was just Kris.
In the long, loaded silence that elapsed, they gathered the strength to inch themself up in an agonizingly slow drag. A low, drawling groan poured forth from his throat. Their mouth hung agape as their weight steadily dropped back down, that tight, wet heat enveloping his cock once again. He stifled a whimper, a huff rushing from his nostrils—
'Gosh, if they keep moving like that, soon I won't be able to hold back...!'
With a shuddery exhale, they repeated the motion, the wince in their expression steadily relaxing. The cling of damp skin to wet fur squelched quietly between them as Kris tested something of a tentative rhythm. Ralsei anchored his paws around their hips, sinking his fingertips into the plush of their body to steady them...
"You're stretching me... so wide right now," they murmured, their movements steadily growing smoother. With every slow, slick drag, another breathlessly appreciative huff escaped their lips. They tilted their head back, showcasing the red flush glowing along the cyan stretch of their neck. "Feels... really fucking good..."
A helpless moan caught in his throat as they dropped down a little faster. But it wasn't fast enough. This torturously teasing drag was driving him wild with lust; magnified every single clench, every rib texturing around his cock...
"...'Cause it's you," they continued, a longing sigh escaping them as they rode through stroke after long, hypnotizing stroke, "inside me..."
His thoughts hazed, dissolving in the heat of the moment. Hearing them vocalize their pleasure so freely through those desperate moans, seeing it in the quickening heaves of their flat chest and in the creamy slick they left glistening along his length...
Hearing that he was the sole reason for that blissful redness blooming across their face...
Despite every last instinct screaming for him to breed them, he clenched his teeth. Rigid restraint. He had to hold himself together. He wouldn't dare steal this precious agency away from Kris. Wouldn't dare go any faster than they were prepared to...
but...
he couldn't help the way his paws on their hips turned ever so slightly firm, guiding instead of just supporting...
... as they began to drop themself again, tilting his pelvis up to meet them halfway—
A sharp hitch broke in Kris's throat at the immediate change in depth. Their hands scrambled for purchase, falling against his chest as he nudged them up, then cushioned their descent, cupping their butt in both hands and catching them at an angle that had their eyes rolling back. Their pussy clamped around him, this tight, panicked spasm as he bottomed out, snapped hard against them—
"Ralsei!" came their shout through gritted teeth—
"S-sorry, Kris!!" he huffed, bedroom walls echoing with wet clapping as he pounded into their body, "I... I can't hold back, you feel—s-so good, mmmf..."
"Fuck!" they gasped, head falling forward, completely surrendering themself to his rough pace— "God Ralsei, fuck me, just fuck me—"
"Kris... Kris..." Ralsei chanted, lightly-clawed paws pricking into their thighs now, lifting and pulling them down with desperate, unyielding strength, "Oh, I am, I am, Kris... l-let me give you everything...!"
With each heavy plunge, his darkened eyes drank in the smooth bevel bulging out of Kris's lower belly— physical proof of just how completely he was filling them. He still couldn't fully grasp the reality that there they were in real-time, right here in this world, literally balls-deep fucking them right now. But it was more than clear that they were feeling every single inch of it, thighs quaking harder, moans growing louder, bouncing desperately on their heels for more, more more—
Lifting himself on outstretched arms behind him, Ralsei moved forward to bump chest-to-chest, desperately sealing their lips together. Kris's lashes fluttered shut, their moans muffled. Their kiss was every bit as clumsy, sloppy— as incredible as he needed it to be. Kris tightly clutching his face, Kris drooling against his lips, those searing-hot breaths flooding the space between them—
"Ralsei," they whimpered, cheeks flushed as their low-lidded gaze burned intensely into his, "d-don't stop, I'm almost—I'm right there—"
His hips stuttered, a white-hot flash of arousal flooding his stomach. Words eluded his melting resolve as Kris yanked him into another kiss, although it landed as a desperate, uncoordinated sweep of tongues, their loud, open-mouthed groans swelling in his ears like sweet music. His paws slipped away from the sheets to latch onto their waist, locking their bodies flush together before he rammed into them, rapid, relentless—
"Th-then take it!" he gasped out.
Visceral cries filled the room as their head fell forward into his shoulder, blindly clawing into his fur—
"Take all of me!"
He slammed and slammed, chasing their pleasure to the ends of the earth—
"Oh, take what was made for you, Kris!!"
Kris's strangled shouts cut through the splash of fluid clapping between them, the frantic rustle of bedsheets. Their climax trickled through the tips of their fingers, across the tingle of their skin, the backwards roll of their eyes like a pair of glittering, ruby dice—
Through the slippery sweat dripping down their back, Ralsei hugged their tremoring body tight. Pistoned relentlessly into their meltingly hot core, fueled by the chorus of gasps and curses falling from Kris's lips. He just about lost himself in the waves of gentle squeezes around his length, these spasming pulses quickening his thrusts, the wet slap of their bodies...
Sudden tears pricked at his eyes as he passed a flashpoint. One where he couldn't tell where one being ended and the other began. His heart swelled with more emotion than he realized he was ever capable of...
As their pliant, shuddering weight collapsed into his shoulder, Ralsei swung his aching legs around, a frantic reposition. He hurriedly rested Kris's head down against the pillow, barely holding it together. Their dazed, red stare followed him as he uprighted himself and grabbed their thighs, spread them wide, wide apart as he readied himself at their entrance and pushed in again—
Flaring, roseate eyes locked on their face.
"You said i-it's okay if..."
He gulped down the haggard edge in his voice,
"—i-if I finish inside...?"
Their chest heaved as their fingers dug into the satin pillow at their head. Through their post-orgasm haze, they mustered a lazy, lopsided smile.
"I want you to."
His eyes flashed dangerously.
His grip on their thighs tightened into a vice, pinning them down hard against the futon. He drove into them, repeatedly burying himself to the absolute hilt, this friction dragging the most debauched groans from deep within his chest. His glance darted across their flushed, blissed-out expression. Took in everything, every centimeter he could, drinking in their devastatingly pretty features. Darted lower and caught the sweat beading at their neck. His eyes fixated there, helpless. That smooth, wet skin, glistening red like the shine of an apple...
Looked so wondrously appetizing beneath him...
He lowered himself closer towards it. His breaths ghosted across their collarbone, soft muzzle brushing against that sweat-coated junction between shoulder and neck...
So close, so rapidly approaching the edge, his heart thump-thump-thumped in his chest...
Without thinking, his tongue dragged heavily along that stretch of their pure, salty skin. Kris broke into a soft whine, fingers scrunching in his fur...
"Kris..." Ralsei breathed out a devotional sigh, traipsing hotly along their neck...
A shiver rattled through them. Totally unprepared for whatever was to come next.
"I... I won't let anyone else take this body from you..."
Cradling their jaw, he pressed a wet kiss to their skin...
Before sharply, he clamped his teeth down.
A startled cry broke from their throat, their spine arching off the futon. Persistent fangs sunk into the sensitive column of their neck, sucking a deep, bruising mark into cyan flesh. Pinning them down beneath him, he couldn't see the way Kris's drooling smile grew even wider. Greedier. Near delirious with ecstasy. But he could feel the way their legs coiled possessively around his waist, hoarding his hips against their core, stuffing themself with his desperate, staccato thrusts—
"Give it to me," they urged. "All of it."
A long, falsetto keen erupted high and desperate in his throat—
"Fffhhhk...!"
Hot, dark warmth spilled into their deepest stretches, this final round of powerful slams claiming their body from the inside out...
Their mind swirling among the stars, Kris allowed themself to indulge in this deep, amethyst joy flooding their veins...
...mingling with the bright, budding urge to laugh, one that they held back for the sake of his princely dignity....
(since they were pretty sure it was a swear he'd just muffled into the side of their neck).
Kris's trembling hands rose to cradle his head while he poured the rest of his wet, open-mouthed moans against their skin, stuffed deep inside them as he rode out the aftershocks...
"Good boy..." came their raw whisper, absorbing every momentary pulse from the base of his cock, their entrance squelching with a mix of their fluids with each one of his weakening thrusts, "so good for me..."
His momentum tapered off slowly, until an all-consuming wave of exhaustion overtook them both...
And soon, flattening on top of them, his fluffy form deflated against their torso, a damp, comforting weight that they held tenderly in their arms like their own oversized teddy bear...
A silent calm blanketed them both like nightfall.
Kris was halfway toward slipping into a dream when the scratchy quiet of Ralsei's voice jolted them out of it.
"Sorry, Kris..."
They hummed in question, their arms still wrapped around the boy curled up against their chest.
"It was selfish of me," he muttered, "I... probably shouldn't have done that..."
Nonplussed, they blinked languidly at him. "I asked."
"O-oh, not that!" he blurted, "I knew you wanted me to, umm... finish, inside..."
He lifted his head, eyes timid with remorse.
"I mean... biting you all of a sudden," he frowned. "It must have hurt a lot, right? And maybe the others will see, which might be embarrassing, so umm... Here, let me heal it—"
They seized his wrist before he could move another muscle.
"Lemme keep it."
He arched his brows, jaw falling open. "H-huh?"
The soft look they gave him just about melted his heart, all over again.
"I got to choose who I give my body to. For at least... once."
They tilted their head to the side, showing off the pastel-watercolor bleed upon their skin like it were a medal.
"Proof."
His eyes landed upon that sprawling violet splotch, a frenetic cocktail of feelings exploding inside of his stomach...
Especially at the sight
of those two, crimson dots—
He covered his mouth. Fangs.
A vague smirk tugged at Kris's lips.
Muffled behind his paw, his bashful laugh tumbled out, "Ahah, I-I see! Well, if that's how you feel about it, I suppose that's, ummm..."
Kris curled their fingers around his paw, guiding it away from the tightly set line of his mouth. They leaned in and pressed a gentle peck to his lips, their heart fluttering as he leaned in for an extra second, chasing that warmth...
They indulged him for a few more moments, lingering sleepily at his lips. Fleetingly, they wondered if this kiss could end up being their last until their inevitable return to those dizzyingly swaying gardens...
But they didn't have to think of that right now. They didn't have to think of anything. Not while they could hear his tail swishing fondly under the covers, his calm sighs as their lips locked, and locked deeper...
They unplugged their mind, drenched in the glimmering, rose-gold joy of it. The silk caress of rumpled bedsheets around their bare legs, Ralsei's thumb stroking along their jawline...
Their heart slowed, as did their drooling tongue, relinquishing full reign of their kiss over to him. As he sunk into their invitation, his quiet fervor bloomed, enveloping them both in a haze of sweet, breathless warmth. He tilted their head back, steering them into the pure, sacred rhythm of his devotion in a way that made the rest of the world fade out around them...
And, softly parting for air, he offered up a demure smile.
"Kris...?"
They hummed, their lashes heavy upon their cheeks. To be adored under those kind eyes, his innocent reverence...
Almost made them feel as if the aureate warmth of sunrise was already upon them.
"Thanks to you, I got to see so many wonderful things today that... I thought I'd never be able to, in this life..."
They lifted a sleepy smile, only a sliver of red visible through their drooping eyelids.
It glimmered faintly within them: the power of post-orgasm fatigue.
His voice blurred into something indecipherable, as if the words were floating down from the heavens above, lost in a haze of blindingly-white light...
"But seeing you happy... was the most wonderful thing of all, Kris."
Amidst their dwindling wakefulness, his whispers became thinner, like the drift of stardust sprayed across a midnight void...
The soft lull of his voice continued, "I'll do whatever it takes so that it stays like this, for as long as it can."
Just before the ebbing tides of their dreams could sweep up their yielding consciousness, they felt a soft, damp warmth brush against their lips.
Gleaning the last traces of energy they had left in this fragile body, they mustered the smallest effort to kiss him back...
And it was his three muffled words, slipping into the darkness beside them, that was enough to make them believe...
They could die happy.
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A starlit pilgrimage under a cascading, indigo dusk had led Susie and Noelle all the way up the tallest hill in the land. Wooden boards creaked defiantly as the girls crashed on the veranda, heaving two, rough sighs of exhaustion. The well-earned slurps of cold tea announced their official arrival at the coveted shrine they'd spotted high upon the clouds, all those hours ago...
"Hey, it's like marshmallows!!" Susie grinned widely, knocking back the rest of her tea in one unceremonious, herculean gulp.
Noelle hummed gladly whilst admiring the stoneware teacup, cool in her hands. "Mine tastes like cinnamon!" she remarked, before a slight crease dipped in her brow, "but, eugh... what is this aftertaste...?"
Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Susie tossed her cup to explode somewhere off to the side. With her sharp, yellow glare, she surveyed the area, hands on hips...
Those two idiots had better be around here somewhere. This was the ONE shrine in this whole goddamn field they hadn't checked yet, and it'd been a real pain in the ass to climb all the way up here, dammit!
If the Ralsei-flavored tea wasn't already a dead giveaway, the handwritten manual collecting petals on the floor was the smoking gun:
'How to Cope with Burning Jealousy: A Simple Seventy-Step Guide for Adversaries We Hope to Turn Into Our Friends! Vol. 3'
Susie released an apathetic sigh.
"Yep. They're here, alright."
Noelle curiously glanced over that thick slab of paper, amazed at the curly, fairytale handwriting adorning the cover. It certainly wasn't Kris's barely legible chicken-scratch, which meant that handwriting must've belonged to Ral-say...
A niggling hint of envy tightened her throat. This penmanship would look stunning on Christmas cards.
(Perhaps... she could use a manual like this.)
"If I find out Kris is hoarding all the MtnDewDrops for themself again," Susie huffed, prying the stiff, sliding doors apart...
The stark SMACK of wooden shoji-screens hitting the walls revealed a diffused, amber glow, trickling out from the hallowed silence of the room...
Covering her lips, Noelle stilled at the tender scene before her. "Oh, gosh..."
As for the Girl who had zero fucks crossed on her heart, Susie threw off her boots without hesitation and stomped across the tatami.
The pair snugged inside the futon remained blissfully ignorant to the prying eyes of their intruders.
Guilt niggled at Noelle's conscience as she gingerly tip-toed in Susie's wake, cringing at even the slightest squish of her black hooves against woven straw. Gosh, it felt so wrong to walk in on them like this, but it was like Susie said— they couldn't just abandon half of their party...
(As much as she yearned to spend forever and ever alone with Susie in their own little slice of heaven...)
Ugh, she also dreaded the thought of having to wake them up. And not just because she was down bad, okay? It'd just been so long since she'd last seen Kris look this... peaceful. Her gaze shifted between them, eyes softening. Ralsei's face was buried into the nape of their neck, eerily motionless. Almost like one of those stone shrine guardians...
Lifting a wistful smile, her heart ached for the two. She shouldn't have been so surprised to find them like this. She supposed she'd caught glimpses of them holding hands during their adventure, just when they must've thought they were finally out of sight...
And she supposed, watching their two silhouettes merging under the orange mist of the sunset...
Those were kisses, after all...
Susie's shadow loomed taller over crumpled bedsheets. Her mouth opened, about to rip into the two for making them come all this GODDAMN WAY—
before she clocked the pair of black lace panties strewn to Kris's side of the bed.
Her eyes widened drastically, a bright-pink flush spilling across her scales.
Jarring her senses even further, a squeak erupted from the girl next to her.
Susie whipped her gaze up at Noelle's trembling finger, jabbed in Kris's direction. Witnessing the way those clumsy hooves reeled backwards, she almost didn't want to know what Noelle was pointing towards...
But against her will, curiosity got the better of her.
Gleaming proudly upon Kris's neck was a small, lilac kiss-mark, crowned by two, dark dots...
In a shell-shocked trance, "We gotta go," was all Susie could think to say.
Frozen in bewilderment, "U-uh-huh," was all Noelle offered in response.
In a scatter of powdery pollen and loose, golden petals, the girls scampered out into the moonlit fields...
Far, far beyond those wide-open shoji screen doors.
(But, not before Noelle discreetly swiped that manual into her personal inventory).
'Kris, you lucky bastard...!! Why can't I get bitten by the monster I like, too???'
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