Kiko barely moved and when she did it was only to tuck her body deeper into his embrace. Her eye had long since fallen shut and she found no need to open them. The water was soothing, the sounds around them were soothing, and she had missed the wrap of his arms for far too long.
"Worry me, Wolf? You did not. Though, forgive me if I wanted to murder the mother they might have had. But, in all seriousness, if you did have a child, well, I would be happy for you."
Kiko turned her head to look at him, brushing a fingertip across his lips.
"For now, you can watch baby dragons."
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell's lips and eyes smiled and her gaze melted him, made him bare before her. It was something he had only ever known once prior, the ability of a woman to do that and his being entirely comfortable feeling that exposed before them.
Kiko could not respond to his last comment, at all. Here she just had Margrett telling her to be a teacher and now this... Her voice shut down, she shut down. Kiko was sure, somewhere, that she had forgotten how to breathe.
Kiko was not innocent. She had not been innocent for a very long time, mentally anyway. Physically, well, the world she ended up in after her brother's death was not kind to females. They were assumed to have less ability to defend themselves than males, considered fragile; their usefulness based entirely on position, wealth, or looks. She was alone, without a family name, and foreign besides. In a place where less than honorable people came to find any work at all, she needed eyes in the back of her head.
Wolf... I
Kiko shifted away from Grayell. She turned to the side and dragged wet hair off her neck with one hand.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell did not chase, but one hand slid with her, remained on her shoulder. He thought for a moment and then smiled, a tiny, humoured huff of air from his nose.
I am suggesting nothing. I am only speaking of what ifs.
Kiko nodded at him. But, she remained separate hair used as a curtain to keep her expression concealed. Of all the things she expected him to talk about this was not a subject she had ever considered.
Not once.
Maybe she should have, too. The Wolf's happiest memories were of his family. Kiko's chest was abruptly tight. It was natural, right? That he would want children.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell could sense her tension all too easily and his hand slid from her shoulder and into the water. He did not know how best to discuss this.... so chose instead to leave it behind.
He settled back at the water's edge, arms laying along the pool's side. His eyes looked up, beyond the trees and to the night sky.
A beautiful night. I looked to them every night Chosen, it is where I saw you. Felt you.
Kiko uttered a sigh of relief. Her uncomfortable distance dissipated. She leaned in against his shoulder though her eyes were on the sky above them, instead of him.
Did you?
Kiko relaxed again she was quite familiar with spending the nights watching the stars.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Yes. We see the same stars no matter how far apart we are.
Well until someone crossed the equator but who's to know? This continent were largely isolated in a huge ocean. The greater world was still unexplored and as far as scholars were concerned, did not exist.
They were two tiny beings in the scheme of things, insignificant to whatever omnipotent beings tugged and toyed with the strings of fate - but to each other they were everything. It did not take a deity to realize that in an infinitely growing cosmos, these two shared something that was still so entirely rare.
No, their bond was anything but insignificant on any scale.
Kiko gave a quiet murmur and pointed upward in the southern sky.
Mmh. I've heard some mercenaries in the past call those Orion's belt.
Kiko made a sweeping gesture from the brightly lit Sirius below upward toward a grouping of three other stars. She turned to look at the Wolf, brushing her fingers over the slick strands of his hair.
We call them Genji and Heike Boshi legendary families constantly doing battle at the steepes or center of the belt.
Kiko pointed to the center star and swung her fingers back and forth between the other two. She had tucked her head in against his shoulder and neck dropping her fingers around the other side of his face to brush damp hair away again.
See the faint red hue of Heike boshi compared to the white of Genji? They represent the family banners.