Chapter 26
Previously: Obsidian: Ash and Moonbeams – Chapter 25
He chuckles at her imagery. And it doesn’t even give him any ‘trapped in a web’ sort of concerns. Very strange.
“Huh. Never thought about whether I can or can’t love. I wouldn’t know what it looks or feels like, pretty sure I never have, but it didn’t occur to me that that was a thing you could worry about.”
~
“I like to love. I’d be pouty if I couldn’t manage even when I try. Right now, I’m trying to make me love you more because I pamper you, but I don’t think my soap is working. It smells wrong. No fair! I want the memory of making you feel all clean and comfy.”
Poking at the not-soap blob again, she huffs and starts in with his nice chest fur no matter if she has soap or not.
~
Feeling her scrub at his chest, he hums in pleasure. “We have warm, clean water, that’s a big improvement already. And without you, I wouldn’t have found it, so thanks, puppy! Clean and comfortable is what I feel like. And if love’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.” He shrugs, because trying for a certain emotion sounds utterly foreign to him. “Maybe it’s my half-feral upbringing, but I just feel what I feel.”
~
“Me, too! Apart from wanting to love John the right way. But you already helped with that. You make me better, you’ll make our swarm better. Thank you, Calidear!” And of course he’s right, having the water is a lot better already, so she shifts her position, wait, even better, she doesn’t float. “I promise to hold on, don’t worry. I’ll just start with your feet!”
Rather than jumping into the pool, she sticks her hands and feet to the rim of the pool and climbs down, sits herself comfortably in front of him, and gets to scrubbing.
~
He huffs out a breath and turns back around to lean more comfortably and deeper into the water, because nice, firm foot rub, oh yes. Oh, this is nice.
Muspellheim is growing on him.
And he’s not going to think about whether there’ll even be time for all those plans and feelings and swarm business. He’s going to enjoy this bath and her touch while it’s there.
~
Quincy so loves foot rubs, she got really good at them, and she’s glad to show off a skill she learned with one of her men for another. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t get a little bit sidetracked when she starts massaging and cleaning up his legs.
Fur! Just like Daddy! This is the best!
No, don’t giggle, she admonishes herself. She’ll end up inhaling water again.
Just, worse, when she’s at the top his legs, well, she really should clean his nicest smelling parts, too. But how is she supposed to not get sidetracked even worse? Popping up above the water’s surface, she finally lets herself giggle. “Calidear, what’s your opinion on me cleaning your best parts? I want to pamper you all over, but I think we’ll manage to forget the cleaning part.”
~
“Am I supposed to see any downside there?” he asks with a grin. “The water’ll do the cleaning, or whatever. I so have no objection to you playing with my cock.”
~
Thinking the logistics through for a moment, Darcy has to smack her drac on the nose, yes, yes, of course she wants to get absolutely sidetracked, but pampering first.
“I’ll get the rest of you clean and then we’ll have a nice long fuck in the pool… I mean, I don’t have to breathe.”
That’s naughty, right? He likes when she says things like that. Or was that too vague? But now, if she tags something on, it’ll be as if she tries to explain the naughty comment, and then it’s not fun anymore. Ugh, Words!
~
“Oh, you’re absolutely right, that does increase the fun options for bath sex.”
Yeah, he would much rather focus on the luxuries and potential of bath sex than whether that’s still going to be a thing in the near future.
“Plus, this pitch darkness. I’m not specifically into sensory deprivation stuff, but it’ll add a nice edge of surprise and focus on other senses, I bet.”
~
She’ll definitely remember to do that, well, uh, that he said it, not much she can do about the dark, after all. But after she is done with cleaning him. And that means scrubbing belly, chest, arms, and back first. Then climbing back up to sit on the edge and tell him to lean his head into her lap so she can really get his hair properly clean.
When did she start singing? Not sure, but she only notices when he doesn’t return the refrain. How could he? He’s not Papa… or even John who sometimes has indulged her and has a really nice singing voice.
“Um, sorry, habit, Papa has sung to me since I was little when we were in the bathtub together.”
~
Caliban doesn’t think he’s ever felt this mellow in his life.
He’s so fucking comfortable. So relaxed.
Because… there’s nothing to be on the look-out for here, he realises. Well, alright, not nothing, but… no eyes to perform for. No expectations to decide on whether he gives a shit or not.
Just the puppy and the darkness, and if some Muspellheim wildlife frequents these tunnels, eh, they’ll deal with it.
He hums in answer, and even he can tell how lazy it comes out. “Why are you apologizing for that? You have a nice voice.”
~
“Because I was expecting you to sing the refrain back at me without ever having taught you.” She giggles and keeps massaging his scalp and cup water into his hair to go strand by strand. “It goes like this…”
She’s just starting into it, she doesn’t even feel she has to ask if that’s okay with him. She’s just… content? Is that the word? She’s being good for him and her drac has stuck its paws to the sphere. It’s not a bridge, but it’s something to stand on, a direction, and it means so much. It helps her so much. She remembers how hard it was to calm down with the broken blood chain, and now she lost Quincy all over again, and if she didn’t have Caliban, she’s not sure if she wouldn’t give up.
Well, no, not really, that’s not like her, but it sure felt like that when the break was right there.
As is, no, she feels his hair under her fingers, and maybe she’s cheating, but she can just about make out the faintest things, even in the dark. His hair is much lighter than she thought, it’s practically white. She can’t help but think of other white hair she ran her fingers through. Can’t help but nudge at her little heart spider to remember Radu, remember her love for him, and see all the parallels to her monster here.
It is nice hair, he’s nice all over, he smells so very good, even better than Radu, and that with how much his drac smelled of blood. But also, overlap, they both smell of biting and they both bite so very, very nicely. And are nice to bite. No, down, her drac wants at his blood again, of course it does.
No marrying him before he really loves her! Down, give them a little bit more time, really now. Greedy drac. Yes, greedy her. She likes it.
~
Their voices mix pleasantly in the acoustics of the cave when Caliban matches her.
It’s fun. Like most things with her, it’s fun. He’s still no bard and has no aspirations to be, but this is just a simple little tune he can join her in while she scrubs her fingers through his hair and works out all the tangles and makes his hair feel less like a gritty mess.
Yeah, Asgard might be overrated. Natural hot pools on Muspellheim are a clear contender for pleasant places to be.
~
“Thank you for letting me pamper you. Thank you for letting me love you better. You make me feel so much better.”
It’s the plain truth. He’s just so blasted easy to be around.
And she wants to reward him for that, so after she finishes with his beard, she kisses his forehead and gently scoots out from under him again to climb into the pool. Okay, better get the unpleasant part over with, so she exhales under the water and inhales again.
Water in her lungs feels so weird!
But now she can stop thinking about it and start thinking about how to best position herself. First to clean his fun parts and then, well, she’s down here anyway and he’s already all relaxed, she wants to make him melt even more!
The warm water makes her relax, too, and that has got to be helpful. The singing helped, too, her throat is all relaxed. Okay, she’s sure Quincy would like the grin she knows she has on. She has to look half naughty and half stubborn.
It has to be possible! And she’s not breathing in the first place.
Okay, now she’s giggling, but this just might work. Where are Caliban’s hands? There, okay, guide them underneath her shoulders so he can hold her up as she sticks her own hands against the wall and sort of lies in the water. Buoyancy would be nice now, but with how big his hands are under her, yes, she can manage. And, hah! Hah, she knew it, that is the right angle!
Come on, relax, pull yourself a little bit closer, and another little bit closer, stop, silly gag reflex, relax, relax, wiggle, there, angle fixed. She can do this!
And she wants to do this so blasted badly, too. It’s a challenge and fun and yes, feeling so much of him is just the very best… she nearly giggles, because uh huh, focusing on that made her relax more and that’s her lips against his hips. Managed.
She’s feeling so accomplished here. Just… not the easiest angle to move? Does he want to? Unsticking a hand from the wall, she pats his side to let him know that he can move, at least she hopes he gets that.
~
“Oh, fuck, yes!” Caliban says to the ceiling. He doesn’t think the puppy can hear him down there, but… Oh, she’s really working for it. He can feel her weight in his hands, heavier than he expected in the water- no buoyancy, of course, means she weighs exactly as much as she would in air.
But that’s a stray and random thought with his cock engulfed in tight heat, and then… does that touch to his side mean he can move?
He hopes it does, because he really wants to, even if he’s also all relaxed. So he braces his feet more securely at the bottom of the pool and gives a rock of his hips.
~
So much! Too much? No, she doesn’t think so. She can handle it. It’s a whole different skillset from when she moves herself. She can’t really do much like this, but, well, Quincy sometimes also has a case of not wanting to let her do it, so not the first time she just concentrates on staying relaxed. The best she can do is stick her hand back to the wall to hold herself up a bit and to give him resistance to thrust against.
Well, and since that’s all she can do, no reason not to enjoy herself. She allows herself to focus on the world like this really being nothing else than warm darkness and the feel of her Calidear in her. Not alone in here. It’s not perfect, not as intermingled as she’d want to be, but still so nice. So nice, yeah, just going to lean into his hands and let herself not think at all for a bit. Just feel. Feel him. Feel her drac. Feel them both so close.
She’s floating… but it’s good now.
~
Usually, he likes his sex hard and vicious and intense, but… even that’s different with the puppy, and he’s so relaxed, so he just lets his hips roll lazily, just enjoys the feel and slide of her mouth on his cock and the water all around his skin, just lets it build slow and deep and drifting, orgasm rising like a steady pressure until he squeezes her shoulders in warning.
Her only reaction is to move her hands onto his back and pull herself closer in clear invitation, so he lets his head tip back against the lip of the pool, stares into the unrelenting darkness surrounding him, and lets the sensation of the orgasm take him, all the bright release and tingling along his limbs.
~
She kind of wants to know why he signaled her there. But later, right now she just wants to float a little bit longer in this sense of being good for him and feeling good and just being relaxed. She was so sure she couldn’t feel like that with the exhaustion and the broken blood bridge, but he makes it all better. Also by letting her have some of him she gets to keep inside her. For a while at least, but longer than with her other holes, so yes, this is nice. So nice.
Still, she wants to cuddle now. Funny how she didn’t get horny from it. Normally she does, which is why it’s nice having two men, but, well, it’s just her and Calidear and her drac here. Her and her drac alone would be lonely. Still so much better than only her, but she’s glad she found Calidear. And she knows that she gets all melancholic and weird with broken blood bonds, so that’s probably why she’s more clingy than horny now.
Giving him one more kiss, she climbs right up his body and leans her head on his shoulder, hugs herself tight into him. Yes, here is good, she’ll just rest a bit here.
~
He hums to her in satisfaction, braces one arm up on the pool edge so he can relax his legs and drift. This is just… so nice?
~
Ugh, she doesn’t wanna, but she’ll have to do it anyway, eventually, and she is curious. Unsticking herself only far enough to turn around, she starts coughing. “Whu…” Nope, not enough coughing, that got interrupted with a gurgle. Come on, how much water can be down there?
~
Ah, the water removal. Caliban chuckles, and uses one hand to pat her on the back. Whether that’s helpful, he has no idea, but he feels like it. “I could squeeze you, if that’d help,” he offers.
~
She’s not sure the squeezing would do anything, but maybe there is something he could do. How to tell him without talking? Ah, easy.
Taking his hands, she puts them on her waist, then draws on his chest with her fingers. Circling around then up and down. That should make it clear to him that he could help her do this with the gravity, not against it. Not as if her lungs are any better than the rest of her at fighting against gravity that still feels heavier than what she grew up with.
~
“You want upside down? Yeah, that should work, just a moment.” She might be small, but he still needs to stand up and brace himself properly to flip her over without dunking her head right back into the pool. Once he has, he takes a good grip on her waist with his hands turned so his thumbs are pointing down, and then lifts her and flips her over with a laugh. This is so silly, but also fun. Like all of her.
~
“Wheeeurgh!” Okay, that sounded horrible, but she’s still giggling right in the middle of the coughing and water rushing out of her mouth and nostrils. It’s so nice that he doesn’t even question her, no, he just does what she asks of him. She feels taken so seriously and cherished and just overall… “Thank you for making me happy!”
There, much better, the shaking helped, that’s air in her lungs, not half air and half water. “Wanna cuddle in again!” She stretches her arms for him, wiggles in his grip. “Also want to know what you wanted me to do when you squeezed my shoulders? I couldn’t hear you if you told me.”
~
He turns her back around and lets her slide into the water next to himself, tugs her back close against his chest.
“Yeah, come here. I’ve never been one for cuddling, but it’s different with you. You must have some natural cuddle talents or something.” He laughs. “And I just wanted to warn you that I was about to come. In case you wanted to get ready for that in any way.”
~
She can’t believe she’s snarking like this, but Quincy isn’t here to do it for her and Caliban seems to like when she’s naughty, so, with a giggle and hugging him again, she answers: “I know you’re not a molly so you wouldn’t know, but when it’s that far in I don’t even have to swallow.” And then she doesn’t want to only snark, no, she wants to also let him know how she feels.
“Thank you for not letting me be alone in here and for letting me keep a bit of you. It’s still hard on my drac but you are there for me, for us, so I can keep going and… Just thank you for being good for me.”
It’s so blasted true, and she can feel her drac whine and curl in tight against him, well, against the spot in the empty sphere of her heart that’s closest to him. Her drac feels so close that she’s nearly afraid it will take over again.
Would that be so bad?
Caliban said it behaved last time. And she isn’t a minstrel, she doesn’t like keeping an eye on her drac like that. It’s her soul. She allows herself to relax again. If her drac gets ideas, that’s okay, Caliban will be as kind and sweet and protective as he always is.
~
He rumbles deep in his chest, content. “Hey, not my fault every man I’ve been with was too scared to stick his cock between my teeth, I would’ve tried it out at least once. But good to know. You’re a very good puppy, and I’m more than happy to provide you with that kind of thing to keep inside you.”
He rubs a hand along her side and back, firm but lazy, catches one of her new short curls between his teeth to give it a playful tug.
Fates, he feels so good.
~
“I’m not a man, but I trust you, if you want to, uh, try with the easy version.”
Giggling, she leans her head more firmly into him, then remembers one comment and bursts into worse giggling. “Although, Quincy did complain that this is deep-throating hard mode because it’s not even long enough to show off with. John kind of hid… I think he wanted to make sure Quincy doesn’t get ideas. But that just means that Quincy could show off with you!”
That thought has her drac curl tighter, yes, it misses her men so much, so very much, but it’s still nice to think of them and think of how they’ll be around Caliban. She needs to keep telling herself that she’ll be there to enjoy it.
~
“Oral is nice without deep-throating, too, and I’m definitely looking forward to getting my mouth on that part of you. Your husband sounds fun. Demanding as fuck but fun.”
He’s very pointedly not letting himself think about whether he’ll actually get to meet these people. He might’ve had a spurt of optimism there yesterday evening, which seems unrealistic again now, but there’s nothing he can do about it either way. And he very much hates situations where he can’t do anything about anything, so best to focus on the things he can do. Like lounge in a pool and cuddle the puppy and enjoy it an uncommon amount.
~
With a rub of her cheek to his shoulder, Darcy keeps giggling.
“‘Attention hog’ is what John calls him. Or, when he’s getting grumpy, ‘attention whore’ and ‘drama queen’. But they always tease each other like that. Just tease back. But nicely! They never say anything that would actually be mean.”
That’s so important to her and makes her so happy with how her men will do it but also hold each other. Well, Quincy letting John hold him. Actually, she should tell Caliban:
“And they take care of each other, they’d take care of you, too. You’ll see.”
She’ll just stick with that. Yes, he’ll see, and she’ll get to see him be happy in the swarm and it will be the very best. And now she’s crying again. Can’t be helped, she’s tired and broken.
Just means more cuddling with him. She likes feeling so close to him. Being cuddled. It’s funny to her that she didn’t really cuddle or thought she liked it before John. And especially Quincy, he’s so very cuddly.
~
“Hmmm,” he makes, thoughtfully. “Really can’t imagine that I’d like letting anyone aside from you take care of me, but then, two days ago, I would’ve said I don’t need or want anyone taking care of me.” He squeezes her. “Still weird how much this is not getting my hackles up. Can definitely let your fae peacock show off his emotions, though. See if I can poke him into having some, too.”
He looks down at her, even though he can’t see her. He can feel the twitches in her shoulders and hear the way her breath catches that makes him think she’s crying again, but he doesn’t think there’s much he can do about that. Except maybe distract her.
“Would you like that? Me fae flirting with your husband?”
~
What did he just say? She tries to look at his face, but even to her, it’s not much more than vague colours in the dark here. And no emotion strong enough to really smell. In either case, she’s curious now.
“Fae flirting? I don’t really know much about fae, but that sounds as if you know ways I should be better for Quincy! If you flirt with him then I can learn from you! That would be so sweet of you. Thank you.”
~
Since he can’t actually demonstrate right now, seeing as there’s no fae present, he explains verbally instead: “Of course. You know that fae are all about emotion, right? Don’t have any except their Court one by themselves, they buy them? Emotion is power to a fae. And they need power to make babies. So causing a fae emotion is flirting. And unlike other species, where you kind of want to cause specific emotions, it doesn’t matter to a fae whether you make them angry or happy or whatever. It’s all flirting.”
~
She’s going white, she knows she is, before she vehemently shakes herself.
“Ew! Llew thought I was flirting with him when I wasn’t whoring myself out for the demon?! No no no no! Ew, ew, ew! Wait. I shouldn’t be this emotional about it, should I? Was that disloyal to Quincy? I didn’t mean to. Or to upset Marcas so much he banished me here. Wait? Was that him flirting back because I frustrated him? This doesn’t make any sense!”
She’s still shaking herself, she can’t stop it. That’s just so weird.
~