you know you wanna be bad with us

flora

Flora tries—she truly tries—to swallow the laugh that bubbles up at the thought of Kai confronted with a chastity belt, but it breaks through anyway, bright and sudden and entirely delighted. She bites down on her lower lip to rein it in, curls bouncing as she shakes her head in a way that only encourages more mischief to bloom behind her eyes. "I would too now that you mention it," she manages, voice warm and edged with helpless amusement. Then her smile tilts, wicked and thoughtful, lips pursing as an idea flickers across her face like a candle catching fresh air. "Actually..." Her head tilts, curls tumbling over her shoulder. "Do you have one around somewhere?"

Flora takes a slow sip of her wine while Danta speaks, letting the warmth slide down her throat as she listens, nodding lightly as he lays out the world from an Ancient's vantage point. "Yeah, but what if you didn’t have anything at all?" she says softly, tracing the rim of her glass with one fingertip. "No shifts, no fire stuff, no weird shadowy things. Just the ability to call on Dygra, and only twice a season." Her gaze drifts somewhere past him for a moment before returning, thoughtful and unguarded. "It’s not nothing of course, but day to day it just feels...so much less compared to everyone else."

Heat blooms across her cheeks before she can stop it at his compliment, warmth rising all the way to the tips of her ears. She glances down at her wine like it suddenly contains a secret she isn’t ready to look at too directly. "Thank you," she mutters, the words soft and awkward and deeply pleased.

and if you'd never come for me, I might've drowned in the melancholy
I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I, Right before you lit my sky up

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

I wanna run against the world that's turning

"Oh, Flora," Danta purrs, his own expression becoming something charmingly depraved, and he gestures around as if they aren't lounging in the Dusklight's bedsheets rather than in one of the many pleasure rooms. "You are in a brothel and we cater to all kinds of kinks. I'm certain I can rustle one up for you." His voice lowers a touch as he adds, "And it's just the belt you'd like, and not the other toy we played with last time?"

Reaching for his wine again, the movement languid and lazy given how he's also very reluctant to sit up at all, Danta scrunches his nose thoughtfully at her question. "Being that close to my goddess twice a season to help further her cause? Without question," he says mildly. "Besides, I like to think I'm a lot more than crow feathers and teeth. I'm a real bastard even without it." He grins.

"And, you can also throw daggers faster than anyone I've met, and you can heal and turn invisible and throw tide jaguars at unsuspecting victims," he reminds her. She's already blushing, though, so he merely raises his glass to her. "My pleasure," he says softly.

Dantalion

I'd move so fast that I'd outpace the dawn, I wanna be gone

flora

Flora’s grin curves into something sharp and delighted at the tone he drops into, her aqua eyes flaring with wicked amusement. Of course he could rustle up a chastity belt; this is the Dusklight, and Danta is, well, Danta. But the moment he mentions the other toy, her expression does a perfect kombucha-girl wobble, lips pursing, eyebrows lifting, head tilting in a constellation of fleeting yes-no-maybe-actually-tempting-oh-gods-no-that’s-a-lie-maybe-later.

She exhales a bright, helpless laugh. "I mean....Kai and I are still in the stage where sex is always new and fun and we don’t really need to spice things up yet," she admits, sweeping a curl behind her ear with a gesture that’s almost demure before the sparkle returns to her gaze. "But maybe later?" She gives him a look that says definitely later even if she refuses to say it aloud.

His declaration of being more than crow feathers and teeth earns a snicker she barely contains, her smile bright as a struck match as she nods magnanimously, as though granting him the official title of Bastard Supreme. Then he lists her own tricks—the daggers, the healing, the invisibility, the signet ring she used almost exclusively in sexual situations gone bad—and she sighs, rolling her eyes with theatrical resignation before turning her head enough to cast him a wicked, sideways look.

"Naked of everything," she says suggestively, voice warm as wine and twice as dangerous, "you could still do more than I could."

and if you'd never come for me, I might've drowned in the melancholy
I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I, Right before you lit my sky up

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

I wanna run against the world that's turning

Eyebrows raising as he watches Flora's expression march through the entire spectrum of desire, as she finally settles on vanilla is still exciting, he doesn't hide his snort of laughter. "Well, my box of tricks is always available to you," he says with a wave of his hand that would be accompanied by a roguish bow if he weren't mostly horizontal. "Would you two like a room for the evening at the very least? I promise I can supply one with just a bed in it. Maybe even a cuck chair if you want to be spicy."

The roll of her eyes earns only a challenging smirk in return, a silent confirmation of yes I know I'm right from Danta, and his wine is halfway to his lips when the word naked falls from Flora's, and he scoffs just shy of spraying a good vintage all over them. "Naked of everything," he echoes, voice dropping to a rich purr, "you haven't seen half the things I can do. I might make a fascinating double act with Asta, but I can be enjoyed solo too. If you're ever allowed, of course."

Dantalion

I'd move so fast that I'd outpace the dawn, I wanna be gone

flora

Flora’s grin softens into something warm and appreciative, a little curl of sweetness wrapped in mischief. She lifts her glass in a vague salute to his offer before giving her head a small, rueful shake, curls slipping forward like she’s hiding behind them for half a heartbeat. "Rain check?" she says. "We’re flying home after this, for that Halo trip."

She sips her wine to hide the smile tugging at her mouth, because of course Danta would immediately escalate her teasing into full-blown scandal. When he purrs about what he can do naked, she snorts softly, rolling her eyes with affectionate exasperation. "I definitely think we could have had our share of fun," she says, letting her voice turn warm and dry as she sinks further into the pillows. "If the first time we’d met, I’d been a little older." Or, more recently, if she hadn’t been so thoroughly satisfied by Jack, given his telepathy. He probably wouldn’t have minded sharing her at all.

Flora lets the last mouthful of wine linger on her tongue before she swallows, the warmth blooming down her throat like a final little sunburst. She sets the empty glass aside with the care of someone who knows she’ll absolutely knock it over if she doesn’t, then shifts in the blankets until she’s angled toward him, curls spilling in a soft tumble over her shoulder. Tilting her head to the side, she lifts her eyebrows in a question. "Well? Should we go check and see if both of our boys are still alive?"

and if you'd never come for me, I might've drowned in the melancholy
I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I, Right before you lit my sky up

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

I wanna run against the world that's turning

"Any time you like," Danta says with an easy nod. "My brothel is your brothel." And that's not even an entendre. "Enjoy your Halo trip, though. You know what they say about having to share body heat to stay warm. You might find a new position or two to try all on your own." Letting out a rich laugh and shifting to sit back up again at last, if only so he doesn't spill his wine, and he's considering the very last of it in his glass as he spies her gaze on him.

"Ah, well," he says with a crooked grin, "I can't say that I didn't have quite a bit of fun with you already. Even better because you got to share it with Asta, too." And truly, what more could you want? (An old-fashioned soldier apparently, but Danta isn't one to openly judge the difference between them - he just accidentally lets it show on his face regardless).

Speaking of which, at the suggestion that they leave their wine soaked little fort to run a proof of life, Danta's groan is dramatic and reluctant, but he does reach up to yank at one of the blankets as if to acquiesce. The result, of course, sends the entire fort tumbling atop them, and they'll have to swim through the sheets to surface. "Fine," Danta is saying, voice muffled. "Let's go."

Dantalion

I'd move so fast that I'd outpace the dawn, I wanna be gone

flora

Flora’s laughter spills out warm and bright, her curls bouncing as she shakes her head at herself because yes, she absolutely hears how ridiculous it sounds to imply that young love makes even missionary feel like some sort of mystical revelation. And yet... gods, it does, turning even the simplest position into something heady and golden.

Her grin lingers as Danta mentions their last shared indulgence, and she bites gently at the inside of her lip, memory humming through her like a warm tide. The hidden room at the back of the Hanged Man, the delicious chaos of it, the hands on her, Danta and Asta's voices, the way everything blurred and sharpened at once....Her sigh comes out soft and wistful before she reins it in, because no part of her would ever cheat on Kaisel, but gods, that threesome had been good.

She winks at Danta just as he groans dramatically, and she’s halfway into laughing again when the entire fort collapses over them, smothering her in a plush avalanche of Dusklight linens. She lets out a theatrical gasp, swaddled like a particularly dramatic caterpillar, and begins swimming through the fallen sheets, emerging back into the office with her curls tousled and her sweater slightly more off-shoulder than before.

With a reluctant sigh, she re-buttons her jeans, wincing as comfort is sacrificed to decency. Then she loops her arm through Danta’s with a flourish and a grin, tugging him toward the hall. "Come on," she says, stepping back into the velvet glow of the Dusklight. "Let's go find my troublemaker."

~FIN

and if you'd never come for me, I might've drowned in the melancholy
I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I, Right before you lit my sky up

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!