cut ties with all the lies

Safrin lets Sunjata sit with his reaction to her proposal. He is a different man than Ronin, and so the goddess approaches the subject in an entirely different way. "A life forged out of love." She supplies instead; did it matter that the love was perhaps not between she and Sunjata? No. For Safrin, it didn't. Though she was certain it wouldn't be Nate on the Flood's mind during the child's conception, certainly that the ascended was the motivation behind it was of no concern to her.

She offers him a coy smile as he says potential, as if she, child of starlight and life, might be anything but fertile when she so chose. "And I shall save Nate." Safrin agrees.

Not unlike her time with Ronin, with the deal made, the world swallows the pair of them up such that only they existed now. The cliffs might have been near or far—a thousand miles beneath them or right under their feet—it hardly mattered. The stars, hidden and lacklustre before now shimmered around them with the pulse of the Flood's heartbeat. Later, perhaps if they speak of it, Ronin will recognize the mind-fog that blots away thoughts of others: Shaju, Hotaru, and even Nate. They're gone and far away abstract things; ghosts in the rain, too faint to be anything more than a blur.

'Sunjata?' She is light, and power, and hope, all wrapped up in unknowable strings that perfectly tied everything together. Creator of galaxies and comets, destroyer and creator both. "Kiss me."

SAFRIN

maybe i'll lie to you, maybe i'll play this role

maybe i'll act like my act is together

She corrects him and he gives a shallow dip of his head in a nod – trying to think of it in a different way, even if it feels like it’s wrong, like he should have thought about it for longer than he has. Sunjata’s always been an impulsive man, though, so it truly comes as no surprise that his agreement is made this quickly – mulling it over as much as he can.

And he throws himself into it head first, the agreement from Safrin all that he needs. He can dwell on it later, on the implications of it all. For now, though, it all becomes a blur – a fog, far off in the distance and all he can think about is his goddess. She’s there, a brilliance in his arms against the shadows he’d always seemed to be. Without the pain of his body and the soreness of it all, without the thought of Nate and Hotaru and his family, without the thought of his obligations weighing down on him… He’s consumed by her.

“Yes?” He breathes as he focuses in on her when she says his name, his hand still tangled in her hair. The instruction is clear and one he’s always so desperately wanted to do. She doesn’t have to ask twice, hand tightening in her hair as he breaks whatever short distance is between them and kisses her. It’s like fire and electricity that zips through him, that melts him instantly to everything about her, suddenly finding himself pressing against her as she consumes his every thought.

maybe i'll cope with life without hope

maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor

SuNJATA

She is effervescent and weightless against him, and yet he is caught in her gravity well just as any wayward comet might be. Her lips sing with colour and starlight as her tongue pushes past his own lips that she might sigh her siren song deeper into him. The world dazzles and spins around them as Safrin reaches her hands around his neck and with a tantalizing ease, she leaps into his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist.

It is like nothing he will have ever experienced, but then, she is a goddess after all. Arching against him, she hums a note of satisfaction and urgency into his mouth, her hands tugging at the back of his shirt that, when he inevitably must come up for air, she is poised to slip it over his head.

SAFRIN

maybe i'll lie to you, maybe i'll play this role

maybe i'll act like my act is together

It’s all he can think about. It’s all he wants to think about. Their tongues dance and the taste of her engulfs him, it makes him wonder why he’d even worried about it in the first place. Without the pain of his injuries, when she slips up into his arms he’s steady, holding her tight against him as if he were to let go and lose her. It’s intoxicating enough that he craves her more, pressing his hips against her as she arches, a hiss of a growl that leaves him with the fabric that separates them.

But she’s right, he does come up for air, readjusting his arms to better support her even if she’s featherlight. The shirt slips off, discarded somewhere though he doesn’t know nor care where. And with that gone? Those wings of his Pegasus shift, soft and tricolored blue as she had made him so long ago expand, flaring outward and curling around to brush along her back, to support her and run those long feathers along her back. It gives him time to run his fingers along her thigh, pulling and hitching up that billowing white gown of hers, a flicker of want to simply tear it off that he restrains. And he dives in again, a need for his lips to be on hers, a need for his hands to roam and explore her.

maybe i'll cope with life without hope

maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor

SuNJATA

They stand on clouds, on stars, on the rings of planets. They float through the cosmos with Sunjata's wings shielded them from prying eyes that might seek them out yet and Safrin's dress streaks wind blown behind her like a comet trail. Her hands are small, and yet her reach is unencumbered by the physical differences between them. Her palms roam across his back, her fingertips expertly mapping every scar, every mark, every wound healed over and all the ones yet to come.

As his hips press forward she laughs against his mouth, the stars echoing the sound like a forest of tiny bells. The feeling of his fingers trailing up her thigh brings a smile to her lips that he's sure to feel—and then see—as she arcs against him more that he might peer into her eyes. "Show me more of what I've made you." She whispers, reaching for one of his hands, she, of course, staying tethered easily against him between his wings, where she raises his index finger and slips it between her lips. Her teeth worry at the skin as she lowers her mouth to the knuckle before bringing it back up. The image might be suggestive, but it isn't just that.

From beneath her lips, she's withdrawn one of his claws, and with a smile, she presses her tongue against the point of it, before lowing his hand back against her. The white fabric of her dress clashes masterfully with the black of his claw, as she coils herself forward to place her mouth against his ear. "I don't care about the dress." She purrs against the shell of his ear.

SAFRIN

maybe i'll lie to you, maybe i'll play this role

maybe i'll act like my act is together

It’s unlike any place he’s ever been to before, unlike any he’ll be to again. And for now? His focus is entirely on her — the feel of her lips, of her body pressed and anchored against him, the feel of her hands as they roam across his skin. Her whisper and arch of her body have his eyes focused intensely on her, keeping the wings and shuddering when she lifts his hand to her lips. The claw is revealed, horns spiral from his skull, sharp fanged teeth of the cobra appear in a flash of a smirk with hazy, smoldering steel that watches her intently.

And his hand is lowering, the ink of black against pale white has his hands twitching, the prompt given by the whisper against the shell of his ear. And it’s so hard for him to restrain himself, tugging up that dress with that sharp claw, forming the rest of his fingers into sharp points and clawing through the fabric until her skin is revealed. He shudders further in breath and spine, trying to surge toward her neck to kiss and give attention to, the other hand trailing from her waist up her hip and side, slipping up further to cup and palm at her breast. He burns for her, evident in the way the wings tremble against her spine, the way his hips wish to press further against her.

maybe i'll cope with life without hope

maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor

SuNJATA

"There you are." She whispers with pride and desire both, as his various shifts fight for purchase on his skin. He is a motley arrangement of predators and gods if he isn't magnificent. Leaning back as his claws shred the side of her dress leaving it to fall to the ground like discarded moonlight, her hands trail up the side of his face and into his hair, gripping the base of his horns as her legs tighten around him.

His wandering hands are afforded whatever investigations they might want to pursue as her head tips back, and her hair falls like waves against his feathers. Capable of occupying whatever size and space she chooses, that her breasts are perfectly suited to the palm of his hands and that her body easily fits within the fold of his wings is no coincidence.

Letting her head rise, her cheeks flushed and her lips parted in a moan she doesn't try and stiffle, she presses herself against him anew, her own hips rolling softly against his. Letting one of her hands fall away from the base of his horn, she lets her fingertips flutter down his cheek before pulling them away that he might watch as they too become dark claws. With a smile that's as feral as it is breathtaking, Safrin's hand scrapes down the Flood's side until she finds the resistance of his pants. With a sharpness nearly unimaginable, it takes no effort at all for her to cut away the waistband of one side of his waistband.

SAFRIN

maybe i'll lie to you, maybe i'll play this role

maybe i'll act like my act is together

“Here I am.” He rumbles, voice hoarse with desire and want, glancing briefly to where the dress falls into a pooling wind of moonlight. He doesn’t get long to look, not as her hand runs along his cheek, grabbing the base of the horn that has him instinctively inhaling a sharp breath, the slight lurch of his hips that he tries to control. It’s futile, really, as his wings tremble in their restraint and the muscles within him tense, poised and ready as if prepared to launch the second she’s ready.

His other hand cups her breast, his head nestling in against her neck and pressing kisses there, tentatively dragging the sharp edges of his teeth along her starlit skin, shuddering a hot breath against her. He pulls away when her hand travels, his thumb brushing by her nipple as he watches her hand turn to claws too, as he spies her brilliantly wicked smile, one that’s reflected in a playful, easy smirk of his own. “And there you are.” Beautiful and magnificent, sharp and deadly, featherlight and incredible. She’s the creator of the stars, the galaxies, and he swirls in her orbit — hers as she had intended.

The claw swipes down with ease, like a blade cutting through air, and the relief from the release of fabric has goosebumps rising up his spine, another hot breath leaving him as that clawed hand of his own lifts to tangle in her hair, keeping her close as his wings close in, as his desperation in just how hard he is, is suddenly seen. A momentary lapse in his mind has his gruff voice speaking Korofi, that hand in her hair tugging lightly to try and capture her gaze, before he can capture her lips again. “jy is wonderlik, Safrin.”

---

jy is wonderlik — you are magnificent

maybe i'll cope with life without hope

maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor

SuNJATA

'You're about to see much more than that...' Safrin whispers as her claws cut through the fabric like wind over the sea. But he is not released yet, and the goddess seems all too aware of it.

'My wilde een, jy het nog niks gesien nie.' The words are plucked from his mind, the language simple enough for what little she is planning on saying. If words are needed in the moments that follow this one, then something has gone very wrong.

Despite his wings around her and his fingers tangled in her hair, Safrin releases her hold over the Flood, sliding down his body like rainwater from a petal. Her feet touch upon a thick cloud cover that has fallen over the ocean. Can those below see what transpires here, amidst the stars? Does Safrin care?

Torn as one side of her dress is, demurely the goddess reaches for her remaining strap, pushing it from her shoulder. The upper part of her gown falls away to her waist, revealing both breasts and pale skin marred only be freckles that dance across it like constellations. Exactly like constellations, in fact. Rather than with her claws, the goddess reaches for the seam of her dress, tearing it. The sound is like thunder purring at a vast distance as the white cloth falls uselessly to the ground, melding immediately into the cloud upon which she stands. Her skin is moon-white, broken only by the dusky pink of her nipples and the whiff of black the smokes up from between her legs. She is curvaceous and willowy both, just as she is both hard and soft. Light and dark.

"'Raak my.." She whispers as she traces one of her claws down between her breasts. "Het my.." Stretching out a finger towards him, Safrin beckons him near.{/i}

SAFRIN

maybe i'll lie to you, maybe i'll play this role

maybe i'll act like my act is together

“More?” He murmurs, unable to think about the tiniest bit of air between them. But she distracts him, her words his native tongue, sprinkling through the air enough that his attention is wholly on her, not the clouds or the way the scent of the ocean waves hits him, of where they might be. He doesn’t care. That is, until she’s slipping out of his arms and his wings pull back, flaring in their stretch before one droops, as if he’s battling with himself not to go and scoop her up to break the distance. The echo of her words hits his mind and it stills him, all of his impulse dying in a breath as he watches her reveal more of herself.

And gods does he ache. His eyes travel along her skin, soaking it up, lingering on constellations and the brilliance she gives, following the curves of her skin, the swell of her breasts, eyes only snapping up the second the dress tears and those dark claws of hers start to travel down her chest. His mouth dries out, smoldering steel focused so intensely on her that both wings start to droop and his shoulders flare with the navy feathers of his first shift — the one she had given him when she’d pressed her lips to his and reached so far into his chest she’d caressed his soul.

How could he have ever harbored any doubt for her?

She beckons him near and his feet move before his mind can follow, tugged and pulled effortlessly to him. She is the stars and the moon and he is the Flood, the waves of which she shifts as she sees fit. And so he moves to her, his clawed hand outstretched to reach for her hip, to draw the tips along her side, moving himself to face her but only slight, half in front of her to run his non clawed hand down her front, picking up where her hand had left off and traveling lower and lower until he can take the plunge beneath the whiff of black between her legs. A charming smirk is given her way, a slight hitch of his breath when he inhales, and he draws his finger gently along her clit in a small circle. His wings flare out again, drawing in air and balance for the Flood as he finds himself wholly entranced again.

maybe i'll cope with life without hope

maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor

SuNJATA

Predator and prey they both are, tangled in this web of Safrin's making. It is a symphony perfectly conducted, a monument lovingly crafted, a testament to time and the hearts of men.

Goosebumps dance across her skin at his touch as if even the cells of her skin yearn for more, rising and thrusting at the ghost of his presence. Her form is effortlessly elegant, straddling the line between toned and voluptuous with ease. As he touches her, his fingers tentative even in their brutality, she knows it isn't enough. It isn't all he can give. She sees his wings stutter, his breath hitch and throat close, she can feel the need of his erection like a divining rod, and still it is not enough.

It won't be enough until he fills her; until all thought is jettisoned and he is filled by love for her, and her alone. She will take from him the last breath of rationality only to shove him from the clifftops into a sea of pleasure the likes of which he's never known. She will be an echo in every orgasm to come, an afterimage behind his eyes.

He will find her already wet, the slickness as sweet as any water in a desert, the heat of her skin hot as any sun. Hips tilting forward, Safrin gazes up at him with lazy eyes and lips parted. Her tongue mirrors the motion of his finger against her lower lip, as her clawed fingers reduce the remaining side of his pants to mere tattered at his feet. "I have given you reason to doubt me." She whispers, though it's unclear if her lips have moved at all.

Eyes locked upon his, she lets her fingers glide down the wrist of the hand softly caressing her clit. Removing them, she plunges her own fingers inside of herself, before lubricating the head of his cock with a single finger. Vergewe my?

SAFRIN

maybe i'll lie to you, maybe i'll play this role

maybe i'll act like my act is together

With her presence, all thoughts of everything else depart from his mind. He can’t remember why he’d doubted her, not when she’d been the one that had only ever treated him well. The only brief flickerings of wariness of her in his mind had come from stories, from events he wasn’t a part of. It was second hand knowledge, gossip in a sort, and when had he ever been one to lean on those? So he banishes the thoughts, easily swept up in all of her. Her tongue dances along her lower lip as his finger draws lazy circles. Her words reach him and he shakes his head, as if it didn’t matter, as if he’s realized now it had never mattered.

He’s so distracted that the hand that wraps around his wrist and pulls his hand away almost jars him, wings flexing and his horned head tilting slightly, feathers on his shoulders flexing. “There’s nothing—” He cuts off with a shuddering growl as her fingers brush along the tip of his cock, and the flush courses along his neck and cheeks. “Nothing to forgive, Safrin.” He recovers, the best he can, his one hand traveling to her hip and the clawed one dragging up along her curves to her neck, dragging a claw along the column there. If anything, he should be the one asking for forgiveness. It’s that which has him wait, has his restraint in an iron fist from taking her now.

He’s not in any position with that train of thought to make demands or requests, but he tries anyway. “Ek wil jou hê.” He breathes, pressing her against him, tangling that clawed hand in her hair from where he’d dragged it along her neck. He leans down, a breath away from her lips, a hint of playfulness overcoming him as he offers her a sharp smirk. His wings pulling from the softness of the Pegasus for the dragons' leathery wings, the clawed tips of them sharp where the light reflects off the points. “Mark me.” And let me mark you too.

maybe i'll cope with life without hope

maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor

SuNJATA

Her chin lifts as he says her name, and it fills her with more pleasure than his fingers have thus far supplied. His claw against her neck would be a dangerous game for anyone else, but for Safrin? It's foreplay. She leans against the pressure of his claw, and a single drop of iridescent blood trickles down. Like oil, it's ever-changing in colour, leaving a star-spill in its wake as it trickles down her neck.

The guttural words make her smile, and the air she pulls in through her nose is suddenly a sharp breeze that ruffles his feathers and boyishly tousles his hair. She nearly snaps her teeth at him as he nears, delighted by his boldness and playfulness. Feathers turn into stretched skin rendering Sunjata a stunning tableau of power and unfettered beauty.

This. This was the answer to the question, why bother with humanity. This was why Safrin cast her blessings onto mortals whose lives were so easily rubbed away. "En ek wil jou hê." She echoes, the chords of her neck straining against the curve of his talon, bright in her moonlight.

What he asks of her next though has her pupils dilating until her eyes are dark as the midnight skies. Her expression softens to nothing as she regards him with dangerous stillness, before moving. She is against him in instant, coiled about him like a fog or a snake. Her lips are against his, fingers tangled in his hair and yet somehow manage to trail down his back as her legs wrap around him and yet also tease at his feet. She is everywhere, but untouchable. Despite the play of her tongue against his, somehow she speaks: Nothing would bring me more joy, than to mark your bones and skin alike, for your soul is already cast in my light. So it is he'll feel a pain unlike any other. It's exhilarating and crushing as she writes her name upon his bones, her mark left inside of his rib cage, warding him against interference. He is hers.

Stepping back, her essence made flesh again, she reaches forward to touch his chest. "You are mine." She whispers, as ink spills from her fingertips. Dots form and shiver, marking out the constellation of Eridanus. The River. The Flood. "En ek is joune.." Spreading her arms, she bears herself to him, as the stars pulse and laugh around them.

SAFRIN

maybe i'll lie to you, maybe i'll play this role

maybe i'll act like my act is together

She presses against the talon and he watches as the bubbling and slow drip of a shimmery sort runs down her neck, a shiver running down his spine with the hues of blues and purples and greens he finds there. But his gaze lifts, dark and swirling with desire and appreciation with the words that leave her next. Leathery wings with sharp talons expand and heave, ruffled by the breath she draws in that's cool against his neck and shoulders. And so he asks, because he has to. She is divine and beautiful and everything he’d ever dreamed she’d be.

And then she stills, Sunjata shifting on his feet a small amount in delight, shivering as she suddenly launches and they’re tangled up in each other again, and he’s burning in more ways than one. It pulls the breath from his lungs as he’s flooded with pain, pleasure, a vibrancy that feels so at odds he has no idea entirely how to react other than to sink and stand simultaneously, to cling to her despite being unable to. He feels the mark in his bones, against his chest, feels it placed there as she had come close to when he’d attuned, and then suddenly she’s away from him again. Her hand meets his chest, inking marks there that he has no hope of understanding, other than it brings him closer to the constellations on her skin. And that is enough.

It’s enough that when the words leave her lips, his gaze is dark and his pupils are blown, the predatory desire he’d kept on a leash so tightly snapping suddenly. “I am yours.” He echoes, hoarse and guttural, breathless. And then he surges for her, reaching for that arm to pull her back to him, to crash his body against hers. “And you are mine.” He growls, suddenly quite handsy, surging for her neck to caress with bites and marks, hoisting her up against him and drawing his wings in tightly around them so she might have something to lean back against. He presses against her and aims his hips to fit in perfectly with hers, unable to keep himself restrained any longer.

maybe i'll cope with life without hope

maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor

SuNJATA