I'll sweep the stardust for you

Maeve

She watches him muse over her question before replying truthfully and Maeve hums, downing the rest of her mead before setting the empty glass on the table. "So perhaps it would be wise to ask me what it'll be instead of assuming." She teases with a soft huff, reaching up to run a hand through her hair, musing the curls a bit. "I don't always need more to be satisfied, Jata." Maeve murmurs, reassuring him that he has nothing to worry about from her. That they can simply enjoy each other without making it a thing. He has too much happening in her life and she's trying to figure out what the fuck to do with her own.

That playfulness fades even as he reaches up to caress her calf beneath her dress, earning him a soft sigh as she relaxes further. Her own smile drops when he speaks on his husband and now ex-wife. She licks her lips at the sight of heartache snatching that light from his eyes and that warmth in her chest fades with it. "I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully the time apart will allow him to figure things out and he'll be back." She does hope that's the case. For Sunjata's sake. The man has been through so much and her heartaches for him. To gain and lose so much in such a short amount of time. She knew it must be difficult. "I'm not upset, Jata. I just wanted to be able to be here if you needed me. That's all. You aren't always the best at asking for help."

Her voice is soft and she scoots forward just a little bit so she's close enough to reach him. Her knees draw up so she can lean towards him, reaching out with her free hand to take his. She gives it a squeeze, bringing it up to press a soft kiss to the back of his hand, "You're a friend. I care that you're alright and I know that you really aren't alright. I just don't think you should have to be alone right now."

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

SUNJATA

the flood

but am i too late? or hearts to your spades,
if i don't suit you? then what do you want from me?

Perhaps it would be worth asking. Perhaps he should just stop assuming – wasn’t that what got him into this mess? It’s a tangle of feelings that rebound inside his mind, one he keeps behind that careful mask that’s only seen the darkening of his gaze, the way he tries to relax just as she does and finds it faltering, stuttered, awkward. Still, he tries, tilting his head to look back at her, keeping his hand at her calf, his thumb stroking an idle touch because at least it wasn’t hurting her, just as his touch hard hurt his husband.

And it’s a connection, really, a moment where he doesn’t have to bear it all alone. “I hope so.” He agrees quietly. He hopes Nate comes back home. What would he do without him? He purses his lips a moment, lets his gaze drift toward her again. “I… No, I’m quite terrible at it actually.” Here he offers a wince. “It feels unfair to load it onto anyone else.” So he seeks out distractions, ways to ignore it for a time, to blend the sorrow and heartbreak into something he doesn’t have to worry about.

Unfortunately, having a daughter put a damper in his usual black out drunk plans.

She takes his hand and scoots closer, and Sunjata watches her as she lifts his hand to her lips – finding that gentle touch from her something that is kind and nice, far too much for him. Still, there’s a small ghosting of a smile that crosses his face, a pause as he runs his tongue along his lower lip, before a slow exhale leaves him. “Thank you, Maeve.” He rumbles, shifting his hand a bit so that he might be able to run his thumb along her jaw gently. “I’m… Not alright.” He finds it so incredibly difficult to talk about how he’s feeling that it comes out staggered and awkward. Enough so that a flicker of a wince crosses his face before it’s gone. “It’s a lot.” He finally decides with a slightly louder exhale.

so we're not written in the stars,
but i'm okay with that. i'm okay with anything

Maeve

She can't imagine what he's going through. Having never truly lost someone in that way. Yes, her mother left, but she was merely a babe when that happened. No, her losses have never been as large. As heartbreaking. Maeve has seen it with the girls. When they lose partners that they've come to care for and love to various circumstances. She knows what that heartbreak is and she's done her fair share of soothing it, but it's not a feeling she knows personally.

His thumb brushes across her calf, running back and forth over the soft skin he finds there and she wonders how much he longs for contact. How starved has he been of intimacy? Maeve draws in a breath of her own, expression softening as she meets his eyes, "I think terrible is still too kind. You're rather shit at it." She huffs out something like a laugh, a smile tugging at her lips for a second before it fades once more. "You should let others decide what is fair to them. Some of us are capable of sharing such burdens. Some of us are made for it." The reminder is gentle, a faint slap on the wrist to remind him that he doesn't have to be alone. That there are people who want to be there for him. Sometimes it's easy to forget.

Maeve leans into his touch, looking up at him from beneath her lashes as she takes in his admission. In the time she's known Jata, it quickly became clear that he was the type to bottle things up. To hide his feelings away and not let anyone else see them. He keeps up a wall and Maeve can respect it. Truly. She's done the same thing many times. Which is why she doesn't hesitate to shift. Maeve gets onto her knees, walking forward on them before she's suddenly swinging a leg over his lap and straddling him. Her arms go around his neck and she hugs him as firmly as she can manage.

"I know it's a lot and it's okay to not be alright." She murmurs next to his ear as she practically crushes herself against him, trying to give as much of her warmth as she can in this one hug. Fingers come up to cup the back of his head and run into his hair as she holds him. "You don't have to pretend with me. Not when we've already seen each other so vulnerable already."

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

SUNJATA

the flood

but am i too late? or hearts to your spades,
if i don't suit you? then what do you want from me?

A snort leaves him as she dashes his ‘terrible’ adjective and gives another to it, his gaze pulling away from her to offer a slight shake of his head, an agreement of a sort before he’s looking back at her. “I will try to keep it in mind.” He informs her, though a part of him still wants to bottle it up, still wants to carry his burden, because at least in that instance, he didn’t have to depress all of those around him with the weight of it all.

But she’s moving, and he remains in place until she manages to figure out where she wants to go. She settles in his lap quickly, planting both legs on either side of him and his arms move to wrap around her waist as she wraps hers around his neck, pressing herself against him as tight as she can. And he tenses, initially, almost a flinch of sorts before it melts away and his shoulders relax, his head rests on her shoulder, a flickering of feathers sprinkling along his shoulders.

There’s a huff of a sigh that leaves him, silent for a few long moments as he lets the sensation wash over him, touch starved as he’s become. It had taken a lot of time for him to get used to it in the first place, and with everything that had happened to him, Nate had done a wonderful job of Sunjata getting used to expressing his feelings in this way. And perhaps that’s what made it so difficult, being unable to touch  his husband, having to use his choice of words which never came out right. He was always so afraid to overstep or understep, to overshare or never say enough, that touch had been his mediator.

And without it? He’s grown touch starved, difficult, thrown into a tornado of his own making with knives that spun around and javelined him in the heart at any and every opportunity.

He pulls his head back a fraction, one hand rising to Maeve’s hair, to brush it back before his tired steel gaze focuses on her. “Not pretending, for me, is quite self-destructive and dangerous.” He informs her, bluntly, pausing to scan her face. “I just-- I don’t want to think about it right now.” There’s always tomorrow and the next day and the day after that to think about it, how to fix it, how to be better so Nate feels safe here with him again.

For now, however, he doesn’t want to face any of it. For now, he wants to ignore it until it rears its head again.

so we're not written in the stars,
but i'm okay with that. i'm okay with anything

Maeve

The tension in his body has him wound tight. He's stiff in her arms before he's suddenly melting into her, wrapping his arms around her waist and letting his head rest on her shoulder. She turns to press a kiss to his temple as she holds him close, fingers brushing lightly through his hair in an attempt to soothe frazzled nerves. Maeve holds him and lets her own eyes close, soaking in his warmth just as much as he is basking in hers. It's a small thing to do. A thing that doesn't hold any real weight. It doesn't fix his problems or take away his pain, but she does it anyway if only to soothe him while she can.

When he pulls back, she follows, keeping her arms around his neck as she gazes down at him. His large hand comes up to brush through her hair gently, drawing it away from her face as their eyes meet. He's so tired. Always so tired. Those steel eyes of his never without that dull dimness that the exhaustion puts in his gaze. Maeve brings a hand up to his cheek, thumb brushing along the stubble there lightly as she regards the man before her.

The words sting. Not because it feels like a rejection or even a reminder that he won't let his guard down around her. No, it isn't that at all. It's the fact that he has to pretend in the first place to keep others around him safe. That he feels the need to shut himself down and bottle it all up for fear of those around him. Maeve licks her lips, nodding slowly before she murmurs, "Don't have to think about it right now. Don't have to think at all..." Maeve's thumb brushes across his bottom lip much like it did that first night they met and she regards him with soft eyes, "Could help with that... Could help with a lot of things if you wanted me to..."

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

SUNJATA

the flood

but am i too late? or hearts to your spades,
if i don't suit you? then what do you want from me?

Her hand grazes along his jaw, her thumb stroking gently along his stubble, his head tilting a fraction into it as he regards her, as he tells her why he can’t let it go. He has to bottle it up, because to not bottle it up made him an asshole, made him more like his father, and it was something he actively strove to avoid. So he’d bottle it up until he explodes, and then start the process over again and again. And luckily for Maeve, he’s already exploded when it came to everything. He’d broken as he’d broken Nate. The one she sees now is simply picking up the pieces, blocking out the light from the windows of his fracturing soul, bound together out of sheer will.

Her thumb travels along, runs along his lower lip just as it had the first night. And back then?  That was before Safrin, before all of this, and he’d had his barriers that he’d built up. Here, however, there are none. Everyone’s left. And she’s assured him that it was nothing more than that, a distraction, so he lets go a bit more. He lets go of himself, the shifts within him, the horns that spiral from his head, the way the one hand in her hair tangles and pulls slightly, the way the other hand around her waist moves to settle along the edge of the corset on her hip.

“Distract me, Maeve.” He murmurs, his gaze flickering suddenly back toward the slit pupils of one of his shifts, the wings that appear and move to wrap around her, to blot out the firelight. Haai has taken the kittens at this point, traveled upstairs, a few small guardians for the upstairs while Sunjata applies his focus here. And he does, his chin lifting a fraction, his jaw set.

so we're not written in the stars,
but i'm okay with that. i'm okay with anything

Maeve

She watches his various shifts take hold, pulse starting to pick up in anticipation as green eyes rake over his form. The horns growing from his curls and rounding out before tapering into sharp points. His wings come next, fanning out from his back and curling around her just like they did that first night. Except this time she's prepared for them and prepared for the darkness they bring. He draws a breath from her as his hand tightens in her hair, tugging her a fraction closer to him so they're sharing breaths again. She licks her lips, eyes locked on his and she can just barely make out the slits in his eyes as he makes a sweet request of her.

A request that borders on a command and she's more than willing to oblige him. His chin lifts and she presses closer still, dipping her head to let her lips brush across his in a whisper of a kiss. "As you wish, beastie..." She breathes, that hand at his jaw guiding him forward so her lips finally find his. Maeve kisses him softly at first. Testing the waters, seeing what he likes with gentle swipes of her tongue and nips to his chapped bottom lip. Her eyes flutter shut as her head angles to deepen the kiss, teasing her tongue along the seam of his lips, urging him to part for her. The arm that was around his neck moves and she lets the hand slip down his chest, finding the hem of his shirt and the skin underneath.

As she shifts in his lap, the skirt of her dress rucks up around her thighs, baring the milky skin to him again. He's almost seen her naked before. When they went swimming together she might as well have been wearing nothing, but she's dressed for work. Which means there isn't simply functional undergarments hiding beneath fabric, but instead delicate lacey things that can be torn with teeth and claws if one is so inclined. Part of her would like him to be inclined. She truly wouldn't mind. She welcomes it.

He's nothing but heat and firm muscle against her, sinking into her bones and stirring up that urge in her belly. Her tongue finally pushes into his mouth, running along his own. The taste of the mead meets her with sweetness and honey, but it's mixed with him. She groans softly, trying her best to keep herself quiet as to not wake the girl sleeping upstairs. Only when her lungs start to scream in protest, burning desperately for air, does she allow herself to break the kiss. Instead her lips blaze a trail along his jaw, to his ear where teeth nip and tug at the lobe, before travelling down his throat. She finds his pulse with ease, tongue tracing along the fluttering vein before she's pressing her teeth there and sucking a mark into his skin.

She lifts her head, looking up at him with darkened eyes. The typical soft green of her irises replaced with something almost hedonistic as she dips in for another kiss. Maeve murmurs against his lips, feeding him her words as she refuses to pull back, "Wanted to do that the night we met... Wanted to do a lot of things with you so I could just forget." Which is what there are doing right now. Forgetting. Instead focusing on this and on each other in an attempt to banish the hurt for just a little while. Just for tonight.

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

SUNJATA

the flood

but am i too late? or hearts to your spades,
if i don't suit you? then what do you want from me?

She obliges him, readjusting and cupping his jaw in a way that guides him toward her, though he wouldn’t need it. She will find as the kias deepens that Sunjata’s easily moldable to her, giving in exactly just as much as she does. He sighs a breath against her, and when their tongues do meet, she’ll find his forked — each point moving on its own accord. Her groan is met with the slightest tug of her hair, a press of himself back against her.

Her skirt hitches up and his free hand moves to dive beneath it, to bunch it up as his fingers shift to those sharp claws, dragging along her pale skin on its careful approach upward. After all, he doesn’t want to draw blood. His chin tilts up when they part, his nostrils flaring on the sharp inhale of breath, his lips parting in a slight pant — despite his lungs being quite strong — which leaves the room for him to offer a low hum at the mark she leaves along his skin, buried in among the black ink.

He meets her gaze with a fanged smirk, his clawed hand sliding up along the outside of her thigh further and further until a claw tangles in the lacy underthings she wears and his other hand moves to cup her head, twisted into her dark hair, his elbow slipping around her back to press her closer, a chaste kiss given to her lips before he’s tugging her head back, exposing her neck so he might surge forward and press his lips there, to glide his teeth along her pulse. “Did you?” He murmurs against her neck, pushing forward a bit more as he releases her hair to press his torso against hers a bit more fully, to run that hand down her back to find the lace that keeps her corset on. “Show me what you wanted to do.” Comes the gruff purr.

And then he starts to unravel the laces that keep the corset together, his lips and teeth dancing along her neck, her collarbone, blazing a slow trail toward her lips.

so we're not written in the stars,
but i'm okay with that. i'm okay with anything

Maeve

Her body is already growing flush with want and need as he presses into her, dwarfing her smaller frame as he tugs her flush against him. The feeling of his tongue against hers is a new sensation. The forks surprising her, but they don't dissuade her from tasting him again, letting it work against hers until she blazes that trail along his jaw and throat. His hand slides along her thigh and she feels that drag of his claws ever so lightly trailing across her delicate skin. There will surely be marks and she welcomes each and every one of them. It isn't until one is hooking into the side of her underwear and already threatening to tear them loose.

Maeve tries to chase his lips and deepen that kiss, but the hand in her hair stops her from getting too far as he pulls her head back to expose the slender column of her throat to his eager mouth. It's his teeth pressing over her pulse that earns him another soft sound, rising in her throat as she arches her back. Her chest heaves, small breasts pushing against the confines of her corset that push them up like an offering. "Yes.." Maeve sighs, voice already breathy and pitched up higher as he easily moves her the way he wants. Not that she even tries to fight him. Not that she would want to.

His claws deftly work at the lacings of her corset, loosening them until it isn't pressing so tightly against her ribs and her fingers move to the front. She unhooks the closings keeping it in place, letting it fall to the floor behind them. Maeve isn't bare to him yet. Her torso still covered by the bodice of her dress, but he can more easily feel the softness of her waist and the give of her body without the boning and fabric in the way. "If I do that we'll be here all night and maybe all of tomorrow. Not sure you have time for that." Maybe it means he'll just have to have her again. However many times it takes until they get through her laundry list of things she wants to do with him. Maybe they'll come up with more together.

When he reaches her lips again, Maeve nips sharply at his bottom lip. She might not have fangs, but she can bite too. Her mouth presses to his again, eagerly opening to taste him once more as her hands run along his shoulders, one skating up into his hair to find the base of one of his horns. Her thumb brushes along the ridge, remembering how he shuddered for her the last time she did that. "Did you not want to do wicked things to me too, dear Flood?" Maeve murmurs against his lips, feeding him her words even as she continues to kiss him.

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

SUNJATA

the flood

but am i too late? or hearts to your spades,
if i don't suit you? then what do you want from me?

The sounds she gives him rise his heartbeat, flush his skin ever so slightly, and he leans forward against her as he unties her corset, blazing a trail up to her lips again. The corset falls to the floor, and Sunjata’s hand is already moving, creating some space between them to slide up her skirt, under the rest of her dress to press his fingers against her hip, to ghost his fingertips along the underside of her breast, a promise for later perhaps as their lips meet again.

There’s a sharp inhale as she nips at his lower lip, a soft hiss that both appreciates and chastises the gesture, before she’s speaking again. “I don’t, unfortunately.” He agrees with the breath of feigned regret and sorrow. As for him? His lips part to answer her but her hands find that horn again and a shudder runs down his spine, his wings wrapping around them in their own makeshift dark cocoon as he presses them in against her back. “Oh, I would love to, but I suppose we’ll have to settle with this, hm?” A quick distraction here, trying to keep quiet.

On second thought, however, the idea of his office space — furthest away from where the sleeping quarters are, might be suitable. At the moment though she has him quite well trapped under her attention, under her settled easily in his lap.

And perhaps this would be fun, a better distraction. So he lets the claws slice through her underthings, tugging them off and pulling back, wings flaring to simply observe her arched above him, a wicked smirk cascading across his lips. Both hands shift now to her hips, to slide underneath the dress to slip it off, before he scans her figure fully, drinking her in, as it were. A distraction from everything else, something to do to forget.

so we're not written in the stars,
but i'm okay with that. i'm okay with anything

Maeve

He runs his hands up beneath her skirt, bunching the loose fabric up until his fingers are ghosting along the underside of her breast. Goosebumps rise in the wake of his touch and the warmth of the fire washes over her skin as he exposes it to the air. "We've got tonight... and anytime after that." Because this won't be a one time thing. She doesn't think so at least. This attraction is too big to just be once. Maeve looks up to catch his gaze, lips curling into a smirk as he shudders at the touch of her thumb against his horn. His wings press in against her back urging her closer until she's flush against him again.

His wings are firm and strong and she loves the way they brush against the skin of her back, "Settle for the couch? I suppose we will." She murmurs back, voice hushed between them as his hands work her dress off. Maeve lifts her arms, allowing him to pull it over her head and suddenly she's completely bare in his lap. Nothing but inches and inches of skin for him to explore. Her breasts are small, big enough to fill his palms should he wish to cup them and her nipples are pierced with silver barbells. One through each of the dusty pink buds. Her skin is cast in a warm glow from the fire, the flames dancing across pale flesh as his wings flare out to expose her to the light for him to drink her in.

Maeve licks her lips, drawing the hand that was on his horn away to brace against his knee as she leans back so he can get a better look at her. "What do you think, beastie? Distracting enough for you?" She murmurs, her other hand trailing down her body to draw his eyes before she's reaching for one of his hands, bringing it to her waist. He's still dressed and that won't do at all, but he has her distracted at least momentarily.

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

SUNJATA

the flood

but am i too late? or hearts to your spades,
if i don't suit you? then what do you want from me?

“We do.” He breathes, though whether or not it was a recurrence, he isn’t sure. So he covers up his hesitance with pressing himself against her, with wings that press her further against him. There’s a catlike smirk that crosses his face as they part and he’s gotten her dress off, soaking up all he can from her. So of course he drinks her in, watching as she essentially preens.

He runs that forked tongue along his lower lip, his slit steel gaze soaking up all of her as she readjusts herself, as she puts on a show. One hand, the unclawed one, rises to cup her breast, thumb flitting over the barbell he finds there while she redirects his other hand. “Mm, quite distracting.” He hums to her, gaze following the blazing path that she takes with her own hand before grasping his and slipping it to her waist. The clawed points dig into her skin, and his wings remain out, flaring as he moves to surge up about halfway to meet her, to press a kiss to her chin.

It gives her the space to remove his shirt at least, though he’s sure she can tell the effect she’s having on him just below where she sits. The clawed hand shifts back into just his typical calloused ones, drifting down from her waist toward the inside of her thighs, almost aggravatingly slow, as if he might be able to draw more of a distraction out of her by how he takes his time.

so we're not written in the stars,
but i'm okay with that. i'm okay with anything

Maeve

Her eyes dip to watch that fork tongue brush across his bottom lip and she wants that tongue on her skin. She wants her tongue on his skin. So much to do. So much and she doesn't know if they have enough time. She wishes she could just slow things down for a moment. His hand raises to cup her breast, covering it easily with his palm and her nipple pebbles at the swipe of his thumb. Her breath hitches and she arches, eyes fluttering shut as he teases her.

She lets a smile rise to her lips even as they part with a quiet moan, "Good... That's the goal." Maeve murmurs, letting her eyes open as she looks down at him, tugging his shirt over his head and tossing it to the side. His skin is exposed to her and eagerly her hands runs over his his chest just as he surges up to kiss at her chin. Maeve angles her head head down to capture his lips instead, one hand finding its way into his hair where it grips tightly.

He's hot and hard beneath her, pressing against the heat of her cunt through his pants. He's good at distracting her and his fingers slipping towards the inside of her thigh oh so slowly earns him a quiet sound of frustration. "Don't be a tease otherwise I'll be forced to tease back." Maeve warns against his lips as she holds him in place so she can lick into his mouth again. Her hips rock forward and the slick that's been growing between her thighs gets onto his pants as she grinds against the hard line of his cock.

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

SUNJATA

the flood

but am i too late? or hearts to your spades,
if i don't suit you? then what do you want from me?

Her quiet moan spurs him on, his hands departing her for the shirt to slip off over his head — it’s a tiny bit of a struggle given the wings, but they manage. It falls into a pile on the floor and his wings begin to encroach again, leaving her to run off of the feel of the scars of his body rather than the light of the firelight. And he surges for her again, his hand tauntingly slow as it drifts along her inner thigh.

She captures his lips, however, and he melds with her, a huff of a sound leaning him as her fingers drift through his hair, gripping it tight. He is hard beneath her, aching more and more the more she moves against him. But he can’t give in just yet, not until he’s had his fun of course, so his hand drifts lower, fingers dipping below into her wetness and dragging along her clit in a slow gentle press. He breaks the kiss, trailing to her neck, leaving a mark along the side of it as he rumbles a quiet laugh.

“Doesn’t sound like much of a threat.” He challenges her against her neck while his fingers begin a slow circle. His other hand moves to her back, dragging through her hair and tugging on the way down to pull her head back a fraction more. His wings pick up some work, though, pushing closer and closer to cup her back entirely.

so we're not written in the stars,
but i'm okay with that. i'm okay with anything