[Read at your own risk.]
Elyonari didn't look away. For once, she didn't joke or dodge with her usual flirtatious smirk. Her breath came out like a mist, and her lips parted slightly.
"You say you have feelings for me but words... words don't mean anything, Vastarael. Not when you say them like you're reciting something memorized. Not when you avoid my eyes right after."
There was a silence that followed. She blinked, the sharpness in her eyes trying to cover up the softness pooling just beneath.
He kissed her without warning.
He turned and closed the space between them. His bionic hand cupped her cheek with surprising gentleness, and his lips pressed to hers with a kind of desperate finality, as if he had run out of time and couldn't stand it a second longer.
Elyonari gasped softly, eyes going wide before fluttering shut. For a heartbeat she froze then melted, her arms instinctively wrapping around his neck, her body leaning into him, trusting him to catch her. She tasted winter on his lips, the cold of snow and the warmth beneath it.
When Vastarael pulled away, his breath hitched slightly, his lips parted, golden eyes unable to meet hers. He turned his head and to Elyonari's delight, his ears were pink.
She blinked, then grinned.
"Well well well, is that a blush I see? I never thought I'd see the great Vastarael Richinaria flustered."
He didn't answer.
Instead, his hair began to slide forward, casting shadows across his face as he looked downward.
"Oh come on. This is priceless! Lemme take a holophoto of this and brag to Adelasta about it. She needs to see this!"
The more she teased, the more his hair shielded his expression until it felt like she was speaking to the calm before a very beautiful storm.
"Vastarael?"
That's when he reached out and gripped her shoulders firmly. And slowly, his head lifted.
His golden eyes were glowing, casting a faint glimmer onto her skin. The playful warmth she'd seen before had burned away,
"Don't push it. If you do... I won't hold back. I swear it."
Elyonari stared at him for a moment. And then she smiled. Her fingers tightened behind his neck, nails brushing against the edge of his nape.
"Then don't. Make me believe it."
Vastarael sighed. But his next breath was filled with something else entirely. And before she even felt the shift in the air, they were no longer on the balcony.
In a blink, in a breath, she was in the bedroom. The balcony doors still stood open behind her, letting in the hush of snowfall and the deep blue of night. But it was Vastarael who pressed her gently backward until she was on the bed, his hand on her abdomen, pushing just enough to guide.
Elyonari gasped softly as she fell onto the plush bedding, her emerald eyes wide and glowing faintly in the dimness.
Vastarael stood above her, lit only by the approaching stars and the radiance of his own irises. Every breath he took made his chest rise with restrained energy,
He looked like a hunter forged from frost and light and she was trapped beneath his gaze.
He stepped forward, kneeling on the bed, arms on either side of her as his voice dropped to a soft murmur.
"This is your last chance. If you don't back out now, you're not leaving this bed for an entire day."
Elyonari bit her lower lip, heart pounding.
Then I'm not backing out. So prove it, Richinaria."
He didn't smile.
Instead, he lifted a single hand and began drawing runes into the air one by one. Sapphire crystal formed around, blanketing the windows and doors like permafrost, turning them opaque. Each rune shimmered before hovering in the air like floating snowflakes, then aligned into a formation that shimmered once.
Soundproof Runes.
She gulped.
"What... did I unleash?"
She whispered, a tremble of thrill racing down her spine.
He finally smiled.
She watched as his hand hovered above her, fingers trailing through the air like he was still drawing runes, except this time, they were only for her.
"Don't move."
And she didn't.
His fingertips brushed the line of her jaw first as though he was memorizing it. His thumb traced down her cheek, grazing the corner of her mouth before traveling down the delicate curve of her neck. Her breath hitched slightly at the sensation, not from fear, but from the maddening gentleness of it.
Her skin bloomed with goosebumps under the touch.
"You always talk so much. But right now… I want you to be quiet."
Elyonari raised an eyebrow but her smirk softened. Her hands slid up his chest. Her fingers curled into the fabric before she pulled him down just enough for their foreheads to touch.
"So make me."
He didn't need another invitation.
His lips met hers again. It wasn't the sharp, sudden kiss from before. It was one filled with longing that had gone unsaid for too long. Her hands slid up into his hair, tugging slightly.
Vastarael pulled back just slightly, eyes half-lidded, his thumb brushing her lower lip. She leaned into it.
"I've always wanted to show you when I say I care… it's not just a line. It's not just something I say because you ask for it. It's because when I look at you, Elyonari... I want to give you everything."
Her throat tightened. She blinked, swallowing back emotion she hadn't expected to feel.
"Then show me. Because seriously, you can't have someone as hot as me and still not harbor lustful desires right? Well, not like I'm any different..."
"I told you not to talk too much didn't I?"
He leaned down and this time, he didn't kiss her lips. He kissed her neck, the line of her collarbone. And when he reached the space just beneath her ear, she gasped again, eyes fluttering closed as her back arched slightly off the bed.
He murmured against her skin, voice husky,
"You're not walking tomorrow."
Her laughter was breathless, trembling with something too close to awe.
"We'll see."
But her voice broke on the last word, because his hands had slid lower, his touch featherlight at first, just enough to spark anticipation across every nerve. He removed his gloves and cupped her waist with his bare hands and kissed her again.
Elyonari opened her eyes, and their gazes locked.
"You've never looked at me like this before," she whispered.
He brushed her hair back, gazing at her like she was something he hadn't known how to reach until now.
"I've always looked at you like this. You just never let me hold still long enough to show it."
Her eyes shimmered, but her smile returned.
"Then don't stop."
And Vastarael didn't.
Not for a long, long time.
That night, the castle didn't echo with anything but silence, perfectly sealed by sapphire and Soundproof Runes, while two souls moved in sync. And thankfully, after the chaos the city had, no one would at least look for them for an entire day.
Well, not that he would allow them to interrupt his time with the most beautiful divine elf of the Third Generation.