I was today years old when I learned that when you type “otp: true” in AO3 search results it filters out fics with additional ships, leaving only the fics where your otp is the main ship
They are already selling data to midjourney, and it's very likely your work is already being used to train their models because you have to OPT OUT of this, not opt in. Very scummy of them to roll this out unannounced.
Putting some other Zhents on display, here is Bellar who is voiced by Declan Perring of Abdirak fame.
You seem a nice sort - I'm glad we didn't have to kill ya.
ok but like a serious question about tieflings, why do they have that thing through their abdomen like it's a scar or remains of infernal ancestry or what?
Happy Valentines day Rugan fuckers.
Thank you @leopardmuffinxo for helping me with the mods for this~~
And thank you everyone in the discord for all your delicious and hilarious posts/msgs today!
Hello, yes, did anyone want a threesome fic for Valentine's Day?
Click here to read on Ao3, or continue below.
"I don't have a coin to my name, lass, but I can't afford not to take my luck where I can get it," he murmured. She nodded at him and immediately broke out in goosebumps when he glided his fingers up the back of her neck and into her scalp. Something overwhelming was happening, but she was Lucky Fox and so she wasn't allowed to let nerves in. Instead, she suppressed a shiver of delight.
"Well, now I'm worried I'm going to miss out on all this prosperity," said a voice on the other side of her, then Dammon's hand was moving delicately past her cheek and into the hair above her ear.
The sense memory of her first entry to a gambling house always loomed large in Tav's mind. She'd been so young and tiny at the time, which made the glittering halls seem cavernous, like the places where dragons slumbered atop their hoards. Subsequent visits were always the same; following her mother indoors from the cold, wet streets of Baldur's Gate and stowing her threadbare woollen cloak somewhere in the foyer for a quick exit, Tav would be left in her neat little red outfit that matched her hair almost perfectly. They'd enter the casino and she would be assailed by the golden light, the music, and the sounds of laughter and clinking gold. Her heart would soar and her stomach would flutter, feelings which she would tamp down; for Lucky Fox didn't know fear, only prosperity.
As she entered the Last Light Inn now, all those feelings came flooding back. The miserable darkness of the shadow curse yielded to the warmth and light of the tavern, its high ceiling muting the noise of people conducting business, drinking and bickering. Tav shrugged her hood off and shook her hair, much faded from the vivid red of her youth, and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She'd talked Quartermaster Talli into giving her quite a hefty discount with a couple of stories about what they'd faced in Reithwin, anecdotes that made the trader's eyes go huge.
Smiling at the weight of the bag, Tav began to walk towards the stairs when she realised who was sitting at the bar. Rugan was perched on a stool with his back to her, talking animatedly to a familiar tiefling. Dammon was leaning into the other man as he listened, occasionally tucking a strand of hair behind his pointed ear. Tav noted the snug fit of Rugan's tan-coloured trousers with a glance—hopefully brief enough that Dammon, whose gaze had now fallen upon her over the Zhent's shoulder, didn't see. The tiefling smiled and waved when their eyes met.
Rugan twisted around to check who was approaching.
"If it isn't Lucky Fox," he said, sliding off his stool to offer it to her. She settled in between them, facing away from the bar so she could watch the entrance: old habits dying hard.
"Spreading luck wherever she goes," said Dammon, giving her a soft smile. "Without you, we wouldn't be here."
At this, Tav made a dramatic show of preening. "I suppose that means I'm not paying for my drinks tonight." Rugan immediately turned to the bar and ordered her a tankard of mead. "I didn't expect to be so helpful when I started out, but I do enjoy being thanked by men as grateful as they are gorgeous."
Dammon blushed and pressed his knee against her leg. There was a huff of laughter in her ear from Rugan. She realised that the two men were exchanging a look over her head. They were interrupted by the delivery of the mead, which Rugan gave to Tav, his fingers brushing against hers as he did so. She noticed his cheeks were also slightly pink.
"Cheers to being a damsel in distress," he said. "Although I'd prefer to avoid such trouble in the future."
The three of them clinked their tankards together; Tav could imagine that, like her, Dammon and Rugan were feeling the press of their fallen companions around them. As joyous as it was to save lives, it was equally heartbreaking to consider the people they hadn't been able to help. She couldn't imagine the pain of surviving beyond your friends out of pure luck—in Rugan's case, being the only survivor. Unwilling to ruminate further and let the group lapse into silent contemplation, she scrambled for a conversation starter and her mind fell into a familiar groove.
"Do you know how I got my name?" she asked, giving them both a sideways glance. Dammon murmured an admission of ignorance. "My mum used to clean me up nicely, then charge the gamblers at Cyneburh's Casino for a 'blessing' from the Lucky Fox." At that, Rugan gave an awkward guffaw and Tav gave his chest a shove; he was so solid that it didn't move him at all. "Not like that, Zhent. They'd stroke—let me finish, you clown—they'd stroke my hair."
Dammon's ice-blue eyes were on her as he tilted his head towards hers, asking, "Did it work?"
She saw his cheeks were still pink and wondered if she was also blushing. It must have been the warmth in the room. When she parted her lips to answer, she noted with interest that Dammon's gaze dipped downwards.
"The strange thing was that, yes, it did work. Patting a ginger girl on the head seemed to bring good fortune. Even Cyneburh herself would ask me for a blessing if I passed by."
Rugan leaned in on the other side of her. "May I?"
Tav smiled at him. The room definitely was hot. Someone must have chosen that moment to stoke the fire. "Can you afford to, Rugan?"
"I don't have a coin to my name, lass, but I can't afford not to take my luck where I can get it," he murmured. She nodded at him and immediately broke out in goosebumps when he glided his fingers up the back of her neck and into her scalp. Something overwhelming was happening, but she was Lucky Fox and so she wasn’t allowed to let nerves in. Instead, she suppressed a shiver of delight.
"Well, now I'm worried I'm going to miss out on all this prosperity," said a voice on the other side of her, then Dammon's hand was moving delicately past her cheek and into the hair above her ear.
Through inhuman effort, Tav managed to keep her mouth shut as the two men ran their fingers through her hair. Be normal , she thought to herself. Just three comrades exchanging good fortune . Her lips were buzzing and her nipples were hot and taut inside her smallclothes. It was impossible for her to look at either of them, because she knew they'd both noticed the effect they were having on her. The Zhentarim's eyes were bright, his pupils huge. Dammon was biting his lip.
Swallowing, willing her voice to be steady, Tav said weakly, "I think that's enough". Dammon withdrew, and with a gentle tug of the hair at the base of her skull that nearly made her moan, Rugan followed suit. "I can't believe I've given you all this luck for free."
"Yet another thing to be grateful for," sighed Dammon, his eyes dancing over her, taking in the arch of her back and the way she'd fisted her hands in the fabric of her cloak. The air was heavy between them. Unable to look at him straight on— Lucky Fox didn't know fear— Tav watched the tiefling from the corner of her eye as he slowly leaned in and gave her a closed-mouth kiss on the cheek that somehow didn’t feel chaste at all . His lips were warm and dry.
"Ta, lass," said Rugan, and then he was pressing a kiss to her other cheek.
After that, things began to happen quickly. She turned her head and brought her hand up to Rugan's face and then their lips met—she fumbled behind her for Dammon's thigh, his hand, anything, and tugged him towards the new centre of her world, the hot, wet juncture between her mouth and Rugan's.
Dammon slipped off the stool and crushed himself into the fray, licking into Tav's gasp, and then briefly abandoning her to caress Rugan's chin and kiss him until both men were panting. Rugan's lips found their way back to Tav's, then his tongue was replaced by Dammon's. Hands were roaming everywhere; in Tav's hair again, running down her back, grasping her thighs, even giving her tits a cheeky squeeze beneath her cloak.
She became dimly aware that, from somewhere further down the bar, someone's attention-seeking coughs were reaching a crescendo. Breaking away from the kiss, Tav saw Rolan glaring at them with open loathing.
"Get a fucking room," he snarled.
"Gladly," said Dammon, bending down to pick up Tav's bag. Rugan took her by the hand and helped her off the stool— for some reason, her legs were quite shaky—and led the way upstairs. As Tav walked up the steps behind him, watching his round arse move in those tight trousers, she couldn't help but throw a grin over her shoulder at Rolan, who was still hunched at the bar. He actually shook his fist at her and she mimed casting a firebolt at him. Before he could respond, Tav had hopped up the stairs and out of sight. Lucky Fox knows only prosperity.
--
They got into Tav's modest quarters. Dammon placed her bag down and went to light the only lantern in the room. Rugan took her face in one hand and kissed her, cupping her arse and pulling her against him; she could feel he was rock hard underneath his clothes. He ground himself against her once, twice, and she released a strangled noise.
Dammon returned to them and tugged her out of Rugan's grasp so she was against his bare chest—his shirt was neatly folded on the table, leaving him in tight leather leggings. "Let's see your clothes off, old man," he said, eyeing Rugan, then took over the task of ruining Tav. Kissing her mouth, he smiled against her, then began to lavish her neck with his lips and his tongue, his warm hand running down her body to cup a breast.
She turned her head to watch Rugan as the Zhent stripped. His muscles were long and smooth in the lamplight, and there was a beautiful foresting of hair across his chest and abs, thickening into blonde curls below the belly button. He noticed her looking and smirked as he pulled down his underclothes, his mouthwatering cock springing free.
"Fuck," groaned Tav. "C'mere."
Rugan stepped out of the pile of his discarded clothing and slotted himself behind her, his fingers finding the fastening of her cloak. Once that was gone, Dammon lifted her blouse over her head. Rugan removed her brassiere and then stepped out from behind her to push her back gently against the wall.
The Zhent gestured to Tav's trousers. "Would you like to do the honours?" he said to Dammon, who didn't have to be asked twice; he immediately sank to his knees with a sigh of adulation. Unfastening her belt with deft, strong hands, he tugged her trousers down and helped her to step out of them. She was left standing in her underwear. Rugan lowered himself to the floor beside the tiefling and smiled. Dammon seemed to notice the other man's cock for the first time and his eyes widened.
"That explains your confidence," he grinned. Rugan stilled, looking at him.
"Do you like what you see?" he asked. Dammon placed a hand on the other man's calf and nodded shyly.
"Yes. But we've got something else to do first," he said. They both turned their faces up to Tav then; Rugan's grin was filthy, triumphant, while Dammon's smile was sweeter, more joyful. Tav couldn't help but beam back at the both of them, wending her fingers into each man's hair. She felt the Lucky Fox had done it again. If someone had told her that saving the Grove and directing the last Zhent on the Risen Road to join up with the tiefling caravan would lead to this, she wouldn’t have not believed them. Certainly, it was an unusual turn of events, but things just had a way of working themselves out for her. “Lucky, lucky me,” she whispered to herself, and giggled.
Dammon reached out and took her ankle, placing it on his muscled thigh. Steadying her other leg with his arm, Rugan shifted so he was kneeling in front of her. He leaned forwards, tilting up his face, and nuzzled his nose past the hem of her underwear. Every touch of his skin to hers sent a jolt of burning electricity up her spine. After giving one awkward kiss to the seam where her thigh met her body, Rugan let out a grumble and used his long fingers to draw her knickers aside. Tav wanted to keep watching but involuntarily threw her head back and moaned when he licked her again, slowly, a deliberate tonguing from her cunt to her clit.
"Let's just get these out of the way," he murmured, then pulled her underwear down. She stepped out of them and he tossed them over his shoulder.
Dammon leaned in for his turn; she noticed he'd also shed the remainder of his clothes. Running a hand up the inside of her leg lightly to make her gasp, he then parted her folds to circle his tongue around her clit. Tav stroked his horns from the tip to the base and he hummed against her. Rugan gave a soft laugh, then angled his head to kiss Dammon against her throbbing flesh.
She looked down and watched as they alternated between twining their tongues together and battling to attend to her. Dammon hooked her leg over his powerful shoulder,the ridges on his skin rubbing the back of her thigh, and adjusted so there was enough space for the two men. Then both tongues were on her, Dammon's lapping at her slit while Rugan bent and twisted beneath her to flutter against her entrance.
Inescapable heat was building in Tav's heart and within her core. Gods, what did I do to earn this? she thought to herself. She hadn’t expected either of these men to enjoy this so much. Maybe Rugan, but Dammon seemed so innocent. A thought about where the latter might have learned to give head was interrupted by a spike of pleasure when he flickered his tongue just right . She breathed Dammon’s name, and was rewarded by him repeating the gesture. Sensing he was being outdone, Rugan pushed her legs further apart and began to tongue-fuck her. Unstifled moans spilled from her lips, encouraging him to deepen his attentions by slipping two fingers inside her. Suddenly, he broke away from her cunt with a groan.
"You're so wet and tight. Gods! Dammon, touch her."
She felt another finger, calloused and hot, at her entrance, and then Dammon hesitated, looking up at her. She moaned a shaky plea to him, or maybe the both of them. "Don't stop—more. Give me everything. Please —"
Dammon pressed one, and then two, digits inside her, as Rugan teased his tongue against her twitching clit before breaking away. The men's blue eyes met as their fingers intertwined in her cunt. "Tav, you do feel amaz—," Dammon had time to say, before Rugan interrupted him with a kiss. This was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen, Tav decided; two gorgeous men pumping their fingers into her as they panted against each other's mouths.
Someone was crooking their finger against the ridged spot inside her body that made her heavy with desire. Someone was rubbing a slicked finger against her back entrance, then breaching the tight ring, sending a shower of sparks through her. Breaking away from the kiss to take a few heaving breaths, Dammon looked up at her with one of the sweetest smiles she'd ever seen. He rested his cheek against her thigh and Rugan took the opportunity to dive at her clit, sucking it in a frenzy.
"I'm close," she whimpered, and Dammon's mouth dropped open. "Talk to me."
"You're beautiful, Lucky Fox. You're so good to us."
Between the praise and the expertise of Rugan's tongue, Tav's orgasm came crashing over her in hot sobs. She fluttered around the fingers moving inside her. Without warning, her quivering legs gave way and she found herself falling, then being gathered up in Dammon's lap. He lifted her without difficulty and manoeuvred so her back was pressed to his chest. Nuzzling at her neck, he whispered, "Did you enjoy that?"
Tav nodded silently, feeling boneless in her bliss.
Rugan crawled in front of them and settled down, wiping his mouth. "You need to work on your bedroom talk, lad." This made Dammon laugh softly against her neck. "I bet Tav would like a bit 'o filth."
"What are you saying about me?" she asked.
"You've been a very dirty girl tonight. Coming on two men's hands like that," Rugan said, palming at his cock.
Tav let out a huff of mock outrage.
"Don't pretend you don't love me talking to you like this, lass. Dammon, you try."
"Your body is perfect," a husky voice said in her ear. Even though he’d just been inside her, had been licking her softest places with his hot tongue, the intimacy of this was what set her heart quivering. She suddenly wanted a quiet moment of adoration in the blacksmith’s arms, but she also yearned to submit to Rugan’s vulgarity. Maybe I can persuade them to travel with us to the Gate , she thought, distantly. Keep them safe with me.
Dammon’s warm hands glided up from where they'd been resting on her hips to squeeze her breasts. She wriggled and then let out a squeak when he responded with a tweak to her left nipple. The tiefling groaned and bit into the juncture of her shoulder and neck. For the first time that evening, she noticed something hard and textured was pressed up behind her, and she rolled her hips against it.
Rugan hummed in approval, spat on his hand and began stroking himself in earnest at the sight of Tav's grinding. After a few moments of the wet sounds of Rugan's pleasure filling the room, Dammon's hands returned to her hips to still her.
"I'm sorry, I have to be selfish for a moment," he said. "You can tell me to stop." With that, he lifted her up again, like she weighed nothing, and lined her still-wet cunt up against the head of his cock. Tav moaned and writhed as he slowly began to impale her. She'd never seen a tiefling naked, and so the ridges she felt sliding into her now were a pleasant surprise.
In contrast to the length Rugan was presenting them with, the cock inside her now was shorter and had a startling girth, stretching her entrance as her thighs settled against his. Dammon gasped against her shoulder, kissed her, murmured something sweet in her ear. In front of her, Rugan was kneeling now, brows furrowed as he gripped his shaft.
"Well, between us— ah —I think we've got a good balance," Rugan told Dammon. "And you, Tav. Your body is— ugghh . I can't wait to come all over your perfect tits. Or would you prefer to lick my mess off the tiefling?"
Tav felt like she was dissolving; Dammon whimpered in her ear and bounced her on his cock. Inside her, his ridges pressed into all the right places. Rugan couldn't continue with this filth. Surely he wouldn't.
"You liked my finger in your arse earlier, didn't you, Lucky Fox? Do you want more?" Tav was barely able to nod. "Dammon, we're going to fuck her together. There's nothing better than rubbing cocks inside a beautiful woman as she howls."
Tav dropped her head back against the man behind her so Rugan couldn’t see the naked need that must have been written across her face. Fucking hell, this man is going to ruin my life . Apparently dealing with similar thoughts, Dammon stopped moving and squeezed her tightly around the middle. "You're going to make me come if you keep talking like that, Zhent."
"Finish in Tav's mouth then. Come here, lass." Rugan beckoned to her and Dammon slowly lifted her off him, grunting with the strain of resisting the urge to plunge back into her. Breath coming in little pants, Tav let Rugan's firm hands gently reposition her so she was on her hands and knees and he was lined up with her slit. She gave Dammon a smile, and the tiefling shimmied up to her so she could reach his cock.
Rugan breached her with his tip, then entered her with a smooth thrust. At the same time, Dammon took a handful of her hair and guided her open mouth to him, stifling her moan by pressing himself all the way inside until her nose was buried in the curls of hair at the base of his cock.
They began to synchronise their pumping so that the sensations were unceasing and delicious. Tav drooled and yelped around Dammon's cock as Rugan surprised her with ever-intensifying thrusts, the feelings of his thickness pushing against her oversensitised walls nearly overwhelming her. She tried to push back on him and the Zhent gave her arse a ringing slap, before spitting on the puckered ring of her back entrance, and sinking a finger in up to the knuckle.
The shock of it briefly made her mind go blank and her cunt spasm. He twisted the finger and then added another as he carried on fucking her, an assemblage of sensations that would have had Tav squealing with pleasure if her mouth were at her disposal. Previous experiences with anal had been acceptable, but nothing done under the cover of darkness with a timorous lover could ever match Rugan’s confident and dextrous intrusion. Under the onslaught, she shuddered and dug her nails into her palms.
The rhythm of Dammon's hips was becoming erratic. With his fingers threaded through her hair, he gave a few final surges into her mouth, and then she felt hot salt spill across her tongue. She sealed her lips around him and suckled everything down her throat, then pulled back to plant one final kiss to the tip. Dammon leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, then nudged her arms over his shoulders to lift her into a more upright position. Desperate thrusts from behind her jogged Tav against the tiefling as they kissed, his tongue exploring the new flavours of her mouth. He reached down to find her clit, rubbing her in little circles that quickly had her heaving in ragged breaths.
The electric sensation of Rugan's cock swelling inside her signalled that he was close and brought her towards her own edge. White began to impinge on her vision; a thousand tongues of flame licked up her torso from her cunt to her neck. And then she was climaxing for the second time that night, with Rugan juddering and groaning behind her as Dammon watched her face twist in ecstasy.
They stayed like that for a moment, kneeling three in a row and with Rugan still joined with her. Dammon leaned over and kissed the other man slowly, running his hands over Tav's torso as he did so. Rugan carefully disengaged and she felt the drip of their combined juices running down her thighs.
Slipping out from between them, she clambered onto the low bed. Her body was soft and pliant, her mind a blissful void, as she watched the two men kiss each other with vulnerability, their hands exploring without any sense of purpose beyond simply knowing .
Eventually, Rugan broke away and let out a grumble. "My knees aren't going to thank me for that," he said. Dammon stood and offered him a hand. They moved over to the bed and settled on either side of Tav. Someone pulled blankets over them to prevent their cooling sweat from becoming uncomfortable. While Rugan twisted and thumped a heavy leg across her hips, a sliding sensation on her ankle made Tav nearly jump, before she realised it was just Dammon's tail wrapping around them both.
"Are you satisfied?" he asked her, giving her a doting look from under his thick lashes. His hand found her breast beneath the sheets and he stroked it dreamily.
Tav bit her lip. "Satisfied, yes... But I'm not finished indulging you both."
"The night is young," said the tiefling, nuzzling her shoulder.
Tav rolled her head to look at Rugan, who yawned in her face. "The night is young, but I'm not. Give me a breather, you animals." It was impressive to see how quickly he fell asleep after hooking an arm around her waist and shoving his face into the pillow. Between the solid muscle of his leg and his arm draped over her, Tav was neatly pinned. Although she was relaxed, she felt pleasantly alert. Praying that Dammon wasn’t also going to fall asleep and leave her trapped and bored, she turned back to the tiefling. His pale blue eyes crinkled with happiness as he examined her face.
"I guess it's just you and me for now," she whispered. Dammon pressed his forehead to hers and smiled.
Day 6 (SFW): Teaching each other how to do something.
Original prompt list
[This is a little continuation of Tav and Dammon's story from my series The Hellion's Heart. However, apart from the last few paragraphs after the page break, it can be read entirely as a standalone. Please note that while the original series leaves Tav's race open-ended, this little drabble assumes a non-tiefling Tav.]
Tav frowned down at the scrap of paper in their hand. They’d been helping Dammon organize his papers in preparation for the upcoming tax season. The bulk of it had been dull work—organizing receipts by date, sorting through old jottings to see whether any of them contained pertinent information about business expenses, or if they simply needed to be thrown out. This particular note, however, was quite indecipherable.
“Hey Dammon?”
“Yeah?” his voice echoed faintly from the other room, where he was busy taking stock inventory.
“I can’t read your handwriting on this one. Can you take a look?”
“Sure, one moment.” She heard a gentle clattering sound as he dropped whatever he’d been working on, followed by the thump of bootsteps over the floorboards and the spicy musk of his breath as he leaned over her shoulder.
“Oh,” he breathed, plucking the note from her hand. “No wonder you couldn’t read it. It’s in infernal.”
“Really? I didn’t know you wrote infernal.”
His eyes darted over his own handwriting. “Sure. A lot of tieflings use it for privacy. Zevlor recommended we use it when we were in the Grove. Got quite a bit of practice from that. I still use it sometimes, so I won’t forget. This one’s just a shopping list, so we can toss it.”
Tav peered down at the note, wondering at the strangely beautiful script. “Is it hard to learn? The writing system, I mean?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think so. Though I suppose it comes naturally to tieflings. Still, it’s not all that hard. I could teach you, if you’d like.”
Tav took a moment to study the lettering. “You know what, why not. It could be fun.”
Dammon’s face lit up with a warm smile that made Tav’s chest warm. “Alright then. Tonight, when I’m done with work, I’ll teach you.”
***
As it turned out, learning infernal did not come easily to non-tieflings. Patient a teacher as Dammon was, Tav struggled to discern the jagged letters from one another, eyes swimming with what she perceived to be nothing but chicken scratch.
Still, she was determined to learn, so Dammon left them to practice with a handwritten copy of the alphabet, which Tav carefully copied every evening before bed. As difficult as Infernal was, Dammon had mentioned not wanting to forget how to use it, so it must’ve been important to him. If that was the case, then Tav wanted to be able to share it with him.
About a week after their first lesson, Tav had an idea, one they spent an entire evening bringing into fruition, hands shaking with nerves as they worked at Dammon’s tiny kitchen table. They were just placing the finishing touches when he came in from the forge, brow sheened with the sweat of a day’s labor.
“How’s the writing going?” he asked, now well-used to her daily routine of script practice.
Tav swallowed down her nerves, then rose quickly from her chair, thrusting the sheet of parchment out towards him. “See for yourself.”
Dammon gave her a curious look, then crossed the room to read what she’d written. It wasn’t unusual for her to ask that he check her work, but he must have noticed how nervous she was.
He read for what felt like a long time, parchment crinkling where his fingers gripped the edge. At first, Tav thought their penmanship might just be messy, or that the letters were too smudged to read from her erasing her work too many times. But apparently, that wasn’t the problem at all.
“Is it…supposed to say something?” Dammon asked.
Tav shifted uncomfortably. “Um…yeah. Did I make a mistake?”
“You must have. I mean, this is gibberish. Unless this is another language. ‘Ilpvey’…”
Tav snatched the paper from his hand. “What? No, that’s not right at all! This is supposed to be an ‘O.’ Wait a second, I’ll fix it.” She hurried back to the table, crossing out the wrong letters and re-writing them. “Gods, I was only a line off,” she muttered to herself before shoving the note back into Dammon’s hands, praying he wouldn’t notice the hot flush rising up her neck. “Here, now read it.”
Dammon gave her a questioning look, then peered down at the corrected note. At first, his expression remained one of confusion. Then, something appeared to click, and a sweet smile pressed its way into the corner of his mouth. Still, he didn’t say anything, merely stared down at the message without a word, which only made Tav more nervous.
“Umm, does it make sense now? If not, I can try again…”
No response. He was still looking down at the note.
“Dammon?”
Finally, he looked up, eyes shining electric blue in the dark. For a moment, he merely stared at her with a strange expression, as if he were trying to determine whether she was real. Then, just as Tav was considering fleeing the room in shame, she was being pulled against him, note still clutched in his hand as his arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace.
“It does make sense, sweetheart,” he hummed against her neck. “I love you too.”
Tav smiled against his shirt, eyes falling shut with relief. It was the first time either of them had said it.
***
In the eventful days that followed, Tav forgot about the note entirely. After tax season came final preparations to take on the Elder Brain. Then, the battle itself was followed by a period of necessary healing, in which Tav spent weeks in bedrest. All the while, Dammon remained at her side, both of them grateful that the other had made it out of the entire ordeal alive.
She hadn’t even known Dammon bothered to keep the note until many years later, when she came across it by chance while flipping through some old books of theirs. At first, she was confused as to why he’d folded the note inside a copy of an erotic play—The Pleasurable Deal. It wasn’t until she read the opening line that any of it made any sense to her.
For now the game did start. He’d said that, she recalled, that first time they’d met at the Carress. At the time, she hadn’t known what he was talking about. But now, it made sense, perhaps more than he could possibly have realized at the time. Just like the protagonist, they’d both gotten far more than they’d bargained for with that deal.
She smiled as she read the words she’d written so long ago—I love you.
If that first night was how the game started, then this was how it ended.
