A gentle touch, a simple caress lasted a lifetime as your head rests silently on his chest; long slender fingers comb in slow motions through your hair as his steady heartbeat continues to keep you lulled in a state of rest. Not once before you had Chevalier craved such innocent intimacy or even gave the thought that he was deserving of such tenderness.
You looked as beautiful as a painting in his arms with the morning sun enhancing your features, yet as fragile as glass that the tips of his hardened hands would only shatter with too much pressure. He moves his hand down to your shoulder, continuing his almost ghost-like traces on your upper arm.
Waking you was the last thing on his mind and he couldn't help a small chuckle to escape past his lips, the tiny little smile he shows to only you blessed past behind the fog that once clouded his mind. Smiling was still a bit foreign to him and yet, so natural on his face when you're with him.
He bared his heart exposed on his sleeve for you, knowing at any given moment he could bleed out roses and die by your hand; yet, you'd kiss them softly, urgently. The world may be an endless winter to him but spring radiates from your lips, the warmth of your love thawing a heart once frozen in time, shrouded in ice.
Who knew a love like this could exist outside of a storybook?
Nothing could interrupt this scene of tranquility for him; the morning had long been forgotten. His once unnerving stare now filled with the gaze of a gentle tiger in love watched your sleeping body in admiration, you looked so peaceful when you slept. Like fear didn't exist in your mind when you were with him - nothing could touch you, nothing could break you.
His other hand shifted off the bed to where a small rose lay and he grabs it, tucking it just behind your ear. Ah, just as he thought, it suits you beautifully.
A rose by an other name would smell as sweet -- what light through yonder window breaks? It was the east.. and you were the sun.
His smile moved to kiss the top of your head in long pecks, looking only once towards the window before he shifted his hold tighter on your body, relaxing to the steady sounds of your breathing; his eyes finally closed to savor this moment with you.
'L’amour est la poésie des sens. Qu’est-ce que je ferais sans toi?' was the last thought to pass his mind before the unrest in his eyes helped him back into a comfortable sleep.
Summary: With the first droplets of the first downpour of spring comes Leonardo’s first request. It had been hanging in the air since they had first crossed the other’s mind unprompted, he simply needed to be reminded of one thing - she would be his, he only had to ask.
Warnings: SFW with veryyyy mild spice. I’m talking Nando’s lemon and herb spice. Nothing graphic here just...the beginnings I suppose HAHAH.
Notes: I know I cut it fine hahah but here is my gift for @aquagirl1978 as part of @ikemenlibrary ‘s gift exchange!! I absolutely loved the prompt and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring a ~spicier~ side for the first time! I hope you enjoy it!! :) and thank you Bryn for all your hard work in setting up this exchange. I know how much effort you’ve put into this and it’s been such a wonderful experience. Thank you thank you <33
***
“When was the last time you saw her?”
The departing sun had spilled orange onto the sky when the men of the household started to gather in the dining room. Comte had been spending the past hour asking around the residents for her whereabouts, knocking on door after door. Yet, nobody could give him an answer. It was only when he asked Sebastian, as he was preparing dinner alone, did a foreign kind of panic start to settle in his bones.
“She was rather pale this morning so I gave her the day off. She said around noon that she was going out for some fresh air, but I haven’t seen her since.” He admitted, voice steady but fingers fiddling with the buttons of his jacket.
“That girl, she sure does know how to sneak away. Not that I’m unfamiliar with that kind,” he said, thinking back to his oldest friend who also had a habit of being rather slippery.
As if on cue, the heavy doors of the dining room creaked open, as Leonardo waltzed in with an apple in hand and his features breaking out into a yawn.
“Have a cup of tea, le Comte. I could feel your panic from down the hall,” he croaked, taking a bite of his apple.
Comte decided to ignore his friend’s jest, opting to focus on the matter at hand. “Well excuse me for being concerned about my guests.” A thought. “You haven’t sent her on another one of your silly tasks have you?”
Leonardo chuckled, “Scusa, but this was not my doing this time. She’s a grown woman, I remind you. Who spends her days cleaning after and attending to a mansion of old men, no less. Can’t blame the girl for wanting some time for herself without having to tell daddy Comte where she’s going or what time she’ll be home.”
There was a hint of guilt behind the eyes of the men in front of him, but concern also lingered. They knew he was right, but she was still everyone’s best girl. It was still dangerous out there, they were still worried.
“However,” Leonardo said with another crunch of his apple, “it is nearly dark and she shouldn’t walk back alone. I’ll go get her.”
Comte laughed, though it was nearly a scoff, “Do you really think you’re going to be able to search the whole of Paris before the sun sets?”
“Nah,” Leonardo smirked, chucking the unfinished fruit to his friend as he made his way to the door, “I know where she’ll be.”
***
And that he did.
He found her by the lake, like she always was whenever she got like this. Leonardo knew she was happy staying at the mansion, and he knew that’s where her heart wanted to be. But he also knew the weight and ache of missing somewhere you can never return, of knowing you are happy where you are but guiltily missing where you were regardless. She never wanted the others to doubt her happiness, because she didn’t doubt it, she just needed her time every now and then to mourn the before.
Leonardo leant against a tree, arms crossed and head tilted as he watched her expression. Facing the sun, the warm glow bathed her face as she kept her eyes closed, allowing her skin to absorb the light and heat. Her hair ever so slightly danced in the breeze, hesitant but no doubtedly swaying. Soon enough he saw her eyes slowly crack open, her lungs deeply filling with the new air of spring before letting it go, irises roaming over the gentle ripples. She blinked once, then twice, and then she stood.
Leonardo finally stood straight, “All done, cara mia?”
He swore the smile she showed him from over her shoulder made his ancient heart throb. It was a smile of safety, of comfort. If he didn’t know any better, of love.
She began to make her way to him, “You should be careful about sneaking up on girls like that. You might just lose a few teeth.”
He chuckled warmly, “You say that like I make a hobby of watching over lone women.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you did.”
“You should be,” he spoke lowly, only an arms length away from her now, “I don’t have an interest in other women. Only a concern for you.”
The tension had been palpable between the two of them since she first arrived at the mansion that one night. There had been a shift - a turning point - when he woke up with her in his arms outside le Comte’s office. That had been the first time his eyes met hers, and he knew that something was beginning. He didn’t know what exactly, but he knew she was going to bring something into the mansion and into his life, making his world change its course.
Over the months, Leonardo began to understand. He had only ever intended to help her, to make sure she felt safe and supported before she left. She had been frantic, panicked, like an injured bird in a cage of lions. A child. Eventually she settled, and with that came a softness he’d never seen from her. She still teased and poked and laughed without restraint, but now he caught her occasionally in the depth of the garden, on the edge of the balcony, with an expression of ease and contentment. Of wisdom. A woman.
Leonardo believed that was when he started to fall. Or at the very least, when he was past the point of recovery.
She looked at him now, lips easily curving into a smile as her eyes roamed over him before shyly moving to the ground between them.
He held out an arm for her, “Come on you, before le Comte rips all his hair out. I know a shortcut.”
She took it, a flash of amusement in her eyes as her arm curled around his bicep, “It’s funny how your shortcuts always take longer than the normal path.”
“Story of my life, cara mia,” he said, and she didn’t miss the hint of sadness in his tone, “but the normal path becomes boring when you’ve walked it so many times. And besides, I can’t help but want you to myself for a little longer.”
He caught the light blush of her cheeks, but that didn’t hold back her next statement.
“You can have that whenever you so desire. You only need to ask.”
***
They couldn’t have been more than five minutes into their journey home when they felt the first droplets of rain hit their skin. Before she even had a chance to fully acknowledge it, Leonardo was shrugging off his coat and resting it on her shoulders.
“Here we are again, cara mia. This is becoming a little tradition of ours, heh.”
He grabbed her hand as the rain started to come down in full force, leading her through the empty field until they came across a lone oak tree, seeking shelter from the onpour.
And it was in the scarce light of dusk that she got to have another good look at him. She had tried to keep her desire to look restricted to mere glances in passing, but she always longed for longer. Now she could examine the creases by his eyes, the beginnings of stubble along his jaw, the slight bump in his nose. She could follow the tracks of raindrops from the points of his soaked hair to his cheekbone to his chin. She could see the twinkle in his eye as they met hers, catching her in her observations.
“What? Got something on my face?” he said with amusement, feigning coyness as his hands reached up to touch his cheek.
She enjoyed his teasing, but she wasn’t in the mood to joke anymore. “No, I just like to look at you.”
His smile dropped ever so slightly with his arm, searching for something in her expression. She held her ground, not shying away from his examination. Nor from his step towards her.
“Careful, cara. I might get the wrong idea.”
“I don’t think a genius like you could get this wrong.”
“I think you’re overestimating me.”
“And I think you’re underestimating me.”
It was her turn, her play, and she took a step towards him. Now toe-to-toe, eye-to-eye, she willed him to remember.
You only need to ask.
And there it was, the silent request. She saw it in his tensed jaw and in the slight parting of his lips - the flicker of his eyes to her mouth.
May I?
She leant forward - her answer.
Please.
With a hand cupping her face and one curving around her waist, Leonardo tilted her head before capturing her lips with his own.
He had lived many years, seen many things, felt many emotions, but somehow after all this time she still managed to teach him something new. In the simple action of moving her lips against his, in wrapping her arms around his neck, she taught him the true beauty of being alive.
His grip on her waist tightened when she sighed into his mouth, leaning on her tip-toes to get closer, to taste him more. She felt a droplet fall from his eyebrow onto her cheek as she filled her hands with his damp hair, an action that was gratefully received with another squeeze of her hips. Months of longing and desire poured into this one exchange, and both parties found it completely, utterly addictive.
Leonardo pulled away first, just to get a good look at her. Lips swollen and pupils blown, but her expression was as gentle as before. The way she looked at him never changed even after they had crossed this line in their companionship, telling him all he needed to know.
She had fallen too.
He leant his forehead against hers, both catching their breaths as the rain continued to soak them to the bone. Not that either of them minded, nor particularly noticed. Leonardo caressed her cheekbone with the pad of his thumb, leaning in to steal another peck from her lips. “You don’t know what you do to me, cara mia.”
He felt the brush of her lips against his as she smiled. He could see each individual droplet on her eyelashes from this distance, yet it still didn’t feel like enough. He was restless, desperate in the palm of her hand before she leant up to his ear, those same eyelashes tickling his lobe.
“Well, I’d like to.”
***
They made it back to the mansion shortly after the rain had stopped, much to le Comte’s silent concern masked as irritation. After a good scolding and accepting the blankets from a frantic Sebastian, they ascended the grand staircase of the mansion, hyper aware of every heavy step against the wood.
Leonardo walked her to her room, fully intending to bid her goodnight and be on his way. He wouldn’t push his luck, and he was still reeling from their shared kiss in the rain. He would give her space.
But when she caught his hand as he turned away, he couldn’t deny her. He didn’t want to deny her. Denying her would also be denying himself.
He followed her into the darkness of her room, only lit by the moon high in the indigo sky.
There was a thick silence in the air as they simply absorbed each other’s presence. It was like they were dancing, but completely still. Abstractly in sync, this pair, as if they hadn’t known anything other than this. She noticed the twitch of his fingertips, he noticed the catch of her breath. Somebody was going to have to give in.
Leonardo couldn’t stand it any longer. He stopped right in front of her, barely a breath between them, tugging at her soaked blouse, “You’re gonna get sick if you stay like this.” He wasn’t teasing.
A shiver ran up her spine. Not because of the cold. “You think you can help me out with that?”
His lips were already trailing her collar bone and along the base of her throat, leaving open mouth kisses just below her ear as she started unbuttoning his also drenched shirt, “Yeah, I think I can.”
His shirt was peeled off him when he left his first mark upon her skin, her sigh sending goosebumps along his arms. With her fingertips tracing over the contours of his torso, feather light over scars from time forgotten, he snuck his hand under blouse and tugged her closer to him by her waist. Flush against each other, like they had been carved from the same stone.
He stopped his administration on her neck to catch her gaze, asking one more time. Just to be sure.
May I?
Please.
***
I hope this is what you were hoping for, Aqua!! Lemme know if there’s any edits/things you’d like me to add, it’s your gift after all I want you to be content with it :) thank you for reading!!🌻
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤
ayeeee round 2 lets go u__u thanks @aquagirl1978 <3 i tried to keep these mostly ikemen but i don't have that many ikemen fics LOL
Thank you for the ask, @aquagirl1978! This is a Gilbert von Obsidian NSFW wip that I wrote for @gilbertvonobsidian a few days ago, and I'll gladly share it here.
(Minors DNI)
~
He felt you soften against him and he smiled. Anyone else would call it wicked, but you knew better. You knew him better than that. His wickedness only fed the beast inside to keep it alive. It did not growl in your presence; it purred, a pleasantly menacing rumble in his chest while his claws dug into your hips to keep him deep inside of you. Deciding against provoking him this particular evening, you instead let out a pleased whine as his length twitched inside of you promisingly, reminding you who you belonged to with every throb.
Thank you for all the wonderful additions to JeanBouquet! Sorry for the lateness ><
This is another entry that was meant to be for the SBCCC, and it was definitely inspired by all the other entries for the "Searching for a four-leaf-clover together" prompt. It's not much though...
suitor: gilbert
content warning: anxiety
For three weeks you alienate that horrid image and that horrid sound in the shapeless chasm humans keep for diseased memories. Let it rot, you whisper, again and again, looking anywhere but at the pieces of the world painted red. Hallways, books, a single rose. Until I have forgotten.
Even now, as the perpetrator of that very horror walks you through his dead garden, you're clawing away and stumbling into the balm and bandage of a fake smile.
You'll be okay. You'll be okay, so long as he doesn't look at you with that eye.
And just like that, as if reading your thoughts, Gilbert turns his head toward you.
Would you want to live in one of the fictional environments you’ve created? Which one and why?
Oh, definitely not. They're all so dangerous!
Reality has enough perils without adding the confirmed threat of more. I would die. I am absolutely the kind of useless dumbass who would blunder into faerie without a faerie abduction kit or go to the beach and lose a leg to a mermaid attack or wander into the wrong neighborhood and get eaten by a pack of feral dogs and feral children.
And that's the modern fantasy settings. The others are just as bad and don't even have the virtue of internet communication and central air conditioning.
No, I like exploring other worlds vicariously. They're nice places to visit, as the saying goes, but I wouldn't want to live there.
Most definitely the Havenfall MC 😅 From her terrible humor, to her sarcasm, to her THIRST. Just.. yes.
9. If I Could Turn one LI into a Real Human, who would it be:
This gorgeous creature right here 😏
10: A Scene that Moved me: Hmmm.. so manyyy.. When JD first has to leave MC for Hell...when Onyx fucking dies.. When we get to see where Yvette grew up.. the first time Xenia says 'I love you'.. and the scene where Helena finally breaks the Witch Queen's bonds - all SO good.
