will you post the complete story? like along with the shorts you made before?
for the werebear story? yup thats the plan
i think once i finish i'll make one post on here with all of them together and i'll put it up on AO3 as one story as well. not sure about the timing on that though
not to plug my own stuff too much lol but if ur looking for something of mine, with similarities to the werebear heat story, to read while you wait:
'Snapped' has a similar 'i'm in heat but we cant mate because u dont want to and its dangerous' but with an alien
'Finally Woken' has heat smut at the end with a naga but the story overall is friends to lovers and pretty fluffy
'Sacrifice' is about someone dubiously sacrificed (to a forest god) to help the town, via the council
otherwise, i'm pretty focused on this story and am trying to run with it as fast i can lol i've also decided to split the next chapter in two after all, which means it'll hopefully b up soon
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 💖
HOOO HOO HOO BRAGGIN' RIGHTS YOU SAY?!
Thank you Ana for sending this to me ! I appreciate it so much! 💜
If I'm gonna toot my own horn over anything, it'll be these fics right hurrrr:
Songs of The Unbroken: obv. #1. It's my 77 Chapter, Completed Finan x OC fic that follows along with the plot of TLK from S2 - S5 ft my baby OC: Sigrid Kjartansdottir. The older half sister of our favorite rat lemon boy, Citrus - I mean Sihtric. If you like all of the angst and 3 years of really stupid people pining over each other this is the fic for you. Working on the sequel currently: Children of the Unbroken!
Lost Voices: this is my current baby!!! A Sihtric x OC fic about a girl named Rosaline Blaine who accidentally gets yeeted through time with nothing but her iPod. Friends to lovers, full of music references, may be an actual comedy idk this fic writes itself lmao
The For My Sisters Series: this is actually two separate fics (and one I have yet to finish because I am a clown) but these fics are about my OC Sigrid and my friends OCs, Lucinda (@emilyhufflepufftlk ), Saegyth (@lauwrite1225) and Cwen (@solinarimoon ) who here are sisters who've traveled to England from Frankia to find peace with their father, Frode. Fic one is Valhalla May Find Me and fic two is My Heart Will Mend. The third will come out.... Eventually 🤡
Finally Woken: A short 10 Chapter fic about, you guessed it, Finan and my OC: Sigrid, but with a modern twist. This is a story of how they fell in love, except told backwards. Also with a tone of music references. And two idiots pining. You see I have my thing.
From The Skies, Watch Them Fall: So this short 5 chapter fic is probably really niche but I am really happy with it. The story is a TLK x Original Works cross over featuring a character from a book I'm writing in my spare time who accidentally ends up in TLK world. It's very very niche and has like 50 hits on AO3 but I really love this fix okay?! 😭
Hi, hi! I've been reading some of your work and when I saw you had a tumblr I just had to come pay your inbox a visit.
I just wanna say, I really love how you write! It's so, so easy to get immersed in your stories, to the point where something kind of funny happened in my case actually XD
So there I was at midnight, browsing the monster romance side of AO3 when I came across Finally Woken. I was looking something on the shorter word count side, but the summary had me very interested. So I go, hmmm I think I'll just read the first chapter to see how it is and if I like it I'll come back to it tomorrow. I definitely liked it, but wanted just a bit more, so I clicked on the second chapter. Then the third. And fourth. And so on until oops, I binged it and it was 4 am hdjsgaca
And then the next day, I was once again browsing. And came across Don't shoot the messenger. And I go, well last night was a success but tonight I definitely only read the first chapter and then if I like it finish tomorrow. Aaaah the lies we tell ourselves. Did not even notice it was the same author until I was halfway through it. This one I managed to finish before 4 am at least XD
And then! The next day! Once again browsing in bed! I come across Sacrifice! Once again didn't look at the author until later! Take a guess at what happened next, surely you will never expect the outcome! (The outcome was exactly the same. I could not stop reading. My self restraint is in shambles.)
So yeah! I just wanted to one, come and thank you for such wonderful stories, and two, compliment the heck out of your writing skills because your pacing, and atmosphere and descriptions are top notch. Like the sense of anticipation before Satrasi knew what that captain had done was chef kiss, or the sense of dread building up to the ritual and then calm once Tai finds the reader. Or the sense of domesticity as time passes with Heshi.
All reader characters and monsters feel unique as well! My personal favorite story so far is Don't shoot the messenger, Satrasi has me swooning fdhdgzh But honestly I loved all of them so much and they're going to my favorite monster romances stash. Oh also, I'm 100% going to go back and reread, kudos and comment more thoroughly on each story, but I was on another account like a fool the first time I read them all gahdgdh So hopefully you'll see me in AO3 soon as well!
Alright I've been rambling enough already haha, so yeah! Tldr, You're a great author, I am weak and procrastinated going to bed because I wanted to read your stuff, love what you do, take care! :D
@roaring-letters
thank you so much! this was such a good message to get and i've been hoarding it for lik 2 months lol because work has been so busy which is why it was even better to get such a nice ask - it really cheered me up!
i'd say i;m sorry for the accidental repeated trapping and keeping you up until 4 am but its kinda the greatest compliment ever lol so i guess i'm not sorry
i'm so happy you enjoyed the stories and the characters and the atmosphere of the stories! my writing means so much to me and i'm always worried that i'm not getting whats in my head down onto paper right so comments/asks like these are so so heartwarming because it makes me feel lik i am in fact getting it right :D
Hello! I Just wanted to let you know that I LOVED the published ver. of "Don't Shoot the Messenger". And I was so excited to hear that Dale and Sana's story might get published too.
At first I was really unsure about getting the book, as I didn't want to be disappointed if the changes made didn't translate well compared to the original. BUT YOU KNOCKED MY EXPECTATIONS RIGHT OUT OF THE WATER!! IT WAS SO GOOD!!
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I'm so excited for your future projects. And I wish you luck on your future publishing endeavours because I will be buying all future published books by you. And no one can stop me haha >:D
I also wanted to ask if there's a chance that any of your other previous works will also be published? Of course it's a huge effort of time and resources to publish something. But I do hold out hope that I might one day hold Heshi's story in my hands because truthfully it's such a comfort to me and I go back to it periodically to reread. I love that snakey boi. NO PRESSURE THO. If that's not in the cards, just the fact that it exists as a story is wonderful. Thank you so much for all the writing you do.
anyway, bye
@annjo-wolfe
hi! thanks so much! i really liked what DSM actually was and focused on my own edits and that of my editors just honing it to be the best version of itself - so i'm glad that came through and you liked it!
if ur interested in too much info about my self-publishing plans, pls see under the read more
Dale and Sana's story definitely will be self-published,its just a matter of when. it's also probably gonna get more tweaks than DSM due to the length and the way the story evolved over 2 years lol
thank you so much for your support and encouragement with publishing! i'm so happy people are excited about actually buying my stories lol
As for previous short stories that getting published, the answer is yes, i do have plans to publish them as well, they're just a lower priority for multiple reasons. firstly, me and everyone wants NWWD the most so its #1.
For 'Finally Woken' i actually already have the first 2 chapters converted to 3rd POV, however, its shorter than DSM and so would cost nearly as much to have edited but would sell for less (and amazon will try to tell me the spine is too narrow lol) so my current thoughts are to bundle it with 'Selfish' (helpfully already in 3rd person) and make a Naga Novella (called like 'Tangled Up in Tails' or something lol) with both of them in it so i can release it priced similarly to DSM.
For 'Sacrifice', i actually have plans to make that a 5 novella series about different forgotten deities returning to the same town, with 'Sacrifice' likely being offered as a cheaper, first book about a month or so before the second is published to get people into the series. the rest of the novellas would likely not go up on tumblr/AO3 at all and would only be published. i'd like to use this hypothetical series to see how that sort of model would work for me. i've planned out the 5 novellas to some extent but nothings really written yet besides 'Sacrifice'. as a complete project, its very low on my list after everything i'll b posting here and NWWD publishing, so since 'Sacrifice' is tied to that, its not likely to get published anytime soon.
For 'Snapped', i'd likely do something similar to 'Finally Woken' - write another short Sci-Fi/Alien story and bundle them together for publishing. However, i dont currently have anything written that would work so that's also a low priority evn if 'Snapped' is already 3rd POV.
I'm really excited to self-publish my work, but its expensive and what I've made from DSM has come nowhere close to covering my costs and likely won't. the only good thing is basically all the costs are up-front so its easy to jsut keep the books out there and making money when ppl buy it. i have a good job and am happy to spend my money to get my work out there and hope over time self-publishing will break-even, but that will take years at a minimum so it'll be slow going in the beginning.
my goal is to get everything self-published so it'll just be a matter of time - i too want to hold a copy of Heshi's story in my hands lol
thank you for all your support and giving me a chance to ramble about all my self-publishing plans!
It’s been a week, but you’re fairly certain your fiancé accidentally got himself replaced by an eldritch being from the Depths. Deciding that he’s certainly not worse than your original fiancé, you endeavor to keep the engagement and his new non-human state to yourself.
However, this might prove harder than you originally thought.
AU starting mid Chapter 23. Fanfic of my own story that asks: what if an honest conversation was had earlier? (spoiler alert: slow burn is much less slow)
During the fight with assassins, you and Dale are forced to confront the truth of what you each know about Dale’s nature. How does the fight change to have this come about? How will the conversation about these revelations go when there’s still more than a week before the wedding?
Story Status: Complete
AO3: NWWD: Divergent Revelations
[Part One] [Part Two]
~~~
Selfish (Short, 4/4)
Eisha felt bad complaining to her friend Mariella, since she was always putting other people’s problems above her own. She felt worse that, no matter how much she appreciated Mariella listening, she’d rather be living out some of the naughty fantasies about her instead. If she wanted to stay Mariella’s friend, and get some of her delicious cookies, she needed to keep those thoughts to herself.
You know if this year’s harvest is damaged by the predicted frost, it will be very bad for your town. You agree that appealing to the ancient forest god worshiped in this area hundreds of years ago is worth trying. However, the Councillor’s translation of the ancient rituals is crap and when you argue with him backed by your own translations, you’re pushed aside.
Imagine your surprise when the name of the unmarried woman to be chosen for sacrifice is your own.
Now you need to figure out a way to save, not only your town, but also yourself.
Great.
Fantasy, sacrifice to a harvest/forest god, friends to lovers, malemonsterxfemalereader, M/F
Working for the family business of traveling caravans, means you‘ve always accepted having to put up with a lot from your family, especially your dad. He finally goes to far when he tries to sell your prized possessions to make up for his own business failing. You’re proud of yourself for making a stand, but he’s not wrong when he says you don’t have any real connections outside the family--but he’s not completely right either.
Your closest friend happens to live in the city you’re stopped at so you decide to see if you can stay at his place until you can figure out what you’re going to. You’ve never come by the city this early, but he’s probably fully woken up from the naga’s traditional bout of hibernation by now, right?
Fantasy, friends to lovers, naga, male monster x female reader, M/F
Despite how it might seem, being a messenger for the feared sea-demon pirate, Admiral Satrasi, infamous far and wide for having an entire fleet of raiding vessels who answer to him alone, is a relatively safe job. After all, no one knowingly crosses the Admiral. However, it appears the most recent captain looking to join his fleet hasn't gotten that bulletin yet.
Fantasy, pirates, male monster x female reader, male demon, M/F
When you drive by the piano on the way home from a job across town, you almost don’t stop. But your kid’s been wanting to learn how to play—a desire that’s stuck around for the last few months, a rarity—and this one’s free. It needs some TLC and while you’ve no experience with instruments, you’re good with your hands. On impulse, you pull over. Soon enough, you’re loading the free piano into the back of your truck. You barely give a passing thought to the “haunted” part of the sign.
Perhaps you should have.
Inspiration post: Haunted Free Piano Pic
Modern day, enemies to friends to lovers, ghosts/spirits/specters, male monster x male reader, M/M
Story Status: WIP, on hiatus until next spooky season
[Part One] [Part Two]
~~~
Snapped (Short, 4 / 4)
Mech’s not sure why the aftermath of this mission is hitting him so hard, but he’s doing his best to calm down when Gwen’s presence shatters his control. Now it’s a count down to see if he can figure out how to put a stop to the instincts and hormones that are running wild inside him—before he does something they’ll both regret.
Science fiction, alien romance, male alien x female human, m/F
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4 - NSFW]
Story Status: Complete
AO3: Snapped
~~~
Voluntary Sacrifice (Short, 1 / 1)
inspired by this prompt/setup by @snowkissedmonsters as well as their art
The local werebear is in heat and its become a town concern. You, who’s always been fascinated by him and doesn’t much to lose reputationally, volunteer to help him through it.
If only he believed you were doing so voluntarily, instead of being forced by the council.
Can you convince him of your sincerity before the full moon rises?
Male werebear x human reader, Heat, NSFW
[Story]
Story Status: Complete
AO3: Voluntary Sacrifice
~~~
Courtship Confusion (Short Story, 2 / 8)
You’ve been working with your siren partner for a couple years now. A consummate flirt, you’d initially been put off by his whole charming deal, somehow he's become your best friend. You’ve been wanting to see if he’s still interested in dating, but unfortunately he’s not picking up your hints. A pair of visiting cubi remind you of the cultural differences that come with interspecies dating. Maybe you’ve both been misunderstanding each other. Maybe it’s time you set the record straight.
Modern Fantasy, friends to lovers, siren/harpy, male monster x reader
[Part One] [Part Two]
Story Status: WIP
Ao3: Courtship Confusion
~~~
I Must Confess (Short Story, 2 / 3)
Inspired by: Dropout’s Make Some Noise and the prompt “The priest taking your confessional might be playing a drinking game.”
Reader!demon x female human, SFW, Part 2 of 3, in-progress
Coverart: Link by chocolateal
[Part 1] [Part 2]
~~~
Watch Over You (Short Story, 2/4)
Original Rambling Idea: Post
While on a journey to a remote research post to finish your mage's master thesis, you purchase a protection amulet to watch over the camp at night. The guardian spirit it holds is strange, taciturn, and stoic, but Ilari is strong. As you make the journey, will you be able to learn any more about him? Such as why he watches you so very closely?
(Ilari has been waiting for the someone to summon him often enough he can be free from this damned amulet and you seem like the one he's been waiting for. Surely, he just needs to perform his duty long enough to be free, who you are is of no importance to him. His fixation on you grows every night you leave yourself to his care, vulnerable and trusting, but it's nothing. Nothing.)
Cursed!jinn x female!reader, SFW, Part 2 of 4, in-progress
Working for the family business of traveling trade caravans, means you‘ve always accepted having to put up with a lot from your family, especially your dad. He finally goes to far when he tries to sell your prized possessions to make up for his own business failings. You’re proud of yourself for making a stand, but he’s not wrong when he says you don’t have any real connections outside the family–but he’s not completely right either.
Your closest friend happens to live in the city you’re stopped at so you decide to see if you can stay at his place until you can figure out what you’re going to. You’ve never come by the city this early, but he’s probably fully woken up from the naga’s traditional bout of hibernation by now, right?
Fantasy, friends to lovers, naga, male monster x female reader, M/F, Part 6 of 8
Story Status: Complete
AO3: Finally Woken Chapter 6
[Part One [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] Part Six [Part Seven] [Part Eight - NSFW]
Taiga seems to have no trouble with the fully loaded up cart, although even you’re surprised by how many things you seem to have packed. You set out for your apartment with Heshi at a good clip.
You stop once on the way and buy your loaned movers food, which Michi only half-heartedly protests before they all gratefully accept. Conversation flows much easier as you all snack on skewers. Sasha and Aleks finally figure out how to open the long window in the cart so they can keep you and Michi company. Since both of them are far more extroverted than you or Michi, it's simple to pass the time listening to the cousins banter. It helps to make everything, yourself included, start to feel normal again.
Once you get back up to the apartment, you direct them where to put everything in the storage area, meat delivery included, per your conversation with Heshi last night. You send them on their way with a smile, a wave, and your thanks.
You survey the large storage area with your hands on your hips. It's technically more for Heshi’s business than for his personal possessions, but since he shuts down for hibernation, there’s plenty of space for your things.
After checking that nothing broke in transit, you take an extra box and pick out what you want to bring upstairs right now. Some books, some clothes, and a few other bits fill up the box quicker than you expect. Deciding that’s plenty for now, you head up to put those away in your room and start thinking about dinner. You’re not too hungry after the street food you had, but Heshi’s due to start eating something more than water, berries, and alcohol. Since he shouldn’t be up for another two hours at least, so that should work out well for timing dinner.
All these thoughts stop when you get upstairs and a sound from the kitchen catches your attention. You frown and slowly put the box down. There shouldn’t be any sound in the house except for you. Did one of the kids forget something? Or is it something else? Nell had said some people might try to take advantage of Heshi’s hibernating state, but surely there’d been enough activity at the apartment today to dissuade anyone, right? And Heshi has good security for this very reason.
Bracing yourself to feel either very foolish for overreacting or very scared if there’s actually a burglar, you walk around the corner holding the pole to hang a lamp from. It takes you a couple seconds to fix on the large shape moving through the room and another few heart-pounding seconds to identify them. Your grip slacks on the pole as you say, “Heshi? What are you doing out of your nest?”
Sure enough, it's a disheveled looking Heshi who’s in the kitchen, trying to set a kettle on. At the sound of your voice, he whips around, lighting up when he sees you and calling out your name. He slithers over to you with a speed you don’t expect from the sleepy naga. He doesn’t stop until he’s pulled you into a fierce hug. “You’re okay,” he says into your hair. “You’re home.”
You blink in surprise even as you set the pole against the wall and return his surprisingly firm hug. You certainly don’t mind, but you don’t understand what’s happening. “Of course, I’m home.” What is going on? As far as you knew, he shouldn’t be awake this early in the day, let alone out of his nest at all. Part of hibernation involved shutting down a lot of his internal systems which had to slowly wake back up or else they could get damaged. Heat especially, something already a bit hard to manage for nagas, is especially hard hit and is why their nests are so important.
You can feel it too, he’s shivering even though he had the sense to at least put on a shawl and tie a blanket around his waist. You rub your hands up and down his exposed arms, ignoring the way his muscles feel as best you can. “But really, what are you doing up already?”
“I was worried about you,” he says plaintively, his eyes large and beseeching. “Is everything okay? Was your family mean? I woke up and you weren’t back home yet.”
“Oh, Heshi, I’m fine.” He’d expressed some worry about you getting your things and your dad in particular giving you a hard time, but you hadn’t thought he was this worried. It's as endearing as it is concerning. It also makes your heart beat a little faster, to hear him call the apartment your home. Going back to your parents and then coming here, it had accentuated that already, only a few days later, it did feel more like home–both the place and being with Heshi.
You try to shake those thoughts off and focus on Heshi. You know he’s a bit hazy with coming out of hibernation, but you hadn’t thought about how that might affect him if he was worried. It seems to have exacerbated his concern. “It’s still early, that’s why I didn’t check on you. Come on, you’re freezing.”
You hurry him over to the couch since it has a giant red blanket draped over it. You don’t hesitate to bundle Heshi up, throwing it around his shoulders. “Why are you awake so early?”
He blinks blearily at you as he tugs you closer and wraps the blanket around you both. You tell yourself it really is a faster way to warm him up, not just because you like being up against him—well, not only that. “Is it normal for you to start waking up earlier in the day?”
“Hm,” he asks, clearly distracted by your warmth. “I don’t know, I never really pay attention to the time when I’m waking up. Usually it's hard to convince myself to get out of my nest at all—Nell threw water on the whole thing one time.”
You laugh, easily able to picture a frustrated Nell doing exactly that. He sighs at the sound, snuggling closer. “More reason to leave it with you here. Or not here.”
He’s so sweet. “Nothing would have happened. My dad might have hurt my feelings or argued about some of my things, but that’s all that would have happened.”
Heshi harrumphed. “Yes, precisely. I care about your feelings, darling.”
You don’t know what to say to that. You never do when Heshi expresses his feelings so clearly when you’re more used to talking around something. You take a page out of his book and bury your nose in the crook of his neck. “It was fine,” you mumble against his skin. “Dad was still himself, but my mom was fine and my brother was… better than I expected.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Not that I thought he would be, well, anything really. But he got the name of the pawn shop—I’m gonna go tomorrow to see if I can get my flute back.” He makes a happy noise at that news, stroking his fingers through your hair in a supremely distracting manner. “And he said he would have helped, if I needed it. And…” you pull back with a smile, wanting to see his reaction, “he has the lingonberries now.”
Heshi blinks at you, clearly trying to follow along. “He does?” Heshi sounds hopeful and excited, just like you wanted.
“Yup,” you reply. “So he’ll be by once I tell him you're awake again to trade with you.”
“Good,” Heshi says with a smile that turns into a smirk. “I’ve been wanting to meet him. I hope he understands that I traded very generously with you because you're my friend and that he might not get such indulgent terms.”
You roll your eyes and nudge him. “Don’t be mean.” He hums noncommittally in response, not making any promises. You can’t really bring yourself to push the issue now though, too comfortable in his arms after your long day.
Your concern for him weighs out in the end because he still feels far cooler than he usually does when not hibernating and even cooler than he has these days. “You should head back to bed,” you point out reluctantly, pulling back slightly, even though you want to do anything but that. “I’ll make some stew with what Nell gave us, yeah?” you offer, remembering your conversation the other night where he talked a bit more about food. “The broth should be good for you even if you’re not ready for solids yet. And if you are, then you can have some of that too.”
“Sounds delicious,” he sighs in your ear.
“Good,” you say, glad to have a plan going forward. “I’ll cook that up and bring it to you in your nest.”
“Hm, no, stay with you,” he says, sounding sleepy enough you’re surprised he’s upright.
“I need to cook, Heshi,” you say, trying to sound stern. “I can’t do that if you’re hanging all over me and you need to go back to the warmth of your nest. I can tell even with this blanket, you’re cold.”
“Rather have you,” he says, adjusting his grip on you.
“Heshi…” He doesn’t respond, seemingly asleep against you. You nibble at your bottom lip as you try to decide what to do next. You take a step away, but Heshi moves with you. “You have to go back to bed.”
“Don’t wanna,” he mumbles, his breath warm against your skin.
The heat from his breath seems to spread further than it should and you need a second to refocus your thoughts, which keep straying to how his touch, his embrace would feel if far fewer clothing was involved. You shake your head. “Gotta though.”
He pushes away from you, just enough to meet your eyes. “Please? I’m fine.”
“Heshi, you’re still shivering,” you remind him. When he only stares at you with wide, beseeching brown eyes, you sigh. You know you shouldn’t like how much he seems to want to be near you, but after dealing with your family, even if it wasn’t as bad as you expected, it’s really nice. “Alright, how about this? Let me get the food from downstairs and you put on some actually warm clothes and one of the heated blankets. Then you can hang out in the kitchen while I cook.”
He grins, looking thrilled with your suggestion. “Okay, yeah.” He gives a vigorous nod. “I can do that.” He lets go of you with some reluctance before gently pushing you towards the stairs back down. “Hurry back.”
You smile as you shake your head, going back down to grab the necessary groceries. Luckily, Nell had labeled everything, including what order was likely best. Cracking open the first box reveals some of the pre-prepared and frozen meals. You quickly find the stew blend and head back up.
Heshi’s still not back yet, which you hope means he’s taking the time to find adequate warm clothing, so you set about starting the fire. Once that’s going, you begin portioning off enough stew for the two of you to have for dinner.
You’re glad you hear Heshi moving across the floor because he doesn’t say anything before wrapping around you once more. “Heshi!” you try to scold, but your giggle ruins it. While you lean over the pot you’re sliding the stew mix into, Heshi has carefully wound his arms so as not to hamper your movements. His right arm drapes over your shoulder and down you front while his left slides around your waist. With your back firmly to his chest, it's like wearing a very odd cross-body satchel. “Really?”
At least you can see the long sleeves of his white kurta, so he did put on some proper layers. He doesn’t respond to your half-hearted protests, moving easily with you as you go over to hang the pot over the fire—although he doesn’t help carry it either.
As you situate it properly and start to stir it, he just tightens his grip around your middle—luckily not tight enough to cause discomfort, but certainly enough that you can’t forget he’s holding you like this. “You’re so soft,” Heshi sighs from his favorite place, the crook of your neck.
You blame the fire’s heat for the red in your face. Normally, you’d be more self-conscious about such a comment, but he sounds so sincere, you can’t find it in you to contradict him. You settle for just muttering, “shut up," and not taking your eyes off the slowly heating up stew. He chuckles in response and nestles closer.
You work in a comfortable silence before you're confident enough to shuffle over to the water pump, Heshi at your heels the entire way, to get you both a drink. He downs his remarkably fast. When he even deigns to let go of you for his refill, it's enough to stir up your concern all over again. He seems warmer now, he certainly has more layers on, but the fact that he’s up at all can’t be good, nor can how worried he’s been. You hadn’t meant to stress him out by bringing him into all of your family nonsense.
When he refills his cup for a third time and only sips at it, you scoot the two of you back over to the stew and the fire, wanting to keep him as warm as possible. Once the food is done, you’ll have to make sure you convince him to let you take it back to his room so he can slide back into his nest. You place your hand over his and trace along the veins and bones you can feel. Is he too thin? You’ve never seen him so soon after he’s woken up and he doesn’t seem anywhere close to starvation thin.
If he starts to drift off after you’ve eaten, you should just call it a night and stay if he asks. Maybe tomorrow at the library, you should look into—
“’M sorry,” Heshi says against your skin, sounding almost shy.
“What are you talking about?” Had he said something while you were worrying?
“That I’m being so clingy,” he says, subdued, and you realize he’s not just burrowed as tight against you because he wants to, like usual. He’s hiding because he’s embarrassed. “I’m not normally like this, even waking up from hibernation. I don’t mean to be both—”
“Whoa, no,” you hurry to correct. “You are not bothering me. Hey, hey,” you slide a hand under his chin and try to encourage him to meet your eyes. He does so with great reluctance, but soon his sheepish eyes are locking on your own. “If you were bothering me, I’d have said so. I promise.”
“Really?”
“Look, I know I’m more easy to compromise than some other people I know,” you shoot him a teasing smirk that he returns, “but if something pisses me off or annoys me—especially if it happens all the time—I speak up, okay?” He nods, but he’s biting his lip, still obviously a little unsure of his welcome. “Do I ever have any trouble telling you when you’re being annoying otherwise?”
That gets him to laugh and shake his head. “No.”
“Exactly.”
This time when he tugs out of your grip on his chin, you let him. He pulls back a little, only to raise up to his more usual height, a few inches taller than you, and turns you around for a proper embrace. You melt against him easily. There’s nothing quite like getting a hug from a naga. His arms wrap around you firmly as he bends over to press a kiss to the top of your head. You swear, he must do things like that just to make you blush and heat up. His tail too, wraps around both of you, thick and strong, keeping you pressed against him.
“Have I told you how glad I am that you’re here?” Heshi asks, his voice low and warm. It feels more intimate than usual, the way he’s murmuring into your hair, as entwined as he can get with you while you’re both still standing. It also feels different because it's not in his nest, its own secret world, but in your now shared kitchen, while the last rays of daylight still filter through the window.
“You might have mentioned it,” you allow, too comfortable and warm and happy for your usual self-consciousness. “Once or twice.”
