NOVEL NEXT Chapter 117 – First Night Together (Part 1)
"Make love, not war, for it is the only way the world would survive. People need to have more children in order to replace those lost to war and violence." - Old saying commonly heard throughout the world.
"So, your place or mine?" Aideen asked Artair as they walked together when they left the celebration hand in hand, roughly an hour or so before midnight struck. After the hours of dancing together and otherwise just enjoying the comfort of each other's presence, she was quite certain by now that she really would not mind taking their relationship even further, even if it would be her first time doing so.
It was not that Aideen was unaware of physical relationships between men and women. She naturally learned about it during her younger days, but her circumstances when she was alive had made such entanglements less than desirable at the time.
After she died and rose back to life as an unliving, her circumstances became far more complicated due to the nature of what she has become. The way the few people who did pursue her in the past decades did so because of their unusual fetish highlighted that quite well, which made her even more wary of romantic entanglements.
Artair was the first man she felt seriously attracted to in her life so far, she realized. Part of it was because he had simply accepted her as she was, not because of her status or other such superficial reasons, and it was something she reciprocated. She liked him for who he is, and he liked her for who she is.
From what she saw, Artair would have probably blushed at her question if he were able to do so visibly, though between his features and his fur she doubted it would be noticeable even if he did. What she did notice was how his grip on her hand tightened when she asked him, and she had to suppress a chuckle at how his shyness tremendously contrasted with his fierce exterior.
"Uhh… maybe yours?" Artair finally said after a moment of deliberation. The way the big therian fidgeted made Aideen sure that he would have been blushing fiercely by now if he were human or some other race where blushing is visible. "I have been living alone at grandpa's house since he passed away, and they allowed me to, but I didn't feel that good about doing so."
"Right, my place it is then," said Aideen as she nodded. She was aware that Artair had felt as if he was allowed to stay at Myrddin's old place out of some pity for his grandfather, and didn't mind it. He probably felt that he just didn't deserve so much merely because he was related to Myrddin.
Not like Aideen's situation was much different, as her current house was one grandpa Aarin simply gave her and told her to do as she wished with, on top of the room reserved for her in the Palace of Bones itself. She wouldn't bring Artair to the latter of course, as that might intimidate him instead, and besides, it felt rather sacrilegious to do that. Not that her niece seemed to care.
"Those houses do feel a bit too large for one," mentioned Aideen as they walked. The two-story houses she and other unliving had been living in were the same as the other houses used by the clergy in the area, and easily housed a family of four to six comfortably. Definitely a bit too large for someone to live on their own in. "Wouldn't mind another to liven up the place a bit," she added with a meaningful wink.
It was a rather short walk between the Palace of Bones and the house which Aideen had used over the past couple of decades, a mere ten minutes or so. Throughout the walk, she was all too aware of the warmth she felt from Artair's hand, grasped in her own, and of the slight musky smell he gave out.
From her talks with Mallard she was well aware that such a scent, especially when it was so thick even a human could notice it, was a sign of arousal for therians. She wondered how he felt, holding her cold hand in his warm paw-like hand, as she was well aware that while she could simulate what a living person was like when needed - something useful for undercover missions -, her body was not a living one.
She could still enjoy many things the living enjoyed, but even so it was more of an ingrained feeling in many cases, at times ones she needed to actively allow to affect her to even feel. To just cut off all feelings was actually an easy feat for most unliving to do, but very few did that, as most preferred to enjoy their new, second life to the fullest instead.
Together they entered the house she lived in, and just as she closed and locked the front door behind her, she found herself enveloped in a warm embrace as Artair had suddenly hugged her. She returned the embrace, her hands bare able to meet each other on his broad, muscular back.
Artair leaned down - he had to, since although Aideen was tall for a woman she barely reached his shoulder in height - and Aideen found his rough, whiskered lips on hers. The kiss felt a bit ticklish because of his fur and whiskers, but she welcomed it and pressed closer to him all the same, enjoying the warmth their close embrace brought.
She discovered his tongue enveloping hers like how their bodies were enveloped in an embrace together. It was rough in texture, much like a cat's tongue, but she found that she did not mind it. Her own traced the contours of his wickedly sharp teeth, safe in the knowledge that they would do her no harm.
As they walked up the stairs to the bedroom, they shed the clothes they wore, throwing the articles of clothing haphazardly around the place without much care. Cleaning up was a matter for a later day, while the two of them, were immersed in the now.
