Work Text:
The Architect Arcane had been hard at work in her labs deep in the Meridian Labyrinth. Laerryn didn't like to be interrupted. Everyone knew this. And yet, she heard the creak of the steel door open and shut behind her with the arrival of some distraction from her task.
All day she had been working on this new ether dispersal system for the porter's guild, all day she had been focused and now someone had the nerve to step into her space without warning or invitation? It wouldn't stand. She let out a sigh and even began to speak a rude greeting when she turned to face the intruder and stopped in her tracks.
"Patia?"
The elven woman smiled a greeting to her friend, latching the door behind her and never dropping eye contact. She was out of her most frequent wardrobe of a fine Librarium Incantatum gown and gold accessories, instead with her hair tied back in an immaculate bun and clothed in soft emerald green robes. The difference was surprising; she looked very out of place in her casual clothes. Casual for Patia at the least. There was something different about her that didn't click for Laerryn until she was halfway across the room - her spell focus, the silvery orb that constantly circled her in every waking moment, was missing.
Laerryn was stunned for half a second, trying to remember the last time Patia had any cause to enter the Meridian Labyrinth by herself and venture all this way. Before the last replenishment at the least.
"H-hi..." Laerryn questioned. "Uhm, i-it's good to see you, what are you doing all the way down here?"
"It's good to see you too." Patia walked toward Laerryn's desk in slow strides. "I came to give you something, actually."
The gears in Laerryn's mind spun like mad questioning if she had forgotten something, or if Patia had made some sort of discovery or why she hadn't used a courier or messaged her before arriving or if there was danger to the city-
"I can see your mind working," Patia teased, standing beside her now. Laerryn was so busy coming up with contingency plans that she didn't even notice the way that Patia delicately stroked her arm, a touch more comfortably than a friend. "The world isn't burning, don't worry. I came because only I can give you this, that's all."
Laerryn's took a deep breath and her anxieties were immediately stowed. If Patia said that things were fine, so they were. She was good like that.
"What is it you needed to give me?" She was now all professional curiosity and intrigue. For all her wisdom, she didn't see the way Patia pressed her body to Laerryn's, sliding into place against her side.
Patia smiled. And then she leaned over. And then Patia, polished, practiced, perfect Patia, gave the Architect Arcane a gentle kiss on the lips.
And then everything clicked. Laerryn's first thought was a panicked noise drowning out all other thoughts in her head. Her second thought was how soft Patia's lips felt. And the third was that she had kissed these lips before. Hundreds of times over.
"Quay?" She whispered. "Is that you?" She touched the face before her and felt that it was warm beneath her hand, and distantly familiar.
Patia pulled away and her emerald eyes flashed a brilliant white for half a moment as Loquacious gave her a knowing look. He winked at his wife as Patia, which only served to muddle Laerryn's thoughts more.
"Quay, what are you doing?" She asked. She was confused and conflicted and a little aroused by the kiss, though she would never admit it. She leaned back against her workbench with her friend (husband?) just a few inches away.
"Something I have a feeling you've thought about before..." Patia's silky, smoky voice coming out of the mouth she knew was her husband's but saw as her trusted friend's led her mind to some strange places. Patia leaned in and kissed her neck softly once, then twice, over and over again just the way she liked. Laerryn melted into the touch, shrinking back onto her workbench to allow the woman in front of her to place an arm on either side, pinning her in. As her breathing quickened, Patia's slowed. "Oh, you've certainly thought of this, haven't you?"
"W-what makes you say that?" She asked in a shudder. Patia's hands had begun to wander. One smoothed the fabric of Laerryn's robes over one shoulder before pushing them off and exposing her collarbone, while the other began to work at the belt around Laerryn's waist.
"A few things," she whispered in her absurdly practical and measured cadence. "One, you're shaking like a leaf and I've barely touched you. Two, I've seen the way you look at me when we're all alone together; the way your eyes travel across my body like you're tracing ley lines across a map. And three."
Patia had made quick work of the belt and had let Laerryn's robes fall open as she stood panting against the desk. This last and final detail was punctuated when Patia slid her hand over a shuddering Laerryn and cupped her through her smallclothes.
She leaned in to make sure that Laerryn could hear her perfectly lilting voice.
"You called my name in your dreams last night."
Laerryn blushed hard and suddenly felt incredibly embarrassed. She had tried to put it out of her mind all day, but couldn't get the images of her dream out of her head.
Patia had been in bed with her and Quay, she remembered. She recalled the feeling of her lover on top of her. Of her soft skin under Laerryn's work-scarred fingertips. Of Patia's hands on her, caressing her, enjoying her. Unmaking her.
Laerryn had never known that she talked in her sleep.
"Quay, I-I'm sorry, I-" she began a stumbling apology when a hand found its way to her cheek and comforted her.
"Shh, shh, lover," her husband answered as her friend. "You don't have to apologize. I love you, and frankly I would love to see you and Patia together." She kissed the flustered woman again, drawing a gasp from her in the process. "Would you like to be with Patia?"
Laerryn shuddered at the thought before sending a spell flying at the door to lock it and looping an arm around Patia's neck. She pulled herself close and found herself in a rare moment where she caught Quay off-guard by kissing him suddenly. Patia moaned into her mouth, half surprise, half arousal.
They stayed like this for several moments until Patia finally drew back for breath and looked at Laerryn with satisfied surprise. "I'll take that to mean 'yes?'"
Laerryn was still reeling from the kiss; it had been everything she thought it would be and more. Her lover knew her body down to the inch while still being a completely new experience. It was a little more than confusing, and really fucking exhilarating.
Patia's eyes stared into Laerryn as she came back to the moment and managed to remember the question that had been asked of her.
"Please," she begged, "yes, please, yes, kiss me again please." The words came out in a tumble that had the desired effect of Patia crushing her body against Laerryn's and pressing her mouth to her neck once again. Laerryn felt the hand against her exposed body again, playing with the hem of her smallclothes.
"Get rid of these for me, darling," Patia whispered casually. She dragged her fingertips up and down the soft plane of Laerryn's stomach, barely making contact and setting her lover's nerves alight with excitement. Laerryn had dropped the arm she wasn't using to steady herself to reach down and unceremoniously shove her smallclothes low enough on her legs that she could kick them off over her low boots. They landed a few feet away, fully discarded.
Patia sighed in her ear, kissing down to her exposed collarbones. "Mmmm, obedient," she murmured. "Wasn't expecting such good behavior from you, Laerryn." She began to drag her fingers lower and lower on each pass, just barely ghosting over the front of Laerryn's inner thighs. "Although I suppose the dominant ones in the professional sphere always prefer to be folded over behind closed doors."
Laerryn was gripping Patia's shoulder for dear life as her hands and mouth explored. Teased was more like it. But Patia had been right. Where Laerryn wouldn't stand for being flustered and played with in the professional sphere, she adored it in the bedroom.
Her breathing hitched as Patia drew a line up along her thighs where they met. "Oh," she whispered. She slid a hand between Laerryn's legs, ghosting her fingers along the inside of her left thigh. "Oh you like this don't you? You like a soft touch." She kissed her neck again softly, edging Laerryn's legs open with a knee and dragging her hand up to palm her lover gently.
In the back of Laerryn's mind, the part that was still making rational thoughts unclouded by the amazing sensations in the pit of her stomach, knew this was Quay. She knew in her Architect Arcane's Rationality-Beats-All brain that Quay was in his changeling form working her up as Patia, as one of their dearest friends. That he knew all the ways to make her tick and that it wasn't actually Patia finding out new things about her sex life. That if anyone walked in on them in this moment that it would be the talk of the town in a matter of minutes.
Luckily, that part of her mind had taken a backseat to the part that had dreamt up Patia fucking her into a sweet oblivion the night before.
That part of her brain was very much in control, and she desperately wanted to see if the real thing was as good.
When she felt hands on her, Laerryn simply melted. "Y-yes," she stammered out. "Yeah, I-I like it-please-" she gasped; Patia had slipped a careful fingertip to rest just at her entrance. Laerryn tried to speak, but all she managed were several incongruous vowels with her face buried in Patia's neck. Quay had even gotten her perfume right.
"Mmm, that's it." Patia's single digit began to sink into her without any resistance, and it was all Laerryn could do not to beg for more. "Soft, gentle. Teasing." Patia shifted her hand up to press at Laerryn in a way that made her stomach turn over and her head spin. She whined high and needy into Patia's neck without shame.
"What, Laerryn?" Patia cooed with a kiss to her jaw just next to her ear. "I know you can tell me what you want. I want to hear you say it." Another stroke of her finger sent a shudder through Laerryn, making her moan again.
"M-more, please- I-want.. please I want more-" The words came out as a tumult of syllables, but Laerryn got her message across.
"Good, that's good," Patia praised. "You're so good for asking what you want." She drew her finger out and slowly added a second, her teasing laugh ghosting Laerryn's neck. Laerryn was shaking in her touch, worked up and whining for pleasure. Patia smiled and whispered into the shell of her ear. "Do you want me to make you come, Laerryn?" She asked it without expectation, as if she hadn't even considered it and was daring Laerryn to beg.
"Please." She nearly cried the word against her lover, still holding on so she didn't collapse. "Please-please I want to come, please."
"Of course, darling."
Patia's fingers stroked her slowly at first, then picked up to a steady speed. A small, but irritating part of Laerryn's mind thought about how Quay would know her body this well, of course he would. The rest of her was focused on how fucking good she felt. A few more moments of this and she would be done for.
"Do you like it when I fuck you, Laerryn?" The voice was hard and steady in Laerryn's ear. Patia rarely swore. Laerryn knew that. Quay knew that. But when it passed her lips, it sent a shiver like no other Laerryn's spine. The sensation that they were doing something incredibly scandalous ran through her again. "Do you like it when I pin you against your desk and make you melt in my hands?"
Laerryn could hardly speak; she felt like she would collapse if she let go of Patia even for a moment. She managed a high and positive moan that she hoped got her point across. Gods yes, she loved it. She loved it so much she felt lightheaded, on the verge of passing out.
"Good, so good for me, aren't you?" Patia teased. She was relentless now, stroking her fingers inside Laerryn at a hard and steady pace. Laerryn could feel herself just on the edge, so, so close. She tightened her grip on her lover and panted hard and fast against her neck. Patia moaned in her ear and it took all Laerryn's self control to not finish then and there. And then Patia spoke up.
"Say my name, darling, I want to hear you scream it."
Laerryn faltered for only a moment, her logic brain catching up to the rest of her body as she processed the request while also trying to remain upright.
"Quay-please-" but the words hardly left her mouth when the wonderful force making her feel so good ceased. She pitched forward at the loss of movement, at being swept away from the edge so abruptly. She looked up pitifully into Patia's miraculous green eyes with a look of confusion.
"Oh, you know the game better than that, don't you Laerryn?" Patia chided. Her fingers moved again and Laerryn's defense died on her tongue as fresh sensation wracked her body. "You know who's making you feel so good, and I want to hear you say it. I won't let you finish until I hear you say my name, lover." This last word she said with a growl into Laerryn's ear that sent a shiver up her spine and a groan from her mouth.
In the wave of sheer exhilaration, Laerryn's rational brain short circuited and she fell fully into the fantasy she was living right now. Clever, perfect Patia Por'co stood before her with her lips on her neck and her hand between Laerryn's thighs. And if she was nothing else in this moment, she would be good for her lover.
"Patia-" was all she managed before her pleas were drowned in shuddering gasps. Patia's fingers were ceaseless now and pulled Laerryn over the edge as she came hard and fast, seeing black behind her eyes. She held onto her lover and the edge of her workbench as she was overtaken, and after what was likely a minute but felt like an eternity, the rushing of the blood in her ears died down enough to hear Patia speaking softly.
"Good, so very good, aren't you? Doing exactly what I asked of you." Patia held her steady as she regained her breath, gently withdrawing her fingers and resting them against Laerryn's sweat-beaded thigh. "So good for indulging in your fantasies with me."
Laerryn smiled a satisfied smile into the crook of Patia's neck, unsure and uncaring if it was Quay or Patia speaking. Patia took a step away after Laerryn's feet were back under her and began to withdraw from the chamber, leaving Laerryn to recover in privacy.
At the door she turned and glanced back; Laerryn now wrapped her robes around herself and held a hand to her forehead and a soft grin on her face. "Laerryn?" Patia called, clean and pristine as always. She looked up to meet the gaze of her lover, still at a loss for words.
"Do be sure to tell me of any other fantasies you may conjure up, yes?"
Laerryn smiled wickedly and nodded as her lover left the room and she was alone with her trembling legs and rambling thoughts.
That could be the start of something very pleasing indeed.