Chapter Text
The drizzle had no intention of transforming into a full downpour. Mighty dark clouds only huffed threateningly from their sky-high post as they got ready to float away with the western winds. Nonetheless, the heavens wept their share, a curtain of tiniest droplets coating the parched earth in the blessing lacking so severely that passing summer.
It was brief. A blink, really. Such a meaningless moment in the whole stretch of time and so insignificant when one considers the autumn rains that were about to approach. Yet it was enough to leave a thin trail of water trickling down her pure skin.
Lumine’s laughter possessed the quality of the same passing summer drizzle, warm and fleeting. She turned around to place a damp pouch filled with fresh fruit on the bedside table. “Leave it to my luck to get caught in rain on the rare moment when it comes down! Luckily, it was light…”
More words formed by her sweet voice drowned the room in their splendour, however it was lost on Xiao. His attention focused solely on the two droplets racing down the path of her spine. So agonisingly slow and yet disappearing too fast for his liking. All of his instincts failed to hold him back, hand already reaching out to gently scoop the two sparkling dots rushing through the smooth alabaster. Perhaps it was the same part of him that guided only the forefinger to gather them in a touch lighter than that of a feather – or so he thought would be the less invasive approach.
How could he have known she would stop mid-sentence with a sigh he’d only ever heard come out of her ajar lips on a handful of intimate occasions? That she would arch her back in a manner befitting the grace of a swan’s neck? Xiao froze, his gloved finger still connected with the bare skin, now sprinkled with telltale goosebumps. “Xiao?” Why was her voice so hoarse now? Low in a whisper, almost teetering on the edge of sensuality.
He didn’t know many things. He had no way of foreseeing her reactions. At that particular moment, amidst the fading light of summer, Xiao understood that the unknown fascinated him. The enigma of her in particular, the question that she was to all of his ‘what ifs’ – they couldn’t be answered without right prompting as it would seem.
Later he would try to reason with himself to no end. Exhaustion. Karma brewing impurities inside of his heart. Everything he would manage to name that wouldn’t constitute something much simpler and, to him, more shameful, something he would not admit to himself – all in favour of not calling it pure, humanlike physical attraction. Lust, if one will.
Later. That would come later, though.
Applying the same amount of pressure as before, he traced down the line of Lumine’s spine. Impossible as it seemed, her back arched even deeper. The initial reaction might have been an unwilling response to ticklishness, however for the second one it wasn’t as clear. A deeper meaning lay buried beneath and Xiao decided he would go insane if he didn't dive to uncover it.
His palm pushed flat against the small of her back urged Lumine to dig her hips into the bedside table, her palms flying to the wooden edges to grasp them for dear life and support her weight. Suddenly, they’ve grown too far apart. It took one large step for Xiao to stand right behind her – just at the edge of touching, with the ghost of their warmth mingling over their physical barriers, a torture for the most primal instincts, the carnal need, as it called for the release of a plain skin contact.
It must’ve been the way she sighed into the kiss he planted to the back of her neck. The way she smelled of rain and late summer flowers. They way her fingers closed around his wrist when his arm encircled her waist… Because if it wasn’t that, then what? It wasn’t in him to be this shamelessly forward. To abandon all respect and decency for the sake of hunger for some strange fascination. Animalistic behaviour, so unbecoming of an illuminated beast, towards the woman whom he cherished the most—
“Wait. Don’t.” Lumine pleaded, the grip she had on his wrist growing stronger. Just as he’d regained some control over himself, as he was about to pull away and apologise for the impure behaviour of his, Lumine took it upon herself to lure him back into the claws of unexpected crudity known as lust. “Don’t stop now.”
Now? He’d barely managed to make a single move when she read his intentions, so they remained as a tangled dance of limbs. His right arm – around her waist. His lips – kissing the coldness off of every inch of the skin on her back, setting it aflame. His left knee – parting her legs, ghosting dangerously close past the hem of her skirt. His left palm – its fingers already nibbling on the sensitive flesh of the inner thigh as they steadily attempted to climb higher still. With no shame or decorum, with no remorse or esteem. Some months ago it had been unimaginable that the Vigilant Yaksha could get so physically close to anybody, but to instigate such proximity all on his own? Preposterous.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered softly into her skin. He didn’t pull back.
“Don’t be. Just don’t stop.”
“Why? I never even asked you—”
“Well, I want you to continue. That’s my answer to the question you have in mind.”
Xiao still felt too ashamed to cave in. Were it not for a gentle yet firm tug on the ends of his hair, he might have just remained unmoving for the remnants of the night. And, as it would always happen, it was Lumine to guide him out of his own darkness to the brightness of her inextinguishable flame. The amber of her eyes as he raised his head poured a wave of easiness into his troubled soul, reassuring that it was alright.
The fascination of his had never been limited solely to the physical aspects of their relationship. What was even more captivating? Patience. Somewhere along the way of life, Lumine had found an endless supply of it and chose to bestow it all upon him. Whenever he’d tried to flinch, back away, turn her down with the excuse of his impurities and how he insisted he could only hurt her, she would look him in the eye, the might of the glistening amber irises anchoring him to the deep sea of calmness as she would say: “Take your time. I’m not going anywhere. I trust you.” After some time had passed, there remained no need to say anything. Her eyes could tell everything.
Just as they did now.
Lumine grazed the back of her palm across his jaw and up his cheek in a motion resembling the one he’d used on her back just moments ago. Then, there was no air nor space between them, he relished in drinking his fascination straight from her eager lips. Hard it was to tell who guided the kiss – was it Lumine, prompting him to open up and let loose?; or was it him, having abandoned all restrictions and reserves? The riddle didn’t really bother his, the attention focused on the shape and force of her tongue under his own. Little more, little more they both seemed to be screaming wordlessly, the desperation and hunger implied in their breathlessness both wanted to breach the borders of what’s carnal, as though their souls could entwine in such an audacious display with the same fervent need. Impossible. But that didn’t stop them from trying.
Until it wasn’t enough.