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Twice now, General Terr had thought he had seen the last of the Sandrock spitfire that had entranced him so. And twice now, she had come crashing back into his life, once to save it, and now again because her attachment to him had been far greater than he could have possibly expected.
Not that he could truly say he minded the fact that she was making a recurrence in his life, but neither could he say that continued contact would benefit her in the slightest.
He had spent his entire train ride into the bright, wind turbine filled city doing two things. Planning a route forward, and getting distracted by memories. How he had sampled so little of the sweetness she was keen on sharing - and how he was so very lucky her mother hadn’t put a slug through his head like he definitely deserved, given the circumstances.
Well, she sure loves her monsters, doesn’t she? Elsie’s mother had said. This much was certainly true. The extent to which it was true surprised him more than it should have.
“You didn’t even say goodbye!” Elsie chastised, ignoring the question of how she had managed to track him down in the first place.
The late afternoon sunlight set a glow to her skin that didn’t seem real. She radiated warmth and light in a way that reminded him of his first visit to Alliance territory - how for weeks his entire company had been warned not to stare into the sun and yet all of them had, dumbstruck at the idea that it could be real.
“My apologies.” Terr replied softly. “Would you like for me to say it now?”
“What? After I went to all the trouble to find you?” Elsie replied incredulously. “No, stupid, I’m going with you.” She gestured with her shoulder to the pack she was carrying. The soft leather had seen much use, but held strong despite being packed to bursting.
“Going with me where, sweet girl?” He asked, placing a hand on her side to direct them both out of the flow of traffic on the busy station platform. He let his hand linger a moment on the warm fabric of her bodice, but found control of himself, pulling himself into a stance that was unfortunately strikingly military.
“Wherever it is you’re going, obviously.” She replied, cocking her head to look at him like he’d read the briefing and was being purposefully thick about things. “You’re the one that took off, so obviously you’ve got a plan. So! What’s your plan?”
Terr was a general of the Duvos Imperial Army. He may not have been bred to lead, like many of the empire’s generals, but he had learned and he had learned well that every action he took had consequences, and poorly made plans cost most of all. Consequences paid in the blood of those who looked to him for leadership - nearly all of them just trying to earn enough money to keep their families fed - sent home in boxes to mothers and wives who had begged them not to go in the first place.
Of course, a well executed plan also carried a blood price, not only paid by enemy combatants but fiery, innocent girls just like his- like Elsie. As an old company medic used to say; War is war and hell is hell, but only war has innocent bystanders.
His original plan, while he had not been willing to admit it at the time, was paid only in his own blood. Failing that - thanks to the cheeky girl looking up at him with bright, wide eyes- his next was to.. Come up with a plan. One that injured no one, preferably. It wouldn’t do to go and die after she’d saved him, after all.
“Ah.” He said, intelligently.
“Ah..” She gestured for him to continue.
He was out of his element. Terr did not know much about the actual inner workings of Alliance cities, and this was by design. Were regular soldiers to start to know and understand too much about the enemy, they might begin to see more similarities between themselves and them, than between themselves and the denizens of the Palace.
Terr was no great genius for having deduced all of this. The truth of it was barely subtextual the further up the chain of command he climbed.
“I am currently doing reconnaissance.” He said. “Planning my next move.”
Elsie laughed. “So you’ve got no idea what you’re doing.”
He let his pride, what little of it he had left, take the hit. “Not yet, no. But I am certain that opportunity will present itself.”
She snorted another laugh. “It’s a good thing I showed up again, you were going to end up lost for certain. C’mon, I’ve got a plan.” She grabbed his wrist and started to tug him in the direction of the ticket counter. “I said c’mon!”
“Elsie.” He said carefully, placing his hand on top of hers. “It is very sweet that you sought me out-”
“No, no I’m not hearing it.” She said loudly. “The only plan we have is mine, so we’re doing my plan.”
Terr realized that asking her what the plan was would only cement in her head that they were in fact comrades in this endeavor. And perhaps, were he not a foreign fugitive, he would have gladly given himself over to any plan she made for him. As it was, he had nothing to offer her.
In Duvos, perhaps he could have kept her. A general’s wife was a comfortable, safe, well fed position. His salary would easily pay for any of the fineries that he was certain she wanted nothing to do with. But at least there he would have a salary to offer her.
He was little more than dead weight, here.
He did not want to break her heart. But he wasn’t about to let a beautiful young woman with everything ahead of her throw in her fortune with his lack thereof.
“Sweet girl, you don’t want to be making plans with me.”
She furrowed her brow. “Now don’t you try to tell me what I want to do. I want to make plans with you, which is why I’m here making plans with you.”
He couldn’t be cruel. He’d never forgive himself for that.
“Dear heart, why?”
“Cause- cause I like you, that’s why!” She replied, as though that was all it took. “Don’t you like me?”
Terr had spent most of his life under a stormy sky. He felt as though the sunlight reflected in Elsie’s eyes was enough to melt away a lifetime of chill.
“Now don’t you go sighing like that!” Elsie scolded. “I asked you a simple question, I don’t need you to give me some long winded answer about- about-” Her lip quivered, the realization of his intentions in leaving hitting her in a way he wished he could shield her from.
He put a hand on her cheek, stepping in close. “Elsie, my sweet.” Her skin was warm. Everything about her was so warm. “I like you very much.”
“Well of course you do.” She huffed, irritation overtaking her features. “I just didn’t want to hear no lecture about how I’m young and stupid and don’t need to be doing this.”
“As long as you’re aware, I suppose.” He smiled, rubbing his thumb along her cheek.
She huffed again, a sound not unlike a yakmel showing displeasure with its neighbor.
“Now do you wanna hear the plan or not?”
“Perhaps we could find a better venue for this conversation.” He offered. “It would be best for me to stay on the move, after all.”
“Oh, right, they’re still looking for you and all.” Elsie said, as if it were just a little snag in her otherwise flawless designs. “Let’s get tickets to Atara, I’ve never been to Atara.”
“Is Atara not the Center of Alliance Intelligence?”
“Well yeah but- listen, Terr, it’s all part of the plan. I can’t have you stopping me every couple of minutes to ask stupid questions. C’mon.”
It was strange, going from being a general in charge of an entire airship full of lives, to being merely an accessory to the whims of the spritely girl who was now doing her level best to sit in both his seat on the train as well as her own.
Terr could not say he disliked it. He certainly could not.
She had, immediately upon boarding, gotten comfortable in her seat and put her legs up on his lap. He was not certain if she was just the sort to see personal space as a suggestion, or just was keen on being in his space, personally, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. He would fathom a way to send her home eventually, he was certain.
Rather than focusing on that, however, he sat back comfortably and massaged the tight muscles of her calves over her worn blue jeans while she chattered at him about everything they saw out the window. How the town of Highwind was named after its wind farms, and how apparently the troublesome - and understandably so - creature of a builder had grown up there. About the canid sort of monsters they saw in the distance and how she had once watched Pen punch one inside out. How she’d never been to Atara, but heard that was where the sun shone the absolute brightest in all the Free Cities. How someone named Heidi had gotten on her nerves at church the day before. How her Pa kept trying to feed Daisy the Duck the wrong kind of fish, and how she couldn’t get him to understand that fish wasn’t just fish, Daisy was particular.
He took it all in with the same quiet interest he carried during long mission briefings, letting her talk as long as she needed to without interruption. He was getting rather fond of her voice in a way he was almost ashamed to admit. When they reached Atara, he’d convince her to return home, certainly. Until then, he listened to her talk.
Elsie spoke at length about everything but her, as she called it - Capital P Plan. That she couldn’t be mouthing off about in public, apparently. Which made sense to Terr, some of the Capital P Plan presumably included sensitive information about his status in the Duvos Military, something he wasn’t keen on announcing to their neighbors.
He was already getting rather peculiar looks, the kind that was trying to fathom the relationship between himself and his young traveling companion, especially when she started getting tired as the sun went down and lay her head against his shoulder, nearly curling up entirely upon him.
He pressed a chaste kiss to the top of her head before whispering. “Dear one, you are aware that we have an audience?”
“Let ‘em gawk.” Elsie yawned. “I like you and you like me, that’s the truth of it.”
And so it was. At least, as far as Elsie was concerned.
Still, Terr did not find himself sleeping very well on the overnight ride, not even as the others around them reclined their seats and tried to find what comfort they could in the train’s cheapest seats. His military instincts won out, and he found himself keeping watch, protecting his single remaining comrade as she dozed, drooling onto his shoulder.
She was in no danger on this train. In fact, the biggest danger to her was Terr himself, a fact she could not, or rather, would not be convinced of.
Partway through the night, she switched from laying on his shoulder to putting her head on his lap. He ran his fingers through her wildfire hair, watching her sleep with a pang in his chest he refused to name. When he caught himself tracing the shell of her ear with one finger, the memory of the Knight Pen doing the same with his kidnapped lover came to him unbidden, and he did not dare rest his hands on her for the remainder of the night.
She would not leave his side in Atara. He had known this before they had even stepped onto the train, and could not find it in him to pretend to be surprised when nothing he said kept her from grabbing his hand and dragging him across the city.
“We’ll pick up some supplies and get a room for the night somewhere.” She explained, her small fingers gripping his own with surprising strength. “Then you can get some proper sleep - I know you ain’t got a single wink on the train- and we can work on our plan.”
He opened his mouth to argue, although he had no idea what he planned to say.
“Don’t start arguing with me again, we’ve made it all the way here, haven’t we? It’s gonna be just fine.”
Despite his better judgement, he let her continue to lead the way. Even when it got them lost in the maze of Atara’s side streets. Even when she nearly told their entire story to a bored looking shopkeeper because she started talking and forgot how to stop. Especially when the young Inn owner asked if ‘she and her pa wanted separate rooms’ and Elsie aggressively informed the woman that he was her husband and they were on their honeymoon.
“So it’s not so much a plan as a er- inkling of a plan.” Elsie admitted, pacing the carpet of their small hotel room. “It’s a real good plan, of course! It just needs some fixing before it’s a proper Capital P Plan, ya know?”
It had taken a while to get her back on the subject, every item in the room catching her attention for a reason that had now become obvious.
“Of course.” Terr replied amiably, sitting back in the soft armchair. It was not a particularly comfortable armchair, but it was leagues better than the train seats and his back was grateful.
“Right. So there’s two parts. Well, there’s two main parts and each part has a bunch of little parts, you know how plans are.”
“I understand how plans are made, dear heart. Why don’t you start with one of the big parts?”
“Yeah, okay, that’s smart I guess. So, big part one, you’re gonna get me pregnant.”
He should have known better than to take a sip of his coffee while she was talking.
“Don’t you be having a heart attack over it, I haven’t even told you the whole plan!”
He sat the mug down, coughing into his fist. This girl may have saved his life, but she was going to be the end of it, one way or another. Through stress or her father’s gun, he wasn’t certain.
“I think-” He began, and then paused to cough a few more times. “You need to tell me the rest of that plan.”
“Oh, it’s easy. You ‘n me, we make a baby and then my Pa won’t shoot you when we come back to Sandrock, not with you being my baby’s daddy and all.”
He furrowed his brow, not sure where to start. “Elsie, I fear that course of action is ill advised.”
“It’s not ill adviced!” She defended. “I thought the whole thing out. We’ll have a baby and then everyone will have to let you stay around Sandrock, plus we’ll get a little house, just you and me, and my Pa won’t be able to tell me what to do anymore.”
The depth of Elsie’s plan became very clear. She wanted what any young woman with an overly protective family wanted. A way to force everyone to see their maturity. A baby was certainly a way to solve the problem, but certainly she had better options.
Babies had needs to be met. Needs that he did not have the capability to fulfil, and he would not place the entirety of that burden upon her.
“Do you want a child right now?” He asked plainly.
“I don’t see why not.” She shrugged. “Babies ain’t no trouble, I’ll just carry ‘em around in one of those slings like my Pa did with me.” She gestured across her chest where the sling would go. “It’ll be a cute little thing too, ‘specially if they get those nice yellow-ish green-ish eyes you’ve got.”
Well, she certainly put up a solid argument.
On the other hand-
“I know it’s a big step, but it’s not like you gotta do much for the first year or so. You just gotta knock me up and then I got to let it bake for a while.”
“That’s not my main concern.” He replied. “Even if all of Sandrock was content to let me.. Stick around and raise a family with you, I doubt the Alliance would be so understanding.”
“Oh, they’re no trouble.” She replied, handwaving it away. “That’s why we’re in Atara, just turn yourself in and de- de- something. What’s the word?”
“You are suggesting I defect to the Alliance.”
“Yeah!” Elsie cheered. “Just give ‘em a Duvos secret or two, it doesn’t even have to be a real juicy one, and I’m sure they’ll let you be a citizen. I’ve even got a spy friend, I’m sure she’ll help us if I explain it to her.”
“As certain as I am that your friend will help you-”
“Help us.” Elsie corrected immediately, sitting down on the bed across from him.
There was only one bed. This was by design, Elsie had made it clear they would only need the one, after all. He should have spoken up then, but what was he supposed to say?
“There you go makin’ that face again.” Elsie complained. “Are ya in the gang or not?”
“Am I.. what?”
“Are ya- ugh, it’s something stupid Logan says, okay? It means are you with me, like are we a team?”
Logan had been the name of the white haired hero she had brought to parlay with him during their first meeting. He remembered well the protective hand he had put on Elsie’s shoulder.
“Ah. And Logan is your older brother, correct?”
“Logan?” Elsie laughed. “Nah, he just thinks he knows best for me like everyone else in Sandrock. Light forbid a girl used to be a youngin with bad ideas, now no one thinks I know that a fire burns, ya know?”
“Having a child of your own won’t end that, I’m afraid.” He said carefully.
“Yeah, yeah, I know it won’t. But I’ll just throw my Pa’s words right at them, ain’t no one gonna tell me how to raise my baby! Not you nor the government!”
He wanted the world to work the way Elsie described it. If he could, he would follow her plan to the letter, spend the rest of his life chasing yakmels and little red haired babies and letting Elsie order him around like he was her own private army.
It just didn’t work like that. And he didn’t know how to explain that to her in a way that wouldn’t break her heart. How was he supposed to explain to this bright eyed, sun kissed angel in front of him that the world wasn’t going to be kind to her, not if she insisted on settling down with someone like him.
“You don’t like the plan.” Elsie pointed out. She was very astute, for as much as she pretended to be otherwise.
“It needs some work.” He replied diplomatically.
“Alright, I knew you was gonna have all sorts of problems to point out, Mister General. Go ahead.”
The easy audacity of her statement made his mouth go dry. Storm above if he didn’t want to put a baby in that girl, just to find out how many ways she’d cuss him out while pregnant and angry.
“Well I’m waitin’.”
He took a slow breath, and pulled his cigarette case out of his pocket.
“Don’t you dare be lighting one of those gross things around me.” Elsie warned, an iron edge in her tone.
“Is that so?” He asked, pretending to ignore her while he opened the case and selected a cigarette.
“I mean it.” She said, bouncing up and crossing the room over to him. “It’s a disgusting habit and I won’t tolerate it.”
Without breaking eye contact, he closed the cigarette case, and tucked it back into his pocket - the old builder’s clothing had a deficit of usable pockets, but he continued to make do - and pulled out his lighter.
Elsie snatched it out of his hands, holding it high above her head and laughing triumphantly.
Elsie was small in stature, and Terr was not. If he so chose, he could have stood up and simply taken the lighter back from her. Even with her surprising strength, he was certain it would be little contest.
“Sweetheart.” He cajoled gently, unable to hide the smile on his face.
“I ain’t giving it back to you.” She replied. “Not till you promise not to light it.”
“And why should I do that?”
“I already told you, cause I don’t like it.”
“Hmm.” He mused, tapping the cigarette on the table.
“And-” She began. “Cause you can’t be messing up your lungs anymore, not if you’re gonna be a daddy.”
Her logic was sound, even if her plan wasn’t.
“Well you’ll have to give me something else to put my mouth on.” He replied suggestively, before he could think better of it.
“Gimme the cigarette first.” She demanded, holding out her hand.
He hesitated for a moment. She was certainly going to dispose of it, and not even she could break his frugal nature. Instead, he pulled the case back out of his pocket and tucked it away again
“That’s not what I said!” Elsie said, climbing onto his lap and trying to reach into his pocket to retrieve it.
When he kissed her, part of it felt like a tactical decision, but defending his cigarette case was the furthest thing on his mind once her wind-chapped lips parted against his.
In the back of his mind, far, far and away from her teasing mouth and her fingers running through his short cropped hair, and her thighs wrapped around his with her all encompassing heat, radiating into him through every layer of clothing like she held the warmth of the sun in her core- behind all of that was the knowledge he shouldn’t be doing this.
What he should have been doing this whole time was convincing her to return to Sandrock without him. To forget him. To not let a literal roll in the hay with a greying foreign official change the trajectory of her entire life.
Now, with her sweet breath on his tongue and her red hair twisted around his fingers again, he wasn’t certain he could ever let her go again.
“I’m excited to see what tricks you know without anyone around to bother us.” She mused conspiratorially.
“Am I a trained animal, doing tricks for treats?” He teased back, pressing a kiss to her jaw as his fingers began unburdening her of her clothes. The girl wore far too many buckles, even as someone who had fooled around in full dress regalia a time or two, he was having trouble.
“You could be.” She grinned, her deft fingers making short work of her bindings until her entire chest was bare before him.
He couldn’t help but be in awe of her. A tiny little thing, but much like an Imperial Flame pepper she’d bring even the emperor to his knees.
“My little flame.” He said softly, holding her chin in his fingers.
“I ain’t little.” She complained, her jaw set tight, but began to soften as he kissed down her neck, her breath catching hard as he flicked one perky nipple with his thumb.
“Just a little pepper sprout.” He teased, opening his mouth over the pulse point abover her collarbone and sucking in the warm flesh there.
“I- I-” Her voice caught and fizzled out, replaced by sharp whimpers of pleasure as his mouth found her nipple. With one hand pressed against her low back and the other tangling in her hair, he licked and sucked until she was twisting and whimpering against him, grinding so hard against his erection that he wondered if he could get her off without taking off her pants at all.
“Ya can’t-” She whined between gasps of breath. “‘s not fair-” Her hands gripped the back of the chair tight, trying and failing to ground herself against his relentless assault.
She was warm, every part of her was so warm in a way that seemed impossible. He longed to feel the heat of her engulf him entirely, to give over all of himself to whatever plans she wanted to make of him. He could make her his entire world.
Reality bit at the edges of his passion, reminding him that he was only making things worse, that he was already in so deep and no amount of course correction could undo what would happen if he actually did spill his seed inside her. He’d spent his whole life avoiding the pain that parenthood wrought. He couldn’t inflict it upon his sweet, fiery girl. Couldn’t watch motherhood strip the fire from her eyes like he’d seen it do to so many others.
“I didn’t say to stop.” Elsie complained, tugging his hair impatiently.
“My apologies.” He murmured against her skin.
“Always- fuckin’ apologizing.” She panted, her fingers fumbling with the buckles of his belt. “Can’t wait to see what you do when you actually do something wrong.”
Wrong was a matter of perspective, in this case. As it was in most cases.
He felt the button of his fly pop open, her determined hands grabbing hard at his waistband and pulling his pants down enough to free his straining cock. He watched her eyes, looking down to see what she had to work with.
Terr had no delusions of being the biggest man in the army, he’d spent far too much time in communal showers to think of himself as anything more than the larger end of average. Elsie, however, had obviously been fooling with men of an entirely different caliber, the way her mouth fell open at the sight of him.
“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you lost for words.” He mused, shivering as she ran one finger down the length of him.
“Didn’t know I was fooling with a stallion, is all.” She mumbled, the pink of her cheeks deepening into a full crimson flush.
He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers and looking into her deep violet eyes. “You gonna try to tame me, little flame?”
Fire erupted within her immediately, rising to meet his challenge. “You ain’t need taming.” She replied, wrapping her fingers around his shaft. “You just need reminded of your manners.”
Her experience was lacking- focusing on trying to choke the life out of him rather than useful movement, but the mere sight of her hands on his cock was enough to make the entire attempt worthwhile.
Not that there would be a next time- there shouldn’t even be a current time but he couldn’t find it in himself to stop- but next time he would certainly find a way to guide her in a way that didn’t lead to aggravation. She didn’t take to orders or instructions easily. It would have to be her own idea, somehow.
“Think I’m done fooling.” Elsie said, looking at him with single minded determination. “I’ll be taking you for a ride now.”
He didn’t have a smart response, merely nodding his assent as she climbed off of him.
Elsie unbuttoned her pants slowly, watching his reaction.
“Ya look like you’re dying of thirst again.” She said, letting her pants hit the floor.
“I might be.” He replied, his eyes half lidded and his breath ragged already with want. He reached out for her as she let her underwear drop as well, climbing naked back onto his lap.
“Never had a man look at me like he was gonna keel over if I didn’t touch him.” She mused, steadying herself with a hand on his shoulder.
He supported her with his hands, wanting to pull her against him immediately but instead letting her set the pace, her head pressing into his shoulder as she notched his cock against her entrance. It took all he had not to thrust up into her, the slick kiss of her outer lips almost more than he could bear.
“Never uh, never got this far before.” She admitted.
Fuck.
He’d met officers who would have loved this, seeing this moment as nothing more but another way to conquer the Free Cities, to break them beneath the Empire’s heel. Or at least, that was how they would justify it, bragging in the officers' mess about the sun-kissed Alliance girls who had easily handed over their bodies and hearts.
Terr had hoped the girl had more experience, at least had expected as much when she jumped him in the hayloft. It was clear to him now that Elsie possessed the easy confidence of a new recruit about to get themselves into a lot of trouble.
He should have stopped. He should have stopped at several points in this whole misadventure, but he couldn’t then and he certainly couldn’t now. But he could, at least, give her the best first time his experience and enthusiasm could offer.
“Then we’d better do this right.” He replied confidently, sliding his hands between her slick, trembling thighs and opening her up gently with one finger.
“Hey, I said I wanted to- oh you can keep doing that, actually.” Elsie’s complaints turned to contented murmurs, her tight muscles quickly loosening enough for him to work in another finger.
The sound of her made him ache and throb, desire so sharp in his belly that he was worried he’d barely get a thrust in before he lost control entirely. She rode his palm as intensely as she had ridden his face, her eyes closed tight as she lost herself entirely in her own enjoyment.
He kissed her cheek, her throat - feeling the vibration of her moans beneath his lips. Here she didn’t need to keep quiet - and she certainly didn’t. It had been amazing that she had managed to keep a lid on her sounds back in the hayloft at all.
She warbled sweet tones when his lips touched her breasts, pitching upwards as he teased his tongue around her nipple, a lazy circling that built up to match the speed of her sharp, desperate whimpers.
He could tell she was close, hear it in the pitch of her voice and feel it in the way she tightened around his fingers, his beautiful fiery girl coming undone on short, desperate gasps until she unwound entirely, digging her fingers tight into his back and calling out with her full voice.
“Don’t stop now.” He encouraged as she fell forward, panting onto his shoulder, his thumb still circling her clit even as she tried to pull away.
He held her in place, wrapping his free hand firmly around her hip and she immediately started to cuss at them, laboring under the incorrect assumption that would convince him to stop.
“Fuck you mean?” She panted, her eyes wide open and that beautiful anger on her face. “Don’t- oh- oh oh-”
He caught her as she arched her back violently, holding her safely against his chest as pleasure coursed through her. He hadn’t thought she could get any hotter, but she was liquid magma at her core and he was certain when he pulled his fingers away he’d find them burned away entirely.
He wanted nothing more than to see how many times he could unwind her on his fingers alone, but tempered himself, letting her relax into him rather than working her up again.
“Gonna fucking kill you.” She swore into his chest. She was panting heavily and the tight muscles of her pussy still hadn’t stopped sucking his fingers in. “Said I wanted to ride you not- not-”
He chuckled, letting her continue to cuss and threaten as she caught her breath. That only made her mad, starting a new tirade about how he was just sitting there grinning while she was dying.
“I’ve never seen someone get so angry about a little pleasure before.” He mused, brushing his fingers through her hair.
“A little pleasure? I thought I was gonna die there, all wrapped around your stupid fingers.”
“So I take it that you’re all finished with me?”
She glowered at him. “I didn’t say that.”
“Then what are you saying, my sweet?”
“I’m saying get your damn hand outta my way.” She growled.
He held her chin in his free hand, meeting her wrath with a smile. “A little politeness would go a long way.”
“Terr.” She warned, the growl of his name on her lips going straight to his cock in a way that brokered no further argument. He slid his fingers out of her slowly, savoring the look of want in her eyes as he left her momentarily empty.
“Now if you’re done toyin’ with me.” She grumbled, bracing herself against his shoulder again.
She fumbled, trying to line them up again with shaking hands and tired thighs.
“You could offer to help, ya know.” She muttered, looking down. “Seeing as it’s your dick and all.”
“My apologies.” He replied. “I believe you told me to get my damn hand out of your way.”
Realization flashed in her eyes, followed by hot irritation. “Will ya help me, please?”
It was the least polite please he had ever heard in his life.
“My pleasure.” He replied, grabbing her hips in his hands and gently guiding her onto him.
“Yeah, that’s the point-” She started, punctuating her sentence with a short gasp. “Fuck.”
He was lost to reason already with his tip barely pressed inside, and by the time he was fully hilted in her, their hips sealed tight against each other like riveted airship panels, he had forgotten every last reason why pumping her full of him was a bad idea.
“Light, I think you’re in me all the way to my tonsils.” Elsie exclaimed, holding her hands to her neck with glee, before tracing them down her belly and pressing inwards, looking for him.
His knees were shaking with the effort it took not to just immediately start pounding into her. This, of course, was not lost on Elsie, and she turned her attention from the novelty of being filled to the novelty of torturing him.
“Oh, you look just like I’m ruining your life.” She teased, grinding against him slow as she pleased. “I like that.”
He didn’t trust himself to respond, instead holding her hips and keeping pace with her slow, exploratory movements. He pressed his lips to hers and she kissed back eagerly, her lips sweet in a way that could only be ripened in the sun.
He wasn’t sure who increased the pace, but the other’s body responded and their kisses quickly deepened. She whimpered against his lips and his thrusts grew deeper, teasing new sounds out of her lips.
Terr wasn’t a greedy man, but in that moment he wanted to keep all of her and all her noises to himself in a way that felt entirely obscene. He deserved this, deserved her. Why shouldn’t he take her and keep her, when she gave herself over so easily?
“Are you gonna cum in me?” She mewled, breaking his trance. “Give me your babies, Terr.”
Reality hit him like a frigid morning breeze. He slowed his pace, immediately earning himself spirited complaints.
“My apologies.” He murmured, letting her sweet voice bring him back in again, bouncing her on his cock like he had moments before.
She felt far too good to stop now, even with the chill of reality in his bones, he still wanted her all to himself. It was impossible not to, what with the way she engulfed him, claimed him. How was he supposed to not simply obey?
“Don’t apologize. Just.. just c’mon, I need you- Please, please I need you-”
In all of his years of experience, Terr had never spilled himself inside a partner before. Not even in all the times he’d done anal penetration could he relax enough to release. The idea of bringing another hungry mouth into this world was just too much to bear.
But she was begging-
And he was so close-
But there were just some habits that took more than one ride with a pretty redhead to break.
He wasn’t even aware of the decision, muscle memory took over and he was pulling out and catching his release in his hand.
“The fuck you do that for?” Elsie whined, grinding her wet folds against his knuckles. “Don’t you know how babies are made?”
Terr leaned back into the chair and looked up at the ceiling as he panted for breath, his heart beating like machine gun fire.
Elsie continued to grumble and groan, but the sound wasn’t quite as sweet as it had moments before. “Stupid man, talking about how you’re old enough to be my Pa and you don’t even know you’ve gotta let your gravy loose inside.” She bit his shoulder in irritation.
“Elsie.” He said softly. “I can’t.”
“Whatcha mean you can’t?” She asked. “It’s a natural thing. You ain’t one of those city slickers that never saw a yak in heat, are ya?”
“I know the basics of the equation.” He replied, forcing himself to look away from the ceiling and back at her. “Elsie, this is irresponsible.”
A different fire erupted in her eyes. “Irresponsible, how.” She demanded, making it clear he had exactly one chance to explain himself.
Irresponsible was a poor choice of words, he realized. A girl like Elsie got called irresponsible three times before breakfast. The fact she wasn’t immediately out for blood was a testament to her self control.
“Give me a second to breathe, sweet girl. I’ll explain.”
She climbed off his lap, and sat down heavily on the bed across from him. “Well?”
Where to even begin? She didn’t want, or need, a full lecture. He didn’t want to give one. He had no doubt the sentiments about hungry children were the same in the Free Cities as they were in Duvos. ‘If you can’t feed them, don’t breed them’ was one he’d heard thrown at desperate parents far too many times.
His parents had faced the same sentiments, falling on lean times when cabbage bugs ate their crop year after year. He’d joined the military on his birthday, just like his brother the year before, sending all their meager pay home to keep their large family fed.
And yet here this bright girl was just ready to commit another life to hunger or the military machine, and here he was nearly ready to aid her just to hear her sweet voice again.
But he also thought about the lush, growing fields they had passed on the train. How in the last few days, he’d seen more variety and quantity of food casually on display than he’d ever seen in his whole life. At first he’d chalked it up to being a way to entice rich tourists out of their coin, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Perhaps the constant, gnawing hunger didn’t exist here. Not like he’d been told. He knew that what he had been told about the Free Cities was heavily progandized at best, but-
Elsie was waiting on his answer. She wouldn’t wait much longer.
At this point, the best thing to do was just ask. Either Elsie had grown up with plenty and didn’t carry the fear he did, or she was ignoring the problem for her own gains. One, they could work with. The other he was a fool for ignoring.
“Elsie, how plentiful is food in Sandrock?”
“Now don’t you go changing the subject-” She began immediately, and with good reason.
“I assure you, I am not.” He replied, and something about her tone gave her pause.
“There’s all sorts of food in Sandrock.” She replied, with obvious confusion. “Everyone’s got a garden or something going, even Riot, who has the worst luck with plants my Ma’s ever seen in her life.” She cocked her head and looked at him. “Is that what you wanted to know?”
He nodded, letting out a soft sigh of relief. “It is. It is. My sweet, darling girl, please forgive me for calling this endeavor irresponsible. I am.. beginning to realize that things are far different here than I have been taught.”
She squinted at him. He resisted the impulse to squint back. They weren’t two low ranking soldiers sharing a moment of discomfort. She was trying to figure something out- trying to figure him out specifically. He had no doubts that she saw more of his soul than he realized.
“You were worried we wouldn’t be able to feed our baby, if we made one.” She stated.
He merely nodded. The depth of his concern really did boil down to just that.
“You could have just said that.” She chastised. “I would’ve told you all about the Moisture Farm and how the one time we thought there was gonna be less food than usual we all got together to share. Terr, there’s so much food in Sandrock a body can be particular about what they will and won’t eat. Well, unless you’re sitting at my Pa’s table, he won’t let you go unless you at least try the turnip greens, even though I try them every time and they always taste rotten-”
He was sticky, and feeling stupid in a way he hadn’t in years. He had been so preoccupied with protecting her from reality that he hadn’t even taken a moment to consider how different her reality was from his own.
Her brightness wasn’t a matter of naivety. It was a matter of sunshine.
“You’re sure thinking a lot of deep thoughts over there, for someone with your dick in your hands like that.” Elsie noted.
He gave a short laugh. “How about I take a shower, and we can go over your plan again.”
He wondered how different things really were here, if perhaps her plan wasn’t so far fetched as he had believed. Plans required proper intelligence, reconnaissance - and he had been ignoring the one person who had been gathering that her entire life.
“Alright, but you better start practicing for living in Sandrock now.” She ordered. “We don’t have a lot of water to be wasting out in the desert, so you have to get your business done quickly. Do you want me to time you? I can get this long hair clean in under half a minute but I’ll let you have a whole one if you give me a kiss.”