[Lune laughs again as she considers what feedback she could possibly give Sciel. Even knowing it's just a joke, she needs to say something, but the entire time she'd spent with Sciel between her legs is such a pleasurable blur that she's not sure she has even a joking response to give.]
High marks all around, [is what she settles on.
She fiddles lazily with Sciel's hair as the other woman keeps kissing her, relaxing into the feeling of Sciel's lips on her throat. She can already tell there'll be a bruise or two there come morning.
Come morning...
A shiver runs through her. She tries to pass it off as just being chilly – they're lying naked up in the Tower, it's not unreasonable that she would be – but she knows that she'll have to wake up in the morning and face the work ahead. Her parents are dead and they aren't coming back and Sol and Stella are off living their own lives and it would be so, so easy to lose herself completely in Sciel, to do this every night and maybe get to know her better and maybe fall in love and build a life together but there's too much work to ever allow for anything outside of it and nobody to do it but her. Maybe she should have already gotten started tonight. Maybe this was a mistake.
No, she thinks quickly, not a mistake. But a distraction.
Don't get distracted, Lune. You need to focus, Lune. You won't be able to concentrate on the work if your head is full of pretty girls.
She flops onto her back next to Sciel, staring up at the stars.]
I should... [Leave.] ...thank you. This was amazing.
[And it was. It's probably the most amazing thing that's ever happened to her. Which is why it can't ever happen again. She can't afford to have her head wrapped up in Sciel when she needs to focus.]
[ A silence stretches between them, but it isn't necessarily an uncomfortable one. A natural one, maybe. Because Sciel anticipates what Lune's about to say before she says it; though Lune is still a stranger, her earlier admissions about her parents, about the future expedition, come to mind. It'd been easy to see how diligent and serious this young woman is from the get-go, and she senses it again as it nearly drifts off Lune in waves.
Sciel turns to lie on her side, arm bracing her head as she gazes at the other woman, hopefully not for the last time. But...maybe for the last time in a while. ]
You're very welcome. [ Almost without thinking about it, she reaches out to brush a dark strand or two from in front of Lune's face. ] Thank you for coming.
[ Up to keep her company, or...the other meaning. Whichever. Both. ]
I won't forget this. [ She says after another pause, and her voice hangs with an offer: should there ever be space for it, she'd be happy for the mage to come knocking again. There is no expectation, but rather a door that will remain unlocked to her, if she were to find herself at that threshold again in the future.
Of course, she also means it in a more straightforward way: it'd been time incredibly well-spent -- pleasurable, and with an incredible woman -- and she commits every second of it to memory. ]
In the meantime, I'll be cheering you and your expedition on. I've got high hopes.
[Lune tries to muster a smile, but she finds it won't quite come. She wants to stay here, wrap Sciel up in her arms, and while the night away kissing her. She wants to lean against the fingers she feels on her face as her hair is brushed away. But what she wants is so much less important than what Lumière needs.
The offer is audible in Sciel's voice: we could do this again. But looking at Sciel makes Lune's heart flutter in a way that she can't allow, so she sits up and reaches for her clothes. There can't be an again, because then there'll be a third time, and a fourth, again and again and again, and maybe it won't ever stop, because the more Lune gets a taste for Sciel, for whatever there is between them, the harder it will be for her to walk away.
She can practically feel her parents' eyes boring into her, their disappointment hanging thick in the air. She needs to focus. She can't get distracted. If she leaves now, she can start pulling out some charts tonight so that she'll be ready to work first thing in the morning. She'll need to go back through her parents' notes, everything they left for her in case they failed. She's been through a lot of the old records already, but there are more; she can start organising those tomorrow, too, and go back through the rest looking for fresh details. She won't get distracted again.]
You could join us.
[She doesn't look at Sciel. Her attention is fixed on buttoning up her trousers and pulling her shirt over her head.]
[ Sciel hopes that this isn't the last of it, but hope is a tricky thing in their world. As she slowly draws herself up and begins to get dressed herself, she half-watches Lune. Takes in the way that the other woman's body language changes, how her expression changes, how the very air around her seems to button up as she does. ]
Me, join the expedition? [ She doesn't quite laugh, but she does crack a surprised smile as she pulls on her boots. ] I don't know, I'm...not sure I'm cut out for all that.
[ She's just a farmer, after all. And the expeditions...important as they are, they're also -- historically -- a death sentence. Sciel may be an orphan now with no siblings to speak of, but she likes her life. Isn't exactly looking for an out. ]
I'll think about it. [ Comes the light reply, but she does mean it. No reason not to keep the idea tucked away in the back of her mind for a rainy day, even if it might only end up being a road not traveled.
Once all her clothes are back on, she reaches for the discarded bottle and lifts it in a little toast directed toward the mage. ]
[Once Lune's dressed, everything buttoned and buckled just as it's supposed to be, as though she hasn't just had one of the best and most intense experiences of her life, she stands and starts towards the stairs.
When Sciel speaks again, she stops and glances quickly back. Fuck, Sciel is beautiful, and of course with that thought comes the temptation: stay. Kiss her. Ask her back to Lune's flat. Ask her to breakfast in the morning.]
Avec plaisir, [Lune says softly, very nearly smiling.
And then she turns and leaves, hurrying down the stairs, leaving Sciel to her bottle and the rest of her night, hoping that she's at least left her a little better than she was before. Halfway down, she pauses, her hand hovering over the railing, her foot stalled just above the next step. She wants to go back. She wants to go back so badly. And that's the danger of it, isn't it? If she wanted Sciel less, if Sciel were less spectacular, if it had just been a bit of fun, maybe she would go back.
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High marks all around, [is what she settles on.
She fiddles lazily with Sciel's hair as the other woman keeps kissing her, relaxing into the feeling of Sciel's lips on her throat. She can already tell there'll be a bruise or two there come morning.
Come morning...
A shiver runs through her. She tries to pass it off as just being chilly – they're lying naked up in the Tower, it's not unreasonable that she would be – but she knows that she'll have to wake up in the morning and face the work ahead. Her parents are dead and they aren't coming back and Sol and Stella are off living their own lives and it would be so, so easy to lose herself completely in Sciel, to do this every night and maybe get to know her better and maybe fall in love and build a life together but there's too much work to ever allow for anything outside of it and nobody to do it but her. Maybe she should have already gotten started tonight. Maybe this was a mistake.
No, she thinks quickly, not a mistake. But a distraction.
Don't get distracted, Lune. You need to focus, Lune. You won't be able to concentrate on the work if your head is full of pretty girls.
She flops onto her back next to Sciel, staring up at the stars.]
I should... [Leave.] ...thank you. This was amazing.
[And it was. It's probably the most amazing thing that's ever happened to her. Which is why it can't ever happen again. She can't afford to have her head wrapped up in Sciel when she needs to focus.]
no subject
Sciel turns to lie on her side, arm bracing her head as she gazes at the other woman, hopefully not for the last time. But...maybe for the last time in a while. ]
You're very welcome. [ Almost without thinking about it, she reaches out to brush a dark strand or two from in front of Lune's face. ] Thank you for coming.
[ Up to keep her company, or...the other meaning. Whichever. Both. ]
I won't forget this. [ She says after another pause, and her voice hangs with an offer: should there ever be space for it, she'd be happy for the mage to come knocking again. There is no expectation, but rather a door that will remain unlocked to her, if she were to find herself at that threshold again in the future.
Of course, she also means it in a more straightforward way: it'd been time incredibly well-spent -- pleasurable, and with an incredible woman -- and she commits every second of it to memory. ]
In the meantime, I'll be cheering you and your expedition on. I've got high hopes.
no subject
The offer is audible in Sciel's voice: we could do this again. But looking at Sciel makes Lune's heart flutter in a way that she can't allow, so she sits up and reaches for her clothes. There can't be an again, because then there'll be a third time, and a fourth, again and again and again, and maybe it won't ever stop, because the more Lune gets a taste for Sciel, for whatever there is between them, the harder it will be for her to walk away.
She can practically feel her parents' eyes boring into her, their disappointment hanging thick in the air. She needs to focus. She can't get distracted. If she leaves now, she can start pulling out some charts tonight so that she'll be ready to work first thing in the morning. She'll need to go back through her parents' notes, everything they left for her in case they failed. She's been through a lot of the old records already, but there are more; she can start organising those tomorrow, too, and go back through the rest looking for fresh details. She won't get distracted again.]
You could join us.
[She doesn't look at Sciel. Her attention is fixed on buttoning up her trousers and pulling her shirt over her head.]
The expeditions can always use more volunteers.
no subject
Me, join the expedition? [ She doesn't quite laugh, but she does crack a surprised smile as she pulls on her boots. ] I don't know, I'm...not sure I'm cut out for all that.
[ She's just a farmer, after all. And the expeditions...important as they are, they're also -- historically -- a death sentence. Sciel may be an orphan now with no siblings to speak of, but she likes her life. Isn't exactly looking for an out. ]
I'll think about it. [ Comes the light reply, but she does mean it. No reason not to keep the idea tucked away in the back of her mind for a rainy day, even if it might only end up being a road not traveled.
Once all her clothes are back on, she reaches for the discarded bottle and lifts it in a little toast directed toward the mage. ]
Until then -- to you...Lune. Merci beaucoup.
no subject
When Sciel speaks again, she stops and glances quickly back. Fuck, Sciel is beautiful, and of course with that thought comes the temptation: stay. Kiss her. Ask her back to Lune's flat. Ask her to breakfast in the morning.]
Avec plaisir, [Lune says softly, very nearly smiling.
And then she turns and leaves, hurrying down the stairs, leaving Sciel to her bottle and the rest of her night, hoping that she's at least left her a little better than she was before. Halfway down, she pauses, her hand hovering over the railing, her foot stalled just above the next step. She wants to go back. She wants to go back so badly. And that's the danger of it, isn't it? If she wanted Sciel less, if Sciel were less spectacular, if it had just been a bit of fun, maybe she would go back.
In another life, perhaps.
She continues on home. She's got work to do.]