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After being away in Rinascita for months, and being swept away into a looping Sonoro Sphere hardly a few hours into her return to the Black Shores, to say Rover felt giddy upon seeing her Shorekeeper again was an understatement.
It had been a pleasant surprise. She and Chisa had just finished preparations for the party. The shop smelt of cherry blossoms and coffee beans, the air quiet save for the sounds of the evening winds blowing through Honami City, as well as mischievous murmurs between Abby and Namipon.
When the space in front of the shop’s entrance rippled, and Shorekeeper stepped through, blinding white and blues a stark clash to the neon reds and purples and pinks of the city, Rover nearly tripped over her boots to greet her.
Her heartbeat, normally steady and resolute even in the face of battle—she’d just sealed away a Threnodian, after all—thumped an excited rhythm as Shorekeeper spoke. That soft voice, the intonations of her vowels, the way she baffled Chisa with her matter-of-fact attitude…
Rover’s face hurt all of a sudden. She pressed her hands to her cheeks, and realized she’d been smiling.
The party progressed smoothly. Even Camellya made an appearance, to Rover’s delight. Though perhaps not to Shorekeeper’s: Rover noticed the tiniest downturn of her mouth when Camellya sidled closer to her, flirting as unsubtly as always. Rover filed away this information with amusement.
Then it happened. A rift opened up in the center of the city, and Rover’s frequency began disappearing into it faster than Abby could eat at a buffet. Thankfully, they were able to stop it in time, and the Black Shores cordoned off the area, determined to establish contact with the other side in due time: Lahai-Roi.
Sentinels above, Rover couldn’t catch a break. But she’d take any free time offered to her with full advantage, and with a lull in her duties at the moment, she knew exactly how she wanted to spend it.
The Black Shores was a flurry of activity and excitement. Consultants, researchers, and Bloom Bearers ran this way and that. Some were performing close analysis on Leviathan’s dissipating frequencies. Others were busy with the new task of stabilizing Honami City, and others still with the newer task of crafting an identity for Rover at Startorch Academy.
All that noise faded as Rover stepped into the digital realm of Tethys’ Deep, and started towards the Eidoscope.
The faraway whirr of the Data Torrent sounded in her ears as she walked along, new data-stars twinkling and blinking into existence overhead. Tethys, now subdued, said nothing as Rover stopped next to Shorekeeper’s chair, the nearby devices consistent in their electronic humming.
Rover reached over and gently rested a hand on Shorekeeper’s bare shoulder. Almost immediately, Shorekeeper’s eyes opened. Soft violet turned to meet striking gold, and Shorekeeper jolted up straight in her chair before blushing.
Well, blushing by Shorekeeper’s standards. As it was, she broke eye contact, her eyes darting about, and the crystal in her chest glowed a bit brighter.
“My Star!” Shorekeeper tugged her hood forward and smoothed out the shimmering fabric of her dress. Rover got the sense she was fidgeting. “I was not expecting you,” she said softly, turning in her seat to dangle her legs off. “Do you require my assistance?”
“No,” Rover said automatically, then tilted her head. “Actually, yes.” She offered up her palm. Shorekeeper took it, standing up. “I need you to…”
She trailed off, suddenly nervous. She should’ve made this more special. Maybe take Shorekeeper to Rinascita, not just talk about it. And she wasn’t the best of storytellers; Brant, even Roccia would likely critique her paltry performance. And surely Shorekeeper had read her reports from front to back to front again, did she really care about—?
A cool hand brushed against her cheek and she blinked, breaking out of her thoughts to find Shorekeeper watching her, eyebrows furrowed in worry.
“What causes such conflict in you, my Star?” Shorekeeper’s fingers brushed against the underside of Rover’s jaw, and now it was her turn to blush. “Tell me, so I may help alleviate it.”
“Do you…want to take a walk with me?” Rover asked.
“Of course,” Shorekeeper said immediately. The frame of her body bobbed, and Rover realized she had gone from hovering to lowering herself completely onto the ground. A small act, but one that warmed Rover’s heart nonetheless.
“To my quarters,” Rover clarified. Shorekeeper blinked, at intervals too short for a normal human, and she added hastily, “I want to tell you about my adventures. Properly, not just over my Terminal.”
The smile that bloomed across Shorekeeper’s face was as gentle and radiant as the flower pinned at her lower back. She looped her arm through Rover’s—slowly at first, cautiously, then more surely once Rover adjusted her elbow—and began walking.
—
The warm, lazy sunrays of noon darkened into the amber of evening, then cooled into midnight purple as the remnants of Solaris’ moon rose, basking the Black Shores in illusionary silver.
Rover’s personal quarters held little furniture aside from the basics, though there were knickknacks here and there: Changli’s feather, a Catseye gem, a painting from Zhezhi, two energy drinks (one from Zani and Lupa respectively), a purple bottle suspiciously effusing a sweet-smelling mist, and so on and so forth, along with no shortage of photographs.
The biggest boon to the room was the far wall, which was made entirely of windows, and looked upon the great sea that separated the Black Shores from the nearby countries. Rover’s quarters were positioned atop the archipelago in such a way that she had her own private beach view; neither Ku-Bots nor members had access nearby.
It was this view the both of them stared off into, glittering waves against pitch-dark sands, as Rover finished wrapping up her tales of Rinascita. They sat on the edge of her bed, creasing the black silken sheets.
“Exquisite craftsmanship,” Shorekeeper was saying, examining Bloodpact’s Pledge. "I believe Cartethyia would love to wield a sword of this caliber.”
“I fear Haultir might get jealous. How did Cartethyia like it here, by the way?” A wave of Rover’s hand, and Bloodpact’s Pledge’s physical form disappeared into her Terminal. “I recall she stayed here for a few days so we could monitor her frequency.”
Shorekeeper nodded. “She spent a lot of time near the garden plots attempting to cultivate some flowers. If I am recalling the moment correctly, I believe the seeds originated from her hometown.”
“Oh, Egla Town is beautiful.” Rover shifted closer, her shoulders knocking with Shorekeeper’s, as she cycled through the photos in her Terminal. Shyly, Shorekeeper’s hand brushed against her own on the bed, and she flipped her palm over, intertwining their fingers. “Here it is.”
The Terminal projected the image into the air before them. Egla Town, with its swaying wheat fields and ghostly lamps, Wingrays soaring in the background. Rover faced Shorekeeper, but found her eyes trained on something at the edge of the photo. Rover followed her gaze.
There, but the smallest, fuzziest outline, were the Polyphemos Windmills.
Ah. That’s right.
Their hands still interlocked, Rover lifted hers to press a kiss to Shorekeeper’s fingers. The faintest noise of surprise escaped her lips, and her crystal pulsed with light.
“I remembered, you know,” said Rover quietly, running her thumb over Shorekeeper’s knuckles. “Well, I had the faintest inkling. I walked through the sea of flowers we’d visited all those years before.” She lifted a shoulder, shrugging. “It was beautiful, yes, but…”
Here, she turned, Shorekeeper’s face so close to hers their noses brushed. Shorekeeper went still, eyes wide. Rover drowned underneath violet.
“I missed you,” Rover admitted, voice hushed to a whisper. “Its wonder was dulled without you by my side.”
Rover’s gaze flickered down the slightest bit. The hand in hers tightened, and Shorekeeper tensed.
“Sorry.” Rover kissed the top of her forehead and began to pull away, smiling gently. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable—”
“No!” A surprisingly strong grip on her collar tugged her forward, and Rover found herself balancing precariously over Shorekeeper, one hand pressed into the mattress to keep herself from falling.
“Forgive me, my Star.” Shorekeeper aimlessly adjusted her hood again, and they both straightened back up. She pulled her legs up off the edge of the bed, shifting upwards to tuck them nearer herself. Rover followed suit, sitting criss-cross. “I…it’s not that…”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Rover cut in, but snapped her jaw shut when Shorekeeper held up a firm hand.
“Wait, let me explain, please.” When Rover nodded, giving her rapt attention, Shorekeeper pressed a hand to her chest, fingers trailing around the outline of her crystal. “I am still a being of energy,” Shorekeeper began, a note of surprising frustration in her voice. “Through you, I have learned to understand, to feel, to love…” She trailed off briefly, and Rover blushed. “But I am still unaware of many human actions; for example, previously.” She waved vaguely. “I do not know how to…I fear I may be bad at it.”
“Kissing?” Rover clarified, her voice cracking with more nervousness than she wanted to show.
Shorekeeper hummed.
“We’ve kissed before though, haven’t we?”
“Yes, but.” Shorekeeper held up a hand, pinching her thumb and index fingers together. Rover’s heart swelled. Adorable. “It was a small amount, a minor action. I’ve overheard conversations between the other members, mainly from Aalto. Kissing is…there are many forms, like stances in swordplay.”
Sentinels above, he better not be saying such things with Encore nearby.
“I suppose that’s an apt description,” Rover said slowly. With far more bravery than she felt at the moment—Shorekeeper’s unbroken attention was rather distracting—she said encouragingly, “But kissing’s like anything else. You can get better with practice. Not that we have to at this moment—”
“I would like to practice,” Shorekeeper said immediately.
“I—oh.”
“Unless you don’t want to?” Shorekeeper adjusted her hood again.
“No—I mean, yes.”
Inwardly, Rover groaned. She could face off two Threnodians, hordes of Tacet Discords, three Fractsidus Overseers and the Architect themselves, but when it came to her Shorekeeper all sense vanished in an instant. She was reminded of both Carlotta and Cantarella, the way their unpredictability left her dizzy, like the wrong step in a choreographed dance.
Enough. Rover took a deep breath. Despite her uncharacteristic nervousness, her hands tingled, her heart skipped. In the false moonlight, illuminated by the reflective waves and her own subtle glow, Shorekeeper was beautiful. Ethereal. The way her hair, bluer than the summer sky, caressed her face; the fluttering of her eyelashes against the calm violet of her eyes; the elegant posture of her body; the whisper of silken fabric against her skin…
With someone like that in front of them, who wouldn’t be nervous?
“Let’s, um, here.” Rover slid off the bed, motioning for Shorekeeper to follow. They now stood at the foot of it, Rover with the backs of her knees against the mattress, Shorekeeper in front of her.
“We’re standing?”
“It’s one of the most common positions.”
Shorekeeper thoughtfully mouthed the words ‘common positions.’ Rover cleared her throat.
“I’ll start.” Slowly, and checking Shorekeeper’s expressions for any sign of distress, Rover placed one hand against her waist, the other against her cheek, thumb resting before the shell of her ear. A thrill ran through her as Shorekeeper’s eyelids automatically lowered, lips parting.
Rover hesitated right before, voice lower than she remembered, words brushing the air between them. “You can tell me to stop whenever you want.”
“Mhm,” Shorekeeper murmured.
She couldn’t remember if she leaned in, or if the cool hand suddenly splaying against her lower back pushed her forward, but she was kissing Shorekeeper.
It was a little clumsy at first, a push-and-pull dancing to different rhythms, and when Rover peeked an eye open, Shorekeeper’s face was scrunched up adorably, eyebrows furrowed with the determination of someone insistent to succeed. Rover reclosed her eyes, lips curving into a smile.
And then, with the sudden synchronization of multiple metronomes aligning, something shifted.
Something clicked.
Shorekeeper pressed closer, their hips flush together, and Rover jolted, ears burning. The hand resting against Shorekeeper’s face bumped in her surprise, sending Shorekeeper’s hood fluttering off her head and onto the ground.
Rover’s head swam. Lips moved incessantly against hers, no longer passive reciprocity but with firm intent.
Shorekeeper pulled back, just for a moment. “You’re so warm, my Star.”
Rover couldn’t answer, for Shorekeeper had immediately returned to kiss her again.
Dimly, over the heated roar turning higher thought into fog, she felt an arm snaking around her waist, a different hand trailing up her spine. When Shorekeeper brushed a particular sensitive spot, Rover involuntarily gasped, and Shorekeeper used that moment to deepen the kiss.
Her hands, now having moved to holding Shorekeeper’s shoulders, were less of a caress than the clutch of a lifeline. Shorekeeper’s lips were so soft, so distractingly lovely against her own, the only thing cool against her suddenly overheating skin. Rover couldn’t breathe. She had to breathe. She told herself to breathe.
“Breathe,” Shorekeeper whispered, and Rover was blinking stupidly at her, chest heaving. The hand around her was drawing random patterns against the side of her waist—except when Rover shivered, she realized her error: the fingers caressing her were searching.
Rover’s grip tightened accusingly. “You’re a fast learner.”
Shorekeeper ducked her head, clearly pleased. With her hood laying who-knows-where, Rover ran her eyes over her hair, which she rarely saw in full view. Not for the first time, Rover wondered about the origin of Shorekeeper’s appearance. Her own frequency had caused her creation, she knew, given sentience to pure remnant energy, but the rest was a mystery. Not that she was complaining; Shorekeeper was beautiful. Fondly, she brushed some bangs away from Shorekeeper’s eyes.
“With Tethys as my senior,” said Shorekeeper, leaning into the touch, “I had to.”
Rover gave the slightest flick to her forehead. “Don’t bring that arrogant AI into this.” She eyed the nearest lamp suspiciously, in case it began blinking curses in code. But all was silent, and it stayed dark.
Movement drew her attention downwards, where Shorekeeper was still running her thumbs over the outside of her outfit, aimlessly wandering. Pale hands adorned with faux-butterflies played with the golden accessories hanging off her waist, lifted to playfully tug at the strings holding her clothing closed, then returned down to pinch at the exposed skin where her shorts and skirt met.
A searing heat was collecting at the back of her neck, and Rover met Shorekeeper’s eyes, confusion no doubt overshadowed by the flushing of her face. “What—”
“May we continue?” Shorekeeper interrupted.
Despite the warmth of the room, Rover felt a shiver prickle along her arms. Dumbly, she nodded.
In battle, Shorekeeper could move quicker than the eye could track, blinking in and out of existence like starlight. This was no different. Rover’s chin had barely finished moving downward from nodding when Shorekeeper surged forward, slotting their lips together again. The force of it caused Rover to lose her balance, and she toppled backwards onto the bed sheets, letting out a muffled gasp in surprise.
Rover managed to wrestle just enough thought to prop herself up on her elbows. Undeterred by their new position, Shorekeeper cupped Rover’s face and continued to kiss her incessantly. Rover’s posture broke, her arms slipping, and she found herself pressed against the sheets, Shorekeeper pressed against every inch of her.
Shorekeeper pulled away, and Rover took the precious seconds to catch her breath. Which failed immediately. Her breathing hitched, a shudder running through her body, as Shorekeeper moved her mouth to press against the corners of her lips, her cheek, along her jaw, and down the sides of her neck.
With a shaky exhale, she tilted her head up to allow Shorekeeper access, and buried a hand into Shorekeeper’s hair, focusing on the silken strands threading through her fingers in a futile effort to regain some semblance of awareness. Shorekeeper smiled against her skin.
She lavished attention where Rover’s neck met her shoulder. Rover jumped when she felt the scrape of teeth, and Shorekeeper hummed inquisitively. She prowled up Rover’s body to plant another kiss, and her movement slotted her knee right between Rover’s thighs.
“Mnh—!” Rover’s hands flew up to press against Shorekeeper’s forearms, which were bracketing her body. The overlapping sensations—silk and linen, the chill of Shorekeeper’s touch against her overheated skin, soft and gentle lips with barely-disguised power underneath—left her dizzy. “Shorekeeper, you—”
Her words vanished like sea spray as she met Shorekeeper’s eyes. Ruby irises inside amethyst, crimson enveloped in violet. Shorekeeper’s head tilted to the side, and she ran her fingers over Rover’s parted lips.
“I…I find myself enjoying this, my Star,” Shorekeeper admitted, eyelids lowered. Rover swallowed, heart thundering away as Shorekeeper’s hand drifted towards her throat, palm resting against the rapid pulse at the base. “Your reactions. I…if you’ll let me…” She leaned in, their lips brushing as she whispered, “I wish to know more about you. Of you.”
Rover stared up at her Shorekeeper, body alight with desire, adoration, and the heat of her embarrassment. Truthfully, this isn’t how she imagined how her return visit would go. Some quiet time for them to get closer, to create more intimate memories to apologize for the ones she’d forgotten, but…
Well. It’s not like Rover had any intention of refusing.
Rover smiled and rested a hand over Shorekeeper’s. She could feel the faint thrum of energy through her skin, just as Shorekeeper could feel her rhythm of life as well.
“I love you,” Rover whispered, and nodded. Yes. Go ahead.
Shorekeeper kissed her again; it was soft, a loving brush of lips, a butterfly resting its wings against the petals of its favorite flower. “I love you too.” Anything for you.
Shorekeeper pulled her hand back. It drifted down to tug at the strings criss-crossing over her chest, then moved upwards to loosen the other strings holding the collar, and thus her top, together. Rover pushed herself off the bed slightly, allowing Shorekeeper to undress her. Soon, she lay back against the cool black sheets, bare save for her shorts. Shorekeeper reached behind to tug free her golden hair ornament, leaving Rover’s hair to splay against the bed.
“I’m familiar with human anatomy,” began Shorekeeper, tracing an invisible line against Rover’s body. “But I am also aware each person has their own preferences and peculiarities. I wish to ingrain yours into my memory.”
Shorekeeper brushed her hands over Rover’s collarbones, the dusting of blush on the tips of her shoulders, the hot valley of her chest, down the planes of her stomach, along the sides of her waist. Rover trembled under Shorekeeper’s ministrations. She was finding spots Rover didn’t even know she had, and try as she might, she couldn’t stop herself from reacting. She shivered and jolted every time Shorekeeper found somewhere sensitive, and her eyes would linger, mentally noting its location, before moving on. Shorekeeper was playing her as skillfully as she could the piano, and Rover was helpless in the face of it.
Shorekeeper paused as her hands rested over Rover’s hipbones. Rover blinked at her, confusion growing in the silent pause, before her back arched with a gasp.
She’d forgotten the placement of Shorekeeper’s knee. It was still wedged between her thighs, pressed against her center, and to her disbelief and surprise, it was somehow pulsating.
“As I’m sure you’re aware,” began Shorekeeper softly, thumbs idly playing with the waistband of her shorts, “My physical body is a vessel for pure remnant energy. I learned long ago I can increase my body’s surface temperature if I swirl the energy at high speeds. And I learned more recently,” she continued, pressing her knee further and smiling as Rover trembled, “I can vibrate parts of my body if I concentrate the energy there.”
“Ah—” Rover slapped a hand over her mouth, the other scrabbling against the sheets.
“So you like this?” Shorekeeper observed, nodding in satisfaction. “Noted.”
The pressure between her legs increased tenfold, and Rover moaned into her palm. Somehow, despite the haze of pleasure, she felt a grip on her wrist pull her hand away. With effort, she tried to focus through the haze in her vision.
Shorekeeper brought Rover’s hand up, kissed her fingertips, then, while maintaining direct eye contact, parted her lips and slid two of Rover’s fingers into her mouth.
Rover’s eyes widened, her breathing thickening. Shorekeeper’s tongue was cool as the rest of her, and Rover's fingers twitched reflexively inside her mouth, skimming the edges of her teeth. Shorekeeper closed her lips around her fingers and began to suck.
The quietest of whimpers escaped Rover without her permission as Shorekeeper rolled her tongue along the pads of her fingers, between them, bit gently around them. Violet eyes flickered across her face, watching, observing Rover’s reactions.
The vibrations against her halted suddenly. Rover huffed, then inhaled sharply as it restarted with a different rhythm. Shorekeeper closed her eyes, mouth continuing to work, and the realization of what was happening arced a bolt of pleasure through Rover.
Shorekeeper was matching the pulses of her energy to the movements of her tongue.
Rover clenched her eyes shut, grinding her hips with abandon against Shorekeeper’s leg. In her mind’s eye, she could see it: the tongue wrapping around her fingers, instead diligently flicking against her core, Shorekeeper’s head buried between—
Rover groaned, the mental image rocketing her pleasure from eight to eleven. “Shorekeeper…”
Shorekeeper slid her fingers out with a quiet pop, and Rover released a shout of frustration.
“What is it?” Shorekeeper asked, her voice curling around Rover’s ears, the gentle lull of it both torture and heaven at the same time.
“You’re—” Rover panted as Shorekeeper leaned forward, pinning her wrists to either side of her head, although there was no real weight behind it. “I want—”
She was cut off as Shorekeeper adjusted her leg, the pulsations increasing in pressure and frequency.
“What?” Shorekeeper asked, pressing a bruising kiss to her mouth. Rover moaned into it, lips already parting, but Shorekeeper pulled away before she could deepen it. “Tell me what you want, my Star.”
This was Shorekeeper being cruel, purposefully denying her, and Rover found she was loving it. Heat curled up her spine, her core tightening. She was almost there, but something was missing.
“Mouth,” Rover begged, wrestling the last of her self-control. “I want—”
“Soon,” Shorekeeper promised, brushing their noses together, and hit Rover with the highest intensity of her vibrations as possible.
“F-fuck—!” Rover threw her head back against the pillows, words dying on her tongue as the pleasure increased.
Shorekeeper dipped her head down, running her lips along Rover’s throat. Experimentally, she scraped the barest hint of teeth against her skin.
Rover’s hips canted faster, back arching. Shorekeeper released her wrists to trail her fingers up and down the sides of her waist. “Please—I’m—”
Taking the hint, Shorekeeper tugged at a small patch of skin with her teeth, the smallest bite.
“Shorekeeper!”
Rover came with a shout, body shuddering, hands flying up to desperately tug at the fabric adorning Shorekeeper’s back. Shorekeeper ran her tongue over the newly formed red patch on Rover’s skin, and pressed a long, slow kiss to it as Rover loosened, collapsing back onto the bed.
Steadily coming down from the high, Rover gulped in air, panting as Shorekeeper retreated to sit up straight. She’d been higher-strung than she thought, maybe from being away for so long—or maybe her weaknesses were exacerbated in Shorekeeper’s presence.
Shorekeeper pulled her leg back, and despite herself, Rover whined, desire rearing its head almost immediately, nowhere close to being satiated.
Shorekeeper stared down at her, and though her eyes didn’t darken like a human’s would, Rover could easily read the emotion in her eyes, and squirmed under her gaze. Not roughly, though not gentle either, Shorekeeper grabbed Rover’s face between her hands and kissed her over and over again, tongue seeking and gaining entrance before Rover’s mind caught up.
Rover moaned hotly into the kiss, then shuddered when Shorekeeper moaned as well, a heady brush of her voice. Shorekeeper murmured unintelligible praises as she kissed away from Rover’s mouth and along her jaw, before resting her head against her cheek.
“Your voice is so beautiful, my Star,” Shorekeeper whispered, lips pressed against her ear. “I want…I want to hear more. Can I? Please?”
The unfiltered need in her voice sent a jolt of arousal right between Rover’s legs, and she found herself nodding rapidly.
Slowly, almost agonizingly so, Shorekeeper made her way back down Rover’s body, kissing and grazing her teeth over every previously categorized sensitive spot. She nipped at the underside of Rover’s chest; she pressed open-mouthed kisses along the curves of her waist; she bit unpredictably around her stomach, licking in apology. By the time Shorekeeper settled between her legs and was pulling her shorts and underwear off, Rover was a twitching, lovemarked mess.
“You’re soaking wet,” Shorekeeper said quietly, kissing aimlessly along her inner thighs. Had she any energy, Rover would’ve scoffed. Obviously. Rover’s legs were moved to rest over Shorekeeper’s shoulders. “I’ll assist you with that.”
At the first gentle press of Shorekeeper’s mouth against her, Rover moaned. Her tongue was cool at first, but quickly warmed as Shorekeeper cycled through different temperatures before settling on one Rover found most comfortable. With effort, and through a hazy blur, Rover glanced down. Shorekeeper had her arms hooked around Rover’s legs, thumbs rubbing distracting circles on her skin. Her hair, loose and soft, was another point of distraction, brushing against the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. Shorekeeper’s eyes were closed, her face almost worshipful as her mouth worked.
The movement of her tongue was technically gentle, exploratory, a learning curve, but Rover’s thighs quivered, and she let her head fall back against the bed, trying and failing to stop the ever-increasing pressure coiling deep in her stomach.
“Mmh…s–slower, please,” Rover panted.
Shorekeeper merely hummed in response, the reverberations of her voice hitting her center deliciously. Rover’s hips bucked.
“Please. Or–or else I’ll—!”
Despite her previous words, Rover whined in disappointment as Shorekeeper pulled away, turning her head to lick a stripe alongside her inner thighs, nipping at it right after. She raised her head upwards, only to slam it back down again as Shorekeeper’s hand began gliding up her center, idly tapping at her clit. It was just enough sensation for Rover to be aware of it, but not consistent enough to tug her any closer to the edge.
“Sh–Shorekeeper.”
“Yes, my Star?” The attentions of Shorekeeper’s mouth were on her other thigh, now. Her teeth tugged harshly at her skin, a sharp cry from the previous, and Rover’s breathing stuttered. In fact, she’d forgotten what she’d even meant to say.
Not that it mattered, because the movement of Shorekeeper’s fingers kept changing, a maddening rhythm. Rover could barely focus on her own breathing. Shorekeeper seemed to be cataloging exactly what Rover wanted and where, and deliberately ignoring that information right after. She brushed her knuckles along the wetness of Rover’s folds, but refused to go inside; she pressed a thumb against Rover’s clit, pulling away the instant Rover tried to cant her hips closer; she finally, finally brought her mouth near again, but merely puffed out a breath, hands gripping tighter around Rover’s legs as she jolted.
Her whole body buzzed, warmth crashing over her skin in steady waves. Rover groaned, heels digging into Shorekeeper’s back, snagging on the fabric of her clothing. “Shorekeeper,” she gasped out again, barely audible.
She still had no follow-up sentence, but Shorekeeper seemed to understand, glancing up at her. “You told me to slow down,” she said softly, shifting her body back to drag her tongue against her center at that exact speed as if to make a point. “Do you wish to rescind that order?”
Rover couldn’t manage an answer other than exhaling shakily, gritting her teeth. Impatiently, she reached down to tangle her fingers in Shorekeeper’s hair, caressing it before tugging her face forward by a fraction. She felt, more than saw, Shorekeeper having the audacity to smile against her.
“As you wish,” Shorekeeper murmured quietly.
Or so she’d said, but the pace of Shorekeeper’s tongue as she continued was nowhere near as fast as Rover wanted. Her body once more betrayed her dissatisfaction, hips bucking, but Shorekeeper merely slid her hands up, fingers splayed across her stomach, holding her down. When Rover tried again, she was met with complete, unyielding resistance, the raw power of a fellow immortal being, power that belonged not to flesh and bone, but to pure energy.
Fuck. Rover’s fingers twitched helplessly in Shorekeeper’s hair, jaw slack as she choked off a moan. Distantly, she swore she felt Shorekeeper shudder.
The room was near-silent, save for the quiet crashing of the waves outside, the rustling of the bedsheets, and the obscene noises as Shorekeeper’s mouth worked. Rover could barely hear any of it over her pulse roaring in her ears. She was becoming impossibly wetter, to the point she could feel Shorekeeper’s tongue slide against her effortlessly, the lack of friction both pleasurable and maddening. She attempted to push herself closer again, a futile endeavor. This time, Shorekeeper tilted her head, her nose brushing against her clit, and she jerked.
“Ah—”
Shorekeeper’s hands twitched against her body. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, Shorekeeper focus narrowed. Her mouth sped up. She alternated between diving her tongue up along Rover’s folds to circling, pinpointed, around her clit.
“Mnh—!” Rover’s head lolled to the side as she moaned, helpless under Shorekeeper’s ministrations.
Shorekeeper hummed against her again, though whether that was for Rover’s benefit or merely a reaction to her breathless noises, she couldn’t tell. The pressure in her stomach, low and burning, continued to build, tighter and tighter, coiling around and around until Rover felt tears spring to her eyes, chest heaving madly as she gasped for air.
“Sh-Shore, I—” Rover writhed, heels digging into Shorekeeper’s back. She was close. She was so close. Rover clawed at Shorekeeper’s hair, fingers clutching the blue strands like a lifeline. It was the only sensation stopping her from going completely insane. “I—” she tried again, her voice breaking.
Shorekeeper closed her mouth around Rover’s clit and sucked, and was rewarded with a strangled shout.
“Oh fuck,” Rover moaned, more garbled noise than anything actually audible. Her hips stuttered, her thighs closing around Shorekeeper’s head as lightning shot through her spine. “Fuck—fuckfuckfuck—!”
Shorekeeper pulled away briefly, and Rover almost cried out in frustration, had Shorekeeper not pressed a palm right below her navel and closed her lips around her again.
Rover’s back arched, her body quivering, voice faltering as she came. Shorekeeper’s grip had eased, allowing her to grind helplessly against her face as her muscles tightened all at once. Her hands were clutching Shorekeeper’s head so hard her forearms burned, though the ache was hardly a whisper in the background as Shorekeeper continued to worship her with her mouth through her orgasm, not stopping for a moment.
Eventually, Rover’s breathing slowed, her body collapsing back onto the bed, her legs still twitching, shivers continuing to rack her body. Flushed, she felt paradoxically warm and cold, whining in protest when Shorekeeper pressed a kiss to her oversensitive core.
“Fuck,” Rover breathed again, thoughts still too scattered to come up with anything else. She loosened her hands, scratching her blunt fingernails gently against Shorekeeper’s scalp, both a thank-you and an apology. “Shorekeeper,” Rover protested, when another lick shot a bolt of pleasure through her. She tried to tug her face up gently. “Kiss.”
Shorekeeper reached up to untangle one of Rover’s hands from her head, and pressed a slow, loving kiss to her palm. Rover’s heart quickened from both adoration and arousal as Shorekeeper immediately returned back down.
“Shorekeeper,” Rover tried again, her body betraying her despite her sensitivity. Her hips were pushing both towards and away from Shorekeeper’s mouth, hypersensitive discomfort and the beginnings of newly-stoked arousal blurring into one. Her breathing, already unsteady, hitched unevenly. “W–wait.”
She attempted to push Shorekeeper’s head away, but Shorekeeper merely grabbed her wrists and pressed them against her own hips, holding both in place. Shorekeeper flattened her tongue, pressing—
“Mm—Shorekeeper, wait,” Rover begged, gathering the last of her sanity to conjure up a cohesive sentence. “Please. I can’t—”
Shorekeeper stopped. She shifted back up Rover’s body, kissing upwards along her skin until she planted a proper one on her lips. “Forgive me,” she whispered, and the unnecessary strain in her voice wracked another wave of shivers down Rover’s body. “I enjoyed hearing your voice.”
Rover huffed, but she hooked her hands behind Shorekeeper’s neck and kissed her again, parting her lips almost needily. She could taste herself on Shorekeeper’s tongue, which was rather embarrassing. This was quickly forgotten when Shorekeeper slid a hand between her legs, and she moaned hotly against her mouth, legs disobeying her and spreading wider. Shorekeeper nipped at her bottom lip, fingers teasing her entrance.
“You—” Rover separated, dizzy. Shorekeeper moved her hand to soothe the muscles of her thighs, massaging gently. “Don’t you—” Rover squirmed, the touch distracting her. “Don’t you need a break?” Her words were so weak and breathless it was a wonder Shorekeeper heard her at all.
“After this,” Shorekeeper promised, kissing the edge of her mouth. She continued kissing alongside her jaw, trailing up to the spot right under her ear. Rover’s head tilted to allow access almost instinctively, sighing shakily. “I want to experience being inside you.”
If she somehow wasn’t fully red already, Rover blushed all the way down to her collarbones. Worse, she felt herself clench at the idea.
“May I?” Shorekeeper asked, lips hovering above her own, and Rover sighed, yielding to her mouth once more.
“Y-yes,” Rover managed after Shorekeeper kissed her long enough to nearly make her forget her answer. “Okay.”
“Sit up for me then, my Star.”
Rover soon found herself pressed up against Shorekeeper’s front, both of them having scooted back to rest against the headboard of her bed. Rover swallowed, shivering as Shorekeeper gently parted her legs, hands running along the inner seams of her thighs.
Shorekeeper pressed a kiss to Rover’s temple before settling back, one wandering hand coming to trail aimless fingertips along her waist, the other zeroing in between her legs. Rover turned her head, burying her face in the crook of Shorekeeper’s neck. She kissed Shorekeeper’s cool, faux-skin, if only to tide her over long enough to avoid coming immediately from Shorekeeper’s touch. This plan lasted all of five seconds when Shorekeeper gently pushed two fingers inside, and Rover whimpered helplessly into Shorekeeper’s shoulder upon realizing her hand was vibrating.
By all the Sentinels, she was fucked.
Rover’s thighs instinctively tried to close, but Shorekeeper slid her hand down from where it rested on Rover’s waist to keep a leg open. Rover shuddered and moaned, her eyelashes suddenly wet. The pulsations of Shorekeeper’s palm against her clit and the fingers inside her sprung tears to her eyes, and she scrabbled against the sheets helplessly.
“My Star,” Shorekeeper whispered, voice low, “You feel so good.”
Not only were the sensations decidedly more intense than the previous, but it was their positions that rocketed Rover’s already high sensitivity. She had a clear view of Shorekeeper’s hand moving inside of her, and that, combined with the feeling of Shorekeeper pressed against her bare back, and the occasional kisses along the side of her neck, made the pleasure exponential. All Rover could do was watch. And listen, for while her own voice had long since been reduced to broken noises, Shorekeeper was suddenly far more talkative.
“I believe I’m preferential to this arrangement,” Shorekeeper began. “It provides me with the clearest, direct feedback to what you like. For instance…” She closed her teeth around the shell of Rover’s ear, not even a true bite. Rover clenched. “See? I just felt you tighten around my fingers. Another example, just to make a point…” Shorekeeper briefly retreated to kiss the back of Rover’s neck, nosing her hair out of the way. Rover hitched, a stuttering exhale.
“Sh–Sho—” She couldn’t even speak. Rover lolled her head back with an airy moan.
“Verbal hypotheticals have a high chance of working too.” Shorekeeper’s hand slowed to a glacial pace, and Rover whimpered in frustration, hips bucking forward. “I’ve discovered this already, which is why I’m testing it in this way; you enjoy the idea of me teasing you.”
Rover said nothing, but her body responded for her. Her inner walls tightened, and Shorekeeper smiled against her neck.
“Imagine it,” Shorekeeper said, moving her fingers in, and out, and in, and out, and in again, slower than she knew Rover wanted. “I draw out your race to the edge, providing you with false hope here and there—” here Shorekeeper grinded her palm against Rover’s clit, and Rover choked on a plea—“as so, until you eventually order otherwise. What do you think about that?”
Rover dug her nails into the nigh-impenetrable skin of Shorekeeper’s thighs.
“Do not worry, my Star.” Her hand sped up. “I don’t have the patience for it right now. And I love hearing you call my name when you fall apart.”
Rover’s head sagged to the side, arousal spiking at her words. In her hazy, tear-blurred periphery, she caught a glimpse of Shorekeeper’s face. Violet eyes were focused, but her lips were parted as well, breathing steady yet audibly heavy, a tension in her frame as if she was just barely restraining herself.
The thought sent a fresh wave of heat between her legs, and she clenched her eyes shut with a moan, then moaned again as Shorekeeper curled her fingers in response.
Shorekeeper hummed thoughtfully. “…here?” Fingerpads stroked unerringly at the same spot, the vibrations hitting impossibly deep, and Rover arched with a strangled shout, nearly slamming her head against the headboard.
Without a hesitation in her hand movements, Shorekeeper carefully shifted their positions a bit forward along the bed. She pressed her palm firmly against Rover’s center, nipping along the curve of her shoulder.
Rover couldn’t gasp fast enough. Her breathing was an embarrassing pattern of short inhales and moaned exhales, the latter of which kept encouraging Shorekeeper to shift the positioning of her fingers. Which, unsurprisingly, caused another whiny noise to rip from Rover’s throat, and thus the cycle continued, an ever increasing spiral upwards.
“Anh, mmh, fuck—”
She was nearing the edge, an erratic push and pull. Rover clawed almost unconsciously at the hand keeping her legs spread apart, and Shorekeeper flipped her hand over, intertwining their fingers. A grounding touch, soothing.
“Shore…ah…keep…mm…”
Shorekeeper pressed a long, slow kiss to the side of her neck, lips parting slightly to tease the edges of her teeth along Rover’s overheated skin. Rover’s breathing permanently switched to frantic gasps.
“Let go,” Shorekeeper whispered. Her teeth sank into the sensitive patch of her skin, the vibrations of her palm and fingers and hand immediately slamming from nine to eleven, and Rover was gone, choking off a scream.
Tears blurred her vision as she came, squirting her release, wetting Shorekeeper’s hand and the bedsheets. Shorekeeper continued to gently stroke her through it, until Rover shakily begged her to stop, hands fumbling to push hers away from the overstimulation.
Shorekeeper removed her fingers, Rover whining both in relief and disappointment at the emptiness, and relaxed against Shorekeeper’s body. She shut her eyes, exhausted, feeling Shorekeeper knead the muscles in her thighs, more caring than sexual, and pull her down into a more comfortable position on the bed. They both lay on their sides, Rover curled into Shorekeeper’s body.
It was a few minutes before either of them spoke, Rover busy catching her breath, Shorekeeper subtly easing the leftover tension in her muscles. When Shorekeeper did speak, she was back to being shy, a fact Rover found equally ridiculous and utterly adorable. “Did you…enjoy it?”
Rover fought to even her breathing before answering, through her voice was still shaky as she said, “Of course. Was that,” she gulped in some more air, “was that not enough evidence somehow?”
Shorekeeper tilted her head. “It is commonplace to gather multiple sets of data before outputting a conclusion.”
Multiple sets of data. Rover grumbled. “You’re insatiable.”
“Hm.” Shorekeeper’s inflection was suspiciously nowhere near to a denial.
Rover sighed fondly, bringing one hand up to brush the edges of the core embedded in Shorekeeper’s chest, tracing the outline. Shorekeeper watched her curiously, her fingers splayed against Rover’s bare back, tip-tapping soothingly along her spine. Rover slid her hand up from Shorekeeper’s chest to the back of her head, gently urging her forward for a kiss. Shorekeeper’s lips parted easily under hers, and Rover’s mouth curved in satisfaction, tongue slipping in briefly.
“Shorekeeper,” Rover hushed, tilting her head up to plant a peck on her nose. Shorekeeper blinked rapidly, blushing. The glow of her core pulsed. “Stay with me for the night.”
Shorekeeper’s smile was small, shy, but held the infinite span of her love. “My Star.” She slid a hand under Rover’s jaw, slotting their lips together again. “I will stay with you for eternity.”