His enjoyment of the moment quickly began to shudder under the hammer blows of his concern as alarms began echoing wildly within his heart and he quickly pulled himself back from her. She reluctantly allowed her lips to be pulled away, then stared at him with a burning passion that Joe found shocking. Before, she’d been caution and reserve. Now, she’d seemed to throw it to the wind and saw only the drive to continue forward. He closed his eyes and then breathed deeply before looking back at her.
He was relieved to notice that she seemed to also be wrestling with control, pulling herself back into some semblance of normal and Joe felt his own calm restore rapidly at that. She breathed deeply a few times before finally pulling in closely to his chest and simply pressing against him. Luckily, their passion hadn’t had her climb up upon his lap and she simply pressed into his chest from her seat at his side, almost laying back into his arms as hers wrapped around his neck. They remained like that for a time when a soft movement from the boys’ bed brought both of them to awareness. Both of them glanced at each other then giggled and Kilniara sat up, bringing herself back to his side and brought her clothing back into some semblance of control.
“Should… probably stop now.”
She looked up at him with an odd look he couldn’t quite place, “Oh, now you say we should probably stop!”
Joe held his peace at that as she looked like she was simply teasing him but he wasn’t sure why. She hugged him again before standing.
“I should probably return to my room.”
Joe smiled, standing, “Allow me to escort you back to your room then, my lady.”
She smiled at that, softly chuckling before nodding, “Then off we shall go.”
They moved across the room quietly until they came to the door and both paused there. They said little, both having turned to stare at one another for a time until Kilniara finally stared up at him and slapped him on the shoulder with a scolding grin.
“Don’t do that again!”
She shut the door and escaped back into her bedroom, leaving Joe standing there with a deep confusion. What did I do? She’s the one that… He sighed and turned back to his room before he turned to open the window slightly before slipping into his bed. The boys were still asleep and Joe found himself both annoyed and grateful. They should have long been up, but he really wanted to make sure he was cleaned up. As the boys were still asleep, he took his time, wandering down to the kitchen to get some hot water, adding another twenty or thirty minute wait for the water to heat up before taking a basin back up. Between the cold water upstairs and the hot he cautiously carried up, he was able to make a nice warm bath, leaving a portion of the hot for the others. He relished in the heat in a fashion that was quite odd to him, using the hot cloth to drape across him while he sat on his bed. Man… I just want a good hot shower! When his water cooled, he sighed and rapidly finished off his cleaning.
Finished, Joe looked back to find the boys still asleep and he decided to sit down and play with his mana points some more. He’d run out of what he could do with mana itself and it seemed that was limited to mainly his imagination. If he could dream it enough, he could make it happen. Although, now he needed to make it actually interact with the physical world, which he knew it did, having seen the amazing healing of Kilniara’s disembowelment.
As he was playing with his mana points, Kilniara came back in again, her face showing the war between embarrassment and excitement. She came and climbed up on the bed with him before settling at his side.
“I’m just… thank you… so much. It means…”
Joe smiled at that, replying with a shrug, “Hmm… It’s important for you. Thank you for being patient with me.”
Kilniara giggled at that before pressing her face to his and laying a very chaste but meaningful kiss on his lips, short and sweet, “I do not understand why you are so grateful for me. You have much more than I could ever offer you.”
Joe shrugged, “You offer me the same as I offer you: Your very life and being. How could that not be such a great gift.”
She paused at that, head tilted in thought even as she stared into his eyes, “It is strange to think of it in such a way, but I can understand it. Still, your life is much greater than mine.”
“All life is equal. I believe this. You have equal value to my life. One of us may do more with our life in the future, but any sapient life still has an equal right to exist as any other. Its effect on history and the world may differ, but its value does not.”
She shook her head, “I don’t know if I could believe that, and I’m too tire… no…just… too relaxed to argue with you right now.”
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Joe chuckled at that, “I can totally see that. You just want to cuddle?”
She cocked her head at that before nodding her head, “Yes. I would love that.”
“If you promise to be good?”
She widened her eyes at that before giggling brightly and nodding before siddling into his side again and pulling the blanket back up over his lap. Joe grinned at that and shifted himself to accommodate her. They relaxed together for a time and remained in place. His arm draped across her shoulders while hers rested on his knee, neither saying much but simply being with each other.
Kilniara found herself just basking in the moment and Joe turned back to exploring his experimental mana points, playing with the shell and the inner void, pushing and shoving at it with mana trying to understand what he was playing with. He was able to wrestle with it for a bit before Kilniara suddenly jerked up.
Joe looked down at her then to the right when he saw her staring intently at the boys’ bed. She began giggling and Joe noticed why quickly as Garnedell was finally coming awake but was growing more and more frustrated as he tried to kick off whatever was glued to his leg. His ever more violent kicking began to rouse Zilnek and Garnedell finally sat up in frustration, looking down to see Zilnek wrapped around his leg with his own arms and legs. Joe and Kilniara also sat up, watching on in schadenfreude amusement.
Garnedell cried out in anger and began shaking his leg even more violently before pushing Zilnek off the bed where Zilenk thumped do the ground head first. His limpet like hold on Garnedell’s leg saved him and he only slid ignominiously onto the floor, head thunking loudly, if not exactly with much damage.
Kilniara’s bell like giggles echoed throughout the room loudly and Garnedell glared at her blearily before looking down at Zilnek now waking and struggling to sit up grumpily. Garnedell’s ill temper ended pretty quickly at that, as his own morning croak of laughter joined in with Kiliniara. Garnedell’s morning voice only sent Kilniara even more into laughter and Zilnek began to complain grouchily.
“Everyone’s too happy this morning.”
Kilniara rejoined, “It’s too easy this morning.”
Zilnek stared around with narrowed eyes against the light, “And how is this morning so good? I’m on the floor, dumped off my own bed, betrayed by my own fellow apprentice left to sleep cold and without care on the floor.”
“Ooh… you were not sleeping alone on the floor, rejected,” Kilniara hooted out, “You were lovingly embracing Garnedell’s leg as you slept the night away entwined with your elder apprentice.”
Garnedell quickly turned red, spluttering. Zilnek, seeing Garnedell’s response, quickly realized that there was some truth to the statement and he hurriedly questioned Kilniara, “What do you mean? What happened?”
Kilniara, Garnedell, and Joe spent the next bit of time laughing at the situation, with Zilnek ardently trying to find out what happened while Kilniara simply laughed and Garnedell soon joined her at Zilnek’s discomforted struggles to find the truth. Joe finally decided to free Zilnek from his consternation and chimed in.
“Ignore them both. They’re just being mean. You were just lovingly cradling Garnedell’s leg in your full arm and legged embrace while you both slept the night away.”
Kilniara broke out in peals of laughter once again as she watched Garnedell and Zilnek drop their heads in a bit of embarrassment. Joe smiled at seeing this and decided Kilniara needed to drop a peg or two as well.
“Don’t worry. Kilniara thought it was cute, although I think she was a bit jealous of you Zilnek. She was looking to Garnedell herself.”
Kilniara’s laughter stopped immediately before she turned to him huffily in anger and slapped him hard across the chest, “How… how…”
Joe’s bright smile revealed the tease and Kilniara fell into a huffing fit which she wrestled with her own laughter and the smile still on her lips.
This time, Garnedell and Zilnek broke into laughter at Kilniara’s expense and Joe shook his head, “Great. Everyone is awake. Let’s go to the courtyard to practice.”
The laughter was drowned out by groans but all three stood and prepared themselves before all four went down into the courtyard, their groans mostly posturing as their joy still shown through, happy to meet the day.
“Ready to exercise?” Joe asked when he made the courtyard.
The two boys grumbled before nodding, Garnedell’s voice a grunting growl while Zilnek nodded. There was more room in the courtyard so Joe would also be able to practice with them. He spent some time teaching them before leaving them to their practice so he could do his as forms as well.
They spent a good chunk of time with Joe in one to one guidance of each of them, directing a foot placement here, a limb articulation there, and a redirection of a movement elsewhere. Once Joe had offered some guidance, he left them to themselves and flowed into his own forms to the side. His forms were much more energetic, flowing across the room quickly in rapid and long range movements to train himself to close with the enemy quickly and well. The movements were long since second nature to him, and he allowed his mind to explore mana and mana points, even finding himself able to do both, although his forms were subtly suffering and he stopped messing with the mana and mana points when he froze.
His thoughts moved to mana and how it would be used and realized that he would likely need to exercise magic in the midst of all his actions, so of course he would need to do both. He stifled a sigh before restarting his just interrupted form and this time began flashing out his mana in complex shapes or patterns while also completing his forms, trying to make sure that he was able to maintain his forms appropriately while still releasing his mana correctly. When he was out of his MP, he would alternate to manipulating his mana points in various ways, both in moving them or having them spiral around his body. Even manipulating the shell and void seemed like a good idea and so he did so. He didn’t spend too much expending mana from his points after he realized that it was basically identical to using his own internal mana, only choose to use his points as a source instead. So, he just focused on mana point manipulation and when he had the MP, using his mana in as creative a way as his mind could think up.
Soon, he felt himself exhausting, and realized that he had lost himself in his forms once again. He relaxed from his forms and leaned against the tree, watching the other three. He quickly noticed they were exhausted, a small amount of sweat clinging to their bodies, and he called everyone from their forms. They all crowded upstairs, albeit exhaustedly and washed away the morning sweat.