Young Justice: Poseidonis
August 21st, 2010
Our fourth day in Poseidonis started off a little differently. The night before, Zatanna and I had cut our time at the library slightly short and she had helped me transfigure and charm two new brooms for us to use in getting around. I’d come up with a lot of potential improvements over the last few days, and I was greatly looking forward to seeing how they would perform.
The brooms were honestly incredibly helpful. They didn’t really help with swimming around inside of buildings since they just weren’t maneuverable enough to use safely, but the amount of time and effort we’d saved getting between the library, cafeteria, dorms, and academic buildings was immense even after just two days.
Today was both Saturday up on the surface and the last day of the week using the Atlantean calendar. That meant there were no classes or lectures and, tragically, the library was closed to students and visitors alike.
At dinner the night before, we’d discussed plans with Garth and Tula and eventually decided to go on a small tour of the city like Garth had offered on our first day. Zatanna and I had done basically nothing but study magic for three entire days and needed some time to absorb the lessons.
Tula had asked if any of the others wanted to come along with us, but all the other Atlanteans had other work or responsibilities they needed to focus on today. Fisna had joked that, unlike Tula, she hadn’t been given a free pass to not do any homework, which was honestly a fair point. Garth’s pointed question about if she was still working on the project that had been assigned nearly two months ago and that both he and Tula had finished before Mera assigned them to Zatanna and I was also an excellent point.
Instead of waking up early for breakfast and tutoring, today Zatanna and I took the opportunity to sleep in a little. Garth had promised to come get us around eleven, and breakfast and lunch were combined today into a single meal served from eight in the morning till two in the afternoon, giving us plenty of time to eat before we left. Typically breakfast was only available from seven till nine, meaning we had to be up awake no later than a little past eight if we wanted to eat before our tutoring.
I woke up just after nine, Zatanna still fast asleep in my arms. As usual, she’d moved around during the night, and was now snoring softly into my shoulder. Our legs were tangled together, one of mine clamped firmly between Zatanna’s thighs, and she had one arm draped over me while the other was trapped somewhere beneath her body.
We were both dressed much as we had been on the first night, though on Zatanna’s request I had eventually ditched the shirt from my sleeping clothes, leaving my chest and arms bare beneath our blankets. She’d told me she didn’t really like the feeling of the fabric, but that hadn’t felt particularly truthful. I was pretty sure she just wanted an excuse, but I eventually acquiesced regardless. It wasn’t like I needed its charms for warmth with Zatanna beside me, after all.
Zatanna had, once again, switched what she was wearing under her night clothes as well. The first night she’d worn a black thong, and I had thought that it was an incredibly revealing garment. The second night she’d worn what I was pretty sure was also a thong, though it was red and lacy. It had theoretically contained more fabric, but drew the eye far more readily than a more subdued color would.
I’d thought that sure that would be as far as it would go, but then last night she’d come out of the bathroom wearing a garment whose name I didn’t even know. It looked much like a thong from the front, though with slightly thinner straps around the hips, but then she’d lain down on her stomach while I put the finishing touches on the broom I was making for her and I’d realized the difference.
A single thin line of black fabric rose up between her legs and vanished between the plump cheeks of Zatanna’s rear, covering essentially nothing at all before connecting to the equally slender black line around her waist. The thong had looked like it wasn’t hiding anything, but this garment really didn’t even try to pretend.
Well, I certainly wasn’t going to protest. Any reluctance I had been feeling before had vanished after three wonderful nights holding a beautiful, powerful, and intelligent witch like Zatanna in my arms while I slept. There was something magical about going to sleep and waking up with her warmth pressed up against me.
I considered getting up, but I didn’t want to wake Zatanna. With the way she was holding onto me, there was no way I’d be able to extricate myself from her grasp without waking her. I’d found that she wasn’t nearly as accustomed as I was to sleepless nights and early mornings, and she could use a little more time to sleep. Instead, I leaned down and brushed my lips against her forehead, then pulled back and just admired the beauty held within my grasp.
Zatanna and I had kicked our sheets loose during the night, leaving both of us uncovered, but that wasn’t a major problem given the pleasantly warm air of the room. We’d gotten a little bit cold the first night, but Tula had pointed out a dial that controlled the wards on the room and shown us how to adjust the temperature.
Zatanna’s gown had ridden up as it always did during the night, leaving her rear and most of her back completely uncovered. Her long black hair was scattered around her head in a messy crown that did nothing to detract from her beauty. One of my arms was trapped under her head, while the other had shifted during the night from her belly to her back and then down until it now rested lightly on one of her naked cheeks.
Zatanna mumbled something into my shoulder and shifted slightly. Her face moved up from my shoulder to my chest, her slightly cold nose rubbing just above my nipple. The rest of her body followed suit and she rolled partially onto her side, her legs still curled around one of mine and her barely clothed breasts pressing against my chest.
I smiled softly and pulled her towards me, only to find her arm wedged between our bodies and her elbow digging into my belly. Shifting, I tried to see if I could maybe move her arm out of the way so that we could both be more comfortable. I froze and my face flushed red when I noticed where exactly her arm was and the way her hand vanished beneath the fabric covering her most intimate parts.
I shifted back and did my best to pretend I hadn’t seen anything, content to just hold her in my arms as she slept. When Zatanna finally woke nearly half an hour later, I wished her a good morning, kissed her, and said nothing.
Stolen story; please report.
It took us some time, and several heated kisses, before we finally went and got breakfast. It took longer than it should have because Zatanna was still getting used to ‘flying’ on her new broom, but the delight in her eyes as she zoomed through the water was well worth the delay. Furthermore, it was better for her to practice here and now, with relatively open water and few people around, then in the city.
We ate alone, not seeing any of the other students that Tula and Garth had introduced us to. We got some curious looks––the air bubbles around us and our unusual clothing made us stand out––but no one approached us. I was slowly starting to get used to Atlantean food, but I didn’t think I would be missing it when we returned to the surface.
After breakfast, Zatanna and I returned to the dorms and, by silent agreement, each headed to our own rooms. As much as we both enjoyed spending time together, a little bit of space was nice at times. We had about an hour till Garth was supposed to take us for a tour, so I used the opportunity to head back to the surface for a bit. I’d already prepared a portkey that would take me from anywhere to my bedroom in Atlantis and tested that it worked despite the wards around the Conservatory.
My biggest worry originally in traveling back and forth from Atlantis was that portkeys couldn’t take someone to an underwater location––a safety feature that had been designed into the spell centuries ago and I just didn’t know how to remove. However, I had a room that was supposed to stay water free, so that wasn’t going to be a problem.
Instead of wasting time making another portkey or using up one of the ones on my enchanted rings, I simply Planeswalked away, tearing out of the Plane and then reentering it a moment later in Slaughter Swamp. From there, it was just a short hop down to Gotham, where I loaded up on some of the muggle foods and beverages that I had come to enjoy, or which I knew Zatanna liked.
A few minutes later, I was back in my room as though I had never left. The portkey worked like a charm and the entire trip had taken barely more than half an hour. I set a can of the overly sugary fizzy soda that Zatanna liked by her bag, then spent the rest of the time till Garth knocked on my door trying to apply some of the hydromancy theory I’d learned to a water-making charm. I didn’t accomplish anything, but I did feel as though there were some potential commonalities that deserved further exploration.
The tour ended up being rather delightful. Poseidonis was a beautiful city unlike any other that I’d ever seen before. We saw the royal palace, the Science Center, and all sorts of other gorgeous buildings. Zatanna’s favorite was a park built around a stunning coral reef. Thousands of beautiful and exotic fish swam around within a barrier that was permeable to people, but not for the fish themselves, each one more colorful than the last.
Along the way, Tula and Garth recounted all sorts of anecdotes about living in the city. They pointed out their favorite shops and restaurants, told stories from their childhoods, and even gave us some short history lessons about the various statues and monuments we occasionally passed.
According to Tula, Poseidonis was the richest of the city-states that made up the kingdom of Atlantis, and it showed. The city was clean and peaceful, the people friendly, and a clear amount of money and work had gone into public projects like infrastructure and keeping everything in pristine shape. There was no sign of the sort of urban decay that plagued Gotham, no slums or dangerous districts that we were told to avoid. I didn’t know much about how the city or nation was run, but I could appreciate what they’d done with their capital.
The four of us ate lunch at a Nanauvian restaurant. I didn’t really see much difference between the food from the southernmost city of the kingdom and what I had been eating at the Conservatory, but I could admit that the quality seemed higher than what was generally served to students. The fish was delicious, the salad seasoned with something very tangy and sweet, and the enormous crab we were served was by far the best thing I’d eaten here so far.
After we ate, we continued the tour for another two hours, and then took a long, ambling route back to the Conservatory. Even though we hadn’t had to do very much actual swimming, Zatanna and I were both rather tired physically from the long day. Just moving through the water was exhausting, working tons of muscles that I’d never really thought about before. I was constantly at least a little sore, and Zatanna wasn’t much better either.
By the time we got back, we were starting to get hungry again, so we headed straight back to the cafeteria for dinner. We were joined by a haggard-looking Fisna––her project was not going well––and ate in relative silence interspersed with Fisna asking Tula questions about the assignment. It was some kind of hydromancy-related enchanting that sounded both fascinating and not particularly useful to me since it only worked underwater. Still, it was interesting to hear the two young women discuss their shared classwork.
With the library closed, Zatanna and I headed back to my room after dinner. We were both tired and sweaty and took turns showering in the slightly cramped bathroom. I went first and just changed right into my sleeping pants, not really seeing a reason not too. Then I spent half an hour reviewing notes while Zatanna got washed up as well.
When the bathroom door opened, I set the notes on my bedside table and looked up. For the second time in three days, I was struck speechless. I had been expecting something like I’d seen the past few days, the same sheer nightgown with something tiny worn underneath it.
Instead, there was a white towel wrapped around Zatanna’s chest. It just barely covered her nipples and extended a scant inch down her pale thighs. She smiled coyly at me, her fingers toying with the folded-over corner holding the whole thing up. “Hydrys?” she asked softly.
“Yes Zatanna?”
She walked over to where I was sitting on the edge of the bed and straddled my legs. Her warm breath tickled my face and I was suddenly deeply aware that the only barrier between Zatanna and I was her towel and my thin silk pants. She set her arms down on my shoulders and I instinctively reached around to hold her hips, my hands sinking into the soft white fabric and feeling the warmth of the bare flesh beneath it.
“I’m really thankful that you set this up for me. I know that it was Uncle Kent that convinced Dad and that a lot of this has to do with him more than anything you did, but this has been a dream of mine for a long time. Uncle Kent could have organized things at any time, but he didn’t until you pushed him to do so, and I don’t think he ever would have otherwise.”
Zatanna took a deep breath and continued. “You’ve been so good to me. This summer…I was so bored cooped up in Shadowcrest all the time, but then you came along and you’ve been everything I always dreamed of. It's so amazing having someone I can share all the magic in my life with and you’re always so kind and accommodating and just…just…so amazing.”
Zatanna took another deep breath, closed her eyes, and then pulled the towel covering her away, leaving her kneeling on me as naked as the day she was born. “I want you to know just how much this has all meant to me,” she told me firmly. “I love you, Hydrys, and…I want to be with you while you’re still here. I know you’re probably going to leave someday.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but she pressed a finger against my lips, “Shhhh. I know you’re probably going to leave someday,” she repeated, “Maybe soon even. I talked to Nabu, you know, and he told me that Planeswalkers never like to be tied down for long. A month, a year, maybe longer, but then they’re gone. But these last few weeks have been some of the best times in my life and I want to make the rest of the time we share as special as I can.”
“Zatanna,” I tried, but she silenced me with a passionate kiss that left me too flustered to continue.
“Maybe you’ll come back. I hope you’ll come back. But the world is a dangerous place. You can never know what’s going to happen. You just have to make the most of the time you do have. I love you, Hydrys.”
Our eyes met and Zatanna smiled. Things were moving so quickly, but what else was I supposed to say? “I love you too, Zatanna. You’re the kindest, smartest, and most talented witch I’ve ever known and I’m so lucky to have you.”