...Carried by nothing but Midnight's Wings.

~

The coming days were filled with exploration, learning, and a whole lot of pain. I guess the both of us were too curious to settle down, so we took in the sights and figured out just what all of this meant.

I mean, as impressive as it is, when you really stop and think about it, this is an entire castle, next to basically a manmade mansion in the meadow, all completely crafted by hand and in this good of condition centuries upon centuries later. That's... incredible.

And that's saying something coming from me. But that's also probably because there was finally some substance here. This was the first sign of humanity either of us had seen since the mines.

The magic recording said there would be things left behind for us to learn from, and boy it sure wasn't lying. Not only were there extensive documentations on nations that existed at the time, herbology and other medicinal knowledge that impressed even the Lydia in me, but we found deep research into the demon race, even some mentions of angels and fairies.

But what was most important was the journals we found. More than a handful were filled by just Levahn alone, but many of the others who I presume also lived here had some writings themselves.

I thought of digging through a few, but after trying to flip through one, I couldn't focus much. Probably because I was still antsy over all the things we found. One room had a mind-boggling amount of raw food, preserved through magic, which was apparently so impossible that it had Sefal raging hard enough to start opening one of her smaller wounds.

That gave us the signal to take it easy. So we did. We had a whole mansion to ourselves, which was nice to me since I was trying to find ways to get myself closer to Sefal. And she was certainly giving me no shortage of opportunity.

I had a somewhat acknowledgeable hand in culinary arts, nothing much, but enough to make a meal or two for her that left her feeling satisfied. And with some good, quality food having been left for us, it was giving us the energy and replenishment we needed to start healing.

I used my history as a doctor once again, changing out bandages and dressings as frequently as I could and took my sweet time doing so - that way I could get all the time I needed to eyeball Sefal. Which was starting to become scarily comfortable to me, and somehow not something she'd noticed. She just kinda let me do my thing when I told her it was time to change a dressing or clean something or take medicine (which was unfortunately scarce, but something I gave entirely to her).

One of the coolest parts of this whole thing was a hot spring, which was sort of like a big gazebo over a hot-tub looking thing, which even had towels and instructions on how to use the plants in the garden as soap. That spring seemed to be providing water to the garden on its own, along with the mansion, which led us to believe it might be the reason why some of the magic lasted as long as it did.

There was one day - yes, day, meaning the artificial sun faded to a very dim, pale light that perfectly emulated moonlight - where Sefal woke up, tried to stretch for the first time since our injuries, and scrambled half the muscles in her back and neck, badly enough that she could barely move.

She, in a clearly strained and worried voice, whimpered, "help me, Sorra."

It must've been bad, so with a lot of grumbling, I agreed to do what I could to loosen up her muscles. Listen, I may have feelings for her, but that doesn't make something like this any less embarrassing and way out of my comfort zone.

I had her lay back down in the bed of the secondary (slightly smaller) master bedroom, which I had to help her do very slowly as she yelped out in pain a few times. After that, I reached out two very tentative hands to her shoulders, and began to squeeze them.

It didn't take long for her to shout, "just do what you need to do," in a defeated and quite humiliated tone.

I groaned in frustration.

"Honestly, the things I do for you."

She lifted her top just enough to leave her back exposed, and I began to rub in circles, looking for the tense muscles and their ligaments and trying to get them all to loosen.

"YYYAAKK!" She yelped, tensing up even further, which made her scream for a moment. "Why are your hands so freaking cold?" she complained as her face was half-muffled by a pillow and some of her own tears.

I straddled her on the bed as I did what little I knew how to do, spending more than several minutes trying to rub at her neck and shoulders. But there was a point where I was starting to think about how completely awkward this whole thing was, and it was kind of like once I started to think about it, I got the sense that she was too.

All I could do was bite my lip through the nervousness and awkwardness of the whole thing and try to get it over with.

But progress was slow enough that I was getting past the nerves and hitting the point where my mind goes places that it shouldn't. I mean look at this... this god damn goddess with half her back and belly exposed directly beneath me.

Neither of us were saying anything, either, which was making things worse, but just when I was starting to enjoy getting my eye candy and feeling so completely overtaken by a feeling that words couldn't ever describe, she decided enough was enough and it was as good as it'd get. She stood and got a proper stretch, then a look of total relief washed over her.

"Thank you," she said sincerely as she stepped closer, leaned in and... gave me a hug?

"Ikkkk-" I tensed up completely after having someone touch me, but relaxed only the tiniest bit to cautiously return the hug like it was some sort of foreign gesture to me. But when I saw Sefal's face after that, I got it. It was just genuine relief. She was worried she'd be dealing with pain for a long time, and relieved it was gone.

After all my work to make her better, I was actually kind of getting worse. Not like before, where I was just in pain. This time was different. It only took 3 or 4 days of us being here for me to start noticing that I was getting dizzy, feeling weak, and having a hard time thinking. And I was eating and everything, too.

"Classic you," she nearly growled through clenched teeth as I ended up stumbling into a wall after standing up. "You're nobody's hero, dude. You got beaten up in the fight too but oh, 'I'm fine, I'm fine Sefal.' Tch, do you honestly even hear yourself sometimes?"

"I am fine," I said, convincing literally nobody considering it came out at basically a wheeze. I was out of breath for some reason.

So she had to help me up to the room and literally spoon feed me some light food. And don't look at me like it was on purpose to get her to cater to me. I already had my fill doing that for her.

She did lay in bed with me to monitor me and make sure I was okay, and all night she kept going on and on about how stupid she thought I was. I was too out of it to throw anything back at her, but after she'd done her part to treat some of my worse wounds, and most of all give me medicine, I was at least back on my feet the next day.

Now both of us knew to take things a lot slower and more carefully.

The next morning, I woke up to her still in the same bed, granted under a different blanket and as far away from me as she could reasonably get before falling off, but a tiny part of me felt at total peace. Whatever that meant.

~

"I was about to get in! Are you serious?!" Sefal shouted.

"Seeing as to how I'm the 'sweaty gross male' here, clearly I should be the one to get in first."

"Oh it's always gotta be about you. Can't have someone else have something nice, nope. You've gotta take it all for yourself."

"...yeah. I do. Now go be useful and make a midnight dinner or something."

She looked at me in practically horror, then scoffed, and her face slowly shifted into... a sad smile. Which then turned into a laugh as she shook her head slowly. "You are so hopeless."

Her voice was suddenly really soft, and so was her face.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

She giggled as she said, "you are so madly in love with me," a little bit like it was a realization to her while she was saying it. There was this crackle in her ever-softer, much lighter speech that totally contrasted her usual firm, sturdy, sort of determined and soldier-like way of talking. This new voice felt so genuine and pure.

Oh shit. I forgot I was in love with you. I was reminded at that point why I had the feelings for her that I did, and immediately played back that whispery, velvety croon of hers in my mind a thousand times in a single second.

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Of course, my heart was doing one thing, you know the whole thump thump thing, but my brain was on autopilot and I scoffed, rolled my eyes, and took my happy ass to the magic hot spring.

I wasted no time throwing my clothes off to the side and hopped right in, and as soon as the hot water touched my skin and wrapped me up in its embrace, I took a deep breath in, and when I let it all back out, I swear I had to fight to keep my soul in my body.

Yup. That's it. That right there is all I needed.

I heard a gentle splash behind me, and when I flipped around nervously, I saw my tail wagging on its own. It was slow and sort of wavy, not hyper like a dog or anything, so I guess I didn't feel like a total animal, but I forgot I have one of those. I didn't know it moved on its own though. Dully noted.

After that I washed up a little and then kept relaxing. I cleared my mind and just let myself sink back.

Yet there was a part of me that couldn't settle all the way down. Nothing was tensed up. My mind was at ease. My tail was clear proof of that. I was at the perfect temperature.

Ah, yes. It was my heart. Which kept on beating and sending this feeling throughout me, this sinking feeling, the same one you get when you're facing danger and yet, I wasn't. I wasn't afraid of anything.

And then when I thought back on the conversation I'd just had, then remembered what Sefal had said and that silky voice of hers, it all came crashing down. What could it have possibly meant that she asked that?

Does that mean she's caught on to me? That means we'll part ways when we're out of here after all. Shit. And of course I went and walked away like an idiot.

Oh well. Nothing that can be done now. And I'm not going back to say sorry. Nothing is worth that.

So I basked in the heat of the water and wished it was the heat of Sefal's arms, which felt like a distant fairy tale. I could feel my body happy and healthy and all healed up, but my mind was still getting there.

"You're awful pensive for someone relaxing in a bath," the voice I'd replayed in my head said from behind me.

"Just got some stuff on my mind," I said absentmindedly.

"I might be able to take a few things off your mind... or off of you."

I froze, realizing who was behind me and where we were.

"Can a guy bathe in peace??" I panicked, trying to cover up my uh... member... which was... well... ready to seize the day. It does that in hot baths and hot tubs okay!

"Like I said, you're madly in love with me. It's obvious." She had a towel to cover her torso but was very much naked beneath it, and stepped forward and into better view.

"So you're apparently both a pervert and a delusional, egotistical one."

"You're denying it?" She said with a bit of tease in her voice as she let the towel slip a little, bringing some cleavage into view, which was more than a little hard to keep my eyes away from.

"I..." trailing off, I looked away with nothing to say.

"Sorra, look at me," she demanded gently, putting one of her feet into the water.

I looked up to see her ever so slowly let her towel go, and when it dropped to the floor, I was left fighting God himself as I tried to keep my eyes away.

"You're denying that you want this?" She asked, a bit hurt.

I was still curled up a bit, trying to hide my nether regions and keep my composure. I'm secluded and introverted for a reason. No amount of 'fuck you' attitude can hide the fact that I am not an intimate person.

I kept looking away and stayed silent. I wanted to feast my eyes on every inch of her, hold her close with no clothes between us, say "I could never deny that. You're a goddess."

But I couldn't.

"Just look. It's okay. I know you want to." She had me on a string. One moment she had a tease in her tone, the next it was earnest and sincere. "Listen, Sorra, I feel the same way."

I caved and looked at her ever so briefly, a heart-melting woman that checked every box I didn't even know I had, then averted my eyes to her face, which I couldn't make sense of. She was completely red, yet betrayed in her expression no sense of embarrassment.

She waded into the water and her eyes scanned my body, which I'll admit felt more piercing and degrading than it should've for me.

Then she sat down right next to me, putting her towel back over her and handing me one, but not doing the best cover up work.

"What do you mean you feel the same way?" I asked as I tied a towel around my waist, even though it was only getting wet in the hot spring.

"About you. I... I think you have a lot of merit, and we have a lot in common, and I wouldn't complain if we were to spend more time together. As a couple."

"That's an awful roundabout way to say things," I called her out while my heart swapped places with my stomach.

She really feels the same way?!

"Listen it's... mostly because of our bond. I'm tied to you on a spiritually deep level. Of course I'd feel that way."

"Don't make excuses," I said as I looked her in the eyes with a hard stare. "Don't go blaming something else."

Looking in her eyes was a deep mistake and I shifted in the water to excuse looking away. Trying to draw on the courage and passion I felt during the fight in the tomb, I grabbed the other side of her waist and scooted us both closer together.

She was dead silent and I could hear her breath catch, not that mine didn't do the same.

"Tell me more about how you feel," I said, trying to channel this sweet romantic to hide behind how terrified I was. That and I just wanted to know how deeply she really felt.

"Well I... wouldn't complain if you and I did more than just fight together. And I thought it was pretty nice when you carried me out of that room in your arms."

I could feel her hand tentatively cover mine as she loosened up just a little bit.

I chuckled and looked back into her eyes, this time not feeling so much resistance. In for a penny, in for a pound.

"You are so madly in love with me," I said with a light smirk and an even lighter croon of a voice.

Damn I am NAILING THIS!

There were gems in the hot spring that started to glow softly, and the artificial lights around us dimmed some. Damn that Saint. We're not the first people to fall in love in this spring.

I leaned to the side some, putting a little pressure on her shoulders, then felt her do the same until our heads rested on one another.

Wait wait wait hold on hold on.... she has feelings for me??"

She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me an honest hug.

"Hold on!" she pulled back and placed her hands on my shoulders, panic on her face. "Are you saying you've secretly felt the same way about me that I do you?"

"...weren't you just telling me I was madly in love with you?"

"I wasn't being serious!!" she freaked.

"Then what the hell are you talking about?!"

I was in complete and utter panic mode. Well past the point of "my heart was beating fast." It wasn't beating at all, and I felt like I was facing certain death in the eyes, yet it was just my feelings coming out in the open... sort of. I don't even know what she's thinking or feeling nor what she thinks I feel or knows I feel or how about anything at all.

"This is extremely important to me, Sorra," she stated like it was life or death. "You've been taking care of me all this time and I've been letting you because it the only chance I had to let you pamper me. I thought maybe because you were doing all that, maybe you felt a certain way about me."

I should be saying the same things!!!

"You've been this strong mentor all this time and I wanted to take the chance to see this vulnerable side of you," I said at nearly a whisper.

"But why? What are you saying?"

"You're really going to make me spell it out for you... aren't you?"

Both of us kind of just stared for a moment. I looked into her eyes, desperate for any sign of what she was thinking or feeling. I was completely at a loss. Is she just confused at me and making fun of me for my feelings? She'd just been letting me act all playboy because it was funny to her?

Fuck it. Fuck it all. I can't ignore that I won't be happy wandering around this empty shit hole of a planet without her.

Everything to lose and everything to gain. Everything to lose if I don't try to gain.

I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Sefal I... don't really know how to say this...... fighting with you has been nice, but I want there to be more between us. I have feelings for you. No, scratch that..."

Her eyes widened, and I moved my hand up to her neck, then to the side of her face, with my palm on her cheek and fingers in her hair.

"...I love you. I've wanted to tell you that for a while now."

And before I could wait for her reply, I leaned in closer, gently pulled her head towards mine, and gave her a quick, tiny, peck on the lips. I wanted her to know that I was serious. And as soon as I pulled away, my mind went into a total frenzy. This was a whole new sensation.

The warm, moistness of her lips, the subtle radiance of her skin as it was ever so close to mine. Her breath from her nose. Her hair in my fingers. All of these things I felt in a tiny instant and yet I was hooked immediately.

She was in complete shock, but I couldn't stop. I already had so many chips out on the table.

So I remembered what I read in books and saw in movies, and hoped in what I knew was a stupid, silly way, it would tell me what to do. I remembered to tilt my head to the side. Take the lead. Be passionate.

I closed my eyes and kissed her for real. At first she was completely unmoving. When my eyes opened, I'd pushed her back a little, and her eyes were wide in total shock.

For a moment I thought I was doing something completely wrong, that I'd soon never hear from her again, but instead, my heart melted as her eyes slowly narrowed and she relaxed, wrapping her arms back around me and pushing back into me as she, too, kissed me.

It was long, and both of our lips trembled in total fear, but when we pulled back, now closer than ever and both completely comfortable with it, she said, "I hope that's a good enough answer."

~

~

~

~

~

After that, we kept it at, so much more intensely. We were there in our natural element in the pale "moonlight," and I finally got what I so desperately wanted: to pull what I love the most closest to me. And I did. We locked lips for what felt like an eternity, which soon became more and more passionate as both of us wanted more and more, pushing back and forth on one another and rubbing our hands along the other's backs and chests, never feeling like we could get enough of the other's touch.

Neither of us were ready to tell the other how we felt, and as stupid and hopeless as I was, let alone blatantly obvious, I think she wondered just the same as I did how I didn't know how she was feeling, even though I could never tell in a million years unless she said so.

That wall was finally broken. And with what stubbornness we both had left in us, we weren't going to let the other know how completely clueless we were. I've never done this before, and I don't imagine someone who had been so caught up in traveling the world and then the military could have found time for it.

Our towels were quicky thrown off to the side as our passion became a deep, soulful lust, and our naked bodies pushed against one another, both ready in full swing for what was to come next. I was acting in complete instinct, taking in every curve, valley, muscle, and contour she had, along with her delicate, yet needy hands as they explored me.

My teeth - my canines - felt so much sharper than they'd ever been, and as she had me against a pillar as we made out, I moved my kisses along to her shoulder, which she raised toward me, and without even questioning it, I bit down, just enough to draw blood and garner a pained yet pleased sound from deep within Sefal. Moments later, she returned the same to me.

It was a mark. My instincts had told me to mark her. Not in some weird alpha possessive way. It was a promise I'd written at the valley of her neck. With that, I could feel a deep connection between us form. Maybe not form... seal. The spirit bond she'd mentioned. It was like we'd been locked together.

The rest after that, well, just as things were getting serious, we both stopped and realized... neither of us knows what we're doing.

So we slowed down and accepted the fact that we'd have to work together through this, too.

I carried her along to the bed, which I'd finally slept in enough to make comfortable again, while both of us were soaking wet and completely dying to seal the deal, and the rest of the night was history.