Chapter 81: Cuddling
Felix Sythias’s POV:
I blinked blearily, surprised by the question. I’d almost dozed off and hadn't expected Alex to speak up. And not expecting the question, I missed what he’d actually asked.
"What?" I asked.
Alex chuckled and sat up, sitting cross-legged on my abdomen with his tail in his lap. "Sorry, I didn't realize you'd almost fallen asleep. I asked if you wanted to talk about what happened with you down in the caves. But we can talk about it later, if you want."
I shook my head. "No, it’s fine. I’m awake now anyway," I said, then paused to think about what I wanted to say next. "To put it simply, I really, really didn't like the tightness of the tunnels. I couldn’t even fully spread my wings down there. Not unless I wanted the tips to scrape against the walls."
Alex looked towards the trees, in the direction of the entrance to the caves, and sighed. "I didn't like it, either, honestly. Like I already told you earlier, the lack of sunlight really got to me after a while. The first floor had that pretty glowing moss on the ceiling, at least. It made it feel like I was walking through a starry night, so it didn’t bother me as much. But the tunnels were just dark and cold. So I get it, I think," he said, then looked back at me. "I didn't know you were claustrophobic, though. You walk through the hallways of the dorm just fine, and those are even smaller than the tunnel."
"I didn't know either," I said, shrugging. Alex had to place his hand on my chest to keep balance as I did so, and I sent him a sheepish smile. He sent one back.
"Don’t you go throwing me off, now," he said with a chuckle, then his face grew a little more serious. "What’s so different about the tunnels then? I don't think it's the small space, since you're comfortable in spaces that are way smaller."
I thought about it for a moment before answering. "I don't think it's that either. Not by itself, anyway. But when you combine the tightness of the tunnels with the fact you're hundreds of meters underground and there's nothing around you but tons upon tons of rock, with no way to even spread your wings and escape the horri—"
Alex placed a hand on my snout, snapping me out of my rambling. "Take a deep breath," he said, and I realized my breathing had sped up. I did as he said and took a couple of deep breaths. Alex smiled at me. "Good. Focus on the sun and the open sky. We're not underground anymore."
I laid my head backwards and looked up at the clouds. Alex followed my example and laid back down on my underside, too. I put an arm back around him, and we watched the clouds pass by for a while. Like Alex said, I was safe up here, and I didn’t need to be on edge anymore. It was a lot easier to tell myself that, than to actually believe it, but after a few minutes my breath had calmed back down.
“Sorry for that,” I said. ”Now that we’re back up here, not about to face any monsters, the reality of everything is really settling in. We were so deep underground… If something had gone wrong, we would’ve been stuck down there for star’s know how long. The idea that I couldn’t just fly away, exactly like what happened with the bear, bothers me more than I thought it would.”
Alex rolled onto his stomach so he could look up at me. “If it happened—and that’s a pretty big if—there would be nothing we could do about it. I know it’s hard, and I’m probably a bit of a hypocrite for saying this, but try not to worry about it too much. Whatever happens, happens. We’ve taken reasonable precautions, and we even have those breathing potions Tiki made in case there’s no air. The only other thing we could do is to not go at all, but we’ve already decided it was worth the risk. If you want, we can talk about that again later though, when Tiki’s back.”
I shook my head, a smile on my snout. “Thank you, but that’s not necessary. I still think it’s worth it. There won’t be another opportunity for you two to level for quite a while. You need to take advantage of it, and that means I’ll have to come with you. I can deal with my fear, I think. As long as you’re there, it’s not as bad.”
He smiled. “That’s sweet.”
I looked Alex up and down, a smirk on my face. “What can I say, it’s hard to focus on the cave when your cute butt is walking right in front of me.” Alex made a weird face at my mention of his butt, and I wondered what was up with that. So I asked. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, sorry, just an intrusive thought,” he said, and his frown turned into an adorable smile. “You think my butt’s cute, huh?”
“Yeah,” I said, and without thinking, I reached out to squeeze his butt to prove my point. I only stopped myself just in time, remembering Alex wasn’t quite ready for that yet. He noticed of course, and shot me a grateful look, though I was pretty sure there was disappointment in there, too.
In response—whether to my action or my answer, I didn’t know—Alex sat up and scooched forward until he was snout to snout with me. With one hand, he cupped mine as we just looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. He then pressed a small kiss to my nose, then one on my lips. He made to move down to my neck, but stopped. I glanced over and noticed he was glancing downwards towards my neck, then to my slit. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and moved his eyes back to mine.
“You can if you want to,” I told him.
He glanced back down, and this time there was a hunger in his eyes I hadn’t seen before. In that small moment, I felt desired in a way I hadn’t ever felt. I knew Alex found me attractive. He’d said so, quite explicitly, on multiple occasions. But there was a difference between him telling me, and seeing the lust in his eyes as he stared at my groin.
But there was also still discomfort. I noticed it in the way he had stiffened up—and not in the good way—and how his tail twitched. He was both nervous and uncomfortable at the idea. I put a talon on his arm and he looked back up.
He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. “I won’t deny that I’ve thought about it…” he said, trailing off.
“But you’re not ready yet,” I finished for him. He nodded meekly, then apologized, then apologized for apologizing when I gave him a look. “Don’t worry, Alex, there’s plenty of other stuff we can do. Like, you could tell me what kinds of thoughts you’ve been having? If you’re comfortable with that.”
Alex glanced down again. “I do want to, but, I don’t know, it feels weird to just… talk about stuff like that. Especially to the person I’ve been having the thoughts about. And what if I say something weird?” he said, and drew back a bit, sitting back down and pulling his tail into his lap. “I mean, I still barely know what’s what and how it all works. If I’m being honest, I haven’t even gotten past chapter four of Scales in the Night.”
Scales in the Night was the book I had recommended him to read after he told me he wanted to know more about gay sex and relationships. It was a book filled with short stories, starting out really tame with crushes and cuddling, then moving on to more and more erotic topics, and eventually some kinky ones, too. If I remembered correctly, the fourth chapter was the one where it turned more erotic for the first time, finally moving on beyond handjobs and such.
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Alex had taken the book home weeks ago now. If he still hasn’t gotten past chapter four, he probably got weirded out. The chapter mainly dealt with anal play, and to me, the idea of anal was just normal. It was just another thing you could do with someone else, or by yourself. Like cuddling or jerking off. But if I had never heard of it before… I could see how it might weird someone out.
I reached for Alex and pulled him into a hug and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’m sorry I gave the impression you couldn’t share your fantasies with me. You always can, even if you think it might be weird, and we can always talk about it. I might not like something the same way you do, or at all, but I’m willing to try most things at least once. So please, don’t hesitate or worry about sharing your fantasies with me,” I said. It was something I’d wanted to say earlier, but I hadn’t gotten the chance so far. “And the same goes for anything you’re struggling with. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but know that you always can. Especially if it’s about sex, since I know there aren’t that many others you could ask. I might not know everything, but I still know a lot. So if you have questions, you don’t have to figure out the answers by yourself. I won’t judge you for not knowing something.”
Alex was quiet for a moment, then smiled up at me. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not sure I want to talk about it just yet, not while we’re here in the middle of an open forest, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
I pressed another kiss to his forehead. “That’s all I want.”
We lapsed into a comfortable silence, just cuddling, enjoying the warm sun, and watching the clouds pass by. Alex’s weight on my chest felt nice and exactly right, like he belonged there. I gently used one claw to rub at his shoulder and he leaned into the touch. It was nice and exactly what I needed after those dark tunnels. We’d have to do this again tomorrow. Eventually, Alex broke the silence.
“Hey, Felix?” he asked. “I just had an idea, and now I can’t get it out of my head. Can I ask what you think of it?”
I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “Do you really need to ask? Of course you can.”
He smiled, then launched into his idea. “So, you may have noticed that I got rather uncomfortable earlier while we talked,” he said and I nodded. “Right, so I was thinking of ways to get better at it. Because I know it might not seem like it with how reluctant I’ve been, but I really do want it, and to talk about it. And while I’m not sure how to deal with the first one, I do think we can practice talking about it. Remember that we brought that mature romance book with us?”
“I do,” I said, having a pretty good idea of where Alex was going with this.
He continued. “What if, instead of reading the book separately but at the same time, we actually read it together? As in, reading from the same book. We could then talk about it while we read, and it’ll probably get easier and easier the more we do so.”
“I like the idea,” I said. “I’d love to be able to talk to you about sex and similar things. I’ve got some fantasies I think you’ll like. Do you want to start reading tonight?”
Alex hesitated at that. “I’ll be sure to ask about those fantasies later,” he said finally. “And I think it’s better if we wait until we got back. I really don’t like how anyone could just walk by and overhear our conversation, nor do I think that Tiki would appreciate us talking about such things while she’s sitting near us.”
“Fair,” I said. “I can’t say I like the openness much, either. Though, on the other talon, the risk of being walked in on… nevermind that. Ignore what I said.”
Alex chuckled. “Maybe someday.”
After that, the conversation died down again, and we just watched the clouds together. Eventually Alex climbed back up to me and kissed me. I guessed all the talk about sex had made him horny. I couldn’t blame him, it had done the same to me. While we made out, Alex moved one of my talons to his butt.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
He nodded. “I… um, I want to know what it’s like. I haven’t been able to get the idea out of my head since you almost did it earlier.”
“Well, you don’t have to tell me twice,” I said, grinning, and gave his butt a little squeeze. And as close as he was to me, our bodies pressed together, I could feel the shiver going through him.
“And, how is it?” I asked, a smirk on my face. I already knew the answer.
He averted his eyes, embarrassed. “I liked that,” he said, and I kissed him on the tip of his snout.
“That’s awesome, Alex. Just tell me if you’d like me to do it again.” He couldn’t meet my eyes and mumbled something I couldn’t understand. “What? My hearing is good, but not that good.”
Alex rolled his eyes and finally looked at me. “I said, you don’t have to ask. I liked it. So, as long as we’re alone, you don’t have to ask. Just please stop when I ask you to.”
“Of course,” I said as my grin grew wider, and I gave him another squeeze. Another shiver ran through Alex and he leaned back in to kiss me again.
We made out for a few more minutes, and I tried all sorts of things while we did so. I squeezed his butt, gently rubbed at it, played with the base of his tail, used it as leverage to kiss him, and more. The only thing he asked me not to do was getting close to his butthole, which I could understand. Especially if I was right about his reluctance about reading chapter four. The thing he liked best was when I softly squeezed his left cheek while using one of my claws to also gently rub at the base of his tail.
In return, Alex played with my neck and horns. I loved the way he tugged at them, steering my head to where I could kiss him best.
After a few minutes we were both exhausted, though. Content, but exhausted. The trip down to the tunnels had tired both of us out, physically as well as mentally. But it was so worth it. This had been our best make-out session yet, and I hoped we could continue exploring each other’s bodies in the future. Finding out what Alex liked was fun. Maybe next time we could do it again, but without clothes? That could be exciting.
We laid together for a few more minutes until we finally had to get up to get our chores done. We’d be helping make the fire today. I mostly helped collect firewood, since I could carry a whole lot. Alex actually made the fires, practicing his skills some more. After that, the students who were cooking took over the maintenance of the fire and Alex and I went to train his magic resistance some more.
He was getting really close to unlocking it. He was able to cover a decent part of his body at once now, and with his new experience using magic in combat, he was able to multitask much better. He was making rapid progress, and I was sure he could unlock the Skill today.
Eventually we had to take a break to go eat dinner. The sheep-wolf had finally run out, so the hunters had brought back some kind of deer. It tasted a little strange, like it was spicy, but its innate ice magic gave it an undercurrent of mint. I liked it, but it was clear not all students did. After dinner, we talked with Tiki for a while, but she was mostly busy talking with her noble friends. It appeared they were worried about something, but I wasn’t sure what. I’d ask her later.
Alex and I went back to training, and I fired air bolt after air bolt at him. He was able to deflect up to a third of the spell now. And within an hour, he could cover his entire body at once. It netted him another three levels in his mana manipulation Skill, bringing it to level twenty-three.
It took another hour for him to get there, but he was now happy with how the shield functioned. It covered most of his body and while setting it up took some work, he could hold it up with minimal effort. I was amazed at how fast his progress had been. Alex had a surprising talent at mana manipulation. Though, I liked to think my constant barrage of tips and advice while we trained helped, too. Either way, his speed was something to be proud of.
He was now ready to unlock the Skill, which was good, since my mana was almost dry. The mana-detection armband I wore showing only a single bar out of ten. Now he just needed to deflect three bolts with the intent to unlock his Skill.
Three bolts later, Alex’s eyes glazed over and went back and forward as if reading something, which he was, as he had gotten a System message. The further he read, the wider his smile got. He quickly took out his notebook and drew the message out for me. And as I read the name of the Skill, my grin turned wide too. Our strategy had worked.
[Draconic Magic Resistance]