Loquaerryn fluff because I can and there's isn't enough of it. Syrupy sweet, clown behaviour with the tiniest pinch of spice. 1.7k words.
Laerryn has never been in love before.
She had once, in her more than a century-long life, felt satisfied in someone's company, the companionship, and it could've been something --- he was handsome, reasonable, driven. But it wasn't enough to keep her around once their interests began to diverge. He would eventually make his way across Domunas, pursue a war artificer career, and she'd make her way across Exandria, conquering the skies and beyond.
So when it happens, it comes knocking as a battering ram.
A thrill ride, the unexplored territory of being irrevocably smitten, equal parts exhilarating and mortifying. It's a neverending hunger, an ever-burning flame of thought.
She's a grown woman in all her freedom and rights, yet she becomes a thing that loves in Loquatius' presence.
She's aware of the ways of fey --- through a torrent of questions she hopes Patia took as mere curiosity and nothing more. She knows of their contracts, their hierarchy, their peculiar shade of magic, uncanny and mesmerizing at the same time. Also knows of their charm, their beauty and allure, their alien strangeness.
That all felt more true to nymphs and pixies and fairies, the legendary Archfeys and rags. Loquatius, even with his fantastical metamorphic powers, comes out as an ordinary man with a peculiar personality. He has a job and acts accordingly in social events, his rental is reasonably organized and he speaks eloquently enough to sell even the cheapest ideas.
But then the chrysalis will crack and reveal the magnificent vibrant creature lying within.
She will hear him laugh and charm a crowd with ease no ordinary person ever could and wonder how could she have ever doubted it.
She will wake in the night and watch him sleep and have confirmed every rumour and every myth --- No mortal man could be this beautiful, this ethereal.
Or maybe it's in the way he holds her and, in every inch of connection, she can feel an otherworldly possessiveness awaking in her an instinct to give in.
How many times had she made fun of Evandrin for the same sort of behaviour? For his foolishness and his soppiness, for his eagerness and surrender. Falling in love was always for other people who were reasonable and likeable and gentle, who didn't have their minds wrapped in ambition and had time for idleness.
It'd make her laugh were it not so terrifying.
Evandrin never told her about that part...
Despite her lack in deceptiveness, she finds success in keeping her affections under covers. While the sexual tension is more than palpable and their endeavours aren't a secret to their friends, she doesn't bring him up in conversation very often and acts mostly sane in Quay's company, hiding every shade of romance that could color her words.
But while she stands there, serious-faced and unperturbed, her own body makes sure to remind her that something as honeyed as it is fiery coats her soul, each and every time, at the faintest sign of his presence.
.
But then in private, just the two of them, it's arduous to contain the ever-growing fervour of feelings. He becomes a quiet and tender thing and she turns into a giddy and frisky mess.
She sits sideways on his lap, resting in a slow late afternoon, a position she hadn't thought she'd allow herself to be in a year before, the soft cotton of her skirt leaving her perceptive to the corduroy fabric of his trousers, always expensive and perfectly cut for him. It's a comfortable place to be.
He means to brush a strand behind her ear but instead twirls the curl around his finger. “You haven't been as vocal as usual, darling girl.”
She sighs resting her temple on his shoulder. “I'm circling through some thoughts.”
“Would you care to share them?”
She smiles for a moment. “Always the exemplar reporter.”
He chuckles. “I can't help it.”
He allows her a silent moment to ponder but tilts his head sideways to look at her watching the muscles of his neck shift.
Her lips open with a fleeting sound, but spotting his loving eyes fixed on her, instead, she reaches her hand towards his face, stroking his cheek, his cloud-soft skin underlined by a marble-like weave of veins, then traces lips, nose ridge, the thin dark skin around his eyes, the feathery fan of white eyelashes, the barely there peak of his ear. Others wouldn't believe how dainty a thing his face can be from its drastic shifts and all those grand expressions.
The corners of his lips curve into a smile. “Are you trying to distract me?”
She sighs. “Trying to make sense of something.”
“I promise this is my real face.”
Lastly, she traces the dip beneath his lips down to his chin before pulling away. “I know that. You're... “
“What?” He whispers.
“I can't word it…”
And truly, words escape her along with a growing weight the longer she observes him. She straightens, on his lap still.
“You're making me worried, Lae.”
“Well, I'm about to make it worse.”
He stiffens beneath her, leaning forward to get a better look at her face. Laerryn is rarely ever a hard person to read, never had someone he met been this unmasked. He rests a gentle hand on her elbow.
Her eyes flutter and there's a tightness just below her lungs. It's a sudden wave of boldness which, this time, she chooses to ride.
“I'm in love with you, Quay.” She looks him in the eyes. “I love you.”
And the words feel just as true out of her mouth as they have felt in the past month or so, as much as she tried pulling them away.
There's only a deep exhale in response from Loquatius and Laerryn's stomach grows icy cold with regret. She never longed for anyone's attention or appreciation, but any indifference from Quay would be too much even for her. To have the breaking of her soul be seen as anything but monumental and deep would be the death of the most wonderful thing she has shared with someone and she isn't sure there'll ever come someone capable of putting her back together.
But, slowly, Quay's face grows silvery bright along with the most tender of smiles. He's flushed.
His hand ascends from her elbow to the back of her head, holding her still as their lips meet. It's all the answer Laerryn needs, even more than she could've hoped for. If words escaped her, her body is always ready to reveal its truths.
And the answers it doesn't possess, she is more than pleased to seek in Quay's mouth. It's hidden in the way he pulls her close, disguised in the way she cradles his face in her hands, obscured by the way they want more, closer, intenser.
“Nothing else could've made me happier,” he says between kisses without ever pulling more than two inches away from her face. “No time I've called you my darling has meant anything less. My. Darling.”
She adjusts her legs beside his hips and kisses him again, to steal the words from his mouth, to taste the honey that coats his tongue. He's engulfed in her hold, contained within a cloud of noisy desire, the rocking of her hips trying to wake the primal fey essence of his soul and body, the part that wants her in the most physical of forms. And he wants her, for all the gods, he wants her.
The pull of clothes is desperate between laborious breaths and the magnetism of lips tongues teeth, warm skin, wet mouths.
Laerryn is loud, louder than she'd ever been before. There's nothing left to hide, the cut has already been made, and no other option is left but to tear herself open from tip to tip, to finally share with Quay the true extent of her desire.
But Loquatius has all the sensibilities to recognise that Laerryn's mind and organism are both running a thousand miles an hour, knows she's trying to burn through the feeling and the exposition of confession instead of sitting with the weight of the moment.
“Darling, darling,” he grips her hips until she stops and she whines against his cheek, “don't exhaust yourself, I'll give you what you want.”
“I want you,” she says with a growl yet coated in warm honey.
“And you'll have me.” He holds her face in front of his. “Let's go to my bed, let's take our time. Our time.”
And then it's too much and the tears start pouring and, in a reluctant fashion, she tries to wipe them away against the continuous pour, cursing under her breath. She's not sad, she's not frustrated, she's simply overflowing with feelings she's yet to name.
“Oh, love, don't…” He kisses her cheekbones. “It's okay though. It's all very overwhelming, is it not?”
“Overwhelming doesn’t cover half of it. I've never felt this way... I feel like I'm dying and nothing can save me.”
Quay knits his would-be eyebrows pinch together at the sight, it was his first time seeing her cry and it was tragically beautiful how the tears make the gold in her eyes glitter.
“You don't need saving. If you're falling, you're falling into the safety of my love where my heart is tender and ready for you. I love you since I first saw you, Laerryn.”
Every word is made even more beautiful with her lipstick smeared across his lips against the pale grey skin, she wipes it out with her thumb either way.
And a smile grows through the tears. “You didn't know me.”
“Doesn't mean I didn't want you. You've given me a gift with the truth of your feelings and I wanna repay you with my loyalty. Give this whatever name you prefer, I'll be yours for as long as you'll have me and even then I’ll still be yours.”
“Loquatius Seelie, you are lightning in a bottle. Where else can I find someone like you?” His face can barely contain his smile which in turn makes Laerryn sigh in admiration. “Yes, I’ll have you. I just hope you’re mindful of the bargain you just struck with me.”
And it’s with vibrant laughter that he takes her, this most beautiful woman that loves him, in his arms to his bedroom.
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