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Verso kept coming to Lune every night.
At first, he told himself it was just practical - a way to pass the time when his insomnia got the better of him. Besides, he needed to gain the trust of the expeditioners and luckily for him, the most distrustful one happened to stay up late into the night hours.
It was a logical thing to do. It was strategic. Until it wasn’t.
Against his better judgment, he found himself drawn to Lune.
He started noticing the little things about her - the way she rested her chin or her hand whenever she was considering what to say, the way her brows pulled together in a frown when she thought about something intensely, the stains of ink on her hands left by all the copious note-making she did.
It became increasingly difficult to resist a smile whenever she did one of her little quirks, laughed, or looked at him. Not looking at her became impossible.
One evening Monoco called him out on it, because of course he did.
“Verso, aren’t you getting a bit attached?” he teased.
Verso did not reply. Not so long ago, he would have told himself he needed to stay distant, get them to open up, but stay closed himself.
But now, with the paintress gone, there was no way to rationalise why he should stay away. No other reason than fear born of decades' worth of baggage.
And he was scared. Terrified of opening up to someone, after years of being proven time and time again that caring brings him nothing but pain.
And then one night, she kissed him on the cheek, after bearing herself emotionally to him.
He couldn’t stop thinking about it. How the fearless expeditioner he saw fight through hundreds of battles, stood in front of him that day and let him see her so fragile and vulnerable. How he felt her pain in a deep place in his gut, making his mask slip for a moment.
What he told her then was something he wished someone had said to him. A truth he was unable to listen to himself, through the layers upon layers of pain his long life has painted onto him.
And then she kissed him on the cheek. It wasn’t sexual or playful. It was a far worse thing - it was intimate. And he knew then it was already too late.
When the following evening she asked him to help her with her song, he knew he should have said no and retreated before there was nothing left to salvage.
But he just could’t help himself.
She led him through the forest for a reasonably long time. Long enough for him to start wondering how the hell one is supposed to work on a music piece in complete darkness.
Lune glanced behind her to check if he was still following, but upon noticing the confused frown on his face, she turned back with a smirk. Eventually, the trees started getting sparser until they reached a clearing.
It was a beautiful meadow, filled with soft grass and delicate flowers.
The whole place was bathed in soft moonlight, and above it, as the trees parted, you could see the night sky glistening with stars. While Verso was looking around the scenery with awe, Lune managed to quickly pull together a small fireplace and light it with her elemental magic.
Verso couldn’t help but watch her as she sat down next to the fireplace, beginning to go through her notes.
He observed how the warm light of the fire caught on her face, how the shadows formed sharply under her cheekbone, on her neck as well. She looked back at him with a smirk, something expectant in her look.
Verso sat down next to her, trying to pretend like he wasn’t just staring at her face.
Lune browsed through her notebook for a minute more before she found the page she was looking for and then handed it to him, holding onto it a tad too long, their hands brushing.
Verso tried very hard to ignore the warmth that suddenly ran up to his cheeks and focus on reading the notation. Unfortunately, the contents of the notebook were closer to chaotic doodles resembling notation than an actual music sheet.
He frowned, guiding his finger along the bars, in an effort to keep his focus, but failed miserably as he started to feel lune subtly moving closer to him. Eventually, as she moved close enough to peek at the writing through his arm, he felt the warmth of her breath on his neck.
“So?” she asked. “What do you think?”
He felt her every word tickling his ears; His heart sped up inside his chest.
I swear this woman will be the death of me.
“can’t have an opinion on something I have yet to decipher. No offence, Lune. But… this is a bit chaotic,” he gave her an apologetic look.
“Well, I am sorry, not everyone is a conservatoire-trained virtuoso like you are,” she quipped back.
He was unable to suppress his laughter at her sharp response. He shook his head in a mock annoyance, the fond smile lurking beneath it.
“You are unbelievable.”
He returned to look at the notes in front of him, unable to stop smiling, his thoughts already somewhere else.
After a moment, a self-pleased smirk appeared slowly on his face, as he plotted his verbal revenge. He turned to her, ready to continue the banter.
I think someone may have kidnapped your key signature -
The reply died in his throat as he met her gaze.
Merde.
He had underestimated how close her face was to him before turning around.
The surprise made him gasp quietly. He was close enough to see every spark of fire reflected in her eyes. He felt the warmth of her body radiating, making him shiver. He swallowed hard, taking a second to compose himself.
“You having learned that completely by yourself makes it all the more impressive,” he said softly, surprising even himself.
Lune blinked, clearly taken aback by the sudden change of tone. Her breath caught, and she looked away briefly, eyelashes fluttering.
Is she… flustered?
He could swear there is a bit more colour in her cheeks than there was before. He doesn’t see her like this often. It’s so cute.
“The notation doesn’t need to make sense to anyone but you,” he continues, looking deep into her eyes. “But…” his tone became playful ”, If you want, I can help you write this in a more universally accepted manner, so you know… other people can actually read it”
Lune chuckled, her embarrassment fizzling out. She looked back at him, and her eyes immediately found his.
“I would like that”, she said with a smile, and continued to gaze into his eyes.
A moment passed. And another. Silence stretched, becoming charged as their faces kept close, eyes unable to tear away from each other.
Verso suddenly became hyperaware of the way his body responded to her closeness. He felt his heart hammering in his chest, heat running through his whole body, hands were sweaty. He felt like he was under a spell, unable to look away, while dying to run away at the same time.
Please just say something - he pleaded in his thoughts.
Please, before I…
Before he could stop it, his gaze dropped to her lips. She raised a brow at him in a daring way.
“I think you would need to ekhm… play me the song first?” he blurted out nervously.
“Yes, I would.” She leaned even closer to him.
He could feel her breath on his face. It was driving him insane.
“I think you need to experience it yourself first,” she whispered, giving him a daring look. He felt a shiver run up his spine.
I think I am losing it.
“Lune…” he rasped.
“Yes?” she asked, feigning innocence, glancing at him from underneath her lashes - clearly pleased with the effect she seemed to have on him.
“Are we really here to compose music?” he whispered.
“yes” she replied without missing a beat.
“Are we here only to compose music?”
“Mmm…that depends,” she hummed, giving him a lustful look, eyes travelling around his face, dropping to his lips for a second too long to be accidental.
“On what?”
“Whether there is anything else you would like to do”, she said, meeting his gaze again, the provocation in her voice clear.
Fuck.
“I can’t decide, not knowing what options I have”, he pushed back. Blood hummed in his ears. The anticipation was killing him, but he was also terrified. He needed her to make the move.
“Well…” Her eyes rolled in mild irritation as she pulled back a little from his face.
“We could work on the song, explore the flora of the forest, play gestral card games…” she said in a sarcastic tone.
“Or…” she leaned down to his face, her gaze dropping to his lips for a second. “We could engage in a different kind of art”, she whispered into his mouth, making him shudder quietly.
“I see”, he rasped.
His composure shattered immediately, decades of pent-up frustration catching up to him. The notebook was quickly discarded on the ground, and mere seconds later, his hands were already on her. With the urgency of a man overtaken by his basic instincts, he pulled her against his body, his lips violently crashing into hers. She gasped into his mouth at the impact.
The kiss deepened quickly, the sensation of his tongue meeting hers drawing a satisfied groan from his chest. She melted into the kiss, her fingers tangling in his dark locks as he continued to ravage her mouth.
They devoured each other in wild abandon. His hands were moving all over her body, gripping her against him in a desperate embrace. One of her hands grabbed his hair harder, pulling on it with a force, making him moan against her mouth. Her other hand travelled downwards and grabbed onto his shoulder, the linen tightening under the fingers.
Their lips eventually broke away, leaving them gasping for air against each other’s mouths. His eyes wandered all over her face, drinking her in. Her lips were already red and swollen from his kisses, eyes glazed over in desire, cheeks flushed. He felt all coherent thoughts leave his brain. He looked at her with eyes full of longing, hypnotised by the woman in front of him.
How are you even real? How are you this beautiful? I don’t deserve you.
He was drawn from his thoughts by a touch of delicate fingers on his chest. The lingering touch slowly traced a line across the linen of his shirt, travelling from a spot beneath his collarbones down to his stomach.
The careful touch was a break in the intensity of their clash, a gentle prelude. Moments later, the sound of fabric tearing filled the space between them, drowning out the gasp leaving his throat when she tore his shirt open in one brutal motion.
He looked at her, the initial shock turning into amused disbelief. He laughed nervously, trying to ignore how aroused this just made him.
If she only knew how hot this just was…
Well, it would be a dangerous game to play at the expense of his wardrobe.
“Turns out I am not very patient”, she shrugged, feigning innocence.
“You? Impatient? Never.” He replied with a smirk.
Verso’s hands began to unbutton her blouse slowly, holding her with a predator gaze. He moved his mouth to her neck, while his hands continued shedding her layers in a languid pace. Unlike Lune, he was suddenly full of patience. He took his sweet time tasting her skin with kisses slow and deep, savouring the taste of her neck, shoulder, the dip below her collarbones. Lune let her head fall back with a sigh. Her fingers slid into his hair, grabbing onto it gently.
“Fuck I missed this”, he breathed against her skin. He could smell her soap on her skin, getting drunk on the faint scent of lavender.
They shed their clothing slowly between breathless gaps and careful kisses, exploring each other's bodies with careful touches, inch by inch of naked skin at a time.
When they finally got undressed, Lune pushed him down onto the ground unceremoniously. He fell with a light chuckle that quickly faded into a satisfied hum when she straddled him and started kissing him deeply, her tongue doing unspeakable things to him.
His hands reached for her breasts, rubbing them in circles. Her nipples hardened against the rough skin of his hands as he explored them with care, making Lune moan right into his mouth. It was so hot.
He thought that no music he would ever play could be as beautiful as this moan. No bittersweet chord progression could ever make his heart shatter as much as the sounds of the beautiful woman sitting on top of him. He needed more, so much more. He needed her sounds to fill his ears until he couldn’t think of anything else.
He grabbed her hips and flipped her onto the ground, causing her to make a startled yelp. He was now on top of her, and he was going to take advantage of it. His lips travelled to one of her breasts while his hand caressed the other. His tongue circled the hard nipple, and she threw her head back with a whimper.
He looked at her. Her head thrown back, eyes shut in surrender, the lips red and swollen from kisses. God, she was beautiful. He didn’t deserve to be so lucky, nor could he ever truly atone for his past. But for this moment, he was going to make it all up to her. As much as he could.
His lips wandered down her body, leaving a hot trail of kisses, moving down her stomach to her thighs. Her hands found his hair again, the touch causing him to let out a satisfied hum.
He loved the way she grabbed his hair, for purchase, caress or dominance alike. He kissed every inch of her thighs with care, while she writhed beneath him, the breaths and moans coming out of her mouth sending warm waves through him that went straight to his arousal.
Finally, he gently spread her legs and placed his mouth at her entrance, breathing in her scent. She let out a high-pitched whimper at the sensation and looked up at him, chest rising and falling fast, the frustration clear in her gaze. When his tongue touched her folds at last, she cried out loudly, her hands tightening in his hair.
“Fu-… Verso…oh fuck” she panted out, words bursting out between moans and gasps. Hearing his name like that made something snap in him. He started working her with his tongue with increased intensity, stroking, circling, slapping her clit, making obscene wet sounds.
He ate her out as if she was salvation itself, as if her ecstasy could absolve him of every mistake he had ever made. He looked up at her, squirming in pleasure, trembling, moaning out his name breathlessly. Never had he thought it was possible to come from just a sight, but suddenly it didn’t seem so unlikely.
He had to see her fall apart.
As he continued with unwavering determination, her moans became louder and louder. Her hands gripped his hair tightly, the pain spurring him on even more. He couldn’t help moaning into her, the vibration making her break into sobs and pleas, the sweet sounds replacing any last coherent thought that was even left in his brain.
When her back arched and she came in a series of moans, she panted so fast it looked as if she was fighting for her life. Her trembling thighs closed around his head, almost cutting off his air circulation.
He thought it was the hottest thing he had ever seen. He wished he could choose a way to die (if he could even die one day), just so he could go like this, strangled between her thighs. Taken out by the force of her pleasure.
He lay down next to her, wrapping his arms around her as she tried to catch her breath.
“Fuck, Verso…” she managed to get out between her breaths. “That was…”
“Satisfactory?” he asked playfully.
“What?” she huffed, in the haze of her orgasm “I-“ she struggled to form a word, still fighting for oxygen. “Verso…” she said when she finally managed to speak again, “it has surpassed expectation”
He snorted, “This is such a you way of putting it,” he laughed, shaking his head.
“But you know what? I’ll take it.”
Despite his best attempts to stay cool, he couldn’t suppress a wide grin spreading across his face.
Lune laughed, smiling back at him through her haze, relaxed in a way he had never seen her before. She caressed his cheek with her hand gratefully, her fingers gently tracing over his scar. Then the amusement was replaced by something else. There was a need glinting in her eyes, fragile but desperate, heated but vulnerable.
“Take me,” she whispered.
He gasped quietly, looking at her with speechless awe. Like someone who has never gotten anything in his life, suddenly being offered the world.
Barely seconds had passed before his mouth was on hers again. Their kisses were just as urgent, as desperate as before, but it wasn’t just heat between them anymore. It was need. A trembling desperation of people who were lonely for long enough, they forgot how sweet closeness can taste.
Their kisses were feverish, their touches frantic. He got on top of her, and she gripped him close. Their bodies pressed together, the world reduced to the feeling of their skin against each other, sweat mixing with sweat. Her hand shot out to his shoulder, making a loud, wet slap when meeting his skin. Their kisses turned breathless, as they gasped against each other’s mouths, but refused to stop, as if their dance between their tongues was more essential to life than oxygen.
She wrapped her legs around him, erasing the last bit of space between them. His hard length touched her arousal, the friction making them both moan against each other's lips.
Lune’s eyes closed shut. “Verso, please,” she whimpered, her expression pained as if she was barely holding on by a thread.” Please just-”
The sound that echoed in his chest could be classified as illegal. Not really a groan, more like a wounded whimper or a fragile scowl.
“Yes”, he rasped, way beyond the point of hiding how badly he craves her. ”God, yes.”
He braced himself slightly up on one of his arms as the other moved between her legs. He was way past self-control at this point, but he was a gentleman deep down after all - he wasn’t going to just enter her without preparation.
He slid a finger inside her. Despite his best attempts to do it slowly, it slipped right on her wetness, entering her unintentionally fast. His eyes snapped to her at once, an apology already on his tongue, but she just mewled at the sensation. His eyes fluttered closed, his throat bobbling in a hard swallow - an attempt to regain any semblance of composure.
“Fuck Lune”, he choked, “You are so wet.”
She squirmed underneath him, a high-pitched little broken sound leaving her lips. The sounds they both made would have been embarrassing if they weren’t way past any rational thought at this point. He slid another finger in her, then another, breaking inside at the noises she made.
Eventually, he lined himself up at her entrance, his swollen tip braced against her wetness, trembling in restraint.
“Lune-” he rasped through clenched jaw “are you-”
“Yes! Please! God, yes,” she exclaimed, before he could even finish his question.
He pushed inside her slowly. His girth stretched her with just the perfect amount of resistance, the movement smooth against her wet walls. Her arms wrapped around him, gripping his shoulders tightly, as long moans tore through both of them at the delicious friction. Once he was fully inside her, he had to stop to catch his breath, the overwhelming sensation threatening to pull him over the edge right there and then.
“L-lune… Fuck” he said, unable to contain another moan ripping out from him. “You are so tight.”
She writhed underneath him.
“Fu-“ she breathed, her chest moving with each erratic breath. Eventually, she blurted out a broken plea -“Move.”
He obliged, beginning to rock into her in slow rhythm, which made them both tremble with pleasure. Their eyes met, locked into each other in an unguarded embrace that felt more intimate than touch. His eyes carried vulnerability, an emotional nakedness, that terrified him to his core, yet he couldn’t bear to tear his glance away, seeing the same fragility, the same unguarded pain reflected in the dark orbs in front of him.
They moved together with trembling tenderness, as if they were already grieving the loss of the touch that would come after. Fragile hums and shaky gasps echoed between them as the glide of his hard member against the tightness of her walls sent shivering waves of pleasure through their bodies. Obscene sounds spilled from his mouth in unrestricted, sweet agony. She felt so good he wanted to cry. Sensation so perfect, it could break him.
She cupped his cheeks with both her hands in a delicate gesture. She looked at him with something close to devotion, while the sweetest of sounds escaped her mouth.
“You feel so good”, she moaned, staring into his eyes. Her words sent a sharp pain to his chest.
“Fuck, Verso, you-” she gasped, as he rolled his hips, sinking into her. “You fill me up so well.”
He groaned as his cock throbbed inside her at her words. He threw his head back in a wave of pleasure, throat exposed and glinting with sweat.
Their rhythm turned faster, frantic. Lips fell on lips, on skin, hands sliding against sweaty skin. A dance coming from the body itself, from a deep, primal instinct. Space became filled with the music of their breaths, the discordant polyphony of their pants, moans, and the slap of skin against skin.
Verso changed the angle slightly, his thrusts becoming faster, deeper, hitting the sweet spot that made her shudder. Her eyes closed shut, head falling back as she cried out.
“Right t-there-“ she panted, “Ver-so” her face scrunched in ecstasy “Right there...”
A deep groan escaped his lips as he plunged into her with force, surrendering to the pressure building rapidly within him. His whole world narrowed down to the pleasure, to the touch of the woman beneath him, of her arms tight around him, the nails drawing blood from his skin and the ecstatic sensation of her warm and slick walls gripping him tightly. He felt like he was floating outside of his body, intoxicated by her. Nothing mattered but the sweet surrender of being inside her, nothing existed but her, her, her.
Their cries grew louder, her name spilled from his lips over and over again, like the sound of it became breathing itself.
The pleasure overtook all of his senses, building into an irresistible tide of ecstasy.
“Verso,” she managed to mumble between moans and pants with visible effort, I- I am..”
“I know” he whined, a desperate strangled sound of a man overtaken by desire, taken way past the point of dignity.
“Fuck- fuck” he cried out, his face twisted in the painful effort of holding back, of keeping the the unstoppable tide contained for just a moment more, just a bit longer, dying inside but wanting so fucking badly to see her fall apart around him before allowing himself to let go.
He prompted himself higher on his left arm in sudden motion, almost losing balance in the process. His right hand found her clit with urgency, as he slammed into her with force. As soon as his finger circled the sensitive bud, her whole body tensed as she clenched around him, her legs shaking, forehead glinting with sweat.
“Verso!” she whimpered, before coming with a long scream that echoed across the clearing. She convulsed around him, the spasms clenching him in an irresistible rhythm, immediately dragging him over the edge with her. He spilled inside her with her name on his mouth, his nerves erupting as the shockwaves crashed all over his senses, blurring his vision. It was so intense he thought he was going to pass out.
His forehead fell against hers as they limped together gasping for air, sticky and exhausted in every muscle of their body. They lay like this for a while, glazed in the aftershocks of their release, unable to move or speak or even think. Bodies tangled up in a beautiful post orgasmic ruin.
He laughed lightly, his forehead still against hers, in complete disbelief at the overwhelming joy that warmed through him.
“And here I was worried I might be a bit rusty”, he murmured.
She chuckled through her exhaustion.
“Surely there were enough lonely and eager expeditioners to keep you in shape throughout the years,” she said after a long pause, her breathing slowly evening out.
“One does not come across such a charming, mysterious stranger often, after all.”
“Oh…So you find me charming?” he purred, pressing a kiss to her shoulder, pleased with her compliment.
“Mhm. Annoyingly so,” she retorted in mock irritation, drawing an honest laugh out of him.
“Actually,” Verso said quietly, his tone suddenly unguarded.
“I haven’t done it in years… decades maybe”.
He shifted away from her slowly, sitting up and staring into the distance, suddenly feeling the familiar urge to hide.
Too much pain. Too much truth. He let out a shaky sigh through a clenched throat. He could hear a shuffle next to him as she moved. He braced himself for the inevitable disappointment, for her to just gather her clothes and leave this disaster of a man, that he is to his sorrow. To the inescapable loneliness.
You never learn, do you? - the thoughts started spiriling in his head as he slipped into self hatred - familiar and polished to perfection over the course of his long life.
You have had decades - decades! And you are still an idiot.
What did you think would happen? It’s always the same.
You are always alone, and forever will be. That’s all that you deserve.
Be grateful you at least got to be someone’s stress release.
A singular tear rolled down his face. Suddenly, he felt a warm hand cup his cheek. Her fingers started brushing his face slowly in a soothing motion, rubbing the tears away. He closed his eyes with a deep exhale, pain pressing at his lungs.
“Verso-” she whispered.
He finally looked back at her. He could feel more tears in his eyes, threatening to spill. He looked at her face, seeing the concern, the quiet tenderness in her touch, the wordless understanding glinting in her eyes.
“You don’t have to be alone,” she said, making something inside him break.
He let out a shaky breath that was close to a sob.
“Why-why would you..” the stammered, his jaw shaking.
“After everything I’ve done…” he said in a trembling voice, unable to finish his sentence.
“I don’t know”, she whispered in an unguarded honesty.
Her eyes reflected his sadness back at him. He stared at her for a long moment. She looked at him with such longing, such tenderness, it made him hurt inside. Her hand stroked his face with such delicate care, like he was a fragile, precious thing on the brink of breaking, and not a worthless man already broken to pieces a million times before.
“Lune…” he breathed out. “I… Thank you. I do not deserve this… But thank you.”
She gave him a pained compassionate smile. He grabbed the hand resting on his face and kissed it.
They sat in silence, as he left little kisses on her hand, still moved by her gesture.
“I should probably hate you”, she sighed after a while. Her eyes looked into the distance as she seemed consumed by her own thoughts for a long moment.
You should. You really fucking should. - he thought bitterly.
“But…” she said, breaking the silence at last. A slight smirk appeared on her face.
“Where else would I find a mysterious, charming stranger who can both tell me about the fracture and help me write music?”
That was the last thing he expected her to say in this moment. He smiled, taken aback, and then burst into laughter.
Damn this woman.
“Don’t forget the other kinds of art”, he replied with a cheeky smile.
“How could I, with all the grass that made its way to my hair?”
“Hmm…” His eyes travelled across her hair, taking in the aftermath of their passion in a slow, deliberate way. A flirty smirk played on his lips. “I like it. You look good…” he paused, his eyes meeting hers in a darkening gaze “dishevelled… like that.”
A spark of hunger glinted in her eyes at his words.
“Mmm…” she hummed “, perhaps you will get to see me like this more often” She traced his chest with her finger “If you behave yourself,” she leaned in her face closer to his, making his breath catch.
“Now… I believe you promised to share some of your musical expertise with me,” she said, her mouth close to his, tickling him with her breath.
She moved away from him slowly, watching his response. He suddenly looked out of breath, lips parted in a barely perceptible way, a rose hint blooming on his face. She smirked, very pleased with his reaction.
He swallowed and took a deep breath, regaining his composure slightly.
“Okay,” he looked at her and gave her a wide, boyish smile.
“Play me your song.”