Remembrances - Part 2

Author: Travellyr Title: Remembrances

Remembrances

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Epilogues]

Disclaimer: Slayers belongs to Hajime Kanzaka: I make no profit and mean no offense

She led him into her bedroom. Xelloss froze, and looked hard at her bedposts. “Are those what I think they are?”

“Yep.” She was grinning.

“You have four very powerful talismans acting as clips to hold on your bed curtains.”

“Whatever keeps the kids out of them. They’re not allowed to mess with those unless they pay me for the privilege.” Xelloss gave her a mock-despairing look.

“Whatever happened to earning privileges?”

“Hey,” she said, poking him in the chest. “If they earn it, and need it, that’s paying for it.”

“And the rest of your treasures?”

“In a pocket dimension.” He kept looking at her and she smiled wider. “Sealed by those talismans.”

“Clever.” He began unbraiding her hair, deftly. “But why your bedposts?”

“Because,” she said smugly, “they’re not tall enough to reach them there, even if they stand on each other’s shoulders.” He had to admit that- it was a very, very big bed. He seemed to recall it being a wedding present from Prince Phil. (Thank every god and demon the man had better taste than his daughter.) Xelloss cupped her face in his hands and gave her a dry look.

“Lina, your children are taller than you are. And they both know how to levitate.”

She nipped at his gloved hand, eyes sparkling. “Part of my wards, especially the ones using those talismans, is that the only one who can use magic in my bedroom is me.”

“Clever,” he repeated, and then his mouth went very, very dry, because Lina was pulling his gloves off with her teeth. He decided that he liked that evil light in her eyes a lot. Hands properly naked, he sank them into her hair, fingers worming as deep into the fire as they’d go, and closed his eyes in bliss right before she bit him. He answered with a kiss, deep and cruel—Lina was always so talented with her teeth, catching his tongue in sharp little nips before mounting a full-scale raid. She kissed like fire and honey now, and felt so much sweeter—so much more alive, if that were possible—than the last time. Two decades hadn’t ever been long before, but somehow now they were. Two decades without tangling his fingers in feistiness and chaos. Xelloss thought he’d like to grab Lina’s rear, but then he’d have to let go of her hair, and—it was about that time he remembered he had two hands, and Lina’s hair was long enough for him to fondle both it and her butt, so he did so, and smiled. Lina kissed his bottom lip and smiled back, nearly purring her approval, pushing herself against his chest, wrapping a leg around one of his and forcing them together harder.

“So… Xelloss,” she said breathily (and it should be illegal to give that hot a come-hither look when he was already hither), “what do you want to do now?”

“Honestly?” he said, and had to swallow because she was mouthing his throat and playing with one of his ears. “I really, really want to put my gloves on again.”

Lina gave him a “this had better be really good” look. “Why?”

“So I can watch you take them off that way again,” he breathed into her ear. Lina laughed, and removed his (extremely reluctant) hand from her hair and gently nipped the fingertips. The hand on her rear tightened, and she smiled, predatory, and licked each finger, across the pad and down in between. His eyes went glassy, and when she scraped his thumb with her teeth from joint to tip, catching the end of the nail in her teeth with a sharp tug, he fell to his knees.

“Xelloss?” she said archly. He narrowed his eyes. That bratty minx, she knew exactly what he was doing… a careful shove and she was sitting on the edge of the bed, legs spread, and he was snuffling along the line of her leg, headed for the back of her knee. She was ticklish here, twenty years ago… But Lina was having none of that, and with a smirk she snagged his hand and licked between his fingers slowly, thoroughly, and Xelloss lost most of his concentration.

Lick. “Oh, Xelloss,” she said in mock despair, “if only,” liiiick, nip-nip, lick, “everyone,” one long, squirming lick that made his toes curl, “knew exactly,” a sweet, stinging scrape of teeth and sharp little bites to the skin over each knuckle and he buried his head against her thigh, “why you always,” she sucked a finger into her mouth and slid it out with a –pop- “wear gloves.”

“unhghl.”

Smug again, Lina petted the lump that was Xelloss’s head under her skirt. “Ne, Xelloss, you’re slacking off.”

He pulled off her underwear one handed, and kissed her inner thigh. “Don’t tell Juuoh-sama,” he said, and was rewarded with a snort. Then his mouth did other things, and he was rewarded with a gasp and Lina bringing his hand back to her mouth.

He licked her in firm, scooping laps, as if she were water or a dragon’s open wound. The latter… Xelloss sucked along her sex from bottom to top, other hand on her hip (such soft skin, such an intoxicating little place for his thumb to stroke, his fingers to knead), then scraped his sharp lower teeth along the same path and licked back down. Lina “hmmmn”ed through her nose and licked and sucked his fingers (he could do better without that dist—oh, no, yes, there, there is good). She was rocking her hips into his face, and he liked it, a good dance partner did more than just be led—

“Hanh!” she panted out around his hand (he shivered), tensing, then relaxed, twitching, and finally shoved his head away. Since she took away his toy, he’d take away hers—Xelloss pulled his hand back, and used the (achingly sensitive) appendage to unfasten her skirt. He dragged it down over them both, since he liked the view too much to get up.

Lina licked her lips as she caught her breath. Her eyes glowed red and gold in the dim light, under her hair, and Xelloss had to stop being smug long enough to catch his breath. She sat up and pulled her shirt over her head, and watched him take her shoes off with a sweet little smile on her face. Xelloss ran his hands up from her ankles, slowly, until he reached the top hem of her stockings, pulling them down and away just as slowly. It was like unwrapping his favorite candy, and Lina must have known it, because he got the idea that despite her silence, she was laughing at him.

“Clothes off,” she demanded, nudging him with her foot, and they were, because Xelloss had never bothered with physical clothing the way his master did. He was so pale he almost glowed in her shaded bedroom, and Lina shook her head. “You’ve got to get some sun, Xel.”

He smirked, prowling forward. “It wouldn’t change anything.”

“Hm.”

Lina lay back on the bed, amidst her long, burning hair. She was blushing slightly, and it was cute, but Lina had always been cute. Even when she was sexy, when she was naked, watching him watch her.

“You have no idea,” he breathed, his hands ghosting over her skin, “how often I’ve thought of killing you. Of painting you in the jewels from your veins. Of keeping you just like this, forever.” She shivered, but her deep red eyes had that glimmer of gold back in them, and wisdom.

“But you can’t.”

“But I can’t,” he agreed, and bowed his head. She threaded her hands into his hair and guided his head to rest on her chest. He lay on her, letting her small, fine hands run through his hair and down his back, over and over, relaxing him. She smelled like magic, and forever, and mortality. It hurt him. This was why he didn’t come more often, and he knew it, and she knew it. Xelloss said nothing, just lay quietly, watching the play of muscles in her shoulder as she pet him.

“I want to thank you,” Lina said quietly, after a few moments. He shifted until he could see her face. Her eyes looked deep, and serious, and strong, and sad. He could feel that old sadness stroking over him, just like her hands. “For being with me after Gourry died.” He sighed, and tucked his head under her chin. He felt her smile into his hair. “For helping me take him to Sairaag. I know it was enlightened self-interest, Xelloss, but… I also know it was something else, too. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be here now. And…” her voice roughened. Xelloss tightened his arms, and this time Lina was the one to sigh. “It meant a lot to me, Xelloss. I think you being there meant more to me than anyone else. It still does.”

“I liked him,” he said quietly.

“Me too.” He could smell her eyes tearing. He could feel it on his soul, and it felt so good that he wanted to cry too. There was something blasphemous about Lina’s pain. Her anger was sweeter.

He rose up, softly, and licked away the single tear she’d let escape. He kissed her eyes, and she took a long, deep breath, and wrapped her arms around him, pulling herself up to kiss him, long and deep and thorough. She didn’t stop until she had to breathe, and years of yelling had given Lina an astonishing lung capacity. If Xelloss had had tonsils, he would have feared for them.

It felt even better than her anger.

“You did this for me,” she whispered, kissing and licking his ear, “on the road to Sairaag. Every night.” That small, sweet, devastating tongue licked behind his ear, from the dip beneath the lobe up and around to where it met his hair. His arms trembled. “Every night, Xelloss, so I didn’t have to think.” Her tongue dipped into his ear, then she blew in it. He shuddered. “So I could sleep.” She bit him, and his arms gave out. Her chest was shaking, and he realized it was because she was laughing at him again.

Well, that was just not on. He stirred, licking from the hollow between her collarbones up her throat, her jaw, around her cheekbone, so… perfectly… slowly… and kissed the tip of her nose. “Like this, if I remember right,” he said as his fingers splayed across her breast. She smiled at him, small and smug, and kneaded his rear. He shifted closer, lying hard and hot against her hip. Familiar, but also surreal from time and magic. She could feel him, over her skin, a many-layered cone of darkness, spinning slowly; a being of incredible focus, one who kept track of events without number… but to bring them to focus on a single point. Lina sank her teeth into his ear, tugging. She wrapped a hand around his penis to and a leg around his hip to guide him.

“Yesss…” she hissed out, wrapping her other leg around him, threading her fingers into his hair. “Move, Xelloaaaah—mmmn.” Her eyelids slid to half mast, shining lustful and happy. His hands wandered where they would, taking what pleasure they would. He kissed her, and chuckled in her ear.

“I remember how this goes,” he whispered, and his eyes sparkled. Lina surged up and yanked him down and bit at his lips, growling, and Xelloss wasn’t able to make the bicycle comment he’d intended. She ground her hips up against his, hard, and released his abused mouth to groan. She raked her nails from tailbone to nape and Xelloss panted, and she licked across his bitten mouth, softly, kitten laps to contrast wildcat claws.

He loved it. Pleasure (his, hers, didn’t matter) coiled through them, tight and rasping. He had a lost look in those purple eyes, pupils coming and going with his pants, or her pants, or perhaps just the sweat in her eyes. His hands—

She trapped his hands and he snarled at her (she had to let go, he couldn’t bite, couldn’t, but she had to, he needed), hips stilling with a sharp snap into her. She writhed, more, he pulled, let go, she held on (small bands of bone blood stubbornness), let GO –more- let more GO. Lina arched against him, squirmed against Xelloss (so still so desperate so wrong MOVE), moaned through tightly-shut teeth. The tension built: her need and frustration—

–at his stillness, his frustration and need—

–Let GO. LET GO—

–and she let go. Xelloss flowed into motion, stroking desperately with hands and hips and breath and aether. His hands sank into her hair, stroked her face and arms and legs (that he could reach), kneaded her breasts and thighs and ass, teased nipples and navel, counted her ribs and the bumps of her spine, and finally reached down to fondle the little nub above their joining, and always his hips thrust, hot and smooth. Hot. And always his hands had her hair. Trailing her own hair over her heated skin in a silky echo of where his hands had been. The feel of her, the feel of her, he couldn’t get enough of her skin, her breasts, her back, soaking through his palms and fingers, of her lust and her fire sluicing over the many-folded shadows of his self. This touch, this touch, touch-

Xelloss didn’t come so much as sink into her, completely, and lose himself in her and her feel and the flavor of her spirit while Lina went up in flames of copper and gold.

Afterwards, Lina lay on his chest with his arms around her waist, lazily drawing patterns on his shoulder with her fingertips. Xelloss looked in the ceiling’s general direction, at nothing in particular. For some reason her demon’s blood talismans were glowing faintly. “Sometimes I wonder why my life is so absurd, even by my standards. I was the most devastating participant in the Kouma War, and last week I was explaining to Dynast Grausherra that it was not my fault he received two thousand five hundred sixty-four rabbits in wooly hats and sweaters.”

Lina was silent for a moment, then broke out into giggles. “I’m going to make you tell me that story later.”

He made a face into her hair. “Absurd. All of it. Sometimes I really, really wish I was bored.”

“Life is nothing but absurdity and irony, and then you die.”

He twined a lock of her hair around his finger, over and over. “Sometimes I think you’ll never die.”

“Then you’re a fool.”

His arms tightened, just slightly. “I think you’re right.”

To be continued…

Author’s Notes: Remember, authors feed upon reviews. Please, feed the hungry authors!

Thank you, RVincent, for your kind words. The two epilogues will be posted Wednesday.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Epilogues]

Go Back To Archive