Tell me, am I going crazy?

It was impossible for Artorias to ignore the way Briar began to tense up with anxiety when his muzzle moved down toward her tender throat. He knew how badly she had been shaken up by her father's attack. She had never told him the extent of what happened, and he hadn't heard the story from her perspective, but he knew all the same. His Briar had been hurt and scared, and now he had to make it better. Once he began to trail soft kisses along the fresh pink skin, he heard the soft, shaky sigh that she had been holding in and felt her tense body slowly relax and melt. His own tension eased as well, glad to see that his plan hadn't backfired horribly. There had been a real possibility that he'd accidentally trigger Briar's fear and that he'd ruin their moment, but he couldn't let her continue to suffer with her inner demons over this. She was his now, and this was the only way he knew how to invade her brain and her dreams and do battle with the things scaring her the most. This was how he fought the intangible to keep her safe and sound.

Artorias' paws gripped tighter around Briar's midsection to hold her close to him in the blankets while his lips pressed slowly over and over and over to her throat, sometimes straying through the thin fur along the rest of her throat before returning all his love and attention back to those two scars that had become as much a part of her as her antlers were. He felt her paw come up to the back of his head, pressing encouragingly to him there, and then he felt the thin razors of her feline claws slip out to scratch over his scalp and around his ears tenderly. The reaction from the Carpathius boy was visceral and immediate, his body tensing and relaxing all at once as shockwaves of pleasure ran down his spine, little murrs of delight coming from him while his eyelids fluttered. The sensations of Briar massaging and scritching his head felt incredible! He didn't know how she knew to do that without any prompting, but he just chalked it up to them knowing each other so well. Sometimes things didn't need an explanation or a reason with them; sometimes they just were.

Another groan of delight against her neck and Artorias placed a longer, firmer kiss against her scars, gracing each one with a slow, affectionate lick as well, as if he could lick the pain away like a physical wound. His paws flexed and twitched from her paw on his head, kneading at her back while she squeezed herself even tighter to him. With the way his muzzle was positioned, he could easily bury his nose into the side of her neck, just breathing in her scent like this was his only chance to, like she would disappear as soon as the sun rose. He was savoring every bit of their intimate moment and it was obvious, but he didn't care. Briar was his to savor. His to love. Always his.

"That feels soooooo goooooood, Briar..." he groaned out, voice muffled by his lips against her neck. Small quivers rocked his body, his toes splaying and flexing underneath the sheets and his tail wagging happily against the bed. He planted one more firm kiss against her throat, then whispered against her skin, "Sorry if I freaked you out... Do you want me to stop now...?"

"Artorias" | "Corbin"