Moonlighting

Perhaps the thing that Maverick marveled about the most in his young relationship with the Ashen Empress was how easy it felt being with Venom. There were no pretenses or preconceived notions either of them felt bound to maintain. There were no expectations of the other to be someone or behave a certain way. They could be themselves together—giddy, silly, lovestruck fools who were basking in the simple delights of one another's company. Maybe that was what attracted the once-vagabond to a domestic lifestyle of monogamy. He had lived as a rambler and found no great satisfaction in it beyond the temporary reliefs of a warm body in his bed at night. But like surviving off sweets, it didn't satisfy the way a fine meal did. His one night stands satisfied him for a night—Venom satisfied him for a lifetime. And despite her frequent sighs and rolling eyes at him, she never once tried to change him. She accepted him for the goofy, reckless, debonair idiot he was. It really made him wonder just what the others before him did to so royally screw up a relationship with the incredible woman...

After thoroughly enjoying making Venom turn bashful with his flirtatious remarks and his rudimentary way of harvesting the mangoes, Mav settled in on the lush carpet of moss to enjoy the spoils of his innovation. That included the girly giggle he was able to pull from the usually austere monarch as he offered her one of the sweet, ripe fruits he'd collected. She grinned and called him incorrigible, a callback to what she'd said to him during their first meeting, and Mav replied with a shameless wink to his partner. Being consort to the Empress had its perks, one of the greater ones being he could tease and flirt with her all day just to make her smile like that and it was still considered serving the Empire! While Maverick made an absolute mess of his mango, Venom was much more methodical in her approach, using one of her sharp claws to peel it away with ease before taking a slow bite of the succulent fruit flesh.

Now it was Maverick who watched the way Venom ate, her sunset eyes never leaving his as she practically made a show of her sensual snacking. He took another generous bite of his own fruit until a few more dribbles of nectar ran down his chin, the man slowly running his pink tongue across his lips to lap them up and clean himself of the juices. Maverick was practically thrumming with want for the shadow and snow fae the longer he watched her. "Y'know, I think I'm starting to see why they're an aphrodisiac," he mused in rumbling tones, teal eyes never leaving Venom's for a moment. A sly grin pulled at his lips, chomping down on another mouthful of mango and swallowing before he asked his alluring lover, "We're not making it back to Ashen tonight, are we?" It was mostly a rhetorical question to tease her some more. If it were up to Maverick, he would have already been laying his Venom down on the bed of soft mosses to love her silly beneath the moonlight until she howled his name to the stars above.

"Venom & Maverick"