Jade rushed to Lucius’s side, wrapping her small arms around him. Despite the pain, Lucius gladly accepted the gesture. It was warm. A sensation that he hadn’t felt since his mother held him as a young boy. He felt an unfamiliar sensation at the corners of his eyes. It was a strange, uncomfortable pressure, followed by something wet running down his cheek.
Lucius slowly brought his hands up and returned Jade’s embrace. The young noblewoman gasped in surprise, but leaned deeper into their hold.
"You’ve been unconscious for nearly a week Lucius. A few times you stopped breathing. Some nights you would scream… what happened? Are you going to be okay?" Jade’s voice broke into a series of sobs. Each word was barely intelligible, but Lucius understood her easily.
"I don’t know if I will be okay, but I know that for the moment I am fine. Some things have changed."
Jade pulled back, shock covering her face. "You’re crying?"
Lucius brought his fingers to his face. They came away wet. The last time he cried…when was it? "So I am…" Lucius breathed. "Where’s Kalliope? I cannot have her see me like this."
As if to answer his own question, Kalliope’s hurried steps approached from outside the tent. Jade must have seen the mild panic in his eyes as she decided to aggressively dry his face with her sleeves. Lucius was currently shirtless, and beneath the thin blankets he only wore a pare of boxer-shorts. He shot her a quick glance of appreciation just as the wolf-girl burst through the canvas flaps to the tent.
"Lucius!" Kalliope nearly leapt onto him, held back only by the sudden realization that she was quite pregnant. Instead, she hurried to his side, pausing while glancing at Jade’s hand, that had come to rest just above Lucius’s heart on his bare chest.
"I see… it seems I was interrupting something." Kalliope grinned wildly. Jade turned a deep crimson and pulled away, making space for the wolf-girl to saddle up beside him. She embraced him deeply, fighting back tears of her own. "I am so glad you’re okay. I was worried you would leave us behind… Rena, me, our children. We need our strong, dependable protector."
Her words struck a strange chord in his heart. She’s right. He needed to be strong for them. Before it was never an issue. Simply find the threat and eliminate it. Stay strong, stay unmoving, be their rock, but now it felt like a world of pressure descended upon him. Thoughts of the pain that awaited him should he lose Kalliope or Rena… they nearly paralyzed him.
Jade’s eyes widened when she met his gaze. Kalliope was still wrapped around him, threatening to squeeze out what little life remained in his exhausted form. Jade nodded quietly while mouthing ’later’.
"How are you? How are the children?" Lucius questioned. He pulled his wife back slightly and placed a hand gently on her stomach.
"Did you just ask how I’m doing? Are you alright?"
"Can I not ask my wife, who is pregnant with our children how she is doing? Forgive me for wondering. It has been some time since I’ve seen you." Lucius felt an edge come to his voice, one more familiar to him. Kalliope tightened her grip on his shoulder.
"I’m okay. The twins seem healthy from what the elf healers said. Though, that has been a number of days. We’ve left Varris behind and made camp last night to try and focus on your rest. Healing magic didn’t do much for you other than heal physical injuries, so we were concerned for a while there…dammit." Kalliope started to sob. "Stupid fucking emotions. Ugh, I’ll be back."
His lovely wife stood to leave, but he gently pulled her back into his embrace. "Lucius, what…"
Before she could finish her sentence, he pulled her in for a deep kiss. Relief washed over him, feeling the familiar taste of her tongue intertwining with his own. He felt her shift in place to better press against him, her growing belly keeping an almost uncomfortable distance between them. After nearly a minute, he let her go.
"Alright, you can go now."
"…okay." Kalliope breathed with a slight shudder. She made her way outside of the tent, pausing only to glance at Jade. "Make sure you share the details."
Once the flaps of the tent fell closed once more, Lucius stood, allowing the blankets to fall to the ground. He stretched his body with each joint popping or groaning in complaint. Apparently, a week of bedrest would do a lot to ruin the body. Either that or the months of non-stop fighting, running, and marching was catching up to him.
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Jade’s concerned eyes traced along his body; they lingered on a number of smaller scars along his chest. Lucius caught a moment of weakness where the young woman bit her lower lip, but she cleared her throat and refocused her eyes on his own. "What’s going on Lucius?"
He sighed, dropping his shoulders in a sort of defeat. He waffled back and forth on whether or not he should even tell her what happened…
"Lucius." Jade’s voice took on a gentle, motherly tone. "What is happening to you? It’s both like and not like the time Kalliope disappeared…"
Lucius sighed again. He turned around before explaining. Somehow facing her while answering the beautiful young woman felt like an insurmountable task. He felt the floodgates open. Lucius let loose everything he ever experienced with Luz and Grimm. Occasionally a gasp escaped her lips, yet for some reason the reveal of almost losing his soul was not the cause of one. It was as if she had already known that. Continue reading at freewebnovel
When he finished, there was a silence. For a moment he thought that it was too much for her. It was the first time, after all, that he had ever opened up to anyone. Not even Rena was privy to all of these details. Not once had he ever felt the desire to share such thoughts. Never before had he ever experienced this kind of… fear, unease… something.
Jade’s hands clasped each other in front of his chest. Her breasts pressed tightly against his back with her face buried into his shoulders. "If anything, you have to remain strong, Lucius. For Rena, Kalliope, Natali. They need you to be strong."
"I know. There’s no room for this weakness. Perhaps I was too hasty in shunning that mental block from Grimm. Perhaps he was right he…"
"No. That’s not what I mean. While you are strong with everyone else, you can be weak to me. Show me anything you are too afraid to show anyone else. Everyone needs a support and I can be yours. You don’t need to be ’strong’ with me. I don’t need that. I know how powerful you are, Lucius. So let yourself be weak. Be safe"
Lucius turned around in her arms, her face level with his chest. Jade’s breathing increased. Her cheeks turned red once more. Suddenly, he felt a pool of desire form in his chest. Lucius reached and pushed a strand of hair behind Jade’s ears, grasping behind her head.
She didn’t resist as he pulled her closer to him, joining him in a deep kiss. The sound of rustling clothes reached Lucius’s ears. When he opened his eyes, Jade’s dress fell to the floor in a heap, exposing her chest and body to him.
Jade’s voice turned from gentle to heated. "With me."