An Aur Diamond in the Rough [Kinsey]

[Rune Shamalain]

The pheromones would be lingering with Rune for quite a while longer, such was the susceptibility of his people to such things. He was not complaining. Kinsey on her tip-toes, determined to find her way around the points of his fangs, he smiled briefly into her lips. His fingers and palms glided over the lace fabric of her dress, one hand slowly sliding upwards along her spine while the other wrapped more firmly across her back.

Somewhere up within the waves of auburn the pads of his fingers discovered the zipper to her dress. Unraveling the enigma that was Kinsey Starchaser layer by layer would become a welcome challenge ... but he left the zipper for now and pressed his hands down along her back. A pause, a beat, Rune disentangled himself from Kinsey's lips as his palms passed over her rear, "Come here..." and then scooped her up off the floor to carry her smaller figure at his front. With strong arms supporting her weight he gave her a moment to adjust before seeking out her lips again.

His feet carefully padded across the carpet, finding the back of the couch in the lounge area to set her down on - giving Kinsey much easier access to him, no tiptoes or hunching over required.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

"Strong arms," she chuckled as he easily lifted her form. The base of her dress slid higher up her thighs as her legs went to wrap around his torso. Blues darted at her new surroundings. She was still a little tipsy and could easily see herself toppling back onto the couch of which she perched. Instinct made her lean more into the direction she was inclined to anyway - into the man with the double sets of fangs.

The spacer kissed him tenderly on the corner of his mouth, then went back to where they'd left off.

This time, her palms trailed down his chest, fingers stopping at the buttons of his vest. One by one, he'd find that they became undone. Fingers good at punching switches, operating hyperdrives, and making repairs with small bolts, screws, and hydrospanners on ships were also excellent at undoing clothes. Maybe the fact that she and her brother never got any real toys growing up but instead, learned how to work tools and assemble and disassemble things was finally coming in handy.

Well, in handy for something more recreational.

Still, she couldn't help the slightly exasperated exhale against Rune's mouth, "Why must you wear so many layers?" There was the smallest of smiles as she complained.

 

[Rune Shamalain]

Content to let her do as she pleased, he closed his eyes against the gentle kiss at the corner of his mouth and released a deep sigh through his nose. Hands slowly withdrew from her rear, ghosting fingertips along her thighs to pass from dress fabric to exposed skin. Before he knew it his vest was undone and she was making known her dissatisfaction with his wardrobe, words uttered on a shared breath, her small smile infectious.

"To hide my weapons, of course-" he responded in kind, pulling back from her just slightly to shrug off his vest, the weight of it far greater than one would expect. Stitched into the inner back of the garment were supporting panels and holsters for what appeared to be a large dagger and a lightsaber concealed from the outside by a reinforced ballistic shell. None but he were the wiser.

That small smile grew to the smallest smirk as he carefully deposited the vest onto the far side of the couch where landed upon the cushions.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

One hand braced the back of the couch she perched on. She blinked, eyes moving slowly from his smirk to the discarded vest. To the WEAPONS hidden in said vest. Blues brightened with accusation and indignation, catching the light from the dimly lit chandelier hanging above them as her gaze settled firmly on glacial sets.

“Rune. Shamalain,” she breathed, free hand coming up to lightly smack his chest. “Weapons? On my ship. This. Entire. Time. Weapons!?”

Smack turned into a jab of her index finger to match the cadence of her words.

“When I specifically said....you are in a lot of trouble. A. Lot.”

A slight twitch of her lips betrayed her. She’d blame the lum, later. It put a real-shiny fuzzy dull to her consternation. Stars, she could already tell she’d have a hard time staying mad at this man for almost anything.

 

[Rune Shamalain]

He flinched, "I-"

He cringed, "-ah-"

He winced, "hn."

Being in trouble with Kinsey wasn't sounding too bad.

A grunt escaped him but his smirk had broadened into a half grin, fangs glinting under that same chandelier, and split into the pleased expression of the cat that ate the canary. Rune shifted his weight, head canted forward, planted both hands at either side of her along the couch top and leaned in to nuzzle at the side of her head, "...must have slipped my mind," spoken into her ear. A kiss followed at her jaw, dropping down to the nape of her neck spilling warm breath over her skin and kisses along the line of her heartbeat.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

Must have slipped his mind?!

“Oh-ho,” voice caught in her throat as his mouth traveled down. Grip tightened on the plush creamy-top of the couch. One hand came up to weave through his hair, fingertips playing along his scalp. What the kark conditioner did he even use?

“We are going to talk about your indiscretion later,”she managed to whisper as her skin betrayed her. Goosebumps rising on skin in response to his touch. Pulse quickening.

Hand in his hair glided down to his shirt, picking at buttons over his chest. “Force help you if I find more weapons under here.” Why was it getting harder to talk and form coherent sentences?

In the back of her mind she could already tell Rune Shamalain was going to cause her a lot of trouble.

 

[Rune Shamalain]

Rune silently lamented the departure of her fingers from his hair, but he supposed he could deal with it if they were working to rid him of one more layer between them. It was probably lucky she wasn't the one to take off his jacket, then. Rune decided to keep that thought to himself (or more likely the thought wasn't coherent enough to share anyway), but found the other blade on his belt at his back wouldn't help his case.

His right hand snuck back to unsnap the bindings that held the black leather sheath horizontally to his belt and then casually tossed it to the couch with the others. Before she could look to see what it was, that same hand found her chin and his eyes leveled with her own, "You didn't see that," another kiss followed, weighted by evolving desire. He could feel her hands pulling apart the tangled emotions of his life one button at a time, driving his own to seek out that zipper to her dress, intent on returning the favor.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

Didn't see that.

"Ru-hrnmmmg," she breathed her disgruntlement into the kiss. Finger snapped off the last button and she pushed that shirt away, tugging it off one shoulder and then the other as Rune allowed. Lum combined with her very real, unspoken and budding feelings for Rune made her more carefree and fuzzy-headed than usual. But there was a sharpness to her mind that was slowly coming back.

Pheromones were lingering but that layer adding to pure lust was beginning to slip away.

But complete common sense was still a long ways off. She wanted to explore every bump and rise along his chest and his sides. Fingers would rove over the muscles and contours of his skin. Eyes widened as she felt the zipper of the dress slide down. She was all for getting out of that thing. But there was something he had to know. Not because she was self-conscious about them but because she felt like he should be warned. Couldn't help thoughts drift back to the woman in the bath-house.

And even with Lord Umber, that dress had been long-sleeved. The shape of her body was probably no longer a mystery to Rune after that little adventure. But everything else?

"Heyhey," she breathed, pulling slightly away from his mouth, hand going over one of his wrists.

"I have scars." Three words like a confession. A warning. Even though she wasn't even 30 yet, she'd lived a full life and gone through many trials. Slowly, her hand released his wrist and began tugging off the first long-sleeve of the lace-black dress. There were three-claw-like scars that ran from the front of her arm just at her shoulder and looped down to the inside of her forearm.

 

[Rune Shamalain]

It was a response ingrained into him since childhood; the respect of another being and the authority over their own self. So when Kinsey caught his wrist, simple words carrying simple caution hitting the air, he immediately froze in his actions, hands slowly backing off from her figure. Couldn't help the faint look of alarm, thinking he'd made a misstep or came on too strongly with his fangs.

Was he getting sloppy? He was better than this. What was he doing-

"I have scars."

A blink, a split moment of confusion, blue gaze slowly dropped as she released his wrist to watch her peel the first sleeve away. At first he didn't understand - what was the issue? Then it dawned on him that she was self-conscious. The man made a small sound somewhere between disbelief and relief, "Kinsey-" he offered her a small smile, the hand she previously held moving to gently smooth over her arm, thumb drawing lightly across the visible scars there, "your scars are beautiful."

He leaned down, resting his other hand on the back of the couch, looking her in the eye to make a point, "You are beautiful. Don't ever let anyone make you think otherwise."

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

As her sky-blue eyes lifted, she wasn't sure what she'd see on Rune's face. It was who she was. Every scar held a story. A lesson. If she had the choice to remove them, she'd decline. She just wasn't sure what Rune would find beautiful. If if he didn't, it wasn't necessarily that she'd feel bad.

Maybe a teeny-bit.

It was more about whether or not - this - them, what they were turning into would work.

"If I had the choice to remove them, I wouldn't," fingers of one hand slowly ran along the length of his arm braced by her side, gaze very much remaining on his own. A crashing of blue shades. "I just...wanted to tell you. I wasn't sure what you were expecting. But now I know."

Offering a small smile, she shrugged off the other sleeve of the dress. Form pressed against his for a moment as she slid off the back of the couch, letting the rest of the dress drop with her.

 

[Rune Shamalain]

It was good to know she wouldn't wish them away. Scars were sacred and oft'times held deep and significant meaning. Every scar had a story, and at this revelation from her he was reminded that he did not have those stories of his previous life on his own figure. This new body of his was different from before in many ways, and though he'd retained his dark mark, those marks of memory from his past now only existed in his mind.

He envied her those scars.

Space given as she slipped off the couch, Rune felt his breath catch in his lungs, that knot of desire tightening within his chest as he took her in. The dress was crumpled in a heap around her ankles and the view was far more splendid than anything his mind could have conjured up. He was caught simply wanting to stare, to memorize how she looked, but his fingers and his lips and many other parts of him were itching for contact.

What was he expecting? He supposed he'd learned not to expect anything and revel in everything he received, but the words, "Just you, exactly as you are," spilled from his lips before he could stop them. Before he knew it he was closing the distance between them once more, hands seeking skin and lips seeking her own with a renewed vigor that would only be persuaded further by her scars.