Beyond Good and Evil

[Rosa Gunn]

"Oh yes, I'd forgotten I'd only married you for your body." she retorted with a smile.

He should have been angry, he should have been asking more questions and he most definitely should have been disgusted with her. Yet he wasn't, the words that came from his mouth were genuine and although she could feel the desire to know more within him, he didn't ask. He didn't pry, he gave her the freedom to speak when she was ready too. Perhaps he'd wait for moments of solitude to really allow his feelings on the matter to come to light. That made her love him all the more.

She hooked her thumbs through his belt loops and drew close, forehead resting against his. Eyes slid closed and she let out a long breath. Tomorrow was another day, tomorrow she could look at herself, reanalyse and work out how she was going to deal with this. Today though? Today she was done with wallowing, today she very much wanted to forget the darkness. Violet eyes slid open, glittering with passion.

"So make me forget, Witcher."

[member="Seydon of Arda"]

 

[Seydon of Arda]

[ Later... ]

Together, they spent a moment spying one brave crab exit from his hermit shell and scuttle up close by their feet at the edge of their beach towel. It was a half-ounce creature, dyed violet across its husk with spinal finials strobed in sun-red. One arm ended in an affixed, over-grown pincer, promising a particularly nasty crack if it got in reach and grappled onto prey. Slowly, it scuttled sideways along a course of strewn surf rock and creeper-kelp vines, patting a lazy mollusc out of its pathway. The crab sized up Seydon's big toe, trundled a few paces back on its eight legs, then drove sand out beneath its weight and latched onto the calloused skin.

“Ow,” Seydon murmured. Slight pain snatched him out of a dozy train of thought. He wiggled his foot until the crab dislodged and went scrabbling back to its cover.

It was past sunset, then. The beach had cooled to a soft throb of warmth against their backs. Between distant gull cries echoing off neighbouring atoll sounds, the rise and fall of the surf laps, and sighs of wind in palm fronds and ragged creosote dune-bushes yanking in the breeze, was their own deep breaths. Seydon turned over on their shared towel, wrapping arm and leg around his wife. Another indulgent kiss. Another hiss of electricity jumping between their skin at contact. The Dunaan was still damp with drying sweat.

“How was that for getting amnesia?” He teased.

[member="Rosa Gunn"]

 

[Rosa Gunn]

"Mmmm..." Rosa mused, eyes closed as she relished in the moment and tried not to think how long it had been since she'd felt so fulfilled. "I'm not sure, you may have to do it again." She slid a hand over the nape of his neck and pulled him down again to kiss him softly. "If I could stay here with you for an eternity" she whispered "I would forget all." She brushed a strand of white hair from his face tucking it behind an ear. It was a sweet fantasy, but sooner or later something would tug them apart as it always did.

She pushed him onto his back and laid her head on his chest, fingers idly tracing old scar she was familiar with and inspecting ones she was not. She was quiet and contemplative, the steady beat of his heart soothing. The smooth edge of an obsidian ring was looped about his neck, the leather bond its was attached to worn from use. She lifted her head to pick the ring up, a reminiscent smile crossing her features as she recalled giving it to him, one stormy night on Spira. Her fathers ring, a good luck charm, to keep him safe. It had never failed to bring him back to her in one peice...more or less.

"Seroth," she said softly, her expression becoming solemn as she used the name she first knew him by. "We can't do this again. We can't go so long without speaking without seeing each other...I know things get out of our control but..." she blew a sigh out of her nose and lifted her gaze from the ring to his face. "I couldn't..." She cursed herself for words failing her. "Promise me. Promise me this will never happen again. Promise me that I will not lose you, that we will always, no matter where life takes us, we will always stay in touch. And we will always come back here."

[member="Seydon of Arda"]

 

[Seydon of Arda]

“I promise,” He said with immediacy.

Their smiles had waned into expressions more morose, weighted, and not at all like their prior grins that flashed bright with invincible mischief. Whilst making love, Seydon had to be conscious against rubbing or flexing pressure on the soft scar tissue over her belly and just beneath the roll of her ribcage. Nothing would have been more off-putting than feeling her flesh suddenly rent open and begin spilling. The Dunaan suspected neither of them appreciated fragility. The breeze cocked around the isle, slid over the pleated awning shadowing the Relentless in her berth, and blew a cool note over their skin. Seydon joined their hands together, and felt her weight press his knuckles backward into the sand.

“One way or another, I'll make sure you get word. Even if it's terrible news. I won't leave you in the dark,” She was further promised, with her lips and chin tickled by whispers and whiskers equally.

[member="Rosa Gunn"]