Work Text:
A Feline's Assistance, a Cleric's Needs
A clock was ticking.
The lights in the room were perhaps a little dim, but not enough to really cause any bother. Pozëmka was staring at the impressive collection of bottles stashed inside a finely decorated, massive piece of furniture which reached all the way to the ceiling. Which admittedly wasn't all that high, yes, but the thing was remarkable in width as well. There were for the most parts wines inside there, but other kind of spirits could be spotted too. The lupo walked a bit closer, leaning against the layer of glass separating her from the precious stash.
"You can take one out if you want. Pallas keeps the rare ones elsewhere"
"Do I really give off the impression of being someone to take from another's room without even asking to beforehand?" she shot back, not nearly as annoyed as her words might've led one to believe as she turned around.
Sitting at a small table a bit away from Pozëmka was Archetto, who was reading a book taken from one of the many imposing piles of volumes that dotted the room while at the same time casting somewhat frequent glances at the clock.
"I didn't mean it like that"
"... I know. Sorry. But this is rather unusual"
"It sure is" the liberi replied, a faint trace of worry in her voice.
Then the door opened, and both women turned towards it.
"Hey there! Sorry I'm la-wait" Blaze erupted as she made her way in, her enthusiasm giving way to confusion as she noticed the clear absence of a certain someone.
"Did something happen?" Archetto asked, noticing that the feline was dripping a bit of water from her hair.
"You wouldn't believe it" she replied as she took a seat at the same table, occupying the second of four chairs and placing down a decidedly not empty plastic bag "There was a queue for the showers! A queue! I've been using the gyms since I first came aboard and this'd never happened. I had to talk Aak into letting me slip in with him or I'd still be there in line waiting. Most weren't even working actually, I think a pipe or two broke down or something"
"You d-did what?" Pozëmka asked, her ears twitching "Just how brazen can you get, you... ?"
"No, hold on. Why was Aak even at the gyms in the first place?" Archetto chimed in.
"I guess Hung or Waai dragged him there? I helped him sneak out as payment, he wasn't technically done I think"
"Oh, then it is a custom of all muscleheads of this landship to coerce others into trainings not meant for their physique" Pozëmka added as she caved in and took the third seat.
She didn't actually know neither Hung nor Waai Fu, to tell the truth.
"Come on, Pozy, I already said I'm sorry about that. Here, cheers?" Blaze replied, offering her a can of beer.
"Should we not wait for Pallas before getting started?"
"You mean she hasn't shown up yet?" the feline shot back, startled once more.
She had sort of assumed the forte was in the bathroom or something.
"No, she hasn't"
Now that was odd. Pallas wasn't one to show up late. At worst she would stumble her way across the halls while bumping on every other corner when she was especially drunk -though it was really, really rare to see her that wasted, to the point less than ten people had ever actually witnessed it- but she'd pretty much always make it in time. Somehow. Blaze took a look at the clock.
"It's getting quite late. Relatively"
Then she casually let her gaze wander on the ceiling, and in particular to the hook stuck in it. Hooks, actually.
"Hold on, are those new?"
Pozëmka's tail swayed. Archetto's ears twitched.
"I-I believe Pallas has recently hadded a few extra anchor points, yes"
"For... well, you know what for"
And Blaze's lips curled up into a knowing smirk. The other two drank from their beers.
"Ooohh, you got suspended?"
Archetto had expected that question to arrive. Pozëmka, on her part, seemed less prepared as she nearly spat out her drink.
"Wha- how dare you- "
"Together?"
"How utterly shameless!" Pozëmka shouted, pretty much jumping to her feet "This isn't a matter that concerns you in any way, show some tact and refrain from bringing it up!"
"Ohohoh, together? How was it?" Blaze kept the assault up "Relaxing?"
"No, that is... most definitively not the word I would use"
"Archetto! Do not answer such questions!"
"I understand where you're coming from, Pozëmka, but Blaze's not a stranger to this, we can talk about these occurrences with her. Or rather, among us"
"Nice one, Arche. Would sound a lot cooler if you weren't beet red" the feline teased her.
"This is just... the beer"
"Come on, Arche, you're not such a lightweight!" she laughed back.
"I swear, how could I ever even end up entangled with such people... "
"Drop the act and relax, Pozy. Here, have some mead" Blaze answered, offering the bottle as a token of peace.
"... mpf"
With a bit of perhaps not too well-acted reluctancy, the lupo went back to her seat and opened the bottle. Blaze's manners left much to be desired, and while she seemed to have a thing for beer of almost any quality, she could also tell good spirits when she saw them. As a matter of fact, the mead she had just offered Pozëmka happened to be one of such good spirits.
As for the conversation, well. Despite her attitude, she was actually rather glad to have met others who shared similar... taste in recreational activities, so to say. Not exactly the same, granted, but close enough. And those weren't quite things Pozëmka would've ever brought up in casual conversations with strangers either. But that still didn't mean she was comfortable talking so openly about them, not yet at the very least. Archetto, on her part, was a bit more at ease with the subject, but she also figured that insisting on it woudln't have been the best idea.
"Did you manage to find something interesting?" she asked Blaze as she opened her second can, her eyes pointing to the bag previously placed on the table.
"A few things" Blaze replied, reaching for said bag and beginning to pull a mix of vhs tapes, cds and even usb keys out of it "I've got 'Who Goes There - the Beginning', 'Giant Lizards Amusement Park 4', 'Maws 2', 'A Night of 30 Days the Return', '196 Days Later', 'Another Tornado of Sharks, 'Howl's Wandering Castle 2', 'Alien Three', 'The Return of the Bloodfly', 'Jungle Predator in Town' and... "
"Hold on. Why are most of those horror?"
"They are? I am more concerned with wether the projector can truly read all of these or not, personally" Pozëmka asked.
Judging by the titles, a good amount of those were probably adaptations of books she had read at some point, or at least heard about. But for the most part she was unfamiliar with the movies Blaze was pulling out from the bag.
"The archive's pretty pretty big so I grabbed the first things that seemed interesting and came back without going through the whole place. That'd have taken a lot of time you know. Why, horror's not good? Oh, and don't worry, the guys over at engineering made a point to modify these to read all kind of stuffs" she explained as she gave a relatively gentle tap to the projector still lying inside the bag "Said it was faster than updating everything into the internal database"
"I don't have a problem with horror, no, and that's not the only genre you picked anyway. But... " Archetto replied, taking another glance at the clock "I'm starting to worry"
"I believe we should go search for Pallas"
"Yeah, it's starting to really bug me too" Blaze concurred.
And so the three finished their drinks and stood up. Just as they were about to leave, however, someone knocked at the door. But much to their disappointment, albeith perhaps not as much to their surprise, that still wasn't Pallas.
It was Sussurro, and that did admittedly blindside them to a degree.
"Hi there"
"Hello, Blaze" the little-but-not-young vulpo replied, all the signs of too long a shift showing on her face, a yawn nearly leaving her mouth "There's a letter for you. All three of you, I mean. From medical"
"From medical?"
The feline grabbed the letter and opened it, under the curious gazes of both Archetto and Pozëmka, holding it down enough for the liberi to be able to read it as well.
"This is Pallas' handwriting" one of them commented.
'Miss Blaze, lady Hildegard, lady Avdotya. My dear, treasured friends, it is with great pain, shame and regret that I inform you of my inability to partake in our planned, dare I say anticipated even night of movie watching. The circumstances I currently find myself in prevent me from providing you with an explanation directly, but doctor Sussurro most kindly offered to bring this letter to you as to still allow me to recount the small incident which landed me in this hospital bed'
"Hold on, is she safe?"
"She is" Sussurro replied, almost yawning "Don't worry"
'I must confess that I find doctor Sussurro perhaps a little overzealous in her duties as a doctor, seeing how vehemently she insists for me to refrain from finding a little solace in the sweet companionship of wine in my current condition, but that is at the same time a commendable attitude, one I have no intention of criticizing. And, if I might dare to say, I have in truth received similar suggestions from I believe the majority of the medical personnel of Rhodes Island'
"She does sound fine"
'But alas, I fear I might have disgressed. An explanation I have promised, and thus an explanation I shall now provide. The evening meal had already gone by, and I was making my way to the bathhouse to spend a time, short as it might have been, in relaxation and company. A shame that both miss Amiya and dr. Kal'Tsit still refuse to accept my proposal of a new area meant for mixed bathing. I still remember... ah, my apologies. My reminiscences are not meant to be the subject of this letter. As I was saying, I was walking the path to the bathhouse. Before I could arrive there, however, I stumbled upon a young, most lively perro, beaming with energy and restlessness'
"... please, tell me that's not Ceobe"
"Why? Is this another exceedingly bothersome individual?"
"I wouldn't describe her like that, but... you know, let's continue reading" Blaze briefly answered.
'This lovely girl introduced herself as Ceobe'
"I have a really bad feeling about this"
"Pallas wrote this from the medical ward" Archetto reminded her "We already know something has gone wrong at some point"
"Quiet, you two" Pozëmka reprimanded them.
'Though I must admit that her introduction seemed a fair bit awkward. I soon learned that she was playing hide and seek. A game I am, in truth, not overly familiar with. By all means, there was still a fair amount of time left before our planned meeting at my quarter, but as I have heard tales of this game potentially spanning multiple weeks'
"What... what kind of hide and seek do they play over at Minos?"
"No, I think this is just Pallas putting too much faith in rumors"
"That's... actually a possibility"
'I came to the conclusion that all I could do was help this cheerful girl with the task of finding a good spot to hide herself in. As for how this seemingly simple duty came to involve a minor explosion, an unexpected encouter with a respectable herd of unusually fierce metal crabs, the meltdown of a small, four-legged robot, the combustion of a water pipe and even a brief and yet intense conversation with a member of the engineering department, I shall not bore you with the recollection of'
"Wait, she left what out?! And she's the reason half the showers weren't working?!" she shouted as she unfolded the paper to reveal a continuation to the letter.
"Quiet, Blaze, we're in the hallways" Pozëmka reprimanded her again, this time together with Archetto.
'I confess that such an experience did remind me of my childhood to a degree, of the games I and the other little students of the Great Hall would play in the most lively roads of Athenius. But I disgress once more. We did ultimately find what appeared to be an effective hiding spot, and it was then that good Ceobe decided to show me her gratitude by offering me half of a cake she had taken from the cafeteria. A most pleasant cake to gaze at, I wish to point out, with peculiar colors I am not used to witnessing on such desserts'
Blaze sighed, and Archetto did too. Pozëmka, on her part, stared at the two in confusion. Sussurro was on the brink of falling asleep right there and then.
'By all means, I humbly accepted her most kind offer. The cake had an exceedingly peculiar flavor, dare I say unlike any I had ever had the pleasure of tasting before. Regrettably, both I and miss Ceobe soon realized that there had to be at least one ingredient neither of us could quite withstand. As you are well aware, I have a certain wealth of knowledge in the medical field and, while I would under no circumstances dare present myself as a doctor, I could still recognize the first signs of what seemed to be food poisoning showing themselves, and with surprising haste to boot. Convincing Ceobe to head with me to the medical ward proved to be a most challenging endeavour, and one I fear I might not have been able to overcome myself had her stomach not began to manifest its inner turmoil by the mean of cramps.
Oh, do forgive me for a moment. I believe doctor Sussurro is once again going to voice her concerns regarding my few bottles of wine.
My apologies for the interruption'
"Does she always write as is she were actually talking with the recipient of her missives?" Pozëmka inquired.
"I think it depends on how sober she is" Archetto replied.
"Do you mean to say she only does this when drunk, or only when sober?"
"Beats me. But don't interrupt me now, I think we're almost at the end" Blaze answered as she unfolded yet another layer of paper.
'As I was saying, Ceobe and I eventually made our way to the medical ward. There I had the pleasure of meeting two young ladies, miss Glaucus and miss Blue Poison as they presented themselves, who were in fact awaiting for Ceobe's very arrival as I soon learned. Alas, I was then informed that Ceobe had in truth stolen the cake for the kitchen, cake which miss Blue Poison had made specifically for Glaucus. It would seem that the two have an habit of sprinkling a minor amount of toxic substances into their drinks and snacks, or rather, miss Blue Poison does so for miss Glaucus. A most peculiar habit, I must say, and one I find most fascinating too.
Now, the medical ward has is stock antidotes specifically for these particular refreshments, as it would seem that a certain individual by the name Indigo has somewhat of a penchant for accidentally consuming these drinks and snacks. Doctor Sussurro has been as clear as a ray of sunshine in a warm summer day when explaining my current condition to me. Allow me to reassure you, my dear friends, that I am in no danger, and my condition is not only stable but improving. However, it would seem that the time required for me and Ceobe to make our way to here allowed some of the toxins to start circulating, enough to cause a truthfully bothersome numbness to some parts of my body. Let me once again reassure you that I am in no danger, but I fear the entire night will be required for me to recover. For this I am terribly sorry, and I fear words cannot truly express how disappointed I am with myself.
Apologies, I believe dr. Sussurro is about to insist once more that I halt the consumption of wine while lying on this hospital bed. Ah, true dedication, hers! How commendable!'
The three looked at Sussurro, who was desperately trying to keep her eyes open.
'Please, do feel free to use my room as you see fit, and do not allow this small incident to ruin what was meant to be a night of revelry between good friends. Oh, I believe dr. Gavial has arrived. How peculiar, she is holding her staff in '
After that, the words faded into a meaningless, aimless line of ink which then disappeared into nothing.
"... should we... check up on her?"
"Nah" Blaze replied as she folded the letter "She'll be fine. Besides, if we go there now I have the feeling Gavial would just kick us out to make sure Pallas stays asleep"
"So she still knocks her patient unconscious, that brutish lizard"
"Well... yes, at times, but that really isn't her standard procedure. Really" Archetto tried to defend the archosauria.
"Anyway, thanks for the lett- ah, she's sleeping" Blaze said as she looked at Sussurro, who had succumbed to unconsciousness while still standing on her feet.
"I will escort her to her room" Pozëmka offered as she took the short vulpo on her back and started walking away.
"Are you coming back once you're done?" the feline asked as she tucked the letter away into a pocket.
"... I suppose I might -oh quill and ink!" she shouted as soon as she reached a turn in the hallway, unceremoniously dropping Sussurro to the ground and rushing over to something or someone else.
Startled, both Blaze and Archetto dashed over to see what had happened, only to see Pozëmka on her knees next to an unconscious Durin.
"Durin? What happened? Why would you lie in the hallway like this?" she asked, more worried than she probably had any reason to be "Answer me"
"Bed... too far... "
"Don't worry, I'm here!" Pozëmka replied as she placed Durin on her back and dashed away.
"... we've lost her, haven't we?"
"I am fairly sure she will spend the rest of the night making sure Durin sleeps in the most comfortable way possible, yes" Archetto answered, equally amused, startled and concerned by what had just happened.
"Alright, I'll take ol' Sussurro to her room" Blaze declared as she took the vulpo -who hadn't actually woken up from any of that- on her back "You have the keys to Pallas' room, right? Lock her door and wait me at mine, just make sure to bring everything"
"Your room?"
"Well, using Pallas' without her around doesn't feel right"
"On that I can agree, yes. Alright then, see you soon Blaze"
"Very soon, Arche"
And with that Blaze went off.
Archetto was... rather miffed about that whole development, to tell the truth. Pozëmka hadn't exactly, how to say, opened up a whole lot to them yet, and that would've been a nice chance to see if they could get her to be at least a little less closed off to those unfortunate -?- enough to grow past the 135 centimeters mark. Pallas had also just returned that morning after two weeks spent off the landship, while Blaze had spent nearly the entire past month away on duty. And Archetto herself was scheduled for a mission and would depart the next evening, unlikely to return for fifteen days, perhaps even more.
Granted, those three weren't her only friends, she had others to spend time with, not to mention her own hobbies. But, well... those were arguably the only three she was more than just friends with, so to say.
She sighed, briefly walking back inside Pallas' room to clean up what they had left lying around, put all the tapes and such back into the bag and then head out, locking the door and walking over to Blaze's own dorm. As it turned out, she arrived first, because the feline wasn't around yet. After a rather brief moment of deep thought, Archetto decided to walk in anyway, she figured she was close enough to Blaze to afford such an act. She wouldn't really have had a spare of her keys too if she wasn't, right?
"... did she tidy up a bit?" she wondered out loud as she noticed that the place was less messy than usual.
The bed was done, for starter. The small desk was covered in books, mostly about thermodynamics and aerodynamics, but also a few comics and a volume that seemed to be about emergency mechanical reparations. Granted, those were all meshed together in a messy pile, but they weren't on the floor. Blaze's workout gear had also been pushed to a corner of the room, yet another clump of stuff stashed on top of each other but, again, they weren't scattered all over the room.
Had she been a feline, a perro, or just generally speaking of a race with a more sensitive nose, she'd have also caught Blaze's scent lingering in the air. The feline liked to use the gym to train, but she also often did so in her room, and at some point her aroma had simply seeped into it. Though, again, that was something only a few races could actually notice, and those who could were actually rather used to such things, too much to be bothered by it. As for how Archetto knew all of this, well, that's an entirely different story.
"Alright, so... alright" she commented after having confirmed that the mini fridge was full of drinks.
A rather poor stash compared to that of Pallas, but then again the only reserve that could actually outmatch to hers was that of the canteen or the bar. A rather worrysome fact, in truth. Regardless, Archetto closed the fridge without taking anything from it, courtesy dictating that she at least waited for Blaze to arrive before helping herself to her cans. What she did instead was making sure there was an emtpy patch of wall for the projector to, well, project on. The walls were already white, but she decided to hang the screen anyway for good measure. There were already nails in place after all. And then she got down on her knees to reach underneath the bed. Everyone had foldable chairs and a foldable table underneath the bed at Rhodes Island. Why, nobody knew for sure, but the theories abunded.
"Did she move them somewhere else?" she wondered as her hand failed to find anything, which prompted her to bend down further.
Then she heard the door open.
"Hey Arche, I'm back"
"Is Sussurro alright?"
"As alright as one can be after a double shift, I guess" the feline replied as she walked in, closing the door behind herself "Something wrong?"
"Just how far did you push those?" Archetto asked back as she leaned even further down, her face ending pretty much on the floor, her arm fully disappearing underneath the bed "Ah! Found them" she added as she at last pulled the foldable chairs and table out.
As for the box which she had accidentally dragged out together with those, she had a feeling that ignoring it would've been for the better. And she did just that.
"I sort of kicked them back under after last time, yeah. Want something to drink?" Blaze went along with the pretense as she went to the fridge.
"A triple malt would be nice"
"Right away!"
A few minutes later, the two had set up everything, sitting on both sides of the small table, projector and a few cans lying on it as 'Alien Three' began to play on the wall.
Not for long though, as Archetto paused the movie somewhat soon.
"Let's look for another one"
"Oh? It didn't seem that bad"
"They killed off all the other survivors of the second movie off screen with a cheap excuse just to make the protagonist more miserable, how is this not blatantly made to rack in more moneys after the first two installments?" Archetto shot back, more annoyance in her voice than Blaze would've expected.
"Well, sure"
That movie didn't promise to be a masterpiece anyway, and the night was still long. Nothing wrong with a bit of trial and error. And so the feline grabbed another one and started it up. One called "Ryddyck'.
"Enough" the cleric said once again, when they were at most one third into the movie "This is just 'Black as Pitch' with the night replaced by rain. They didn't even bother changing the franchise!"
"You're pretty knowledgeable about movies, uh" the feline commented as she went through the stash once more.
"W-well, I... had a phase, I believe we could put it like that" she answered, because that time Landen had tried turning a wing of the monastery into a movie theatre was probably better left in the past.
The third movie turned out to be 'Day of the Independence: the Resurgence', and with that one they got pretty far. Around an hour into it.
"Please, take it out. This is hurting me on a spiritual level"
"Jeez, Arche, you're pretty difficult"
"There has to be something good in here"
And in the following hours the two ended up going through quite a few movies. 'From Dusk until Dawn 2', 'Darko's Sister', 'Now You See Me 2', 'The Terminating Machine 3', 'Highlander - the Highening', 'Matrix Reloading', and perhaps even a few others. Though they didn't quite make it to the end of any of those. Far from it, in fact.
"Arche" Blaze said as she took out yet another usb from the projector "I'm starting to get a bit annoyed"
"... you're right, sorry. But... how come these are all sequels?"
"I guess the archive is more messy than I'd expected. Oh, what about this?" she asked as she showed her the disk of 'The Thing'.
"This doesn't seem to be a follow-up to another movie at least" Archetto agreed.
And look and behold, that one they managed to watch in its entirety.
"... uh. The monster won? I wasn't expecting that"
"What? No!" the feline shot back, tossing her can of beer aside and reaching for another "They killed it!"
"Oh, please, Childs was nowhere to be seen during the entire final sequence. He clearly got replaced by the monster and made up an excuse to justify his absence"
"If he was a Thing he'd have attacked MacReady!"
"Why bother? MacReady is already too exhausted to do anything, and he'll freeze to death soon anyway"
"But then there could be two of it instead of just one when another team eventually arrives!"
"That... might be true, but think about it. Would he seriously have gone wandering in the storm alone in that situation? He has to have been attacked when they split up, the Thing left him out of the confrontation with MacReady to ensure that at least one of its bodies would survive"
"Oh, come on" Blaze replied as she started to take out the disc from the projector "The whole point of the movie is paranoia, would't it make a lot more sense if they're both still humans in the end but still can't trust each other?"
"That would also be in line with the atmosphere, you're right on that"
The following thirty minutes or so were spent trying to get the projector to spit out the disk without breaking either of the two, since something in the mechanism had apparently gotten stuck. Luckily enough, they managed to get it out without causing any damage.
"That was close" Blaze said as she at last pulled the disk out, checking it to make sure nothing was damaged.
"Is there something a bit more relaxing in here?" Archetto asked as she started looking inside the bag.
"Just pick something at random and we'll roll with it" the feline replied as she got up to throw the empty cans in the bin and grab a few more.
"... I'd rather not choose something entirely at random given what's inside here... "
Having said that, Archetto casted a quick glance at the clock. It was pretty late. Perhaps a little too late. That wasn't actually a problem in itself, she had originally planned to stay up basically the entire night in the first place. But being just the two of them sort of made her wonder if maybe calling it quits then and paying Pallas a visit wouldn't have been better. Or seeing wether Pozëmka had truly spent the whole night stationed next to Durin's bed to protect her slumber. Just to check on her.
"That was surprisingly good though. A shame the other two aren't here. Oh, and I must say" Blaze added as she went back to her seat, turning her chair around to look straight at Archetto "You handed the gory bits a lot better than I had expected"
"To be honest" the cleric replied "It's pretty easy to not get bothered at all, so long as it's simple fiction"
"That's not a terribly common stance, I think"
"It isn't? How odd. Oh, what about this one?" she asked as she placed a vhs on the table for Blaze to see.
The feline, however, didn't look at said vhs. No, what she did instead was grab Archetto's hand. The cleric moved her gaze up to meet that of the feline and, upon seeing her expression, she immediatly got a goo- bad, a bad feeling. She was slightly drunk, probably, but what worried her was the faint grin on her face.
"Wanna have sex?"
Archetto's fingers suddenly clamped down on the can of beer still in her other hand. Her ears, on their part, twitched a few times, and her tail waved almost violently from left to right. Albeith it did so only once. Then her cheeks started to change color. Or rather, they started to change color more, as all the beer had already died them somewhat by then.
"W-wh... come again, Blaze?"
"You're not really the type to pick people up for one-night stands, so I figured you might want to get some action before you leave tomorrow. I mean, I doubt you ever got down to business the past two weeks either"
"You?!" Archetto pretty much shouted as she got up, Blaze neither holding her wrist down nor letting it go "What makes you think that I- no, rather, why would you even bother thinking about such things?!"
"Come on, Arche" Blaze replied, using her free hand to support her head while casting her a knowing smirk "It was only you and Pozy on the landship lately -of our quartet, I mean-, and you're both bottoms. Not to mention that Pozy is an hopeless masochist and you're pretty far from a sadist. No way you actually got anything done with just the two of you"
"Well, it's... true that Pozëmka and I aren't too- no, I mean! Ahem" the cleric faked a chough to regain at least some composure "How is that relevant?"
A part of her almost wished Blaze would always act like that when they drank together.
Only a small part of her. For sure.
"I just thought you'd rather not go a whole month without any activity?"
"Who... who do you take me for, exactly?"
"Alright, let's make a bet then" Blaze proposed as she got up too, letting go of Archetto's wrists "You'll answer my question if I can guess what your plans were for the end of the night. I'll even prove my guess is right"
... oh. Oh heavens, no...
"For the sake of argument, let's assume I accept this bet. What would I earn in case were I to win?"
"Whatever you want" Blaze replied as she walked around the table to get right in front of Archetto, all the way into her personal space "Because I'm pretty sure you'll lose this one, Arche"
As she said that, she grabbed the cleric's chin and lifted her face up to look her straight in the eyes. And given how close they were and the difference in height between the two, Archetto nearly felt the need to get on her tiptoes, though even that wouldn't have been enough to close the gap.
As for the shiver than ran down her back, that one she had actually felt, and quite intensely at that.
"I would like to say you sound oddly confident, Blaze, but you are actually always like this"
"Hey, thanks"
"You're welcome"
Blaze grabbed her by the arm and pulled her even further in against herself. Her hands were mostly covered by her leather gloves, except for the latter half of her fingers.
And those fingers were warm. Nearly hot even.
"So, Arche?" she insisted, her voice firm and confident, a decidedly physical kind of desire in full display in her eyes.
Archetto gulped, a tingle she was all too familiar with beginning to present itself within her.
"My plan for the night was the same as yours, Blaze. This was our movie night, remember?" she said as she actually got on her tiptoes.
Aaww, how cute!
... hold on, what impression did I just give off with that?
"I'm not that wasted, of course I remember that" the feline replied as she dragged her back to the ground, the firmness of her grasp making the cleric's tail shiver "But you were planning to get some time alone with Pallas, right?"
Archetto gulped, again. Her ears stood up a bit.
"How would you even prove that?" she asked, putting her hand on the feline's belly as it to push her away.
She didn't though. Not because she couldn't -well, she truly wouldn't have been able to make Blaze budge if the feline didn't want to- but rather because she didn't even try. Blaze's top wasn't exactly what one would call a form-fitting garment, but it sure did little to hide the feeling of her firm, sculpted abds from Archetto's fingers.
"You know, Arche, you were in a pretty interesting position when I walked in" she replied, the cleric's face growing less... composed in response to those words "And I happened to bend down a bit myself to steal a look"
With a grin that left her canines in plain sight, Blaze moved her hand from Archetto's chin all the way down to her hips, down to her thigh, and from there back up, dragging the cleric's skirt up with it.
"H-hoy, Blaze!"
"Now would you look at these" she shot back, ears lying a bit low as she worked open the side ties of Archetto's underwear with surprising swiftness, pulling the panties up to show them to their owner "Spicy. And with frills too"
"... fine" Archetto conceeded "I had certain... hopes for what would follow our movie night"
Because it was a fact that she only ever bothered putting on actual lingerie when she either expected or downright planned to get intimate with someone. And, at least at that stage of her life, "someone" only ever meant Pallas. Though one or two other people were occasionally involved together with the forte. Anyway, that was a fact Blaze had gotten rather familiar with, since she was one of said other two people, and the cleric guessed that just admitting to it right away when exposed like that would've been less awkward than having the feline state it out loud.
"Now hand those back, would you?" she added, kind of glad that the flushness of her face could be at least partially attributed to the beer.
Blaze, however, didn't quite reply, running her hands over Archetto's arms instead and grabbing her hands, their fingers intertwining. The feline pushed her down a bit just as she leaned forward, accentuating the difference in their heights.
"Answer me first, Arche. I won the bet" she said, purred almost.
The cleric felt her heart accelerate. Her tail waved more than a fair bit behind her.
Blaze was, to tell the truth, right. Archetto hadn't gotten intimate with anyone for the past two weeks. She hadn't even tried asking Pozëmka for that, partially because she did ultimately believe that they weren't terribly compatible with one another when by themselves -in that sense, at least- and partially because the lupo hadn't really opened up that much yet, not with the two of them. She did seem relatively fine with them watching, in truth, and even occasionally doing... things together with Pallas, but that was somewhat of a different matter altogether.
Now, two weeks without physical intimacy of any kind with others were decidedly not enough to distract Archetto from either her duties or her hobbies. Even an entire month of, shall we say, abstinence wouldn't have really hampered her productivity nor her relaxation in any actually noticeable way. For the most part.
"So?" Blaze insisted, pulling her against herself even further, the feline making no attempts whatsoever at hiding her intention "I wouldn't mind going back to our movies, Arche. But I would mind eating you even less. What about you? Want me to eat you out?"
No, a month of abstinence was nothing she couldn't easily withstand.
But it's not like she had any real reason to willingly put herself through a month of absitence either.
"I would like to see you try, Blaze"
And so the feline leaned down, crashing her lips against Archetto while pulling her in, just as much as she was pushing herself against her. After an admittedly rather brief moment of startlement, the cleric returned the kiss, fully opening her mouth and letting Blaze in. The feline wasted no time making herself at home within the cleric's lips and cheeks, savoring them as is she owned them, the sheer energy and even voracity of her touch nearly making Archetto's head spin, the rough feeling of her tongue running wild sending a warm tingle through her. Their lips parted for a brief moment, just barely enough to take half a breath, and then Blaze pushed herself on her again, this time with her whole body, forcing the cleric to step back all the way to the wall, her back almost crashing against it. At which point Blaze pulled her arms above her head and then even further upwards, lifting Archetto off the ground, placing a knee between her legs to offer some additional support, their hands firmly cluthching one another as Blaze redoubled her voracity, taking everything Archetto's mouth had to offer and then some.
"Now look at you" the feline said once their kiss broke off, still holding the liberi above the floor, a string of saliva still connecting their lips "That's a might seductive face you're making there, Arche. Quite the easy snack, eh?" she equally taunted and praised.
Archetto didn't quite reply, not immediatly. There was a fair bit of drool falling off her lips, not all of which was hers. Her heart was going strong and steady. Her ears were standing tall and straight. Her knees, on the other hand, felt weak. And she didn't dare imagine what kind of expression was currently on her face.
Just... what is it with assertive women...
She didn't really want an answer to that, no. Besides, Blaze's kind of assertivity was actually rather different from that of Pallas, especially when it came to the bedroom. No, Archetto was content enough with savoring them. Or rather, with getting savored. So she closed her hands over Blaze's even tighter and pulled herself up, against the feline. Who backed away slightly, just enough to stay out of her lips' reach.
"Eh?"
More than happy with the look of confusion which had appeared for a whole second on Archetto's face, Blaze came crashing down against her open mouth once again, completely dictating the tempo of their kiss as she ravaged the cleric's soft lips, her whimpers being like music to her twitching ears.
"I'd kinda figured by watching" she said once she pulled back for air, greatly enjoying the sight of an already hopelessly disheveled Archetto quite literally in her grasp "But with these reactions, it's no wonder Pallas loves to pamper you"
"You speak as is she doesn't pamper you too"
"Never denied that" Blaze casually answered as she took a couple of steps away from the wall, pretty much carrying the cleric with her.
And then she started disrobing her, quite aggressively at that. It was remarkably different from the way Pallas usually handled her. Well, for starter, the priestess believed that Archetto looked better while clothed, even if just... partially at times, shall we say, so the only occasions she had ever actually seen the cleric naked on had all taken place either at a bathhouse or in a shower. While Blaze was just... more concerned with getting all that cloth off her rather than with staring at how well it fit her.
A bit of a shame that she didn't spend any further word on her lingerie, to tell the truth. Archetto had spent nearly forthy minutes just to settle on which one to wear.
Oh, well... o-oh dear...
Blaze had been equally ferocious and quick in the complete removal of Archetto's clothes, so much so the cleric almost wondered if she hadn't torn anything off in her impetus. As a matter of fact, however, she was now naked in front of a still mostly clothed Blaze. Almost by pure instinct, Archetto covered herself up with both arms, her cheeks flushing even more.
I kinda missed this, uh the feline thought, briefly thinking about how long it'd been since she had last taken control in bed.
Well, that was easy to remember, but also not quite what she wanted to think about at the moment.
"You know, Arche, you're really lovely to pamper" she said, and the cleric swallowed something as she saw Blaze taking off her shoes first, her skirt and panties right after, tossing them aside without a single care.
The liberi shivered.
"But I'm quite a bit needy myself, you see?"
And with those words she grabbed hold of Archetto. Metaphorically, sure, but also physically, reaching for her head and pulling it down, forcing the cleric on her knees as she dragged her face between her legs.
"So work a bit for me and I'll put in the work for you too, alright?"
Well, that was different. Different from the way Pallas usually handled her. While the priestess clearly retained all control in the bedroom, she was also completely focused on giving, so being asked to give had admittedly taken Archetto somewhat by surprise, even though rationally speaking she should've seen it coming.
But the way Blaze was holding her head, as if she had no intention of ever letting her go. The way she had just grabbed her and put her where she wanted her to be. The ardent desire in her words, a desire which felt more egoistic and, precisely because of that, also more reciprocative than that of Pallas.
It wasn't better, it wasn't worse, it was different.
And it sure got her going too.
"Any problem?" she asked, seeing how the cleric was still fixed in place.
"Don't expect much from me" Archetto replied, swallowing something as she stared at the feline's privates, which on their part weren't exactly dry.
"Oh? Never done this before?" Blaze insisted, running her fingers through the liberi's hair, stroking her remarkably un-liberi-like ears, and enjoying the way that made her oddly feline-like tail wave.
"Not... on a woman" she admitted.
"Ooohhh, you've gotta tell me about this later"
In order to avoid having to come up with any kind of reply to that, Archetto grabbed Blaze's thighs, her fingers digging into the soft skin and stopping against the firm, steel-like muscles right beneath. And yet she didn't even have the time to move forward. No, because the feline pulled her in in her stead, crashing the liberi's mouth against her wet, needy slit.
And Archetto got to work on them just as she'd been asked to, with equal parts awkwardness and determination.
Archetto wasn't terribly experienced with that one particular act, she had admitted as much, but it's not like she had no clue about what to do either. She ran her tongue over the feline's slit, occasionally pushing it inside or using it to poke her clit, her own face turning redder and redder because at the end of the day that was still far too embarrassing for her to bear. Which, ironically enough, only made it that much more exciting.
"Right there, yes" Blaze urged her, her tail stiff behind her, her ears lying a bit lower than usual.
And something about the way she'd spoken those three words sparked an intense throbbing within Archetto, or rather, it caused what was already there to grow much more fierce. Perhaps it was the mixture of neediness and authority in her voice, or the sheer heat radiating from her, or the way Blaze was pushing her hips against her, seeking more of her services.
If there was one thing the feline was lacking, however, that was definitively bashfulness, because there was nothing shy about the way she demanded more from Archetto, both with words and with actions, nor from the way she let her voice run wild and free whenever the cleric hit a good spot. She tried to imagine how she would like to be touched were the roles reversed and then amped up the intensity by quite a fair bit, all the while trying to keep her heart from going into overdrive. She licked, pushing her tongue down with perhaps even a little too much vigor, on Blaze's labia, along her slit, and then on her clit, stroking it with a peculiar mix of bashfulness and aggressivity, occasionally sliding her tongue inside the feline and caressing her as best as she could, feeling her insides coiling around her tongue, contracting on it.
The tingling between her own legs grew intense, more and more intense with every purr of the feline, with every unrestrained moan of approval, with every wiggle of her hips, the firm grasp her hands still held the cleric's head in sending shivers down her spine, all the way to the tip of her waving tail. And so Archetto moved her hands around, over to Blaze's rear, in what could perhaps be considered an uncharacteristic display of boldness, the feeling of the feline's firm posterior in her palms making her heart race even faster.
But that was, in truth, an attempt at keeping herself from masturbating. Because as much as she needed that, the sheer embarrassment of actually doing so while going down on Blaze would've probably killed her.
"Enjoying me, Arche?" the feline jokingly mocked, running her fingers through the cleric's long hair and pulling her head back a bit, just enough to have her either speak of make a show of remaining silent.
"W-well, this is... rather new for me" she replied, which got the feline to answer with a grin.
"You know, if it weren't for this" she pointed out as she ran her fingers over Archetto's lips and chin, covered in the feline's fluids "You'd look like you're the one getting eaten out"
Archetto didn't immediatly answer. Partially because she had to catch her breath a little, she had no idea for how long she'd had her face buried between Blaze's legs. And partially because, well... she didn't really want to imagine what kind of face she was making right there and then.
"Come on, Arche, I'm almost there" Blaze said, making sure to convey just how much she needed it with every word, with every purr.
And Archetto found herself pushed in again, her mouth crashing once more against the feline's privates, glistening with both her natural lubrication and the cleric's saliva. With half of her mind trying to escape to pretty much anywhere else and the other half keeping the first one firmly anchored in the there and then, the liberi resumed her service, licking and stroking and sucking, a bit aimlessly at times admittedly, her grasp on the feline's rear growing firmer in response to Blaze's fingers grasping her head and nape with more intensity.
Then Archetto looked up.
Blaze wasn't exactly looking at Archetto, but rather in front of herself. And she was leaning forward while pulling the cleric's head between her legs. The liberi was already shorter by a noticeable amount, and when she was down on her kness like that, with the feline bending over a bit, Archetto truly felt like Blaze was towering over her.
It was just... so terribly exciting.
"Come on, Arche" she repeated as she suddenly looked down, her bright blue eyes meeting Archetto's bichromatic ones, sending a shiver down her spine, a somewhat rough caress on her chin sending another across her face "I'm almost there" she hurged her on, her breaths heavy.
With the tingling feeling between her own legs having turned into a throbbing so intense it almost hurt to leave it unattended, Archetto sank her palms further into the feline's rear, her purrs filling her ears as she continued to lick and suck, what she was lacking in technique being more or less compensated by her imagination as it guided her tongue and lips, until she closed them over Blaze's clit.
"Theereee... !"
Blaze ran her fingers through Archetto's hair once more before grabbing hold of her head and firmly pulling her even further in, enough to actually block her respiration for a brief moment or two, her muscles growing stiff as a warm wave of pleasure washed over her, tipping over from her nethers and spilling forth into the rest of her body, making her fur and ears stand up, her voice stopping, her purrs growing more intense as if to make up for it, the feeling of Archetto's head in her hands -at her mercy- giving her climax that little something more that made it just that much sweeter.
Then the pleasure began to abate. The feline took a quick, heavy breath as she pulled the cleric's head back and turned it upwards, their eyes meeting once more.
"Is that all mine or are you salivating a bit, Arche?" she asked with a grin, seeing just how drenched the cleric's mouth and chin were, a bit having spilled all the way down to the floor.
"... perhaps a little bit... " she conceded as she wiped some off with her hand, the feline's intense scent doing very little to help her deal with the excruciating leakage at her own nethers. Heavens forbid just what kind of effect it would've had on her had she been a vulpo.
"Alright, my turn then!"
"Wait, what do yo- ?!"
Her words were cut short by sheer shock as Blaze simply pulled her up, back on her feet. And then up in the air. And then she also turned her around, upside-down to be more accurate. In a matter of a second, perhaps two, the cleric found herself... well, still almost face to face with Blaze's bare crotch, actually. Only this time she wasn't on her knees. She wasn't on the floor at all actually. In fact, Blaze was hugging her with one arm around her lower back and the other running down to hold her by the shoulder, in a position that placed Archetto's own privates pretty much right in front of the feline's face. As for the cleric's arms, she had thrown them around Blaze's legs to support herself, more out of instinct than out of conscious choice.
"Woah, Arche, you're soaked"
"Do you a-actually have to point that out?!"
"It's really sexy, so yeah"
"You... !?"
Wether Archetto had actually something else to say or not, her words were cut off abruptly. Blaze had pulled her up a little bit more, bent down her neck and ran her tongue over the cleric's wet slit.
And being a feline, Blaze was endowed with an especially rough tongue. Archetto tightened her grip on her by reflex, her entire body trembling in response , her fluids dripping down, ending up on the feline's tank top.
"I've still got my touch or are you just that pent up?" she jokingly asked.
"You felines and your... stupid tong- !"
Having gotten her to speak, Blaze took the chance to push said stupid tongue agains the cleric's clit, making sure to push down and slowly rub the small nub thoroughly, turning Archetto's words into a moan as surprised as it was uninhibited. And then she felt her tremble, a shiver running through her entire body as her voice suddenly died down, her tail going from waving almost wildly to staying still, her muscles tensing up briefly.
"... Arche? Already?"
"You... a-aahhh... that was just... y... y-yeah... " she eventually admitted, kind of glad that Blaze couldn't see just how red her face had become in that position.
"Alright, here's another one then!"
Keeping herself from replying at the very last moment, Archetto shut her mouth instead, and just in time to not let out another moan as Blaze resumed licking her privates, each touch of her barbed tongue making her jolt. Her arms moved around to get a better grasp, to better support herself, and she ended up with both around Blaze's waist, one hand in particular having found itself back on the feline's rear. Touch which, as it turned out, got her to resume purring.
To make things even worse on the cleric's already hyperactive heart, Blaze was going out of her way to be loud in her service, audibly kissing and sucking on her every now and then, her touch both more experienced and more confindent than Archetto's, every lap of that blissfully accursed tongue dragging her closer and closer to a second climax. Not to mention just how hot her tongue was, even more than the rest of her body.
And so, in what some would describe as a desperate attempt at distracting Blaze, others as simple reciprocating and others still as her inhibitions merely crashing down under the weight of her own excitement, Archetto moved an hand and stuck two fingers right inside Blaze's still dripping slit.
The feline trembled, if only briefly, at the admittedly unexpected stimulus, her tail shaking exactly once before stiffening up again.
"That's appreciated!"
"Just... close your mouth and run your tongue... "
The feline answered that with a chuckle, immediatly resuming her feast while at the same time savoring Archetto's own service, her fingers admittedly proving more skilled than her tongue had been at finding the right spots to tease and fondle. But Archetto just couldn't quite focus on that, partially because she was in a somewhat awkward position to do so in the first place and partially -mostly?- because Blaze seemed to just know exactly how to use her tongue to get the most embarrassing noises out of the cleric's throat, her hips shaking with every stroke and lap, until a second wave ultimately came crashing down on her once more, her grip on the feline tightening as she used up all of her willpower to keep herself from letting out what would've been her most embarrassing vocalization of the month.
Just as she was about to start recovering, however, Blaze casually turned around and strolled to the bed, plopping her down with all the delicacy of someone confident in the softness of her bedsheets.
"Is this how you treat all your partners?" she asked, trying to sound at least a little bit annoyed by the treatment -with questionable results- as she got back on her knees.
"Only those that really get me going" Blaze shot back, making the cleric's heart flutter.
And skip a beat too as she witnessed the feline quickly take off the rest of her clothes, soon ending up as naked as Archetto.
Archetto gulped. Then she took an eyeful, and gulped again. That wasn't exactly her first time seeing Blaze naked, far from it actually, but... well, some sights were harder to get used to than others. In a good way, at least as far as this particular sight was concerned. As for Blaze herself, she took notice of the way Archetto was staring. So she made a point to stick her hips out just a little bit, resting an hand on them while leaning forward.
"Like what you see, Arche?" she asked with a smirk as she took a good eyeful of the liberi as well "Because I sure do like what I'm seeing"
"Do you truly have to be so blunt?" she asked back, making a somewhat half-hearted attempt at hiding her most intimate areas with her arms.
"Should I stop here?"
"... I... never said that"
Blaze could think of three or four good things to use as good replies to that line, but maybe teasing Archetto too much wouldn't have been a good idea. So she reached for the box the cleric had accidentally pulled out from under the bed instead, the one they had pretended didn't exist up until then.
"You know, I kept it clean just in case, but I think I haven't actually used this since... a while before I first met Pallas" she said "Wonder if it still works?"
"What are you talking a... bout... ?... ?!"
"Wanna try?" Blaze asked as she showed Archetto the strap-on, which for some reason was shaped after a vouivre's member. And a rather generously endowed one at that.
"Why do you ha-have such a thing?!" the cleric panicked, backing away slightly.
"Do you really want me to answer that? But sure, it's for... "
"Stop stop stop! I didn't mean that literally! Just... "
Blaze, in the meanwhile, clicked a button on a small remote, and the strap-on started vibrating. And even rotating a bit.
"Hey, it still works"
"Why does it even d- I mean" Archetto managed to regain some composure, if only because she wasn't sure the soundproofing was that good.
A thought probably born out of embarrassment more than anything else, since she wasn't really being louder than some scenes of the movies they'd watched.
"I... guess I can see why you -could you at least let me finish before putting it on?!"
"Come on, Arche" Blaze shot back as she got on the bed too, crawling towards the cleric on all fours, the glint shining in her eyes and the hunger showing in the way she licked her lips sending Archetto's heart into a frenzy and her thoughts into disarray "Is this a no? I mean, if you don't want it I'll put it away. It's no big deal"
Her gaze briefly trailed down.
No, this is definitively a big deal! H-hold on, what am I even -aargh?!
"... again, Blaze" she eventually managed to answer "I... never said that"
"Sweet!"
Before she could react in any way, Archetto felt the feline's hot palms on her arms. And in the blink of an eye she found herself lying flat on her stomach, with Blaze on top of her and a lukewarm, synthetic tip buzzing and vibrating against her drenched privates.
"Ready?"
Archetto took a deep breath, then another, and then another still.
"Yes"
And so Blaze pushed her hips down, the artificial phallus easily sliding in despite its perhaps a little excessive size -at least for Archetto's petite figure- thanks to the abundance of natural lubrication.
And yet even more than that, what really got the liberi to tremble and almost moan was the way Blaze has placed her palms over her wrists, pushing them down on the sheets and holding them firmly in place.
"You ok?" she asked once she had fully pushed the strap-on in, her own hips having come to rest on the cleric's rear.
With no answer coming her way, Blaze moved an hand over to Archetto's chin to turn her face up and take a look at her. Or rather, she was about to, but then stopped at the last second and did something a little different instead. She brought the cleric's wrists up, so that she could hold them both down with just one hand, and only then reached for her chin.
Then she saw her face, and the feline ended up sort of losing a little bit of her self control because by the heaves, was that a fascinating expression Archetto had on.
With her grasp on her chin turning into a proper hold, a couple of fingers even finding their way into the cleric's mouth, Blaze pulled her hips back, so much so the buzzing strap-on nearly came out of the cleric entirely, and then pushed them right back down, the sound of flesh hitting flesh briefly filling the room as Blaze's hips met Archetto's rear side, the cleric letting her voice out, the feline's fingers preventing her from actually closing her mouth or silencing herself in any way, a few rough protusions on the inner side of the straps scratching Blaze's privates as well as she pushed in to provide some purely physical pleasure to her too.
Resting a fair bit of her weight on Archetto, the feline pulled her hips back up and then down again, and again, and yet again, making the liberi sink further and further into the sheets every time she fully buried the strap-on inside her, the distinctive sound of flesh slapping against flesh echoing in the cleric's ears. Archetto squirmed beneath her, the buzzing toy going back and forth in her drenched, almost pulsating privates somehow not being the main source of stimulus for her. Her ears twitched every time Blaze's heavy breath hit her, her wrists struggled against that vice-like grip of hers, the sheer contact with the feline's nearly too hot body made her sweat even more than she'd normally have, and every shameful noise that left her mouth made her heart beat faster, causing her already ragged breaths to become even more broken. Her legs began to twitch at some point, perhaps because they were the only parts of her body she could move freely other than her tail, which actually got occasionally caught between herself and Blaze, making its freedom only relative.
"You know, Arche" Blaze purred into her ears, moving her hand away from her mouth as she did so "You're surprisingly soft down here" she told her, cupping her rear between one smack of her hips and the other, sending another shiver through her.
"That is... n-not something you... should... ah... aaahhh... " she tried to answer, with the third thing that came to her mind as the first two were a tad too embarrassing for her to actually say out loud, but the growing heat within her kept her from finishing her sentence.
Her breathing nearly stopped and, just as she felt her entire body grow stiff, Blaze pushed her hips down with unprecedented vigor, burying the vibrating toy as deep within the liberi as she could and then wiggling and gyrating her hips, partially to give Archetto an additional push and partially to better rub herself on the rough protusions on her side of the strap-on. That little touch apparently sent Archetto way over the edge, her arms trying to flay around with so much strength Blaze had to actually put in a bit of effort to keep them pinned down, a noise perhaps unfitting of a clergywoman escaping her lips as pleasure washed over her from within, a steady and strong surge that started from her nethers, reached all the way to the tip of her fingers and tail, tipped over and then rebounded back, the feline's constant shifting and wiggling of the toy preventing the feeling from abating too soon, wiggling which continued until Blaze herself reached her peak, her breaths growing more intense together with her purrs, more of her weight coming to rest on Archetto, a feeling the cleric could only describe as blissful in those conditions.
But eventually -which is to say rather soon, in truth- the pleasure abated, Blaze pulled out and let herself fall on her back on the bed next to Archetto, going the little extra mile to turn the strap-on off. As for Archetto, she only had enough strength to roll around on her side, not all the way over to her back. And so the feline grabbed her and pulled her over, pushing her face pretty much against her chest, getting a last, soft yelp from the liberi. And then she just ruffled her hair for a bit. Archetto would've normally protested but, there and then, all she could manage to do was bask in the feline's heat, her sweat feeling almost cold in comparison. Well, in that and in the feeling of her bare breasts on her face. Those were nice too.
She did refrain from actually snuggling up to Blaze though. There were limits to just how brazen Archetto could bring herself to be, for better or for worse.
"Want something to drink?" the feline eventually asked, around the time their breathing had gone back to a more normal cadence.
Archetto briefly considered wether getting up herself would've been a better idea, but then the image of herself falling to the floor as her knees gave out appeared in her mind. It was perhaps an overly dramatic scenario, admittedly, but also not one she was completely sure wouldn't happen.
"I'd appreciate it, yes"
And so Blaze... well, she didn't actually get up. Not right away. What she did instead was pull Archetto up, enough for the two of them to end face to face, and then plant a kiss as swift as it was intense on her lips.
"Wha- why you- ?!"
The feline jumped off the bed -almost literally- with a laugh, enjoying the cleric's flustered reaction as she made her way to the mini fridge and grabbed two cans of beer, tossing one to the liberi.
"Between the movies and this" she commented between one mouthful and the other, her gaze now resting on the clock hanged on a wall "It's gotten pretty late, uh. Hell, it's actually a bit early by now"
"Our original plan did include staying up the whole night anyway" Archetto replied, can in one hand, sheets in the other to recover some semblance of modesty.
A somewhat rare mix of cuteness and seductivity, that was. At least if one were to ask Blaze.
"Do you have to go and sort your stuff right away? Or do you have time for another round?"
Had Archetto not been already accustomed to Blaze's tendency to not beat around the bush in the slightest, she'd have probably spat out her drink. But she was, so she just nearly choked on it instead.
"Are you s-still not satisfied?" she asked back, trying to shift the focus on the feline.
Who, on her part, gave her a look that sent a shiver down the liberi's spine. She tossed her empty can on the floor and walked up to Archetto, looming over her as she grabbed her chin to pull her face up, their eyes meeting. And something about that alone was nearly enough to make the cleric's breaths grow heavy again, her eyes hyperfocusing on the feline.
"Well, Arche, there're some people I can't quite get enough of. Like, at all. You might just be one of them, you know? But what about you? Want a bit more of me?"
You and your wretched tongue... with all of its damned barbs...
Her mind went back to the previous weeks of abstinence, and then to those that would follow. Her ears twitched. Her tail fluttered, and more than just once.
"... I might have time for... for another one, yes. But do make it quick"
"Like an emergency extraction then" she answered with a smirk as she pushed her back down on the bed "Short and intense"
"Oh dear. Do forgive my intrusion" a third voice spoke, a voice that got both Blaze and Archetto to turn around, their eyes falling on a woman who was just then closing the door behind herself "My attempts at making myself heard were left unanswered, and my initial thought had been that noone was inside. But in a perhaps somewhat inappropriate bout of rudeness, I tested the door and found that its lock was not, in fact closed. My apologies, lady Hildegard, miss Blaze. Please, do believe that interrupting this most tender moment of intimacy and affection was not my intention"
"... hi there, Pallas... ?"
"P-Pa-Pallas?!"
One somewhat startled, the other downright shocked, the two women parted from one another, the former simply sitting on the bed while the latter scrambled to her feet, realizing too late that she couldn't pull the sheets up to cover herself with Blaze resting on them.
"Should you really be wandering around on your own already? What about your health? You look pale" Archetto inquired, her embarrassment being overshadowed by other, different kind of feelings, at least for the time being, at least to a certain degree.
As for the... visible bump on Pallas' head, that the cleric decided to not ask about. And only partially because she already knew how it had come to be.
"Your concern for my well being fills me with warmth and joy, lady Hildegard, but is also, I believe, unwarranted. The good people of the medical ward have already treated my unfortunate ailment of peculiar culinary origin, and my skin shall soon return to its ordinary tone"
Given how much alcohol her liver filters, I wonder if it didn't actually help with the poison too? Blaze mulled as she casually walked to her mini fridge and pulled three more cans out.
"I feel obliged to apologize once more, my dear friends, for this most embarrassing blunder of mine"
"Things just happen sometimes, don't fret over it" Blaze said back as she handed the forte a can.
And one to Archetto too, though the liberi had taken the chance to grab the sheets and use them to cover herself up.
"Shall I depart from this abode? To have interrupted the two of you at such an intimate time is a source of shame for me, but I hope my absence will at least allow you to resume your activities unhampered"
"No, actually... "
"Want to watch?"
Archetto turned towards Blaze, so swiftly one might reasonably fear she'd just snapped her own neck. Rather than the question, however, what surprised her was that she, well, wasn't actually surprised to hear something like that. As for Pallas, her neck bent to the side a little bit, then to the other.
"... may I?"
She sounded vaguely surprised but, more than that, intrigued.
"It's not like you've never seen this before. ... mostly" Blaze added as she realized that she still had the strap-on on her, and that one Pallas had admittedly never seen.
It wasn't really embarrassing, just a bit awkward.
"I would hate to impose on you any more than I already have" the priestess continued, this time aiming her words at Archetto.
The cleric was busy enough trying to keep her ears and tail in check, not to mention that the sleepless night and the exhaustion from her... affair with Blaze were beginning to present their toll. But, as her eyes wandered in search of an answer, they found themselves falling on the clock once more.
"You know, I wouldn't mind if you joined us either. Been a while since last time. Actually, how about... "
"In truth" Archetto cut Blaze off, with a not-at-all veiled tint of regret in her words "I fear I can't stay any longer. I need to get at least some sleep before leaving, and there are preparations I still have to make"
"Far be it from us to keep you away from your duties then, lady Hildegard"
"Before that, though... can I borrow your shower, Blaze?"
"It's all yours"
As soon as she heard that, Archetto disappeared inside the bathroom, taking her clothes with her. As for the feline, she took off the strap-on -she was somewhat disappointed by Pallas' complete lack of a reaction to it, honestly, but not enough to not let it go in a minute or two at most- and turned to the priestess.
"I need a shower too, honestly. I can make it to the evening on coffee if it's just a day, but I don't really keep it in here. How about meeting at the cafeteria for breakfast? In... forthy minutes? More or less"
"It would be a pleasure to share the first meal of the day with you, miss Blaze. This being the case, allow me to take my leave, and I shall see you later as per our agreement"
"Later then"
And with that Pallas turned around and left, taking the since-long empty can with her too and planning to throw it away either in her own room or at the first bin she would stumble upon.
With one step following the other, she walked away, humming a somewhat melancholic tune along the way.