But they pulled away, pressing his fingers deep into them—and pulling their cock out of his mouth. He made a noise of protest, trying to chase it, then let out a helpless cry as Tari came across his face, hot, their body pulsing around his fingers.
For a moment, he just panted for breath, stunned and pleased at the realization he'd made them come. It filled him with an embarrassing, boyish delight as he felt a sticky wetness slide down his cheek slowly, caught in his stubble.
"Good," Tari breathed, eyes bright as they gazed down at him.
Then they pulled back, straddling his waist. Pel groaned aloud as their fingers wrapped around him, shifting helplessly into the touch, wanting, needing, desperate. A warm wet heat enveloped him as Tari lowered their hips, pulling him inside them and making him arch up helplessly. He shuddered with the overwhelming wave of need and want and how much he'd missed this, how much he'd missed having someone to hold. "Tari—"
"Touch me, then," they whispered, as though he'd said it aloud. "Hold me."
Drawing a sharp breath in, Pel pulled Tari down against him, gathering them in his arms and holding them as closely as he could in their position. He felt like he must be squeezing them, clinging on, and had a spike of worry about if he might hurt them—but Tari was making low, pleased sounds, and when he realized that, he gave up thinking entirely, overcome by the heat and pressure and his own need, rocking up in frantic, hard strokes, once, twice—
He came so hard and suddenly that he couldn't even choke out a warning, just bit down on Tari's lower lip as he spilled into them, peripherally aware that Tari was still moving, murmuring, flushed and needy.
He'd barely when Tari broke the kiss to moan, loud, shuddering and coming a second time. They spilled out over Pel's stomach, panting loudly for breath. For a moment, he was almost dizzy, feeling Tari draw on him in some way, pulling at his spirit the same way they were pulling at his body with that sucking pressure.
And then he was done, wrung out of pleasure, head dropping back as he sucked great gasps of air. Tari sat back on his hips with a content sound, licking their lips, satisfaction spread across their features—
—and then Tari was shaking him awake. He'd dozed off instantly, he realized groggily, and shook himself. "How long—"
"Not long," Tari said. "Sorry, I know you need to sleep."
He blinked rapidly, trying to will his vision to clear. "No, it's—it's good," he said. The words came out with a quiet sound of wonder, and he flushed a little at it, both embarrassed and pleased.
Tari smiled at him, putting a hand over his. "It's good," they agreed gently. "Come on, get up. You can rest soon, but not here."
That was like a bucket of cold water, washing away his gentle contentment. "Why, are we in danger?"
"Not that I know of," Tari said, smiling. "But your son's only a twenty-minute walk from here, so I thought you might want to go a bit further before sleeping." They walked back down the river bank, sitting by the edge to clean up.
Pel blinked, then went scarlet, stumbling down to join them, splashing himself, scrubbing at his sticky face. No, I was wrong. Actual cold water is a significantly worse wake-up. He endured it as best he could. "But then—why did we stop here?"
Tari turned and gave him the most exaggeratedly patient expression he'd ever seen in his life.
"Oh," he said.
They snickered. "Yeah," they said. "Also, I didn't feel up to walking into an encampment while your son and his familiar were making love. In the state I was in, I'd pretty much have to feed on it." They smirked at Pel. "Thought you might dislike that about as much as you'd dislike startling them in the middle of things."
Pel made a disgruntled noise. It wasn't exactly a surprise to hear, but he'd sort of wanted to avoid thinking about it fully until he'd had a night of sleep, and maybe hadn't just upended his entire life. "So they're—together together."
"What did you think their 'love' meant?" Tari gave him an amused look, then rose, going back to where they'd discarded their clothes and pulling them on. Again, Pel had a strange feeling it was more like reabsorbing matter than anything normal. There had been buttons left done up that didn't seem to need to be undone as Tari dressed again. "Were you writing it off as some kind of weird, magician-familiar bond, nothing you could relate to?"
"Mostly I hadn't let myself think about him and his cat," Pel admitted as he began to dress as well, with a more human lack of efficiency.
Tari lifted a brow. "Is it a problem?"
"No," Pel said, and found that he meant it. "As long as he's happy."
*~*~*
They found the encampment quickly, just as Tari had promised. Bruant was fast asleep on the ground, covered by a single thin blanket, while Kip was awake in his arms, alert and clearly on guard. His head shot up over the curve of Bruant's shoulder when the two of them walked up, and his eyes grew huge with surprise and joy.
Pel opened his mouth to say something, but Tari shushed them both, then mimed sleeping, pointing at Bruant. Kip hesitated, then lay back down, visibly vibrating with excitement but obediently staying quiet to let Bruant rest.
"Your turn now," Tari whispered to Pel, who was, in fact, already heading for where Kip had put his own pack, digging through it to pull his own blanket out.
"Join me?" Pel whispered back, a little embarrassed but valiantly soldiering past it. Without waiting for their answer, he found a patch of grassy ground that seemed tolerably soft. So long as my bed isn't directly on a mound of fire ants, I'm pretty sure nothing could stop me from sleeping at this point.
They shrugged. "Why not?" they sighed, almost rueful. "I could use some rest too. It's been a long week."
Pel lifted the blanket and held it up until Tari crawled in with him, flopping down and draping an arm over him, cuddling up. Never mind the sunlight, the strangeness of sleeping outside with company, or anything else—Pel was asleep again before he could even tuck the blanket around them.
Bruant tackled him awake a few hours later. "Dad," Bruant sobbed, "you made it. And you brought Tari—"
"Oof," Tari groaned. "Easy there, kiddo, that was my stomach."
Dazed, Pel lifted an arm and wrapped it around Bruant. "I'm glad you two are still okay. We got out fine. No harm done."
"Do you know how fucking scared I was?" Bruant demanded, voice cracking. "Don't just play it off like that…" He sat back, shaking and somewhere between angry and terrified, cheeks wet and eyes bloodshot.
No wonder, Pel thought. Bruant knew better than any of them what it was like to be taken by the Inquisition, and Pel had gone and walked right back in there.
"Yeah," Pel said. "I know." Which nowhere near addressed his thoughts or feelings, but, as always, he seemed to have trouble finding the words to give his son. He added, "I mean, I know."
Bruant hesitated, then shuffled back on his knees. "We should get moving again," he said. He drew a deep breath, rubbing his face with his hands, then managed a smile. "If you're up to it. Kip says he hasn't noticed any pursuit, and maybe they won't follow us out this far, but I don't want to risk it. Not now that we're all finally safe."
Pel groaned. "I'm up to it, sure. Stiff from sleeping on the ground, but nothing worse." He turned to Tari. "You're the one who knows the way around here, so it's in your hands. Where are we going exactly? Still following the river?"
"To the main road, at least," Tari said. They'd risen from where they were lying, and were stretching—apparently checking how well their ribs still worked, between the Inquisition and Bruant's enthusiasm. Pleased, they grinned. "That's pretty heavily traveled, and by other demons too. We'll be safe there, at least from your city's demon-hunters." They hesitated, then rose, gathering the blanket from over Pel and starting to fold it, a strangely mundane gesture in the hands of a cubant. "After that? Depends on where you want to go."
"You were going to go to—" Pel cut himself off. "Oh shit. Your jewels. We left them back at Orphie's—"
Tari huffed a laugh, light.
"I don't give a shit about jewels, Pel. I wish Orphie much joy of them—they're just a good excuse when I'm traveling as a human. And I don't think going on to a city like Levisham is a good idea regardless, not with two humans who've barely seen demons before. Got any family outside of Dolana?"
Pel shook his head. "My parents are both dead," he said. "I had an older sister who left the city. She'd been apprenticing as a blacksmith, and wanted to find a city with better trade routes so she could seek her fortune, but I don't know where she ended up or if she's still alive."
Tari made a face. "Ah. That's rough. My own siblings at least keep contact. What about you, Kip, anywhere you want to go?"
"Wait," Pel interrupted. "Siblings? I didn't think demons have those. Kip said you didn't grow up or anything—"
"So what?" Tari was, remarkably enough, visibly flustered, crossing their arms and glaring a little, though there was no heat to the expression. "Sometimes demons hatch together. Sometimes we think that means something to us. Kip, seriously, give an opinion if you have one."
Pel opened his mouth to question that further, but Kip was already talking, snuggling in against Bruant, utterly content and oblivious to—or steadfastly ignoring—their reactions. "Honestly, I don't know what other cities are like," Kip admitted. "But I don't care where we go as long as Bruant's fine with it."
Bruant said, almost defensive, "I don't know either! Don't put this on me, Kip, I can't—I really can't—Tari, you're the one who'd probably know best what'd suit us."
Tari stepped back a few steps, having recovered from their embarrassment like it had never happened. Pel resolved to make it happen again, as soon as possible, as they made a frame of their fingers to encompass the three of them. "A new demon, barely experienced in the world," they noted, taking stock in a pointedly dramatic tone. "A magician partnered to this new demon, who barely has a spell to his name. And an ex-guard who has just started to get over his hatred of demons, due entirely to the help of a friendly passing cubant."
All three of them began to protest their descriptions, talking over each other; Tari held a hand up. Pel forced himself to shut up when the others did, even though he felt his was especially unfair after everything that had happened.
"I'm taking you to Potfeld." Tari decided. "It's where I was hatched, and I never stay away for too long. It's a nice place. The citizens are mostly humans, but demons pass through freely all the time. The ruler is Hrahez—Prince Hrahez, that is—and he's really almost stupidly soft. He's got an injunction on keeping demons from doing harm, at least without consent, to humans in his cities. The roads are a bit more dangerous, but given that Kip and I are going with you, you'll be fine."
"So basically," Pel said slowly, starting to smile, "you want to take us to your home. So, do your siblings live there, too?"
"I wouldn't quite put it like—there are things and people I want to check up on, and—" Tari cut themself off, then huffed. Pel wasn't sure it if was his imagination, but they seemed slightly red-faced. "Sure," they said, sulky. "Whatever."
"Bruant?" Pel asked.
Bruant shrugged. "Sounds nice to me," he said softly. "I bet I could learn there. I bet they'd have what I need." He glanced hesitantly at Pel, who smiled at him encouragingly.
"Kip?"
Kip grinned, the tip of his tongue peeking out. "I'll go wherever Bruant goes," he repeated, "but it does sound like a good place to get a start."
A start…
Pel nodded. He took the folded blanket from Tari, who was now holding it like they didn't know what to do with it, and put it in his pack, before slinging it onto his shoulder.
"Then that's settled," he said. He gestured to Tari to lead the way. "Let's go home."
FIN
About the Author
Meredith Katz started writing around the same time she started to walk, a 6 page ‘book’ called “The Baby Dragon” (spoilers, there was an egg, it hatched, and then there was a baby dragon). She hasn’t stopped since, and after many years of writing slash and femslash fanfiction, she is only too excited to share her original fiction. She lives in beautiful BC, Canada with her gorgeous fiancée and adorably nerdy cat.
Tumblr: http://king-of-katz.tumblr.com
Website: https://meredithakatz.wordpress.com
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