✢ for a good memory that makes them smile
He wasn’t sure how long they’d been laying here under the stars. Long enough for the sands to cool to the point that they’d needed to grab a blanket to cuddle under, long enough for Masser to cross half of the heavens with a shadowed Secunda leading the way. Long enough for Maarzi to slide her hands under his shirt and around his ribs to his back to warm them, or so she said. Long enough that the closeness and warmth was making him feel drowsy, eyes half-lidded and taking in the thousands, millions of pinpricks of light glittering over the night sky, swathed in thicker bands of duller light beyond.
Long enough for it to feel like they’d been laying there forever, but not long enough to want it to stop. He could feel Maarzi pressing a kiss to the underside of his jaw.
“Are you overthinkin’ again?” she asked, her voice a quiet murmur, a puff of warm air against his throat. The Khajiit swallowed reflexively, glancing down a little to see her ruff of hair before laying his head back down to look back up at the sky.
“No.”
“Promise?” J’hasi smiled a little, his tail tip tapping on the edge of the blanket.
“Promise.” He could feel Maarzi’s fingers flex over his sides, enough to tickle a little, but not enough to make him jump.
“Alright. Because you know what happens when you do.”
“Surprisingly, I haven’t thought at all. …much…” Another kiss, this time over his sternum.
“Much?” He sighed, seeing the Redguard lifted up by his inhale before being lowered back down again. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to breach the particular topic that had been on his mind for a while now, quiet in the background like the peeper-frogs in the marshes back home, or the far-off churring grumbles of a durzog in the Ashlands. He lifted his hands from where they’d been resting, a comforting weight over his partner’s lower back to move them higher to midway up her shoulderblades, fingertips tracing light circles over them.
…maybe…not now… The Khajiit’s gaze flicked back up to the skies, stars scattered over the darkened heavens that cast a faint light over the sands.
“I don’t understand how you use the stars to find your way out here. The sun I understand, with how Magnus rises and sets, but…the others? Not to mention you don’t have a lot of landmarks that sit in one place out here.” Maarzi chuckled, twisting a little in his hold so she could look up at the sky too, snuggling in closer to keep warm. As she pointed up to different stars, the start-stop of her voice rumbling gently over his chest, he snuggled in closer, breathing in her scent, enjoying the moment while he could.
He could ask another time.
vvardenfellcat 