Strange Feelings (Adara and Emilian)

[Adara Snow]

Adara nodded, the motion made slow by the heaviness of her limbs. She was tired. Bonelessly, blissfully tired. She pressed light kisses to Emilian's jaw, finding it much easier than forming words. Her mind floated, wispy, air-light thoughts fluttering here and there, but unable to be caught. All she knew was the strong desire--no, the need to keep Emilian at all costs. He had been a horror, a demon from the things she'd heard, but here, with her, he was something indefinably and unexplainably good. Adara's thoughts drifted further, her breaths deepening as she snuggled closer to Emilian, a feat on a wooden desk, moving easily toward sleep.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian pressed his lips to her hair, breathing in her scent. He wouldn't be able to sleep, though he wouldn't stop her from doing so. He looked down at her, his eyes drinking up every line of her body. And he was hit with a wave of guilt, this girl trusted him, even through the things he had done. But she apparently didn't care, did she? If she did she wouldn't have agreed in the first place, right? His arms tightened a little around her.

[Adara Snow]

Adara only moved closer to Emilian, threading her limbs through his. She was worn, and the most emotionally comfortable she'd been since arriving at Hogwarts. Still, she was unable to sleep long, the hard table acting on aching muscles used to resting comfortably in a bed--and unused to such exertion. Her brows knit, and she frowned to herself as she tried to stretch, but winced slightly at the pain. She hurt in places she didn't have names for.

[Emilian Sota]

It took him a second to realize what was wrong with Adara, considering he was just a little stiff, but it clicked for Emilian after a moment of watching her what was wrong. "It'll go away after a good night's rest," he promised, and kissed her forehead lightly before sitting up and stretching. "Will you be ok?" He looked back at her, truly concerned about her wellbeing, he was surprised to realize.

[Adara Snow]

Adara nodded even as she opened sleep-hazy eyes, the past hours' events filtering slowly into her mind. It took her a moment to connect Emilian's assurances with the pain she was feeling as she used her arms to help her sit. She wouldn't complain of her discomfort, but Emilian had noticed, and hadn't reprimanded her for the weakness, so she let herself ask him one question. "Why did this not happen last time?" She had had only that momentary flash of pain, and only the first time, but this...was it punishment for the pleasure he'd given her?

[Emilian Sota]

"We did some different things, definitely a longer period of time, it's normal. Even I'm stiff." Emilian couldn't imagine how she felt and he wished he knew a spell or had a potion that would help her. He watched her face, hoping it wasn't anything too serious, and lay a hand on hers.

[Adara Snow]

That small gesture meant more to Adara than she could ever admit to Emilian. Her thick lashes lifted as she looked at him, emotion shining in her eyes for one brief, glittering moment before she pulled back, afraid of scaring him. For all the intensity that existed between them, she knew where he would draw the line. "Thank you," she murmured instead, her deepest heart crying out that she should say more, though there was truly nothing more to be said.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian caught the look in Adara's eyes and stared into them, torn between praying he saw it again and afraid to even admit he had seen it. Her words broke the spell and he took his hand from hers and pushed himself off the table. For a few moments he faced away from her, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, then he turned and came back to her. He would always come back to her. And he took her chin and kissed her mouth slowly, deeply.

[Adara Snow]

Adara took Emilian's kiss the way she took everything, with innocent, wholehearted pleasure in the moment and no immediate thought for more. She let him lead her, her chest aching with emotions she didn't understand. But she knew that she was his, thoroughly his, for as long as he'd have her. When the kiss drew to an end, Adara looked dazedly at Emilian, stunned by the tenderness he showed her, knowing intuitively that it was against his nature.

"Why?" she asked, that one small word encompassing more questions than he could possibly answer. Why was he so different for her? Why did he have such little love for human life that he could rape? Why did these moments between them make her feel an emotional closeness that she knew was not possible? And why did he leave her with so little self-control that she forgot demure silence?

Adara glanced away, biting her lip a moment before throwing up a shield for Emilian, a way to escape the directness of the question she'd so absently asked aloud. "Would you tell me a story?" she asked softly, looking back at Emilian from beneath her lashes. "About a boy? Someone you know?" You?

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian sighed and hung his head, running his tongue over his lips before pulling away from her completely and walking around, putting on clothes as he found them. "What kind of a story? What do you want to know about him?" The single word why started a thought process that confused him more than Adara could ever imagine. Why did he feel the need to protect her? Why did he yearn to be with her when he had discarded so many girls before her. How had she replaced the burning need to bring Michael back around?

[Adara Snow]

Adara didn't bother dressing. She wanted to keep Emilian talking, and she hoped that her current state would at least keep him from wandering too far. "I want to know something that he'll never forget, as long as he lives. Good or bad, I want to hear." Either way, she thought it could be a key to Emilian. Even if he took her literally and told her about a friend of his, what one moment would Emilian choose?

[Emilian Sota]

"He was thirteen." There were two things that came into Emilian's mind that he could tell her. He wasn't brave enough, or perhaps he didn't understand enough to choose one moment and so he went with one a few years past. He sat down in a chair and looked up at Adara, leaning back in it. "He was at a ball and had been dancing with a girl three years his senior, Carolynn.

She led him up a long, sweeping flight of stairs and into a room with a large bed covered in velvet that matched the dress she had on. She showed him things he had heard of, but that he had never imagined, nonetheless." He remembered that day vividly, and it took all the willpower he had to not go into extreme detail. "And when he woke up in that bed, he was alone, naked in the blankets and she had taken the gold necklace he had been wearing."

He looked up into her eyes, "And he didn't regret it, as a matter of fact, he dressed and, at the next ball, proved to her that he could learn. Every time he saw her after that second ball he would dance with her but walk away the second she implied she wanted anything but a dance." He was silent for a second, "Anything near what you were wanting?"

[Adara Snow]

"Maybe." Adara tilted her head in consideration. "So he learned vengeance?" she clarified, guessing that as his moral of the story. Even so, though Emilian had given her a moment, just as she'd asked, it seemed that there was so much that he hadn't said. Those were the things she wanted to know. "Was it the first time?" she asked. Adara blushed lightly. "Or had he been with other girls, already?" Was the moment so important because the girl had stolen from him? Had hurt him? Or was it the things she'd taught him that made it unforgettable? Adara was unsure, but felt that the answer to that question would tell her more about Emilian than he knew.

[Emilian Sota]

"It was his first time. He had kissed other girls before, but he had never been so far." Emilian remembered that day so very well. "From then on, whenever he was with a girl, he kept something of theirs as a...memento, a sort of trophy. Usually it wasn't something valuable, a handkerchief or hair bow, something small like that." There was an entire drawer full of things he had, each one had a name and a face that went with it. He had nothing of Adara's or Lucretia's, and Savannah had left with something from him, but that didn't bother him in the slightest. He wished he had something of Adara's.

[Adara Snow]

Adara thought over Emilian's words and what they meant. Carolynn had hurt Emilian. She had taught him, the way that he taught her now. And then, after something that must have meant so much to him, he'd been betrayed. He didn't trust. It was heartbreaking to think of it. And the mementos...perhaps they were a reminder.

Adara thought back, and couldn't recall a single possession of her own that had gone missing. Perhaps that meant something about the way he viewed her. She looked thoughtfully at Emilian for a moment before setting that knowledge aside and stood, suddenly cold in the near-empty room. "Would you like to hear a story?" she asked, bending delicately to retrieve her belongings. She dressed unhurriedly as she spoke. "It is only fair," she added. For the piece of his soul she now held, she would willingly give one of her own. She only hoped that he would accept the chance she offered.