Death has a sick sense of humor. Idonea would never have imagined sinking so fast in the depths of the sea to somehow see a dressed down Leas swimming so quickly to grab her. Death must think she deserves to see herself in her wolfish features being held so close and unbiasedly by the beautiful Leas. Even funnier is that this imaginary Leas appeared so happy to get her before she sunk further despite the strange parts of her body. In this vision, all his tattoos glowed a giant pocket of light around them, and he didn’t have a problem holding his breath so far down. A glowing ‘human’, hah
He managed to swim back up to the surface and her vision broke, only to come back once she could feel the unbearable chill of the wind against her skin. Her shivering was violent until she could feel his very warm body against her.
“ARE YOU CRAZY LAD!? YOU COULD HAVE DROWNED WITH HER!?”
She heard someone yelling, and other people hollering about how they found the kids. More trying to resuscitate the little girl. The boy cried the whole time for his sister.
The little girl...go save her!?
She felt a few blankets being wrapped around both Leas and her, blocking the wind from their wet bodies. Although she couldn’t help but shake the whole time, Leas did not shiver, only permeating more heat. Such a strange creature, this one is....
“I would rather drown than not try...” Leas retorts at the angry person, hugging her even tighter. Hiding her strange form from the others. Her eyes open just a fraction to the sounds of the girl finally waking up and now she is being crushed and rocked by her older brother. He is a good brother...
Her yellow gaze fell on Leas, noticing the relief on his face when he could see her. He pressed his head against her colder forehead, kissing her there and then her temple. “My Nea...my amazing elskan...”
She could recognize the fear of losing her in those eyes earlier, just as she quickly realized her body was still half transformed. Her frame changed back. Being so cold that it took way too long for her fur to vanish, also for her wolf feet to change into toes. Her clawed hands reverted to human hands, and weakly she reached for his face with that hand. His face decorated by the freckles she grew to adore, even outside of the thermos blanket, is just as warm as the rest of him. “You look really cool down there...Like a real life Njord.”
“I think you comparing me to a sea god is a sign that you are delirious.” He blushed anyway, grabbing her hand with his and that was when the glow on some of the tattoos around his wrist came to view. Is he still using his magic? Might explain why the whole boat isn’t freaking out about my wolf parts...or a glowing human...
“...your tattoos are very pretty when they light up.”
“Shush...rest up.” He blushed harder at her comment, prying her hand from his face and petting her wet cold head. She did as he commanded, losing her vision right after. And for a long time, it was as dark as the night sky in her consciousness.
Sometime later she woke up with a jolt, being completely burrito in her own thermos blanket and cuddled by a Leas. Her heart sped up, realizing a little late that he was naked just underneath another thermos blanket, keeping her resting against him with long arms and legs wrapped around her. Her heart nearly stopped when she realized she was naked as well underneath the blanket. Alarms keep sounding off when she notices that they are both in their suite room by themselves.
No medics... nobody to stop them. Nothing to explain why they are both naked.
“Hello there!?” Idonea yelled, finding nothing else that she could say about this with her brain being such a mess from the thoughts of past events and the current situation.
“N-Nea?” The beautiful soothsayer was disturbed by her yelling, yawned and inspected the room with a lazy inspection. He found nothing wrong and hugged her closer, “are...you having a nightmare?”
THIS BOY HAS NO SENSE OF URGENCY! Idonea's brow twitched, pulling her arm out of her blanket to bonk his hard head with the flat end of her hand. Not trying to kill him, just enough to snap him out of his sleepy state.
That worked. He whined, rubbing his head with one hand, “Nea...why did you-?”
Her freed hand gestured downward on both, questions swirling in her eyes but silenced by the embarrassment. The words caught in her throat. To think she is so embarrassed around him, this is not her first time caught naked in bed with someone else. However, because this is Leas this makes the situation more intense. Like she was a young pup all over again.
“Yeah...your clothes were wet so I removed them...and I couldn't share my warmth with wet clothes so-” He cuddled up to her, unfazed by it all. The smile surfaced on that handsome face of his eventually, showing a tiny bit of his scoundrel side of him. “Here we are.”
“R-really!? You s-saw everything?!” She stuttered, now more terrified of him seeing her nakedness than grateful that he did it to help her survive. She might as well die now.
It didn’t click to him what she was all worried about, blinking at her from where he rested his head. Then the smile curled, more amused than ever. “On this ship we are technically married. So, I don’t know what you are so worried about.”
“That doesn’t change anything, bonehead!?” Anger fueled her enough energy to shift her cocooned body away from him, her whole body resting on the side and all she was staring at was the door outside of that room.
This invited a new cuddling position. He became her bigger spoon and rested so close that she could feel his breath behind her head. She couldn’t fight him away, not when he felt so good as close as he was, and she still craved his body heat. He propped his chin on the top of her head, “I... really thought I was going to lose you...”
The arms that felt so secure around her shook, showing the vulnerable side of him. She leaned into him, finding something else to joke about. “It was close...but apparently there is no room for me in Valhalla.”
“Heh. More like I would drag you out of the Valkyries' claws...you can’t just leave me when I just started making room in my house for you.” What he said made her shiver, finding the truth to his statement. In wolf form, she saw him preparing for the off chance that she would move in with him. Adding things to bathrooms and even setting up a roster of movies they could watch together.
“I... believe you...” She said with a cough, sometimes hating herself for stalking this man so much. The guilt left such an awkward taste in her mouth.
“See? At this point, leaving me is illegal....” He said this playfully, but she could sense something more in his tone. Not only the tone but his scent too, laced with fear. “But it feels like as of late I have done a lot that warrants you leaving...”
She hated hearing him talk this way, prodding his tattooed arm hard to correct him. “Quit it you...you saved me. So, that should warrant something?”
“Hmph...you saved me first.” He blurted that out, and suddenly Idonea had to turn her body to look at him straight on. There was nothing in his expression that showed he was messing with her.
“When?!” She finally asked and he just shook his blond head.
“Um...in a loving theory you did.” He avoided her gaze, his poor attempts to answer this only made her angrier. She opened her mouth to chew him out, but all sounds were muffled by him leaning in and kissing her. She didn’t know how much she missed kissing him, sinking into the bliss pathetically and enjoying what it was. They parted, leaving her in a daze and breathless.
He pressed his forehead against hers, saying these words next. “I meant it when I said I want it all for you.”
“Except some things...like the secret of your tattoos?” The accusations left her mouth and he barely reacted to it.
He petted the side of her face and closed the gap even further. There was a different scent on him, not of fear or lust but something different. It was longing, she smelled it before fleetingly off him and whenever he would stare at her just a bit longer than average or during their cuddling. Or just before making a statement like this, “I promise, as much as I love every aspect of your body, even when it changes, that those ‘secrets’ won’t be ‘secrets’ for very long.”
Love!? Wait....Changes!? He knows!? But he l-l... “L-love? A little soon for that...no?” Her heart was on hyperdrive, and the way she panicked must have given it away that she was thrilled by his proclamation. Maybe not just thrilled, she wanted to do more than just kiss him now.
“Time doesn’t matter when I nearly lost you to the sea...my elskan.” This is where he gained his most confidence, exposing all his teeth to smile at her and his gorgeous eyes smiled with it. The most genuine smile that ever stretched over his face, “I am stupid in love with you....and I hope that you will feel the same by the end of this trip...”
The fireworks banged in her heart and mind, hearing him say all this with such conviction that she wanted to kiss him badly. Her hands reached for his face, noting the little shift of his neck he would do to lean into it and the way his eyes shone expectantly. The little sigh he made when she didn’t say or do anything for a while, the small shift of his gaze when he started thinking he had done something wrong.
She... “Dummy. Now you are going to have to wait seven more days for my answer!” She teased him with a wink, then leaned in to steal a kiss from him. It wasn’t stealing if he wasn’t upset about it.
Their lips fitted so right in this instance and the way their tongues wrestled for the top stirred something in her finally. The last final bar of inhibitions that kept her caged finally broke. Her body moved to be on top of him, pinning him down with her naked legs straddling him. She broke away from the kiss to peer down at him, her hands reaching for the blanket that loosely draped around her shoulders, showing him that she was going to take it off.
“Nea...you need that to stay warm.” His concern for her health overrides the future sense of what she is going to do once she takes the blanket off and it is found cute by a rather hungry, she-wolf.
“There is something else that we can do that will warm my bones...and besides...” She pushed off the thermos blanket, her excitement about what she planned to do to him was burning her skin hot. Her very exposed skin is now out in the open for him to see, not a single part of her hides in clothes. And the way he lingered his gaze over her set fire to her cheeks, but she leaned right in with a big grin. “I’d like to treat my savior a little bit more than a kiss.”