Private Familiar Territory

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

When the doors closed behind them the celebration felt distant. The pup breathed easier. The hall had pressed on him with its voices and its glances. Out here the sound shifted into something soft that did not demand anything from him. Lights along the stone path glowed with a steady warmth and pulled subtle shapes across the gardens ahead.

Irina walked beside him with a calm that reached him in a way he did not expect. She had risen the moment he agreed to come with her. That choice carried a quiet trust that stirred something familiar in his chest. It reminded him of younger days when she never asked if he would follow. She simply moved and waited to see if he would choose to stay near.

They crossed the first row of hedges. The city towered above the grounds yet the noise of it did not intrude. The palace shielded the gardens from the wider world and turned the space into something older than Jutrand itself. Aerik felt the shift before he understood why. The paths changed shape. Lines of hedge bent inward. Corners lengthened. A design meant to guide someone deeper.

A memory surfaced without warning. Irina moving behind him at the academy with that quiet certainty she was convinced he couldn’t hear. He gave a small glance over her shoulder. There was a promise of a place where they could breathe without scrutiny. He had not let himself think of those moments in years. They returned now with a weight that settled beneath his ribs.

He looked at her.

“Feels familiar, Irina.”

Her eyes held a warmth he had not forgotten. It landed with more force than he wanted to admit. She had changed in ways he did not yet understand, and the part of her that looked at him like she did was chief among them. It unsettled him in a way that he was not sure he welcomed or not.

The path narrowed as they reached the taller hedges. The air thickened with the hush of an enclosed space. Even the lights from the wider city dimmed behind the greenery.

Aerik paused.

His pulse steadied with a slow rise of anticipation. He did not know if it came from the maze or from her presence at his side.

The pup tipped his head toward the darker turn.

“Come on. If there is a maze here, this is where it begins.”

The words came with a softness he only allowed when she was near. He stepped forward, leaving enough room for her to decide how close she wished to walk. The garden felt ready to swallow them whole. For the first time in a long time, he did not mind the idea of getting lost.

 

[Irina Jesart]

It wasn't until they were passed the first line of hedges that Irina truly started to relax. Here away from prying eyes and ears they could actually be themselves, they didn't have to watch there words, nor be careful of what body language might betray. The could just be.

As he looked back over his shoulder, she grinned at him. The same memory flitting over her mind. The first night they met. "I still think its an unfair advantage that you can hear my heart." She could be silent to thise without enhanced hearing, but to him? Even a whisper of a step would be lous in his ears and even if she could step silently, her heart would always betray her.

As they paused she listened to the quiet rustle of leaves in a soft breeze, the celebration so far behind them it was just another city noise muffled by the rising hedge. She took a deep breath and exhaled, letting the discomfort of the whole event roll away from her.

Carefully, she lifted her foot, pulling the heeled boots away and setting her bare feet against the cool stone with a satisfied sigh. Keeping a hold of them in one hand she smiled at the softness that returned to his tone, the sharp edges already falling away from him.

In another life, she might have taken his hand, but as they moved forward and the tall hedges truly began to swalllwthem she felt a touch of nervousness. It had been years and while she had always felt...something, she'd never known if it was reciprocated.

"If I never have to attend another one of these events, I'll die happy." She cast him a sidelong glance. "Its like reliving a nightmare."

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

The pup heard the change in her before he saw it. The quiet ease in her breath. The soft drop in her shoulders. Out here she could finally let go of the eyes that followed her through every hall. When she smiled at him he felt it settle low in his chest, warm in a way he had not expected.

Her tease about her heartbeat drew a slow grin from him.

“Irina, you could be a shadow and I would still hear you. It has never been about how well you hide.”

It was the truth. Her steps had always been light. Her presence could vanish when she chose. but the rhythm of her heart had carried to him no matter how careful she became. It had been the first thing that set her apart in his senses, even on the night they met.

Just like right now.

When she slipped off her boots he watched her with a quiet sense of recognition. Her bare feet on stone seemed like a small release she rarely allowed. They had both changed. The pup felt something loosen in his own posture. That edge he carried through the celebration had already begun to fall away.

They moved deeper into the hedges. The world narrowed into tall green walls that hid the glow of Jutrand above them. Aerik felt the shift in her mood before she spoke. There was a faint uncertainty and a nervous question that lingered between old memories and whatever this had become. It seemed that no matter how deep into the hedges they walked, they would not find the carefree children they had once been.

Her complaint about the event earned a quiet huff of amusement.

“You are tied to a Dark Councilor now. Those gatherings are part of your future whether you want them or not.”

He glanced toward her with a softened look and a playful grin.

“But you lived through this one. You will live through the next.”

The path ahead curved into a deeper shadow. The pup slowed, keeping close enough that she did not feel alone but not close enough to push. The maze felt old and patient as though it were waiting to see if they would step into it.

“For what it is worth,” he added in a more serious and sincere tone, “your presence made the night bearable.”

The pup did not look at her when he said it. He let the words sit between them as the garden pulled them further from the world they had escaped.

 

[Irina Jesart]

The grin that he flashed her way sent her heart skittering, heat rising in her cheeks as she smiled, her gaze cast downwards. Just like her, Aerik was shedding the hard edges that the Order demanded of them. His voice was softer, his smile came easier. He was still changed, but there was some of what she remembered hidden beneath the surface. The maze rose high around them, its shadow granting comfort.

Irina let out a wistful sigh at his statement. this would be her life from her on in, tied to his father as she was. He was right, however, she lived through this, and she would all the others where he presence would be demanded.

"I am nothing, if not a survivor." she replied, meeting that soft golden gaze as he slowed his stride to match hers, warmth spreading through her chest before she set her eyes ahead at keast trying to pay attention to which way they were going as the path forked, they took a left without thought, simply letting their feet carry them.

"your presence made the night bearable."

Irina's eyes snapped to him, the words settling into the quiet that was permeated by the soft rustling of leaves and the loud thump of her heart in her ears. She shifted a little closer, cautious as her hand brushed his. His words were worth a lot yet it took her a moment to find her own to reply.

"Everything is always more bearable when we're together."

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

Irina's words settled between them with a gentle weight. The maze rose around them in slow turns, yet it was the closeness of her presence that unsettled him more than the winding paths. When her fingers brushed his, his pulse tightened before he steadied it and forced his breath into rhythm.

The word she had used lingered in his mind. Together. It felt familiar, yet it carried the ache of years that had kept them apart. Each step forward pulled old memories to the surface, memories he had not allowed himself to think about in a very long time.

He walked in silence, letting the night offer him the space he needed. His brother was gone. His sister was gone. Irina had been gone as well. Each loss had carved a place inside him that the Order never filled. Missions with his mother kept him occupied, but they never eased the quiet that followed him through the halls of every world they visited. He had grown used to loneliness. It had become a part of him.

Yet now she moved beside him with an ease that reached through that loneliness. The warmth of her shoulder brushed his arm when their steps aligned. It felt like something from a life he once understood, though he no longer trusted his own sense of it. He wanted to reach for that familiarity, but fear held him back. Fear of assuming too much. Fear of wanting too much.

The pup slowed as they reached a fork in the path. He let instinct guide them left and allowed the maze to swallow the lights of the city behind them. The quiet deepened. Her heartbeat carried to him again, steady and clear, and it pulled at him in a way he did not know how to name.

He glanced at her. She looked ahead with purpose, yet every so often her eyes shifted toward him before darting away again. She was just as unsure as he was. They were both fumbling in the dark, trying to understand what remained between them and what had changed.

When he finally spoke his voice was low.

"We have been apart for a long time."

It was all he felt he could offer. Any more would have been too much. The rest of his truth lived in his silence. He had been alone for years. He had learned to move forward without the people who once shaped his life. Standing beside her again made the ground feel unsteady beneath him.

Their hands brushed once more, softer this time, and he did not pull away. The small contact carried the meaning he feared to speak aloud. It was a quiet acknowledgment that her presence reached him more deeply than he wished to admit. It was also an uncertain step toward something neither of them had defined.

The maze curved ahead. Shadows gathered along the walls of hedge. Aerik drew a slow breath and walked beside her, allowing the moment to stand without turning it into something else.

"And unless my situation changes, or yours does, we're still going to be."

 

[Irina Jesart]

That he didn't draw away when their hands touched was enough of an answer to her statement. The silence stretched between them long and dark, yet oddly comfortable. Her gaze continued to flick his way eager to find out what was rolling around that head of his, but she wouldn't press. When his words did come they brought a wave of sadness over her.

"I know." She replied, her voice barely above a whisper. She had burned her past, burned everyone and anything that had been tied to it, but the grief sat heavy in her chest. The soldiers of the legion had served to distract her from it at times, but they only saw one versin of her. Gerwald only saw another. No one had earned the view that Aerik had. No one saw her like he did.

She felt their hands brush again, felt the warmth of him as their arms touched and something inside her cried out in yearning. More truth spilled from his lips, unwelcome and cold.

"We're together now, are we not?" She replied before making the bold move, catching his hand in hers, her heart hammering at the contact. "Maybe we just have to make the most of these times where we are together in the hopes it makes the time we're apart that bit easier."

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik felt the warmth of Irina’s hand in his and knew he should let go, yet he did not. The contact drew a slow rush of heat up his arm that made it difficult to keep his breath even. The silence between them stretched as they walked deeper into the garden, and with every step he felt the pressure under his ribs rise a little more. Nothing about this felt simple. When they were young her presence had come naturally, almost like a rhythm he never had to think about, but now the rhythm was unfamiliar. They had grown apart and changed in ways he could not easily measure. He did not know what he felt, and he did not know what he wanted. Even thinking about unraveling any of it made his chest tighten.

When she spoke about being together and making the most of the time they had, he absorbed every word, yet he could not meet the meaning head on. He barely understood his own reactions, and he feared that answering too directly would reveal more than he was ready to give. The moment held too much weight, and the weight pressed too close.

Her hand tightened around his again. Her heartbeat traveled through the quiet. The sound of it reached him more clearly here than it ever had inside the celebration, and it only made the tension coil tighter inside him. He needed to shift the moment before it swallowed him completely.

“You really tossed those boots the moment we stepped outside,” he said. His voice came softer than he intended, almost amused. Aerik glanced down at her bare feet moving over the smooth stone path. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you give up the extra boost in height that fast.”

The comment was not the one he planned to make. It surfaced on its own, carrying a warmth he had not meant to show. Still, it steadied him. Talking about boots was safer than talking about the confusion that had started growing the moment she reached for his hand.

As they walked beneath another line of lights, the glow caught the fall of her dress. His gaze lifted before he could stop it, tracing the fabric in a slow curve. The next words escaped before he could force them back.

“And that dress… it’s…”

He cleared his throat, wishing the ground would offer him an easier path forward.

“It’s a look you don’t usually go for.”

He regretted the comment instantly. The dress revealed more than anything she had worn around him before, and the last thing he wanted was for her to think he meant anything careless. He faced forward, trying to settle himself.

“I mean, you look… it looks good on you.” He stumbled through his words. “I mean it suits you.”

Even that felt like too much. He did not know how to talk about what they were, and he certainly did not know how to talk about why the sight of her had shaken him. But he could talk about boots. He could talk about a dress that made his thoughts stumble. He could hold her hand without falling into something deeper than he understood.

For now, distraction was the safest answer he had.

 

[Irina Jesart]

Irina blinked at the change in course as he steered them away from the conversation regarding the distance between them nor the possibilities when there was none. He was here, he didn't pull away when she held his hand and for the moment, that was enough. She gave him a small smile.

"I'll take comfort over a height boost any day. Besides," She lifted her gaze to look at him as they passed beneath the light and his eyes wandered, making her heart jump in a way thay made heat rush through her. She looked back down quickly biting her lip for a moment before continuing "I'm tall enough."

His words stumbled, coming before he'd fully comprehend them. She'd never known him to falter like this, words had always come easily. That the dress had sich an impact an him was surprisingly empowering, not that she would ever use it but it did make her stand a little taller, lifitng her gaze from the floor instead looking ahead.

She grinned when he finally found some semblance of a sentence that didn't sound terrible, she turned her head to look at him properly. "Wow." She said nudging him playfully. "As compliments go, that was painfully bad. But I'll take it all the same." She chuckled. "You brush up nicely too, but then you always did."

Irina let silence fall again between them as they pressed deeper, the sound of the city now gone entirely, the only noise was the soft step of his boots and the whisper of her feet and dress along the stone. She could still her her own heart, its beat harder and faster than it should be no matter how much she tried to quiet it.

Her fingers tightened around his. It was never this hard before, there wasn't a mountain of things left unsaid, of pain and loneliness that seemed to drive something between them. She wanted to find a way to cut through it all, to speak what she felt to give it a name, but fear stalled her. She let out a heavy sigh. "When did things get so...complicated?"

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik felt her fingers tighten around his again, and he did not understand why such a small touch made his thoughts slip out of rhythm. The smile she gave him after his poor attempt at a compliment only pushed the pressure deeper into his chest. He had wanted to steer them away from difficult ground, not stumble into something that made the air between them feel even more uncertain. Her teasing warmed his ears, and the playful nudge nearly stopped him where he stood.

"I was not trying to be bad at it," he muttered.

Embarrassment crept into his voice before he forced it back down.

"I just did not expect to see you in something so… revealing."

It was the closest thing he could offer to the truth. Her presence already unsettled him in ways he did not know how to explain, and the dress only made that worse. He hoped she had not noticed how often his eyes drifted toward her or how the path lights kept pulling attention to the way the fabric moved with each step she took. When she returned the compliment, warmth flared in his chest again. He fixed his gaze forward and pretended the maze held more interest than it actually did.

"You say things like that so easily," the pup said under his breath. "I never know what to do with it."

The admission slipped free before he could catch it. He did not dare look at her. Irina carried herself with a confidence he had always admired. Even in quiet moments she seemed grounded in a way he had never managed. He felt too much and too quickly, and when she focused that confidence on him it left him scrambling for balance he worked hard to maintain. She unsettled him.

The garden soaked in the silence that followed. The city had vanished behind the hedge walls. Only their steps and the soft whisper of her dress moved through the still air. Her heartbeat stayed clear to him. It beat heavier and harder than she likely wanted it to, and he tried not to let it affect him. It should not have mattered, but it did anyway. When they were young he never questioned the tension that lived between them because neither of them understood it. Now everything sat sharper, and he had no idea how to reach for anything without risking too much.

Her sigh broke the quiet, heavy with frustration and something softer beneath it. The question followed. It cut through him in a way he did not expect. He slowed only a little, enough for her to know he had heard, though he kept their hands joined. The answer she wanted lived tangled in years of distance, loss, and the strange pull that had never faded.

"I do not know," he said.

His voice came quiet and almost careful.

"Maybe things were always complicated, and we were too young to notice. I mean we were going to end up with this distance anyway."

Aerik let his thumb move once across her knuckles. He did not know if it offered comfort or revealed more of his confusion than he meant to show.

"Or maybe growing up changed everything. I do not understand it either."

He looked at her for a brief moment, then forward again before he could get lost in what he saw. He was afraid of what might happen if he did.

"I wish it was easier," he admitted finally. "But I don't have an answer for that."

He kept walking beside her with his heart completely unsteady, hoping she could sense that even the confusion was its own kind of truth.

When the reached the center of the maze, Aerik felt the rest of the stress fall off his shoulders. Relief escaped his lungs as the heavy sigh settled into something more peaceful. It may not have been the center of the maze at the academy, but for the first time in a long time something felt familiar.

This time it was his turn to squeeze Irina's hand a little tighter.

"Hey… we'll figure it out."

 

[Irina Jesart]

As his thumb stroked across her knuckles his touch soft, Irina felt the heat wash over her again, coming to settle in her chest in a way that made keeping her breath even that much harder. His words echoed her own thoughts, things had certainly felt simpler back then but when she looked back at it all, the academy was far from simple.

The twisting path opened into the centre of a maze, a fountain dominated the centre, the soft trickle of water filling the space as each corner held a seat set beneath arches of jasmine and honeysuckle. The sigh from Aerik drew her gaze back to him and she watched the last of the tension roll from his shoulders.

His words drew a smile from her, if he believed that then whatever doubt or confusion rippled beneath didn't matter, because he believed in them. She responded to the gentle squeeze of her hand with a caress of her thumb.

"Yes we will."

She stepped forward moving to in front of him and taking his other hand without thought as she pulled him towards the fountain. "We don't have to figure it out now, or tonight or even tomorrow. All that matters, is that you are here." Her heels caught the edge of the fountain and she stopped. Torn for a moment between sitting and staying where she was, her eyes locked on his face.

"Can we just be Irina and Aerik, and let the rest of it fall away?"

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik followed her into the open space at the heart of the maze. The sound of water filled the air in a quiet, calming rhythm. The fountain caught the light from the path and scattered it across the stone, turning the area into a soft pool of color and reflection. He let the silence settle around them as he tried to make sense of the tightening in his chest. Irina moved with an ease that felt both familiar and unfamiliar. She stepped ahead of him, and when she turned her eyes toward him, he felt the pull of her attention in a way he did not know how to brace against.

She took his other hand without hesitation. Her confidence in that moment unsettled him more than anything they had said so far, yet he did not pull away. The simple touch was more grounding than he wanted to admit. He tried to steady his breathing while the warmth of her palms circled his own. The two of them had been apart for years, yet this closeness did not feel foreign. It felt like something that had waited in the quiet places between them, even if neither of them had known what to do with it before now.

When she said that all that mattered was that he was here, Aerik felt the weight of the words settle into him. He did not trust himself to answer immediately. The pup knew how easily he could say the wrong thing. It would not take much for a single careless sentence to shift the fragile balance that hung between them.

Irina still held both of his hands when she reached the edge of the fountain. Aerik felt the steady pull of her steps and allowed himself to follow without resistance. There was no reason to fight her guidance, and something in the moment made it easier to move with her than to remain rooted in place. Her fingers tightened with a quiet resolve as she drew him into the open space at the center of the maze.

The soft sound of water filled the air around them. Night flowers gathered along the arches above the benches, and their scent carried lightly with the breeze. Irina’s heels caught the raised stone of the fountain’s edge, and she slowed. Aerik shifted with her so she did not lose her balance, placing a hand on her waist to keep her from stumbling into the fountain. He did not pull her closer, yet he did not release her either. The decision to hold on felt natural, even though he did not fully understand why.

She stopped there, half turned toward him, eyes lifting to his as if waiting for an answer that had not yet formed in his thoughts. He felt her uncertainty, and he felt the push of her hope beneath it. She wanted something simple, a moment where the rest of the galaxy fell away. He could recognize that desire because the same quiet wish pressed against his ribs with an insistent ache.

For a long breath he held her hands in his, steady and warm. He did not give voice to everything he felt because he did not know how to shape those feelings into words. Irina had asked if they could set aside everything else and simply be themselves. The question quieted something in him, setting the tension at ease. The idea of such a moment felt almost impossible, yet deeply wanted all the same.

He stepped closer by a small measure, enough to show her that he had not withdrawn and that the invitation she offered was not lost on him. His arm remained around her. Her pulse reached him again. It was quick beneath the calm expression she struggled to hold. He knew she was waiting for some sign that he understood what she needed.

“That would be nice,” he said quietly. “Just being us. That’s why we started meeting in the maze in the first place, to escape the demands of the academy and the expectations of our betters.”

He kept his tone steady, allowing only the smallest trace of honesty to slip through. The pup did not need to unravel everything. He did not need to define the past or predict the future. Irina had not asked for any of that. She wanted a moment of simplicity, and he found that he wanted it just as much, even if the admission felt foreign on his tongue.

He shifted one hand, letting his thumb brush across the back of her fingers with a calm, deliberate motion. Her balance held firm on the fountain’s edge, and her nearness created a warmth that wrapped around him more easily than any explanation could.

 

[Irina Jesart]

When his hand caught her waist, steadying her form, her breath caught in her throat, her pulse quickening as the heat from his palm spread through her. She didn't move, didn't speak to terrified to break the moment, to shatter the illusion she was so desperate to build around them if only for tonight. Her chest rose and fell as she waited for him to muddle his way through the thoughts hidden behind his golden eyes. The golden eyes that had ensnared her the first day she'd met him, not that she had known it back then.

Then he stepped closer and Irina swore to Bogan her heart leapt out of her chest as she sucked in a breath and battled with the racing of her heart that she knew damned well he could hear. Then he spoke, remembering what the maze had meant for both of them. An escape, a place where they could be themselves. No expectations, no demands.

Just them.

"Precisely." the word had meant to come out strong, but it was barely above a whisper and it shook just as much as she was shaking. the calm confidence she had exuded was unravelling in his hands. Yet she inched a little closer, the heat rising between them like barely contained fire. She lifted a hand to brush away a blonde strand of hair from his face, the touch light as her fingers trailed down his face.

"I really did miss you."

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

Irina’s fingers brushed his cheek, and every thought in the pup’s head scattered. The touch was soft, barely more than a trace, but it hit him with the force of a memory he had not been prepared to feel. His breath caught before he could steady it. The warmth of her hand stayed on his skin long after she lowered it, and he could not move for a moment. His entire body felt locked between wanting to step closer and needing to keep enough space to think.

Her words reached him through a haze. He missed her too, more than he understood, more than he was ready to say. Hearing her speak it aloud tightened the pressure beneath his ribs. The pup swallowed hard, the sound louder in his own ears than he wanted it to be, and something in his chest twisted with the weight of how suddenly the years apart felt real.

He did not pull his hand from her waist. His fingers stayed where they were, steady against her, even though his pulse had begun to race in a way he hoped she could not feel. She was so close now that he could see every shift in her eyes, every hint of fear and hope that lived there, and it pinned him in place as surely as any blade could have.

When he finally spoke, his voice came quieter than he intended.

“I missed you too.”

The words came without hesitation, even though everything else inside him was tangled and uncertain. He did not know what missing her meant anymore. He did not know what it changed. He only knew that it was true, and saying anything else would have felt wrong.

He looked away for a brief moment, trying to gather some control over his thoughts, but her presence pulled his gaze back almost immediately. The fountain behind her cast soft light along the curve of her shoulders, and the sight made it even harder to find the steady calm he was known for. He had faced combat with more composure than he managed now.

“I did not expect tonight to feel like this,” he admitted, still holding her waist as though letting go would break whatever fragile thing had formed between them. “It has been a long time, Rin... Longer than I realized until now. We were just kids.”

He took a slow breath in an effort to calm the tension rolling through him. It did little to help.

“I do not know how to make sense of any of it,” he said. “But I know I missed you. I missed our maze.”

His voice stayed low, almost rough with honesty he would not have shared with anyone else. The truth hung between them, warm and fragile, while the maze walls kept them safely hidden from everything outside this moment.

He did not step away, nor did he push forward either. He simply held still, caught between desire and uncertainty, hoping she understood that his silence carried just as much meaning as his words.

 

[Irina Jesart]

When he looked away, Irina felt a brief flash of fear, panic rising as she wondered if she'd pushed too far, if she was chasing something she shouldn't but his gaze came back just as fast, uncertainty in his eyes and yet he still held on, he didn't draw away from her. She could see the fight in his eyes, the need to understand, to name the feelings that ran through them and the desire to just be, to just feel.

Her thumb traced along the line of his jaw as her hand came to rest along the side of his neck as he spoke of the time between this life and the last. Yet for all the time that had passed, the pull was still there, the need to be close to him impossible to ignore. Irina lifted the hand that was entwined with his, detangling their fingers and setting his had against the other side of her waist.

"Some things are not meant to be understood." she said softly as her gaze moved, following her hand that now trailed up his arm. "Some things just are." As her hand reached his shoulder she lifted her gaze back to his and inched closer. "I'm going to need you to stop thinking, even if its just for a minute and just be in the moment. Let everything else, fall away, remember?"

For a moment, she hesitated, her heart racing just as much as her mind before she threw caution into the wind, leaning close, her nose brushed against his, watching his golden gaze before her lips met his and her eyes fluttered closed.

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

The kiss landed before the pup had even found his breath. Her lips touched his and every thought he tried to hold scattered like leaves in a storm. The world narrowed to warmth and pressure and the soft pull of her breath against his mouth. He had trained for battle, for fear, for loss, but nothing in his life had prepared him for this. His body locked in place the moment she leaned in, suspended between instinct and disbelief.

Her warmth pressed into him with a force that made it impossible to understand what he was supposed to do. The sound of her heartbeat rushed in his ears and sent heat through him with a speed that startled him. His grip at her waist tightened by accident, the instinct of someone who needed to steady himself more than he needed to steady her. She had placed his hands there and the weight of that choice made his pulse climb even higher.

He did not know how long he stood frozen. Time stretched and bent around the closeness of her mouth on his. Part of him wanted to lean in, to answer the kiss, to give her something back. Another part held him motionless, afraid that even a breath in the wrong direction might break the moment or reveal just how lost he felt. He had imagined this in passing when they were young, in quiet thoughts he pushed aside almost as quickly as they came, but reality felt nothing like memory. Reality was louder, hotter, more frightening, and far too real.

When she finally pulled away, the rush of air along his lips felt cold. The pup drew in a breath because he had to, not because it steadied anything. His chest still trembled, and the ache beneath his ribs refused to settle. Her name slipped out because it was the only thing he could manage. Everything else tangled too tightly inside him to speak.

“Rin…” His voice came rough and unsteady, more breath than sound.

She looked at him with a certainty that struck straight through whatever composure he thought he had. Her fingers brushed his jaw again and the touch sent a slow shiver down his spine. No one touched him like this. No one else ever had. He did not know what to do with the way her hand cupped the side of his neck as if she belonged there. She lifted his other hand, placing it at her waist with a quiet confidence that made his heart kick against his ribs.

The pup swallowed hard. He tried to blink the haze from his thoughts, but she pressed in too close. Her scent, her warmth, the tremble in her breath, the heavy beating of her heart, it all wrapped around him with a pull he could not escape.

His lips parted as if he meant to say something more, yet nothing came out. Words refused to form. No explanation made sense. Nothing he could say would match what he felt or what he did not yet understand.

He stood there with both hands at her waist, held in place by her courage and his own confusion, heart pounding hard enough that he wondered if she could feel it through the touch.

He missed her. He had missed her more than he ever allowed himself to admit, and the truth of it left him frozen, breathless, and unsure of what to do next.

He managed one more breath. It was shaky and thin.

“We definitely did not do that the last time we were in the maze…”

 

[Irina Jesart]

His only answer was the tightening of hisnhands at her waist that made her breath hitch. Heat ran through her even as she drew away leaving only cold in the space between their faces.

Her skin prickled with heat beneath his hands as her eyes searched his face again as he uttered her name in sych a way she felt her knees go weak. Yetvhe still seemed confused, shcoked even that she had done such a thing.

Irina let her hands slide away from his face and neck, coming to rest in the crook of his elbows when he finally found words that made her laugh, the sound cutting through the quiet of the maze.

"No we didn't." She agreed, dropping her gaze momentarily and drawing a breath letting quiet fill the moment as she wrestled with doubt. He might not have drawn away, but he hadn't answered her kiss with the same. Had she made a mistake?

"I'm sorry," she said quietly looking back up at him "if i have misread or overstepped I just..."

Words failed her. She'd wanted to? Needed to? Stars knew what she wanted from him. She shook her head, moving as if to sidestep out of his embrace.

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

Irina began to pull back, shifting as if she intended to slip out of his arms. The movement hit him harder than anything she had said, and something inside him reacted before he had time to think. Both arms closed around her in one firm motion, drawing her fully against his chest. The breath he dragged in was unsteady, and his heart hammered so hard he felt it shake through both of them.

“No…” The word came out raw, barely more than breath. “You didn’t misread anything.”

His hands steadied at her waist, holding her as though he feared she would vanish if he loosened his grip. He lowered his head slightly, not quite touching her hair, but close enough that her warmth curled around him and made his thoughts falter.

“You can’t leave,” he managed, the words quiet and strained as he tried to keep them from shaking. “Not yet.”

He felt her heartbeat against his chest, fast and uneven. A faint sound caught in his throat before he spoke again.

“I have heard the changes in your heartbeat all night,” he whispered. “I know how hard it’s racing now.”

His eyes closed for a moment. He did not try to hide the truth that followed.

“Mine is the same, listen.”

The admission made his grip tighten again, as if saying it out loud removed the last barrier he had been clinging to. Her presence overwhelmed him. The scent of jasmine drifting from the archways, the warmth of her body pressed fully into his, the tremble in her breath as she settled into the embrace. All of it swept through him with a force he did not know how to manage.

He pulled her even closer, resting his forehead lightly against the top of her head. His heartbeat thundered beneath her hands. He did not try to calm it and did not pretend he felt nothing. The pup held her steady, clinging to the moment with a kind of desperation he had never allowed himself to show.

“I don’t understand any of this,” he admitted quietly, the words muffled against her hair. “But I don’t want you to walk away from me, not after we just found each other again.”

His chest rose and fell in uneven breaths as he held her there, the maze and the world outside falling away until only the two of them remained in the quiet of the garden.

“This part of life is just new and very different, and Prazutis will take me away again soon enough.”

Aerik’s voice seemed to have the smallest hint of sorrow at the last remark. Hopefully Irina would understand it was not rejection, but caution, which restrained him.

 

[Irina Jesart]

His arms shifted around drawing her in before she could step away, pulling her against his chest in a way the made her breath catch, her eyes snapped back to his face as the breathless 'no' slipped from his lips. She relaxed, melting into his embrace like this was where she was always supposed to be, her arms moving to wrap around his neck as she buried her face in the him.

She could feel the beat of his heart, racing with hers. Irina drew in a deep breath as he spoke, his honesty cutting through all her fears, his breath hot on her head. A stab of fear and sorrow ran through her as he spoke of Prazutis and she looked up, their forehead pressing together.

"Don't." Her own voice laced with sorrow. "Not tonight, not now. I don't want to have to think about being without you again." Her voice trembled with emotion as the thought of it brought a lump to her throat. She tipped her head, her nose brushing his as her finger traced soft lines along the back of his neck.

"Just be with me, Aerik." Her voice was a whisper, but the plea for him to let go of everything else was loud. She wanted him to throw caution into the wind, to leap with both feet into the unknown with her. Tomorrow they could mourn for what couldn't be, or decide how they would make it so it could.

She pressed her body against him, closing what little gap remained as heat and need coursed through her, her darks eyes ringed were lost in the swriling patterns of his golden eyes.

"Let it go, Aerik."

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx | TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik drew a slow breath as her plea settled between them. The sound of it reached him more deeply than anything she had said before. Irina had never asked for anything this openly. That alone made the ground beneath him feel unsteady. He held her because letting go felt impossible, yet he did not know what came next or how to carry the weight of what she wanted from him.

Her forehead rested against his, and the closeness forced him to stay in the moment she asked him to keep. He could not look away. Her voice carried fear, hope, and something else he did not know how to name. It pressed against the confusion already tightening inside him, and he felt caught between wanting to understand and wanting to give her whatever quiet she was begging him to keep.

He searched her eyes, trying to find some sort of footing. The request to stop thinking only made everything more difficult, because thinking was the only thing that kept him steady. Without it, emotion rose too fast and too sharp. He felt it now. He felt all of it. Her hands on him. Her breath against his skin. Her presence so close that it left no room for doubt or distance. It overwhelmed him, yet he could not step back.

The pup closed his eyes for a single heartbeat before he found his voice.

"Alright," he whispered, the word low and strained with an honesty he could not shape into anything else. "For tonight… I'll try."

He opened his eyes again, and the uncertainty in them was clear. He did not hide it. He could not hide it. Irina wanted him here. She wanted this moment without the weight of the future crushing it, and even though he did not know how to give her certainty, he could offer presence. That, at least, he understood.

His grip around her tightened by instinct rather than intent, a quiet answer to the plea she had placed between them. He did not pull her closer with force. He simply held on with the same care she had shown him when she placed his hands at her waist. It was an anchor for him as much as it was an answer for her.

His voice came again, soft enough that the maze barely carried it.

"I don't know how to stop thinking," he admitted in a whisper. "But I can stay."

The words were simple, yet they cost him more than anything else he might have said. They were the most he could give without making promises he was not ready to understand.

He kept his forehead against hers, breathing slowly as if trying to match her pace. He did not speak again. He did not pull away. He stayed exactly where she had asked him to be, letting everything else fall silent around them.