Curiosity of the Demon King Pt. 15

Peris stood, unblinking, in the doorway with papers scattered at his feet, staring as Fosi clutched her "father's" oversized clothing to her body. She didn't think there was any way she could have felt covered enough for comfort; her skin burned under his determined gaze, yet she froze in terror.

How much has he seen? How should I appear? Need to think of a lie, quickly! Why is he just standing there!? Please... just turn away...

Her fingers trembled and she could feel tears starting to burn in the corners of her eyes.

Not like this... Please, anything but this... Not him, not now. I had an excuse prepared, but what was it?...

Fosi's mind was numb, it was all she could do to stay on her feet while shock rippled up and down her body.

"I-I... I just- I'm..." Fosi had to outright close her eyes to focus on her words, and even then she could barely think of anything but Peris' gaze and where it fell. "T-that's a spell... My father and I have been switching place with a spell, that's why you haven't seen us together, right!" Her fingers blindly went to the very choker that had turned her into what she was now. "This is a magical artifact that lets us do that... We were keeping it a secret for... tactical reasons, that's it. I suppose you should have been one of the first ones to know about it..."

Peris pushed aside the air between them with the suddenness of his approach and Fosi prepared her heart for whatever he was about to try. She felt the heavy material of his cape wrap around her shoulders, his fingers at her neck to cinch it shut. And she opened her eyes.

There he was, looming over her, so close that she could feel his breath tickle her hair. The sensations of this body were really something different to Avlakoi's, he might not have noticed the subtlety of it. Without thought, Fosi had brought up her hands and placed them on Peris' chest, she hoped to keep a little distance from the man; there was no telling what he'd do alone with her in the early hours of the morning when everyone else was lazing in bed still. Through a thin linen shirt, she could trace the firm lines of his muscles underneath; this, too, was something only Fosi's sensitive fingertips could appreciate...

Appreciate? Sure, he's got a great physique... Even as a man, I could say that much without my cheeks burning this much... Why is he still so close!? And he still hasn't said anything!

"Y-you're... Thank you, for the cover. I'm, um, fine now. You can..."

"No."

"Wha-" Fosi began to ask, and choked on the word as Peris' strong arms closed around her.

A hug?... It does feel ni-... No, no, I can admit it feels n-nice...

She felt like her chest would burst, her arms strained to keep Peris from fully pulling her in. "What is it, that you want?" she managed to squeak.

"This."

Fosi took a moment to compose herself, drew upon her memory of that first night, when she'd seen what kind of man Peris could be to a subordinate, when she'd seen that he, too, was still a demon. "If you want to force me... then do it..." As much as she could, she loosened herself and Avlakoi's discarded clothing fell to the ground in a heap at her feet.

"That isn't what this is."

"Then what is it!?" Fosi shouted. She put all of her strength into pushing him away, and though she succeeded, it was impossible to think he hadn't simply let her. "I'm naked under this, don't you want to ram it into my mouth again!? Or what, you want a taste of the rest? Take it! Take it and then make sure you're never asleep in my presence again!"

What the hell was that in his posture? Sheepishness? It felt so foreign to Fosi that Peris for a moment looked like a woman...

He said, "I love you."

"Again with this!?"

Peris didn't speak again for a minute that stretched on and on. "I'd like a sparring session, just you and me, down in the private training room."

She blinked. "How did we get to that from where we were?"

"I felt that you would like it."

"So we'll spar for a while, then I'll be overcome with emotion for you?" Fosi glared across the space, but why was she so angry? "Is that it? We've sparred before, you always win. I'm not going to put marriage up for a prize, you'll never have that from me. It would be too weird..."

"No stakes, just as friends and allies. I'd like to unwind, wouldn't you?"

This has to be a trick, but for now it looks like he bought my explanation.

"No..."

Peris lunged forward and with one movement had draped her over his shoulder. He began jogging for the training room while she uselessly beat on his back with balled fists.

"I'll scream!" she shouted, but quietly enough that they wouldn't be heard. It wouldn't do to have him say what he'd seen, have people start connecting dots.

"Then scream, princess, and explain this situation to whoever hears you."

Fosi pouted and let him off with one kick.

"That's what I thought," he said.

What is this? He seems like he's actually mad. Don't tell me, he's that offended at being left out of a secret?

Fosi worried that they'd be seen by someone who would make things awkward, but Peris was taking a route down that was barely used in the first place, much less in the morning, and he paused at each corner to ensure they wouldn't be stopped.

It could be... he's finally snapped with arousal, can't stop himself any longer. However noble he likes to think himself, he's still one of our kind, and he's already forced himself on me once... I think... once more might be worth preserving our friendship...

When they did arrive, Peris set Fosi down gently and barred the door behind them. Runes flared on it which would cut them off from the outside world with a barrier against force and sound alike; one of the castle's previous occupants had enjoyed his prisoners, the flooring here was fine sand for a reason, easier to clean. And Peris followed Fosi to the wall of weapons within, taking the glaive she'd gone and chosen out of her hands.

"Did you want to spar or not?" Fosi crossed her arms and tried to ignore the way he stared down at her. "If you're just trying to be cute about it, tear my clothes off here and l-let's get it over with..." Fuck, it feels like the first time again. I shouldn't be trembling, I've done it so much already.

Peris said, slowly and firmly, "I don't want to rape you." He turned and took a broadsword from the rack, tested its edge briefly against his thumb and licked the welling spot of blood as he presented it to her.

It was heavier in her hands than she'd remembered. Avlakoi would have thought the object a long knife anyway. "I'd prefer the polearm."

"I'm sure you would." Peris drew the sword hanging on his belt. "There's something I'd like to see, and I'll have you bear it for now. I know I said there would be no strings, but a duel is better with stakes, isn't it?"

"I didn't agree to a duel." Fosi stepped back, holding her blade between them. "I didn't even agree to spar; you kidnapped me."

"You'll like this. If you lose, I'll have you become my servant for a day."

"And?"

"If I lose, I'll give up on any attempt to make you my wife."

Fosi scoffed. "What kind of prize is that, when you've already been rejected by everyone who could give me over?"

"One which would save you countless days of annoyance as I pursue your hand. I'll add my personal subservience for the rest of your life to sweeten the pot, even under that wolfman if it is your will." Peris stepped across the floor as though her agreement had already been acquired.

The terms really aren't that bad, after all... I was already preparing to give myself to him, and being a servant is only one level of added shame. After all I've been through already, that should feel like nothing. Should...

With a sigh, Fosi took the opposite position and raised her blade. Even as Avlakoi, she/he hadn't loved swordsmanship, preferring polearms for their use in aerial combat and ground combat alike. it just happened that most of the previous demon lords had been nobility as well, and their most powerful artifacts were swords so he'd had to learn. It still didn't feel right in her hand, no matter how much training had gone into her skill.

Whatever, I'll just give him the fight he wants and lose.

"To the blood, then?" she asked.

Peris grit his teeth. "To forfeit."

"Shouldn't tha-" Fosi started, but had to fall back as Peris lashed across the space and nearly tore her weapon from her hand with the force of a blow nearly intent on taking her head. "What was that!?"

"You'll be sorry if you don't start taking me seriously, my lady. Hit me, do your best for once. Show me everything you know." Another strike glanced off her blade, only enough force behind it to make a point: he could overpower a half-assed defense in an instant. "Or, else."

He came at her again with barely enough time to take a hurried breath, pressed the attack with ringing steel that forced her across the space. Fosi had to focus so much on avoiding tripping over her own tail that she could hardly think of stepping to the side until her foot met the edge of the ring and she had to dive to relative safety. In that moment, Peris could have easily taken off her legs at the knee, with neither scale nor armor protecting her fair skin and delicate flesh.

Old lessons came to mind, this very man striking the demon lord in this very room because the draconic giant hadn't needed to care about an extended toe or a misplaced arm. The chosen hero of humanity would be strong enough through his connection to Heaven that even a human's attack would be able to wound an unskilled demon, and Avlakoi could no longer afford to rest on the laurels of his bloodline. Fosi with her second wind was beginning to see the angles of his strikes and the proper defenses that had been beaten into her.

Straight to the chest, batted away. Down onto her head, drop and angle the sword down to make it slide down to the side, she wasn't strong enough to catch the bind and beat the strike away... Too high, she had horns, but they were nowhere near as cumbersome as Avlakoi's had been; she actively tightened her stance. A sweeping strike to her ankle, do not jump, he'd just follow up with something else while she hung helplessly in the air, instead plant the tip in the dirt, block a strike that did not have the strength of ergonomics driving it.

It felt as though Peris was slowing down, not only that her mind was becoming accustomed to his pace. He wasn't exploiting the openings that she knew she had made an instant after, he was giving her the room that she would need to establish her defense. Really, it felt more like being taught by an impatient partner than a duel.

But... he didn't want to harm his eventual conquest, was that it? Even then, would the progression from one technique to another be so monotonous and staid?

Well, if he was going to patronize her, she'd make her own move when he was least expecting it. Adding Avlakoi's experience to Fosi's in sparring with this single opponent, she'd had decades knowing her friend's weaknesses intimately. In particular, the exact angle at which Peris' own curling horns cut off vision.

Fosi bade her time, the perfect moment to exploit her knowledge and his trust, because she would never again hold the advantage if her attack failed.

There!

Peris raised his arms together to deliver a powerful strike down onto her head. For one fleeting instant, the arch of his own arms would cover his eyes. Rather than bring her sword up to defend, Fosi dropped the point to the ground, turned her hips, and took the full force of his blade on her horns.

"What are you doing!?" Peris cried, too late to stop himself.

A cold trickle of blood ran down Fosi's forehead, across a closed eyelid. Momentum had nearly carried her blade deeply into Peris' neck and a twinned trickle ran down to his shoulder.

The pain was incredible, her eyes rattled like jelly in her head and she felt she'd nearly bitten through her own teeth. But a dragon's horns, even anchored on the physiology of a succubus, should not be underestimated. The vast majority of the strike's force had been diverted and the edge skidded down to her scalp.

She vaguely noticed the sound of Peris' blade being dropped in surprise, and automatically pressed her advantage. With a vicious glare through jarred eyes, she snapped her fangs at him and thrust herself forward, he tripped over his own feet like a new recruit.

On the ground, Fosi knelt on his chest, blade at his tender throat. "I... I win..."

Peris sighed and closed his eyes. "No."

"There's no way out of this, you. What do you mean, no!?"

"I was never going to lose. It was to forfeit, not to the blood. I will not surrender."

She leaned on her sword just enough to push on his skin harmlessly. "You're disarmed. You wouldn't survive this on the battlefield, so surrender already."

"No."

Fosi put enough weight on the tip to draw blood. "Surrender, you damn idiot!" Through the headache, her eyes stung. Wet drops fell on Peris' face from above.

He stared directly up into her blurred vision, dauntless. "No. Kill me."

"Moron!" Fosi threw the blade aside and beat on his chest, thrashing his unmoving body without a goal but frustration's end. "I hate you! I hate you so much! Why!? Why couldn't you just leave it alone!? Damn it!" He caught her wrists and all she could do in the end was scream until she was out of breath, until her body went limp and she was drawn into his arms, hugged against his chest.

Tears came freely. Peris was petting her damaged horn, stroking her hair, wiped cloying blood from her eyelid.

"It's you, isn't it?"

Fosi hid her face in his chest and bit her lip. She could feel his heart racing, but this had all amounted to nothing but moderate exercise to him in the end. "... I d-don't know what you're talking about..."

"I did have my suspicions, you know," Peris said. One arm came around the small of Fosi's back as if he expected her to flee, and barred her way. "Some kind of curse, then? It must be pretty strong to get around your resistance to magic, but I'm sure you've been working with Kaffe to break it..." He paused as if remembering every humiliating thing about their time together recently, but he never stopped petting her. "My brother, you should have come to me about this. I feel like I've earned that trust."

That word hung in the air while he waited for her to collect her thoughts and her courage to respond. With his heat right there against her skin, it was hard to think about anything else.

But, eventually. "How could I?... You remember what we did that night..."

His skin was a little hotter. "Right... I suppose that does explain how inexperienced you were."

Fosi beat on him with what little space she had to move her hand.

"And why you chose that atavist instead of me... Tell me, though, why the rest? You should have come to me, you would never have had to... to do all those things. Is Kaffe close at all to breaking the curse?"

"No." Fosi shook her head and finally looked up into Peris' noble face with a weak smile, mocking her own weakness. "It's permanent! Isn't that great for you!?"

He quietly said, "No, of course not," and kept stroking her hair, wiped the blood from the small wound that was already starting to heal.

"You know who I am, why are you still doing this?..."

"Do you want me to stop?"

Fosi said nothing, the words weren't there either way. He felt so warm, his heart thrummed against hers, it felt like a point of certainty being there in his arms. Just barely, she could shunt aside the realization that all she'd been wearing had been his cloak, the extant fact threatened to shatter her already-reeling mind.

"Brother, I-"

She cried, "At least don't call me that!"

"I suppose it does feel odd when you're like this," Peris said.

"This is the way I am now... Kaffe says I can only go back for a short while at a time, that's the actual transformation." The words were numbing in her throat, the revelation of permanence was an entirely new trauma. There was nothing to fight against, it was simply suffocating and the only relief was to look away from it. "I get to be myself less and less each time..."

"I see."

Fosi tried to push herself away, but Peris held her firmly and all she could do to express herself was growl in his face. "You understand nothing! I might as well be dead, death would be a mercy! How in the name of Hell am I supposed to fulfil my responsibilities like this? This body is good for nothing but being degraded over and over, day after day in new ways each time! I can barely keep my allies safe, and soon enough I won't even be able to do that."

"What reason do you have allies if not to lean on them? Avlakoi-"

"Don't call me that!"

"-I know you think everyone is against you. I've seen it, how a man as powerful as you watched your back. Even with Kaffe and I. How long were you going to keep this from me? How little do you really think of my loyalty?"

Fosi buried her face, bit her lip, thought deeply. "I thought I could resolve this myself..." She laughed a little, it came from nowhere, certainly not humor. "Until yesterday, I'd thought Kaffe was holding it over my head. I thought she was doing it to me. I thought she was humiliating me for... I don't know what reason I thought it was. Power? She's already at the peak of her profession; she couldn't be more powerful as a mage without being me. Yesterday, she said she'd been preparing me for the rest of my life in this body."

Peris scooted back to the wall and sat himself up, drawing Fosi up into his lap. The male reaction embarrassed them both, but neither said a thing. "Everything else can come later. We can work on any problems you come across, together. Do you trust me to help?"

"I..."

"Do you remember what I told you the other day?"

She did, and she couldn't meet his gaze for the memory.

"I love you."

Fosi twitched. "As a brother, right?..."

"I love you." Peris bent down and laid his lips on her forehead, despite her squirming.

"You don't really mean that. You can't mean that." Fosi felt nauseous, she'd curled up in his lap as much as she could.

Peris raised her chin and forced her at least to face him, but he couldn't keep her from closing her eyes. "I love you, my friend. I've loved you for a long time. I was willing to marry your daughter for love of you. I am still willing to protect her as her husband."

Fosi withdrew further into herself, her hair fell over her face and she was grateful for the shade, that she didn't have to confront the image of his steady gaze when burning tears forced her to crack open her eyes. "That's all I am anymore: a trophy... I can't do anything by myself. Even you don't respect me."

"You're making a mistake. Rather, you've labored under a misunderstanding for a long time. Before, you bore the weight of the world on your shoulders, but it was fine because your shoulders were broad enough to bear it, so you thought. Did you never once think about how many hands there were around you, ready to take on some of your burden?" He kissed her forehead again and she thumped his chest to no effect. "When I say I love you, my brother, I don't mean that I love the demon king. That title could have fallen to any one of noble blood; it isn't who you are, only a responsibility dumped into your arms." He kissed her cheek, and caught her hand before she managed to hit him again.

"Stop it..." Fosi whimpered. She didn't bother trying to pull away anymore, his grip was gentle, but unyielding. He wouldn't let her go for anything, she felt.

"A curse, really," he said. "A curse put on us by our ancestors, to replay their battles over and over again, to relive their failures and be punished for them anew." Peris kissed Fosi's lips, and barely flinched when she bit and drew blood. "My mother, you already know, was a captured slave..."

Fosi was silent.

"She raised me, a few years at least, until I could stand on my own and enter my father's service. The Ram clan is kinder to its young than your people are. I was allowed to go back to her, where she was kept in the harem. She told me stories about the human realm, their society. They say it's a blessing that demons are so savage, so selfish, so single-minded. If we were allowed to develop a culture of trust, we might pose an actual threat to the world. But we are a once in a millennia challenge, an inconvenience which is allowed to stay on our tiny plot of land because it would be too much of a hassle to come and wipe us out entirely.

"When I met you, I heard my mother's words again, from a mouth which had never heard them. Our problem is not that we are weak, but that we keep ourselves weak in the pursuit of individual power. Our leaders secretly believe it a lost cause, so devolve into hedonism and decadence at the cost of trust and impoverishment of the people beneath them. You were strong, you are strong even as you are, my brother, and I admired that strength, but that is not why I fell in love with you."

Fosi swallowed, her heart was pounding. He'd really taken those words to heart? She'd just been grousing about her father at the time, the old dragon king, the ideas wouldn't coalesce for years to come. But he saw that far down the line, back then?

Peris kissed her lips again, and she tasted the blood already there. His breast touched hers and she could swear his heart was pounding harder than her own. It didn't seem possible, her chest ached so much as it was. "I could feel that, if something could change us all, save us all, it would be you. Still now. As you are. It was never strength of arms that our people needed. For thousands of years we've thrown our sons and daughters over that cliff to die on the rocks below, hoping one would survive, but it's clearly not working. So please, if you need strength, trust that you have me to turn to. Trust has to start somewhere, so why not with us two?"

It felt as though a weight had been lifted off, Fosi had to catch herself as her body went limp with relief and tears flowed freely onto Peris' shirt.

Some time later, her nose was tingling and numb, her tear-streaked cheeks were chill. She was at last able to nod weakly. "You win... but I still don't think I can marry you." Fosi was swept up in his strong arms and carried on steady, proud legs back to the entrance; Peris was laughing under his breath and a smile crept across his face. "You don't seem that disappointed..."

"How could I be, when I've won my prize?"

Fosi hung herself off his neck rather than kick. "... I said I wouldn't marry you."

His smile cracked. "That wasn't our wager, now, was it? I do expect to see a pretty servant girl in my room tomorrow morning, unless you would like to start right now?"

She buried her burning face in his shoulder and said, muffled, "Please, don't."

Peris pushed open the door and on the other side was a whole lot of furious motion. An embarrassed princess' guard rushed in and snatched Fosi out of Peris' grasp without resistance while Suvir made her best war face and menaced him shakily with a spear that was far too heavy for her, and Kaffe stood to the side, apparently disinterested, waving off the first movements of a lightning spell now that events were back in hand.

"Are you alright, my lady!?" Caelic barked, setting her down and fretting about her dishevelment. He passed his clawed thumb over her forehead and sniffed the dried blood which flaked off at his touch, then snarled. "Give me the word, my lady."

She brushed off his touch, patted his furry cheek to reassure him. "His highness and I were only sparring, there's nothing to worry about."

The wolfman backed up and knelt to await her orders, yet his beady eyes remained on Peris. If trust had to begin somewhere, it would not be between these two.

So it was Suvir's turn to fret. The borrowed spear fell out of her hands to the ground and she grabbed Fosi by the face to get a better look. "Nothing to worry about!? You were crying, weren't you? Don't you lie to me, what did he do?"

Peris said, "I-"

And Kaffe cut him off from the rear guard, "-would be advised to think carefully about the situation before speaking out of turn." There was still a tangy scent of ozone in the air, after all...

"I was too hard on her, we ended up having a heart to heart. I swear that I wouldn't do anything to hurt her," Peris finished.

The tension did fade as Fosi spun some lie, something convincing enough to get Peris off the hook for her apparent kidnapping yet so full of fluff that she may as well have told them nothing at all. By the time she'd been ferried away, given unto Merrili and Suvir, washed, clothed, fed for the day, Fosi had already forgotten what she'd said.

-o-

Later in her room, for the sake of her comfort, Fosi had asked for snacks to be prepared for herself and her guests to eat in sisterly communion. The bed was large enough for Avlakoi to have fit in, so six women were able to gather on it and lounge with more than enough space left over for the serving trays.

All day, Fosi had gone about in a haze while trying in vain not to think about what she was going to do that following morning. What little experience she had now as a succubus was still more than the experience she'd had as someone else's servant. Avlakoi had been a mercenary, and a serving boy before that, but bringing fresh game in for a draconic offering each day wasn't what Fosi felt Peris would want.

The sight of these five was a salve for the heart, even if the deadline was fast approaching. Merrili, relieved for the night of her maidenly duties, had dressed in a lovely nightgown that accentuated just how voluptuous she was in comparison to everyone else on offer, more so by the way she clasped her hands and squeezed her arms nervously. Suvir was wearing something borrowed from Fosi's own wardrobe, a little baggy on her but cinched at the waist; she did have to keep repositioning the collar to keep it all from falling off one shoulder and then the other, seemed to have a touch of the sniffles. Tein and Leikos both wore plain shirts and shorts, leaned on one another as if in a slow competition to see who could sit in the other's lap: the prized position.

... Kaffe was nude...

After preamble and girlish patter, Fosi took a deep breath and told the congregation as much as she dared about her situation with Peris.

What a motley assembly I have to support me...

So, Suvir had moved closer and protectively slipped an arm around Fosi's waist. "Of course he'll try something. I'll be right there outside the door if you need help, so don't worry, okay?"

Why is her voice shaking like that? Fosi petted the girl's back. Ah, not only her voice. I suppose it's reasonable to be afraid of that man. I have been, recently.

The black and white pair had decided in the course of things that Tein would be taking the honored position in Leikos' lap, and the other was drawing little circles on her belly with her fingertips, rested her chin on Tein's shoulder from behind. Both blushed. "Of course he's going to want that, it's the whole reason he'd ask for that," Tein said as the pair's representative. "Long way to go for sex, sounds ~so~ romantic."

Merrili balanced herself on her knees, swaying back and forth with a dreamy look.

And Kaffe's gaze bore through the half-truths like gimlets.

Sitting there amidst these giggling succubi, Fosi wished she could say she were jaded enough not to be glowing pink. Will I ever become used to these thoughts? Thinking about tomorrow... all I can remember is the taste of his... when he took me and... I should have had them bring some hard drink, this body is so much smaller, I might be able to actually stumble through the whole thing in a drunken fog.

"I was wondering," Fosi said through her stinging cheeks, "what you all thought of him. I'm... I'm scared, just a little. At this point, I need some advice..."

Kaffe barked laughter. "What's so hard about it? Play along with the fantasy until he gets tired of it, then lie back and try not to think. Bet you anything it frustrates him to the point that he'll kick you out of bed."

Merrili said, "That's no fun, is it? I have heard that he can be rough when he's been drinking, but everyone knows to avoid him when he's on the bottle. He's a sweetheart, makes it easy, doesn't go hunting for tail like a lot of men do."

Tein shrugged, and Leikos retained marshmallow indifference, since her opinions were being said either way and she had something more worthy of her focus in her arms. "You do see oddballs like that every once in a while. We think he might not like women," Tein added in a whisper. "Just look at the way he hangs off lord Avlakoi when he's around. I mean... not that I'm saying anything about your father, my lady, but you have to admit he's ~so~ incredibly manly. Being around him as much as Peris is, if it were me..."

And Leikos giggled as if to say, 'Should we be talking about that?' She kissed Tein's cheek.

Well, they are more right than they have any right to be... "So, you two are-"

"One another's favorites," Tein said quickly, earning a pout and having her sides squeezed. "Don't be like that, you know as well as I do that eventually we'll have to settle down. There's no guarantee we'll find someone who wants us both."

Merrili pipped, "Oh, I'm sure someone would love a package deal. Contrast is king, I say, aesthetically speaking."

"Of course a cow girl would say that!" Tein laughed out loud, being on the wrong side of a merciless tickling.

"Bull." Merrili pouted.

"And you're one to talk, you could bag a man in no time flat as soon as you want to with those plump milkers."

Fosi said quietly to herself, "Is a husband that desirable?"

Before Avlakoi had been the demon lord, entirely disincentivized to have children, he'd never thought about what it would mean to be a husband. To have a harem, sure; breeding stock, yes. The common people yet had more secrets for Fosi to discover. She stroked her own belly idly and, when she noticed the pressure of many smugly-borne stares, burned up.

This body should be able to get pregnant if I stop taking Kaffe's drugs... Would I lay an egg like my mother did? What would the child look like if I really did let Peris...

Suvir, seemingly unaware, had progressed to rubbing her head against Fosi's shoulder.

Suvir's already grown, but, is this warmth what a mother should typically feel with a daughter?

"We've gotten off topic, girls." Kaffe crossed her legs and bent down to conspire with her elbows resting on her knees. "Peris would be a catch, wouldn't he?"

So that's why you've been trying to push me toward him... Bitch.

Merrili sucked on the tip of one finger in thought. "We-ll... With most incubi, you know, they might as well be women. Sir Peris is more like, you guys know, those pictures we got from overseas just after the war, those ones the humans were using for propaganda?" The four on that side nodded along, Leikos licked her lips, while Fosi and Suvir awaited the point. "I've never actually seen a human warrior. There are those older men who come over, the diplomats, but those pictures make me think we should train all incubi for that kind of muscle tone. Oh, oh, and the way they glisten~"

Tein said, "They put oil on themselves before they take those pictures, and not like a gladiator either. It's weird how hot that is, right?"

"Our men are hot in their own way, too," Leikos added. "In their own way."

Suvir scoffed, cuddled deeper into Fosi's space. Much more and Fosi would have been wearing the girl like a cape. "Nobody's gonna say he's not hot, but is he good enough for our lady? I say she could just add him to her harem and... Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Chuckles passed around.

Fosi shrugged. "Maybe... Him, sir Caelic, yo-"

Merrili gasped.

"He's grown on me, okay!?" Ah, why did I think this was a good idea? Damn it, now my lip's quivering.

Silence, while Suvir's glare passed back and forth, broken by Kaffe.

"Disowned or not, he's still a son of the ram demon king. Out of us here, I think only two could possibly become his wife. Only one without political incident."

One of Suvir's hands had grasped the folds of her borrowed clothes and held them in a painfully tight fist. What kind of reaction is this? I thought she was enamored with the man. Just nerves or something?

"I can't get married, I belong to my lady first." Suvir was trembling, until Fosi draped an arm around her and squeezed.

Oohs and ahhs, from Leikos and Tein in particular for some reason.

It went down that path for a while more until Fosi had made her decisions and forced the conversation away from herself and those subjects that made her glow brightly. A fair amount of girl talk involved the men of the garrison and how they would be in bed, what Fosi might have expected of succubi, gossip about this or that, who was courting who else seriously. She was able to fall into the background of the conversation, adding a non-committal mm-hm and a nod while petting Suvir for comfort, saving herself from serious thoughts for a little while longer, until all but two remained, the others peacefully snoozing in the demon lord's absurdly spacious bed.

Kaffe got up and silently padded to the next room, Fosi followed as soon as she could disentangle herself from no less than three intertwining hugs without waking anyone.

There in the attached room, Kaffe sat waiting on an eave looking out into the night. "He found out, then."

"Yes."

"Or, did you tell him yourself?"

"Some of one and some of the other." Fosi went to the wall beside Kaffe's spot and rested her forehead against the cool stone. She told Kaffe what had gone on that morning all in one breath. "He's an idiot, to still want me."

"Love makes fools of us all."

Fosi sighed. "He's a blood brother. It's not the same kind of love, and a real man shouldn't call it that."

"Still, it's good to see you in high spirits, my lord." Kaffe hung her head and played with the end of a blonde lock. "You seem to be taking this all rather well."

"I don't exactly have a choice, do I? At this point, flailing around will only make things harder on us all. Knowing that you weren't a traitor is helping, I think. I should apologize for some of what I've said to you recently. Some of it."

The mage looked away and rubbed her neck sheepishly. "There's no need to demean yourself further for my sake... Of course I wouldn't betray your trust, I also love you too much for that."

"Don't you start, too."

"No, really. Though I suppose I won't be able to be your woman the way I'd hoped, now. You were already using me mostly to relieve your urges without bothering the others, all I had to do was ensure you saw me as the safe option, that you couldn't hurt me... Eventually we'd have ended up more or less married. I'd have stayed in your bed, by your side, so that you wouldn't have to go too far for intimacy... Avlakoi, did you ever notice that I was courting you, before Hell chose you to represent us all?"

Fosi searched her memories of the time, bittersweet as they were. Back then, Kaffe had become a mercenary with Avlakoi and Peris both, hadn't told them much about how she'd ended up in that treasure chest. With an exotic body like that, she'd have been popular with the rest of the men, could have joined up with the camp followers on a whim, but she'd clung to Avlakoi from the first. After witnessing her power in her first battle, she was all but safe. No man wanted to risk the temper of a mage, even worse than the risk of a whore with a poisoned knife hidden in her pillow. So, Avlakoi had thought her clinging to be opportunistic, becoming ever more safe from other men by the day as the boss' favorite.

If everything had kept on like that, and war hadn't broken out, if the previous demon lord hadn't died and in doing so passed his station with all its power and responsibility to Avlakoi, he could see himself raising a family with this woman.

A former blood sister as a wife, eh? Fosi smiled. "I didn't know, but I believe I would have been happy with that."

Kaffe turned her face with its own forced smile. "Fate is cruel, isn't it?"

It wasn't the right thing to do, and Fosi damn well knew that, but a dear friend was on the verge of tears and the last vestiges of manhood within her chest steadied her. She held Kaffe's head gently and kissed her, lingering within the warmth of the moment, neither woman pressing any further. If even one toe got over the line, Fosi knew they wouldn't be able to stop themselves from taking it all the way again, and they broke apart, touched their foreheads together in shared solemn determination.

Fosi said the words her dear friend needed to hear, and held her as she silently wept.

-o-

The morning had come too soon, Fosi was still blinking away sleep when she stood at Peris' doorstep, clutching her skirt. Merrili had ensured that she would pass muster as a servant girl in this odd, puffy black and white costume, showed her while she blushed the single string in the back which would unlace everything enough to slip it off. Around the corner, Suvir stood at attention with a spear in hand since Fosi could not dissuade the girl beyond keeping her out of earshot. And there was still the light bitterness at the back of her throat from swallowing a dose of Kaffe's anti-pregnancy drug...

Whether or not this body could become pregnant, Fosi desperately didn't want to know via accident. There was a thrumming sensation behind her navel, calling attention to... And she hadn't actually laid an egg since being transformed; did each transformation reset the clock, or did this body bleed instead?

She pinched her cheek and threw out her arms to swing as she took her calming breaths. This was just sex, again. She'd been with larger men since that first night, and Peris' size was all too well ingrained in her mind, it wouldn't even be painful... All she had to do was believe that it was just sex, just two friends coming together to... cum together... That's all it was, only a release of tension. Right! He's a man, and men have to crack the nut every once in a while... Wait, since he's been courting me, does that mean he hasn't been with any other women? Her breast felt warm. That wouldn't make me happy or anything, would it? He's been waiting all this time, bearing that strain, for me. Oh no, he's going to be all backed up, isn't he!? Will he even let me go after one time!?

He hand was trembling as she raised it to the surface of the door.

I could still run away... No, I couldn't. It won't be that bad, I've had it rough before... But, not with him. I don't want him to be rough with me.

Her knuckle hit the wood, too softly to be heard on the other side.

He was rough, the first time. I can still remember how sore my throat felt afterward. Then, he was drunk, and the others said he tries not to attack the girls... Is that why he only gets drunk up here? So, he wouldn't, would he?

She wasn't going to get anywhere if she didn't take action now. Fosi reeled back and went to slam her fist into the door. It opened and her hand landed upon Peris' muscular chest. Half-naked...

"You're earlier than I expected. Come on in." Peris let the door open fully and turned back inside.

Odd, we were so close, I'd have sworn he would throw himself around me again... Must be sleepy still, it's so early.

Fosi stepped inside and closed the door quietly behind herself, careful that her loaned dress didn't snag on the corner. It hadn't been long enough that she had a sense for long skirts, especially not the frilly, puffy thing Merrili had insisted she wear today. Despite how heavy the fabric was, Fosi could feel every breeze billowing within that caressed her skin as she moved.

She didn't know what she should have expected, the room looked normal enough. Avlakoi had never entered, either because another man's space was sacred or, more-so, because he wouldn't have been able to stand fully. Fosi raised her hand over her head without thinking, it would have taken a hop to touch the ceiling. The twice before she'd been, it had been as prey and as an enemy, just existing in the space allowed her to take in the details more fully as her head wasn't muddled by stress, not in the same way.

So, my friend is the kind to keep souvenirs. He had shelves full of things which Avlakoi would have been able to tell stories about against two walls, a large bookshelf, its books' worn spines showed their age and Peris' fondnesses, and that game was set up on the man's tea table. Fosi went the the shelf and tipped out one of the more cracked spines, quietly flipped through a few pages. A romance, between a human knight and his princess, one of those cheap stories printed by the dozen to titillate the general public.

"It came in on a shipment from the mainland," Peris said, startling Fosi. She'd nearly forgotten him in the room, washing his face for the day with a damp cloth, sitting on his bed. "You know, the humans say reading for pleasure is degenerate, decadent. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that it's become more available to the lower classes in the last couple decades. But, I'd be lying if that one in particular hadn't colored my perception."

Fosi was again surprised that she was listening to this shirtless man intently, had clutched the book to her breast. She put it away and defiantly faced the wall while Peris washed. "It's good, then?" she said for something to say.

"I like it, at least. I'm not sure it would resonate with you in the same way."

"Of course not, I don't have a princess."

Peris laughed and she had to resist turning to glare at him, it would have meant looking at him, just what he wanted. "And you're sure about that? The way I see it, you've saved more princesses than I have. Didn't you sleep with Suvir last night?"

"She was in my bed, yes. That's not the same thing and you know it."

She heard his footsteps, then his breath was in her ear, but he still didn't embrace her. "Were you always this naive, or is that new? Never mind, I don't want you to be thinking about her right now in any case."

Right, he's only interested in one thing. Just like they said, all I have to do is be receptive and it will be over before I know it... He's not even touching me, though.

"Wh-what do you want me to think about?" Her ears were burning, she'd been shivering. He was standing behind her now, she could feel the air on the nape of her neck, the heat of his presence in the room. He'd been in there all night, countless nights before that. Fosi tried and failed to ignore the scent of a space that was uncontested as his. I have to break out of this pattern, or nothing will change! "B-by the way, Merrili suggested this dress... she said it's becoming popular for servants on the mainland, said it's in a lot of the por-... those pictures, you know, that are taken back from across the sea."

She wagged her hips back and forth, swished her tail, the thick fabric rustled against her skin. Wait, why would I do that? It's like I want him to look at my ass! The white apron wrinkled in her fists, still shaking.

"You're beautiful, of course. It was a good choice, I should thank her later."

You're supposed to say the dress is beautiful! "She has been a lot of help, in the transition..." Now you should ask whether she helped choose the underwear as well. Aren't you going to follow the script? Don't leave me hanging in empty space like this... At least touch me...

"I was thinking, last night, about what I would have a personal servant do for me today," he said.

Fosi's chest ached.

"For now, how about a game? Do you still know how to play?"

When Fosi turned around in disbelief, Peris was throwing on a simple shirt and then sat down at the board. He did still cut a dashing figure, when he wasn't dressed the pa-

She cut off her thought, all thoughts, and joined him at the table.

"I don't want to bet anything more," she said.

"Games are better with stakes."

"I refuse."

He set up the pieces. "I didn't have anything in mind anyway. Do you want a handicap this time?"

"Fuck you."

Peris smiled. "That's what I thought."

They played a game in near silence, aside from the sound of wood on wood, and then another when Peris quickly won. The second game, his pieces danced around hers in mockery until she'd whittled down his forces enough for a direct attack, and lost to a cleverly hidden piece in just the right spot. The third game, she finally secured a victory, by replaying one of his earlier strategies by rote; a win was a win, she gloated.

"A lot of big talk about handicaps from a loser~ Don't you think you should give me a challenge, boy?" Fosi laughed.

Fleeting. Peris won the fourth and fifth sets.

She was nursing the wound to her pride with her chin in her palm as Peris set up game number six. "You really love this game, don't you? Back when, you said your mother gave it to you?"

"Ever since I was a child, I've wanted to visit the place it was made. But no, my mother didn't actually give it to me."

"I thought you said-"

"Avlakoi, did you enjoy sex, as a man?"

Fosi glared at him briefly then turned her gaze away. "As much as anyone else. Sex feels good," As much as I don't want to admit it, even with this body. "Where are you going with this?"

"I'm not the only one who noticed that you only ever took lovers who were limber enough to walk away from an encounter. During the war, did you ever have your way with those human women we took from those sacked villages?"

"In a way." Fosi shrugged. "You can feel it too, can't you, the whispers that come bubbling up from Hell through our blood? Defile, deflower, destroy; take anything and everything you want from the world, for it is your birthright."

"I've never heard the words clearly," Peris said, taking the first move on the board to distract errant thought.

Following his lead, Fosi began a half-hearted defense. "They've been clearer for me ever since Hell branded me as their next champion. Our ancestors can't really affect the world without Heaven's response, even the rare one summoned up can only speak vaguely and take prescribed action at cost to the summoner. I've never seen the appeal of a woman's face twisted in agony, real pain. It's so much better when she's in rhythm with you, resonating with your desire... None of those human women could take more than the tip of my penis, and still they were crying by the end when I sent them back out to the cages."

Peris reached across the table and gently laid his hand on Fosi's. "That's just how war is. Don't get so down."

"Fuck you." She pulled her hand away. The first time you've touched me today, and that's all I get? She held her hand close to her chest. It still felt warm where his skin had laid on hers.

But he didn't seem offended, at least.

Why should I care if he's offended?

"My father loved sex," Peris said.

"I'm sure he did."

"He's a monster."

"We all are... Even my real father is."

Peris laughed once, harshly. "Your father is a dragon, and he acts like a dragon. My father is an ram demon, and he acts like a monster. His harem didn't rotate because of changing tastes, it rotated out his victims." He went on to describe several gut-wrenching accounts while Fosi kept her eyes glued firmly to their game. Peris' voice grew ragged over time, then stable while they played, as if taking comfort from the familiar movements. By the time he made it to the story of his own mother, the strong voice he'd had was deadened, without emotion.

For a decade, the woman had remained in the service of the ram demon king. The state of her by the end, Peris described in horrible detail that sickened Fosi to her core both as a woman, and as a man. Peris had watched the woman transform day after day into a wretched thing too weak to raise her hand and play the very game she'd taught him.

Then, soon after his horns began showing, he was taken away. As a young man, he couldn't be left alone with his father's property in the harem, not without gelding. There was nothing left for her to live for.

"I took this game from her effects, later," Peris said, "and I left to join up with some mercenaries."

When Fosi looked up finally, Peris was smiling under dark eyes.

"I'll be honest, I was prepared to get passed around at first. Not as good as a woman, but when a soldier has the urge, a hole's a hole, right?"

Fosi huffed. "You joined up with me and mine, I wouldn't have let them do that."

"Do you believe me now, that I've always loved you?"

"Do you expect me to believe you would have called it love back then?"

Peris leaned back in his chair, raising the front legs off the ground to float on the others while staring at the ceiling. "Of course not, likely I would have called it deep respect, reverence. Of course, the Avlakoi I knew back then wouldn't have accepted it either. The one I know now still won't. For all I know, you would have made me your woman for a night to put me in my place to disabuse me of the notion that what I felt was love."

Fosi laughed, clapped a hand over her mouth in shock when Peris glanced down at the sound. She straightened herself. It was a funny thought, after all. "So, what?"

"So... I've followed you all this time not because I felt you would be a great demon king, but a great king. Princess, I suppose, now. I don't know that I care if we win the war. I don't know that I care if we fight it in the first place. How long have our people defined ourselves by our hatred of those ones? Centuries? Millennia. So long that generations were born, lived and died, and were forgotten, leaving behind only the wastrel youth and death-dealing artifacts."

"Stop, please." Fosi folded her arms on the table, game forgotten, and rested her head in them. "We're talking about politics and prophecy again. I hate it."

"I only wanted you to know that I respect your determination to ignore Hell's voices."

Quietly, Peris got up and went to his bed, lay down. Fosi sat at his side, easily reachable if he desired her. Still just heavy topics, isn't he going to do anything? Obviously that's why he wanted me here. Obviously that's why I'm in such a ridiculous costume! It is cute... It's wasted on me, but he wanted me here, all to himself. He's barely touched me, but he was so aggressive before. Is it because he finally knows who I am? Too proud to admit he doesn't want my body when he knows his old friend is inside it?

She listened to him breathe, stealing glances at his handsome features. Even she had to admit they were.

He won't even look at me... This isn't what I prepared for. She swatted away the scenarios that had been building up under pressure in her head since the day before. This or that act, she'd already done a more humiliating version. There was nothing he could do to her that would defile her body any more than it had already been. So why do I feel so unsteady when he isn't even doing anything?

"Are you still tired?" she asked after a while.

"No, only resting."

Fosi said with a smile, "If you go to sleep now and run down the day, I won't give you another day of service out of pity."

"That's fine, do as you please." His hand twitched, and she thought he was about to touch her; she flinched, but it remained where it was. "Do only what you want. If there's one thing you can give me, give me this: I don't want my friend to be scared of me."

"I-I'm not afraid of you." Her mocking smile faded.

"You've been trembling this whole time."

"I'm cold... I can feel that sort of thing now." Fosi grabbed a folded blanket and draped it over her head and shoulders. If the dress was covered too, she could ignore it.

Peris remained where he lay, didn't so much as pointedly sigh at her lace-thin deception. At least make a joke at my expense or something! Now I'm just hanging out in the wind. Tell me you can't believe I was able to trick you all for so long, how bad a liar I am. Tear off this blanket and pull me into your arms, tell me that if I'm cold, you'll warm me up... She clutched the blanket more tightly. I mean, that's what you want to do, isn't it? I don't really... want you to... hold me like that...

The room was quiet. Whoever had commissioned the keep made sure these walls in particular, in the noble areas, would keep sounds out, or in. Fosi listened to Peris' breathing, felt the subtle rise and fall of his body next to her; she caught herself holding her own breath, as if trying to hear him more clearly.

He's really not going to touch me? After all that talk about making me his bride? I know I wouldn't have this much self control with a beautiful woman in my bed, within arm's reach. So... is he actually disgusted by me now?

"I'm tired too," Fosi said and lay on her side, beside him. Her head was right there, next to the sound she'd been straining to hear. Through the blanket, she could almost feel the heat of his breath against her cheek.

Still, no reaction.

She turned and crept over Peris, drawing the blanket with her to drape over them both. A leg over his thigh, an arm across his chest. He wasn't looking at her. "You are warm," she said. What am I doing? No, what is he doing!? If he doesn't want me, he can push me off himself, can't he!?

Even while she was lying on his arm, he didn't so much as bend it to hold her. It would have been more comfortable for the both of them.

If you really don't see me as a woman anymore, what even are we doing right now?

She set her head on his chest and listened. The beat thudded hard and fast in her ear; the same ache nestled in her chest. "I was prepared, you know."

"That's not what I want," he said. Still, he wouldn't open his eyes.

Fosi threw back the blanket and mounted him, beat down on his chest, screamed, "Bastard! Give me back my time! Don't you know how much I was worrying about this!? I could barely sleep, thinking about you!" Droplets fell on his face from above, she didn't know when she'd started crying, but there wasn't any stopping it. The kind eyes that finally opened for her didn't help any. "Don't you know how dirty I already am?" she wept. "You already know what I've let happen to me, that's why you're disgusted, isn't it?"

"No, of course I'm not-"

"Isn't it!? Damn it all, I should have given you my virginity, is that it? Would you have wanted me then? Even now, knowing who I am, wouldn't you have wanted that, at least?" What am I trying to do. I don't want him to desire me, I don't, I don't... I should just shut up and let him feel how he feels. But... "I love you, all right!? I do! How could I not, when we've been through so much together? You've been my brother for so long, how in the name of Hell am I supposed to be a sister to you!? Tell me!"

Finally, he touched her, rose from the bedspread and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you, my friend. Isn't it enough that we can exist in the same room without fighting? Shouldn't we be able to be quiet together?"

Fosi felt it, poking her butt from beneath. "... You still feel this way, knowing the truth?"

"I've often felt that a timid soul like yours was more suited to be a succubus."

"Fuck you," she whispered, stifling the start of a grin. At last, she was in his grasp.

"No, really. I suppose that's why it was so easy to believe you were his daughter, your daughter... That backstory never made any sense. Offspring don't take after their parents when they aren't around to teach them, I know that much. You know that much." Peris stroked her back, and she could feel slivers of stress wash away. "I still think it would be best if we were married."

She sniffled. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

"Just so that someone you trust would have a claim over you, so that you would have someone you could always fall back on. I'll be that for you, whether you like it or not. I promise, no, it is my vow to you, again as you are, that I will be your sword until the day I die."

...

Idiot, as if that would make me happy... Fosi brightened, her body already knew what to do, she only had to stop holding herself back for stupid reasons like pride. I'm an idiot, he's always been loyal to me, how did it take so long to see that? She craned up from her spot in his lap, within his arms, and let her lips meet his. This isn't something that's being taken from me, not anymore, it's a gift that I can share with my friend, my dear friend. She slipped her arms up and around his neck, taking advantage of his surprise to lever him back down into bed as their breaths melded. Neither one seemed interested in letting go, lips opening and moans passing back and forth, it hardly mattered whose each belonged to. It's not a game, it's a growing closer. Like those girls have been trying to show me, it's about me, meeting him, as we are, coming together and being one another's comfort. Peris' firm touch passed up and down her back, awaiting permission to go any further, and Fosi denied him a little more. Rather, she could only focus on the feeling of his lips and his tongue.

However long it lasted, the both of them were out of breath by the time Fosi lifted herself up. She wondered how well she mirrored the fuzzy-headed arousal she saw in Peris' expression, she'd already been burning up for so long. Coming off him to the side, she suddenly felt that the heavy fabric of her costume was too warm. One string, as per Merrili's instruction, was all it took to release the tie one the back of the dress, it fell loose from her shoulders and she didn't bother catching it, leaving the whole of the outfit to fall into a heap around her hips, sliding her arms out from the puffy sleeves.

I was wrong, he can't take his eyes off of me...

It was a proper bra, but a flimsy, filmy sort that the rest of the girls had wholeheartedly approved of. Fosi's hardening nipples dragged against the silky fabric as she swayed in view of the man below her, outlined tantalizingly.

There too, something else was hard. Fosi bent inward, knelt between his legs, and pushed Peris back when he jumped to stop her. She tugged at his waistband, took it off his hips.

She gulped, anxiety rising to the forefront again, reminded of the last time she'd seen this thing. But, she lowered her face. It smells clean, maybe a little sweat... That's fine, Peris should smell of sweat.

"You don't have to do that!" Peris said hurriedly.

Her tongue flitted out from her lips and took a ginger lick of the tip, Peris gasped and she nearly giggled. Something was bubbling up from her chest, anxiety evaporating for the new sensation to take its place. I didn't know at the time, it was the first time after all, but his dick really isn't all that big, is it? "It's cute..." she said.

"Cute!?"

It throbbed in her hand, growing a bit harder in protest of her description. She kissed the tip, let the tip of her tongue circle its point. With her other hand, she moved her hair out of her face; getting hair in her mouth wouldn't be pleasant, but... she found that she wanted Peris to see her as she did this.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I'll be very good at it."

Peris said, "You don't have to."

Fosi answered by taking just the tip between her lips and nibbled it gently until Peris was moaning. Even she knew that had to feel good, how almost anything would feel good, as aroused as he was. "I want to," she whispered after popping back off. "You said I could do what I wanted, didn't you?"

"I didn't think- oh!"

She'd trailed a fang lightly across the head of his cock and licked the path to soothe the tingling ache it would leave. For her trouble, a bead of precum dribbled down to be sipped up. His skin was getting slick with saliva, her hand glided up its bulging length to bump on her lips and then back down to the base, squishing and wetting the rest of it. Long, too long to be contained in both her fists, she discovered once she'd swept her hair out of the way and took hold with that hand as well. Still swirling her tongue around the tip, teasing her friend for all she was worth, she sipped each and every bead of fluid that she managed to milk out of him, tasting them for an instant before letting them fall from her mouth and join with the other wetness below.

Saliva bubbled and squished under her fingers, she'd had to moderate herself from milking him too fast. If we're going to do this, I want to do it the right way. I want him to feel good... The throbbing she felt there and Peris' muted gasps drove her on, pride overwhelming anxiety, hushing misgivings.

His hand appeared on her head and she began gently bobbing, pursing her lips and suckling between passes of her tongue as a reward. So, he can touch me after all~ Not that I'm... No... I am happy about that. Her lips turned up at the corners and she could nearly feel her eyes glittering with a glance in his direction. He was being a good boy, holding back; the muscles in his arm tensed, preventing himself from forcing her deeply onto his cock. Fosi didn't know whether she would really mind some rough treatment anymore, from him. The way she was, how hot she felt, she didn't know that she could actually feel pain.

If anything, it would prove that he really wants me.

But she did take him in deeper, a little at a time, letting his throbbing cock lie on the warmth and softness of her tongue as she sucked, waggling along the bottom vein. To get a little deeper, she had to let go with one hand again and used it to play with his heavy balls, bouncing and squeezing just a little in her palm, feeling out the heat of the semen inside, boiling in anticipation. There was the sound of her slurping in her own ears, making herself a slut for him, just for him, just for now, shameless in devotion.

Ahh~ The look of restraint on his face was delicious. He really wanted to thrust his red, hot cock down her throat and pump her stomach full of his seed, he wanted to watch her choke on it, swallow it all down and come back up smiling.

He was going to blow soon enough if she kept it up the way she was. There was a decision to be made, she'd gotten used to the taste of cum, one way or another, and his had been her first taste. That thick, pungent fluid, sticking to the back of her throat and invading her sinuses, warmth in her belly, she could nearly taste it again. She'd hated it before, but...

Fosi's hips were moving on their own, wiggling in the air like a bitch in heat, her thin tail wagged back and forth along with it, a lazy whip's crack. If she was warmed up, doing this on her own, wouldn't it taste good this time?

She was losing her breath, prodding the back of her throat with each bob of her head, and still she hadn't taken in half of his cock. Almost, she almost wanted him to take what he wanted, use her like a toy, use her throat like his personal plaything, stretch it out like he had once before. The throbbing was coming faster and faster, his balls were tightening in her grasp.

There!

In the instant his hips bucked, entirely out of his control, Fosi drew herself up and off his dick, wrapped both hands around the base as firmly as she could, pressing her thumbs down against the underside in the proscribed position given to her the night before. Peris clenched his teeth and thrashed in orgasm, but the waggling tip of his cock ended with no fountain at all. It lasted only a few seconds, Fosi holding on for dear life, but Peris eventually calmed, hands trembling.

Breathless, he said, "What.. was that?"

"A trick." Fosi released the pressure of her thumbs and put her lips back on the tip as his cum was allowed to flow again from a cock that was far too sensitive and twitching at the mere touch of her skin. A few pumps filled her cheeks, a little stroking forced her to either swallow some or let it drain down her chin. With as much of a smile as she could muster, she looked him in the eyes and tipped her chin up, making a show of gulping the rest of it down.

Peris laughed and scooted back toward the headboard, placing the back of his head on the wall behind him before sighing. Following him, Fosi slid her bare breasts across his belly and his chest, settling into his lap once more.

His face is so close...

He put an arm around her back, then swatted her butt through the bunched fabric of her skirt. After she'd yelped, he stroked the spot and held her tighter.

Why's he leaning in?

He set his forehead against hers and right away she knew what he was about to do. Peris only caught a turned cheek with his kiss. "Really?" he asked.

Fosi's lip wobbled. "You're an idiot... You don't want to taste me now."

"Really?" he said again. "But you made it look so delicious. Haha."

His flavor clung to the sides of her throat, she tasted him in every breath, licked her lips. "It's not that I like the taste or anything... in general... It's just that, you see, it's you... So it's alright."

Suddenly, his grip changed and he tried to pull her into another kiss, this time landing on her neck since she'd dodged by looking up.

But- "Stop! That place is dirty too!" she cried, then gasped as she felt Peris' tongue run up the length of her neck, from her collarbone to her jaw. "No~" I'm the one who's supposed to be making you feel good!

He was in her face, staring into her eyes as he swallowed with a grimace. "Pretty bitter, but I already knew that. Fosi, I was an incubus before I was a warrior, at least for a while. Don't I keep saying that you don't have to keep bearing everything alone?"

The next attempt at a kiss, Fosi didn't dodge. There was no difference in in the intensity of his emotion, no inkling of the fact that he was tasting himself on her tongue. It was as if he were saying, 'It's alright, because it's you,' too.

He came off a while later and he and Fosi both rested their chins on one another's shoulders, laughing their nerves away.

"You surprised me there," Peris whispered into Fosi's ear. "You of all people should know how sexy it is to see a woman swallow with so much enthusiasm. Aren't you afraid that I'll pounce on you here and now? I am a demon after all, I do want to."

Slowly, Fosi reared back so that they could again see eye to eye, she brought one hanging hand between them and dropped it between her thighs, ran her fingers along her slit and dipped a couple inside before bringing the hand up. Two fingers glistened with a slick thread of arousal between that she wasn't able to speak of without choking on the words. So, she chose her words carefully. "I came here, didn't I? That's what I was expecting... You've already held back so much..." It hadn't been that long, but his cock already throbbed against her ass with the prospect of breeding on the table. "If it's you, I don't mind..."

"You don't."

She kissed him briefly and said, "... I want it..." Even if nothing can ever come of it, I do want it... "I want to be closer to you, right now."

Yet another kiss. In the time that their eyes were closed, Peris lifted her and guided himself inside, penetrating her and spreading her with a girth that required her to stop a squeal. With care, he let her weight fall, driving himself deeper and deeper until Fosi was barely sitting in his lap again, the tip of his cock tickling her depths.

There was a little pain, even now that she thought she should have been properly loosened by everyone and everything else, as if she were giving some form of virginity to him. But, his soothing heat warmed her from within, all the way to her core and spreading out to her skin, to her fingertips, flowing along with her blood. What kind of face she was making, she couldn't tell, but Peris was clearly interested in it. His own strong, determined expression hovered so closely to hers, close enough to kiss again should the urge strike her.

And she did, felt herself smile as she pulled away.

"I don't know how long I can hold myself back," he said. His cock throbbed inside her impatiently, ravishment held at the gates with beams bending under the pressure. The man wanted to make a mess of Fosi.

She lifted herself nearly off his cock and pierced herself fully again, bowed her forehead to his chest from the effort. "Do it," she managed to croak.

"Are you sure?"

Fosi raised her hand blindly and pinched his face. "Do. It."

In a motion, Peris dumped her to the side and put himself behind her, kicked out her knees with his own. She hadn't gotten past the initial shock before he'd taken her by the waist and thrust again in to the hilt. From the suddenness of the assault on her senses, Fosi dropped her face to the bed's surface, grasping the headboard for dear life just in time for Peris to begin humping.

And he ravaged her like a beast in heat, his hips slapping her ripe ass with each thrust, filling her with his hot meat again and again. The total lack of rhythm left her unable to think, riding along the waves of sensation and drooling into his sheets. No pain anymore, no time for that. Fosi felt nothing but numbing, red-hot pressure rock her core, spreading out to the burning arousal on her skin. She heard her moans clearly, mumbled begging within, incoherent nonsense.

At some point, Peris reached down and put his arm between her breasts, lifted her into his lap to bounce weightlessly on his hard cock. His fingers were in her mouth, she was too happy to do more than nibble, tasted his skin. For her, somehow, a man's sweat had become an aphrodisiac, only this man's, she would hope when she had a lick of sense back.

His other hand trailed down her belly, fingertips landed on that most sensitive nub and she flinched. Fosi grabbed Peris' wrist, but there he remained, his firm touch working her to a froth as he pounded her from behind.

On her back, she felt the heat of his chest, toned muscle sliding across a much softer body. Peris kissed her neck, bit her shoulder in a fit of animalistic passion.

It was coming, she could tell. His pace had already made a mess out of her. Finally, finally she'd know what it was like to be so close with a dear friend.

It's fine, do it inside~ I can't take it much longer, my clit and my pussy, you're driving me insane! Fosi trembled as she felt pleasuring welling up for its finale, tamped it down to keep going, but Peris' fingers pushed her harder than she could compensate for.

Pain and pleasure intermixed, sparkling in her mind like fireworks. Fosi almost missed the sensation of Peris' hot load pumping inside her, splashing against her deepest depths as he buried himself as deeply as he could, holding her in his solid arms so that there was no escape, as if she would want to. Ecstasy ran up and down her skin, dragging her along for the ride as orgasms rolled over on another in waves.

She'd tensed, gone blind until she realized that her eyes had rolled back in orgasmic bliss, trembled weakly in Peris' arms as drowning waves hit her breakwaters and eventually settled to lingering ripples and foam on the surface.

When all was said and done, and she could start catching her breath, Fosi touched herself. Peris was still within her, reluctant to let her go now that they'd finally come together. The amount was... still dribbling out.

"Have to *haa* clean this up... before it stains..." she said, a bad joke now that she wasn't really dressed as a servant anymore.

"I don't care if it does." Peris kissed the mark he'd left on he shoulder, only now starting to ache while it turned into a bruise.

How do you already have your breath back!? She reached up and patted his arm. "I'll still be here once you let go..."

"I know."

-o-

It was some time later that Fosi woke up, still in Peris' grasp.

Lying on his arm in any case. One of them had cared enough to grab a blanket in their shared post-orgasm fugue. She turned to face him, only inches away from his face.

He's actually pretty cute when he's asleep... More womanly. If it weren't for all this muscle, he'd be tempting even for a man. Fosi ran a gentle fingertip down Peris' chest, across his abs within the heat-suffused darkness between them. Now what? Am I supposed to leave? Her heart beat a nervous tune despite the level she'd sunk to, gladly, for this man. There's no way that I can go back to sleep now. I guess, it's not uncomfortable or anything to be right here. Actually, it's comfortable... Damn, I feel... safe?

Suddenly, she was staring directly into his handsome eyes.

Not safe, not safe!

"All of that exhaustion really caught up to us at once, didn't it?" Peris said. His sleepy smile made Fosi touch her own lip in remembrance, pinked her cheeks. "Well, I can't say I had more planned for our day together, it might be for the best that we slept through it all."

He started to get up, but Fosi grabbed his arm and anchored him there with her. She couldn't bring herself to keep looking.

He said, "We should check whether we're out of time, don't you think?"

Fosi shook her head.

"I don't think they'll be able to keep Suvir from breaking down my door if we stay in here past that point."

Fosi set her forehead on his chest. "Why do you keep bringing her up?"

Peris cocked his head. "... Really?"

"I don't think she'll be jealous that I'm taking you from her like this. At least, I think she understands..."

He laughed, Fosi felt the rumble through his chest, could almost see his smirk in her mind's eye. "Wow, you are dumb, aren't you? I didn't want to consider the possibility, but that makes a lot of this make more sense in retrospect."

"Whatever. Just don't break her heart, if you can help it."

Another small laugh. "Anything for my lady."

"Stop it~" Fosi whined. A firm hand pressed against her back, petted her, felt nice... "Now what?"

He shrugged. "I hadn't planned past cuddling until we were missed."

"Don't expect to be in my bed every day from now on..." Not that I could stop you; I don't have that kind of willpower anymore.

"This is my bed, lover."

Fosi reared up and proudly nibbled on his collarbone. "It's my castle, so everything inside it is mine."

"Including me?"

Their hug tightened via mutual effort. "Especially you," she said. "From now until the day we die, you belong to me. I won't let you go."

"So you're the one proposing now?"

Her face burned, but the embarrassment faded quickly as her thoughts flew forward through time, to the event in question. "Probably a few hundred years, ten or eleven, don't you think? Until the stars are right again for another try at fulfilling the prophesy? We did have plans, didn't we, for the time in-between?"

"Like that tourist town we'd talked about once, for diplomacy reasons?"

"Let's do that," Fosi said. "I want to live there, in the sort of place that we would create right on the other side of the sea. I've wanted to go back into the human lands for a while now, leave the atavists to fight and sharpen their fangs as much as they want as they wait for the true lord to arrive. Even I've never really liked living in this outpost..."

She felt Peris' fingers gliding through her hair, smoothing out the messy curls that they had made together. If the rest of her life was destined to be like this, confined to this body, given unto its senses, and she could rest for once in her life, now she felt that she could without shame. Her toes wiggled happily without instruction, her hips had clung to Peris' side in anticipation, and her mind was as placid waters.

He said, "I'll start making preparations for the move, and construction of the new settlement immediately."

But Fosi held his arm. "Not immediately... Don't leave me."

-o-

It all seemed that it should have been harder, but the next few days as plans came into effect were easy as falling. Fosi, as the princess, was to move to a settlement elsewhere, in what civilization existed on the coast, and bring the court of the demon king along with her. The jeweled collar was explained to all present as a magic item allowing her to switch places temporarily with her father. Avlakoi had "secluded himself for the purpose of spiritual cultivation in a secret location" and was to be bothered only for the greatest emergencies, as defined by Fosi, of course.

The princess' guard expanded by tens immediately, including one beak-faced fellow who bashfully came and bowed his head to Fosi in person; she'd kissed his head because it felt natural and had to spend a while petting a pouting Suvir in her lap afterward. More allies than she thought she had popped up and up, vetted by Kaffe and Peris as good soldiers and long-time admirers of Avlakoi. Fosi heard more embarrassing praise for the man than she'd heard in her previous life all at once, it took some effort to keep down the welling tears of relief.

Suvir was more than happy to move farther from her father's kingdom, happier than that to be moving to the coast, where all of the cultural imports (read: raided goods and supplication) came into port. The girl had gone on and on with Merrili when they thought nobody was listening about how they'd be able to stay on the cutting edge of style from then on. Those publications from the human realms, Fosi decided to investigate whether they should be counted as propaganda, and then encourage their import.

Still, there were trials on the horizon, Fosi could see them peeking. Plans started eons ago at least would one day come to roost, and Avlakoi would have to return and face fate.

Until then, Fosi thought she might as well fall back, let her friends catch her, and be happy.

The End.