Warning: Content of a lemony scent this chapter. Nothing too intense just . . . NFWS.
Chapter Twenty-Two
In Haste and In Need
Archer swallowed hard as that small hand rested against his cheek. There was slight warmth radiating from those fingertips and the touch felt like heaven against his skin. His head turned ever so slightly, seeking more of this contact that wasn’t painful or life threatening. His voice was low even to his ears as he said, “Go ahead.”
Eyes like emerald pools deep enough to drown in met his and locked his gaze. His breath caught at the earnestly of her gaze as she gazed upon him. Time froze for the briefest of moments as his eyes traveled over her face, the fall of her golden hair against her fair skin, and the increasing intensity in her eyes.
“If these feelings were only due to my body’s natural reactions, then why do I only feel this way around you?”
Archer felt his mouth drop open and his eyes widened as Saber continued to loom over
him, still looking down at him with that expression. Before he could find words, she rested a finger over his lips and said in a clear voice, “I also enjoying being around you. I find you vexing and confusing at times, but you make me feel. Being with you does not bring me shame nor guilt, and more just my body’s natural reactions, I find myself more and more wanting to be with you.”
A smile crossed her lips as she lifted her finger from his lips, her touch causing him to gasp as his body seemed to sizzle with it. He stared at her for a moment, before looking away. Fingers gripped the sheet beside him as his heart raced. “Saber,” he said after a moment before looking back at her.
Those glorious eyes of hers were wide and looking at him with such hope. Then he reached his hand up and ran it through her flowing, golden hair. A sigh escaped her parted lips as she leaned against his touch, her eyes closing as her cheeks flushed ever so slightly. The sight of it made his breath catch as it felt every centimeter of his being was tingling and aware.
With Avalon between them, he couldn’t move his other arm to hold her. He sighed at the feel of silken hair between his fingers and stroked the gilded strands. The fall of hair fell to the middle of her back now, not as long as Rin’s or Sakura’s, but longer than it had been. He closed his own eyes and said, “I’m glad.”
“. . . That is good,” Saber said, her voice lighter than it had been moments ago.
He opened his eyes to find her looking at him again and he nodded. “I want to fight by your side. I want to be your sword when you do not want to take arms,” he said in a soft voice, “And I want to make you smile when no one else can.”
Slim arms wrapped around his neck and suddenly his nostrils were full of the scent of water, steel, and lavender. There was a slight weight on his chest that brought a sharp spurt of pain, but he ignored his healing ribs and moved his hand to grip her back. It felt as if a large weight had been lifted from his shoulders as the words came out oh so easily.
“I know we can’t change our pasts, but maybe we can make a future that we’ll want to live in,” he whispered into her ear.
He was rewarded with a gasp and a shiver as she held him even more tightly. Her head nodded against his neck and some of the pressure was lifted as she looked at him. “I know you keep your own council, Archer, but . . . I would like to repay the favor you have given me,” Saber said as she moved her face even closer to his until he was surrounded by a curtain of golden silk surrounding Saber’s lovely face.
My name was Emiya Shirou. You were everything I wanted to be when I was a boy. Now that I’ve seen the woman under the knight, I want to be with you, he thought. Yet the words were left unspoken, as they were always left unspoken. It was different than with Rin, who had known who he was, or with Sakura and Emiya Shirou himself who knew but didn’t acknowledge it much, or Rider who seemed to delight in the fact and tease him about it. Somehow he felt if he confessed to Saber she wouldn’t think the same about him anymore. That she would regret her actions and simply leave him.
Or would send her even farther down her spiral and she would have been utterly lost to him. Not just for me to save either, I am not losing her. I’m not losing this precious thing again, he thought as he cupped her cheek. Her eyes closed again as she leaned down, as if she was sensing what he wanted.
Then her lips descended against his.
******
Saber gasped at the first touch of Archer’s lips against hers. Her blood was roaring in her veins, her heart pounding like a hammer, and she felt oddly light and heavy at the same time. Her head was swimming with the scent of steel, leather, and forge smoke that was only slightly tainted with blood. He tasted oddly like tea and something bitter she couldn’t put her name on.
Then his lips moved with hers and she shivered at the electric touch. It felt so good to do this, to touch her lips to his and to feel his move in return. Then there was a wet probing that made her lips part instinctively and she almost cried out at the sensation of the gentle intrusion of Archer’s tongue in her mouth.
Her body seemed to melt at the simplicity of it, and then he coaxed her own in motion with his, to taste and tease as he was doing to her. Nerves were firing off in ways she had never felt before and her skin was tingling as their lips and tongues danced in harmony together. That strange ache hit her, even stronger than it had before, and she felt her nipples scrape against the fabric of her shirt.
Between her thighs she felt an aching hollow and she could feel wetness seeping from her body.
Then Archer pulled away and she was panting for breath as she looked down at him. Fire roared up in her cheeks to surpass the one racing within her veins as she caught her breath. He smiled as his eyes gleamed like newly forged steel before his thumb brushed against her swollen lips. The caress made her shiver and gasp before she placed a kiss against the digit’s pad of flesh.
A groan passed his lips as his eyes closed and his lips parted. Saber blinked before flicking her tongue against it, mirroring the motions it had made with Archer’s moments before. She could feel his large body shudder at that and she repeated the motion before kissing it again. “Saber . . .” he said before groaning.
“You have sensitive hands,” she said with a smile before sliding on top of his large body. I will remember this for later, she thought with a sudden thrill before moving to kiss him again. Now that Avalon wasn’t pinned between them, two muscular arms wrapped around her as she swept her mouth against his. His warmth, even though there were several layers of fabric between them, was like a brand against her skin. Something long, hard, thick, and nearly scorching hot poked her rear from where she had straddled him.
Heat flooded her even more as her core seemed to flutter, clinching greedily at nothing as they continued to kiss. His nimble fingers moved up and down her spine, sending tiny flickers of pleasure through her, before his fingers dug into her. His lips moved away from hers as a painful hiss left his lips and she realized she wasn’t being poked anymore.
An all too familiar, coppery smell filled the air and Saber looked down to see the white sheets around Archer’s side reddening ever so slightly. A tiny cry left her lips as she moved off of him. She stared at him and said, “Archer, I apologize . . . I . . .”
“I think we both got too excited,” he said with a pained smile before stroking her hair back.
Saber bit her lip and said, “Indeed, in my haste I forgot the real reason why we were in this bed together.”
“Maybe I should send that bastard a thank you card,” Archer said with a chuckle before wincing.
She rested her hand against his chest and said, “You need to rest. I am sorry, it was not my intention to go so far.”
“Maybe it was a good thing,” he said with a small smile as she moved to his side again.
She tilted her head and asked, “How so?”
“We shouldn’t rush into this,” Archer said as he stroked her hair again.
Heat filled her cheeks as she realized that was exactly what she was doing. “I . . . just have no idea what I am doing, and . . . you enjoyed what just happened as well,” she said before ducking her head.
“I know, which means I need to be the responsible one,” Archer said before pressing a kiss against her forehead.
She felt that flutter at the simple contact again and that ache in her core was still throbbing. It was distracting and she couldn’t just force it out of her system with training, not when she needed to be present with Avalon to heal him. She asked, “What do you mean?”
He adjusted that he was on his side, pain flashing across his handsome face as he looked at her. He said, “We shouldn’t just . . . jump into this. We should let things build and take their time, and I can ease you into things. I don’t want you scared, or worse hurt.”
“I know a maiden’s first time always hurts, Archer, I’m not that ignorant,” she said with a frown. Guinevere had informed me of that much, but she had also told me that it was worth it to be with Lancelot. Because of her feelings towards him. I am sure it will be the same way with Archer. Not simply because of my body overreacting and over compensating due to Avalon.
He said, “Just trust me.”
“I do trust you, just . . . this is driving me to distraction or worse. I ache and I know not how to ease it,” she said with a huff as she folded her arms across her chest. “I train and train, but that just exhausts me and does not truly drive it away.”
Gray eyes blinked before he met her gaze and held it. He swallowed as color filled his own cheeks and he said in a rush, “At . . . at least I could take care of that for you for now. If you want. I mean, it’ll come back, but at least maybe it will help you sleep. It’ll feel strange at first and . . .” He drew off before looking down and muttering, “I can’t believe I just did that.”
Saber blinked and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Ah . . . well, there’s more ways to seek pleasure than just sex. I mean, I can use my fingers to um . . . well . . .,” Archer drew off again, his cheeks turning even redder.
Saber blinked and asked, “What about you?”
“I’m too sore to worry about right now, but at least I can make you feel better. Besides . . .” Archer’s eyes met hers as his said, “I want to. I want to make you feel better. Since it’s sort of my fault in the first place.”
Saber stared at him and asked, “You want to?”
“Yes,” he answered, the word low and all but growling.
His response sent shivers down her spine and she felt herself clinch again. Wetness was weeping from her core and she knew not how to respond to it. She knew from her knights that a woman did this to help prepare to take a man into her body. It was natural for this to happen, but until recently she had not felt this way before. She nodded, swallowed and asked, “What do I need to do?”
“Relax and let this happen. If you fight it, it won’t happen. When the time comes, just let your body go,” Archer said in a soft voice before his lips were on hers again.
She gasped as she returned the kiss. It was so easy to do so, and while it fueled the fire within her, it still felt utterly wonderful. There was a closeness she had never thought possible as their lips, tongues, and teeth dueled and joined as one. She was moved to her back and she did not fight it as Archer’s hand trailed down her neck, between her aching breasts and to the waist band of her sleeping pants.
Saber jolted and felt her eyes widen as she looked at him as his scorching fingers slid under the fabric. His gray eyes locked with hers and he asked, “May I touch you here, Saber?”
Heat filled her cheeks again as she closed her eyes and nodded. He wanted to touch her in a place that no one else had seen before, where she never really touched other than necessary cleansings. It had been something she had hated for so long, something that so marked her as not the man her country needed to be. And Archer wanted to touch her in such a shameful place.
A feather light touch drifted over the curls that covered such a place and she felt a shot of lightning quicken in her core. Her hands flew to her face as she felt one nimble finger part her open and skim the soaked flesh below. Muscles quivered as the foreign feeling of being caressed against soft folds made her squirm.
“Oh god, you’re so wet,” Archer said in a low, growling voice before kissing any protest she could flounder silent.
There was a slight burning sensation as a finger prodded inside of her that made her hips jolt at the odd fullness. A gasp left her lips at the queer feeling before the pressure was gone as quickly as it came. The digit traveled up before circling a tiny nub at the apex of her sex. She felt something brush that and her senses flashed white.
She gasped as he did it again. Over and over his finger began to stroke that little crux as an odd pressure began to fill her. She rose higher and higher with it, the tension rising within her. Higher and higher, until she was quivering and tense with it, drawn tight with this feeling that she couldn’t describe.
Then with one final caress she shattered.
Every ounce of her fired at once as she cried out with the force of it. Her body quivered, trembled, and clinched over and over again. Bliss overwhelmed her as the spasms rocked through her system as she found herself pressed against his hand helplessly. The only option she had was to buck and tremble as her vision flashed white.
There were a few tiny aftershocks before she collapsed upon the bed. She was gasping for breath, her body hot and sweaty, but the ache was gone, the tension released. One last caress from Archer made her shiver before he moved his hand from her.
He was blurry in her vision as she felt heaviness fill her limbs as he rested against her. Her voice was hoarse when she asked, “What . . . what did you do to me?”
“I’m sorry,” Archer said as he looked away, blushing again.
Saber felt weariness start to pull at her as she rested her head against his shoulder. “. . . Thank you,” she said after a moment.
Archer stroked her hair and said, “I really didn’t mind doing that. You don’t have to thank me.”
Saber looked up at him, blushed, and said, “Well . . . I have a bit more understanding now.”
Archer smiled and said, “Good. We’ll talk more tomorrow, when we’re both thinking more clearly.”
“I would like that,” she said as she found herself pillowed against Archer, despite Avalon. As sleep began to overtake her, she thought, You were right Gwen. It is wonderful and amazing.
Elf's Notes: First off, this chapter was an utter bitch to write. I mean, really. Like the obvious answer would have been to have them go right into love making after Archer's confession/promise/almost him proposing to be her house husband forever. Except, you know, Archer's kinda banged up right now.
And Saber's probably never masturbated, and it feels weird at first when someone touches you for the first time anyway.
So, I'm kinda unhappy with this chapter. A lot.
Originally Posted by rajvir
). That being the case, I think the next one will be easier.
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