She's a living spiral, swirling and pulsing endlessly around him. It's gotten so Leo can't quite tell where Karai's scales end and his begin, they're so tangled up. Her coils shimmer in the low candlelight as they press in around him, keeping him warm and lighting up the shadows.
"It's like you're made of stars," he whispers, running his fingers down her warm, smooth scales. She laughs, the sound rippling through her body.
Leo frowns as he looks up at her, peering into deep green eyes. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing. Just...." She runs a hand through his mask tails. "It's like you haven't even changed."
"Of course not," he says, leaning into the touch. Her hands are snakes right now, too, and they lap at his face with gentle tongues. He knows she could kill him if she wanted to, but he's not afraid. He'd never be afraid. "I've always been me."
"Yeah..." And her voice is--what? Distant? Sad? Confused? She's looking off over his shoulders, as if searching for something she's lost.
He doesn't want to see that, he realizes. He wants her to be happy. Leo reaches up and tugs her into a kiss, brushing his fingers down her chest. Her body ripples at his touch, scales melting away to reveal soft breasts.
"Leo-- ah..." She sighs as he toys with her nipples, curling close against his chest. The swirl and ripple of coils around them picks up, rubbing against Leo's skin until he starts to tremble.
When they come up for air her face is flushed cherry-blossom pink. Only...it's not all on her cheeks, and it's not all pink. There's blood on her chin, staining her mouth. Leo glances at her breasts and sees blood there, too.
"Karai?" He stares at his hands, at what they're stained with. "What--"
"We were hunting, love," she says, fingers shifting to human as she lifts his chin. Her eyes are like her coils, spiraling forever. It's wonderful; he could watch them all day.
And yet, he has to ask.... "Why? Why do we need to hunt"
"There was a war," she explains, sounding tired, as if they've had this conversation before. "And there's not much left to live off on. You and I, we survive how we can."
"Oh." His hands twitch at the mention of war. "Why can't I remember?"
She shrugs, reaching up to take his palms. Her hands rub over his wrists, over the old scars there. "You can't remember too much at time, or you'll leave me," she says quietly. "You'd go looking for what was lost, and I'd be alone, and I can't have that."
Her fingers trace the lines of his scars. Straight, precise lines, as if made with purpose. What was the purpose?
Karai laughs, a strange and fractured sound. "I guess we really do become our fathers in the end, huh?"
He frowns, cocking his head. "Karai?"
"Shhh....it's okay." Her hand traces across his chin, his lips, under his eyes. His head falls to the side and he stares down at the coils, watching them pulse. The spiral pulls him down, down, down, into quiet waters.
The Greeks said the river Lethe could watch your memories clean, someone says in his mind. He can't remember who.
When he straightens up he's struck all over again by how powerful she is, how beautiful. And how sad. Like a princess in a fairytale, swept up by ugly shadows. He can't bear the sight.
"Don't," he whispers, reaching up to her. He plants soft, worshipful kisses over her face, her neck, her breasts, her stomach, down to the soft pulsing heat of her. "Please don't be sad."
When he loks back at her there are tears sparkling in her eyes, but she's smiling, a real smile. "All right," she whispers, pulling him close. "I won't, Leo. For you."
They kiss and touch, bodies melting together in the shadows of a fallen world. Leo's world is blood and scales and the scent of perfection, and he can't imagine ever wanting anything else.