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But after weeks of barely seeing her, Tibas has had enough. A lover’s squabble turns into a reckoning about time, devotion, and what it truly means to be present in a marriage that never should have been ordinary...\n\n-----\nQuick reminder that this is the last month for all of you to participate in the [url=https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3TMMP7D]poll for my upcoming work[/url]. I'll be closing it out when I make my regular post in April. :) Big thank you to those who've already tossed your two-cents into the pot, and I look forward to answering the character questions! =^_^=\n\n[url=http://www.postybirb.com]Posted using PostyBirb[/url]", "description_bbcode_parsed": "As their marriage settles into comfortable routine, Nellie becomes increasingly lost in her work.  But after weeks of barely seeing her, Tibas has had enough. A lover’s squabble turns into a reckoning about time, devotion, and what it truly means to be present in a marriage that never should have been ordinary...

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Quick reminder that this is the last month for all of you to participate in the poll for my upcoming work.  I'll be closing it out when I make my regular post in April.  :)  Big thank you to those who've already tossed your two-cents into the pot, and I look forward to answering the character questions!  =^_^=

Posted using PostyBirb", "writing": "[b]Lover’s Squabble[/b]\n\nTibas sipped slowly from his glass, looking disappointed at the beautifully golden-roasted chicken on the plate in front of him, nested between honey-glazed carrots, green beans sautéed in garlic, and herbal mashed potatoes. It looked like it would have been absolutely delicious. But now it was cold.\n\nAn empty plate sat beside the Cougar, at the head of the table, just on the off chance she might show up. Nellie had been increasingly absent from their meals for the last several days...and that was the most tolerable part, honestly. Her husband was starting to lose track of how long it had been since he’d last woken up with the lovely Unicorn beside him in bed. Their increasingly sparse interactions were always pleasant and even warm (Tibas still couldn’t seem to help melting into a little puddle of starry-eyed pleasure every time Nellie dropped her disguise and flashed a smile at him), but the gaps between them had grown...concerning, at least to him.\n\nHe’d tried hard to wait for her tonight. He was tired of eating alone. With a sigh, he set down his glass of champagne and demanded, “Where is she?”\n\nOne of the servants standing beside the door to the kitchen, dutifully waiting to refill his glass, bring him more food, or nearly anything else he requested, quickly answered, “Sir, the lady is at her work at the moment.”\n\nThe Cougar rubbed a hand over his face and reminded himself that her servants did [i]not[/i], in fact, deliberately play coy. “Yes, obviously. I mean where does she [i]do[/i] that? It’s been six years, and I’ve never once seen her workshop...or lab...whatever you call it.” He hadn’t needed to, of course, just like she’d never had cause to visit his bakery. Whatever curiosity he had about her work space was mild at best, and he didn’t understand the business of potion-making well enough to [i]be[/i] suitably impressed by whatever fancy equipment she definitely had there. But tonight...\n\nHe raised his hand just as the Tiger he was addressing was about to answer, and got to his feet. “You know, just take me there. I need to talk to her.”\n\nThe servant quirked a brow, but bowed and gestured for him to follow, leading him out of the dining-room and down the hallway toward the northern wing of the villa. Tibas realized that he rarely came to this part of the house. Everything he and Nellie required for their daily lives seemed to be located in the southern wing. The Cougar had somehow always assumed the northern wing was for the servants’ quarters...which was silly, the instant he thought about it, given that he [i]also[/i] knew they lived in the houses lining the avenue leading up to the villa.\n\nAll of the doors in this hallway were closed, and Tibas didn’t care at the moment to even try to guess what lay behind them. He followed close behind the Tiger leading him, until they descended a short flight of stairs at the end of the hall, which terminated in a much shorter hall with exactly three doors. Considering what he [i]did[/i] know of the villa’s grounds, Tibas couldn’t shake the feeling that this little extension actually lay underground at the furthest tip of the northern wing, not quite as far as the pool-house outside.\n\nA Zebra standing beside the door to their left inclined her head in greeting as they approached, making it immediately clear which door Nellie was working behind. The Tiger that had led him here politely knocked. “Madam, your husband wishes to see you, please,” he announced loudly, sparing Tibas the trouble. A muted answer from the other side of the thick door asked them to wait a few minutes. The Tiger posted himself on the other side of the door from the Zebra as if that had been his assigned station all day long.\n\nTibas waited (he thought) patiently. But as his foot tapped off more than one minute, or even two, his tail began to lash behind him in visible agitation. After a few minutes, he was actively fighting the temptation to go back to the table and just his eat his dinner without her...again. It was entirely possible part of his irritation was due to being hungry, after all. Maybe he’d feel better...\n\nBut the thought of that empty plate beside his, just a place-holder for the woman he wished was there, made his lip curl. With a huff, he reached for the door instead.\n\nA striped hand caught his wrist before he could pull it open. “Sir, she really must not be disturbed in this room,” the Tiger cautioned. Tibas frowned at the man, taking a quick measure of him. Even if his memory was failing him, and this was [i]not[/i] one of the servants she took along when she wanted “security”, just a glance at his tall, muscular frame dispelled any illusions Tibas might be entertaining about pushing past him by force. And while her servants were ostensibly [i]his[/i] servants now, he understood that was strictly out of respect for their marriage. If it came down to it, he wouldn’t count on any of them to support him over Nellie.\n\nIronically, that knowledge was just what gave him the courage to look the man in the eyes with a stern frown. “[i]As[/i] her husband,” he asked softly, “Do you really have any right to refuse me opening this door?”\n\nMuch to his surprise, the hand on his wrist let go almost as quickly as it had caught him. “No, sir,” came the quiet answer, as though the restraint a moment ago had merely been a gesture of courtesy.\n\nWith a relieved exhale, Tibas pulled the door open and stepped through. “Look, Nellie,” he started before his eyes had even adjusted to the (surprising) dark on the other side, “I’m sorry to interr—?”\n\nThe light from the door cut a sharp rectangle out of the darkness. In that illumination he saw her sitting naked on a stool beside a tall table, a glass flask in one hand and a tiny bottle in the other, beside a large plastic bin with the top open. But what actually [i]registered[/i] to his sight was her face: a mix of confusion and horror, like a mouse caught in the pantry by a cat.\n\nThe containers in her hand fell to the table before words even left her lips: “[i]SHUT THE DOOR!![/i]” She grabbed the lid to the tub and slammed it down like whatever was inside might try to escape, and Tibas pulled the door closed so quickly it slammed in its frame. The room plunged into near-total darkness, lit only by the dim blue glow of his wife’s horn, too faint for him to have seen in the overwhelming light of the hall with the door open. When his slitted eyes adjusted to the dark, he found her peeking into the corner of the tub.\n\nGnashing her teeth, she sealed the lid again and also snapped shut a smaller box behind it. Then the light of her horn flared brightly, seemingly just to make sure he could clearly see the hot glare she shot at him. “Tibas! [i]What [/i]— why did you — ?!”\n\nIt was rare for her to be unable to find her words. Tibas couldn’t actually remember having seen it before. For a second, he felt guilty for startling her, but the fact that she [i]still[/i] seemed to be working even knowing he was waiting outside spurred him to retort, “Why?! I haven’t seen your face for [i]three days[/i], that’s why! Why haven’t you come to dinner?”\n\nRubbing a hand briskly down her long face, she pointed to the stool she’d practically jumped from in her desperation to close the tub. “Sit. Wait. I have to make a call,” she instructed like he was a child about to be scolded.\n\nHe did as he was told, but with his teeth grit as they passed each other, him to the stool and her to the phone on the wall beside the door. Nellie’s tail lashed the back of her thigh once as she picked up the receiver, and she paused for a deep breath to get a handle on her voice before swiftly dialing a number, then flicking on the room’s single light.\n\nThe small room was lined with wooden shelves, her discarded dress and undergarments hanging from the corner of the one nearest the door. Most of these were stuffed to the brim with large, plastic tubs like the one on the edge of the table right now. Each of them was neatly labeled, but not in Heartherran characters, so the Cougar had no idea what they contained. One line of shelves, about level with Nellie’s hips, housed various burners and beakers, tongs and jars, mortars and neatly folded packets of paper. The roof overhead, surprisingly, appeared to be simple packed dirt, barely supported by a thin mesh stretched from corner to corner. The polished concrete floor was littered with bits of soil that had fallen in on it. Roots grew down through the mesh, and some of them seemed to have had the bark peeled from them in spots.\n\nNellie spoke into the phone as whoever she was calling picked up the line. “Hello, Emara. It’s Nellienemare. ... A pleasure to hear yours, too. Listen, I’ve had a mishap in my dark-room while filling an order of [i]evenimbria[/i]. My entire stock of ghost-wings is spoiled.” She nodded at whatever was said in answer to that, rubbing her forehead beneath her horn. “Yes, exactly. Naturally, I’ll pay double what I charge the clients. Also, if it’s not too much trouble, could you send me some spores, so I can rebuild my stock? ... That’s very generous of you. Thank you. I’ll send over the formula and the client’s information shortly. Thank you again.”\n\nHanging up the phone, she flashed a narrow look at her husband. “Just to be clear,” the Unicorn began slowly, “That was a very costly ‘mishap’, even for me. To the tune of four million,” she announced coldly, and Tibas felt his whiskers droop a little at the number, “So [i]please[/i] tell me what was so important that it couldn’t wait for me to finish pouring what portion I had liquefied into bottles and get them safely hidden from the light.”\n\n“...I’m sorry,” the Cougar apologized first and foremost, “But—”\n\n“I don’t doubt it,” she interrupted with a shake of her mane, still hot in her own fury. Marching around beside him to pry the lid from the tub again, she tilted it up to where he could see the contents. The whole bottom was covered in a thick layer of mud, out of which grew some sort of crescent-shaped mushrooms on short stalks, white from stem to cap and speckled with blue spots. “These are called ghost-wings. They are supposed to be silvery and lustrous. In the wild, they grow only in [i]very[/i] deep caves, and are [i]extremely[/i] sensitive to light. That’s true of practically everything in this room,” she swept a hand around to all the other opaque tubs. “I have to adjust the hue and radiance of my horn for each of them. And now, I will not be able to fill [i]any[/i] order that calls for this ingredient for at least a year, as I set up a new culture to harvest from.” Closing the lid on the tub again, she pulled another stool around from the other side of the table and sat on it, arms crossed over her bare breasts and legs crossed to hide anything that might be considered ‘distracting’ (if he didn’t find absolutely [i]all[/i] of her body distracting, anyway). “Now, please answer my question.”\n\nIt suddenly seemed so petty. Like a child seeking attention from its mother. Naturally, if he’d known how delicate the work she was doing at the time was, he would have waited longer.\n\nOf course, he didn’t have any idea how much longer she would need, or if she would just move right on to some other task when this one was complete. That had been the whole problem that brought him down here in the first place. Tibas’ tail flicked in agitation as straightened up his posture, and tried not to feel embarrassed as he stated simply, “I miss you, Nellie. More than that, I’m [i]worried[/i] about you. You realize I haven’t actually seen you in [i]days[/i], right? I don’t know when you eat, or when you sleep, or [i]if[/i] you’re eating or sleeping! Your staff has made it quite clear that you don’t need any of these things as often as I do, and I generally trust them...but how would I know if you’re pushing yourself too hard?”\n\nShaking his head slowly, Tibas rubbed his face with a grimace and admitted, “No...all of that is true, but the truest thing is just that I miss you. It’s been,” he paused to do a quick count in his head, as best he could, “Nearly two months since we’ve been to bed together. At least six weeks since we so much as sat down to a movie, or a book, or shared a walk in the hedge-maze. It’s like you moved out of the house,” he sighed, “And whenever I ask to spend an evening together, you point to that stack of cards you’ve got beside your dinner-plate, and cite the work you have to finish.”\n\nTaking a deep breath, Tibas crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look at her just as sternly as she was looking at him...though it was hard to stare at that beautiful face, look into those deep, soulful eyes, and feel anything except the fear of seeing them cry. “I said once that it would be like having a puppy, when I married you. Has the novelty worn off already? Am I not worth your time?”\n\nThat seemed to have struck a nerve, finally, as her frown broke into wide-eyed surprise. Nellie looked him up and down, from ears to toes, as if checking to make sure she was still looking at her husband. Then she slid out of her seat and took him by the hand with one of hers, snapping her fingers sharply with the other. The Zebra pulled the door open for them...and accepted the box Nellie pushed into his hands (the one that had been sitting behind the tub when Tibas walked in). “Deliver that to Emara Frostneigh, immediately,” she instructed, never breaking stride and practically dragging her husband along behind her.\n\nHe didn’t resist, but his ears flattened a little as they made their way closer to the front door. “Nellie—?”\n\n“[i]Hush[/i],” she hissed sharply, though the squeeze she gave his captive hand seemed to be meant as encouraging, “This is not a talk for others’ ears.” It wasn’t the door she was leading him to, but they had to go through the front part of the villa before turning down the hall into the southern wing, toward their private chambers. After pulling him inside, she stepped back around him to close and lock the door. Then, leaning her back against it and crossing her arms over her breasts one more time, she frowned up at her husband. “Look me in the eyes,” she insisted firmly, though in a calmer tone than she’d used back in her workshop, “And say that one more time.”\n\nTruth be told, despite still being plenty irritated himself, a large part of him just wanted to reach out and hug her, and apologize profusely for being so selfish. But he knew her well enough by now to know she would not appreciate having her instructions ignored. So he pulled himself up as straight as he could, and faced her as well as a man is able to face the love of his life when he knows she is furious with him. “I asked if I’m not worth your time anymore.”\n\n“And the rest,” Nellie clarified, meeting his eyes without so much as blinking.\n\nTibas grimaced, but added, “I said it would be like having a puppy...more like [i]being[/i] a puppy, actually. Has the novelty worn off?” he asked again, sincerely.\n\nShe searched his eyes for a long minute, as if scouring his thoughts for some dishonesty, before tilting her own head to the side. “...I really did that to you, didn’t I?” she finally asked, quietly. “I [i]have[/i] lost track of the days. How long have you been putting up with this?”\n\nThe Cougar exhaled a slow breath, rubbing the tension out of the back of his neck. Her voice was calm again, and thoughtful in that way she usually was when her attention was wholly undivided, and the familiar tone had a calming effect on him. “It’s felt kind of bad for a while now,” he admitted vaguely, “I thought you were mad at me at first, but the servants kept assuring me that I was ‘in good standing’. You were at least talkative and attentive at breakfast and dinner...[i]or[/i] breakfast, [i]or[/i] dinner,” he emphasized to highlight her increasing habit of skipping one or the other, at least while he was taking it. “Eventually I just told myself you must be in a busy period with your work. And then you basically disappeared.”\n\nNellie nodded slowly, denying none of it, but moved over to the love-seat near the middle of the room and took a seat on her usual side. She patted the other half of the padded seat, silently requesting him to join her...which Tibas was only too happy to oblige. “I am sorry, dear,” his wife apologized sincerely as he sat down, “I suppose it’s been too long since I lived with a mortal who needed my attention, instead of devoting his to me. I’m used to spending weeks at a time at my work, without a thought for anything outside of it.” Though her eyes still held some lingering anger, Nellie leaned toward him and nuzzled his cheek with her broad, soft nose. “Thank you for worrying, but I promise I don’t neglect myself even at the worst of times. You, on the other hand...I have neglected quite shamefully, without even realizing it.”\n\n“And I’m sorry I lost my temper,” he answered with a purr already starting up in his voice, just glad to feel her touch again for a moment. “It’s alright.”\n\n“It is not,” his wife argued, leaning back to give him a (much softer) frown again. “If you [i]were[/i] a puppy, it still wouldn’t be right to just hand you off to the servants to care for, until I felt like paying you some attention. As my [i]husband[/i], it is...well, just the sort of thing that breaks a marriage. I won’t stand for it,” she insisted as if they were talking about someone [i]else[/i]’s poor behavior in their house.\n\nThat was reassuring to hear, Tibas had to admit. She wasn’t the sort to say that kind of thing idly, which meant she was already considering how to address the problem. Whatever faults his wife possessed (and there were very few, in his eyes), refusing to take responsibility was certainly not one of them. If anything, she might be a little too harsh with herself.\n\n“Thank you for understanding why I was upset,” he sighed, the last of his own anger completely dissipated in that breath, “But you didn’t deserve for it to interfere with your work. I won’t let that happen again,” he promised in turn.\n\nNellie rocked her head thoughtfully. “Any room but [i]that[/i] one, and you’re well within your rights to barge in. I work with delicate materials sometimes, but nothing else that can be destroyed by merely opening the door.” She waved off whatever assurance he was about to voice before it left his lips. “It was an expense, but not the [i]problem[/i], which we still need to address.” Leaning against the armrest, she met his eyes thoughtfully with her cheek propped on her palm. “Not to sound cold, but how often [i]do[/i] you need my attention? Many of my potions require several hours at a time to concoct a single dose, and some clients have large orders. It’s not surprising for me to spend the better part of a week at the worktable, breaking only for meals.”\n\nTibas ran his hand over the top of his head as he thought about it. “At least spare enough time to share dinner. Please. That’s not asking too much, right? I wouldn’t even mind if you talked to me about your work while we ate. It’d be a good chance to warn me if you’re about to start something you can’t just bring to a screeching halt, actually.”\n\nHis wife tilted her head with a dubious look. “That’s more than reasonable, but is it really enough just to see my face? I expected you’d require more physical contact.”\n\n“Don’t undersell that face of yours, Nellie,” the Cougar chuckled with a sincere smile, “Not that I’ll complain about the other thing, but that’s where men have a tendency to get very [i]un[/i]reasonable. And I’m no exception. If you’ll just come to dinner, though, I’ll at least have a chance to tell you when I start craving more.”\n\nNellie looked at him for several minutes, as though waiting for the rest of a thought he hadn’t spoken yet. When he really seemed willing to leave it at that, she reached out with her free hand to lightly scratch the underside of his chin, eliciting a fresh purr she could feel in her fingertips. “Be more pushy with those requests, then,” she advised. “I’m afraid you’re still underestimating a critical difference between us, dear. It’s easy for me to get lost in my work, and put off other things until it is finished, because it does [i]not[/i] take long...at least to [i]my[/i] sense of time. A week is hardly any worse than your workday, and there’s always plenty of time to do as I please after the latest big batch is done.”\n\n“Mmm...so you have more time to spare that you first suggested?” her husband chuckled, adoring the playful touch she was gifting to him.\n\nWith a nod, she continued, “Yes, but I’m likely to forget that [i]you[/i] do [i]not[/i]. My servants’ schedules revolve around me, and my last husband was more than a match to my rhythm of work and leisure. It meant nothing to us if we didn’t see each other for a month...or three...and contented ourselves with a day or two of each other’s company in between.”\n\n“That ingrate,” Tibas repeated his assessment from their honeymoon...though a part of him genuinely wondered if that hadn’t been better for Nellie. The Cougar was dying from just three days being deprived of her effortless beauty and casually pleasurable touches, while she had once had a man patient enough to let her work undisturbed for entire [i]months[/i]. Just taking time out for dinner each day didn’t sound like much — to a mortal — but he couldn’t help but wonder if he really was becoming more of a burden than...\n\nAnd then she smiled, and Tibas practically cursed himself for being able to live even three [i]hours[/i] without seeing that expression. His purr intensified, and his wife turned to lean her shoulder against his chest instead of the armrest, pushing him gently down on the loveseat and reclining against him. He thought for a moment that her naturally floral scent was stronger than usual today, and the surprisingly light weight of her bare body on top of him filled him with a warmth that chased every last ounce of stress from his body like peasants before a barbarian hoard.\n\nThen, to his great surprise, she nodded firmly, as if his assessment was actually spot-on. “Like me, he was a Unicorn and, also like me, it was not his first marriage. He was not unkind, nor unlovely, but to this day I believe it was more pity than love that prompted him to propose to me...even if a degree of love was what spurred his pity.”\n\nThat admission killed his purr and cocked his head almost completely sideways. Tibas could hardly imagine Nellie needing anyone’s pity, though he was at least aware that he had known her only for a very short time so far. Her circumstances had not always been as comfortable as they were now, no doubt.\n\nHe didn’t ask for the details, but his wife seemed to read the question in his eyes when she looked at him, and chuckled softly as she rolled onto her back and laid his hands lightly over her breasts as though they were cold. “You’re overdue for some time together, and the work I had planned to complete today has been spoiled,” she noted. The tone in which she said it proved she’d already let it go, though. It might have been something that happened last week, or the previous year, or even before she ever met him. “Let me share a story instead, and some affection. Then we’ll revisit how often you need me with clearer heads.”\n\nDespite himself, Tibas’ purr resumed, and he scooted a little lower to a more comfortable position and rested his chin on the top of her head. Nellie continued, “Aaron, my first husband, was a Clydesdale. He was a kind and gentle man...who quite accidentally discovered my parents and I were Unicorns. He kept that secret faithfully for two full years before anyone else stumbled upon the truth. We never knew who else learned it, or reported it to the constable...but when the town guard came for us, Aaron helped us to escape, at the cost of his own place in the world. So he traveled with us for a time, helping to maintain our cover. I became quite taken with him, as you can probably imagine...and, having all the maturity of any other Kinship in their late teens, gave myself to him one moonlit night. Mother and father were far from approving, but the deed was done and Aaron was an otherwise honorable man. So we took official vows, and he was as faithful a husband as I could ever have wished.”\n\nTibas, understandably, was only further perplexed by what sounded to him like a happy story with nothing to pity...except, perhaps, that it ended? “So...just a hunch here...but you outlived him, and were heartbroken when he passed,” he nodded understandingly, “And this other guy thought you’d feel better having a husband you could count on to last?”\n\nNellie chuckled softly, patting one of his hands where it lay on her, “Your intuition is terrible, dear. I more than outlived him. We were married for a mere three years.” Nellie turned her head to nuzzle her cheek against his chest, and her smile became thin. “The safety of Heartherra was a long way off, still mostly a rumor, and father feared it was a promise of false hope. We would have to cross borders twice to reach it, anyway, so we decided to stay on the move in Forigna, becoming traveling medicine peddlers.” She shook her head slowly, as if ashamed now of how naive her family had been in those days. “It went well at first, but I shouldn’t need to tell you we were eventually discovered. Mother got separated from the rest of us while we scrambled to hide. Once the immediate danger had passed, Aaron went to look for her, since he could move more freely than either father or I, and we were fairly sure he had not been seen in association with us yet in that little town. But we were wrong...and we did not discover it until two days later, when father happened to overhear the announcement that the Ancient and one of her conspirators had been caught. The sentence had already been carried out by that time. That was when father decided to risk the road to Heartherra, after all.”\n\nTibas felt cold all of a sudden, and his stomach and heart both twisted into knots. He put his arms around his wife, giving her a warm and sincere hug. “I’m so sorry, Nellie.”\n\nHe hadn’t asked, of course, so it was hardly his fault she was recounting sad memories at the moment. But his wife accepted his sympathy with a grateful pat on the arms encircling her, “You deserve to know my history, dear. That’s another thing I’ve neglected these past six years. There’s never really a ‘good time’ for tales like this, so right now is no worse than any other, and I’m pleased to say the worst is already told,” the Unicorn added quietly.\n\nHe kissed the top of her head, and she continued, “It was a frightening and dangerous road from there to Heartherra, and even that country was not as safe as a frightened heart would wish after hearing the rumors...but it was a very great deal safer than anywhere else in the world at the time. We continued to be traveling peddlers, and crossed back and forth across the whole of the nation at least twice, before we wandered into the city of Seabridge on the eastern coast. That’s where we met Rhontavarian Snowmane,” she declared, announcing the name with some pomp, as if it was both impressive and carried some kind of joke with it at the same time.\n\nHer husband quirked a brow. “...Husband number two?”\n\n“Eventually,” she smirked, “The first time we met, he scared father and me both witless. From halfway down the street he shouted, ‘You there! Come here!’ and all we could see at first glance was the uniform if the city sheriff marching towards us. Our first instinct was to run, and I think we might have if father hadn’t seen his horn at the second glance. Sir Snowmane made no pretense, waltzing around town with his Ancient Kinship on brazen display. The sheer audacity stunned father to the point that he couldn’t flee before the man reached us.”\n\nIn spite of herself, Nellie smiled at that memory. “Naturally, being a Unicorn himself, he’d seen through our illusions the moment he laid eyes on us. The first thing he asked was just how long we’d been in Heartherra...and looked rather insulted when father stammered out that it had been more than two years by that time. Then he took us aside to a private room, and laid down the law for us,” she chuckled, “He told us to keep our disguises if we felt safer in them, but they weren’t needed. He wrote down a short list of shops, inns, landlords, and captains whom he personally did business with, and would not make a fuss over working with Ancients. And he put his official seal beside a little note stating that if we had any trouble or needed any guidance, we could come to him directly. Then he sent us out the door and told us to ‘live as we please’, all without ever hearing our names.”\n\n“He sounds very...blunt,” the Cougar chuckled, “Whatever attracted you to a man like that?”\n\nNellie turned just enough to give him a bemused look, then settled in again and continued, “Nothing. He was a pompous man who despised pomp, and I never could reconcile the paradox. But he was as good as his word, and impressed father so much that we settled down and made a permanent shop in that city. Sir Snowmane visited us regularly, as often to check on our well-being as to be a patron...so naturally, he noticed that I was particularly withdrawn and moody.” Nellie shook her head slowly, as though embarrassed to admit to her attitude at the time. “It was a safe and comfortable place, which finally gave me the room to breathe and pine for my mother and lover. I wasted many a beautiful day wishing that they could have seen it with me.”\n\nTibas hugged her again. “That hardly seems like a waste, honey. It’s only natural you’d dream of what life could have been like if they’d made it that far with you.”\n\n“Mmm...you’re kind, dear, and right to a certain degree. But I let it go on too long. I was denying myself the very happiness I wanted to share with them...and that sharp-eyed windbag saw right through me,” she smirked, reaching up to scratch Tibas’ chin again. He couldn’t say whether she was trying to comfort herself, reassure him that she wasn’t depressing herself in the telling, or just found the feel of his purr against her fingertips soothing, but her smile turned more sincere when the deep rumble started back up. “One day, with father’s permission, he took me aside and told me I’d ‘done it backwards’. ‘Marriage to a mortal will always end in sorrow,’ he warned, and, ‘I should have wedded my own kind first, so that I could know a happy one.’ Not in so many words. He hated pomp, but loved his speeches.”\n\n“And...that worked?” her husband quirked an in credulous brow, “I’d say it’s not the best pickup line I’ve heard, but frankly it sounds more like an insult.” He left out that the insult was as much to him as her first husband.\n\n“Excuse me,” the Unicorn in his arms cast a bemused grin up at him, “But how much wooing did [i]you[/i] have to do before we got married?” His sheepish smile was apology enough. “He proposed to show me how a marriage should be done, if I would allow him,” Nellie continued, “Not because he loved me, but because it was the right thing to do for someone whose only experience had been so sad. I was just as doubtful then as you are now, Tibas...but he [i]was[/i] a man every bit as good as his word. So I gave him the chance to show me.”\n\nNellie grew quiet then, but the smile lingering on her face was sincere as she continued to scratch her husband’s chin and he continued to purr against her bare back. He’d only seen this happen a couple of times over the last few years. Time seemed to distort a little as she wandered through long roads of old memories, pausing to take in her favorites in an unhurried way, like someone enjoying the scenic overview of their home town, forcing the clock to wait for her to resume moving again. It was a comfortable stillness, but it would last for hours is he didn’t coax her back into moving. “So...he succeeded?”\n\nShe snorted softly, but nodded. “He taught me the mating ritual of our Kinship. He taught me how to face the prejudice against our kind that still lingered even in Heartherra in those days. He taught me many things in those hundred and twenty years...including, ironically, how to cherish the three I’d shared with my first husband.” Turning her head then, she kissed Tibas softly on the cheek. “And you have loved me more in these six short years than he did in over a century. He never could have missed me enough to barge in like you did today, or felt possessive enough to demand my attention. It was poorly expressed, but very sweet of you, dear.”\n\nHe almost apologized again, but caught himself in time to take an approach she’d appreciate more, and kiss her just as fondly on the wide bridge of her nose. “You called it a loveless marriage before, if I remember right. Is that why you finally broke it off with him?”\n\nNellie looked confused for a moment, then a little disappointed. “I did not. I told you before that Unicorns do not swear ‘till death do us part’. A hundred and twenty years is fairly standard for our oaths, since it affords plenty of opportunity to have offspring and enough time to raise one if it comes about. We kept our oaths faithfully, and simply elected not to renew them at the end.” Settling against him again, she finished, “Although we ‘made love’, and not infrequently...well, by our standards...we never once really loved each other. Either of us. We both understood that when he proposed, and it wasn’t a condition of the vows...but sometimes I think he hoped it might grow as we went. Not enough that he regretted the time spent, but he seemed a little disappointed in the end. The last thing he told me was that I’d made a very good wife, and he hoped I would find another genuinely passionate marriage one day...and that I should choose my next husband more carefully.”\n\nTibas winced, and suddenly felt very keenly like he’d been called out across several centuries. “Oof...I may owe this man an apology...”\n\nThe Unicorn in his arms smirked, and rolled over enough to pat his chest gently. “No...I definitely chose better this time,” she promised, “Though I haven’t been very good to him lately.” With that, she got to her feet and offered him her hand. “Come now. That room is warm and humid, and I am practically soaked with sweat. I would like to wash before you lay me down and have me make up for some of those nights I have been absent.”\n\nThat explained the scent, and Tibas chuckled quietly as he took her hand. She [i]might[/i] believe him if he told her she smelled even more appealing with half a week of sweat on her than freshly washed, but her fur and mane and tail would doubtless appreciate a bit of shampoo regardless. Getting to his feet, he stood as still as a Feline could while she unbuttoned his shirt from top to bottom and rolled it off his shoulders, then deftly unfastened his belt and pants even more quickly than [i]he[/i] could. One gentle push seemed to send his slacks and boxers both sliding down his muscular legs, and his thoughtful wife even cupped her hand gently behind his balls, rolling her thumb between the sheath and scrotum to give each part refreshing freedom in the open air.\n\nWith every inch of him as bare as her own, Nellie turned to lead the way to the little open shower in the corner of the room, artfully disguised as a fountain pouring from the mouth of a roaring lion into a shallow basin in the floor. The Unicorn stepped in without hesitation, marching right into the outpouring water and ducking her head through it once. Then she leaned back until the stream fell right against her chest, just below her collar-bone, and was channeled between her soft breasts and down her body. She reached up with both hands to loosely grip the lion’s lower lip between its bottom incisors, and tilted her head back until her horn pointed straight as the ceiling and her mane hung more-or-less free behind her back. “Start with my mane, please,” she requested quietly, “And don’t spare a single inch of me from your touch.”\n\nA tremble ran down his entire body, and his sword practically leaped from his sheath, before he took down the bottle of shampoo from the shelf build into the wall beneath the lion’s chin and poured out a palm full of the cucumber-scented contents. But as his fingers began to gently comb through the silk of her mane, Tibas couldn’t resist admitting, “It’s more reassuring than it should be, to know you keep your vows even to a man you don’t love. And I do remember that you gave me a similar warning the night that you proposed,” he sighed, leaning in to kiss the side of her neck beside her sudsy mane. “Is his good example also what prompted you to propose in the first place? Because I also had a pretty sad story the morning we met...”\n\nShe pulled her own mane a little, turning her head to give him a mildly vexed look over one shoulder. Strangely, that expression was comforting to Tibas in that moment. If she was tempted to be angry, then he was wrong. “I married you, Tibas, because you were good company that day, and more honest than most men who might find themselves in that situation.” Tipping her head back again so he could continue washing, she added more softly, “Pity was a motive in inviting you to return after that day. But it had no part in my proposal. With less than a handful of exceptions — even including today — you have continued to be good company ever since. Although I have wasted that gift quite shamefully in the last year or so...”\n\nSomething about that admission seemed to make her thoughtful. She grew quiet and as perfectly still as the fountainhead she was clinging to, while her husband gratefully washed out her mane, then her neck and delicate face, and then her upper back. He stepped in snug against her to hold her in some semblance of a hug while his hands continued to spread the shampoo down the front of her body, lovingly tracing every curve of her figure and bump of bone or muscle they moved across. “Perhaps that is what Grandmother’s warning meant,” his wife continued quietly just as he was getting down on his knees behind her, to wash her legs, “Loneliness does not strike me often...but I have not felt this [i]connected[/i] to anything or anyone since my first husband. I ought to savor it more.”\n\nBehind her, Tibas chuckled as he poured a fresh serving of shampoo into his palm and began to lather up her shapely thighs and calves. “I’ll take that as high praise,” he promised, leaning in to peck the soft cheek of her rump with a quick kiss before lathering that part up, too, and setting in to work on her tail. His wife smirked at the little gesture, and continued to hold perfectly still while he finished washing all of her lower half, including the thick lips of her vulva and even thicker ring around her anus.\n\n“Now, wash those hands well,” she instructed when he stood back up, “And remember that I don’t appreciate anything half-done. There are no less than three places within your reach that you failed to scrub. [i]Seven[/i], to be technical, but I’ll forgive you for ignoring the smallest two, and two more that shouldn’t really have soap in them,” she warned, flicking her thin ears back and forth once and flaring her nostrils.\n\nTibas quirked a brow, but carefully washed both hands to halfway up his forearms before stepping in snug against her back again and giving an apologetic kiss to her cheek. “So, where did I...?”\n\nNellie laid her head back on his shoulder. “No soap in the first two,” she warned, “Just a gentle scrubbing is all they need.” So saying, she closed her eyes and let her mouth hang loosely open.\n\nHe took the hint with an embarrassed chuckle, and no faint blush on his cheeks, hooking two fingers into her mouth to lay gently on top of her tongue. Nellie closed her lips around them, sucking softly as he pressed the tips up and down the length of her tongue, and his other hand tenderly parted the lips of her sex to give a similar treatment to her love-tunnel. His wife hummed approval, clenching around his invading digits encouragingly while swirling her tongue around the gentle fingers in her mouth.\n\nTibas purred in her ear, and she nuzzled her cheek against his. “I think I understand, but I also didn’t think you appreciated having that third one penetrated,” he whispered, just to be sure he wasn’t getting the wrong idea.\n\nShe didn’t try to answer, still having her mouth full of his fingers, until he withdrew them and ran them lovingly down the front of her throat instead. “I’m not enamored,” the Unicorn confirmed even as she nudged him back a couple of steps with her hips. Holding the fountain’s lower lip again, she bent forward, ducking through the outpour to let it fall on the small of her back and run down her shapely legs, framing the tight curve of her posterior beneath her lifted tail. “This one will need some soap,” she advised, “And please be thorough.”\n\nThe Cougar obediently lubed up one hand with suds, traced around the inner ring of her rim with one finger, then delicately inserted it. Her back-door clenched tight around the intruding digit, as if in protest, but Nellie cast a subtle, approving smile over her shoulder. “One more,” she suggested quietly, and Tibas slipped a second finger alongside the first, turning them gently to slide against every side of her inner walls.\n\n“This is a first,” Tibas noted as Nellie breathed slow, deep breaths while he scoured her insides, “You know — sweet as it is for you to suggest something you don’t really enjoy — you don’t have to brace yourself for anal,” her husband chuckled, patting her soft cheek as he finally withdrew his fingers. “It’s not really my thing.”\n\nNellie rocked her head as she stood up, turning her back to the flow of water and spreading her cheeks again with one hand to let it wash out the crevice and doughnut as deep as it could reach. “It’s been a while since I indulged you,” the Unicorn admitted, reaching forward to draw him into the water next, “And even longer since I asked you to indulge me. I’m going to take my time with you tonight, and explore a little. I’m just preparing in case you decide to do the same.”\n\nReaching up to cup her palms against his cheeks, Nellie drew him into a deep, tongue-swirling kiss, before taking up the shampoo bottle in her own hands. It took rather less time for her wash him down (he had no long hair, and hadn’t spent three days at his work without pausing for a shower), but she was every bit as thorough with him as he’d been with her, including the creases of his sheath, the full length of his shaft, and (a little embarrassingly) a deep cleaning of his own back-door.\n\nAt last the pair stepped out of the shower. Tibas paused at the edge of the tile to shake out the worst of the water from his fur, and watch starry-eyed as his wife daintily did the same, in addition to wringing out her mane and tail. He’d never asked if there was an actual reason for it, but Nellie seemed to have a subtle aversion to towels. She [i]never[/i] used one after a shower, and never seemed bothered by the water she spread across floors or furniture or even their bedspread. The Cougar himself had stopped worrying about it after the first week or so, when it became obvious that her staff changed out [i]the entire bed[/i] while they were out of the room each day, and clearly had no trouble treating even the mattress...if that wasn’t also replaced. He’d never once caught the scent of musk or mildew anywhere in the house.\n\nSo he knew that [i]all[/i] options were still available when she knit her fingers with his and waited for him to take the lead. “Would you like some novelty tonight, husband, or familiar comforts?” she asked, gesturing vaguely toward the bed and then the door. Tibas chuckled, recalling the one time just a few weeks after their honeymoon that they’d made love in the gazebo, then turned and scooped his surprised wife up in his arms. He carried her princess-style to the bed, while she smiled up at him and clung to his neck, until he laid her down gently on the wide mattress. Nellie looked just slightly surprised when he turned to one of the two armoires in the room then, and returned with the cock-sleeve...\n\nCrawling onto the bed with her, Tibas tugged the silk cord holding the curtains of the canopy surrounding the bed open. The thick fabric enclosures fell shut, sealing out the rest of the world and plunging them into darkness...that was quickly and gently dispelled by the soft glow of Nellie’s horn. Her husband leaned down to kiss her brow just below where that ivory spiral joined her face. “Gods forgotten...this is what I miss the most when you don’t come to bed, Nellie,” her husband sighed, gazing down into her deep, sapphire eyes, “Not the sex. Just your face. Your eyes. The wonder of nature that deigned to make me her husband.” He paused to kiss her soft nose between the large nostrils. “If you’re going to indulge me, then I’ll absolutely do whatever it takes to satisfy you,” he promised, tapping a knuckle against the silver surface of the cock-sleeve, “Just let me look at and kiss this lovely face for a few minutes.”\n\nNellie actually giggled, and her smile turned to that rare, whole-hearted kind that only came out when he praised her from his heart...even if she always chided him about it. “Lost in the starlight again,” Nellie cooed, lightly caressing his cheek, “But if that’s what you want, dear, drink in as much as you like.” Taking the sleeve in one hand, she reached up to slide it discreetly beneath the pillows above their heads at the moment. “That thing isn’t going to touch me until [i]you’re[/i] satisfied, though. My husband is demanding my attention. I demand his real touch.”\n\nShe lifted her head to kiss his lips, her hands running warmly up his sides and her knees tucking comfortably against his hips. Tibas purred like distant thunder, savoring the slick taste of her tongue on his own until they broke for air, then losing himself in the pools of her eyes until they kissed again. It was hard to say how many times they repeated this simple motion, but eventually Nellie’s hand began to slide warmly down his stomach until her fingers parted around his sheath...and the spear standing out from it, eager and oozing pre-cum. Nellie wordlessly guided the tip lower, nesting it between the thick lips of her vulva...and hummed quiet approval when Tibas took the invitation just as quietly. There was [i]some[/i] variety to the positions and techniques they employed, but his wife was grateful that he always seemed at least as content as she was with simple, “vanilla” sex. Sometimes she even thought it a shame that practicing the mating ritual with him was guaranteed to be fruitless...\n\n“There you go, dear,” she whispered in his ear a few short minutes later, feeling the tell-tale pulse inside her walls, then kissed his cheek again and brushed her thumbs gently over his eyes as if wiping water away from them. “Feeling better now? Cleared a little of the stardust from your eyes?”\n\nHis answer, between panted breaths, was to kiss her lips softly and nuzzle her large nose with his much smaller one. “Only a little,” he chuckled, still instinctively thrusting against the backs of her thighs in an effort to milk the last drops from himself, “Plenty left...to indulge...‘new things’...you wanted to try...”\n\nHis wife chuckled, and held him warmly on top of her for another few minutes, until he well and truly had his breath under control. Then she ran her fingernails lightly down the back of his neck and shoulders, letting her thighs fall from hugging his hips to openly splayed beneath them. “You’ve offered a few times over the years, and I’ve always refused,” she noted quietly, kissing one of his ears, “Prove me a fool tonight. Show me how gentle you can actually be with that rough tongue of yours in my most sensitive, delicate places.” Then she whispered into that same ear, “And have me taste yours.”\n\nTibas kissed her neck, then her cheek, and then quietly withdrew and turned himself around. It felt like a long time since he’d tasted a woman. Though she was far from shy as a lover, Nellie was also far from a wild child. Her favorite position was spoon-in-spoon, and her favorite touch was a combination of gentle caresses on her pearl and teasing touches around her rim, arguably the most outlandish practice she ever requested. She was sensual, never hurried. She was passionate, but never desperate. And if [i]he [/i]ever felt hurried or desperate, she never complained about satisfying him first, or worried about getting her own pleasure in turn. And since marrying her, Tibas had come to find all the complicated and “exciting” techniques he used to practice were simply...unnecessary.\n\nSex with Nellie was downright soothing.\n\nSo while it was hardly his first time trying cunnilingus...this was effectively new territory for the two of them. He bowed his head and gently kissed her vulva first. He’d just climaxed inside her, but her tunnel was so deep there was no sign of himself, and barely even any scent. Instead, her cup exuded that same faintly flowery scent her sweat carried, tinged with something like honeysuckle...and Tibas quickly decided that this would be an easy practice to pick up again. He carefully ran the tip of his tongue along the slit between the thick lips, teasing them open, and dipped it experimentally into her love-tunnel...\n\nThe Cougar had to pause, holding his breath, and purred loudly as a different pair of much softer lips wrapped deftly around his retreating shaft, as though catching it before it could flee back into the safety of his sheath. Nellie’s tongue slid down the top of it, her head being inverted on the mattress below his hips, and she teased the rim of his sheath with the velvety surface before sucking gently on his tip to coax it to erection again. It was her first time doing this with him...but there was no way Tibas could believe it was her first time with a man in her mouth, after an opening like that.\n\nHe could feel her smile around him, probably encouraged by his purr, and she gently patted his bottom as if to assure him the taste was pleasant. With an appreciative sigh, Tibas bent his head back to his own work, carefully teasing her open and circling the inside of her walls before drawing his tongue further up to graze across her sensitive button. Nellie’s legs, on either side of his face, twitched involuntarily. Tibas apologized by sliding the smooth [i]underside[/i] of his tongue over her button, and felt her thighs relax again.\n\nShe enjoyed having her rim touched, so while he was faced this way Tibas reached one hand forward to slide gently between the cheeks above her tail. His wife cooed around his cock when his fingertips brushed over the thick rim, and Tibas couldn’t suppress a small smile of pride. Then his wife surprised him by reaching up with her own hands, one gently parting his cheeks in turn, and delicately tracing a fingertip around the outer edge of his clenched sphincter as well. It was another first for Tibas, outside of showering...and he couldn’t honestly say he didn’t like it, though something about that embarrassed him.\n\nWhile they touched each other, the Cougar lapped his tongue around the edge of her pearl again, and she tensed. He tried carefully dragging his tongue in the [i]smooth[/i] direction, where the texture would be less pronounced, and she twitched. No matter which trick or technique he used, each time the rough flat of his tongue so much as brushed her clit, her entire lower body jerked just a little.\n\nNellie patted his thigh at last, swirling her own tongue around his cock once more before letting it slide from her mouth. “That’s enough, dear. It was a valiant effort, but I’m just too delicate there. Thank you for the novel experience.” She sounded sincere, though her husband couldn’t help but be a little disappointed in himself. Nellie kissed the hard shaft now waving above her nose like it had done her a favor, and lightly squeezed and scratched the cheeks of his rump. “Would you like to try filling my doughnut with cream instead? Those touches were very nice, and it feels a little...needy...now.”\n\nTibas turned around again, to nuzzle her cheek with his own, and gaze adoringly into those brilliant eyes of hers again. “I’d like to do something I [i]know[/i] will satisfy you, like nothing else can,” her husband promised, kissing her nose lightly, “Thank you for being so generous with me first. You really went the extra mile tonight.”\n\nThe Unicorn beneath him smirked like his gratitude was cute in some way...then lazily reached up to fetch the sleeve. “Please go slowly, then, husband. It’s been a few years since I’ve been stretched like this,” she reminded him as she handed over the articulated tube.\n\nIt still looked to him like nothing less than an elephant’s trunk, made of silver segments, as long as his arm from the elbow to the fingertips and nearly as thick. It was the one and only “magic item” in her entire house. A talented wearer could actually use it in a prehensile manner, but Tibas barely even qualified as a novice. When he slid his shaft into the open end and ran his thumb up the line of smooth-polished jewels along the underside, the sleeve simply stood up tall and firm...and transferred every tactile sensation it encountered back to his own skin.\n\nShe’d shown him how it worked on their honeymoon, and Nellie had explained that male Unicorns had a tendency to be...sizable. The females were almost supernaturally deep and elastic. Even a well-endowed Horse would have trouble truly filling her, so this sleeve was a little indulgence she’s commissioned back when pure sexual pleasure still seemed attractive to her. She’d outgrown the need for it since then, but it had proven a fortuitous purchase for her new husband...even if he’d only used it for her once since the honeymoon.\n\n“Gently, please,” she reminded him one last time, using her own hands to hold her entrance open while both of his were dedicated to getting the toy in line with her. This wasn’t her favorite method, but there was still a certain excitement in her voice as Tibas slid the first two segments inside. “Mmm...that does feel nice,” she admitted, wrapping her legs around his hips to help draw him in slowly, “Especially...!”\n\nHer breath hitched as one particular segment slipped through, where a small ridge along the top was well placed to roll across her G-spot. Tibas grinned. “That one?” he asked playfully, drawing back just that one segment and thrusting it quickly through again. Nellie gasped and giggled, reaching out to rest a hand on his chest and pull him deeper with her legs before he could tease her again. “Hmhm...gotta say, I [i]do[/i] envy the man who can satisfy you without needing this thing,” her husband confessed as his hips finally snugged up against hers.\n\n“It is only ‘needed’ if you insist on the direct approach,” Nellie tried to assure him, but the pleasured way her lower lip was tucked between her teeth said this method was pretty effective. “You have handled me quite beautifully on many a night without it.”\n\nTibas rocked back until nearly the full thing was withdrawn, then lunged into her again, driving a squeal from her lips. The second time he pulled back, Nellie planted her hooves on his thighs to stop him. “Slower,” she insisted, despite the pleasured smile on her face, “Take your time. You deserve every minute you can drag it out, and I want you to enjoy it.”\n\nThe servants could probably hear his purr from wherever in the house they’d retreated to. Leaning forward over her, Tibas kissed his beautiful wife, stopped playing around, and got down to the serious business of bringing her to climax. It was a long (slightly exhausting) ride. He got to watch the pleasure build up in her expression as much as her body, even the light of her horn growing brighter as she neared the brink. With her hands on the back of his neck, Nellie pulled him down on top of her as her walls began to flutter and then clench. Her horn flared as she sighed a long, partially voiced exhale, then dimmed to barely the brightness of a single candle.\n\nThe warm, soothing dark wrapped around them, the light of her horn making little more than their two faces distinct under the shelter of the canopy. Nellie spent a few quiet minutes catching her breath, then kissed Tibas’ cheek. “Thank you, dear,” she sighed, “That was delightful. Do you want more, now?”\n\nHer husband chuckled, kissed her face fondly, and pulled himself out of the enchanted sleeve, making it fall limp and inert again. Then he not-so-discreetly pushed it through the gap in the curtains and dropped it on the floor outside the bed. “If you’ll just stay like this,” he promised, curling up beside her, “And keep your horn glowing where I can see your face, that’ll be more than enough for me.”\n\nNellie chuckled at the sweet sentiment, and nuzzled him in return. “I get cold sleeping in the open air,” she reminded him, “And it’ll go out when I fall asleep. Mmm, but I’ll keep it lit for you until the last possible second.” Tibas kissed her, and took a moment to work the blankets out from under their bodies and back up over their shoulders, pulling his wife close to his warmer body. She snuggled into him with a contented sigh, and they lay there for a few quiet minutes simply basking in the afterglow and the warmth of each other’s arms.\n\nJust when Tibas thought she might be drifting off the sleep (he could tell [i]he[/i] was on the verge of it), Nellie broke the comfortable quiet. “I’m going to lose track of the days again, Tibas,” she returned to the problem that had started this whole night. “Not intentionally, but I will, and I won’t even realize it’s happening. So when you feel like you’re being ignored, and I don’t seem to be listening to you...go back to the club where we first met. That will be my sign that we need to have a serious talk about it again. I won’t ignore it.”\n\nThe strong arms around her shoulders tightened their hug briefly. “I know you won’t,” Tibas acknowledged honestly, “Good night, Nellie. I love you.”\n\n“Thank you,” she whispered, and kissed his chest. Then, with one last flicker of blue light, her horn winked out.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Lover’s Squabble

Tibas sipped slowly from his glass, looking disappointed at the beautifully golden-roasted chicken on the plate in front of him, nested between honey-glazed carrots, green beans sautéed in garlic, and herbal mashed potatoes.  It looked like it would have been absolutely delicious.  But now it was cold.

An empty plate sat beside the Cougar, at the head of the table, just on the off chance she might show up.  Nellie had been increasingly absent from their meals for the last several days...and that was the most tolerable part, honestly.  Her husband was starting to lose track of how long it had been since he’d last woken up with the lovely Unicorn beside him in bed.  Their increasingly sparse interactions were always pleasant and even warm (Tibas still couldn’t seem to help melting into a little puddle of starry-eyed pleasure every time Nellie dropped her disguise and flashed a smile at him), but the gaps between them had grown...concerning, at least to him.

He’d tried hard to wait for her tonight.  He was tired of eating alone.  With a sigh, he set down his glass of champagne and demanded, “Where is she?”

One of the servants standing beside the door to the kitchen, dutifully waiting to refill his glass, bring him more food, or nearly anything else he requested, quickly answered, “Sir, the lady is at her work at the moment.”

The Cougar rubbed a hand over his face and reminded himself that her servants did not, in fact, deliberately play coy.  “Yes, obviously.  I mean where does she do that?  It’s been six years, and I’ve never once seen her workshop...or lab...whatever you call it.”  He hadn’t needed to, of course, just like she’d never had cause to visit his bakery.  Whatever curiosity he had about her work space was mild at best, and he didn’t understand the business of potion-making well enough to be suitably impressed by whatever fancy equipment she definitely had there.  But tonight...

He raised his hand just as the Tiger he was addressing was about to answer, and got to his feet.  “You know, just take me there.  I need to talk to her.”

The servant quirked a brow, but bowed and gestured for him to follow, leading him out of the dining-room and down the hallway toward the northern wing of the villa.  Tibas realized that he rarely came to this part of the house.  Everything he and Nellie required for their daily lives seemed to be located in the southern wing.  The Cougar had somehow always assumed the northern wing was for the servants’ quarters...which was silly, the instant he thought about it, given that he also knew they lived in the houses lining the avenue leading up to the villa.

All of the doors in this hallway were closed, and Tibas didn’t care at the moment to even try to guess what lay behind them.  He followed close behind the Tiger leading him, until they descended a short flight of stairs at the end of the hall, which terminated in a much shorter hall with exactly three doors.  Considering what he did know of the villa’s grounds, Tibas couldn’t shake the feeling that this little extension actually lay underground at the furthest tip of the northern wing, not quite as far as the pool-house outside.

A Zebra standing beside the door to their left inclined her head in greeting as they approached, making it immediately clear which door Nellie was working behind.  The Tiger that had led him here politely knocked.  “Madam, your husband wishes to see you, please,” he announced loudly, sparing Tibas the trouble.  A muted answer from the other side of the thick door asked them to wait a few minutes.  The Tiger posted himself on the other side of the door from the Zebra as if that had been his assigned station all day long.

Tibas waited (he thought) patiently.  But as his foot tapped off more than one minute, or even two, his tail began to lash behind him in visible agitation.  After a few minutes, he was actively fighting the temptation to go back to the table and just his eat his dinner without her...again.  It was entirely possible part of his irritation was due to being hungry, after all.  Maybe he’d feel better...

But the thought of that empty plate beside his, just a place-holder for the woman he wished was there, made his lip curl.  With a huff, he reached for the door instead.

A striped hand caught his wrist before he could pull it open.  “Sir, she really must not be disturbed in this room,” the Tiger cautioned.  Tibas frowned at the man, taking a quick measure of him.  Even if his memory was failing him, and this was not one of the servants she took along when she wanted “security”, just a glance at his tall, muscular frame dispelled any illusions Tibas might be entertaining about pushing past him by force.  And while her servants were ostensibly his servants now, he understood that was strictly out of respect for their marriage.  If it came down to it, he wouldn’t count on any of them to support him over Nellie.

Ironically, that knowledge was just what gave him the courage to look the man in the eyes with a stern frown.  “As her husband,” he asked softly, “Do you really have any right to refuse me opening this door?”

Much to his surprise, the hand on his wrist let go almost as quickly as it had caught him.  “No, sir,” came the quiet answer, as though the restraint a moment ago had merely been a gesture of courtesy.

With a relieved exhale, Tibas pulled the door open and stepped through.  “Look, Nellie,” he started before his eyes had even adjusted to the (surprising) dark on the other side, “I’m sorry to interr—?”

The light from the door cut a sharp rectangle out of the darkness.  In that illumination he saw her sitting naked on a stool beside a tall table, a glass flask in one hand and a tiny bottle in the other, beside a large plastic bin with the top open.  But what actually registered to his sight was her face: a mix of confusion and horror, like a mouse caught in the pantry by a cat.

The containers in her hand fell to the table before words even left her lips: “SHUT THE DOOR!!”  She grabbed the lid to the tub and slammed it down like whatever was inside might try to escape, and Tibas pulled the door closed so quickly it slammed in its frame.  The room plunged into near-total darkness, lit only by the dim blue glow of his wife’s horn, too faint for him to have seen in the overwhelming light of the hall with the door open.  When his slitted eyes adjusted to the dark, he found her peeking into the corner of the tub.

Gnashing her teeth, she sealed the lid again and also snapped shut a smaller box behind it.  Then the light of her horn flared brightly, seemingly just to make sure he could clearly see the hot glare she shot at him.  “Tibas!  What — why did you — ?!”

It was rare for her to be unable to find her words.  Tibas couldn’t actually remember having seen it before.  For a second, he felt guilty for startling her, but the fact that she still seemed to be working even knowing he was waiting outside spurred him to retort, “Why?!  I haven’t seen your face for three days, that’s why!  Why haven’t you come to dinner?”

Rubbing a hand briskly down her long face, she pointed to the stool she’d practically jumped from in her desperation to close the tub.  “Sit.  Wait.  I have to make a call,” she instructed like he was a child about to be scolded.

He did as he was told, but with his teeth grit as they passed each other, him to the stool and her to the phone on the wall beside the door.  Nellie’s tail lashed the back of her thigh once as she picked up the receiver, and she paused for a deep breath to get a handle on her voice before swiftly dialing a number, then flicking on the room’s single light.

The small room was lined with wooden shelves, her discarded dress and undergarments hanging from the corner of the one nearest the door.  Most of these were stuffed to the brim with large, plastic tubs like the one on the edge of the table right now.  Each of them was neatly labeled, but not in Heartherran characters, so the Cougar had no idea what they contained.  One line of shelves, about level with Nellie’s hips, housed various burners and beakers, tongs and jars, mortars and neatly folded packets of paper.  The roof overhead, surprisingly, appeared to be simple packed dirt, barely supported by a thin mesh stretched from corner to corner.  The polished concrete floor was littered with bits of soil that had fallen in on it.  Roots grew down through the mesh, and some of them seemed to have had the bark peeled from them in spots.

Nellie spoke into the phone as whoever she was calling picked up the line.  “Hello, Emara.  It’s Nellienemare.  ... A pleasure to hear yours, too.  Listen, I’ve had a mishap in my dark-room while filling an order of evenimbria.  My entire stock of ghost-wings is spoiled.”  She nodded at whatever was said in answer to that, rubbing her forehead beneath her horn.  “Yes, exactly.  Naturally, I’ll pay double what I charge the clients.  Also, if it’s not too much trouble, could you send me some spores, so I can rebuild my stock?  ...  That’s very generous of you.  Thank you.  I’ll send over the formula and the client’s information shortly.  Thank you again.”

Hanging up the phone, she flashed a narrow look at her husband.  “Just to be clear,” the Unicorn began slowly, “That was a very costly ‘mishap’, even for me.  To the tune of four million,” she announced coldly, and Tibas felt his whiskers droop a little at the number, “So please tell me what was so important that it couldn’t wait for me to finish pouring what portion I had liquefied into bottles and get them safely hidden from the light.”

“...I’m sorry,” the Cougar apologized first and foremost, “But—”

“I don’t doubt it,” she interrupted with a shake of her mane, still hot in her own fury.  Marching around beside him to pry the lid from the tub again, she tilted it up to where he could see the contents.  The whole bottom was covered in a thick layer of mud, out of which grew some sort of crescent-shaped mushrooms on short stalks, white from stem to cap and speckled with blue spots.  “These are called ghost-wings.  They are supposed to be silvery and lustrous.  In the wild, they grow only in very deep caves, and are extremely sensitive to light.  That’s true of practically everything in this room,” she swept a hand around to all the other opaque tubs.  “I have to adjust the hue and radiance of my horn for each of them.  And now, I will not be able to fill any order that calls for this ingredient for at least a year, as I set up a new culture to harvest from.”  Closing the lid on the tub again, she pulled another stool around from the other side of the table and sat on it, arms crossed over her bare breasts and legs crossed to hide anything that might be considered ‘distracting’ (if he didn’t find absolutely all of her body distracting, anyway).  “Now, please answer my question.”

It suddenly seemed so petty.  Like a child seeking attention from its mother.  Naturally, if he’d known how delicate the work she was doing at the time was, he would have waited longer.

Of course, he didn’t have any idea how much longer she would need, or if she would just move right on to some other task when this one was complete.  That had been the whole problem that brought him down here in the first place.  Tibas’ tail flicked in agitation as straightened up his posture, and tried not to feel embarrassed as he stated simply, “I miss you, Nellie.  More than that, I’m worried about you.  You realize I haven’t actually seen you in days, right?  I don’t know when you eat, or when you sleep, or if you’re eating or sleeping!  Your staff has made it quite clear that you don’t need any of these things as often as I do, and I generally trust them...but how would I know if you’re pushing yourself too hard?”

Shaking his head slowly, Tibas rubbed his face with a grimace and admitted, “No...all of that is true, but the truest thing is just that I miss you.  It’s been,” he paused to do a quick count in his head, as best he could, “Nearly two months since we’ve been to bed together.  At least six weeks since we so much as sat down to a movie, or a book, or shared a walk in the hedge-maze.  It’s like you moved out of the house,” he sighed, “And whenever I ask to spend an evening together, you point to that stack of cards you’ve got beside your dinner-plate, and cite the work you have to finish.”

Taking a deep breath, Tibas crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look at her just as sternly as she was looking at him...though it was hard to stare at that beautiful face, look into those deep, soulful eyes, and feel anything except the fear of seeing them cry.  “I said once that it would be like having a puppy, when I married you.  Has the novelty worn off already?  Am I not worth your time?”

That seemed to have struck a nerve, finally, as her frown broke into wide-eyed surprise.  Nellie looked him up and down, from ears to toes, as if checking to make sure she was still looking at her husband.  Then she slid out of her seat and took him by the hand with one of hers, snapping her fingers sharply with the other.  The Zebra pulled the door open for them...and accepted the box Nellie pushed into his hands (the one that had been sitting behind the tub when Tibas walked in).  “Deliver that to Emara Frostneigh, immediately,” she instructed, never breaking stride and practically dragging her husband along behind her.

He didn’t resist, but his ears flattened a little as they made their way closer to the front door.  “Nellie—?”

“Hush,” she hissed sharply, though the squeeze she gave his captive hand seemed to be meant as encouraging, “This is not a talk for others’ ears.”  It wasn’t the door she was leading him to, but they had to go through the front part of the villa before turning down the hall into the southern wing, toward their private chambers.  After pulling him inside, she stepped back around him to close and lock the door.  Then, leaning her back against it and crossing her arms over her breasts one more time, she frowned up at her husband.  “Look me in the eyes,” she insisted firmly, though in a calmer tone than she’d used back in her workshop, “And say that one more time.”

Truth be told, despite still being plenty irritated himself, a large part of him just wanted to reach out and hug her, and apologize profusely for being so selfish.  But he knew her well enough by now to know she would not appreciate having her instructions ignored.  So he pulled himself up as straight as he could, and faced her as well as a man is able to face the love of his life when he knows she is furious with him.  “I asked if I’m not worth your time anymore.”

“And the rest,” Nellie clarified, meeting his eyes without so much as blinking.

Tibas grimaced, but added, “I said it would be like having a puppy...more like being a puppy, actually.  Has the novelty worn off?” he asked again, sincerely.

She searched his eyes for a long minute, as if scouring his thoughts for some dishonesty, before tilting her own head to the side.  “...I really did that to you, didn’t I?” she finally asked, quietly.  “I have lost track of the days.  How long have you been putting up with this?”

The Cougar exhaled a slow breath, rubbing the tension out of the back of his neck.  Her voice was calm again, and thoughtful in that way she usually was when her attention was wholly undivided, and the familiar tone had a calming effect on him.  “It’s felt kind of bad for a while now,” he admitted vaguely, “I thought you were mad at me at first, but the servants kept assuring me that I was ‘in good standing’.  You were at least talkative and attentive at breakfast and dinner...or breakfast, or dinner,” he emphasized to highlight her increasing habit of skipping one or the other, at least while he was taking it.  “Eventually I just told myself you must be in a busy period with your work.  And then you basically disappeared.”

Nellie nodded slowly, denying none of it, but moved over to the love-seat near the middle of the room and took a seat on her usual side.  She patted the other half of the padded seat, silently requesting him to join her...which Tibas was only too happy to oblige.  “I am sorry, dear,” his wife apologized sincerely as he sat down, “I suppose it’s been too long since I lived with a mortal who needed my attention, instead of devoting his to me.  I’m used to spending weeks at a time at my work, without a thought for anything outside of it.”  Though her eyes still held some lingering anger, Nellie leaned toward him and nuzzled his cheek with her broad, soft nose.  “Thank you for worrying, but I promise I don’t neglect myself even at the worst of times.  You, on the other hand...I have neglected quite shamefully, without even realizing it.”

“And I’m sorry I lost my temper,” he answered with a purr already starting up in his voice, just glad to feel her touch again for a moment.  “It’s alright.”

“It is not,” his wife argued, leaning back to give him a (much softer) frown again.  “If you were a puppy, it still wouldn’t be right to just hand you off to the servants to care for, until I felt like paying you some attention.  As my husband, it is...well, just the sort of thing that breaks a marriage.  I won’t stand for it,” she insisted as if they were talking about someone else’s poor behavior in their house.

That was reassuring to hear, Tibas had to admit.  She wasn’t the sort to say that kind of thing idly, which meant she was already considering how to address the problem.  Whatever faults his wife possessed (and there were very few, in his eyes), refusing to take responsibility was certainly not one of them.  If anything, she might be a little too harsh with herself.

“Thank you for understanding why I was upset,” he sighed, the last of his own anger completely dissipated in that breath, “But you didn’t deserve for it to interfere with your work.  I won’t let that happen again,” he promised in turn.

Nellie rocked her head thoughtfully.  “Any room but that one, and you’re well within your rights to barge in.  I work with delicate materials sometimes, but nothing else that can be destroyed by merely opening the door.”  She waved off whatever assurance he was about to voice before it left his lips.  “It was an expense, but not the problem, which we still need to address.”  Leaning against the armrest, she met his eyes thoughtfully with her cheek propped on her palm.  “Not to sound cold, but how often do you need my attention?  Many of my potions require several hours at a time to concoct a single dose, and some clients have large orders.  It’s not surprising for me to spend the better part of a week at the worktable, breaking only for meals.”

Tibas ran his hand over the top of his head as he thought about it.  “At least spare enough time to share dinner.  Please.  That’s not asking too much, right?  I wouldn’t even mind if you talked to me about your work while we ate.  It’d be a good chance to warn me if you’re about to start something you can’t just bring to a screeching halt, actually.”

His wife tilted her head with a dubious look.  “That’s more than reasonable, but is it really enough just to see my face?  I expected you’d require more physical contact.”

“Don’t undersell that face of yours, Nellie,” the Cougar chuckled with a sincere smile, “Not that I’ll complain about the other thing, but that’s where men have a tendency to get very unreasonable.  And I’m no exception.  If you’ll just come to dinner, though, I’ll at least have a chance to tell you when I start craving more.”

Nellie looked at him for several minutes, as though waiting for the rest of a thought he hadn’t spoken yet.  When he really seemed willing to leave it at that, she reached out with her free hand to lightly scratch the underside of his chin, eliciting a fresh purr she could feel in her fingertips.  “Be more pushy with those requests, then,” she advised.  “I’m afraid you’re still underestimating a critical difference between us, dear.  It’s easy for me to get lost in my work, and put off other things until it is finished, because it does not take long...at least to my sense of time.  A week is hardly any worse than your workday, and there’s always plenty of time to do as I please after the latest big batch is done.”

“Mmm...so you have more time to spare that you first suggested?” her husband chuckled, adoring the playful touch she was gifting to him.

With a nod, she continued, “Yes, but I’m likely to forget that you do not.  My servants’ schedules revolve around me, and my last husband was more than a match to my rhythm of work and leisure.  It meant nothing to us if we didn’t see each other for a month...or three...and contented ourselves with a day or two of each other’s company in between.”

“That ingrate,” Tibas repeated his assessment from their honeymoon...though a part of him genuinely wondered if that hadn’t been better for Nellie.  The Cougar was dying from just three days being deprived of her effortless beauty and casually pleasurable touches, while she had once had a man patient enough to let her work undisturbed for entire months.  Just taking time out for dinner each day didn’t sound like much — to a mortal — but he couldn’t help but wonder if he really was becoming more of a burden than...

And then she smiled, and Tibas practically cursed himself for being able to live even three hours without seeing that expression.  His purr intensified, and his wife turned to lean her shoulder against his chest instead of the armrest, pushing him gently down on the loveseat and reclining against him.  He thought for a moment that her naturally floral scent was stronger than usual today, and the surprisingly light weight of her bare body on top of him filled him with a warmth that chased every last ounce of stress from his body like peasants before a barbarian hoard.

Then, to his great surprise, she nodded firmly, as if his assessment was actually spot-on.  “Like me, he was a Unicorn and, also like me, it was not his first marriage.  He was not unkind, nor unlovely, but to this day I believe it was more pity than love that prompted him to propose to me...even if a degree of love was what spurred his pity.”

That admission killed his purr and cocked his head almost completely sideways.  Tibas could hardly imagine Nellie needing anyone’s pity, though he was at least aware that he had known her only for a very short time so far.  Her circumstances had not always been as comfortable as they were now, no doubt.

He didn’t ask for the details, but his wife seemed to read the question in his eyes when she looked at him, and chuckled softly as she rolled onto her back and laid his hands lightly over her breasts as though they were cold.  “You’re overdue for some time together, and the work I had planned to complete today has been spoiled,” she noted.  The tone in which she said it proved she’d already let it go, though.  It might have been something that happened last week, or the previous year, or even before she ever met him.  “Let me share a story instead, and some affection.  Then we’ll revisit how often you need me with clearer heads.”

Despite himself, Tibas’ purr resumed, and he scooted a little lower to a more comfortable position and rested his chin on the top of her head.  Nellie continued, “Aaron, my first husband, was a Clydesdale.  He was a kind and gentle man...who quite accidentally discovered my parents and I were Unicorns.  He kept that secret faithfully for two full years before anyone else stumbled upon the truth.  We never knew who else learned it, or reported it to the constable...but when the town guard came for us, Aaron helped us to escape, at the cost of his own place in the world.  So he traveled with us for a time, helping to maintain our cover.  I became quite taken with him, as you can probably imagine...and, having all the maturity of any other Kinship in their late teens, gave myself to him one moonlit night.  Mother and father were far from approving, but the deed was done and Aaron was an otherwise honorable man.  So we took official vows, and he was as faithful a husband as I could ever have wished.”

Tibas, understandably, was only further perplexed by what sounded to him like a happy story with nothing to pity...except, perhaps, that it ended?  “So...just a hunch here...but you outlived him, and were heartbroken when he passed,” he nodded understandingly, “And this other guy thought you’d feel better having a husband you could count on to last?”

Nellie chuckled softly, patting one of his hands where it lay on her, “Your intuition is terrible, dear.  I more than outlived him.  We were married for a mere three years.”   Nellie turned her head to nuzzle her cheek against his chest, and her smile became thin.  “The safety of Heartherra was a long way off, still mostly a rumor, and father feared it was a promise of false hope.  We would have to cross borders twice to reach it, anyway, so we decided to stay on the move in Forigna, becoming traveling medicine peddlers.”  She shook her head slowly, as if ashamed now of how naive her family had been in those days.  “It went well at first, but I shouldn’t need to tell you we were eventually discovered.  Mother got separated from the rest of us while we scrambled to hide.  Once the immediate danger had passed, Aaron went to look for her, since he could move more freely than either father or I, and we were fairly sure he had not been seen in association with us yet in that little town.  But we were wrong...and we did not discover it until two days later, when father happened to overhear the announcement that the Ancient and one of her conspirators had been caught.  The sentence had already been carried out by that time.  That was when father decided to risk the road to Heartherra, after all.”

Tibas felt cold all of a sudden, and his stomach and heart both twisted into knots.  He put his arms around his wife, giving her a warm and sincere hug.  “I’m so sorry, Nellie.”

He hadn’t asked, of course, so it was hardly his fault she was recounting sad memories at the moment.  But his wife accepted his sympathy with a grateful pat on the arms encircling her, “You deserve to know my history, dear.  That’s another thing I’ve neglected these past six years.  There’s never really a ‘good time’ for tales like this, so right now is no worse than any other, and I’m pleased to say the worst is already told,” the Unicorn added quietly.

He kissed the top of her head, and she continued, “It was a frightening and dangerous road from there to Heartherra, and even that country was not as safe as a frightened heart would wish after hearing the rumors...but it was a very great deal safer than anywhere else in the world at the time.  We continued to be traveling peddlers, and crossed back and forth across the whole of the nation at least twice, before we wandered into the city of Seabridge on the eastern coast.  That’s where we met Rhontavarian Snowmane,” she declared, announcing the name with some pomp, as if it was both impressive and carried some kind of joke with it at the same time.

Her husband quirked a brow.  “...Husband number two?”

“Eventually,” she smirked, “The first time we met, he scared father and me both witless.  From halfway down the street he shouted, ‘You there! Come here!’ and all we could see at first glance was the uniform if the city sheriff marching towards us.  Our first instinct was to run, and I think we might have if father hadn’t seen his horn at the second glance.  Sir Snowmane made no pretense, waltzing around town with his Ancient Kinship on brazen display.  The sheer audacity stunned father to the point that he couldn’t flee before the man reached us.”

In spite of herself, Nellie smiled at that memory.  “Naturally, being a Unicorn himself, he’d seen through our illusions the moment he laid eyes on us.  The first thing he asked was just how long we’d been in Heartherra...and looked rather insulted when father stammered out that it had been more than two years by that time.  Then he took us aside to a private room, and laid down the law for us,” she chuckled, “He told us to keep our disguises if we felt safer in them, but they weren’t needed.  He wrote down a short list of shops, inns, landlords, and captains whom he personally did business with, and would not make a fuss over working with Ancients.  And he put his official seal beside a little note stating that if we had any trouble or needed any guidance, we could come to him directly.  Then he sent us out the door and told us to ‘live as we please’, all without ever hearing our names.”

“He sounds very...blunt,” the Cougar chuckled, “Whatever attracted you to a man like that?”

Nellie turned just enough to give him a bemused look, then settled in again and continued, “Nothing.  He was a pompous man who despised pomp, and I never could reconcile the paradox.  But he was as good as his word, and impressed father so much that we settled down and made a permanent shop in that city.  Sir Snowmane visited us regularly, as often to check on our well-being as to be a patron...so naturally, he noticed that I was particularly withdrawn and moody.”  Nellie shook her head slowly, as though embarrassed to admit to her attitude at the time.  “It was a safe and comfortable place, which finally gave me the room to breathe and pine for my mother and lover.  I wasted many a beautiful day wishing that they could have seen it with me.”

Tibas hugged her again.  “That hardly seems like a waste, honey.  It’s only natural you’d dream of what life could have been like if they’d made it that far with you.”

“Mmm...you’re kind, dear, and right to a certain degree.  But I let it go on too long.  I was denying myself the very happiness I wanted to share with them...and that sharp-eyed windbag saw right through me,” she smirked, reaching up to scratch Tibas’ chin again.  He couldn’t say whether she was trying to comfort herself, reassure him that she wasn’t depressing herself in the telling, or just found the feel of his purr against her fingertips soothing, but her smile turned more sincere when the deep rumble started back up.  “One day, with father’s permission, he took me aside and told me I’d ‘done it backwards’.  ‘Marriage to a mortal will always end in sorrow,’ he warned, and, ‘I should have wedded my own kind first, so that I could know a happy one.’  Not in so many words.  He hated pomp, but loved his speeches.”

“And...that worked?” her husband quirked an in credulous brow, “I’d say it’s not the best pickup line I’ve heard, but frankly it sounds more like an insult.”  He left out that the insult was as much to him as her first husband.

“Excuse me,” the Unicorn in his arms cast a bemused grin up at him, “But how much wooing did you have to do before we got married?”  His sheepish smile was apology enough.  “He proposed to show me how a marriage should be done, if I would allow him,” Nellie continued, “Not because he loved me, but because it was the right thing to do for someone whose only experience had been so sad.  I was just as doubtful then as you are now, Tibas...but he was a man every bit as good as his word.  So I gave him the chance to show me.”

Nellie grew quiet then, but the smile lingering on her face was sincere as she continued to scratch her husband’s chin and he continued to purr against her bare back.  He’d only seen this happen a couple of times over the last few years.  Time seemed to distort a little as she wandered through long roads of old memories, pausing to take in her favorites in an unhurried way, like someone enjoying the scenic overview of their home town, forcing the clock to wait for her to resume moving again.  It was a comfortable stillness, but it would last for hours is he didn’t coax her back into moving.  “So...he succeeded?”

She snorted softly, but nodded.  “He taught me the mating ritual of our Kinship.  He taught me how to face the prejudice against our kind that still lingered even in Heartherra in those days.  He taught me many things in those hundred and twenty years...including, ironically, how to cherish the three I’d shared with my first husband.”  Turning her head then, she kissed Tibas softly on the cheek.  “And you have loved me more in these six short years than he did in over a century.  He never could have missed me enough to barge in like you did today, or felt possessive enough to demand my attention.  It was poorly expressed, but very sweet of you, dear.”

He almost apologized again, but caught himself in time to take an approach she’d appreciate more, and kiss her just as fondly on the wide bridge of her nose.  “You called it a loveless marriage before, if I remember right.  Is that why you finally broke it off with him?”

Nellie looked confused for a moment, then a little disappointed.  “I did not.  I told you before that Unicorns do not swear ‘till death do us part’.  A hundred and twenty years is fairly standard for our oaths, since it affords plenty of opportunity to have offspring and enough time to raise one if it comes about.  We kept our oaths faithfully, and simply elected not to renew them at the end.”  Settling against him again, she finished, “Although we ‘made love’, and not infrequently...well, by our standards...we never once really loved each other.  Either of us.  We both understood that when he proposed, and it wasn’t a condition of the vows...but sometimes I think he hoped it might grow as we went.  Not enough that he regretted the time spent, but he seemed a little disappointed in the end.  The last thing he told me was that I’d made a very good wife, and he hoped I would find another genuinely passionate marriage one day...and that I should choose my next husband more carefully.”

Tibas winced, and suddenly felt very keenly like he’d been called out across several centuries.  “Oof...I may owe this man an apology...”

The Unicorn in his arms smirked, and rolled over enough to pat his chest gently.  “No...I definitely chose better this time,” she promised, “Though I haven’t been very good to him lately.”  With that, she got to her feet and offered him her hand.  “Come now.  That room is warm and humid, and I am practically soaked with sweat.  I would like to wash before you lay me down and have me make up for some of those nights I have been absent.”

That explained the scent, and Tibas chuckled quietly as he took her hand.  She might believe him if he told her she smelled even more appealing with half a week of sweat on her than freshly washed, but her fur and mane and tail would doubtless appreciate a bit of shampoo regardless.  Getting to his feet, he stood as still as a Feline could while she unbuttoned his shirt from top to bottom and rolled it off his shoulders, then deftly unfastened his belt and pants even more quickly than he could.  One gentle push seemed to send his slacks and boxers both sliding down his muscular legs, and his thoughtful wife even cupped her hand gently behind his balls, rolling her thumb between the sheath and scrotum to give each part refreshing freedom in the open air.

With every inch of him as bare as her own, Nellie turned to lead the way to the little open shower in the corner of the room, artfully disguised as a fountain pouring from the mouth of a roaring lion into a shallow basin in the floor.  The Unicorn stepped in without hesitation, marching right into the outpouring water and ducking her head through it once.  Then she leaned back until the stream fell right against her chest, just below her collar-bone, and was channeled between her soft breasts and down her body.  She reached up with both hands to loosely grip the lion’s lower lip between its bottom incisors, and tilted her head back until her horn pointed straight as the ceiling and her mane hung more-or-less free behind her back.  “Start with my mane, please,” she requested quietly, “And don’t spare a single inch of me from your touch.”

A tremble ran down his entire body, and his sword practically leaped from his sheath, before he took down the bottle of shampoo from the shelf build into the wall beneath the lion’s chin and poured out a palm full of the cucumber-scented contents.  But as his fingers began to gently comb through the silk of her mane, Tibas couldn’t resist admitting, “It’s more reassuring than it should be, to know you keep your vows even to a man you don’t love.  And I do remember that you gave me a similar warning the night that you proposed,” he sighed, leaning in to kiss the side of her neck beside her sudsy mane.  “Is his good example also what prompted you to propose in the first place?  Because I also had a pretty sad story the morning we met...”

She pulled her own mane a little, turning her head to give him a mildly vexed look over one shoulder.  Strangely, that expression was comforting to Tibas in that moment.  If she was tempted to be angry, then he was wrong.  “I married you, Tibas, because you were good company that day, and more honest than most men who might find themselves in that situation.”  Tipping her head back again so he could continue washing, she added more softly, “Pity was a motive in inviting you to return after that day.  But it had no part in my proposal.  With less than a handful of exceptions — even including today — you have continued to be good company ever since.  Although I have wasted that gift quite shamefully in the last year or so...”

Something about that admission seemed to make her thoughtful.  She grew quiet and as perfectly still as the fountainhead she was clinging to, while her husband gratefully washed out her mane, then her neck and delicate face, and then her upper back.  He stepped in snug against her to hold her in some semblance of a hug while his hands continued to spread the shampoo down the front of her body, lovingly tracing every curve of her figure and bump of bone or muscle they moved across.  “Perhaps that is what Grandmother’s warning meant,” his wife continued quietly just as he was getting down on his knees behind her, to wash her legs, “Loneliness does not strike me often...but I have not felt this connected to anything or anyone since my first husband.  I ought to savor it more.”

Behind her, Tibas chuckled as he poured a fresh serving of shampoo into his palm and began to lather up her shapely thighs and calves.  “I’ll take that as high praise,” he promised, leaning in to peck the soft cheek of her rump with a quick kiss before lathering that part up, too, and setting in to work on her tail.  His wife smirked at the little gesture, and continued to hold perfectly still while he finished washing all of her lower half, including the thick lips of her vulva and even thicker ring around her anus.

“Now, wash those hands well,” she instructed when he stood back up, “And remember that I don’t appreciate anything half-done.  There are no less than three places within your reach that you failed to scrub.   Seven, to be technical, but I’ll forgive you for ignoring the smallest two, and two more that shouldn’t really have soap in them,” she warned, flicking her thin ears back and forth once and flaring her nostrils.

Tibas quirked a brow, but carefully washed both hands to halfway up his forearms before stepping in snug against her back again and giving an apologetic kiss to her cheek.  “So, where did I...?”

Nellie laid her head back on his shoulder.  “No soap in the first two,” she warned, “Just a gentle scrubbing is all they need.”  So saying, she closed her eyes and let her mouth hang loosely open.

He took the hint with an embarrassed chuckle, and no faint blush on his cheeks, hooking two fingers into her mouth to lay gently on top of her tongue.  Nellie closed her lips around them, sucking softly as he pressed the tips up and down the length of her tongue, and his other hand tenderly parted the lips of her sex to give a similar treatment to her love-tunnel.  His wife hummed approval, clenching around his invading digits encouragingly while swirling her tongue around the gentle fingers in her mouth.

Tibas purred in her ear, and she nuzzled her cheek against his.  “I think I understand, but I also didn’t think you appreciated having that third one penetrated,” he whispered, just to be sure he wasn’t getting the wrong idea.

She didn’t try to answer, still having her mouth full of his fingers, until he withdrew them and ran them lovingly down the front of her throat instead.  “I’m not enamored,” the Unicorn confirmed even as she nudged him back a couple of steps with her hips.  Holding the fountain’s lower lip again, she bent forward, ducking through the outpour to let it fall on the small of her back and run down her shapely legs, framing the tight curve of her posterior beneath her lifted tail.  “This one will need some soap,” she advised, “And please be thorough.”

The Cougar obediently lubed up one hand with suds, traced around the inner ring of her rim with one finger, then delicately inserted it.  Her back-door clenched tight around the intruding digit, as if in protest, but Nellie cast a subtle, approving smile over her shoulder.  “One more,” she suggested quietly, and Tibas slipped a second finger alongside the first, turning them gently to slide against every side of her inner walls.

“This is a first,” Tibas noted as Nellie breathed slow, deep breaths while he scoured her insides, “You know — sweet as it is for you to suggest something you don’t really enjoy — you don’t have to brace yourself for anal,” her husband chuckled, patting her soft cheek as he finally withdrew his fingers.  “It’s not really my thing.”

Nellie rocked her head as she stood up, turning her back to the flow of water and spreading her cheeks again with one hand to let it wash out the crevice and doughnut as deep as it could reach.  “It’s been a while since I indulged you,” the Unicorn admitted, reaching forward to draw him into the water next, “And even longer since I asked you to indulge me.  I’m going to take my time with you tonight, and explore a little.  I’m just preparing in case you decide to do the same.”

Reaching up to cup her palms against his cheeks, Nellie drew him into a deep, tongue-swirling kiss, before taking up the shampoo bottle in her own hands.  It took rather less time for her wash him down (he had no long hair, and hadn’t spent three days at his work without pausing for a shower), but she was every bit as thorough with him as he’d been with her, including the creases of his sheath, the full length of his shaft, and (a little embarrassingly) a deep cleaning of his own back-door.

At last the pair stepped out of the shower.  Tibas paused at the edge of the tile to shake out the worst of the water from his fur, and watch starry-eyed as his wife daintily did the same, in addition to wringing out her mane and tail.  He’d never asked if there was an actual reason for it, but Nellie seemed to have a subtle aversion to towels.  She never used one after a shower, and never seemed bothered by the water she spread across floors or furniture or even their bedspread.  The Cougar himself had stopped worrying about it after the first week or so, when it became obvious that her staff changed out the entire bed while they were out of the room each day, and clearly had no trouble treating even the mattress...if that wasn’t also replaced.  He’d never once caught the scent of musk or mildew anywhere in the house.

So he knew that all options were still available when she knit her fingers with his and waited for him to take the lead.  “Would you like some novelty tonight, husband, or familiar comforts?” she asked, gesturing vaguely toward the bed and then the door.  Tibas chuckled, recalling the one time just a few weeks after their honeymoon that they’d made love in the gazebo, then turned and scooped his surprised wife up in his arms.  He carried her princess-style to the bed, while she smiled up at him and clung to his neck, until he laid her down gently on the wide mattress.  Nellie looked just slightly surprised when he turned to one of the two armoires in the room then, and returned with the cock-sleeve...

Crawling onto the bed with her, Tibas tugged the silk cord holding the curtains of the canopy surrounding the bed open.  The thick fabric enclosures fell shut, sealing out the rest of the world and plunging them into darkness...that was quickly and gently dispelled by the soft glow of Nellie’s horn.  Her husband leaned down to kiss her brow just below where that ivory spiral joined her face.  “Gods forgotten...this is what I miss the most when you don’t come to bed, Nellie,” her husband sighed, gazing down into her deep, sapphire eyes, “Not the sex.  Just your face.  Your eyes.  The wonder of nature that deigned to make me her husband.”  He paused to kiss her soft nose between the large nostrils.  “If you’re going to indulge me, then I’ll absolutely do whatever it takes to satisfy you,” he promised, tapping a knuckle against the silver surface of the cock-sleeve, “Just let me look at and kiss this lovely face for a few minutes.”

Nellie actually giggled, and her smile turned to that rare, whole-hearted kind that only came out when he praised her from his heart...even if she always chided him about it.  “Lost in the starlight again,” Nellie cooed, lightly caressing his cheek, “But if that’s what you want, dear, drink in as much as you like.”  Taking the sleeve in one hand, she reached up to slide it discreetly beneath the pillows above their heads at the moment.  “That thing isn’t going to touch me until you’re satisfied, though.  My husband is demanding my attention.  I demand his real touch.”

She lifted her head to kiss his lips, her hands running warmly up his sides and her knees tucking comfortably against his hips.  Tibas purred like distant thunder, savoring the slick taste of her tongue on his own until they broke for air, then losing himself in the pools of her eyes until they kissed again.  It was hard to say how many times they repeated this simple motion, but eventually Nellie’s hand began to slide warmly down his stomach until her fingers parted around his sheath...and the spear standing out from it, eager and oozing pre-cum.  Nellie wordlessly guided the tip lower, nesting it between the thick lips of her vulva...and hummed quiet approval when Tibas took the invitation just as quietly.  There was some variety to the positions and techniques they employed, but his wife was grateful that he always seemed at least as content as she was with simple, “vanilla” sex.  Sometimes she even thought it a shame that practicing the mating ritual with him was guaranteed to be fruitless...

“There you go, dear,” she whispered in his ear a few short minutes later, feeling the tell-tale pulse inside her walls, then kissed his cheek again and brushed her thumbs gently over his eyes as if wiping water away from them.  “Feeling better now?  Cleared a little of the stardust from your eyes?”

His answer, between panted breaths, was to kiss her lips softly and nuzzle her large nose with his much smaller one.  “Only a little,” he chuckled, still instinctively thrusting against the backs of her thighs in an effort to milk the last drops from himself, “Plenty left...to indulge...‘new things’...you wanted to try...”

His wife chuckled, and held him warmly on top of her for another few minutes, until he well and truly had his breath under control.  Then she ran her fingernails lightly down the back of his neck and shoulders, letting her thighs fall from hugging his hips to openly splayed beneath them.  “You’ve offered a few times over the years, and I’ve always refused,” she noted quietly, kissing one of his ears, “Prove me a fool tonight.  Show me how gentle you can actually be with that rough tongue of yours in my most sensitive, delicate places.”  Then she whispered into that same ear, “And have me taste yours.”

Tibas kissed her neck, then her cheek, and then quietly withdrew and turned himself around.  It felt like a long time since he’d tasted a woman.  Though she was far from shy as a lover, Nellie was also far from a wild child.  Her favorite position was spoon-in-spoon, and her favorite touch was a combination of gentle caresses on her pearl and teasing touches around her rim, arguably the most outlandish practice she ever requested.  She was sensual, never hurried.  She was passionate, but never desperate.  And if he ever felt hurried or desperate, she never complained about satisfying him first, or worried about getting her own pleasure in turn.  And since marrying her, Tibas had come to find all the complicated and “exciting” techniques he used to practice were simply...unnecessary.

Sex with Nellie was downright soothing.

So while it was hardly his first time trying cunnilingus...this was effectively new territory for the two of them.  He bowed his head and gently kissed her vulva first.  He’d just climaxed inside her, but her tunnel was so deep there was no sign of himself, and barely even any scent.  Instead, her cup exuded that same faintly flowery scent her sweat carried, tinged with something like honeysuckle...and Tibas quickly decided that this would be an easy practice to pick up again.  He carefully ran the tip of his tongue along the slit between the thick lips, teasing them open, and dipped it experimentally into her love-tunnel...

The Cougar had to pause, holding his breath, and purred loudly as a different pair of much softer lips wrapped deftly around his retreating shaft, as though catching it before it could flee back into the safety of his sheath.  Nellie’s tongue slid down the top of it, her head being inverted on the mattress below his hips, and she teased the rim of his sheath with the velvety surface before sucking gently on his tip to coax it to erection again.  It was her first time doing this with him...but there was no way Tibas could believe it was her first time with a man in her mouth, after an opening like that.

He could feel her smile around him, probably encouraged by his purr, and she gently patted his bottom as if to assure him the taste was pleasant.  With an appreciative sigh, Tibas bent his head back to his own work, carefully teasing her open and circling the inside of her walls before drawing his tongue further up to graze across her sensitive button.  Nellie’s legs, on either side of his face, twitched involuntarily.  Tibas apologized by sliding the smooth underside of his tongue over her button, and felt her thighs relax again.

She enjoyed having her rim touched, so while he was faced this way Tibas reached one hand forward to slide gently between the cheeks above her tail.  His wife cooed around his cock when his fingertips brushed over the thick rim, and Tibas couldn’t suppress a small smile of pride.  Then his wife surprised him by reaching up with her own hands, one gently parting his cheeks in turn, and delicately tracing a fingertip around the outer edge of his clenched sphincter as well.  It was another first for Tibas, outside of showering...and he couldn’t honestly say he didn’t like it, though something about that embarrassed him.

While they touched each other, the Cougar lapped his tongue around the edge of her pearl again, and she tensed.  He tried carefully dragging his tongue in the smooth direction, where the texture would be less pronounced, and she twitched.  No matter which trick or technique he used, each time the rough flat of his tongue so much as brushed her clit, her entire lower body jerked just a little.

Nellie patted his thigh at last, swirling her own tongue around his cock once more before letting it slide from her mouth.  “That’s enough, dear.  It was a valiant effort, but I’m just too delicate there.  Thank you for the novel experience.”  She sounded sincere, though her husband couldn’t help but be a little disappointed in himself.  Nellie kissed the hard shaft now waving above her nose like it had done her a favor, and lightly squeezed and scratched the cheeks of his rump.  “Would you like to try filling my doughnut with cream instead?  Those touches were very nice, and it feels a little...needy...now.”

Tibas turned around again, to nuzzle her cheek with his own, and gaze adoringly into those brilliant eyes of hers again.  “I’d like to do something I know will satisfy you, like nothing else can,” her husband promised, kissing her nose lightly, “Thank you for being so generous with me first.  You really went the extra mile tonight.”

The Unicorn beneath him smirked like his gratitude was cute in some way...then lazily reached up to fetch the sleeve.  “Please go slowly, then, husband.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been stretched like this,” she reminded him as she handed over the articulated tube.

It still looked to him like nothing less than an elephant’s trunk, made of silver segments, as long as his arm from the elbow to the fingertips and nearly as thick.  It was the one and only “magic item” in her entire house.  A talented wearer could actually use it in a prehensile manner, but Tibas barely even qualified as a novice.  When he slid his shaft into the open end and ran his thumb up the line of smooth-polished jewels along the underside, the sleeve simply stood up tall and firm...and transferred every tactile sensation it encountered back to his own skin.

She’d shown him how it worked on their honeymoon, and Nellie had explained that male Unicorns had a tendency to be...sizable.  The females were almost supernaturally deep and elastic.  Even a well-endowed Horse would have trouble truly filling her, so this sleeve was a little indulgence she’s commissioned back when pure sexual pleasure still seemed attractive to her.  She’d outgrown the need for it since then, but it had proven a fortuitous purchase for her new husband...even if he’d only used it for her once since the honeymoon.

“Gently, please,” she reminded him one last time, using her own hands to hold her entrance open while both of his were dedicated to getting the toy in line with her.  This wasn’t her favorite method, but there was still a certain excitement in her voice as Tibas slid the first two segments inside.  “Mmm...that does feel nice,” she admitted, wrapping her legs around his hips to help draw him in slowly, “Especially...!”

Her breath hitched as one particular segment slipped through, where a small ridge along the top was well placed to roll across her G-spot.  Tibas grinned.  “That one?” he asked playfully, drawing back just that one segment and thrusting it quickly through again.  Nellie gasped and giggled, reaching out to rest a hand on his chest and pull him deeper with her legs before he could tease her again.  “Hmhm...gotta say, I do envy the man who can satisfy you without needing this thing,” her husband confessed as his hips finally snugged up against hers.

“It is only ‘needed’ if you insist on the direct approach,” Nellie tried to assure him, but the pleasured way her lower lip was tucked between her teeth said this method was pretty effective.  “You have handled me quite beautifully on many a night without it.”

Tibas rocked back until nearly the full thing was withdrawn, then lunged into her again, driving a squeal from her lips.  The second time he pulled back, Nellie planted her hooves on his thighs to stop him.  “Slower,” she insisted, despite the pleasured smile on her face, “Take your time.  You deserve every minute you can drag it out, and I want you to enjoy it.”

The servants could probably hear his purr from wherever in the house they’d retreated to.  Leaning forward over her, Tibas kissed his beautiful wife, stopped playing around, and got down to the serious business of bringing her to climax.  It was a long (slightly exhausting) ride.  He got to watch the pleasure build up in her expression as much as her body, even the light of her horn growing brighter as she neared the brink.  With her hands on the back of his neck, Nellie pulled him down on top of her as her walls began to flutter and then clench.  Her horn flared as she sighed a long, partially voiced exhale, then dimmed to barely the brightness of a single candle.

The warm, soothing dark wrapped around them, the light of her horn making little more than their two faces distinct under the shelter of the canopy.  Nellie spent a few quiet minutes catching her breath, then kissed Tibas’ cheek.  “Thank you, dear,” she sighed, “That was delightful.  Do you want more, now?”

Her husband chuckled, kissed her face fondly, and pulled himself out of the enchanted sleeve, making it fall limp and inert again.  Then he not-so-discreetly pushed it through the gap in the curtains and dropped it on the floor outside the bed.  “If you’ll just stay like this,” he promised, curling up beside her, “And keep your horn glowing where I can see your face, that’ll be more than enough for me.”

Nellie chuckled at the sweet sentiment, and nuzzled him in return.  “I get cold sleeping in the open air,” she reminded him, “And it’ll go out when I fall asleep.  Mmm, but I’ll keep it lit for you until the last possible second.”  Tibas kissed her, and took a moment to work the blankets out from under their bodies and back up over their shoulders, pulling his wife close to his warmer body.  She snuggled into him with a contented sigh, and they lay there for a few quiet minutes simply basking in the afterglow and the warmth of each other’s arms.

Just when Tibas thought she might be drifting off the sleep (he could tell he was on the verge of it), Nellie broke the comfortable quiet.  “I’m going to lose track of the days again, Tibas,” she returned to the problem that had started this whole night.  “Not intentionally, but I will, and I won’t even realize it’s happening.  So when you feel like you’re being ignored, and I don’t seem to be listening to you...go back to the club where we first met.  That will be my sign that we need to have a serious talk about it again.  I won’t ignore it.”

The strong arms around her shoulders tightened their hug briefly.  “I know you won’t,” Tibas acknowledged honestly, “Good night, Nellie. I love you.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, and kissed his chest.  Then, with one last flicker of blue light, her horn winked out.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Patience Pt. 5 - Lover's Squabble", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/plain", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "26" }