Daughter of Treason Ch. 03

Gently, he tried to disengage himself, but as he started tugging on her fingers, she said in the tiniest and most pitiful voice he had ever heard, "Don't leave me." Her face, previously showing some sort of deranged euphoria, now was so vulnerable, so stricken, it looked like a careless word would crush her. He knew she was confused, he knew that she wasn't thinking straight, but... damn it! How am I supposed to say no to that face!

Reluctantly, he allowed himself to be dragged onto the bed where, to his discomfort and secret pleasure, Kei wasted no time in cuddling up next to him, nestling her head on his shoulder and throwing one leg over his. Oh shit. What should I do? Should I tell her to go to her own side? But what if she falls off? That could make it worse! Should I go get help? She seems fine now. A pause. And her tits pressed up against me feels REALLY good.

He shook the thought from his head, prompting Kei to moan softly in protest of the movement. I really should try to get out of this. She won't like this when she wakes up. Will she? He paused for a moment and decided that he would have absolutely no problem himself waking up to the exact same scene, and even less of a problem if she felt the same. Besides, he reasoned, I can just tell her the truth; she hit her head in the bathroom, and I tried to get her to lie down but she wouldn't let me go. She can hardly blame me. Shino nodded to himself, satisfied with his reasoning and course of action. Yes, that would do.

Time passed. It's going to be really hard to sleep with this boner.

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Consciousness returned to Kei slowly. Her face was nestled against something soft, her leg resting in an odd position. In a few fuzzy moments, she realized that she was cuddled up against and practically draped over someone. Shino, she thought, before it struck her that she had no way to know this. In a moment of panic, fearing the worst, she jerked her had upwards, and discovered two more things. The first was that it was, in fact, Shino who she was up against. The second was that her head was particularly insistent about not being moved.

Groaning, she returned to her previous position, trying to burrow her face into his shoulder and block out the world with all its aching. Time passed, and the pain faded again to a much more manageable throb. What happened last night? She remembered Shino drinking in her body- No, wait, she had only been imagining that. So how did she end up here? And, noted Kei for the first time, naked to boot. Shino, she noted- was it with disappointment? -was still fully clothed in the light cotton common in Islandport and on the warm seas. Yes, Kei confirmed, it was disappointment that she felt at this news. Why? Had she been hoping that he would take her and ravage her? Yes! Cried some hidden part of her, prompting the rest of her to groan. What's happening to me?

Beneath her arm, Shino stirred. "Mmwha?" Shifting, presumably to look at her, he asked very quietly, "Kei, are you awake?" She could only growl in response, out of residual pain or frustration, she wasn't sure. Taking it as an affirmative, he went on, "Kei? Uh, you really should get over on to your own side."

"Fuh tha," came her muffled response. If the words were unclear, the tightening of her arm around him was not.

"Erm, Kei? I, uh, I have to use the privy."

Kei sighed. He was lying. She didn't even have to see his face to know that. "Really?" she asked, her skepticism less muffled than her voice.

"Eh, um, no."

Groaning, Kei rolled away, releasing him and hissing in pain as the back of her head came to rest on a pillow. Shino, notably not moving, watched her carefully until finally, her eyes fixed themselves upon him. Her expression was as neutral as she could make it, which is to say, rather anxious, as she asked, "Shino, what exactly happened last night?"

His eyes widened in panic, and when he did respond, it came out as a nervous jumble. "You were in the bathroom, bathing I guess, and I heard noises, kind of like you were hurting a little bit, but I didn't think anything of it until I heard a crash and I was worried you hurt yourself so I peeked inside when you didn't respond to my calling and found you on the floor. I think you fell or something, because you were really out of it, you didn't seem to be able to talk or really know where you were, so I helped you get over here, trying to get you to lay down so you could recover but you wouldn't let me leave until I got into bed with you and nothinghappenedI'msorry!"

He was- Kei almost smiled- he was cringing. Like he expected some sort of punishment. Wryly, Kei asked, "Is that all?"

"Yes!" he cried, almost desperately.

Once more, she sighed. A part of her had hoped that her imaginings had been reality, that he had simply put clothes on sometime during the night, but now it was confirmed. Just an embarrassing injury. At least he hasn't asked how I fell, she mused.

"Uh, Kei?"

"Yes, Shino?"

"You're, um, kind of naked."

"Yes," responded Kei, her tone as dry as her throat, "I gathered that. I don't suppose you could go get me some water?"

As he scurried off, she sent a silent prayer to the Warrior for strength. What was wrong with him? She had men from all walks of life staring brazenly at her body, some going so far as to violate the sanctity of the Bathhouse to ogle openly, and yet others trying to subjugate her just to sample her flesh. And here was Shino, with the impulses of most men yet struggling with them. Perhaps in anyone else, Kei would have admired such an internal conflict, but in him it just frustrated her. Couldn't he see that she didn't want restraint?

She steeled her features as he reentered the room, bearing an entire bucket. At her raised eyebrow, he explained with a nervous grin, "I think we forgot to get plates and glasses and things."

Inwardly, Kei sighed, adding that on to a long and growing list of things to do today. Outwardly, she only thanked him, took the bucket awkwardly in both hands, and drank deeply. In the process, the sheet which had previously served to cover her slipped and pooled at her waist. Shino quickly glanced away, and a small something in Kei snapped. "If you want to look, just look!"

If he had been drinking, Kei was fairly certain he would have choked. As it was, he stared at her face in startlement, opened his mouth to say something, closed it, and opened it again. Finally, he choked out a weak, "What?"
"Not ogling a stranger in public is one thing, but lowering your eyes every time more than two square inches of flesh are exposed is quite another! I have made no move to cover myself; has it ever occurred to you that maybe I want you to look?" From the look on his face, it evidently hadn't. Groaning in frustration, she buried her face in one hand, holding the bucket steady with another. What was she going to do with this one?

Time passed, and Kei gradually became aware of Shino's gaze, slowly creeping up from its downcast state. He was so hesitant, so shy about it, she wasn't sure if she wanted to smack him or kiss him, but slowly, oh so slowly, he drank openly, if shyly, in the vision of her figure.

She flushed beneath his gaze, blood running both to her cheeks and sex. Her mind raced. He's looking at me. He's looking at me! Does he like what he sees? Of course, he's looking, isn't he? But I told him to look. Is he just doing what I say? Am I influencing him, getting him to do something he doesn't wants? Oh gods, I hope I'm not ruining everything. Forcibly quashing her mile-a-minute thoughts, she tried and failed to school her features into neutrality and managed to croak a tense, "Well?"

He took his time in responding, running his gaze up the shrouded form of her sheet-covered legs and waist, up the lithe and smooth belly, pausing an extra moment to take in the generous swell of her breasts, and passing her shoulders and neck to arrive finally at her face. His face was both serious and completely sincere when he said quietly, "You're beautiful."

Her heart soared, elastic recoil from the burden of anxiety so suddenly lifted by those two words. A dozen responses flashed through her head, each one less demure and more appealing than the last. Finally, a very clear one solidified in her mind. 'Kiss me,' perhaps the boldest and most exciting of anything she could have thought to say, was on the tip of the tongue when, painfully clear even a story above ground, the sound of knocking issued from downstairs.

Her nerve lost, momentum broken, and moment passed, she was left staring at Shino, her expression of surprise and more than a hint of frustration mirroring his own. Time passed, and the knock repeated itself, more insistently. Pained, he said, "I should answer that."

"Yes," sighed Kei, "you should. I'll be down shortly."

Shino turned and clambered down the stairs, his heavy step belying his anger at the interruption. Taking just a moment to center herself, Kei rolled out of bed, wincing at the sensory reminder of the goose egg on the back of her skull, and rooted around in her sack for her only other change of clothes. She pulled her underthings and pants on and began the long and uncomfortable process of binding her chest. From below, the sound of voices carried just enough to convey tone, though not words. Shino's was confused, irritated, and as the exchange went on, became edged with panic. The other voice started impatient, moved on to bewildered and then into exasperation.

Finishing her bindings hastily, she pulled on a shirt, and was in the process of buckling her sword-belt on when Shino's voice, firm but more distant, rang out for just a few moments, followed by a truncated shout, then silence. Suddenly anxious, Kei scrambled out the door bootless, hand on her rapier hilt, and down the stairs. The ground level was empty, but the door was closed. Continuing to the basement, she burst in to find Shino looking a bit nervous, standing over an unfamiliar, human, and now smoking body. "Are you alright?" she asked, all business.

"Uh, yeah." Shino shook his head. "Uh, he burst in, looking for Urist, a dwarf. He claimed to be a friend. I told him nobody by that name lives here, but her insisted, said he left something important. I told him again that nobody by that name lived there, and he said not to mess with the 'rat gang' or whatever, and muscled his way in! Before I could stop him, he rushed downstairs and saw the bodies. I, uh, panicked and hit him with a scorching ray spell before he could attack or run to warn the rest of his gang." The poor elf looked downright pitiful. "Did I mess up?"

"No," Kei said firmly, "you did well." She paused. "You're sure he said the rat gang?"

"I'm pretty sure, yeah."

Kei nodded, looking at the new body. Reasonably fine clothes, a muscled frame. Not the body of any old street-level thug. I'm going to have to do something about these ones.

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Author's Note:

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