Work Text:
Eda was getting used to living life with a partner again.
She almost never slept alone anymore, not since she and Raine had started living together after the Day of Unity. She’d go to sleep wrapped in their arms and awaken to their warmth enveloping her. It was nice.
They were good around the house, always helping her with the cleaning and the cooking when they could. Never complaining about the short list of menial tasks that had to be done, like some of her other exes would have in the past. Raine seemed to like being able to help her out, and she wasn’t going to discourage that. Titan knows she could use all the help she could get.
She was also getting better at being honest. Being open was never easy but it allowed her to be in a good place with them, and, after going through all the shit they had whilst trying to stop the draining spell and the Collector, she felt it was easier to speak to them about her troubles now. They had some common ground between them and the things that were harder to talk about in the past had now become more manageable. It was a big step forward from her past self, who would run and hide away at the first sign of vulnerability. It’s what drove them away in the first place all those years ago, and she wasn’t going to make a mistake like that again.
~~~
That night started out as it usually did, with Raine getting home after a long day of coven dismantling and flopping onto their girlfriend, who was sitting on the couch watching crappy crystal ball shows, as soon as they walked through the door.
After getting up and eating the dinner Eda had prepared earlier in the kitchen, Raine resumed their position of ‘curled up, stressed out bard’ while they laid in Eda’s lap once more.
“You okay there?” she asked, a hint of her usual playfulness seeping through her words as the less than happy bard grumbled incoherent sentences against her stomach.
Raine scoffed, and moved their head to the side so that their voice wouldn’t be muffled by the fabric of her dress. “I just wanna have one day where an argument doesn’t break out amongst the former coven scouts. Just ONE day!” They exclaimed, their voice getting higher and higher as they aired their grievances. “Honestly you’d think after being in the Emperor’s Coven for titan knows how many years that they’d be able to agree on a fucking plan! but no! they’re all incompetent fools!”
Eda chuckled, and started to card her fingers through their minty green hair with her non-prosthetic hand. “You know those boneheads would be lost without you though. You’re doing a good thing, but I'm sorry you have to put up with all of that,” she grimaced as the thought of organising Belos's former lackeys entered her brain.
Ew, no thanks.
“I just wanna go to bed,” they sighed, rolled their head back into her stomach and groaned.
“Your wish is my command, Rainestorm,” Eda said with a flourish, shifting them in her lap so that she could put her arms around their back and small of their waist. She lifted them carefully and carried them bridal style up the creaky wooden stairs that led up to her bedroom, pretending not to see the blush that stained their cheeks a deep crimson as she did so.
Once she had put Raine safely down in her nest, she started to peel off her usual dress and tights, leaving her in just her underwear. She suddenly felt a presence behind her and tensed, her fight or flight reflexes kicking in.
“Hey, it’s just me,”
Oh yeah, no shit. It’s just them.
Eda exhaled, the tension and fear that had settled in her stomach evaporating away as Raine wrapped their arms around her waist and pulled her close to their chest.
“Sorry about that,” she whispered, and shame swirled in her chest for acting so stupid.
“Don’t apologise,” they whispered back, and they said it so softly in her ear that she could almost believe that she didn’t have to apologise profusely or mentally curse herself for feeling emotions anymore, like she had in the past.
Raine then did something that took her completely by surprise. They kissed her shoulder tenderly, as if the skin beneath their lips was something sacred, something to be protected.
Eda laughed hoarsely, confused but touched at the gesture. “What was that for?”
“You had a scar there, and no one was there to kiss them when they were fresh, open wounds so here I am… making up for that I guess,” they explained sheepishly, and Eda could feel the heat of their blush that radiated off their cheeks on the back of her neck.
What a dork they were.
“That’s sweet, but you really don’t have to,”
“I want to,” they insisted, their voice so soft but laced with a certain flavour of assertiveness.
“Then be my guest, Rainestorm.”
Shivers ran down her spine as they brought their hands up to rest on her neck, then her shoulders, then her back, kissing every scar they met on the way there.
Her breath hitched and she tried to keep her cool as she felt their gentle, calloused hands brushing over every fibre of her skin. Their touch was intoxicating, addicting in a way that nothing else was. She cherished it, because Titan had she missed it. She let herself feel, for all those years spent alone, yearning for them and their touch. Now she was surrounded by it, and she’d be damned if she didn’t enjoy every moment.
When they reached her right arm, the arm they’d had to rip off to save her from the curse and draining spell, they peppered it with kisses. Each one, she guessed, was an apology or a promise to her. They were sappy and guilty like that. The motion made her blush down to the tops of her shoulders, which did not go unnoticed by Raine as they chuckled lightly against her skin.
~~~
After they’d made every promise under the stars and the moon and probably the sun too, they continued trailing kisses down her back, shoulders and neck until they reached a scar just below her last rib that made her hiss in pain.
“Woah, you okay?” Raine asked, quickly taking their face and hands away from the offending area.
“Yeah, I just definitely still feel that one,” she explained.
“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Eda paused. Should I really tell them this story?
After a while of false starts and silent contemplating, she decided to spill the story and deal with the consequences after. Open and honest. Just as she’d promised them.
She took a deep breath in.
“…So, I was at the night market one night engaging in various nefarious activities and, ya know, trying to earn some cash, when these two demon punks try to nab some of my earnings,” She explained, whilst Raine resumed their original position of having their arms around her waist and their chest against her back, listening attentively to her story.
“They were slippery fellas who always went after vulnerable witches and I'd seen them pull a trick like this before. Naturally, I put up a fight and I would’ve won too if they didn’t fight so dirty.” She steeled herself for a moment as the telltale signs of anger began to rise in her throat. “They had a third, completely new lackey hiding behind me in an alleyway that took the opportunity to sink a knife in between my ribs while I was holding off the other two,”
Eda laughed scornfully as she finished the story, “The worst part was that they managed to get their slimy hands on a bunch of my human trash stock, along with half of the money,” She sighed, relaxing further into their embrace as they kissed the skin behind her ear. “They knew they couldn’t beat me in a magic fight, so they had to resort to… that. To beat me.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” They murmured, voice sympathetic and sorrowful.
“Don’t apologise, it’s not like you could’ve prevented it. Scoundrels will be scoundrels,” She shrugged. It wasn’t a big deal now. She’d dealt with worse, and why should she think about some thieves that wronged her when she didn’t have to worry about them anymore?
“But… it shouldn’t have been this way for you in the first place, if I had been there-,” they cut themself off, which was a relief as Eda didn’t really feel like arguing with them over what could have been.
“Hey, that was a long time ago and you’re here now, which is all that matters to me,” she declared, turning in their arms so she could see the blood rush to their cheeks instead of feeling it against her skin.
I need to return those kisses you gave me, Rainestorm.
Her lips pressed into theirs lightly, enough to take them by surprise at first. Then they returned the kiss as Eda deepened it. She poured every promise, every lonely morning, every moment she’d spent embarrassingly pining over them, every worry and feeling she’d had for them into kissing them senseless. They deserved it after being so sweet to her. Her hand rose up to cup their cheek as the kiss continued.
She then migrated to the faint coven scars that littered their face, and she kissed every single one with such care that she thought she could see tears start to leak from their eyes. That caused her to move back to kissing their lips and focus on the way their hands gently held her waist and the way her hands stroked their cheeks.
~~~
They only parted when Eda’s lungs started screaming for her to stop.
“Sap,” they quipped after they’d caught their breath, a smirk tugging their lips upward.
“Dork,” she retorted, returning the snark they’d given her.
“We’re really bad at going to sleep, huh?” They giggled, as Eda suddenly became very aware of the darkness outside.
“You’re the one that started kissing me all over and being a lovesick dork,” she then detached her prosthetic, laying it on the side table next to her nest and tugging their shirt sleeve to get them to follow her into the nest. In the midst of doing this, she slid her hand down their arm until she felt the thick, ugly scar of the coven sigil on their wrist. She brought it up to her mouth and kissed it, touch as light as a feather, before letting it go and grabbing their sleeve again.
She didn’t miss the deepening of their blush as she did so, though.
“Not my fault you’re so distracting, dingus.” Raine huffed indignantly after a while of being flabbergasted, letting her lead them into the nest. They removed their glasses from their face, setting them down beside Eda’s arm on the table.
Eda, who still had a hold of their sleeve and was now sitting against the edge of the nest, pulled them downwards, making them lose their balance and fall on top of her.
“Eda!” They exclaimed, laughing as they shuffled off of her and laid down beside her instead.
She snorted. “Don’t blame me for your sappiness then.”
“You’re the worst,”
“I know,”
“I love you.”
“I know. And I love you too.”
Eda yawned, and sleep began to tug at her eyelids, making them droopy.
Raine wrapped their arms around her waist, snuggling into her side. It made her face heat with endearment, and, though she’d never admit it out loud lest she lose their little game of ‘who’s the sappiest in the relationship’ she really was embarrassingly soft for them. She was overwhelmed with nothing but love and fell asleep enveloped in Raine’s strong hold, their arms, ones she wanted to sleep in for the rest of her life.