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Even after travelling Ionia for months, Lux is still enamoured with their buildings.
Back in Demacia, if you wanted a house, you had to find a stonemason, get approval to build within the city’s limited footprint, get more approval from some other administration- The whole process was just agonising. But in Ionia, one only needed to ask the land to grow with you. The spirits would coexist with the humans who wished to share the land, the magic infusing the very ground you walk upon and the home you spent your life in. Or at least, an evening.
Their tavern room is rather small, containing only the barest of necessities but it’s cosy and adorable. Lux runs her hands along the curling branches and weaved leaves that shield them from the elements, and the magic beneath hums with her, warm like a comforting hug. Monsoon season in Ionia is unlike anything they had in Demacia and Lux could probably spend hours watching the downpour. She follows a droplet as it trickles down the pane, then another, then another. She should get back to sleep, they were heading further east tomorrow and she would need her strength.
But what keeps her awake isn’t the storm, but the quiet, muffled sobs from the other bed.
As she sits up straighter and turns, the sound is quickly stifled, but it’s too late. She watches the small heap of blanket on the adjacent bed for a long moment, intently listening for a breath, a word-
“Hwei? Are you alright?”
In the dark, she can see the shape shuffle, but can’t quite tell if he’s looking at her.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you.” Hwei’s voice is soft as a prayer. “Don’t mind me.”
“No, not until I know you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” he says without missing a beat.
“Then why are you crying?”
“I-” He cuts off his own refutation with a scoff.
“I’m gonna brighten things up a bit, okay?” Lux says, as though trying to soothe a cornered animal.
Hwei doesn’t reply, but she continues regardless, light dancing down her fingers. It’s only a small mote, one that she raises just barely above her head, but it’s enough to illuminate their room in a gentle glow. The moment drags, painfully so, until she wonders if he’s somehow managed to go back to sleep. If only a nightlight really was all he needed.
The floor is cold when she slides her feet from under the blanket, each step across the rug a near soundless pat, pat, pat.
Even when she knees beside him, he doesn’t look away from the wall. Hwei curls in tighter, as if he could escape the moment entirely.
“Can I lay beside you?”
He hums and she leaves the little mote to hover above them, wriggling under the covers. She keeps her distance for the time being, leaves enough space between them so he can breathe.
In the soft light, he whispers, “I was back there. In Koyehn.”
Lux watches the back of his head, but keeps her hands to herself. Waits as he takes a shaky breath. When he turns over to face her, he looks exhausted .
“It’s okay,” Lux says, offering a little smile, “you don’t need to be afraid.”
There’s that look in his eyes that she can never discern, when he descends into a part of himself she can’t follow. Into the darkness she cannot illuminate.
Hwei shakes his head. “That’s the thing, I- it doesn’t scare me. It was horrific, but- It was so beautiful . That part of myself, the part that feels that way, I’m terrified of what it’s capable of.”
Lux reaches upward, taking his face in her hands. His skin is clammy, his hair a wild mess that sticks out at odd angles. When their eyes meet, his swirl in violent purple.
“I’m here,” she says, because she isn’t sure what else she can say.
Hwei is shaking, even if she weren’t touching him she could see as much. “I don’t understand why,” he says with a breathy chuckle as he lays a hand over hers.
“To keep you out of trouble, mostly,” she laughs.
Lux wriggles closer and when he doesn’t pull away, she bundles her arms around his lanky, boney frame. He’s put on some weight since they’d met all those months ago in Qayanvi, mostly at her insistence, but he still feels somewhat frail under her hands. Her fingers cannot slide smoothly through his hair, and Lux lets out a huff.
“Can I brush it?”
The sound he makes is noncommittal, but he sits up anyway, watches her as she rummages on the bedside table for the hairbrush and settles back behind him, her legs either side of his.
It’s a steady process, working through the kinks and knots with utmost care. The world narrows to just the two of them, huddled in their tiny Ionian tavern room. No Koyehn, no Demacia, no demons or mage rebellions or anything of the sort. The tension bleeds from Hwei’s muscles as she works, his breaths coming in quiet little sighs.
She pushes his hair over one shoulder and presses a kiss to the narrow column of his throat. Hwei immediately stiffens, holds his breath.
“Is this okay?” Lux asks.
He takes so long to formulate his reply that she’s already started to pull away- “Yes. I think so.”
Lux smiles. “Tell me if it stops being okay?”
“I will.”
Every move is slow and predictable, a hand moving toward to link their fingers in his lap. Hwei sighs and leans back against her, tilting his head against her shoulder.
Lux’s hands wander. They go up as far as his shoulders, playing with the hair that tickles the base of his neck, then down again, over his chest and across his ribs. They leave trails of warmth in their wake, and Lux wonders if the magic brimming beneath her skin has any effect on him. She peers up at his face again, but from this angle it’s obscured by his hair.
It’s so easy to drift like this. Her touch is warm, always warmer than his. Now isn’t the time to lecture him on his poor circulation, gods know he’s been told enough times. His breathing grows so faint she thinks he’s somehow managed to fall asleep but when she squeezes his hand he squeezes back.
Tentative fingers dance at the hem of his nightshirt and a gasp catches in his throat. Her hands jerk back.
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. Touch however you wish. Just-” He looks away. “Can you leave it on? You can take these off,” he says, plucking at his pants, “just not the shirt. Please.”
Lux smiles, presses another kiss to his jaw. “Yeah, I get it.”
Hwei sinks into her arms, pliant as her hands dip lower. One settles between his legs, pressing but only barely. The pressure is light, but it’s still enough to draw out a shaky little sigh.
Lux smiles. “That’s it,” she whispers, carefully untying the laces that fasten his trousers, “relax for me.”
It’s a team effort to shimmy his bottom half off and Hwei is beautifully soft underneath, breaths coming in quiet little sighs as he screws his eyes shut. Her hands rest at his hips, rubbing slow, careful circles. She tries not to think too much on how he can definitely feel her heat pressed against the small of his back from this angle. She hadn’t even realised how hard she was until that moment.
Hwei waits a moment, then a moment longer, the silence and stillness dragging and stalling between them. He finally opens his eyes again and cranes his neck to look at her. Still, his words fail him.
Lux gives his cheek a kiss, chaste and sweet, then she readjusts her position, lifting her legs to fold them above his thighs, effectively pinning him. The breath in his throat stutters on the way out. A flush blooms across his face, down his throat and across his chest. His skin always gets blotchy when they do this. She can’t help but smile again, dipping her hand across his inner thigh.
Lux’s hands were soft once, back home before all this. They’re still softer than Hwei’s, but she’s starting to grow her own calluses. They trail upward to the juncture of thigh and body, sit there for just long enough that Hwei lets out a huff. The pad of her thumb sweeps featherlight over his clit and Hwei jolts, letting out a high whine.
“Lux-”
“We’re going at my pace,” she says, smiling sweetly, “I know you can manage.”
He slumps back against her obediently, and while he is terribly pretty like that, she decides to take pity on him. She brushes her fingers through his soaked bush and along his folds, rubbing a languid, steady rhythm up and down. Hwei starts to pant, heat radiating from him in waves.
“That’s it,” Lux soothes, pressing a kiss to his cheek, “you shine so beautifully like this.”
And he mewls, honest to the gods. He squirms against her legs and rolls his hips as far as he can muster against her hand. Lux presses him back down with a giggle.
“Now, now. You were being so good. Don’t spoil it.”
“I’m sorry-” The sound it draws out nearly breaks her heart, his thighs shaking against hers. “I can be- good.”
“I know you can. You’re always so good for me.”
A shaky breath escapes him as he lets his legs fall apart and Lux rewards him by dragging her finger further, easing back the skin until his clit is fully exposed. It’s hard and pink and Lux can’t help but think how lovely it would be in her mouth.
“So pretty here too,” she says with another kiss to his cheek.
Her finger circles his clit, teasing and much too delicate. She knows he can handle more, but why give him it when he makes such lovely sounds as is?
Her cock is throbbing against his back, twitching and red hot. How she’s managed to ignore it for so long is a miracle in its own right, but she decides now is the time to utilise it. She grinds her hips up against his back and it punches a choked gasp from him.
“Do you feel that? What you do to me?”
As if he’s also only just noticed, Hwei somehow flushes an even deeper shade of red, the splatterings of blush across his skin surging. He squeezes his eyes shut again, a wheezing gasp falling from his lips.
Lux slides her hand further, massaging a finger into him, whispering encouragement as he takes it deeper.
Then a second joins it and he clenches around her, so hard it borders on painful. He keens, high and needy, his legs quivering and tensing. She works him through it, peppering him with kisses as he rides his completion.
Even as he recovers, she doesn’t withdraw. Keeps her fingers nice and snug as she watches him come down.
“How did you like that?” she asks with a melodic lilt.
Hwei only whines and nods.
“You wanna keep being good, right?” Lux grins, wiggling the fingers still buried in his cunt.
He suddenly goes tense again, but nods regardless.
“Great! Then you can give me another one. I know you can do it!”
Returning to the task at hand, she rolls her wrist, crooking and spreading her fingers, watching his expression with rapt interest. Hwei stutters around a moan, his legs struggling to decide if they should open wider or clench shut.
Lux curls her fingers upward and Hwei jolts beneath her with a broken gasp. Enamoured with the response, Lux pushes faster, massaging the little spot she’s found and draws out a torrent of pretty sounds. Hwei shudders, tossing an arm over his face as he pants and whimpers.
“Ah-” He cuts off the sound as he covers his mouth, chest fluttering in arhythmic quivers.
“That’s it, you’re doing so well.”
She twists her hand to grind the meat of her palm into his clit and Hwei groans so loud Lux briefly worries about their neighbours. Only briefly, Hwei is still falling apart under her hands.
Hwei is near convulsing now, spasms wracking his muscles as he squirms under her persistent stimulation. He cries out, raw and wet, tears streaming down his cheeks, his eyes swim in pinks and gold.
“Lux- I-I can’t, not again-!”
“I know you can, starlight. That’s it, just let go for me.”
His back arches one last time as his voice crumples to a whimper, cunt meekly fluttering around her fingers. She does love his art, deeply and truly, but like this he is magnificent. Beneath his weight, Lux doesn’t need to grind much more to come undone, tilting her head back to moan alongside him as she spills against his back.
The sheets have been thoroughly ruined, but for now, her attention returns to Hwei. She watches as his chest heaves, skin blotchy red and shiny with sweat. His eyes, shimmering gold, can only open the barest of inches, his unruly hair plastered to his damp forehead.
“You shine so wonderfully,” she says. He moans and hides his face in the crook of her neck as he gulps precious air back into his lungs.
Lux withdraws her fingers, taking a second to marvel at the state of her hand. Slick drips from them, and she lifts it to her mouth to suck them clean. Hwei can only stare, mouth slightly agape.
Then she pulls them both back down to the bed. She extends her arms and bundles him into her chest. He follows the warmth, clinging to her like she might float away. He breathes heavily against her skin, still shaking as he gradually returns to his senses.
“You did so well,” she assures, brushing his hair back to kiss his forehead.
Hwei sighs against her. “I can’t feel my legs.”
She giggles. “Awh, I didn’t work you that hard, did I?”
He only hums, nuzzles his face further into her chest. “We won’t make much progress if you keep doing this to me.”
That earns him a poke and Hwei huffs. Even as they settle, their magic does not, rumbling beneath the skin as if to break free and merge into one. Lux wonders if the land itself could make that possible.
It’s still raining outside, ringing loud in the quiet of their little nook of the world. Still, Hwei shakes in her arms, even as his breathing slows.
Lux strokes her fingers through his hair and kisses his forehead again. “I know it’s hard when there’s a part of yourself that’s terrifying,” she says, feeling how he stills.
“I- I just worry that I’ll lose myself to it,” he whispers, as if admitting it might make it so.
“You won’t,” Lux says.
“How can you know that?” It isn’t angry, simply tired. Hwei somehow feels heavier in her arms.
“As long as it disgusts you, you’ll resist it. And you’re no pushover, you’re strong enough to stand against it.”
Hwei stares at her, blinks, then chuckles. “Your confidence is admirable.”
She grins and squeezes him so hard that Hwei squawks, wriggling in her grip. Lux bombards his face with kisses and he can only weather the storm with giggles of his own. Her smile is blinding. “I hope it’s infectious too!”
“Ha,” Hwei says, eyelids drooping, “I certainly hope so.”