Chapter Text
The market thrummed with activity, scents and sounds and sensations combining to create a maelstrom of unbearable stimulation.
Too much overwhelm.
Too many unknown variables.
Infuriating distractions.
Woe followed his charge through the throng of ghouls and ghulehs, hyper-aware of anyone who got too close. Anyone who acted suspiciously... who even so much as looked at Mayim the wrong way.
He would not fail in his duty to protect her. Ayla, Woe's matriarch, had insisted he accompany Mayim when her usual guard had fallen foul of an unfortunate training accident, and had been unable to go with her.
The urge to snap necks floated ever closer to the surface, but Woe kept his cool, just like he always did. He’d learned the difference between actual threat and mere annoyance very early on, but that didn’t ever quell the temptation to give in to the beast that lurked beneath his composure.
The infuriatingly upbeat water ghuleh veered off towards yet another stall, seemingly oblivious to any and all potential danger.
How she’d managed to persuade Woe this little detour from their journey would be a good idea was a mystery to him, but he dutifully followed.
Mayim stopped at the stall, ducking under the brightly coloured, low-hung canopy. She turned to him and grinned, sharp teeth glinting, well aware of his exasperation. Woe narrowed his stare, and Mayim turned back to her mission, perusing the baskets of lush-looking exotic fruits. Reaching out to touch or point as she chatted to the vendor, an older quint ghuleh who seemed harmless on the surface, but still possessed all her claws and her teeth.
Woe shook his head, a frown creasing his brow when he recognised just how ridiculous he was being. She was just an old ghuleh. She would not suddenly attack them. She was no threat to the little seer he’d been loaned out to protect.
Woe concentrated on the back of Mayim's head. He didn’t notice the way her dark hair caught the afternoon light as she tucked it behind her ear. Didn’t pay attention to the way the movement made the citrusy scent of it invade his senses. Or the way her voice made him lean in and actually listen.
Nope.
Not at all.
It happened so quickly that when he thought about it later, over and over and over again, Woe still wouldn’t be able to fathom how he allowed it.
Mayim turned to him, a sparkle in her eyes, a sugared purple fruit gripped between her fingers.
“Open,” she said.
One word. A simple command.
Woe obeyed without thinking.
Let her press the fruit between his parted lips. Closed them around her fingers. Let his eyes flutter shut as the sweet taste exploded on his tongue, and just for a second, the market around them dissolved. Only the two of them remained, and Woe gave a little part of himself away for the very first time in his solitary existence.
***
The market had been just the thing Mayim had needed to break up the monotony of their journey. An opportunity to stretch her legs. To take on some refreshment, and perhaps loosen up her rigidly stoic bodyguard a little.
Apparently, crowds made him tetchy. More tetchy than usual.
He’d stuck close to her the whole time she’d flitted from stall to stall, inspecting silks and jewels and pottery. All manner of exotic wares. A feast for the senses.
The fruit stall, though? How could she resist the array of choice? The baskets overflowing with all manner of juicy morsels, ripe for the picking.
Woe had stuck with her. Stayed close. Tolerated her whims. And when Mayim thought about the tall, serious ghoul who’d sworn to guard her for this trip silently enduring this for her, it made her stomach flip.
Woe was beautiful, by any ghoul's standard, but Mayim had noticed the way others tensed when he entered their presence. The way they slid their eyes away when he looked at them. Shrunk themselves so perhaps he’d move his attention elsewhere.
Beauty didn’t matter when you were as lethal as Woe. Fear overruled any sense of safety or attraction, she supposed.
And yet, Mayim had never felt as safe as when Woe had sworn to protect her. She understood what the others sensed. There was something very other about him. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but whatever it was put most ghouls and ghulehs on edge.
Which was why Mayim couldn’t explain what happened next.
One minute, she’d intended to try a piece of candied fruit, and the next?
Mayim turned to face Woe. Looked into those silver eyes that swirled with cold intensity. Said the word before she could think as her gaze dropped to his lips.
“Open.”
One word. A test.
He did as she’d asked. A moment of giddy excitement surged through her, and Mayim carefully placed the fruit into Woe's open mouth.
Her guardian closed his lips around her fingertips...
Reality warped, and the vision hit Mayim with such force that it burned her right down to her soul.
The weight of him above her. Inside of her.
Breaths mingling. The sting of his blood on her tongue.
Sweat slicked bodies moving.
A reverent, possessive hold on her throat.
The agonising ache of pleasure.
The slow drag of skin against skin.
A flutter of muscle as some place deep inside of Mayim couldn’t take even a moment more.
Shocks of ecstasy crackling over her skin as she broke apart.
Heat.
Want.
Sensation...
Mayim bit the inside of her cheek as the market came flooding back with an overwhelming and highly inconvenient clarity.
She focused, gaze landing on Woe’s face as she tried to ground herself back in the here and now. As much as it pained her to...
The black-haired ghoul’s eyes were closed. A look not too dissimilar to the one he wore in the vision crossed his features, and Mayim snatched her fingers away. Turned back to face the stall. Took calming breaths to slow her galloping heart before Woe noticed anything was amiss.
Her cheeks burned, and when Mayim looked up, the old quintessence ghuleh who’d given her the fruit to try smiled knowingly.
“Should I bag some up for you, dearest?” she asked.
Mayim blinked. Glanced back at Woe.
Big mistake.
The ghoul was scowling, eyes trained on her with unnerving attention. Mayim cursed her water nature. Of course he’d notice the change in her. Of course he’d scent the sudden spike of her arousal. But how could she not feel something when she’d just experienced that? In full, gloriously miniscule detail.
Their eyes met, and just for a second, Woe's flared with a crimson glow. Something primal peeked out. Something ancient. Something hungry.
Something that Mayim would absolutely allow to devour her.
The moment passed, and Mayim blinked, turning back to the old ghuleh who waited patiently for her response.
Luckily, she didn’t need to answer.
“Two bags,” Woe said, holding up two long fingers. The most he’d spoken for the entire day.
And something inside Mayim cracked wide open.