Daemon POV
It had been only been a week or so since the revelation in the field after the rogue attack. I was slowly starting to become more comfortable around Matias, although I had my days. Like the days where I stayed in his room, curled in a ball on the window seat as thoughts jammed themselves into my head. Thoughts that I still wasn't worth it, that he would see someone he liked more and that this whole mate thing was actually a fluke. And on those days, Matias was the best mate that anyone could have ever had. He stayed in the room with me, rambling about dumb things that I normally wouldn't have cared about, but they distracted me from my thoughts as I laughed at his focused face as he described one of his favorite video games and all the lore behind it.
We had spent more time together, and he let me slowly become accustomed to him, not pushing things that he knew I wouldn't like. He'd slipped his hand in mine once while we were walking, and I'd freaked out at first so he'd let go. We continued to walk, and after a while, and lots of different thoughts, I'd silently slipped my hand back into his. I saw his wide smile out of the corner of my eyes and I blushed slightly. Later that night, when we were going to bed, he had surprised me by gently kissing my cheek, and I immediately went tomato red at the action. He'd laughed at me, before giving me the most beautiful smile I think I'd ever seen. I was stuck in my position, not even knowing how to react until he snapped in front of my face with a snort. my wolf was happily panting, wanting more than just a peck on the cheek, instead, I just glared at him but didn't really object to it. The cheek kisses had suddenly become a daily occurrence, every night and sometimes randomly when I was spaced out. I never stopped him, because I didn't want to admit that despite my anxieties about this whole mating thing and physical contact, I secretly loved the little kisses. He didn't push it past that though and overstep any boundaries, and for that, I was insanely grateful.
Currently sitting on the dark futon in front of Matias's futon, I watched as he built a house on Minecraft. I think I liked this game the most, to be honest. It was relatively calm and you could do whatever you wanted. There were so many things to do, and I watched in awe every time he plays it. He knows I like it too, so he plays it the most when I'm around and watching. He was currently building some huge ass mansion in the survival mode, which made it even harder because he couldn't just pull things out of the inventory when he wanted to, he actually had to go find wood and stone and stuff. It was a really pretty house too. It was almost three stories, and he was currently setting up the walls of the house with stone and wood. Which wood it is, I don't care to remember. I set cross-legged on the futon, hands folded in my lap with my head tilted to the side as I watched him build. He turned to the side to place a block and my eyes locked on a cow that had wandered past, and I very quietly, not even realizing I did it, mumbled under my breath,
"Cow." Matias immediately burst out in laugher, pausing his building process to hunch over and laugh at my comment. I flushed a bright shade of red, a stupid habit I had picked up along to time I've been around him. I glared at him from the corner of my eyes, swatting him on the arm as he laughed for absolutely no reason.
"It wasn't even that funny!" I exclaimed, my face still red. Matias turned his head towards me, a smile on his face as he leaned towards me. I dropped my gaze to stare at my hands instead of his laughter-flushed face.
"It was funny, and it was insanely adorable," He stated, sitting back up with a content sigh. I rolled my eyes as my face provided a fresh new blush, staring at my hands with a pout. Matias snorted before he resumed playing the game, and after a few seconds, I gave in to the curiosity and looked back up to watch him. He was on his last wall of this ridiculously large mansion and was watching the game with a small smile on his face. My attention focused on him instead of the game this time, and I watched every little movement his face made. I watched his eyes when he blinked, dark lashes falling down over even darker eyes. I watched the movement his throat made when he swallowed, or when he made a sound of disapproval at the game. I just watched him overall, completely enthralled and not even realizing it until he turned to look at me. Our eyes met and my wolf made some weird noise in my head, and we just sat there. Staring at each other, brown and blue eyes locked. I watched as Matia's eyes flickered downwards to my lips, then back up to my eyes. He leaned in slightly, closing the distance between us ever so slightly, and when I didn't move, he leaned in more. His head was tilted as his lips got ever so closer to my own, and I could feel his warm breath on my face. My eyes were hooded over as I looked down at him, and his eyes flickered up to mine again. My wolf was going crazy in my head, ready for whatever he was going to try and do, while I was frozen in place, not even knowing how we got to this point.
"Can I kiss you?" He whispered, and I could feel the hot air against my face as he spoke those words. My throat went try, and I instinctively licked my lips, glancing down at his shining eyes that were so, so close. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to say, but at the moment, my wolf decided it was time to take action, and pushed me forward to close the distance between us, my eyes fluttering shut as I did so.
The first thing I felt was the sparks that shot their way from my lips down my body, causing me to shiver as Matias sat up so I was just slightly below him, our lips never leaving each other. He had dropped the controller at some point, and both hands were settled on my cheeks now as he moved his lips against mine, groaning against me. Butterflies were flying wild in my stomach as I let myself get lost in his kiss, my own hands coming up to clutch his shirt.
He pulled back from me too soon, and I let slip a small whine at the loss of contact. He chuckled slightly, his face still right in front of mine as I opened my eyes, his thumb softly rubbing against my cheek. He pressed his forehead to mine as we both sat in stunned silence, breathing heavy and cheeks flushed. My thoughts were racing miles a minute, my heart practically ready to beat out of my chest. I pushed back from his slightly, my hands letting go of the death grip I had on his shirt, and splaying out across his chest to keep him from an arms distance away from me. I let out a shaky breath as I looked up at him, and I saw him staring at me with concern and some other emotion in his eyes that I couldn't place. Something I'd never seen before.
"Thank you." He whispered, bringing one of his large hands up to cover mine. His hand was warm, and insanely huge, against my own, the golden darker shade contrasting the paleness of my own skin. I watched his hand, not even knowing what to say. My wolf was howling in my head, and right now, I couldn't even disagree with the creature. I wasn't going to lie and say that I didn't enjoy what had just happened, but I also didn't even know how to think right now.
"Daemon?" Matias's voice was soft and quiet, but still low and almost soothing. I looked up from his hand to his face, watching as his other hand starting to raise and come towards my face slowly.
Immediately, I snapped out of whatever trance I was in, flinching back against the couch. I heard him suck in a sharp breath of air as I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away from him, waiting for a slap that I knew wouldn't come, but it was still instinct and habit to flinch away. I slowly opened my eyes when nothing came and glanced at him as he watched me with sadness in his eyes.
"Baby, I would never hurt you." He whispered, his eyes pleading with me to believe him. And I did, I know he would never hurt me, and I know that he's not going to leave me.
But that still doesn't stop the fact that the fear is still there. That something is going to go wrong, that I'll screw this up somehow and he'll hate me, seeing me for the piece of trash that I truly am. Everything had been so good as of up to now, the gaming, then even the kiss, but then my insecurities and anxieties had to come and ruin everything, just like they always do.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, the words barely even coming out of my mouth with how tight my throat felt. I stared at the couch, not daring to look up into his eyes and see the pain that I had caused. But before I knew it, I couldn't see the couch anymore, and I was engulfed in strong arms, my mate's scent clouding around me. I felt one hand on my lower back as he pulled me towards him, the other threading through my long hair. I let out a breath I didn't know I was even holding, closed my eyes, and buried my face further into his chest as I felt tears build up. The hand on my back started rubbing soothing circles, and I could feel him take in a big breath as he buried his own face in my hair.
"You don't have to be sorry, everything is ok. You didn't do anything wrong, love." He whispered with a strong voice, sounding as sincere as possible. I felt a tear slip past my closed eye, and I gave in to the urge and wrapped my arms around him too. They didn't even fit all the way around him. I squeezed him to me as close as possible, trying to get the thoughts out of my head, and trying as hard as I could to believe the words he had just said. That it wasn't my fault, and that it was ok.
"Everything is going to be ok." He whispered again, placing a soft kiss in my hair. And we stayed like that for who knows how long, just breathing in each other's scent, taking comfort in each other's embrace, and letting the mating sparks flow between us.