Ari receives a letter from the human king and Lancelot is offered an opportunity from a very unlikely source. The two also relearn the dangers and pleasures of wandering off into the night.
[CW// implied/sexual content and mature themes. Strong language]
"Why are you and the Red spear avoiding each other?" Kaze asked in her usual blunt way of saying things.
The voice broke through the sound of their horses hooves plodding on through the softened dirt trail, and drew Ari back from wherever her mind had wandered in thinking of what she should write to Uther. Her friend's plainness wasn't unusual but the question seemed to have come out of thin air. They had been talking previously of the new plans being put in motion prior to this deviation.
Ari resisted turning her face and kept her eyes to those in the patrol walking ahead of them. "We aren't," she said, and it wasn't a whole lie. Avoiding wasn't the right word for describing the situation. Perhaps 'giving each other space' was better? She didn't dwell on the technicalities.
Kaze spoke again from beside her, "I haven't seen you speak for days."
The raiders had done little to remove themselves from their corner of the forest since the ambush and Ari was surprised when the Red Spear volunteered to aid their supply run, given the outcome of their last outing. Still, she allowed for them to go with Gawain and a few others.
Kaze would only persist if she did not offer some sort of reprieve. "I may have been... harsh with her," Ari said, frowning at her own choice of words. Once broken, her trust was easy to let go. And Red had danced along the line of losing it with her undermining attitude and drunken ways. She'd offered leniency because of what had happened that day but there was still a level of respect that she expected, even if she were not the queen.
"That is not like you." Kaze's sharp features pinched as she turned her face across the trail.
Ari had been riding towards an overhanging branch for several of Dusty's paces now, and she rose her leather bound hand to brush it aside, sparing the woman beside her a glance. "You barely know me Kaze, I would be slower to make your judgement." She didn't mean it to sound as an insult or so pointed.
"I meant that you are firm with good intention, not harsh." Kaze let her jet horse amble along the trail alongside the queen's sunburnt golden mount. She had faith that Ari was not one to be involved with arguments for no reason. Many times she had watched with her own eyes as the queen dissembled a squabble or lay to rest a dispute that served more as a nuisance than anything else. Her intrigue in the silence of the forest got the better of her.
"What was it about? Your disagreement?" She asked without mincing her words.
One member of Ari's council had already cautioned her this week regarding the main reason - her lover. She knew that if she spoke of it now, then Kaze would not be so delicate as Gawain had been with the inevitable warnings and disapproval. The whole camp didn't need to know her business and Ari didn't wish to share this more intimate reasoning, not yet. How Red drunkenly propositioned the camp's most mysterious figure should probably be kept quiet too.
"It does not matter," Ari said as she shook her head. "It is sorted and that's what's important." Her heels nudged into Dusty's sides to encourage him forwards and away from this topic of conversation, though the idea did not work.
Kaze kept level with the queen's side, suspecting that the reason was more important than Ari was tying to shrug off. "I was told how she spoke in the tent to you on that day when the raiders were attacked." Red's frustration had made her lash at the queen and she was anything if not insulting. She assumed that was therefore the reason.
Ari suppressed the urge to roll her eyes across through the trees and thickets moving past them - she could take a guess at who was the one to have passed on such information. Rolling her jaw, she passed her tongue over her cold lips, finally admitting - "That was partially the reason."
"And the rest?"
"Does not matter." Ari answered her quickly, flexing her grip around her reins - her gaze firmly facing forwards.
Kaze could see Ari's reluctance and decided not to push any further for an answer. The concern wasn't hers to get involved with anyway, she just wished for there to be no rifts that could jeopardise the queen in any capacity. The Red Spear and her raider army were an asset that they couldn't afford to lose.
They walked on further through the forest, along the mud soaked trail that squelched beneath the horses' hooves. Ari wanted to see what was happening in the training area this morning and so deviated her route away from the rest of the patrol. It would only be a short diversion and soon enough they came within sight of the natural clearing between the trees.
She could see Arthur and Hector standing idle, watching over a standardly sized group of Fey for a training session such as this - each of them swatting at another with their swords. One in particular caught her eye, forcing a frown to her otherwise impassive expression.
Lance?
Ari didn't know that he was going to be here, let alone with his magnificent long sword drawn and braced without anyone else glaring at him because of it. He was stood between two scrawny Sky men who both still looked like they were boys, his back turned almost completely to the approaching women. The Sky were looking to each other, and then him and back again like they were listening to an instruction though not quite sure how to proceed with it.
Kaze had noticed that the former monk was amongst the others too and shifted her eyes between him and Ari. There was an obvious something between the young Sunborn and Ash man which was not just a friendship. It was more like a protective urge that they both shared. An agreement spoken through the eyes to have one another's backs covered, and she chose to say nothing of it - again another thing that was not her business to get involved with.
It appeared as though Lancelot was not fighting either of the two Sky flanking his left and right, or merely just observing while they sparred off to one side. The trail bent in a curve to a perspective where Ari could see his lips moving past the edge of his hood and his eyes flicking to the placement of the trainees' feet and swords. He tapped his own against the blade of one and the young red-headed Sky reacted by holding their sword higher, readjusting their stance.
Twigs in the mud snapped under the weight of their horses and more than one body in the clearing turned with their blades braced, just in case. They relaxed as they saw it was just their queen riding towards them.
The scent of wood violet and leather had carried through the air and even whilst he was focussed on someone else, Lancelot knew that his love was nearby. At the sounds of the snapped twigs, he met Ari's eyes first over his shoulder before noticing Kaze at her side, and turning away again like her sharp stare had burned him. He would have perhaps smiled to Ari, were they not so surrounded by people who would question his shift in mood. He briefly saw his brother offering that gesture to the two riders instead from where he was stood over across from him.
He cleared his throat with an obnoxious loudness to regain the attention of the two Sky he was aiding, earning it from a few of the others too. They looked to him in their small group and he continued on with correcting their methods.
The trail narrowed enough for only one horse to move through at a time and both Ari and Kaze halted. The former of which turned her chin up with inquisition to see what was going on, flicking her eyes around between everyone. Lance was moving between the two Sky, a group stood a short distance away watching what the trio were doing. Is he training them? She wondered to herself. It couldn't be true, Arthur would never allow it.
That particularly stubborn human and Hector both still looked to her and Ari turned her face to Kaze. She did not need to even ask her question for her friend could read it in her brightened eyes.
"Go," the warrior said, "we shall wait here." Kaze settled herself on her horse, left again to watch as Ari rode off of the trail and towards the training ground.
Ari's lips twitched in the subtlest motion before she nudged Dusty forwards. Within a matter of seconds, she ducked below a branch wafting on the breeze and they came out from the trail and into the clearing. She heard Lancelot giving his instruction more clearly now.
"Keep your weapons close," he said. "Do not open yourselves up enough until you know that you have the final strike." Around the pairs who now faced each other, he paced in a circle like a vulture picking off their weaknesses. "Recklessness will get you killed, you cannot rely on anger alone. Put your energy into controlling your movement."
It was good to hear him use his voice this way and it warmed Ari's heart. For so long he had withdrawn from the camp for fear of what they would say, even with his oath to them that he would not break. But now things were changing and she felt like she could breathe in relief for him.
The first testing clashes of swords began again and Lancelot took the chance to turn himself away, using his backtracked pacing as an excuse to look to the queen. There was an element of surprise on her face, that was for sure, and he could help but smirk. It felt good to be grasping his blade again without reprimand. And even better to be slipping into his old mindset and relieve that itch of restlessness, even if temporarily. He didn't want war, and he would be content enough in life if he never had to draw blood from another again. But the thrill and buzz that ran through his veins when his sword struck another would always bring out the fire in him.
Dusty halted without being too close to the trainees, pulling on the metal between his teeth as he tossed his head back. Ari was not fond of being restrained either so relaxed her grip on the leathered reins and allowed him to take the slack. She caught the subtle tilt of Lancelot's lips beneath that hood and tried to tame her own face from smiling, seeing as Arthur was making his way to her side.
"Your Grace." He greeted her and there was a lightness in his expression. Tucking his hands in the lower curve of his back, he came to a stand still beside her horse.
The two of them had settled whatever grievance was between them somehow, unknowingly in recent days - and now they were finding their footing with one another. Ari knew that her people looked up to him too, more so those who preceded her presence here and he did have a position on her council. It made sense if they could get along and after months they were finally getting somewhere. She thought that it was maybe because of how Lancelot had scolded sense into him the other evening that had finally made him give up his headstrong nature.
Ari's brows were slightly narrowed with concern when she asked her question, honestly quite surprised. "You are letting him help train them?" Arthur had almost caused a brawl around the campfire when he'd found out that Lancelot was aiding Gawain with the young archers. So this felt like a joke.
"He is skilled your Grace, I cannot deny that," Arthur said with a tone laced by conceding flatness, turning back to face the trainees but keeping the queen at the edge of his sight. He noticed her eyes watching out across the barren area with intent, though it was not a look of passing judgement. She seemed truly interested in what was happening. "Perhaps you would like to be out there as well?" He asked. "You are as skilled as he is."
Ari smiled at the compliment but refused to take up the under-toned offer. "No, let Lancelot do this. He earned my trust, he will earn theirs too." Her gaze lingered and got lost on Lancelot - how he moved in smooth sweeps through the air with his demonstrations.
The human twisted on his heels towards her, looking up through the distance. "How exactly did he? Earn your trust?" He asked, one eye narrowing with curiosity.
The question was too vast and Ari didn't really have a single answer - it was many little things. If Arthur really wanted to know then he'd need to be more specific. Still, she tried to explain.
"He had a chance to go back to them, to betray me - and he didn't. When he was in my camp he did as he was asked and never once stepped foot out of line." As she drew in her breath, Ari faltered at the memory of the one thing she would forever be grateful to Lancelot for. "And then he saved my life." Arthur watched up at her as she spoke but she could not take her eyes away from her love. "He showed me that he wants to be a better person, and I gave him the opportunity to be who he once was before the Paladins turned him against us." She spared a glance down to the man at her horse's shoulder, saying, "The trust goes both ways."
Arthur began to cross his arms over his chest. "So... this was all because of a chance?"
Ari hadn't quite thought of her time with Lancelot like that before, and as she thought about it then - she remembered that telling him he had 'one chance' was one of the first things that she had ever said to him directly.
"Perhaps that's all those who are lost need in life?"
Arthur studied her, his face slowly shifting as he pondered that thought. Deciphering for himself if he agreed with that or not. Deep down, he knew that the Ash man was trying to be a part of something here and make amends - though he had just refused to see it before.
Ari looked at Lancelot, seeing him do what he was always meant to have done in his life if fate hadn't been so cruel to him. It wasn't too hard to imagine him dressed in freshly shined boots - though still a little scuffed, with a doublet jacket that was tailored to his form that bore the colours and crest of his father's household, which she realised was now his. She could have laughed too knowing that he would hate all of the prim and proper ways of being a Lord.
Hector joined him at his side, playfully giving Lancelot's blade between them a nudge of encouragement with his own. Then they turned to each other, jovial smirks spreading like children as they put a distance between them and began to tease each other with gentle taps of swords low in the air.
"I admire that, I do not think I could have done the same." Arthur looked over once again. The man whom they were speaking of briefly glanced between the two of them as if he knew that they were speaking of him before returning to what he was doing in outwitting his brother. Arthur breathed in slowly, and then exhaled again.
"I don't think that I will ever forgive him," he eventually said, face flat.
For what crimes the former monk needed retribution did not need to be said. It was better this way to avoid the air between them turning sour. Ari did not wish to put up a fight either when it was unnecessary. "He was just the sword," she said, "doing as he was told so that he may live. The ones who are truly at fault are still out there." Her eyes glanced away through the empty forest, a part of her knowing that one day they would come for her. But it would not be today.
Arthur shuffled in the grass beside her, unfolding his arms while his shoulders dropped. "I know. You are right," he admitted.
Ari wished for them to be civil, friends at a push. Things with Gawain were going to be rocky, given the parts of their past that had come to light, and besides from Hector - Lancelot didn't really have anyone else. She knew that he passed words with Elyan, the scout, but she didn't think that their acquaintance was enough to be called a friendship just yet.
As strange as it was to be speaking so calmly about Lancelot to Arthur this way, it felt right. She dropped her voice and turned her face to him, her horse shifting its weight beneath her. "He will make an effort Arthur, but he needs you to do the same. I promise he is a good cause."
It was a lot to ask of him and Arthur's brows twitched, his jaw as well. He sat his hands tensely on his hips, minding the sword which rested there too. "If he didn't come with so much Fey blood on his sword, I might suggest that he would make a good knight," he said, practically scoffing with his focus on the man in question. "Dare I say the best?"
Ari inclined her head to one side, gaping at the human since she could hardly believe what came from his mouth. "Was that a compliment?" She teased him, excitement in her voice. If it was then it was a great leap from whatever distaste Arthur held for Lancelot.
Arthur swiftly dismissed it, unable to hold back his disbelieving scoff again. "Don't tell him I said that." He threw a glance up to her, catching her spreading grin.
Breaking into a laugh that was perhaps louder than necessary, Ari turned her face up to see Hector and her lover looking at her oddly - paused in their sparring. Her lips sucked in tightly to try and contain herself. It was the way Arthur disregarded his admission as if himself and Lancelot were secretly the closest of friends putting on a grumpy facade for their own entertainment that amused her most just then. She shifted both her relaxed reins into one hand and rested the now free one at her hip, more at ease now than she had been before.
With what was almost a whisper, she said - "You really should already be calling him 'sir'."
Ari anticipated how quickly that admission would cause Arthur to snap his attention up to her again, his pair of thick brows almost knitting into one. She cocked her own brow with a smugness, unafraid to right the wrong opinion that the human has of Lancelot. "His father was the highest nobility of the Ash folk, a Lord and right hand to my father's uncle when he was the king."
Lancelot's father, Ban - Ari couldn't help but wonder what he was like as a man and a leader. Ban's wife and Lancelot's mother too for that matter. Her father had known the family well but he speaks little of the past these days, not enough for her to find answers. And Lancelot is still searching for his own. Those particular nerves were sore and she didn't wish to push on them.
The night when she had found out who he was was the first time when she had felt as though they had actually spoken to one another. There had been no attempts at trying to get on each others nerve or hold the higher ground, and it had just been an honest conversation in the early twilight. Had Zurah not offered to show him the Druid's flame then she may never have found out about his noble blood, or definitely not so soon. It was the first crack in his armour that he slowly let go to reveal his wounds underneath.
The whites of Arthur's eyes were now on full display in an almost comical expression as the realisation of Lancelot's true identity quickly sunk in to his confused mind. Why had it never been spoken of before? And how long had the queen known? Should the news become common knowledge then it would give the Monk natural rights and a rank higher than literally everyone - even the elders would have to listen to what he says.
That reaction was no less than what Ari expected to come from him and it took most of her willpower to try and not laugh once more. Arthur had been blatantly rude to a natural born Lord for all this time and he had no idea. She pointed her cocked brow with a tilt of her head towards Lancelot, rubbing salt in the wound to Arthur's pride.
"He is second to my father and I in this camp," she said, quiet yet serious with what she was implying.
There was a reason for her saying this, and maybe she'd have to apologise to Lancelot later for giving away such a detail of his life. But if there was a chance that Arthur would respect him a little more if he knew, then it was worth a try.
Sir Lancelot had a profound ring to it, but she was not ready to push that boat too far up rapid waters just yet and she had an inkling that her lover would agree.
Ari's smug grin grew while she watched Arthur's gape deepen at the revelation. He was speechless and she wasn't surprised. It would be playfully revengeful if she left him without saying anything else to explain, which wasn't a difficult choice to decide on. With a gentle nudge of her heels, Ari turned her horse away to return to the patrol before Kaze grew impatient with her.
Their movement snapped Arthur out of his trance. "Wait, what? You cannot leave me with that," he insisted, trying to keep his voice down as he followed for a few steps.
Ari turned her horse partially back again enough for her to see the human. The whites of his eyes were still wide and he looked like he didn't know what to do with the new information. "I have things to be doing Arthur, I trust that you will keep this to yourself?" Her lightness echoed in her voice, the grace of a queen and an uncommon arrogance - she didn't leave him with much of a choice on the matter.
She re-joined Kaze and the trail with a soft smirk on her face, abandoning Arthur to shed his stubbornness and behave decently towards the man she cared for.
~•~
The lantern lights hung above her, strung between the trees where they bent and branched. On evenings like this when the clouds rolled through the pitch sky, the lanterns were the most helpful guiding lights along the footpaths. Entering the wrong tent by accident was hardly something that wasn't embarrassing. A gentle flickering came from inside the one which she was heading towards. She knew the route now like the back of her hand but still glanced down the narrower trails and between tents. Being seen too often coming here would cause tongues to wag and tales to be weaved - that Ari was was sure of.
With her chilled fingers, she grasped around the edges of her cloak and wrapped it around her further. She was weaponless for once - except for the thin dagger discretely tucked within her boot, which made the action of burrowing within the cocoon of her cloak even easier. Her boots almost slipped in the mud as she stopped outside of the familiar tent, glancing around through the half lit darkness again before peeling back the edge of the veil. One day someone was bound to see her coming in here at night and it wouldn't be long before the elders demanded an answer for why she was sneaking into the monk's tent.
"Ari." Squirrel smiled at her from his cot, his legs crossed beneath him. He was fiddling with some stones in a game that Gawain had shown him, trying to balance them one on top of the other in front of his knees
Ari smiled in return, dropping her hood down to her shoulders. "Hey." She was looking for Lancelot but he quite obviously wasn't here. However, she noticed that both his sword and belt were laying on his cot, meaning that he couldn't be far. He would never leave them unattended like that.
"Where's Lancelot?" She asked, diverting her attention back to the boy.
Squirrel kept his focus on adding a fourth stone to the pile at his ankles, flicking his tongue out in concentration. "In the trees," he said plainly.
In the - ah. Ari drew her lips together. Squirrel didn't have to say what he meant, and she'd rather that he didn't. However, now she was stuck. It would seem rude if she left the tent so soon after arriving. She could wait here? Lancelot probably wouldn't take too long to come back. But then there would be a child listening to every word that they said. Watching every touch or gesture that they might give in their closeness when they sat together.
Squirrel looked up through his lashes in the silence - eyeing the queen just standing idly in his tent. He knew that she wasn't really here for him, but rather the ugly naif that also lived here. "Go on," he drawled out and exhaled in exasperation. Whatever disgusting reason that Ari came to find Lancelot for, he didn't want to know... or watch... or hear ever again after walking in on them last time.
While she resisted a smile Ari reached her hand out and ruffled up Squirrel's blonde hair before stepping back out into the evening. 'In the trees' was the only guide that she had to go on but in this darkness she would likely walk in circles before she found him. The ground was practically wet, which put her off of her first idea, so she walked blindly towards the forest. Gently pulling back the leather around her palm - she stopped at the first tree that she encountered and searched for him.
Once, long ago, she used Lancelot's pain to track him through the earth but now something else pulled her towards him. Her focus wasn't necessary. Whatever bound them was rooted in their veins and her powers and as she pressed her palm to the bark, she found him within seconds.
He was calm and stilled, not too far away.
Wind brushed delicately through the low grass, touching at the blades she walked through. Straight as an arrow flies - Ari moved further into the forest and then a silhouette distinguished itself from the elms and firs around him. The resonant glow from the high strung lanterns behind her touched his outline, and his wide stance gave away exactly what he had just been doing.
Ari shouldered a tree, the sleeve on her coat dampening but she cared little for that.
"Need a hand?" She said loud enough for him to hear, her lips curving at the corner in a way which was certainly not filled with pure intentions.
Lancelot smiled to himself, still facing the unfortunate tree that he'd been using. He'd heard the tread of boots through grass and the pattern had been familiar enough not to alarm him whilst he was so exposed like this. Then her comforting scent drifted to him on the low flowing winds.
He didn't bother fully finishing the last lace of his trousers before he turned around. A golden glow softly illuminated his love, flickering reflections from the silver of her hair. He approached to where she leant against a tree though took his time in doing so, slipping his hand back over his hood and revealing his face to the moonlight. As he got closer he saw how her gaze swept down his body and then back up again, and the way that one of her brows was raised higher than the other. Something was going through that mind of hers and he rather hoped that he knew what it was.
To answer her question - he wouldn't mind whatever hand that she wished to give him. Happily he'd surrender to that alluring pull tethering him to her.
"Where I grew up," he said, mimicking the way that her forehead playfully creased, "a woman would find themselves in trouble for making such an offer."
An involuntary smile widened on Ari's face as she watched the hood fall away to his shoulders. It was so rare for him to allow it, since the mark on his head was a reminder to anyone with sense of who he once was. Most would think it foolish within a camp of Fey to not cover up such a mark. He preferred the safety that his hood gave him which was okay, so long as he did not feel that he had to hide with her. She caught a glimpse of a shimmering line along his neck too - the inches of throat to spine scar touched by the pale moonlight.
And what offer would that be, exactly? Ari wondered. Was the monk's mind travelling to places where it shouldn't?
"Is that so?" She raised her chin as he came closer, not allowing her eyes to drift from holding his.
Lancelot hummed to confirm, letting his head lull in a steady nod. He could trace that delicate, coy smile on her lips with his fingertips for all eternity and never be bored.
Ari wet her lips and pushed herself away from her anchor against the tree, waiting as he did not stop his approach. "Well you're not there any more," she said. "You're here with me and this woman can say what she pleases."
The way that he snapped his fallen gaze back to her eyes as he stood before her now told her that he was contemplating something - puzzling himself over what she could possibly say to him. There were many things. Things that a man so devout as he had once been would never have heard from the mouth of woman. She could indulge him, if he wished her to.
Little space was left between his boots and hers.
Lancelot tilted his head ever so slightly towards his shoulder, controlling the rise and fall of his chest. The pitch in his gaze was wide, looking only at her eyes then falling to her lips.
She watched his face begin to dip down towards her, but Ari turned her own at the last second - the tip of his nose grazing her cheek instead.
His breaths skimmed across her jaw and Lancelot stared out over her shoulder. Few times had she denied his kiss that it confused him now. He turned his face as he pulled just slightly away, searching for her eyes. What have I done? He begged for the answer in his mind, fearing that he'd misjudged her flirtation.
Ari bit down on her lip to keep her restraint, avoiding the heat of his stare so close to her. It sent flutters stirring in her stomach and a blush to her cheeks that was hidden by the darkness. In one step she moved past him and took his hand as she did so, spinning and walking backwards to draw him further away from the tents - heading to nowhere in particular.
"I watched you training with the others and Arthur today," she said. Her voice did not shift from that same charming tone as before yet her words did not warrant it. His heavy set eyes narrowed a fraction on her and he lifted his feet, holding her hand in the air between them.
Lancelot had seen her too, he knew that she had been there, "You did." Whatever game of chase that she was playing in avoiding him was working, his intrigue peaking as he followed her into the dark shadows.
Ari nodded, slowing her steps. "You were doing well with them. Are you happy?"
Before she could finish her next step he spun her against a tree next to them - pushing a gasp past her lips as pieces of bark flaked off to the ground. His strong hands on her waist held her in place.
Lancelot looked down upon his queen, eager to close this last inch between them. She could not get away from him this time as he brushed his nose against her own, letting his breaths push over her inviting lips - "Happier now that you are here."
In a haze of being flustered, Ari couldn't focus on anything other than how close his mouth was to her own. He had hushed his voice so deliciously to that thick husk she adored. Just a little further, it wouldn't take much and she wouldn't turn from him this time. He was staring at her in wait and not finishing what he'd started, so she nodded again. Bringing herself that little bit closer to his body by pushing her hips off of the tree.
He allowed her to close the distance between their bodies but still he did not move.
It was dark and Lancelot couldn't see much, but he could feel how heavily her chest was rising. Even if she wasn't saying it he knew that she wanted him to kiss her, to touch her body - and like she'd denied him a moment ago, he repressed his urge to give her everything. He'd make her dance along this feather light, thin line of tense air between them until his queen caved in.
It really was a game of will now and for his own amusement, Lancelot stroked one of his hands up from her waist to take her head in his cradling hold. Her pulse was threading so fast beneath his palm that he smirked with desire - arrogance for how responsive his lover is.
What is it, your highness - that does this to you?
He dipped his head just slightly so that their noses brushed further, letting her believe that he might kiss her so easily. And Ari tried to resist touching her parted lips in the gentlest way possible to his - enough to torment his own body's yearning. But he was enjoying this too much whereas to her it was agony.
The fleeting pace of her heart was taking control of her restraint and Hidden she wanted to kiss him.
She slid her palms up his arms and cradled his jaw. "Hold me, Lance," her whisper tickled his lips. Lancelot pulled his head back from her so that she could breathe, but Ari didn't need air. She curled her fingertips into his neck - "Hold me and don't let go."
Her request had barely finished passing her lips when Lancelot kissed her with all that he had, his fingers tangling up into her hair. The warmth and softness of her lips covered his own in return, as if he would ever doubt that's what she wanted.
Desperate for purchase, he wrapped his arm around her back. Her arms locking around his neck drew him further down and into her body as their hips bumped with this restlessness.
The once gentle breeze became rougher, tugging at their cloaks in the grass. Faintly the whispers moaned their lullaby but the lovers weren't listening. Too consumed in feeling what they always hid from the world.
Ari had been aching - her heart so desperate to feel this hunger. Satisfying it was all that was left.
He held her swept against himself and she felt all of him. Every curve of his body. How he was buzzing and breathless, not giving a second of pause for air. That he was growing more excited with every kiss. And it was her who did this to him, and nobody else.
Tension started to knot low down in her stomach, echoing further through into her thighs - his lips moving fast with hers. When she felt the warmth of his hands seep through her layers it was like a blissful relief from the bitter cold. She rocked her body off of the tree only for him to roll her back against it.
Lancelot moved his attention along her jaw to the bend of bone, his lips dusting beneath her ear. She tilted her face away and he could have swore he heard her moan when he wrapped his hand further around her neck. The noise was far from merciful - almost cruel for how it made him weak. The way that her fingers pushed up into the base of his hair didn't help his failing composure either. Sending sensations down through his spine that still felt foreign to him.
Ari opened her eyes to see the moon already up ahead, it's roundness blurring as Lancelot stole all of her focus. Their love was honest but their passion was a dangerous whirlwind filled with an endless need. He sucked a sweet spot on her neck and the ache between her thighs for him swelled. In a desperate bid she pressed her buckling knees together to try and calm it but it only made her chest cave into him further.
Those calloused hands shifted over her body like he were moulding each curve and the breath in her throat hitched when he rocked and pressed her to the tree - his hardened member prominently pushing above her core.
"Lance - I want to - I need you to-"
"I know," he quietened her, still attacking her neck with his kisses. That sweet change in her scent did not lie. "I've got you."
Anyone could emerge from their shadowed surroundings and see what they were doing to one another. The queen and the traitor entangled in passion. The forest was not a quiet chamber at the end of a castle corridor. It was damp and wet and dark and no place for an intimate rendezvous, though they'd gotten this far already. What hurt would a little more do?
Tracing her fingers down his throat was just the start of what was coming next.
Ari made a path down his firm chest then toyed with the undone lace on his trousers, pulling it through the loop and then another. She braced a hand on his taut shoulder so she did not fall, wrapping her ankle around his and dragging her leg up and up - slowly brushing her thigh up to his hips. He met her eyes for half a second before kissing her mouth again. And in that moment she saw that he knew why she was doing this to him. It came through in the first kiss which was a wild storm, but then softened and steadied. Giving and taking in equal rhythm.
Lancelot couldn't ignore what she was doing to him. How she was helping him literally come undone. He bit down on her lip a little harder than he intended to but she didn't complain, dropping her palm from the ties to his crotch. He choked. A muffled sound breaking through his kiss as she stroked him through his trousers.
Giving up with delicacy - he tugged on her waist, raising his palms towards her chest but changed his mind. He could do better than that. He glided his hands down the curves of her body and over her backside - drawing a pitched moan from her that set his body on fire.
"Up." Lancelot commanded and the Fey queen wrapped her legs around him effortlessly.
Ari reacted and jumped to sit in his palms, her back hitting the tree again behind her when he shifted his feet. The immediate cold from the contact ran down her flattened spine though she barely even recognised it. Her thoughts were few and consumed by Lancelot's rough and needy boldness - his fingers digging into her soft flesh.
Never before had they been entwined quite like this, let alone so openly exposed.
Ari was held up by the weight of her lover pressing his body into her, using the tree to anchor them steadily. She knew that he would not let her fall and used her grasp on his shoulders to hold herself up. But they were not anchored still for long. Soon their innate desires flooded through their veins like blood itself.
Without much thought of the action, Lancelot dared to raise his hips and roll against her. He craved her, now - just as much as she was wanting him, given the way his queen whimpered into his desperate kiss.
The bitter night air was nothing but warmth between them now. Hotness trailing up their necks and down to more sensitive places.
It was all so consuming - the heat of Lancelot's firm grip beneath her thighs, his mouth desperate for hers. The swelling Ari felt as he pushed her with his hips against the tree and she ground down on him in return. His tongue traced her lower lip to encourage hers to part - and she let them willingly, finding herself indulging in how he worshipped her mouth. But then he rose his ridge up to her centre again and a jolt flamed up her spine.
Clamping her thighs around his waist - Ari pulled her lips away from his so that she could look in his eyes. She took his head in her hands, realising as he stared at her that she was done waiting for the right moment to be alone. And if he continued as he was doing in making her feel such a throbbing in her core then there would be no turning back.
Panting breaths mixed on the air between them. Lancelot could see her searching for some kind of answer across his face and he felt like he knew the question. He swallowed his breaths in an attempt to regain them again, but it didn't work. His shallowness wasn't the only reason for his light-headedness in this moment.
The space between his widened thighs was pulsing, the need intensifying as Ari's hooded gaze shifted down to his mouth. Don't do that, don't - Maddeningly he could not stop his thoughts from darkening to ways he could make her moan.
Her thumb brushed across his lower lip and then parted it further, feeling his warm breath heat up her skin. Ari didn't know what was going through his mind as he let his eyes close and tilted up into her touch. It looked liked reverie. She took every last ounce of his sanity like he were handing it over on a silver plate.
"We're in the forest. Anyone could see," he said. His eyes fixed on hers again. In the dark they still shone golden, so warm and rich and the centre of his captivation.
Ari flashed a shallow grin at him - "I'll take the risk."
She was playing a dangerous game and Lancelot drowned in it. The corner of his lip twitched up. "I won't hold back." He'd devour her and once he began, there would be no stopping him. Not unless it was her sweet lips that said so.
"I didn't ask you to." The vein along his neck throbbed along with a sharper breath he drew in and Ari knew that she'd won. She took his chin in between her thumb and forefinger, nodding slowly to him as she leant to connect their lips again.
Lancelot didn't know whether to feel hot with lust or warmed through with love as he tenderly kissed her in return. He'd been holding her for so long that she'd slipped down his body, so before she knew what was happening he tossed her and caught her again in his palms.
Ari smiled to herself, almost forgetting how his hands had been holding her rear for many minutes now. And as nice as this was, what she was wanting to do required less clothing. She spoke over his lips - "Lance, you need to put me -"
"Lancelot!"
The Ash man growled over his lover's lips, that damn child.
"Oi you naïf! Where are you?!" The boy's voice grew louder as well as his stompish foot steps through the grass towards them.
Lancelot didn't want to let her go but he had little choice now. He loosened his grasp with a heavy sigh of well deserved frustration.
Ari dropped her boots back down to the ground, irritated but unsurprised that yet again there would be another interruption. Looking past her disappointed lover, she could see the illuminated figure of Squirrel walking in their general direction. His head was spinning as he tried to search for them and he was carrying the lantern from their tent. Lancelot's cloak should have hidden how entangled that they had been but still her anxiousness spiked that the child could have seen what he shouldn't do.
Touching his forehead to hers, Lancelot stroked the hair away from either side of her face. "I will go to your tent tonight," he said quietly before Squirrel heard him.
Ari wished that one day she would not have to refuse. She looked up to him again, placing her palms on his stomach. "It is too exposed." Too surrounded by Fey who listened for shadows moving in the night.
"Then come to mine."
"You have a child," she reminded him.
Lancelot shook his head, saying as his smile grew - "Not tonight."
Ari's brow pinched until she remembered. The scouting, how could she have forgotten that the boy's lesson was this evening when Elyan had asked her permission for it only the day before? So Squirrel wouldn't be there for a while but still it did not feel wise. "You are surrounded."
It was the same problem that they'd always had since returning from the castle. Lancelot tried not to sigh too loudly with his crestfallenness, dipping his chin towards his chest. He could sense Squirrel's scent getting closer, his calls for him growing even louder. Then a new but dim light touched the blades of grass at their feet. They didn't have much time.
His voice was hoarse as he tried to regain some form of composure. "Do you remember what I said? Of thinking of you?" He asked, taking her face in his hands again.
Ari nodded. He'd said a short while ago that he was always punished for doing such a thing and she'd reassured him that it would not happen here.
Lancelot didn't hesitate - "I will think of you tonight, and only you." He looked in her eyes and watched them change from saddened to what seemed like flustered again. Perhaps he shouldn't have told her his intention but he couldn't take the words back now.
Oh... Ari didn't know what to say to that. He did not need to explain what he was meaning but she had not anticipated him to be so honest about it. In a rush, she began to unwrap the leather bind from around one of her palms.
"Take this," she insisted, removing one of his hands from her neck and putting the leather into it. The cold air rushed and clung to the few drops of sweat on her palm.
"Why?" Lancelot asked. What need would he have of her bind?
She checked to see where Squirrel was before looking up to him again. "I wear it each day, it must have my scent."
Lancelot had not thought of that. He'd told her that he recognises when her scent changes, and he knows himself what it does to him when they are close as they just were. In a similar rush, he wrapped the leather around his own wrist - hiding it beneath his sleeve and tucked the end in so that he would not lose it. He didn't have time to care for how his cheeks heated up with what she was suggesting.
Ari watched him wrap the bind then let her eyes drift a little lower than his wrist. "You may want to retie those laces and calm yourself down," she said. Lancelot's eyes pointedly snapped up through his lashes to hers. "I don't think you'd like to have to explain to Squirrel."
He sent her a mildly disgusted smile as she began to slip away.
"There you are you hedge born naïf! Why don't you ever answer me!"
__________
wc: 8k
KAZE!
Arthur is changing his attitude (FINALLY). Was Ari right to tell him that Lance is technically a Lord?
Things got FRISKY.
Squirrel of course just had to walk in right when it was getting heated haha (I'm sorry)
I wonder what Lance is gonna do with Ari's leather though...