Your Blood is Mine

"W-What?" Leron's face reddened almost like a tomato.

Sangfroid blurted it out without thinking. He immediately loathed himself for doing so. He wanted to take it back, but he can't. 

What is wrong with him today? He keeps on doing the most irrational things.

"Nevermind, Your Highness..." He let go of the hand. "I know you do not want to. I just felt the urge to ask. I shouldn't have, I am sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It must be because of your feelings..." Leron said, looking a bit lost.

"Why would someone like you agree to such a thing, anyway?" Sangfroid looked down and chuckled bitterly, trying to emulate how normal conversations go, but failing to do so. "Take it as a joke, Your Highness. A mere jest. Or nothing at all. We should go---"

"Sangfroid, I can't take that as a joke. I cannot invalidate your emotions anymore. You have the right to feel." Leron said. "Even.... Even things you don't want to feel. Like wanting to kiss or touch someone. It's common to desire when you are in love."

"Desire..." Sangfroid looked away. "Desire usually leads to sin. Desire feels wrong."

"It doesn't have to be. Desire is a driving force, it serves as a motivation. A fuel that keeps us living." Leron patted his head. "Do not feel sorry for it."

"Still, it's.... It's not that I could just take what I desire so easily. It is a difficult thing, I should have not spoken of it just so carelessly." 

Leron frowned, then went to lower himself back on the water. He had only stood up to reach his waist, but he went back down to be neck-deep on the pool with Sangfroid. "What if... What if I told you that you can?"

"Pardon?"

"You can kiss me." Leron said. "I.... I won't mind it."

Sangfroid frowned and knitted his eyebrows. "But you love Vladstin..."

"It's just a kiss." Leron said. "And .... to help me determine how I feel about you as well..... to gauge if there is any chance, so....."

"If you want to do it, just do so."

Sangfroid is still doubtful. He feels like his heart would soar from so much joy from these words, but also, he is dreading that this was just an act of a friend. A good deed, a consideration for him. A way for Prince Leron to 'help', not something he also wants.

"Your Highness... I feel like people should only kiss people they love. They truly love." Sangfroid said. "And so..... you don't have to feel obliged to do this for me. I can only do it if I know you truly want to."

He was now the one who is about to leave the basin, and this time, Leron pulled him, much stronger than he did earlier. He was dragged back down the water with a splash!

"Sorry!" Leron apologized. "But Sangfroid, don't go yet... Hear me out first."

Sangfroid blinked, and adjusted himself. He just gave a brief nod, ready to listen for it.

"I... I actually find it difficult to love. Only when everything is too late did I love Vladstin. Perhaps it was because I felt like I shouldn't, that it is a luxury I couldn't obtain." He said, with full honesty. Sangfroid felt that these were things that were bothering him for a long while. "When I first kissed Vladstin, I felt so guilty for it that I wanted to end my life. Because I do not want someone falling for someone like me who couldn't fathom love, much less reciprocated ones."

"I do not find myself worth loving." He admitted. "At all. I want to be unloved because it feels right to be so. I do not deserve an ounce of it. And yet, people keep giving me love anyway. Vladstin, the Crescentians, you... It always makes me feel so overwhelmed."

"But Prince Leron..... you deserve love. You deserve mine. You saved my life, but more than that, you made me feel things no one else did. You made me cry." Sangfroid held on to the back of his head. "Perhaps it was because your cruel father raised you in such a loveless way, that any show of affection would make you feel undeserving but..... I will do everything to disprove that."

"No matter what, you deserve my love, Leron."

This made the prince tear up a bit, but also smiled. He held on to Sangfroid's face, and asked in a similar, yearning tone....

"Can I kiss you, Sangfroid?"

This made the hunter stunned a bit, but his mouth moved for him. "Yes."

And so, it was Leron who asked for permission, and who permission was given. With teary eyes, he pressed his lips against Sangfroid, tenderly, lovingly. 

It was different from what one would say as a passionate kiss. It is not passionate, but you could not say that it is not powerful.

It was so powerful that it can make you feel like you will always be alright, in a sense that though there are troubles, you can still wade in the tempestuous waters a bit more. You can still move past the highest of obstacles, survive the dunes of the desert. 

It felt comforting.

It was not just a kiss. It was the passing of love itself into someone's lips to warm their cold and frigid souls. To bring the sun into a land that had never seen light before.

Sangfroid doesn't know what to do, because this is first after all. The first time someone's lips touch with his. He doesn't know the intricacies of what follows after once they connect, how he could make it more enjoyable to for his partner, or if he even has to at all?

Should he let His Highness take the lead?

But what if Leron got bored with him not moving at all?

When do they stop?

What really is the right way to kiss?

How come something so often done by people all around the Thirteen Kingdoms has not been taught yet? How come schools or our parents never teach us what to do during something so important as it can make or break a relationship?

In the end, all this overthinking caused Sangfroid to stiff as a rock, and soon Prince Leron let go. "Is there something wrong, Sangfroid?"

"Your Highness.... I don't know what I'm doing." Sangfroid admitted. And this is the first time he felt such a thing. "I don't know what I'm doing at all."

"Just do what you feel like doing. Let your body move for you, don't think." Leron suggested.

"But... I'm not used to doing that."

"Do you want me to teach you?" Leron suddenly found the situation a little hilarious yet also heart-wrenchingly adorable. "I don't have much experience doing this myself beside with... No. Just..... Just let me do it first, and if you feel the urge to do something, just do it. No need to restrain yourself."

"M-Mn." Sangfroid nodded as they continued embracing and intertwining their lips again.

Prince Leron's comforting kiss deepened and bloom into something more intense. The sunlight was now is like a burning fire, but only consistently growing, not too fast nor too slow either.

It felt good in a way that makes you want to actively pursue more, instead of remaining passive, bringing energy in your veins. It's asking you to do something instead of merely consoling you.

Sangfroid found his hands just wrapping around Leron's waist under the water, and slightly rubbing his fingers and slightly squeezing on them. Leron did not stop him, only deepening his kiss even more and moving his mouth in many directions that Sangfroid could no longer follow as there was a great heat in his head. Like he was a fish boiling in a very hot soup.

The inexperienced man suddenly has the urge to do something he felt strongly against. Yet he was ordered by the very person he could never disobey to not restrain himself. And so, he let go of his inhibitions and.....

Inserted his tongue between Leron's mouth.

"Mpfh!" The prince opened his eyes in surprise. Sangfroid faltered and aimed to take his tongue back, but....

Leron immediately intertwined it with his, not letting go of it. 

"Ahh..... Your Highness....." Sangfroid's face is full of emotions now, so much so that you cannot even believe that this man was having any difficulty to genuinely laugh or cry. He held on to Leron's naked body closely that their torsos are now against each other too, and so were their sensitive chests.

Leron put a hand over his head and continued pushing through Sangfroid's mouth, prying it open with his tongue. "Mmmm..... Ha....."

The sounds were vexing, wet squelches and heavy breaths intertwining. A moan came out without them realizing it, and they don't know who did it first, but what matters is this started them losing all their restraints on their voices. They continued making strange music with their voices and the sounds their body make, music that you would not want anyone else to hear.

"Ahhha... Sangfroid..." Leron's hands slid down from his head now and went all the way down his spine, a tickling touch. But Sangfroid did not push him back and just shivered, letting himself be touched all over.

It went on and on, the 'just a kiss' turning into 'a series of never-ending kisses.' They completely forgot about the time.

--------------------------------

"I win!"

Vladstin took a whole dozen of pebbles on the ground triumphantly. He held up four fingers. "That's my fourth win, haha!"

Ofelia frowned. "It's not fair. Ofelia is new to this game."

Vladstin squished her cheek. "I don't understand, but in Crescentia, we have a saying 'you lose, you snooze!' Just accept defeat like a good sport."

"Ofelia doesn't understand what you're saying." Ofelia said. "But mother has a saying that 'If friend said they'll be back soon, they'll be back before Ofelia is hungry.' And I'm now hungry!"

The language barrier is really something, but these two still managed to understand each other through intonations, tone, and gestures. Besides, they are both not-human entities, so that immediately adds up to their connection.

"We'll have to wait for them a little more, Ofelia." Vladstin said, patting her head. "I think.... er..... they're a little busy."

Ofelia guessed from his tone. "Does Daddy Vladstin know what Daddy Leron and Sangfroid might be doing?"

"If you're asking me if I know what's taking them so long..." He grinned sheepishly, scratching his head. "I might have an idea."

"What?" She asked. 

He shook his head, waving his hand. "Nothing little siren girls have to know."

Ofelia knows immediately that she was getting brushed off from knowing the secrets her daddies are keeping, so she puffed her cheek and frowned. "Come on, tell it to Ofelia! Or I'll get angry!"

"You look mad... Don't be, hehe." Vladstin comforted. "Let's just play pebble toss again. They'll be back soon.

"Hmpfh. You must be saying we distract ourselves with games again." She pouted and scoffed. "Fine. Just one round. Then Ofelia will scream until Daddy Leron and Daddy Sangfroid gets here."

As they tossed the pebbles to determine who will manage to push more pebbles with it into their 'territory', the wind suddenly blew, causing all of those pebbles to fall off. 

Vladstin immediately felt alarmed, turning in the direction of the wind. There was nothing...

But his quick eyes caught sight of a mountain goat running into the distance.