Kei Valancia
I felt a warmth surround me like a comforting blanket, burrowing even deeper.
“Kei.” A deep voice grunted at me, barely filtering through my mind in a haze as I ignored it. Instead, I wrapped my arms around a narrow waist, snuggling even closer to my own furnace.
“For the love of Goddess, your knee is digging—”
I raised my hand and smacked it against his mouth, trying to shut him up. “Shh. It’s rude to be so noisy in the morning,” I mumbled terribly, but it was still coherent.
“Kei,” he said again with exaggeration.
Growling in slight frustration, I sat up and propped myself on my elbows, hovering over his body and looking down at him with a frown. “Is this better?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
He made a noise that sounded like a groan and a grunt. “No.”
I sighed and plopped onto his stomach, which felt like I was landing on a boulder. “You need to get some fat. I like my men squishy,” I said, poking his abdomen. I felt his chest rumble while his hand brushed my hair.
“Sorry to disappoint.” He chuckled softly. I grinned and sat up, straddling his waist in the process. I stretched my arms above my head, arching my back and groaned as my bones popped in various places. I felt Ryker become rigid, and I cocked my head to the side as I stared down at him.
“Why are you so tense?” I asked, laying a hand on his bare chest and feeling the hard muscle flex underneath my fingertips. Absentmindedly, I began tracing patterns on his skin.
“The sight of you looking gorgeous in sparse clothing will do things to man,” he replied thickly. “Especially in your lacy underwear.”
“I don’t have lacy underwear,” I said with a scoff. I felt a finger trail up my bare thigh and hook into my alleged lacy undergarment.
“Lune, this is the epitome of lacy.”
I pouted and huffed, still straddling him. “Yeah, well, they’re ultra-comfy, and I love cute underwear even if I can’t see them.”
“Then how can you tell if they’re cute?” he asked rather quizzically.
I flicked him on the chest. “I ask the store clerk what they look like,” I said. “Of course, I gotta try them on so they can judge how good they look on me.” I winked at him and laughed at his groan.
“Kei, why do you love to torture me?” He sounded rather strained, and I leaned down close to his ear.
“What else do you expect me to do with my time?”
“I could think of some things,” he said suggestively.
I rolled my eyes and covered his face with my hand. “Get your mind out of the gutter, King. It’s way too early to be thinking like that.”
“Says the little vixen who loves to tease me. I think anytime is the best time,” he laughed.
I reached up and tugged a tuft of his hair. “Figures that you’ll think that,” I teased. I continued to play with his hair, those silky locks of his so soft on my fingertips. “I love your hair.”
He chuckled before sitting up and kissing me on the tip of my nose. “I love everything about you,” he murmured.
I smiled sweetly up at him. “That was so corny but so adorable. You’re just too cute!” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him to my chest, a goofy smile on my face. I laughed as his words were muffled as his face was in my boobs.
When he finally managed to pull away, his breaths came in ragged gulps. “Goddess Kei, are you trying to kill me?”
I laughed and sat up. He arranged himself so that he was able to pull me into his chest, tucking my head underneath his chin.
“How did you figure it out?” I joked and smiled at him teasingly.
His laugh rumbled out of his chest like smooth chocolate. “I knew it,” he teased back.
A laugh bubbled out of me, and a strange feeling came over me.
We’re happy, Rei said, and I agreed with her. The feeling of wholeness that I now felt from our bond was something that I never would have imagined feeling.
“What are you thinking?” Ryker’s lips brushed against my temple, sending shivers up my spine.
“You…life…everything.”
“Wow, that’s deep.”
I smacked him on the chest lightly as he laughed. “All right, smart aleck. What time is it?”
He hummed and became quiet for a moment.
“It’s ten right now.”
My eyes widened, and I bolted out of bed.
“We are so late,” I cursed softly as I blindly flailed about until my hand brushed up to what seemed like a dresser. Exploring the flat surface, my hand came into contact with soft material—clothes.
“Is this yours or mine?” I asked, turning around to face Ryker with the clothing in my hands. I heard the bed creak as he shifted his weight to get off, his strides silent as he walked over to me.
“Yours. I didn’t allow anyone to come in while you were asleep.”
This made me pause, and I stared in his direction with my hands on my hips.
“You can trust these people, King. I promise you.” I walked over to him and caressed his cheek gently. “Now, I’m gonna need you to step out for a moment. A girl needs a little privacy sometimes.”
“Lune, we’re mates. And besides, I’m going to see it all sooner or later.”
I put a hand on his chest to stop his advances. “Nope. Don’t you know in Algebra, you can’t get to the X if you don’t have the Y? Or is that the other way around?” I second-guessed myself.
“Are you really going to compare our relationship to an algebraic equation? And I don’t think that’s how it works.” He sounded incredulous, and I smirked.
“The point is: you need one to help find the other because relationships are like equations. You need to figure out all of the factors before solving the main problem. Equations come in steps, as does relationships. And just like algebra, relationships are just as confusing and maybe even more.”
He sighed deeply when I was done with the mini lecture. “Of course, she uses algebra. It’s only the most difficult thing to understand, and so it’s only natural that she uses it,” he muttered under his breath before turning around, his usual glittery blackness calm as he kept muttering incoherently.
I poked his back.
“Algebra is not difficult, quite simple really if you think about it.”
“Like hell is it simple. It’s numbers with the alphabet added. Why in Goddess’s name do we need it?”
I shrugged off the shirt I was already wearing and began putting on the new clothes.
“It’s actually very useful,” I said.
He scoffed in return. “Yeah? What do you use it for?”
I pulled my hair from out of the shirt, the material soft against my skin.
“I use it to make me sound really smart and watch with open amusement as people struggle to try to understand what I had just said. It’s really entertaining to watch all of the colors swirl around them erratically as they become so confused,” I told him.
He didn’t say anything in response, and I had pulled on what seemed to be jean shorts, very short jean shorts.
“What are these?” I looked down at my body and in return only saw black. I poked my bare thigh and frowned slightly.
They’re kinda comfy, Rei mused.
They are. But there is so little material that I’m curious if you can actually call it pants.
I heard the shuffle of feet as Ryker turned, but I looked up in curiosity as I felt him tense beside me. I noticed with a raised eyebrow as the familiar angry red deepened his aura and the hilarious color of violet.
“What’s wrong?” I tried to hide the humor in my voice, but I knew that he heard it, anyway. Why is he mad and turned on at the same time?
Must be the shorts, Rei concluded. I agreed with her.
“I’m going to kill him,” Ryker finally said through clenched teeth.
“Who?”
“That damn Taven man.”
I choked on a laugh. “Do you mean Draven?”
His tall black outline waved a hand in a dismissive manner. “I don’t care what his name is. He purposely gave you those…those shorts.” He spat the word shorts as if it left a rancid taste in his mouth.
I sidled up beside him and tilted my head up at him with an amused smile. “He probably knew that it would rile you up, and it is.”
He growled and wrapped an arm around my waist possessively, pulling me to his side.
“Of course, I’m going to get angry. You’re half naked.” He sounded exasperated.
“Hmmm. Maybe but they’re so comfy. Besides, Draven is like an older brother, and he probably only did this to see how you would react, and let me say you’re passing with wonderful colors.”
“This isn’t some test, Kei. You make it sound like you’ve done this before.” His words became brittle, and I could practically feel his accusing eyes bore into my face.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. There go those accusations again.
“Really? You’re still so unsure? You need to get your head on straight, King.” I pulled away and frowned at him. I noticed with slight awe as I saw sparkling gold begin to creep around the edges of the glittering black.
“You’re right. I do need to stop these childish acts.”
I tilted my head and looked at him. His voice was the same yet not. It still sounded like the deep baritone, but it had a different feeling underlying the words.
“I’m guessing you’re Axel?”
“The one and only, Lune.”
I chuckled as he took a step forward, his hands gripping the dresser behind me and trapping me with his steely body.
“Why do I get the impression that you’re a playboy?”
I could feel Rei stir in my mind. Make him cry, I said to her before I let her have full control.