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“No, Mama. You fuss too much! I’m fine, just a little dizzy! Don’t worry about me. I’m going to tuck in early tonight. I’m tired,” Naru says, a hand resting absently over the plump curve of her belly. She rubs small, comforting circles down over the rounded length of it, ignoring the way her belly button has inverted and tickles her palm as she tries to soothe herself. Flicking on a light with a few fingers, Naru steps more fully into her bedroom. “I love you too, Mama. I’ll see you tomorrow morning!” Naru breathes a sigh of relief as she gently shuts the door behind her, resting her back against the length of it.
There’s a brief moment of respite where she lets the happy facade she’s been failing to uphold fall away. It slips from her features with an immediacy that suggests she’s barely been maintaining it and it was stitched into place. “I miss you, Nephrite,” Naru whispers into the room, closing her eyes tightly against the sudden onslaught of tears. A dull ache throbs through her hips and back, persistent and stubborn from the weight of a child bearing down on such a petite frame.
Scratching lightly over the stretch marks on her belly, Naru allows herself a moment of relief. She sheds tears like a leaky faucet, and wipes at her eyes with delicate fingers. “You should have been here for this,” Naru continues, sniffling as she slowly makes her way over to her bed. She seats herself on the edge of it and wraps her arms around herself, hugging her distended stomach. “I know I have Mama, but how am I supposed to do this without you?”
Naru sits there, her head bowed as tears dribble down her cheeks and off her chin. She grits her teeth as she sobs as quietly as she’s able. Her Mama doesn’t need to know; she’s a good woman, but she doesn’t understand Naru. She’d comfort her, but she’d dissuade and invalidate her feelings because they were for a dangerous, older man she didn’t approve of. Any other time, she would strive for Mama’s approval, but Naru doesn’t care what anyone thinks of Nephrite. She loved him, no matter who he was or what he did. Her love is full to the point of brimming over and so encompassing that she would die for him without question. Maybe that makes her a fool. Well, so be it.
Grief eats her inside out until she feels like little more than an empty husk for the last piece of Nephrite she’s carrying. Naru’s so grateful for the little girl sleeping peacefully inside her. She’s followed her progress through six months of ultrasounds, pouring over images like she does her homework. It gives her peace, hope, where before there had been none. Even now, once Naru cries herself empty, she wipes her swollen, pink face and lifts her dress to stare down at her belly with eagerness as she feels a series of kicks. Her belly ripples under the force of a small foot, the outline briefly visible through the skin for a split second. Witnessing evidence of her baby never fails to give her a genuine smile.
With a wet sniffle, Naru ignores faint hunger pains (she’s always hungry and it’s impossible to satiate her. Her appetite, she realizes, is just as overdone as her nerves) and makes an effort to collect herself. Taking a deep, shaking breath, Naru holds it as she presses a hand to her stomach. There’s a small kick against her palm, and she laughs before she can stop herself, the tiniest of wet giggles that lightens the ache beneath her breast. She feels… better, she supposes. More like herself, anyway, despite the heavy grief that never seems to disappear. It weighs her down, an anchor that she lugs with her everywhere she goes. She hadn’t realized it would be like this, that even the most innocuous things would make her think of Nephrite and instantly reduce her to tears.
“Naruko,” Naru says, smoothing a hand down the length of her stomach and over the smooth silk of her pastel yellow maternity dress. “You’re going to be so special. One of a kind.” Naru’s breath hitches, but she clears her throat as she pushes to her feet with effort and walks towards her large, walk-in wardrobe. “There’s no one quite like you.” Pushing open the doors of the wardrobe, Naru walks inside. It takes longer than it used to for her to disrobe, but she manages to peel off her elastic dress with some difficulty and slip into a similarly designed nightgown, this one a pale pink. It’s comfortable and sturdy, made largely of silk, but the bust is made of gold sheer and lace, exposing little but encouraging the imagination.
“Your daddy would have been shocked to learn about you,” Naru continues, dropping her dirty clothes into a hamper. “Even I was. I thought because he wasn’t human…” She shakes her head, walking out of the closet and lightly closing the doors behind her. “Let’s just say, you took me by surprise,” Naru says wryly, heading for her dresser. She takes her time removing her jewelry, undoing the clasps for a necklace and bracelet, but leaving the studs for her earrings in. Tucking them into a well-worn jewelry box from her childhood, Naru listens to the song it tinkles with a distant gaze before gently shutting the lid.
“Nephrite was a proud man, and undoubtedly he would have been proud of you too.” Naru pauses, a hand held against the wood of her dresser. She misses him like she would breathing, a need so necessary she’d die without it. “I wish he could have been here to help me choose your name,” she says, closing her eyes. She does her best to remember his face, to recall every aspect of him. His eyes were so beautiful that it always felt as though he were hypnotizing her with them — and his hair was always as soft as hers, well taken care of as it tickled her skin. It hurts to think of him, but it pains her even more to consider letting him go. “Alright, Naruko, it’s time for me to rest.”
Hiding a yawn behind her palm, Naru waddles across the room to flick off the light before crossing to her bed. She fights a second yawn as she pulls back the covers and seats herself atop the mattress, bending over the bedside table to remove the ribbon from her hair. It weaves through the air before pooling on the side table alongside her alarm clock and phone, which she plugs in. Patting down her hair, Naru takes stock of herself before she wiggles herself into the center of the bed. “I love you, Naruko,” Naru tells her unborn child sleepily, her eyes little more than slits as she slings the covers up over herself. Within seconds she’s asleep, and within minutes an outline begins to form beside her bed near a window.
It starts as barely more than a sliver of an oval that glints off the light of the moon. Opalescent and with wisps of sparkles spiraling off of it, it takes form by warping and twisting itself into undulations until arms and legs shoot out of it. The distortions come faster, contorting into a silhouette with a head and torso that rapidly fill out into a living, breathing body. Red hair spills from his head, thick, plentiful, and lush as a face carves itself from a blank canvas. A gasp, and blue eyes flicker open, the energy washing over him before fading and leaving him as naked as the day he was first brought into existence.
Blinking against the moonlit room, Nephrite attempts to collect his disjointed thoughts. His last memory is of being held in Naru’s arms and dying. He remembers the desperate distress in her eyes, the way her tears had done nothing but enhance her beauty. He’d wanted to see another smile, and he’d wanted a life with her. Instead he’d been made a liar yet again, a trend he vowed he wouldn’t continue. He had a second chance, one he wouldn’t forsake. He knew what it was like to die, and the worst part wasn’t the pain or feeling helpless and weak, but understanding that he’d ruined Naru’s life.
Nephrite itches with the need to go back to his mansion and consult the stars. They had never led him astray, and even now, amid all his failures, they’d guided him to Naru. If not for them, he’d have never met her. He wants to pay homage to them and understand the new plethora of warnings they’re likely bursting with now that he’s abandoned his post and made a traitor of himself. Steadfast as he is in his beliefs, Nephrite isn’t so stupid that he would return when it’s undoubtedly crawling with monsters and spies. He’ll have to abandon it, and given a stable housing situation in the future, he’ll set up again. Until then, he’ll have only Japan’s night sky, and while it’s not enough, nowhere near it, it’ll have to do.
His bare feet slapping against the hardwood flooring, Nephrite steps away from the window and comes closer to the bed. He drops his eyes to the figure sleeping in it, and for anyone else, it might have been difficult to discern who it is, but Nephrite would recognize Naru’s face anywhere. “There were a lot of unknowns when I implemented my plan,” he murmurs, leaning over to brush the backs of his fingers in a caress across her cheek. “It was a last ditch effort, but, of course, it paid off.” His digits slide down to her lips; they’re petal-soft, and Nephrite can feel each puff of breath against them. “I’m here now. You’ll never be rid of me.”
When Naru doesn’t so much as stir, Nephrite huffs a bemused chuckle and pulls back the covers so he can climb into bed next to her. He flops onto a pillow beside her, scooting close enough that he’s flush against her side, and wraps an arm around her. He has every intention of waking her with sweet kisses and an orgasm, but he’s not expecting the unyielding, rounded belly that meets his forearm, though it doesn’t stop him from curiously running a firm hand over it and jerking it back when he feels movement from beneath. Pregnant. She’s pregnant.
The baby is obviously his. There’s no one else it could belong to.
Nephrite doesn’t believe, not even a little, that Naru could have moved on from him, though he’s surprised to find how long it’s been since his death. He’d assumed a few weeks, perhaps a month, but the size of her belly suggests many months. The damage that must have done to Naru is unspeakable. He’ll spend years making that up to her, along with what he assumes is a slew of chocolate parfaits. Nephrite will do it gladly if it means getting to keep Naru and their baby in his life.
There’s nothing he wants more than to reunite with Naru, to renew the bond they have until they both feel secure in each other and their connection with one another. In that vein, the thick, callused fingers of Nephrite’s right hand walk their way over to the gold sheer and lace of her nightgown. Slipping his hand beneath the fabric, Nephrite takes her soft breast in hand and squeezes, rolling the supple flesh in a firm, circular motion. Naru stirs, her lips parting as she moans and spreads her legs, pulling her hands in towards her body in tiny fists. Just having the opportunity to hear her again is enough to get him hard, and Nephrite thrusts his stiffening cock against her hip as he pinches a nipple.
“Nephrite,” Naru breathes, and he stills long enough to process the sound of his name on her tongue, to see if she’ll wake, before bending over her. Fishing the opposite breast from her nightgown, Nephrite seals his mouth over her areola and nipple and sucks on it, hollowing his cheeks as he circles it with his tongue. Naru sighs, shifting beneath him to squeeze her thighs together, and Nephrite’s mouth waters at the thought of getting his hands on her. He spends long minutes suckling on her breasts like he’s trying to tease milk from it, his tongue flicking determinedly over and around her nipples with a tenderness that’s unlike him.
It’s only when Naru begins rhythmically squeezing and rocking her hips that Nephrite decides to take pity on her and bring her some well needed relief. The hand on her distended stomach migrates down and then lower, slipping between the apex of her thighs as he pushes back the covers. Nephrite shifts lower down the length of the bed until he’s between her legs and hums with approval when he cups her cunt and finds a lack of panties, his fingers greeted by naked skin and tacky slick. Reveling in the heat of her body, he flicks his middle finger down between her folds and gathers the wetness forming there, using it to lubricate his digit before he circles her hole several times. His finger slides into her with little effort and Naru shivers, her fingers clenching at the fabric of the fitted sheet.
Chuckling, Nephrite lubes up and adds a second and third finger in between one thrust and the next. It prompts Naru to whine and lift her hips up off the bed and roll her hips down against him, leaking slick in thick gobs that dribble down Nephrite’s hand and ooze onto the bed. Twisting the angle of his wrist, Nephrite aims for where Naru’s g-spot should be, and he knows he’s found it when her entire body jolts. She gives a shattered little cry and her eyelashes flutter, but stay shut as she trembles. Nephrite pounds against it with increasing force, the gland roughly textured and squishy beneath his fingers. Naru comes with a low moan, her face twisted and sweaty, her eyes cracked open, confusion and pleasure a living thing writ across it.
Hot slick splashes against Nephrite’s hands, his stomach, his cock, and the bed. It pours down the length of him, and where once it’d taken him by surprise, he now relishes the explosive squirting. Shaking it off his hands, Nephrite closes his mouth over her hip, over stretch marks, and sucks a hickey into existence as he continues to fingerfuck Naru through her climax. He watches as she writhes through sparks of pleasure so sharp it’s borderline pain, and kisses his way up her thighs to lick up the residue of slick. He removes his digits only once he reaches her pussy, where he parts her folds and cleans them with his tongue, dragging it up between them and over her clit. Nephrite flicks his tongue over it several times before using his fingers to pull back the hood to bare the raw nerve of it.
“If you don’t want your mother to hear you, you know what to do,” Nephrite says. It’s all the warning he gives before he bears down on her, sucking the exposed nub into his mouth before flicking his tongue against it rapidly. A glance up at Naru shows she’s clapped her hands over her mouth to muffle the scream she gives. Her feet are flat against the bed, and her legs are locked as tightly around him as she can manage with her stomach in the way. Nephrite has to hold her down by the hips to keep her still when she thrashes, straining instinctively to get away from the overstimulation. Spit and slick smears down his chin as he sucks at her clit and Nephrite can feel it throbbing beneath his tongue as he affords it endless, patient attention until he drags a second, more painful orgasm from her.
“Nephrite…?” Naru slumps against the bed with exhaustion as he gives it a sweet kitten lick and pulls away, watching as her clit twitches and pulses as the hood retracts to partially cover the swollen bud. Nephrite situates himself between her limp, splayed legs as he bends forward over her, pushing the silky maternity nightie up over her hips. His neglected cock lays flat against her mons as he climbs the length of her body, careful of her belly. Naru stirs when he pauses on her breasts to give her more hickies, his hair hiding his face until she pushes it back to get a better look at him. Nephrite pauses mid-suck and lets go of her breast when she turns a dazed, but tender expression on him.
“This is a dream,” Naru says, sounding like she’s about to cry. “I’ve had so many dreams like this. I’m going to wake up, and then you’ll be gone again.”
“This isn’t a dream, Naru,” Nephrite says, his fingers tracing the side of her face. They wipe away tears as they fall, his thumb smoothing over the skin just beneath her eye. “I’m leaving evidence on you, so come morning, you’ll have proof.” His free hand taps a hickey just above her breast and Naru’s eyes widen.
“I thought — I thought it was because you wanted me — ” she says, and Nephrite can feel Naru’s small hands on his biceps, tracing the length of his muscles. It feels good, having her hands on him. He’s not sure how he ever managed without her, but he supposes it wasn’t possible to yearn for something he didn’t know was missing.
“That is not incorrect. I had dual reasons.” Nephrite can’t resist kissing her; she tastes of toothpaste, and he knows that he must taste of her, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She whimpers into his mouth, her nails biting into his skin, and they spend a frantic minute sucking on each other’s tongues. By the time they part, they’re both breathing heavily, but Naru appears calmer, her eyes heavily lidded as she gazes at him. “I need you like Saturn's rings need gravity,” Nephrite says, “and I’m unashamed to admit it. I would nullify all other forces out there if that meant keeping our love in perpetual motion.” He tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and watches as a delighted flush rises in her cheeks.
“I trust you,” Naru says simply, her voice hushed, reverent. She looks at him like she would an idol at a place of worship, and it would be so easy to take advantage of her just as he’d done before, but he’s a different man now. Before his death, he’d have gladly accepted such easy offerings, but now he knows he doesn’t deserve them, not if he can’t protect her and their child. He’ll have to adopt a new persona, and work harder than ever to be what Naru and the baby need from him. Nephrite needs a well-paying job, to ingratiate himself to her mother (whatever that entails), and he needs to purchase real-estate for the two of them and the baby. They’ll want for nothing, and they’ll have to have a home large enough for an attic, so he can turn it into his personalized planetarium.
“You won’t regret this,” Nephrite says, adjusting his position between her legs. His own needs are still unmet, and the ache in his dick is more than painful. “You have me, and soon you’ll never be without me again.” With a final kiss, he straightens and gestures for her to turn until she’s on her hands and knees. She doesn’t hesitate and that does things to Nephrite; namely, it has him reaching for his prick and he has to remind himself to be patient. When Naru’s ready, he’s quick to put a series of pillows beneath her to help hold her up and to also take the pressure off her body. When he finishes, she turns her head to look back at him with large, adoring doe eyes, and a group of butterflies take flight in his stomach.
Holding Naru’s eyes with his own, Nephrite smooths his hands over her hips to cup the side of her large belly. “Our child is in here,” he says, bending low to press a kiss to it. “I put our baby inside you.” Pride is reflected in his tone, as obvious as he is arrogant. Nephrite lifts his head to glance at Naru when she laughs, sounding as relieved as he feels. “I’ve gifted us a second chance at a life together.” His fingers rub small circles into the skin, a tender massage that elicits a soft sigh from Naru.
“Her name is Naruko,” Naru says, straightening before she lifts her hips and rests her head atop her arms. “Mama and I named her together. It seemed fitting — it means, ‘precious stone’.” She buries her face into her arms, muffling her voice, making it harder to understand her. “I… was thinking of you. I missed you, Nephrite. I was lost without you.”
“I have a daughter, and her name is Naruko,” Nephrite says wonderingly. “Me, a former king and general from the Dark Kingdom, with a child. I could have never imagined such a possibility, but you’ve made the improbable possible.” He’s said enough sappy things to last a lifetime, but they keep word vomiting out of him. Nephrite supposes that as embarrassing as it is, he’ll have no choice but to get used to it if it means keeping Naru — and there’s no going back, not when the dulcet tones of hope are ringing loud and clear for the first time before him.
Nephrite’s hands slide from Naru’s stomach to her ass. He rubs her cheeks as he stares down the length of her body, feeling unbearably, painfully soft. He desperately needs an outlet for such messy, unbidden emotions. “Naru,” Nephrite says, and she hums in response, lazily shifting her hips in a hypnotic sway. She must know what she’s doing to him, Nephrite thinks as he shifts up onto his knees. “You’re mine. You belong with me,” he says, surprising Naru with a slap. It jolts her body forward when it impacts her ass, shocking a yelp from her. “I’m going to keep you with me forever.”
“Do you promise?” Naru asks suddenly. “You won’t leave me again?”
A welt shaped partially like a handprint rises on Naru’s ass; it’s pink, puffy, and sore to the touch. Nephrite blows on it sweetly, watching the way Naru shivers and whines, how slick begins to leak from her pretty, swollen pussy once again. “I promise,” he says as he runs his fingers over it lightly before slapping her twice more in quick succession, this time with enough force to push her forward on the bed. Nephrite has to gently pull her back down the length of the bed before Naru hits the wall when he slaps her across the ass. He watches as she hides her face in her pillow to muffle her cries, and when she next lifts her face, there are tears of pain in her eyes. He might have been concerned had she not also wiggled her butt playfully, her expression challenging and playful as she sticks her tongue out at him.
“I’m going to fuck you stupid, until you’re so exhausted you can’t think or see straight,” Nephrite says as he parts Naru’s legs and aims for her cunt; the blow echoes in the quiet of the room, loud and fleshy. Slick wets his hand as his heel slips right between her folds to impact her bare hole. Naru gasps and chokes on a moan, and Nephrite can feel the way her entrance contracts and twitches against his palm before he slaps it a second and third time. Her clit bears the brunt of the contact on both of these hits, her pussy practically suction-cupping itself to his palm with every hit. “I’m going to fuck you until you collapse with exhaustion, and then I’ll keep going until I’m satisfied.”
Naru’s body is a livewire, full of tension, pleasure, and pain. Nephrite knows that if he plucks it just right, he can play her like a symphony. He watches her writhe beneath his touch and admires the slick drizzling down to smear between her thighs. “After you birth this child,” he says, giving her ass a few final blows before teasing the rising heat on them. “I’m going to put another baby inside you.” Naru gasps, and her head jerks up from her arms to shoot around to stare at him, wide-eyed. “I’m going to breed you like we’re animals, and you’re in heat. I’m going to make you say it, do you understand, Naru?”
“Say what?” she asks, her voice pitched low and throaty. Nephrite takes himself in hand, and presses the blunted tip of his cock to Naru’s cunt. He wets it in her slick, lubricating himself as best he’s able before shifting forward and pushing into her. Naru croons, pushing back against him as her fingers curl into her pillow.
“Tell me that you belong to me,” Nephrite says, his tone gravelly. “How you’re going to plug my come inside of you until the seed has time to take root.” Nephrite begins to fuck her, nails biting into her hips as his balls slap against her cunt. Each thrust shoots her forward a few inches until she’s no longer laying forward, but spread out with her hands on the wall, her small breasts bouncing haphazardly outside her nightie. Her pussy squelches wetly, and Nephrite has to throw pillows out of the way in order to press her up against the wall.
“I’m yours, Nephrite. I belong to you,” Naru says, her voice surprisingly solid. Nephrite presses a cushion between her stomach and the wall, arching her hips back into his lap. “You can — I’ll have as many children as you give me, Nephrite. I want them all.” The words are like magic, spreading hot shivers down his spine. He can’t take his eyes off of her, she’s the most gorgeous creature he’s ever seen, and she’s giving herself completely and wholly to him. How did he end up so lucky?
Thick fingers wrap around the delicate curve of her neck, and from behind he sees Naru’s eyes flutter shut. She leans into Nephrite’s touch without question, even when his digits begin to tighten and squeeze, leaving finger-shaped bruises in their wake. Naru’s breath hitches and cuts off when Nephrite’s grip grows too tight, her cheeks reddening before a stray tear leaks from one eye. “My good girl,” Nephrite murmurs, waiting to see if she’ll protest or struggle, only she doesn’t. She stays there, facing away from him and clutching the pillow held to her stomach in a grip so tight that Nephrite thinks she might rip it. Naru weakly thrusts back against his sloppy movements, her cunt bearing down on him.
“Precious.” The complete and total trust Naru has in him makes his head spin, it leaves him breathless. Never before has he been so vulnerable and intimate with another person. It’s easy to lose himself in the intimacy of the moment, and when it looks like she’s going to pass out, he releases her, pausing only to gather her back against his chest. He wraps his arms around her, one beneath her breasts and one over her stomach while she gasps and coughs, trying to catch her breath. “I love you, Naru,” Nephrite admits, canting his head for a better view of her neck. There’s a necklace of bruises from his fingerprints, all purples and blues.
“I — I love you too, Nephrite,” Naru says, her voice ragged and raspy, but determined. She whimpers as he shifts his hips and begins to fuck her at a slow, lazy speed, but the new angle slots him right against her a-spot and cervix. The pillow in her hands slips free and falls to the bed as she cries out, rolling her hips down against him with desperation. “Please,” she begs, placing her hands back on the wall to brace herself as slick leaks from her pussy to the bed in a long oozing dribble, landing in a thick gob.
"After you give birth, your breasts will grow and fill with milk. I’ll steal a sweet taste for myself, and gorge myself on Naruko’s leftovers,” Nephrite says, and he pauses to pull out and spin Naru onto his lap. He wants more than anything to see her face again, alongside every twitch and micro-expression until he can discern how she’s feeling. When they’re both facing each other, and her rounded belly is pressed to his, he lines himself up and slams back inside, tilting her hips up to meet his as he jackhammers into her. With some jostling, his domed cockhead pounds into her a-spot again with every thrust, while his balls slap against her clit rhymically.
“If any of my come leaks out of you before I can plug it up and impregnate you a second time, I’ll fuck it back inside,” Nephrite promises, and he’s so close to climax that he’s shaking; his toes are curling and he can scarcely breathe past the pleasure curling in his guts, but all it does is encourage him to pick up the pace into something brutal as he bounces her in his lap. Naru’s head rests on his shoulder, and she shakily presses kisses to his neck as she allows herself to be manhandled, one arm tightly wrapped around his shoulder to brace herself and the other on her stomach. “Just imagine: a few months after our first child is born and you’re already pregnant with our second. I’ll keep you busy with babies, Naru. We’ll have as many as you can. We — ”
Nephrite shudders violently as he comes, instinctively closing his mouth around whatever’s closest. His teeth bite into Naru’s shoulder, eliciting a yelp as the pain of it pushes her over the edge. Her cunt squeezes Nephrite’s cock impossibly tight, throbbing and milking him for every last drop of come. He can hear her calling his name, and the sound of it has him groaning deeply, practically a growl, as his arms tighten around her waist and he releases a stream of piss alongside the come. It’s scaldingly hot, and it pours into her pussy in a torrent that briefly fills Naru up before spilling out of her. It soaks into the mattress, leaving small puddles of piss around and beneath them as they clutch each other and shake in the aftermath of such an intense climax.
“Nephrite?” Naru says, sitting back in his lap. She looks as exhausted as she sounds, but when she looks up at Nephrite like that, he swears he can see the stars in her eyes. Lifting a hand from a damp spot on the bed, he gives it a light shake before he wraps his fingers around the back of her neck and tilts her head back for a kiss. It’s as tender and chaste as the rest of the kisses he peppers her face with, enough to prompt a breathy chuckle from her. “Will we really have many more children?”
“If you want them,” Nephrite says, rubbing circles into her skin. He’s never dealt with a child for more than a few minutes before. He has no experience with them. He’s sure he’ll have no choice but to learn with the birth of this child. It won’t be easy, he knows, but he’ll manage somehow. It’s the thought of creating something from nothing, made from pieces of the two of them, that really arouses and confounds him. He loves the idea of it, but he’s aware that it might not live up to the reality of it. Children are great in theory, and he wants as many as possible, but if they only end up with one, he won’t be disappointed either.
Naru smiles, and some tension he hadn't realized was there eases. She leans forward and rests her head against his chest. “How are you here?” she asks suddenly, her arms hooking around his waist as though she’s loath to let go of him — as if he might disappear if she did. “I thought you were dead,” she continues, and her breath hitches on the word ‘dead’, as if simply saying it pains her.
Nephrite hesitates, not because he doesn’t want to tell her, but because he’s uncertain if she’ll believe him. She’s seen a lot of unexplainable things since she met him, but this requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief. “The last time we were together before I died, we slept together,” he starts, shifting her in his lap. He lifts her so his deflated cock falls free of her cunt, and a few dribbles of piss or come leak from her as he settles her sideways in his lap. “That night, while you were asleep, I entrusted you with something precious to me. You didn’t know you had it, but that’s what kept it safe.”
Nephrite strokes his fingers through her hair before burying his fingers through it to massage her scalp. “I gave you my soul. I placed it with your heart, Naru. You’ve been carrying it around with you all this time.” He puts his hand on her chest, ignoring her breasts in favor of tapping where her heart is. “If not for you, I never would have been able to come back,” Nephrite says.
“But how…?” Naru asks, closing her hand over his. She squeezes his fingers with her own, and warms up his chilly digits with her warm ones. “I didn’t know it was possible to remove one’s own soul — or that we even had souls. I’d hoped we did, but to get confirmation… It feels like there’s a whole world out there that I’m not a part of.”
“There is,” Nephrite says bluntly. “There’s an invisible war that you’re not privy to. It’s not a bad thing to be ignorant to it. It puts you in danger to be around it.” He shakes his head. “I’ll protect you. I’ll always protect you. I want you to keep my soul, so if anything happens again, I can continue to come back.” He snorts wryly. “I should have manifested sooner than this, but you were pregnant. I was meant to steal energy from you every day until I was strong enough to come back, but with the baby, I could only safely take small portions. It took far longer for me to come back because of that.”
Understanding dawns on Naru’s features, and with it, a lonely, aching sadness. She closes her eyes, her eyelashes fluttering against tears. “You’re not staying,” she says, accusatory. “You’re going to leave me alone again.”
“Think of me as your nightly visitor,” Nephrite says softly, dragging his fingers down the small of her back. He kneads his digits and knuckles into muscle, and watches as she grimaces as he works out the knots forming there. It hurts, but she leans into his touch for the relief it brings. “I’ll return every night until I’ve regained enough energy to remain physical. It’ll give you time to work out what you’re going to tell your mother; I doubt you’ll have the time to miss me.”
“You underestimate me, Nephrite,” Naru says with a sniff, but she relaxes as she leans back into his chest. Her fingers trace circles onto his stomach, before she places her palm flat and slides it up his chest. “Losing you is like losing a limb.” She slips her hands into his hair and entangles them, tugging him down to meet her lips. “I would know,” she says between kisses. “I’ve just spent the last six months without you.”
“You will never be able to rid yourself of me,” Nephrite manages, panting as they part between one kiss and the next. “Now that I have you, I will never let you go, Naru. I am not some well-meaning Sailor Scout. My love isn’t pure.” He spits the words like they’re poison, like they burn and sizzle on his tongue. His eyes are wild and intent and intense on Naru’s when he speaks, but his voice is calm and serious as he continues. “I would not sacrifice you to save the world, but instead burn it to rescue you. I will destroy it, if you bid it. I will kill without hesitation if you will it.” Nephrite rests his forehead against Naru’s as she turns her head to look at him with the same intensity.
“My love is unconditional. I would die for you without a second thought. I’ve proved that,” Naru whispers, her voice loud in the quiet of the room. “I don’t want any of those things, but… I would like to get married. I want to live with you and raise Naruko together. I want wedded domesticity. Perhaps, if we can convince my mother to allow it…” Naru hides a yawn, and smiles.
“We will,” Nephrite says, returning it. “I’m extremely charismatic. We’ll figure it out. For now, you need to sleep.” Nephrite walks the length of the bed on his knees with Naru in his arms, and sets her down on the opposite side, opting to take the dirtied, damp side for himself. Sprawling next to her, Nephrite grabs the covers and pulls it up over the length of their bodies. He spoons Naru from behind, tucking her breasts away in her gold and lace sheer nightie, before wrapping his arms just beneath them. Curling his other arm around her large belly, Nephrite presses his face to the back of her neck and breathes in the scent of her. Flowers.
Yawning widely enough to make her jaw crack, Naru burrows into Nephrites embrace. “You’ll come back tomorrow?” she asks suspiciously, but her eyes are already closed. She relaxes into his embrace, kicking her feet back to intertwine their legs.
“I’ll be here every night,” Nephrite says, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck. “And soon, every day. We’ll have a life together, Naru. This, I promise you.”