Ghoul Slime

⋆𝒬.˚₊☽☆.⟡ 𝒬 ⟡.☆☾₊˚.𝒬⋆

For the first time, the door opened…

The ghoul inside was a mess; covered in a green mass of flora and almost buried beneath a mountain of marigolds bound together by ferns and their runners. They seemed supremely unbothered by this fact though, hunched on the floor and making no move to divest themselves of any of the plant life.

Aether could hardly even see them beneath all the greenery, their form barely visible aside from two dark eyes staring out. They rumbled in a strange voice and it took Aether a second to realise they were actually trying to speak and not just projecting into his head like normal. What was not hard to hear was their concern for Aether or their anger at all his worst thoughts though.

“No!” They croaked, voice hoarse with disuse. “‘re needed. Pack—love you.”

Their lips smacked together a few times, their jaw working hard as they coughed like a cat with a hairball. A stuck frond came free from their throat with an unpleasant choking sound but after then they seemed to find words easier, although they continued filling in for some with their uncanny projections.

“The voices—in your head—they lie.”

Aether stared at them silently, still taking them in.

“The pack—are not sick—of you. They—want you around.”

“How can you even know that?” Aether sighed as he hovered, still unsure if he was welcome over the threshold to the shed or not.

“Just do.” They loosed a raspy, hissing laugh. “Common sense. You say—so much about—your pack. I know. Come sit, silly ghoul.”

Hesitantly, Aether stepped inside the dingy potting shed, the aroma of sweet decay and fresh green that could only come from soil and plants surrounding him. It was strangely calming he thought as he lowered himself to the dusty floor.

“I don’t know…” He said quietly, suddenly feeling self-conscious; Aether had been speaking to only a door ever since he found Cowbell and yet this somehow felt even stranger, possibly because he couldn’t see the ghoul’s ears. “I’m clearly making everyone’s lives harder.”

A scoffing sound came from the pile of ferns.

“So what—if you are? They’re your—pack.” They were rolling their eyes, Aether could tell, even without seeing them. “Or has the meaning of that changed since I took root out here?”

Aether wasn’t in a mood to appreciate what had clearly been an attempt to lighten the atmosphere though.

“This is all my fault anyway. I knew the heartbreak I was setting myself up for. I should’ve just told Dew at the start that I couldn’t do this, I shouldn’t have let myself fall in so deep!”

Dewdrop had helped soothe the ache of Aether’s greatest loss for a while but the quintessence ghoul had known all along that he couldn’t be a permanent fix. When Dew had presented him with the opportunity to experience all he had desired and lost though, he had jumped in with two feet with no regard for how his actions may reflect back painfully onto the fire ghoul. Dew had even given him an out, reminded him of his assertion to not let himself fall, yet Aether had selfishly ignored all his earlier reservations for a short year of unimaginable and total happiness.

“So what?” Cowbell coughed again, readjusting their hunched position on the floor and finding their next words more easily. “The chances—of this—were so small. No one would—’ve predicted this.”

They had a point; the likelihood of crossmated ghouls finding their other half topside, while far higher than in the Pit, were still tiny. The chances that the one water ghoul summoned would be Dew’s mate were astronomically small. Other ghouls could spend their entire topside lives without even a whisper of their mates – the ghoul wing of the Abbey was packed full of ghouls that illustrated that point perfectly.

Still, Aether felt foolish. He had always said he would be more careful than this.

“Stop dwelling on the past.” The earth ghoul inched closer, moving into a stream of moonlight filtering through a dusty window that let Aether make out more of their features beneath all the greenery. “I’ve been—around long enough. Time only—moves—forward, young one.”

Aether thought they should be annoyed with him by now, frustrated at his inability to accept and move on with the direction his life had taken. And yet they still weren’t telling him to leave.

“I wish I had that kind of perspective.” He sighed.

“I’ve been here since—before—the Abbey was a shack on a hill. I’ve seen—the worst of—the world rise and fall and felt the Earth lament the blood spilled—before—even then. And yet the flowers—continue—to bloom.”

An arm reached out of the ghoul-shaped pile to snatch a fistful of marigolds from around their face. They looked at them quizzically for a moment as though perpetually surprised by their existence before setting them down in front of them. Aether barely had a chance to glimpse the gleam of fangs within a crooked smirk before more heads bloomed to take the flowers’ place.

Whatever their strange and abundant origin, Aether took solace in their permanence too.

From that day onwards, the earth ghoul would open the door whenever they heard Aether approaching. Their cape of flora went in waves, neither of them mentioning it to start with. On their good days though, Aether eventually got to hear them unobstructed and see what they looked like beyond the greenery.

They weren’t like any Earth ghoul he had seen before, their hair was black like coal, as were their eyes and claws. Indeed they looked to almost be made out of rock themselves, with grey skin that grew the most verdant lichen when the flowers and ferns weren’t there to hide it.

They began to talk more too, although they only asked questions of Aether to start with. He described more of his pack to them, what their everyday looked like, their preparations for tour and how Sunshine was settling in. What the new Cardinal, now Papa, was really like. Aether found they particularly enjoyed tales of Terzo, who Cowbell seemed to remember with fondness, his stories frequently making them laugh with a strange, scratchy hiss.

Being with Cowbell just felt so natural, Aether never feeling like he had to put on any kind of face around them. They had heard him at his worst and he was seeing them at what surely had to be a low point of their long existence. The amount of time they had spent at the Abbey was strangely comforting too. They had surely seen sadder cases than him and somehow that helped Aether too, knowing that they didn’t see him as any particularly tragic story. He was just Aether, the ghoul who brought them food when the place that had built itself around them and called itself home stopped feeling like it was.

Eventually they offered up their own facts too, small titbits about their short stint out on tour and about the pack they had known but never been a part of, much like Aether hadn’t. With their growing openness, Aether sensed his chance to finally ask the questions that had been weighing on him.

“How long have you been out here?” He asked one day, hoping that it wasn’t too prying of a question.

“Only a season or so, before you found me.”

Aether had wanted to ask why but hadn’t dared, yet Bell volunteered it anyway before he had a chance to.

“The ghoul dorms are too noisy. Too large and too loud…” They had wrinkled their crooked nose in displeasure. “And then my foliage problem got out of hand.”

Aether had chuckled; that was one way of putting their current predicament.

“Hang on! You should stay in the room I first had when I was summoned!” He gasped as the thought suddenly presented itself. “If you want, of course. It’s near the study in the chapel. It was very useful when I served Terzo but before I moved into the band dorm, and there’s no one staying there now. There’s only one entrance and it’s half-camouflaged. It’s quiet, too.”

Cowbell had rumbled in interest but hadn’t agreed immediately.

“What should I call you?” Aether had asked on another occasion. “Cowbell can’t be your real name, can it?”

“It’s the first name I was given.” Cowbell had answered. “Before, when He first created us, we never had such need for them you see. He knew us all without needing names.”

Eventually as they had grown closer Aether had come to learn that they had been hiding for so long because of the flowers. They used to have a regular earth ghoul soul mark, all manner of flora that would sprout and bloom when their mate had strong feelings or in response to their own. One day they had stopped completely though, only to be replaced a short while later by the unstoppable and constant flowers and ferns that plagued them now.

Something about the unexplainable strangeness of it had made their loneliness feel even more acute, even as they failed to fathom what was going on. So they had retreated. They still didn’t know why this was happening to them, but at least out here it felt less inconvenient to be shedding petals and fronds wherever they went.

Aether’s comment that plenty of other ghouls had caused far more destruction that a few scattered leaves without such an excuse had been met with another scratchy laugh.

The quintessence ghoul thought he had an inkling of the cause of Cowbell’s sudden predicament, one that was only strengthened when he had gone to look up the meanings of the marigolds and phenology of their fern runners in the library. Aether kept that information to himself for now though; he had a tour to go out on, he didn’t want to dump a potentially earth-shattering revelation on them only to immediately vanish.

With only a few days left until their departure Aether had been struggling to divide his time between the band and his pack, Cowbell, and Terzo. He felt bad leaving Cowbell and Terzo behind, having grown used to seeing both of them almost daily and uncertain if either of them had many friendly faces to greet them regularly besides his. Mist had promised to check in with Cowbell as before, but he was unsure if they would be comfortable enough to talk as openly with her as they did with Aether, or if she would be once again talking to a closed and unresponsive door.

It was from his desire to spend as much time with those remaining behind as possible that he found himself taking dinner with Terzo one night, lending his ear to the man’s wild ideas in one of the few spare hours he still had. As they were leaving the dining hall, preparing to return to Terzo’s office, Mist had rounded the corner and almost collided with them.

Aether caught her as she stumbled, the sudden tension between the ghoul and her old master palpable.

“Good evening, Mist.” Terzo broke the silence, an affable smile on his face even as Aether could feel him wincing internally. “I haven’t seen you since I returned from my unplanned sabbatical!”

“No. Well, I’m sure you’ve been busy.” She was cold but not impolite, standing up straight while looking as though she would rather be anywhere else, longing for the conversation to be over as soon as it had begun.

“And how are the rest of your pack? I haven’t seen Omega around the chapel yet, I’m surprised!”

“They left.” She snapped.

“Oh—” The normally verbose Terzo was rendered near speechless in shock, although he soon recovered. “I am deeply sorry to hear that, Mist. I had no idea! Did they…?”

Aether didn’t realise he hadn’t known, feeling slightly guilty himself for not filling Terzo in on the wide-reaching effects his removal had had on the whole Abbey, not just the band. Yet the unspoken question of if Mist’s pack would have remained topside had they not been removed from the band or had Terzo not been sent away hung over them. It seemed Mist could sense the question just as well as Aether.

“They’d all been threatening to return to the Pit for a while already, ever since our demotion.” She said, her tone even but her words clipped. “The shake-up when you left was just the final catalyst.”

“I see.” Terzo winced, although he tried to hide it. “Still, I am deeply sorry, both for their dissatisfaction and for your loss.”

Mist nodded curtly.

“Goodnight, Papa.”

Her head held high, she stalked past them both into the dining hall to where Aether suspected she would inevitably end up sitting alone. Her composure was admirable, yet the hurt she carried stung to see.

Aether allowed Terzo to lead the way back to his office, following silently as the man clearly mulled over her words.

“Dear ghoul, if you’ll allow me to be vulnerable for a moment.” He started eventually. “I must ask. Should I have tried harder? To keep her pack as the band ghouls? Should I have fought to keep my position here? She is right. There have been so many shake-ups with her pack at the centre of all of them, ever since my ascension to my brother’s position, even.”

“No.” Aether said decisively. “You did what you could, given Sister Imperator’s impenetrable will and the circumstances at the time. Sowing greater discontent amongst the Clergy would not have helped any of us.”

Terzo hummed thoughtfully, but left room for Aether to continue.

“As I see it, the Cardinal, well, Papa now, is doing good work for the ghouls.” Aether thought of Cowbell and the progress they had been making, all stemming from Copia’s original concern. “And…”

Aether realised the truth only as the words left his mouth.

“Dew. He wouldn’t have gotten to meet and bond with his mate, with Rain, if the old band ghouls had stayed in their posts and there hadn’t been the upheaval of your removal that inspired Zephyr and Ifrit to retire when they did.”

Terzo clearly wanted to pry, so he did.

“You two… So you were never mates?”

“No.” Aether shook his head. “Just… closer than regular pack. We always knew this was a possibility, we just never expected that of all the ghouls Copia could have summoned… That it’d be him.”

Terzo’s eyebrows pinched. Aether knew he must have put the dots together already: he had spent enough time with Dew and by extension Rain recently to see them together, but he clearly hadn’t expected to hear the truth confirmed so easily by Aether. So he tried to joke, in the way that only Terzo could do.

“Maybe your mate’ll be summoned next, then you can be the one making the lights on the bus flicker like Omega back on his first tour with me!”

Aether didn’t laugh though.

“They’re dead, Terzo.”

The man at least had the gall to look sheepish.

“It was a long time ago. But there’s no hope for me.” Aether shrugged. “At least not outside of another ghoul in the same situation. But I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I’m never getting anything like Omega did with Alpha, or like Dew has with Rain. But I’ve got this.”

Aether gestured around at the almost clinically lit hallway leading from the modern wing of the Abbey back to to the rest of the building.

“And sometimes that feels like enough.”

༻△⋆₊˚.⛤△⛤.˚₊⋆△༺

For Dewdrop and Rain the next morning was equally perfect, Dew still in a shared embrace with the water ghoul when he woke. Their bare chests pressing together filled him with another kind of warmth despite Rain’s lower body temperature, a feeling he thought he would never tire of.

The soft and sleepy atmosphere permeated the air as Rain joined him in the waking world, his arms only tightening as he regained consciousness. Dew could tell it was later than either of them normally rose and yet he didn’t have the woozy feeling that sleeping in usually gave him. Instead he felt more truly rested than he had in a while, certain that he hadn’t slept so soundly in ages.

“Good morning.” He breathed into the crook of Rain’s neck as the water ghoul began to squirm in the utterly relaxed way only ghouls crossing the boundary into consciousness did. “My Rainbow. Did you sleep well?”

“Very.” Rain hummed, nothing short of utter bliss permeating his tone. “Any dreams last night?”

Dew smiled against his skin.

“Not one. This is better than any dream.”

Dew meant it with every fibre of his being. Being with Rain just felt so natural, and now that Dew had experienced a taste he wanted everything, needed it like he needed oxygen.

As much as he wanted to stay entwined together until the end of time, or at least for a few more hours, they had rehearsals starting in earnest that afternoon. Dew could think of very little worse than being interrupted by a knock on the door from an undoubtedly smug packmate, having been on the receiving end of that before, so he knew ignoring the world much longer wasn’t a viable option.

Rain clearly though the same and so, reluctantly and slowly, they had dragged themselves out of bed. Dew had left Rain to his shower, knowing if he stayed a moment longer they would not be leaving the room for several more hours. He had crept through the blessedly empty Den back to his own room in one of Rain’s many black tour hoodies, having no intention to return it any time soon.

As Dew had feared, that had been their last free morning in a while, their schedules full for days following the first rehearsal. Sunshine had slotted in perfectly but Copia was being a perfectionist, having a lot to live up to as a Papa.

Dew was helping him as much as he could, Rain often tagging along to sit in the chapel while they worked, sometimes lending his ear to the man’s last minute decisions and his voice to the pair’s rituals. Dew loved being able to look over and see him there, his presence buoying him through the long days and late nights.

Neither ghoul had any intention of sleeping apart again. The next night Dew had followed Rain to his room automatically, but they hadn’t done more than kiss, nor had they the next evening, both tired from a series of late and disrupted nights as well as Copia’s ever-increasing rehearsal schedule.

The final preparation of the new songs for tour seemed unending and despite how well they were going Copia was clearly nervous. He was not just a temporary replacement for Terzo anymore, he wore the mitre of a Papa now and needed to embody it more than ever.

Rain and Dew’s rather uneventful personal time was not for any lack of desire however. Dew ached to get his hands on Rain again, to feel his hands on him. Their hands had indeed began to wander more and more in recent days, but the pair had not had the time either of them wanted to feel truly unhurried enough to fully explore their desires. Rain had said he wanted the time to treat Dew right, and Dew believed him, feeling much the same way himself.

Still, just getting to sleep together in the same bed was making Dew feel like the luckiest and most loved ghoul in the world. They would curl up together, Dew usually holding Rain to his front if they weren’t facing one another, his arm resting over him to press directly to his heart, fingertips grazing his mark. Rain had said it was like he was warming him from the inside.

Dew had learned that Rain didn’t like to sleep wearing a shirt, or much of anything at all really, because of his sensitive gills. Likewise he too had grown comfortable enough to eschew pyjama pants in exchange for boxer shorts inside the privacy of their rooms. Dew loved the closeness of their legs touching, their knees slotted together or folded one behind the other. It seemed Rain in particular was enjoying his new personal heated blanket of a ghoul too, pulling at Dew to drape himself over him even as the temperatures outside continued to rise.

On yet another night together as the pair had curled up to sleep, Rain had bent his knees up and away from Dew’s. Just as Dew had started to wonder if he was expected to follow to stay close to him, he felt large, cold feet plaster themselves to the front of his legs.

Dew shrieked at a volume that was far too loud for the hour.

“Fuck! Rain, you sick bastard!”

Rain snickered, flexing his toes against him before starting up a deeply contented purr. Dew couldn’t do anything besides hold him close and allow himself to be used as a hot water bottle.

The next morning Dew couldn’t help but notice Rain shrugging into one of the fire ghoul’s assortment of distressed band shirts, collected throughout his time topside. Dew liked them just slightly baggy so he could layer them over his ever-present long sleeved shirts, which apparently meant it fitted Rain perfectly, clinging to his broad shoulders and chest while still flowing comfortably around his waist. When exactly Rain had pilfered it he was unsure, but Dew could only assume he had left it in his room one night. Rain claiming it as his own made a slight possessive streak flare within him.

It only burned stronger when they emerged into the common room to find almost all of the pack assembled already. Most of them were minding their own business, however Cirrus and Cumulus were grinning like cats who had got the cream. Dew saw them clock the shirt instantly, yet they made no comment about it. He soon realised that was because it was the least interesting thing they had to prod at the pair over.

“Fun night, boys?” Cirrus grinned with all her teeth.

“I dunno what you’re talking about.” Dew said flatly.

“Ooo fuck, Rain, you sick bastard.” Cumulus drawled, punctuated by exaggerated moans.

“I don’t talk like that!” Fumed Dew while Rain stayed silent in embarrassment, burying his face in Dew’s shoulder.

Dew patted him on the side of the head and glowered at her, the pair of ghoulettes cackling to themselves in triumph.

“Besides, Rain just put his cold fucking feet on me. You’d be yelling too if you felt that when you were just getting cosy!”

They didn’t have time for a mini feud though as Rain had promised to join Mountain in the greenhouses in the morning, helping sort out his personal plant nurseries and beds before they left for tour. Everything related to their care and watering would be left in the capable hands of the Abbey earth ghouls, but it wouldn’t hurt to make their jobs easier.

Rain would be back in time for them to have lunch together, thankfully, before they would all be thrown into yet more rehearsals. Then they would have the evening to themselves and the whole of the next day too. Dew couldn’t wait, every minute spent with Rain feeling like a gift from Him Himself. As much as he adored the pack, the feeling of complete and total openness he had with Rain was incomparable.

For the rest of the morning though Dew had nothing to be doing. It didn’t appear Sunshine did either, the ghoulette having not been assigned any duties outside of the band as of yet to allow her to fully focus on picking up the repertoire.

He joined her on the sofa, in front of the television which was playing some kind of nature documentary.

“Settling in okay?” Dew felt a little bad that he hadn’t checked in with her until now.

They shared an element after all, but he supposed he had been rather distracted as of late.

“Alright, thanks!” She twisted from where she was sat on her feet to face him. “Being topside’s even better than I expected! I was a bit worried when I first got here in that horrid dank chamber that I’d been summoned to some underground church and I’d never see the sun again, but there’s so much nature here and the air’s so fresh and everyone’s so nice!”

She almost quivered with joy as she spoke. It was no wonder everyone had warmed to her so quickly, Dew thought.

“It’s a shame about the weather today then.” Dew smiled, glancing at the sudden spring shower that had hit outside.

He wondered if Rain and Mountain were still hard at work or if they had run off to play in the downpour; he couldn’t imagine Rain would enjoy the mud all that much, even if the water wouldn’t bother him.

Sunshine giggled then, a familiar bell-like sound.

“I’ve heard we’re going to lots of warmer places on tour though, right?”

“That’s right. We should get some days off there too, to really enjoy them.”

Sunshine hummed happily.

“I can’t promise fresh air is something we’ll get all the time though.”

Dew spoke jokingly but Sunshine’s face looked suddenly worried.

“We’ll be sharing a bus with Copia’s feet after all!”

Sunshine blinked for a moment as the joke landed before giggling. Still, Dew filed away the sudden faltering of her normally perfectly cheery exterior as something to keep an eye on once they hit the road.

“What do fire ghouls do around here for fun?” She asked, changing the topic of conversation.

“I’m not really sure, actually.”

Dew though about it for a moment. He had hardly been a normal fire ghoul, what with everyone assuming he was a hybrid for the first year or so of his time topside. Even then he had spent most of his time either in the chapel or the band wing, always working in some capacity. Neither could he really recall Ifrit showing much interest in anything around the Abbey beyond his band duties. Downtime for both of them had mostly just been spent relaxing in their Den with their pack.

“I guess me and Ifrit, the last fire ghoul, were both pretty bad at getting out and meeting others.” He chuckled. “If met his mate within days of his summoning, and I…”

Dew trailed off. He had spent most of his time with Aether, unable to help but feel a little awkward about that. Dew had seen Sunshine getting closer to the quintessence ghoul and she seemed so perceptive that he worried she must think badly of him already in that regard.

She showed no sign of any animosity though, nodding along in understanding before suddenly switching subject once more.

“Are there animals other than humans here at the Abbey?” She glanced at the television.

Dew thought it was as though she were running about five different thought processes at once, the most pressing one coming to the surface each time she opened her mouth. It was so chaotic that it was almost reassuring, knowing that she likely wouldn’t dwell on anything uncomfortable for too long.

“There’s a few.” Dew answered. “Copia’s got pet rats, but he won’t let you near them without signing a blood oath not to hurt them first.”

“What about those?” She pointed at the screen, where a lioness who moments ago had been goring an antelope was now licking a giant paw.

“That’s you!” Dew laughed at his own joke, but quickly realised he would have to explain it when Sunshine squinted hard at the screen and looked deeply confused. “That’s a lioness. A female lion. Like Copia’s nickname for you ghoulettes.”

As he kept watching, the big cat started to remind him of her much smaller cousin, the one he had felt a strange connection with before.

“We have housecats here too, although they’re much smaller.” Dew added. “They keep mice and things out of the kitchens. Go and hover out the back of the band wing some time if you want to see one, there’s a friendly calico around a lot.”

He left out that she had been the bearer of spiritual advice before.

Sunshine hummed in acknowledgement, now leaning forward and deeply engrossed in the television once more, like she was studying the creature on-screen to learn how best to live up to the moniker.

It really was endearing to watch her, Dew thought, her wide-eyed interest in the new-to-her world almost contagious. He relaxed into the sofa, content to watch the documentary with her and answer any more questions that may pop into her head until the others returned for lunch.

Rehearsals later went as smoothly as ever, assuaging Copia’s growing nerves once more. That didn’t mean the pack weren’t all exhausted by the time they were released for dinner however, yet Dew and Rain were refusing to let it affect them, the promise of thirty-six hours with nowhere to be giving them a second wind of energy.

Back in the Den at last, Dew pulled Rain in the direction of his room without even thinking about it. He only realised that it was Rain’s first time stepping foot in there when he felt the water ghoul pause just inside the doorway, looking around in curiosity. Their rooms weren’t even that different, having the same basic layout and furniture, but Dew supposed his had a few more trinkets and photos dotting the shelves from his longer time topside. Other than that the main real difference was his black bedding as opposed to Rain’s dove grey.

“We can go to yours if you’d prefer.” Dew offered. “I know my room’s nothing special. I keep meaning to get—”

Snapping out of his observation of the room, Rain finally stepped inside properly, kicking the door shut behind him and pulling Dew into a kiss in one fluid motion. Dew felt all his worries melt away as the water ghoul took him in his arms, words of uncertainty dissolving like sugar in hot tea.

“Here is perfect.” Rain assured him when they finally came up for air. “Anywhere with you is perfect. But being in your room is especially perfect.”

Dew rolled his eyes.

“No need to lay it on so thick.”

“I’d never exaggerate when it comes to you.” Rain said in that far-too-earnest voice that never failed to make Dew’s stomach tie itself in knots. “Not when you’re already so much more of everything than I could have ever imagined.”

“Alright! That’s enough!” Dew batted at his chest to deflect from the sudden overwhelming surge of emotion that flowed through him. “Bed, now!”

“Yessir!” Rain barked a laugh, before sprawling coquettishly across Dew’s sheets, making himself comfortable.

The fire ghoul busied himself with drawing the curtains and switching on the string of fairy lights that looked like tiny flickering flames to conceal his beet-red face, choosing to ignore the way Rain’s words sent a full-body shiver through him. When he looked back, Rain was staring straight at him, running a finger along the soft cotton sheets beneath him.

“What?”

Rain simply raised an eyebrow back at him, not stopping the slow drag of his finger over the fabric. The way he pressed into the softness of the mattress beneath just slightly re-lit the increasingly familiar flame within Dew, the one that burned stronger in his presence but especially so now as he imagined that same touch dragging over his skin.

“What,” Dew repeated, “are you doing exactly?”

He thought he had some idea, that Rain was purely trying to rile him up, see how far he could push him before he cracked and pounced, but he wanted to at least try to muster some kind of defence before he crumpled like a sheet of tissue paper.

“Just thinking about these sheets.” Rain’s voice was low, deeper than usual, like he was trying hard to seduce him in some way.

It was working, Dew thought as he felt himself grow even warmer all over.

“Thinking about what they’ve seen, what they’ve heard and felt.”

Dew bit his lip, thinking about all the nights he had spend in his bed, dreaming of Rain and touching himself to the thought of him. Especially the more recent nights, now he knew just how miraculous Rain’s touch felt. It would take more than a few heavy-lidded glances from Rain for him to spill the details so easily though – he still had some dignity intact when it came to revealing how madly and deeply he wanted the water ghoul.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” He purred, only cringing slightly at the words as they left his mouth.

“I would, actually.” Rain stilled his movements to fix Dew with yet another of his unguarded, honest stares.

“Shut up.”

Dew wanted to launch himself at the ghoul on the bed, grappling him and pinning him to the mattress on his back until he stopped making his insides twist up like they were doing again now.

Instead he solved the other discomfort in his life right now; the denim clinging to his legs, the tight clothing doing nothing to temper the heat rolling off his skin.

“I’m gonna go change into pyjamas, you want any?” He asked.

Rain levelled him with a look that quite clearly expressed his disgust at the idea. Dew was not surprised; ever since their first night together he had eschewed sleeping in a shirt, or really anything but his underwear. Dew wasn’t complaining, even if his skin was freezing cold to brush up against in the middle of the night. He turned away when Rain’s hand reached for the button of his own pants though, scurrying in the direction of the bathroom before he did something he would regret not discussing first.

Dew didn’t know where his sudden reservations were coming from. Rain had made it crystal clear at every moment he was given the opportunity to show Dew just how badly he wanted him. The fire ghoul hadn’t been making any great secret out of it either and yet now they had ample time and opportunity to act on all the desires they had been talking about for days, he was suddenly nervous.

He was scared of being too much, and simultaneously of not being enough for Rain. Dew knew deep down that Rain would like nothing more than for the fire ghoul to just take, knew there was very little he could do to upset him now, and yet the nerves persisted. The stakes now were just that high. This was Rain, after all.

Dew changed quickly into the oversized t-shirt and boxers he usually slept in, nothing Rain hadn’t seen before. So why did he feel so naked? He splashed water on his face to calm himself. It sort-of worked, but now his wrists were glowing from the water in a way that still triggered his deepest insecurities to rise to the surface.

Idiot, he hissed at himself in the mirror.

Undoubtedly the hottest ghoul he had ever laid eyes on was his in his bed, undressing right now as he dithered, and yet here he was hiding in the bathroom and not out there showing him just how irresistible he found him?

Stupid. He raked a brush through his hair as a distraction, combing out the day-old braid. That helped, allowing himself to remember that while this was Rain he was fussing about, it was simultaneously only Rain.

That thought helped too, as did the memory barging its way to the front of his mind of their first night together. It reminded him how perfect that had been, how utterly enamoured Rain had seemed, even as he lost himself to pleasure. To the pleasure that Dew had brought him, he reminded himself. It was that thought that got him to put down the hairbrush, dry his hands, and head for the door.

He needed to stop worrying. Deep down he knew that the one thing in the world that could hold a candle to how much he wanted Rain was how strongly the water ghoul reciprocated that desire. He knew how Rain felt about him, he had heard him say it. He had felt it in his body’s reactions to him, in the warmth of his embrace each night, the pair holding onto each other as though afraid of being torn apart. Dew had nothing to worry about.

~~~~~~~

As soon as he stepped back into his room, Rain took his breath away. He was in the same position as he had been when Dew left him, only now he wore nothing but a pair of very small black boxer briefs. They hid nothing, including how he was clearly growing hard in them already. Alongside the bolt of lust the sight stabbed him with was the feeling of everything slotting even further into place; Rain filled a space in his room Dew hadn’t know had been waiting for him, took away an emptiness he hadn’t known was there.

His eyes were, of course, locked onto Dew’s already. Somehow that was what Dew needed to see to blow away his final doubts. It was all he could do not to sprint for the bed, settling instead for taking several quick steps before throwing himself into the space beside Rain and crashing their lips together for the thousandth time.

Dew didn’t think he would ever tire of the feeling. The ease with which their mouths and bodies slotted together like it was second nature was mind-blowing, a kind of perfection he hadn’t known to ask the universe for and one he would have thought was out of his reach if he had. Rain’s mouth said with each kiss all he didn’t need words for: how strongly he felt the same way about Dew, how much he loved this feeling too and how he wished this never had to end, that they never needed to pause for air again.

Even as he held Rain tight beside him Dew couldn’t help but let his hands wander, smoothing up and down the gentle curves of his back. His skin was smooth yet cold like how he imagined a dolphin’s might be and it felt so good beneath his palms. Dew had never conceived that just the touch of fingers to bare skin could feel so good and if he didn’t already know how much better even than this things could feel he didn’t think he would ever want to let go.

If anyone could understand the intensity with which he needed more of each sensation it was Rain, the ghoul so clearly affected that his hands seemed capable of little else besides clutching Dew’s shirt in his fists and holding on tight. Dew could feel him fattening up even more against him from where they were pressed so tightly together, the memory of how good it had felt before to bring Rain to orgasm sitting squarely at the front of his mind.

He had felt so powerful, reducing Rain to a quivering mess with just the touch of his hand. That in itself had brought him his own untold pleasure, his frantic grind against Rain’s thigh all he had needed to lose himself too. But now, with the haze of lust not yet completely clouding his mind, he knew he wanted more, wanted not just to touch but to be touched too.

Dew rolled his hips against him, hoping to convey to Rain that he didn’t need to hold himself back, he could let go and Dew would welcome anything he wanted to give him with open arms. He nosed along his jawline, drinking in the scent of his water ghoul. With another roll of his body Dew let loose a low moan, hardly recognising himself in the sheer desperation of the noise.

Instead of meeting him halfway though Rain pulled back, meeting Dew’s eyes with none of his earlier joking.

“Are you okay?” He asked, as though he sensed the remnants of what had caused Dew’s sudden need for a break earlier. “We don’t have to do anything, I’m not expecting you to…”

He leaned his forehead against Dew’s, his tail laying itself comfortingly over Dew’s ankle next to it.

“It would make me more than happy to just have another night being next to my favourite ghoul.”

And somehow he always seemed to know exactly what to say to bring Dew out of his head, how to address the things he wouldn’t bring up otherwise and give him a space that was comfortable for him to answer them in.

“I’m fine. Good. Great, actually. I just…” Dew was glad for a moment that Rain couldn’t see his expression as he spoke. “I still find it hard to believe you could ever want me as much as I do you. I want you so bad it scares me sometimes.”

“Dew.” Rain pulled back to look at him, laying his hands on Dew’s cheeks. “Trust me when I say that no one has ever wanted anyone more than I want you right now, or in any moment.”

“It just feels like there’s so much at stake.” Dew thought that the amount of time they had spent circling each other wasn’t helping either, building up to the sudden rush of anxieties he had felt just now. “And I don’t wanna push you, I know you and Swiss didn’t ever—”

“That one’s entirely on you, dummy.” Rain snorted.

“How? We weren’t even talking back then!”

“It just felt wrong, even then, to think about being with a ghoul who wasn’t my mate. It must have been because you were right there too.”

“Oh. Uh, sorry, about that.” Dew winced in apology, even as every fibre of his being also protested the very suggestion of Rain being with another ghoul.

“Don’t be. I’m just happy to be where we are now.”

“Sorry I’m being weird now too.” Dew sighed. “I really don’t mean to be. I just… I guess I’ve been worrying if I was too much the other day, and that’s why we’ve not done much more than kiss since. I don’t want to push you, or rush you into anything—”

“Are you forgetting how busy we’ve been these last few days?” Rain seemed almost incredulous, in disbelief that Dew could think such a way. “Please believe me, I’ve been wanting to whisk you out of that chapel or the band room or the dining hall or wherever we’ve been every single moment since then, wanted to lock you away in my room and live out every fantasy that plays in my head whenever I think about you. There’s no hesitation for me, other than wanting you to be on the same page.”

“I want too much.” Dew shook his head. “I feel crazy with it.”

“Well then maybe we’re both crazy. I’d still love you if you were crazy.”

Rain smiled warmly at him, but Dew saw the hunger alight in his eyes behind the softness. It was enough to distract him from the second part of what Rain had said, the words slipping out so naturally they didn’t fully register with Dew until the moment to acknowledge them had passed.

At some point he needed to stop doubting himself and trust that Rain wasn’t lying, he realised. The water ghoul was so painfully earnest in almost all his words and actions, it would be hard to imagine him fabricating such sincerity. It was only Dew holding himself back now.

So he kissed him again. Rain met him halfway, both of them clearly trying to pour everything they couldn’t express with words alone into every move of their mouth against the other’s and Dew’s mind finally let him begin to believe it. Rain met each of his movements with one of his own, deepening the kiss in tandem until they were back to how they had been before, clutching onto the other while their hands begged to explore further.

Dew’s hands resumed their paths across Rain’s back, the water ghoul’s slipping beneath Dew’s baggy t-shirt to hold him even closer. He felt it, the conviction Rain was pouring into every touch.

“Oh Dew.” Rain practically moaned when they next broke for air. He leaned back slightly to take all of Dew in, as though still in disbelief at having the ghoul in his arms. “You… I want you so much.”

Dew would hardly say he was looking his most attractive right now in his oversized shirt with holes around the hem over loose boxers, yet Rain was looking at him like it was the sexiest thing he could be wearing, even more so than any ridiculous uniform or anything else designed to be deliberately provocative. He looked at him like it was only Dew he was seeing and nothing else, helping him believe Rain just a bit more.

Rain’s focus soon drifted though as Dew allowed him to just look, in return trying to memorise the exact contours of his water ghoul’s torso and the way his markings curled around them. Dew realised Rain was staring at his arms again, visible given Dew’s short sleeves and still faintly glowing.

“Can I?” Rain asked, his now familiar touch drifting over Dew’s marks, punctuating his question with a kiss.

“Please. Whatever you want.”

Dew didn’t entirely know what he had been asking until Rain leaned in to begin pressing light kisses all over the markings, the slight moisture of his lips leaving a faint glow in their wake as he mapped out the swirls. It was almost funny to him how this was the opposite of every way he had treated his marks before. They had always been pushed to the side, hidden if possible or otherwise ignored.

Rain started with them though. He loved this part of Dew that he had tried to hide for so long, the part that tied them together.

As Rain laved yet more kisses along his arm, Dew ran the fingers of his other hand over Rain’s mark. He didn’t think he would ever stop feeling at least a little guilty about it, but at the same time Rain made forgiveness seem so simple that it gave him hope.

Dew’s hands started wandering lower almost without him asking them too. They knew what they wanted: to feel him again, to hold the weight of him firmly in their grasp. He stopped as they grazed the curve of his hip bones though, still unsure despite everything Rain had said and done. The other night when Dew had jerked him off felt almost like a fever dream, one that had replayed in his head in technicolor so many times since. Rain stepped in to reassure him before Dew even had to say a word though.

“Please keep going.” Rain gasped desperately.

“Only if you do too.” As much as Dew was loving what Rain was giving him already, he wanted more, wanted him everywhere.

“Do you like when I do this?” Rain asked, only a little breathless, as he moved his hands to Dew’s waist, pushing up beneath his shirt to stroke over his ribs then down to his hips, thumbs following them lower below the waistband of Dew’s boxers then back up to settle on his waist once more.

“Yes. Please, anything.”

“Just so you know.” Rain purred in Dew’s ear. “I would never do anything to you that I’m not comfortable with you doing to me, at least without asking first. Is there anything you don’t want me to do?”

“No.” Dew answered quickly.

“So follow my lead if you want, until you realise that you can take everything.”

Rain seemed to know that Dew would stop him if he were ever uncomfortable, not that he even slightly thought he could be with him. Maybe that was the point though; to show him that there was nothing in Dew’s imagination that Rain wouldn’t want too.

Still slowly enough that he could stop him should he choose to, Rain pulled gently at the hem of Dew’s sleep shirt. It caught under his weight and Dew lifted himself off the bed to free it in permission. They were evenly dressed now and Dew felt more comfortable with this balance rather than less, somehow.

Rain’s hands fell to hold Dew’s ass through his boxers, not that there was much to hold compared to his own, Dew thought. Indeed Rain’s had been beckoning to him near-constantly, so he reached for it with overeager hands. Dew knew that his grasping barely fell short of groping at him, but the way Rain pressed into his hands, moaning softly and falling apart already, encouraged him regardless.

The water ghoul was always the first to fold, Dew was learning, losing himself so quickly after only a few gentle touches from his mate. Dew loved the affect he had, loved that Rain was unafraid to show it. He was getting better at setting his reactions free too, letting Rain see how effectively he could unravel Dew in return.

“The same goes for you.” Dew gasped into Rain’s mouth, kisses turned sloppy as Rain rolled his hips into him. “Anything I do you can too, if you want.”

With that, Dew cupped Rain’s now very hard cock through the front of his underpants. The helpless whimper Rain made only spurred Dew on, squeezing him slightly through the thin fabric. He was hot and heavy in his hand, a feeling Dew thought he was swiftly becoming addicted to after just a taste.

And oh did he want a taste. He didn’t have to be greedy though, Dew knew. He had forever.

“Oh please, Dew! Touch me again, like before.” Rain practically mewled. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, about you, about your hands.”

“Yeah? I haven’t either.”

Rain was talking more than normal and Dew couldn’t get enough of it. He loved the almost casual way they could speak now; if anything he thought the openness was hot. They could indulge in a bit of playful teasing, they had time, but right now he was also impatient and really wanted to see Rain’s cock again, to feel its softness against his palm and the slick drag of it against his skin as it wept in interest.

He wasted no more time, tugging impatiently at the elastic of Rain’s boxer briefs. The water ghoul jerked his hips up so fast to allow Dew to pull them off that had Dew been on top of him he would have sent him flying. Dew pulled the tight black fabric down, the sight of Rain’s cock bobbing free only making his mouth water more. Rain was uncoordinated and slow as he tried to help Dew by kicking them the rest of the way off but the fire ghoul didn’t care; he was too busy admiring the water ghoul’s whole, now-naked body.

And oh, Lucifer, was he gorgeous, sprawled out on Dew’s sheets like an oil painting. Dew wanted to stroke him all over so he started doing so, running hands up his thighs and over the prominent muscles towards the meeting of his thighs where his cock stood proud, flushed a deep purple against the blue of Rain’s skin. As Dew stroked along where his thighs met his body, framing his prize between his hands and contemplating his next move, Rain seemed to suddenly remember their agreement.

“What happened to anything you can do I can do?” He whinged, breathless and needy.

From his voice it was clear he was trying to joke, but his composure was slowly failing him so his words came out far more whiny and desperate than he had meant them to. Rain stuffed his hands unceremoniously and in a slightly uncoordinated fashion down the back of Dew’s boxers as he spoke, the only place he could reach, large cold palms plastered to his buttocks.

“’Course.” Dew coughed as cool fingers dimpled into his skin. “’S only fair.”

Rain turned the tables then, kissing down Dew’s sternum as his hands pushed at the waistband of Dew’s underwear. The fire ghoul lifted his hips briefly to allow them past, mildly irked that his own appreciation of Rain’s body had been cut short.

“I wasn’t done with you yet!” He huffed jokingly as he took over from Rain to paddle with his feet at the cotton now stuck around his knees, kicking the boxers off into the abyss of the room beyond their bed.

“Not my problem.” Rain rolled Dew onto his back and nipped at the slight softness of his stomach, impatient. “It’s my turn now.”

He rubbed his hands up Dew’s thighs, not trying to spread his legs but Dew let his knees fall apart anyway. He could feel how warm he was running from the sudden breeze of the air in the room and the chill of Rain’s hands on his burning inner thighs, all his blood running south with his arousal.

As Rain pulled his mouth off to observe him, just as Dew had looked at him, a part of Dew thought he should be embarrassed. Rain’s expression made it clear he had no reason to be though, gazing with an expression like he was staring their Creator in the face in wonder. He stayed looking for a while without actually doing anything, barely even moving. It was only the slight part of his lips and the way his tongue flicked to wet them, as well as the tiny jerking motions of his hips against the mattress, that gave away that he was not a statue.

“What’re you thinking?” Dew asked, hating the self-consciousness that bled into his tone.

“That I want to suck you off.”

That was not what Dew had been expecting to hear, but he felt himself throb at the words and suggestion. He thought again he would like to do the same to Rain but that could wait for now.

“Okay.” He said softly, barely above a whisper.

Rain didn’t hang about. The hands on his thighs moved again almost instantly, thumbs pressing in with his enthusiasm. They stroked up over Dew’s abdomen and along the line of his hips, relishing in their freedom. Dew’s breathing went shallow as Rain shifted to prop himself up on one hand while the other continued its exploration, scratching lightly through the coarse hairs covering his pubic mound.

The water ghoul didn’t stay there for long though, impatient fingers swiftly moving on again. They stroked lower now, smoothly gliding between his legs, tentative in their exploration but unerring. Dew shivered at his touch. Rain’s fingers were cold, so much colder than Dew’s own, and yet it was not the cold that made his body twitch. Besides, he would not be cold all over, Dew knowing first hand that he was warmer where it mattered.

The fire ghoul let his legs fall open wider, trying to suppress the quiver starting in one of them born of anticipation and want. It went unnoticed, Dew thought, Rain still looking so engrossed and as reverent as before. Dew felt himself growing wetter, his loins throbbing at Rain’s touch, but the water ghoul’s hand moved no lower. Instead he took hold of Dew’s clit between thumb and forefinger and began stroking it as reverently as Dew had stroked his cock, just like he wanted to do again.

“I’m returning the favour. From days ago.” Rain breathed as he worked, small movements already making Dew’s breathing go shallow.

Each pass sent lightening bolts shooting through him, more intense than he had ever felt or could ever imagine. He wondered how that was even possible; it must be a soulmates thing.

As cold as his fingers were, Dew knew from kissing him that his tongue was not. He was reminded of that fact very strongly and suddenly when Rain sealed his lips round Dew’s clit and sucked, tongue flicking out to tease at his hood. Rain’s cheeks were hollowed and he bobbed his head slightly as he worked, looking for all the world as though he were sucking a cock comparable in size to his own.

Dew felt another stab of lust at the sight, this one more unexpected but equally welcome. He cried out at the barrage of sensations, his mind struggling to decide which to focus on.

Rain didn’t seem to be breathing. His gills were open but Dew didn’t know if they could work at all in air, or if they even were. Then again he didn’t think he was capable of thoughts as involved as water ghoul physiology right now. Dew could hear the sounds falling from his own lips but far more interesting to his ears were the noises Rain was making: a lewd slurping, tiny moans that he felt vibrate throughout him.

The water ghoul didn’t slow for a second, even as Dew started shaking all over. He was taking him apart like he knew his body instinctively, and maybe he did, but also with the enthusiasm of a ghoul wanting to learn how every tiny flick of his tongue or twitch of a finger affected him.

From nothing but Rain’s impossible mouth and his thumb circling the jut of his thigh where it connected to his body, Dew came hard and suddenly. He saw white even behind closed eyelids, feeling like he was on fire despite Rain’s colder touch.

If this was how Rain had felt when Dew touched him for the first time then it was no wonder he had acted like he had. His whole body jerked beneath Rain’s touch, but the water ghoul didn’t let up until the split second before Dew would have wanted him to. It was like he knew Dew’s body as well as he did already. Dew yearned to learn Rain’s this well too.

Rain seemed far too smug as he pulled back, licking his lips in unabashed delight. Dew was breathless, feeling like he would like gills like Rain’s in this moment just to help him recover.

He lay there for a moment, shellshocked, until Rain wriggled up to kiss him. With a small whimper, Rain kissed Dew’s own taste into his mouth. Dew feels Rain’s cock pressing into his hip then, reminding him of the prize for regaining his own bearings.

“Your turn.” He murmured into the kiss, sloppy and slow. “Just as soon as I can move again.”

Dew felt yet more smugness pouring off of Rain. It was that which finally gave him the wherewithal to push himself upright, already planning how he was going to take Rain apart in his head and pull the self-satisfaction from him one whimper at a time.

Rain sat up with him, unable to stop himself fisting over his cock as he watched Dew continue to take deep, heaving breaths.

Dew felt insatiable, even having just come. He wanted, no, needed, more already. The sight of Rain’s cock made his mouth water and he knew then what he wanted. Rain smirked weakly as Dew’s eyes refocused, as though he could read his mind.

“Are we going tit for tat, still?” Dew tried to joke.

“Anything, please, anything you’ll give me!” Rain did not appear half as composed once he opened his mouth. “I need you so bad, Dew, please!”

And how could Dew hope to resist.

He leaned in slowly, the endorphins streaming through his blood refusing to allow room for any hesitation or doubts. Dew’s eyes flicked to Rain’s and saw them as wide as saucers.

Focussing once more on his target, slowly, for Rain’s sake more than his own, Dew wrapped a hand around Rain’s cock. He was solid beneath him, the pulsing vein strong beneath his fingertips and warmer than the rest of him which was still a pleasant surprise.

Dew brought his mouth in close, his forked tongue flicking out like a snake to taste him on the air before he wrapped his lips around the head of Rain’s cock. He tasted like Dew imagined the salt of the sea did, mixed with the electricity of petrichor after the rain and something baser, more organic. Whatever it was was like a firelighter to Dew; he needed more.

He tongued over Rain’s frenulum before sinking his head lower, feeling Rain’s thighs tense beneath him. The water ghoul was growling slightly again, in between a never ending litany of small whimpers and mewls and breathless repeats of Dew’s name that had started the second he took him in his mouth and showed no sign of stopping.

Rain was large and heavy in his mouth, completely filling Dew’s senses. Yet he still wanted more. Dew took him in as far as he could, inching slowly down his length until he felt him in his throat and his lips graze the scales around his base.

A choked sound ripped out of Rain as his head bumped into the softness of the back of Dew’s throat. Dew pulled off for a moment, now breathless himself, not wanting to ruin things by triggering an otherwise very relaxed gag reflex. He didn’t have gills like Rain after all, still flared wide open and fluttering with every heaving breath the water ghoul took.

Dew settled for bobbing his head around as much of Rain as he could, careful to keep his fangs out of the way. Rain was clearly not complaining; he didn’t even seem able to form a sentence right now. Glancing up at him from beneath his eyelashes, Dew felt Rain’s groan vibrate through his entire body, all the way through to where Dew was pressing his tongue against him.

He loved feeling like he had this power, but the inferno inside him had reignited. Dew already wanted to feel Rain against him again, inside him too. Just as he was debating pulling off completely, he felt one of Rain’s hands fly to his hair. He tangled it into the soft blond strands, cool fingers brushing Dew’s scalp.

The touch and movement of his hair was already making Dew shiver in delight at the unexpectedly good feeling, but then Rain’s hand closed around it. His fingers pulled lightly on the hair in its grasp and Dew lost it. The tug on every follicle was like an electric pulse, a thousand needles of pleasure.

Dew moaned loudly around Rain’s cock, feeling Rain react to the vibrations. He pulled off before he could choke but was glad when Rain didn’t let go of his hair.

“Fuck...” He whispered in wonder to Rain’s violet and saliva-slick cock in front of him. “Can’t wait any longer. Need you again.”

“I-insatiable.” Rain stuttered.

Despite his blown pupils his eyes were bright. The hand not in Dew’s hair came up to stroke along his spine as Dew adjusted the water ghoul on the bed, making Rain comfortable as he laid him back against the pillows before kneeling over him.

“And whose fault is that?”

“Both of us.” Rain said reverently, letting go of Dew’s hair to catch both of his hands in his, Dew mourning their loss already.

As much as he would have liked to keep at his new favourite activity for longer, until he felt Rain lose it inside his mouth and could taste his spend, Dew had other plans for him. He wasn’t prepared to wait a moment longer than he had to to get him inside him now, every nerve in his body is screaming for it. But there was one thing he still wanted to do first.

He moved one of their sets of joined hands to Rain’s ribs, stretching his fingers to run along the set of delicate gills he found there. Releasing him so he could explore properly, Rain returned his hand to Dew’s hair where it rested gently on the back of his head.

Dew stroked over the soft ridges, feeling them flutter beneath his touch. They gave under his fingers, Rain’s hand tightening in his hair in response. These gills weren’t as open as the ones on Rain’s neck where the membranes were still flared wide though, didn’t have the little hints of something deeper, flushed richly red with blood visible through them.

It gave the openings on his neck a similar pretty contrast to Rain’s marks on Dew’s skin. Something about seeing them so near to Rain’s own mark made it appear less violent and out of place too, the similarity between the burning words and an organ that gave him life one he hadn’t seen before but now couldn’t ignore the significance of.

Unable to resist the urge to touch them now he had started, Dew trailed calloused fingers up to the gills on Rain’s neck, tips dancing over his flushed and slightly sweaty skin. The water ghoul was faintly glowing all over, Dew realised.

Beautiful; there was no other word for it.

Rain’s breathing went shallow, the gills at his neck fluttering in tandem. Gently, almost holding his breath, Dew ran a finger along the edge of one. Rain shuddered, his jaw falling slack. The way his hips bucked beneath Dew reassured him that he liked this, that it didn’t hurt.

It emboldened Dew to press a finger into the soft membranes, gasping to himself as they parted so easily for him. He dragged his finger slowly along the slit, listening intently to every sound that fell from Rain’s perfect lips. He felt each breathy noise too, he realised, right there in his fingertips. Beyond that though was something rhythmic, beating in time with the rushing in Dew’s ears.

He could feel Rain’s pulse.

Dew wondered if Rain could feel his from his fingertips too. A second finger joined his first, the pads of both stroking softly before Dew applied more pressure, groaning as his throat yielded to allow them just a little deeper.

He was so soft here, and sightly warmer than the rest of his body. Rain was moaning and whimpering like Dew was actually fucking him, and he didn’t know enough about water ghoul biology to know that it didn’t feel the same. So Dew continued to stroke him in the way he enjoyed the glide of his own fingers along his cunt. Rain seemed to like it too, judging from the way he howled.

Dew couldn’t resist touching himself. The image of his fingers in Rain’s gills, their tips up to his first knuckle swallowed up by the fragile and silky membranes was just too much to ignore. He stroked his fingers over himself in a similar rhythm to those running through Rain’s gills, both connected by the tempo of their joint pleasure. His own eyes started to flutter shut but a fresh keen from Rain pulled them back open, not wanting to miss a second of the beautiful reactions of his gorgeous water ghoul.

He switched hands as he rebalanced himself, fingers of the hand moist with his own slick now easing their glide back between the ridges of Rain’s gills on the opposite side of his neck. The others, slightly chilled relative to his burning temperature, pressed back against himself and pulled a groan from his own throat.

Rain gasped, a high, wrecked sound, the hand not in Dew’s hair flying to hold the fire ghoul’s hand to his neck.

“Dew.” He breathed, whispering like his name was a prayer said in chapel. “You. I can— taste you…”

He could barely string a sentence together and yet Dew was still more caught up in the fact that he could feel the vibrations of his speech through his fingertips.

Determined to continue breaking Rain down to a quivering mess, he experimented with moving his fingers faster.

Rain practically melted.

Intoxicated with the power of this newfound discovery and already feeling himself getting too worked up for the amount of time he wanted to dedicate to Rain, Dew brought his other hand back to the opposite set of gills on Rain’s neck. He didn’t squeeze or hold him, unsure if Rain would want that, instead allowing both hands to gently move in tandem with the softest most reverent touches his shaky muscles could manage.

When Rain was nothing but a babbling mess, Dew slowed and leaned in. The water ghoul was too far gone to do anything but follow with his eyes as Dew’s tongue flicked free, dancing lightly along the edge of a gill.

Rain practically squeaked, his whole body twitching.

“Don’ tickle—” He managed.

Taking that to heart, Dew licked deeply into the curve of the bottommost gill, running his tongue along the full length of the slit all around the side of his neck.

Rain howled.

Dew took that as a sign to continue.

He laved his tongue between the firmer arches of his gills and over the spongy inner filaments. There was so much more to feel this way than with his fingers, each tiny pleat and ridge meeting every papillae on his tongue.

Alongside the new sensations he could taste Rain now: saltwater, a hint of iron. Behind that though was a slight smoky tang. It was himself, Dew realised. He groaned into Rain’s gills, sloppily making out with the open membranes and lapping over the warm, blood-rich lamellae. He could feel them flutter, could hear Rain gasping with his lungs as well as with his gills. It was a wholly new experience, like nothing Dew had ever contemplated before let alone experienced.

Addictive.

Plunging his tongue deeper still the tip of it grazed over the rakers buried far out of sight inside Rain’s gills. The cartilaginous protrusions weren’t exactly sharp but they were a surprise, one that pulled a noise from Dew that had the ripple effect of making Rain groan low and long as he started to thrash beneath him.

Dew could have kept going all day, but he could feel Rain’s impossibly hard cock pressing into his lower abdomen where he was laid between his legs, pinning him down. More than anything he now wanted Rain inside him, more than he had ever wanted that before, more than he could ever remember wanting anything.

He reluctantly pulled off, bracketing himself up on his hands to press a quick kiss to Rain’s beautifully parted lips before sitting back on his feet, still between the water ghoul’s legs. His view from here was perfect, Rain’s straining cock flushed so deeply now that Dew had to wonder how there was any blood left in the rest of his body.

“You’re gonna kill me.” Rain half laughed in disbelief when he eventually found his breath and then his words again.

“You need a minute?” Dew asked, only a little self-satisfied.

Rain bit his lip and nodded.

“If you want me to last more than a few seconds, yeah, sorry.”

Dew simply licked his lips in anticipation before lying down along Rain’s side, careful not to brush against his clearly sensitive gills. That didn’t stop his hand from absently wandering back between his own legs, impatient. His tail swished behind him, an outlet for the roaring need waiting to erupt from beneath his skin and devour the water ghoul whole.

After a few minutes of careful, deep breathing with his eyes screwed shut, Rain eventually seemed satisfied that he had calmed down enough not to immediately lose it. He turned his head to look at Dew beside him, blue eyes wide and only a little dazed in wonderment.

Dew found he couldn’t look away from them, even when Rain’s hand reached for his chin to pull him in for another kiss before wandering lower to give his cock a few tentative pulls.

“You’re so—” Dew didn’t have the words, wasn’t sure there were enough words in any language for how he felt right now.

So instead he crawled back on top of Rain, hovering over him and leaning in to kiss him once more. He lowered his hips slightly, wriggling into position over Rain’s cock through instinct as much as conscious decision. Dew didn’t feel like he even needed to make one; every part of him wanted this, he didn’t need to command his muscles anymore.

He took Rain’s cock, as surprisingly warm as ever, in his hand and began to line himself up with it. As it rested hot and fat against his entrance Dew felt the fire in his core begin to flashover, flames licking along every nerve ending at the slightest ghost of a touch making him feel almost raw with want.

Dew was about to sink down, thighs aching from holding himself in position, when he suddenly noticed Rain was no longer meeting his eyes as intensely as he had been before. Despite every instinct screaming at him to take, he could sense that something had shifted between them and was ever so slightly, fractionally off.

It was something Dew recognised, he realised as he pushed himself back up. He sat back on Rain’s thighs without breaking eye contact on his end, a familiar prickle rolling off Rain to what had sent him spiralling into the bathroom earlier in the evening.

“What’s wrong?” He asked gently but without room for Rain to shrug off the question. “Do you want to stop?”

“No!” Rain gasped, almost before Dew had finished asking. “No, I want this, I want you, I just— I’m a little… nervous, I guess.”

Dew couldn’t understand why – it was only him after all – but he could certainly relate.

“Why’re you so nervous? There’s no need to be, it’s just me. You’ve done this before, right?”

Rain hesitated before answering.

“Never with someone I cared about.”

Oh. Dew understood now. Maybe this really did mean as much to Rain as it did to him, if not more. He understood feeling the pressure for everything to be perfect, but Dew didn’t care about that.

The rigid emphasis in the humans’ media on first kisses and first times had perhaps rubbed off a bit too strongly on Rain, but as far as Dew, and he assumed most other ghouls, were concerned this was just one more way for them to get closer. If Rain still wanted to fuck him Dew would delight in every drag of their skin against the other’s, savour each new sensation and sound he could pull from the water ghoul. But if not, he had a list the length of his arm of alternative things he wanted to do to Rain. At the same time, he knew he would be honoured just to spend another night tucked against him.

“You’d think that would make it easier right?” Dew mused aloud, thinking about his earlier wobbly moment in the bathroom. “That being in love would make things simple. And maybe it does eventually, but right now… What I’m trying to say is I get it.”

The words slipped out as easily and accidentally as Rain’s had earlier, but it was soon apparent that Rain did notice this time.

“Yeah? You’re in love with me?”

Dew tried to distract him with a kiss but Rain broke it after only a few seconds, awaiting his answer to what Dew thought was a stupid question.

“Obviously, dumbass.” He murmured against the water ghoul’s skin.

“And that doesn’t make you nervous?”

“Of course it does!” Dew laughed, pulling back to look Rain in the face, incredulous. “It’s you.”

“Exactly, it’s only me.” Rain was smiling now, wide and toothy.

“That’s what I’m telling you!”

“So if we agree that it’s just us.” Rain briefly pulled Dew back into his earlier kiss before continuing. “Does that mean neither of us have any reason to worry about anything?”

“I think that’s how it works.” Dew nodded faux-sagely. “And that means you should fuck me now, if you want to.”

Rain’s body reacted involuntarily, his pupils dilating and his hips jerking briefly before he smirked and nipped at Dew’s bottom lip.

“Yeah? And I’m in love with you too, for the record.”

Dew purred.

“And I do want to fuck you.”

Rain pulled Dew down against him then, rolling his hips to grind his cock into him. He had softened slightly, but was swiftly on his way back to full hardness.

Dew surged in for a proper kiss, grinding back onto him as he did so. The feeling of Rain sliding against him, his cock dragging through Dew’s folds and the head bumping against the hood of his clit, was the better than anything Dew could have ever imagined. He groaned as they simply moved against each other for a time, movements as sloppy as their messy and uncoordinated kiss, until they both seemed to remember in an instant that they could have even more at the same time if they wanted.

An unspoken assent passed between them and Dew pushed himself up on his knees, breaking the kiss. A small string of saliva connected their lips for a second longer but neither paid it any mind, everything unimportant fading away as Dew shuffled backwards and took Rain’s cock in his hand.

He gave him a few tentative strokes, marvelling at how he was already leaking from the tip before lining himself up above him. Dew savoured the feeling of him, hot and so very present against his body, before with a final shared nod with Rain he sank down onto him.

The feeling of carving a space for Rain inside his body set Dew’s heart pounding as much as the physical sensation did. Rain was long, and just thick enough for Dew to feel his inner muscles realign to make space for him. He continued bearing down on the water ghoul until he was seated fully on him, his weight resting entirely on his hips.

A low growl began to emanate from Rain’s chest almost as soon as the clutch of Dew’s body surrounded him but Dew was too lost in the delicious stretch to notice when it started. He only realised that there was a faint rumble coming from Rain’s chest when he stilled, hands feeling the vibrations beneath them as he rested them on Rain’s chest for support. It resonated deep inside him, just one more twist of the knife of lust in his gut.

Dew couldn’t focus on that for long though, too distracted by how full he felt as he settled on Rain’s thighs. They felt so perfectly close, everything was so much, so intense. Dew was torn between letting himself drown in sensation or burn alive with the want still coursing through his veins.

“Rain! Lucifer, you’re so— Feels so good—”

Dew could hear himself babbling but he didn’t care. He didn’t know if Rain had even noticed, let alone was comprehending him. The water ghoul looked almost lost in pleasure, his growling a constant bassline punctuated by choked gasps of Dew’s name.

It was so possessive, almost feral and beast-like, and Dew couldn’t think of is as anything other than hot. Rain was being so careful, his claws pressing into Dew’s thighs but with restraint, his hips jerking but not thrusting hard enough to throw him off or push deeper than Dew allowed.

Dew stayed where he was for a while, basking in the feeling of total fullness. The slight burn of stretching around Rain was as delicious as a tart apple and after just one taste Dew was already hungry for more.

He didn’t wait to be completely comfortable around him before he pushed himself back up, rising off Rain’s cock before forcing himself back down, the friction everything he wanted and more. His steadying hands on Rain’s chest could feel the water ghoul’s racing heartbeat too, not just his growls, and Dew couldn’t resist smoothing them over the defined muscles of his chest.

The pair moaned in tandem and Dew took that as a sign to keep going, to try and find a rhythm as he began to ride Rain in earnest. Every glide of their bodies was better than the last, the friction eased by what Dew has to assume was a water ghoul-amount of precum as well as the wetness of his own almost overwhelming arousal.

Rain’s body was firm beneath him yet as pliant as putty, Dew taking charge as Rain melted. He held onto Dew’s thighs just a little too tight in a way the fire ghoul loved, losing control of himself and his low, rumbly growl which grew louder and louder the less he seemed aware of it.

Dew couldn’t get enough, of the feeling of Rain filling him, of their sounds hanging in the air, or of the water ghoul in general. Leaning down he kissed the noise from Rain’s lips, feeling the buzz of his growl in his throat. He pulled off again slightly and before he could sink back down, Rain’s hips were chasing him.

Eventually they managed to find a rhythm, Rain reduced to little more than chanting Dew’s name as he let the fire ghoul lead them. Dew loved the velvet slide of Rain’s cock, not as cold as the rest of him but just as solid. He adored the sweet sounds Rain made alongside gasps of his name, loved puling them from him like a virtuoso from an instrument. Rain’s vocal chords were his strings, Dew plucking on them with every slide and clench to make the sweetest music together.

Dew knew he was probably being just as loud, could feel the vibrations of his throat producing whines and moans, but he couldn’t hear them over the rushing of blood in his ears and his laser focus on Rain’s own noises. He found he didn’t care. So many of his old hang-ups and inhibitions vanished when he was around Rain, the water ghoul giving him a space to not only be comfortable in his own skin but to enjoy existing in it too.

For all the delight Dew took in taking Rain apart, he also felt himself building towards an edge much faster than he had intended. Every movement felt so much more intense than anything he had felt before, as though his ears had been filled with cotton, his senses dulled, and now with his mate beneath him he was seeing in technicolor for the first time.

Rain’s words from earlier echoed in his ears, themselves adding to the perfection he felt.

I’m in love with you too.

“Rain…” Dew panted.

His thighs starting to burn as he rode Rain faster. He felt Rain’s hands flex against him in answer before the water ghoul managed to form words.

“D— ew—” Rain struggled to convince his lips to move.

He was barely able to shape them around the only word he had been capable of for a while now, so Dew stole them once more in another even less coordinated kiss. Their rhythm faltered and Rain almost slipped out of him as he leaned in, but the frantic grind of their hips made up for it. Rain gripped him impossibly tighter, thrusting his hips upwards as Dew licked deeper into his mouth, a low groan of his own slipping out.

All synchronicity gone, they were soon both lost in chasing the feeling surging through their bodies as they barrelled towards their inevitable climaxes. It was not graceful or even especially dignified as Dew would have thought it ought to be, but it was perfect.

Dew had no idea how they could be expected to be apart for even a moment now he knew how good their bodies connecting like this could feel. His tail looped itself around Rain’s, both of them thrashing together now, an outlet for the frantic urgency Dew felt and a visual of his evaporating sanity as his baser instincts took over.

“Dew— gonna—” Rain whimpered seconds before he came.

Instead of pulling off though Dew gripped him tighter, sinking impossibly lower and clenching around him. Dew couldn’t say why he did; it was not something he had ever wanted before, and yet he was suddenly gripped with the need for anything that would make them feel even closer.

Rain came with a shout and the feeling of him loosing control, twitching inside of Dew sent the fire ghoul over the edge shortly after.

It was perfect, electric, and unlike anything Dew had experienced before, even when compared to his first orgasm earlier in the night. He felt it in their bond, a deep satisfaction and elation that only added to their joint pleasure. The closeness he desired had been achieved, tenfold.

Dew flopped forward onto Rain’s heaving chest as he came down, the water ghoul still growling. It wasn’t long before he stopped though and instead began fussing, lifting Dew by his hips to pull out. Dew could feel the mess between them as he resettled, sprawled across his water ghoul, but that was something to worry about later. For now he wanted to bask in the warm, syrupy perfection flowing through him, at least until his heart stopped racing.

~~~~~~~

The following morning, having dragged themselves back out of bed the night before to clean up before falling back into each others arms, Dew awoke filled with a deep contentment. He was sprawled across Rain’s body, legs and tails tangled together, with every inch of skin not touching being jealous of those which were. He wanted to stay like this forever, to exist in this blissful in-between until the Pit froze over.

Rain had other plans however, soon beginning to wriggle as he joined Dew in the land of the living.

“Morning.” Dew pressed the words into his lips with a kiss, uncaring about their morning breath.

“Mmmm.” Rain hummed in response, eyes fluttering open.

“Did you sleep well?”

“With you, always.” Croaked Rain.

He fell quiet again after that and Dew almost wondered if he had fallen back to sleep.

“Did you really mean it? Rain asked after a while, so quietly Dew barely caught it.

“Huh?

“That you love me?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

Had Rain really been left unsure of that immutable fact, Dew wondered? That was unacceptable to him.

“I love you so much it sometimes feels like it’s the only thing I really know for sure is true.”

Rain squeaked slightly as Dew kissed him with all his might, the fire ghoul refusing to let him doubt his words for even a second longer. It was unthinkable to him that Rain not know the very depth of his adoration, not understand how completely and irreversibly he had rewired Dew’s brain and shaped his world to place himself at the centre.

Perhaps the greatest proof of Dew’s love for Rain however was that, despite the worries his brain liked to throw in his way, he hadn’t doubted Rain’s assertion of the same for even a second.

In the final days before tour, the other thing keeping them apart aside from rehearsals had been Rain’s frequent spells in the lake. Dew couldn’t begrudge him them in the slightest; they had both realised that as much as they wanted to be connected at the hip, Rain did need the hydration of the lake to combat the upcoming months of AC and stuffy bus and venue air.

Dew had even finally got over his fear of water from his many trips down to fetch Rain from the lake for dinner. The water ghoul always surfaced when he felt Dew coming, hovering just below the waterline with only his head showing to say he would be along shortly. With this slowly becoming a routine of theirs, it had led to Dew no longer feeling any of his old apprehension around the place. He hoped that out on tour he might even be able to overcome his paralysing fear of the ocean for the water ghoul’s sake.

On one of their final days before departure, wanting time together but not wanting Rain to lose out on precious soaking time, Dew had followed him down to the lake at dawn. Rain had convinced him to wear his swimming trunks, ostensibly so he could paddle at the shore if he wanted to, but Dew knew he hoped to convince him into the water with him. With the water ghoul there Dew thought he might be able to face it; there was no one he trusted more to keep him afloat or to swiftly relocate him to dry land should he suddenly want out. Failing that, he was sure Rain would at least be a good distraction.

Rain had made no secret of his distaste for swimming in anything that inhibited the movement of his fins. That morning, Dew had already enjoyed watching him pick his way along the path down to the lake in nothing but a tiny pair of shorts which he knew wouldn’t last more than a few seconds once he was in the water.

Seeing Rain no longer trying to hide his mark and instead allowing himself to exist in whatever state of dress – or undress – he felt most comfortable in filled Dew with mixed emotions. He was happy Rain no longer felt self-conscious, or like he had to hide his mark, and yet he couldn’t shake the guilt that it was him who had made him feel that way in the first place, no matter how many times Rain had had to repeat his forgiveness.

Dew understood the sudden feeling of freedom from the burden of their marks though, also finally growing comfortable enough to eschew the long sleeves he had always worn around the Den. He had nothing to hide around Rain, and really nothing to conceal from the rest of the pack either.

He followed Rain along the dock to his usual perch at the end, sitting on the edge to dangle his feet carefully into the water. It was cold but it also felt nice lapping at his ankles. Once he was settled Rain dived off the edge, long and elegant and barely making a splash as his body slid beneath the water. His shorts soon floated up to the surface, bobbing sadly towards Dew who fished them out with his toes, laying them to dry on the planks beside him.

Dew tried not to think about Rain being naked beneath the water; his body was a sight he would never tire of and yet now was not the time for such a distraction. Rain needed to make the most of the water while he was here – there would be plenty more hotel rooms and days off on tour than there would be large bodies of untreated water.

Sat on the edge of the weathered pier, Dew overlooked the water while the sun crept above the horizon. He felt Rain’s approach the moment before he resurfaced, erupting right by his feet in a spray of water droplets Dew knew were entirely unnecessary. Rain shook his head wildly like a wet dog, further drenching him. Pulling his sodden shirt off with a huff, Dew heated up his skin to let the water evaporate off him in a puff of steam.

“Pleased with yourself?” He asked the water ghoul, now sensibly hovering just outside of the range of Dew’s feet.

“Very.”

Indeed Rain looked so happy in his element, bobbing weightlessly in the water as he grinned up at Dew and clearly delighted to not to have to choose one of them over the other right now. It made the fire ghoul almost want to join him. Dew stirred a foot in the water, considering it.

“Want to join me?” Rain read his mind, drifting closer. “I’ll hold you up, I promise.”

Dew thought about it a bit longer, all his nerves around large bodies of deep water waking from their slumber to chime in with their protests. He tried to ignore them though, thinking instead of how it would feel to float with Rain, weightless and drifting beside him.

“What is it you don’t like about the water anyway?” Rain asked conversationally, as if he could tell that Dew needed the distraction.

“Apart from just being a fire ghoul?” Dew joked weakly, rolling onto his stomach and hanging his feet off the edge before contemplating lowering himself in. “Please don’t let me drown!”

“I would never.”

Rain’s hands flew to hold his sides. They were cold and wet, making him shiver, yet firm and as they held him steady nonetheless.

“I was always afraid of my marks showing up more, I suppose.” Dew tried to keep his mind on his words rather than the fear rumbling through him as more of his legs sank below the water. “And my part of the fire realms never really had bodies of water in the first place, not like the hot springs If grew up with.”

“This is a bit colder than a hot spring anyway, I’m afraid.” Rain snickered, gently guiding Dew further down into his waiting arms, his strong tail supporting the weight of both of them.

“You don’t say!” Dew hissed as the cold water reached his waist. “It’s freezing in here!”

“Why do you think I want my fire ghoul here too?” Rain slowly spun him around as Dew released the wood of the dock for him to fully take his weight. “You’re my own personal pool heater!”

“Oh, I see how it is then.” Dew squeaked as the water washed over his shoulders.

Even though he was now buoyant enough for the lake to take most of his weight, Rain never let go of him for a moment. The water ghoul simply hummed happily as Dew started kicking his legs, beginning to get a feel for treading water.

“See? Not so scary!” He said gently, shifting to hold Dew’s hands and drift backwards until the fire ghoul was at arms length.

It really wasn’t as scary as Dew had thought, but the idea of keeping afloat by himself for any length of time still seemed impossible.

“Please don’t let go.”

“I’m here.” Rain cooed softly, eyes never leaving Dew’s. “You want to learn to float? It’s easier than having to keep kicking your legs.”

“Sure, just… Give me a moment.” Dew felt himself finding a rhythm, his legs moving smoothly through the water as his racing heart calmed some.

It never fully ceased its pounding though because as he grew used to the new feelings surrounding him, he finally allowed himself to take in the sight that was Rain in the water up close. He seemed to glow even brighter now that Dew was in front of him, his whole body alight in a beacon of teal. Every curl of pretty luminescence was reflected in the gentle ripples around them, rivalling both the beauty and brightness of the rising sun behind him.

Even compared to the wonder of a sunrise though, Dew knew there was no contest in their beauty. Now he had seen him like this he couldn’t look away, couldn’t tear his eyes from the vision of the water ghoul floating in front of him as though he weren’t the closest thing to a god Dew had ever seen in the flesh. Even if the sun had been imploding, the world ending, Dew didn’t think he could have looked at anything by Rain.

“Ready?” Rain asked after a while when Dew realised he had been staring almost in a daze for several minutes.

He nodded, shaking himself out of the trance-like stupor he had put himself in by just staring at Rain.

“Floating’s easy, when you get used to the feeling.” Rain released one of Dew’s hands and drifted backwards. “Just put your head back and think about keeping your hips up.”

He laid back in the water and kicked his feet up to demonstrate, effortlessly letting the water do all of the work in holding him up. Dew couldn’t entirely focus on what he was showing him though as he fought to keep his eyes on Rain’s face, the water ghoul’s brightly glowing and very naked body suddenly on full display on the lake’s surface. He knew he was allowed to look, knew Rain would probably love it, but this didn’t feel like quite the right moment to get distracted in such a way.

“Now you try.” Rain bobbed back upright, body disappearing beneath the water again although his bioluminescent glow remained.

Dew tried, but he couldn’t keep his body straight enough to stay buoyant. He lifted his head to see what he was doing wrong, and straight away began sinking. Rain caught him before his face could even get wet.

“Almost.” He encouraged. “Here, let me.”

Rain placed a hand to the small of Dew’s back.

“You focus on keeping your head back, I’ll do the rest.”

Dew did as he said, lying back until the water filled his ears and the sounds of everything besides the lake itself melted away. Rain continued to hold him, even as he released his hand to tap Dew’s legs, getting him to spread out like a starfish with just the support under his hips. He could very faintly hear Rain’s words of encouragement, could feel his cool breath blowing over his wet skin along with the morning breeze. He let his eyes fall closed and tried to internalise the feeling of floating.

Rains hands beneath him shifted, testing if he could let go.

“No—” Dew panicked.

The feeling of emptiness the lake filled him with was pleasant when he had the reminder that Rain was close by, but it was still terrifying to consider being out here unsupported. He lifted his head and his concentration broke, Rain once again catching him before he went under.

“Still here.” Rain said softly, not letting Dew’s panic spread. “You’re doing fantastic. You think you can manage if I float with you?

He took Dew’s hand again, interlocking their fingers.

“I’ll be right here. I won’t let go. You’re safe.”

Dew nodded, more hesitant this time though.

“We can always go back to shore, we don’t have to do this if you don't want to.” Rain hummed.

Dew noticed then just how far from the dock they had drifted, but set it from his mind. He was safe with Rain, he wouldn’t let any harm come to him, and the water ghoul was clearly enjoying this.

“No, I think I’m getting it, just don’t let go.”

Rain helped Dew get floating once more then squeezed his hand before tentatively removing his support from Dew’s back. The fire ghoul focussed on not crumpling again as Rain drifted out beside him, two floating starfish linked by their hands.

The longer he lay there the more comfortable Dew felt. He had very little in the way of sensation to focus on besides Rain’s hand, grounding him even as he floated. Slowly he began to grow familiar with the water, just as he had done with Rain’s presence. He could sense his confidence building, getting a feel for how his body and the water moved around one another. Dew could imagine one day being able to do this alone, although he still thought he would prefer Rain be beside him. Then again, he thought he would want that in every situation.

The feel of the breeze brushing past him again made him shiver and reminded him once again that they were out here so Rain could swim, not just hover at the boundary between water and air. Stirring his arms slightly and prepared this time, Dew tipped himself back upright and returned to treading water.

Rain’s head turned to look at him, his eyes fluttering open.

“You okay?” He asked, words slightly distorted by half of his neck gills being underwater.

“All good.” Dew assumed him. “But you ought to swim properly for a bit. It’s nice and all floating here but you need to make the most of this before we leave.”

“I am making the most of this morning.” Rain bobbed closer to take Dew in his arms, giving his legs a break. “I’m enjoying our alone time together. That’s going to be in short supply too.”

Dew sighed. He was right about that.

“At least go and touch the bottom of the lake then come back.” He said sternly. “Bring me back a nice pebble or something, then we can float again.”

Rain pouted but otherwise didn’t complain. He knew as much as Dew did that he needed to make use of the water while it was available to him, even if it didn’t seem like the greatest priority right now. Not letting go of Dew, he propelled them both gently back towards the dock.

He situated the fire ghoul on a crossbeam hidden just beneath the water’s surface, fussing slightly to make sure he wouldn’t fall off, before diving under the water with a flick of his tail.

Dew felt it as he swam deeper, the bond stretching out like elastic as the distance between them grew. He was still aware of his presence, but the lack of it rather than his proximity. Just the existence of such a feeling brought him comfort though, allowing him to filter out everything but the sights and sounds of the lake in the early morning and the deep of the water brushing the tops of his shoulders.

It didn’t take long before he felt the tension in his bond loosen; Rain was on his way back up. Dew sensed where his head would pop up seconds before it did.

Rain’s eyes were as bright as his marks as he swam up to him to present Dew with a small stone, a perfectly round disc-like shape with a hole in the middle. His eyesight must be fantastic, Dew mused, to have found such a unique pebble so quickly in the near pitch black below the water.

“It’s beautiful.” He said softly, taking it and running his fingers over its contours. “Put it on the dock for me? To keep it safe?”

Rain did as he asked, before immediately diving back under the waves again. Dew was as glad to see him swimming as he had been with his brief reappearance, knowing he would be grateful for it later.

Before too long Rain was surfacing again though, this time with an almost spherical light grey stone, shot through with a red deposit that Dew immediately recognised a the same colour as his eyes. Rain silently presented it for approval before adding it to the pile and vanishing again.

He continued the pattern, diving down and returning with a new pebble, until there was a little pile gathered on the pier.

The next time Rain disappeared though, Dew didn’t feel him heading out into the depths of the lake. Instead he stayed close by, Dew sensing that he was still around the feet of the wooden dock. He tried to peer into the water to see him but it was too dark and the rising sun to bright to make out much beyond the shadows of reflected clouds passing overhead. He was concentrating so hard he didn’t realise Rain was returning until he felt a sudden pressure around his tail.

Dew shrieked, clutching hold of the leg of the dock and ripping his tail free of the water. Rain hadn’t warned him that other things might live in the lake – Dew might have reconsidered joining him if he had known. His tail felt heavy as he whipped it to and fro, hardly wanting to look unless something had attached itself to him.

When he did though, he saw a streamer of lakeweed tied neatly around the spade of it and a sheepishly smirking water ghoul bobbing just out of reach.

“The fuck?” Dew lashed his tail. “I thought you were some kind of lake monster come to eat me!”

“Well…” Rain dared enter the radius of Dew’s morningstar of a tail again. “I could be.”

Dew scowled, rightfully unamused he thought, even as he let Rain pull him from his perch and into his arms.

“Don’t be mad,” Rain cooed softly. “This is just a thing water ghoul kits do. Like you and your lizards.”

Dew couldn’t be mad about that, even as the weeds continued to feel weird.

“What does it mean?” He asked instead. “Your tradition.”

“It’s a bit silly…” Rain suddenly got shy, wrapping his tail around Dew’s. “But… It’s a game to try and predict who our soulmates are. We tie kelp around our tails then swim around and see whose it gets tangled with first.”

“Does it work?”

Rain grinned sheepishly.

“Not reliably. But my sister…” He trailed off. “It works for the ghouls whose marks only confirm what they already suspect, I suppose.”

The joking tone fell from his voice, a sudden sadness coming over him that directly contrasted with the lighthearted moment he had clearly intended this to be. Dew couldn’t have that.

“Well go on then, where’s your kelp?”

Rain blinked at him, confused, but the shadow across his face faded. Dew followed up by flicking water at him to continue distracting him.

“I’m tying slimy weeds round your tail now, fishboy. Find me some!”

His face breaking out into a smile again, Rain dived back beneath the surface with barely a splash, returning moments later with a long piece of green lakeweed. Dew couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose as he took it, but he tied it carefully around the fin at the end of Rain’s tail nonetheless.

“Now what?” Dew prompted.

He swished his tail behind him in the water more gently now and the kelp trailed behind it like a streamer. If he forgot what it was for a moment it was quite fun.

“Now we swim together.”

Rain took off, pulling Dew by the hand to also help keep him afloat. Dew dragged through the water behind him, getting splashed having none of the streamlined glide of the ghoul pulling him. Rain clearly realised the issue and decided it would be more efficient to hold Dew against him and propel them both with just his legs and tail.

“Deep breath.” He said, slowing slightly to make sure Dew was paying attention.

He held onto Dew tightly then lurched forward in a spiral manoeuvre that would have stolen Dew’s breath without the advance warning, spinning them through the water faster than Dew would have thought possible. He understood for just a moment why Rain always looked so elated after being in the water.

Rain guided them in circles for a while after they stopped for Dew to regain his bearings, floating on his back so the fire ghoul could lie on him like a giant floatie.

“So?” Dew asked breathlessly when it didn’t seem like Rain was going to take off again.

He had been too focussed on not breathing lake water to think about trying to rig this little experiment, but he need not have worried.

Rain lifted his tail out of the water and Dew’s followed. The two long ends of kelp had both tied themselves in impossibly complicated knots.

“Looks like we’re mates.”

.▽⋆.*⛧༺▽༻⛧*.⋆▽.

Rain wanted to dig his claws into Dew and never let go, never let him drift away again.

Sex with his fire ghoul was like nothing Rain had ever felt before or could ever envision feeling in the future. He could feel himself going crazy. Watching Dew in such bliss was somehow even greater than the extraordinary pleasure he experienced as well; Rain would let Dew rip out his very soul if it would make him feel good.

He looked so good too, the muscles in his thighs flexing as he sank down onto Rain, the water ghoul helpless to do anything but try to stay lucid. And his tongue on Rain’s gills… The feeling of fullness and breathlessness that had flooded Rain as Dew pushed its long, hot length inside the sensitive membranes along his throat was something else.

Dew had run his fingers along the gashes in his neck as though they were a different kind of entrance and Rain didn’t doubt that that would feel just as good, they were so sensitive and his fingers so skilful. They were rough with callouses, long and steady and strong and big. Rain wanted to feel them in every gill, around his cock, along his taint to his own entrance.

His imagination was running away with him.

Rain had felt taken out by his own overwhelm, unable to move more than necessary to not lose a second of his mate’s touch. But seeing Dew’s power come to life made him want the fire ghoul to take. He wanted Dew to pin him to the wall, to push him to his knees.

Laid in bed their height difference was irrelevant; they were so perfectly matched in desire and enthusiasm and intensity, and yet Rain knew a single raised eyebrow from Dew would make him crumple. He suspected Dew would think the same thing about him too though. The way he had looked, his head thrown back, the long line of his throat bared on display, maybe they were perfectly matched that way too.

It all made Rain feel a bit sappy, thinking about how he had finally found his equal, the other half of himself. In a way their very different elements felt like a match too: they had come from contrasting realms with opposite soul marks, but coming together now their mirrored experiences were yet another similarity they shared.

None of these thoughts were conducive to him acting even close to sane, especially not with tour breathing down their necks. Rain instead had to settle for taking his moments with Dew and admiring him when he could, which right now happened to be during rehearsals.

Dew was wearing his usual leggings, the way the light reflected softly off the smooth fabric perfectly highlighting the line of his thigh. Rain could see them flex as he moved with the music, shaking softly as he pounded his heel on the floor to the beat. They were the same thighs that had strained with Dew sat astride him, that had effortlessly flexed as Dew rode—

Rain was not going to survive this rehearsal.

He finally walked up to Dew in the break when everyone else was crowding around the water cooler or having their own little chats, presumably about the music.

“I’m going to bite you, you know.” He said into Dew’s ear in a completely conversational tone. “Right here.”

He rubbed at his own leg as though soothing an ache.

“Every time you stomp around I think it’s gonna kill me. I think I deserve some payback, don’t you?”

Rain drifted away again before Dew could reply, delighting in how he had apparently stunlocked the fire ghoul. He could feel Dew’s eyes following him even while he failed to get his feet to do the same.

If Rain thought their regular rehearsals were bad for his concentration, they were nothing compared to the extended torture that was the dress rehearsal performance in the chapel. He could hardly remember playing a note, but he was sure he must have done since Copia seemed happy as they filed back into the vestry.

What he did remember was Dew prowling around their makeshift stage, stomping and throwing picks at Aether and sidling up behind Rain to breathe down his neck. He remembered more clearly how the new uniform had clung to him as he did so.

Seared into Rain’s brain was how Dew had looked at him, like he wanted to eat him alive, to tear him limb from limb to admire each part of him separately in its own beauty.

Dew’s eyes had never left him, even as they filed offstage back to the vestry where their instrument cases and rails for their costumes awaited them. Thankfully the rest of the pack had seemed to be aware of the building tension between the two, as they had hurriedly changed and were leaving before Dew had even finished fiddling with a pickup on his guitar.

“Don’t forget to leave everything here, dear ghouls.” Copia popped his head around the door as he too left. “Everything’s getting transferred from here to the loading bay once we’re done.”

“We won’t, Papa.” Dew smiled angelically.

Rain simply nodded in his direction, and the man disappeared with a final wave of his fingers.

The water ghoul prowled up behind Dew, plastering himself to the smaller ghoul’s back. Both of them were still fully clothed aside from their masks, which allowed him to murmur directly into his ear.

“That guitar’s fine and you know it.” He hummed lowly. “I think you’re just wasting time for us to be alone in here.”

“Is that so?” Dew asked lightly. “You could’ve left too, you know.”

“And waste this opportunity to get you alone dressed like this?” Rain’s hands found Dew’s hip, subtly grinding into the swell of his costumed ass. “I would have to be stupid.”

Finally Dew set the guitar down, slowly, calmly, before spinning fast and planting his hands to Rain’s chest. He stumbled backwards until Dew had him pinned to the wall, winded with the force of his back hitting the plaster. Dew smirked wide, all unglamoured fangs. He was stronger as he leaned in, Rain unable to move, still embodying his on-stage persona.

“Nice try.” Dew hissed.

Rain shivered despite the heat in the air and the fire ghoul crowding into his space. Dew ran his hands up Rain’s front, towards his neck, and Rain’s breath hitched again before he dragged them downwards again.

“I saw you watching earlier, out on stage.” He continued. “Acting like you don’t look like that.”

Dew’s hands found his waist and squeezed. He leaned in to nip at Rain’s neck, pulling his necktie free to get better access.

“Strutting about on-stage. Asking for attention.”

The hypocrisy of his words wasn’t lost on Rain, who had spent the majority of the evening watching Dew demand the attention of everyone in the room and succeed in getting it. But he also didn’t sense that this was the time to mention that, not if he wanted Dew’s hands to keep wandering. The fire ghoul was already picking at the fastenings of his waistcoat and then at the shirt buttons beneath, making Rain whimper slightly as his hot hands smoothed over his chest, pushing his uniform aside.

Dew’s smirk widened at the noise, clearly taking great delight in the affect he was having.

“Now now. We’ve gotta be careful with our uniforms.” He admonished.

But as his hands wandered to pick at the laces at the back of Rain’s pants, his tone began to crack.

Rain sensed his opportunity to distract him further and lunged forward, catching Dew by the waist and pulling him into another kiss.

“Careful huh? I’d better take care of yours too then.”

Dew huffed in protest as his mission to blindly untie Rain’s pants was foiled but quickly gave in when the water ghoul’s dexterous fingers begin to pick at the fastenings of his own waistcoat. That didn’t stop him from making Rain’s task harder by continuing to push their bodies even closer together though, plastering himself against him with his hands reaching to grope at Rain’s ass through the pants.

His enthusiasm was contagious and Rain felt a growl escape him as he kissed Dew harder.

Dew’s body jerked and for a moment Rain wondered if he had done something wrong. He was very aware of the uptick in his more feral behaviours where Dew was involved, the growling chief amongst them, and he could only hope that it didn’t scare or unnerve the fire ghoul.

“Fuck, that’s hot.” Dew groaned.

“What?” Rain wondered what he had missed as he swallowed down more feral noises, settling for letting his breathing fall into an irregular and stuttered pant.

“No, don’t stop. That growl…”

“Oh really?” Rain practically purred, delighted that he didn’t have to keep suppressing it and letting the rumble tear free again.

Dew shivered, his body going slightly slack against Rain’s.

Just as Rain was starting to think he might have the upper hand in whatever this game they were playing was, Dew spotted his opportunity to reclaim it for himself, spinning Rain and pushing him into the wall by the small of his back.

“Yeah. Now keep doing it while I get these strings.”

Rain didn’t need to see Dew’s face to know how hard he had to be concentrating to not just slice the ridiculous laces open. He was almost positive that his tongue had to be sticking out in concentration, just like it did when he was presented with a new guitar solo to learn.

Eventually though Rain felt the pants fall loose and Dew wasted no more time in turning Rain to face him once more before stuffing hot hands down the back of them. He didn’t have the coordination for a true kiss, instead sloppily mouthing at Rain’s jawline while muttering vaguely to himself.

Rain thought he could just about pick out stupid, sexy costumes and he had to agree that Dew had a point: outfits that so begged to be taken off shouldn’t put up such a fight, especially when their intended wearers were notoriously impatient creatures with claws and limited impulse control.

As if proving his point, Rain grabbed for Dew again, catching him by the loose fabric to the sides of his thighs and pulling. There was no way for Dew to get any closer though, their bodies completely plastered together. Dew’s hands squeezed his ass tightly, fingertips pressing in with just a hint of threatening claws and urgency of several hours of restraint leading up to now. Rain didn’t know whether to push back into his hands or forward into his body.

A low, smoky scent filled Rain’s nostrils. He was learning that this was the smell of a desperately aroused fire ghoul, more heavy incense-leaning than Dew’s normal wood-fire and cinnamon but equally delicious.

He wanted to return the attention Dew was currently paying him, to make good on every thought he had had while seeing the fire ghoul stomp about the stage all night, and yet it was taking all his focus to keep his quivering fingers just gripping loose fabric without tearing it. Rain didn’t have the maddening self-control Dew seemed to possess in spades for undoing fiddly laces without just tearing through them, and they didn’t need to be one set of uniform down before they even leave the Abbey. Perhaps at the end of tour the costumes could suffer an unfortunate mishap, Rain thought to himself.

Dew’s kisses slowly started to move, but they were still a perfectly uncoordinated mess. He mouthed down Rain’s chest, over his mark, hungry and devouring before stroking his hands down Rain’s stomach. The water ghoul had to let go of him as Dew’s knees began to buckle, his mouth seeking to follow his hands.

The sudden mental image of Dew kneeling before him and taking him into his mouth almost made Rain’s own knees give out. Even if the visuals alone didn’t end him, Rain knew now from just how otherworldly good Dew’s hot mouth felt that he wouldn’t remain standing long either way.

Just then however, a crash of staging being moved in the chapel outside reminded them where they were. Dew halted his movements, standing back up straight, laying his hands on Rain’s chest and giving him an almost chaste kiss despite the heat of moments before.

“Take this back to the Den?”

Rain nodded, slightly dazed from both the intensity of Dew’s attention and by its sudden removal.

Dew stepped back as though Rain wasn’t thirty seconds from crumbling into a puddle in front of him. Rain’s hands were frozen, unable to move even as Dew bent down in front of him to pick up his discarded necktie. When he made no move to take it, Dew looped it back round his neck and used it to pull him down for yet another kiss.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

Rain blinked after him as Dew sauntered back to where his clothes were waiting, facing away from him and undoing the laces on his own pants as he went. He pointedly ignored the rumbling coming from Rain’s chest, hurriedly stripping and redressing while the water ghoul was still trying to convince his feet to work.

Rain was grateful all the trickiest fastenings on his costume had been dealt with by Dew already, knowing he wouldn’t have the patience for them right now. He unzipped his boots and shucked them and the pants off in one hasty and uncoordinated movement. With everything at least near if not on its hanger, he tugged on his sweats and the hoodie he had worn earlier.

He was already half hard and seeing Dew take off the costume he had been imagining him without all evening hadn’t helped matters. The way Dew had bent over to unzip his own boots, his small yet firm ass framed by the unlaced pants as he leaned forward, had made Rain want to snarl and claim, his fangs growing itchy. Rain sensed this could become a problem with the cramped dressing rooms and close proximity of tour, but that would be a problem for them, or more critically the rest of their pack, that they would address when they needed to.

Scurrying back to the Den Rain felt almost giddy, the remaining adrenaline from the dress rehearsal performance still running through his veins. He was sporting a semi that he hoped his long hoodie and baggy sweats were hiding, but judging from the way Dew looked at him with unconcealed hunger they were not doing it well enough.

Dew led them straight to his room, not risking going through the common room to get to Rain’s in case any one of their pack tried to delay them for even a second.

Rain followed Dew and soon found himself back in the position he had been before, pinned with his back to the door.

Dew’s smile was even wider now they were alone.

“Y’know, I’m suddenly really looking forward to tour.” Dew leaned in closer, his breath hot against Rains neck as he slipped his hands beneath his hoodie once more. “But also kind of not. I have no idea how anyone can expect me to resist you each night. It’s going to be torture.”

Rain thought he would accept the hours of such torment willingly, if only Dew would touch him right around now. Luckily he didn’t have to wait to find out if Dew felt the same.

Despite the pair’s certainty that the months on the road would be a test of a whole other magnitude to any they had endured so far, they were still both excited at the prospect of getting back on stage and performing. Even if they hadn’t been though, they were soon both too busy to have an opinion on it either way. The final tour preparations always crept up to overwhelm them without warning.

For Dew, that had meant spending even more of his waking hours with Copia, assuaging his anxieties of being a real Papa now alongside their other last-minute duties.

Rain loved seeing their bond, even though Copia wasn’t Dew’s summoner. He sensed that they had more in common than either realised, both fighting against preconceived expectations, starting their lives in the Abbey on the back foot and feeling like they were an inferior stand in for either Terzo or the water ghoul the Clergy thought they had summoned. They had both worked so hard to build the lives they wanted to have, and Rain was unbelievably proud.

Making the most of their alone time, the pair had found themselves doing almost everything together, including Dew’s last minute packing the night before their departure. Rain couldn’t even chastise him for cutting things so fine; he knew first hand and had immensely enjoyed exactly what they had been up to instead of packing during their other free moments until now.

So he lounged on Dew’s bed, watching the fire ghoul rifle through his closet with a hurried irritation before coming up empty-handed.

“Can you check if it’s in my suitcase already?” He asked Rain, a small crease of distress appearing between his eyebrows.

“If what is?” Rain had been too busy just watching him to pay attention.

“Your black hoodie?” Dew admitted sheepishly. “The warm one?”

Rain knew the one. He had worn it down to the lake one day for when Dew inevitably got cold waiting for him and hadn’t had the heart to ask for it back. That, and he still loved seeing Dew in his clothes just as much as he suspected the fire ghoul thought the reverse to be true as well.

He was pretty sure he he had seen Dew throw it in the direction of the suitcase the night before, but he checked anyway. Digging to the bottom he soon found it, but something tucked beside it also caught his attention. Rain felt around it, trying to figure out what it was; sharp corners, a hard rectangle with a lip around one side. A photo frame?

He pulled it out, too intrigued now to question if Dew would want him poking around in his things, and held it up. Half correct, Rain squinted at the framed drawing, taking in the soft lines rendered in charcoal depicting a beaming Dew and Ifrit.

“You were close, weren’t you.” Rain said, knowing the fire ghoul was looking at him even without looking up.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry Ifrit left.”

Rain couldn’t imagine leaving his place topside in the band for anything; his summoning had given him everything he had ever dreamed of and more. He supposed it was possible he felt that way because he had never had a reason to consider the alternative. Dew was clearly happiest up here and he had no plans to ever be separated from him again.

“I’m not.” Dew joined him on the bed, lying beside him on his stomach to lean over and reach for the framed sketch. “It was what was right for both of them. If loved Zephyr so much it didn’t matter where they lived as long as it was with them.”

“I couldn’t imagine giving up topside life.” Rain admitted.

“I don’t know if he’d have called it giving up his life here,” Dew mused, “but rather starting another new chapter. I thought I understood him at the time but I didn’t get it. I think… I might do now though.”

Rain didn’t need to speak for him to be sure that Dew knew he felt the same: his eyes said everything for him.

Dew rolled back off the bed then, packing the picture carefully back into his bag. As he did so, Rain couldn’t help but find his attention drawn to the pendant dangling from a length of leather around his neck.

“You okay over there?” Swiss leans over.

The Storm’s face finally takes on an emotion Swiss can decipher. Surprise, then discomfort. His jaw goes tight and he holds out his hand. Blood wells up at the edge of his pointer finger.

Swiss quickly slides the saucepan to a cool burner and ushers Storm to the sink.

“Oh no, nick yourself by accident?”

“I guess? Hurts…”

“I’ve got you. Let's get it cleaned up.”

Watching Storm’s face carefully, Swiss realizes the air ghoul is waiting on his reaction to gauge how to respond. Even just a minor cut as the running water reveals, it must sting like hell. Still Storm’s eyes remain locked on him, searching.

Swiss keeps his tone steady but light. “First injury topside?”

Storm nods.

“Okay.” Swiss gingerly turns Storm’s hand over to give it a closer look. “Doesn’t look too deep. How bad does it hurt?”

“Doesn’t feel great.” A grimace slipping through.

“I’m sorry, dear. It's going to be okay though. I can heal it with my bit of quintessence. Or we can wrap it up and go see Aether or Phantom.”

“I trust you.”

In the heat of it, Swiss doesn’t let on what those few little words mean coming from a ghoul pulled from the pits mere weeks ago, and no hesitation at that. He just coaxes his bit of magick forth to mend the split skin and soothe the pain.

The effect is immediate. Storm’s expression finally breaks, a shaky breath betraying his unease. Swiss is reassured though to see it quickly shift to something calmer like relief as the cut disappears as if it never happened at all.

“Better?”

“Yeah.”

“Feeling okay?”

“Mm…” Storm breathes a heavy exhale. “Just a little freaked. Got my fingers too close and…”

“It happens to the best of us. Do you want to go sit? I can handle the rest.”

“Can I still help? I don’t want to make you do everything because I messed up.”

“Hey it's okay, I promise. Accidents happen. You’re welcome to do whatever makes you feel most comfortable.” Swiss gives him a friendly nuzzle. “Would you like to take over flipping the omelets and I’ll finish dicing the onions?”

Storm nods, a smile returning to his face.