word count: 1.1k
warnings: self indulgent selfship lore, a peek into the obsessive nature of leventurine, pre-relationsip, aventurine pov, post-penacony
The adventure in Penacony had its wins and its losses, but Aventurine’s outcome leaned more on the side of winning. A successful high risk-high reward gamble had paid off, the IPC coming out on top in the land of dreams, and he got the opportunity to spend quality time alone with the Foxian who Lady Jade said would be a good support to him.
And she was, despite the obvious discomfort of being so close to him for so long, he felt like they had made significant strides in both their working and personal relationships – mostly due to the dream’s ability to strip them of their carefully crafted personalities and expose them to one another for who they were. He “died” in the dream at the emanator’s sword, she was taken hostage and nearly killed by Order, and yet they survived anyway. Left to wake in their pools in their hotel room, staring at each other in pure relief and disbelief that he managed to pull that off.
“You’re actually insane,” she breathed, pushing herself up and out of the pool as he followed her with his eyes. “I knew you were nuts, considering the stalking, but that? Unreal.”
“Are you complaining about my grand plan coming to fruition, darling?”
“Not complaining, and not your darling.”
“That’s not the tune you were singing when we were in the dream.” The way she cringes at the reminder makes him smirk, but he does frown at the way she’s trying to inspect her tail in the mirror of the room.
“The dream goop has seriously messed up my tail!”
He’d call it a deflection from his comments about how they interacted in the dream, but the way her tail looked was definitely cause for concern. The usually lush and shiny appendage was looking much more sad and droopy, sections of the fur clumped together in a way that looked sick rather than the healthy bounce it usually had. He knew little about Foxians aside from what he’d picked up over the months at her side, but he did know that the appearance of a Foxian’s tail was significant – and this appearance would be a huge problem for the woman he was trying to keep as a lover.
“Jade said our transport was ready to get us far away from Penacony, we can get your tail cleaned up there,” he offers, shrugging out of his coat to place over her shoulders since it would be long enough to hide her tail from sight. “Nobody will see it this way. Let's get moving now, darling.”
She doesn’t argue, only lets him wrap his arm around her shoulders to lead her from their shared hotel room and out towards the lobby. When their heads are clearer, he knows they’ll have slight regrets about not bidding farewell to their new friend from the Astral Express, but those were issues that could be addressed digitally after they’d gotten cleaned up and settled down.
The IPC ship is rightly sized for its passengers and their status. Primed with comforts similar to what would be available on Pier Point, and he’s quick to guide his companion to the room marked “master’s quarters” with the hope that his cringe upon reading those words wasn’t noticed by his companion. His jacket is tossed to the chair in the corner, and he notices the way she starts to work out of her own attire while walking towards the attached bathroom.
“I need to shower,” she says, looking over her shoulder to see him standing in the middle of the room. “You probably should too. Being in the dream goop isn’t good for your skin.”
“I’m making an assumption. Now come.”
Aventurine wasn’t one to refuse an invitation from a beautiful woman in general, but to have it be her? He wasn’t sure he could ever deny her after what they’d experienced together. All that they had shared with one another to ensure there were no surprises for either of them when dealing with agents of the Family and the Harmony he knew too much about why she was so closed off to be wounded by her attempts to push him away.
Standing naked in a room with her wasn’t an unfamiliar position; despite her many attempts to act like she didn’t like him at all they had found themselves entangled on more than one occasion, and he was pleased with the comfortability they had with one another that allowed him to stand under the warm spray and let his hands wander with the poor disguise of helping her scrub the “dream goop” from her skin. There was light commentary about how the shampoo and conditioner provided would have to do compared to her usual brand, but he’s much too concerned with ensuring that injuries she received in the dream did not carry over into their reality to participate in a conversation about grooming products.
“We don’t have to keep playing this game.” The suggestion comes as he’s running a comb through her tail, and he’s more surprised that she hasn’t immediately started to argue with him about it. Instead she hums, her own hands busy with rinsing the conditioner from her hair as he washes the memoria from her tail. “We like each other enough to do stuff like this all the time, don’t we?”
She supposed. As if he wasn’t currently being trusted with handling her tail – something quite sacred to her and her people? He supposed she’d play coy for the rest of their lives together, but he liked that about her. Hard to get, harder to hold on to, but oh so sweet when she finally gave in and quick to run away when the vulnerability was realized.
He was eager to see how long it took her to run away from him this time.
After they’ve showered he finds himself sitting with his lover laid across his lap, a hair dryer in one hand and brush in the other as he works on drying her tail. She’d given him two instructions, the first being don’t let the air get too hot or the heat could damage the delicate hairs on her tail and the second being do not yank it if it's tangled, and he could follow those.
“I should thank you for your trust,” he murmurs, shushing her when the brush did find a tangle to snag on and carefully working through it like his sister once taught him.
“You were going to go through with it regardless of whether or not I trusted you.”
“I’m talking about this.”
“Oh.” He can feel her thighs tense against his, likely her flight response desperately trying to kick in to get her away from him. But she stays, continuing to let him blow dry and brush her sacred tail while playing a game on her phone.
