#vixus

He held out his hand in an equally wordless gesture, and she passed the receiver to him as Manus murmured his agreement. Her husband set the receiver to his opposite ear and pulled her close, stroking her hair back with a gentle hand as she rested her head in the newly freed space on his shoulder. "Manus." Axel spoke quietly, a hint of laughter in his voice. "We've been home for about twenty minutes. Calling you was one of the first things we did." Manus' answer was an indistinct hum. Vina turned her head to watch Axel's face as he listened. "Tiptoeing around the language when we're talking about the practicalities is—" He broke off to listen with a smile. An unexpectedly affectionate note colored his one word answer. "Politicians." Vina brushed a kiss across his cheek as Manus replied, the trembling corners of her lips fighting to contain the sudden rush of emotion. Axel's shoulder shook beneath her with his laughter. "I'll be straightforward, if you won't," Axel said after a moment. "I didn't discover a newfound love for Wruhecism and marital fidelity on our honeymoon." He laughed at Manus' interruption. "Even if the beaches had been overrun by roving packs of wiscerers—" Manus' laughter was loud enough for Vina to hear clearly, and she giggled into Axel's shoulder. "Tell him what you told me, love," she said softly.

Vina set her hand on his. "It's…it's going to take time before it lives up to my grandmother's stories again." "And my mother's." A muscle jumped at the corner of his jaw, but his voice stayed even. "I should be grateful His Majesty returned Zille to my family, considering why it was taken to begin with. I am grateful. But this…it's hard to look at." "I know the feeling," Axel said. He gripped Manus' shoulder in commiseration. Manus sighed and leaned into the touch. "Losing the Administrative District—Greater Pales—wasn't your family's fault, though." He looked down at the broken sidewalk beneath their feet, then back up at the damaged door. "If my father hadn't—" "If my grandfather hadn't invaded Pales," Vina cut in gently. "If Whelen hadn't demanded Zille in exchange for their aid, if my grandfather hadn't given away our land, if Smolak hadn't neglected Zille so egregiously." The faintest smile touched Manus' lips, just for a moment. "I suppose there's plenty of blame to go around." "We could keep going," Axel told him. "If my father hadn't declared independence, if Valgsland hadn't had a revolution, if the Torases hadn't sold Pales to the Valgos Empire—" Manus laughed under his breath. "If the two of you would let me wallow." "Never," Vina said, pressing her arm more firmly against his. "It will recover," Axel said. He punctuated it with a squeeze to Manus' shoulder. "The buildings will be repaired, people will move back, businesses will reopen. Give it time." Manus looked away from the derelict manor at last. "It's hard to picture it." "Not impossible, though," Vina said. "No," Manus agreed softly. "Not impossible." Her husband dropped his hand and set it back on the railing beside her lover's, the tiniest gap separating them. Manus' hand shifted, fingers twitching, then stilled. "You deserve to be happy about this," Axel told him. He hesitated for a moment, then rested his hand on top of Manus' in a mirror to Vina's on his other side.

and the honeymoon scene:

He came over to take her hand, and she tugged him down into a kiss, trailing her fingers up his arm to the nape of his neck where tiny droplets still clung to his hair. "Come sit," she said. "We can go looking if he isn't here in a few minutes." "As my lovely wife insists." He kissed her again and walked around the couch to sit beside her. "What have you been reading?" "Mm." She hiked her skirt up and swung her leg over his thighs, and he set his hands on her hips reflexively. "Done Great Honor, by Henry Meade—Henrietta Meade, actually, but Rumburgian publishing houses wouldn't accept a manuscript from a woman in my great-grandmother's time." His cologne was brighter on his shower-warmed skin, the notes given depth by the heat. She leaned in to kiss him again, her lips lingering on his as his thumbs slowly stroked across her hipbones. "And what's it about?" he murmured. "Societal woes," she said against his lips, and kissed him softly. "Tragic romance, class politics, the burden of duty." "Sounds delightful." "Oh, it's beautiful." She kissed him again. "Horribly bleak, though." A gentle rap of knuckles on wood made Vina look up. Manus met her gaze with a small, one-sided smile. He was dressed almost as casually as Axel, his tie loosely knotted and his jacket missing. "I can come back in a few minutes if I'm interrupting," he said. Vina rose to her knees. Axel's hands slid from her hips to her backside before coming to a rest behind her thighs. She glanced down at her husband, and his lips twitched. "Go on," he told her, too softly for Manus to hear. She smiled and looked back up. "You aren't," she promised Manus, and extended her hand toward the doorway again. "Come here, love." He hesitated for a moment, eyes going from Vina's to the back of Axel's head, then crossed the threshold into the library to take her outstretched hand. She squeezed it reassuringly. "Love," he said quietly. He looked down at Axel like he was trying not to laugh. "Axel." Axel tilted his head back to flash him a grin. "Manus." Manus' control broke, and his laughing mouth met Vina's lips as he bent over Axel's head. It softened into a smile, and he returned her kiss chastely. "This is cozy," Axel said in amusement. Manus began to straighten, and he added, "I'm not complaining." Manus snorted and leaned back over him to give Vina another kiss, slow and soft, before gradually pulling away, brushing his lips against hers again and again as he did until he couldn't reach her anymore. A complex expression crossed his face as he looked down at Axel. A second later, it was gone, and he set his hand on Axel's shoulder and squeezed briefly before stepping away. Vina dropped down to sit astride Axel's thighs, and he slid his hands back up to caress her hips. Fondness filled his eyes when she met his gaze. "I love you, husband." "My lovely wife," he said with a smile, and tilted his head toward the empty couch cushion where she'd discarded her novel. "As pleasant as it is to be trapped by you, I did have plans to get to know my lover-in-law better this afternoon."

and mine five minute scrobbled pabelpoem for chapter 19--lord adria is watching a casual doubles game with vina and romus against manus and axel and has thoughts he puts to paper.

four bright stars cross a carmine field, comet trails of glory in their wake-- an orbit narrows, widens, narrows again, binary stars and binary stars whirling through space as gravity drags them closer and closer into a triumphant triune. aloft, apart, the polestar watches their dance and i-- i watch his.