In the murky haze of the ensuing calm, the apex of pleasure had passed. The bedroom was submerged in a languid silence, broken only by a series of disjointed sighs.

Basking in the aftertaste of carnal delight, Aventurine's body went limp atop yours with a pleasant heaviness. Guided by a surge of tenderness, you lazily turned your head, seeking the smooth skin of his shoulder with your lips, when a hot drop of moisture suddenly fell onto your cheek and rolled down your face. It settled in the corner of your mouth, and you instinctively licked it, suddenly sensing a distinct, salty taste on your tongue.

Your eyes, previously squeezed shut from the intensity of your own pleasure, flew wide open, and to your alarm and great surprise, you found Aventurine crying. Wet tracks lined the faint blush of his cheeks, and his mesmerizing eyes shone with a distant emotion, different from those that usually cause people to shed tears.

You jerked beneath him so sharply that you almost bumped foreheads, and rushed your palms to his face.

Aventurine, still gripped by the blissful tremor of his release, blinked slowly, as if returning from some remote distance, and seemed only now to become aware of the teardrops on his face. For just a moment, he appeared utterly bewildered before the shutters came down, and a stifled chuckle escaped his lips, meant to brush it off and evade the issue. A blush of genuine embarrassment spread across his cheeks and fair neck, stained with his shameful mark—an embarrassment that his usual smirk alone would not be enough to conceal.

Aventurine tried to roll his naked body away, instinctively hiding his face from your questioning gaze and wiping the tears.

"Sorry, love. I don't know what that was..." Aventurine whispered, vulnerably, running his fingers through the sandy strands stuck to his damp temples. This admission seemed to surprise even himself, for in your memory, he had never outright stated that he didn't know something.