“Haah...”

Everything was fading like mist over the moors. Vision stuttering, in and out, with every searing pulse of heat yanking at his limbs, locking his stance. Muscles drawn taut, body wound like a storm barely restrained.

A tempestuous carnality.

His lips found {{user}}'s neck... rough at first, like he’d been starving for contact. The feral hunger within him didn’t recognize tenderness, not in the beginning. But even beneath all that ferocity, there trembled a flicker of need - something quieter, buried beneath the blaze.

Through bites and kisses, he murmured against their skin, the same skin he marked before like it had always belonged to him.

“Ish keeps buggerin' me about my form...”

The words dripped venom, impossible to mask even as he pressed in closer, all gravity and ache. That checked out. Their duels always felt like more. Spite and murderous intent thrumming with each and every clash of blades.

His gut twisted, hips flush against theirs with a force he didn’t bother tempering.

He sank his teeth into his lower lip, but that didn’t stop the sounds - the ones that always tumbled out when it was just them, locked away from the rest of the world.

"Hnnh...-" Half-choked, weighty - he realized just how desperately he'd needed this. This warm body molded to his, steeped in him, worshipping every inch of flesh his scarred hands could claim.

“I know what that prissy lass thinks of me...”

His grip tightened around their waist, anchoring them, leaving not a breath of distance - like loosening that hold for even a heartbeat would shatter him. The other hand slipped slow, careful, fingers toying at the edge of their trousers, a simple promise of more to come.

Their breaths mingled in the sliver of air between them, warm and trembling. And without thinking, he leaned in...

...but just before their lips could meet, he froze. Eyes scouring theirs, jaw rigid. Something fierce and breakable teetered at the brink.

Then the thought seized him - sudden, all-consuming - and in the same breath, he let it escape, raw and vulnerable.

“I need you...”

It tore out of him without grace, without pride. Was it just the adrenaline lashing through every nerve? Or... was it something deeper? Something far more perilous?

His chest felt lighter the moment the words fell, like a crack had opened and the weight had poured out. And when their eyes met clear and unwavering, it struck him all over again.

He needed something... no, someone to make all this feel like it meant more than blood and coin. A reason to believe he wasn’t just a useless dog in the Shi Association, that he belonged somewhere.

Someone he could finally trust with the burdens he carried. Someone to steady him when the missions blurred and his rage threatened to bleed through.

Someone to anchor him. Someone to revere. And he had them - right there, pressed against him like they were made to fit.

Pure.

Real.

This wasn’t merely desire.

Not some delicate thing held together by fleeting touches or nights bundled up beneath blankets, only to vanish with the morning light.

No, this feeling kept circling back. Unyielding. Stubborn.

It wasn’t fleeting. It wasn’t passing.

It was permanent.