[D7, ME, closed] Different kind of play

[Matsu Ishioka]

The Lion, not sure how to handle this, tries to start by simplifying. He helps the Dragon slide to her knees and does the same himself, letting his arms relax down only once he's confident that Inoshishi won't tip over.

"Ino-chan," he begins, voice gentle. "I do listen to you. But I think I also need to talk more. You pledged yourself to me so fast, you want to wear my clan's colors, and yet we've barely spoken of my family -- or yours, at all. And we should talk about those things, and how in all the realms you are so sure that I am the one..." He seems a bit overwhelmed, but isn't shying away. He takes one of her oddly colored hands and kisses it, then continues to hold it in between them. "I don't think you're wrong, but I still don't understand," he says softly.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Inoshishi listens, smiling encouragingly. When he takes her hand, she blushes, still feeling rather silly about that.

She pretty clearly chooses to purposefully misunderstand the ending for a moment. “Well, I don’t understand these,” she wiggles her fingers in the Matsu’s large hand, “but I think I needed to wear gloves.”

She considers where to start with the rest of what he said. The pledging. That’s something she understands.

“I’ve been lots of places, Ishi-san. I haven’t seen Unicorn lands or been in the Shadowlands, but I’ve at least seen all the lands of the empire, even if simply from on top of a mountain. I was at home among the Lion, especially the Ikoma, but they lack…” she looks away, unwilling to speak ill of his clan mates, even in explaining why he’s the one.

“The Scorpion are so suspicious they miss the good, easy things. The Crab so hard they miss the simple things.” She squeezes his hand, suggesting what simple things she means.

“The Hare are obsessed with intrigue, the Mantis are fun but unwilling to commit.” She ponders how best to continue. “So I’ve seen many of the men of the empire and heard of far more. You’re the first to touch this.” She pulls her hand towards her, placing Ishi’s hand on her heart. Which, given her small frame and his large one, covers much more than her heart.

For the moment, she’s neglecting the family but, which probably says something about how important she finds that part of marrying.

[Matsu Ishioka]

The Lion considers moving his hand from her chest. It seems, as they're talking like this, he should touch her sweet, expressive face. Or brush at her long hair, which he hasn't given enough attention to yet. But for now, it stays, tracking her heartbeat as he speaks.

"Ino-chan, I have spent a whole life being the wrong one. In my family, in my dojo, in my way of doing most everything. So when you tell me that I am special in a good way, I have no experience with that. I can't... put in words... how I want that to be true. How... How you make me feel like everything can be different, and better, and..." Ishioka still looks lost, but hopeful, like a man coming out of a tunnel into a land he's never seen before.

"You..." His voice catches. "If this..." He can't finish that thought. Giving up on words for the moment, he pulls her hand to rest on his heart, thumping aggressively in his chest. "Here," he says, a tiny sound being all he can manage. "You've touched me here," he whispers, and squeezes her hand against his chest with his hand.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Staring up at him, happily smiling, Inoshishi considers his words, her eyes going bright with unshed tears of happiness when her hand is pressed against his heart too. She blinks hard, willing them away because she wants to see him clearly. This great mountain of a man, so vulnerable, revealing where life has hit him hardest.

"Ishi-kun, That...that right there. that feeling...That indescribable feeling of seeing yourself through my eyes. Which is what I see when you look in my eyes. I mean me through your eyes? That is how I knew you were the one. That first day, when I saw that I had blown every expectation you had of me. That you weren't seeing a dirty, too thin, dragon girl snacking on stuff she'd found in the woods. That you were seeing...something else.

And when I all but told you that my kimono would open for you any time and you thought I was acknowledging you were not attractive? That was when I knew you were seeing me, not a conquest or opportunity. And that was when I knew you were the one I needed for myself."

She draws closer, trying to rest her forehead against his, eyes to eyes.

"My sweet Ishi-kun. You've seen me talk to others, my greedy ears taking their stories, filing them away. Has it taken you so long to realize the only story I was interested with you is the one we told together?"

[Matsu Ishioka]

Inoshishi can see little sparkles starting to appear around the edges of Ishioka's eyes, especially as he brings his forehead to hers and their eyes are so close and clear. "I..." But he doesn't have words right now. His hand comes up under her chin to tip it up ever so slightly closer to his lips, and then he kisses her again.

It's not light or short or playful like before. If she could see through his closed eyelids she would see that the pinpricks of fire had united into a wave of fire that was crashing over whatever part of him still wanted to talk or think. But she doesn't need to see his eyes, because she can feel that there's weight behind this kiss. Not a probing or scouting mission. The lead elements of a mighty host bearing down on the Dragon.

His intensity builds slowly but inexorably. Before long, one hand is in her hair and the other is gliding gently down her neck. He's leaning forward more strongly, but still keeping much of his weight back.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

If the Dragon, and especially Inoshishi, know one thing, it’s meeting fire with fire. She matches the moves of the large Lion, heat for heat, force for force. Now giving ground, no pushing forward.

The Lion army finds, for once, that the Dragon have left their fortresses unattended, their gates left open, with flowers of welcome bestrewn everywhere. But they still have one sneaky Dragon move left.

Her lips become needier as he runs her hands through her hair, her head responding to the slightest shifts of the hand in her hair.

As the Dragon muster their forces, they press into the Lion line, pulling and pressing for the heart of the forces, needing to feel the warmth of the Lion and their rhythmic marching as close as they can.

[Matsu Ishioka]

With or without Dragon resistance, the Lion offensive rolls on.

Drawn further forward by Inoshishi's maneuvers, Ishioka's hand slips over her bared shoulder and he turns and tips her to the floor beside him, his other hand still in her hair and sustaining an even more impassioned engagement of their lips. Briefly, the hand slips away, aiding in removal of her kimono. He rolls her on top of him to get a clear view of her Lion colors, a brief pause coming to all his efforts as he looks at her with a prideful smile.

But that pause can't last, and soon his hands pull her to him again.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

The first Dragon resistance comes as she's laid on the floor by the Lion but it's too little, far too late. And it's not like they tried very hard. In fact, it's more of a flaring of nostrils and her eyes opening from the prolonged assault on her aching lips, a brief spark of "oh no you don't" fire. But the Lion clearly remembers her disdain for the ground after last time, rolling her upwards, and her eyes change to the steady flame of love and lust wrapped together.

She is a sight to be seen, this young Dragon, wearing nothing but Lion colors, accenting her pale arms and legs, her dark hair flowing into the darker browns and making the lighter yellows appear all the brighter. While she may not, strictly speaking, be made to wear Lion colors, at least not yet, the things she does with them should turn even the Stone Matsu, or perhaps especially the Stone Matsu, into a warrior of fierce renown. A Lioness Legion of Love, if the idea isn't heresy. She smiles as she thinks it in her one clear moment, reveling in the brazenness of Ishioka's gaze before the hands rise and she's quite willingly pulled down again.

[Matsu Ishioka]

Somewhere, deep within Ishioka's mind, there's an awareness that what he's doing is wrong. The tiny voice of a forgotten ancestor, perhaps, trying to remind him that an outsider being allowed to wear the clan's colors - encouraged even! - is disrespectful. That laying with a Dragon - a Dragon! - is not what his parents or ancestors sent him here to do. And perhaps, in the tiniest way, the Stone Matsu registers this concern. But if he does, it's only with increased vigor as he assaults the defenses of this poor Dragon. He's not bothered for her body to be on top of his. The directions don't matter as he increasingly brings his forces to bear. He understands that the power of the Lion war machine is in control of the outcome here and so he revels somewhat as well, though there are hardly any moments of clarity about it amid the brute force of this conflict.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

/ftb

/rise

Inoshishi wakes up from the brief nap after they were finished to the sensation of resting her head in Ishioka's armpit and discovered that it was, in fact, kind of nice. A bit warm, perhaps. But...overall...nice. She shifted slowly, not wanting to wake the big Matsu, her eyes looking at him without their customary brightness as she ponders. There was so much love in this bonfire between them. But she couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps he hadn't seen her. Something in him had changed. He had become more...looked at her more..She closes her eyes, pressing her head into his chest to listen to his heartbeat, not caring now if she woke him, wanting nothing more than to be held by the man she loved who had seen her.

Maybe you should have just asked him for a story.

She shakes her head angrily, accidentally sending her long brownish black hair (So common.) into his tender, expressive vacant eyes. No. He loved her. He saw her. She existed and she was perfect so flawed in his eyes, and there was nothing she or anyone could do to SISTER. He knew she was a Lion Dragon at heart, that she wore his TRAITOR colors next to her heart.

Please wake up, Ishi-kun.