Damon stripped down to his undershorts as he came into the common room, grabbing a towel from the closet before he could drip too much. He stood in front of the hearth as he dried off, letting the heat of the mostly burned down fire dance over his bare skin.
“Move over.” Vel pushed her hips into his, making room for herself alongside him.
“There’s plenty of room for both of us.” Damon took his towel and curled it around her like a lasso, pulling her in closer.
He saw a flutter of her excitement in her expression as he leaned in and kissed her. She’d taken her clothes off, too. Lilian was upstairs somewhere. The moment felt primed and inviting.
There was an aspect to the way she looked at him that he’d forgotten about, an aspect he’d missed. She was looking up to him again, not in a physical sense, but as though he was someone she could lean on and let herself be supported by.
When he’d first shown up in Silke, gaunt faced and tattered haired, she’d just been floored by the fact that he was still alive. He’d become more of a miracle to her than a brother, but now the pendulum was swinging back the other way. She loved him and she trusted him, but more than that, she was willing to depend on him again.
“Vel…” He set his hands on her hips, kissing her again.
She took a fluttering breath, pressing forward. Damon ran his fingers over her wet body, cupping her thighs and buttocks roughly, and lifted her to sit on the common room table.
She smiled and glanced toward the stairs. Damon grinned back at her. It wasn’t as though he’d actually bed her there, on the table. They’d make it to his room, at least. He let his erection press against her, wondering just how true that would end up being.
There was a sound from across the common room. The front door had opened, and it was still too early in the afternoon for Lilian to be outside. Damon turned to look and saw Malon, watching both with a forlorn, fragile expression.
She looked different than when Damon had last seen her. She’d only stopped by on that second day, but she’d still been dressed in her dark sorceress leathers. Now, she wore a dress that might have been straight from her wardrobe once upon a time, a light blue spring shift with an impossibly girlish blue bow tied around the waist.
Her red hair was braided, and she had on a pair of white slippers that were too clean to have walked through much ash. She and Lascivious had their own means of flying which Damon still didn’t completely understand. He drew in a breath and glanced past her, fearing that the Forsaken might be with her and not completely relaxing even when he confirmed that she was currently alone.
“Aesta,” he said. Two different emotions warred inside him, with a third just out of view. Embarrassment, to be caught like this, naked and halfway to taking Vel on the common room table. Anxious, to suddenly be thrust into a reunion between these two women, whose relationship was fraught and complicated in its own way.
But most of all, he was also hopeful. Because simply having Malon and Vel standing where they were, within this tower that they’d once called home, was monumental.
Vel suddenly kneed him in the stomach in her rush to get away and off the table. She ran to her room, slamming the door behind her with enough force to give Damon flashes of her pre-teen years. He rubbed where she’d hit him, wincing as he considered how the scene must have looked to their aesta.
“We fell into the lake, and we were drying off, and…” He shrugged guiltily.
“Well,” said Malon. “It’s good to see the two of you are getting along, at least.”
She smiled, eyes flitting down to his incredibly obvious erection which was actively straining against the wet fabric of his undershorts. He was so happy to see her that it seemed pointless to pretend at modesty.
He walked over and pulled her into a tight hug. If she cared about how damp his body still was, she didn’t let it show, settling her head against his shoulder and letting their intimacy claim the moment.
“Lilian’s here, too,” he said. “She’s upstairs, I think.”
“Downstairs, now.” Lilian’s voice came from the stairs, and she politely averted her gaze from their hug as though it were a private thing. “It’s good to see you again, Lady Malon.”
“You as well, Lilian.” Malon smiled at the other woman, fingers reaching down to play with the end of her braid. “I’m happy to see you’re in good health.”
“I have Damon and Vel to thank for that,” said Lilian.
Damon squeezed Malon’s shoulder and stepped away, his attention turning back toward Vel. It wasn’t an easy thing to have to confront so many long held and powerful emotions at once. He grabbed a clean shirt and pants to throw on from his room before heading for hers.
He didn’t knock before slipping in through the door. Vel sat on the far side of her bed, still clad only in her small clothes, shoulders trembling with anger.
Not anger, Damon realized, as he came around. She was sobbing, the tears all but gushing from her eyes, fingers digging into her mattress as though she needed something, anything, to hold onto.
“Hey,” he said, sitting down next to her.
“I can’t,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I just can’t.”
“You don’t have to.” He put an arm around her shoulder. “Just breathe. And cry, if you need to.”
“Into your shoulder?” she asked, sniffling. “You just put on a clean shirt.”
“I’ve been told my shoulder is one of the most accommodating places on which to cry.”
She sniffled again and pulled back a little, wiping at her face. “I didn’t think I’d react like this. It hurts so much, Damon. I felt so alone these past few years. I felt so betrayed. Now she’s here and it’s like… I’m not ready. To stop blaming her. To start loving her. It feels so unfair.”
“I wasn’t ready either,” he said. “I suppose it was different for me. I skipped all that time. It felt as though it had only been a month, less, even, since she truly became Lascivious’s crest sorceress.”
She blinked, staring at him, and perhaps considering his conflict in place of her own. “I suppose that must have been hard in its own way.”
“It was, but that doesn’t invalidate your feelings.” He looked at her seriously, knowing that for all the strength of her reaction, she still needed to hear his truth. “Vel… I want this so bad. Does that make me selfish? To want us all to just… be a family again.”
“Maybe, but…” She teared up again and looked away from him. “It’s also why I love you so much, Damon. It’s just…”
He gently thumbed away a couple of the teardrops on her cheeks. “I’m listening.”
“It might take some time for me,” she said. “To get there, you know?”
“I know,” he said, putting an arm around her. “You don’t have to say anything, if you don’t want to. She won’t press you, and neither will Lilian or I. You can just sit at the table and eat dinner. I’ll do all the talking, and I’ll make sure that you’re comfortable. You can even stay in here for a while, take a nap, maybe?”
“No, I’m fine,” she said. “Just give me a minute to get dressed, and I’ll come out.”
He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I love you, Vel.”
“I love you, Damon. If you hadn’t come back…”
He waited for her to finish, but she didn’t, and he was actually glad for it. He had come back, and he liked to think that he had changed enough in coming back to make the question pointless.