MmmHmm (Nex)

[Alenias]

During her flight about earlier that morning Alenias had spotted the glimmer of a nearby stream, and after a little while of walking through the trees and brushes she led her and Nex to it. It was a good sized stream, possibly more a river, and it looked to be a good foot or two deep.

She'd been following her instincts so far, but at this point they weren't giving her much. Something was supposed to happen now, but it seemed it was up to Nex. After a moment's thought she figured it had to do with the bath, like that one lady had talked about, and so she slipped off her cloak and dropped it to the ground, "Come on Nex, let's go scrub each other," Alenias gave the other Kelvic a smile and a giggle before running down into the pleasantly cool water.

[Nex Paciscor]

As they came upon the stream, Nex marveled at Alenias ability to navigate so well within the woods. The sizable body of water looked very refreshing to Nex's tired eyes, and his mouth suddenly felt dry with thirst and his body ached with desire to immerse himself in the cold water. His friend seemed to be feeling the same way because after speaking some words about washing each other, she undressed and immediately went to the water, a destination he intended to follow her into shortly

Hastily taking off all of his clothing as well and dropping them in a pile, he walked after Alenias and into the water that felt nice against his skin, and he could feel the currents removing the dirt from his body. Soon as he had walked more or less deep as he thought he could go in the stream, which wasn't that deep, the water barley came up to his thighs, he slowly sat down lower into the stream till he was full on top of a slick rock, and rather enjoyed immersing himself down to his shoulders in the cool water. Looking towards Alenias who was a little bit farther up than him in the stream, he waded towards her eventually coming to a stop beside her and offering her a smile. " So, what do we scrub with? " he asked very curious.

[Alenias]

Alenias giggled and played in the water, for a short time thoughts of scrubbing and Nex watching her lost in the joy of splashing about. She splashed a little on herself in a halfhearted attempt to clean herself, but most the splashing was just for the fun of watching the water fly.

Nex's approach and question drew her attention back to the reason they had come there in the first place, and she tilted her head as she thought about how to answer him. After a few moments she shrugged and held up her hands, "Our hands I guess?"

Wading through the water she circled around behind Nex and started rubbing at his back with her hands. There was some dirt that she managed to rub up, splashing up some water to help a little. It wasn't helping her feeling that something else should be happening, but it was helping Nex to smell even better.

After a little while Alenias leaned against Nex, folding her arms up between their bodies, and nuzzled her cheek against his back. This close, without his clothes, the smell was even stronger and she breathed deeply of the unknown but heady scent. Resting against Nex's back she gave a soft, content sigh at the feeling. It was nice being like this.

[Nex Paciscor]

Nex's eyes glowed as he watched Alenias at play in the water, and he found it very amusing in itself watching her entertained in the water, but his approach, and question seemed to had put a hold on the playing in the stream for now, and he wondered if he did something wrong. After all he was content to just watch her play in the water, and let the stream do the cleaning work on its own, but it was too late for that now as his question hung in the air, and her responding answer sealed the fate of prohibition of playing, at least until the cleaning was over that was.

His gaze followed her curiously as she swam towards him, and when he realized she was swimming behind him, he decided to stop his turn in the water and instead turn his back towards her to make it easier for her. Her fingers rubbing against his back felt good, and his mind couldn't help but connect it to that time in a tavern in Zeltiva with the barmaid, and her gentle caresses. It struck Nex that this was nothing like that time though, but he felt like it was similar, and the outcome would be the same. Was that what she meant by wash her? he thought puzzled, very confused if this was an innuendo not ever understanding them anyways. Shaking his head, he decided that it couldn't be but it just might, and when he felt her head against back, he smiled, his confusing thoughts disappearing from his head.

Reaching back through the water, he made his own attempt at washing her, without disturbing her on his back, gently rubbing her kneecaps, and up the tops of her leg which was the limit of his reach backwards with his arms. Her skin felt soft to the touch, and he hoped was helping clean her, but couldn't do much with her directly behind him. The contrast between the coolness of the water and her own skin was slight, but he used it to also rub clean the tops of her calves that lay submerged under the water, before tracing back to her kneecaps and resting them there, the exercise working similarly as a stretch, and he then simply sat, enjoying the feel of the sun as it soaked his skin, the water against the underwater half of his body, and Alenias curled up behind him.

[Alenias]

Nex's scrubbing of her legs caused Alenias to giggle softly, but she didn't try to squirm away. It felt a little like a tickle, but it was a nice tickle that Alenias wanted to feel more of. Too soon though Nex stopped, and rested his hands on her knees.

She felt closer, but they still hadn't done whatever it was they were supposed to do. It was like she had an itch, and Nex had brushed his hand against the spot, but not scratched it. Searching her mind for what else she should do Alenias' mind returned to where Siriana worked, and something else one of the women had done. The first idea about the bathing had certainly worked, so maybe this one would too.

Reluctantly sliding off of Nex's back Alenias circled around him once more. This time she stopped in front of him. For a few silent moments she gazed up at Nex with her dark eyes, looking into his own golden eyes, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself up to press her lips against his.

[Nex Paciscor]

The water felt gradually colder, but the sunlight pouring down from between the leaves of the trees did much to warm his bones, and he smiled thinking this to be a most fine day. Alenias had a great idea brining them there, and he started to turn around to face her but before he could she walked in front of him, and he decided to wait if she would say something. Nex didn't like interrupting people, tended to make things harder to understand if you didn't know what they were going to say in the first place.

He didn't have to wait long, and before he knew it she had wrapped her arms around his neck, and.. and... was kissing him. Why was she kissing me, should I kiss back, what is going on? he thought, his mind fracturing briefly, and then reforming almost just as fast. This hadn't ever happened to him in lue of the time someone paid for it for him, and he was all so confused, but he kept his presence of mind just enough to kiss her back, and wrap his arms around her waist.

[Alenias]

At first there seemed to be nothing special about what Alenias was doing. Maybe it was something special for people like the ones that worked with Siriana? When Nex wrapped his arms around her waist and his lips began to move against hers then all other thoughts were washed away by the tingling warmth that spread from her lips.

As the pleasant feeling spread throughout her body everything but her and Nex faded away. Even the splashing of the water around them was drowned out by the sound of her heart beating heavily. She pulled herself as close as she could to Nex, enjoying the feeling of happiness unlike any she had felt before.

Eventually, Alenias wasn't sure how long, her arms relaxed and she slid downwards and away from Nex's lips. She let out a slow breath, and then took a deep inhale through her nose of Nex's cleaner scent. Giving a happy and contented sigh she nuzzled softly against Nex's chest, and then softly said, "That was nice."

[Nex Paciscor]

Her lips felt awkward and comfortable against his lips, and holding her as he was felt strange to him. She felt alien in his arms, but at the same time he couldn't bring himself to let go of her, and he became increasingly aware of everything around them, from the gentle lap of the water over a smooth stone to the high pitched wine of an insect flying by, and the kiss seemed to last forever to him.

It was something he wasn't quite sure if he liked or not, the surprise in his mind still preventing him from making any hasty decisions on whether to follow through with the kiss or simply wait it out until it was over. His heart hammered in his chest at the excitement of it, but almost contradicting it his stomach felt like a cold fist was clenched inside of it, tying it in knots as he worried over numerous things at rapid fire pace.

What would this bode for their friendship, with Aello, with them all, would things be weird from now on? All these thoughts ran through Nex's already pounding head, but he simply kept his eyes closed and his lips on hers and when Alenias's lips finally parted from his, he took in a deep shuddering breath, and tried miserably to keep his body from quivering. His arms remained frozen around her back, and he choked out the words, " it was.. nice " Would she sense his unease he wondered, and he honestly didn't know the answer to that question himself, simply remaining there to afraid to move.

[Alenias]

Something wasn't quite right. Alenias could tell in Nex's words and the way he was frozen against her. He wasn't happy with what had happened, but he was supposed to be happy, wasn't he? The people at the place where Siriana was always seemed happy when they did that, and Alenias knew she felt happy doing that.

Reluctantly she pulled back from the comfort of Nex's skin, and turned her dark eyes up to look at him, "Nex? Did I do something wrong? Why aren't you happy?"

Even as she spoke tears began to well up in her eyes. Maybe she'd done something bad, and Aello would be upset with her because of it. Alenias didn't want Aello to be upset, and the thought of it happening because of what she had done with Nex caused her lips to tremble and the hints of tears in her eyes to threaten to spill out at any moment.

[Nex Paciscor]

Nex's heart fell when she pulled back from him, a action he thought would make him feel better, but when he looked into her sad eyes, and could only feel worse. What had he done to make Alenias cry? Was he not feeling like everyone had done in such situation? He didn't know what to begin to say to consol her, or even how to explain his reaction, he didn't quite understand it himself. What was so wrong with him that he couldn't even handle a simple kiss right, and now he'd made his nice friend cry. He wanted to smack himself on the forehead for his stupidity, but figured that might not be what he was supposed to do in this situation, and instead through some difficulty met Alenias's eyes with his own soft golden ones.

" No, you did nothing wrong, I just.. " he said pausing for a moment to think of the right words, but nothing came to mind right away. " I'm just not used to such attention " he said softly, his words trailing off as he looked at her, and even managed to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He was struggling with every fiber of his being then, fighting for every word and movement, but if it made Alenias happy again then it would be worth whatever followed.