Jorin shot her a mischievous grin and Rinya knew he was up to trouble again. The kind of trouble she was completely willing to accept, but trouble none the less. He leaned forward and Rinya tilted her head slightly in an attempt to meet his kiss, but Jorin pulled back at the last moment. His nose bumped against hers gently and Rinya narrowed her eyes slightly at her mate. He was teasing her with near kisses and she was half tempted to pout at him. Instead she followed his lips with hers--a small grin plastered to her face--until Jorin finally gave in a pressed his lips to hers.
Rinya huffed slightly as Jorin tried to convince her otherwise that she was just as intoxicating. But her face heated none the less as he mentioned that he couldn’t have ever imagined being with anyone else. On her part it had always been someone else she had pictured him with. It wasn’t the first time he had called her the most important guiding star in his life. The first time she had heard it she had insisted that he choose a different star to follow… could easily picture it being someone other than her--like Kirsi. Some days she was still struck by the thought that he wanted her to the extent that he did.
”You’ve said that before.” Rinya whispered up at him breathlessly. It had been flattering back then and it was the most touching thought now, seeing as she could feel how strongly he meant it. ”But I’m happy you feel that way.” It was as much the honest truth as his words. Jorin counted himself the luckiest man to have found her, and Rinya counted her the luckiest that he would even choose to be with her. She had been such trouble for him from the beginning, and given what had happened the night before she still was now and then.
But the shift in attitude because of his poem made Rinya realize that even in the safety of the bed and each other’s arms, that it wasn’t enough to keep all ghosts from between them. She knew well enough of his father’s influence on Jorin--knew that it wasn’t easy on him as a child. The fact that he couldn’t live up to his father’s expectations of him bothered him more than he was willing to let on. Though Rinya couldn’t imagine what Jorin would be like if he was more like his father. Would he be a hasher teacher? He most certainly wouldn’t have come to Riverfall… she would have never met him.
Rinya kept the thoughts to herself however. It seemed selfish to admit she was glad he didn’t live up to what his father wanted. In the end it was simply a what-if that didn’t come close to holding up to anything. So she had kissed him in an attempt to remind him why being ‘him’ wasn’t such a bad thing. She certainly did not consider herself some sort of prize that he had earned, but they had each other and she wasn’t going to just roll over and give him up now. ”You are most certainly the most important in mine. Like everything else--we’ll work it out no matter what your father thinks.” Should they ever meet.
As they refocused back on the lesson, Jorin agreed with her that ‘q’ looked very much like a backwards ‘p’. She traced the letters across his skin for a few chimes before he doted on her that she had completed the letters perfectly. Her face flushed once again as he drew her up to him and Rinya let her arms hug him to her as well. It never lasted long enough as usual, but Jorin wanted to push forward and Rinya simply let herself slide back into place as he pointed out the next letter in the alphabet. She recognized it instantly of course from the spelling of his own name, but she humored him as he pointed out to the word ‘near’ as an example.
He shifted slightly and flipped all the way back to the beginning of the book to the familiar flourish of his name. Rinya tilted her head slightly, observing his name much like she had the first time. Knowing how to spell his name was important to her for no specific reason other than it was his name. Jorin traced the letter into her palm and as he brought her hand to his chest, she pressed her palm against his heart for a moment, letting the love swell through her again. She mimicked the motion of his own finger, trying to master the slight sweep of the ‘r’ across his skin.
But then Jorin mentioned that there was something else very important spelled with the rune. He pointed to a word right below his and while she could make out all but one of the letters-- she had no idea what it meant. ”No idea…” Rinya mumbled as he asked her if she knew what the letters put together made. After a long moment, Jorin admitted that it was the name of the woman he loved the most--and it actually took Rinya several ticks to put together that it was her name scrawled across his poem book. ”Why is my name in your poem book?”
It wasn’t that the fact made her upset, but it truly did not make sense to her. It was his book and she did not contribute to it at all… so why would he bother scribbling the few letters of her name onto it? But he breathed her name as his fingers trailed from her palm back to her stomach. Despite the drained and exhausted feel of her body, it reacted none the less to her name, to the feel of his wandering fingers that made her muscles clench pleasantly. He spelled out her name letter by letter, only stopping to explain ‘y’ for a moment before he dropped the book back to the bed in order to pull her up against him.
”Not just any tease… a terrible one!” Rinya groaned at his words. He asked her to forgive him and she simply cast him a glare without heat behind it. Him asking for forgiveness over such an action was like asking him to forgive her over loving him--pointless. Jorin didn’t actually wait for an answer however as he leaned in once again to kiss her… only it seemed he intended for this one to last longer. One of his hands trailed upwards to hold her to him and Rinya did not complain. She kissed him back, nipping at his bottom lip as the emotions floated between them. ”Gods Jorin… don’t you ever tire?” Rinya grumbled against his lips.
