—and now on the floor there is a boy, tall and pale and dark-haired, curled up into a shivering ball. He does not have any clothes on. When he appears, the air ripples like water; frost forms on his skin and spreads across the floor.

It takes her a few moments to react to this, looking up to see him, and then another minute for the crying to quiet down and for her to get out of bed and go over to him.

"Are you--okay?" she asks, mostly not crying (there is a distinct catch in her voice).

He uncurls enough to look up at her in confusion, and has to take a few incoherently-mumbled tries at answering before he manages intelligible words in a language she speaks.

"I—what—where am I?"

She shrugs miserably. "Probably the north. We were between Estelamis and Teseata when I was taken, and I don't think he took me very far."

"...I don't... that's not..."

He's still covered in frost - cold enough that it's kind of uncomfortable to be near him - but he doesn't seem to have noticed. The motions of speech offer scattered glimpses of long pointed teeth; a frustrated shake of his head reveals long pointed ears under his appallingly messy hair. Following the theme, he has fingernails like claws, short but sharp.

"If that's not what you meant then I don't know what you did mean."

"Those aren't—places," he says, struggling to communicate. "This isn't—I'm not—"

He snarls under his breath. The coating of ice on his skin flashes into flame; being a few feet away from him is like standing next to an open oven. Then it subsides, and he's sitting in a puddle with steam rising from his skin, staring at his hands in helpless confusion.

She nibbles a lip, distracted a little from her misery by the puzzle he presents. "I--don't know what a place would be, then? The empire doesn't really have a name, there aren't any other countries to compare it against. Where are you from?"

"—Aluvanna. But I—"

He curls inward again, ducking his head and wrapping his arms around his knees. Frost collects on his skin and the floor around him. The air resumes being uncomfortably cold.

"—I—fell. Out—out of the world, I think. It was all—kind of a mess—"

He's trying very hard, and failing very badly, to sound normal and casual and not at all traumatized by this experience.

"Out of the world? --This world is called Rahne."

"...Suranse. Is—was—mine."

The frost recedes as he calms down a little.

"I'm sorry. Losing everything is--the worst thing."

He growls again, under his breath, but there's no matching flare of fire.

"Are you alright?"

"Not really."

He looks up at her in total bewilderment. (But the frost recedes a little more, and the air reaches a reasonable temperature.)

"--I just--I don't know what else to do--hugging helps, sometimes."

"People don't just... offer to hug me," he says. "Or. Didn't."

"Everyone I ever loved was murdered a few weeks ago. I--I don't--have the things that make people not offer to hug strangers right now."

...he blinks at her. "Oh."

"...yes, all right, hugs, why not."

He can have a pretty girl weeping and clinging to him, then.

That's—

—wow, that's a thing that's happening, isn't it.

It is very a thing that's happening.

Well.

He hugs her. The latest round of frost melts; he's pleasantly warm now, if a bit damp.

Eventually the sobbing trails off.

"I'm Tias," he says, snuggling her. "What's your name?"

"Alirrani," she says with a soft sigh, leaning into him.

"'S a pretty name."

"Thank you."

Hug.

Hug.

"I guess I should have figured you were from--really far away. I've never seen someone like you before."

"What, there's no Aluvai here—? What's your world shaped like?"

"It's flat? But I also meant the, uh, elemental emotional flareup things."

"—that's not from my world, that's from—whatever took me out of it."

"Oh. Is your world--Suranse, right?--not flat?"

"No—well, not mostly—it's—"

He disensnuggles for a moment so he can have both hands free, and tries to gesture the shape - a roundish flattish sort of thing, but not oriented vertically the way you would expect. The air between his hands ripples and shimmers, and then he's holding a model planet, with oceans and mountains and teeny tiny trees. It seems to be hollow and in two pieces, with the halves of the shell curving inward from their mostly-flatness to not-quite-meet each other at a jagged encircling rim. There are geographical features on both halves of the exterior, and more of them inside, visible through the rim and the translucent oceans and in tiny glimpses through cracks in the main parts of the shell: mountains and rivers along the inner surface, and green tangles of vegetation floating in the empty central space. There is not any sort of explanation for how the whole thing holds itself together without any visible connection between its parts.

"...I can't usually do that," he says, staring at it. "What the fuck?"

"Wow," she says, peering at the odd planet. "That's really different."

"I'm so confused," he says, putting the planet down on the floor and wrapping his arms around her again.

She snuggles in.

"Ours is just flat. We don't know how big it is because there's too much ocean, no one's ever been able to reach an edge."

Snuggles. Snuggles are good.

"I don't... I don't even know if I'm ever going to see my world again," he says. "I won't even miss it much, honestly, I'm a prince but my father's five thousand years old and not going to make me king anytime soon—I'll probably die of old age before I get the chance, if I don't get my wings in time—"

"Get your wings?"

"...D'you not have those either?"

"We do not."

"...well, in Suranse, people get wings sometimes, and afterward they don't age and they're harder to kill and they, you know, have wings, and stuff. It happens when you—accomplish something—like winning a war, or—"

—maybe like surviving a long and hellish fall through the space between worlds. Maybe like being cold and exhausted and in terrible pain for a time beyond time, that could have been hours or days or weeks or years, and coming out of it still able to sit up straight and use language. Maybe like fighting an incomprehensible force through void and chaos and fire and darkness, and, maybe not exactly winning, but at least coming out on top enough to bend its power to your will. Maybe like that.

Everything is very bright all of a sudden. And then a few seconds pass, and the blinding light fades, and Tias is laughing delightedly and wrapping her in glittering black feathers.

Alirrani giggles and hugs him. "I guess--whatever happened to you--counts?"

His wings are huge; their long pointed feathers are wonderfully soft, and shine with a subtle red-gold iridescence that gleams brilliantly when they catch the light just so.

"I guess it does!"

Mmm gorgeous soft cozy feathers. Best.

He scoops her into his lap for optimal snuggability.

She squeaks delightedly and snuggles him.

So cozy!!!

The door slams open. An older man stands in the doorway, surveying the scene critically.

Aliranni shrieks and flinches and tries to hide behind one of Tias's wings.

Tias looks up at the man with the expression of someone trying to decide exactly how annoyed he should be, from a starting assumption of 'probably very'.

"What in the world is going on in here?"

"Oh, fuck off."

He raises an unimpressed eyebrow. "You come into my home, with--" he casts a judgmental eye at Tias's nudity "--obviously nefarious intentions towards my ward, and you expect me to take that from you?"

He snorts. "Wait, you're mad because you think I'm here to fuck her? Aren't you the guy who killed her whole family? I'm pretty sure I know which one of those is worse."

Have some Unsettling Deathly Aura.

He snarls in pain and anger, and then the man in the door is on fire. Quite a lot of fire.

There is a moment of just fire, and then he explodes. And keeps exploding.

He wraps his wings protectively around Alirrani and—does something—and then instead of fire there is ice, every tongue of flame sculpted in perfect detail.

Yeah he doesn't survive that.

He makes a satisfied little 'hm' sound, relaxes, and goes back to snuggling.

Alirrani is so extremely hiding in his embrace. He can practically feel the terror radiating off her.

...mm.

Eventually she peeks out. "Is he gone?"

"Pretty sure he's dead," he says, gesturing to the rather pretty ice statue with a person somewhere in the middle of it.

"Thank you."

...he smiles and hugs her. "Well, he was pissing me off."

He can have soooooo much snuggle.

Snuggle!!!

She is pretty much content to cozily hug him indefinitely.

Well then they might just end up cozily hugging on the somewhat damaged floor of this somewhat damaged room until somebody else comes to see what all the fuss was about.

It will take some time but eventually someone does that. A teenager a little older than Aliranni comes to the open doorway and gapes.

Tias looks up from his cozy hug. "What?"

"--Who are you?"

"Tias Iserra, Prince of Aluvanna. Who's asking?"

"Uh, my name's Matuin Reteva."

"Is there anybody around who's gonna miss that guy?" he asks next, gesturing to the ice statue.

The teenager opens and closes their mouth. "Uh. Yes?"

"Well, too bad for them, I guess."

"Did you kill him?"

"Yep!"

"How?"

"...Magic?"

"He was magic!"

"I'm more magic."

"Why are you even here? Do you work for the Emperor?"

"Who? No, I showed up by accident."

"The...Emperor. Of the world."

"Oh. I'm from a different one. My dad rules half of it."

"Oh. If you don't work for the Emperor why did you kill him?"

"'Cause he was pissing me off."

"...Ah."

He snuggles Alirrani some more.

She snuggles back, slightly terrified of this person and his presumed connection to her dead abductor but reasonably confident in Tias's ability to make problems go away by setting them on fire and/or ice.

Alirrani is cozy and huggable and good.

"Incidentally, is there a reason you're naked?"

"I lost all my clothes falling between worlds."

He blinks. "How...? Never mind. Do you have any goals now that you're here?"

"Not really." Besides apparently snuggling this girl.

"Okay. Have fun," he says, turning to leave.

"Mhm!"

Snuggle.

Cozy snuggles.

It is good to have wings and good to have a cozy cuddly girl to wrap them around.

The cozy cuddly girl is entirely in agreement.

That is also good!

Mmmmm.

Eventually her stomach growls.

"Oh, mm. Food," he says vaguely.

"Food," she agrees, making no move to disengage from the cuddle.

"...you know what," he says, "you should see my Sphere. I bet there'll be food in it."

"Sphere?"

"Oh, I dunno how to explain, just—"

He scoops her up and stands and—something happens in the air in front of them—and he steps through the something and they aren't in her depressing little room anymore.

They are instead standing on a balcony. The floor is an intricate pattern of polished granite tiles in swirling curved shapes, speckled black-and-grey; the railing is made of the same material, and gives the impression of spilling upward like a lacy wave. Behind them, an ornate double door leads into the polished stone face of the building attached to the balcony; the doors are made of stained glass set in a dark wooden frame, glittering red-gold in the soft silver light of the sky.

Speaking of which: the sky. A starry dome arches above them, threaded with faint white swirls; like someone took down the moon, stuck a paintbrush in it, and doodled glimmering curves between the stars.

And then at last we come to the view. The balcony is built into a mountainside, but a fairly gently sloped one, so from where they stand they can see the whole tilting spread of land that runs from their perch down to the wooded shore of a tranquil lake. The part with a—house? this is probably a house, or perhaps a castle—built into it is primarily rocky and vertical, with some surfaces cut and polished into the shape of outer walls while others remain craggy and rough. Below that, as the slope gets gentler, grass begins to appear; then shrubs, then trees, getting gradually denser until the flat ground between mountain and lake is entirely covered by forest.

Tias stares out at his new domain, speechless with wonder. He barely retains the presence of mind to avoid dropping her.

Alirrani reacts much the same way.

"It's beautiful," she says after a few awestruck minutes of gazing.

"...They're not usually this... much," he says. "Not at first. They grow for as long as the owner lives, but they start small - not much bigger than a single house."

"I have no insight except that it's gorgeous. I mean, wow, this is profoundly beautiful. I can compose poems to it if you want."

He giggles and kisses her impulsively on the cheek.

She smiles and pecks his cheek in return.

Aww! Her smile is such a good thing. He wants more of it.

The doors open obligingly at his approach when he turns to carry her inside. The house's interior turns out to be just as exquisite as the surrounding landscape, at least if you like polished stone, precious metals, and intricate organic patterns.

Alirrani likes those things very much.

Oh good!!! It's good when she likes things!!!

He wanders the house, carrying his armful of cuddly girl. After not very long at all, he finds a cozy sitting room, where he deposits her on a couch; there's a few bowls of assorted snacks on the neighbouring table, fruit and nuts and interesting little bread rolls, which he cheerfully picks up and offers to her.

Alirrani is delighted by these foods! They are different and interesting and tasty!

Does he want to hand feed her, that would be fun.

Yes he definitely wants to do that.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yes good. Best rescuer.

Hmm she should be in his lap. Scoop. There that's better. He feeds her interesting snacks and nibbles a few of them himself and pets her hair and wraps her up in his lovely soft wings.

She is so delighted by this treatment she looks like she might burst with it.

She is so good. The best. So cozy and happy and huggable and soft and warm and precious.

And she stays so happy right up until she says, "I wonder what the acoustics of this place are like," at which point her face crumples.

—hug.

"My sister played the flute," she chokes out.

So much hug. Soft feathery hug.

(It'd be kind of nice, though, if she cried on him again.)

She buries her face in the crook of his neck and sobs.

Yeah. That's nice.

Snuggle snuggle pet pet.

She keeps crying on him for a while.

He doesn't have anywhere to be. And she is very cozy and pettable and soft.

Eventually, after the crying trails off again, she murmurs, "Her name was Xiseia."

Wingsnuggle.

It's sort of weird - it's nice when she cries on him, but he still finds himself wanting to cuddle her and comfort her until she isn't sad anymore. It feels suspiciously merciful, now that he thinks about it. But... he likes cuddling her. He can do things he likes.

"And my brother's name was Alassei. They were both younger than me. I was the oldest, I should have protected them--"

"From a guy who can make people drop dead just by looking at them?"

He says it before he thinks it through, and then wonders where he learned that, and then remembers the way it hurt when the dead guy did whatever-it-was, the feeling of it... it did seem kind of... deathly. Does that mean Tias is immortal, if he survived it? Nice.

"He was there for Xisei. She died getting between him and me. I should have stopped her."

Snuggle.

"But then you'd be dead, and I don't want you to be dead."

"I just want my family back," she says, her voice cracking on the last word.

He pets her hair and doesn't say anything.

She snuggles deeper into his embrace.

"Thank you for killing him."

"You're welcome." Nuzzle.

She snuggles him sadly until she falls asleep in his arms.

Awww.

He scoops her up and carries her around the house until he finds a bed, then curls up in it with her and goes to sleep.

She sleeps for a long time, safer than she'd been since the attack.

She might still be the first one to wake up.

She wakes, and sees her sleeping rescuer, and tightens her arms around him and buries her face in his neck.

He snuggles up sleepily.

Yes good.

Mmmm, soft cozy snuggles. What a good way to wake up.

It is, isn't it. So soft. So cozy. So very snuggles.

Having wings and someone to wrap them around is the best thing.

But what if being wrapped in wings is the best thing?

Mmm no. Don't argue with Tias, he has the unspeakable power of the void between worlds. And he's cozy.

He is incredibly cozy, it is true.

Eventually she murmurs, "Breakfast?"

"Good idea. I don't wanna get up, though..."

He unsnuggles slightly, peering around the room to see if there is any food in it. There is not. He flops back down and nuzzles Alirrani.

She will just have to nuzzle him back, then.

At this rate they will be having nuzzles for breakfast and that does not sound like a nutritious meal at all.

Fiiiine. He sits up again. He's made fire, he's made ice, in a sense he made this whole Sphere and everything in it: he should be able to make breakfast. Right?

He can—almost feel something, in the part of his mind where the power lives—

—and then the air twists and the small table next to the bed is covered in plates of food.

"Breakfast!" he announces, beaming.

"Ooh!" She picks something up, tastes it, and makes an approving noise.

What a good noise. What a good face. What a good Alirrani.

"You're so cute," he says, petting her hair. "I wanna keep you."

"Keep me like how?"

"Like... I dunno," he says, not really having thought it through that far.

"Hm.

Well, it's not like I've got anywhere else to be."

...he grins and hugs her. And remembers what a good face she made when he hand-fed her yesterday, and sits up and pulls her into his lap and attempts to feed her breakfast.

She will provide more good face in response!

Best face!!!

Tasty breakfast! Nippable fingers! Cozy snuggles!

Mmmmm yes perfect.

He certainly seems to be to her!

The feeling is very much mutual.

"Incidentally," she says after breakfast has finished and some snuggling has gone by, "how does falling out of a world strip you naked?"

"...oh. Uh, I kind of... there wasn't..."

He struggles with words for a moment.

"...Sort of the same way being set on fire does?" he says eventually.

"Oh. I--guess that makes sense." She gives him an extra squeeze. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

...He's... not really sure what to do with that.

Well after that she proceeds to simply snuggle him, so.

Snuggles are good. Cozy. Uncomplicated. Tias approves of snuggles.

Well Alirrani approves of Tias, so there.

Eventually she starts crying again.

...well.

After she is done crying she snuggles him some more. And then blushes, opens her mouth as though to ask a question, then closes it again.

"...mm?"

"You, um--there's something--you don't have any pockets for me to ask if there's something in," she says, flustered.

...he cracks up.

She buries her face in his neck, turning beet red.

He hugs her and giggles into her hair.

"It's not that funny, is it?"

"It was the way you said it!" Giggly wingsnuggle. "I like you. You're cute."

Snuggle! "Thank you."

He pets her hair and smiles at her.

"I am sort of curious why, uh, then in particular, though."

"Oh. It's nice when you cry," he explains.

"...Huh."

He pets her hair some more. It's soft.

Mmm being petted is so good.

Petting her is also so good! Soft soft soft.

"I'm glad you're so nice to me."

...he laughs. "Am I?"

"You snuggle me a lot and you killed my family's murderer and you pet me and you hand-feed me tasty things!"

"Well - I like the way you smile," he says, petting her some more. "It's good."

She smiles at him!

Eeeeeee yes that!! That is the thing that is good!!

She nuzzles him with her smiling face.

He nuzzles back, giggling delightedly, and then kisses her.

She kisses back hesitantly and inexperiencedly.

Well, it's not like he's got much idea what he's doing either. It's fun anyway.

You know, it actually is! Mm.

Mmmmm.

Slight squirming.

Ooh.

"Okay, kissing is nice."

"It is!" Nuzzle.

Nuzzle.

Mmmm more kisses.

Yes good.

"You're so pretty."

"Thank you."

Snuggle snuggle kiss.

!!!!!!!!

It's so good when she's happy!!!

Clearly more kisses are the answer to this. So many more kisses.

What a good answer.

He can think of some other answers, too.

This will result in happy wiggling.

It is so good when she's happy.

Some of the other answers he can think of involve her clothes coming off, but right now he is too busy experimenting with wiggle-inducing kiss variants to do anything that complicated.

He will induce so many wiggles.

Her wiggles are the best wiggles. Mmmmm she's so gooooood.

He is also so good! And has wiggles to prove it.

"So pretty," he murmurs.

She blushes and giggles and ducks her head.

He wraps his wings around her and kisses her some more.

Yes. Good. Excellent.

Mmmmm she's so good. So good and kissable and pettable and cozy and wigglesome and soft.

She is all of these things! And she occasionally makes happy noises!

They are the best noises.

Maybe it is time to try things that involve getting under her clothes. Maybe it is that time.

...Maybe?

Oh, is she nervous? Nervous is a good look on her.

She is definitely nervous! ...But she's not not into it.

Ooh. That's a good combination.

Perhaps there should be more kisses.

There definitely should.

Good.

"You're so..."

He wraps her up in arms and wings and hugs her tight, then lets go and takes her face in his hands and kisses her again. Whatever he was going to say, he's forgotten it.

Oh gosh that's nice.

Oh she makes the best faces.

She is sooooo glad he likes her faces. His faces are pretty great too.

She is so pretty and soft and sweet and he wants to put his mouth all over her.

She is on board with this plan!

Oh good.

Have some faces and noises.

They are such good faces and noises. Everything about her is good. Especially all of the touchable parts.

Then it is a good thing she has so many of those!

She has a lot of kissable parts, too. And he loves every single one of them.

Kissing parts will result in even more faces and noises.

Good!!!

Sadly, the nervousness seems to be gone now.

Well, that's not all bad. It's nice when she's happy.

She is definitely happy.

Part of him wants to curl up and wrap his wings around her and go to sleep, and part of him wants... something other than that.

She is too preoccupied with kissing-related happiness to have an opinion on this.

He nuzzles her shoulder in cozy indecision.

She turns to curl into him, wrapping her arms around him and nuzzling back.

Mmm. Kiss?

Kiss.

Mmmmm, kiss.

Very much kiss.

Yeah he thinks he has decided which thing he wants.

Well. He can have a little nervousness back.

Mmm she's so pretty. He kisses her some more.

Yes kisses good.

How nervous about this is she, exactly—?

Less nervous and more into it than earlier.

Oh good!

Mmmm yes.

Very good.

Ooh

She's so pretty and soft and sweet and good and, and, yes.

His yes-causing traits are very different in nature but similarly extant. Wow.

And then there can be cozy naps.

Gosh. Yes. That--that sounds like a good plan.

The best plan.

Cozy cuddly naps.

Mhmmmmm.