"...it is, ah, somewhat important, it—Sendhei came over and we fooled around in the river for a while since it seemed like you didn't want to?"

“Oh, well if you were after river sex then yes, no thank you. Sorry, I didn’t realize that was what you were after, I didn’t mean to lead you on there and bail immediately. I thought you meant sex in general. Which was why I bathed at all, since yeah upon reflection needing to be clean for waking world sex seems important?”

"More like river foreplay, but yes. I also think that—there might be some miscommunication about sleep, here. It seemed like a pretty no-go when I saw you asleep? Especially since it's night? Do people not sleep through the night in your world?"

“... It’s pretty common, but not universal? But I would have thought it’d be obvious I wasn’t planning to spend the night sleeping on the rug in a towel, I’d be horribly sore all day tomorrow. Uh, sleep isn’t really a sex show stopper. I mean, it would have been pretty messed up if you’d started trying to fool around with my body while I was out of it, but, like. For me it was the equivalent of ducking out into another room for a bit, not checking out entirely? I stirred the minute anyone poked me, Sendhei was trying to get me a blanket, which was very sweet.”

"Another room?—I don't have access to your dream world."

“I know! But you could still just call me back over, even if you can’t enter the room yourself?”

"It is pretty rude to wake people up for anything that is not particularly an emergency."

“... No? Not in my culture? It’d be rude if you woke me up by yelling, mind, but. Gently poking me to see if I wanted to keep to a prior engagement is fine?”

"I think if I woke up someone who fell asleep and asked if they were still up for sex, here, they might feel justified in punching me."

“Oh. No. That sounds annoying. I wouldn’t punch you for poking me if I were engrossed in a novel to ask if I wanted to have sex, I would have perked up and put it away and said sure, or said no and gone back to it if I’d changed my mind. Not asking at all reads as not very interested? Plus you were taking a while in the first place? Which, again, is fine, just. The whole thing reads as extremely meh about the affair, and I would rather not be a meh.”

"You are an extremely attractive, foreign, magical, and ambitious woman wearing a fairly flimsy dress that the inner barbarian in me wants to tear to pieces with its teeth. I am not 'meh' about this."

“Oh.” She colors slightly, and has a faint little smile at the corner of her lips. “Why didn’t you say that, then? You were just going ‘I am very pretty, look at how pretty I am, don’t you want to have sex with me,’ to which I agreed and said yes, but that’s not, you know. ‘You, Saevetei, are attractive and I kind of want to rip your dress off but have ever heard what consent is and want you to want me to!’ Which, for the record, I do! And this dress is easily repairable even if ripped into pieces, I did not want to have to replace my wardrobe every single time I have yet another stupid death.”

"It was going to be part of the river foreplay! How about we start over from the part where the little mounting miscommunications have been solved and I get back to when I was kissing you just now and maybe carry you to the other room where ripping your dress to pieces will be more comfortable for you, hm?"

“Me not being into river foreplay doesn’t mean I’m not into you, it means I’m not into river foreplay, and I think you should have asked or adjusted instead of just assuming,” she sniffs. “But yes, we can get back to kissing now. As long as we get a blanket to cover your creepy dead rhino head, staring at you as you sleep.”

Taharqi laughs and leans forward again to kiss her, just a small soft peck on the lips. "Let me fetch something to cover the rhino, then."

Kiss! “Thank you. Though for the record I need way more foreplay than just ripping my dress off, I would like to be thoroughly convinced that you want to fuck me, not that you just want to fuck. ... In a river.”

"Yes, ma'am. Though I think you still underestimate the relevance of the 'sleep' part."

He goes back out to his bedroom and then downstairs, presumably to fetch blankets.

“If your date gets bored of being ignored and instead reads a novel, whose fault is that? But fine, yes, yes, fault on both sides, cultural divides are hard to bridge,” she calls after him.

...well, he'll have to ask about this 'your date' thing later, there's only so much understanding the translation bracelet can impart.

Blankets! On the rhino head!

Hooray! Now she doesn’t feel like she’s being judged by a soulless husk!

“I am sorry about the communication issues,” she says seriously, sitting in the dip of his bed and folding her hands in her lap to look at him. “And for the record you are very pretty and have very impressive muscles and you’ve been very reasonable and straightforward and thoughtful and kind, and these are all appealing qualities in a person.”

Taharqi walks in front of her and gets down on his knees, sitting on his heels. "I for one think it is a very reasonable price to pay for the reward. Not just the sex which has not even started to occur, mind you. You seem like a sensible, smart, resourceful, and good person, and although I am sorry that you are trapped away from home I am not sorry that I found you and that you are here."

She reaches out to gently cup his cheek. “I’m not sorry that I’m here, either, for the record. I’d been planning to run away to the wilderness anyway, you know. I doubt anyone is even surprised about my disappearance, they’ll likely just be impressed that I pulled it off so completely. So it’s not all bad, it’s just a little scary. To be all alone.”

"Is this the part where I tell you you are not alone? Because you are not alone."

“Yes, I was leaving you that opening on purpose, well spotted,” she snorts. “Do you want to say it or do you want to show me?”

"You are not alone," he repeats. "But I am more than willing to show you."

He then gets up so he's on a level with her and so he can kiss her, this time being way more sure that it is entirely what both participants want!