Eelesia would be embarrassed by the ripped-open crotch of her bodysuit except for how she's standing next to Coventina and also there are a lot of other exposed adventurers around here and also she's still burning in an inferno of horny need even if she's more adapted to that feeling now and is holding on to her self-control.

"I think we've won and none of us are hurt," she says.

"Oh good. Let's..." He looks around. "...will we be any use in disaster relief efforts? Because if not I think perhaps we should all go back to Eelesia's suite and, hmm, is the lust spell still active, this affects whether the obvious thing to do is have an orgy or take a nap..."

Eelesia grabs his hand and starts tugging him along as she strides back into the city.

"I don't think it affects that at all. Laurent, let's go have privacy right now because I know that you would strongly prefer that regardless of how urgently we both desire sexual release and I think that this consideration proves we're all still in our right minds about this. I haven't felt sexual urges this strong often but that is a matter of degree and not of kind and the obvious rational response to this mutual desire, regardless of source and proportional to intensity, is to sate it with each other since that is within the boundaries of mutual interaction we both inhabit..." she slows just enough to give him a searching, slightly vulnerable look, "...right?"

"I, um," he blushes. "That's—a more complicated question than it might seem at first glance—I—sorry. The. When—things were going very poorly—I think I... broke something...? I couldn't stop thinking about—things I'd rather not discuss in public—and it was getting in the way of tactics, it was, was, was an attack vector and then it... wasn't. And it's, um. Whatever went away isn't back yet."

"Oh. That sounds. I don't know if it's directly associated but I know how much you don't like to be... seen. I don't think it will come back until we're alone. So we should go be alone. Either way."

She pauses, glances back, sees Sky and Coventina following them at a comfortable distance, then gives him an earnest, pleading look.

"...yes, that sounds... sensible," he says, although he sounds slightly worried when he says it.

As they rush back to the Highest Lair, they come upon a number of people who fell from a considerable height when the tentacles vanished, variously injured and in pain.

"Keep going," Coventina says firmly to Laurent and Eelesia. "We'll handle this. Rain of Mercy!"

It's a bigger, lighter rain. It spreads to cover most of the city, casting everything into the soft light of a cloudy sky. The healing droplets patter gently onto rooftops and windows, a comforting shroud.

Okay. Onward to alone time with Eelesia.

He's clinging to her hand a little, when they finally make it back to the suite. As the door closes behind them, he starts to slump, and then he's sliding down the wall to sit curled up against it with his arms wrapped around his knees.

"I'm scared that it's never going to come back and I don't want that to happen because I really like you and I miss wanting to kiss you," he says, mostly into said knees. "...and because I'm afraid that if I can't enjoy sex I can't be friends with any of you which is probably stupid because it's been working fine so far but I was trying to figure out how to open up and now it's all just... gone. Sorry. Despair isn't useful and I should do something else. How are you doing—"

"Less confused about why just glomping you again didn't feel right, even if I also feel like I could spend the next three days doing nothing but sex."

Coventina is definitely better at psychosexual analysis than Eelesia but Eelesia fancies that she might just be better at Laurent than her very lewd friend is.

"This might not be true of everyone but I think for you if you miss it that means it's not really gone," Eelesia suggests.

She kneels in front of him, not quite sitting on his feet as she reaches out to pet his hair.

"I don't think you kissed me back at the start just because of the spell, either. I think that because I think we felt the same way in that moment. If the urge had been the only factor I would've grabbed Sky first, but when the need hit me, my first impulse wasn't to quench it. It was to share it with you."

"I... liked that you shared it with me," he says, leaning into her hand. "I like it when you kiss me. It's probably not obvious because I always freeze up, at least until today, but I'd have said something if I minded. It's nice. Has been nice. I... can't find the part of myself that wants to kiss people, right now."

"It seemed like it," she says softly. "I just felt like doing it when it seemed like we were feeling the same thing but you just had a harder time expressing it. Thanks for telling me directly, though. I'm glad to have confirmation I wasn't projecting."

She gently caresses her way down his arms, then takes his hands and pulls, bringing them both up to their feet.

"If you can't find that part of yourself right now it might be better for you if you stop looking for it," she suggests, guiding them toward one of the sofas in the sitting room. "I want us to take our clothes off and I'll sit in your lap and I'll just hold you and you'll just hold me and there will be nothing but that closeness and the smallest possible distance between us. If the urge to kiss me comes back, I'll be right there, and if it doesn't, I'll still be right there. You and the others were amazing and I was basically useless in that battle and it'd be good to talk about it but I want to put us in maximal proximity before we start, okay?"

"Okay," he says. "Thank you." He smiles, slightly, just the faintest hint, but it's a happy faintest-hint-of-smile and not a neutral/masking one.

He takes off his clothes, although he hesitates at the underwear. His body is still aroused, and he's uncomfortable about it.

After stripping herself nude, Eelesia sees his hesitation and immediately understands it.

"I'm aroused too." She is, she's visibly wet. "Our bodies are maintaining the state that is correct for their environmental circumstances." Her forehead gently comes to rest against his. "You're already exposed to me in all the ways that matter, and I to you, with or without the presence of a handful of cotton. Here." Moving slowly, she slips her hands down and takes it off for him.

"It's—physically uncomfortable and it keeps impinging on my attention and I don't like it." He wraps his arms around her and hugs her close, and then sits on the couch. "Turns out that without the ability to enjoy it, being hard is just really inconvenient."

"I imagine it would be, but I also imagine the pressure of clothing makes that worse, not better?"

Eelesia follows him down onto the seat and straddles his lap. She lets her weight sink against his body slowly, putting his erection behind her so that it nestles in her butt as her weight at the base pushes it down a little in a way that she hopes is the opposite of distracting, while still allowing her to press her body close to his.

Forehead against his again? No, even if he's comfortable with her, he'd probably be more comfortable if she closes her eyes. They can whisper their after-action reports into each other's ears. She worms her arms behind him, between his back and the cushions, and holds him.

"I'm here for you, Laurent," she murmurs. "Let yourself be. Whatever you're feeling, is okay."

He closes his eyes too, letting his hands rest on her waist and lower back.

When he feels himself start to tear up, his instinctive reaction is no not that anything but that, but—would it really be so bad, to trust her? For once in his life, to just fucking let himself have an emotion in front of another thinking creature?

For a moment he teeters between crying and not-crying without really moving in either direction, and then the sniffles start and it's all downhill from there. He hugs her tighter and buries his face in her shoulder and sobs.

It's hard not to sympathy cry when this close to someone she cares about who's crying in earnest, and she doesn't even try to hold it in because why would she? Every bit of synchronicity in their emotions is to be cherished.

She strokes him and nuzzles him and the sensation of his tears trickling over her skin is like a caress. She knows how significant this is for him. How much it means, that he was able to cry. His heart, releasing into hers.

Wow, if he thought having an erection was uncomfortable and attention-demanding, crying is so much worse. He's forgotten what it was like, it's been too long since he last indulged himself. Why are bodies so inconvenient and unpleasant to exist in?

...it's not all bad, though. Being held—being held by Eelesia—it's... it's not something he has a comparison point for, not something he can describe even inside his own head, but it's good. It's a good thing. She's good.

She loves him.

This isn't a revelation or a surprise, but him opening up to her like this sure makes it salient in a way it hasn't really been before.

Hugging and petting and gentle wordless affirmations and love.

Eventually he cries himself out and then he's just nuzzling her in a slightly sniffly fashion.

"Well, that was unpleasant," he sighs. "...not you. You were... good. I just don't like... mm. Not being in control of myself."

"I know."

Gentle neck-kiss.

"I'm grateful, you know. For what it means to you, that you let that control lapse for me."

"Oh." He blushes, and hugs her closer for a second. "That... yeah. I. I like you and I trust you and I want to be friends with you and—yeah."

"Yeah," Eelesia agrees, smiling into his hair.

She isn't any less physically aroused but she's basking in the intimacy and not having his cock inside her is details.

"You really were good out there," she comments after a while. "The trick you and Coventina pulled off was very cunning. That jerk was completely out of our league and we all should've been doomed but... it was barely even a fight. I'm just glad I managed to stop distracting Sky in time for her to save us all at the end there."

"Yes, Sky was amazing. The best idea I had at that point was to dash through him as many times as my mana could sustain in the hopes that it would whittle him down a little, which wouldn't have saved us and also might not even have gotten him the rest of the way to dead."