She should not want to kiss the terrifying sorcerer that tortures people, even if he is looking at her like she's the most precious and delightful thing in the world. This is stupid and likely to lead down a terribly self destructive road. She's feeling stupid things. She shouldn't.

And yet.

Rivethira's smug smile fades to something more - vulnerable. She meets his eyes, no idea what to do with the feelings that don't make any sense, and she shivers in his arms.

He hugs her.

"...if you told me," he says, "that you wouldn't feel taken advantage of if I kissed you right now, I'd believe you."

Damn it's sweet when he goes and is concerned for her preferences -

"No," she murmurs, "I wouldn't feel taken advantage of at all."

Stupid, maybe. Taken advantage of? No.

He looks at her consideringly.

And he kisses her. Gently, slowly, sweetly. An all-the-time-in-the-world sort of kiss.

Oh.

Oh, no, this wasn't stupid at all. She makes a quiet sound of approval in the back of her throat, and lets all thoughts of how this is kind of crazy just fall away. All the time in the world, yes, that sounds good.

Yeah.

She's so beautiful, and there are still tears on her face, and everything about this moment is perfect. He could do this forever.

Except that he wants -

- things that would probably not be conducive to feelings of safety. He pauses, hesitant.

"Mm?" she hums, only a little unhappily.

"I'm - reminding myself that I don't want to get carried away," he says.

"Oh. All right. Carry on, then. I can wait." ... Snuggle.

(So stupid. Seriously. She thought she had some kind of self preservation instinct, but no. First the lake village and now this.)

Snuggle.

"...You all right?"

"... Ish? All right-ish. I'm not - I don't - kissing you was wonderful and I sort of want to do it some more, but part of me's also wondering how sustainable - this is." Because you torture people.

"...I don't know how sustainable it is. I'm not sure I know how to tell, or what being sustainable even means. But kissing you is very wonderful, of that much I am certain."

She smiles back, slightly.

"Yeah. I'm not sure I even know, really, I'm just. I feel as if it does not make sense for me to, um, feel the way that I do, except of course I do anyway. Because feelings are hard. And you, um. Sort of torture people."

"Yes, I do do that," he says. "And if you would rather not kiss the sort of person who tortures people, that's very understandable. On multiple levels."

"Well. I don't know, do you think that if the - necessity of feeding the magic with torture constantly were taken care of, you could settle for something a bit less. Um. Torturey?"

"I don't know."

"Okay. Well. Sort of moot point right now anyway. I understand you can't really. Stop."

"Yeah."

Hug.

Sigh. Hug.

"... So um. If you, do get carried away. What do I have to look forward to?"

"What do you mean?"

"You mentioned that you were reminding yourself you didn't want to get carried away. If you don't catch that while kissing me - what happens?"

"...That particular time, I was thinking about picking you up and carrying you to bed and tearing your clothes off."

"Oh, is that all." She - indulges in a nuzzle. "If I said no, do you think you'd be able to stop?"

Oh, is that all -

"I... don't exactly have a lot of practice at that," he murmurs. "Which is part of the reason why I don't want to get carried away. That and - if I forgot for a moment that I don't want to hurt you..."

"Well, if you forget, are you likely to hurt me so badly you, uh, kill me? Because we do have the healing water."