I stood up and pulled away from her - and that was one of the hardest things I had done. Apparently while she did resist the aphrodisiac, she certainly felt it - I hadn't had such a responsive partner in quite some time. I would love to play with her, to drive her mad and make her utterly beholden to me…

But I couldn't. I was in a bizarre new world, with nothing more to my name than.. Well nothing, because no one even knew my name. I sighed.

“I am, little kitten, and I did. But that is the end of it for tonight. Now, please, be a good girl and sleep.” I brushed my hand over her eyes, dragging them closed. Even now she fought, her eyes snapping open again immediately, and I tilted my head. “I do promise, which I don’t do often, that you are safe, and you will awaken in a better state than you have been in since we met. You need to flush all of my aphrodisiac - no, it was not a poison - from your system. Sleep, or sex, is the best way to do that. And as I desire to have a working relationship with you in the future - I am not so fucking foolish as to take advantage of you now.” I narrowed my eyes.

“Even though I dearly wish to. Now, sleep. We can speak when you wake up.” She finally closed her eyes with a sigh. It did - interesting things, to her body. And I cursed the fact that I needed her, and couldn't just take her here and now. Rather than stay in the room with that temptation, I spun on my heel sharply and strode out, towards where she had her icebox.

I knew approximately how long it should take someone of her size to sleep off the drug. Cut a considerable margin off for her innate resistance, and I had enough time to cook. I would stick to the things near her pantry - while I thought I recognized the other herbs in the room, I wasn't a damn idiot. I was on a different world, I didn't even know if I could eat the fucking food here. I would make her something to eat, and then.. Well then we would see.

------

There was a knock at the door. I glanced out toward the sound. The sun had barely peaked over the horizon, and even then it was covered in thick cloud of falling ash. I could hear a sound come from the other side of the door. I raised an eyebrow, and turned the stove to a low heat after a moment of fiddling with it.

“High Priestess!” ah. I recognized the voice, even if I hadn't understood it before. I strode to the door swiftly and yanked it open - my, these doors are light - and stared down at the cat-folk guard who was staring at me. I must be a ludicrous sight, because I hadn't bothered taking the only apron I had found off, and a spatula was in one hand as I glared through narrowed eyes at the man.

“W-where is the High Priestess?” Shot the green eyed one. I swiveled my eyes to pierce him, staring at him steadily.

“Would you two please keep it down? Your High Priestess is sleeping in her bed -”

“He speaks Akashiman?” Asked the blue one in a hushed whisper toward the green eyed one.

“I do, and I am right fucking here.”

“Obviously she gave him something.” The green eyed one said. His eyes still on me. I turned my gaze back to him.

“One of you has brains it seems, good job. Yes, she did. Then a headache or something came over her, because she was cussing up a storm once I could understand her. As I said, she is sleeping now.”

“Lets just go, he don’t got no blood smell on him.” Said the smaller of the two, the blue eyed one.

With some convincing and bickering the two guards left. I restrained a hiss of fury, and I had to forcibly relax my grip on the cooking utensil lest I shatter it. Neither of the fucking morons had been paying attention to me. I hadn't been so casually disregarded since I was a piece of the gutter trash, and the reminder of those days infuriated me.

In, out. I sublimated the anger with deep breaths, forcing it back down and away. Even so, my tail lashed behind me and my tongue flickered in the air rapidly as I strode back towards the kitchen, my body tense. Fuck them. I toyed with the idea of finding them later, once I had finished business here, be it good or bad, and ending them. I entertained myself with options for that as I resumed cooking.

A faint sound caught my ear, a near silent footfall on wood. One eye swiveled around.

She emerged from the room, hair disheveled, clothes -oh my. Hanging off her shoulder. My mouth watered, and I cursed myself again for not just going through with it. She stared at me, glared then lifted her clothes back up to her shoulder. “You.” She muttered. She held a bottle in one hand.

“Good morning, kitten. You had some visitors a moment or two ago.” I smiled pleasantly at her. “I am almost finished cooking, here. I went simple rather than risk an unknown ingredient. Eggs, salted and peppered. Ah, those ARE the right words.” It pleased me to know they had similar names, or at least enough that the words translated properly. Good, that meant I hadn't grabbed the wrong things.

She sighed as she sauntered over and threw herself into the chair. “I can taste poisons on my food.” She mumbled as she unscrewed the lid to the glass container. I raised my eyebrow as I watched her drink from it. I could taste alcohol waft from the thing.

“That's lovely.” I smirked and plated the food, then set it in front of her. I dropped into a chair across from her, and steeples my fingers together, studying her.

She rubbed her neck and I could tell she was trying to piece together what had happened to her the previous night. She shifted her attention to the food and without much hesitation started to dig in. She was either very astute, very ballsy, or very stupid.

“Allow me.” I cleared my throat. “I won a game of one-ups-manship. You slept off the aphrodisiac - that is what I injected you with, not so bizarre time delayed necrotic agent. Regrettably, you slept it off alone.” I tilted my head to the side, giving her a banal smile as she choked on her food at the words.

“I knew it!” She said as she slammed her hand down on the table. “From that first fuckin’ bite I knew it.” She gave a ‘tch’, “You won that time.” She huffed and finished off the last of her food. Hungry little thing. Too bad I couldn't have fed her something else, but alas. Perhaps another time.

“Don’t lie, kitten. You enjoyed the bites even without the aphrodisiac, I know.” I smirked.

I expected her to reel back, to blush-to deny vehemently - but she hit back with a shrug. “Yeh. I enjoy a lot more than that too. So whats it to ya?” Ah, fun. Damn it.

“Enticing. Very.. Enticing. In any case -” she cut me off, speaking up suddenly.

“I’m not ‘kitten’ It’s Ayaka. And Ayaka never got done questioning you yesterday.” She glanced over her shoulder - eying the storm outside. “And oh lucky me.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. “Looks like you’re stuck here while the storms brewin’ So - do you have a name snakeboy?”

“I do. My name is Estus.” I glanced out the window. Damn. There goes leaving. I wasn't dumb, I could see the ash falling.

She caught my look. She was wearing a smug smirk on her features as she leaned on the table, her chin in the palm of her hand. “Right, sunshine. Now - mind telling me where you’re from. Surely you didn’t just fall off a cloud out the sky.”

Nosy. But - I needed an ally here. And she let me speak the language. For now. I sat back, and spread my hands out wide in a shrug. “I did fall from the sky, kitten. But your words to the guards before were right, I am from another world. Wrong number of moons you have here.”


The chair screeched as she pushed it back against the wooden floor, and in two strides she was standing over me. “Is that so?” She looked curious, hungry - she wanted to know more, but was it more than I was ready to share. I tilted my head back to meet her gaze, holding her eyes with mine. She took a swig from her bottle and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “I want your toxins.”

Well. That was blunt. I snorted and sat back, studying her. “Sorry, darling, but no dice. The only way you’re getting the aphrodisiac is if I’m injecting it into you. The necrotic - well. I don’t want that floating around, and I don’t want counteragents to it showing up when I go off to work.” I shook my head, folding my arms over my chest. I wondered if her desire for the venom would be worse if she knew it had addictive qualities? I didn’t think she’d been injected with enough to be addicted to it yet, so hopefully she hadn’t noticed those. She shouldn’t have a craving for it yet, at least I didn’t think so.