“...Yeah, I love you.”

Despite Shinsou Vaan Osiris’s strength, each carefully placed word felt heavier than iron. The muscles in his arms and shoulders tensed as he followed Amari onto the inn’s bed, and the skin on his hands and cheeks glowed red with the toil of his heart. This was new territory for him entirely. Shinsou Vaan Osiris, a man who had been involved in the deaths of millions, a man who almost ran the undercurrent of an entire country and who could call upon powers of destruction that would awe even the most steadfast of warriors, had fallen for such a fragile woman.

The work was finally done, and there was comfort in the kiss he had shared with his one and only real love on Althanas. Amari had deserved so much better than the life she had been given in the frozen wastes north of Salvar, miles from her true home. So crude was Lye in his torture that it left very little of Amari to ceremony. Shinsou was determined he would grind Lye, the Crimson Hand and even Aurelianus into the dirt in penance for what they had done. In his eyes, they were all equally culpable, all of them a plague that destroyed everything he held dear, and a virus that needed to be exterminated. In his heart, even if Amari’s spirit forgave him, the Telgradian could not pass that forgiveness onto any of them.

Shinsou had wanted to scream, and cry, and slam his first into Ulroke’s skull at the infuriating and desperate unfairness of it all, but now the only emotion that came, the only real one that mattered, was love. His voice was too parched to say anything more, and as the couple embraced on the bed, the Telgradian could feel familiar urges sweeping in waves over his body.

Shinsou eventually gave in to the intense pull of his instincts and slid himself down, parting Amari’s legs out across the freshly disturbed sheets. Sighing, he let his head fall against her stomach, his lips pressing against the cold skin of her smooth abdomen whilst her hand began to stroke through his chestnut bangs. The rest of the bedroom faded to black. The Telgradian couldn’t focus on any more details other than Amari’s gorgeous body in front of him. Her chest rose and fell with increasing tempo, occasionally murmuring his name in an attempt to strike up another emotionally charged accusation or lament, but as the cold snow flaked down heavily outside, Shinsou clenched her hand tightly so that she would know he was here and that there was no more need for such worries.

“I love you.”

The sentiment was echoed again, this time the Telgradian slowly peeling away the bedsheet from her lower body, his tongue running a delicate line from her navel to her exposed lips. Panting, Amari closed her eyes as Shinsou’s mouth encapsulated her groin, kissing, licking, slowly caressing until waves of pleasure rippled through her. A stiffness in his muscles from the cramp of being in an uncomfortable position covered nearly every inch of his bare flesh, but Shinsou made no effort to move.