Aftermath: 30

After eating he relented and allowed her to go find her surprise.

Elly snapped the light on and walked into the bedroom, ears perky and tail twitching in a kittenish manner. Aizawa nearly melted, though he wouldn't ever have admitted that. Instead he propped himself up in the doorway and watched with the hint of a smile touching his lips.

"You said it was in the bed..." She grinned and tossed the sheets back to reveal his puffy yellow sleeping bag on his side. Yanking them further, she found a similar bag was laid carefully on her side. It was exactly the same but purple.

Elly burst out laughing.

"You're always grabbing mine and hugging it." He shrugged. "I thought if you had your own..."

"I do that because it smells like you!" She hugged him instead. "I love it. You always look so comfy in there."

"Try it out." He watched her intently.

She opened it up and started to crawl in when she stopped and wrinkled up her nose. "There's something in the bottom." Digging her hand inside, she was quite the spectacle with her lower half scrunched up and her rear in the air, tail swishing as she searched. When she came out her ears and hair were messy and sticking up all over.

He coughed a dry sort of laugh. "You find it?"

"Is this netsuke?" A small, ornate box carved to look like a book fit neatly in her palm. "Alice in Wonderland!" Her tail flipped about in glee. "It's beautiful, Sho."

"It opens."

Elly found the catch after searching for a bit and it popped open. Her purple eyes widened, then overflowed with tears. All she could do was sob, holding the box out towards him with one hand crammed over her mouth.

Aizawa crawled onto the bed in front of her and took the ring out. Unlike the one he gave her before, this was so exquisitely simple that there was no disguising its meaning. He held it out to her, eyebrows raised in a silent question with his gray eyes calm and sure of the response.

Elly nodded, tears pouring down her cheeks and still unable to speak. He slipped it on her finger and took her in his arms, kissing her softly. She responded enthusiastically, cupping the nape of his neck in one hand and deepening the kiss when he might have pulled back.

"Mmn... Shota. It's time."

"Hmm?" He took her left hand in his and held it over his heart. Her eyes shone up at him and he nodded. "You want to make love."

"Yes."

"We've discussed this before. There's no need for protection and you understand the safe words..?" He watched her very closely, his gray eyes enigmatic.

"Yes."

"I don't know how I held out this long," he confessed, his calm exterior crumbling as he started to tremble. He took her hand and draped her arm about his shoulder as he lay on top of her.

"Me neither," she murmured. "For all this talk of going slow, what works for us is plunging ahead, I think."

"Choice of words," he noted with a chuckle.

"Oops. Um."

"That's okay. You must be wondering what I'll feel like inside you, hmm?"

She groaned suddenly and lifted her legs to wrap around him. "You're wicked, baby."

He affected surprise as he felt around under her shirt, kissing her neck. "Oh? I'm a hero, not a villian. Can I still be wicked?"

"Yes!" She laughed and pulled his hair out of the soft tie he had fixed it up in. "Anyway. I want to see all of this shoot high up in the air when you come inside me."

He grinned. "It's going to tickle you the whole time until then." He demonstrated, dipping low and swishing it over her cheeks.

"Don't care. It's sexy." She inhaled deeply. "Mmn. And it smells like you." They kissed and slowly removed articles of clothing from each other until they were both
nude. Aizawa gently rubbed himself on her thigh, watching her carefully for any sign of nervousness. She looked only aroused, not afraid, and he smiled triumphantly and kissed her again, much deeper this time.

"Oh! You're getting a little rough." Elly growled softly.

"Is it okay? My stubble hurting? I could shave -"

"No, no way." She kissed him ravenously, rubbing on the scruffy hair and nibbling his chin. "I like it."

He blinked, surprised, but said nothing, just kissed her once more. Aizawa nibbled on her neck and stroked her breasts, smiling at her sighs and whispered cries of his name. She ran her hands along his back as he surged powerfully on top of her, cupping his buttocks and squeezing the firm flesh.

"Every time, my ass." He coughed dry laughter off to the side.

"I know," she giggled. "But it's so hard! Mine's kind of bouncy."

"I like bouncy." He shrugged. "And I have to admit, you're right. I am hard."

"Good. That's what I want."

"All right. Hold on to me," he said quietly, "and I'll give you everything I can."

"That sounds absolutely perfect."

His answering smile before he thrust was just shy of the brilliance of a sunrise after a long night. They loved each other fervently, with the knowledge of how important this act was and how special these moments were that they were sharing. Her pleasure peaked first and she willingly surrendered to it, knowing it was happening for the first time because it was with him.

And she returned that dazzling smile when he panted hard, crying out at the end with his dark hair flying straight up all at once.

The next morning at school Midnight's screech could be heard across the entire lounge.

"You proposed?!"

"Stop shouting."

"Wh - what! What were you thinking?"

"Planning a wedding will take her mind off her incident for quite awhile," he said calmly. "It's far more practical for our financial situation, as well."

"Oh. Of course," she said acidly, dropping into a chair with a huff. "Practical. Reasonable." She shook her head, frowning at him as he gathered his case and walked to the door. "Ugh. Your 'wedding' is probably going to be just as 'practical'. It won't take long for the documents to be filed."

"Love is not reasonable," he told her calmly. "I want her to have the most extravagant wedding she could ever dream of, where she's treated like she should always be and will never think to question that she is my queen."