Except...

TITLE: Except...
AUTHOR: WotanAnubis
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters and am not making a profit.
RATING: NC-17
PAIRING: Lethe/Jill


* * * * *


Lethe sat on the edge of her mattress, while outside her tent the falling of night hushed the camp into silence. She was thinking about beorcs again. She often thought about beorcs, usually about how much she would like them to cease to exist. But lately she'd started thinking about beorcs in more positive terms.

Well... not beorcs.

Beorc.

Jill.

Lethe could only dimly understand why. Jill came from Daein and like everyone from that wretched place, her prejudices against laguz ran deep. The fact that her prejudice had stemmed from cultural imprinting and general ignorance didn't really help her case.

And yet...

Once Lethe had managed to shred her ignorance, her prejudice had withered away almost instantly. She'd... changed. Into what, exactly, Lethe could not say, but it was for the better. If Jill still hated the laguz at least it would be because she'd decided that they should be hated and not because everybody else hated them.

But Jill didn't hate the laguz, not in the slightest. Carefully, almost awkwardly, she'd reached out to Lethe, trying to build a friendship. And Lethe had carefully reached back.

And now Jill had earned herself a permanent 'except' in front of her name. Whenever she saw a bunch of beorcs bragging to each other about their battlefield prowess, Lethe couldn't help but thinking that it was one more bit of evidence for that fact that all beorcs were stupid, violent bastards. Except Jill. And when beer-fueled song filled the night after a victory, it just went to show that all beorcs were drunkards. Except Jill. And, of course, Lethe would not betray her own kind for anyone.

Except...

Lethe grinned in the darkness. So it had come to that, had it? Lethe, lover of beorcs. Well, of a beorc. More or less. Not yet, not... officially. But she'd sensed (sensed? or just hoped? no, sensed) Jill's thoughts going along similar lines lately. And even though the night had already started, it was still young.

Lethe's grin widened.

Considerably.

* * * * *

Jill silently hurried through the camp. She wasn't sure what she was doing. That is to say, she knew what she was doing - she was going to Lethe's tent. It was just that she wasn't quite sure why or what she do once she got there.

That also wasn't quite true. She was going there because she wanted to be with Lethe. But what kind of with, exactly, she didn't know. She liked Lethe. The girl had a huge chip on her shoulder that she wasn't about to let go of any time soon, but still. Once you got past that special kind of hostility she reserved for every human she ever met, she was... nice. Kind of.

And then there was the easy grace with which she moved. And the way she almost purred when she felt really content and she thought there were no humans other than Jill within earshot.

Jill paused. She suddenly felt vey warm. She looked around quickly to see if anyone had noticed her and then felt stupid for doing so. She knew exactly how she wanted to be with Lethe. But up until now, such thoughts had been reserved had for that time just before going to sleep when she was all by herself. She'd never had them... that is to say, she'd never had them go unrepressed when she went to see Lethe.

Jill bit her bottom lip, doubt filling her mind. There was no way of knowing how Lethe would react and even if she was agreeable to the idea, the whole concept of humans and laguz together that way wasn't just taboo, it was... it was an abomination, it... it...

It would be worth it.

Jill closed her eyes and breathed out slowly.

Alright then. She'd go to Lethe. She'd try to find some way to make her intentions known without actually being plain about. And if Lethe responded then... then she'd just see where it would go.

Having thus decided, Jill strode forward with a confidence she wasn't actually feeling, approached Lethe's tent, threw open the flap and froze.

Lethe was lying on the bed, stark naked.

She was also, currently, in possession of four paws and a fine coat of reddish-brown fur.

Jill closed the flap and stepped inside.

"Hi," she said.

Lethe looked up and nodded in greeting.

"Do you mind if I sit down?"

Lethe shook her head.

Jill sat down and absentmindedly scratched behind Lethe's ears.

"Uhm... could you change back now so that I can understand anything you'd like to say to me?"

Lethe nodded. Jill got the faint impression that she was grinning.

"But you're not going to," said Jill.

Lethe shook her head and rested her head in Jill's lap. Jill sighed and continued to stroke Lethe's fur.

"I really wanted to talk to you tonight," Jill said. "There're a couple of things I think need to be said before... well, before."

Lethe looked up, her green eyes staring intently at Jill's face.

"It's just that... I like being around you. You opened my eyes and I'm grateful for that, but... lately... I don't know... I'm... confused. There's just something about you that speaks to me, I guess."

Never breaking eye contact, Lethe solemnly got up on her hind legs, put her forelegs on Jill's shoulders and licked her cheek.

"Wha-?"

Whatever Jill wanted to say was interupted when Lethe gently licked her lips. It was, Jill realised, the closest thing Lethe could come to kissing her in her current state.

"Lethe..." said Jill.

Lethe moved away from Jill and expectantly sat down. Jill blinked, trying to clear away her confusion. On the one hand, Lethe had just shown that she cared about her in the way Jill had secretly hoped. On the other hand, the red-haired wyvern rider had rather hoped Lethe would've been human-shaped in that moment.

But even though she looked like a big cat right now, she was still Lethe. Still beautiful, in a way. Certainly graceful. And still the girl Jill... Jill had fallen in love with.

Jill nodded and stood. She carefully started taking off her clothes while Lethe looked on, her tail wagging leisurely. When she was naked, she knelt down on the bed next to Lethe.

"Alright then," she said. "Here I am."

Lethe moved closer to her, the warmth of her body filling Jill's, her short fur pleasantly ticklish. Jill leaned back until she was completely lying down, Lethe hovering over her, two of her paws placed on either side of Jill's head.

"You know," said Jill, smiling faintly. "This isn't the shape I imagined you would have."

Lethe tilted her head ever so slightly, then leaned down to lick Jill's nose. Her tongue was warm and soft. Slowly, like a predator pulling back in preparation for the final lunge towards her prey, Lethe stepped back until her head hovered over Jill's breasts. Again, Lethe's warm tongue darted out of her mouth. It wasn't exactly licking and it certainly wasn't kissing, but whatever it was Jill didn't want it to stop. Lethe's tongue expertly played with Jill's breasts and nipples, sending unbearable heat throughout her body. Wet fire erupted between her legs, but its demands were nearly muted by the wonderful sensations of Lethe's attentions. Jill started writhing and sweating, almost certain that Lethe could drive her screaming over the edge into bliss when...

Jill whimpered when Lethe suddenly stopped lavishing attention on her breasts. She'd never experienced such emotions before and her whole body yearned to take them to their conclusion.

But Lethe ignored Jill's barely audible pleas and when her exploring tongue had travelled down to Jill's soaked pussy they no longer mattered. With one little flick of Lethe's tongue, Jill's mind became searing white with pleasure. She clutched at the bed beneath her, her back arched and she screamed. There were no words in that scream, no thoughts. If it did have a meaning it would be that her whole body was filled with more ecstasy than it could contain. Juices gushed from her pussy in a way that would have quite embarrassed Jill if she'd been conscious of it. Lethe lapped it all up eagerly and then let her tongue snake into Jill.

Jill didn't scream. She didn't have the energy. Her body writhed violently, consumed with the orgasm crashing into it. Only after the initial shock had passed could she scream again. This time it was a plea, begging Ashura that this moment could last forever.

It didn't, of course. After seven, maybe eight minutes, Jill came back down to Tellius, panting, her chest heaving. Lethe was lying next to her, watching her with an intrigued expression. Jill looked at her and smiled, feeling unable to speak and in any case unable to express what she wanted to say in mere words. Jill got up slightly and Lethe rolled onto her back, exposing her white-furred belly. Jill felt at a loss as to what to do. In their kind-of human shape, laguz probably worked more or less the same as humans, but like this...

Jill let her hand wander through Lethe's fur. Her exploring fingertips eventually found six nipples, but they were just... well... little stubs of flesh. Jill wondered if she would be able to manipulate them to send Lethe to the heights she'd driven her to. She didn't know if it was even possible. Of course, there was always that other place. Jill's fingers glided through Lethe's fur towards her hind legs. When she found the wetness there, she blushed with embarrassment. Here she was, actually trying to feel up a ca-

No. That was not the way to think.

Jill's fingers carefully explored the area, making Lethe purr with delight. The animal sound was strangely pleasing and Jill could feel herself growing wet all over again. When she found... well... call it an opening, Jill carefully slipped her index finger inside. Lethe mewed and squirmed which Jill took to be a good thing and added her middle finger. Inside, Lethe was... familiar. Insofar as Jill could be any judge, Lethe was not exactly the same, but not so different as to be alien.

Jill blinked, realising that she was using cool experimentation as a way to direct her attention away from what she was actually doing. Jill felt almost ashamed of herself. She could enjoy Lethe's attentions in this form, but she couldn't return the favour?

Jill refocussed her attention back on Lethe and noticed that she was doing something right. The laguz had her eyes closed and her body seemed to move to match every little motion of Jill's fingers. Biting her bottom lip, Jill carefully put the rest of her fingers inside. Lethe's sudden snarl startled Jill and the redhead wondered if maybe she'd overdone it. But since Lethe didn't look at her accusingly or had frozen up or anything, this had probably been a kind of happy snarl. Jill guided her hand into Lethe up to the wrist. The laguz snarled again and this time the sound reverberated throughout Jill's body in a way that was just right. Encouraged by this, Jill moved back and forth inside Lethe, enjoying the way her whole hand was enveloped in wet heat and enjoyed Lethe's mewing and snarling even more. With care, but determination, Jill started moving faster until Lethe, panting frantically, froze up for a split second before shuddering throughout her body, snarling loudly. Even though she didn't really know how, Jill tried to draw out Lethe's orgasm for as long as possible. She withdrew her hand from Lethe mere moments before the girl transformed back into her more human shape. It was a bit strange to see. On the battlefield, Lethe transformed almost instantly, but now she seemed to be taking her time, gently gliding from one shape to the other with a lot of inbetween. When the transformation was complete, she opened her eyes and smiled at Jill. Quietly, she grabbed Jill's wrist and licked her hand clean of her own juices. When she was finished, she snuggled up close to Jill and purred.

"Thank you."

"You're... welcome," said Jill. "Uhm... Lethe?"

"Hmm?"

"Was this a kind of test?" Jill asked.

"Maybe," said Lethe. "I just wanted to know if you loved... me."

"And?"

Lethe rolled over so that she was on top of Jill. She smiled briefly before leaning down and kissing her full on the lips.