Sanctuary of the Same Bed (1)
The Hero held the Saintess in his arms for a long while without moving.
The hand wrapped around her back did not press against her body, yet the warmth of his palm never left the space beneath her shoulder blades.
His breath was close enough to brush the ends of her hair.
The Saintess recovered her breath within his embrace. The body heat against her bare skin still felt unfamiliar, and the hand resting on her back trembled finely several times.
This man was trembling now as well.
“Ria.”
“Yes.”
“It's my first time too.”
The Saintess lifted her head a little within his arms.
Her eyelids rose slowly.
“Yours as well, Hero?”
“Yeah.”
The Hero tried to smile a little, but the smile came out a bit awkward.
“Dating, and marriage too.”
The strength that had been in his fingertips loosened a little.
He had always stood ahead of her. He had seemed like someone who endured everything first, knew everything first, held on first.
Yet now the tips of his fingers holding the Saintess's hand were trembling as clumsily as her own.
The Saintess smiled very faintly.
“Then… we can take it slowly together.”
The Hero's breath caught short.
A brief strength entered the hand he was holding.
The tips of the Saintess's ears flushed red.
Still she continued speaking.
“I have learned things. I learned them at the Order, and I know them medically as well. But…”
She lightly placed a hand over her own chest.
“Feeling it myself is a first for me.”
“Yeah.”
“So I might be surprised too. It might hurt, or it might be frightening.”
The Saintess paused to catch her breath.
“When that happens… please wait for me just a little.”
The Hero listened to those words for a long time.
Then he slowly nodded.
“I understand.”
Even after they moved onto the bed, the Hero did not immediately come over her.
He laid the Saintess down on the white sheets and, with his fingertips, brushed her disheveled silver hair to the side.
The white sheets spread beneath her silver hair. The low lighting gently wrapped her body, and the city lights outside the window swayed faintly through the curtains.
The Saintess brought her two hands together before her chest, then released them again.
A prayer rose in her mind but did not leave her lips.
She reached out and took the Hero's hand.
“If I'm scared, I'll tell you.”
The Hero took her hand and first pressed his lips to the back of it.
Where his lips touched, the Saintess's fingertips trembled lightly.
As he slowly moved to the inside of her wrist, the Saintess swallowed her breath and exhaled a little late.
His lips passed the inside of her arm and reached her shoulder. The Hero's fingertips followed over her skin at the same pace.
At first the Saintess tensed and stiffened her body. Each time his fingertips touched, her shoulder trembled lightly.
Each time, the strength left the Hero's fingertips first.
The place of contact remained the same, but only the pressure pressing into her skin lessened.
As that light warmth lingered in the same place, the Saintess's stiffened shoulders gradually lowered.
It was the same when his lips touched.
Their lips slightly missed, and their breaths collided in the same place.
The two of them stopped almost at the same time. The Saintess lowered her eyes in embarrassment.
They were so close that the Hero's breath trembled right above her own lips.
The Saintess also did not know where to exhale her breath and faltered for a moment.
“This is… difficult too.”
The Hero laughed lowly.
“I can't do it well either.”
The strength left the Saintess's shoulders.
The force with which she had been biting her lip also loosened late.
“Then… we can get used to it together.”
After saying it, her face flushed hotly.
The Saintess drew close to him again.
The two of them pressed their lips together once more.
This time it was a little slower. Lips touched, parted, and touched again. When their breaths misaligned, both paused briefly, then drew close again.
The Saintess carefully grasped the Hero's shoulder. In her fingertips she felt his tension.
She was not the only one trembling.
The Saintess lessened the strength a little from the shoulder she was holding.
And this time, she first followed his lips very briefly.
The Hero's hand slowly descended from the Saintess's shoulder.
His fingertips passed beneath her collarbone and stopped above her breast.
The Saintess lowered her eyes in embarrassment and placed her own hand over the back of his.
She could not immediately say it was all right.
Her lips moved a few times, and strength entered the fingertips she had placed over the back of his hand.
“At first…”
The Saintess spoke with difficulty.
“Please don't do it too hard.”
After saying it, her face flushed bright red. Telling him how to treat her body was far more embarrassing than she had thought.
The Hero answered lowly.
“Yeah. I'll go slowly.”
His palm carefully cupped her breast.
The Saintess squeezed her eyes shut.
The moment the warmth of his palm spread along the rounded flesh, a small sound escaped from her throat.
“Ah…”
The strength left the Hero's fingertips.
“Did I startle you?”
The Saintess tried to nod, then stopped.
Her breath cut off first.
The fingers covering the back of his hand stiffened reflexively, then loosened late.
The warmth of his palm slowly seeped beneath her skin.
She had learned of it before.
She knew that such a reaction was a natural thing.
But the sensation of feeling it directly with the Hero's hand was completely different from what she had known from books or education.
The Saintess covered the back of his hand with her trembling hand.
“It's not that it hurts.”
“Yeah.”
“My body is startled first. Just a little… more slowly.”
“I understand.”
The Hero's touch grew even slower.
His palm carefully cupped above her breast, and his fingertips moved very slowly along the rounded line. The Saintess, eyes closed, tried to follow that sensation.
Her body reacted in an unfamiliar way.
Feeling her nipples harden with unfamiliar tension, the Saintess squeezed her eyes shut even tighter in embarrassment.
The Saintess bent the fingertips resting on the back of his hand very slightly.
With that small force, she made his hand linger a little longer.
The Hero followed that small force.
His touch was careful. It was clumsy, and sometimes he stopped as if not knowing how far he could go. Each time, the Saintess, holding the back of his hand, slowly regulated her breath.
Because of the embarrassment she could not open her eyes.
Instead her fingertips pressed a little more firmly on the back of his hand.
The Hero's lips touched her shoulder. The Saintess's body trembled lightly again.
This time, before the Hero could ask, the Saintess spoke first.
“I was startled again.”
The Hero's breath trembled very slightly like a laugh.
“I understand.”
Without removing his lips, he touched even more lightly.
The Saintess closed her eyes.
Each time a kiss remained on her skin, the Saintess's breath changed little by little.
At first her shoulders drew in first. Then strength entered the fingertips gripping the back of his hand.
The Hero's lips lingered lightly in the same place, then moved to the next only as much as the Saintess's breath loosened.
The breath that had been blocked at first gradually found a place to follow.
The Saintess regulated her breath while holding the back of his hand.
“Hero.”
“Yeah.”
“I still… don't really know.”
“Yeah.”
The Saintess continued speaking with difficulty without releasing the back of his hand.
“But I think I'm starting to understand a little.”
At those words the Hero's hand paused for a moment.
He looked at the Saintess's face.
The Saintess wanted to avert her eyes, but she looked at him as she was.
“If you go slowly for me, Hero… I can follow along little by little too.”
The Hero could not say anything for a while.
Ria's body was warmer and softer than he had thought.
As that warmth touched him, the Hero belatedly realized that he was holding Ria right now.
But the Ria beneath his fingertips now was different.
Even with trembling hands she was holding his, and even with a face flushed in embarrassment she was looking at him.
The strength left the Hero's fingertips once more.
The breath that wanted to draw closer still remained.
As if swallowing that breath, the Hero's hand moved even more slowly in the same place, following the force with which the Saintess held him.
The Hero's hand descended below her waist.
The moment his fingertips touched the inside of her thigh, the Saintess's legs reflexively drew together.
The Hero's hand stopped there.
Only the warmth of his fingertips remained on the inside of her thigh.
“Ria.”
The Saintess regulated her breath with a flushed face.
“Just a moment.”
“Yeah. I'll wait.”
The Saintess consciously exhaled a long breath.
“I… still can't relax yet.”
The Hero did not move.
Without releasing the hand the Saintess held, he remained right there.
The Saintess slowly inhaled and exhaled following his breath.
Once.
Twice.
The tension still remained.
The strength gradually left her drawn-together legs, and her knees parted just a little.
Realizing that her knees had parted, the Saintess turned her gaze to the side.
The gap that had opened remained as it was, and the Saintess regulated her breath in that state.
“Now…”
The Saintess spoke with difficulty.
“If it's slowly… it's all right.”
The Hero nodded at those words.
His fingertips carefully touched again.
At first they stopped on the inside of her thigh.
The Saintess's body stiffened lightly again.
There was a little gap remaining between her knees.
The Hero's hand descended even more slowly.
The moment his fingertips touched between her legs, the Saintess gripped their interlaced fingers more tightly.
“Euk…”
It was unfamiliar this time as well.
Rather than pain, the inside of her body drew in first. Deep in her lower abdomen it pulled unfamiliarly, and heat gathered between her legs.
The Saintess did not know how to put that sensation into words.
The words she had learned at the Order rose belatedly.
That the body gradually prepared to accept.
That that preparation did not necessarily come only peacefully.
But feeling it directly with the Hero's fingertips was completely different.
His fingertips carefully explored the deep place.
The Saintess's body trembled again.
Where his fingertips touched, heat and slippery wetness spread together.
Her body was growing wet.
The Saintess realized that fact and flushed.
The gap between her knees remained a little more.
A little more strength entered the fingers gripping the back of his hand.
Beneath that embarrassing change, her body was gradually accepting the Hero's touch.
The Saintess closed her eyes while tightly holding his hand.
It was still unfamiliar.
Her body trembled, but her fingertips gripped the back of his hand more firmly.
The Hero followed that small force and leaned a little closer.
The time after that continued with very small words.
Each time a hand touched, the Saintess first swallowed her breath, and the Hero, as if startled by that sound of breath, briefly slowed his fingertips. If the Saintess did not release the back of his hand, his hand remained in the same place with only the force lessened a little more.
It was the same when his lips passed over her breast and touched her nipple.
“Ah…”
The Saintess hurriedly closed her lips.
It was a face more startled by the sound she herself had made.
As the Saintess's shoulders drew in, the Hero's lips also briefly slowed. The Saintess regulated her breath with closed eyes, then gripped the back of his hand more tightly.
At that small force, this time the Hero's breath trembled.
The Saintess could feel that trembling as well.
The Hero's fingertips, his lips, his breath—all were slowing a little each time they first touched.
The Saintess drew his hand up with her trembling hand and placed it over her own heart.
“I'm trembling a lot too.”
“I can feel it.”
“You are too, Hero.”
The Hero could not say anything for a moment.
The Saintess smiled faintly.
“Because we're trembling together… it's a little less scary.”
The Hero closed his eyes at those words, then opened them.
And this time, very slowly, he pressed his lips to hers once more.
