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I like when she kisses me.It always made his heart flutter.

A purr immediately started up, only for it to drown when he slipped away into the water to leave.

With a drowned groan, Nathair weakly leapt out onto the lake’s edge. He didn’t make it far, only half his humanoid torso exiting the water. He clawed at the stone with one hand and an elbow to stop himself from slipping back in.

Unable to see Linh, Nathair heard her soft, steady breaths, as if she were asleep somewhere. His sight fell on the recess of his nest, hoping she’d crawled into it despite his absence.

It was her bed, as much as his own.

Dammit. I don’t feel well,he thought, placing her bag of plums on the ledge.

He took a moment to breathe and settle the loud chatter of voices zipping past in his consciousness.

I don’t understand. I was fine before I left her.He pondered as to why the fragments came in a rockslide.Is it because I held them back for so long?

It’d been over thirty-six hours since one had come to the forefront of his mind. He’d never had that happen before.

The day on the beach, their journey to the quartz crystals, their night of passion... It’d all drawn his focus to one bigpinnacle point: her. It was always her. Somehow, she kept the agony at bay.

Then he’d parted from her.

With his hand reaching up to pick a plum in the daylight, he’d woken to it being... night.

Nathair had seen nothing, heard nothing, and scented nothing of the real world. A fragment had reached to take an orange from a tree, just as he did with a plum, and he’d slipped out of consciousness completely.

He didn’t even think being attacked would have woken him.

Dark orange flared in his sight.I left her for hours.At least she was safe.

He’d been hoping she’d be awake to greet and soothe him.

Nathair crawled out of the water, having to bunch his tail underneath him to get leverage. Then he checked to truly take in how she’d chosen to sleep in his nest without his presence. His chest swelled before he choked at the fragment of a mother staring down at their child in a cot.

He shook his skull, then reached in to pull the cloth higher until it covered her exposed neck.Her hair is loose.Only when she planned to change styles did she briefly have it down.

After checking on her, Nathair went to the entrance of the tunnels to scent down them. He even flicked his tongue forward to fully sense whether a Demon was slowly infiltrating. Deciding it was fine, he came back to Linh.

I want to lie with her.His heart swelled to hold her.

He didn’t. He didn’t trust his current mental state, as it was weaker than usual. The voices were too loud, so he laid his torso over the ledge of his nest wall and gazed down at her.

Even though she was asleep, he craved her battling his fragments for him. His senses soaked her in.

His sight took in her beauty as she lay curled up on her side, with a folded bit of cloth under her head as a pillow. She lookeduncomfortable, and he took solace in that; he was a better bed for her.

She smells so nice.The aroma of her peach-and-vanilla scent, and the utter sweetness of it, swirled in his nostrils until he let out a warmed pant.She’s so small and light.His ears listened to her fragile heart, so tiny and delicate, and he let it lull him. He also noted how her even breaths were soft, perfectly rhythmic, and were at ease.

She really is a remarkable creature,he thought, reaching in to brush some of her black strands from her face. His claws were unsteady as he tucked them behind her ear, but he made sure to be gentle so he didn’t scratch her.

Nathair allowed just a knuckle’s worth of touch, and her heat shot up his hand like a spark. He caressed the curve of her ear, her lobe, until he trailed his thick finger down her jaw.

He didn’t realise how fast and frantic his heart had been beating until Linh’s unmoving presence calmed it. A sigh of relief flittered out of him, and he just let himself be lost in the female he had in his keeping. Back bent, the base of his tail straight before it looped to the left, he folded an arm on top of the nest’s ledge.

I don’t think she will mind that I am doing this.He was touching her face and neck while admiring her, but he had no ill intent with it. He didn’t even care that she wasn’t awake to realise he was being affectionate. The secret of it felt special.

Trying to keep all focus on her, he thought it would keep the fragments at bay. But he was tired – she had not managed to sing to him in days – and drained. By the time he realised what was happening, his muscles locked up and white bled into his sight.

It stole all of her from him. He experienced nothing but the many fragments that hammered for attention, as if angered he’d managed to shove them back for so long. His body went colderthan normal, and he didn’t even have the strength to shiver in repulsion.