The Devotion of The Sun

Chapter Nine

:!:Recap:!:

"Do you... do you think my horns look pathetic?"

"No, why? What happened nora?" he says as she looks away from him, he cups the side of her face, making her look back up at him. "... Lenore..." the worry in his voice is evident.

✩.･*:｡>──── ⋆☀︎⋆ ────<.•*:｡✩

"I met a spirit, she knows about you, she wants to take you from me, and then she called my horns pathetic, she called me delusional, and she said all I am to you is a guard dog," her voice trembles. "She said my eyes are those of an insane spirits,"

"My Lenore..." he pulls her in closer, wrapping his arms around her waist. "She doesnt know a thing, I like your horns like this, they are cute, and I wouldn't be able to hold you like this if they were large," they'd get in the way. "You aren't delusional, you aren't crazy, and you're not a guard dog, you're very important to me."

"Milo..." she's eased up quite a bit.

"Come, let's go get you changed into something comfortable," she nods following him to their bedroom, "here," he gives her a soft nightgown. "Oh, I also made you some pants that you might like, these ones have very wide legs so it still has the flowy-ness."

"I'll try them on in a bit then," she sees herself in the mirror and flinches. Her veins are still black as ink. "Um... Milo... do I scare you..?" her voice is soft, she looks over to him. "You don't seem scared at all even though my veins are like this,"

"I wouldn't fear you even if you were covered in someone's blood and gore," he helps her take off her headband. "I think you look beautiful, Lenore, I don't fear you because I know you would never hurt me," she warms up.

"Really? you... you think I'm beautiful?"

"Yes really," he smiles. "Your horns are adorable, your eyes are pretty, even your voice..." 'I love everything about you...' he almost slips up and says it outloud. "You put everyone to shame Lenore,"

Her chest warms upon hearing his words. "Thank... thank you Milo," she smiles warmly.

"I'll be in the living room while you change," he reaches for the door, but she automatically grabs his wrist to stop him from leaving.

"Wait... um... well..." she pauses thinking about what she can say, what things she can say to make him stay in the room with her. "can you help me...?" she asks softly, his face heats up as she turns around, moving her hair out of the way.

He steps towards her and carefully unlaces the back, while very aware of the simple fact that she is able to reach it herself, and yet she wanted his help. The gown begins to slide down, she holds the dress against her chest. "Don't leave the room, ok?" she gazes at him as he turns away from her.

"Alright," he closes his eyes. He hears the sound of the dress falling onto the floor, 'my face feels hot,' he's overly aware of everything, she slides on the nightgown and she puts her laundry away before she goes up to him from behind. she wraps her cold arms tight around him.

"You're colder than usual..." he notices. "You should stay close..." he can't mask the worry in his voice. "Although it might be boring, I'm going to read the grimoire some more, its teaching me a lot of cool things i didn't know how to do before,"

"Don't over do it like last time, ok?" She gently plays with his feathers. "And... can you read some of it to me?" She has a soft smile, he nods.

"I won't, I promise, and I'll read it to you all you like," he smiles as he looks back at her.

She holds his hand as they walk back into the living room. 'He's warmer than usual today...' she smiles.

he opens the grimori to where he left off and she sticks close to him, she doesn't let go of his arm. . .

A long while passes, he reads passages to her that he thinks she'll find interesting, the suns set, however he's found a certain spell that has piqued his interest.

'A soul bind... as a solar spirit, the only ones that can withstand our touch are forest spirits and other celestial spirits. Frost spirits are harmed by our heat, humans are burned, but forest spirits are strengthened.' "i just found something interesting, its called a soul bind..."

"Soul bind?" she perks up.

"Yeah, strangely enough it has strict limitations on who i can connect it to, i can only connect it to those who can withstand my heat," he explains, "frost spirits are out of the questions, water spirits are weakened, the only one i can truly connect it too is a forest spirit,"

he reads further. 'The bind can only be completed with complete physical connection, both parties need to be close together, touching skin to skin, and then using your energy or mana, slowly concentrate it at where the skin is touching, put your intent in it, focus. Your intent should be to make this lover your binding yourself to yours permanently, and yourself theirs,'

"How intriguing," he comments, 'to test the strength of your emotional connection, try binding yourselves while holding hands, the bind can't be complete without complete physical contact. If you have a weak connection, you won't feel much,'

"What is it?"

"Lenore... can we try something real quick?" he rubs the back of his neck, his face is pinkish, hers turns bright red.

"Of- of course!" she stammers, 'is he really going to bind our souls together??' her hands lightly grip the skirt of her nightgown.

"Give me your hand please," he requests, she quickly grabs his hand with her own, interlocking their hands together. He holds her hand tight.

She notices the way his hand warms further as it holds her own cold hand. 'My intent... I want to keep Lenore safe, I want her to smile more, I want... I want Lenore...' She pays close attention to the way his gaze softens.

'It feels weird, it's nice though,' the feeling gets stronger. At that moment the two of them feel a zap of sorts, a very pleasurable zap. "Ah," she makes a soft gasp of surprise. His face burns bright red, he stops the spell quickly.