This thing with Vex isn't inherently sexual -- or, at least, it isn't always sexual. When Keyleth compared herself against Vex'halia, the ranger always seemed infinitely cooler, more suave, inherently sexy whereas Keyleth often feels like she's still just a teenager, fumbling and awkward and never quite used to the gangly lines and angles of her body or the power thrumming through her veins.
Being with Vex, kneeling for Vex helps Keyleth finally feel in tune with her body, helps her settle into her skin in a way she's never been able to manage on her own. Perhaps a poor facsimile or imitation thereof when compared against Vex's casual sensuality, but Keyleth feels most like herself, like she belongs when she's on her knees for Vex'halia.
She startles when slim, manicured fingers click next to her ear, blinking out of the haze of her thoughts. Vex curls a hand under her chin to draw Keyleth's gaze upwards to her own.
"Where did you go, darling?"
Keyleth swallows, leaning into the press of Vex's hand. "Just in my head," she mumbles quietly, shivering in the cool air of the room as her awareness comes back in stages.
"I hope you aren't trying to think your way out of this," Vex cautions, a smooth edge to her voice. "I only want you to focus on me, my darling girl."
The praise sends a zing of sensation shuddering down her spine as Keyleth inhales sharply, pupils dilating wide. She shakes her head at the inquiring tilt to Vex's, swallowing around her suddenly dry throat. "No, I'm not."
Vex's eyebrows arch high. "You aren't what , darling?"
"I'm not trying to think my way out of this, m-mistress." Keyleth curses mentally, wants to curl inwards on herself at the stutter, but Vex's hand under her chin remains firm and unyielding, and she hasn't been told she can move.
"Very good, my darling Keyleth." A warm thumb strokes across the blush flaring her pale cheeks red, and Vex's smile grows sharp. "Always so good for me like this."
"Yes, mistress." Keyleth leans into the touch like a woman starved, feeling her mind settle more firmly into existing here for Vex, being good for Vex. "Thank you, mistress."
With one last tracing touch, Vex releases her chin to sit back in her chair, her dark gaze sweeping up and down Keyleth's nude form with intent.
"You're beautiful, you know that?" Vex says after a while, her gaze flicking back up long enough to ensure Keyleth is paying attention. "So tall, and strong, and powerful ."
Keyleth lets the full body shiver caused by the words move through her senses, hands resting atop her thighs -- she knows now without asking that Vex's original question was more rhetorical, that she's supposed to sit through the words of praise until directed to speak again.
(At the start of this, they had many fumbles and near-misses, Vex learning how exactly to work Keyleth down into the space and mindset where she could accept praise, and Keyleth learning how to exist and be perceived in a way she normally avoids like the plague.
With Vex, she feels beautiful, powerful, strong -- whatever Vex says is true and she can believe it.
Sometimes Keyleth still isn't quite sure what she does for Vex by comparison, but she's growing better at recognizing those moments as they happen and pushing the negative thoughts away.
It's a work in progress, but she's trying, and Vex tells her that's all she wants, is for Keyleth to try .
For Vex'halia, Keyleth thinks she could do anything.)
A low chuckle by her ear startles Keyleth back into her body.
"You're really drifting for me today, aren't you?" She's not sure when Vex moved, can see dark hair and a blue feather out of the corner of her eye, feels warmth hovering behind her but still not quite touching.
"S-sorry." Keyleth flinches at the stutter, tension beginning to tighten the muscles and lines of her body, the warm floaty feeling from earlier dissolving into abject embarrassment. "Sorry, mis -- Vex, sorry, I--"
Gentle hands cradle her cheeks, Vex moving from behind her to sit crosslegged just past Keyleth's knees. She leans into the touch desperately, struggling to bite back the threat of tears.
"Sssh, my darling, it's fine. You're doing so well for me, I promise," Vex speaks low and soothing, thumbs stroking over the stardust freckles on her cheeks, dark gaze focused on her own. "Breathe for me, nice and easy now."
Keyleth comes back to herself in quiet counts of breath and the touch of Vex's hands against her face, breathing deep and even by the time her mind has finally settled back on even keel.
Vex reads her expression, the corner of her mouth turning in a gentle smile. "There you are. You with me now?"
Keyleth nods, leaning into Vex's touch until the ranger shifts their weight to let Keyleth lay down and stretch out against her front, head cradled against her chest. "Couldn't turn my brain off," She grumbles, extracting an arm from where it's awkwardly pinned between their bodies.
Vex chuckles softly, using one hand to trace the curve of Keyleth's exposed ear down to her hairline, a soothing motion that repeats when Keyleth nuzzles into it. "You're supposed to let me do the thinking during this, darling."
Keyleth shrugs. "Thoughts got too busy. Couldn't focus. 'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize, Kiki darling. As I've always said, having you like this for me is a gift itself. If it's not working for you today that's fine. We can always adjust." Vex continues her absent tracing -- ear, up and over to the hairline, slow and gentle before it repeats -- with a fond lilt in her voice. "That's how this works. We try things, and if it's not working we talk about it."
Keyleth wrinkles her nose, nuzzling harder into Vex's chest to elicit a soft laugh at the tickle of it. "Still, you were…" She sighs, piecing through the weird soup of her brain for the words she wants. "I like it, being like this for you. Makes me feel like me."
"You are you no matter if you're kneeling for me so I can tell you you're beautiful and strong or not, Keyleth," Vex murmurs, soft and reverent. "Always."
She shrugs, noting absentmindedly that she'd normally feel awkward being naked like this with Vex lying under her in her breastband and smallclothes, but for now it seems nice and not awkward. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"If you say I'm me even when I'm not kneeling for you, then I believe it," Keyleth says quietly, lifting her head to meet Vex's adoring gaze. "I feel like I can do anything if you're the one to tell me I can." Her mouth twists, frowning slightly. "Well. Not like that . Just…"
The twinkle in Vex's eyes betrays the laugh she clearly wants to let out, but she remains soft, still cradling the side of Keyleth's face in one hand. "I understand, darling. If I believe in you, you can believe in you."
"Right." Relieved, Keyleth fights past the instinctual embarrassment of being known so intimately, keeping her eyes on Vex's. "A-and I like it. Being called beautiful and strong and smart and pretty. I feel like I'm all of those things when I'm with you, and I like being all of those things when I'm with you. And it helps when I'm not, so I'm better about feeling like I'm all of those things all the time."
Vex smiles through her ramble, leaning in at the end to press her lips against Keyleth's. "Always, my darling."
She blushes, sinking into another kiss that's really more just languid presses of lips and the soft exchange of breath, and ducks down to settle into the crook of Vex's neck with a soft sigh, suddenly exhausted. "And maybe... you can start telling me these things when we're not like this, sometimes. Maybe."
Warm arms encircle her torso in a firm hug, Vex's voice humming beneath her ear a warm comfort. "Of course, we can talk about it. We'll figure it out, Kiki. I promise."
Keyleth hums, her eyes dragging sluggishly against the urge to keep telling Vex how much this helps her, how much she loves it. "...'m fallin' sleep."
"That's fine, darling, you can go to sleep. You did so good for me today." Vex squeezes her tighter for a moment before helping her resituate so Vex can curl around her back. "There we go, darling."
"Love you."
"And I love you, darling."
Entwined, surrounded by Vex's warmth and the pleased happy feeling in her chest of being
