•Tomoe x Reader: Book 2•

6. Apples

"So... I'm still hungry."
You broke the silence after another... had it been an hour? A day? Time felt very strange, since entering the forest of Ether.

Tomoe's hair had been snagged from his braid, and was now in a strange bun he held with a stick. He had done so with extreme distaste, not wanting something so dirty in his hair.

"I'm aware. But you really can't eat the fruit, the tree will eat you, as I said, human. Stop eyeing them."

You tapped your hands together. "Well... what if I snag a fruit, and then you use your fire to tell the tree that I'm not for eating?"

He stopped, stared at you. Even tired, his eyes still seemed so incredibly beautiful. "Human, really..."

Still, he seemed to be considering it. The yokai shook his head as if ridding himself of the thoughts by force.

"It's forbidden, and extremely dangerous."

Your stomach felt like it was going to eat itself, and the quiver of the familiar 'compass' in your chest seemed to shift ever so slightly.

"My stomach says that we need to turn a bit to the le-... was that there before?"

Tomoe shifted his gaze suspiciously to what you had pointed at.

"It's very rare... but sometimes the underworld mirrors the overworld. In strange ways, but-..."

You grabbed onto his hand before he could speak, and began to run in that direction.

"Oh, gosh, really?" You exclaimed. "Food-... apple trees."

The area before you was jagged and looked as if someone had tried to cut and paste one scene to another. It was the size of a room, maybe larger, and though the scene did not hold a sun, it was lit up in a bright sunshine that had been so very missed in a dark world like this.

"Tomoe..." you breathed, feeling like the scraggly little apple trees were the most beautiful thing you had ever seen. "Is it safe?"

He looked... apprehensive. "It should be. If it's a mirror of above... it is probably no different from your world."

He had barely finished the sentence before you had picked the nearest fruit from the closest tree. It was warm and ripe, and the grass beneath your feet was a relief when you had been walking on compact, cold ground so very long.

"Tomoe?"

You looked to him, offered the apple. "Taste for poison?"

He, for once, looked at you like you knew what you were doing.
"I suppose... it couldn't hurt."

He took the thing, and delicately bit off a piece of one side.
He chewed, swallowed.

"It's just an apple."

You took it from his palms, and ate from it immediately.

Tomoe stiffened slightly. The tips of his ears had gone pink. "You just-... I just-..."

You grinned slightly, the sweet nectar of the fruit trying its best to make a mess of your shirt. Fortunately, you hadn't taken too big of a bite.

"I know."

He seemed incredibly... shaken. "I know you had to kiss me to make the contract, but that was business, this is just..."

The male covered his face with his hand as his cheeks began to warm. "...unsanitary."

"I'm not going to die from it. Don't worry."

The face he was making... for a tough, fire-wielding yokai... he was extremely cute. It brought a flutter to your chest.

Tomoe looked so much better in the sunlight, even if it was artificial. It felt like his features were illuminated in a whole new way, when you had gone in the half-dark with him for so long.

"Tomoe..." you sighed softly, wishing for a scandalous little moment that there was something more than this apple against your lips.

You flushed, realizing that you had just imagined something quite obscene.

It was too much of a thought, someone so pretty with someone like yourself, someone so... inhumanely... beautiful.

It was... it made your heart feel like it was going to beat out of your chest.

"...You. You're... quiet. That's new." He spoke, though his tone was soft.

You heard the rustle of his robes as the male crouched next to you, and you hadn't really remembered sitting down. Your cheeks flushed further. How incredibly embarrassing...

"(Name). Look at me."

You did, barely. Though... the face he was making was remarkably different from the possessiveness of the previous scene. Rather... he looked just as flushed as you were.

Maybe it was the gentle breeze wafting through his hair, maybe it was something in the way this familiar, sunny little prairie reminded you of home, of the world that was not over yonder.

You barely remembered, in this moment, that you were a god and he was your familiar. You did not focus on anything but his breathing, the sound of it, and the distance between your lips which seemed to be rapidly closing.

You had thought there would be some shock, some lightning, some strange zing or zap or something like books would describe it, but instead your lips melded together without such resistance, warm and as if they were less alien to each other than anything could be.

It felt... right. You tasted the slightest bit of the apple he had bitten, along with a deeper, intoxicating flavor which felt like it would swallow the both of you up.

His hands had moved into your hair, gently and yet secure with need.

It felt like the top of your head would buzz off, you were almost dizzy... until the world began to shift beneath you.