He didn't wait for me to open the door, but just stepped in. If he found it surprising that I stood in the middle of the room completely naked, covered in rashes and scars, he didn't show it. He himself was still flustered, dirty, covered in blood. His hair was in tousles, his clothes ripped, his skin grey, of dust or loss of blood or just loss, I could not tell. He was panting; he must have walked here. Or run.

I didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to say. He stood in the doorway, catching his breath, while I stood, rested, clean, my hair loose and dripping of sweet water, creating a puddle around me.

"Your hands", he said finally.

"What?" I said, confused. I looked down on my hands. "Oh..." They were covered in blood, not healed due to the combination of how deep they were and my bath dissolving any clots that were trying to form.

Izuna took a few steps forwards. His sword was at his back, I noticed; the sword that would kill me. I took a tentative step back.

"Your hands", he repeated calmly, indicating I had nothing to be afraid of, and walked to me. He hardly reached my lower ribs, I suddenly noticed, and was filled with such a fierce love, it was as if someone had knocked me over. I wasn't ashamed I was frightened; this man could tear me to pieces if he wanted to. "Sit down", he commanded.

"Still commanding the king, are we?" I said, not smiling but shivering in all sorts of hidden places in my naked body.

"Shut up and sit down", he said humourlessly.

I obeyed, sitting down on the white bed. He took my bleeding hands in his small ones. He didn't flinch as he felt the elven touch once more. I, however, gasped; his touch was so pleasant to me. He didn't take any notice of me. Instead, he took a flask containing a gold, thick liquid, as well as a clean cloth from a pocket in his robe, put the containments of the flask on the cloth. He took another step forwards so he was straddling one of my legs. I swallowed.

"This is going to sting", he said, and I was suddenly taken aback to the vision the amethyst planet had showed me.

"This is going to sting."

I looked around the room. The white sheaths... The room...

"Izuna", I said, but suddenly, he put the cloth to my hand, and it stung so much I had to hold my breath. Slowly, very slowly, he cleaned my hands of the blood. After a while, I saw the rashes heal together; it was some sort of medical potion.

"Contains assall", he said calmly. "From the same blue trees as the ones in the cave."

"Izuna..." I said again, this time putting my palm to his cheek. To my great horror, they were wet with tears; I hadn't noticed he was crying. I had never seen a person cry as much as Izuna did, and I found it beautiful, yet it always worried me. "Hey, Izu." My use of his nickname caused him to immediately look up at me. "I love you." His face crumbled up. It was beautiful. "I have never stopped loving you for even a second. Nicholas and I have a history, but we weren't meant for each other. Please..." I swallowed. "Please, love me back."

He clambered up into my naked lap then, pressed his dirty body close to my clean one. I didn't care. Our lips collided like two comets in the skies, creating an explosion that was humongous, yet impossible to hear. He opened his lips up, asking for me, moaning sweetly into my mouth. I put my hands on his robe and tore it off him, ripping the fabric apart. He wore trousers and nothing else beneath, and was so scarred and bruised and bloody, I jerked. He was so much worse off that I had ever been in battle; he fought fiercely and with the entirety of his heart, just like the way he loved.

"Ignore it", he commanded. I found it incredibly intimidating, and I found the intimidation incredibly hot. 

I grabbed his waist and twisted so I threw him onto his back on the bed, clambering on top of him, leaning forwards and finding his lips with mine again, the clean pillows and duvet providing a crisp backdrop beneath us. The cottage had no good ventilation, so it was quickly steaming up with our hot breaths, the floating little lights in the room slowly moving like in orbit, creating a beautiful soft light matching the softness of him.

"I love you", I said. "God, I love you."

I had my finger to him as he lay on his back, and he was somewhere else entirely, somewhere among the stars where I loved taking him, leaning his head back and moaning pathetically, his legs on my shoulders.

"Please", he shuddered.

The window steamed up, making us to enable to see the hammering rain even if we could hear it. I could hear the roar of a distant thunder. In the warmth of the cottage, we were suffocating in our breaths and love for each other. I put myself to him, pushed myself in, his screams guiding me to the same place among the stars where he already was. I missed him so much when he was there without me. I connected our foreheads, he connected his arms around my neck and we kissed deeply, enjoying this little moment of us before I began thrusting.

"You can never be too close", he whispered to my lips, and my lips answered.

I started moving slowly above him, and he sighed with every thrust. I felt my muscles play and ache underneath my skin as I worked for him, and he put his hands on my arm, dug his nails in as he came close to the highest point in the sky for him, leaning his head back and holding his breath in the pure pleasure of the elven touch inside of him.

"Izuna..." I said in between my own moans, sweat pouring down my face. "Izuna, breathe."

He took a deep breath in, and as he breathed out, a crash of thunder went off right above us, and he put his fingers to my back and clawed, creating bleeding rashes and he screamed for me as he came. Seeing him in his pure ecstasy, grabbing the sheets with his beautiful hands covered in the blood from my back, the bulging veins in his arms, his lips parted to prolong the scream, was enough for me to come down with him, too, screaming my heart out as I poured inside him, slumping down on top of him, so large compared to him, and he grabbed on to me and held on with all his might as we both calmed down or tried to.

And he broke down crying.

"I'm sorry!" he wailed. "It was good! It was very good! That's not why I'm crying, it's just... You said you had trusted me, and I know you had! Sorry for breaking it! Sorry for-"

"Shhh", I said, holding him close. I couldn't help but smile at the way he tried to reassure me it had been good; he really was sweet. "Izuna, it's okay. I know I screamed at you. I'm sorry, too."

"The humans hate me! They call me a whore! Micha was my only friend and she's dead! And Nicholas is dead and I'm going to kill you and I don't want to go back to war! I can't do this! I can't do this!"

Izuna was clearly starting to panic. I hugged him close to me and lifted him up into my embrace. I carried him to the bathtub, which I tubbed right back up. I was dirty again so I climbed in with him, leaning my back to the short edge, Izuna in my embrace in front of me with his back to me.

I started cleaning him then, and went on for a good hour, slowly, carefully, as his crying subsided. I pulled out his hairband. I used soap for his hair and his body. I put a cream in his hair and brushed it out with my fingers until it was perfectly smooth. Once done, I got out and lifted him out after which I dried us both with the same clean towel, holding him close to me meanwhile, letting him drink the elven touch. I dressed him in a soft robe I found, then clad myself in another. I carried him to bed, noticed he struggled staying awake so I tucked him into the clean duvet and clambered in behind him. He put a soft fingertip to the rashes on my back.

"Sorry about that", he whispered.

"No, you're not", I said, smiling. He laughed a little, tiredly. "I love you", I whispered.

"I love you, too", he said, and I realised how much I'd been starving for him to say it back to me.

I hugged him close to me, let him nuzzle my jugular notch, and fell asleep next to him, the war continuing outside with new soldiers that had come for the night in the wait for us to return in the morning.