Best to keep feet out of your mouth for now

You loop arms with Vatarie once more feeling your cheeks burning. Opening your door you are a little surprised there isn't a swamp of people standing to watch. As one you and Vatarie walk to the stair and begin to descend. Edin hovers behind you and you can feel the excitement his aura is radiating. You really don't get how your relationship is supposed to work. You want to spend time with him, if being with Vatarie, and possibly any other woman, requires him to not stand three steps behind you need to think if you would be ok with that.

As you reach the second floor you feel Vatarie nudge you. You look at her expecting to see some indication of what she wanted. Both her and aura looked expectant. You wondered if this was a part of the courting ritual you were apparently a involved with. You had no idea what she was after so you just when with what seemed right. "Where is your family from?"

Vatarie gave no outward signs of disappointment but you could read it on her aura. "Astirie. My mother is Duchess Natil."

You miss your step and stumble. It was so embarrassing your magic activates on instinct and you correct yourself. Your stumble only lasted a fraction of second and Vatarie only gave you a somewhat confused expression rather than smirk at you.

"So that means you're–"

"Able to make you very happy." She purred out leaning her head close to your own. You got a nose full of her weirdly pleasant burning smell and she look a long breath through her nose and smiled at you. "You'd fit in well at home." She held your gaze for a long moment and you could swear her lips were calling for own.

You only refrained from the call because you could feel the people on the second floor stirring. You were already the best entertainment on your floor you didn't want to be for this floor as well. Pulling for face away from hers you started walking again. Vataire kept herself pressed against you and her face didn't move, gazing down at you with a soft smile. You felt tingles as her aura wrapped around you.

When you reach the bottom floor she pulled her eyes off you and too the dinning hall. When you approach the door you are relieved to see only two others present and they looked mostly through with their meal. Apparently you attract early rises. You wonder if Vatarie would like to join your morning warm up.

"Come on." Vatarie opens the door and leads the two of you forward. Approaching the plate dispenser you fish your key stone from your pocket. Vatarie held out a hand to stop you. "I am not going to have the man I am courting eat anything but the best." She places her key stone in the slot and a plate slides out her. She takes her plate and stone then reinserts it. You put your key stone away and take the plate. You can't stop yourself from looking over your shoulder and looking at Edin.

Vatarie doesn't acknowledge your looking or Edin himself as she walks with you to the buffet. Edin smiles at you and inserts his stone and gets his plate. You weren't sure you were going to be able to get used to this.

"It's a shame we only have this. You should come my estate, I'm sure you'd be, ecstatic at what I can offer." Vatarie suggestively winked at you.

Looking a the assemble food you didn't see what the shame was, fresh fruits, breads, pastries, honey and some thin cuts of meat. "Do they feed it to you?" You regret saying to because you can feel Vatarie grinning at the flirting she can respond with.

"The ecstasy I was referring to you involved me feeding you." The arm she had looped with yours pulled you closer and you get another nose-full of her increasingly welcome scent.

The imagery she just put into your mind wasn't entirely unwelcome and but after her blue balling of you once already you couldn't stop yourself from saying. "I think we would both enjoy it more if I feed you."

It did not get the reaction you were expecting. Vatarie looked absolutely scandalised. She opened her mouth to respond as a blush spread across her olive skin. "I– that would–" You try to cover the error by snatching a piece of fruit from the buffet and holding to her mouth. "Oh." She took a bite seemingly relieved with the suggestion you weren't suggesting what you had been suggesting.

You weren't sure what was so wrong with what you said. It didn't seem any more aggressive than your flirting with Anastasia and she responded well to it and she was a princess. The two of you picked out your food and hurried to sit down together. You grab a decent array hoping to try most of the options. Vatarie grabbed meat and some a few fruits.

"The estate is on Mount Taia isn't it?" You ask hoping to move past your apparently terrible attempt at flirting. Mount Taia is one of the hills in the capital but you don't know the geography well enough to place it.

"Yes my Mother only uses it when she visits the capital so while she is back home, we can use it at our leisure." She seems to have recovered from your attempted flirting and sounded almost wistful.

"Why are you staying at the Academy then? To far to travel when classes start?" It seemed a little odd she would stay here if she had an entire estate at her disposal.

"It's tradition." She sounded a little proud and you felt a slight hint of irritation at the implication staying here was some sort of trial. "But we could move to the estate if you want."

Ok something was weird about this. "Why are you courting me?" It seemed irrational for the daughter of a Duchess to be courting the son of a Lord who was here on a sponsorship, provided by Princess Anastasia. You hoped you hadn't just put together the answer, you didn't like the idea of being used for access, it started a bad precedent.

Vatarie turns to look at you. "Because when we in the bathes ..." She looked very unsure all of a sudden. She leaned over to your to quietly whisper. "We shared something and I liked it." The unsureness was still present and you remembered holding her close against you.

"You were warm." You murmured as her closeness and the memory started to get a reaction out of you.

"You were strong." Vatarie's closest arm reached up and stroked fingers across your back to feel your muscles.

"You are strong." You respond bring your own arm up to feel the muscles on her back. You remembered working the knots out of her. "But I need oil to massage properly."

"Then I'll have some brought to the baths." Vatarie's face was very close to you own and your were struggling to think of a reason to not press your lips against her. "Why do you smell like home?" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her arm on your back moved to your side to pull you closer to her. "You even feel like it."

She was homesick. That must be it, you weren't sure why you smelled of felt like her home but her attraction to you made more sense when you realised that. "When was the last time you were home?"

"Two years. Mother sent me her to prepare for the academy. I hate this place." She leaned her head forwards to press it against your shoulder. "It's cold and wet, and everything smells like salt. Expect you." Your arm mirrors hers as you wrap it around her side to press yourselves harder together.

So that was it, you hadn't been near the sea for long enough for the salt to get into your clothes and skin. "It won't last." You feel a compulsion to say it if she liked you because of how you smell when that smell changes she might not like you anymore.

"I don't care. I just miss home so much." She sounded ****. In the room where you first met her and how she introduced herself you would have never thought **** would be a word to describe her.

"Why did you come up to me and Edin last night."

Her **** cut a little and she smiled. "You two look hot together." After a moment you both laughed. The honest brevity bought the tender moment to a natural end, unlike the one in the baths. She leaned a little to the side. "He is very pretty." You follow her gaze and see Edin sitting a little away from you chewing on some fruit looking at the two of you. He smiles at the attention and you smile warmly back.

"He is."

The two of you finally start to eat and you are unsurprised to taste amazing food. As you eat you are reminded of the way-station magic infused food and your assumption that the nobles wouldn't have such because commoners did. You are disappointed to find you were correct. Last night you had been eating middle noble food, you were hoping the upper noble food would have magic so you could investigate it a bit more.

Still you clean your plate, enjoying the food immensely. With just one meal of each class you aren't sure can see the difference. Maybe it just comes down to palate, yours probably isn't as refined as duchess daughter's is. You look over to see her finishing off her meat based breakfast.

"Enjoy it?" You asked.

"It's ok but it's no Rakat." She sighs and leans back a little.

"Rakat?" You don't recognise the name.

"Sand Raptor." She smiles at you. "Can grow to twice my size and have claws sharp enough to cut through most blades." Apparently she had some fond memories though with a description like that you wondered what sort they were. "Cuddliest things you will ever meet. Giant scaly attention addicts." That is not where you thought the description was going.

"Sounds interesting." You don't know who to respond but you do want to see one. "Are there any Rakat in the area?"

"No. They hate salt." She sounded a bit bitter and you worry she would fall back into homesickness. "What's your home like?" She seemed aware of how she was falling and want to stop it.

"Alsera." Saying the name pulls back memories of forests. "It's two days inland from the capital. My father's estate is surrounded on three sides by forests. In the winter the trees get this dusting of snow that you can shake off making the giant green tower standing amongst the white." The memory come flooding back and the wave of homesickness with them. "The staff were always smiling and happy to talk to me, they always acting like I was better at things then I was. And my dad ..." You trail off as the memories start to overwhelm you. It had only been two days and you felt like you were on the verge of tears. "He always said he was proud of me, but I knew I was never as good as he'd hoped." It was a feeling you'd had for years but until now you'd never put it into words. You knew it wasn't true, your dad loved you and was proud of you, but you were always just average. You're inability to be more must have disappointed him.

You felt a warm hand take your own and you looked down to see Vatarie interlacing her fingers with yours. "Parents." She was smiling you saw a reflection of your feelings in her eyes. You leaned your head forwards. You didn't want to kiss but you wanted to feel close without intimacy. Vatarie seemed to feel the same way as you felt her forehead press against your own.

You could feel her heartbeat though the skin contact. It was a strong pulsing and it made you feel better. Not just a shared experience of disappointing you parent but a feeling of familiarity with one another.

"What about your mother?" Vatarie asked after a moment.

You moved back, thankful for the change of topic. "I never knew her, she died right after I was born." As you spoke of her your free hand drifted to the ring that was dangling around your neck. It had been there for two days and you didn't remember taking it off. You didn't even remember taking it off for the bath. Had you really been wearing it for two days straight?

"Sorry to hear. Everyone should know their mother." The two of you sat in comfortable silence for a moment before you heard the chatter approaching.

The dinning hall had been filling up slowly but a mass of students had just opened the doors and walked inside. "Looks like breakfast is over." Vatarie sighed and looked at you. "Did you have a good time?" She sounded a little nervous.

"Best breakfast I've ever had." You respond with a smile.

She let go of your hand and stood up. You weren't sure why, it seemed like a very sudden separation. "Me too." She gave a quick smile before walking away. You watch her go and see her join up with a few other women. They immediately start talking and throwing looks at you. That explains the separation, she wanted to talk to her friends and it was a bit early to introduce you to them.

You looked at Edin and he was watching her talk to her friends. You get up and walk over to him. He didn't seem to notice your presence. "Sorry about that." You feel bad for just leaving him like that.

"You can make it up to me Sir." He says it so only you can hear him and looks down at his plate. He had barely touched any of the food on it.

You remember your interrupted moment with him and blood rapidly moves downwards. "Our room." You don't bother trying to be subtle. And he grins up at you.

"Thank you Sir." He hops up and skips to the door. You have to move in a more controlled stride to avoid attention being drawn to you. You couldn't make any adjustments to your pants so had to be careful. Vatarie and her friends were still shooting glances at you.

You make it out of the dinning hall and see Edin eagerly waiting at the foot of the stairs. You join him but rather than going up the stair together you say, "You first." Edin looked a little unsure and looks over your shoulder, presumably thinking Vatarie had said something to you. You shake you head and lean to whisper in his ear. "I want to stare at your ass as you climb." He gets goofy grin and quickly starts climbing slightly exaggerating his steps to make his hips shake with each step.

By the time you reach your floor your erection as hard as it gets and Edin was barely able to keep a steady pace and not run for your room in excitement.

Unfortunately your floor is not empty. People were gathering to go down to the dinning hall. The moment the see the two of you they stop moving. Everybody here stops at the same time and recalls you suggesting a public sex act and apparently most of them thought now was the time for that. Edin either doesn't notice or doesn't care as he keeps walking through them. You follow his steps, feeling some disappointed eyes on you. And more than a few glances directed at your pants.

You'd never really thought about exhibitionism much before but after the baths and this you might be developing an interest.

Edin had your door open and waiting for you. When you stepped through the door you could feel the eyes follow you. Edin held the door open, silently waiting for your instruction on what to do with it.