Despite his experimentation, his pushing, she didn’t break and it was commendable because he expected her to by this point of his curious and physical examination of her body. It was as she thought, he wanted to see and feel him without words, and she was doing so, he hoped. He didn’t know how well the lesson would be cemented within Elann given there was no objective clearly given to her before he started. The only instruction he had given her was to be slow and calm. He wasn’t seeking to torment her and force her into what she felt was wrong, but the object was to teach and to strengthen the bond shared between them on an emotional level, disregarding the spiritual cord between their hearts.

Elann closed her eyes to him as he went over her Cheva mark. He met them when they reopened. With her hand over his torso, he pressed against it and pecked her on the lips once more. It was a signal of the end as he withdrew his hand from her, placing it on the hand she had on him. He clutched the back of hers in his hand, moving it to rest in the tiny space between them. As he set their hands down the emotion in his bond began to waver and fade, taking back to its usual self of quiet buzzing, the ache of his body becoming more apparent. In the lasting moments of his test of her, he hid himself away from her again because of the ache returning to him consciously as well.

Noah’s heart lessened in its thud and his eyes weren’t as perceptive as they had grown to be in the creeping moment. About himself, he learned what on her physically attracted him to her and it was all the things that reminded him of Zeltiva. He supposed they were always there, always plain to see, he simply hadn’t made the connection yet until this night. Now the connection had been made, and now he could accurately show how he desired her as opposed to how she desired him, in the way she wanted him to desire her too.

The bass-filled feelings gave way to clear skies in his heart and he took a final breath to recollect himself a final time. Words alone couldn’t say how he was impacted by her willingness to see him, but it was a great amount. So great, in fact, he hoped it would remain. Knowing how the world was and how Elann could be, all could change again in the next day or the next week, and so he waited. His patience played into his unforgiving nature because once he saw the patterns of a creature, a creature like Elann, he only waited until they made the same mistake again. Elann had fallen into those patterns and now he was waiting for her to slip up. He wouldn’t pounce, capitalizing on her misstep, he would quietly reside in his hurt and disappointment.

Noah looked at their hands, letting his eyes fall from Elann’s to view the last of the physical touch between them. He waited for her to speak, thinking she would because he wasn’t. The moment was over, his feelings had fallen and been hid away per his choice. He trusted she would love him in his way and wouldn’t press him to love her in the way she wanted him to. His love couldn’t be shaped because it wasn’t hers, it was his. Noah sought for her to respect that.