[b][s]Melody![/s] Lotus![/b]

She’s so sorry.

This was supposed to be your moment. Private. Special. Something between you, and Emli, and nobody else. You ought to feel twice…no, you should’ve felt [i]three[/i] times as good as Han just did, because. Because. You just should, alright?!

And she tried. Please, believe her. She tried so hard. She found this incredible bit of engraving on the wall paneling, and, did you know that the same pattern repeats over the entire room? You can’t see it real easy, because it’s sorta offset from row to row, but she’s pretty sure the basic pattern is this slanty diamond thing, three hands to a side, though maybe a bit longer side-to-side than up and down, she keeps changing her mind based on the lighting, and the angles. Each squiggly S in the pattern is made up of four t-looking things, and she was going to count how many were in the whole room. It was a lot. It was gonna be so many. But. But.

She heard. A [i]sound.[/i] Escape from your lips. And before she could think she

looked

for a second.

Maybe longer than a second.

Maybe she couldn’t look away. 

Maybe it took a long, long time, to feel ashamed enough to look away.

You were melting. Arms wrapped around Emli, clinging uselessly. Knees trembling, about to give way at any moment. Falling. Falling. Were it not for Emli. Holding you by the neck. The mouth. You kissed her for dear life, and she kissed you back. And with every touch you told the world you were so, so happy. She didn’t know you could sound like that. She didn’t know you could tell just how happy, how utterly, hopelessly lost in joy you were, with such a small sound.

(What must it be like. To make you feel that way. To feel you melt in her arms, at her touch, and all she can hear of you is that you want this, you want her, you [i]want[/i] her…)

So when you put the question to her, and feel brave enough to look yourself?

Her cheeks are flushed bright red. She’s still, [i]still[/i] out of breath from Emli’s kisses. Her chest heaves with great, big dragon breaths. Her hair’s all a tangle, her robe’s off-kilter, and she’s not bothering to fix a bit of it. A bit of it! She’s not even stopping to answer you back! Up she goes! Let’s do this!!

As it so happens, Emli recalls that all guest rooms come with a length of silken rope tucked away in the depths of their closet “for emergencies.” What luck! Properly equipped, Han wraps the rope around her, and then she keeps wrapping the rope around her, and then she wraps the rope around her some more and. Um. Then she wraps the rope around her again, and…

“Han?” Emli asks, the very picture of diplomatic delicacy. “Have you ever tied someone up before?”

“Uhhh, yeah? Obviously?”

Emli does not laugh. Emli is much, much too busy biting her lip to have any time for laughing.

“What? What?! You’re tied up, aren’t you?”

“Lady Lotus?” And now she’s turning those impish eyes on [i]you.[/i] “Would you like to assist Han of the Dragons in securing her prisoner?~”

“You are [i]so[/i] secured! Look me in the damn eyes and tell me you’re not secured! You can’t, because that’s how secured you are!”

(And yet. If you ask for that rope, she’ll give it up, at once, with only a minimum of indignant pouting.)