Her home.  He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like going to where she lived.  Was it outside?  In the trees?  If there were two did that mean they would be the same or different?  There wasn’t too much he knew about the deities other than to be respectful should you ever be around one, so imagining something so normal about them was hard to do.  As much as the idea of her mother coming down on him in fury kept him well aware of his actions while around her, usually he forgot entirely about her heritage.  She was so…normal.  Not ordinary, just very approachable.
 
He laughed, unable to resist doing so at the growing amount of coincidences between them upon this second meeting, “I’ll be sure to keep a spare amount of gold aside just for you and your instruments since for some reason I’ve seemed to have become a curse on them.”   But now came the part he was dreading most.  While he was taking her from the man he hadn’t thought about the closeness, all that was on his mind was getting her to safety.  But now he’d have to take the steps on his own. 
 
“The fastest way would be to drift us both there…Or, should I say, to teleport us there.”   He often had to remind himself that some of the terms he’d been trained with and raised around were different than others’, “It would be quick, a blink.”   At this point he wasn’t sure who he was trying to help be more comfortable with this scenario.  Minasé was laughing already, and for a rare moment it actually comforted him to know that he wasn’t alone with this.
 
“You know, if you’d stop talking and just did it it’d be even faster…”   His jaw locked, ignoring him as best as he could.  To be honest, him being this compliant made him a bit uneasy, but there was no safer place to be than at home should he have an attack…And he didn’t even feel one coming.  Instead, he shook his head and walked towards her, “S-Sorry.  It’ll be fast.”  
 
With as much gentleness that you’d think he was handling a newborn babe, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to himself and closing his eyes.  His hands warmed on her sides and his eyes gently closed as the warmth grew until both of them blinked out of view.  When they reappeared it was in the room he’d grown up in since he was only five years of age.  Ceiling high windows bordered the room, the curtain’s drawn to let sunlight pour in and warm the dark carpeting. 
 
Lining all of the walls were shelves and shelves of books that went from floor to ceiling, accompanied by an attached rolling ladder to help those that didn’t have the ability to get books from the highest shelves on their own.  A loft in the corner rose up fifteen feet into the air where his bed rested, tucked in and lined to keep one from falling off of it and rolling over and off onto the floor.  It looked more like a study than a bedroom, large enough to fit three bedrooms at least, with a high arched ceiling.  A veranda balcony circled the entirety of the room, making it easier to peruse the higher books without having to constantly move the ladder.  It smelled of time and sifted through pages and so many things that crept nostalgia through his veins.  He so loved home, but he couldn’t get himself to remain stationary…
 
His arms quickly unwrapped from her and he took two steps back, trying to suppress the awkward smile that was trying to form.  “This is my home-well…where I grew up, I don’t live here anymore, not really.  I figured coming straight here would help in avoiding anyone for as long as possible…”
 

Had he not been a member of this family there would have been no way for him to get inside so easily, but no wards or protections barred family or those very rare few that were granted constant access.  “Your homes, what are they like…?”

There was a small smile on her face when he came close to her. "I think you are having more trouble with it than I am." She was teasing him but she remembered him leaving her and the smile was gone. She didn't want that happening again. Soon he was around her and it had been one of the most gentle touches she had ever had. 

She snuggled into him as he closed his eyes and felt the warmth around them. It was a nice feeling almost like the magic her mother weaved. When they appeared in the room she looked around. It reminded her a lot of the Purple Court when she went to visit her cousins. The smells made her remember the Arriese library.

Though the warmth of Naota left her as she looked back to him a tender smile appeared. Letting the jacket slip from her barely covered body she slinked around him and looked around the room. "The temple? It's in a realm outside this world. Imagine a large farmstead leading up to a dark tunnel." She danced her way back over to him.

She put her hands up and over his eyes pressing her body to his. "Like this dark. The nature is so close to you." She pressed her lips to his ear as she whispered. "And a voice sings like this." She sang a little into his ear but it was very soft and quiet. It was a lullaby. "It comes out to one of the largest bridges you've ever seen lighted by fireflies." She released him from herself and came in front of him.

"There a tree that rivals the fabled World Tree sits at the end of the bridge. It has a giant manor growing out of it. There are so many rooms on the inside since its a magical space. There is a library that is above a cove. The bookshelves and tables float above the water. There are personal groves there. Almost anything you can think of exists in that temple."

She blushed a bit. "But back in Sularia. We live in a manor. It is a lot like this. It has our family crest hanging about. Paintings of our family. A large dining hall for all of my siblings to share. It is more like a vacation home. Mother goes there to visit her sisters and our family. Sularia is in a desert which is why I travel up that way in the winter. It is a party all year round there." She took his hand and spun herself.

"Men come from all over to try and bed the pretty women." She got close to him. "And then they leave the women broken hearted." She pulled herself away. "We are a strong and proud race. We are a strong and proud family." She twirled him around. "We don't fear the unknown and we risk ourselves for what we love." She put empathize on the word love.

"We love music, dancing, and good company."

Her homes seemed so different, vastly, unlike anything he could ever imagine for a place to live.  With so many people around, no…no he couldn’t imagine it.  Maybe if he had been raised with it like she had been, but even then it was hard to try and picture himself in a place such as that.  It wasn’t that he disliked people, he just wasn’t used to being constantly surrounded.  His breathing cut out behind his lips when her hands went up over his eyes, describing her home in more detail.  This was close, very close, and even though he knew she wasn’t an enemy his muscles still went rigid with the urge to reach for a blade. 
 
Having seen her move about his room was even stranger than this though, if you could believe it.  Aside from family, she was the first female to ever be inside of it.  His room was the one sanctuary he had all through his childhood and into adulthood.  It was the only place where others wouldn’t force their way in and would allow him his peace.  Though when he was a child the door was always left opened for someone to come in, an action that his brothers usually took advantage of, sometimes it felt like a shared room with how much time they all spent with each other.  Their rooms held the same feeling.
 
But her body was so close to his, her lips against his ear, and for once he wished a sibling would unceremoniously come in as if it were nothing.  He needed a distraction, and while the images she was describing to him were stimulating to the mind, he couldn’t block off the fact that a young woman was much closer to him than he was immediately comfortable with.
 
He tried to imagine the heat of the dessert, the scrape of sand and relief of finding the oasis that their home seemed to be.  Her hands moved from his eyes and he blinked hard to try and rid any awkward feelings away; vision slightly blurred when they opened again to watch her.  She seemed to be perfectly at home here, but her nature was so light and carefree that he didn’t doubt she could be like this anywhere she went.  Knowing her, even as little as he did, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she were able to make any place she went to feel like home.
 
His fingers gently gripped hers when she took his, and all he could do was watch as she moved about, telling him about her home and the many goings on that happened there.  A light smile crossed his features, brief, but there all the same when she moved him to turn and he gently shook his head.  Again it was brought up, talk of…sexual encounters.  She had mentioned them upon their first meeting and that was most definitely a subject that he tried to keep far away from himself for as long as possible.  Yet she was able to converse about it as if it was nothing.  How could that be? 
 
In his household it was often described as something dangerous: an act that fogged your mind and slashed away at your judgment entirely.  Not something bad, not exactly, just something to be wary of and careful with.  That didn’t stop his eldest brother from encountering it at a younger age than Naota was even now, but still, he couldn’t get those warning words out of his head.
 
“I think it’s fair to say that your home sounds entirely different than anything I’ve ever encountered.  Outside of the world seems to be the only place where it could thrive…”   It wasn’t a jab, it was softly spoken.  That type of lifestyle would be intolerable over time in this world.  Too many people that didn’t understand and embrace freedom.  He was glad that she was able to have that…Was still able to go back there.  Luckily there weren’t too many people that ventured out into the deserts, so at least with that domain they were safe. 
 
Her mother was powerful, there was no doubt about that, but words and whispers can break away at a person more than blades and magick ever could.  Words stay.  “It’s so different from here, around everyone else, I can’t begin to understand how you keep yourself so comfortable.”
 
He smiled, a small one, “Then again, I don’t have a drop of deity in me, surely your endurance and comprehension is higher than mine could ever be for many years yet.”   One day, he hoped, the world would be able to keep a beautiful mindset such as hers.  She was gentle, pure, but in no way ignorant to the workings of the world.  At her age that was a level of wisdom that most adults had yet to take in. 
 

“When was the last time you were at one of your homes…?”   His fingers uncurled from around hers as he moved slowly through his room, walking over to one of the tall windows and sitting up on the sill.  The cold from outside had chilled the glass and he leaned back against it, eyes halving from the comforting coolness.

She felt his muscles tense and she resisted the urge to flow her hands down and feel them out. She was so much like her mother it scared her. "Relax Naota. I won't try anything. You have to trust me." She kissed his ear and continued this dance they started. They were describing in detail their homes. They were so vastly different from one another.

Listening to him talk to her she just laughed. "Sularia isn't for everyone. We exist where others can hardly find us because we feel safe there. We can go about our lives and not worry too much about war but we are ready."  She chuckled more and came close to him. "I could show you sometime. We could go together."

Holly laughed and and stepped back from him his hands still in hers. "Even if I wasn't the child of a goddess my mother is a noble." She watched him move away from her and sit on the sill before  answering him. She walked close to him and put her arms on either side of him. "A very long time." She sad as she looked up at him. "Had a fight with mother. So I don't like to stay with her too much. She tried to get me to stay home with her turned nasty."

There was sadness in her voice as she looked into his eyes. "I stay in taverns when I go back to Sularia. I make money there and then maybe I visit with my mother but I don't stay at home." She backed off of him and felt a deep cold not a cold that could be taken away by a warm jacket. She hugged herself and sulked off to the bookshelves. There was a silence that made the coldness in the room deepen.

His eyes shifted.  He tried to think about what it would feel like to have a fight bad enough that he’d keep from coming back home.  There were plenty of times that he had had disagreements with his parents, his brothers too when he was younger, but never so bad that he’d stay away from them.  Even now the only reason he kept distance was for protection, following the lesson they’d always instilled in all of them.  What kind of fight could she have possibly gotten into with her mother…?  It was sad to think about and even harder to look at her eyes as they dimmed.
 
Those eyes were the only reason he didn’t immediately straighten and stiffen when her arms went out on either side of him, leaving a gap between him yet making him feel pinned all the same.  Trying to picture her hopping from tavern to tavern when there was a perfectly comfortable place for her back at home was strange and cruel. 
 
She had so much life experience but she was still young, at this age she should be able to go around her mother and be happy.  Her mother was the ultimate Mother, she had to be able to understand…something just had to be able to get worked out between them.  It wasn’t his place, but his own bonds to family were so strong that it was hard for him to not want to get involved.
 
The cold first became noticeable when she backed away from him, even before he saw her arms wrap around herself.  It wasn’t his doing, and none of the windows were opened…was it her?  Being The Mother’s child it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think so.  That hadn’t happened before…it had to be caused by her mood, either way he doubted she was doing it on purpose.  His fingers curled in against the wood of the window’s lip, gripping there to get himself more prepared for what he was going to do. 
 
It wasn’t the time or place to be thinking it, but she was dressed in a way that showed a lot of her skin, and he wanted to give her some form of comforting touch.  He just wanted to make sure that he didn’t feel completely out of place and inappropriate while doing so.  Warmth spread to his hands, wanting to be able to help her ease as he pushed away from his seated spot, “Your mother isn’t just any mother, she’s The Mother.”
 
His hands gently rested on her shoulders and slowly moved down her arms, trying to help warm her as much as he could while keeping his eyes on her face.  “Mothers make up with their children before they’ve even realized they’ve done it…”   He smiled a little, his voice softening, “Why did she want you to stay home…?”  
 

She was young and strong, she was her mother’s child, but he doubted that parents ever stopped worrying about their children.  Then again there was probably more to this situation, much more.  With so many children he wouldn’t have been surprised if life was a constant intricate weave: so many charges to manage, so many people to love.  It could drive a person insane with worry.  But he couldn’t help but feel a bit inappropriate for asking these types of personal questions.  She was a person just like anyone else, but her affairs were at a much higher level than he could ever reach, and while he wanted to be able to be around her like he would any other person, he knew that he still had to remember his respectful place.

"I'm aware of that Naota…" Her words were soft and almost like a whisper. She felt his warm hands on her skin and it sent a shiver down her. She did not realize just how cold she had made herself. "It isn't her fault." She gave him a small smile in return and shook her head. "Because she is The Mother and while all mothers want their children to spread wings most desire their children to remain with them and not go off on long adventures."

She leaned into him and moved her arms around his waist closing her eyes. Slowly the cold dissipated out of the room. "It is like an unspoken vow of my siblings to leave home after a while. We are trying to make our mother worry about herself because she is The Mother." She moved her head and looked up at him. "She worries about everyone and everything. We should be out and about making something of ourselves and trying to help people love her. She worries most about us. She is stubborn and is still trying to convince my oldest sister to come home. She is a hundred and fifteen my sister and still she comes home once in a while to appease mother."

The soft smile disappeared as she closed her eyes. She felt his warmth all over him and let out a sigh of relief. "I'll take you there someday if you want… We can go through the gardens and I will show you everything. I'll probably have to go there to get another set of clothes now that my purse is missing." She groaned a bit and then chuckled. "She'll be happy to have visitors. Of course, that's only if you want to go."

Her arms circled around his waist and despite the fading cold he felt as if his blood had gone icy.  This wasn’t normal, not for him, to be so close and pressed to a woman, but he tried to push such thoughts away.  After all, she was upset, there was nothing wrong or dangerous about this, and Minasé hadn’t said a word.  Most likely he was bored with so much calm, or waiting for his moment…hopefully it was the former.  Though he expected at any moment to hear an amused chuckle in the recesses of his mind from how flustered he was.
 
The warmth in his skin increased, trying instead to focus only on that as he moved his arms around her to keep her close, resting his cheek atop her head and only moving it when she looked up at him to speak.  A sister so much older, there was such a gap between them that it was hard to try and put himself in the same position mentally as she was in.  He smiled, thinking about spending time with her at her home and for once being able to find ease at meeting her mother instead of only intimidation.  Ah yes, her belongings, he still needed to hunt the man down and find them, even if he did replace what had been stolen. 
 
Trusting himself as much as he could, he moved a hand up and gently moved his fingers through her hair on the back of her head, tracing down from root to tip and spreading more warmth as he did so, “Having so many children can’t be easy for the mind when it comes to cutting the ties of home.  My own mother looks as if she’s ready to tether us to a post each time we come to visit.  If it wasn’t for our father I’m sure she’d get her way in that someday, even if it was only temporary.”
 
Even speaking about his parents like that in their home had him lowering his voice to a whisper, as if they could hear every word he said, though none of this was out of fear, “I’d actually love to see your home with you.” A corner of his lips upturned in a light side smile, “Someone has to make sure you can get back out easily after all.”
 
He hesitated, only for a brief second before leaning in and kissing her hairline, “Don’t think of such sad things.”   This was dangerous, he wasn’t one to make close bonds to friends, not with what was living inside of him, but aside from how protective he was he knew that not only could she watch over herself, but that a deity’s fury would come down on any being that tried to harm her.  It was comforting to know and just thinking about it quieted anything his daemon might have been about to voice.
 

“Do you want me to fetch you a change of clothing…?  I know for certain I still have some of my clothes from when I was younger here, they’d probably still be too big for you, but they’d be comfortable and warm…”

Holly smiled at him as he ran his fingers through her hair. It felt so nice to have someone do that for her. "My mother drives us nuts." She chuckled more and was happy that he understood her. "Though I do suppose we should stop being so stubborn and stop in once in a while."

She watched him smile and she blushed a little. It was the lightest shade of pink across her sun-kissed skin. "Thank you Naota. I wouldn't have anyone else take me there." That was true and she knew it was even if it sounded silly to her.

The blush deepened as he kissed her hairline. She snuggled closer into his chest for a moment as she nodded. "I'll try not to I promise." He was so warm. Finally she brought her head back out so she could see him. "That would be amazing.." Her eyes followed Naota as he fetched her some clothing.

Looking at the pajamas she knew they were most likely very over-sized on her. She held them to her chest and blushed once more. "Can you.. um leave me here for a little bit? So I can change. I'll tell you when you can come back in." She watched him leave her and she changed quickly. She struggled with the pants and finally gave up because they were overly large. She would just to be uncomfortable. 

The shirt was more like a long sleeved dress on her. The sleeves even went past her hands. She flailed a bit as she got her hands out of the sleeves long enough to braid her hair. Finally she let Naota back in. "I look.. silly?" She looked down at her small frame and blushed up at him.

His eyes softened as he nodded, moving his arms from around her so that he could walk over to his wardrobe. It had been so long since he'd used it that there was a light layer of dust in the creases of the handles. Seeing that dust made him guilty, guilty for how long he had stayed away from home. Either way though, he'd outgrown everything in here so likely it wouldn't have been used anyways.
 

He pulled the doors opened, looking in at the contents, old straps and bindings from training, boots at the base that were scuffed beyond use yet for some reason he had held onto them. No, what he needed was something soft, something light that wouldn't constrict or grow uncomfortable. He pulled open one of the drawers within and took out a set of cotton pants used for sleeping in, along with a warm long sleeved shirt. They were cool from not being used for so long, and he gently sent warmth through their fibers. Yes, they would do.


When he moved back over towards her he outstretched his arms in offering, nodding almost quickly at her suggestion for him to leave. As he reached the door he looked over his shoulder, "Knock twice if you need me." And then he was out. The corridors of this floor were empty, not even staff was there. It made sense since most of these rooms were no longer inhabited: each of them had their own part of the floor to call their own and since nearly all of them were out of the house on their own now, they hardly got much use anymore.


It was strange being home, but it was even stranger being back to a quiet home. He leaned back against the door, arms lightly crossing over his chest as he waited for her to finish. There was still a part of him that was worried someone would discover she was here, not that she'd be in danger, but he really didn't want to have that conversation.


The door started to open behind him and he stepped forward, turning to go through back into his room and closing and locking the door behind him. Any time they could get from someone trying to get in, the better. No lock kept anyone in this family back for too long though. Despite himself, his lips parted and his eyes widened when he saw her. It was strange seeing someone else in his clothing but there was something also…pleasant about it, when it was her at least. Aside from family or small children he'd yet to see a lady wear anything of his, and seeing it be too big on her: the sleeves too long, pants barely staying up around her middle - was drawing.


Why? He swallowed down and looked away, shaking his head as his cheeks filled with warmth, "No, you most certainly do not look silly…" It was all he could do to keep his eyes politely averted.

Holly felt silly standing there in front of him but the look on his face told her something more. "What's wrong?" She went to go to him and she found the pants falling and she tripped almost going right onto her face if not for Naota catching her. Making a whimper she pulled herself up probably with his help. There was a look in her eye determined to make things work. 

She struggled again to walk before she finally made sure her bottom was covered and completely pulled the pants off. She kicked the pants across the room and patted the shirt down like a dress. "I can't do it! So I will wear this like a dress!" She was more or less in defeat of the pants as she went over to Naota and whimpered at him. "Mean things anyways." Now she was just trying to be adorable.

Looking up at the loft then back at Naota, she found herself taking his hand and pulling him. "Come on, lets go snuggle under the blankets. Just snuggle nothing else." She wanted to reassure him cause she knew it scared him. More so he was scared of what he could do to her. She took his hands and gave him that warm look that was comforting.

Pulling him along they got to the loft and she laid down with him. Pulling the blankets over them she snuggled her head onto his shoulder and neck. Eventually she had herself wrapped around him and was finally comfortable. "This is nice and warm."