Percy Jackson: The Firstborn

Chapter 175: Chapter 175: A Promise for Later

The morning sun slipped through the curtains from the garden out front, drawing gold lines across the bed. Amaterasu felt the light against her eyelids and quietly cursed her own domain, even if it didn’t really bother her.

The goddess stirred, feeling Damon beneath her, along with the warmth he gave off. Her cheek rested against his chest, his slow heartbeat steady in her ear.

Honestly, this was what she loved most. Even if she didn’t need sleep, she loved waking up without tension in her shoulders, and especially without anything she needed to deal with..... Just the silence, and the person she loved most.

She pressed a small kiss to his chest, right over his heart, and relaxed against him for a few minutes, breathing him in. Damon was still asleep, one lazy arm wrapped around her waist.

After a while a mischievous smile curved her lips. With careful movements, she slid under the sheets, trailing kisses down his body until she reached his crotch.

”Good morning, my love,” she murmured, and kissed the base of his cock, just a brush of lips over warm skin.

Damon shifted under the sheet, a low groan in his throat, still half-asleep. Amaterasu closed one hand around him, feeling him harden at the contact, and repeated the kiss a little higher, trailing kisses along him, each one slower than the last, savoring the way his body woke for her.

”Mmm...” Damon breathed in deep, felt her hand tighten around him, her tongue darting out to lick the tip.

Damon opened his eyes, blinking against the light. But he didn’t move. He looked down and watched the goddess take him into her mouth, possessive, like he belonged to her and no one else.

”Hmm... good morning,” he answered, voice rough with sleep, and sank his fingers into her black hair.

Amaterasu just winked at him. Her answer was to run her tongue slowly up his whole length, and when she reached the tip, she took him entirely into her mouth, sinking down as far as she could without choking. Damon let out a long sigh, his hand clenching in her hair without meaning to.

Minutes passed while Amaterasu worked with the same hunger she’d shown all night, and while Damon was more than happy to let her continue. They’d gone all night, from the moment they left the onsen until the sun started to peek over the horizon, and still, this woman wanted more.

”You never get tired, do you,” Damon murmured, almost to himself.

Amaterasu pulled her mouth off just enough to answer. ”Do you want me to stop? Because I don’t hear you complaining,” she teased.

”Not at all... NOT at all,” Damon replied, pushing his hips up to meet her mouth.

Just as Amaterasu was taking him again, the room filling with that familiar heat, three sharp knocks sounded at the door. Knock, knock, knock.

Amaterasu froze with her mouth full, and Damon fixed his eyes on the wooden door.

”Lord Damon. Lady Amaterasu.” Grayfia’s voice came through the door, immaculate, with no idea what she’d just interrupted. ”Breakfast is ready.”

Amaterasu pulled her mouth off slowly, with a wet sound, and stared at the door with an expression that, if looks could kill, would have turned Grayfia to ash on the spot. Damon bit his lip to keep from laughing. ”We’ll be right there,” Damon answered.

Grayfia’s footsteps faded down the hall. Amaterasu dropped her head onto Damon’s thigh and let out a groan, muffled against his skin, pure frustration. ”She can’t be serious.”

”Breakfast is getting cold, love. We can’t be bad guests for Yasaka, can we?”

”Pfft, let it get cold. I don’t care,” the goddess complained, but she got up anyway, crawling out from under the sheets with a pout that lasted exactly until Damon took her by the waist and kissed her, quick, not giving her time to complain.

”We’ll finish this later,” he promised..... The look Amaterasu gave him made it clear she intended to hold him to that promise.

XXXXX

After taking a moment to get ready, Damon wore a simple shirt with his hair loose, while Amaterasu tied her black hair into a low knot while watching him from the corner of her eye.... Without another word, the two deities left the room and moved down the halls toward their destination.

Yasaka’s dining room was spacious, built from light-colored wood with open windows to the outside; the table was loaded with grilled fish, rice, miso soup, eggs, pickled vegetables, and cut fruit at the end. Steam rose from every dish, and the smell of freshly made food filled the room.

Damon sat down and stared at the table for a moment. ”That’s more food than I saw in the entire shinobi war,” the god said, a little surprised.

Amaterasu tapped his arm. ”Might as well enjoy it, don’t you think?” Amaterasu said with a slightly smug smile.

Damon didn’t argue with that.

XXXXX

The dining room door opened shortly after, and Yasaka came in with Kunou by the hand.

The first thing she did after crossing the threshold was look for Damon. It wasn’t something she could stop; just pure instinct. Her amber eyes swept the table until they found him, sitting beside Amaterasu, and a faint blush rose to her cheeks, so light any human would have missed it.

Yasaka couldn’t blame herself; she literally hadn’t slept at all. She’d spent the whole night in her room, which unfortunately sat right next to the one they’d given the two deities. Needless to say, with her kitsune senses, she hadn’t had to strain to hear; she’d heard every single moan of Amaterasu through the wall, each shameless scream from a voice she knew so well.

It made the fox queen wonder all night, while the sun goddess screamed like a madwoman in pleasure on the other side of the wall: was that really the same woman who scolded her whenever she did something wrong?

And the worst part was that she couldn’t stop picturing herself in her place, being taken. Just thinking about it had ended with her touching herself all night, until her bed was a soaked mess. Thank the gods Kunou had fallen asleep in her own room and hadn’t come looking for her, because if she had, Yasaka didn’t know what she would have done to put out that fire.

She’d almost gone mad.

And now, standing in front of the goddess, Yasaka shot her a look before she could stop it. She noticed the relaxed, satisfied expression, and it turned her stomach. Jealousy hit her when she saw how relaxed and satisfied Amaterasu looked after spending the night listening to her.

Amaterasu looked up from her breakfast. Her golden eyes found Yasaka’s in an instant, and a delicate eyebrow rose. It took her all of a second to figure out what had gone through the fox queen’s head.

And Amaterasu, who never blushed in public, felt an uncomfortable heat in her cheeks. She’d forgotten. With Yasaka’s room so close, with her senses, there was no way she hadn’t heard every second of the night before. It had been careless of them both. Even so, part of her felt no shame for giving herself to the man she loved. So instead of looking away, Amaterasu winked.

Yasaka blinked. The blush spread all the way to her ears, and for an instant, the queen of the Kyoto yokai didn’t know where to look.

Kunou, completely unaware of the exchange, tugged at her mother’s hand to sit at the table.

Damon didn’t even register the small exchange, too focused on his food. Until a small voice cut through the murmur of the table.

”Eto... Lord Damon.”

The voice was so low it nearly got lost among the sound of moving utensils, but Damon heard it clearly. He looked up and noticed Kunou standing next to his chair, her fox ears slightly drooped, her hands twisting in front of her. The attention of the whole table had landed on her, which made her shrink back slightly, but the little kitsune took a deep breath, gathered herself, and spoke, looking him in the eye. ”I... I wanted to thank you. For saving me.”

Damon set down his chopsticks. He looked at her in silence, and a genuine smile crossed his face. ”There’s nothing to thank, little one. I’d do it again if I had to.”

And without stopping smiling, he moved the fingers that held his chopsticks, and a soft, playful breeze ruffled Kunou’s hair, lifting the strands.

Kunou stood still for a second, feeling the breeze in her hair, and a shy smile appeared on her face. After composing herself, she took a step back and sat next to her mother, her ears a little more perked up than before.

Amaterasu, watching the scene and noticing how Yasaka avoided her gaze, waited until Kunou was busy with her breakfast to lean across the table toward the older fox, her voice low and full of an innocence nobody would believe. ”I hope you slept well, Yasaka-chan.”

Yasaka kept her composure. She was a queen and behaved like one: back straight, hand steady around her teacup, polite smile in place. Only her eyes sharpened for an instant. She shot Amaterasu a small glare over the rim of her cup, which Amaterasu received with a suggestive smile, without blinking.

Damon lifted his head from his plate. He caught the minimal tension running between the two women and tilted his head for a moment, noticing the blush the kitsune was trying to control. He didn’t need to be a genius to know what was going on, but at the same time, right now he couldn’t care less — food first. So he went back to his plate.

”Tch. You can smell that vixen’s attraction to you from here.” Kurama’s voice reached his head directly, as grumpy as always.

Damon didn’t deny what the fox said, but another thought quickly came to mind. ”Now that I think about it,” he answered mentally, savoring the words, ”maybe a companion of your own wouldn’t be a bad idea, don’t you think, Kurama?”

”Don’t talk nonsense.”

The fox snorted and cut the connection with a dry snap, just in time to miss his eight brothers’ laughter echoing through the mental space. Damon shook his head, and that was when he noticed Kuroka and Koneko had joined the table.

Kuroka had her hair mussed and her eyes half-lidded, the posture of someone who would rather still be sleeping. Koneko, at her side, was already eating with the same indifference, chewing slowly, oblivious to the looks some at the table threw them. Neither seemed even remotely interested in talking about their night.

Damon looked at them and decided not to ask. With the cats, it was better not to ask.

He turned his attention back to Kunou, who ate in silence next to her mother, ears peeking out from her hair. He watched her before speaking. ”And how did you sleep, Kunou?”

The little kitsune lifted her head, surprised he was talking to her. She swallowed her bite and answered, her voice low but clear. ”I slept... fine. Thank you.” She paused, looking at her plate.

Damon already had an idea of what was going through the little kitsune’s mind. ”Nightmares, huh?”

Kunou nodded, ears drooping again, and played with the food on her plate, pushing it around with her chopsticks. Her voice came out almost a whisper. ”When those bad angels came, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t defend myself. Or protect Mom.”

The table went quiet. Yasaka opened her mouth to say something, but Kunou continued, pressing her lips together. ”I know I’m small. But I don’t want to feel like that again. I don’t want someone to have to save me again.”

Yasaka set down her chopsticks. Her voice came out firm but soft. ”Kunou. You’re ten years old. Nobody expects you to fight at your age. You don’t have to carry that.”

”I know, Mom.” Kunou didn’t look up. ”But still...”

Damon watched her in silence. Then, calmly, he wiped his mouth with his napkin and leaned forward over the table. ”What if you could learn not to feel that way?” Kunou looked up. Damon held the girl’s tearful gaze, serious.

”If you want, I can train you,” he said, his tone made it clear he was serious. ”You’ll learn to defend yourself, and next time you won’t feel like that.”

The whole table turned to him. Amaterasu watched him with curiosity and a faint smile, not surprised at all by Damon’s proposal; she’d seen him do it countless times in the old days.

Yasaka, for her part, stayed still, processing the words. Leaving her daughter under Damon’s tutelage, no matter how much she trusted him, weighed on her; especially knowing Damon had his own responsibilities... she couldn’t — she didn’t want to — ask that of him.

”Lord Damon...” she began carefully.

”I plan to turn Kuoh into a place where the people under my protection can grow stronger,” Damon interrupted, calmly, not giving her time to form a refusal. ”A place where the ones I protect can train, learn to defend themselves against the supernatural world. It could be good for Kunou. It’d be good for her to be around people her own age, growing alongside them.”

Yasaka stayed silent.

She looked at Damon, and then at her daughter, who was staring at him with wide eyes, ears perked, tails swaying behind her without her noticing. And Yasaka felt something loosen in her chest. It wasn’t just the training offer: it was the idea that her daughter could grow up in a place where no one saw her as a princess to protect, but as a girl who could become strong.

”Kunou,” Yasaka said, her voice softer than she expected. ”What do you think?”

Kunou looked at her mother, looked at Damon. The smile that appeared on her face was answer enough. ”Can I really?”

Damon leaned back, smiling. ”Of course, if that’s what you want.”

When Kunou went back to her breakfast, tails wagging without pause, Yasaka leaned slightly toward Damon. Her voice came out low, sincere. ”Thank you.”

Damon didn’t make a big deal of it. ”Don’t thank me yet. When you see your daughter grow, that’s when you’ll thank me.”

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