Crimson and Gold

Saria woke up to the soft sound of curtains rustling in the wind.

The morning sun filled the bedroom with its golden rays, painting the scene so serene that it felt like a dream.

Even more unreal was the sight before her eyes.

Lysandra was sleeping next to her. Her golden waves spilling gracefully on the pillow like a halo. A delicate smile curved her full lips, still slightly swollen from the passion of the previous night.

Saria’s gaze drifted from the Princess’ face to her neck and collarbones covered with kiss marks.

As the culprit, Saria felt equally bashful as she was proud of her handiwork.

…Or rather lipwork.

Sensing someone’s gaze on her, Lysandra lazily opened her eyes.

“Good morning.” Saria greeted her, propping her head on her hand.

The Princess struggled to keep her eyes open. Her eyelids stubbornly kept trying to push her back to the land of dreams, despite her firm protests.

Feeling like she was starting to lose the fight, she frowned. “Kiss me.”

Amused by this sudden and very forward demand, Saria giggled, then fulfilled the wish.

She kissed Lysandra softly, her lips enveloping the other tenderly, unhurriedly. A complete opposition to the outbursts of passion from the night before.

In Saria’s mind, after everything they did, the Princess would be too exhausted to give herself into another crazed with hunger embrace.

Clearly, she was very wrong.

Lysandra, feeling impatient, wrapped her arms around Saria’s neck and pulled her closer. Her tongue plunged inside her lover’s mouth, drawing a moan from both of them.

She kissed like there was no tomorrow.

Only when they both ran out of breath did Lysandra stop hugging Saria so tightly.

“Now I can say that it is indeed a good morning,” she rasped.

“And here I thought you would be completely worn out after last night,” Saria teased her, lying next to her.

Lysandra opened one eye to glance at her. “Really? You think that after holding back for so long, one night would be enough to satisfy my yearning?” she asked, pretending to be slightly offended at the remark.

“Oh my. Does this mean we will be spending the rest of the stay in bed?” Saria grinned.

Lysandra’s eyes lit up with mischief. She pushed herself up on her elbow and looked around the room. “In bed. On the settee. Maybe that desk over there. Against the wall…” she listed, pointing at each, then turned her head to Saria and flashed her a sly smile. “Perhaps even the balcony if we’re feeling like doing something scandalous.”

The forwardness of this statement caught Saria completely off guard. The blush on her face spread to her ears and even reached her shoulders.

Lysandra took it as a win. “Speechless, are we?” she purred against her lover’s lips.

“It looks like I should put more thought into working on my endurance…” Saria said, feeling last night’s excitement resurface again.

“Mhm.” The Princess leaned closer and gazed deeply into her eyes. “You should if you plan on being so… catering to my tastes.”

“Oh? Do I fit your tastes so much?”

“You do,” Lysandra said without hesitation.

From the day she saw her for the first time, Saria immediately caught her attention. She was good-looking, sharp, and her skills made her impossible to overlook.

After knowing her, knowing what kind of person she was, her attractiveness only got stronger.

Seeing her now, with black, waist-long hair cascading freely down her shoulders and a radiant smile on her flushed face, Lysandra could barely hold back.

“Especially like this,” she said in a voice thick with desire.

It didn’t take long for them to lose themselves in yet another passionate kiss. Ever since the line was crossed, neither of them could resist the temptation, nor did they want to.

Once their hunger was satiated just enough to continue the conversation, they fell on the pillow, embracing each other.

“You’ve got me curious,” Saria said, leisurely caressing Lysandra’s back. “What is your type exactly?”

The Princess raised her head from Saria’s chest to look into her eyes. “A woman with a beautiful heart.”

“A woman specifically?”

“Mhm,” Lysandra rested her head back on Saria’s chest and closed her eyes, enjoying the moment. “I prefer the company of women.”

Saria frowned in silence, seemingly lost in thought.

Hearing no response, Lysandra started feeling anxious. “Does it bother you?” she asked quietly.

“No. Not at all.” Saria snapped back to reality. “I just realized it’s true for me too. I guess I haven’t noticed before because I have never been in love until I met you.”

Lysandra propped herself on her hand. “Really?” she asked. Despite her best attempt at keeping a neutral expression, the excited sparkles dancing in her eyes betrayed her true feelings.

The sight was tantalizing.

“Yes. You are the first to ever steal my heart,” said Saria, feeling her chest tighten from the sudden outburst of emotions.

A beautiful smile bloomed on Lysandra’s face. “Then I have to work hard to be the last one too,” she declared proudly and nestled herself in Saria’s arms again.

She felt like this morning was getting better and better.

“What about you? Am I your first love?” The moment Saria asked the question, there was a sudden awkward silence.

“No.”

Saria was utterly flabbergasted.

“We were six. She was my friend and I was completely smitten,” Lysandra began explaining. “I kept bringing her flowers every time she visited. After a while, her family moved away, and I never saw her again. I heard a while ago that she’s now married to an Adleran duke.”

Knowing how long ago it was, the initial anxiety Saria felt dissipated and made her ready to ask another dangerous question. “What about your first kiss?”

“My friend, Zahra,” Lysandra answered without reservations.

Saria groaned. “Another friend?”

“Mm. You haven’t met her yet. She travels a lot and rarely stays in Aervelis for long.”

“Good. She should travel some more.”

Lysandra was stunned for a moment. Resting her head against Saria’s chest, she could clearly hear her heart suddenly beating much faster than it should. “Are you jealous?”

“Humph. Who’s jealous?” Saria said calmly.

This reaction amused Lysandra more than it should. She laughed softly, then kissed her not-jealous and not-pouting lover. “Don’t be,” she said. “Our relationship is strictly platonic. The kiss was a one-time thing.

“We were at the age when romance was all we could think about. We both couldn’t wait to have our first magical kiss, but neither had anyone that we deemed worthy of this honor. So we decided to share our first kiss.”

Hearing Lysandra’s serious response, Saria worried she had gone too far with her teasing. At the same time, she had to admit that thinking about her kissing another woman made her slightly annoyed.

“Do you remember your first kiss?” It was Lysandra’s turn to ask.

“I do. But it wasn’t anything special or romantic,” Saria admitted. “It was my first mission as more than an assassin. I was supposed to seduce this noblewoman and get all sorts of information out of her. She was much older than I, more experienced. We lived together for a few months.”

Lysandra’s youth wasn’t perfect. It was far from the carefree experience most people in her situation had, but thanks to her friends and the people who cared about her, she still had some semblance of normalcy.

That wasn’t the case for Saria.

Since her earliest days, her norm was other people’s nightmares. There was no place for trust or friendship. Love was nothing more than a distant dream.

Hearing that even something so personal as the first kiss was stolen from her by people who viewed her as a mere weapon made Lysandra’s heart ache. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, hugging her tightly.

“It’s alright. She never forced me to do anything I didn’t feel comfortable with, and she treated me very well. She was a good person. It was me taking advantage of that.” Saria couldn’t fully understand Lysandra’s sorrow in that moment.

Compared to everything else she experienced, the memories from that period could be categorized as the happy ones.

“What happened to her?” Lysandra asked.

“Once my mission was done, I just left,” Saria said, then let out a relieved sigh. “I was glad I didn’t have to kill her, though.”

“You didn’t deserve a life like this.” The Princess had a hard time accepting how much Saria had suffered before. “I wish I could go back in time and save you from everything you’ve been through.”

Saria smiled, then wrapped her arms around Lysandra and held her tightly. “If it meant that I would be with you in the end, then I would gladly go through this life a thousand times more,” she said, kissing her tenderly.

“Then I’ll love you a thousand times harder to make up for all the pain you’ve been through.”

The Princess responded to the kiss in kind, plunging them into another passionate moment.

“Now that I think about it, this is probably our most normal conversation we’ve had since we met,” Saria said, once her breath returned to normal. “I like it. I like learning about you.”

Lysandra smiled. “Even if it makes you jealous?”

“Even if it makes me jealous.”

“If there is anything you want to know, you can just ask me.”

Saria immediately started reviewing the questions she had. “Hm… what is your favorite color then?”

It wasn’t something Lysandra expected to hear, but she found it extremely endearing nonetheless.

So innocent…, she laughed at heart, then looked deeply into her eyes. “Red. What about you?”

Saria’s eyes swept over Lysandra’s face, then dipped down. Having a clear view of everything, mischief appeared in her smiling eyes. “Pink,” she said nonchalantly.

…I take that back.

“Naughty.” Lysandra narrowed her eyes, trying—and failing—to look intimidating.

“What about food? What do you like to eat the most?” Saria continued with her questions, confirming that she was not intimidated.

Lysandra smiled slyly. “You.”

“Naughty.”

“Since we have established that we are both naughty, then perhaps we should do something about it?” the Princess asked, sitting on top of Saria.

Saria’s heart sped up in anticipation. “What should we do?”

Lysandra’s eyes lit up immediately upon hearing the question.

She leaned over, stopping just an inch from Saria’s lips, and whispered. “We should put words into action.”