Weekly Drabble #277: 'Tis the Season (Patreon)

With the theme of 'naughty or nice' from Knightress, we are back with some more Star-crossed in a scene prior to Arina's kidnapping, showing a little more of her relationship with Nikolai and her dedication to understanding human culture.

Enjoy!

~

Tis the Season:

Nikolai rapped on the bathroom door with two knuckles. “You have to come out sometime.”

“No,” Arina responded from inside. “I do not.”

“You’re going to live in my bathroom for the rest of your life?”

“Not that long,” the princess replied. “Just until you drop this ridiculous demand.”

“You think you can wait me out?”

“I know I can,” Arina responded confidently. “There is running water here and Akshari can go without food longer than humans. More importantly, Iam not a fabled Primality war leader who will have to explain why a ‘xenos’ is in my private quarters.”

Nikolai rubbed his lower lip and chin, his amusement at the situation far outweighing any annoyance. “You are going to rather extreme lengths to avoid wearing an outfit,” he pointed out to Arina. “An outfit that, may I remind you, you selected and volunteered to show me. Ijust want to see you in it.”

A dismayed hmmphcame from the other side of the door. There was a long pause. “You promise you won’t laugh?”

Though his lover couldn’t see it, he held up his left hand. “I promise.”

There was another long silence. “Very well.”

Nikolai retreated to the bed as the door to his private washroom cracked open a little and a bright green eye peered out, like a rabbit surveying her surroundings for wolves. Nikolai’s small smile widened a little more. He didn’t bite. Well not normally, he silently amended, and she doesn’t mind, as long the marks aren’t visible...

Finally, the Akshari woman stepped out of the bathroom, her cheeks blushed as dark a hue of pink as Nikolai had ever seen on her. Though the Primality had its own religion, some customs and traditions had been inherited from the culture of a murdered Earth; Christmas was one of them. Though its original meaning had faded over thousands of years, it was still considered a time of togetherness and family. Nikolai had no family, not since he’d been orphaned as a consequence of his parents’ ideals. This would be his second Christmas without... without her.

Though they had not been together at that point, Arina had noticed what the previous year had been like for Nemesis’s commander. He’d been more withdrawn and become colder in aspect, even for him. This year, she had  resolved to do something for his mood. Acquiring a ‘fun’ costume for herself was just one part of her multi-pronged plan... at least until she’d changed into it and her embarrassment had seen her lock herself in his bathroom.

It was a five-piece outfit, with delicate pointed shoes, a floppy red toque with a fluffy ball at the end, and a skirt and top of matching hue that were both very small indeed. It wasn’t the size of the outfit that bothered Arina; she’d worn much smaller accoutrements – and frequently nothing at all – in his presence. Instead, what was making her blush and position her hands to try and cover herself was the faux-fur lining on each garment.

Akshar might be a hot world, but it still had poles and mountainous regions where the temperature could easily drop below freezing. These territories had been historically used as dumping grounds for the unwanted; troublemakers, problematic groups and annoyances of all stripes had been traditionally relocated to the planet’s colder climes, even forcibly removed their original homes to fulfill necessary but unpalatable tasks, such as keeping polar trade routes open, mining in harsher environments or simply being away from ‘decent’ civilization.

These provinces, populated as they were by the most irksome members of society, were naturally poorer and less developed than the rest of the planet. The adaptations to culture and mannerisms that developed among the inhabitants became associated with poverty, low moral character, criminality and other negative generalizations. Fur-lined clothes were considered a stereotypical outfit of these lower classes and populations, a necessity of fashion brought on by their own poor choices and failures to be ‘proper’ Akshari.

Consequently, the more esteemed members of society who found themselves ruling over, or working within, colder environs would go to some lengths to avoid wearing any trace of fur, even if the alternatives were more expensive, less effective or impractical for long-term use. Even if they were in such a climate, Akshari pride refused to let them appear as lesser. The people were not a monolith, and some segments and individuals would use whatever was needed in their circumstance. Special ops troops deployed in cold climates gladly accepted warmer clothes regardless of how it might make them look to their countrymen half a galaxy away in a climate-controlled room.

Other Akshari... well, some of them learned to adapt. The first time Arina had experienced winter, she’d at first insisted that a coat without fur lining would be satisfactory, but after she’d seen humans donning the heavier (and warmer) garments, she’d softened. Trying on Nikolai’s own coat and realizing the difference it made had helped too. But this outfit still triggered certain ingrained instincts. In human parlance, the phrase ‘painted lady’ referred to a prostitute. The equivalent term in the Akshari language was ‘fur-clad girl’, a reference to streetwalkers who plied their trade in these cold regions and donned warm clothes to protect them from the chill.

To an Akshari’s eyes, the outfit Arina was currently modelling was the kind of thing the lowest kind of hooker on their world might wear. Although she knew that there was no such stigma in human culture and the furry borders of her outfit were there to be winter-ish and did not make any statement about their wearer’s morals or station, old instincts died hard. “What do you think?” she finally managed to ask, unwinding her arms from around her body to let him fully see her.

Nikolai grinned. “Lovely.”

Arina smiled back, the human’s reassurance melting much of her trepidation and she stepped closer to him. He took her hands and stood. “You look like a perfect Christmas elf.”

She snorted and tried to step back, but he held on to her and pulled her to him, putting his arms around her shoulders. “A lovelyChristmas elf,” he added.

Arina’s expression softened. “Well,” she replied, tucking some of her long red-pink hair over one pointed ear. “I suppose that is acceptable.” She put her arms around Nikolai’s waist. “You do like the way I look, though? Even like this?”

One of his hands left her back, moving up to her left ear and traced the cartilage along it. Arina gasped and bit her lip. That was cheating. “Very much,” he assured her.

“And this is an... acceptable way to show affection during your holiday?” Any proper Akshari lady would rather die than be caught in something like this, but then most proper Akshari ladies also wouldn’t be caught dead in a human’s private quarters, either. Arina had been widening her perspectives considerably over the last year and though she’d begun as an unwanted passenger aboard a cold, cruel warlord’s sigil vessel, she found herself trusting Nikolai more than she ever had thought possible. Trusting him... and more than that.

“Yes,” he agreed. “But you may not want to walk out in front of the crew like that.”

“No,” she told him. “This is just for you. A... lovely ‘Christmas elf’ for my brutish frenarl.” She paused, her pure green eyes twinkling. “But if you breathe a word of this to anyone, I willkill you.”

His fingers caressed her ear one last time before moving down to her chin and lifting her head up for a kiss. “Those terms, Your Highness, are agreeable.”

His lips touched hers and Arina melted into his embrace, savouring the warmth, taste and strength of him. Finally, she drew back and smiled like a cat freshly full of canary. The Akshari put a hand on the middle of her lover’s chest and pushed him back down onto the bed. “And I would also like,” she purred, as she placed her hands on his knees, and stared into his eyes. “To learn more about you would find agreeablefor this holiday.”

“Of course,” Nikolai told Arina as the Akshari crawled over him. He cupped the side of her face in one hand, as she nipped at his thumb. “Then let me teach you...”