Hushed Willows now that i’ve got you, i’ll never let you go

tagging @Delight and @Seabreeze for reference

Seabreeze and Olive were doing what they do best: sitting amongst the branches and vines of their willows, assuring each other that their children were off playing safely somewhere and indulging in a moment’s sweetness together. There was a chill in the air, but safely tucked away beneath the willows, the easy snows outside could not touch them. The two pale-pelted women shared each other’s warmth, a tangle of legs and intermingling fur, purring and making lovely cooing noises as they did so.

With her neck draped across her wife, she divulged the secret that their resident blackbird had shared. “Lily is with child,” the woman said cheerfully. She hoped this might brighten the spirits of her lover, who was still in the process of recovering from her fall — her body had all but mended, and it was her mind that still needed rest. Her memory was difficult to come by, so the shakti woman spent her days trying to fill Seabreeze’s own with stories and gifts and all the happiness in the world. Olive was just thankful that the memories of she and their children hadn’t been blighted completely.  

It shouldn't surprise her, really.  From all she could remember, Lily was quite fond of the boy she called her mate, even if they had not been a pair for very long.  Still, they were so young!  “I am happy for them,” she says, keeping the jealous edge from her voice and the sharpness from her eye.  She knows without a doubt that this year she will not bear children of her own, and the knowledge weighs upon her heavily.  "How lovely. Her children will restore joy to Elysium after how long winter's clutches seem to hold.” She pauses and pulls back a fraction to look at her wife. "I can't believe our children are already so big.”

Seabreeze’s joy echoed her own and Olive immediately buried her face amongst the thick winter scarf Seabreeze wore around her neck, both out of feigned guilt for having told Lily’s secret and to be that much closer to her wife’s own beating heart. She wiggled her nose and lips up to the woman’s ears and whispered  “I don’t believe Khali knows yet, so please wife, shhhhhhhhh,” which melted away into a peal of laughter. Olive pushed away from Seabreeze with her twiggy forearms and her slight body slid easily across the floor with the slightest of effort. She picked up her name to refute her wife’s assertion.

“Restore joy? I don’t believe it ever left. I still have you, and that is the most joyful thing i’ve ever known.” Olive was thankful every day that she had her wife, because she had come so close to losing her entirely. But, the shakti did not like to linger on the negative — er, positive — so when Seabreeze moved on, Olive allowed herself to be led to the next, related subject. “They are, aren’t they?I’ve heard murmurings that Seamus and Ellie wish to go on a grand tour of the wilds. Maybe Ibis’s adventures have inspired them.” The memory of Ibis was fuzzy to Seabreeze, with the young girl having been gone so often recently, so Olive often tried to spin Ibis’s absences off as happy occurrences. Adventures! Either way, post-fall Seabreeze seemed very unbothered by it.  

She presses the cold leathers of her nose to her wife's forehead as Olive's muzzle buries within her neck before the Shakti moves upwards her body in a warm, fluid motion.  Her eyes widen, and a laugh bubbles from somewhere forgotten. "That shouldn't be an issue, dear," she teases, although it's true.  Few have come to visit her since her memory has waned, and she is sure Khali is busy helping maintain the pack.

She feels her wife's warmth leave, and her eyes trail hungrily across the length of her as she stretches and rises.  It is the season that has brought this out of her, she thinks.  Neither of them have cycled yet, but the whirling romance of the coming seasons have taken hold of her still. "You're right," she admits slowly, creeping across the floor to be close to her lover once more, “You usually are. But I do miss the sunlight, and I miss the sound of the water, and I miss the wildflowers. Winter has its own charm," she murmurs, sliding her nose up her wife's neck to plant a line of kisses up its length, "but spring does, too.” She sighs and pulls back, head swimming.  "Well, that sounds fun!  Are you," (read: are we) "worried about it at all?”

Olive squealed, almost as a child would, when Seabreeze crept closer to close the space between them. Then, Seabreeze’s attentions — and kisses — made her tongue lose all the words she might have said. Her eyes slid closed and she relished these few silent moments between then. Olive felt her heart begin to whirr at the close proximity of her lover, and Olive found herself forcibly restraining herself from returning these libidinous advances.

Only when Seabreeze relented, could Olive continue. “I am not worried,” she said definitively. She loved having all of their children under one roof, but she can not board them up forever. Because they had these inclinations, Olive believed they had indeed raised them well. “Are you?” Even if Olive had all the confidence in the world, if Seabreeze had her doubts, it was time to re-evaluate. Seabreeze’s opinion was something she very highly regarded. 

But with a glimmer of jocularity in her voice, the woman suggested “Maybe we can have more this year, to replace them, if they are so determined to spread their wings, anyways.” Olive winked at her wife, quite certain of this. Though Seabreeze likely wouldn’t whelp this year, Olive was very determined to do so. Raising babies was the thing she loved most in this world. 

Something jealous and wanting and powerful flares in her breast as she spins silk of her lover, and it is difficult to part to allow her to find her words.  "If you are not worried, I am not either.”   From what she knew Ibis' adventures had drawn her from her shell.  Perhaps Seamus would mature, and Eleuthera would become more patient.

The idea of Elysium brimming with children was enticing.  "Whatever you wish, I will give, my love. I do lack the necessary mechanics to give you children, though.”  Much to her dismay.  "A woman asked Delight last year.  He is the only one I trust with this, but…" Queenie had ended so badly.  Would she be doomed to the same?

Olive nestled her nose into Seabreeze’s cheek, when she also agreed that Elysium needed more babes running around. She could almost feel them within her now, growing and being nurtured by her very being. Olive, too, was sad the Seabreeze couldn’t put them there herself. “Isn’t that a shame,” she agreed while in close proximity.

Seabreeze mentioned Delight, and Olive would be lying if she said she hadn’t the same idea. As one of the few bachelor males in the group, it was a natural alignment. “Delight…” she mulled over in her head. It wouldn’t be the first time that she had utilized a sperm donor — which is what she chalked last year’s affair to — but Olive fully believed that there might be more to Seabreeze and Delight than what shone through the surface. A friendship that ran that deep had to have some pretty strong emotional attachments, didn’t it? 

“But, he is your  — our — friend…” she said amenably. Then she turned a provocative eye and raised brow at the sea sprite. “Friend, right?”

Olive's searching jade gaze felt like it reached past her flesh and bore into her soul.  Friends, right?  Right?  But oh, she couldn't be sure.  She wanted to say everything and nothing all at once, and she was sure that her hesitation and the way her gaze fell to the floor made it obvious how she felt about the Singing-Sunlight. “I can't say.”  She turns to look at alive again and makes to smooth a kiss on her cheek.  “You are enough for me, Olive.  But love is …” well, she knew.  It was easy and hard and messy.  “You have nothing to worry about.” The last she checked, Delight wasn't even into girls.

Olive didn’t expect to get an answer right away, so when Seabreeze dodged her question a bit, she wasn’t surprised. She figured that her wife might need a little coaxing, in order to give into what she really wanted. Olive did not want to be pushy, but Seabreeze had been so entirely in support of all of Olive’s ideas, no matter how ephemeral or half-baked, so Olive would be staunchly in support of this. Always the free-thinker, Olive gave her wife a wry smile.  “Well, Delight needn’t only be welcome into our bed,” she teased in an ultimately loving manner.  “He can also be welcome in our relationship, too.” If two women could be in love, then why not three people at once?

It was a fun idea that set Olive’s heart aflame — but once she began to unpack it, the druid realized there was an underlying reason. She sighed, so that Seabreeze might hear her exasperation.  “My children so often grow up without their fathers,” though Seamus and Eleuthera had something better than a father, it was a part of them they would never have a chance to know. Sirius, Aries and Cassiopeia, too.  “I might like this time to be different… with you.” Olive bit her lip, nervously. She did not want Seabreeze to take offense. Seabreeze was more than enough for her, just as the same was true for her. 

“Thank you,” Seabreeze breathed, pulling Olive close in a tight embrace.  “You’re sure you're comfortable with this? We should talk to him, then. Together.” The greyscale woman nodded assuredly, kissing the tears away from beneath Seabreeze’s eyes. Not only was this okay, but Olive loved the idea of bringing another lover into the fold. Now at a deeper understanding of where they stood and where they would soon proceed, Olive and Seabreeze when back to snoozin’ in the soft winter sunshine.