Work Text:
Sunny and Nephis were finally left alone in the sunlit hall.
He hesitated.
Throughout the dinner, Sunny had avoided speaking about the matters that gnawed on him, the war between the great clans, their plans for Antarctica and most of all...
His little tryst with Jet.
"Is there something you've been meaning to tell me?" Nephis inquired, her voice that same flat tone as ever yet it carried the ever-so subtle tone of suspicion.
Now, it was really too late to act like he didn't know why he felt guilty for what he did.
"Yes..." Nor would he have been able to lie about it in the first place.
"It's not related to the Great Clans either, no?" She also somehow hit the nail right on its head.
"No..." He felt lost and indecisive, he didn't know if he should confess to what had happened or if he should keep it to himself.
"Oh you aren't forced to answer, I could just tell from your body language that you've been meaning to tell me something this entire time..." Nephis trailed off as she contemplated whether to finish the thought that was forming in her head.
In the end it escaped her mouth as barely a whisper, "Or trying to hide it."
But naturally he caught it, and his face grimaced.
He didn't even know if this feeling of guilt was justified in the first place, after all...
There wasn't anything between them...
He closed his eyes,
"Nephis..." and called her name.
She was his dearest companion at best, his slave owner at worst. She was someone who would do anything and everything to achieve her goals, but what was he really in her eyes?
She had told him that he would follow her of his own volition, that she didn't need to make use of unwilling followers.
And he was mad at that, and he ran away to prove her wrong.
All the way to Antarctica.
"...Help me do the dishes?"
Sunny blinked, amused yet also confused by the mundane banality of her request. He lingered for a moment, then shook his head and went about giving Changing Star a hand.
They cleaned the plates in utter silence, only the sound of running water and clacking plates ringing throughout the halls. Perhaps they both had a premonition that the conversation they would have, would change everything.
As Nephis wiped the last plate dry, their eyes met. Uncertainty in both, but they had to move or else they would remain frozen in place.
"Let's talk somewhere more private... If you wish." Adding the last command as consideration, Sunny breathed in deep as he followed her onto the stairs.
The journey upward, to the 6th level was silent. Never had he felt so awkward being alone with Nephis, nor did he think the topic he would bring up deserved that level of gravity.
Yet in a way, it was much too personal in comparison to the matters of the Great Clans and Antarctica. It involved 'them', what 'they' were, and perhaps that terrified them both.
Or maybe it was just him, maybe he could be projecting all this fear, apprehension and guilt onto Nephis when Nephis felt nor expected nothing in return from him.
Honestly he could definitely see that coming from the stoic woman, yet somehow for some reason, he didn't believe it.
They reached the 6th level, Nephis' own personal quarters, simple, efficient, spartan. A large canopy bed, with 4 large balconies overlooking the vast expanse of the Sky Above.
It was a breathtaking sight as Nephis led Sunny onto one of the large balconies. She leaned onto the railing and stared into the sunset vista before speaking.
"What were you trying to say earlier? Ah, You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Nephis added, turning her head back to look at Sunny trying not to impose on his Flaw nor their Shadow Bond.
Sunny smiled just a tad, it was ironic how someone who had absolute control over his life, quite literally, was so mindful in never exercising any of it to impose on him.
The gesture was...
Nice.
Even if ultimately meaningless, after all a slave who adored their master was simply pitiful.
Was being pitiful so bad?
He shook his head, he had plenty of time to think this matter through. From the remaining time on the Antarctic Plains, to their dinner downstairs, to the climb to this balcony.
Perhaps deep down he had already decided from the beginning that he would tell the truth, not that he had the option to lie.
His only concern was how to even broach the topic and if it even mattered enough to be brought up in the first place.
He stared at Nephis, her expression was calm but there was still an indiscernible emotion brewing deep within the facade.
An emotion that even he, as one of her closest companions, could not ascertain.
"Nephis..." Despite all that time, he still hesitated his voice losing clarity on it's own.
Before...
"What are we?"
"..."
"..."
The wind blew, occupying the silence between them. There was no music in the bedroom, no chatter downstairs, no screams of battle, no sounds of a TV that was suddenly broken after going home.
Just the two of them, together yet alone, on a beautiful island in the sky.
Lost in each other's eyes.
Nephis' silver eyes, reflecting the glare of sunset colouring her in a pleasant gold. Her figure looked ethereal bathed in that golden glow, like an Angel of Ruin.
Sunny's were dark obsidian, black abysses swallowing all light. Yet she could still see the glint of her own reflections in them, like a paradox.
She closed her eyes, dozens of moments and precious memories replaying in her mind. They weren't "just" friends...
But they never said they were anything more than that either.
So it was the height of cruelty to spring this all up on Nephis out of the blue, to make her give the label to the messy relationship that they have.
But Sunny wasn't someone who did things for no reason. So the fact that he brought such a heavy topic up meant that it was important to set the record straight.
"We're..." She paused trying to find the words, hesitating before she just shook her head.
"Sunny you're precious to me." Her cheeks reddened slightly realising what she was saying but she was determined to push through.
"Beyond me calling your True Name, beyond the Shadow Bond, beyond our last quarrel..." She paused, leaning back on the railings of the balcony, her hands almost crushing the stone.
"I cherish you, I don't want to lose you." Her voice came a little hoarse, likely more emotional than even she expected.
"..."
"That's why I did what I did in the Forgotten Shore, why I made you leave..." She paused breathing in before letting the words escape unfiltered. "I dreaded the possibility of losing you forever more than I dreaded the alternative."
"And that's why I will never use your True Name again." She paused.
"Because the moment I do, I'll lose you right?" Leaving those words, she gazed at Sunny a little mirthful.
"Well at least one of us will have to die, one way or another." Sunny muttered giving a measured response.
She gave a wry smile, "Ironic, isn't it? The moment I exercise this power that gives me absolute control over you is also the moment I lose you forever..."
"It is quite ironic..." To that Sunny met her gaze, a subtle expression on his face. As if amused by the situation yet regretful of what was to come.
Nephis met that gaze as if expecting an explanation, a reason for why he pressured her into saying such embarrassing things.
Sunny accepting that sincerity looked down, at his own feelings, at his own...
He didn't know what to call it.
"I slept with Jet..." In the end, that was the only explanation he could give, or the only one he wanted to.
There was no need for deception. If he had to deceive such sincerity from Nephis, wasn't he just worse than a slaver?
The thought made him laugh a little, but the situation was anything but.
"Oh..."
Shock
That was the only appropriate word to describe the expression on her face.
Unbridled Shock.
Then tears...
The sight gripped his heart so painfully hard and he wasn't so dense as to not know why.
He cherished Nephis too, in fact she was the only thought that held him back, even if only momentarily, from what had happened with Jet.
Despite her and Cassie's betrayal, despite her harsh words during their last meeting. Nephis was someone, he couldn't lose either.
"That's... I see..." Nephis stammered, lost for words.
Still he didn't regret what happened with Jet, Jet didn't deserve that. After all, he wasn't one who could lie to his own desires when it came to it and he was the one who succumbed to them in the first place so there was only one to blame.
"It's not the innocent kind of sleep either." Sunny felt the need to clarify, as the tears finally ran down Nephis' cheeks to her own surprise.
"Huh, oh I was crying..." Nephis muttered as if she hadn't even realized it herself. "That's strange, after all isn't it only natural. I mean Jet is a pretty and competent woman..." She drawled out as if trying to justify it in her own heart.
Sunny didn't know what to say, he had wanted to be transparent, to be truthful, but he didn't know what he was looking for beyond that.
He didn't know how to comfort Nephis, or if he was even qualified to after what he did. Of course he recognized that it hurt her a lot, what he did, however could either one of them even consider it a fault if neither of them had ever told the other anything.
Was relying on such clumsy and illogical feelings really wise? Were intuition and unspoken words really enough? After all they weren't children any longer, it had already been a long time since that era passed.
If they had to have a conversation about this, it best be as proper adults. Thinking that way, Nephis wiped the tears away and posed a question, her voice shaky but firm. "Is this something that I should expect to happen in the future?"
Sunny went silent at that. Even he didn't know himself because the thing with Jet wasn't planned either.
"I don't know..." He trailed off, his eyes gazing down as if he was regretful he couldn't even answer that.
"..."
"But Jet and I aren't an item either." He continued as if to reassure her but was it really?
"Then?" Why, was the question left unspoken.
She knew Sunny, perhaps not as much as she had thought, but still enough to know Sunny wasn't the type to do shallow things especially when it came to relationships.
So that begged the question even harder, Why?
"I—" Sunny stuttered, unsure of himself.
Back there on the Antarctic Snow, he had let himself succumb to his base pleasures. Indulged in the intimacy that Jet offered at a time when he desperately needed it.
But using those words like that simply sounded like an excuse.
But did Nephis deserve more than an excuse either.
It always circled back to this.
Until they put a label on what they are and what they want to be in the future, this vague betrayal, remains just that, a vague betrayal that neither really have the right to be angry about.
Yet a betrayal that can never be taken back either.
Sunny stalled, his voice losing any semblance of clarity, until his thoughts went blank, until his mind went white, until his nose bled, until everything in the world became dominated by the blinding pain of his Flaw.
"—needed someone to be there for me... She was the only person I had."
You weren't there.
Perhaps that was the message he was trying to get across? Yet even if she was there, would it really change anything?
She would only be there to die in the face of the Winter Beast. Was he just making a cruel deception to hurt her?
"I don't regret doing it, but I don't—" He paused, trying find to the right words or...
"—I don't want to hurt you, and I know what I did hurt you."
Trying to avoid saying what he had hidden, what he truly felt.
"We both know why... and yet we're still too afraid to say anything about it!"
He screamed his voice going hoarse echoing into the Sky Above, any louder and Kai and Effie might overhear.
Perhaps they already did.
"So I'll bite the bullet, eat my pride and tell you! I cherish you too, I don't want to lose you, what we have, whatever fucking mess this is."
His voice escaped like a broken dam, all the truths he desperately wanted to hide laid bare.
“I hate that you said my True Name,” He said, his voice raw, trembling with something dangerously close to breaking. “And I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for it… yet at the same time…”
He let out a shaky breath, fingers curling into his palms. “…I can’t help but be glad it was you.”
His eyes lifted at last, dark and unguarded, stripped of sarcasm, stripped of mockery.
“I hate that you decide things for everyone else. That you shoulder everything alone like it’s your burden and yours only.” His jaw tightened. “Like the rest of us are too fragile to stand beside you.”
A bitter, helpless laugh escaped him. “And yet… it only makes me want to stay. It only makes me want to fight harder to be by your side to somehow prove myself or something! And I hate that I just continue to prove you right!”
Nephis stood frozen, her silver lashes still damp, her composure cracking in ways no enemy had ever managed. Her hands trembled, not from fear, but from restraint.
“You infuriate me,” Sunny continued, stepping forward despite himself. “You make me feel small, powerless, angry. You make me want things I don’t know how to have.”
His voice faltered, then steadied.
“So let’s end this farce. Let’s stop pretending we’re children dancing around words we’re too afraid to say.”
His breathing grew uneven, like a man about to jump off a cliff.
“We—”
“I love you, Sunny."
The words cut through him.
Nephis’ voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It was steady now, stripped of hesitation, pure and absolute.
She lifted her chin, meeting his gaze without retreat.
“There. I said it to your face.” Her throat tightened, but she didn’t look away. “And I’ll say it again. As many times as you need to hear it.”
A step closer.
“I hate seeing you get hurt. I hate it when other women look at you like they have a right to. I hate that you think you’re alone when you’re not.”
Her fingers clenched at her sides, knuckles pale.
“I wanted you to be mine—" She paused taking note of her own wording before repeating herself. "I still want you to be mine... but only if you want me back.”
Her voice softened, not weaker, but more vulnerable
"That way—" She trailed off her ears turning red from what she was about to say. "I can be yours too."
“Is that enough for you? Can we finally put an end to this charade Sunny?” She blurted out, her entire face blossoming into a rosy blush of confused anger and embarrassment.
Silence fell between them shortly after, not empty, but heavy with everything they had been too afraid to name.
Still, Sunny's flaw was building. He had to answer the question.
His mouth opened to give her a response, but the answer it gave was one that neither of them were expecting.
An answer that stole the opponent's lips for itself.
Sunny had no idea what spurred him on, but the moment their lips met, it just felt right. Like the only answer he could have possibly given at that moment.
Sunny was quite a bit shorter than Nephis 💀, so the kiss was a bit of a reversal of the usual trope. But it felt no less exhilarating.
They were ravenous, like starving Nightmare Creatures feasting on one another as if everything that had been held back was let go in a single instant.
Sunny's arms wrapped around her body, wandering, as if they'd always been waiting and perhaps they were. Nephis' hands twined themselves into his jet black hair, clutching fistfuls, as if they'd never let him go.
The two were tangled in each other's unhidden desire. Their breaths barely even being allowed to escape in between, as their lips stole each other's breath.
"Sunny, say it." She drawled in between kisses, an order Sunny quite literally couldn't refuse.
"Fuck..." He cursed as he tried hard to resist but the blinding pressure of the Shadow Bond forced him to speak. "I love you, Nephis..."
A small grin crawled up her face as she opened her mouth to apologize. "I didn't mean to force you, Sunny."
Liar
Sunny grit his teeth as he opened his mouth, not to speak, but to attack her. Her neck to be precise.
His mouth launched upward to her neck as he sucked and bit down to leave a mark. Nephis' breath hitched in surprise as Sunny seemingly overpowered her, bringing her from the balcony to her bed.
It was a large bed, one much too large for a single person to sleep on alone. But that was perfect considering the current circumstances.
"Nephis..." He trailed off as he loomed above her, having pushed her down onto the bed. His face was a confusion of many different emotions, anger, joy, lust, but most of all uncertainty.
Sunny still stood by what he said, there was nothing more pitiful than a slave who loved their slaver but...
"Do you really promise, that you'll be mine?" It was a loaded question but if Sunny and Nephis were both slaves to each other then wouldn't that still be a twisted form of freedom?
"I promise, on my True Name, I belong to you Sunny." There was no hesitation in her voice, no pause to think, just a simple affirmation as they stared into each other's eyes.
"Do you mean it?" But the eyes that were staring into his soul already held all the answers.
"Of course."
Their lips met
Again and again.
Non-stop.
Ravishing in each others intimacy that they had long since desired. Throwing away all the fear and apprehension.
They simply made love, they had promised to belong to each other for all eternity. After all, thats what it meant to make a vow on your True Name.
In every universe, each Lost from Light belonged to that universe's Changing Star and vice versa.
It was quite poetic.
But as their breaths hitched and their faces lingered mere inches apart.
It was time.
The time to cross the line.
Sunny's hand cupped her face as if to admire her. How long had he desired to do this deep down, and now, he could finally let himself do it.
After all, they belonged to each other. Wasn't this freedom enough for his paranoid self?
"Neph?" He drawled out, lost in her eyes, breathing slow, Nephis in turn hummed in reply.
"Give me a hickey." It was an order, seemingly, one which she obeyed with absolutely no hesitation.
Leaning in close, she nestled against his neck sucking at his porcelain skin before gently biting down, trying to leave a mark.
But when she pulled away only the faintest discoloration remained, one that could be wiped off with a hand.
"...Your skin is too tough"
It was meant as a compliment, but she was left unsatisfied since Sunny had already left dozens of marks on her.
"Neph..." Sunny was left bewildered, she did say she belonged to him but she didn't expect her to be so eager.
"Yes?" She smiled, as she gazed up at him longingly awaiting for what he would say.
It was so strange to him, even now just the thought of Nephis being able to dictate his every action, his life and death made him feel sick to the stomach.
So even if Nephis promised the same to him using her own True Name, he was still skeptical.
No matter how much he loved her, it was just in his innate nature to be distrusting.
"Anything?" She continued, a questioning look, after his long pause.
"Don't resist." So he tried something, a simple order.
He reached out and rested a hand against the side of her neck.
For several long moments, he watched her.
She never moved.
Never flinched.
Never even considered resisting.
Her complete faith in him disturbed him.
His hand, already wrapped around her neck, and slowly squeezed. Restricting the airflow to Neph's brain as he held her there choking her for what felt like minutes.
Naturally Ascended have extremely tough bodies but even a few minutes with restricted airflow could prove fatal. But Nephis let him choke her, he let him have her life in his hands in this very instant.
Not an ounce of resistance, not an ounce of hesitation. She quite literally let Sunny have her life in his hands.
Until the moment she was about to go unconscious from the lack of airflow, she didn't resist not even once. As her consciousness began to slip, Sunny suddenly let her go spurring a fit of coughs from Neph as she finally caught her breath.
"I could have killed you!" Sunny exclaimed, angry for some reason.
"I told you." Her voice was hoarse between coughs. "I belong to you. If you tell me not to resist... I won't."
She caught her breath before continuing.
"Besides..." A knowing smile tugged at her lips. "You wouldn't have believed me if I'd done anything less."
Sunny grimaced.
He was being read like a book.
"I told you, Sunny." She gently touched her reddened neck. "My life is yours."
"Its the only thing that brings you comfort knowing that I have your life in mine as well, doesn't it?" She continued
Then she spoke, "Kiss me." It was soft-spoken but an order nonetheless as his own body moved of its own volition to meet her lips.
It was unpleasantly pleasant as they once again stole each other's breath.
"Don't do that!" He managed to drawl in between kisses.
"I'm not trying to..." She seemed sincere this time, as her voice took a guilty edge to it.
He clicked his tongue looking away before Neph brought it back to face her.
"You can do anything to me too..."
The words were spoken so matter-of-factly that they almost sounded innocent.
Almost.
Sunny's face immediately turned red.
If he had to classify himself, he would consider himself far more of a romantic than a pervert. Faced with such a shameless temptation, he found himself completely unprepared. There were a thousand things he felt for Nephis, countless things he wanted to tell her, but very few things he actually wanted to do to her.
At least, not in the way she seemed to be implying. (TLDR: he's vanilla, he not freaky freaky)
What was even more impressive was that saying something so outrageously embarrassing did not seem to affect her in the slightest.
Meanwhile, he felt like his soul was trying to escape through his ears.
"...You could, uh..."
Sunny looked away once more, suddenly finding the distant horizon incredibly fascinating.
"...undress?"
The word came out less like a request and more like a bewildered question as Neph returned a small smile, undressing herself beneath him.
She wasn't trying to be erotic for him, she was just so beautiful that everything she did felt so.
It was a bit awkward undressing beneath Sunny on the bed considering she was bigger than him💀. Sunny finally noticed and sat up to help her remove her top, then her pants, then underwear, until she was totally in the nude.
She was a little shy, a faint blush coloring her cheeks, but she didn't avert her gaze or try to hide herself from him.
"Could you undress too?" she asked softly, a request. "It's embarrassing being the only one.
She was timid, almost hesitant.
The answer however wasn't
"No."
Nephis blinked.
Then before she could process the refusal, Sunny kissed her, his hands caressing her nude body, groping her breasts just a little, then sliding down to her plump ass and thighs.
As an Ascended she was naturally beautiful, but even among them she was peerless in terms of beauty.
Sunny could never deny that.
"That's fine," she mumbled between kisses.
The words were quiet, almost lost against his lips, but the meaning behind them was unmistakable.
You'll end up doing what I want anyway.
Sunny gritted his teeth.
The worst part was that he couldn't even argue with her.
Not when history was so firmly on her side.
So Sunny went on the offensive, the hand that was caressing her plump thighs, started teasing her entrance.
Making circling motions around her clit, it was weird to him, he had no idea what he was doing much less any experience beyond that one instance, but he could gauge from the miniscule changes in her expression which things he did right.
So he continued, teasing her until her breathing became ragged. She gripped his clothes, currently memories, as if she intended to rip them off his body.
"Sunny, please..." It wasn't exactly an order, but it was a plea that made him wish it was.
Still he acquiesced and finally started to finger her pussy. It was unbelievably wet and tight, as Nephis gasped out an angelic moan.
One that did a number on Sunny
Neph gripped the tent in his pants, as if goading him into finally undressing but Sunny relented, he was too petty to give her even that small win.
So he continued, reading her gasps and moans to see what he was doing right. Fingering and kissing her until she couldn't hold it in.
Dozens of minutes passed in that agonizing teasing, Nephis wanted to beg but her pride didn't allow her. Sunny wanted to fuck her silly, but his pettiness held him back.
The two opposing personalities were so clearly in love yet neither gave the other an inch, lest they take a mile.
Such petty lovers they were.
Still one party finally relented.
"Sunny... I beg of you please..." She pleaded in between her ragged breathing, his fingers just weren't enough for her.
She wanted him, in all his entirety.
"Tell me what you want." He spoke measured, not allowing his lust to take over no matter how much he wanted it too.
"If..." She let out a breathy gasp as Sunny attacked her weak spots. "—I tell you, you'd—hngghhh—get mad..."
He smiled, victorious. "I would get mad, you're right." The teasing lilt to it undeniable.
Then her eyes glared at his and she opened her mouth to speak. "Sunny—hngghhh" another timely interruption. "—If you want me... more than your reason can contain... then don't hold back anymore."
Her voice resonated in Sunny's brain, the Shadow Bond triggering on the conditional.
Sunny wants Nephis
That was an absolute truth.
Did he want her more than his reason could contain?
Well? Reason wasn't the thing holding him back...
It was pettiness beyond reason
Therefore...
He devoured her.