“I love you, Xylo.” Her voice wavered as her eyes softened. “Can you please lie down on these cushions so I can spread this on you?”
“If that is what you wish to do, then I will.”
She gestured to the long, cushioned part of the couch. Xylo followed her lead and laid on his stomach, tilting his head to face her without complaint.
“Let me do this for you.” She gave him a gentle smile and climbed between his legs.
Xylo closed his eyes as he tried to focus on what his nestqueen was doing. She had kept their connection wide open, allowing him to hear her inner musing as she spread the balm on her hands and tried to decide where to place her hands.
Soft hands pressed against the spine of his back and traced its whole length, leaving a trail of tingling sensations in its wake.
A moan broke from his lips as she worked the base of his neck and massaged his shoulder blades. She slowly traveled lower and paused.
“What’s wrong, Selena?”
“Your back,” she muttered as a wave of sadness slammed into him. “How can you go throughout your day without complaint?”
“I know they will return in time,” he replied. “You aren’t going to get rid of me—nor are you ashamed of me—so I have no reason to waste energy being upset when we have solutions to help expedite the healing process.”
“You are so strong.” She sobbed. “How do I deserve you?”
Xylo was speechless. He thought he had comforted her about his current state ever since he had woken up, but she still felt responsible for something that neither of them had any control over.
He felt drops of water fall upon his back as something soft pressed against the base of one missing petal wings. As soon as the pressure left, she placed her hand against his damaged base and gently massaged the balm, electrifying him with its healing properties.
“Selena, you honored me the moment you initiated a courting bond with me,”he pathed as he tried to make her feel how much he loved her. “You only solidified my feelings when you accepted my bond spores and graced me as not only your Favored but your Primary. We will get through this.”
She repeated the same process to the base of his other petal wing.
“Thank you for what you’ve done. Your sacrifices won’t be forgotten.”He felt a kiss on one of the bases of his missing vines.“I will do everything I can do to help you.”
As she smothered the kissed base, Xylo wiggled from the tickling sensations from her other hand to trace the claw scar marks.
“I’ll do everything I can to help restore you to your old glory.”
She kissed each missing vine base before massaging the healing balm over it. Xylo could almost mistake her kisses for the ointment, for they both gave him the same tingly sensations as he lost himself in the flood of thoughts and emotions that flowed to him from his nestqueen.
“I wish I could take this burden from you. You don’t deserve this, not after everything you have done for me. But know this, Xylo. You may not have a shortened name like the warriors of your species, but to me, these scars prove that you are truly one. In my heart, you are my protector—my warden—and no one can take that from you.”
“No, Selena. You are mine. If I have to experience this an infinite amount of times to make sure you are safe, I will. I would endure whatever pain to protect you, my nestqueen. This moment is tiny in the grand scheme of our life. It doesn’t define who I am.”
“That may be true, Xylo, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t regret it ever happening to you. You and Odelm are gentle souls and never deserved such a thing.”
“But you, Selena, must know that you can’t change the past; no matter how much you hate it, you can only learn, adapt and grow from it. I know this isn’t the end for me, and the reason why I am so calm is because I know they will return with time.”
Lying on top of him, she hugged him from behind as she pressed her head against the middle of the bases of his petal wings and sobbed.
He knew her emotions were running high from the stress of everything, and unbeknownst to her, her pregnancy—and the best thing he could do was to let her cry it out.
“Know this, Selena,”he soothed.“When they return, I can’t wait to wrap you up in my vines and hold you close at night.”
“Then let me take care of you. Let me nurse you back to health. If I must rub this lotion on you daily, I will because that’s how much you matter to me. If that’s the sacrifice I must take, then I will until your moss blooms for me once again.”
“I won’t prevent you from doing so, but please stop being upset. Your happiness is what I long for. This will pass. If you are only going to get upset every time you rub the healing balm on us, then I would instead take turns with Odelm and have us rub it on each other so that we don’t have to experience you being so distraught every day.
“If you want to do something for me, for us, Selena, then enjoy yourself. Be happy. I am not telling you that you need to brush aside your thoughts and feelings—and that you don’t have the right to grieve for what happened to us. I have accepted what Fate has given me, and I don’t want to be the cause ofyour sadness and pain—not after everything.”
“I can do that for you,” Selena pathed, her mental voice so soft that he almost didn’t hear it.She lifted herself off of his back and dragged her palms along the center of his back. “I’ll do anything for you, my love.”
