Not a thing stirred within the bath as the two lovers enjoyed each other's quiet presence. Their embrace had broken, but only by Kofle’s will. As the swirling emotions within the both of them had simmered down, the miqo'te had pushed herself to her feet and, keeping Muur in her arms, had carried them into the basin of hot water.
Without so much as by your leave, she had waded into the bath and sat in one of its corners. Both had sighed in relief as they were enveloped in by hot water that’d probably have been scalding to anyone not used to setting herself on fire and whatever the hell Kofle had put herself through. Thus, neither minded it as Kofle crossed her legs and anchored herself in place by spreading her arms wide along the smooth ceramic edge of the bath. Once again, not a word was exchanged as Muur took the hint and wiggled in her girlfriend’s lap so she could splay herself across her new chair. Needless to say, it was a rather comfortable one: plush and soft with just the right amount of firmness, the mage hadn’t wasted a second making herself at home on it.
With the two of them settled into place, and with Muur’s original question thoroughly washed away by the relaxing murmur of the water, neither of them said a word, or did anything for some time.
“If you need a hand with whatever it was that came say hi back in the underground, just say the word. I’ve been digging pretty deep into the Ossuary’s library about souls and minds, to keep on top of my own stuff.” Muur offered, finally breaking the comfortable silence.
“Thanks, but I already know what that is.” Her girlfriend sleepily said. From how she was trying to blink herself awake, she’d been close to dozing off, “One of my old party members was a Warrior. Talked about an ‘inner beast’ a whole lot. Don’t think the Thaumaturges’ Guild would have a lot on that.”
“Meditation techniques stuff to keep a grip on overwhelming power may still help, tho.” Muur pointed out, gently poking Kofle’s nose with her scaly tail.
One wouldn’t call the end of Muur’s tail tickly. But despite that, it managed to cause Kofle to let out a cute cat-like sneeze before she batted it away with a hand, “M’be. Won’t say no, but don’t worry too much about it. He learned to deal with it around Limsa Lominsa, so I know where to look once I got ‘nuff money.”
“Good to hear. At least I got the Ossuary right in this city, so sorting out my Voidsent troubles doesn’t take a commute.” Muur murmured. Ugh, thank every God for the crystal teleport network, she did not want to footslog all the way to the Ossuary.
“Having experts on hand is nice, yeah.” Letting out a cat-like yawn, Kofle rubbed at her face, “I think we're due for leaving the bath. Between it and you, all that warmth's making me too sleepy to enjoy it… and my fingers are all pruny too.” She mumbled after staring at her hand for a few seconds, “Shojojo ‘lways said it wasn't a good idea to stay in the water once that happened. Made your muscles all soft and melty, she said.”
“Fun fact, fingers doing that is to help give you a better grip underwater. But yeah, let’s go, I got a bed calling my name.” Muur said, reluctantly starting to rise.
Kofle stayed in the bath a bit longer. Whether it was because her mind was processing the new information she’d been told, or that she was carving the sight of rivulets of gently steaming water running across her girlfriend’s curves into her mind was up to anyone’s guess. “Sleep’ll do us good.” She groaned with the same reluctance as Muur as she followed behind. “Haven’t felt this tired in a long time. Never thought being the vanguard was this draining.”
Entering the dressing room, Kofle quietly offered a white bathing robe to Muur. “Here you go. Quicksand’s kind enough to give those out for free after a bath.”
“Nice.” Muur said as she grabbed it with her tail, letting her just shrug it on in a single fluid motion.
“Yeah. Nothing worse than having to put on your old, dirty and grimy clothes after a good bath.” Quickly putting hers on, the gladiator grabbed her adventuring kit and dropped it into a basket, before doing the same with Muur’s. “Not sure which would be worse, running around naked in the halls to get to my room. Or wearing this stuff before it’s cleaned up by the staff.”
“A question for the ages and which I would rather never need to be empirically tested.” Muur snorted with a small plume of crackling smog. It’d be funny, in the abstract, but practically fuck her girlfriend having to be the butt of a joke like that.
With a quiet hum, Kofle moved out of the room basket in hand and walked along the corridor towards wherever her room was with Muur following her. It didn’t take particularly long for them to reach the cat’s current home, or for the cat in question to drop the basket in a corner. “D’you have anything you want us to go over, or are we done for the day?”
“Some questions but they can wait for tomorrow. I’m beat.” Muur groaned, starting to shuffle out of the room. A quick jaunt between aetherites and that’d be that handled.
Right as her hand was about to reach the doorknob, Kofle’s own landed on her shoulder, “Where do you think you’re going?” The Mage wasn’t given much time to think about a response before she was spun around and ‘forced’ into another kiss.
One that was… far more intimate than the one they’d shared in the bath. For one, it shared none of the quiet chasteness, especially once Kofle pinned Muur’s arms in place and started nibbling at her neck. “You’re not leaving this room until I let you.” She whispered against the lizard’s horns before softly blowing on them.
Muur wasn’t too proud to admit that she squeaked.