[coronatiger]

I was lying on our bed, dreamily watching Yana working on her flowers and waiting for my hair to dry, when something heavy slammed into the wall. I sprang to my feet and grabbed my knives before realizing that Hylda was signaling via Grogg’s fist that they were about to go down. I rapped my knuckles on the wall between our rooms to let them know we understood. Yana gave me a solid kiss before allowing me to take her down to the meeting room.

Our friends were all present when we joined them. I closed the door. “So, shall we go and look for Elik?” I asked. Xipil pointed out that someone should remain behind in case Krago showed up. Wolfram was quick to volunteer as there would certainly be people out in the streets. Grogg and Hylda decided to stay with him.

Yana, Xipil and I headed for the slave building near the Golden Arrow. We observed the place for a few minutes and noticed the guards were registering who entered and who left. I asked Xipil if he could climb the fence unseen and look for the two slaves Wolfram had described if Yana and I distracted the guards. He was hesitant, uncertain how he could get back out without being noticed. I was confident in his skills and was prepared to make another distraction at a future time of his choosing, but after a short discussion and some additional scouting, Yana asked if we couldn’t simply have Krago order those two slaves for us. Xipil and I agreed that it was a good idea, and we all hurried back to the Lame Mule so we’d be there when Krago appeared. If he showed up at all, that was.

As it turned out, Krago had come not long after we had left, and he and his bodyguard Bruto were leaving just as we came back. We convinced Krago to come back inside, but he insisted we entered separately, so observers wouldn’t connect us to him.

In the meeting room, I asked Krago to fetch the two slaves, and had Wolfram describe them again. Since I hadn’t signed his contract earlier, Krago didn’t accept my request until my friends confirmed that this was indeed our desire. Xipil added that we shouldn’t meet the slaves at the inn since we didn’t trust them and left it to Krago to find a suitable meeting place nearby.

While Xipil spoke to Krago, I asked Wolfram what Krago had brought for us. Quite a bit, in fact: Money, silk, arrows, a book about dragons, a book about how laws are made, a proposed law which disappointingly wasn’t the one we were after, information about Xipil’s star signs and about demons.

Grogg, Wolfram and Xipil delved into the texts as soon as Krago departed with Bruto. I pulled Yana away for some alone-time. Half-way up the stairs, I remembered that we needed a razor, so we headed out to the market to acquire one. A quick peek into the meeting room when we got back told us our friends were still busy reading, so Yana and I slipped up to our room.

Yana saw how hesitant I was at the thought of touching a knife to her unblemished chocolate skin. “Start with my legs,” she commanded, “and work your way up from there. You might as well take a detour via my armpits, too.” Yana wasn’t shy at all and displayed my goal proudly, making my heart race. I worked the razor painstakingly slow so I wouldn’t accidentally injure Yana’s perfection. When I had finally rid her of every unwanted hair, Yana was about to burst with impatience. As I wiped off the remaining lather with a wet cloth, I marveled at how smooth she was, but Yana had reached the end of her tether. She seized my hair in her fingers and yanked my head down. “Kiss me! Now!” I wasn’t hard to ask.

By unspoken agreement, Yana bit her tongue so she wouldn’t cry out with ecstasy, just as I did whenever she pleasured me. I was afraid that our love might not be understood, nor well received. Yana had opened my eyes to the truth, and I knew that we weren’t the only same-sex couple in the world. Many would understand, but many others would not. I preferred not to have to talk our way out of trouble. Yana wasn’t nearly as concerned as me, but she understood my position and deferred.

When it was Yana’s time to wield the razor, she was ever so gentle, and while she was no less thorough than me, she was far more efficient. She was amused at the way I covered myself with my hands between my legs while she worked. “I’m completely smitten with you already. There’s no need to emphasize your bosom like that,” she joked, making me blush. Her amusement vanished in an instant when she nudged at my hands and I said, “You don’t have to shave that bit, do you?” I don’t know why I was so shy. I wasn’t afraid she’d have an accident with the razor, and it wasn’t as if she hadn’t put her eyes on that part of me before. Or her hands, or her tongue…

Yana got back on her feet and nailed me down with her eyes. “It’s either this, or I’m going to pour hot wax on you and rip out the bloody hair,” she threatened, fists on hips. Everything about her screamed at me how serious she was. There was no humorous lilt in her voice, no mischievous glimmer in her eyes. She really meant to go through with her ludicrous threat if I didn’t yield. I could understand why she’d want to rip away the hair, having had a taste of her smoothness, but the hot wax just seemed cruel.

Yana got her will, of course. She rules our bedroom activities as per our agreement, and it would be difficult to argue that this shaving didn’t fall under her jurisdiction. I might have had a case, had I not wanted my legs or armpits shaved, but that was a non-issue by the time she got to the sensitive part. Nor was I eager to see if I could convince Yana to relent on her threat; she was quite determined to make me as bald as her. So, after I had squirmed a little, I forced my hands out of the way, so Yana could finish me off. And she certainly did. I gasped when the cold, hard razor gave way to soft, warm lips.

When she was done, Yana slithered up and wrapped my arm around her, like for sleep, then she pulled a blanket over us to keep in the warmth. “It’s good to have you back,” she murmured. I felt kind of drowsy after what she had just done to me, and it didn’t seem like she had spoken to start a conversation, so I said nothing.

It was nice just lying cuddled up together like we did, but we had more to do before we could sleep, so when I thought I was about to doze off, I pulled back and tugged on Yana’s shoulder so she’d turn and look at me. “We didn’t sleep as much as we might have wished last night, so if we fall asleep now, I’m not sure when we’ll wake up again,” I told her, “but we don’t have to be at the Cracked Kettle chapel for some time yet. Maybe we could talk about the dress that you’re going to make for me?” Yana’s face had been more relaxed when she just turned around than it had been for days, now that she knew she didn’t have to worry about me anymore, but I picked up a minute tensing around her eyes. I thought she might feel guilty about not starting on the dress yet. “It’s no rush,” I said and changed the topic. “Do you think we’re the same?”