Untitled
an Eros and Psyche story
by Garnet
It felt good to have the good, solid earth beneath her feet again, and a stabilized relationship beneath her metaphorical wing, Psyche mused as she emerged into the courtyard of the familiar mountaintop palace where she had recalled first being pampered in luxury by the invisible servants of her beloved. As a passing wind brought the sweetness of the floral scents across her skin, perhaps a small gift from Zephyrus, she mused that the palace and its brilliant gardens were that much more magnificent without the air of uncertainty that had clouded her during her first stay. Now, despite Aphrodite's dismay at the entire ordeal, she was quite free to love and be loved in return, speaking of which...
"Does the palace suit your tastes, still?" A voice inquired from beyond her bare, smooth shoulder, and turning slightly Psyche smiled to find her husband approaching from amidst the ivory columns of the palace in question and into the sundrenched gardens.
Befitting of his role as a god of love, Eros was one of the more handsome deities that flitted between Olympus and the realm of man. Delicate features were only a stone's throw away from downright boyish, but attractively so, as was the rest of his lean, slender frame. The copius sun fairly glowed in his honeyed ringlets, and upon the dove-white wings that arched from his shoulders. For his seemingly innocent appearance and earnest love for her, the rumors of his wild mischievousness had not escaped Psyche either. Then again, that had been one of the driving forces behind Zeus' agreement to wed them against Aphrodite's wishes. With Psyche around to distract him, hopefully Eros would not get into quite so much trouble.
And distract him she would, Psyche added quietly to herself, turning back to take her husband's cheek into her hand and administer a fond kiss to the other. "Even moreso, now. The gardens are spectacular. I've ordered the flowers Demeter gave as a wedding gift to be planted, already." She hesitated, and added, "That is...if you don't mind."
"Certainly not," Eros dismissed, seeming much more interested in her than the whereabouts of some silly gifts from a friend of his mother's. "You are as much the lady of this house as I am the lord," he purred, wasting no time in nuzzling against the milk-white length of her neck and into her dark hair.
"Eros!" Psyche scolded, laughingly. "The sun has not even gone down!"
"I would think you all too eager to enjoy each others company in the daylight, now that we are finally permitted to do so," the love god replied, looking back up at her with eyes slitted in amusement.
"You speak the truth, my lord," she admitted, and suppressing her wicked grin, returned his affections with kisses planted to his warm golden curls and a hand reaching back to stroke over his snowy wings. She was pleased to find them twitch beneath her touch, running her palm down their smooth length. They were one of...several parts of his body that she had longed to experience once her trials were over. For that matter, they had been the first thing she'd noticed the night she'd spied upon her lover asleep even when forbidden not to. Even then, she had wanted to reach out and touch them in silent, girlish wonder, but the moment had quickly turned all too chaotic for such pleasures.
Now, however, she giggled at their shifting, and after a moment of affectionate petting, curiously reached to pluck a single, small ivory feather from the right one. It earned a distinct "ow!" of complaint from its owner, as Eros pulled back to eye her with surprise.
"You could have asked, my butterfly," he scolded, only to watch her grin slightly and trail the tip of the feather down the length of his perfectly straight nose. He squirmed it slightly in response and peered at her strangely as she laughed, so full of mirth.
"You would have denied me, I think," she replied, twirling the feather between her fingers like some triumphant prize before brushing it against the tip of his nose again and then once, curiously, about the rim of one nostril.
Eros crinkled his nose terribly in response, turning to crush it into a shoulder and rub cruelly for a moment as he agreed, "Perhaps if I had known your intentions with it, I would have." At Psyche's furrowed brows, he sighed and added, "But anything to indulge you, my dear."
"Then indulge me, Eros," Psyche purred, taking some strange pleasure in watching his reactions to her tickling, and punctuating her statement by trailing the tip of his own feather across uneasily flaring nostrils once more.
That did it. Brushing her hand quickly away, the god took a step backwards and drew a quick, quivering inhale that seemed to shiver his entire, lean form, belying the comparitive strength of its eventualy release. "Hhhh...!! Heht--TSHU!" He sneezed, the sunlight gilding the glittering motes of the resulting spray which, to his credit, he had directed away from her.
"Forgive me," Eros murmured, returning to her side again with a hand uncertainly squirming against the underside of his nose.
"It is I who should be asking you forgiveness, oh mischievous Eros," came his wife's laughing reply as she gave him a moment's reprieve and stroked at his cheek with the feather instead, for a moment. She had to admit, it was a little amusing to see the tables turned upon him, especially as the god didn't seem all that used to the entire business of sneezing. "And yet, I enjoy the expression you make far too much." And with that, the angelically soft fibers of the feather again invaded the nose of her lover just when it seemed he had reigned the tickle under control.
"Psyche!" he gasped, tipping his head back and half-raising a hand as a terrible urge to sneeze out the irritation of the feather seized him. "What posse--hh... hit-TSCHH!" He released it quickly, urgently against curled forefingers, only to draw another trembling breath back in again. "Heh... TSHhu!" Eros waited a moment, wrinkling and relaxing his nose, and then chanced a look of mild confusion back up at her, annoyance beginning to creep in around the edges. "What possesses you, woman?"
As much as his sternutory reactions to her playful teasing pleased her, the last thing Psyche wanted was a peevish deity on her hands, and she was quick to soothe him with a kiss. "Only a silly fascination, my love. You did say that you would indulge me."
"I said indulge, not ... HIH-ttscchh! Not ti...tickle me."
Psyche bit her lip, unreasonably aroused by the manner in which his wings snapped open in preparation for one of those irritated sneezes, and then trembling intensely for the duration of it. She was surprised that he hadn't lost more feathers this way. But then again, she suspected that it wasn't precisely an everyday occurence for him.
"Do you wish me to stop, my lord?"
But her lover did not respond immediately, instead bent forward and still working at abolishing the bothersome prickle of irritation from his nose. Suppressing a light giggle for the sake of her husband's dignity, Psyche leaned in and stroked a hand between his wings. "Goodness, all that from just a feather?"
"Ugh, I don't think that's quite all," Eros muttered as he straightened again, sniffing once to recompose himself and turning from her slightly to pace across the courtyard to the edge of the terrace that gazed out over the rolling fields below.
Her own mood not lost quite so quickly, Psyche followed after him, just barely restraining the urge to skip, and wound her arms about him from behind, burying her cheek into the soft fluff of one wing. "No?"
"I've been a trifle...sensitive all day," he admitted in response, sniffling again gently, the sound a little more wet to her ear now than it had been a moment ago.
"Ohhh my love, I wouldn't have tortured you had I known," Psyche offered mildly from over her shoulder, rubbing her cheek against the wing. That much was probably a lie, she thought to herself with amusement. As terribly fond of her husband as she was, she couldn't deny her more primal urges as well and the prospect he'd just mentioned had sparked her interest more than a little.
As though glimpsing into her thoughts, Eros smiled narrowly and pointed out that, "Yes you would have, disobedient woman," the statement gentled by his teasing tone. Whatever further comments he had been about to make, however, were cut off as encircled by her slender arms, his ribcage lifted with a sudden, uneasy inhale. "My butterfly," he warned breathily with expression already crinkling, "I must s...sneeze."
"Then do so," came her coy reply, earning a sound of dismay from Eros.
"No, I--Hhh! HeSCHU! Hep...ischu! HihISHh!"
Psyche nearly squawked in surprise as she felt the thin, wiry power of his form tremble beneath her. That much she had expected, but the curious woman had not predicted the sudden, powerful jerk of his wings that were pinned between his back and her front. The sudden spasming against her breastbone was not quite painful, but surprising enough that she released him all at once and actually ducked out of the way as a final "ISHssh!" wracked his body.
"Bless you!" Came her reply as she circled around front again and placed her palms flat in wonder against Eros's chest. She needed to touch him, needed to feel the warmth of him beneath her own tender flesh and whether sneezing, stretching, or simply running a hand through his loose curls, Psyche had to admit that she was completely enamored of this man. She moved to lean in and place a reassuring kiss upon his lips, but hesitated. "Are you finished?"
Eros's eyes crinkled handsomely at the corners with a smile. "For now."
"Good." And she pecked him quickly. "Now, do you suppose it's something in the air?"
"It's possible," Eros murmured, half-raising a hand to work under his nose again but, perhaps seeing the futility in it, sighed and redirected his ministrations to cupping the curve of her cheek instead. "But nothing usually irritates me so." The comment was emphasized with a small wrinkle of his nose, a gesture which Psyche could not resist and leant forward to quickly rub the tip of her own against it, grinning.
"So I see."
The winged god drew back with a shallow gasp, eyes slitting as he scolded her around the mounting sensation. "Especially if you're not around to provoke it, wicked womannn-iHKtttsch!"
Psyche indulged in a small smile. "My apologies again, love."
"I think you enjoy my misery, Psyche," the winged god mused wryly as he moved away from her, and sank with a sniffle onto a nearby stone bench nestled peacefully amid the flowerbeds.
"Oh! No, not...not that at all, my lord," she defended quickly, settling next to him as Eros went at his nose again with renewed vigor. "It's just...ah...how can I explain this without sounding silly..."
Her husband squinted sidelong at her with renewed curiosity, always pleased to find some new quirk about this compelling woman. That is, he thought darkly, if that damnable twinge in his nose would leave him alone for five seconds and allow him the uninterrupted luxury of her company.
"It's..." Psyche tried again, and trailed off with a lingering smile to observe Eros's decidedly aggravated expression. "Again?"
"Hitch--CHSHH!" Came his reply, sneezing fiercely against an upraised hand. They seemed to be growing successively wetter, each new development in their desperation sending thrilled shivers up Psyche's spine.
"Bless. You are sensitive today," she remarked, concern beginning to filter into her tone as Eros went about recomposing himself, sniffling and rubbing. All at once, his eyes slit open, their blue brilliance slightly blurred but not without the distinct glimmer of revelation.
"Butterfly, where were the flowers from Demeter planted?"
Lifting her brows and picking up on his train of thought slowly, Psyche glanced about the courtyard for a moment before locating the small clusters of white blossoms she'd ordered planted in amongst the orchids, a few beds away. "Over there." Rising, she gathered a handful of their tender little blossoms and returned to Eros's side just as quickly, offering them up with an earnest furrow of her brows. "These, my lord?"
Darting a glance aside, Eros uttered a soft groan and pinched his nose shut enduringly. "Cliff roses. They make me sneeze something awful."
"Oh, dear..."
The love god leaned his attentions away from her yet again, even as Psyche quickly dumped the blooms to the ground and brushed the pollen from her hands with only a little regret. As Eros drew the first quivering breaths of what seemed to be another looming attack, she couldn't help but wonder if Demeter had known about her husband's sensitivity. With his puckish reputation, it wasn't hard to imagine that the fertility goddess had taken her own subtle of revenge against Aphrodite's playful offspring.
Not to mention that it benefitted Psyche as well, although as she glimpsed the allergic tears welling in his azure eyes, a concerned pity was beginning to form in the pit of her stomach.
"Eros?" She prompted cautiously, wishing to encircle him in another comforting embrace, but the last experience stayed her affections. Barely.
"A... hhh... a moment," he begged in response, wrinkling his nose up sharply to issue another terrible sneeze, the first of many. "HITSCHH!"
Psyche nearly jumped at the force and, opting to risk being swatted away, slunk a hand up beneath and between Eros's spasming wings to rub gingerly at his smooth back.
"Hep--SCHH! EhTscchh! Hh...hehISCH!"
"Goodness. No one ever mentioned the gods having allergies," she couldn't help but comment at a slight, quivering break in his sneezing, as he desperately drew breaths for the next surge. He managed to fix her with a small glare nevertheless, and get out a wavering defense.
"Only...on...heh... only to a few th...Heht-TSHHch! Things."
True, Psyche agreed to herself. As powerful as the gods were, from what she had observed, they were also just as petty and quarrelsome and susceptible to the same emotional and mental misgivings as humans. And apparently, some physical ones as well.
"HihtschU! Hitscch!" They began to abate, slowly, until at last Eros could slit his eyes open and sniff mightily, recovering himself little by little.
"Eros," Psyche breathed again, drawing his gaze sideways and inspiring a slight arch of his brows, this time, to find her expression one of inexplicable lust. She'd crept incrementally closer as his violent shuddering had subsided, and was now all but pressed against his side, with eyes eagerly upturned to his. The hand that had been rubbing his back moved to fondle one wing instead in a highly...erotic manner.
"Mmn?"
"Are you...quite alright?"
Sparing her the touch of a recently sneezed-into hand, Eros swept a wing over her instead, held aloft and shading her pretty face like a feathered parasol as he peered at her with great interest. "Indeed. Are you disappointed?"
"No, no," she corrected again hastily, reaching up to playfully tug at a primary feather but, mercifully, leaving it attached to his body this time. "It's the...ah..."
"Sneezing," he supplied, thinning his eyes wickedly as he observed a slight blush blossom across her cheeks. As she nodded, Eros drew her warmly into his arms, pressing his cheek into her hair and declaring with affection, "Psyche, you are a most unusual and charming specimen of a woman."
"You don't think me wicked?" Came her coyly smiling response, as she tentatively swept her arms about his ribs again. He trembled only with laughter, this time.
"Perhaps a bit. But," he added, standing and cradling her in his arms with an unexpected squeal of delight from the woman. "I think I rather like it." He bent aside to stifle a lingering "hit-tsccht!" into one shoulder, taking great care not to drop his wife in the process.
"My dear, we should get you inside," Psyche purred, winding her arms about his neck.
"Indeed. We'll have these uprooted later, but for now, I think, I am content to work out the rest of the pollens in the privacy of the bedroom."
Taking her serenely evil expression to be an evident agreement, Eros bent to touch his nose to hers this time, smiling, and swept away into the cool, welcoming shade of the palace.
FIN! :)
Um. So yeah. I was...in the Valentines Day spirit? Tired of seeing all those dumb little baby cupids zooming around, so I decided to do a little something with the elder, sexier version of him.
No eating my face off if I confused the Roman and Greek names or version of the myth or whatnot. It's just fluff, anyway.
Takes place...oh, shortly after Eros and Psyche are wed at the end of the familiar story, I guess.