The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'

"A-anyway, I just lost control, alright? It's your fault anyway. Did you just come here to tease me? Calling me those things out of nowhere. I thought we were going to talk about your new Aspect!"

The younger girl 'grimaced' while speaking 'firmly' but without looking directly at the one she was 'admonishing'.

"I-I'm sorry. I won't call you-"

Turning 'grumpy' was not a reliable way to make the *inexperienced* and taciturn fiance understand… that she was just trying to change the subject! She should have realized this and couldn't help holding her forehead with her palm right after she did it. After all, it *was* her time of the month and everything had taken such a turn that, even when she hurriedly interrupted Qat it… did not get 'better'.

It just became a 'desperate' stream of consciousness.

"Ugh, I didn't say not to~ I'm just… it just… I didn't expect it and it made me happy and scared and right under my stomach hurts and so does my head and now I can't stop 'complaining' even though I was so happy you came to see me and I *hic* made you think *hic* I was mad at you *hic* when I was just embarrassed… *sniffle* and… and now I just want you to hold me until I calm down but I don't know how long that will be and if you have time for that or if you even want to and you probably think I'm nuts and won't ever try to visit me a-again!"

*hic*-*hic*-*hic*

Qatrand had witnessed the girl crying a time or two before, but such a rapid and 'hysterical' outburst was a first! After first freezing, she eventually found an easy action to take… out of the stream of words that had been thrown out. Obviously, it was a thing that El 'wanted' - as doing things others wanted of her came the most naturally to the youth… due to her upbringing.

The swordswoman *moved* and placed her arms swiftly around the 'spirit and essence' practitioner with care not to harm her. The sudden embrace made the more agitated cultivator 'shiver' for a few seconds before losing a lot of the tension in her body. While she had been leaning *heavily* into her constructed 'facade'… the genuine stress was making a lot of the 'display' real.

Elua would *normally* want to analyze the breakdown between the 'two sides' of herself, but she really *was* quite uncomfortable!

"The sofa please, my legs hurt~"

With almost no hesitation, the taller girl shifted and supported the 'bleating' brunette as they took a few steps towards the seating. She had noticed how limp El had become as they hugged. When the complaint was voiced, she had actually imagined 'carrying' her over - but knowing of the abdominal uncomfortability firsthand… Qatrand quickly put the thought away.

She wasn't sure if she could be graceful enough in those movements not to cause further discomfort. Even the hug had taken all of her concentration. She actually-

"You sit first."

It was easier to just agree and do as told, so the older adolescent just nodded and sat without arguing. The one with apparently sore legs remained standing, however. Pigeon blues looked towards the troubled little fiance, who met them with her mint orbs for a moment before her face tightened and averted downwards just a touch. 

"Is it okay if I sit between your legs and lean my back against you?"

The small hands tightened into fists after she asked in an audible enough whisper. Elua had… become aware that Qat had seemed to just start 'obeying' because they were overwhelmed and… it wasn't the most pleasant experience.

It was one of the most polished facets of her precious gem, but one of the ones she wanted to rather forcefully carve new angles on the most.

Even the feeble attempt to allow the other girl a 'choice' seemed insufficient when she *knew* it wouldn't be rejected. Elua really wanted to start crying again for an entirely different reason than her own adolescent body doing the 'stupid' things they do.

After a slightly elongated pause as the three year older girl considered *something* because of the request, she shifted her sitting posture and patted the seat between her legs with one hand.

"…Of course you can. I can also try and massage the area to relieve some of the tension."

Having already started turning around at the first slow and soft words, the brunette lost her balance and fell back, faster than she intended, on hearing the other unexpected sentence. Her shoulder blades landed awkwardly on the Yecine's stomach who then grunted in a little pain.

'That scapula almost felt harder than it should?'

Elua kept her hands squarely away from touching - or more specifically *gripping* - anything in her panic.

'No, no, no! This is dangerous. My spirit is doing weird things with my personality. I've already failed to control my Element, what if my Physique also fails to be contained. I should have just… sent her away. There was no need to be so greedy! But… wait, massage?'

As if the concept of *refraining* from being greedy had been an illusion, the young girl swallowed her slightly dry throat.

'That is what she said. I didn't imagine or delude myself into that? Massaging… where?'

"U-uh… what? That…"

Strong hands used to wielding both training and 'live' blades lightly helped shift her into a more comfortable position than the one she'd landed in… before they were pressed toward exploring for spots that felt 'too firm but not as hard as that bone' just underneath the Goltbred's stomach.

They began compressing and shifting the tense abdominal muscles in slow circular motions. It was *very* comforting and the younger girl's cheeks were red with a new kind of 'shame'. The kind where she 'misunderstood' but the *reality* was just as 'bad'!

"I'd studied how to do it for myself for relief. But… thanks to you I might not need to use the knowledge anymore soon."

A cross-dressing husband-wife began to explain innocently. The heiress was having a hard time understanding what was happening. A few moments ago she clearly remembered thinking that she was taking advantage of the overwhelmed teenager to ask for more intimacy, but now it seemed to her that it *reversed*!

"If my spirit will now help make me be quicker to cultivate, then I can be free of this kind of state sooner than you can."

The soft-spoken voice rumbling behind her was simultaneously calming and far too stimulating. The tension in the Goltbred's neck lessened and her breathing gained a bit of a relieved shudder - though she felt somehow bad about it. It was the *too calm* spirit of the one behind her!

"This really doesn't feel like enough repayment."

Qatrand er Yecine continued to talk while sincerely trying to aid her future wife without any ulterior motives.

'The worst part of all this is she actually thinks she is *only* helping me. Her spirit isn't 'excited' in the least. Should I be concerned? I guess if I… wasn't reincarnated with my memories intact then I might not… be thinking and reacting like this.'

She swallowed again, thinking it might have been better to have… *not* told the servants to stay away. She just expected they were going to talk about 'secrets' - not… not make 'new' ones!

"I… only wanted to support you, my husband-wife. It was such little advice and I was never seeking any repayment."

The weird but 'apt' dual term fell out of her lips *without* a lot of consideration behind it. Even when realizing she'd never spoken the phrase aloud, she couldn't care. Likewise, the one who heard it only stopped the massage for a quick second, before nodding at how well it fit.

She was a husband on the 'first layer' - when being looked at - but a wife if you actually looked past the clothes and other lies. Then she shook her head. Not at her sudden thoughts, but that El had suggested she didn't deserve something in return.

"No, that may be… but I'll feel ungrateful if I can't do this much now, since I already learned the method. I might not completely understand the limits of your 'support', or what you think is little or a lot, but wouldn't you do the same thing I'm doing right now if I was in your condition?"

"In an instant."

A quiet pervaded the room for another minute as a swordswoman's fingertips slowly kept up their irreproachable work of relief. The single minded sincerity and honorable question from her 'fortress' had fully frozen out the 'evil thoughts' of the reborn cultivator. She was being very good!

However, eventually a little sigh escaped the mouth of the dark-haired youth.

"I'm sorry, El. Do you mind if we lay down together for a little bit?"

"U-uhm, no? I don't see why we couldn't."

While she was taken aback by the suddenness of the request, she was actually quite ecstatic~ It made two new forms of intimate contact that hadn't been *directly* proposed by Elua herself. Three or four if you counted the ones she did!

With the answer received, her Qat shifted the both of them onto their sides and placed one arm over the smaller girl 'protectively' so that she wouldn't fall off the edge on accident should she move around any. 

"Thank you. Truth be told I'm also… not feeling like my usual self? Though I was almost over it today. Our weeks seem to overlap some."

A certain pair of lips flapped without making a sound. She'd obviously had that hunch, considering the older girl never missed a meeting lately at the Youth Guild, in days Elua had available and allocated. She also never appeared to be 'uncomfortable' sitting or training.

There was also that time Anper brought out that *body double* - during which she stopped 'holding back' the cycle from starting for the first time. He'd said she was under the weather. Cultivators didn't usually get 'sick'.

However, despite usually being an almost open book, Qatrand hadn't shown any indication in her spirit at all today!

'I wonder if it's a side effect of her training - or maybe even that Physique? A kind of ancillary effect, so that physical weakness isn't sensed and capitalized on.'

While the mint eyed youth had told her what she knew about Cynosure, and it was more than anyone else in the local area, it didn't mean it was perfectly complete information. It also might be her new Astralism.

The only way to learn more would be to pay even closer attention - which she constantly planned to do - and also to ask questions. Though she only had a certain question in mind that absolutely wasn't an 'evil thought'... or so it kept saying.

"Does… does that mean you want me to… return the favor?"

"No, let's just take a short nap together."

Once again a brunette's cheek puffed out in frustration, but snorted out and closed her eyes. Not all answers were the one you sought. Sometimes just asking would make you realize your own intentions - and the sweet-talking inner desires masked as 'just touching her muscles a little'.

'Well… a nap is fine too.'

At least it was fine until an entirely different brunette became curious about them, upon being informed that Anper's spawn had been in a reception room with his daughter *alone* for well over an hour. Finding them cuddled up on one of his sofas made him *rethink* whether their spending more time together at such a young age was really good for the 'both' of them!

A few hours later… after plenty of sweet, persistent, and 'innocent' questions about why her great and caring fiance had been 'banned' from meeting with her alone, Ondua er Goltbred was eventually saved by Yatrel. He had ended up essentially giving her 'the talk', explaining (in as little detail as possible) about how and where babies came from. Much to her *unforgiving* amusement.

While his daughter's face had *seemed* unflinchingly normal after each successive question she asked, part of him kept feeling a 'subtle pressure' like he did when his possessive wife used to hear about women making various advances on him. The kind *she* aimed at the ones at fault… but this one was aimed at *him*.

Telling that woman of it that night in bed only made her laugh quite happily.

"Maybe at least a little more like me than I thought!"