Carried to BedNSFW

Senah leaned against the side of Lani's pocket wearily, glancing at the dial on her bracelet. She estimated it showed 10% charge now - an improvement over before when it seemed to be stuck at zero, but not by much, especially for the hours since she'd been freed. Maybe some kind of lingering maliciousness from the bottle she was kept in... She glanced over at it near the fire, where it was resting amid the rest of Lani's possessions. It looked like a simple glass-and-cork bottle, she thought, but she definitely felt a sort of... oppressive aura, while she was in it.

She'd have to ask Aisha about it when she got back home.

Her linkpearl... really didn't work here. Lani had complained that the aether currents were too weak to teleport, too. ... Maybe that had something to do with it... She really didn't understand all this aetherial science stuff. She'd slept through most of her classes at the fancy school her mother had sent her to, and Mimi really taught her conjury more by feel than science.

Speaking of Lani, she craned her neck up at her flame-haired rescuer, watching her tend their ride. Lani had told her that Aisha had tracked down (and, from the sounds of it, beat down...) the ruffians who'd shoved her in the jar and called for help from the guild, and that Lani had been the closest and thus taken on the job. Not knowing any of this, Senah had resigned herself to her fate, and was quite surprised when fighting broke out in the market and a gloved hand grabbed her jar and ran...

"You're going to keep a good lookout for us now that it's our turn to sleep, right?" Lani cooed at the chocobo she was feeding, offering another handful of greens.

The chocobo responded with an enthusiastic "Kweh!"

After stroking its beak and rubbing under its chin, she returned to her spot beside the fire, letting the intense shiver she had been holding in ripple down her body and making Senah's entire world vibrate like an airship hitting a pocket of turbulence. "Whew... It's freezing out here... Next time you get kidnapped, make sure you get smuggled into Costa del Sol. Not some black market trading post in the middle of Coerthas, of all places..." She slipped her gloves back off, tucking them into another pocket.

Senah didn't feel the cold - it was quite warm in Lani's pocket, with her body heat so close by. But she could feel the chill on her face and hands where she was exposed.

Sensing that Lani's attention was now on her, though, Senah hoisted herself up to try to return it. "Ahaha... I don't know if they were taking suggestions..." More than just craning her neck, Senah had to lean her whole body out of the pocket she was in to try to make eye contact with Lani. Past the belts around her waist, past the half-open jacket, up and up for what felt like a hundred fulms (but was almost certainly just a couple), leaning back to be able to see enough...

Lani glanced down, meeting Senah's eyes. They widened for a moment, then-

"Watch out!" Lani's hand shot out, catching Senah just as she fell out of her perch. It was surreal, seeing something several times her size move so quickly, so precisely. Senah was still very much unused to being this size. "Careful, there. It's a long fall into the snow for you, and I'm sure you wouldn't want snow in all your clothes."

Senah shook her head, still reeling from the sensation of being... caught. It wasn't like before, when the bottle came down over her when she wasn't looking. No, this felt so much different. Unlike the cold glass, Lani's bare hand was still a little warm from having been near the fire for so long while she cooked, reminding Senah of sitting on fire-heated stones at the Ishgardian inn the last time she was here. The shadow of Lani's fingers blotting out the light from the fire was more like pulling a blanket over her eyes for safety when she was a kitten than it was like the shadow of terror the kidnapper's hand had been. And it was... kind. Maybe not quite "affectionate," like Aisha's hand (she blushed, thinking about being in Aisha's hand), but tender and caring all the same despite its strength.

... She realized she'd been staring up at Lani with a dazed, red-cheeked expression for too long, and laughed awkwardly. "Ah... My sisters and I used to have snowball fights all the time, and dump snow down each other's clothes. So I'm kind of used to it."

"Try it on me and you're going in the soggy snow boots until morning! ... Hmmm, you're looking a little red there," Lani said, apparently misreading Senah's blush. "Let's get you warmed up."

The darkness returned - this time Lani's other hand, providing a sort of makeshift wind shield and safety backstop while Senah was held a little closer to the low, dying flames.

"I think you're just warming up your hands," Senah teased timidly, trying to match Lani's playful air. "Not m-"

Senah's tease was cut off as Lani closed her hands together, fully encasing Senah in the darkness. She squealed in surprise, pressing out against Lani's fingers. But each of them was as thick around as her waist. She stood no chance of pushing them off her.

"Oh, my apologies, Your Highness. Are you warm yet?" Lani asked, and even in the dark Senah could hear the teasing grin on her face.

"N... Not yet," Senah said, and fully enveloped by Lani's hands, she realized just how cold she had been in Lani's pocket. The freezing Coerthan air had been really getting to her... "You're gonna have to squeeze me tighter than that- Oh!"

Lani's grip was a shockingly powerful thing. Those mighty fingers which had just a moment ago been covering up her view were suddenly pressing down on her from every side, squeezing her arms into her sides. Her legs were completely trapped... She enjoyed it more than she wanted to admit.

Lani also seemed to be having fun. "Squish!"

Senah wasn't sure if this was a joke or not. "W... Wait... Lani, I didn't really want you to--!"

"Just having a little fun with you!" Lani said around a laugh. Her fingers relaxed. "You want some more soup to help warm you up? There's still a little left in the pot, you know."

"I already had so much, I couldn't fit another drop," Senah said, shaking her head. "That one spoonful felt like an entire pot full for me... But thank you. It was delicious."

"I think we're about ready to bed down for the night, then." Lani got to her feet, kicking dirt over the fire. "Tomorrow we'll finally ride clear of this frozen wasteland."

Bed... Senah hadn't thought about sleeping. She'd had to sleep in the jar while she was captive. It was uncomfortable. "Um... where am I going to sleep?"

"I'll hold on to you, don't worry! I don't want anyone trying to spirit you off again in the middle of the night. Mostly because I don't want to have to go back to that town and get you again." Lani headed for the tent she'd set up before, tucking Senah into a pocket again and rolling out the bedroll she'd been keeping near the fire.

"Is, um... Is that safe?" Senah wondered aloud with mixed trepidation and excitement as she watched Lani set a crystal-powered hooded lantern next to the bed. "You're not going to crush me in your sleep, are you?"

"Only if you're a pest while I sleep," Lani said, and Senah couldn't see her face to know if she was serious or not.

Senah squeaked. "Er... yeah... I'll be good..."

"Good girl." Lani shimmied into the bedroll before withdrawing Senah from her pocket, laying her head down on the fluffy pillow-like protrusion at the top of the sleeping bag. "There. Anyone wants to grab you again, they're going to have to go through me."

Senah tried not to think about that literally. Because if she did, she would end up thinking about how it would be just as warm and protected from kidnappers inside Lani's stomach, and then she would look like a pervert. And she was a pervert, to be sure. But then she would look like one, too.

"Try to get some rest, will you?" Lani said, squirming about a bit to find a comfortable position and settling on one with Senah in a loose fist just below her collarbone. "I doubt you'll be able to sleep during the ride tomorrow, and trust me, we're getting back to warmer territory tomorrow no matter how long we have to ride." With that, she closed her eyes. "Night!"

"O... okay," Senah said, feeling a strange tingling in her chest. "Night."

The tingling only intensified as time went on. As the wave-like rocking of Lani's chest with her breathing turned regular and steady, as the bassy drumbeat of her heart slowed down to a peaceful pace, Senah could only marvel at it all. There was something strangely exciting about having Lani's hand form a sort of warm, padded sleeping bag itself, about looking up and seeing Lani's chin and a little bit of the side of her sleeping face looming over her. About feeling safe being held, about feeling the spacing of Lani's fingers and the subtle textures and surprising softness of the tip of her index finger as it formed Senah's pillow.

... She was going to have to do this again, sometime, in less scary circumstances... Maybe with Aisha...

Senah closed her eyes, following the rhythm of Lani's breath. Up... and down... Up... and down...

She was asleep a few minutes later.