Who: Titania and Oberon
What: Discuss growing unease, and get distracted more than once
When: Several days after the first day of spring.
Where: The Sleeping Woods.
Rating: R for smex. Hey, whaddya expect? Oberon's da Sleepin' Woods Pimp, y'all.



It was spring. It was several days past the vernal equinox, and Titania's power was only on the rise. She left her, accompanied by her attendants, the ever faithful flower and woodland fairies who were her ladies and gentlemen in waiting. They expected her to leave her bower. They expected her to travel through the woods, letting her magic help wake the sleeping plants, reminding them of wakeful existence. They did not expect her to go looking for her king. But she did, searching for him with a kind of single-minded determination that she rarely showed. They had seen little of each other the past few moons. Normally, that would not bother the seelie queen. But normally, she wasn't so certain that something was coming.

She found him, alone, surprisingly, near his own bower. It did not take her long to find him. She expected him to have his ever-faithful Puck with him. That did not bode well. "It has been some time, my king," Titania said lightly, her voice soft. She was dressed for an audience it seemed, hair coiffed, flower crown wound in it, dress of pale green. "You do not fare well, I see."

He flicked his eyes in her direction, a minute tick of irritation flowering at her presence. "Why bother me in your high season, my queen?" he asked sullenly. His season was over and his war had not come to fruition through several circumstances he did not understand. "Do you not have things to attend to? Things to make grow?" He turned his attention away from her into the woods. It was bright and warm, things he disliked greatly due to his natural unseelie temperament. The woods seemed to respond more quickly to the change of seasons here. It would be almost 6 months before he could ride high within the winter winds again. He believed it might be that long before he could separate his court from hers, but that was not a thought he was about to share.

Titania's eyes narrowed. "Away, my dear ones. I will call for thee as I wish." The fae attending her hovered, and then dispersed. "I bother you, my king, for something bothers me, something I feel must be discussed." She teased a tulip into life, a pale pink-white flower that seemed the antithesis of the ones that had been sprouting lately, the ones she had not seen. "You must feel it, Oberon. Even in your sullen withdrawal, you must feel something coming." Titania seemed not to notice Oberon's mood was fouler than usual, despite the end of his season. In truth, she had merely yet to comment on it. First things first.

His eyes moved back to her, back and forth. He could hardly stand to look at her. When this animosity for his wife began he could not remember; it had not always been so, but perhaps it had lain dormant under their earlier wedded bliss. She was everything he hated in the world in this moment, bright and full of life. He wanted something dark and twisted, hollow inside. That was how he felt, hollow. "I sense nothing," he lied, for his dreams had become more and more vivid in recent days. Those eyes that haunt me. Their owner will seek me out before long.

"You lie." Her voice was flat in response. "You are not so dulled to the world that you do not feel it. Do not lie to me Oberon. Do you know of this?" He had not met her eyes. His had flickered at her once, then away. When had they gotten to the point where even conversation was barely possible? "It feels dark and cold, my lord. Rather like you. Surely you feel it." And if he didn't, he would certainly be interested. She had not even mentioned yet the shadows she felt - saw - at the corners of her eyes; what was haunting them both?

"Perhaps," he said lightly. "What does it matter? Your season will be in full swing soon. My power holds nothing to yours in the summer." He took her in sidelong, his gaze only sneaking through the corner of his eyes. She was tall and lovely, breathtaking really. He bit his lip. Why is it so easy to hate you when you have been everything to me?

Titania exhaled. Why was he always so good at trying her patience? Although she felt as though there had been another even more skilled at that... She shook her head. And then her voice dropped again, to a soft hiss. "This is nothing to do with my power versus your own, Oberon. This is something neither of us controls. I do not know these woods as well as our old homes." She stopped there, not at all desiring to mention that she was, in fact, worried, afeared of, this presence. She continued offhand, "Fine. If you feel it does not concern you, dear Oberon, then perhaps I should take care of it myself."

"If you think yourself strong enough to take on something that you so obviously fear," he said suddenly, standing and stepping very close to her. She could try to hide it, but Oberon was akin to fear. It was something dark and otherworldly, something he understood very well. "I will not stand in your way. I welcome this presence that has you so spooked. I embrace it," he added fiercely, not yet aware that when he remembered everything he would embrace it more than he had ever embraced his wife.

"I see." Titania's eyes clouded as she spoke. "Stay in your mood then. Stay here hiding in your bower, keeping your eyes and ears shut, and turning your face away. I care not." Ah the ever fickle fae. Already she had chosen to forget she had recently done the same, kept hidden in her own bower. "Perhaps this will bring an end to something you so truly desire. Or a beginning to something else. I no longer know what you desire. I no longer know if I should care to. Welcome this if you wish. If it is your desire, I shall have no part of it."

"I desire things greater than yourself," he replied, cruel and hard words he had been holding back for a long time. "This marriage," he added, "is only for show. Our courts have no place together," he added. His cards were out on the table now. His ace, his joker, his queen and king. They were all sitting there staring at her. "I doubt not that your own desires are greater than I can provide," a sudden and strangely kind thing for him to say. "I would not hold you back from that either."

Titania blinked, and stared up at the unseelie king. "How long has it been that our thoughts were aligned? How long have you wished to truly end this marriage? How long have you looked back on our decision to agree with the council and join our courts as one? How long have you known there was no way to merge the dark and the light?" And how long had they cared for each other, but not been in love? His words washed over her, alternately harsh and kind, and entirely true. "Is it time we let each other go?" Perhaps they should. Finally. She couldn't make him any kind of happy, not the way he wished. Not the way even his Puck could.

Here was a strange opportunity. He wouldn't have to make war or hurt her in all of the imaginative ways he could cook up. He closed his eyes and looked down, his hand slipping into hers unconsciously. "Perhaps it is time," he whispered. "Would you be happier if we parted ways? Would your court flourish without mine to hold it back?"

"Perhaps." Her fingers thread in his, a reaction just as unconscious. "It is as likely to as yours to swell and conquer in shadow without mine to chase in the light." She could hardly remember. Was it like that long ago, well before their courts were joined? "I expect it would. I expect they both would. Perhaps together we only limit each other."

"That may have been the council's intention all along," he said quietly, his eyes finally meeting hers. "Can we part so easily?" he asked, his smile ironic. After all this time, all of this struggle. All he ever had to do was talk to his wife. It did not escape his sense humor.

"Indeed. What better way to attempt to control us both by keeping us from our own full strength?" Titania frowned. That wasn't all, she was certain. There was something else she was forgetting, had forgotten... But then her eyes caught Oberon's and his smile had her own lips curving. "That all depends on how much we want to part after we decide we need not remain together after all." A roundabout answer if ever there was one. But Titania wasn't certain she could let go so completely, not easily. Much as they fought and quarreled, and outright refused to be near each other at times, the knowledge that he was still there somewhere, still her husband, did mean something. "Another thing I do not know."

He smiled at her easily now, comfortable that she was feeling the same things he was. "Mayhaps we can think it over. Sleep on it," he added, his meaning veiled under a sensual glance. He was so good at teasing, breathing tension into a conversation where there should be none. We need not part each other's company altogether my queen, he thought. "I will open my eyes," he whispered. "Along with my ears. I will watch for this foreboding presence." If it will help you sleep at night, he thought to himself, surprised at his sudden change of mind to protect her.

There it was. The magnetic pull of Oberon that had Titania agreeing to marriage years ago. A pale hand reached up, stroked a cheek, drifted into dark hair with a not at all causal touch. "I will." And again their thoughts were so well aligned. Ending the joining of their courts was one thing. That did not mean they could not still share each other's company, kisses, touches, or beds. "And will you sleep on it alone, dear Oberon? And would you have me do the same?" Her voice was back to its light tease. No, they need not part entirely.

His smile became predatory. "You may sleep however you like," he teased. "I need never sleep alone my queen." His hands moved to sit on her hips and he pulled her close to him. "Perhaps you would like to share my bed and not exile me. I have not seen what you can do in your own season in quite some time."

One certainly did not need to ask if that was an invitation. Most things were from Oberon, and Titania construed many things as such herself. "Nor do I, my king. And I do not seek to exile you yet," she teased in return. She leaned into his embrace, fingers skimming over cloth, over skin. Perhaps Titania was a tease. She often liked to tease her lovers, but she never left them wanting. She teased Oberon now, a kiss that was just shy of thorough, a touch not quite indecent. It had been long. Too long. Though this probably wasn't the best way to convince them they should be separating.

He leaned into the kiss, his hands not wasting much time. He rolled them down her body and squeezed her bottom. "I have missed you," he whispered, his lips grazing her ears as he spoke. "I have missed my queen."

Titania exhaled into his skin, catching his words and echoing her own. "And I have missed you, my king." She arched into his touch, and reciprocated one of her own, slipping hands under cloth to scrape lightly over skin. Mouth turned to his neck, she pressed a kiss there. And another, and another, until the delicate touches of lips were joined by nips of teeth, catching at flesh.

He had forgotten about this part, those little things that Titania did to him. His fingers rolled under the sleeves of her dress and his lips found a spot on her neck to focus on. "You are far more delicious than I remember," he whispered hotly. It had been too long and his desire could not be held back now that it was slipping through the gate.

"Then perhaps you should indulge your memory," Titania responded with a little breathy gasp. It had been too long, and yet unerringly he had found that little spot on her neck. This hadn't quite been her intention when she came seeking her husband, but rare was the occasion that she would turn him away, not after so long. Her fingers slipped down his shirt, buttons left open in their wake, chest left bared for her touch. And touch she did, nails leaving lines of pink across flesh.

How quick the temperamental fae were to squabble and then jump into another kind of passion just as if they had never fought in the first place. His lips moved down to her collar bone, a slight nibble and a boyish grin accompanied this movement. He had smiled so rarely in his wife's company; this was truly a rare day for the faerie king. His hands had slipped from under the material of her dress to over it. He was working on removing that fabric, but when it came to her clothing he was almost always all thumbs.

Titania chuckled low in her throat. Sometimes she suspected she wore intricate clothing if only to befuddle men. She placed another bite under Oberon's jaw and pulled back, but only so far as to gently move his hands away, and remove her dress, with slow seductive movements, her eyes steady on his. Inch by inch she bared pale skin, skin that was lightly freckled in the height of summer, but was now milky pale.

He gazed at her pale skin, almost luminescent in the cracks of light that found their way through the woods. Had I forgotten how beautiful you can be? He ran a single finger over her shoulder, tracing an invisible curve under her neck before trailing around her breast. His thumb brushed over nipple, rough hands on such soft skin. His lips followed his fingers and he found himself already under the spell of his wife. This was her time of year and what she wanted was almost always what she received.

Titania, of course, wouldn't like to have it any other way. True, it was only the beginning of spring, rather than high summer, but as the seasons waxed, her power - and her want - would only grow. And right now she wanted her king's touch. She arched further into his touch, breath catching at that brush of fingers. And she gave him touch for touch in kind, fingers as much moving to touch skin and to bare it completely. Her dress hit the soft grass the same time she pressed against him, to catch his mouth in hers again, to slide tongue into his mouth and exploration that seemed nearly new from having been so long removed.

Oberon moaned into her mouth, the sound singing out through the trees. He had his pants removed in one swift movement, a well practiced thing that was mostly due to Puck's longing and desire. His hands grabbed for his wife's bottom and he pulled her up to wrap around his hips. His nails were digging into her soft, pale flesh. "How will you have me, my queen?" he asked, if he were the servant to her desires.

Titania rolled against him, a slow and fluid movement that pressed every available inch of her skin against his. Her legs went willingly, eagerly around his hips, and she responded, voice hitched and breathy, "I want you on your back. I want to ride my king." It was further sign of her coming into her season, the subtle shifts and power play. Perhaps Oberon could call to mind now his queen in her power, riding him like a woman on horseback going into battle. And if he could not, then Titania was well and fully prepared to jog his memory.

This incensed his ire in a way that made him so much the more passionate. He rarely let anyone take control of him, even Titania and only then when it was her high season. Puck knew the secret way to get him to acquiesce to such defeat. He growled. "You think I am so quick to service you?" he asked, pushing her bare back against a tree and grinding into her. "I can play the fool, but I am no less than you," he whispered hotly in her ear. "If you want me on my back, my queen, you will have to best me. I am not so far out of my season that I cannot have you as I please."

It was as though his passion not only kindled but ignited hers. "Think you can best me at the end of your season, my king," she gasped, writhing against him. Her fingers scraped down over flesh, not soft and teasing as the had been, not drawing mere lines of pink, but piercing through flesh, sharp nails shy of claws. The sudden burst of energy in her was visible. She nearly glowed now, her hair red as fire, her skin bright as if lit from within, her eyes aglow. Prickles of her magic buzzed against his skin, her own charged as if by electricity. She rarely acquiesced to being manhandled in such ways, but she could feel Oberon's passion, feel how it still fed her own. Perhaps they were not so far removed from each other as they thought.

"I can certainly try," he replied, his lips curling wickedly. His own fingers found their way up her back, leaving marks to match the marks she left on him. Puck won't talk to me for a week when he sees these, he thought quietly. Ah well. He thrust harder against the faerie queen, dry pieces of bark falling from the freshly awakened tree. He struggled with her, his own magic rising in his blood stream and coming to him with an ease. The equinoxes were always the time for power struggle, when one rising and one waning might might spar. It was hard to tell how this might turn out.

The sound in her throat was hard to decipher between its pleasure and pain. The rough bark scraped her back as much as Oberon's nails did, and her magic surged again, shooting from her now in small pulses. This would be hard to tell indeed; Titania's strength was nowhere near its peak, and Oberon's had not faded to its valley yet. They were in fact more balanced than their earlier conversation seemed to insinuate. Titania rolled against Oberon again, her legs squeezing around his hips, rubbing just as hard against him as he thrust against her, nails sinking into his skin even deeper.

"Woman," he growled. Her magic was moving him, rolling his back towards the very bark he had her pressed against. He pushed back and grabbed for her wrists, trying to pin them against the tree. His lips and teeth roved, not distracted by the struggle, only participating in a different arena.

"That is what I am, my king," Titania replied loftily, the smugness of her tone slightly marred by the hitch of breath as teeth scraped over flesh. "Have you forgotten that as well?" He nearly had her pinned - his physical strength was better than hers, but she was very dexterous, and with careful twists and winds, freed one wrist, even as she rubbed against him in not at all accidental ways.

He laughed at her jest, his humor allowing his power to slip. She could best him now, in this moment of laughter that had taken his mind out of the game. "I had forgotten your sense of humor as well," he said lightly, his grip loosening on her other hand.

And he had forgotten how she often bested him when she made him laugh. She moved swiftly then, a surge of strength and power that had her gripping him and pushing him back, down, onto soft grass, and in one motion straddled his waist, rubbing against him still. "There seems to be much you forgot, my king. Such as how much you enjoy it like this."

He hit the grass with a thump and his eyes widened as she mastered him, riding high on his waist. He sighed, closed his eyes and looked away. He burned a little, having lost this struggle. Then as she moved over him he remembered that he didn't really mind losing when he still got to have her. He reached up and pulled on her shoulders to bring her close for a kiss. "I have much on my mind," he replied. It was true and it worried him that he had forgotten such things. It was a quick flicker over his eyes and then it had passed. He thrust upwards and bit his lip. "Perhaps you should remind me of all those little things I enjoy."

Titania caught that little flicker, and then forgot it just as swiftly as he pressed up against her. "With pleasure." She returned the kiss, biting and sucking at his lower lip before moving onward, back down to his neck. There were lines and marks on them both now, some already red, some still trying to blossom. Titania made a few more in her wake, both teasing and satisfying with lips and hands. And all the while she teased him more, winding hips against him, alternately light and barely there, interrupted by a firm hard grind that was never quite long enough.

Groans and moans alternated as she pleased him, teased him, and frustrated him. He was pinned firmly by her magic. He had given up the struggle and there wasn't anything to do now but enjoy her passion. He ran his fingers over her nipples and pinched. I am not in control, but I will do my best to undermine you, he thought with a little smirk.

And that was certainly a good start. It had her briefly distracted, had her pausing to arch into his touch again, before a smile curved her lips. I know what you are trying to do. But it wasn't as though she minded. No, instead she gave it back in spades, bending to catch his nipple in her teeth. A flick of tongue, a nip of teeth, and a drifting of hands south, scoring over stomach, dipping between legs to wrap around firm flesh with light grip.

"Gods," he whispered as her hand wrapped around him. His neck arched along with his back. He had forgotten how brutal Titania could be in her own season. He had forgotten how much he missed it. He shivered on the grass and thrust into her palm. Will you tease me all day? he wondered softly, his breath catching in his throat.

Not all day, she wouldn't, but just a little while longer. Long enough to stroke him to full hardness, teasing pearls of precome to be licked off her fingers. Long enough to shift hips over pelvis and slide down on one long slow movement, until he was fully sheathed inside her, and she moaned from the sheer pleasure of it. Her fingers laced in his, threaded and twined as she started to ride him in slow building waves.

He was working on undermining her again, thrusting and grinding his hips upward from below. The pulsing feeling of her wrapped around him sent strong sensations racing up his spine. He was hungry for her mouth and arched up to catch her chin with his lips, a slight tracing of his teeth over that fine line.

He was doing a hell of a job of it. Eyes slipped half-shut and she bent her head, mouth seizing his again. She worked her muscles around him squeezing him with each thrust. Her hips rose and dropped sharply, driving him deep, tearing little sounds of pleasure from her, sounds that poured directly into his mouth.

Oberon was swallowing her moans, mingling with his own. She was driving him harder than she had in a great long while. So much for letting go, he thought as he thrust up into her, his backside slamming into the grass as he bucked. So much for hating you.

So much for letting go indeed. Not when she nails dug into and clung to him, her body wrapped hot and tight around him, and she rode him with the increasing intensity of a spring thundershower. It certainly didn't seem much like Titania wanted to let him go. Her mouth was open now against his, hips moving ever faster, muscles clenching and unclenching mercilessly around him.

He groaned upward. "Fuck," he whispered, almost frustration. He wanted this. He didn't. He couldn't seem to make up his mind. His stomach turned at the very thought of making love when so much was wrong around him. He had sensed it, this darkness spreading through the trees and killing, already killing. His body moved on its own, too worked up to stop in this action. His mind lay elsewhere and his eyes would not meet with hers again until she was finished.

Titania noticed. But at this point, she didn't really care. They were both close, and no one said this was about anything right now but sex. Good sex at that. She put aside the feelings around her, the very reason she'd come to find him to begin with and rode his faster, harder, voice rising in volume and pitch until it broke in a little scream that echoed no less for its concentrated sound. Shudders and shivers ran through her from head to toe, muscle contracting involuntarily now as she rode Oberon through her release.

As he came, his mind shut down. No more thoughts, no more feelings. Only the strange sensation rolling over his body, the high of sex and well practiced union. He lay beneath her, his eyes glassed over. His breathing was erratic and his body spent. He closed his eyes and the momentary darkness was a comfort to him. She comes and I am left in darkness. He did not know how very prophetic his only thought was.

Once her breathing slowed and her pulse calmed, Titania sighed, a sound that wasn't entirely one of contentment. She rose, slowly, a soft sound in her throat and looked down at Oberon, her own eyes unreadable. "We are ever so fickle," is all she said, as she redressed herself. It was oddly anticlimactic. The sex was good - it always was with Oberon - but something was wrong. Likely that same sense of darkness, foreboding, shadow around them she still couldn't place. She cocked her head at him. "Will you discuss the matter I truly sought you for my lord? Or shall we continue to be uncertain of what is coming this way?"

"I cannot answer questions if I have no knowledge myself," he answered vaguely, laying naked upon the ground. Like the moody boy he was today, he simply placed his hands under his head to form a pillow. It wasn't entirely true. He had a feeling, a strange instinct. He knew what was coming, yet the answer wouldn't click into place until he locked eyes with the dark presence. Only then would he know that he'd been dreaming of her for years, time out of mind.

Titania watched him for a long moment and then nodded. "Perhaps then, if you gain such knowledge, you'd be kind enough to share it with me. As for now however, my dear king, I must take my leave of you." She raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps when I seek you next, you will not be hiding away in your bower." The tease was back in her voice, and a smile curved her lips before she turned to call back her attendants.

He watched her from the ground, a half-hearted sigh of goodbye following her wake. "Time will tell that tale," he said oddly. I have only to wait until my dream comes to life. I cannot honestly say where I will be when that happens and what will come of it.

Tags: titania, oberon