#x: leida/ardbert | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hylfystt · 7 months

Text

i think i might've inhaled you

ship: leida valroux (wol) / ardbert hylfyst rating: explicit fandom: ffxiv word count: 3.7k phEW notes: major shadowbringers spoilers. baby's first smut. don't think to hard about the logistics of this, it works because it works. [ao3]

It’s late when she startles from her slumber, a stifled cry on her lips and sweat on her brow. Instinct drives her to throw the covers from her form, to free herself from the confines of her bed and bolt and —

Leida takes a shuddering breath, burying her face in her hands. She focuses on her breathing, trying to quiet the rush of blood in her ears and the echo of a shattered shield.

The Vault. It’s been a long time since that particular nightmare has come to plague her. She had hoped that she was finally free of it, that the peace she had made with Haurchefant’s death might finally absolve her of her nightly torments.

A vain hope, so it seemed.

“I was beginning to worry you weren’t going to wake up.”

Ardbert’s voice carries easily in the quiet of the room. She isn’t surprised to find him standing before her window, more than accustomed to his near nightly vigil. It’s a small comfort, knowing that he stays. There may be little he can do in the event of something truly disastrous, they both know that, but it is an attempt to ward away the troubles that would seek to plague her regardless. Something stirs within her at the thought. Leida meets his gaze, shuffling to rest against the wall, the cool bricks offering some measure of comfort against her still flushed skin. Ardbert glances away, turning his attention back to the night sky, something like regret flashing in his eyes.

“What time is it?”

“Dunno. Still a few hours before dawn, I reckon.” He casts her a quick glance. “You should go back to sleep. Tomorrow is sure to be a long day.”

Leida smiles thinly. “It always is.” The words sound more cynical to her ears than she intends them, but it doesn’t diminish the truth of them. Her days have been long ever since that quiet grey morning she slipped aboard a ship bound for Limsa Lominsa some five years ago now. At this point she doesn’t much know what she would even do with peace, anyways. “I doubt I’ll find much rest now regardless.”

“You want to talk about it?”

The elezen huffs a laugh. “Not in the slightest.” Leida closes her eyes and lets her head fall back to rest against the wall. “I’ve told you of Haurchefant.”

Ardbert hums in acknowledgement. He understands then. “Aye, that you have.” Silence settles between them, heavy as they contemplate the weight of their respective ghosts. Leida frowns, cracking an eye to gaze at the gentle glow that radiates from Ardbert. The figurative kind, she supposes.

She has seen ghosts before, spirits that cling to this world by sheer force of will or by magicks beyond her purview. Her expertise lies in living aether, in arcanima and the egi. The more spiritual studies of aetherflow have always lain in Y’Shtola and Urianger’s domains, and she’s been more than content to leave it with them in the past, despite her fascination. Run so ragged as she’s been these past years, she’s had little time to dedicate herself to new areas of study.

Looking at Ardbert now, not at all like the specters she has battled in the past and yet not quite living, she wishes she had never given up that particular thread of curiosity.

“Well,” Ardbert says suddenly, snapping Leida out of her quiet contemplations. “If you’re going to be stubborn about it, might as well make yourself useful.” He crosses the room and settles on the edge of her bed, raising an expecting brow. “Go on, then. You promised me another one of those tales of yours.”

“Useful?” Leida sputters, unable to help the grin that blossoms under his teasing gaze. “Arse.”

Ardbert returns her grin, eyes softening. Leida knows what he is doing, and she is grateful for it—grateful for him and this easy comfort that has grown between them since her arrival on the First. They’ve come a long way from their meeting on the Source, from the cynical jabs and mistrust that marked their meetings after. She’s not entirely sure when the shift happened, but she has come to care for him, and she knows that she is not alone in her sentiments.

Sitting here close to him, a small part of her, quiet and longing and foolish, wonders what it would be like to touch him.

“Let’s see,” Leida starts, shaking the thought from her head and scooting to sit beside Ardbert. She has much she can tell him, much she wants to, good and bad and much somewhere in the middle. But tonight is a night for good, she thinks. “Have I told you of the Churning Mists?”

“In passing, I think.”

Leida smiles fondly. “There are a particular inhabitants there, a rather funny people called moogles—”

Ardbert casts her a flat look. “The First has them too, you know.”

“Shush, you. You wanted a story, I’m giving you a story. Now, as I said, moogles…”

Ardbert listens intently as she tells her tale, of the restoration of Zenith and the misadventures along the way. It’s almost a relief to talk about something that, in the grand scheme of all that she has done since shouldering the mantle of Warrior of Light, seems relatively mundane. Not that she herself would call it so. Her work with Mogzin, Ohl Deeh and Tarresson is something she is proud of and holds dearly to her heart.

She is glad to share this with him, too.

“I should visit them again when we get home,” Leida says, laying back so that she is stretched across the bed, legs left dangling over the side. She doesn’t catch the brief flash of sorrow her words bring.

I would have liked to have seen it with you. “I would have thought you’d be sick of the creatures after all that,” Ardbert says instead. He shakes his head, forcing a smile. “Honestly. Drunk moogles…”

Leida laughs. “Yes, well, I find them quite endearing.”

“You would.”

Leida rises quickly, casting a look of mock incredulity at the man. She reaches out, shoving him lightly. “Now just what do you mean by that?”

Something shifts in the aether.

Ardbert sits frozen, eyes blown wide. Leida stills, too, when the realization dawns. She looks at her hand, still resting on the pauldron of his armor, cold and rough and so incredibly tangible under her fingers. Her mouth drops open, a small oh slipping past her lips as she stares at the point of contact.

“So it wasn’t my imagination, then.” Ardbert’s voice is more fragile than she has ever heard it before. He can’t seem to look away from her hand. “You can feel me.”

Leida swallows. “Before,” she starts, moving her hand from his shoulder to trail down his arm. She is careful with her movements, as if he might fade once again under her touch if she moves too quickly. She’s not sure she could bear it if he did. “When the Light…”

Ardbert nods, almost imperceptibly. “I thought I had felt something…I thought I had felt you.”

He watches her hand intently, brow pinched as it comes to rest at his wrist. Were it not for his very nature, he would have wondered if this was somehow a dream. He’s still not sure he believes it at all, that he won’t blink his eyes and she will still be lying back on the mattress, ready to expound on the virtues of moogles.

Instead Leida’s fingers brush the clasps of his bracers and he swallows hard. “May I?” she asks.

Ardbert nods again, not daring to trust his voice.

With careful consideration, she sets upon freeing his forearm, undoing clasps and buckles with a quiet reverence. She sets the gauntlet aside, hesitating only just before she reaches to remove his glove, careful not to touch the expanse of skin now exposed to his eyes for the first time in a century. He feels nearly faint with this simple intimacy. She reaches for his other hand, divesting his other hand with the same tender care until both his hands are left bare to her and the night.

“Leida…” He watches her, intensity burning in those blue eyes of his despite the way that he trembles. After an achingly long moment she moves, brushes her fingers ever so gently across his palm and marvels at the way he feels so solid under her touch.

Ardbert exhales sharply at the contact, trembling still. He feels hot—her touch a searing warmth with every careful brush of her fingers against his. Ardbert flexes his hand, a vain attempt to steady himself. Leida meets his eye, apology ready on her lips, when he surges forward, entwining their hands and slanting his lips against hers.

The result is blinding.

All at once Ardbert is everywhere. Her senses are overwhelmed by him and the impossibility of his touch, of his breath – gods, his breath! – entwining with hers. Ardbert squeezes her hand, near hard enough to bruise and to ground him in this impossible moment.

“How is this possible?” Leida gasps in the desperate break for air, chasing his lips nevertheless.

“Don’t know,” Ardbert grunts as he pulls her into his lap. Closer — he needs her closer. Leida shudders delightedly as his hand tangles in her hair, the other dipping into her shirt as he holds her flush against him. “I don’t care.”

There will be time for questions later, time to puzzle over why her and why him, but right now—

Right now, the only thing that matters is that he is kissing her and she is kissing him back and nothing else in this world or hers has ever made more sense.

Lost in the feel of his mouth on hers, lips parting to deepen the kiss, Leida is inclined to agree; for if this a dream, or a construct of her own longing, she isn’t inclined to be woken.

He has long lost himself in the feel of her when he feels her hands move to his shoulders and the straps of his armor. It’s a clumsy thing, one that has them both huffing a quiet laugh as he moves to help her when it becomes clear that she is close to just burning the damn straps away if it meant divesting him of his armor that much faster. The cuirass falls away, followed closely by his shirt, clumsy hands moving to cast them aside somewhere, and Ardbert pulls her in again.

Her hands explore the expanse of his back, tracing the lines and valleys of whatever scars she comes across.

Her hands are nearly his undoing. How long has he been without the simple comfort of another’s touch? How long has he been left aching and wanting for her? To touch her now, to feel her warmth and warrior’s strength…

It’s too much, and not enough at all.

“Gods,” he breathes as she pulls a trembling sigh from him. He trails his lips against the line of her jaw, stopping at the base of her ear, the low timbre of his voice causing an eruption of gooseflesh down her spine. “Tell me you want this. Tell me that you ache for me just as badly as I ache for you.”

Leida brings his face back to hers and looks at him through half lidded eyes, desire and affection read plain. Her look only serves to kindle the fire that erupted in his belly the moment he first kissed her.

“I want this,” she says, bringing her forehead to rest against his. “I want you.”

Never before has he heard words so beautiful.

His mouth meets hers hungrily and her pulse quickens, fire racing in her veins as he draws from her a desire she’d thought long since locked away. His hands find her waist, fingers hooking on the bottom of her shirt and she smiles, breaking apart just long enough for him to pull it over her head. He casts it aside, leaving hungry hands to explore her skin freely. Calloused fingers trace every scar and every line, and he pulls away to marvel at her freely.

He wants to ask her about every mark and know every story behind them. He thumbs a particularly egregious mark, the taught pull of new skin indicating it’s newness in comparison to other scars. Leida takes one of his hands and brings it to her mouth, kissing his palm.

“Later,” she tells him with a small smile. “I will tell you everything.”

“Later,” he agrees. He keeps her eye for a moment, caressing her cheek softly as his other hand slides up the expanse of her stomach. He can’t help the self satisfied smile at the shiver the action draws from her. He grins fully at her gasp when his hand finds her breast, thumb swiping teasingly at a hardened nipple. His mouth is soon to follow, drawing a contented sigh from Leida.

“Ardbert…”

She has always been beautiful. From the first time he saw her on the Source—a radiant storm of fury and fierce protectiveness of her world, of her family—to their meeting here on the First, she has been radiant. He thinks she has never looked more beautiful than like this, however, in the way she unfurls for him as he tips them back, rolling to dip her into the mattress.

All his long years cursing Minfilia for leaving him to wander as a shade has surely been worth it for this sight alone.

Ardbert’s hands continue their exploration, strong hands gliding down the length of her sides until they stop at the waistband of her sleep-shorts. He keeps her eye, noting the high color in her cheeks and the hitch in her breathing as his thumbs dip teasingly below the hem.

“Gods, but you are beautiful.”

Then he is tugging the fabric away, down her legs until he can toss them aside, and Leida can’t be sure if the way her skin prickles with gooseflesh is from the exposure to the chill night air or his hungry look.

He kisses his way down the expanse of her stomach, lips finding every scar, every errant freckle, until he presses a kiss to her hip bone and Leida can’t help the longing sigh he pulls from her. Her breathing kicks higher in anticipation when he lowers himself further and kisses the inside of her thigh as he hooks her knees over his shoulders. He meets her eye, a silent question raised. She nods, almost imperceptibly and his eyes dance.

She nearly lurches off the bed at the first swipe of his tongue over her folds, a soft moan falling sweetly from her lips. Ardbert’s hands grip at her hips to keep her steady as he repeats the motion, eager to draw out the sound again. He is slow in his ministrations, almost painfully so, as he takes his time to discover what makes her tick. It’s near enough to drive her to insanity, the way he so pointedly avoids her clit. She wiggles her hips, chasing the friction she so desperately longs for and yet he denies, having half a mind to tell him to stop with his teasing her and just get on with it—

As if hearing her thoughts, Ardbert takes the bundle of nerves into his mouth and sucks and it is as if every nerve in her body is alight with lightning. Her hand shoots down, finding purchase in his hair as she is suddenly desperate for an anchor. “Fuck,” she gasps, head falling back against the mattress as she loses herself in the feel of his mouth on her. One of his hands slides from its place on her hips and he teases a finger at her entrance, drawing another moan from her. He feels his cock twitch in response.

He sets upon her with earnest then, dipping another finger into her aching cunt as his mouth and tongue drink from her greedily like a man possessed; like a ghost who has felt nothing, tasted nothing for a hundred long, lonely years. To be seen, felt, loved…

He would do anything for her.

“Please,” comes the strangled gasp as his mouth and fingers work her higher and higher towards the precipice. “Ardbert,” she whines.

“Tell me what you want,” he says, withdrawing from her folds to meet her eye. Want burns bright through her at the sight of him looking at her with such reverence, the evidence of her desire slick on his lips.

“I need you,” she breathes. “Please.”

Ardbert holds her eye as he kisses the inside of her thigh before turning over the length of her body, mouth and tongue tasting every ilm of her until he reaches her mouth. Leida moans at the taste of herself on his lips.

“Tell me.”

“I need you inside me,” she pants, fingers scraping lightly against his scalp as she holds his gaze. “Ardbert…”

He kisses her deep, settling between her legs with a shaky sigh. He feels her hand reach between them, wrapping around his cock and giving it several slow, teasing strokes.

“Easy there, sweetheart,” he groans, nipping at her jaw. “I won’t last long if you do that.”

“Mercy, then.” Leida gives a breathy laugh, kissing his temple as she relents, moving her hand to guide him to her entrance. Ardbert rests a hand against her cheek, thumb brushing her cheek affectionately. Gods, but he loves her.

The first push of him inside her has both their breaths catching. She clings to him, forehead resting against his as he takes his time entering her fully. He wants to savor this, wants to sear the memory of her open mouthed gasps and the feel of her into his memory forever so that not even another century could take this from him.

Ardbert shudders as he sheathes himself fully inside her, marveling at the way she feels so right, like she was made for him and he for her. Leida takes a moment to catch her breath, for she feels nearly faint with the way her very aether seems to respond to him. When she kisses him, silently begging for his movement, she nearly weeps at the first slow roll of his hips.

“‘s been so long,” he groans, head dropping to the crook of her neck as he drags long and slow within her. Leida gasps at the scrape of teeth at her pulse point. “You’re so perfect. So perfect for me.”

“I am yours,” she sighs, legs shifting upward to take him deeper. “From the first, I have been yours.”

She rises to meet him for every movement as he sets his pace faster, deeper, chasing a bliss she never thought possible before. Their union feels somehow sacred, inevitable, like something that should have been long ago has finally shifted into place and now the worlds are in alignment. Later, she will ponder what this means, what the tug of her aether towards him and his towards her means but right now—right now, nothing matters outside of the feel of his skin against hers.

Their shared gasps and moans fill the night, the sound of skin moving against skin a melody sweeter than any orchestrion could capture. Leida feels all at once too hot, the steady drive of his cock working her back to the precipice. She wants more. She slides her arms around his neck, legs wrapping around his waist as she is desperate to feel him closer, deeper. She can feel his answering groan rumble against her breast as he obliges her, arm looping under her back and holding her impossibly close as he shifts to a near relentless pace.

“Ardbert, I—I’m…” She can barely think through the heady pleasure, all means coherent thought thoroughly chased away with each snap of his hips. “Fuck.”

Ardbert places a sloppy, open mouthed kiss at the base of her ear as he speaks. “Let go for me, sweetheart.”

The rough timbre of his voice is enough to send her over the edge. Ecstasy crashes around her with his name on her lips in a desperate, repeating prayer. He guides her through it, fingers digging into the soft skin of her back as he holds her close and it isn’t long before Ardbert’s hips stutter, thrusting erratically as he follows with a rough gasp of her name.

They fall together, in the aftermath. A tangle of limbs and languid bliss in the wake of their lovemaking. Leida presses a kiss to the sweat matted hair at his temple, Ardbert’s hold around her tightening. She doesn’t know how long they stay like this, holding each other in the afterglow as they struggle to regain their breaths. Eventually Ardbert pulls away, and for a moment her heart aches at the absence of him. He is quick to pull her back to him as he rolls onto his back, and Leida sighs contentedly as she settles against his chest.

His hands trail lazily along her back, playing with stray lilac locks as they languish in the post-bliss haze.

“What happens now?” Leida asks quietly. Ardbert sighs, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “We keep trying to save our worlds. We find a way to keep you from turning into a sin eater. Everything else can come later.”

Leida props herself up on her elbow, small smile playing on her lips as she looks at him. “We?”

“Aye.” Ardbert reaches up, letting his thumb caress her cheek gently as he gives her a faint smile. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. For as long as you’ll have me, anyways.”

“I would always have you.”

“Then will figure it out.”

Ardbert cards his fingers through her hair, sighing in content when Leida leans down to press her lips against his in a slow kiss.

“Together,” she says.

He knows that this could very well end in heartbreak and failure, that they could fail to save their homes. She could lose herself to the Light when she fells the next Warden, despite his best efforts to keep it contained. He can imagine a hundred and more ways in which it could all go to shit before the week is out, has imagined it time and again.

But with Leida at his side, each horrible scenario seems further and further from being inevitable.

“Together.”

For the first time in many long years, he dares to hope.

#well i did it lmao #c: leida valroux #x: leida/ardbert #writing tag #g: ffxiv #oc: leida valroux

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