luna_in_the_sky (luna_in_the_sky) wrote in snark_n_bark, @ 2008-03-15 18:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | complete, luna, neville |
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind
Characters: Neville, Luna
Summary: Luna returns home with a new addition to the menagerie family.
The sound of Luna's Apparation echoed through the empty living room. She didn't hear any telltale sounds downstairs, so she figured that either Neville had taken the twins with him to work, or he'd called his Gran in to watch them. Either way, Luna had enough time to set up the tank she'd popped by Magical Menagerie for before she needed to check the nursery. It would be best not to put the temptation right under the owls' beaks, so perhaps her and Neville's bedroom would be the best place. Surely Neville wouldn't mind an adorable lizard living in their bedroom.
After the tank was placed, unshrunk, and filled with the soil and a few plants she'd brought back to make Herbert feel less homesick and Herbert himself was ensconced in his new home, Luna headed upstairs to investigate the question of where her children were. She hadn't heard anyone while setting up the tank, so either the twins and Augusta were all having quiet time, or else Neville had them.
The answer turned out to be part of each option. Neville, home in the middle of the day for some reason, did indeed have the twins, and they were all three having quiet time. Neville was in one of the rocking chairs, Nimue snuggled on one shoulder and Gawain on the other, all three of them making snuffling sounds in their sleep. Luna nearly tripped over Neville's shirt and jeans, covered with a green substance that looked suspiciously like it had once been inside twin-tummies. That would explain why he was stripped down to his boxers, at any rate. Luna frowned at the sight of a new scar running up Neville's calf, but her concern was rapidly swallowed as her eyes made a lingering sweep up his body. It really wasn't right how damned sexy the man could look in spite of -- or possibly because of -- having two babies dribbling on his chest.
Luna leaned over him and softly, so as not to wake the children, murmured in his ear, "I don't suppose there's room for me to join too, is there?"
Looking after the twins on his own had made Neville very adept at light naps from which he could wake at the slightest whimper. Hearing Luna's whisper, he slowly opened his eyes, hoping that he had heard right and hadn't imagined her voice after a very trying morning. He blinked up at her, and then had to quickly bite his lip on just how glad he was to see her home. He closed his eyes again, and whispered, "We could try it, but I would much rather have you all to myself. At least until these two have done napping."
He tried opening his eyes, and felt a little steadier this time, able to run his gaze over every visible inch, trying to discern whether her trip had been a success or not. He smiled at her. "Godric, I've missed you."
"It seems more to me that the two of them have you instead of me right now, so perhaps we should get them bedded down properly so I can have you all to myself then," Luna said, smiling back. "I've missed you too." She kissed him gently, then began the delicate work of pulling Gawain off without waking him up.
Neville let Luna take Gawain, and then pushed himself to his feet. Nimue was tucked comfortably against him, one small hand resting over the tattoo on his chest. He had been so relieved when she hadn't reacted negatively to the moth, after her recent bad experience, that he hadn't bothered covering it up again, and had let her play with the charmed tattoo until she had followed her brother into sleep. He had been even more protective of her than he usually was since that day, and he tucked her gently into her cot, gently brushing his fingers against her cheek as a farewell. "Enjoy your nap, Petal," he murmured.
He turned and offered his hand to Luna, not trusting himself to do anything more until they had left the attic. "Are you hungry at all?" he forced himself to ask, despite his strong desire to immediately drag her to their bedroom.
"No, though I did bring you chocolate as promised if you're hungry," Luna said as she took his offered hand. She pulled him closer and fisted her other hand in his hair. "I can think of other things to do if you're not, though," she added as she dragged him down for another kiss, nothing like the gentle one in the nursery. She slid her leg between his, undulating in time to the coiling of their tongues to emphasize her point.
The last weeks without Luna were swept away as Neville hungrily curled his tongue around hers, his free hand clutching at the tank top covering her back as he pulled her against him. He didn't want her to ever leave him alone again, but he wouldn't say it out loud, wouldn't put that pressure on her. All he could do was express with his body just how much he needed her with him. He relished the connection between the palms of their hands, the hard press of her wedding and engagement rings between their entwined fingers, the demanding tug of her hand in his hair possessing him. With a low moan, he swept her up and carried her to their room, stumbling slightly as he concentrated more on kissing her than on where he was going.
Luna clutched tightly at Neville's shoulder, an instinctive reaction to his stumbling, though she trusted him not to drop her. In a dim gesture of apology for her body not trusting him as her mind did, she slid her hand down his chest, lightly raking her nails over his nipple and as far down his stomach as she could reach, then back up to roll the nipple between her fingers. She broke the kiss only to plant more kisses over his cheeks and neck, ending at his ear. "Want you so much," she whispered on a desperate exhale, then nipped at his earlobe and recommenced trailing kisses over his jaw until she reached his mouth once more.
"Yes," Neville managed to gasp in agreement, just before their lips and tongues met again. He staggered into the bedroom, and then stopped in the middle of the carpet, closing his eyes and savouring the kiss, moaning deeply as he slipped his hand under Luna's top and ran a finger underneath the back closure of her bra. In a moment of rare dexterity, he managed to unhook it with one hand. Still holding her up with one arm, Neville slid his other hand underneath the loosened bra to cup her breast.
He pulled away from the kiss and opened his eyes, smiling down at her flushed cheeks and bright eyes. As he gazed at her, he became aware of something out of place in his peripheral vision. He focused on what he could see over Luna's shoulder, and then had to quickly catch hold of her when he nearly dropped her in his shock.
"What the hell is that!?" he exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the thing glaring back at him.
Luna blinked to clear her vision, then followed the direction of Neville's gaze. "Oh, that's just Herbert."
"Herbert?" Neville repeated, having never seen a creature so unsuited to such an affable name. He lowered Luna to her feet. "Wha- ? Why - ? Why Herbert? And why in the bedroom? And just - just why?"
"Because that's his name," Luna said slowly. It wasn't really Neville's fault that he didn't have the same level of understanding about animals as he did about plants, but it was slightly annoying for it to come up at a time like this. "I set him up in the bedroom because our owls eat lizards and I didn't want them thinking that such a rare specimen was a tasty new treat." She couldn't help the edge of pride that crept into her smile and voice. "I think Herbert's the only empreg in captivity. My studies on him will be a huge breakthrough in research."
Neville ran his hands back through his hair. "Okay, fine," he said, more to himself than to Luna. "I can understand you wanting to keep it away from the owls." He took a step closer, lowering his head to better look at the tank on its new stand. He grimaced. He could understand Luna's point about the owls, but he still wasn't sure why that meant Herbert had to live in their bedroom. Godric, the thing was ugly! It kind of reminded him of a horned toad, only uglier, and with much bigger teeth, which it kept flashing at him. "What did you say it was again?" he asked faintly.
"He's an empreg, Phrynosoma empregum. You probably don't remember, but I wrote you about my first research into them, back when you were coming back to England? I was in the same area, and it was possible that the old religious sect had something to do with those magical signatures, you never know when an ancient artifact might be involved or someone decides to revive an ancient religion. And really, I couldn't let an opportunity to do more study on a unique species go to waste -- and then I found Herbert near one of the ruins, just sitting there and easy to capture. All I used was the Tot Trap charm, actually, it was the first spell to mind. He wanted to come home with me, see?" Herbert thumped his tail and grinned as if in response to Luna's words, and she smiled back.
Recoiling from the mouthful of sharp, pointy teeth Herbert had just revealed again, Neville straightened up. "I need a cup of tea," he murmured.
Luna tilted her head. It really wasn't like Neville to be this forgetful when it came to sex. "Tea? But we were in the middle of something more... exciting than tea." She slipped two fingers under the waistband of his boxers and ran them around to the front as she slid between Neville and the tank. "If you might recall," she said as she smoothed both of her palms up his stomach and chest before gripping his shoulders and encouraging him to bend down to kiss her.
Neville's eyes didn't leave the grinning Herbert as Luna pulled him down, then her lips touched his and his eyes couldn't help closing again to savour the sweet familiarity of her taste. However, he couldn't completely banish the image of Herbert from his mind, and he pulled away again, seeing with dismay that Herbert was watching them. "Can't we at least put something over his tank?" he begged.
Luna looked up at Neville with a dubious expression. "Why would you want -- " She cut herself off; Neville was certainly allowed to have his own eccentricities, however odd. "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. The heating element in the tank is supposed to use the light levels to mimic sunlight. Shutting it down in the middle of the day might be bad for Herbert. He's cold-blooded, you know."
Looking between the tank and Luna, Neville reminded himself just how much he loved her. Unfortunately, despite that and how much he had been looking forward to this reunion, Herbert's grin wasn't doing anything for his libido.
He looked at Luna and saw how her bra straps had slid slightly down her arms. "Right then," he said decisively, and grabbed hold of Luna. Hoisting her up over his shoulder, he left Herbert to stare at an empty bedroom and carried Luna downstairs. Dropping her onto the sofa, he grinned at the enticing way she sprawled against the pillows, her hair fanned out by the rush of air. "More like it," Neville muttered, and shoving his boxers off, he eagerly clambered onto the sofa.
The sudden change in scenery left Luna even more confused, especially since Neville hadn't been very keen on sofa-activities after realizing that people could Floo-call at any moment. She didn't want to derail his train of thought now that it was back on the proper track, though, so she simply reached for him instead. Another kiss would be just the thing to make her forget she was confused in the first place, she decided, though it was too bad that she couldn't combine kissing with admiring the rest of Neville's newly-exposed body. She let her hands do the viewing for her, kneading his buttocks and dragging his hips down against hers so she could feel the line of his cock through the layers of denim and silk. She rocked against him until the wet slide of her nether regions nearly matched the wet glide of their tongues. Panting, she pulled away from Neville's mouth with a long moan. "I'm still dressed," she said, the only thing that seemed worthy of her concentration other than kissing and touching Neville. Kissing had worked a charm for forgetting... whatever it was she wasn't remembering at the moment.
Luna's rocking motions and gripping fingers had redirected all of Neville's thoughts to just how hard he was. At Luna's words, though, he remembered just how much better the rubbing and thrusting would be against her naked skin, rather than against scratchy denim. Starting slowly, sliding his hands underneath her top and up over her stomach, Neville quickly found that he didn't have the patience after being denied the last couple of weeks. Abandoning seduction, he yanked her top up, stretching it out of shape in the process. He was glad of her help in getting the top over her head, and swiftly pulled off the unfastened bra, throwing both across the living room. His frantic movements paused as he swept his gaze hungrily over her slim waist and full breasts. Wanting to feel the familiar press of skin on skin, he lowered himself carefully on top of her, and moaned as their chests and lips made contact.
Luna answered Neville's moan with her own. She wriggled slightly under him, wanting more of the warm friction their bodies could create. Another moan escaped her as her nipples rubbed against Neville's chest, and she hooked her feet around the backs of his knees to add to the pressure of their hips moving in tandem. Still half dressed, she noted dimly, and she worked her hand inbetween their bodies and down to their groins. She couldn't resist running her thumb up Neville's cock before popping the button of her jeans loose, then wrapping her hand fully around it and pumping a few times before drawing down the zip on her jeans. That accomplished, she attempted to drag her jeans down her hips without breaking the kiss or using the hand that was roaming over Neville's back. For some strange reason, it didn't work very well.
As Luna wriggled against him, the sense of urgency steadily built up in Neville again. The impatience that had been soothed by skin contact and their continuing kiss took over again, and he pulled away from her to grab at the waistband of her undone jeans, tugging them roughly down her legs. They went the way of her top and bra before, and Neville bent over to nuzzle between Luna's legs, inhaling the arousing scent of her, exhaling hot air against the dampened silk. It was a ridiculous thought, but he suddenly felt like he had been the one to go away, and now he was home again.
Luna jerked slightly as Neville's breath ghosted along her thighs. Her fingers curled in his hair and tightened when he ran his nose over her knickers. A shudder ran through her body at the slide of wet silk, and she had to yank Neville's head back before her body decided to react in a fashion that might bloody his nose. "Neville. Teasing is not really necessary today," she said, relinquishing her grasp on his hair to shimmy her knickers down her legs.
Neville blinked at her, and then, as the last of her clothing disappeared, nodded in happy agreement. He walked his hands up the sofa again, his body lowering to cover hers, the skin on skin connection even more intense now that they were thigh to thigh, groin to groin. He rolled his hips, rubbing his erection between her thighs. Leaning his weight on one of his forearms, he slid his hand in a broad stroke from her hip to just under her armpit, bringing his hand in to cup her breast. Teasing wasn't necessary, but he couldn't resist the fleshy feel of her breast against his massaging palm. His fingers gently pinched at her nipple as he dipped his tongue between her parted lips, rolling his hips again.
Luna exhaled sharply against Neville's lips and pushed up into his hand. She trailed her fingertips down his spine, hyper-aware of the swirling of the fine hairs beneath them as she circled around his vertebrae. His cock twitched when she ran her fingers along his cleft, and she squeezed her thighs around it in response. But she had said no teasing was necessary, and that went both ways. She slid her heels up his legs again and reached around to guide him into her, groaning into Neville's mouth as he stretched and filled her. After a moment's adjustment, she tilted her hips up and pressed down with her heels, encouraging him to move.
The slow slide inside made Neville clench his jaw and squeeze his eyes shut. While he had retained his virginity for longer than the average young man, Luna's trip to South America had been the longest he had gone without sex since he had regained his memories of her. He fought for control - while they had dispensed with the teasing element to their foreplay, he still wanted to enjoy himself, savour their reunion - but, with the encouraging dig of Luna's heels against the back of his thighs, all desire to prolong the act left him, and he sharply thrust his hips forward, gasping at the amazing feeling of being inside her. Lowering his forehead to rest against her shoulder, his lips brushed her neck as he thrust again, and again, settling into a rhythm that built inside of him, tightening his balls and making him clench his buttocks as he strove towards completion. Urgently sliding a hand down between them, he felt for her clit and began gently but firmly massaging the nub, the occasional brush of his knuckles against the base of his pistoning cock making their connection feel that much more real, that much more exciting.
Luna bucked against Neville's hand as he drove into her. Even as her body rushed toward orgasm, her thighs and stomach contracting with each thrust, a feeling of peace settled over her. Her shoulders and neck relaxed and her head slumped back against the sofa arm, providing more room for Neville to kiss her neck. "Love you," she panted, her breathing both discordant to and congruous with the placid swell that accompanied one last, long tensing around Neville. She stroked his arms and back languidly as she continued to roll her hips up to meet him, unable to satisfy her need to touch him after their time apart. A drop of sweat flowed from his temple to his jaw before she caught it with her thumb. She held his gaze as she licked it away.
Letting his eyes close to capture the image of her licking up his sweat, Neville moaned, shuddering through the last of his climax. The words were on the tip of his tongue - "Don't ever go away again" - but he held them in, wrapping his arms more firmly about her instead, and letting his body calm into pleasant exhaustion. "Missed you," he eventually croaked against her neck, licking at it to taste her own perspiration. "Things have been strange without you."
Luna tilted her head at the ceiling, pressing her cheek against Neville's hair. "Interesting. I have the impression most people think things are stranger with me than without." She shifted in his arms, but decided she didn't feel like pulling away enough to look at him. "Did something happen while I was gone?"
"Plenty," Neville responded with a snort. He shifted onto his side, feeling dirty as sweat and come dried on his skin, but too languid to do anything about it. He used all his energy tucking Luna beside him, and let out a long sigh before continuing. Luna might only just have returned home, but he knew that she would want to know what had been going on.
"You know how our magic's been temperamental lately, well, it might be connected to the nursery. The plants have been acting up, and..." He grimaced, not looking forward to telling Luna about what had happened to the twins, even though there appeared to be no lasting effects. "There was a bit of an accident. I, er, I had to take the twins to work with me and while we were there, whatever's making the plants act up made the twins' magic act up, too." He bit on his lip, not wanting to admit that he hadn't been there, but he had to confess all. "I went to check on some of the plants and while I was gone the barrier I'd put up around the bed in my office failed. I don't know if it's because I was distracted in the hot house, or whether Gawain managed to break it, but fortunately Faelan was there and caught him. But then... then Nimue's magic backfired on her and she ended up transfiguring herself into a cloud of moths. By the time I'd run back to the office both of them were in tears. Nimue was especially upset: she hasn't changed anything since it happened. Although, she doesn't seem bothered by my tattoo, so maybe she's all right."
Luna's heart skipped a beat as Neville related the story, but having seen the twins safe and healthy with her own eyes soothed the momentary panic. "Nimue's transfiguring things? No, never mind, that's not an issue." She shook her head as she tried to sort out the information. "How are the plants acting up? There are various fauna that can cause disturbances to flora... but I'm sure you know that.... " She shook her head again, this time with a slight snort. "And here I thought that my magic working almost perfectly in South America was just proof that I was overtired here."
"So you were fine while you were away?" Neville sighed heavily. "I was kind of hoping it wouldn't turn out to be the nursery. But the thing is, I really can't see what can be causing it. It's not a pest or a disease, at least not anything I've seen before, and it's affecting people, too." He shook his head to clear it of his concerns about the plants. "But anyway, I can worry about that later. I'm just glad the twins are okay. Nimue had started transfiguring things into Luna moths, but, well, she hasn't done it since it backfired. I thought she might be scared of moths all together, but as I said, she seems happy enough playing with my tattoo still. I'm a bit concerned, though, that their early magic might even be a part of all this."
"You're just not willing to accept that your children might be prodigies," Luna said with a chuckle, patting Neville's chest. Sobering as she recalled Neville's new scar and realized he might be glossing over parts of what had happened, she gave his leg a significant glance. "I'm glad you're all okay. Faelan, too. It sounds like we owe him -- " she waved her hand in the air vaguely " -- something, dinner, I don't know. What do people usually do for someone who saved their child from harm?" She scratched at her hairline, where the sweat had dried and now itched. "Anyhow, I can ask Dad if he knows anything new. We tend to have news everyone else has overlooked."
"That might a good idea," Neville agreed, trying to ignore her pointed look. However, he knew that she would just ask out right if need be. "I had a run in with some Cat Palms while all the rest of it was going on," he admitted. "Funnily, it was the Pitcher Plant that saved me. One of the plus sides of its change in behaviour, I guess. It keeps off the other plants whenever I am in there now. I just hope I don't forget to be careful the day it goes back to normal." He kissed the tip of Luna's nose. "But, yeah, Faelan was brilliant."
Luna had to bite her tongue from pointing out that near death or injury of her entire immediate family did qualify as a reason to send an emergency owl. Neville had likely believed that since they were all fine, it could wait until she came home, and really, he was right. All's well that ends well. "I'm glad you're all okay," she repeated, pressing her lips against Neville's briefly before swinging her legs over the edge of the sofa and standing up. She held her hand out to Neville and said in a solemn tone, "In fact, I believe we should celebrate everyone's okayness with a shower, before Gawain and Nimue wake up." Her nose crinkled. "My hair is itchy."
Neville laughed, standing up as well. "Anything you say. The twins will be over the moon you're back, more people to try sicking up on. I'd like you to be clean when you get that pleasure."
"From the state of your clothes, I'm pretty sure they got it all out on you this time around," Luna said, stretching up to fold her hands on the nape of Neville's neck. She pressed up against him and reveled in being at home after being gone and alive and satiated and happy. "I see no reason not to be clean in case, though."
Sweeping Luna up in his arms, Neville carried her back upstairs to their insuite. He carefully avoided looking at Herbert's tank as they passed.
Kissing Luna under the shower's spray, he thanked whichever deity was responsible for him being such a lucky man.