January 24, 2009

In Which Alina Requests a Bedtime Story

Okay, so I'm relatively new to blogging, and therefore I'm not quite sure about what merits a warning and what doesn't, but I figure just to be on the safe side, I may as well warn anyone who may have stumbled upon this page that about half the pictures in this post contain some degree of nudity. Nothing too explicit is shown, at least in my opinion, but my definition of "explicit" may not be the same as everyone else's, so please bear that in mind if you choose to proceed with the post. Now that that's been taken care of, on with the chapter.

February 14, 1156

Alina had no idea exactly what Severin was doing to make Raia stop crying, but whatever it was, it was certainly working. No longer could the little girl's wails be heard; the only sound that carried from the nursery was that of a grown man's soothing whispers.

Raia never stopped crying for Alina. She could sing, talk baby-talk, rock her, cuddle her... nothing worked. But for Severin, it came as naturally as breathing. What was wrong with her? Honora, Celina, even young Thetis... they didn't need their husbands to calm their babies for them. They were perfectly capable of doing it themselves--why wasn't she?

It didn't even make any sense. Alina was the youngest of ten children--by the time she had turned six, she was already an aunt. At twenty, she now had six nephews and seven nieces, all between the ages of fourteen and almost two.

Severin, on the other hand, was only anyone's uncle by marriage, and had only been so for little more than a year; he hadn't even seen any of his new nieces or nephews since he had become their uncle, and had certainly never spent much time with them as babies. He had one known half-brother, who had no children of his own yet. Severin, she was sure, had spent barely a few hours with any baby other than Raia since he had been not much more than a baby himself.

And yet, he was the one who always knew what their daughter wanted, the one the baby could always depend on; no matter what Alina did, it never seemed to measure up to the standard Severin had unintentionally set.

She felt awful, resenting him like this, he who had loved her all her life. And what right did she have to feel this way? Why should a woman be displeased with the fact that her husband was a good father? It made no sense. All he was doing was proving once again that she had the most competent husband in all of Naroni, and she had never been so inwardly frustrated with him.

"Well, she's asleep," he assured her needlessly as he entered through the nursery door. "Now you can turn in yourself, Princess."

Alina grimaced. "I'm feeling a little restless; I suspect I'll have trouble sleeping tonight anyway."

"Well, how about that?" Severin chuckled as he joined her on the bed. "I'm feeling rather restless myself; maybe we should be restless together."

"Men," sighed Alina. "I speak with my mouth, and you promptly reply with your testicles. You men truly do believe the earth revolves around sex, don't you?"

"On the contrary, my love, the earth does not revolve around sex; it revolves because of sex."

She shook her head. "Severin?"

"Yes, Princess?"

"You're a pig."

Severin laughed; clearly, he was not in a mindset to take anything seriously. "I don't know, I'd have to say I'm more of a dog; good luck finding a pig as eager to shower every inch of you with kisses as I am."

"I'm going to assume you didn't pick up on the implied 'Shut up'," Alina giggled despite herself. "Anyway, how on earth did you get her to sleep so fast?"

"Oh, it wasn't too difficult," he insisted. "Turned out all she wanted was a bedtime story."

Alina rolled her eyes. "Severin, Raia is only four months old--she couldn't possibly appreciate a bedtime story at her age."

"Well, it worked, didn't it? Either she's one hell of a smart four-month-old, or I'm the Naron God of Spoken Prose."

"The former more likely than the latter, I'd say," deduced Alina, a sudden idea crawling into her head, "but if you feel the need to prove yourself divine, you blasphemous old pagan, then why don't you tell me a bedtime story?"

Severin's eyes narrowed. "Princess, I haven't had to tell you a bedtime story since you were six years old. Must you spring this upon me now, after all these years?"

"Well, you were only nine yourself," she pressed. "I daresay you're a much better storyteller nowadays."

"Not possible. I was a master of the craft at nine. You heard my finest work as a little girl."

Alina smiled. "Prove it."

Severin bit his lip. "Fine. Once upon a time..."

"Wait!" Alina cut him off, pushing herself upwards and lightly stepping onto the floor. "Just let me get comfortable first."

"Whatever you say, Princess," sighed Severin.

Hastily, she pulled off her nightgown and tossed it onto the nearby couch, then set herself back on the bed, wearing nothing but a naughty grin.

"Well, Princess!" exclaimed Severin in shocked delight as he looked her up and down. "I must say, I like your definition of 'comfortable'."

"Naturally," she agreed, "seeing as it goes quite nicely with your own definition of 'restless'."

"Indeed. Take your 'comfortable' and my 'restless', and I think we have ourselves the universal definition of 'fun'."

Suddenly, he slung his legs off of the bed and stood.

"Where do you think you're going?" demanded Alina. "You have to tell me a bedtime story."

"Just let me get comfortable first."

She couldn't help but watch in awe as he removed his clothing. She felt like a little girl studying the angel statues in the catacombs--she knew she shouldn't look, but at the same time, there was nothing to stop her.

"That's much better," he muttered between gritted teeth as he returned to the bed. "Now... story time."

"Severin?" Alina addressed him.

"Yes, Princess?"

"Before we begin... I'm cold."

He smiled. "I can fix that."

Alina gave a half-false contented sigh as Severin shuffled toward her, taking her hand and slinging his free arm around her. "Now, once upon a time, there was a little kingdom ruled by a very silly king."

"Silly?" she repeated.

"Very silly," Severin confirmed. "This silly king lived in a castle on a hill, near the border of his land, which just goes to show how silly he was; a king who wasn't so silly would have lived in a castle near the center of his kingdom."

Alina giggled, noting the unusually high pitch of her own laughter. "Did this silly king have a beautiful queen, by any chance?"

"Oh yes, his queen was exquisitely beautiful," he agreed. "Almost as beautiful as you are, Princess, but nowhere near so virtuous. The beautiful queen had many notches in her bedpost, including the young royal steward, the duke of the shire north of the king's, the father and five brothers of the most fair and radiant maiden in all the world, both of her own two brother-in-laws, and the father of the dashingly handsome lord who ruled the shire to the east."

Alina fidgeted slightly. "Severin?"

"Yes, Princess?" he addressed her.

"Is the title of this story by any chance something along the lines of 'How the Dashingly Handsome Lord Went to See the Silly King at the Border Castle Only to Be Blatantly Pursued by the Not-So-Very Virtuous Queen, but Somehow Resisted Temptation and Journeyed Home to Tell a Bedtime Story to His Sweet Baby Daughter'?"

"Well... close," admitted Severin, "but you missed the last part, Princess--and that, if I do say so myself, is the most important part."

"What is the last part?"

"'...and to Make Passionate Love to His Most Fair and Radiant Wife'."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that part," lied Alina, "although mind you... his most fair and radiant wife certainly is very... restless."

Severin gently pulled her a little closer. "And the dashingly handsome lord himself is most definitely quite... comfortable. Are you bleeding, Princess?"

"Not since yesterday," she assured him.

"Are you willing to risk not bleeding for another nine months or so?"

"Severin," she moaned as he climbed on top of her, "you wouldn't believe how much I miss those nine months."

She had definitely been happier when she was pregnant, she told herself once again as Severin's tongue slipped past her lips and began spiraling around her own, as he gave his initial and subsequent thrusts, as he pressed himself further inside of her and that now-familiar sensation of pleasure began to spread from between her thighs. In those nine months, she had felt more a mother than she had in the four since her daughter had been born; in those nine months, it had been her task alone to take care of the baby, and there was no way that Severin could have helped at all, aside from putting her there in the first place.

She hoped he didn't realize what was wrong; she didn't want to hurt him. Normally, Alina was not one to lie back and think of her country--every other time, she had enjoyed, reacted, screamed his name to the rhythm of the headboard pounding against the wall. But this time... this time, as pleasurable as it was, she had a motive.

A strong surge of relaxation came over her, one she did not deserve. Why had he let her finish? If he had known her reasons, he would have just kept on thrusting until he himself was satisfied, regardless of whether or not she herself experienced any physical pleasure. Or would he? Perhaps not. Perhaps, no matter how awful she was, he would always let her feel that pleasure; tonight, she did not deserve this man.

"I love you, Alina," he whispered as he withdrew. "I wish they'd invented words to say just how much."

"Severin..." she moaned dully. "Severin... I have to wait a month..."

He raised an eyebrow. "What for, Princess?"

"To see if I... if I get the next eight as well."

She'd been happier when pregnant--and with a second baby would come a second chance.

"I see. Well, good night, my love."

He kissed her once more as he gently lowered her to the mattress, then retreated to his side of the bed and buried himself under the blankets. She prayed she hadn't hurt him; she hoped he would understand.

"Severin?" she whispered as she joined him beneath the cloths and skins.

"Mmm?"

"I love you," she told him.

A tired grin on his face, he reached across the bed and took her by the hand. "I know, Princess; I know."

NEXT CHAPTER:

7 comments:

Van said...

Sorry if anyone was expecting some steamy sex scene upon seeing the preview picture for this chapter. I've written a few sex scenes before, and they weren't too bad, but they were all about a couple's first time having sex, and usually whoever's point of view it was being told from was either losing their virginity or experiencing their very first orgasm. I'd planned to do a little more with these two, but the fact that they have sex fairly regularly and have been doing so for over a year kind of threw me off a little. However, they're still pretty young, so if I gain some more confidence as a writer, the possibility of a Severin/Alina sex scene in the future is certainly there.

Penelope said...

It's always difficult to tell when a warning is appropriate. My resolution is just to never post warnings. :p

Oh boy, the queen went after Severin? Doesn't she know better?

teehee, I certainly hope that wasn't the sort of story that he was telling Alina at six.

Also... The alpha tunic! He looks smoke'n.

Van said...

Yeah, I wasn't sure if I needed the warning or not, but I figured I might as well, just to be on the safe side.

Yes, she did, and not for the first time. Geneva has a little thing for Severin, although it is not nearly as significant as her considerably bigger thing for Dalston. Not sure whether or not this will ever get mentioned, but she tried to get into Severin's pants a few times back in Dovia and was unsuccessful, and she's slept with both his father and his brother, so she kind of views him as "the one that got away".

I don't imagine he would have told Alina raunchy bedtime stories when she was six... or would he? After all, he was kind of at the age where he was just figuring out the mechanics of sex (and probably had a lot of it wrong), so he might have resolved to "enlighten" her. "Hey, wanna know where babies come from?"

The more I see of that alpha tunic, the more I like it. I won't be changing his outfit again any time soon, that's for sure :)

lothere said...

I approve of the alpha tunic. *thumbs up* But then again that man looks dressed up in nothing. :->

Geneva is just *UGH!* Actually getting the enumerated list of conquests made me realize just how skanky she is. Sheesh. At least she seems to set her standards fairly high. A steward seems to be as low as she'll go. Unless she has a whole string of grooms and manservants that Severin didn't see fit to mention? ugh ugh ugh. I'm still waiting for her to show a redeeming quality actually.

Sorry I guess that is a little double-standards of me. :-D Since she's a woman and all. But she's a QUEEN... she doesn't even seem to have any dignity.

Alina is a dear, poor thing. She is kind of lonely out there isn't she? She needs someone to tell her that feeling ambivalent about motherhood is not abnormal. And maybe help her see that her problem with her baby may just be that she's trying too hard and stressing both of them out, and Severin is just taking it easy...

As for warnings, I tend to put them when I creep myself out, and I let that be a guide. I don't put them for normal sex and nudity à la "Britamund becomes a wife", but for real violence (at least violent sex... I haven't done much plain violence) I do.

I do kinda wish I didn't have to do it at all -- as soon as you have to start thinking of "ratings" you start second-guessing your own story I think. Or at least worrying about where to draw the line. But a few people sorta complained, so I do feel a certain responsibility not to spring anything too awful on them. There are a few people who really do skip the chapters with warnings.

If I were doing a story with a violent theme I might just forego warnings or maybe put a blanket warning on the story itself. If you're reading a vampire story, you have to expect blood and violence, so people have to show some discernment. But my story is 99% good clean (and sometimes wholesomely naked) fun, so I don't think it's unreasonable to put warnings on the 1% of nasties.

It probably does depend on your audience though. If you have young kids reading you might want to put warnings at the first sign of boobies. (Though knowing kids, those would be the first chapters they would read.) I think my story and prose are dense enough that it automatically weeds out the younger kids who probably shouldn't be reading the "normal sex and nudity" stuff either. I frankly don't want kids reading my story since I would almost be obliged to tone it down then.

Van said...

I try not to think about Geneva's standards too much unless it comes into the story. All of the nobles, with the exception of Roderick, have at least some degree of knowledge about Geneva's personal life, but if she had some manservants lined up, I think only Medea would know about that. I think she has the good taste to stay away from someone like, say, Norwan (but then again, WHO DOESN'T?), but she might not be above the grooms. However, she would be embarrassed enough about them to not let an acquaintance such as Severin know anything about them.

As for her redeeming qualities... well, she's a decent enough mother to her two kids. And she's a good friend to Medea, who is in sore need of one. But yeah, that's about it so far.

Alina is somewhat lonely in Naroni. She has Honora, who used to be her maid, but Honora has a husband and a baby and a house of her own now, so they don't see each other too often. Alina had a huge, very tight-knit family back in Dovia, but obviously, she isn't in Dovia anymore, so the only family she really has are Severin and the baby (well, and a few first cousins in Dalston and Octavius). Her best bet would probably be to form a friendship with Celina.

My main (very irrational) fear is kids somehow stumbling across my story. Normally, I'm okay with that, since I don't think kids would appreciate my kind of writing and would just navigate away after a few paragraphs, and normally my pictures are pretty family-friendly, but whenever the nudity's on the most recent post, I worry a little.

I hope I don't have anyone under the age of maybe eleven or twelve lurking on this site (if I dare flatter myself by thinking I have any lurkers at all). I love kids, but I certainly don't love writing for them. I like to feel free to let out the occasional swearword or crude comment :P

Anonymous said...

Sorry about not commenting in awhile, Van! :D I've been reading consistently, though! I'm a natural lurker. *Creeps in the background*
This was really great...Severin and Alina remind me of Alred and Matilda more all the time. (*sniffle*) Not to say I don't love them in their own right, of course...
Also, the new skins look gorgeous. Alina is so so so pretty.

Van said...

No worries, I've been doing some lurking myself over at Strangetown HWC for quite some time now. Just as long as people are reading, it's all good :)

Even if people weren't reading, actually, I'd still post. It's fun for me :)

They remind me a little of Alred and Matilda too, although I'm trying to deviate away from that. It's proving to be quite a challenge, though :(

Glad you like the new skins. I used to be one of those people who didn't realize the full importance of good skins on their sims, but I have since become enlightened :D