Belladonna - Fluff

“Please tell me you have some news on when this is going to end.” 

I was shivering. A frigid chill to the air had taken over the entirety of the market as ice crystals formed and sliced through the streets on a bitter blue wind. The world as we knew it was frozen over. Water stood in beautiful, smooth arcs from where pipes had burst. The ocean’s waves looked like frozen glass. And no one, I mean no one, was daring to venture out into the cold in fear of their own feet freezing to the ground. I almost pitied the Velvet Guard as they did damage control. The only upside to such a catastrophe was that Belladonna had halted all Baron duties until the market had thawed. Which meant, she was all mine while the world was frozen.

I yelped as the covers were drawn back from the bed and she slipped beneath the black furs we had piled upon us. “Of courser not” she told me, pressing to my side. “Everyone in this damn town is incompetent.” Her hands were always cold. I had taken to pressing them between my own to try and warm her skin, if only for a moment. She always looked at me with a sense of annoyance when I did so, but I noticed how she never pulled away. Today, however, I was nearly afraid they would break if I clutched them too hard.

“I’m torn,” I told her. “I want the Velvet Guard to fix this, but I also like having you home.”

“The Velvet Guard has not been able to fix a situation a day in their life. I swear that the requirement to join their ranks is a growing sense of incompetence highlighted by stupidity is highly contagious.” She sighed, resting her head on my shoulder and burying herself within the comforters as well. “I do enjoy being home, though” she said. 

“Really?” I asked. “Because you spent the first two days practically climbing the walls.”

“I had to adjust, dear heart. Letting go of power is not easy for me.” Her fingers began walking up my belly, sharp nails scratching at my skin, before she settled over my heart. “And climbing the walls is hyperbolic. I was merely pacing to keep warm.”

“You threatened to light the desk on fire.”

“I still might.”

She stuck her frozen feet under me, holding me tightly to the bed so I couldn’t squirm away. “I’m not warm, Bella,” I protested. “You can’t leach heat off of me.”

“No, but I can make you suffer with me.” She then tucked her face against the crook of my neck, her nose feeling like ice. My first instinct was to push her away, but I knew she was feeling just as, if not more miserable, than me. Sighing, I wrapped my arms around her, dealing with her constant shuffling as she mummified us in blankets.

“I hate this,” she said after a moment. “If I find whoever let off this spell, I am going to kill them. I don’t want to hear it, my heart. They deserve to be tortured and then frozen in time as an effigy in my trophy room.”

“You have a trophy room?”

“Of course not. That would be macabre.” It was the way that she said it that suggested to me that she did have one, but I maybe didn’t want to go and investigate the contents.

“Sometimes they say if you think of something warm, it helps. Maybe we should talk about beautiful sandy beaches. White-hot sun. Air so dry that your lips get parched.”

“Yes. Let’s talk about the things that could kill me. That sounds lovely.”

“You’re in a bad mood,” I pointed out.

“I will bite you, and I won’t make it pleasurable.”

It was then that I pulled the blankets up over our head. The fire was still burning brightly in the hearth and there were several warming stones that were placed under the mattress. We just needed to wait, which ideally was not Belladonna’s strong suit. But as the moments stretched on, I could feel her body begin to relax against my own. Her breathing evening out. I twisted under the blanket to look at her, seeing how her gaze was trained so fiercely on mine.

“Feel better?” I whispered, not wanting to break the spell.

“I miss the sun,” she told me. “I hated it so much when I was alive. It made the crops fail and my father's church was stifling. But when it gets cold like this, I wish I could feel it.”

“Why not get those enchanted windows?” I asked. “Its fake sunlight. Would it really harm you?”

“Elias is in charge of those windows,” she told me. “I wouldn’t trust them. Besides, it doesn’t match my aesthetic.”

“I don’t know. I think you would look gorgeous under a soft golden light.”

“I’m gorgeous no matter what.” Dipping her head closer, she sighed against me, placing and apologetic kiss against my neck. “Did you eat today?”

“Earlier.”

“Good. You will not be moving from this bed.” She was half on top of me now, pinning me down with one leg swung over my hips and her arms tightly encircling my body.

“Do you have an idea of something we can be doing in bed?” I teased. “Something for warmth.”

“Depends on how good you are. Now shut up and hold me.”

I grinned, rolling her fully on top of me. I would hold her until the day I died. Which, if she had anything to do with it, would be never.