Flora & Fauna

Lost under the tangled waves of my own hair, I struggle awake. I huff out a breath to blow some of them away. I turn and see the chest of a horse facing me within my blanket cocoon.

Oh... right.

Feeling mischievous, I reach forward with a single finger and tuck it into the pit of a foreleg. They both kick out on either side of me, making me yelp. The top of the blanket gets pulled down and I see Andrius staring down at me.

"Did you just tickle-"

"It was an accident."

"I don't believe you," he says with a smirk.

Before I can respond, his strong arms wrap me up in the blanket. I feel myself lifted off the floor.

"Ah!" I squeak, "What are you doing?"

"Taking you back to the ditch I dug you out of."

"You wouldn't!"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm very temperamental before I have breakfast."

His hooves clop slowly against the floor.

"What if I told you there's snacks in my backpack?" I venture.

The movement stops.

"Well, that changes everything."

He lowers me to the ground and I wriggle until my face is free from the blanket. Andrius' head tilts as he watches my feet to make sure I can stand on my own. I snatch my backpack off a hook on the wall and dig a hand inside. I can feel through the paper wrapping that some of the shortbread cookies are cracked into pieces from my fall. The centaur puts a hand over my mouth just before I bite into a piece.

"Can't have cookies without tea," he wags a finger at me.

I smile under his hand and let him help me to the kitchen. As he reaches up into one of the too-high cupboards, I unfurl the paper wrapping and lay out the collection of cookies. Sweet, crunchy and stamped with the framed image of a leaping bunny.

"Chamomile or star anise?"

"Chamomile!"

He nods and situates the kettle over a stovetop flame. A low table, low enough that I can only imagine he lays in front of it, is to the side in the kitchen. I didn't notice it last night.

Movement in my periphery catches my attention and I turn to watch Andrius pull the leather strap out of his hair. Waves are kinked into his hair where it dried against the tie. He digs his hands in and rubs at his scalp and combs his fingers through the little tangles. The open V of his tunic gives me a window to the movement of his muscles.

I bite my lip and let my eyes trail hesitantly over the rest of his form. His hooves are polished and clean, I imagine in part from the coverings he wears when he goes outside. He's not wearing any covering on his lower... his horse half. I suppose it wouldn't be possible. Or would be too complicated to be worth the trouble. A tapering expanse of soft flesh angles up against his belly between his back legs, hiding whatever manhood he has. Except for the close to his body testicles that sit behind it. I blush and snap my eyes away from him.

"Which one do you want?"

I try and fail to stop blushing before I look back at him, "What?"

"Which color?"

I stare back at him confused, forcing my gaze to go to where he holds the steaming kettle with a potholder and to the two ceramic mugs on the countertop. One green, one blue.

"Oh. Um. Blue?"

He fills mine first and slides it to me.

He's really kind, I begin to justify to myself, And he is very pretty. For a centaur.

He finishes filling his own mug and follows to sit across from me at the low table. His shining hair bounces around his face as his legs bend and plop him down into a lying position.

Okay, so he's very pretty for a no-matter-what-he-is.

I bite my lip and pretend to sip at the tea to hide any evidence of my thoughts that may be written on my face. He takes a biscuit and I mimic the action. He reaches across the table to tap his against my own in a crumbly cheers before dipping the cookie into his tea and taking a bite, followed by a sip.

"I think we should have sex."

In the same instant his eyes go wide, I hear the tea snort from his throat into his nose. Andrius' coughs and covers his face with his hand. I sit, leaned back and awkward and silent. Maybe I could have said it more subtly.

"Ow," he moans, "Ugh. It went up my nose."

"I'm serious," I say, less confidently than I would like.

"So am I. It really burns." He pinches his nose and squints his eyes.

"So... Do you want to?"

"The fuck? No. Where did that even come from?"

"Claudius is all about appearances and tradition," I explain in a rush, "He won't want anything to do with me if I'm not a virgin."

"Can't you just fuck some prostitute in your town?"

"No one would do it. They'd either be too afraid of my father or Claudius or both. You're perfect."

"I can assure you I'm not."

"I disagree," I say haughtily.

"How do you see this working exactly? You expect me to fuck you. Then parade you around your hometown and let everyone know we fucked?"

"I don't know. I'll show them bloody bed sheets or panties or something."

"I'm happy to prick my finger and rub it in your underwear."

"What if they want to inspect further? Wouldn't my body... look different?"

"After bedding a centaur for your first time? Yeah. I fucking bet it would."

"You know," I inject some smugness into my voice, "Most people consider me very attractive."

I sit up and let my cloak fall open a little, let my ample, perky bust show over the neckline of my dress. Andrius' gaze slides over the curvature of my body before he shakes his head and squints his eyes closed.

"You are very beautiful. But... that doesn't really change what's possible."

"Possible?" I tilt my head.

"A human female cannot bed a male centaur."

"I don't see why not."

"Not to brag, but," Andrius stands and gestures at his whole form with his hands, "I'm pretty sure it would kill you."

"Oh, you're so over dramatic," I roll my eyes, "Wait. Are you..."

"Am I what?"

I blush. How foolish of me to have not considered it. He's stunning and kind and a good hunter and apparently has a vacation home. No wonder he's trying to let me down easily.

"Are you like...horse-married?"

"Horse-married?" He stands up straighter and his front hooves snap against the floor in the offended burst of movement, "Horse-married? I think my people just call that married."

"Sorry, that came out weird."

"You can't have sex with a centaur."

"Humans have sex with centaurs all the time. They never shut up about it."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"How many of those humans you've heard brag about fucking centaurs have been female?"

I freeze and meet his stern gaze.

"It's irrelevant," I say with faux certainty.

"It's the most relevant part!"

"Are you worried I'll get pregnant? There are plenty of herbal shops in Leaven. I can easily procure a contraceptive brew on my way back home."

"That's not even possible," he rolls his eyes, "Have you ever heard of someone who's half centaur?"

"Oh," I tilt my head curiously and sift through every mention of centaurs I've heard in town. I guess I haven't ever heard of such a thing. What would it even be? Something ridiculous.

"Exactly," he says with a pointed finger at me.

I look away from him to hide my blushing behind a fall of waves. I can't parse if I'm more sad or embarrassed. There's too much of both. I can hear his hooves hesitantly come forward and stop before me, the polished shine of them showing in my sight of the floor. One of his hands reaches up and softly cups my cheek. I'm too surprised to resist as he turns my face up to him again. He's looking down at my ankle for a moment before he looks back to my eyes.

"It'll take some time for that to heal," he says conspiratorially, "And we're two smart people. We'll think of something."

I smile and nod, the motion pushing my cheek against his fingers again.

"Sorry I made you snort your tea," I mumble.

"Well, if you want to make it up to me," he looks around the interior of the home lit by growing sunlight streaming through the windows, "You could help me clean this place up."

I follow his gaze and realize what he means. There's a coating of a year's worth of dust on every surface except for where we prepared the pheasants and another wiped down area where we had our tea and cookies. I nod. I'm happy to help if for no other reason than to rinse away the memory of my suggested plan.

.

Watching a centaur use a broom is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. I freeze in the motion of taking towels from a skinny closet to watch him, paper coverings half unwrapped in my grip. His hooves dance back gracefully as he sweeps the thin line of dust toward the door. I purse my lips and cough lightly on my attempt to hold back a laugh.

"What?" He asks slowly as he flicks the debris outside and walks back to me.

"Nothing," I say tight-lipped and quick as I go back to unwrapping clean cloths.

He looks down at me with a raised brow. And I hate how pretty the expression is on him. The sun highlights the points of his cheekbones, made dewy with the light sweat of working together all morning, and the gold sparks in his eyes. I avert my eyes and look down at the stretchy fabric he wrapped tight around my injured ankle, pretending it's suddenly very interesting.

"Can I ask you something?"

I snap my gaze back up and nod.

"Am I the first centaur you've ever seen?" He pauses and reaches forward to collect some loose tendrils of hair and tuck them behind my ear, "You seemed kind of freaked when you first saw all of me in the forest."

"In person, yes," I gulp and hate how loud it is, "But I've seen your kind in art. Tapestries usually."

He fails to hide the smug expression that pulls up on the ends of his expertly shaped lips, "There's art of my kind in your town?"

"Yes. They usually depict centaur warriors. You know, a bow and arrow. Or a very shiny sword and shield."

"Do any of them depict horse-marriages?"

"I said I was sorry," I pout and stomp pathetically with my uninjured foot.

Andrius throws back his head and laughs, his teeth a flash of white against his luminous, tan skin. I perk up on one set of toes and steal the leather strap from his hair.

"Hey-" His words get cut off by the mess of flaxen hair that flops over his face.

Limpingly, I dance back toward the door as I twist the tie around my own wrist. Andrius shakes his head and leans back to dramatically free himself from his long hair. I pause near the open doorway and face out to the forest surrounding the house. I hear Andrius' hooves trot up and stop beside me. One hand wraps around my forearm and reclaims the tie.

"I didn't realize how nice it had gotten outside," I breathe out into the scent of warm greenery.

"Guess we had one more day of summer left."

Along the edges of the house are small gardens I hadn't noticed when we arrived in the dark. Some of the square plots are barren, while others have bunches of different vegetables sticking up from the dirt.

"Want to go for a swim?"

Andrius shrugs when I look up at him.

"It might be good for your ankle."

I'm hard pressed to think of any better way to spend the day.

.

It's too hot for the full linen dress or jacket I arrived in, so I'm atop Andrius in my white, silk slip. And underwear, though I'm wondering if I somehow forgot that part considering I can feel every movement of the heat and texture of his fur between my legs in excruciating detail. He ditched his tunic and luckily doesn't seem to think it's odd that I'm leaning forward to wrap my arms around his torso from behind. It's either that or I cling to him harder with my thighs. I'm already trying and failing badly enough at not thinking about my thighs around him.

It makes me feel ever the more flustered how impervious he seems to the contact between us. As if it's the most normal, dull thing in his day. He said he considers me attractive. But maybe he was so blindsided by my request that he only wanted to let me down gently. Or maybe no amount of attraction means anything to him if nothing can be feasibly done with it.

I scoot forward so my legs dangle on either side of his torso where his defined muscles meet the soft beginnings of his fur. I shudder from the movement and hope he doesn't feel it.

"Hey, Andrius?"

"Hmm?"

"Didn't you say last night you just come out here during the warmer months?"

"Yes," he answers a little tensely.

"So, how come you're all the way out here now? I very rarely hear of centaurs coming anywhere near town."

"We do sometimes," he reaches forward and clears away a mess of branches in our path, "I actually got my quiver and rucksack from a leatherworker in your town."

I don't answer, noticing that he hasn't really answered me. He parts another tangled wall of dry vines and we come out in a clearing. A swell of blue water, broken up by a small waterfall on one side and a shallow, trickling stream on the other. I perk up on his back and stare at the sparkling, inviting water. Andrius reaches back and takes me from his body to set me down ahead of him at the water's edge.

"You asked if I had a wife," he explains slowly as he walks past me and dips a hoof into the water, "I had a lover. I walked in on her with a good friend of mine."

I flinch and feel angry heat rising in my cheeks at the information.

"With-with?"

"Yes," he walks into the water while I crouch on the edge and continue to listen, "I was so angry. I knew I couldn't be there. I stayed just long enough to throw some supplies in a rucksack. And tell my friend's lover what I had seen so she can make her own decisions about him. And I spent three days running all the way out here."

"Very brave of me, huh?" He adds with a tense smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

"That's so," I grit my teeth and sneer at the story, "repulsively fucked up."

Andrius laughs and turns to swim back toward the shore where I'm sitting, "Oh, it's nice to hear that in someone else's voice. I've spent this whole time only hearing it in my own."

I bite the inside of my cheek and reach forward to cup his face with my hands, a poor mimicry of his gesture to me, "I'm sorry, Andrius. That's so wrong of them. You don't deserve that."

His eyes go wide for a split second before they close, and he tilts his head to be cradled by my hand.

"Thank you for saying that. All of it." He mumbles against my palm.

His hands go around my waist and begin to gently tug me into the water. I put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"You aren't going to swim?"

"My slip will get wet."

"Just take it off."

I blush so hard I can feel my cheeks turning into big tomatoes. Andrius chuckles and I can feel the rumble of the sound in my hands.

"I'm naked," he shrugs.

"That's totally different," I squeak.

"You were trying to debate me into fucking you a few hours ago, and now you're afraid to go skinnydipping? Did you intend for me to take you fully dressed?"

"I hadn't gotten that far in the plan," I admit.

I tug the slip up over my head and toss it behind me into the grass of the clearing. Andrius' eyes roam over my shape, pausing on the swell of my hips and the shape of my legs. I try to ignore that he looks. And the fiery path his gaze leaves flickering on my skin. He says nothing about me leaving my cotton panties on. I dunk a foot in and and flinch it back out with a yelp.

"It's freezing!"

"It's not that bad."

"You have fur!"

"Soaked fur. That doesn't count."

I shiver up to my scalp and rush in when I feel the icy water tighten my nipples into hard points. Andrius steps back, holding me to his chest as my frozen legs slowly adjust to the water and regain the ability to move. As we get deeper in the pool, I look around his torso to his hooved legs kicking smoothly through the water.

"Wow. You're a good swimmer."

"You've got to be strong to carry a horse-ass with you everywhere you go."

"I think your people just call it an ass."

He laughs and gently loosens his grip on me, leaving me to tread water on my own in the middle of the pool. I scrub at my skin and dunk my hair, washing away the dirt of the forest and the sweat of all our household work.

Splashing steps call my attention to the short waterfall and I turn to see Andrius bowing his head into it. The sunlight flickers off flying droplets as he washes his hair, then flings it back to rest along his spine. I would have rethought this swimming thing if I had known how much more defined and alluring the muscles of his body would look once they got wet. I swallow thickly and force my head to turn away. I bite my lip hard but it does nothing to pause the thrilling energy that builds in the sensitive points of my body.

"This is torture," I mutter to myself.

"What?"

I turn and see Andrius watching me, his wet hair in a bundle atop his head.

"I'm just getting kind of cold."

"Do you want to head back?" He swims a few steps toward me.

"No, no. Not yet. I'm just going to lay in the sun for a bit."

He nods and closes his eyes again, going back to combing a hand through his hair.

.

Laying on the sunny, grassy shore, my hair slowly dries into kinks and curls. I breathe deep and bask in the freedom of the moment, trying not to remember that I'll have to go home eventually. And that I still don't have any kind of plan to get out of marrying Claudius.

The barest touch of a breath tickles my ear and my eyes snap open. Andrius is lying on his chest on the shore, his chin resting on his folded arms and his back half still standing in the cool water. His tail waves in the lazy rhythm of the pool. My feet still dangle in the water, the cold soothing my injury. Somewhere in the day, I forgot how strange it is to be naked next to him.

"Have you come up with any grand plans?" I mumble contentedly.

Andrius hums tiredly in response and I realize he had been asleep beside me. His eyes blink open gradually and seek me out. I freeze entirely still, my chest barely rising and falling with breath, as his gaze trails over me again.

"No," he answers distractedly.

I still can't find the will to move as he wakes up entirely. His back half stays in the water as his torso straightens. Greedily, my eyes take in the sight of his body as he stretches his arms up above his head and then lets them fall. Peeking through the trees behind him are warm colors indicating the very beginnings of sunset. He turns toward the colors and sighs. He moves, too slightly for me to be certain, but I swear I think he takes a step backward into the water. He gives me a sidelong glance, some of the hair fallen from his topknot framing his eyes. His brow furrows as he watches me, as if he's considering something complex.

"Your idea is terrible," he mumbles.

"I know," I breathe out.

Andrius' legs splash gently through the water to stand before me, his hands cover my knees and nudge them apart until there's space for him to walk forward. I can't speak. I'm afraid anything I say will end whatever is happening. But I'm suddenly afraid of a whole laundry list of things it feels like. The soft-furred muscles of his lower chest come to rest against my crotch, that might as well be fully exposed for all the barrier the thin fabric grants. My breath catches as his hands trail curiously up the outer edges of my legs. They pause and his fingertips delicately trace the points of my hip bones.

"This is such a bad idea," he breathes out.

I don't respond. He says it without looking up at me, so I assume the words are more for himself. And I don't want to agree with him. I like the tender, curious way he's handling me, like I'm a porcelain oddity he's desperate to study without breaking. He's probably not even right about it being dangerous anyway. Not if we're careful.

I flinch a little when his hands press flat into the grass on either side of me as his torso towers directly over mine. His hair falls loose and hangs around both our faces like a shining, flaxen curtain trapping us together. It cuts me off from the smell of water and turned leaves and grass. Each small shuddering breath I take in is dark sugar and crisp apple. Silently, Andrius leans forward until the breath from his slightly parted lips warms my own.