Alexander seems reluctant to do as he's told. To use the bedding would be rather intimate, and this woman didn't seem the type to be...touched starved. At least from first impressions. The Savante himself was freezing, slightly shivering, but he could still admire the loveliness of the woman from his position. There was something about her no-nonsense personality that drew him in and amused him, but not in a condescending fashion. It simply reminded him of someone dear.

"I would not wish for you to go cold, Hazel." He rumbles softly, his voice wrapping around her name carefully, almost intimately. Ears sweep forward as he tentatively takes a step toward the skins, eyeing them a moment. Suddenly the question of why he was out here hit him - and the beast was quickly brought back to reality. Nazonal...

His heart ached in his chest and he was thankful that whatever tears he had shed had simply been masked by the rain. "I was...left, by someone. That said they loved me. The rain...it was comforting." An admission he would not so readily speak any other time, but right now his heart and his brain were vulnerable. Broken.

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Oh, she should not enjoy the way @Alexander ♔ says her name. She shouldn’t like the idea of him in her bed. Not that it’s improper but… her want is borne from loneliness, isolation, and once upon a time she wasn’t the type to want a man just because he was within reach. Would it be so wrong, though?

"Oh," Hazel says, his answer unexpected and drawing an unguarded reaction from the druid. She frowns, lips pressing together as if to hold back words from spilling freely. "I am - sorry. That must be very hard."

As if she doesn’t know exactly how that feels.

She steps forward, suddenly hesitant. The brusque demeanour of the healer is shattered by that rather unwanted revelation. Alexander’s pain is clear in his eyes, if not the rest of wet face. Or maybe she’s just seeing what she wants to see. Maybe it’s just a reflection.

Maybe she doesn’t care.

"Come and warm up." She says, but this time, Hazel’s voice isn’t curt. It isn’t an order, it’s a request. A question.

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Oh. A soft murmur, then a quiet apology, as if she regretted her previous actions. To Alexander, it didn't matter really. There was an honesty to her abrupt attitude, something he could appreciate as it made him focus on the present - reality. Because if he didn't...

His heart ached. Everything bled into...nothing. A numbness he couldn't control. It took over his entire body and made him feel empty. A feeling he loathed, a feeling he feared. For a moment, he is lost in this feeling - consumed by the grief of his loss. The realization that Nazonal had never truly loved him, or had she?

Could you discard someone so easily if you truly loved them?

There was a lump in his throat that he had trouble swallowing. The voice, that voice pulls him, tugging him out of the fog of his own heartbreak. Blinking, blue eyes focus on @Hazel as she speaks, brows furrowing softly. She is inviting, so soft and warm - beautiful in all her solitude. Perhaps broken in her own way?

A kindred soul that his flame flickered toward. He rumbled, his body trembling slightly as it shifts up and moves toward her invitation. What did it mean? "Can I..." He pauses, breath catching in his throat as his form moves close, a touch away. "Hold you?" He finishes finally, expelling the breath he'd been holding softly. He felt so exhausted, worn - as if he'd aged years within a span of a few hours.

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They’re suddenly a breath away from each other, but Hazel can’t be sure which one of them moved. The air is… heavy, thick with something. Hazel looks up at him without blinking, as if just seeing this big, idiot man for the first time. He’s polite enough to ask rather than make assumptions in her invitation, but honestly… Hazel wouldn’t have been able to care if he did assume.

Please. The druid strangles the word before it escapes her throat. She takes a slow, heady breath. "Yes." She could add it’s the most effective way of warming up, keeping each other close. She could say it’s for his own benefit. She doesn’t. Whether or not he’d believe her isn’t the point… she isn’t a liar. This isn’t about keeping warm.

But maybe they both need it anyway.

Gently, but insistently, she nudges @Alexander ♔ toward her furs. Her body lowers to the ground, reclining on her side, wide coral eyes on the lion looming above her.

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Alexander's blue eyes gaze down at the druid quietly, his heart fluttering in his chest. He doesn't want to admit that the comfort of her body and the warmth it would provide was all too tempting right now. After everything - the heartbreak, her leaving. To think someone would actually offer him the intimacy he craved in this moment...it humbled the beast.

Perhaps she needed it as well, it was the only logical thought that he allowed to slip into his mind. There was no such thing as love at first sight, not in this world - not in this land. Fairy tales didn't exist, nor did they come true. No matter how much he wanted them to. A tentative step is made toward her as she nudges him, then another as she lowers to lay down.

He inhales her scent, his nostrils flaring to remember every little detail about it. And @Hazel. If he never saw her again after tonight, at least he would have that to hold onto. And for some reason there is a heavy feeling of of temporary lingering over his head. Brows furrow as he finally closes the distance between them fully, deciding then to give into whatever she wanted.

Nose moves to press in against her cheek tentatively, enjoying the surge of warmth that rippled down his spine. No words slip from his lips, instead he shifts to press his form into hers, along her spine and allowing his tongue to dash out and kiss along the back of her neck, but he stops just short after, as if hesitant - asking permission to continue.

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Hazel isn’t a fool. She isn’t naive, and she isn’t some young maiden. Inviting a man into her den - and then her bed - often leads to one thing. And it’s something she wants. His touch, his embrace. Whatever else he wants to give, to take. @Alexander ♔ joins her in the furs, already growing damp from her own rain-soaked body, but she hardly notices that now. He’s strangely delicate, careful, when he leans into her - when he kisses her neck and makes her shiver. Hazel isn’t sure what she expected, but it wasn’t to be treated as if she might break… Or maybe he expects her to change her mind.

The druid arches against him, pushing her neck into his muzzle, her body into his thick fur. Just as she thought earlier, it’s as comfortable as it looks. "Alexander," Hazel whispers, twisting to look up at him, coral meeting his bright blue with a steady, sure gaze. "If I want you to stop, I’ll tell you."

And right now, the last thing she wants is for him to stop. But -

"Unless you don’t want to…?" Because as much as Hazel wants, who would she be to demand more than Alexander can give, just for the warmth of her den in a storm?

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She whispers his name and the beast feels his blood burn, bubbling within his veins like a raging inferno. A rumble of a growl vibrates the wide expanse of his chest before he leans into her more, unable to help himself.

"I want you." Alexander murmurs in a low, heated whisper near her ear. The heartache in his chest was still raw, still fresh - and in this moment she could provide a warm bandaid over it. With her company, with the pleasure of her touch.

The beast craved her more than anything else in the world right now. Jaws part, teeth raking along the side of her neck slowly, tauntingly. A paw raises to trail the thick of his claws along her slender, spotted side. His mind rushed to the future and Alexander couldn't afford to let himself get caught up in the "what if's" - no, he was focused on the present and what @Hazel offered him in this moment.

Emotion choked him before finally he would lower himself, bringing their bodies together in a passionate peak. A growl fills the small cave, vibrating off the walls, making small bits of rock tumble to the ground. Blue eyes close, his heart closes - and the Savante loses himself in the beauty of this woman.

/exit via fade

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