Ren gave a sly grin in response to Malikai’s question and crossed her legs taking on a seductive pose as she let her hair down and spoke, "Your assumptions are correct. I would like to talk about us.”

“Must we?” Malikai asked, though he knew how she would respond to such a question.

And as he expected her response was a simple one, “Yes. We must.”

“But why bother talking about us when you won’t even tell me who we were, or rather are?”

“For two reasons mainly.” She answered as she rested her hand on one hand and extended the other one out, holding up two of her slender fingers and stating, “One, now isn’t the right time for you to know who we are. Because knowing you, such knowledge will significantly alter your current perspective; thereby placing a large amount of pressure on you and causing you to overthink, clouding your vision when their are more pressing things to take care of at the moment. And two, although I want to tell you, I’m not quite sure that I’m the right person for the job.”

“If not my wife, then who?” Malikai asked running a hand through his hair, which had taken on a somewhat lighter hue becoming a dark gray.

“Your sister.” Her response was pointed and elicited a drawn out bout of silence from her counterpart.

Eventually he asked, “Why?”

“Because although I’m your wife and the love you felt for me was so strong not even your second wife could compare after my death; Talia was your twin sister in both lives and was quite literally your other half. I can’t tell you much more than that without revealing your identity.” Ren responded, watching as her words sunk in.

“But Talia’s been gone for five years. And if not the first you must be the second best person to tell be, so why didn’t you tell me before today?” He asked having already told her about the two letters he received from his father earlier that day as well as well as the Paragon Level Artifact.

“I knew her well enough to know that she would’ve have prepared for such an eventuality as her own demise.” Her response was once more pointed as she bent down to pick up Topher and hold the latter against her chest.

“Okay,” Malikai relented with a nod of his head before asking, “What about us did you want to discuss?”

“I’ve decided that seven more years are the limit of what I’m willing to give you to take care of this before I do it myself.” She stated as she ran her hands through Topher’s fur before clarifying, “By then you’ll be 21 and have been considered mature for 3 to 4 years, and will have attained Total Recall, remembering everything that transpired in our past life.” 

He instantly understood what she was referring to and couldn’t help but give a small chuckle as he said, “You really are sex obsessed.”

“You would be too if you were keenly aware of the fact that you had’t engaged in physical intimacy in a few billion years.” She had been pinning him with a hard stare, but her gaze softened and began to roam his still maturing body as she continued on, “And the obsession would only grow worse still if you were forced to gaze upon the body of your spouse, with which you were at one point intimately familiar, and denied access.”

They had had many a conversation such as this one in the years following the signing of their contract; before which she had already made plain the fact that they were both living their second lives and that they had been husband and wife in the first. And although she had never  given him a hard deadline such as this one the had both set forth certain stipulations.

On Malikai’s part he had set forward two conditions; one being that his physical body reach a certain stage of maturation (a condition of which they were both in favor of), and two that he regain his sight first, while Rin’s only condition was that she had to be his first in this life as she had been in the previous one.

His second condition required him to track down those responsible for the assassination attempt that took place 5 years ago, and reclaim his eyes; and the two of them had previously come to the understanding that Rin would allow him to complete said objective on his own terms. But it would seem that she was growing a bit impatient and as such decide to impose a time limit before she intervened.

He ‘looked’ at her, and although she knew he couldn’t see her, she felt as if he did and it caused her cheeks to flush and the space between her legs to tingle.

Her situation wasn’t helped when spoke in a tone of voice tinged with a palpable sense of something animalistic, “I think your deeply mistaken about quite a few things. The first being that although I am not consciously aware of just how long I have gone without the sense of physical and metaphysical unity we shared and was facilitated by the act you so greatly desire we partake in, both my body and unconscious mind are. And the resultant urges I feel are not help in any way by the fact that I can’t see you. It is in fact exacerbated because my lack of sight empowers my  awareness of your mere presence, let alone your smell or the sound of your voice.” The validity of his words were proven by the very obvious erection he now sported.

As she took all of it, (his words, tone of voice, physiological reactions, and the aura he gave off), in; her pupils dilated, her blush deepened, her nipples hardened goosebumps surfaced on her delicate skin, and the tingle she felt radiating outward from her center morphed into a throbbing ache that reverberated throughout her as she pressed her legs together, suppressing the urge to reach between them.

Instead of waiting the urge she continued running her hands through Topher’s immaculate fur and focused on Malikai’s face as she asked , “You said I was wrong about quite a few things, what else was I wrong about besides the degree to which I rouse a particular urge within you?”

“You were wrong on three other counts,” Malikai spoke as raised three fingers before continuing on, “1) Whether or not you have the ability to unilaterally decide on or redefine the terms of any agreements we make. 2) You estimate I’ll need seven years to reclaim what belongs to me, something I will accomplish within the next five years. And 3)…”

Ren maintained her silence as he paused for dramatic affect and she felt him ‘look’ at her for a second time before saying, “As long as I remain the sole target of your obsession, I have no problem with it.”

***

Maeve’s POV

Towards the tail end of the hoverball game, Harper, one of the Elementals Malikai inherited from Talia following her passing, padded into the living room in her Beast-form, that of a large golden-brown wolf with smatterings of law and white and hazel colored eyes.

After making her way into the room she sat beside the chair Maeve was occupying and the latter naturally began to run her hands through Harper’s immaculate coat.

After the hoverball game ended the group began to watch a game of Zephyr between the St.Helena Gryphons and the Leadville Miners.

This game stretched on for a few hours and a little while after it ended they were still trying to decide what to watch when Maeve smelled Malikai approaching, and heard his footsteps as he approached. 

Less than minute later he stepped into the room and Maeve cast him a complicated glance for the briefest of moments while he greeted the rooms other three occupants.

“Hey Ruby,” He waved to the more extroverted of the two sisters before turning towards the more introverted one and saying, “Sapphire.”

““Hey Kai”” They returned his greeting at the same time, eliciting a small chuckle from Malikai.

“It always amazes me when the two of you do that,” He stated with a smile before continuing, “Though I’m not sure why considering that Rebecca and Ryder do it all the time as well. Not to mention the fact that Talia and I used to do it on occasion as well.”  As he moved through the living room approaching Harper and Maeve who were located on the far side of the room.

He then sunk down to his haunches and ran a hand through the fur on top of Harper’s head and softly massaged her scalp and asked in a soft tone of voice, “And what about you Harper, did you have a good time visiting your parents?”

The latter must’ve answered him telepathically as Malikai said, “Well that’s good, I’ll make sure to go with you next time so I can see them.”

By the time he finally turned his head upwards in her direction and asked, “You ready to go Maeve?” The light of complexity had faded from her eyes and her face had regained its usually sense of neutrality.

In the moment after he asked her that quite a few possible responses flashed through her mind threatening to once more disrupted her mask of neutrality, yet she managed to preserve said mask and mind reply with a simple, “Yep.” 

The two of them then rose to their feet, and departed the Alternate Dimension for the Main World through a portal Malikai opened in the living room, passing out goodbyes as they left.

***

When they stepped through the portal they arrived in the botanical garden they had separated from Sora in earlier that day and Malikai asked, “You want to stop and get something to eat on the way back to the dorms?”

Maeve cast him a look before she nodded in agreement and responded, “Sure.”

“Good, cause I am famished.” Malikai gave a small sigh in relief before he led the way out of the botanical garden having already mapped out the surrounding environment extensively in his mind during the shopping spree that occurred earlier.

About 15 to 20 minutes later they arrived outside a very popular tavern and had been seated in the dining area that straddled the balance perfectly between rustic and elegant decoration wise and placed their order with the waiter assigned to them.

As they sat in silence, enjoying the dining area’s pleasant atmosphere, Malikai suddenly turned to Maeve, focusing most of his attention on her. So much so in fact that he shifted a portion of the focus he usually reserved specifically for observing the Chaos-Order Domain onto her.

In return she placed the majority of her focus on him as well before eventually asking, “What?”

“Your beautiful.” He said with an air of seriousness comparable to the one with which he had informed Rin of her misunderstandings less than an hour ago.

But the aura surrounding him now didn’t have quite the same sense of Animalistic lust, desire, possessiveness, etc. that the one from earlier did.

They were present for sure, but they were much less pronounced, more tame, and had for the most part been replaced my something else.

Something that was more appreciative, more cherishing in nature.

And she more than heard, more than sensed it, she felt it, and couldn’t help the small jolt that coursed through her body in response or the small smile, (that was full of love), that tugged on her lips as she replied, “You are too.”

Soon after that their food arrived and they settled into a relaxed exchange as they ate.

An hour or so later they left the tavern comfortably full and headed back to the dorms.