Title: Within and Without
Fandom: Gundam 00
Pairing: Setsuna/Marina
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 1,683
Notes: Written for a kinkmeme prompt, because even if I prefer other pairings for both of them, the fandom needs more Setsuna/Marina.
Summary: Marina finds her innocent meetings with Setsuna taking a different turn--and she likes it.
Later, Marina thought that it would have been more romantic if he had come by night. But Setsuna came to visit her when the sun was shining, and at first, and for a long time thereafter, it did not occur to her to think of romance.
Even in broad daylight he found a way to approach her secretly. With everything else, Setsuna preferred the direct route, and he still didn't keep secrets well--but when it came to appearing by Marina's side, he understood the need for stealth. Or so she thought, until one day she asked him.
"It isn't that," Setsuna said. "If it had to, the world would adjust to our meetings." He said it so simply, but so gravely; she wondered if he understood all the political ramifications of his status as a member of Celestial Being, of his status as a child from Krugis, of her status as queen. But truth be told, she still didn't understand them all herself. But she was trying.
"Then what is it?" she asked.
"Our time together is a thing apart," he said. "It isn't part of my life with Celestial Being. It isn't part of my time fighting."
"Setsuna..."
"I will fight again when I leave your side," he said. "But here and now, I..." He hesitated. He struggled with the words. "I am at peace around you, Marina Ismail."
She did the natural thing, then: she took him in her arms and pulled his head to her chest, so she could stroke his hair. He let her. Only when she'd been doing this for almost a minute did it occur to her how special that was. She'd seen him stand away from other people. He didn't like to be touched. But with her, it was different.
After that, Marina began to think of romance.
It was not easy to think of, when it came to Setsuna. His mouth spoke of understanding, but she could not imagine it forming a kiss. Nonetheless, she wanted to try. She wanted him to experience these things, and if she were the only one with whom he could find the experience, then it fell to her to do them with him. She found that she didn't mind. She even wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Would it be a reminder that he was simply another human being, despite all the changes he had gone through? She thought it might be.
Marina started slowly. One day, when she held him to her chest, she lifted his head and, while he gazed up at her with solemn and newly insightful eyes, kissed his forehead. He accepted it without a word, and they went back to speaking of the world. Nothing more happened between them that day.
But the next time--
He was speaking of Azadistan, when she did it. "You will be a good queen," he said. "You are already becoming one. Because you have changed. And you are still changing."
"Thank you, Setsuna," she said. And she kissed him on the lips.
He was still for a moment, but he did not resist, and then he slowly put a hand to her cheek and kissed back. Then he got up and left.
Marina waited for his return with strange thoughts in her head. Was it right to see Setsuna like this? Was he only someone to understand, or someone to do such things with as well? She would find out.
When he returned, he kissed her before he said anything. "I have only been kissed before," he said. "I have never kissed."
"But you have now," she said. She smiled.
"Yes," he said. "Because of you. Marina Ismail. I have many things to thank you for."
Something in the way he spoke made sensation spark between her legs. She caught her breath. "Setsuna...?"
He knelt before her. "I will do more than kiss you," he said. "If you allow me."
"I'd be happy to," she said. For the first time since their meetings had begun, a blush rose on her cheeks. She wondered exactly what Setsuna meant, and she reached down to pull him to his feet. It seemed strange to see him kneeling, this boy--this man who bowed to no one.
But he caught hold of her hands and pushed them away. When he released them, Marina was shivering a little from the touch, and for a moment, she could not move. In that moment, he picked up her skirts and drew himself beneath them.
That was when Marina knew what he was doing. It wasn't something she'd tried before; it had seemed improper. But Setsuna wouldn't do something improper. Not with her. So she spread her legs wide to give him more room, and half-hidden beneath the fall of her dress, Setsuna grasped her underwear with both hands and pulled it down. Marina wondered when the last time she'd been so wet down there, so ready, had been. It must have been a long time ago--she hadn't had any time for such things since retaking her position as queen. But the answer came to her unbidden, in the form of a memory she'd pushed away: there had been a dream. A dream of Setsuna naked and reaching out for her. Had she kissed him in that dream? She couldn't remember. All she could remember was waking up in her bed in Katharon's safehouse and thinking that it wasn't right to have such dreams around the children. Or had it been, it wasn't right to have such dreams about the children?
But Setsuna was not a child anymore. He had not been for a long time, and he never would be again. He pressed his mouth just above where her folds parted and kissed her there. That alone was confirmation enough of how he had grown, Marina started to think, but she found she couldn't maintain a coherent thought. This was why she shouldn't do such things as queen, she thought hazily. This was why she shouldn't do such things with Setsuna! She should always be ready to tell him what he needed to know to understand her. Not half-coherent, caught up in her own pleasure.
Then he drew his tongue down the hood of her clit, stopping just before the nub exposed itself, and she gasped and grabbed onto one of the posts of her bed. "Setsuna!"
He pushed her dress up so he could look up at her. "Don't worry. I will enjoy myself." Then he let the skirts fall again, back over his shoulders, ruffling his hair as they went and then covering him, hiding him between her legs. Oh, that thought was so strangely attractive to Marina, the idea of Setsuna gathered within her, safe and at peace with his head caught between her thighs--
--there, there, the thought melted into plain pleasure as he licked her again, and again, each time stopping short of the little bud where he should be licking. But that wasn't the right way to think of it! Marina corrected herself: he should do this however he wanted, at his own pace, in his own time.
She was shaking as she clung to the bedpost, feeling as if she were falling apart like grains of sand in the wind, when he finally changed his rhythm. He stopped for a heartbeat, and she took advantage of the sudden lull to press a hand to the shape within her skirts that was Setsuna's head.
"I will continue," he said. "I believe I am understanding you more and more."
Did she want Setsuna to understand her like that? Did she have time to decide if she didn't?
Yes, and no, and his tongue was diving into her slit as he pressed his face fast against her, stroking sensitive places inside her. She called out his name, but he said nothing in response; his mouth was working on her alone now, not speaking truths about the world. She ached for him to lick higher up, but not too high, but still there were barriers between the two of them and she could not simply say it.
It was a good thing, then, that moments later, he pulled back, his tongue sliding out of her, and still slick from inside her, he licked the nub of her clit, now bright and exposed. She shuddered. She was still shuddering, all sensation curling up tightly in a ball just behind where he licked, when he leaned forward to kiss her there. Then he sucked on her, the tip of his tongue just barely rubbing against her as he did.
"Enough," she murmured, "it's enough--" Enough for what, she did not know, because the bundle of hot feeling inside her opened up and flew outwards at last, and in the grip of climax, her own grip on the bedpost was not enough. Marina flailed her arms and fell backwards onto the bed, breathing so hard she could feel herself pushing into Setsuna's mouth with every exhale.
He stayed on his knees, silent and attentive, and instead simply pushed her dress up around her waist. Then he simply licked her gently until her whimpering faded and he could not extract another shiver and shake from her body.
"You enjoyed that," he said as he pulled her underwear back up and her skirts back down. "Good."
"I'm glad we can be this close, you and I," Marina said. "Setsuna, what do you want me to do for you?" She was ready to return his favor.
"Only one thing," he said. He stood up, but only to sit back down on the bed. He lay down, then, and laid his head on her lap. "Let me stay with you for a little while longer." He closed his eyes.
That was all he asked. Perhaps there were some ways in which Setsuna would never experience life, or perhaps anything more was simply far in the future. Marina did what she could for now. She stroked his hair, and she hoped it made him happy.