Cheek Fuzz

“Artoria, you have a beard?”

Under the light of the campfire, Ritsuka is eyeing at her curiously. Mindlessly, Artoria brings a hand to her chin, feeling the stubble under her fingers. 

“Ah, yes. A little bit.” It had been her pride and joy when her growth spurt had hit. Not that she would have admitted it to him at the time, but- Artoria had felt unbridled joy at the thought that she was looking a little bit like Ector. Her beard never got nearly as lustrous as his, and blonde hair on fair skin means it isn’t all that noticeable anyways, but she still likes it a lot.

“Can I touch it?” ( It looks fuzzy. )

Odd request, but Artoria doesn’t really see any reason to refuse. “Sure thing.”

Ritsuka reaches out, and their fingers touch her chin. At first they merely scratch her. Artoria feels a bit like a cat or a dog, which she probably should take offense of, but man you know this feels kind of good Artoria would be okay with being a cat actually.

And then, with no warning whatsoever, their fingers part from her, and instead cup her face with both hands.

“Eh?”

Ritsuka doesn’t reply. Instead, they start stroking her cheeks in circles. Oh, she gets it. Her beard is rubbing against their palms.

“Having fun?” She asks. Her face feels mushed between their hands.

“Very!” They reply with a grin. Their true intentions flash before her eyes- ( she is soooo soft! )

Well. There are worse things to want from her. And this doesn’t feel half-bad either. Artoria soon finds herself closing her eyes, lulled by Ritsuka’s soothing touch. She’d stayed by the campfire because she couldn’t sleep, but she might just pass out in Ritsuka’s arms if they keep it up.

They stop, eventually. Weirdly though, they don’t take their hands off her yet. They stay like this, palms cupping her cheeks, her beard poking between their fingers.

She cracks her eyelids open. “Anything wrong?”

There isn’t enough light for her to really make out their facial expression. “... It’s nothing,” they eventually respond with a smile, ( I want to kiss her ) echoing with- what??

It’s not the first time Artoria had caught a glimpse of carnal desires toward her. People want many, many things, and a lot of these things are wanted from her. But fairies- well, they don’t like her. It’s visceral. So any desire to be intimate with her is at best a simple affair of lust and at worst a desire to hurt her as much as humanly possibly.

This, though, this is- different. In a way she can’t quite articulate. There is something under that want, an emotion Artoria cannot pinpoint for the life of her, soft and genuine like a tiny animal that has escaped her sight her entire life.

Blind to her plight, Ritsuka finally takes their hands off her face. Suddenly, the night feels dreadfully cold.

“We should both sleep.” ( She looks tired. ) “See you tomorrow!”

They get up, and head to their tent with a wave of the hand, leaving Artoria by the campfire with an incomprehensible puzzle, a crazed heartbeat, and the urge to groom her beard properly tomorrow.