Genre: Romance/sap

Rating: T for sexual situations

Author's Note: For my friend Aki, for whom I have made many an attempt to write this pairing. This is the closest (I feel) I've come to succeeding.

Pre-Alone

Friendship and Obligations

It was a strange day for Francis, the day it happened. He’d been sitting at his desk, going about his business as usual, when Maryann had entered the room. Maryann, of course, was his dearest friend and had been for a great many years of their short lives, and therefore was allowed to roam the manor as she pleased. She usually still followed social protocol and knocked before entering a room, but at some point, her entry into Francis’s room and study had ceased to be preceded by knocks.

Not that Francis minded, of course. While he generally did prefer his privacy, Maryann was like a sister to him, and therefore those boundaries which he extended to others did not exist for her.

On this particular day—as previously stated—Francis had been at his desk, writing a letter, when Maryann had entered the room. Normally, Francis would notice Maryann’s entrance to a room and cease whatever he was doing in favor of greeting her.

This time, he did not notice her entrance, much less her presence in the room.

Maryann found this rather vexing. Not that she required his attention to constantly be on herself, of course. She had given up the idea of having Francis for her own years ago, when she had seen how much more comfortable he was with Nadja than herself. She now watched from the sidelines, urging Francis and Nadja together, but still unable to befriend Nadja due to that small amount of lingering jealousy that festered in the dark corners of her heart.

And now he was writing something that drew his full attention away from her.

For his part, Francis was rather preoccupied with his letter to a certain Lady Marionette, who had extended to him an offer of marriage that he had to refuse with the utmost courtesy. Yet there seemed to be no way to refuse her but to be engaged to be married to another. Unfortunately, Nadja seemed to be rather more inclined towards Keith these days, and even if she were not, Francis could scarcely remember why he had ever wanted to kiss her in the first place. Certainly, she was attractive, and he loved her. But his feelings for her just…

It would have been an understatement to say that he was stressed.

His frustration flew away when familiar hands touched his shoulder, rubbing two, three circles that loosened his muscles before winding around his neck and a chin came to rest on his shoulder.

“You look rather distressed, Francis,” Maryann’s low, soothing voice said in his ear.

Not anymore, he thought as her breath brushed his cheek and the soft, warm skin of her cheek brushed the shell of his ear. Something warm rushed through his chest and spread through him, and he felt the need to communicate how very soothing her presence was—how much of a difference she made simply by being there.

So he turned in his chair, catching Maryann’s cheek with his hand, and kissed her.

In that instant, everything flew away. Her lips were soft and warm, and her willingness was intoxicating. He wanted her, needed her, and could not remember why he’d never done this before.

They kissed awhile, until Francis attempted to run a hand down her back and discovered that his hand was sliding up. Some small rational part of his brain reasoned that this would give her an aching neck, and it would be rather a good idea to find a position that didn’t hurt her muscles.

And that was the reasoning with which Francis broke the kiss, dragged his chair sideways, and pulled Maryann into his lap by the waist, where he began kissing along her cheek.

“You realize who I am, right?” Maryann said breathlessly, and it was the slight note of anguished desperation in her voice that brought Francis back into reality. Then he understood her words, and was struck with the horror at what he had done.

“Maryann! I- I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to-“

He stood so suddenly that Maryann was thrown from his lap and came quite close to falling, except that he caught her around the waist, which turned out not to be the best thing in the world because his mind was pointing out rather helpfully that this would be a very convenient position from which to pin her against the desk.

He was weak, Francis noted, because he had followed through with that suggestion of his mind without hesitation, and this time was proceeding to kiss Maryann’s neck. It didn’t help his self-control at all that she had a hand at the back of his head, urging him on.

It was with great effort that Francis defied all his basic instincts and pulled away from Maryann. He looked at her, and saw her lips, slightly parted, so warm and soft and wet-

And sent the chair flying as he stumbled backwards in an attempt to escape the lure of Maryann’s body. He tripped and fell unceremoniously on his behind.

“Francis?” asked Maryann, concerned. “Are you alright?”

No, I’m not! He wanted to shout at her not to come closer, but she was already approaching, and he was afraid of what would come out if he opened his mouth, because suddenly, Maryann was the epitome of womanhood, and oh, how he wanted her!

“Maryann,” he croaked out in protest as she knelt by his side, “Don’t-“

“Do I disgust you so much?”

Francis froze. “No. I’m struggling to keep my hands off of you, what would give you the idea that-“

“Because you’re trying so hard!” cried Maryann in despair. “You’re doing it for Nadja, aren’t you? What does she have that I don’t? Why can’t it be me?”

It was official. Francis was lost. This time, it was against a wall that he pinned her. He was careful not to assault her mouth this time—he dropped a light kiss upon her lips, and when she melted to it, he dropped another, and then another, until they all ran together and he deepened it.

“It is you,” he whispered when he pulled away briefly to murmur just that before resuming his attentions to her mouth. “It’s always been you. You were always there, though, which was why I never really…”

At that point speaking became distinctly difficult, because once Maryann had begun responding without restraint, she proved to be quite able with her tongue.

“Then you’ll marry me?” she breathed when they pulled away for breath.

“Will I?” grinned Francis, raising his hands back to the safer territory of her back to pull her body closer to his own. “I couldn’t dream of anything in the world that could make me happier.”

When Maryann threw herself at Francis, her forthcomingness only made him want her more. He tried to pull away, knowing that his self-restraint was reaching the end of its rope, but it was Maryann who smiled and led him through the door that connected his study and bedchambers, and pushed him down onto the bed.

At which point he decided that all that rubbish about chastity before marriage didn’t mean a thing, and he flipped Maryann over—her lips parted to form a gasp of delight that was so beautiful and enchanting that he had to taste those lips again—to show her that he was really not going to stop anymore.

Maryann didn’t mind it in the least.