Things were so much better now that Isaac and Renard were speaking again.
Sure, there had definitely been a few days where things were awkward at the dinner table, but the awkwardness was getting less and less obvious. It felt almost like as Jiera was beginning to move out of the house, she was taking all of the negative feelings with her. Even though the feelings of the slaves had very little to do with the negativity of the nobles, it still felt like Jiera was the one shouldering the burden and taking it all away. To leave all this negativity on Jiera without trying to help seemed a little rude, but what could Kyrie really do about that?
Presumably Lady Dandridge had been working to ease Jiera's pain, and it must be working to some degree because five days after she'd gotten the letter she was finally leaving the house. Both Markus and Breida now knew about what had happened to their father, and while Breida had very little by way of an opinion on the matter, Markus had burst into tears. Kyrie had been in the nursery when the news was broken to him, and it had been absolutely heartbreaking to watch both mother and son cry while Jiera held her little boy close.
All three of the slaves in the nursery that day had been in varying stages of crying to witness such an emotional scene and eventually Markus managed to cry himself to sleep, leaving the three slaves to take over the child care while Jiera and Mae saw to whatever other preparations they still had to do.
Today was the day that Jiera was leaving and Kyrie couldn't help but think of how much she was going to miss them. All things considered, it felt wrong for them to be leaving: they'd been here for so long that it was like they were a part of the household now! As a result, Kyrie couldn't help lingering at the windows of the manor, watching as all three of Lady Deveris's remaining family said their goodbyes to Raine and Mae before rumbling away in their own carriage.
Standing up against a wall in the manor now that there was nothing more for her to watch, she couldn't help replaying the scene that she'd just witnessed in her head. She almost wished she could've heard what they were saying, but the sheer amount of emotion on Jiera, Markus and Raine's face told her just how much they were all going to miss each other. It felt especially emotional because... Well, because Jiera was really the only friend that the lady had. Mae didn't connect with any of the others of her status, certainly not to the extent of actually inviting them to her home, and Kyrie couldn't help but think that was such a lonely existence. Did the lady feel the same? Even if she was still in contact with her mystery man (and that was a big if), that would only be able to help so much since to everyone else he didn't exist: she'd never be able to be in his company while she was also in someone else's.
While Kyrie pondered these things, her mind wandered towards what it was that she actually wanted to do now. Mae had already informed her that she'd be doing the menagerie work today and Raine would probably stay with her at least for a bit. Suddenly the house's workload had lessened and Kyrie was faced with choices. She could go out and see Isaac in the stables, she had already finished cleaning the guest rooms so she could find herself some odd jobs to do, or she could find Vivian to spend some time with her while they worked.
Though... There was another option now: she could also seek Renard out in the garden.
Her heart fluttered in her chest as at that thought; it wasn't necessarily from anticipation, it was more because it felt so weird to even think of going out to see him so freely. Usually the thought of meeting with Renard only occurred to her in very specific contexts because it had to be done secretively, only when other options weren't really available. While they would still be meeting in ways that would keep away from both Vivian and Isaac's eyes, it felt more liberating now that Vivian and Isaac knew about it. It was just so strange to think that her meeting with Renard was actually ok. Well, ok for a given value, anyway. Both Vivian and Isaac would prefer if it didn't happen at all, but neither of them were going to actively be a barrier.
It was early enough in the day that Isaac should still be dealing with the horses and Vivian had likely immediately moved into cleaning out the room that Jiera and her children had been using now that they had vacated it. There was a chance that Vivian would've gone out to see Renard now that she wasn't watching children, but if she was out there then that just meant that Kyrie would go and see Isaac instead.
Kyrie had just seen Isaac that morning, and while she found a soft smile rising to her cheeks as she remembered the morning and the night before, Renard was still the one that she would prefer to see just because she hadn't really met with him after breaking the news to Isaac. Once again she was struck by just how strange it was that she actually had a choice between the two men, and she couldn't help feeling like the prospect of choosing Renard was rather exciting. Especially so because it had actually been quite some time since she'd visited him in the garden: he'd taken to coming into the menagerie for secret liaisons because there was so much less of a risk of being found there. Renard so often looked at her art but she had no idea what he was currently working on and she wanted to rectify that. Plus she... She just thought it sounded nice to spend some time with Renard this afternoon.
With that determination made, she turned to look out at the grounds, wondering just where it was that he would be. He and Isaac had only recently made up, and if Renard was still working on whatever he was working on during that week then he was probably pretty far away from the stables. Thinking that was as good a head as any, she headed out into the garden.
Her steps got quieter as she made it closer to her destination, partly so that she could keep her ears pricked for Renard and partly because if Renard was with anyone else then she would promptly retreat. Soon she was hearing the earthy sounds that she had long since come to associate with Renard and promisingly he didn't seem to be talking to anyone at the moment. Kyrie peeked through some of the garden foliage to see Renard by himself, digging in the soil with a concentrated expression on his face as he set new plants into the opened patches. From what she could tell from this brief glance, the plants he was working with were a deep blue, a blue reminiscent of the night sky than what was present there now.
For a moment, Kyrie was transfixed: it was this aspect of Renard that she'd always been attracted to, the care and effort that he put into his own art. She knew that she shouldn't sit here watching him in secret, he had expressed many times that he hated that, and so Kyrie did one last look around to make sure they were completely alone before emerging from her hiding spot. Her approach was still quiet though, and as she came up behind him to lean over him and get a look at the plot he was working on he still hadn't noticed her.
Finding this whole thing rather novel (usually he was the one who snuck up on her), she bit her lip in delight. How should she greet him? She felt a little bit like the possibilities were endless as she stood there and it was almost overwhelming to her. When she met up with Isaac she hardly ever thought about how she approached him anymore, but since she'd had to be so careful with her interactions with Renard for so long the idea of freely approaching him seemed both novel and exciting.
Peering up at the windows once more, just to again ease her mind in regards to the fact that they were truly alone, Kyrie knelt down. With slightly trembling hands, she reached out and leaned in towards Renard, resting her hands on his shoulders and speaking close to his ear.
"What are you working on?"
Renard practically jumped out of his skin to hear a voice so close to him, and he had to admit that who it was was even more surprising. For an approach like that he would've expected Vivian more than Kyrie, yet this was clearly Kyrie's voice. Whipping his head around, Kyrie moved back slightly almost in embarrassment, and whatever question he had about her identity was confirmed by this movement. Even though she was being a little more impulsive, this was certainly still Kyrie.
"Kyrie! Feeling a little playful, are we?"
Just as he expected, a flush of color rose to her cheeks at this statement and he let out a soft laugh before reaching up to hold her chin so that he could kiss her cheek.
"Still as adorable as always, I see. I suppose it is your turn to surprise me rather than the other way around. Though I have to admit... I expected our next interaction would be me approaching you first."
This was of course a commentary on how they hadn't met up one on one like this since Kyrie had made up with Isaac, and she surprisingly kept her eyes on Renard's as her features softened.
"I just... I just thought I should try doing what first came to my mind now that I have the freedom to do whatever I'd like. It's strange how liberating it feels now that we have approval from both Vivian and Isaac."
Renard smirked at that, silently give her an I told you so, but of course he couldn't resist adding words to it as well.
"See? I told you things would turn out fine in the end."
The slightest of pouts rose to her face for Renard's light teasing.
"Isaac... He still isn't fine. A lot better now sure, but not fine."
"He'll come around though. It took Vivian more than 6 years to finally come to terms with my polyamory, I'd be surprised if Isaac was much faster than that."
"6 years... That's so long..."
Kyrie was a bit sad as she thought about how Isaac would continue to be just a little dissatisfied with his life. It didn't show up when they spent time together but Kyrie could see it when she caught glimpses of him outside. He hadn't forbidden her from having a relationship with Renard, but he didn't like it, not anymore than Vivian had liked the fact that Renard sometimes slept with Dessi.
Suddenly Kyrie felt her hair being mussed as Renard dug his fingers into the back of her head: it was almost a display of comfort on his part, as rough as it was.
"Come on now, look on the bright side: you guys are on the mend! He hasn't broken things off with you, and he hasn't stopped you from spending time with me. What you've got now is so much better than what could've been."
Kyrie let out a soft hum at that, signaling the end of this conversation between the two of them. She didn't really want to dwell on whatever melancholy that Isaac and to a lesser degree Vivian still had. That wasn't what she'd come out here to do.
Her eyes slowly drifted out towards the flowers then, and she began to study them; she had partially come out here to look at his work, after all.
When she'd spotted those blue flowers earlier, she realized now that they were only one piece of the whole: within the plot in front of her, there was a mixture of orange, red, purple and blue. There was a lot of green as well though: it looked like Renard was in the process of making an outer circle of lush green fronds, while nestled in the center of that circle were the four other colors.
"... What is it that you're working on out here?"
Turning his attention away from Kyrie, he knew that Kyrie's interest in his work was genuine and not just a conversation starter, which quickly turned his mind away from how long it'd been since he saw her.
"This is what I'd like to call a house portrait."
"Oh...?"
Kyrie's voice was soft as she said this, but from the way she was looking, it was clear to Renard that she was trying to reason out how it related to them. As a result, instead of immediately telling her, Renard leaned back until his arms were bracing himself behind him, moving fully into relax mode as he watched Kyrie. He liked watching her think, seeing the gears slowly turning in her head as she studied the patterns before her... It was only a matter of time before she gave him her observations.
She could see now that the four colors in the middle had a bit more meaning to them rather than being a lump of colors. At first she'd thought that there was no real pattern to it but upon closer inspection she was able to make out distinct patterns. The whole patch of colored flowers made roughly a square shape, but the patch of red flowers curved in this square, making it so that two of the 3 colors (the orange and blue), never actually touched: the only thing the orange and blue shared was in the fact that they were both touching the red and purple. While there were four distinct quadrants of color, they all bled into each other a little, though in different ways. For instance, the border between red and blue had the flowers meshing a little along the border. Orange and purple had the same thing going on at their border. The rest of them though... It was as if the colors were bleeding into each other. Red was spilling into the masses that were orange and purple, both orange and purple were spreading into red, and purple and blue were spreading into each other.
Kyrie's eyes slowly widened with understanding as she took all of this in, and now she moved among the purple flowers and reached down to touch one of them. When Renard saw her move towards the purple, he found that he was holding his breath in anticipation, his eyes sparkling while she solidified her conclusion. He couldn't help himself, the more engaged she was with his work, the more excited he got, and in this excitement he stood up to move over towards Kyrie, following her as she made her observations. Kyrie's gaze passed over each of the four colors one last time before meeting his eyes again.
"This purple, it's me, isn't it?"
A genuinely pleased smile rose to his features, and he lifted her head up towards him so that he could capture her lips in a burst of passion. When he broke the kiss, Kyrie could hear her heart pounding in her ears, yet her eyes were transfixed on his, loving just how delighted Renard was with her.
"I knew you would get it. Ah... I did miss an opportunity though, I should of asked you what you thought before I told you it was a reflection of the house. I imagine you may have come up with a completely different interpretation if I had!"
His thumb gently rubbed at Kyrie's cheek, but Renard's eyes were back on the yard, and that only made her heart pound harder in her chest. This... This right here was what attracted her so much to Renard. He was just so passionate about everything that he did and Kyrie really did like it so much better when she saw it than when he hid it.
Unable to help herself, she reached up to lightly touch his cheek, which pulled his eyes away from his own work. Instead of averting her eyes though, Kyrie looked back at him, fondness clearly present in her softening expression.
"It'd be hard for me not to get it with how much heart you put into all this."
For a moment he looked almost ashamed to have been caught so excited, but it was only for the briefest of moments. Since he'd been spending all that time opening up to Vivian, he was spending less and less time behind his more practiced mask; bits of him leaked out every now and again, and honestly, it felt pretty good to not have to be watching himself so closely. So in the end he let out a soft hum, nuzzling into Kyrie's neck and softly nibbling there. This, of course, caused Kyrie to blush, and since her eyes were no longer on Renard due to his position she went back to looking at the plants.
It felt... Weirdly exposing to be looking at a depiction of all their relationships displayed so clearly in front of her. Though she had to admit that the more she looked at it, the more she was fully internalizing just how much thought and consideration Renard had put into it. It was exposing but it was also beautiful... Much like her more revealing pictures were.
Gently touching some of the fronds that were surrounding the entire thing, Kyrie lightly rubbed the plant between her fingers.
"Is this Dessi?"
Renard's brows went up briefly as he released Kyrie's neck to study the green fronds.
"Dessi, huh...? If I'm being honest Dessi hadn't really crossed my mind when I was making this. I had been so focused on the inner square that I didn't even think about how Dessi would fit in, I only really made the border because it felt like all of this needed to be kept contained and hidden inside of something else. Still... I like that idea. I feel like Dessi does a lot of work towards keeping us all together."
Kyrie stepped back from Renard a little to stand in the section where red bled into purple. If she was purple then the red was definitely Renard, and it felt weirdly right for her to stand there at the moment. Looking back towards Renard with a soft smile on her face, Renard met her gaze with a quiet intensity of his own.
"Just make sure the colors can be seen peeking through the green, otherwise people looking at it might not know there's a gift in the middle."
Renard chuckled softly at that before pulling her in against his body. Her back was pressed against his torso as he nuzzled her neck.
"It's nice to have you out here again, Kyrie. I love hearing what you have to say about the garden."
And honestly, it was nice. Her advice and feedback was always helpful to him and he adored her mind as much as he adored her body. Kyrie herself was a little flustered by this compliment, and her fingers laced together in front of herself since she wasn't quite sure what to do with her hands.
"Well it's nice to be out here... I've missed watching you work while I draw. You make such lovely things."
Renard practically glowed with pride to hear this, and he had to admit that the fact that they were standing in their colors made this feel more intimate than usual.
"I appreciate that, Kyrie, I really do. You have a desire to see me exactly as I am and I find that quite refreshing."
One of his hands slid up her side as he said this, and when he got up to her neck his hand moved around to her front, framing her neck until he was lifting her face up from his fingers bumping against her chin. Her eyes clenched shut as a blush rose up to her face and she couldn't deny that she'd kind of been hoping for something like this when she came out to see Renard. Her interactions with Renard had so intimately combined a physical relationship with art and so as they pondered his latest piece she was now beciming painfully aware of the fact that her body had burned for him just under the surface.
Renard took in a deep breath of her now, and a soft shudder ran it's way up her spine, one that he could easily feel as well. Vivian was an excellent partner to have, but there was something just so alluring about Kyrie that made him glad that all of this had turned out well for them.
"It's been so long since you've been out here..."
Kyrie leaned into him a little as he continued to caress her neck and the side of her face. At first it seemed like she wasn't going to say anything, but then in the softest of voices she spoke.
"It has... Though I should be able to come see you more often now."
This comment of hers prompted a rather wide grin to spread across his face while a bright blush spread across hers. He wasn't entirely sure why he was so happy, but maybe it was validation that all the pain he put her through actually had been worth it in the end. Plus, it was a huge step up that she was actually voicing her thoughts and Renard gave her quickly blushing cheek a soft kiss.
"You'd better, otherwise both of our art will slowly stagnate and die!"
He chuckled softly at that, while Kyrie just looked flustered. Once again clenching her eyes shut, Renard was a little surprised when she suddenly turned to wrap her arms around him. It was cute how utterly embarrassed her expression was, and Renard let his hands fit around her body as she hugged him tight.
"I know... I don't... I don't think I would have made it anywhere without you... I feel like this relationship with you has been so good for me."
This was... Surprisingly more heartfelt then he had really been prepared for, and he almost felt a little awkward as Kyrie nuzzled up against him. He had definitely been the catalyst that had started her on the path of letting her interests and creativity out, but was he the only one that could do it? Honestly he was probably just at the right place at the right time, but even if it was sheer chance that had brought them together like this he felt all the richer for it.
Lifting her face up again, this time he gave her cheek a kiss that caused her to scrunch up her face a little.
"What can I say? I'm a nurturer by nature: a flower must be made to bloom."
He chuckled a little at that before capturing her lips in a heated kiss.
A soft sound left Kyrie as Renard slowly sunk them down to the ground, and soon he was pushing her down until she was laying among the flowers. When he broke their kiss, Kyrie breathed heavily from the intensity of it all and her eyelids fluttered open to find herself surrounded by the red and purple that she'd been standing in. The arousal that she'd been feeling from Renard's kiss spiked from the sight of them because it felt almost like she was being put on display here, with her body splayed and exposed for all to see. And yet... No one would ever know just how intimate this piece of art was, just how much of the both of them would be going into it. No one aside from themselves, anyway. It felt like erotic art on a whole new level: there were no actual depictions of sex but this was... More interactive, in a way.
Renard took this time to just admire Kyrie underneath him, and her flushed face among their colors was even more arousing to him than he would've thought. This hadn't been what he'd initially had in mind when he made the piece, but now that she was out here like this, utterly aroused right in the middle of their colors, he knew that he just had to have her right here.
Cupping her breasts in his hand, she let out the softest of moans as his hips tantalizingly ground into hers. Maybe... Maybe he could take Vivian out here as well, among their own colors. There was no way he was going to tell her what exactly this plot of land represented, but she could still be a part of it. If he did that though then this art wouldn't quite be complete until Kyrie and Isaac had sex out here as well. That would have to take a more subtle initiative on Kyrie's part though, and he wasn't sure that she'd be able to swing that without being too obvious about it. Well... Perhaps that was a goal for the future: she had managed to coax Isaac into having sex in front of a mirror, so why wouldn't she be able to work up the courage to have him come out here.
His eyes scanned around the area a little to once again ensure that they were thoroughly alone before leaning back down to give Kyrie another kiss. Her hands had moved up to hold onto either side of his face when he did this, and she met Renard's intensity with just as much fire. He let out a pleasured sound of his own into their kiss, and somehow Kyrie glowed with delight to hear this. She could see the beauty of his art, the beauty was all too clear to her and it excited her a little to somehow be a part of Renard's creative process. When he broke their kiss, she couldn't help herself, the feelings that she had in her brain just kind of slipped out, her hot breath brushing against his face as she spoke.
"We... We're becoming a part of your garden, Renard."
She let out an almost breathy laugh, but that was quickly cut off when Renard moved in for a crushing kiss. This was what he loved about Kyrie. She understood the intricacies of his work without even being told, and she was eager and willing to help improve them. She had helped him through a block more than once and he also felt like her thoughts helped to improve whatever it was that he was doing. Now though... Now it would be her body that would improve his flower patch. When their kiss broke again, Kyrie looked up at him with half-lidded eyes that just made him want to ravish her. Moving right up next to her ear, his voice came out husky as he spoke, a kind of husky that sent a shiver up her spine.
"I must say that finding a new spin on a piece is always exciting but this is the first time it's been more literal."
Renard kissed at her neck then, his body grinding against hers as he moved down to get easier access to her neck. As he did this, Kyrie's head tilted towards the side so that she was looking in the direction of where the purple and blue met. Even though she may not quite be registering what she was looking at, Renard felt like this might be a good opportunity to bring up fully completing this piece of his.
"Do you think you'd be able to get Isaac out here...? Imagine if each of these combinations had a more real element to them."
As Renard said this, her eyes focused now on the flowers she was turned towards, and her face flushed all the more as she imagined Isaac making love to her over there. Even though that spot ultimately wasn't that far away from where she was now, it felt almost like it was a completely different universe. The mixture of their colors created such a different effect than the red and purple that she was currently in, and Kyrie had no doubt that it would feel radically different if she was to move just a few feet over and have Isaac as her partner.
In terms of whether she could actually get Isaac to have sex with her among the flowers without explicitly telling him though... That she wasn't really sure about. Maybe once Renard finished this patch then the fronds around it would make it more of a valid hiding place so it was... It was possible that she could get Isaac to explore over here and once they found the isolated little square of flowers she could... It felt so contrived though... Would she really be able to get him to join her over here for no real reason?
"I-I don't know..."
"I can see the gears turning in your head, Kyrie... You want this piece to be as complete as I do, I can see that flash in your eyes: you would love to have him take you out here, engulfed by your own colors."
It was true, she certainly would, but a hard thrust from Renard told her that this wasn't the time to think of Isaac. She was in the red and purple, which meant that her attention should be fixed on the man above her. Renard was making it pretty hard to ignore him though, or even really think of anything besides him as he pinned Kyrie's arms above her to get better access to her body. Now that she was even more open to him, he moved in to lavish her clothed breasts with attention, wetting the fabric enough that her nipples just barely began to peek through. Kyrie's body squirmed as he did this, with her breathing getting heavier the more attention that Renard gave to her.
Once he'd gotten her nipples nice and hard through the fabric, he moved back up to her lips, grinding his hips into hers once more, hard enough to get a pleasured sound from the woman beneath him. One of his hands reached down then, both to pull himself out of his pants and adjust her skirt enough so that he'd be able to slot right in to her warmth.
Pressing his erection against her clothed sex, it felt like her whole vision burst with color. Isaac had asked her why her relationship with Renard included sex and the fact of the matter was that sex with Renard made her feel so different. It felt like new doors were opening to her with every encounter she had with him, doors that would've remained forever latent without him, and... and it felt good. It felt so good... To be out here among the work that he'd toiled over with him effectively marrying her to these plants, it felt utterly unique and she loved that.
Wriggling her hands a little until Renard lost his grip on her, she wrapped her arms around Renard just in time for him to slide past the barrier of her underwear and inside of her. The grip she had on Renard tightened considerably from this as she let out a low moan, but that moan was soon cut off by a kiss and a pleasured sound of Renard's. There was just something so immensely satisfying about completing this garden plot by completing Kyrie, and it had made him so much quicker in getting to this point.
To that end his hips began moving, spurred into motion by his desire to create. Her sounds started up again, with more force as his pace continued to build, and he was mingling his own moans with hers as the motion of their bodies also became louder. The flowers trembled all around them as they shook the ground with their union, and overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it all, Renard closed his eyes and let instinct take over.
Once instinct took over things tended to go pretty quick.
The movements of their hips became more frenzied, and it wasn't long at all before Renard was shoving deep inside of her, his body spasming as his orgasm pulsed through both him and her. As Kyrie felt his warmth burst into her, her own body seized up with a violent shudder and they let out loud noises into their kiss while Kyrie clung all the more tightly to him.
The two of them simply breathed together as they came down from their respective highs and slowly Renard broke his lips away from Kyrie's. Her hands slipped away from Renard's body and she practically collapsed on the ground beneath him. Renard admired her splayed form as he pulled himself out of her, and as he did so she let out a soft sound and another visible tremble while she bit her lip from the feeling. For the moment, he held her underwear to the side because he wanted their fluids to flow freely back out of her. They would fall into the soil and be forever tied to this plot that he was working on: nutrients for the soil as well as fodder for his art.
Unable to resist her vulnerable trembling self, he let to fingers almost massagingly spread her lower lips open, and her eyes snapped open while her body twitched with a soft moan. He always loved how sensitive women were right after the act, and even as she moaned from the feeling she also tried to push him away.
"R-Renard--"
"Relax, Kyrie... I'm just helping things along."
She responded with the softest of whimpers, and with one arm Renard pulled her up into a sitting position. Getting her legs to effectively straddle him, he kept his own legs pretty open so that evidence of their act would be able to drip unimpeded onto the ground. To keep from falling, she was holding him pretty tightly, her body leaning heavily against him and trembling as he continued to lightly stimulate her sex. Their combined fluids were getting on his fingers now as well as falling to the ground but he didn't mind at all; he still had more flowers to plant in this section so it'd be rather fitting, in a way.
With his free hand, he coaxed Kyrie's face up again so that he could give her a soft kiss.
"Thanks, Kyrie. For being a part of this."
That was... The first time she'd ever actually heard Renard say thank you and Kyrie's heart felt full. Renard, Isaac and Vivian were all still a part of her life and not only that but she felt like she'd managed to get closer to all of them from this. She just felt so relieved and happy that things really had worked out well like Renard had initially promised. This piece that Renard was making felt like it was really immortalizing that fact, and Kyrie felt... Well she felt truly fulfilled to be a part of it.
"And thank you for starting it."
Her voice was rather quiet as she said this and she wasn't really looking at him either. Still, Renard had heard, because there was a little surprise evident on his features from her statement. When he looked down at her, Kyrie shifted slightly in discomfort knowing that he was looking at her before turning up to meet his eyes with her own. In the end she gave him an almost embarrassed smile, and Renard had to admit that he liked this. She was looking at him and speaking to him of what it is that she truly felt and he was soon returning her smile but with very little embarrassment on his end.
Life was going to be good from now on: he could just feel it.