A small Zhuge/Ying one-shot because the fandom needs more of them -laughs- I totally love this pair, and this is what my Muses made me write during a sleepless night.

Whether or not more of these will follow, depends entirely on how it will be received. So, R&R, please!

Enjoy!

The Only One

The night was clear, warm and starry. Thousands of tiny, twinkling white dots scattered across the firmament, a gentle breeze causing banners and tens flaps to dance in the wind. The Shu main camp was quiet, most of its troops and officers asleep. Dutiful sentries on patrol aside, there were but a few people more who were not yet at rest.

Her light-weight steps made almost no sound as she walked an unhurried pace, because she knew that even if she took hours to arrive, the one she intended to visit would still be awake. She was supposed to return tomorrow morning, but she had finished the outpost constructions a day early. So she rode her way back all through yesterday, to surprise him tonight. If only because she was aware that he needed that sometimes; a small, positive surprise amid the constant worries and calculations crowding his schedule. Yue Ying knew her husband well.

It did not take her hours of course, to make the trek from the stables where she'd left her tired horse to the military advisor's tent. When she entered it was no wonder to find candles still alit inside, and a figure sitting on their heels at the low bronze table covered in wooden scrolls and small rolls of silk. A steady hand was guiding a brush in elegant, firm strokes; swift as he wrote intricate characters on fabric, so very submerged into his task he didn't even notice her. Then again, Ying knew to tread softly when she needed to.

For a long moment she just stood there, watching him. The look of concentration and exhaustion mixed in a solemn expression on his handsome face, the focused gaze of his dark eyes following his own hand's perfect brush strokes. Her heart was aching just that much, to know that this was likely a countless night in a row where he'd stayed up until ungodly hours to work, work, work. Many people viewed him as a tireless mastermind but she knew him better than that.

She knew the human underneath the tactical and strategic prodigy striving to live up to a mountain of expectations, the simple man who needed all the things other human beings did. Food, rest, understanding. Affection. Things that were so very often denied to him because the kingdom came first - even before his own well-being and happiness. But... that was what he had her for. As little as she could do for him, as little of support and comfort that she could offer... she gave it her all. Because while she loved their kingdom... she still loved her husband more.

"I knew I felt watched. I just didn't realize it was by a pair of such beautiful eyes."

She blinked, realizing that she had spaced out enough to not notice having been noticed. It was okay, though. Smiling lightly, Yue Ying moved to approach him in small, slow steps. "I'd rather that which these eyes had found watching tonight would have been your sleeping face, my love."

Putting the brush aside, Shu's mastermind returned his wife's smile with a calm one of his own. "My apologies. I know how this makes you worry." Indeed, he knew. She never told him, nor did she ever complain or admonish him. She only tried to be there and care for him, subtly and softly, and most devotionally. That was how he could see, just how much she worried.

She halted next to him and reached her hands down for him to take, her slender fingers sliding easily into the grip of his stronger digits. Zhuge Liang moved to stand up, keeping his gaze on her pretty face. He had missed her in the few weeks where she'd been gone, and he knew she knew. Just like he knew that she had missed him, too; it was reflecting gently there in those hazel eyes which seemed darker and all the more secretive in the flicker of candlelight.

Slowly walking backwards, Ying pulled him with her and he trailed in step, up until they reached the bed. Her dainty hands gave him a chary push, inviting him to sit down before she followed suit, swinging one of her long legs over both his own and easing herself down into a straddle of his lap.

"I'm just happy to be back by your side again." Weaving one arm around her husband's fair neck, Yue Ying's voice was all but a whisper, leaning in to ban more space between them and softly touch their foreheads together. "No matter for how short a time I leave you, it never feels right."

A shadow of regret flickered over his stately features; what more could he offer but apologies? He had made her sacrifice a lot and he had given her many reasons for concern. "I'm sorry, Ying. I promise, when this is all over-"

Gingerly she pressed her index finger to his lips, shaking her head. "Don't be sorry. I understand." She did, so much and more. It would be easy to be angry with him for having so little time, for pushing himself so hard, for putting the matters of state ahead of everything else. But Yue Ying was not that kind of woman, and it was why she was his wife. She and nobody else.

Letting her hand slide forward to cup his cheek, she angled her clever head and brought her lovely mouth to his own in a sweet kiss. Zhuge Liang's arms moved to wrap themselves around her filigree figure, gentle but strong in their embrace and it made her feel... wonderful. Warm and secure, causing her heart to stutter in its affectionate beat. Her long lashes fluttered shut, robbing her of sight and leaving her with simply feeling him there, close and personal. She loved and cherished every second of it; their togetherness.

Bringing tongue into play, her deft digits were quick in freeing his hair from pin and cover, letting chestnut strands undone and not hesitating to dive her fingers into that sea of silk, softly running them through it. It was so brilliantly easy to get lost in this intimate moments where it was just the two of them, until her head and heart was filled with him and him only. He was the only one who could make her feel this way, amidst the chaos and turbulence of their war-torn days. Better yet, she knew he felt the same. That just now, he could forget war plans and battle formations, strategies and tactics and clever schemes, allies and enemies, politics and domestics. There was just them. Only them.

And heavens, it truly was something that Zhuge Liang needed. Her touch and her fragile warmth in his arms, feeling tension melt from body and mind like a heavy weight being lifted from strained shoulders. Her lovely little mouth dotted fond kisses along his cheek and the curvature of his jaw line, down to his neck that she indulged with little nips and careful bites. Her hips rocked mildly against his own, once and once more, and again with more determination, drawing an uneven breath from him.

"Ying..." muttering her name under his next shaky exhale, he finally gave up on unnecessary, so very habitual self-control which was finally neither needed nor welcome. His hand were happy to use that freedom to smooth over the fine curves of her lithe body, skilful in undoing ties, belts, clasps and buttons holding her classy attire on her slinky form. It wasn't long before material fell from her upper body, exposing tender, velvety skin to his touch.

Yue Ying's breath hitched as he took his turn to kiss her neck, her shoulders, marking a path over her collarbone and down her more quickly heaving bosom, travelling his affections southwards until his lips tasted the supple slope of her breast and found a rosy bud on the tip of it. Taunting it with a flicker of his tongue he heard her gasp, capturing it for a soft suction and eliciting a honeyed whimper that bolted in a hot tingle right down to his groin. If anything, it only charmed him into repeating the action times and again just to hear more, taking the time to pay the same respects to the previously indulged nipple's equally receptive twin. Soon enough she was quivering gently in his grasp, impatient and impassionate by the sweet torture he committed to her beautiful body.

Moments later they found themselves engaged in another avid kiss while their hands worked with resolute purpose to get each other's heated bodies rid of bothersome fabric. When all of it was finally gone and nothing but a pile of white, green and slivers of gold at the foot of the bed, Ying finally had the rare and thus precious opportunity to let her small, warm palms wander over her husband's nicely crafted physique usually so very diligently hidden underneath his robes. From the stout shoulders and the strong arms, to the firm chest and toned abdomen; he was flawlessly well-built and the bronze tan of his skin wrapped itself just perfectly around well-trained muscles. She felt a thrill feeling them flex under her touch, as if her shapely body needed any more enticement to feel heated up and eager for more contact.

Heat was also present right there between her slender legs, intensified by the moisture generously dewing her most intimate body parts; she was more than ready to take this to the next step. Good then, that she wasn't alone in her desires. Lifting her slim hips up just enough, she let one hand slither even further downwards, soon wrapping delicate fingers around a stately length hot and rigid in her heedful grasp. Guiding the thick tip to dock at the wet crevice that promised him the embrace of silky warmth, she moved to lower herself back down again, her breath catching sweetly in her chest as she felt the welcome intrusion of his arousal slipping into her bit by bit, a honeyed torment she willingly subjected herself to, moaning softly against his pliant lips still interacting keenly with her own.

Ying's thoughts were absent in a blur, feeling him filling her out and it sent hot jolts of electricity throughout her body, her hands darting up to find those reliable shoulders to clutch at exactly the way she knew he loved her to. Zhuge Liang wouldn't know exactly what made it so alluringly wonderful to feel her cling to him so desperately and sweetly, but the perception was as marvelous as the slick, velvet warmth that hugged his arousal in loving welcome.

She broke away from the kiss once he was fully sheathed inside her, turning her smart head to hide her flushed face against the crook of his neck, panting softly. The smallest motion, even as simple as their breaths, echoed in a salacious tingle inside her, sensing their physical connection so vividly for a moment, it was beautifully overwhelming. It's been too long... But in that, they were similar yet again, because no matter how much time would pass, they never rushed their reunion in any way. Quite the contrary, they took it slow and made it last, because every next time could also always be the last. Passion, mental and physical both, was like a noble drink of unmatched taste to be enjoyed in unhurried sips.

She perceived the caress of his lips against her heated skin, the mild tickle of his perfectly trimmed mustache leaving a pleasant tingle. It enticed her to move at last, gently rolling her slim hips in a careful, drawn-out motion that nevertheless caused a tidal wave of heat to roll over her, shivering in his heedful embrace. Her pace was slow to start with, enjoying the blissful friction of their tight fit, soft fingertips pressing further into tough skin cladding the firm shoulders she clutched at. It was a marvelous minute or few where she kept going just like that, until her shapely body intuitively began to move faster once she'd established a comfortable rhythm.

Leaning in Ying brought their mouths back into an amorous lock, indulging in their togetherness until an upward thrust of his sturdy hips that followed in compliment to the next downward motion of her delicate own, drew a jagged gasp from her, instinctively making her press up closer to him. He knew her body well, and soon a minimal shift to the angle of his thrusts reached deep enough to hit that sensitive knot of nerves buried within the secrets of her female physique, causing a ripple of blinding hot sensation to blast throughout her like a barrage of arrows. Throwing her head back with a sensual moan, Shu's inventress felt her bright mind begin to slip away from coherency, a lovely tremble beginning to conquer her body as the action was repeated, times and again, like he was striking glowing iron with the sparks blitzing through her in electrifying impacts.

And his wife's exhaled bliss was Zhuge Liang's own, the tight snuggle of her contracting inner walls was delightful, plunging into the silky heat of her body was an addictive venture difficult to resist. Not that he had to, now that she was here in his arms, willingly giving him the kind of joy and pleasure nobody else could. She was the only one capable of doing this to him, freeing his exceptional intellect from the burden on genius and filling it with something much more natural and equally quintessential. Love, passion, desire, affection... all the things that had no place on the battlefield and in ingenious schemes, and yet people needed them like they needed air to breathe. His hands smoothed down the silk of her flawless skin and the perfect shape of her delightfully working body, his palms settling on those curvy hips to diligently support them in their task when sensations would make it harder on her to keep rhythm and depth.

"Kongming..." Her breathless whisper in his ear was fuel to the fire, burning wonderfully in an impetus of pleasure, like an ever higher-flying swing; up to the point where he could almost take no more no longer.

Ying felt it, how could she not, when his thrusts became much firmer and erratic, and her own motions grew equally driven and uncontrolled. She could no longer tell if it was her own body moving or if his strong hands were doing half the lifting for her, her fingers leaving harmless, red marks along his shoulders as she clung to him for sweet, dear life. Her soft, frantic moans and tender whimpers mingled with her labored breathing, until her mind flew out of the metaphorical window to the surge of climactic sensations that conquered every bit of her lithe little form. The orgasmic wave hit her fast and it hit her hard, shaking through her body in a hefty shudder as every group of muscles inside and out tensed and clamped up, hounding shocks of pleasure through every heated nerve tract.

The spasms and convulsions of her velvety inner walls mercilessly pulled her husband up into the sensory high together with her, taking in a pocketful of air and holding it within the confines of his sturdy chest, a few instinctual thrusts of hips into delightfully contracting heat left him to ride out the ecstasy of his own release as well. She gasped and shivered at the feel of thick white spilling within her, filling her with familiar warmth that only intensified the aftershocks of her climax, drawing another lovely, prolonged moan from her frail throat.

Exhausted she let her body fall forward against his own, a tingle in the joints of her fingers as they unclenched their hard grasp on his shoulders, leaving behind small indentations of short nails. Panting softly and feeling his chest heave against hers just as irregularly, she snuggled up to his equally drained form, almost purring up in contentment when those strong arms settled back around her and squeezed her tight. She loved the afterglow as much as she did the act itself, touching a few random kisses to whatever spots of his warm, sweat-dewed skin she could reach.

Holding his wife's tired form close to his own, Zhuge Liang let himself fall backwards into the covers, the comfortable pressure of her featherweight atop him. He could have drifted off to sleep just like this, with nary a care or worry on his mind until the morrow would come. It was amazing how she could just sweep it all away, and fill his head and heart with her and her only. Something he undeniably wanted and needed, especially now in these times of never-ending, violent turmoil. She was the little blessing in his life, the safe haven where he could rest up after facing the storms of the outside world.

Lifting her clever head just enough to find his lips for a slow, tender kiss, Yue Ying whispered a simple truth against his pliant lips upon parting away from them just an inch again: "I love you." And she did, truly, with her entire faithful little heart. From the day they had spoken their vows to each other, until today and far, far beyond... she belonged to him much like he, too, was her own. Her partner, her husband, her lover. Her one, and her only.