#I like the idea that this tav is a genuinely high functioning idiot

[sky-kiss]

FOR PROMPT 8 INTELLIGENCE TAV WHO BELIEVES RAPHAEL IS A FAE CONTINUATION WITH TAV BELIEVING THEIR KIDS WILL BE HAGSPAWN!

A/N: I…I just. Anon, I can’t. Anon, you can’t. A HAGSPAWN? TAV WOULD HAVE TO BE  A HAG. She can’t…anon, does she think she’s a hag?! ANON, GET BACK HERE.

________

He has reached a personal low. 

Raphael folds his hands over his belly, lips pursed to a tight line. The cambion stares up at the ceiling. His body is deliciously boneless, still flush from pleasure. It was, in truth, one of the more satisfying carnal experiences he's enjoyed in these past few centuries…

…but, oh, the cost. Raphael feels sullied.

The particulars continue to baffle him. Tav had come knocking on his door in the early evening, a vision of loveliness. The evening sun caught in her hair, so deliciously alive, so absurdly free. Only she had the irritating habit of opening her mouth. And any and every word brought the illusion crashing down like a sack of lead weights.

Kissing her was a mixture of self-preservation and festering irritation. Tav crawled under his skin, saying every inane thought that popped into her empty little head, and he needed silence. So he'd kissed her. 

And kept kissing her.

And kept kissing her. And wonder of wonders, the sounds she made in the throes of passion were actually worth hearing. It's only now, the afterglow fading, that Raphael realizes the enormity of his mistake. 

Tav slips from the bed like a shadow, movements graceful. She moves from the bedchamber to the pool. The sound of water gently lapping around her form is curious enough for him to follow her. Raphael leans in the doorway, watching her clean between her legs. More forward-thinking and responsible than he expected. 

The cambion grins, pitching his voice low. "Regrets already, little mouse?" 

"Hmm?" She turns to look at him, expression brightening. Tav shakes her head. "No, just… it's not the time. No reason to risk it."

The phrasing causes an uncomfortable tightening in his belly. 'Not the time' suggested there would be a time later. 

Raphael hums, pushing from his perch to join her in the bath. He pats his knee. Tav goes to him without hesitation, arms winding around his neck. Her gravity remains undiminished. The cambion chucks her under the chin. "Afraid I'd whisk the babe away to the Unseelie court, hmm?"

He has not managed to shake her of the belief. Tav sighed, tracing his face. "What if it was worse?" 

"Worse, pet?" 

"I've heard stories…the horrible things done to Hagspawn in the Rashemi Wilds…" Tav says, morose. Raphael stops cold, touch stilling from when it's been idly tracing the curve of her breast. "I couldn't…I couldn't bear that." 

"Hagspawn?"

"Mm." 

"Am I not…" oh, gods above and below, here came the headache, right on time. He shifted under her, sitting up straighter. "Dear one, you pronounced me fae."

"I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to admit it." 

Don't kill her. Raphael can't kill her. It'd be poor form. "Yes. This…grim truth I bear. And you concede you are…mortal." 

"Yes." 

Reasonable to this point. Raphael pushes forward. "And you recognize, I pray, that hagspawn are…as the name indicates, born of a hag and mortal man?" 

"Yes." 

"And thus…any spawn of ours…are biologically incapable of being hagspawn." 

Tav clings to him. "But what if, Raphael? Doesn't it frighten you?" 

The devil momentarily forgets himself. He sputters, "No? No, why should it?" 

Tav rests her head on his shoulder, bringing his knuckles to her lips for a kiss. "You're very brave, my prince."

He manages to tamp down on his immediate response: how? How am I? Are you mad?

A new low. That's what this is. Raphael will never recover.