He's almost sorry for her to pull her hands away, but his weak smile persists as she orders him to rinse and wriggles her body around so he has room to comply. Folding his legs up against her, he slips under the water, savoring the peaceful quiet of it pressing against him while he flushes the shampoo from his hair.
When he sits back up he's dripping wet, and somehow that feels more intimate yet. Her question greets him and he searches her face for a moment. Friends doesn't seem like quite the right word, but they are more than two people who have sex together, and he feels protective of her the way he does, well, other friends. More important than that, it seems that she needs the reassurance, some kind of explicit agreement. Squeezing her arm, he nods. "We are." And then he tugs her back toward him, because as his mind calms down, he expects she needs to feel wanted and forgiven just as badly as he does. That and he wants her close.
"I'm glad to hear it," he responds back gently, and this time he hears it better. He takes the bar of soap as she hands it to him, then closes his eyes, humming contentedly into the kiss at his cheek and the way she runs her hands over him. And when she starts threatening him with chores, he finally manages a real smile.
"I'd be happy to help you with your house, Aerith." Maybe not quite playing the game correctly, but enjoying it all the same, holding onto the fact that she just keeps insisting how much she still wants him here. And when she pauses, he curls around her, running the bar of soap gently across her shoulders and collar bone before setting it aside, moving his hands in big gentle motions across her skin and massaging into her back. When they're both slippery and smelling sweetly of cleanliness and peace, he hugs her to him, kissing her hair and enjoying the way their skin slides together, the way there is no barrier between them. "And even if we finish, even after I leave, I'll come back any time you ask." It's a promise that scares him a little, but like with most things with her, the joy it brings him is so much larger.
There's so little in this place that is good, and before that, he'd met so many people over so many years. She was something precious, and he didn't really care if that made him foolish or irrational or vulnerable. He knew how to cherish rare and valuable things.
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Date: 2022-11-12 05:39 pm (UTC)When he sits back up he's dripping wet, and somehow that feels more intimate yet. Her question greets him and he searches her face for a moment. Friends doesn't seem like quite the right word, but they are more than two people who have sex together, and he feels protective of her the way he does, well, other friends. More important than that, it seems that she needs the reassurance, some kind of explicit agreement. Squeezing her arm, he nods. "We are." And then he tugs her back toward him, because as his mind calms down, he expects she needs to feel wanted and forgiven just as badly as he does. That and he wants her close.
"I'm glad to hear it," he responds back gently, and this time he hears it better. He takes the bar of soap as she hands it to him, then closes his eyes, humming contentedly into the kiss at his cheek and the way she runs her hands over him. And when she starts threatening him with chores, he finally manages a real smile.
"I'd be happy to help you with your house, Aerith." Maybe not quite playing the game correctly, but enjoying it all the same, holding onto the fact that she just keeps insisting how much she still wants him here. And when she pauses, he curls around her, running the bar of soap gently across her shoulders and collar bone before setting it aside, moving his hands in big gentle motions across her skin and massaging into her back. When they're both slippery and smelling sweetly of cleanliness and peace, he hugs her to him, kissing her hair and enjoying the way their skin slides together, the way there is no barrier between them. "And even if we finish, even after I leave, I'll come back any time you ask." It's a promise that scares him a little, but like with most things with her, the joy it brings him is so much larger.
There's so little in this place that is good, and before that, he'd met so many people over so many years. She was something precious, and he didn't really care if that made him foolish or irrational or vulnerable. He knew how to cherish rare and valuable things.