A House in Currant, Maine, Monday

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Anyone who hadn't expected Ezra to hightail it the hell away from Limbo City at his earliest convenience was a fool. Because he had. Immediately as soon as danger had been over, and straight back to Currant.

But not to his house.

Nope, to Ava and Cade's, where he'd made himself at home on Ava's bed until she figured out he wasn't leaving. (Even if he also wasn't saying what was wrong with him. But she knew something was wrong, and that was enough.) He'd slept restlessly, but with his nose buried in Ava's hair. The warmth of her against his chest.

Home wasn't a place, you see.

But he'd returned to his house, now. Scowling at the porch like it had betrayed him, somehow. He was a little more friendly to the fridge, though, now that he was standing in front of it: he was going to positively devour its contents.

Getting kidnapped and stripped of half his self was hungry work, clearly.

[ooc: NFB but open.]

Comments

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It was more than something. It was cause enough for Ezra to exhale a quiet sigh. Pleased and tired all at once.

He was very aware of how close her lips were to his, now.

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That was one of the the things she'd always liked best about Ez. He didn't often make her feel like she had to entertain him. Sometimes he'd want attention, sure, but when they were together, he hadn't made her feel like she needed to talk or be funny to let her stay. More than once he'd let her nap or read or just fuck around on her phone and had seemed perfectly content that way.

She'd almost forgotten that.

So rather than make awkward conversation, she just relaxed a little further. Her breathing fell into rhythm with his as she appreciated the chance to just be.

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Like so much of Ezra, even his need to be entertained was largely an act which he could drop as necessary. Right now, he didn't need entertainment. He just needed to breathe.

And feel, and listen.

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One oh her hands dropped down to the nape of his neck, lightly running up and down his skin. "Thank you," she said softly. "You're exactly what I wanted today, Ez."

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There were so many quips to reply to that with. Some light, some dark.

Ezra said none of them. Instead, he just shifted a little, bumping his nose against hers.

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"You just kissed me." Kathy chuckled softly and kissed him back - on the forehead, lips soft - before going back to resting their heads together. "Sarah and I always called those gnome kisses growing up, from an old cartoon we watched. You rubbed noses together and made this weird sound like 'Nimnimnimnim' and that was a gnome kiss."

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"Thought that was the Eskimo."

The words were a bit mumbly. Quiet.

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"Yeah, but we worried--" by which she meant she'd worried "--that would be offensive to Eskimos."

Some things never changed.

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Yeah. They really didn't. Ezra made another noise in the back of his throat. Amused, helpless, something like that.

Then he shifted a little again.

But this time, to kiss her. Lightly, but unmistakably.

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Even surprised, her lips were soft and warm under his, with a light sprinkling of sugar on her lower lip from dusting the cookies.

She kept the kiss light, gentle, even as her hands tightened in his hair. Just a second, just a brief tug, but she still slid her hands down to fold in her lap.

Keeping them on his was dangerous. Intoxicating and dangerous.

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Danger was relative.

Ezra leaned into the kiss. He wasn't pushing, he wasn't rushing. But he was kissing her like a man who hadn't kissed her in a very, very long while.

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Years. It had been years since they'd kissed and now he was kissing her like he was trying to make up for every single day that had passed. It wasn't the searing, panty-melting kisses they'd shared a few times back in his dorm room (or one unforgettable night in a Baltimore alley), but it felt...deeper than that. Filled with longing and wistfulness - though maybe that was just her.

And then she sighed a little in her throat and stopped thinking about the kiss, giving herself up to it entirely.

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Ezra hadn't been thinking much at all for a long moment now. If he had, maybe he wouldn't have kept his arms around her, or pulled her closer like the barely existent distance was too much for his liking.

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You could drown in a kiss. Kathy had before and loved it.

This kiss didn't feel like downing. It felt like flying, even as his arms held her tightly against him. Her whole body felt alight. Ignoring the earlier warning of danger, her hands slid up to cup his face and hold it close to hers, like she couldn't bear the thought of him moving away.

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He wasn't going anywhere. Nowhere at all. And neither was her, if the circle of his arms was any indication.

And still, he didn't push. Even when he went to deepen the kiss, on instinct, he wasn't rushing it, and he was leaving her space to refuse. He wasn't thinking about it much, but he didn't want to do anything that would make her uncomfortable or jeopardize anything.

Right this second, anyway.

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The smart thing to do would be to end the kiss. Maybe talk about it. Something.

Instead, Ezra would just feel the brief sting of her teeth in his lower lip before it was smoothed over by a brief flick of her tongue.

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The low growl was accidental and automatic. Sorry, guess he'd missed her teeth. And her tongue.

Oh well.

His fingertips pressed harder against her back.

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And so was her moan. But then, she'd also missed his growl. Just hearing it made her stomach clench and her thighs squeeze--

She wanted to bit him again. Wanted to knot her fingers in his hair. Wanted to pull his face down to her throat and chest and lower still.

She didn't. Instead she pulled away just enough to break the kiss. And sat for a second, eyes closed, breath coming fast.

A single kiss left her whole body tingling. She had no doubts that he could devastate her with another if he put his mind to it. The hardest thing was not to beg him to try.

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For a few seconds after she pulled away, Ezra was holding his breath. Not on purpose, just on reflex. Sometimes he did it when he was very alert.

He kept his eyes firmly closed. Didn't move. Didn't seem like his place to.

This was the difficult part, wasn't it?

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And Kathy just laid her head down on his shoulder, keeping her arms wrapped around him. "I missed that," she said quietly. "And maybe when my heart stops racing a mile a minute, we could do that again?"

Kissing. Just kissing, especially with how incredibly disordered her emotions were just now. But progress.

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"Yes," Ezra sighed, quietly. "Maybe."

It sounded like he was just idly repeating her choice of words. But it was masking a very real uncertainty about whether he could keep himself in check.

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"Right now, I'm still kind of all messed up from the weekend," Kathy said, wanting to press reassuring kisses against his throat and realizing that was probably the worst thing she could do. But she didn't want him to think that she regretted their kiss. "I don't want to make anything more tangled than it already is. But I've wanted to kiss you since you showed up for Dante's graduation. Kissing you is thing I'm actually sure about."

She had to laugh there, just because there were so few things she could say that about.

"I think...I think maybe you and I should have a conversation sometime soon, though."

And she and Dante would need to have one soon, too. Because he'd asked.

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Ezra exhaled.

"About?"

Look, he had a hard time thinking straight right now. And talking was about the last thing he wanted to think about.

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Kathy sat up and looked him directly in the eyes. "What happens after I take you upstairs to your room and show you exactly how much I've learned in the years since the last time you took me to bed."

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Ezra only opened his eyes to look back at her about halfway through that.

And he groaned quietly, once she was finished. "Don't say things like that." It was complaint. Still seemed to somehow sound like she should say things like that, too.