smilestopscars | A House in Currant, Maine, Monday

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A House in Currant, Maine, Monday

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.]

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Ezra wondered for a second whether she'd go for it. But then she didn't, and then there was a hand in his hair, and his breath hitched. Then he exhaled a sigh.

He nodded. It was a little... quick, but still only a slight movement. Like he didn't want her to think even for a second that it wasn't okay, but also he didn't want to interfere with the touching by jostling her hand.

She was tempted. God, she was tempted. But if she was going to go against his no, she was going to do it for the right reasons, not because she was feeling scared and lonely and angry and abandoned.

Ez deserved better than that. From everyone, but most definitely from her.

"Good," she murmured, adding a little more pressure to her finger tips. "It's been a shitty weekend. You deserve to feel good after it."

And she just needed this. This moment of connection, of belonging.

Ezra's 'no' was a fragile and fickle thing.

He didn't say anything, just made a noise in the back of his throat that managed to be want and need without being sexual. Or maybe that was just the context. Maybe it was the exact same sound as always.

He tried pulling her closer.

Kathy didn't know that, so she was treating his no like it was made of stone and iron. The last thing she wanted was any more regrets between them.

But she did move when he pulled her, sliding into his lap, legs stretched across his thighs. Her other hand slid into his dark hair, too, joining the first in trying to soothe. That noise had made her breath catch in her throat and color rise in her cheeks, but the rhythm of her fingers remained slow and steady and even.

Edited 2018-08-21 09:28 (UTC)

Ezra was keeping his eyes closed. He could do with his other senses. Touch. Scent. The warmth and weight of her on his legs. Anything and everything that kept him grounded in the here and now, because he had memories he didn't care to revisit right now.

One of his arms was tight around her waist. His other hand rubbed its way up her arm, all the way to her shoulder.

Her hair smelled like citrus and vanilla. The rest of her smelled like cookies. Even the scent of her body lotion was wholesome: something softly floral and unobtrusive.

She was quiet for a little while, gaze focused in word on her own roiling thoughts. Eventually though, she spoke. "I'm not moving to Limbo City."

Ezra was a fox. He smelled all of that, sure, but underneath it all, he smelled her. He was a little lost in it for a moment before her words processed and he came out with a hazy reply of his own.

"... Good."

He wasn't aware that anyone was moving to Limbo City. He couldn't see why anyone would.

He didn't particularly want to think about it, either.

Kathy laughed at that and would thank him not to mention the quiet bitterness beneath the humor. "First person so far with that reaction. Maybe I'm not crazy after all."

In fairness, she hadn't told Raven yet, either. Though part of that was because she hadn't wanted to jerk Raven around while she yo-yoed back and forth between deciding to go or stay.

"Seems like a reasonable enough decision to me."

He was trying not to think about all her words seemed to imply about other people.

"Funny cause I still feel like an asshole for it," Kathy mumbled.

Before realizing that she probably shouldn't be talking about Limbo City at all. Right.

God, she was an asshole.

Kind of. But Ezra would forgive her, provided that she stopped.

He was pulling her closer, down, trying to get her to rest her forehead against his.

He still hadn't opened his eyes.

"You're not."

Her forehead came to rest gently against his and her eyes also slid closed. The intimacy of it felt almost like a kiss, too.

She bit back her instinctive apology, since that would be continuing the conversation and just shook her head slightly.

But she was still scritching so maybe that was... something?

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

"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."

"Thought that was the Eskimo."

The words were a bit mumbly. Quiet.

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

Some things never changed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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