[ For a minute there he thinks she means... exactly like before. Home to hold her in his arms until they fall asleep. It's something he'd do any day, something she never has to ask him for when she wants it, and the yes is on his lips. And then-
Then he sees it in her eyes and it clicks, what she's really asking him. What the implication there is.
He's thought about it of course, in the weeks they've been seeing each other. Since before that, if he's really honest, because she's beautiful and startling and brilliant in every way, and he's only human. But they've kept things casual. They've kept them light, and it's better that way, he knows. Safer for everyone, if that part of it stays a fantasy. It was easier to keep it there when it wasn't just sex that was off the table. When they were just two friends, two lonely lost souls in a less than ideal situation, figuring out how to have fun together.
Only. Only somehow now it's turned into something else, when he wasn't looking. When he wasn't ready. And suddenly they're past the point where it's easy to say goodnight, and go home alone to a cold bed. Where he doesn't crave her company, her thoughts on things. It matters what she thinks of Tim. It matters that she doesn't know.
And her touch. He wants that too. He wants this. So badly it takes his breath away. ]
I-
...Yeah. I'd love that. If-
[ God, she wants him. Him. Suddenly he can't not touch her, so he reaches out to cup her face in his hands. Then he leans in close, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. ]
I want you. [ It's the only truth that matters in this moment. ]
no subject
Then he sees it in her eyes and it clicks, what she's really asking him. What the implication there is.
He's thought about it of course, in the weeks they've been seeing each other. Since before that, if he's really honest, because she's beautiful and startling and brilliant in every way, and he's only human. But they've kept things casual. They've kept them light, and it's better that way, he knows. Safer for everyone, if that part of it stays a fantasy. It was easier to keep it there when it wasn't just sex that was off the table. When they were just two friends, two lonely lost souls in a less than ideal situation, figuring out how to have fun together.
Only. Only somehow now it's turned into something else, when he wasn't looking. When he wasn't ready. And suddenly they're past the point where it's easy to say goodnight, and go home alone to a cold bed. Where he doesn't crave her company, her thoughts on things. It matters what she thinks of Tim. It matters that she doesn't know.
And her touch. He wants that too. He wants this. So badly it takes his breath away. ]
I-
...Yeah. I'd love that. If-
[ God, she wants him. Him. Suddenly he can't not touch her, so he reaches out to cup her face in his hands. Then he leans in close, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. ]
I want you. [ It's the only truth that matters in this moment. ]