we kept our hearts from view, this time we're problem solving

[more_magic]

To say they get back to normal wouldn't be true. There's enough that's changed, that's needed to change, that whatever they'd been before isn't a place they can return to now. Darlington moves his things out of the Bramford and back to their apartment in Dimera, paying the exorbitant repair costs the landlord quoted him for the bedroom door just so he won't have to look at the splintered frame and all it represents. He and Alex talk, sometimes more deeply than he thinks they ever had before, other times about absolutely nothing at all. He still takes Kirby for a run in the morning, and he's still over there for dinner almost every night.

Day by day, over the next few weeks, it starts to feel like something's building out of the ashes.

When they'd first begun, Alex had said it could be like dating, starting fresh in a way they hadn't really taken the chance to do before. So far, it's felt like that; slow, and careful, and a little cautious as they feel out the edges of these new boundaries. Almost normal, when so little in their life--here or at home--had been that way for years.

Darlington brings up the idea, dinner out instead of in, one day when they're just sitting on the couch with Kirby. An actual date, maybe, to mark another step forward in the thing growing between them. He picks one of their favorites, a place downtown that's upscale and intimate, making the reservation for an evening Alex has off of work. That night, he showers and dresses, calling a cab and asking the driver to wait outside the Bramford while he goes to the second floor and knocks on Alex's door.

He still has a key, just as she has one to Dimera, but tonight he wants to do everything right.

Comments

[more_magic]

"So am I," he says, smiling as her fingers brush the side of his face. "And...thank you for earlier. For telling me everything I should have asked about before tonight." He doesn't want to reawaken their conversation from before, reinvoke the memory of Hellie, dead and tragic and full of rage, but it's important to him that he says that much, at least.

He gets comfortable on his side of the bed, leaning in to kiss her once more before he turns to snap off the light.

[takecourage]

"You're welcome," she says, stifling a yawn against the pillow as she closes her eyes, curled on her side, curtained by her hair. Without thinking, she reaches out, her curled fingers barely touching his arm as she starts to drift.

[more_magic]

They both settle in for the night, getting comfortable, sharing the same bed after so many nights apart. Not everything is fixed between them yet, but they're closer than they've been. He watches the dim shape of her in the dark, the way she turns and adjusts, and when her fingers come to rest on his arm, he doesn't pull away.

They move closer in their sleep, in the night, and by morning the two of them are curled up with each other, tangled up and content.

[takecourage]

Alex stirs but doesn't wake, not entirely. She rubs her cheek against the pillow and shifts back into the warm curve of his body behind her, making a soft, contented noise.

[more_magic]

His arm had found its way to her waist in the night, his hand splayed against her belly, over her t-shirt. She moves, pressing back, and he stirs a little, his nose brushing the nape of her neck.

He's not awake enough, or maybe just too content, to fully acknowledge the fact he's hard again, her ass pressed snugly to the firm ridge of him.

[takecourage]

Her fingers thread through his and she shifts his hand, tugging it up to cover one tit over her T-shirt. She can feel how hard he is. She doesn't make any effort to pull away. She doesn't think this is crossing any lines they didn't cross last night.

[more_magic]

He wakes up a little further when Alex moves his hand, his fingers threaded with hers and the curve of her tit beneath his palm. He doesn't think about moving away, just shifts enough to brush a kiss to the side of her neck.

"Morning."

[takecourage]

"Morning," she says, shifting her hips back again when he kisses the side of her neck. She squeezes his hand. "Okay?"

[more_magic]

Alex's hips shift back, his own moving to meet her, just slightly. He's awake enough now, aware enough of his own state; his thumb runs over her nipple, feeling the piercing through the cotton of her shirt.

"Yes," he says, and at least one of his boundaries from last night feels a little less important today. "This is okay."

[takecourage]

She makes a soft sound as he rubs his finger over her nipple through the thing stuff of her t-shirt, playing with the piercing. Somehow, this is easier with her back to him, so neither of them has to look the other in the eye.

"What do you want to...do about that?"

[more_magic]

He keeps up the slow, gentle sweep of his thumb, reassured and encouraged by the quiet noise of her reaction. "The thought of a cold shower did occur," he admits, smiling even though her back's to him and she won't see it. "But didn't hold very much appeal."

Darlington watches the slow rise and fall of her breathing, takes in the slim lines of her side and the sleep-ruffled tangle of her hair, his hand still curved around her tit and his body still pressed close to hers. He knows what he wants, but it takes him a moment to find the words.

"Would you still be willing to get me off?"

[takecourage]

Alex smirks against the pillow and nods, her cheek whispering against soft cotton. She shifts her hips back again, more deliberately, arching her back to press her tit more firmly into his hand.

"What did you have in mind?"

[more_magic]

He groans quietly at the press of her hips, his touch getting firmer and more assured as she presses into his hand. It's as much of an agreement, maybe more so, as the way she'd nodded only a moment before.

"I'm still not...we need more time before we actually have sex," he says, and it sounds no less awkward to him now, in the gentle light of morning. "But maybe, if you wanted to..." Darlington trails off, his soft laugh carrying an edge of exasperation. "Christ, this shouldn't be this hard, I'm sorry."

He closes his eyes, then opens them again. "I was thinking you might give me a handjob?"

[takecourage]

"Hard," she echoes, snorting a laugh against the pillow. The roll of her hips is more rhythmic now, her hand slipping back to grip his hip and squeeze. "Could just do it like this," she says. "Slow and sleepy. Pull things out of the way. Or is it too close to what we're not doing?"

[more_magic]

"You know what I meant, Alex," he says when she laughs, smiling against her skin before he kisses her just behind her ear. It's maybe too easy to start matching the roll of her hips, letting her pull him a little closer with that encouraging squeeze to his hip.

"It's close," he says, shifting his hand to pinch lightly at her nipple through her shirt. "But not close enough to cross a line."

[takecourage]

She moans, softly, when he pinches at her nipple like that. Before she met him, when she only had Len to go on, she never could have imagined liking that rougher touch, but it's all wrapped up in how much she trusts him, and how she knows that he'd never, ever do anything to hurt her.

"You could just pull your shorts down a little," she says, softly, her voice a rough rasp first thing in the morning. "Mine too."

[more_magic]

"I could," he says, the sleepy huskiness of her voice sinking through him just the same as her moan had only a moment earlier. Getting him harder, making him want this, moving them both a little closer to how they'd once been. His hand moves down to the waistband of her shorts, fingers resting along the soft fabric. "Is that what you want?"

[takecourage]

"Yeah, it's what I want," she says, shifting her ass back again. She reaches out blindly for the bedside table. "Do you want the lube? Just to make...you know...Slippery."

[more_magic]

"Please," he says, biting his lip as she shifts away and he realizes precisely how hard he is. He eases her shorts down, then does the same with his sweats, taking the lube once she's found it and slicking his cock. When she pushes close to him again, it's easy to get back to that same slow, rolling rhythm from before.

"I love you," he murmurs, kissing the line of her shoulder where it peeks out from the neck of her t-shirt.

[takecourage]

It's almost, but not quite, the same as fucking. They've had sex in this position before, always first thing in the morning, sleepy and close and warm. She reaches back, her hand on his bare hip, squeezing.

"I love you too."

[more_magic]

They move together, easy and slow, not unlike they have before--but different this time, that last boundary of his still firmly, stupidly in place. He doesn't think about it, or tries not to, focusing instead on how it feels to be close like this again with her.

[takecourage]

His cock slides easily along the cleft of her ass and she rocks her hips back to meet him. "Do you want me to...shall I..." Her hand twists in the hem of her t-shirt, tugging it upwards.

[more_magic]

"Yes," he says, still moving with her as she lifts her shirt. "I want you to take off your shirt." Once it's off, his hand moves to her tits again, fondling, his fingers playing with her nipples as he keeps up the roll of his hips. Everything's smooth and slick, easy, almost effortless.

[takecourage]

He touches her, plays with her, and it's perfect. She moans softly, squirming her hips back, aware of how nearly naked she is, of how much of his bare skin is pressed against hers.

"What else do you want?" she says. "Talk to me."

[more_magic]

He moves against her, touching her, and it's so close to fucking that for a moment he wonders why he's stopped himself, why that boundary's even in place at all. It matters, and he knows it, but right now it seems like the smallest concern in the world.

"Tell me what you want," he murmurs. "When we're both ready again. Tell me how you want it to happen."