Between the sensation of having his wings handled by someone other than himself and the kiss to the back of his neck, Theron couldn’t control the slight shudder that coursed through him, nor the faint blush of embarrassment when he thought Lyri might have noticed.
She noticed the shudder and it made her want to kiss him again, but she refrained for now. It wouldn’t do well to push him when they had really only just met. “If I make you uncomfortable at all, just let me know, okay?”
The answer was good enough for him, his posture sagging as though he could collapse under his own weight at any moment and the only thing keeping him upright was sheer force of will.
Nodding, he acquiesced and allowed her to take him whenever she was ready.
It took no effort to bring him to her home but she was a little nervous. No one outside of her siblings had ever been there before. She kept her hands on his arms for a few lingering moments, hoping he wasn’t too disoriented.
This wasn’t going the way he’d wanted it to, and he imagined Vega probably felt the same on that front, but then again, Rabbit was still trying to be better for her. The road just had a few bumps and potholes along the way.
“No. I said I would. I just-… I just need to adjust a bit first,” he answered, his tone softening and sounding apologetic. “I just need a little time to get used to things, okay?”
Curling up at the corner of the couch, she nodded, trying to talk herself down mentally. She was trying too, wanting to be something good in his life and she constantly felt like she was coming up short.
“I’m sorry I’m not really good at this,” she replied as she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.
The kiss pulled a faint sigh from Lex and had him scooting closer to Devereux, wanting to snuggle up to him now that he was awake.
He trailed his thumb across the others cheek affectionately before chasing another kiss and nuzzling him, content to spend all day like this if he could get away with it.
Devereux was happy to lean into the touch and nuzzle Lex in return, peppering his face and neck with soft, sweet kisses. He was honestly grateful that Jeff had found Lex in the first place, even though he knew this hadn’t been his adoptive father’s plan.
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her. If anything, he sort of wished it was as easy as she made it sound, but he doubted anything good could come of dredging up all that stuff, and he hardly wanted to say anything that would make her pity him either.
Vega opened her mouth to answer but faltered. This was the sort of thing that Ben was better at explaining than she ever would be and the last thing she wanted to do was upset him.
“I don’t actually know. My cousin, he’s a therapist, well, psychologist really, but he always says that bottling things keeps them from healing. He helped me out a lot when my first….well, first non-family friend died. This was before I knew what I could actually do. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it at all for a while and that didn’t make it go away, you know?”
“That wouldn’t make a difference, honestly. You should see some of the shit they try to pawn off to scrape together enough credits for a fix.”
He wasn’t doubting her word, but Denny was familiar with the shadier characters that hung around, and he hadn’t seen her before, so he figured she was new to the area.
“Doesn’t matter.” She had stolen the bag in the first place so it wasn’t exactly something she would miss.
Lissa studied him for a moment, her exhaustion evident. “Any abandoned warehouses that aren’t literally condemned to hell and back around here?” It was worth a shot in case Devin couldn’t turn anything up.
“Well, yeah, he did try, and I mean try is the operative word here, but he was pretty damn wasted by that point, so I doubt he would have been up to much more than that to be honest. It must suck to have to play babysitter to your own dad?”
“Nah, my one uncle usually keeps tabs on ‘im, bu’ Sorin’s a lawyer on top o’ tha’, so I have ta grab him a’ times. He don’ mean no harm, usually pre’y good a’ takin’ no for answer,” he replied with a slight grin and a shrug.
As light as his touch might be, Cam still felt and registered it on some level, his body built to sustain itself on affection in all its forms so that it naturally reached out for it when it was close by, even unconsciously.
Cam stirred lightly, turning his head a little toward the shoulder that had been kissed with a soft sigh, though he didn’t open his eyes yet.
When Cam turned towards him, Tass traced the edge of his face gently before pressing a soft and lingering kiss to his lips. He was terrified that Cam was going to wake up and bolt, say it was a mistake, but for now… For now he could have this and he didn’t really want it to end.
Laney paused, looking like he was going through the calculation in his head, adding up each incident in order while counting on his fingers.
“Five, I guess? Three times when I was a kid, and then a couple times growing up. You know how it is; teenagers doing dumb shit and all. Most people break a bone or two, I go up in flames.” he shrugged like it was no big deal.
Casper just stared for a few moment, blinking slowly as if he were trying to process what Laney had just said to him.
“I am so not awake enough for this. Can you not do dumb shit? Like, please? I really don’t want to see you go up in flames like some sort of…I don’t even have a good comparison. Just…don’t do the thing.”
Zayde closed his eyes, just focusing on staying calm and letting himself enjoy the physical sensation of it. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d kissed anyone while sober, much less done anything else, so even just that had him aching for more as he gave in to his desires for once.
One hand came up to tentatively rest on Devin’s chest, just the lightest touch like he almost expected something bad to happen, but it was a small step in the right direction.
“Just relax,” Devin murmured between sweet kisses, easing him into things slowly. The fact that he had admitted to his lack of experience was enough to let him know that someone needed to get through the walls that Zayde had put up to keep his life a certain way in public and he had the patience to do so.
His fingers skimmed over the back of Zayde’s hand as he deepened the kiss, testing the waters a little.
ofviolentdeath 