The First Evening

[enduring_pryde]

 They arrived back home after midnight and she was anything but beat, despite how she had been awake for around twenty hours. She felt wired, and not just from the coffee and sweets that she had consumed. It had been a long time she had been so giddy and content. 

She starts to unpack some of her essentials--change of clothes for the following day, a night shirt for bed, tooth brush and tooth paste, hair brush, and makeup--and left everything else unpacked. She could deal with it later in the weekend. 

Even though things had seemed to move along pretty quickly, she wasn't going to automatically assume that he necessarily wanted her in his bed tonight. That might be a little too fast--or not. It was difficult to say. But she was still looking to Pete for his lead. She leaves her brand new ID card on the dresser and slips back into the small sitting room, dressed in a long blue t-shirt, underwear, and matching socks.

Comments

[goawayleavemealone]

He's puttering around the kitchen, doing some dishes while he talks on the phone.

"No, Dad, it's not the commies, it's your son. Remember? Peter? Pain in your arse? Very disappointing? Yes, good, that's me. How was your day?"

He lets his father rattle on about how his day was as he keeps tidying up. "Er...maybe this weekend I'll pop by. I've a guest here, so...Yes, you've met her. Well, you'd have to ask her, Dad, I don't know what she sees in me either." He rubs his face. "No, I don't know where Romany is. Cuz she tells me nothing." He leans against the counter. He sighs. "Nothin's gonna come an' get you in your sleep, Dad, everything's fine. Get some rest, you smelly old geezer."

"Yeah. Me too." He hangs up and sets the phone down next to him, tapping his fingers on the counter, and then looks up when he sees Kitty. "A'right?"

[enduring_pryde]

She's polite and doesn't interrupt. It had been ages since she had seen Harold too. At least from this side, it still sounded like conversations she had heard them have in the past.

"Yeah, I'm good. I was just wondering where you would stop want me tonight," she blurts. What happened to follow his lead, Pryde! Geez! "I mean, the guest room is great...." And there is an unsaid 'but.'

[goawayleavemealone]

He watches her fidget and grins a little, pushing off from the counter and wandering over to her. "You're cute when you have no idea what to say to me."

He takes her hands, rubbing them gently with his thumbs. "You can stay in my room if you like. Nothing has to happen."

He remembers nights on Muir after long missions, where they would just sack out together, tangled up and sleepy. Having her close like that was just as good as the sex had been sometimes.

[enduring_pryde]

She laughs. "Yeah." The kiss earlier had told her a lot. He wanted her. His actions and words said as much.

"I wanna cuddle." She really didn't feel like having sex, but she wanted to be close to him again. Things were going to be different this time, she thinks. Neither one of them was going to run away scared. She leans in and kisses his chin and then kisses her way up to his mouth.

[goawayleavemealone]

He kisses her back. It's slow but not at all insistent, and when it ends, he rests his forehead against hers. "We can make that happen."

He leads her back to the bedroom and starts pulling off the day's clothes, leaving himself in just his boxers, rubbing at his hair as he wanders into the bathroom to brush his teeth, leaving her to get settled.

[enduring_pryde]

She smiles. "Thank you."

She climbs up on the bed and watched him as he undresses. She rubs her neck and smirks a few little. "So how often are you working out now?" Pete had become quite fit.

[goawayleavemealone]

He spits out the toothpaste and washes out his mouth, before wandering back out. "As much as it takes to make Brian leave me the hell alone."

He hates to admit that burning off steam by running on a treadmill is probably good for him and keeps him from being as angry as he could be all the time.

He flops down on the bed next to Kitty and looks up at the ceiling. "Who the hell am I? What have I become that I'm...down to one cigarette a day and running on treadmills." He wrinkles his nose and looks at her pointedly. "This is all your fault. You and your body fascist ways got the better of me. Planted the seeds of 'but Pete you could be healthier' in me brain. You're to blame for this."

[enduring_pryde]

"Mmm. Remind me to thank Brian for the good deed he has accomplished." Pete was trim before, but now he was toned and she had never considered such things would be possible.

"Oh I'll take that blame!" she declares and throws herself at him and pulls him into a hug. "I love you."

[goawayleavemealone]

He's caught off guard and chuckles a little, rubbing her back. He'd forgotten how physically clingy she could get, but it's nice.

Having her close like this feels right, but also terrifying in a lot of ways, and he's a little mad at himself that he feels so off-balance. That's not like him. Unless Pryde is around.

"Yeah," he says quietly. "Me too."

[enduring_pryde]

She presses closer to him and brushes her feet over his legs. She liked that there were only a few inches between them. She couldn't get lost in Pete. She takes his right arm and kisses the pulse point on his wrist. "I promise that I will treat you better this time." He was always so vulnerable with her and she wasn't sure why. Inasmuch as becoming a better version of himself for her.

[goawayleavemealone]

"Let's both be better this time," he says. "Cuz it's not like I was a picnic to deal with back them."

He wrinkles his nose at her. "Your feet are freezing."

[enduring_pryde]

"Sounds good. You really needed to find your purpose and again, not be working for a toxic organisation that also tried to kill you. It takes a while to recover from something like that." She presses her ear against his chest and listens to his heart.

"So you keep telling me," she interjects but doesn't move her feet. "Say, how much holiday time do you have?"

[goawayleavemealone]

He strokes her hair gently, staring up at the ceiling. He's never had the chance to take a vacation, and he doesn't know if that chance will ever come considering how hard and fast things tend to go south for MI13. "Technically three years' worth. Why?"

[enduring_pryde]

"Oh damn," she laughs. "We should do something with some of that time. I was thinking I could take you to Chicago and introduce you to my family. And then go somewhere neither one of us has been before."

[goawayleavemealone]

He freezes and blinks, slowly looking down at her. "You what?"

He sighs. "Not that I don't want to meet your mum, I do, s'just..."

He's surprised at how much he actually cares about what her mother thinks, but he does. "I mean, she was already going to hate me for bein' ten years older'n you, but me, swoopin in just after this thing with Rasputin? She might stab me."

[enduring_pryde]

"She's not going to hate you for the age difference. Dad was a lot older than her too." She shrugs. "I dunno what she'll say about that. We don't have to go into any details, really. Could just tell her that you're being a friend. And if that doesn't work, I'll tell her that I initiated getting back with you. Hell, you may earn her sympathy for being the rebound guy."

[goawayleavemealone]

He laughs a little and shakes his head. "This is insane. You know that, right? That this is completely insane."

He sighs and closes his eyes. He hates admitting it, but he really does like insanity, to say nothing of very bad ideas.

Which this still is, probably.

"Suppose so long as she doesn't put a hit out on me with the Chicago mafia, I should be fine, yeah?"

[enduring_pryde]

"Yep! But you've always been fond of my insanity." She kisses his collar bone and snuggles against his chest.

"My mom is not going to take a mob hit on you. You know my mom is a doctor, right? And not a mob one. She sees kids. I think she half expected me to go back to Chicago after I left Piotr at the altar."

[goawayleavemealone]

He rubs her lower back soothingly and yawns. "Well, that's a relief."

He glances down at her. "Why didn't you?" he asks. "You coulda taken a break, and you love Chicago."

[enduring_pryde]

"Yeah. She's not going to hurt you." Plus she had told her mom what Piotr had done to Pete all of those years ago.

"I didn't want to. I was going to stay in New York until you called. And then I saw a brand new opportunity. Visiting Brian and Meg a few months ago reminded me of how much I missed being over here."

[goawayleavemealone]

Pete nods and keeps stroking her back, starting to get more and more tired. He'd done two contents in one day, plus worked a full day, and with all of the emotional of upheaval of Pryde being around, he was knackered.

[enduring_pryde]

The stroking was making her doze.

"I'm going to be more careful with you this time," she promises. "Neither one of us are gonna get hurt."

[goawayleavemealone]

He drops off to sleep, a soft grunt his only response, and, for the first time in a long time, sleeps easily.