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 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.