[Mature] Rest Like You Belong Here

[Aremu Ediwo]

Evening, 29 Hamis, 2720
The Ibutatu House, Isla Dzum

Aurelie was kneeling next to him, then, looking at him. There was a warmth in her voice that he felt - felt, Aremu thought, deeper than he should have - and his smile softened, grew easier. If it was a little harder than usual to track the flow of her words, he couldn’t quite mind.

She offered him her hand; Aremu took it in his, his thumb stroking along the back of it. A little sheepish note came into her voice. You can rely on me, she offered, softly. Aremu smiled at her, taking a deep breath; he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it, softly.

“I wouldn’t mind something to eat and drink,” he said. He did feel a bit hungry, somewhere at the edge of the sleepiness, much more than he had earlier. He smiled at Aurelie, finding it hard to think too much beyond how sweet she looked.

“Thank you,” Aremu said, a little uncertainly; he kissed her hand again, and let go.

Standing was better than he’d feared. He remembered that he was meant to take a bath, and the poultice was suddenly almost unbearable. Aurelie went down the stairs, and Aremu ran the tub full of cold water, stripping off the bandages and climbing it.

It was a shock; it was a pleasant shock, and a welcome one, and he groaned at the relief of it. He sat for a little while, leaning back against the wall of the tub, eyes closed, his left arm draped over the edge, though he didn’t sleep again. In time, he sat up and washed himself carefully clean, and then climbed out of the bath and patted himself dry; the pants he didn’t want to wear again, but he found a set that Ahura must have brought down, something soft and comfortable. He didn’t bother with a shirt, though he did clean his teeth, which seemed to do for the last of the grogginess.

Aremu went down the hall and came back with an armful of linens; when Aurelie came back, it would be to see him bent over the bed tucking in the sheets, the old ones settled in a laundry basket. The wound on his shoulder was better, the scrapes calm rather than angry and red, though with dark bruising around them. His head, too, was less swollen than it had been, although the cut still looked unpleasant looking.

Aremu grunted, straightening up with the last of the blankets into place. He turned, looking sheepishly at Aurelie, and sat on the edge of the bed. “I was - a bit sweaty I think,” he smoothed his hand over the blanket, glancing up at her. “I didn’t want you to...” he trailed off, uncertain, bringing his hand and wrist back to his lap.

He felt clearer now, and a little embarrassed at himself. He was hungry though; his stomach grumbled, audibly, and his grin widened and grew a little more sheepish all at once.

[Aurelie Steerpike]

Hamis 29, 2720 - Evening | The Ibutatu House, Isla Dzum

"You're very welcome." Aurelie had offered her hand without much thinking on it. She didn't know why, at this point, she was still so flustered and surprised that Aremu would kiss it. Twice. It felt almost habitual by now. They were alone in the house again, so at least she didn't feel that strange instinct to look around.

Aurelie went downstairs and started on something to eat while Aremu took his cold bath. She wasn't sure how his stomach was doing, and erred still on the side of bland foods that were easy to digest. What Ahura had made that morning, more or less, although she wasn't sure it was entirely right. She had never wanted to make anyone toast so much in her entire life; it was, perhaps, the lack of Anaxi bread that made it seem increasingly like it would have been just the thing. For herself, she made little—she ate as she went along, and that seemed to her in this moment good enough.

All of it was arranged onto a tray that Aurelie carried carefully up the stairs. She didn't know if she should laugh or frown when she opened the door to her room to find Aremu, clean now and still without any sort of shirt on at all, tucking in what appeared to be fresh linens. She settled for a smile that was somewhere in between. At least his wounds looked better. Not great, especially not his head which was less swollen but still very much a nasty-looking sort of thing, but better. Aurelie set the tray down while he straightened and turned to her.

For a moment, she considered scolding him—she would have done it, happily. She had thought to do so, in fact, when she'd come earlier to collect the dishes from him. But that seemed ungrateful at best, and unkind as well. Also, he'd already gone and done it, so she supposed there was no point.

"Thank you," she said instead, and found a smile that was real and pleased. She came to sit next to him after only a moment of internal debate. They both, she thought, might want the company. At least she hoped so; she wanted his, at least, and he could always tell her if she should leave. Or, more likely, he could always... go back upstairs. There was really no reason for him to stay down here, now.

"I hope it's all right," she said, gesturing to the food. She really had tried, but the first time one made anything was never the best iteration. It was, she reminded herself, at least edible, and unlikely to make him feel any worse. She hoped not, anyway. She had not brought up another egg wine, but she had brought up water, and mint tea besides.

[Aremu Ediwo]

Evening, 29 Hamis, 2720
The Ibutatu House, Isla Dzum

Aremu looked down at the bowl of uqikedisiq, warm yellow and studded with cashews, peppercorns, and curry leaves. He smiled back at Aurelie. “You made it?” His arm settled around her, his hand curling just for a moment around her hip.

He turned, for just a moment, pressing his lips softly to his hair.

Aremu took the plate, setting it on his lap, and starting in on it. It was good, he thought, pleased, fragrant and well-spiced, the rice cooked to almost exactly the right texture. He had thought he might be surprised, but he wasn’t in the end; he would, he thought, trust her with more difficult dishes than this.

“Thank you. It’s delicious,” Aremu said, smiling at her. He ate a bit more, his stomach still grumbling. He didn’t feel the nausea of the night before or that the very concept of food was as unappetizing as it had seemed earlier. Almost before he knew it, he had finished the bowl she’d made, and the entire glass of water. He took a little sip of the tea and settled his arm around her once more.

“I, uh...” Aremu began. He shifted, looking down at her, his hand resting lightly on her side once more. After a moment, regretfully, he eased it away, his fingers and palm resting on the bed.

I shouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable, he wanted to say. It’s your bed - I don’t know if you’d like me to stay, again, tonight, when we both know I don’t need watching. I’d like to stay, if you want me to - I’d like you to want me to stay. It’s all right if you don’t; I don’t want to put any pressure on you, Aurelie.

She was looking up at him, her eyes a little wide, still, he thought, smiling a little with the echo of his compliment to the food.

“Do you want me to stay here tonight?” Aremu asked, quietly, in the end. He didn’t know if it was the right thing to have done; he didn’t know if he should have told her that he wanted to, or if he should have told her it was all right if he didn’t. Maybe, he thought regretfully, he should have said both. He hadn’t, in the end, managed either, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to them still, offering a tentative little smile down at her.

It doesn’t have to be more than just sleeping here, Aremu wanted to say, too. If I pushed you too far earlier - he thought of the soft brush of her lips against his neck, and nearly shivered. She was still sitting next to him - he thought - he hoped - he couldn’t have done too badly.

[Aurelie Steerpike]

Hamis 29, 2720 - Evening | The Ibutatu House, Isla Dzum

Aurelie could only nod; she didn't really trust herself to say much of anything. No matter how many things she made, she couldn't ever seem to stop feeling nervous the first time she watched someone try something new to her. Doubly so because this was for Aremu specifically, and no one else. Not a recipe she was testing on one person to feed many, or even one she had made to her own tastes and was hoping would please anyone else.

Aurelie did her best not to stare too hard as he started on it, but it was rather difficult. Not even the pleasant thrill of his arm around her or his lips in her hair could distract her entirely. Not just because he had to let her go to eat it, either. She beamed, catching the corner of her lip in her teeth when he thanked her.

"Oh, good. I'm glad, ah, that you think so. I wasn't sure I was remembering it all quite right." More than the verbal compliment, she was pleased to see him eat it all, and the water besides. He seemed much better to her then; she didn't realize quite how much the lack of appetite had distressed her until that weight was lifted.

He put his arm around her again then, hand on her side. He drew it away when he started to speak, and she didn't know what to make of that. She didn't know what to read on his face, either. Maybe it was nothing, and meant nothing. But he'd started to speak, and started to set his hand against her, and clearly had thought better of it. The little thread of unease didn't make it to her face, but she could feel it in the weave all the same.

No, she scolded herself, just wait. Perhaps it has nothing to do with you. The world does not, in fact, revolve around you. There were any number of reasons for both things that had very little to do with the shape her anxiety had suddenly taken on.

"Oh, ah..." Did she want him to stay, again? Bells and chimes. There was no reason he should; she couldn't tell in that soft-said question if he was asking because he wanted to, or because he thought she would. Was she supposed to say no? Well, Aurelie thought somewhere in the back of her mind, that really depended on who she asked. Propriety and every rule she had ever been raised with, both before and after, did strongly advise she say no. They also would have told her not to have had him here last night, either, injury or not.

The rules she was raised with said lots of things, and she ignored some of them as not applicable to her situation. She really wasn't sure if this was one of them. It would be different, she felt, if she was sure a request to stay wouldn't be—overstepping. If she knew it would be all right to want at least the extent of things she would admit to herself she wanted. But she didn't, and she chewed her lip.

"W-well, I certainly wouldn't mind if... Er, that is, you don't have to... Either way, I would... Uhm." That, she thought miserably, was not an answer at all. She took a breath; she had made herself flustered, again. One day, she would truly like to stop being so ridiculous. "I-if you, ah. Want. I don't, that is I... I liked, er. Oh chimes."

[Aremu Ediwo]

Evening, 29 Hamis, 2720
The Ibutatu House, Isla Dzum

Aurelie was sitting next to him. He asked; he asked and he waited through the silence that came after it. He didn’t know what she was thinking; he knew he shouldn’t want to, that he should be content to leave her the privacy of her mind.

He wasn’t. He wanted to know, Aremu thought, with an aching wrench somewhere in his chest. He wanted to know what she was thinking, her small face set, her lips pressed together just a moment, her eyes slightly downcast. Oh, she had said, and then ah.

When she began again, her voice was soft and a bit quiet; she was chewing at her lip, a little tentative. I wouldn’t mind, she said - you don’t have to - Aremu felt a little tension in his shoulders release. I don’t, she said then, and he frowned just a little. I liked, she offered, instead.

He felt uncertain; he couldn’t pretend otherwise. He wished, just then - as charming as he found her, the whole package of her, hesitation and all - he wished she could have given him a clear answer, a yes or a no. It made him feel, Aremu thought, as if he shouldn’t have asked, as if he were putting a burden on her by having done so.

His hand shifted against the bed, just a little.

If he thought about it, Aremu thought, if he listened to what she had said, and really thought it through, he understood. He did; he knew he did.

“I do want to stay,” Aremu said, looking down at her. It frightens me, he couldn’t bring himself to say, how much. Carefully, his hand came back to her side, curling gently around her waist, his thumb stroking lightly over her ribs.

I want to know you’re sure, Aremu wanted to say; there was a part of him that wanted to drag it out of her, to ask - to beg - that she promise him it was all right. He couldn’t bring himself to it; he couldn’t quite put it on her. She had answered; he didn’t feel like he could demand another of her.

“I’d like to kiss you some more,” Aremu said instead, smiling. He shifted slightly, turning to make the angle easier, looking down at her. “Would that be all right?”

He thought he knew the answer now, too; he asked anyway, just the same. If she let him, Aremu thought, he would kiss her, just as promised. It hadn’t been so long since she had been on his lap at lunch; it felt at once as if it had been days, and at the same time only moments, as if all the bad dreams and the black well of sleep between had fallen away.

If she let him - no, Aremu thought. If she was sure of her wanting, sure of him, then he would be happy to lose himself in them for a little while, happy to think of nothing but the soft shape of her ribs and hip, the taste of her lips, the soft little noises she made; he couldn’t think of anything he would like more, just then.

[Aurelie Steerpike]

Hamis 29, 2720 - Evening | The Ibutatu House, Isla Dzum

She hadn't said that right at all. She knew she hadn't; she never did. Things that seemed right in her head never came out right when she tried to say them, and the more twisted up the words got the harder it was to untangle them. Aurelie wouldn't have blamed him at all if Aremu had gone upstairs out of frustration.

See? He had even frowned as she carried on. He had been smiling at her when he asked, and she had... Aurelie honestly didn't know why, then, he said he wanted to stay. Her face broke out in a smile that was as relieved that she'd been even partially understood as it was pleased to hear him say so, but she still didn't quite understand. Lady knew she wasn't going to question it, not right now, but she didn't understand the appeal very much at all.

Understanding wasn't required, she supposed. Enough that he saw whatever he saw, for however long that managed to be so. "Oh, uhm. Good, then. I—that is, ah. What I was trying to... to say. Ask. Make sure of. Er. Chimes."

She was still smiling when he asked her if he could kiss her again. Over and over again, asking. She thought the answer was obvious; she thought it might be to him too, and the question still asked. Not the first time she had been treated so. Not the first time she wondered what about her merited the care. Aurelie accepted then and she accepted now that it was nothing to do with her, not really. Or it was, but it wasn't.

"It would," she agreed, easily, a just little breathless. "Much more than all right." She added the last because it was true, and because it seemed important to... to confirm. She didn't think she was being terribly non-obvious, but she was perhaps doing things wrong. She really didn't know. This was certainly nothing like seeing someone once every month or so, all the while terrified that anyone would find out.

All of that was easy enough to put aside, just now. It was much, much more than all right, after all. None of her other concerns mattered, just then. Not her worries from all that day. Not her uneasy and growing certainty that she wasn't, after all, so able to unbraid the threads of one kind of longing from another. That was so easy to ignore, to bury underneath how much she liked the taste of his mouth and his hand on her hip and her hands running over every warm inch she could find.

Idiot, she thought again. And she was, a greedy one besides. That, also, she didn't seem to mind. She found she was leaning closer, as close, really, as she could get. Suddenly feeling terribly confined, and too far away.

[Aremu Ediwo]

Evening, 29 Hamis, 2720
The Ibutatu House, Isla Dzum

Aurelie’s hands traced invisible patterns over him. Aremu was kissing her, and she was kissing back. His hand held on at her hip, and then slid free, wandering up along her back, finding the familiar shape of it, the soft bumps of her spine and ribs.

His fingers threaded through her hair; it was soft around his hand, with no salt water in it any longer, no dampness, all clean and dry and even softer than he had imagined. He eased away from her lips, kissing softly along her face, finding her earlobe, the line of her jaw, her neck.

She was almost on top of him by then, her hands both trembling against his bare torso. Once, more than once, Aremu thought - she was soft and yielding beneath his lips and his hands. He liked very much what they were doing; he knew there was no urgency.

His hand came down to her side, careful and gentle. “May I?” He whispered against her jaw, his thumb lightly stroking the edges of her torso, just shy of her. If she let him, his hand would shift over, gently cupping her through her top. He didn’t try to take it off and bear her skin to him, just enjoyed the softness of it, the little noises of her enjoyment, resuming his kissing as he did so, more than a little enthusiastic.

He thought they would burst into flames together, would catch up and alight; he didn’t know who was the tinder and who was the match. He felt as if either of them might strike at any moment, and that would be the end of it, of him, of them, in a way that scared him as much as it felt right.

It didn’t happen; whatever he feared or wanted didn’t happen. His lips eased away from hers, with a few last lingering kisses; he pressed them to her forehead, his hand gently easing away as well.

Aurelie bustled off with the dishes; she came back in her nightgown, and it helped him not in the least, all that soft long fabric. The bandaging helped somewhat more, Aurelie wrapping up his shoulder and his head, carefully.

They lay down together; Aremu curled around her, pulling her into his arms. He didn’t draw her back against him as much as he might have, not wanting to make her uncomfortable, though he thought - by now - she must have known. He kissed what was there, softly, the edges of her cheek and her jaw line, and her neck, lightly. He lay down, then, as if closing his eyes would make it easier, all her soft warmth in his arms and his heart.

“Sweet dreams, Aurelie,” Aremu said, his voice still hoarse, the strain he felt the very least of it. If there was some of him which wanted her to turn around and kiss him again, there was as much or more just grateful to hold her. He would sleep, Aremu thought, or he wouldn’t; either way, he would be there with her, and it was more than he should have asked for.