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[prydeful]

They don't have sex all that much.

Sorta.

Kinda.

Ish.

...They have a healthy sex life, let's say, which is slightly healthier than normal when one of them hasn't seen the other for a month. (Even if the other hadn't seen his girlfriend for only a few days.)

But there are other things, too, and the post-coitus bit is just as nice as the coitus itself. Kate thinks so, anyway, as she lies curled up on her boyfriend, head on his chest and fingers drifting across said chest, his arm, his shoulder, back to his chest again.

His breathing is slow and even, far more so of both than it was a few minutes ago, and it makes her smile and kiss a spot near his collarbone to see how relaxed he is.

Comments

[steelartisan]

"Mmmmm," says Piotr, exceedingly eloquently, and tips his head to smile at her.

Whatever other things they have to think about, so much of the time -- their world, their friends, the possibilities they've only half-spoken of -- well, this kind of mood is very helpful for not thinking about very much at all.

[prydeful]

"Mmhmm," she agrees, and plants open-mouthed kisses to his jaw for a few moments.

"Much more fun than just thinking on you and taking care of myself for a month," Kate says contentedly, body pressing somewhat deliberately against Piotr's for a moment.

It was a month.

[steelartisan]

"I am glad to help," he says peaceably.

And then, with a smile that wants to be rueful but mostly succeeds at laziness, "It is not a very convenient time difference."

Well. It is for him, at least if no crises happen here.

But that's not the diplomatic thing to say.

[prydeful]

"I noticed."

That's just barely wry--it's hard to manage wry when you're nestled against your very warm lover--as Kate lifts her head enough to glance at him.

"Your help is always welcome to make up for the wait," she murmurs and shifts enough to pres a soft kiss to his mouth.

"But it was a pretty long wait."

[steelartisan]

Kissing he can do.

This one's just as soft as the last, and just as contented, but lasts rather longer.

"I love you, Katya," he murmurs when it breaks, and brushes back strands of her hair. (They were tickling his nose. But that's not the reason for the gesture.)

[prydeful]

"Love you too."

And that's softer than it normally is, as she looks down at him.

"An awful lot. Just for the record."

She rolls a little off of him after a moment and leaves half her body draped across him.

It's comfortable.

"Wish we could just stay like this forever," Kate adds, feeling slightly more wistful than normal.

[steelartisan]

Piotr doesn't mind being a mattress for his girlfriend.

Really, really doesn't mind.

He doesn't answer aloud, because he doesn't need to. Just makes a low sound of agreement in his chest, and shifts fractionally to tuck her more comfortably against him.

(He's feeling utterly -- almost utterly -- contented; he's also trying to hold onto that feeling for as long as he can, because with that wistfulness an awareness of the world outside this bunk is slowly drifting back.)

[prydeful]

"Really did miss you."

That's just whispered before she closes her eyes and rests her head in the crook of neck and shoulder.

"Feels more like home with you."

[steelartisan]

"Missed you too."

"Is strange to be at the Mansion without you," he adds to the ceiling, feeling her hair tickle his jaw and spill across his shoulder. With half a smile, "No one else walks through the door and knocks after."

[prydeful]

"That's because no one else has my sense of style."

Or mutation.

Whatever.

"I know, though." And that's just quiet. "It was strange without you."

[steelartisan]

Piotr turns his head to look at her a little more.

What he sees is the top of her head, tangled damp brown hair, and the blurred foreshortened curves of ear and jaw. But that's not really the point; the point is that he's not asking, but he's listening.

[prydeful]

"I came back. And you were gone."

She never forgets Piotr was dead.

Never.

"It felt like everyone kept dying all around me. You and Moira and Daddy and--and the ands could go on, but. After a while all the ands felt like too much."

[steelartisan]

Piotr Rasputin died, she shouted at him when she found him alive in that awful red-lit room, and I know this because I carried his ashes to Russia and scattered them myself!

Piotr knew exactly what he was doing when he injected himself with the Legacy cure and triggered that chemical reaction. Knew what, and why.

He doesn't forget either.

He has enough ands of his own.

I'm sorry is too complicated to say. (For all her pain -- all of everyone's -- it's true. But that, too, he knew would happen when he did it.) But he can kiss her hair softly, and feel her weight on his chest as he breathes out.

"I know."

And there's an apology of sorts in that, too, unspoken.

[prydeful]

There is.

She sighs after a moment and turns her face into his neck, kisses it after another pause.

"I hated you for that for a while, you know." It's acknowledging the past more than feeling anything like that now, and there's another kiss pressed to skin as she murmurs, "But I understood, too."

And it's the best it's okay she can ever give to any sort of apology.

"You came back, at least."

Lots of people, some she won't ever talk about if she can help it, don't.

[steelartisan]

"Da. I am here."

So many people aren't.

Illyana isn't, and he'll never understand why one and not the other.

But he is, and with Kate, and as terrible as the world is they have things they never had, too. And he loves her.

With another very soft kiss, "You found me."

"I am here, and I will be." As long as it's his to control. There are no guarantees in their lives, but what he can give her he will.

His arms are around her, close and comfortable; his thumb strokes the nape of her neck, slowly, and her hair tangles around his fingers.

[prydeful]

"I found you."

That's soft, and with a smile.

"And then I had to figure out what to do with you."

It's teasing as she lifts her head to kiss him, deeply.

"This was a good choice, I think."

[steelartisan]

"I," Piotr informs her very serenely indeed, "am not complaining."

[prydeful]

"If you were, I'd have to hit you," Kate says, just as serenely, and kisses his forehead a moment later.

"But probably not too hard."

[steelartisan]

Piotr just grins.

He doesn't so much look like there are complaints he's stifling, either.

[prydeful]

"You know, we're kinda pathetic in some ways. Fairy tale romance and all."

That's just musing, as she settles her chin on his shoulder.

[steelartisan]

"There is nothing wrong with romance," he objects lazily.

Anyone surprised to hear that Piotr Rasputin is kind of a romantic at heart? Anyone?

"Does that make you the princess?"

"Or the pirate lady. Luring me with your wiles." Because he resisted so hard. Yes.

[prydeful]

"Pirate ninja princess," she murmurs, and grins against his skin.

"With my tricksy wiles, yes."

There are some very deliberate movements of her leg with that.

"You love my wiles, though."

[steelartisan]

"Da. I do."

Someone might be getting doodled as a pirate ninja princess later.

(Someone might be having fingertips tracing vaguely tiara-like shapes on her shoulder right now.)

"You have tricked your way through all my defenses. Very fearsome."

[prydeful]

"Princess Katya has a ring to it," she muses, and then she grins as she looks down at her boyfriend.

"Fierce and mighty. That's me. And there's only one way to defeat a pirate ninja princess, you know."

[steelartisan]

"Принцесса Катя," he agrees solemnly, because if she's going to use the Russian pet name she might as well have the title Russian to match.

"Da? Tell me this secret, princess."

If they're in a fairy tale, then there should be helpful exposition, after all.

[prydeful]

"It's very difficult," she says solemnly, and traces swirls on his chest.

"He must win her heart, of course. Utterly and totally and forever. And then he must keep it, and convince her to willingly let him do so."

[steelartisan]

Piotr looks appropriately impressed by the difficulty of this.

This expression does not at all look as if it's hiding a soft half-smile. Anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly crazy.

With equally appropriate gravity, "How would a man accomplish such a quest?"

Just as he's not hiding a fond smile, neither are his hands sliding in light and absent caresses along spine and hip and ribs.

[prydeful]

"Well, for one," she says lazily, "he could move his hands higher."

Kate sometimes thinks it is good to be direct.

"But more than that would be telling. That's part of the quest, you know. You can't be given all the answers. It takes a wise man to figure it out."

[steelartisan]

"Then I will have to be very patient."

And move his hands obediently higher.

"Search for the answers."

And also stretch up, smiling contentedly, to kiss her.

For a while.

[prydeful]

A while's good.

Hands are good too.

Kissing's great.

Kate sighs very contentedly when the kiss breaks, arches into the stroking of Piotr's hand, and whispers, "For how long?"

[steelartisan]

"As long as I need to."

"Maybe a bit more. To make certain."

[prydeful]

Her smile's small, but real.

"Make certain of what?"

There's a hint of teasing to the question, and it's still a question that's asked for an answer.

[steelartisan]

"That I have won the princess's heart."

His smile is just as small, and very warm.

"And that she knows she has mine forever in return."

In this hypothetical fairy tale.

Totally hypothetical.

[prydeful]

Totally.

Kate smiles and snuggles a little closer to his warmth.

"Then what happens?"

Because if it weren't hypothetical--which it is--then someone might assume that those two particular things were taken care of already.

[steelartisan]

"They live happily ever after."

And that part is pure fairy tale.

But it's a nice one.

[prydeful]

"Nice fairy tale."

And it is, but her tone's a little wry as she sighs and flops a little more on her back.

(Her one leg is still hooked over him.)

[steelartisan]

Piotr smiles, a little crookedly, and rolls with her to rest on his side, head pillowed on one folded arm.

The smile fades slowly, though the warmth underneath it doesn't.

(There's something he wants to say.

And he doesn't know whether he should; and part of him is afraid of the answer.

But he wants to.)

[prydeful]

"Hey."

And that's still soft, but it's a little insistent as she looks up him, props her head up just a bit more, and lets one hand move to stroke his hair.

"What is it?"

[steelartisan]

"The ending is for fairy tales," he murmurs, after a minute to smile at her touch and inwardly grasp for words.

This isn't how he pictured doing this.

(He looked for a ring. It's not a Russian custom, but it's the American one. And he wanted to do this properly for her.

He couldn't find any that seemed just right.)

But very little in his life's been how he pictured it, anyway.

"We will not have that part. I know. But -- I am doing this badly."

Carefully, he brushes back her hair, and ghosts the backs of his fingers along her cheek.

(Four words shouldn't be so hard to say.)

"Katya. Will you marry me?"

[prydeful]

It's a conscious effort not to phase into the bed right there.

That would kinda give the wrong message, and she's sure of it.

So Kate stays solid, and a little still, and is very aware of the touch of his fingers on her skin.

Every little girl dreams of being proposed to, she thinks.

She's already been through it once.

And in some ways she feels like she should know what to say, like yes, of course makes sense and should be the only words coming out of her mouth, but.

But.

But the ending's only for fairy tales, and she has him here and now, and it's good. It makes her happy. She likes this, like Piotr the love.

And she knows she has his heart forever

(but what about Zsaji?)

and he has hers.

And that's good. And that's enough.

(she's scared of divorce, just like her daddy and mommy)

And she hates rings.

(Edmund must still have the one he bought her, in his Lion's land.)

Kate realizes, vaguely, that she hasn't actually said anything.

That should probably change.

And so she opens her mouth, and shuts it, and then leans over to kiss Piotr's mouth softly, one hand cupping his cheek.

And then she whispers, "Maybe. I don't know. I just--I don't know. I'm sorry. Let me think about it?"

[steelartisan]

It's not a no.

That's -- it's not a yes either, and he didn't know quite how much he was hoping until his stomach sank at her I don't know.

But it's not a no.

(And even if it were, even if she'd said No, I won't immediately, it doesn't change anything. He knows that. He reminds himself of that.)

"Of course."

"If -- I love you," he adds. "Either way. It's all right."

She said yes to Edmund.

There's no point in thinking of that.

"Think about it."

[prydeful]

And again she finds herself opening her mouth and shutting it, and so Kate sighs and decides on silence for a few minutes.

And it's not a bad sort of silence, if not a horrible comfortable one, as she strokes his dark hair and watches the way her fingers look threading through it.

"I love you too," she whispers finally. "Even if--I don't know, Piotr. I just don't know. But even if I say no, I still love you. Nothing's going to change that."

It's not what happens, and she knows it. (Except of course for lots of people it's happened, it's not like they're the first couple ever, but. But. But.) If you love someone and they love you and you want to be with them forever--

You say yes. That's what you should do.

And she doesn't even for a moment doubt that she loves him, doubt that he loves her, that she wants to be with him.

It's just--

She doesn't even know enough to put it in words.

It's not fair to him, she thinks, and knows, and she still doesn't know what answer to give.

"I'll think about it. I am. Already." And the words are awkward, but the tone's a promise, as she keeps her gaze on him.

"I'm sorry I'm not being very good at this part."

[steelartisan]

"I know."

Because he does.

He wouldn't have ever asked if he didn't.

He caresses her cheek lightly, and very gently. And then, at her last comment, he almost smiles.

"You are Katya. That is all the good I need."

"I surprised you. If you need time, it's all right."

[prydeful]

"Sweetie." That's fond, as she tilts her face into his touch.

And just breathes for a minute.




"Look. Mal mentioned that everyone here's got a standing invite to Shadow. Why don't we--let's go there. For a while. You and me. And we'll talk about some things, and I'll think, and--and I'll figure out my answer. And we'll figure other things out. Okay?"

[steelartisan]

Shadow has fields. And sky, and farmland.

These are things Piotr misses deeply, even when he isn't spending most of his time on a spaceship.

"Okay," he whispers.

He'd say the same no matter where she was suggesting, right now.

But there's maybe a little extra warmth to his small smile, as he leans in enough to kiss her softly and briefly.

"That sounds good."

[prydeful]

"Okay," she whispers back, and kisses him the same way.

And then she rolls the rest of the way onto her back, and she pulls him with her, so his body rests over her own.

"And in the meantime, we can talk about other things too."

And, after she kisses her way down his neck, after he bends to kiss a path across her shoulders, they do just that.

There are all sorts of way to talk.