Relapse

She asks deep questions? "Should I stop?" she asked. She didn't think she should. He may not love talking about this, and really she didn't either because a lot of this subject made her nervous, but it was all helping her understand the lines they were drawing. And to a degree, she thought maybe discussing these things out loud with someone like her, someone who was trying very hard not to be scared or judgy, was helping him. She frowned at that last thought. "You mean no one has ever thought to ask you this stuff?" Maybe because it's scary. And he just happened to find someone who liked to face down her fears head on.


"Well, that's another loophole then, huh? If I don't know what I want, you could fall right through that uncertainty. Good thing we're being honest with each other." If she was unsure of something she could always just say so. And he could always just respect it. So far he'd made it clear that he respected her and her boundaries.

She looked down when he said he wasn't sure. "Wrong answer man," she nudged him, smiling gently. "You're line is: Yes, I saw you across the store and couldn't look away." She winked at him, ignoring the little sad skip in her stomach.



"So if it isn't the physical that attracts you, then what is it? Smell, sound? Aura?" She was smiling because he was complimenting her beautifully, whether he realized it or not. And the lower his voice dropped, as though he were sharing secrets with her in a crowded room not on an empty roof top, the sweeter he sounded. Like poetry.


He lifted her hair, then, the long strands going to his face and he sniffed. She smiled at his sheepish grin. Her hair fell back across her shoulder and she touched it, wondering what she smelled like to him. And then she decided she wouldn't ask because that sounded like a question for a predator. She wanted to remember that he was a predator but she didn't want him to feel like one around her.



I spent more time than not under the water.

She couldn't even fathom what it must be like to be able to be under the water all of the time. What was it like to hold your breath and just stay down? He was whispering and she started to lean in closer to hear him better and then he put his arm around her, his hand covering her ear. At first, she began to resist the touch, confused by what he was doing, until he continued to speak and she relaxed into his hand.

His breath tickled Cat's ear when he spoke into it. It sent a shiver of delightful chills sweeping over her skin. She fought a shiver. Lochlann covered her other ear now too and the world suddenly sounded like she was hearing it through earphones that had no sounds pumping in. She could hear her own blood whooshing through her veins and the echo of his hand touching her head. And then he made the sound. Like a dolphin, which would have been delightful to hear except it echoed back to her muffled ears.

Caitlin did shiver this time. It would have been visible but since he was touching her there was no hiding it, he would have felt it under his hands. She started to reach up to hold his hands there but he dropped them. She looked around at him and her eyes were wide with surprise. She was surprised that he had shared that with her at all.



She smiled. "Maybe I'm just a very vibrant person, Lochlann." She pressed her lips together into a line, trying to tame her smile. "I think," she said, heart hammering at his nearness, "that I will always wear this lotion when you are around."

Caitlin laughed. "Lochlann, those are simultaneously the worst and the best pick up lines I have ever heard. Ever." she put a hand on his face as if to push him away mockingly. Instead she let her fingers trail his cheek and drop back down to her lap, the laughter finally subsiding. Cat really loved how much she laughed around him. It felt as if the blinds had been drawn up. Before, she had light but with him the light was brilliant.

It's just...you, I think.

This answer surprised her. It also pleased her very much. That was exactly the sort of answer a girl wants.

And then suddenly he spoke as if he were reading a poem. His words were sweet, murmured low near her ear and they had a sweet melody to them. For someone who was so obviously embarrassed by his love of poetry, he was certainly adept at it. She rather liked it. His head rested against hers and she found herself staring straight ahead at her feet, un-moving because she thought if she moved he might move his head away and she really didn't want that.

His breath on her ear, the hair tickling across her neck, was sending waves of chills marching over her skin, running up her neck. "That's probably the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me."

His words were incredibly intense and she had half a second where she wondered if she should ask if this was a horsey sort of draw that he couldn't help, but when she turned, moving her head away, his finger gently touched her jaw and she froze. She let him tilt her chin up, bringing their faces very near each other, but then he stopped. Waiting.

His eyes were asking her permission. Her mouth was suddenly very dry. She had already told him she wouldn't say no right now and still he was asking her permission, pausing this too-close-to-the-edge moment and waiting. It warmed her in her core.

Caitlin didn't give him permission. She didn't bother to waist that second. She leaned into him and pressed her lips against his, her free hand coming up to rest on his chest for balance. Her eyes fluttered close, fingers curling into his shirt.

Lochlann’s hand came up to cup her face and she nestled her cheek against that hand. He scooted closer and she turned more, her fingers tightened in his shirt, drawing him in as he moved until the front of their bodies met lightly and her stomach fluttered nervously.

Kissing him was like kissing any other person, except better. Cat had shared a few kisses before and none of them had been bad but none of them had been so sweetly right. But what surprised her was that he really was like kissing a boy, not a storybook creature come to life. It shouldn’t shock her, he smells like a man, feels like a man, and looks like a man, but he’d spent so much of the little time they’d known each other emphasizing his otherness that she’d expected otherness now.

Lochlann kept the kiss almost lusty but still painfully chaste. She was sure he was holding back to prove to her, and to himself, that he could just kiss her without it meaning his otherness was rising. It both flattered her and frustrated her but Caitlin was unwilling to push their luck. He had the driver’s seat on this one, even if she’d started the car.

It was a sweetly perfect first kiss and when he pulled back to break the kiss, Cat followed him a few centimeters, holding the kiss just a few seconds longer. When he rested his forehead against hers, she smiled, exhaling a soft sigh. Cat opened her eyes and found him smiling too and her smile grew.

Well, I am certainly not going to complain if you wear that lotion again.

She let go of a breath laugh. “If you like the lotion that much maybe I shouldn’t even bring up the shampoo or perfume.” She twisted around, turning her body away from him and leaning back to rest her back against his chest. Reaching for his hands, she cautiously drew them over her own and around her, holding him lightly enough that he could move away.

“Thank you,” she said, settling against him. “For sharing with me, letting me in. I know that none of this has been very easy for you and I’m flattered.”


OOC: I lost my first post. I was steaming mad. XD

"Clearly," she snickered, enjoying the vibrations of his laughter on her shoulder. ßhe opened her eyes to find that she wasn't nearly äfriad to be sitting on rooftop as she had been just last time. She wasn't really ready to walk right up to the edge again but her fear had subsided some being here with him.

She smiled faintly when he called her a bookworm.

"Hm?" She turned slightly to look at home. A portrait. I'm a painter," she replied to his unspoken question. She could sense his curiosity and she was more then willing to oblige. "Mostly nature. I like to paint sunsets and seascapes and mountains. But with the telekinesis, and more with melanokinesis, I find sketching in ink comes so easy to me."

His belief in her, even when he'd nevêr seen her work, was fortifying. She turned her face away, looking at the building edge again. "I've drawn you," she admitted. She blushed at the memory. She'd been researching all evening, taking notes and deciphering everything she could about him, and she had fallen asleep at her desk. When she'd awaken, though she couldn't remember dreaming at all, there were pages of Lochlanns face around her. Sometimes her ability, mentally based as it was, took hold of her dreams. She didn't say this, of course. It was embarrassing enough to be dreaming of him.

"Maybe I'll show you if you stick around long enough," she teased.

She wanted to ask him to tell her a happy story about himself but she was afraid there hadn't been enough happiness.

"So, you have some wild rumors that fly around your name. What is the most wild one you've heard and what is the most wild one that's actually true?"


"I'm glad," he said. "That you aren't cursed, that you know what you can do with it. I'm excited to see what you accomplish."[/QUOTE]