14:00- Sensus
Series: Hunter's Path
Pairing: James/Claudia
Word Count: 1,026
24hour_themes prompt: 14:00 - Building relationships, encouraging understanding and love between people, sexual symmetry
Chapters: Master List
Infitialis | Latere | Abeo | Obsidis | Videlicet | Praesidium | Transitus | Mutatio | Umbra | Terminare | Constantia | Autus | Salvus | Gubernatio | Spero | Animus | Consensio | Discrimen | Consilium | Veritas | Phoebus | Fortuna | Sensus | Victoria
"See, now, something like this could only happen to us," James commented in obvious amusement.
Honestly, she couldn't disagree. There had been no way they were going to find an apartment -- and especially one in a reasonable proximity to the du Prebeau house -- on such short notice, so instead they had decided to rent a hotel room until they found a place. It had seemed easiest to go back to the hotel where they had spent the last two weeks, only leaving yesterday.
The amusing part, though, was that somehow they had ended up in the exact same hotel room as before. What were the odds?
"Is 'kismet' an acceptable answer here?" she hazarded, still not letting go of her bag yet.
James, on the other hand, seemed to have absolutely no qualms about doing just that, letting his drop heavily onto the bed. "Fate?" He frowned briefly in thoughts then shrugged. "It works as well as anything else, I suppose."
"Yeah, I guess."
That same worried frown turned on her, and it was all she could to stand still before it. "Is this okay?" he finally asked. "We can go somewhere else."
She shook her head, finally allowing her bag to hit the floor. "This is fine. We already know it's secure. We'll be okay here till we can find a place of our own." Maybe, for her at least, she was babbling, but she was tired. She was dead tired, no pun intended, and she wasn't too certain that a concerned and solicitous James was one she could handle tonight.
"If you're sure."
"Definitely." She offered a quirky smile at him. "Who are you, and what have you done with my Jamey?" She had said the same thing to him once before in recent memory, only last night, when he had been acting similar to how he was now.
Obviously he also remembered that time, if the smirk on his face was any indication. "It figures. I try to be nice," he echoed his response from earlier, "and I get shot down all over the place."
"Yeah, well, you love it." Privately, she was a bit amazed at herself that that bit of teasing had come from her. She'd never really realized just how much she'd relaxed since she'd been here -- and especially around him.
"Or something -- or rather someone." She turned quickly from her inspection of the room to stare at him. Had he meant it like it sounded like he meant it? Seeing as how he looked like he was kicking himself in his mind, as he usually did when he said something he deemed to be 'sappy', he probably had. Evidentially, though, he decided to go with it, sappy or not. "I was thinking about this earlier." He sank down to sit on the bed, so very obviously uncomfortable that it could almost be funny -- but definitely was not.
Without prompting or even thought on the matter, she crossed the room to sit beside him. She didn't even take the easy insult there, telling herself it would be too easy to take the cheap shot and entirely the wrong time besides that. Instead, she quietly prompted, "About what?"
"About how we've both been dancing around what's happening between us." She opened her mouth to interject -- object -- something -- but he continued before she could say anything. "It's not like we've been ignoring it. God know we haven't been doing that. We just haven't said anything about it, even between ourselves. We haven't..." He trailed off, apparently either running out of steam or floundering on the word he meant -- or both.
She went on the off chance that it was the second option and hazarded a guess on what he might have meant. "Defined it?"
"Yes."
She sighed, glancing down at her hands on her lap. Unless she looked closely and actually stared hard, no one could tell her hands were shaking. She glanced to her side. Jamey's hands were clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles were white. It seemed he was as nervous about all of this as she was. Why couldn't it be simple?
Then again, why couldn't it be? There was nothing in any rules that said this had to be hard or awkward. Decision made, she reached over and covered one of his hands. Once he looked up to meet her eyes, she grinned. "There isn't a lot to definite with us, boytoy. You're mine, I'm yours, and nothing and no one are going to change that. Kismet."
The worry seemed to melt off his face. "Fate, huh?" She shrugged and nodded. Why not? "And what about all of our other problems?"
Again she shrugged. "We've been on our own..." She trailed off to glance at the clock on the bedside table, where it read 2:16 pm in bright red numbers. "We've been on our own for a whole two and a half hours, and no one's tried to kill us yet. I think we're doing pretty good."
Finally, a familiar smirk started to build, and she could just barely hold back a sigh of relief at seeing it now. "Well, this is certainly unusually laid back for you, hero."
She didn't even let herself think and instead just acted. She swung herself over to sit straddling his legs, her arms draped across his shoulders. Automatically, it seemed, his hands came up to rest on her waist, amazingly warm against her body, even through the intervening layer of her shirt. "Maybe you're rubbing off on me," she commented. And was that her voice that sounded so... breathy?
...If she were one for analogies, she might have said he kissed her like a man dying of thirst drinks water -- deeply, thoroughly, and completely -- but she wasn't one for analogies regularly. She especially wasn't trying for one now, when her thoughts were starting to short circuit -- and he was lifting her up without breaking the kiss and settling her back down on the bed with him above her -- and... and... and...
Yeah, wow, this was perfect.
Pairing: James/Claudia
Word Count: 1,026
24hour_themes prompt: 14:00 - Building relationships, encouraging understanding and love between people, sexual symmetry
Chapters: Master List
Infitialis | Latere | Abeo | Obsidis | Videlicet | Praesidium | Transitus | Mutatio | Umbra | Terminare | Constantia | Autus | Salvus | Gubernatio | Spero | Animus | Consensio | Discrimen | Consilium | Veritas | Phoebus | Fortuna | Sensus | Victoria
"See, now, something like this could only happen to us," James commented in obvious amusement.
Honestly, she couldn't disagree. There had been no way they were going to find an apartment -- and especially one in a reasonable proximity to the du Prebeau house -- on such short notice, so instead they had decided to rent a hotel room until they found a place. It had seemed easiest to go back to the hotel where they had spent the last two weeks, only leaving yesterday.
The amusing part, though, was that somehow they had ended up in the exact same hotel room as before. What were the odds?
"Is 'kismet' an acceptable answer here?" she hazarded, still not letting go of her bag yet.
James, on the other hand, seemed to have absolutely no qualms about doing just that, letting his drop heavily onto the bed. "Fate?" He frowned briefly in thoughts then shrugged. "It works as well as anything else, I suppose."
"Yeah, I guess."
That same worried frown turned on her, and it was all she could to stand still before it. "Is this okay?" he finally asked. "We can go somewhere else."
She shook her head, finally allowing her bag to hit the floor. "This is fine. We already know it's secure. We'll be okay here till we can find a place of our own." Maybe, for her at least, she was babbling, but she was tired. She was dead tired, no pun intended, and she wasn't too certain that a concerned and solicitous James was one she could handle tonight.
"If you're sure."
"Definitely." She offered a quirky smile at him. "Who are you, and what have you done with my Jamey?" She had said the same thing to him once before in recent memory, only last night, when he had been acting similar to how he was now.
Obviously he also remembered that time, if the smirk on his face was any indication. "It figures. I try to be nice," he echoed his response from earlier, "and I get shot down all over the place."
"Yeah, well, you love it." Privately, she was a bit amazed at herself that that bit of teasing had come from her. She'd never really realized just how much she'd relaxed since she'd been here -- and especially around him.
"Or something -- or rather someone." She turned quickly from her inspection of the room to stare at him. Had he meant it like it sounded like he meant it? Seeing as how he looked like he was kicking himself in his mind, as he usually did when he said something he deemed to be 'sappy', he probably had. Evidentially, though, he decided to go with it, sappy or not. "I was thinking about this earlier." He sank down to sit on the bed, so very obviously uncomfortable that it could almost be funny -- but definitely was not.
Without prompting or even thought on the matter, she crossed the room to sit beside him. She didn't even take the easy insult there, telling herself it would be too easy to take the cheap shot and entirely the wrong time besides that. Instead, she quietly prompted, "About what?"
"About how we've both been dancing around what's happening between us." She opened her mouth to interject -- object -- something -- but he continued before she could say anything. "It's not like we've been ignoring it. God know we haven't been doing that. We just haven't said anything about it, even between ourselves. We haven't..." He trailed off, apparently either running out of steam or floundering on the word he meant -- or both.
She went on the off chance that it was the second option and hazarded a guess on what he might have meant. "Defined it?"
"Yes."
She sighed, glancing down at her hands on her lap. Unless she looked closely and actually stared hard, no one could tell her hands were shaking. She glanced to her side. Jamey's hands were clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles were white. It seemed he was as nervous about all of this as she was. Why couldn't it be simple?
Then again, why couldn't it be? There was nothing in any rules that said this had to be hard or awkward. Decision made, she reached over and covered one of his hands. Once he looked up to meet her eyes, she grinned. "There isn't a lot to definite with us, boytoy. You're mine, I'm yours, and nothing and no one are going to change that. Kismet."
The worry seemed to melt off his face. "Fate, huh?" She shrugged and nodded. Why not? "And what about all of our other problems?"
Again she shrugged. "We've been on our own..." She trailed off to glance at the clock on the bedside table, where it read 2:16 pm in bright red numbers. "We've been on our own for a whole two and a half hours, and no one's tried to kill us yet. I think we're doing pretty good."
Finally, a familiar smirk started to build, and she could just barely hold back a sigh of relief at seeing it now. "Well, this is certainly unusually laid back for you, hero."
She didn't even let herself think and instead just acted. She swung herself over to sit straddling his legs, her arms draped across his shoulders. Automatically, it seemed, his hands came up to rest on her waist, amazingly warm against her body, even through the intervening layer of her shirt. "Maybe you're rubbing off on me," she commented. And was that her voice that sounded so... breathy?
...If she were one for analogies, she might have said he kissed her like a man dying of thirst drinks water -- deeply, thoroughly, and completely -- but she wasn't one for analogies regularly. She especially wasn't trying for one now, when her thoughts were starting to short circuit -- and he was lifting her up without breaking the kiss and settling her back down on the bed with him above her -- and... and... and...
Yeah, wow, this was perfect.