Love in a New Light, Chapter Two: Thinks to Think About
Title: Love in a New Light, Chapter 2
Author: Me, anirishtwilight
Pairing: Quil/Claire
Rating: PG-13 for now but the rating might go up later. :]
Warnings: None
Wordcount: Approx. 2,308
Disclaimer: They aren't mine! Even though I love them dearly!
A/N: Claire has just returned to La Push after living in California for 5 years for college. Quil has spent her entire life hiding his feelings from her until the right moment. Now it seems the time is right, but will Claire want what he has to offer?
Chapter 2
The next morning, Claire was awakened from a rather delicious dream she was having by a familiar husky voice in her ear.
“Wake up, Sleepyhead. It’s almost eleven,” and then a chuckle.
She groaned miserably and rolled over, pulling the comforter over her head, “Go away, evil beast.”
The current bane of her existence inched closer to her on the mattress and shook her gently by the shoulder, “Come on, Clairebear, don’t you want to meet your new, gorgeous house? I know you do…”
She grumbled again, burying her face even deeper in the pillow, “In the next century, maybe. For now, this pillow is my home.”
For a moment, she thought the monster was going to leave her be, but when she had just begun drifting off again she felt herself tilting on her axis.
“What the HELL…” she screeched as she was dumped unceremoniously on the floor beside her bed.
A rich laugh filled the room that would have warmed her heart at any other moment than this. “I never said I was going to fight clean.”
Quil leaned over to help her up and handed her a warm cup of coffee when she was finally upright.
“I’ll get you, Quil Ateara. And your little dog too.”
He shook with laughter and pushed her into the kitchen, guiding her stumbled steps assuredly. “What do you want for breakfast, Honey, I’ll make anything.”
“Oh, what are you, Master Chef, now?” she was still feeling rather cranky, but he was un phased and much more amused than was to her liking. “Fine. Eggs.”
As La Push’s own Emeril made Claire her eggs, her mood slowly started warming up into something much more amiable. The mix of coffee and Quil was pulling her out of her “early” morning stupor and reminding her that she really was excited to meet her new house.
As Quil strode off in the direction of the kitchen, Claire took a moment to look at her reflection in the full length mirror propped haphazardly against her closet door. She grimaced at the image staring back at her. Her old UCLA t-shirt, which was extremely comfortable to sleep in, had begun to obtain holes from being worn constantly. Her shiny, pin straight, black hair was falling around her face and down slightly past her shoulders in unattractive tangles from the night’s sleep. Not to mention, the old flannel boxers she had slept in the night before weren’t exactly Victoria’s Secret sexy. She took a moment to at least run a brush through her hair before she joined Quil.
“So, when do you think we can get started on the house?” she said with a yawn, looking at least mildly presentable now with her hair in a smooth ponytail and a hooded sweatshirt over her holey t-shirt.
He turned around and placed the plate of scrambled eggs in front of her with a glass of orange juice, and then propped himself against the counter as she ate, looking very natural in her kitchen. “Well, I’m sure John wouldn’t mind closing a deal with you quick on the thing. He’s been trying to get someone to take it off his hands for a while now. And by quick I mean…somewhere around today,” he laughed. “I’m not saying all the paper work will be official today, but he won’t care if you get started on it. You know how it is around here.”
Claire smiled contentedly. She did know how it was around here, and that was why she was so glad to be back in La Push after 5 years in L.A. Although living in the city certainly had its advantages, there was nothing like the warmth of being in her home town.
“That sounds absolutely perfect. I’m really amped to get started.”
He smiled at her again with a brief, intense emotion flashing through his eyes that she couldn’t quite identify before it disappeared.
“Well, we’ll head right over once you finish your eggs,” he said, and ruffled her hair the way he used to when she was 10.
She wrinkled her nose at him in humor and finished shoveling the eggs into her mouth like a good girl.
----------------------------------
After she was showered and dressed, she and Quil took his truck over to the house in question to take a look at it. She was practically bouncing in her seat she was so excited. The ideas were racing through her head even without having seen the place.
“…and I have a pretty good amount of money saved up from the intern work that I was able to do throughout my college years and then the year of work that I did after graduation. One perk of graduating with honors was getting a great job right out of school. I got more pay than most of the people that were there for years and years before me…which bodes well for my little house project. Especially if you say I’m going to get a good deal on the actual house itself.”
She was rambling again, but it couldn’t be helped considering the fervor building in her chest as they neared Quil’s street which would soon be her street as well. He lived in a small apartment that was a part of a larger house…which wasn’t really saying much in La Push. None of the houses were really what you would call large.
As he turned into the lane, she leaned forward, trying to see around the bend in the street, “Oh my goodness, which one is it?”
He chuckled again, “Geez, Claire, we’re like two seconds away, you can’t hold it together for that long?”
“No! I want to see it now!”
She squealed and hopped out of the truck in a flash when he pulled up to the curb in front of the seriously dilapidated old house. Its wooden siding had greyed with age and neglect, but she could see the potential in it after a fresh coat of paint. The house had a large porch that extended itself in the front with a spindled rail around the perimeter and plenty of space for a swing and furniture. It had large windows and a surprisingly large front door. The yard was covered in large, green trees that were common to the area and gave the plot a great deal of privacy and character. And aside from all of these features that had her excited…it was also the largest house on the street.
She wheeled around and looked at Quil with wide eyes, “You didn’t let on!”
He rocked back on his heels, a small smile on his face and the same emotion in his eyes that she wasn’t able to identify earlier and still wasn’t able to identify now, “Is that to say you like it?”
“Oh God, I love it!”
She ran over and threw herself at him, planting a huge kiss on his lips. She had expected the kiss to be friendly; something that had passed between them numerous times throughout the years whenever she was overly exuberant about something. What she hadn’t expected was for him to pull her to him tightly and crush his lips to hers in a kiss much more passionate than any that she had ever shared with any man, let alone her Quil.
She responded instantly with a gasp, her lips moving with his in surprise, but certainly not refusal. His lips were so hot. Not in the magazine model way but in the running a fever that should melt his brain kind of way. Maybe it was just her own body’s reaction to his that was causing the effect. As she pressed her body closer to his, she could feel that the rest of his body was rather warm as well. His large hands spread out across her back, pulling her as close as they could. When a moan escaped her lips, he broke away, leaving both of them breathing heavily.
“Well. That was unexpected,” she breathed, laughing with what air she had left in her lungs.
He frowned slightly and pulled away a bit, putting her at arms length, “Yeah, sorry. I got a little carried away.”
She returned his frown, turning away. She wished he hadn’t apologized. Did that mean he regretted the kiss?
“No harm, no foul.”
She felt him come up behind her and brush a hand across her hair and then kiss her softly on the cheek, “Let’s check out the inside, okay?”
She was more confused in that moment than she had ever been in her entire life.
“Yeah, okay. Inside.”
----------------------------------------
As Quil kicked through the door, Claire followed behind him, trying to shake the kiss out of her head. She’d try to figure out the meaning of it later…but for now she wanted to go back to enjoying her dream house fantasies.
The entire place was covered in about a 5 inch layer of dark grey dust. That was the first thing she noticed, but after she got past the coughing and laughing fit, she was happy to see that it was a fantastic space. As they walked through the door there was a long hallway ahead of them with various rooms jutting off to the right and left. They were standing in a foyer of sorts (a very small foyer, but a foyer just the same in Claire’s mind).
To the right there was a large room that reached the span of half the house and was separated in the middle by a small frame. One side of the frame marked the dining room and the other side was a reasonably roomy living room. Across from another large opening off of the living room was the door to a small half bathroom.
The entire back of the house was dominated by a kitchen. The kitchen was completely gutted and would have to have all new things put into it…but that didn’t really bother Claire. She couldn’t imagine anything that would have been in here would be useable anyway so having it empty just saved them one more hassle.
Next, Claire and Quil climbed up the small set up stairs to the upper floor. There were two bedrooms and another bathroom with an old fashioned porcelain tub with a shower fixture attached to it. Claire was thrilled, as she loved antiques and would really enjoy restoring the old piece.
After checking out both of the rooms, she stood in the middle of the one she declared would be hers and spun a full circle.
“It’s perfect,” she sighed. “And it’s practically a mansion compared to most of the houses around here…people just didn’t want to take on the hassle of fixing it up?”
“Well, Clairebear, not everyone is big city and rolling in the money like you are, you know.” He said it with a chuckle, but she caught the hint of truth and dismay behind his words.
She walked over to him and circled her arms around his waist. He stiffened at first, which hurt her for reasons she couldn’t put her finger on yet, but then he relaxed and returned the hug.
“Thanks for finding the house for me, Quil.”
“Sure thing, Honey. It will be fun living on the same street as you.”
She sighed again, burying her face in his chest for a moment before pulling away. “Can we check out the back yard?”
He smiled, “Yeah, I think you’ll really like it.”
They climbed carefully back down the stairs-she would definitely have to reinforce them so she didn’t break her neck one of these days if they broke through-and then exited though the back door in the kitchen.
There was a small deck right outside of the door with two steps down into the yard. As she and Quil stepped all the way out on to the weathered wood, she gasped when she took a look at the sight before her.
There was a large pond set about a hundred feet away from the house with large trees surrounding it. The grass needed to be cut and some of the weeds around the pond would need to be trimmed, but the landscape itself was absolutely gorgeous.
“Quil, it’s perfect.”
She turned to find him frowning at her again rather than looking at the yard. She found herself wondering, again, what had crawled up his ass. In her estimation, the kiss they had shared was pretty fantastic. Apparently he didn’t share her feelings on the matter or he wouldn’t be spending every awkward moment since glowering at her.
“Okay, what’s the deal. Why are you looking at me like I kicked your dog?” she lifted her chin defiantly, ready for an argument.
He shook his head, apparently shaken out of whatever thought process he had been wrapped up in, “What are you talking about?”
She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, “Well, since our little passionate smooch in front of my new mansion, you have been acting really strange and I’m wondering if you feel that my kissing skills are really that terrible.”
He looked truly baffled, “No, Claire, it just caught me off guard…”
She lifted an eyebrow at him and smiled, “So it wasn’t bad?”
“Are you serious?” He shook his head incredulously, looking at her as if she had three heads, “The reason I had to stop was because it was so good. I need to think about things.”
Grinning mischievously, Claire took a step up onto the top step of the deck so she could reach his face and planted a short kiss on his lips, “Okay. Think about them, and get back to me. I’ll be thinking too.”
She flashed a brilliant smile over her shoulder before running back into the house, leaving him shaking his head.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 3
Author: Me, anirishtwilight
Pairing: Quil/Claire
Rating: PG-13 for now but the rating might go up later. :]
Warnings: None
Wordcount: Approx. 2,308
Disclaimer: They aren't mine! Even though I love them dearly!
A/N: Claire has just returned to La Push after living in California for 5 years for college. Quil has spent her entire life hiding his feelings from her until the right moment. Now it seems the time is right, but will Claire want what he has to offer?
Chapter 2
The next morning, Claire was awakened from a rather delicious dream she was having by a familiar husky voice in her ear.
“Wake up, Sleepyhead. It’s almost eleven,” and then a chuckle.
She groaned miserably and rolled over, pulling the comforter over her head, “Go away, evil beast.”
The current bane of her existence inched closer to her on the mattress and shook her gently by the shoulder, “Come on, Clairebear, don’t you want to meet your new, gorgeous house? I know you do…”
She grumbled again, burying her face even deeper in the pillow, “In the next century, maybe. For now, this pillow is my home.”
For a moment, she thought the monster was going to leave her be, but when she had just begun drifting off again she felt herself tilting on her axis.
“What the HELL…” she screeched as she was dumped unceremoniously on the floor beside her bed.
A rich laugh filled the room that would have warmed her heart at any other moment than this. “I never said I was going to fight clean.”
Quil leaned over to help her up and handed her a warm cup of coffee when she was finally upright.
“I’ll get you, Quil Ateara. And your little dog too.”
He shook with laughter and pushed her into the kitchen, guiding her stumbled steps assuredly. “What do you want for breakfast, Honey, I’ll make anything.”
“Oh, what are you, Master Chef, now?” she was still feeling rather cranky, but he was un phased and much more amused than was to her liking. “Fine. Eggs.”
As La Push’s own Emeril made Claire her eggs, her mood slowly started warming up into something much more amiable. The mix of coffee and Quil was pulling her out of her “early” morning stupor and reminding her that she really was excited to meet her new house.
As Quil strode off in the direction of the kitchen, Claire took a moment to look at her reflection in the full length mirror propped haphazardly against her closet door. She grimaced at the image staring back at her. Her old UCLA t-shirt, which was extremely comfortable to sleep in, had begun to obtain holes from being worn constantly. Her shiny, pin straight, black hair was falling around her face and down slightly past her shoulders in unattractive tangles from the night’s sleep. Not to mention, the old flannel boxers she had slept in the night before weren’t exactly Victoria’s Secret sexy. She took a moment to at least run a brush through her hair before she joined Quil.
“So, when do you think we can get started on the house?” she said with a yawn, looking at least mildly presentable now with her hair in a smooth ponytail and a hooded sweatshirt over her holey t-shirt.
He turned around and placed the plate of scrambled eggs in front of her with a glass of orange juice, and then propped himself against the counter as she ate, looking very natural in her kitchen. “Well, I’m sure John wouldn’t mind closing a deal with you quick on the thing. He’s been trying to get someone to take it off his hands for a while now. And by quick I mean…somewhere around today,” he laughed. “I’m not saying all the paper work will be official today, but he won’t care if you get started on it. You know how it is around here.”
Claire smiled contentedly. She did know how it was around here, and that was why she was so glad to be back in La Push after 5 years in L.A. Although living in the city certainly had its advantages, there was nothing like the warmth of being in her home town.
“That sounds absolutely perfect. I’m really amped to get started.”
He smiled at her again with a brief, intense emotion flashing through his eyes that she couldn’t quite identify before it disappeared.
“Well, we’ll head right over once you finish your eggs,” he said, and ruffled her hair the way he used to when she was 10.
She wrinkled her nose at him in humor and finished shoveling the eggs into her mouth like a good girl.
----------------------------------
After she was showered and dressed, she and Quil took his truck over to the house in question to take a look at it. She was practically bouncing in her seat she was so excited. The ideas were racing through her head even without having seen the place.
“…and I have a pretty good amount of money saved up from the intern work that I was able to do throughout my college years and then the year of work that I did after graduation. One perk of graduating with honors was getting a great job right out of school. I got more pay than most of the people that were there for years and years before me…which bodes well for my little house project. Especially if you say I’m going to get a good deal on the actual house itself.”
She was rambling again, but it couldn’t be helped considering the fervor building in her chest as they neared Quil’s street which would soon be her street as well. He lived in a small apartment that was a part of a larger house…which wasn’t really saying much in La Push. None of the houses were really what you would call large.
As he turned into the lane, she leaned forward, trying to see around the bend in the street, “Oh my goodness, which one is it?”
He chuckled again, “Geez, Claire, we’re like two seconds away, you can’t hold it together for that long?”
“No! I want to see it now!”
She squealed and hopped out of the truck in a flash when he pulled up to the curb in front of the seriously dilapidated old house. Its wooden siding had greyed with age and neglect, but she could see the potential in it after a fresh coat of paint. The house had a large porch that extended itself in the front with a spindled rail around the perimeter and plenty of space for a swing and furniture. It had large windows and a surprisingly large front door. The yard was covered in large, green trees that were common to the area and gave the plot a great deal of privacy and character. And aside from all of these features that had her excited…it was also the largest house on the street.
She wheeled around and looked at Quil with wide eyes, “You didn’t let on!”
He rocked back on his heels, a small smile on his face and the same emotion in his eyes that she wasn’t able to identify earlier and still wasn’t able to identify now, “Is that to say you like it?”
“Oh God, I love it!”
She ran over and threw herself at him, planting a huge kiss on his lips. She had expected the kiss to be friendly; something that had passed between them numerous times throughout the years whenever she was overly exuberant about something. What she hadn’t expected was for him to pull her to him tightly and crush his lips to hers in a kiss much more passionate than any that she had ever shared with any man, let alone her Quil.
She responded instantly with a gasp, her lips moving with his in surprise, but certainly not refusal. His lips were so hot. Not in the magazine model way but in the running a fever that should melt his brain kind of way. Maybe it was just her own body’s reaction to his that was causing the effect. As she pressed her body closer to his, she could feel that the rest of his body was rather warm as well. His large hands spread out across her back, pulling her as close as they could. When a moan escaped her lips, he broke away, leaving both of them breathing heavily.
“Well. That was unexpected,” she breathed, laughing with what air she had left in her lungs.
He frowned slightly and pulled away a bit, putting her at arms length, “Yeah, sorry. I got a little carried away.”
She returned his frown, turning away. She wished he hadn’t apologized. Did that mean he regretted the kiss?
“No harm, no foul.”
She felt him come up behind her and brush a hand across her hair and then kiss her softly on the cheek, “Let’s check out the inside, okay?”
She was more confused in that moment than she had ever been in her entire life.
“Yeah, okay. Inside.”
----------------------------------------
As Quil kicked through the door, Claire followed behind him, trying to shake the kiss out of her head. She’d try to figure out the meaning of it later…but for now she wanted to go back to enjoying her dream house fantasies.
The entire place was covered in about a 5 inch layer of dark grey dust. That was the first thing she noticed, but after she got past the coughing and laughing fit, she was happy to see that it was a fantastic space. As they walked through the door there was a long hallway ahead of them with various rooms jutting off to the right and left. They were standing in a foyer of sorts (a very small foyer, but a foyer just the same in Claire’s mind).
To the right there was a large room that reached the span of half the house and was separated in the middle by a small frame. One side of the frame marked the dining room and the other side was a reasonably roomy living room. Across from another large opening off of the living room was the door to a small half bathroom.
The entire back of the house was dominated by a kitchen. The kitchen was completely gutted and would have to have all new things put into it…but that didn’t really bother Claire. She couldn’t imagine anything that would have been in here would be useable anyway so having it empty just saved them one more hassle.
Next, Claire and Quil climbed up the small set up stairs to the upper floor. There were two bedrooms and another bathroom with an old fashioned porcelain tub with a shower fixture attached to it. Claire was thrilled, as she loved antiques and would really enjoy restoring the old piece.
After checking out both of the rooms, she stood in the middle of the one she declared would be hers and spun a full circle.
“It’s perfect,” she sighed. “And it’s practically a mansion compared to most of the houses around here…people just didn’t want to take on the hassle of fixing it up?”
“Well, Clairebear, not everyone is big city and rolling in the money like you are, you know.” He said it with a chuckle, but she caught the hint of truth and dismay behind his words.
She walked over to him and circled her arms around his waist. He stiffened at first, which hurt her for reasons she couldn’t put her finger on yet, but then he relaxed and returned the hug.
“Thanks for finding the house for me, Quil.”
“Sure thing, Honey. It will be fun living on the same street as you.”
She sighed again, burying her face in his chest for a moment before pulling away. “Can we check out the back yard?”
He smiled, “Yeah, I think you’ll really like it.”
They climbed carefully back down the stairs-she would definitely have to reinforce them so she didn’t break her neck one of these days if they broke through-and then exited though the back door in the kitchen.
There was a small deck right outside of the door with two steps down into the yard. As she and Quil stepped all the way out on to the weathered wood, she gasped when she took a look at the sight before her.
There was a large pond set about a hundred feet away from the house with large trees surrounding it. The grass needed to be cut and some of the weeds around the pond would need to be trimmed, but the landscape itself was absolutely gorgeous.
“Quil, it’s perfect.”
She turned to find him frowning at her again rather than looking at the yard. She found herself wondering, again, what had crawled up his ass. In her estimation, the kiss they had shared was pretty fantastic. Apparently he didn’t share her feelings on the matter or he wouldn’t be spending every awkward moment since glowering at her.
“Okay, what’s the deal. Why are you looking at me like I kicked your dog?” she lifted her chin defiantly, ready for an argument.
He shook his head, apparently shaken out of whatever thought process he had been wrapped up in, “What are you talking about?”
She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, “Well, since our little passionate smooch in front of my new mansion, you have been acting really strange and I’m wondering if you feel that my kissing skills are really that terrible.”
He looked truly baffled, “No, Claire, it just caught me off guard…”
She lifted an eyebrow at him and smiled, “So it wasn’t bad?”
“Are you serious?” He shook his head incredulously, looking at her as if she had three heads, “The reason I had to stop was because it was so good. I need to think about things.”
Grinning mischievously, Claire took a step up onto the top step of the deck so she could reach his face and planted a short kiss on his lips, “Okay. Think about them, and get back to me. I’ll be thinking too.”
She flashed a brilliant smile over her shoulder before running back into the house, leaving him shaking his head.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 3