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[specialmonster]

They got together on most of Elle's nights off now, usually at her apartment. They had tried going out for dinner once, but it had ended up being more awkward than anything else, really. Talking to one another still wasn't their strong point. At least if they were at her apartment, they could give up on the pretenses of dinner and conversation more

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[specialmonster]

He couldn't help with the awkwardness, he had kept himself away from other people, from real interaction for so long that he had almost forgotten how to do it properly. More than almost. But he was trying to keep himself in check, trying not to scare her off. But there were times where he slipped up. Sometimes he drank too much and would stare at her too long, not at all masking the deep, dark desire in his eyes. He knew he should stop doing things like biting her, marking her, claiming her, even if she hadn't told him not to. Seeing those bruises on her neck calmed him a way he couldn't quite explain, like reassuring to himself that she was his. No matter who she undressed for, what she did at work, she was his, no one else's.

He had to be careful though. If he let on too much, she'd hate him, just like every other woman in his life and for some reason the thought of that...really bothered him. He didn't want her to hate him. But he tried not to dwell on it too much. It would happen eventually, and he would deal with it when it did like he always did.

Still, those dark thoughts were eased, at least momentarily, when she opened the door, her soft voice drawling. "Hey yourself," He muttered softly.

[electrocutesy]

"C'mere," she whispered, and reached to curl her fingers into the lapel of his familiar, worn jacket. It was easy for Elle to pull herself against him, her petite figure scooting to avoid the pizza box and her head tipping back and her eyes falling closed to give him a lingering kiss.

She hated it a little that she waited to do that all day now. That even as she caked cover-up on her marred neck and glared at the other girls that gave her knowing looks and snickers, even as she danced for other men of the sloppingly drunk, disgusting variety, and even as her regular customers smiles dropped if they noticed Gabriel's stupid bite marks and shattered their goddamn illusions, this was what she wanted to do at the end of the day.

Kiss her lover.

[specialmonster]

He was more than happy to lean in, returning the lingering kiss, deepening it as he brushed his tongue against her lips.

If he admitted it, he had been waiting for it all day too. As he focused on a particularly old pocket watch, trying to get it to run perfectly once again, all he could think of was her. Her lips, her soft body pressed against him, even the smell of her perfume.

It was like she had infected his mind.

[electrocutesy]

She thought about him too much; she knew this. It was a regular cliche love story, and she hated those. She woke up thinking of him, always momentarily disappointed when his body wasn't next to hers the nights he didn't come over. She thought of him trying to fall asleep, even if he wasn't holding her as she did so. She thought of him at work, her mind drifting as she went through the motions. It was unhealthy. An unwelcome distraction. And it was showing in her tips.

He was making her soft. And yet she let him. Even enjoyed it, like she was now. Enjoyed parting her lips for him, her tongue reaching to caress his teasingly before she pulled away with a pleased sigh and a smile. "After you," she said softly, moving to the side to let him up the stairs and into the kitchen first.

[specialmonster]

He smiled as he made his way up the stairs, knowing his way around her apartment by now. He smiled more now when he was with her. He used to never smile, never laugh, the most was maybe a small smirk or a chuckle (except when he was killing, that was a different matter) but he was changing now. She was making him...lighter somehow. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not. But he didn't try to stop it either.

"I got double cheese and pepperoni, just like you asked," He said, placing the box down on her table.

[electrocutesy]

"Mmm," she hummed in approval, only a step or two behind him. She was smiling too, straining up on her tip toes to rest her chin on his shoulder, her hands clutching at the soft leather of his jacket for balance. "All the better to kiss you with bad breath later," she teased, her eyes lingering too long on the indent of his smile. She liked making him smile, ever since he did that first time, that first night. And it was easy to like it. Too easy lately to feel comfortable with him, even if the mood always had the potential to abruptly change at the drop of an annoying dime.

She knew she had keep this under control. Keep her... feelings in check. But it was hard. It was so hard it made her angry.

[specialmonster]

"No, I'll just make you brush your teeth first before kissing me," He teased back, turning his head to press a small, brushing kiss against her lips. It was nice...just being with her like this, like a real, normal couple instead of a stripper and a serial killer (not that she was ever going to know that's what he really was). He liked that she smiled for real for him, not those fake hollow smiles she gave her customers. The ones she gave for him, and only him, reached her eyes which practically sparked blue when she's really happy.

It wasn't going to last, but it was nice for now.

[electrocutesy]

Her giggle was breathy, her lips quirked up as he kissed them. The softness of the kiss melted her a little, and her hips leaned into him; her hands fell to rest lightly on his back, her eyes hooded. She did smile for real for him. Was now as she buried her face against the cut of his shoulder blade. "I'll attack your mouth first. Won't even see it coming," she threatened.

[specialmonster]

"You're going to kiss attack me?" He asked with a quirked brow as he served some of the pizza on each of their plates. "I guess I'll have to be extra vigilante then to make sure it didn't happen." Though truthfully, he didn't care if she kissed him with bad breath or not. He just liked her kissing her.

[electrocutesy]

"Good luck, hot shot," she drawled, struggling to temper her smile in her usual taunting smirk. Even though he couldn't see it. Even though her eyes were still bright. "I'm fast," she warned melodramatically, and punctuated her point by slapping one of butt cheeks and flouncing away quickly to get drinks from the fridge.

It wasn't okay. It just wasn't okay that he was bringing her out behind her cynical, bitchy mask. Bringing out some part of her she never knew was still alive.

[specialmonster]

Well, it was equally unfair that she was making him smile and feel happy and light in a way that he couldn't honestly remember ever feeling before. It wasn't fair, but it seemed like they would both just have to learn how to cope with that, one way or another.

"I guess I'll just have to be quicker," He quipped back, bringing the plates out into the living room.

[electrocutesy]

"I'd like to see you try," she said, her tone careless and unimpressed. She grabbed a couple of beers, plopping down on the couch and setting them down with their plates. Her smirk still lingered as she reach for her plate, settling back into the lived-in cushions and layers of blankets as she took a healthy bite.

[specialmonster]

"I might have to accept that challenge," He mused as he sat down next to her on the couch, his knee pressing against hers. He leaned in and grabbed his beer, popping off the top before taking a drink.

When she first approached him that night at her club, the night he ended up coming in his pants, he never would have expected for them reach such a sense of...normalcy. It was still kind of a shock to him that neither one of them had royally screwed things up yet.

[electrocutesy]

"You're on, Gray," she sung lightly, folding her legs up beneath her and resting them against his thigh. She liked that. His constant warmth and presence. Liked having someone to touch in the simplest and most innocent of ways. It had been a long time since touching like this had meant familiarity. Not money, or sex, or anything simple.

[specialmonster]

It was so easy when they kept things light and simple like this. It was harder when they tried to talk about things that were real. He'd ask her about her family and she'd freeze up, she'd ask about other places he lived and he'd sharply change the subject. They both had things they just didn't want to talk about, and it was a careful dance to avoid them, but when they managed, it was so nice and comfortable like this that it made the rest of it worth it.

He leaned in, pressing a quick kiss against her lips before pulling away to grab his pizza and begin eating it.

[electrocutesy]

"Was that your idea of a warm-up?" she asked, her voice wry as she reached for her own beer to open. She pressed it to her lips and tipped it back to take a drink, then licked her lips clean of the beverage. She couldn't help but tease him. It had fast become her favorite thing to do during the long silences that often grew thick and awkward between them the past few weeks. Teasing was easy. It saved them from those awkward questions. The questions that made something nasty and sharp claw at her insides. The questions he avoided like the plague. He made it so obvious sometimes it aggravated her he kept his stupid secrets to himself.

Sometimes she found herself wanting to ask again instead of moving on to the next topic. Thinking about how he'd clutched at her and made her swear to never hate him. But then she'd remember her own secrets, remembered she couldn't even admit those to herself.

But that wasn't important. She didn't need to know the things he didn't want to share. And for right now, she just took another pointed bite of her pepperoni pizza.