(Untitled)

[stirthingsapart]

The house was dark and silent as Thom made her way slowly down the hallway, avoiding the spots in the floor that creaked - she had memorized those long ago, and the knowledge came back to her instantly - and only praying that no one came down the hallway before she found herself in the safety of Henri's room. The danger was much different than it

Comments

[butcivilization]

"Thom." Henri chuckled as she appeared, rising from where he had sat on the bed, legs tucked under him as he read. He was still dressed, but barely, only wearing his shirt and trousers. He was shaking his head as he went to her. "You shouldn't be here, you silly girl," he chided, grinning all the same. "It isn't safe."

[stirthingsapart]

"Everyone is drunk on champagne and asleep by now," Thom said, putting her arms around his waist; being able to touch him again felt like drawing breath after being underwater. "There is no danger. And even if there was, I would judge it worth the risk." After all, any consequences that arose from being caught would last only a day, at the most. Then they would be back on the island, where no one would bat an eye at the fact they shared a home and a bed.

"It's cold," she said and pressed closer, though it was June and the night was barely chilly. "You should warm me up."

[butcivilization]

"Your pretense is laughable," Henri told her with a twinkle in his eye. He cupped her face and kissed her tenderly, marveling at how starved he felt after being near her for a day and unable to do something even so simple as press his lips to hers. "But now that you are here, I can hardly chase you back to your bedroom, now can I?" He let his fingers trail through her hair. "That would be terribly rude of me."

[stirthingsapart]

"Unforgivable," Thom agreed, kissing him again and burying her face in his neck for a moment, wanting as much of his skin as she could manage and too impatient to wait for it. "I suggest you not entertain the thought a moment longer." She pressed him back towards the bed until he had to sit, and wasted not a moment in clambering into his lap. "Better," she said, and put her arms about his neck. "How have you been managing, darling?"

[butcivilization]

"Vixen," Henri accused as she landed in his lap, smothering a laugh in her kiss. "Shhh, if you are to stay, you must make some effort to be quiet." He tried to sound stern, but his grin made it impossible.

He rested his hands at her hips, letting his nose nudge against hers. "Mm, I have been managing well, don't you think? I did survive dinner with your family, after all." His next kiss lingered tantalizingly. "I would say I have earned a prize, but you are already here."

[stirthingsapart]

"You have been doing wonderfully," Thom praised him, settling more firmly onto his lap, running a hand through his hair. "Even despite considerable provocation." The thought of Septimus and his behavior that evening was a sobering one, and she sighed, her expression growing more serious for a moment. "I'm sorry about Septimus," she said. "I'm not sure what's gotten into him. He is usually much more agreeable; under any other circumstance I would think you two would get along wonderfully."

[butcivilization]

"Hush," Henri murmured, shaking his head. "I suppose he had reason enough to dislike me. I cannot blame him. Besides, he did no lasting harm, I promise." He was a little disappointed that circumstances had not allowed him to get to know the side of the man that Thom had more commonly spoken of - the scientist and the scholar with whom he could have exchanged debate and shared ideas. But that was not to be.

This was not the time for such things. Henri pushed her back on the bed and leaned over her to kiss her once again. "Why don't we leave that aside for now?" he whispered, smiling at her lips.

[stirthingsapart]

"Have I told you lately that you are as wise as you are handsome?" Thom grinned and pulled him closer, kissing him thoroughly. Despite the evening's oddities, despite the day's few moments of unpleasantness, she was so radiantly happy at having gotten something she had never thought possible - a day at home with Henri, a chance to see her family and Sidley Park again - that she could do nothing but bask in their good fortune, in all the tiny happinesses that the day had brought, capped by a night in Henri's arms. "I love you," she murmured, running her hands under the hem of his shirt and across the warm expanse of his back.

[butcivilization]

"You tell me often and leave me wondering which part of such a statement is the more foolish one. Mmm..." Reluctantly he pulled away from her in order to remove his glasses and put them on the bedside table. In a moment he was back in her arms. "And I love you," he murmured, returning her kiss with a lingering one of his own and letting his hands run over body. "I love how happy being here makes you..."

[stirthingsapart]

"I would not be half so happy if you weren't here with me," Thom replied, twining one of her legs around his and pressing kisses to his mouth, his cheek, his temple. "I couldn't possibly have asked for more than this. The chance for you to meet my family, the chance to introduce them to the man I love..." She kissed him properly, then, a little restless beneath him. "And the knowledge that we will be returning home at the end." That particular aspect was not without a certain kind of bittersweetness, it was true. But all in all the advantages the island held could not be matched by a sentimental attachment to home.

[butcivilization]

Henri let the kiss linger and deepen, his eyes slipping shut as he lost himself in it. But once it ended, he pulled back slightly, his expression serious. "Are you truly happy that we will be returning, and so soon?" He held no real fears or qualms about Thom's feelings on the matter. This was her home. There was a fine chance these few days would be the last time she would see her family. If she was sad to leave, he could not blame her for that.

[stirthingsapart]

Thom sighed and stilled for a moment, letting her hand rest at the small of his back while she gave thought to his question. It was not the first time she had asked herself that; as soon as they'd arrived, she'd realized that they would have to leave, and she could not help but wonder what toll that would take.

"I am," she said after a moment, and smiled at him not without a trace of solemnity. "I have missed home - you, more than anyone, know how much - but the costs of staying here would be great." Aside from all that she would leave behind on the island, she was hardly ignorant of the fact that she and Henri could never truly be together here, not the way they were accustomed to. Or if they did run away and marry, it would cost her nothing less than her home and family, and then what would it have all been for, in the end? "Better by far to go back to our little island. There is much here that I will be sad to leave behind, but I have a life to return to." She smiled and kissed him, the truth of the words sweet on her tongue.

[butcivilization]

"All right," Henri murmured. "Good. I am glad, though I would surely understand if you were more melancholy on the matter." He kissed her more gently than before. In this strange version of her home she had no threat of death, nothing keeping her from living her life amongst her family - save, of course, the island's magic. "I do hope that you might somehow win this opportunity again in some small way." As happy as they were on the island, the alternative seemed quite unfair.

Serious matter thus dispensed with, Henri sunk down again, closing his eyes as he kissed her. "I love you," he whispered, running his hand up her thigh and murmuring her name.

[stirthingsapart]

"I love you too," Thom murmured before losing herself in the kiss, in the feel of him above her and his hands on her skin. Curious, she thought absently, that even after a full day spent at Sidley Park this should be the moment that she finally felt perfectly and utterly at home. She tugged his shirt up over his head, eager for the familiar feel of his skin against hers. "Though you do seem to be a bit of a scoundrel, sir," she teased with a sly smile. "Seducing the daughter of the household, on your first night here. Tsk. Not even Lord Byron ever proved so bold." Grinning, she kissed him again.

[butcivilization]

"Now then, let us be accurate," Henri murmured with a soft grin, brushing his lips along her jawline, "the daughter of the household seduced me, and it was long before I set foot here. That makes me not only more bold than Lord Byron, but luckier." He would blush to admit it, but there was something to be said for the fact that there was something illicit about them even being alone together in his guest room at this time of night. Their lovemaking was a secret between them, not a dangerous one, as it would have been were they actually at Sidley Park, but an exciting one all the same.

He ran his hands over her body under her nightgown, relishing the familiar feel of her skin. The fact that he now knew every plane and curve of her body had yet to make exploring it less tantalizing. Soon becoming impatient for more, he helped her tug her nightgown over her head, leaving her bare beneath him.

[stirthingsapart]

"Slander, sir," Thom murmured with a grin, alternating her words with kisses on his mouth, his neck, his clavicle. "It may have been some time ago, but I distinctly remember said seduction being an entirely mutual undertaking." Like most everything they did, they had fallen together so naturally that 'seduction' implied much more effort than had ever been necessary.

"Mmm," she hummed happily as he touched her, her body arching slightly beneath his hands. Soon enough even the little clothing he still wore began to feel like far too much between them, and she pressed him back onto the mattress, switching positions fluidly so that she might straddle his hips and work at the fastenings of his trousers.