Welcome Home...now get to class! (Active, Open)

[gettheeadonut]

WHO: Harry Dresden, those who wish to welcome him home
LOCATION: Around the mansion grounds
When: Start of the new semester
WHAT: Harry took off right after the Zombie event and hasn't really talked to anyone since. Now he's returning with some new scars, souvenirs, emotional problems, and a beard of sorrow.
RATING: B for Beard, and T for Take a

Comments

[pickinurpockets]

With a sigh, Rikku headed down to the garage. Now that she was feeling better (she still got headaches and there'd be scars), she'd been spending a lot of time working on her truck and looking at where Harry's car had been, until it'd bothered her so much that she had to move her truck out of the way. She understood why he left, but that didn't make it any better.

She popped the hood on her truck and started tinkering; an hour or two passed before she stopped, and then it was only because she was hungry. The sink was over by where she had been parked next to the Jaguar, and she pointedly didn't look at Harry's old parking spot.

Which explains why she ran smack into the car.

With a squeak, Rikku stopped and stared at the car. How long had it been sitting there? How had she missed it? And why the heck hadn't he come to find her?

"Harry!" Forgetting everything else (though closing her hood and toolbox), Rikku ran out of the garage. "Harry Dresden, where are you?!"

[gettheeadonut]

Eventually Yuri had left and Harry had just enough time for a quick shave, and was currently engaged in the age old debate of How Shower vs Soft Bed with himself when he heard a frantic pounding on his door. Making his way over, and managing to almost kill himself on an open box, Harry managed to survive the minefield his room had become and get to the door.

Pulling it open, his eyes widened as the final piece of his life here slid back into place in his heart. He'd thought he'd missed her in the month he'd been gone, but he'd been wrong. Missed was too small a word for what he'd felt for her.

Now he was home.

"Well now, I don't remember ordering a beautiful woman. I'm afraid I don't have any money. Is there some other way I can pay you?" He teased, but his eyes sparkled with emotion, and he mouthed 'I missed you'

[pickinurpockets]

"You--!"

Laughing, Rikku threw herself at Harry and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You jerk, why didn't you come find me when you got here?" she demanded, peppering his face with kisses. "I missed you."

[gettheeadonut]

Laughing for the first time since that battle with Wesker, Harry took her in his arms and spun her slender body around as she kissed him. "Well, given I was carrying around a crate with a young saber tooth tiger in it, I wanted to get Mister unloaded here before the staff found me." Then he stopped, and leaned down to give her a kiss that showed just how much he had missed her.

[pickinurpockets]

Oh, geez, she'd missed him. Missed his kisses. But mostly him.

Rikku kissed back, standing on her toes to try and alleviate some of the height difference. "I got the presents," she said after pulling away slightly. "I love 'em."

[gettheeadonut]

"I'm glad," he said softly, caressing her cheek with his thumb. "I was thinking about you all the time."

Then his smile turned mischievous. "I do have one other present for you though."

[pickinurpockets]

"Oooh, what what---wait, one sec!"

Rikku ran off to her bedroom and came back with a gift card at a big and tall store for forty bucks, a letter, and an envelope. "These are from me," she said, handing him the first two, "and this is from my family. Y'got like, eighty bucks from the Strongs, which is more than most of the significant others get."

[gettheeadonut]

Waiting patiently for Rikku's return, Harry couldn't help but snort in amusement at the gift card, before giving her a wink. "I think maybe I should let you decide how I spend this, so it doesn't get wasted on jeans and amusing t-shirts."

He held the letter close, wanting to open it, but instead went for the envelope first. His smile softened somewhat when Rikku mentioned how generous her family was being to him, even though they had not even met him yet. In a way their gift symbolized a welcome into their family sphere. Sure they weren't his family, but the fact that they apparently approved of him made him feel a warmth in his chest. "I'll have to write them a thank you note. They really didn't have to do this," he said, that soft smile still on his lips.

[pickinurpockets]

"They think they're paying you back for dealing with me," she explained, rolling her eyes. "They're dorks, really."

Rikku grabbed Harry's arm and just sort of held it. She wasn't letting him out of her sight for at least an hour. "So...what else didja get me, huh?"

[gettheeadonut]

Harry couldn't help but give Rikku a look of exaggerated disbelief. "Are you kidding? If anything I should pay them for giving me such an awesome girl."

Well, she had asked hadn't she? It wasn't right to keep a lady waiting. "This," he said, sliding his hand around her waist and leaning forward to give her a kiss unlike any before, one he poured everything he felt for her into, one he had wanted to give her for over a month, and the one he should have given her on New Years, all mixed together into a very special embrace.

Harry wasn't very good with words, but actions? Actions he could do.

[pickinurpockets]

Wow. Um. Wow. Rikku'd kissed Harry plenty of times before, but...wow. This was something else.

She moved closer, clinging tightly to Harry. She tried to kiss back with just as much emotion; it probably wasn't working out too well, but she was trying.

[gettheeadonut]

He held her close to him, feeling that same desire not to let her go even as he kissed her. He'd lost too much lately, felt too many failures and betrayals, now he just wanted to cling to one of the few islands of stability in his life. He needed this, needed to know she was still here. To lose himself in her love.

As for her own efforts, well Harry had no complaints whatsoever.

[pickinurpockets]

Rikku was just happy that she had her boyfriend back, honestly. It was lonely without him.

She pulled back a little to breath, looking up at Harry's face. "Hi."

[gettheeadonut]

Harry smiled down, his fingers still gently caressing her face. She really did look beautiful, her mouth made for smiling and kissing, her exotic eyes bright and inquisitive and loving, her features playful but with a subtle strength of will. He could look at her all day.

"Hey."

[pickinurpockets]

"Y'aren't gonna do that on Valentine's Day, are ya? I already missed one romantic kiss day, I don't wanna miss another one!" she teased. Rikku traced designs down Harry's torso idly, eventually reaching around and grabbing his butt. Yup, still nice.

[gettheeadonut]

"Trust me, after that last vacation I don't plan on taking off for a good long time," he assured her. Really, being away from this place had been the loneliest he had been since he first arrived. Being here might hurt, and he still wasn't sure he belonged, but for now he would just enjoy what he had. Really, that was all anyone could do.

Rikku might have felt Harry shiver a little under her touch, his eyelids lowering for a moment as he enjoyed the sensation of her gentle fingers sliding along his chest. There was a casual intimateness to this that he savored.

Of course, then his sneak of a girlfriend groped his butt and Harry jumped slightly, before giving Rikku a look that informed her she was a very naughty girl. "I guess you really did miss me," he said, before leaning down to give her neck a teasing little nibble.