come crawlin' on back like in some old country song

[un_gloved]

Rogue had woken up tucked up in a patch of sun on the roof, which had probably seemed like a great idea when she could fly and thought she was seventeen, but a little older and even just a smidgen wiser and with a piece of slender useless wood in the sash of her tunic, it was lacking somehow in appeal.

It was all right, though, because she needed some time to be alone and deal with the previous day. There was Gunn, who was a swell guy and all, but he'd decked her in the face and the had the bruise to prove it. Of course, she'd elbowed him in the chin and left a hell of a mark herself. She had to apologize for that.

She also had to yell at him for kissing her, though. And letting her kiss him back. And to make sure he knew it wasn't gonna happen again.

And she had to apologize to Jamie.

And she had to find Ned.

His hair had the tell tale sign that it had recently been wet. He'd probably been swimming. She could smell the cigarette from where she was, and she wasn't even downwind.

She'd put the tunic and leggings in her room and changed back into her cutoff shorts and the long sleeved green hoodie, though she'd pushed the sleeves to her elbows, and she'd put her yellow boots back on though she'd kept the cowboy boots, too, and feeling that much more like herself she still felt in no way prepared to discuss the past day with Ned.

"'s a bad habit," she said, voice husky, like it was trying to avoid being used.

Comments

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"I won't stop you," she murmured back, not quite wincing, then leaning fractionally into the touch.

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

Gently, Ned turned her face so that the bruise on her skin brushed his nose and then he bent his head and kissed it, very gently.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

Rogue shivered a little and her eyes slipped shut, and she cupped her fingers at the back of his neck so her fingertips were curled into his hair.

"Ned," she whispered, just happy to know his name again so she could say it.

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

"I missed you," he murmured, with his nose against her. "I missed you so much."

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Missed you too," she whispered, smiling, turning her head so their foreheads touched.

"Happy t'be me, again."

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

"You're not kidding." Ned grinned. "Jesus, if the fellas in the Watch could hear me now, they'd laugh me out of the damn yard."

He rolled his eyes.

"Women."

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

She lifted an eyebrow, lightly hitting his shoulder with the back of her hand, then turned it over to smooth her palm up along his neck.

"What about 'women', exactly?" she asked, and then kissed him slow and warm and sweet, parting her lips against his mouth.

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

"You're nothin' but trouble to good, honest watchmen," said Ned, parting his lips when she kissed him, kissing her deeply.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

She made a quiet noise into his mouth, returning the kiss for a good long while.

"...Hi," she said, eventually, smiling and pressing her forehead to his temple.

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

"I reckon," said Ned, slowly, waiting for his brain to catch up. "That we should go home. Before someone arrests us for...disturbing the public peace. That, and lewd conduct."

Ned, for one, certainly intended to get lewd.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Well, gosh," she drawled, "wouldn't wanna get ya inta trouble, Lance Constable."

Except she would in a heart beat.

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, sure you wouldn't." Ned rolled his eyes. "Miscreant."

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"I prefer rebel," she murmured, and nuzzled his ear and then kissed the lobe.

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

"You be the rebel and I'll be the Watchman," murmured Ned, and thought that it sounded like something from a Children's rhyme.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"I reckon you've a little touch o'both," she said, smiling against the skin of his cheek and wrapping her arms around him. She hugged him. It was a different thing than an embrace.

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

Ned rubbed his hand in a circle on her back, and, for a moment, he was still.

"Maybe you're right," he said, with a faint smile. "Though it was more of a revolution, if we're getting technical."

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well, if you're gonna get technical on me," she murmured, leaning back a little and sifting her fingers through his hair, "then that's gonna take details, 'n that's gonna take a lot more talking."

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

Ned winced, just a little. He hadn't ever exactly told her the story, the Glorious Republic of Treacle Mine Road and all that. He hadn't exactly known how to explain that it was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen.

"Okay?"

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Not now," she assured him, pressing a kiss to his temple. "It doesn't have t'be now."

[pokerplayereyes.livejournal.com]

"Okay," he said, settling against her, his eyes closed, just glad to have her back.