Lu wanted O'Spencer fluff from the following prompt: socks, heat, new apartment.
This is the result. :D
Disclaimer: Oh man, I wish. I'd have at least one moment like this every episode. :D
On the Shules spice-meter this rates a mild.
She looked around at the stacks of boxes, the furniture hidden under a smattering of loose and contained objects that had yet to find a permanent home, and gave a pleased—if tired—sigh.
It would take her a week to be able to really live here, a month or more before she was truly satisfied with everything in place and all the boxes were gone.
She should get started unpacking.
She didn't even have dishes to eat on or bedding to sleep on yet.
She looked down at the floors and rubbed a sock-clad toe along the light colored wood.
A small grin stretched her lips until she bit down on the bottom one to contain it.
She wasn't really hungry just yet. And she certainly wasn't sleepy.
With a giggle that was smothered a moment later under a surprised hand, she backed up to the wall, lined up with the hallway that ran the length of her apartment . . . and ran, stopping seven or eight steps in and leaning back.
With a delicious ease she slid across the floor, nearly running headfirst into the left wall of her little home.
She laughed out loud, then turned and went the other direction, seven or eights steps of running and then thirty or so feet of sliding.
There were many things she had looked for in a new apartment.
Proximity to shopping and entertainment, not to mention work.
Neighbors that didn't make her glad she carried a gun.
A landlord she could trust to take care of issues when they cropped up because no building was perfect.
She'd had one other item on her list, and though she'd looked at apartment after condo after townhouse after cottage, only one of them had been blessed with this last item, as well as the first three.
She wanted wood floors.
Yeah, she knew that carpet was warmer and that scratching the wood made for a headache and a half in repairs . . .
But she didn't care.
Some of her fondest memories were of going to her grandparents' house in Nebraska in the winter.
I had been freezing compared to her native Miami, Florida, and she hadn't really appreciated the magic of snow.
But long winter afternoons edging into evening spent running around the spacious old house, slipping and sliding over the well-polished wood in thick socks, had made the trips bearable and even longed for in the summer when the scratchy itchy sand between her toes started to be less fun and more annoying.
And now? Now she could slide anytime she wanted.
She made another run toward the front, adding a twist of her hips that sent her spinning around the corner toward her front door—and ran smack into something both hard and warm that grabbed at her instead of just stopping her progress.
She looked up in surprise to find Shawn watching her with an amused smile on his face.
"I came by to help you move. Did I miss all the fun?" he asked.
Heat flooded her cheeks as she realized she'd been caught out.
She tried to step back, out of his embrace, and into a comfortable distance from which she could think of a damn good reason for her behavior.
But his arms just tightened and he leaned forward until she was looking over his shoulder and his lips were almost brushing her ear.
"I love seeing you blush, but, Jules, if it means you're going to stop what you're doing it will ruin the effect."
He pulled back and she blinked at him.
She cleared her throat, intending to ask him to remove his hands from her hips, but instead of the polite request what came out was, "Do you want to slide with me?"
His grin widened and the corners of his eyes crinkled.
"I'd love to," he said and darted in to plant a chaste kiss on her still-flaming cheek.
While she was blinking her way through that, he let her go and stepped back to brace a hand on the wall so he could tug off his shoes.
He tossed them around the corner where they'd be out of the way, then wiggled his toes in their cotton coverings.
"Race you," he said, then bolted past her and around the corner.
She couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up as she spun and ran to catch up.
They slipped and slid into the far wall, Shawn providing a much softer surface than the painted sheetrock.
His arms came around her once more and he stole another kiss.
"Happy housewarming, Jules."
A quick squeeze of his arms across her middle and then he lifted her up and ran, carrying her along on the next slide as she laughed out loud.
Happy housewarming, indeed.
Review, plz&thx.