A/N: So I'm a nerd, and also we were talking about Andy's grammatical righteousness, then her childhood visions of living the fairytale... and so this was born. Normally I never say this, but this is by far my favourite thing I've ever written for these two.
"You go first." Andy demands, poking Sam right on the left collarbone. She was lying on top of him, like, right the fuck on top of him, naked. He'd do just about anything she said at a time like this but-
"This is stupid McNally." He protests, continuing to stroke her sides. Usually that gets her sated, sometimes she'll purr like a cat, which he finds equal parts attractive and weird.
He watches her jut out her bottom lip, and knows it's something he's gotta do for her to go to sleep in the near future, and god knows he's tired. His eyes already squinted in the dim light, ready to close from exhaustion. She has a lot of games like this, McNally does, but this one is particularly cheesy.
"You go first." He says at last, after she's put her head down in defeat. Sometimes it takes him getting his way, and her giving up for him to cave. He kinda sorta likes how much more excited she gets. Kinda likes her victory kisses and smiles.
"Yay! Okay, umm... As old as the hills." She giggles, dropping her forehead on his shoulder. It's really not that funny, but he could literally say anything and she'd be gone, it's that time of night.
"Hey!" He says, mock offense. He knows she likes that he's older.
"Never said I'd be nice." She sticks out her tongue, before crashing down onto his mouth, aggressive but short.
He moves one arm so his hand can cup the back of his head, open up his side so maybe she'll finally roll off of him. Which she does.
"Fit as a fiddle." He says back, running the hand that was still at her side down to her toned legs. She smiled, and gave him a kiss for being nice, even though she wasn't. He likes the reward and points systems in her games too.
"Opposites attract." She says, not long after. He thinks maybe she cheated and memorized a few before bringing it up, but works into their story, so he lets this one go.
"Good things take time." He smiles, knowing that'll get him a whole lotta points.
He likes the calculability of her reactions. He likes that it's like taking statistics. But he also knows how quickly, some nights, he can step on a land mine, and have everything go array. Tonight, in her state of satisfaction, it'd be hard to be thrown a curve ball, so he's feeling pretty confident.
"A diamond in the rough." Is what she comes back with, and it's possible he likes her answers just as much as he likes sharing his at this stage. But he also knows he's going to have to start responding honestly soon, following their timeline, and he doesn't want to be the first.
He takes his time, trying to ease them in. "Ignorance is bliss."
She cuddles in a little more, begins dragging her fingernails through his chest hair.
"The calm before the storm."
She's good at this game, he realizes, Tommy seemed like the guy who spoke in clichés, definitely passed it down to Andy.
"Haste makes waste." If he hadn't read so much to escape his upbringing, she'd have him. But god knows he's about as well read as she comes off, probably more so. She can go months at a time without reading a book. He wouldn't survive. He's got himself convinced his brain would turn to mush.
"A matter of time." She sighs, straining her neck to look him in the eyes on that one. He realizes maybe they're both starting to get over what happened, because the looks, and the words (however vague and nonspecific) don't make either flinch or cringe, or start yelling anymore.
He comes up with one more, and this is where he knows that there is no calculability to her reaction, but he really wants to say it.
"Two wrongs don't make a right." He moves his hand from her leg, to her neck, and begins to massage it, also keep it in place so he can chance a look at her. She just nods though, so easily, he's shocked.
When he's sure that she's okay, has nothing to address there, he lets his hand rub down to the small of her back and rub small circles.
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone." She grins into his chest so he can feel, and he laughs right back. She had this thing for 'Big Yellow Taxi', and of course not the original, no, she likes the Counting Crows version better, which he cannot understand... but ever since she came home, and that songs been on, she grabs a spoon, gets all up in his face, and sings that line really loud. Like if she can say it loud enough, he'll never forget it. Needless to say, it's become a thing.
They laugh for a moment together, because she's back to that mind frame, that 2AM hysteria where everything is hilarious. When she finally quits and clears her throat, he's got his next one.
"Time heals all wounds." Places a strategic kiss in her hair for good measure. They've laughed some, but it's still painful talking about it, or... playing around it.
"All's well that ends well." She sing songs, letting him know she's really fine, that they are at that point where it's not all pain, but lessons learned.
He doesn't really know where to go from there, so he jut kisses the top of her head, and scoots down to her level, still holding her close to him. She seems like she's about ready for sleep to take over, but he feels wider awake.
He just stares at her, closed eyed and resting, breathing him in, shifting to find just the right spot for sleep.
"I love you more than life itself." He whispers, trying to determine how far gone she might be. It's not about points or rewards at this point. He just wants her to know. Cliché or not, it's the truth.
She smiles, and then slowly opens her own set of squinty eyes, just a little, just enough so he can see their warmth. She moves the fraction of the inch that separates him and gives him a long, half open kiss.
"And they lived happily ever after." She says, still grinning, before letting her eyes fall shut.
He just smiles.
He likes her games.