Title: Beautiful
Author: foreverliesl28
Rating: T (to be safe)
Disclaimer: Not mine. If I owned Frasier and Lilith, they would still be together. ;)
A/N: Begins the morning after the events of "Abnormal Psychology" (S5,E4). My first Cheers fic (although not first fic involving Frasier—I'll be posting some Daphne/Niles shortly). Enjoy!
Dr. Lilith Sternin, M.D., Ph.D., Ed.D., A.P.A. was not like other women. Brilliant? Quite. Cold? At times. But beautiful? She had certainly never viewed herself as such.
But here, in Frasier's arms, she felt beautiful.
It was early, somewhere between the endless black of night and the blinding light of morning. Last night had been a bit of a blur; the embarrassing appearance on Psychology This Week, the fight at Cheers, the kiss and its aftermath had all run together into such a sensuous rush that only one clear memory remained… Frasier.
The man was, to put it quite frankly (as she always preferred to do), an insufferable pain in her ass. And yet… she could feel herself falling quickly, inexplicably, irreversibly in love with him, no matter how hard her sensibility tried to grapple with her heart. His charm, his eyes, his intellect, his willingness to stand up to her all increased his desirability.
Lilith was not a warm woman; this she knew. She was not a soft woman; this had always been the case. She was not a well-liked woman; of this she was painfully aware. But with Frasier, everything felt different. She was different. She felt, dare she say it, vulnerable. And that thought alone made her feel more attractive than she had ever thought possible.
She burrowed herself further against his shoulder, needing again to feel his closeness. He stirred beside her, blinking groggily in the early morning light.
"Good morning," he murmured, rubbing a fist against his eyes.
"Good morning," Lilith replied, her voice more tender than she herself had heard it in years.
"What time is it?"
"I'm not sure. It can't be later than five."
He ran a hand tenderly through her tangled hair; it was still loose from the previous night, an early-morning reminder of their passion. "Did you sleep well?"
"Most satisfactorily." Lilith smirked mischievously. "Judging from the consistent fluttering of your eyelids at specific intervals, I'm assuming you had enough REM sleep as well."
Frasier sat up and stretched, yawning. "I don't know about you, but I don't have a patient for a few hours. Why don't we go out for breakfast?"
Lilith smiled, feeling the joy reach her eyes for the first time in a long time. "I'd love that."
As he slipped in to the bathroom, Lilith began to dress. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she looked… beautiful.
Maybe Dr. Lilith Sternin, M.D., Ph.D., Ed.D., A.P.A. would wear her hair down today.