It was so…
Perfect wasn't the word. Because perfection wasn't real. But if there was a word to describe the closest you could get to perfection then it was certainly that.
The ride over, she'd been a bit nervous about the whole thing, but it wasn't hard for them to both find a rhythm together. They were so comfortable, when they were alone. All he had to do was pull one face or make one off handed comment and she was giggling and trying to mimic his mood and they were just set.
No one played off one another as well as the two of them.
No one.
When they arrived at his place, Steph felt the nerves jump back into her stomach, but he only asked if she wanted a tour and, nodding as they stepped into the house, it was her turn to pull a face as he loudly said, "This is the entire house. And..." Then, dragging the last part out, he literally drug her down a hallway, leaving their bags behind, before skidding to a stop in front of the door at the end of it and throwing it open. "This is the bedroom."
Scrunching up her face at him, when she had her gaze, Stephanie only remarked, "You're so funny."
"I try," he agreed before leaning down then to brush his lips against hers. "For you."
And she'd wanted to do other things before…before. They'd just had a long drive in and she wanted to rest some and hang out even more because, honestly, she liked hanging out with Paul. She liked sitting around with Paul. And they were finally going to do that at his place. His house. That made it special.
She wanted to just be with him.
But she was with him, she was reminded as she gave in rather easily as he led her over to his bed. As she fell onto the mattress, he only stood before her, silent and watching. Giggling, Steph tilted her head back some as she stared at him.
"You gonna brag on me any?" he asked with a heavy frown. He liked to look like that, she knew. Angry. He wore the face well. "For this nice place?"
"I haven't got to see it all yet."
"You get to see this amazing bedroom."
"You didn't even turn on the lights."
"It's four in the afternoon. You don't need them."
"The shadows-"
"Steph-"
He was right in front of her, as she sat on the edge of the bed, and reaching then for his hips, she only tugged a bit at his jeans as she said, "You're house is very nice, Paul."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"How do you know? If you ain't even seen it? Fuckin' liars, all women. I swear."
"Would you just come on," she complained as he pushed her hands away though, flashing her a smile, showed this was only to start on his belt himself.
"Gladly."
All the things that she wanted to feel so special before, of being over at his home for the first time, would find themselves to mean nothing next to what they had, she and Paul, together, in those next few moments. They'd been together, truly been together, numerous times at that point. He'd even stayed over at her home a few nights. But that all paled, she felt, to right then. It was the final cemented block, honestly, being slipped into place. They were completely and utterly together then. Through all the shit that had been thrown between the two of them the past few months as they tried to shakily figure this all out, well, it just didn't matter anymore.
None of it mattered anymore.
His stubble brushed her cheek too, as he nuzzled his head against hers, sighing softly in her ear. She was too content, in that moment, to do much more than run a hand across the arm he wrapped around her and just shut her eyes.
They were so still for so long and had been on the road for a good month and it was just comforting, to be somewhere, well, comfortable. She didn't know his house yet, she couldn't say for sure where a bathroom was, even, but she knew that she felt safe there. Unbothered. She never wanted to leave.
Still, the slight disturbance of him shifting away from her and out of the bed did slightly pull Stephanie out of her light slumber. She couldn't tell if it had been a minute or had been an eternity, but she only tried to tug him back down. If said anything to this, she didn't catch it, but he did slip away and sh probably should have done more than peek a bleary eye after him, but she didn't.
She just shifted to bury her head in the pillow that gave off the strong scent of his cologne and fell easily back into sleep. She could hear him though, half out of it, as he went around the room doing something. Then a door shut and she was alone for awhile. It was the opening and shutting of it once more that made her realize she was still snoozing.
And also not getting up for anything.
Which was fine, it seemed, as he'd returned just to join her. The brush of his legs against hers and his arm snaking around her waist wasn't enough to get a rise out of the woman and, giving in it seemed, he didn't try anything further. Just hunkered down and, for another unknowable amount of time, Steph's mind was blank.
She didn't even remember dreaming of anything. At any point that night. She knew that it probably had something to do with her being so tired from the road and just needing some serious rest, but she liked to think that there was just nothing to dream about, when she was already living the closest to perfection you could get without tipping over that line you were toeing.
She knew that if she told that to Paul though, he'd call her weird and stupid and she'd just pretend it was some dumb shit that she came up when she was half out of it and still snoozing, but to herself, in that moment, she truly meant it.
It was him shaking her awake that finally forced Stephanie to do more than moan and stare at something with bleary eyes. As she rolled onto her back to blink up at him, she was annoyed and just wanted to roll right back over to sleep some more.
"You okay?" He was laughing a bit as he asked it though. The room was truly dark then and she only saw what she was able to make out, but his eyes felt bright as his long hair fell down and tickled her face. "Stephie?"
"Mmmm. No."
"What's wrong?"
"Just tired."
"Well, did you wanna get something to eat? There's still time to go out. Although, I would much rather just order a pizza and-"
"Go out?" Suddenly, she pushed up, nearly bonking heads with him in the process as he had been leaning over her. "Shit. We were going to go to dinner with your parents. We have to-"
"I already took care of it."
"What?"
"You were tired." The man had taken to sitting back on his butt then, staring over at her with with a bemused smile. "I just called and said we'd just got in and weren't up for going out."
"Why didn't you just wake me up? Or ask me?"
"Did you miss the tired part?"
"Paul-"
"It's alright." Reaching over, he patted at her shoulder some. "We're going out to breakfast in the morning."
"But-"
"Now you want a pizza or what?"
She didn't answer. Instead, only remarked, "Your parents probably, like, think the worst about me."
"Because you're tired after getting home?"
"Because they know that we...they..."
"Stephie." And he was tumbling out of bed then, nagging the bedside telephone on the way. "Our fucking's been pretty clear to most everyone around by this point. My parents included. It's not a big deal."
"Still."
"Well, I'm eating pizza, so you can join me whenever," he told her before, with a glance over his shoulder, he winked. "Or you can just stay there, all snuggled up in blankets and, you know, just never get dressed. Or not get dressed either way. I'm a very forward thinking man, you know, Steph."
"Uh-huh."
Still, of course, she did eventually find herself out there with him, on his couch, eating probably the greasiest, grossest pizza she'd ever had. But Paul seemed to be pretty insistent that it was the best and, well, she didn't want to break his heart just yet that they were never getting pizza from there again.
Let him enjoy it one last time.
"Did you wanna watch something else?" he asked as she rested against him, one of his hoodies the only thing she'd pulled on other than some underwear, hardly touching her food. "Steph?"
"No," she sighed at the '80s action flick he'd landed on. "Although, does everything look worse each time you hit a new millennium? Or-"
"This is a classic."
"This is just sad."
"Don't be so enticed, Stephanie, by the new," he warned as she grinned, just because she was finally getting her moments that she'd wanted so badly before. "The old always has value."
"Maybe," she whispered as she nuzzled his side, slipping her nibbled on slice of pizza off her grease stained plate then and onto his which only got a frown from the man. "But there's something...perfect in the getting to know the new too, isn't there?"
When their eyes met, he only grinned, truly, and she remembered that he wore that face just as well.
"Yeah," he agreed. "There is."
Just something quick, since I've been posting so much for other fandoms recently (well, one). I don't do Stephanie's point of view often, at least not fully, so I thought it would be something different.