Title: Old Married Sex
Author: Annie
Pairing/Character(s): NH
Rating: 5
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or the storyline.
Word Count: 6343
Spoilers/Warnings: Takes place during the college years.
Summary: Haley is feeling nostalgic for that new love feeling, but Nathan is perfectly happy with the way things are.
Author's Notes: This hasn't be beta-d, so I apologize for any grammatical errors or weird parts that could have/should have been caught by someone reading it over. This was written for the symbols challenge over at nhlovenest.

Haley dipped the sponge back into the soapy dishwater, letting it soak up with water before she started on the next pan. Earlier, after the large dinner she'd cooked, she'd eyed those dishes with distain. Despite how amazingly awesome the little house she shared with Lucas, Nathan, and her baby had been for them, its hugest drawback was the lack of a dishwasher. And as her "roommates" were lazy boys who could leave stacks and piles and mountains of dishes throughout the house completely guilt free, this particular chore had quickly become her least favorite.

But tonight, right then, it was giving her a small, much needed reprieve.

They'd all had dinner together, Nathan and Haley and Jamie and Lucas... and his new girlfriend, Lindsey. A double date plus one, you could say. And wasn't that special?

Putting a little more elbow grease than necessary into the pan in her hands, Haley warned herself not to get pouty or whiny. Lindsey was great. She'd been around for nearly a year already, working with Lucas on his book and putting so much love and dedication into making it ready for publication. They'd basically all grown to love her almost immediately. And to watch the way her presence had slowly chipped away at Luke's heartache, at his sadness from his relationship with Peyton ending? It was amazing. Nathan and her had been so worried about him over that breakup, but Lindsey was the perfect salve for his wounds. He was happy again, and Haley couldn't have been happier about that.

But this dinner they were having, it was the first since Lucas and Lindsey had actually started dating. Sure, Haley had grown used to the lingering glances between them, the small smiles and the blushes and the subtle flirting. They'd been building up to this point for months. But this was the first time she'd been hit with seeing them, together, full fledged, as a new couple. They glowed.

The evening had been filled with all of these tiny compliments and small touches between them. Lucas had pulled out her chair for her and as Haley had walked away from the table to get dessert, she'd been able to see the way Lindsey's foot rubbed up agaisnt his under the table. When dinner was over and Haley had waved off the other woman's offer to help clean up, saying she'd get to it later, they'd headed into the living room to chat, and the next few hours had been spent watching the two taller than average people, curl up together on one overstuffed recliner, and flirt and coo at each other.

She hadn't been sure whether she should smile at the adorableness or completely gag at the sight of the lovebirds.

Don't be that way, Haley warned herself, as she arranged the pan in the dish drain. Remember that you're happy about this relationship, that you're happy for Lucas, and that you love Lindsey. But there was this small part of her, this tiny voice in the back of her head, that niggled and nagged and wouldn't let go. This feeling, it wasn't disgust over having to watch the too sweet sugar of new love. It wasn't sadness over Lucas leaving behind the love he'd lost.

It was jealousy. Ugly and irrational and straight down to her bones. Jealousy. She couldn't remember the last time Nathan had held a chair back for her.

Ugh. Haley threw the sponge down into the water, completely disgusted with herself, and let out a loud, unhappy grunt. Stupid young love, with its flirting and its long intent gazes and its sexual tension. It could just screw off.

"Dishes getting you down?" Haley turned to see Nathan leaning against the doorjam. He pushed off and walked over to her. "Don't go in the living room then. You'll be slitting your wrists in no time. Why do we ever let Lucas choose the movies? He always picks some kind of sad boring shit."

She watched her husband as he settled, his hip resting against the countertop next to her, and couldn't stop a tiny sneer from crossing her face. "Lindsey picked the movie."

Nathan let out a little laugh at her face, and in the theme of her irrationality that evening, it pissed her off a little that he couldn't understand what the face was about. "So we're in agreement, then? We choose the movie next time?"

Bitch. Bitch. Bitch. Haley could feel the urge tingling up her spine. "No, I was looking forward to seeing this. I've heard its really good..."

"Okay, so then I'll pick the movie next time." She ignored the way his eyes rolled.

"Its just been so long since I've seen a guy relinguish control of a TV like that. It certainly seems to be a house rule around here that the remote control is too much for a woman to handle."

He did laugh outright this time. "Aw, baby. You're allowed to touch the remote anytime you want... just you know, when I'm at practice or class or sleeping or something."

He was being cute, or at least, trying to be. And normally, Haley did think he was cute... sexy, sweet... definitely adorable. But right now, she couldn't let herself get past it. Right now, he was just the guy that didn't play footsie with her under the dinner table.

"What's this?"

Haley looked up at the question, and then at the object in his hand. "My bracelet."

Nathan stared right back, obviously waiting for her to elaborate.

"My bracelet. You know, the one from the cracker jack box." She knew that he knew what it was, but that irrational anger, it was growing irrationally. Just for no reason at all. "The one you gave me on the first day we tutored together. You were trying to be all cute with the smirking and the "Don't say I never gave you anything." And I was all "Not interested, fool," but on the inside, I thought it was kind of sweet or cute or whatever. So I wore it for awhile. You know, my bracelet. That you gave me. I wore it at our wedding. I don't know if you're remembering any of this."

His eyes had gone a little wide at her rambling and at the increasing irriation in her voice. She could admit that she felt mildly bad at the way she was snapping at him. Haley didn't like to be the type of woman that snapped at her husband for no good reason at all, but sometimes, like now, she couldn't help it.

Nathan's tone was cautious when he spoke next. "I know what bracelet this is. I just meant, what's it doing here?"

Haley sighed, much more deeply than necessary, but she was trying to catch her thoughts a little bit. Trying to calm herself down. There was no reason for the 'tude. "I don't know. I was in the bedroom and I saw it and I got it out. And there it is."

That was the condensed, cliff notes version, but the truth was, after she'd gotten Jamie down for the night, those feelings that had been festering at her stomach all through dinner and afterwards, that ugly feeling that she hadn't quite wanted to admit was jealousy at the time, had gotten to be just a little too much. She hadn't been quite ready to put the smile back on her face and join the others for the movie. So, under the guise of wanting to change into something a little bit more comfortable, she'd headed into her bedroom for a moment to herself.

As Haley had pulled her pajamas on, a tank top and baggy flannel pants with faded bees on them, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about what kind of pajamas Lindsey was going to be wearing that night. She doubted sincerely that what the other girl would be changing into could even be called pajamas. She and Lucas didn't get to see each other all that often. Things were new and uncertain and exciting. She'd probably brought a nighty, silky and soft. Or maybe lingerie. Something see through. Something to seduce.

It wasn't practical to wear those things to sleep. They weren't comfortable and they didn't keep you warm.

But they were romantic.

The image of it had popped into her head, and it took Haley almost ten minutes of digging through her jewlery and keepsake boxes and knick knacks before she finally found it. Her crackerjack bracelet. The first thing Nathan had ever given to her.

In hindsight, and even to a certain extent at the time, she knew that the gift was not given with the purest of intents. He'd been trying to play her. For his grades. To get back at Lucas. Hell, just because he was Nathan Scott and he could. But it was still the first thing that Nathan had ever given her. It was their start, and even if that smirk hadn't been one hundred percent genuine, Haley could remember the butterflies it gave her. Just the way he'd looked at her. She could remember, in the following weeks, the way she'd wear it under her sweater, or the way she'd look at it as she laid in bed at night, thinking about him and the way their friendship and something more was growing.

She didn't think about it often. Life was too busy, and things were good and comfortable and happy. But she had loved their start. She had loved that beginning time between them, when things were new and they were just learning about each other. When she'd first started caring about things like make up and pretty clothes. When he'd take her out on dates and they'd hold hands. When he'd take her to the Rivercourt after basketball games, and park the car under the trees, and they'd kiss until the night was completely gone.

It still made her heart flutter in her chest, just thinking about it. Just remembering how much it had all meant. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

Nathan was just looking at her now, the bracelet still in his hand. "Here it is."

"I..." Haley shook her head at herself. She was being ridiculous, and bless her husband's sweet heart, she could tell that he knew something was wrong. He just didn't know what to do about it. "I don't know. I just saw it and I got... I got a little nostalgic."

"Nostalgic?"

Shrugging, she tried to find a way to phrase this right. "Yeah, you know... Seeing Luke and Lindsey and them being all cutie together. And the bracelet, I just thought... I just started thinking about stuff and the bracelet and I got nostalgic."

His eyes narrowed as he seemed to be processing the jibberish she'd just spewed at him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Haley let out a little laugh at the way he looked almost afraid to admit that to her. She was acting like a crazy person here and it wasn't fair. "I'm sorry, Nathan. I didn't mean to snap at you. I just... they're sweet, you know, and I..." She paused a second before finally bursting out at him. "Do you ever miss it?"

"Miss it? Miss what?" His forehead crinkled in that adorable way of his.

She turned to face him straight on, leaning her hip up against the sink. "The beginning, you know. Of a relationship, of our relationship. And how things were back then. Back when we weren't just that old married couple."

It took a second, but realization seemed to dawn in his eyes. "Oh, you mean because of seeing Luke and Lindsey?"

"Yeah..."

He didn't hesitate for even one second. "No."

"No?"

"Not even a little bit."

"Nathan!" Haley was surprised at how adament he was being. Their beginning had been beautiful. How could he not miss that even a tiny bit?

Nathan held his hands out in front of him, stopping her short. His expression had almost a 'duh' sort of look to it, like how could she even think that he would miss that. "I'm going to give you the history refresher now, babe." He paused for effect. "We weren't having sex back then."

She laughed, reaching out and swatting him. "Sex isn't everything, ibabe/i."

"Yeah, it is."

Her mood was lightening considerably the more they talked. But it was still there. "Oh, come on. Remember how much fun it was back then? The anticipation and the getting to know each other more. Everyday you'd learn something new or we'd try something new. Didn't you enjoy that?"

"Yeah, sure." He made a face. "The constant having to be on my best behavior and the sweating palms and all the boundaries. Plus, you know, the not having sex. You're really writing that off too quickly."

"Well, technically, we got married so fast that we were having sex in the beginning stages of our relationship. So there." He didn't have an argument for that, just rolled his eyes again. "And what about the falling in love? Wasn't that fun? And even those first couple months of being married? When there were butterflies everytime I saw you, and you'd smirk at me and I'd blush." Haley smiled wide at him, just the thought of those times making her happy. "And since you can't seem to let it go, every touch was some kind of foreplay back then. You know, back before the lead up to sex had a little bit more effort put into it than just you grabbing my boob and saying "Hey, wanna do it?'"

Nathan laughed at the way she'd deepened her voice, waggling her eyebrows as she did an impression of him. "Hey, a lot of time and effort has gone into that line, I hope you know." He reached out, his hand cupping her breast despite the eyebrow she quirked at him. "Plus, it always works, so..."

Her shoulders sagged and she pushed her lower lip out in an exaggerated pout. "Nathan..." It was a whine and it was borderline annoying and she knew that. But with all the joking aside, she meant it. She missed the days of romance and falling in love with him, and she couldn't understand how he didn't.

"Okay, okay. Here..." Nathan moved to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and wrapping his body around hers. "So, you miss the days back when we first started. Back when we were falling in love and we were still getting to know each other."

"Yes."

She could feel him nod behind her, his chin brushing over the top of her head. He shifted just a little bit, and then his lips were pressed against her temple. He kissed down the side of her face, her cheek, and her jaw, and then that little sensitive patch of skin just below her ear. Eyes fluttering at the feel of his mouth against her, Haley melted into his embrace just a little bit.

Holding up the beads that were still in his fingers, Nathan continued. "You miss the days of this bracelet."

His breath blew over the damp patches of skin left behind by his kisses, leaving small goosebumps in its wake. Haley looked at the small, cheap piece of jewlery in his hands. The little multicolored beads. It had meant so much to her sixteen year old self. "Sometimes. Yeah."

"They were good times, Hales. I did love falling in love with you. It was the first time I was completely happy, that I felt like things could be right in my life. Like I could be right." There was a strength in his voice, a conviction, and she believed, without question, what he was saying. Although never shy to tell her that he loved her, Nathan didn't talk feelings well. He let his actions speak. But when that heaviness did enter into his words, she stopped and she listened. She believed.

"But I don't miss it."

It took her a second to really register that. "Why?"

His arms tightened around her, keeping her against his chest and guiding her closer toward the sink, until her stomach was pressed against the counter. "Nathan?" Haley wasn't quite sure what he was doing, but she let him do it, knowing that in his way, he had a purpose.

He slipped the bracelet onto one of her wrists and then brought up the other one, stretching the elastic wide enough to wrap around both of her hands. "Oh, be careful, Nathan. I don't want it to break." She glanced over her shoulder at him, and was kind of surprised to see a glint in his eye, something like teasing.

"Well, then, don't pull on it." He held her wrists close together, stopping her from the slight twisting she was doing. Then he guided her hands over to the faucet, pulling her wrists just far enough apart to slip the spout through the bracelet and in between her hands.

"What are you -"

Nathan held her arms tighter. "I said, don't pull on it."

His body was pressed tightly behind hers, and he was so much bigger than her that she felt surrouded by him. Haley could feel the length of his torso pressed against her back, and surprisingly, the hard poke of the beginning of an erection. He stayed there for a moment longer, his hands resting over hers, holding them still to the faucet.

"In the beginning of our relationship, you never would have never let me get this far. To tie your hands like this? You would have freaked if I'd even attempted it." He finally loosened the grip he had over her hands, smoothing his fingertips up along the length of her arms and over her shoulders. One of his arms moved to wrap around her waist, keeping her body perfectly pressed back into his. The other hand wrapped itself into her hair and tugged, gently forcing her head to tip back so that she could look at him. So that their eyes could meet. "But you trust me now. You trust yourself with me now."

He bent down just enough to skim his lips across her skin and kiss the very corner of her mouth. The hand that was on her stomach slipped up and cupped around her breast. Haley couldn't stop the giggle at the way he waggled his eyebrows at her. "Wanna do it?"

"Well, when you phrase it like that, mister..." She thrust her hips playfully back agaisnt his. Her hands pulled at the bracelet, starting to slip it off, as her fingertips itched to reach back for him.

"No, no, no" Nathan's hands covered hers once more. "Tonight, you stay just like this."

His voice was low and gravelly in her ear, and combined with his words and his hands, Haley could feel the heat coiling in her belly and splashing between her thighs. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm asking you very nicely."

So she stayed, even as he pulled his body away from her. Because he'd asked her very nicely.

Glancing back over her shoulder, Haley could see Nathan standing about a foot behind her, his gaze traveling up and down her body. She was in baggy and ratty old pajamas, but the way he looked at her made her feel as though she were wearing a neglige of some kind. As though a pair of flannel pants with faded bees on them were as sexy as anything you could find in a Victoria Secret catalogue. Growing up a bit of a nerd, she'd never quite gotten the idea that she was beautiful or hot or anything, but the way he looked at her... God.

She felt like the sexiest woman alive.

"Are you just going to stare at me? You can't grab a girl's boob and just leave her hanging like that. Wouldn't be right." Giving him her sausiest wink, Haley shook her butt at him.

"I could never leave you hanging, baby." And then his hands were back on her, gripping at her hips. But instead of pressing his body into her, Nathan dropped out of her line of sight as he fell to his knees. His hands were pulling at the waistband of her pants then, and she could feel the material slowly being slipped down until her ass was completely exposed. But then he stopped, the material just bunched around her thighs.

"Mmm, granny panties."

"Hey," Haley huffed, trying to twist around so that she could see him. "They aren't granny panties. I mean, its not a thong, but they're still a respectable bikini cut."

He laughed at her, pulling the band of her panties back so that they snapped at her skin. "Back when we first started, you wore thongs sometimes. Do you miss those?"

Her eyes narrowed at the question, but she still had to concede. "Well... no. But there's nothing wrong with a bikini cut."

"They're cotton."

"They're comfortable."

"I'm sure they are." He laughed again, and she could feel the brush of air against the exposed skin of her butt. "Nothing turns me on like your granny panties."

"They aren't - " She started to snap back at him, but then his mouth was open against her, his teeth scraping her skin as he nibbled on one cheek.

"I love your ass, Haley. I don't think I tell you that enough, but I do. You have serious white girl booty." His hands came up to cup her butt, thumbs sliding into the slight undertucks as he palmed one cheek per hand. "And it just fits so perfectly in my hands. Like your ass was made for me to grab." Haley jumped as a loud crack rang through the room when he spanked her, just once. "I just... I love it." His voice sounded thick and low, and Haley could tell, even if she couldn't see him, how much he was getting into this.

Her pants were tugged lower and Nathan's hands were again on her hips as he guided her back just a little bit. With her hands still wrapped around the faucet, the elastic band of her bracelet cutting just slightly into her skin, Haley was forced to push out her butt a little bit to accommodate her husband's directions. But the discomfort was rewarded when his fingers slipped between her legs and found her warmth. Their silmutaneous groans mixed together in the quiet room.

Nathan used his fingers to guide her thighs apart, and then she could feel him angle his head down into her crevice. The first touch of his mouth, of his talented tongue, had her panting in pleasure and anticipation of what was to come. Her husband had talents... many different talents. Basketball, video games, being a dad, and eating her out. Just to name a few.

"Do you remember how long it took for you to be comfortable enough to let me do this?" His fingers were on her and in her as his tongue lapped through her folds, and the added sensation of his breath against her wetness had her bucking her hips back at him. "God, it felt like forever, and it was so hard not to push. I wanted to taste you so bad. Just knew your pussy would taste so fucking good."

Her breathing sounded so loud in her own ears, and Haley had to rest her elbows down against the counter, trying to keep her balance. She could feel her knees weakening as the pleasure grew. "God, Nathan..."

"Could you imagine life without this, Hales?" He sucked hard against her clit once, before letting it go with a pop. "Because I can't. I wouldn't give this up for the world."

The pleasure was building in her, twisting at her stomach and drenching her thighs, and she tried to clench her insides as she felt his fingers begin to slow. "Nathan..." she whined when his mouth pulled away from her.

"Patience, baby."

She could hear him shifting behind her, the rustle of his jeans as he unzipped them, and then his body was back curled around hers, making her feel warm and protected and so very, very good.

His hand tangled into her hair, and again, he tugged to pull her up into an upright position and tip her head toward his. Then his mouth was on hers, the taste of his tongue and her wetness being pushed back and forth between them as he rubbed his hard cock against her back. "Would you have let me do this to you in your parents' kitchen? Could you imagine me bending you over their counter?"

Nathan loved to talk during sex, and his words tonight, they were getting to her, pushing her normal arousal for him into overdrive. "Baby, please," she begged him.

He didn't seem to be in the mood to tease any longer, and so they moved together immediately, her spreading her thighs as far as she could with her pants still wrapped around her legs, pushing her ass back toward him for easy access. Being so much taller, he had to sort of hunker down behind her, but they found their way. They always found their way to each other.

And then he was in her, hard and strong and thick.

"See, baby, this is why I don't miss it. This right here. Being inside of you." His thrusts were long and fast, but Haley kept up the rhythm, brasing herself with her hands gripped tightly into the faucet. His fingers were still twined through her hair, pulling it back to keep her body as close to his as possible as his other hand explored across her skin. Pressing against her stomach, circling over her clit and between her thighs, then moving back up and underneath her shirt, feeling the weight of her breasts as they bounced wildly to the tempo of their sex.

"Fuck, Hales," Nathan breathed in ear. "Don't you see how this is better? Don't you see how we're better?" If at all possible, he seemed to be speeding up as he spoke to her. "Falling in love was... amazing. Learning each other was... fuck. But the way we know each other now?"

He gripped tighter at her hair, pulling back just a bit as though he expected an answer. "Yeah... okay... Oh God."

"I know how to touch you, baby. Right?" She nodded when he pinched at one nipple. "And I know how to eat you and how to fuck you. And you do too. You know. How to fuck me, how to touch me. How to suck... Jesus, Haley. Baby."

His words continued, his reasons for why they were so much more than just an old married couple, how what they did was so much more than old married sex, as they moved together. She couldn't always focus on his words, the pleasure making her head cloudy, but just the sound of him. The sound of his voice and his body as it moved in and out of hers. It was enough. Haley could feel that tingling starting, and she knew that he wasn't that far off either. "So, close. Nathan... baby, I'm so damn close"

"I know you are," he breathed in her ear. "I know."

And then she was gone, the explosion starting between her legs and spreading to the tips of her fingers and the bottoms of her toes. A few seconds later, he responded to the clenching and shaking of the body in his arms, finally coming inside of her.

It took a couple of minutes to catch her breath and when Haley opened her eyes, she didn't quite know what to think of the moment. Her pants were down around her ankles and her hands were tied to the faucet, and they'd just had sex in the kitchen while Lucas and Lindsey sat in the -

"Oh god," she gasped.

Nathan was still wrapped around her, and it always took him a little bit longer to come back to the land of the living after a good orgasm than it did her. "What?" he mumbled against her neck.

"Crap, Nathan!" Haley jerked agaisnt the bracelet, trying to untangle herself from it, and in her frenzy, not being able to. "Lucas and Lindsey are just in the other room! I can't believe we just... did what we did when they're just in the other room!"

"Hey, calm down." His hands landed over hers, stilling her motions. "I've got it."

He continued to hug her for another moment, trying to soothe her, but when he finally pulled away, he didn't make any move to free her hands. Instead, he straighted her shirt first, smoothing out the wrinkles made by his hands playing underneath it. Then he bent down and pulled up her panties and her pajama pants, making sure that they were secured at her waist. His hands moved up to her hair next, combing through the tangled strands with his fingers and calming her down with his touch.

And finally, his hands settled back over hers one last time, his body pressing into her from behind for one last moment, and even with as paniced as she was, she still sparked at his touch. Then, he pulled her hands free.

When Haley turned to look at him, she knew her face was positively flaming. He was readjusting himself with in his pants, trying to erase all of the signs of what they'd just done before he went back into the living room.

"I can't believe we just did that," she finally said, breaking the silence.

Nathan smirked at her. "I can. It was fun."

"Nathan! What if they heard?" Oh, how was she going to go out there and face Lindsey? And Lucas? He hated when they did stuff like this. Sex in the kitchen when his new girlfriend was here? Haley could already picture the disapproving squint he was going to throw her way.

He waved off her concern. "I'm sure they didn't hear anything. The kitchen door is closed and they've got the TV blaring in the other room. Its not like we were screaming or anything in here."

Haley could concede on that point. Ever since moving in with Nathan's mother right before Jamie was born, they had both had to learn how to express themselves at a quieter level. But still...

"Haley." She looked up at the sound of her name, and was kind of surprised by the serious look on her husband's face. "Do you understand why now?"

"Why what?"

"Why I don't miss it? All that new relationship shit?"

Haley didn't have an answer to that.

"What we just did, Hales? That was awesome. Being the old married couple?" He threw up air quotations. "If it means doing that, that's pretty fucking fantastic. Because quickies in the kitchen? We didn't have that when we first started."

"Well, no, but..."

"All that other stuff, the butterflies or whatever, its still there. Maybe not as much, but its there sometimes. But on top of all that, we have comfort. We have trust. I know you completely." He stepped closer to her, one hand coming up to cup her jaw and tip her face up toward his. "I love you, Hales, and I wouldn't accept anything less than what we have right now for all the world. Its the best thing I've ever had."

His mouth landed on hers, and the kiss was sweet and chaste, especially in comparison to what they'd just finished.

When he pulled back, that smirk of his was planted firmly on his perfect mouth, and Haley couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face.

"Give me your hand," he told her, bending down again to drop a kiss on the tip of her nose.

"What?"

"Come on." Then, deciding not to wait for her, Nathan grabbed her arm and slipped that precious bracelet of hers back onto her wrist.

"Don't say I never gave you anything," he told her. And then with one last smirk and a wink, he turned and left the room.

Her cheeks felt hot and her body was still calming down, but there was this bit of happiness that just settled in her stomach. She did love her husband.

Taking a quick detour to the bathroom to pee and clean up, Haley finally headed into the living room to join the others. She knew that her face was absolutely beet red when she walked in, but she hoped that the darkness of the room would be enough to keep Luke or Lindsey from noticing anything.

Haley dropped down on the couch next to Nathan, and he'd only been in the room for a few minutes, but already he was dozing off at the boring movie they were watching, his head leaned back into the cushions and his eyes closed. She looked at him, at her husband, and they were there. Just at the sight of him. Butterflies. Her gaze moved over to Luke and Lindsey, still curled up on that one chair together. It couldn't be comfortable to sit together like that for as long as they had been. But those were the things you did for new love.

A smile took over her face, and she couldn't stop it. Didn't want to stop it. Scooting closer to Nathan, she took his hand and pulled it into her lap, settling deeper in the couch to watch whatever was left of the movie.