Small Moments
By rese
Pairing: Jo/Laurie
Rating: k
Summary: Laurie watches his Jo in the earliest hours of the morning.
Disclaimer: L.M. Alcott owns Little Women and all those memorable characters.
Laurie rolled over, drowsy-eyed and blissfully comfortable. He smiled as he watched his lover sleep heavily as was her usual way. "Wouldn't she be cross if I told her how much a woman she is when she sleeps?" thought Laurie who always took great pleasure in stirring and teasing her, especially since she always fought back. But she truly did sleep like a lady, with shallow breathing and angelic features that would make him stare in such reverence and thank his Maker for all his fortune. How blessed he was!
He reached a lazy hand over to the soft whiteness of her face and stroked it lightly, smiling as she reflexively moved into his touch. Laurie like any real Italian had enough sentiment for them both but was never permitted to show it when she was aware and so he was left waiting for moments such as these in the early dawn, filled by a sleeping beauty and languid movements. He treasured these instants and committed each one to his memory, so that if this waking dream were ever to end he'd have these beautiful thoughts to keep him living. For Laurie felt everything deeply and would surely brake if his Jo was ever taken away either by her will or another's.
A sigh escaped at such thoughts and he tugged the ends of her hair. Her sisters called it her "one beauty" but Laurie knew better, Jo held many unseeable graces, the tilt of her thinking head, her crooked smile but especially her mind which never ceased to amaze both him and her family. How could anyone not love her? He thought back to his first bumbling proposal and her avid assurance that he couldn't love her because she didn't. Laurie had told her that she would live for someone eventually and flattered himself that she did now; for him.
Jo's breath caught and Laurie waited for her to wake, only marginally disappointed when she rolled over to hug the pillow. He sighed, wondering what she might say if she ever caught him. He'd probably get a good throttling and then a few secretive pleasures, like a smile or a nice kiss. Laurie began to grin; he loved it when they fought now - well after they fought - because making up was the best part.
Laurie ran his fingers up her long, slender arm loving the little goosebumps that rose unbeknownst to the sleeper. He shuffled closer and lay beside her again, making sure his arm was secured around her waist, just where it was before he woke. Taking a deep breath he smelt the perfume her youngest sister had given Jo for her birthday two years ago, lingering on the nape of her neck. It was a scent he would not soon forget as it permeated every early rising he could recall sharing with her sleeping form.
While he would outright refuse to admit to a habit of snuggling Laurie simply couldn't resist with a compliant Jo. It just felt so good and so right and so natural. Gosh he had turned into a mushy sap. But he had every dream fulfilled, and who in their right mind wouldn't be pleased?
Laurie felt his lids close heavily and he gave into the depths of foggy dreams, waiting for light when the world woke with Jo again and where she would answer his touches and looks.