~2~

Title: Scenes from a Marriage
Rating: PG
Warning: Teeth-rotting sweetness alluded to in my author's note (lol); suggestions of nekkidness
Pairing/Characters: Sheridan/Luis, with mentions of Julian and Katherine (who don't actually make any appearances)
Word Count: 658
Summary (for chapter): Luis realizes with the dawning of the fourth morning of their Spanish honeymoon that he can't stop touching her.

Luis realizes with the dawning of the fourth morning of their Spanish honeymoon that he can't stop touching her. It's an addiction, one he has no desire to rehabilitate. His heart both pounds and beats more softly (is that even possible?) when he feels that connection, no matter how small, and he marvels at the sweetness that just being here, like this, with her, a Crane no less, fills his body with, not to mention his heart.

"Luis?" Sheridan murmurs sleepily, and she settles more fully against the warm cavern his body and the tumbled sheets at their waists create. "What time's it?"

Luis's lips curve into a grin where they reside, at play, mapping the smoothness of the blade of her sun-kissed shoulder. He feels the whisper of a gentle, warm breeze upon his face, and wonders at the notion that, somewhere, somehow (the somehow is not so much a mystery to him), they have left a window, maybe even a door, open to the limitless beauty that lies in wait. "Late," he guesses, and instinctually he knows she's smiling at him and his reluctance to let go of her to search for his watch, which surely must be around here someplace, maybe tucked away in his suitcase. They'd stopped measuring the passage of time with anything but the golden-orange sunrises and the pink-purple sunsets the moment they'd stepped off of that plane. Perhaps (Luis admits this only to himself) he does owe Julian Crane a thank you, or at least some small expression of gratitude for his choice of wedding present to his sister. He sobers with the thought, for Sheridan has gained much more than a honeymoon trip of a lifetime with the downfall of Alistair Crane's house of cards; she has (re)gained a brother she's long thought lost, and a semblance of peace she's never possessed before. His hand skims her shoulder, travels down her arm, where it lingers on her elbow. His mouth brushes her skin as he speaks, his smile in his words, when her stomach decides to butt into their conversation, impatient and loud, growling and making her giggle into their shared pillow. "I'm guessing it's noon, maybe lunch time."

"What if I want breakfast?" Sheridan mumbles into her pillow.

For a brief moment, Luis revisits the previous morning, when she'd surprised him with breakfast in bed. Wearing nothing but his shirt, she'd tucked her bare legs beneath her like a little girl (when she had looked like anything but), and offered him a tray of colorful fruit, sweet juice, rich, steaming coffee, and a lumpy plate of scrambled eggs. He wants to laugh at what love (and marriage) has done to him, how much it has changed him: he'd eaten the eggs. Breakfast is okay, he decides, but he's making it. "Pancakes?" he suggests. He smirks when her stomach again growls, and his hand leaves her elbow to trace her forearm, and he hears girlish hope and anticipation in her answer.

"Blueberry?"

Their villa is well-stocked (he thinks maybe Katherine had a hand in that; Julian, he knows, doesn't do domestic), and he's pretty sure they have everything they need to keep them happy and well-fed for the duration of their honeymoon, including fresh blueberries for his wife's pancakes. "I think blueberry is a definite possibility," he tells her. She stretches and sighs contentedly, but still he keeps that connection, and when she settles again, all warm limbs and delicious skin, Luis discovers her hand threaded with his, and he admires the dancing glint of their matching wedding bands in the sunlight. He's in no hurry to disturb this moment. Long minutes later, her grumbling stomach aside, he realizes, neither is she. So they lie there, wrapped up in each other, savoring the other's closeness until a shadow creeps around the corner and peeks into their sun-dappled bedroom.

Sheridan ends up feeding him blueberry pancakes for an early dinner.

Thanks, Shaun, for the feedback on the last chapter.

It was much appreciated.

Hope you enjoy this new installment.

Thanks so much for reading!