Eleven
For a moment they're still, both in slight shock, neither knowing what they're doing or what to do next, for a second. Then something changes somewhere, and they're both moving, their lips gently caressing one another, their arms coming around each other, their bodies pressing closer together. Scotty thinks if you could feel your brain exploding in your head, that's what this would feel like – because this is what he's been dreaming for years now, and she tastes so good he can hardly breathe. Lilly can't even begin to let herself think anything – she doesn't want her mind to go anywhere other than what's happening right now, for fear it will disappear. It's maybe longer than you'd think a first kiss would be, because they're both scared of the other's reaction, both of them are fearful of seeing their partner's face when they pull back… because both of them are loving it, and both their pessimism's are fearing seeing the opposite on their friend's face.
But, to Scotty's surprise, when he pulls back, there's a grin on Lilly's face, she's smiling like the cat that got the cream. Slowly, slightly unsure, that brings a smile to his face as well.
"Is this ok?" she asks, and he smiles a little wider at the tiny, shy voice that's coming out of her mouth. For someone who's always so confident, never taking any prisoners, so sure of herself, she suddenly sounds afraid. He doesn't want to read too much into it, but it almost gives him the idea that she wants a positive answer. He hasn't got the words, not for a second, so he catches her lips with his quickly, bringing a wider grin to her face.
"It's more than ok, Lil. Try six years in the makin'."
She laughs a little then, nodding her head slightly in agreement, and he pulls her up, off the stool, flattening her body against, leaning in to kiss her once more, and it's deeper this time, more heated, there are tongues tangling with each other, hands from both sides travelling everywhere, he presses her against her fridge door, and all of a sudden she's got a sudden urge to start undoing buttons. He pulls back then, smiling, kissing her on the forehead.
"We'll figure it out, Lil… we can take care of Ellie…" he kisses her softly, gently. "We need to keep this slow, for it to work, Lil…"
And she smiles, because she agrees, but despite that she's still kissing him again with some sort of fiery passion, and Scotty thinks for a second that maybe it's easier to survive some kinds of torture than Lilly Rush literally starting to undress him, and then Ellie starts screaming, and they both pull away, flushed in the cheeks and aroused beyond belief, but they're both laughing.
"This is how it's going to be, isn't it?" Lilly smiles, and he tucks a blonde curl behind her ear.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Scotty says. "You go to bed, you're tired. I'll fix Peanut, you get some sleep."
"But-"
He frowns at her slightly as he starts to leave the room. "Slowly, remember?"
She gives him a little smile as he walks through the door, and somehow there's more in that smile than there's ever been before, somehow there's something entirely new, now, and it's something beautiful.
After he's changed her diaper, he takes Ellie back down into the kitchen, heats the formula milk and rocks her in his arms as he feeds it to her, marvelling again at how much like her aunt she looks, how much more she seems to look like Lilly every day, a sprinkling of blonde hair, something about those blue eyes…
"You'll never guess what's happened, Peanut…" he whispers, and her eyes open slightly and she amuses him, looking at him, mildly confused. "I've been thinkin' about what there would be between me and your auntie Lil for years… but I didn't think it would ever go anywhere… and you know what? I think it's partly you that's caused this…"
She pulls her mouth away from the bottle, smiling at him, satisfied for now. "You know, Peanut, sometimes I think that's part of the reason I love you so much, that you look like Lil…" he smiles a little to himself, discards the bottle in the sink and starts rocking Ellie, she's almost asleep already, he sings a lullaby he remembers his mother singing in his childhood, in a whisper, and then her eyes are closing and she's slipping back to sleep. He rocks her for minutes longer, in a way loathe to let go of the little girl, still ever-fearing the moment when she wouldn't be with them 24/7, despite Christina's MIA status. In all honesty, he thinks that there will be little they can do to keep the little girl is Christina was to turn up and take her back.
He puts Ellie to bed then, when she's sound asleep and he's had his moments with her. He's thinking he's gonna go set his bed up on the couch in Lilly's living room, when the moments between them in the kitchen are flashing through his mind, the way she felt in his arms, and he pokes his head around her door, telling himself he's just checking on her.
He doesn't even believe himself.
She's sound asleep, curled in the foetal position on the edge of the bed, and he never thought they'd get here, but he shrugs his pants and shirt off, down to his boxers and a tank top, and climbs in the bed next to her, still slightly apprehensive, but quite decidedly wrapping his arms around her.
She stirs slightly in her sleep, turns her head to face his, lightly kisses his jaw.
"Night, Scotty." She whispers, lacing her fingers with his, a little smile appearing on her face.
He almost has to pinch himself then, give himself some sort of reassurance this is still real.