They had nowhere else to go. The sheets swallowed them whole as he fumbled with clothing, damn clothing, and he suddenly resented the societal demands for garments. They were awfully inconvenient. She was exactly how he remembered and unexpected at once. The other women had been nothing more than an attempt to forget, but this, this was as though she managed to reach a place in his soul that no one else knew about and fix whatever had been broken with only the feeling of her skin on his. He repeated her name over and over, not out of passion, but out of sheer fear that he was imagining it all. "Abby." And finally she answered. "Luka." Her eyes were brimming with terror and chaos and uncertainty but she clung to him, kissed him, moved with him with such conviction that he knew. He drank her in like a man who hadn't had a sip of water in years, emotion evident in his every movement, and she knew it was different this time, this had a purpose and an electricity and a possibility. Everything around them dissolved into nothingness as she lost herself in the scent of his hair, the gentle warmth of his skin, the inexplicable sensation of kissing him and she swore it tasted like honeysuckle plucked from amid the leaves on a summer evening.

He held her close against him afterwards, his hands tangling through her hair, his chin resting in the crease of her neck and shoulder. She felt his lips on her neck, barely even a kiss, but enough for her to know. He'd asked her once, lying together, what they'd done. She hadn't understood the question, told him as much, and he'd asked again. Had they had sex or made love? She'd been silent, too conflicted to speak, too unsure of herself to even be sure of him, of them. Now she rolled back to face him. Her voice was barely audible. "What did we just do?"

His words were barely more than breaths on her skin. "We made love."

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She woke to find his arms wrapped around her, eyes dancing with a life she hadn't seen in him in months, a lazy smile on his face as his head rested on the pillow inches from her face. He moved one hand from her waist to brush her hair back from her face. "I missed watching you sleep."

An inadvertent smile crept over her face. "How long have you been watching me?"

"Maybe an hour. I don't know." He kissed her lightly, leaving her lips craving more. "You're beautiful when you sleep."

God, he made it hard for her. Fear tugged at her, screamed at her that what they'd just done wasn't worth the risk, but the feeling of lying there with him was overwhelming. It was the first time she'd felt so good in months. Honesty was the most uncomfortable feeling she knew, the thing that scared the life out of her, but in that moment, losing him seemed imminent unless she could put aside her fears. Losing him was the biggest fear of all. She let out a long, shaking sigh and moved to rest her head on his bare chest. "Luka." Her voice was barely audible.

"Mmhmm." His fingers laced through her hair, gently running his hand through her hair, savoring the silky feeling. All of what he'd done over the past year, all of the destructive acts and mindless cavorting had melted away from his consciousness. The ghosts of his past didn't haunt him this morning, as they had every morning for as long as he could recall. She was all he saw, all he wanted. You don't know what you've got until it's gone.

She could feel his warmth, his authenticity, but doubt was as habitual reflex that she hadn't yet managed to curb. He pulled her closer, pressing his lips to her forehead. There was an assurance in the act, she could feel it, feel that he wanted to be there with her. The voices in her subconscious abated. "Nothing. I missed waking up with you."

He could hear the waver in her voice. Fear of intimacy had driven them apart before, and the prospect of it damaging this second chance made him bold. "Tell me what you're thinking." His voice was gentle, not demanding she tell him, only offering.

"I don't want to mess things up this time, Luka." She rolled to look him in the eye. "I don't want to take the chance of losing you as a friend unless this can work." It was the most honest thing she'd said in so long as she could remember. She was surprised at herself, but then, she was surprised at how strongly she felt about everything that had happened over the past weeks.

His thumb rubbed over her bottom lip in an action so seemingly simple, yet intense. "We'll make it work."

She nodded slightly and let her head drop back to his chest. She'd take him at his word.