Hiya people! Hope you all had a great week, or at least a better one than I had... Long story short, my classes suck and my favorite character from my favorite TV show died in brutal fashion... Yup, it was rough. All right, so you asked, and I delivered, and I am mortified. It's toned down, but is it enough to change the rating of the story? Let me know. Here's chapter 25, enjoy!
Laurien let out a soft breathless sigh as she ran her fingers lightly over Erik's exposed heaving chest, carefully tracing the many faint scars that littered his skin as she felt his warm lips against her forehead. The melodious and silky chorus of Jo Stafford's 'No Other Love' rang lazily in her ears from where it played on the record player a few feet away, filling the already hot room with its soft amorous tone.
Laurien was still admittedly out of breath as she glanced up at the ceiling, though she relished in how wonderfully strange her perspiring naked body felt next to Erik's underneath the sheets as he held her in his muscular arms, his firm hand drifting down to rest comfortably on the smooth bare curve of her hip.
Laurien's eyes flitted heavily around her bedroom before they rested on the open window, and even though she could feel the cold wind against her face, it was a necessity, seeing as the room had grown so warm since they'd first burst in an hour or so ago.
She glanced up at Erik with soft violet eyes as he pushed a rogue strand of hair away from her flushed face. "I love it when they turn that shade." He murmured, his pupils dilating subtly as they flicked down to her mouth, before kissing her tenderly.
He tasted of mint and sweat as he nipped gently at her bottom lip, allowing Laurien to roll the sweet flavor along her tongue before she broke away and nuzzled his neck, leaving a trail of delicate bruises in her mouth's wake.
A small hint of a smile appeared on his lips as his hands found her beneath the sheets. Her body squirmed with pleasure, before drawing back and sitting up halfway when he stopped, the sheet slipping off of her shoulders to reveal her pale breasts.
"What this from?" He asked abruptly, his smile fading into a frown as he reached up to touch the large scar on her right shoulder.
"Oh, it's nothing."
"It looks like a gunshot wound."
"Hmm, I can't remember how I got it." She lied, trying to find some way to change the subject before she narrowed her eyes when he looked at her, noticing that his hand was still resting teasingly on her upper thigh. In retaliation, she reached down and brushed her hand deliberately against him, smirking when she felt him stiffen almost immediately.
Checkmate, she thought, as he suddenly lunged forward and wrapped an arm around her hips, pulling her back down onto the mattress before he got up on top of her and straddled her waist, his questions about the scar completely forgotten.
Small explosions of golden sparks eased their way in front of her eyes as he leaned down slowly and kissed her, softly at first, as Laurien raked her fingers along his arms before grabbing on to his shoulders tightly. His body pushed her down firmly into mattress with his full weight before grabbing her arms and pinning them above her head as his kisses grew strong and deep. She let out a soft moan of mixed desire and frustration, wanting to touch him so badly that it hurt, but at the same time, the sensation of his hands gripping her wrists, restraining her as he kissed her in all the ways he knew she loved, felt so damn good for some reason.
Laurien pushed up against the bed with her pelvis, rubbing against him as she felt him grow harder than before until he released her wrists and grabbed onto her hips, finally thrusting gently into her, though still eliciting a sharp gasp of surprise from her as her hands curled into fists.
"You all right?" He asked breathlessly, his voice low and sultry in her ear as his teeth raked across her cheekbone.
"Yeah." Laurien managed out with difficulty as her chest seized up, the gold sparks quickly glossing over her vision as he moved slowly and rhythmically, hitting all the right places at just the right time.
With her hands now free, she held the back of his neck as she moved along with him, biting down on her lip to keep herself from crying out as the delicious rising mixture of pain and pleasure became almost too much to bear. They needed to be quiet, seeing as Raven's room was just next door, and on second thought, they should have gone to Erik's room instead after Charles' grave announcement.
Laurien closed her eyes lightly and rode out the intense sensation as Erik's fingers left her hips and slowly traveled up her stomach until they reached her tousled hair, grabbing onto a handful as his mouth met hers again.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed, though it felt like a blissful eternity before he pulled away from her, a deep groan of pleasure breaking out from behind his red lips as he burrowed his face into her neck, warming her glistening skin with his sweet breath.
"That was amazing." She whispered, her chest heaving mightily as she tried to catch her breath.
"Weren't too bad yourself." Erik murmured, smiling into her collarbone, before earning himself a light smack on the shoulder as she let out a small breathless laugh.
Their smiles slowly disappeared as the heavy weight of reality returned to plague their minds with a sense of foreboding for the then unknown events of the next day. It suddenly became cold, and Laurien snuggled herself up closer to Erik's body as her powers closed the window, careful to not accidentally slam it and shatter the glass.
"Are you scared for tomorrow?" She asked quietly, her fingers returning to their previous task of dragging her fingers over the scarred flesh of his back, feeling him relax under the rhythmic motions.
"Honestly," He started, giving her jaw a quick kiss. "I've been waiting for this day for so long, I don't really know what to feel."
She nodded in understanding, knowing all too well of what he meant. "What about you?" He inquired in return, his voice vibrating against her bones.
"No." She uttered silently as she stroked his dark hair, wondering if he knew the extent of the untamed anxiety that ran through her veins as she repeated the useless string of words in her head, that everything was going to be all right, though she just couldn't shake off the nagging feeling that it would be anything but, as she let his lips capture her own again.
Laurien held Erik's face between her hands as she kissed him hard on the mouth where he was stretched out on top of her on the bed of her old room, his lips intoxicatingly soft and warm against her own. Erik's fingers gripped at her thighs, pulling them up around his waist as she rubbed against him, drawing a faint groan from his mouth as it dragged down her neck and back up again.
Laurien head fell blissfully to the side as a strong current of ecstasy flowed through her. She opened her eyes lazily, only to feel the sensation of freezing cold water washing over her as her gaze fell upon a photo on her side table.
Laurien ripped her lips away from Erik's as a horrible sinking feeling blossomed in her stomach. She barely heard his small moan of disappointment at the loss of contact as she flipped them over and straddled him down to the mattress. He smirked as he looked up at her. "I would fight you, but under the circumstances, I'll let you have the upper hand this time." He chuckled teasingly, but his smile soon disappeared when he noticed that her eyes had changed to an icy blue. "Laurien?"
She shook her head. "Sorry, I just-."
"What's wrong?" He frowned, concern flashing in his wide eyes. He lifted a hand to brush her waist as she climbed off of him and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I didn't mean to rush you into this, I-"
"No, no, it wasn't you, it's this." She murmured, smiling softly as she picked the picture frame up from where it rested on the side table and handed it to him. "I forgot that this was here."
She watched intently as his eyes searched the photograph that Laurien had taken maybe a week before the incident, of Dan sleeping in one of the armchairs in the living room, in complete uniform, after he'd just come back from a long weekend reunion with his friends from his unit in Korea, his head tilted lazily toward the window. She'd been so proud of the photo when she'd gotten it developed, seeing as all the other ones had ended up being so blurry and unfocused to the point of nothing being discernable.
Though she couldn't see it in the photo, she could remember that Dan had inherited their father's large heavy lidded brown eyes, but their mother's sharp facial features. His angular freckled face was complimented by defining cheekbones and a slight smirk on his thin lips, something so rare and fleeting that it was an absolute treat to witness when it appeared.
His big mop of blond hair had been an absolute mess, as he used to keep it long before he'd left for Korea, down to his shoulders within a month or two of their mother cutting it down to his scalp. When they were younger, Bastijn and Roosje would play with his hair and Dan would sit patiently as his hair was bunched up into multiple little pigtails, but after their parents had died, he usually kept it within army regulation, which always gave off the impression that he was prepared to go back at a moment's notice. After a few years, the twins had complained to the point where he gave in and grew it out again, just for them and their own amusement.
He'd loved them so much, Laurien thought, though she tried not to wonder about what had gone through his head when he realized what he had done, their blood on his hands.
"Can I ask you something?" Erik asked her quietly, breaking her out of her trance.
"Am I going to like what you ask?"
He shook his head slowly, but she grabbed his hand all the same and squeezed. "Shoot."
"What happened when you found Dan?" He inquired, but when she raised an eyebrow in confusion, he clarified. "Before you…" He trailed off.
"Nothing really, he just talked to me." Laurien shrugged, her fingers twitching nervously against the sheets of the bed beneath her. "I was nervous before I found him, angry as well, but I couldn't let it get to my head, seeing as I still had to jump the wall."
"You jumped the Berlin Wall?" He demanded; his voice layered thickly in disbelief.
Laurien smirked at his expression, but quickly sobered when she remembered seeing the other people who were trying to get across. "Yeah, it had just gone up, and it certainly wasn't a pretty sight over there. Only a few hours before I crossed, a young couple was shot trying to get over to the West. I remember feeling completely idiotic knowing that I was attempting to go to the East side."
"Were you alone over there?"
"No, I had a friend with me."
"And they let you go over the Berlin Wall?"
She rolled her eyes as she smacked her forehead with her hand. "Oh God, you sound just like Adela."
Erik frowned. "Who?"
"Never mind." She shook her head dismissively. "Anyways, I made it over with only a few scratches, but I doubt that I would have been able to get across with my life if it weren't for my mutation. I created a diversion further down the wall, which drew all of their spotlights away as I ran across and climbed over."
"I found him in an abandoned apartment a few blocks away, I was entirely prepared to kill him the moment that I saw him, but…" She closed her eyes tight as Dan appeared before her as he had that day, with his disheveled clothes wrapped tightly around his frail body. His face had been hollow and gaunt, like a skeleton that had grey skin stretched over it, his prominent cheekbones casting dark heavy shadows over the rest of his face. He'd looked up at her with his one good eye when she'd entered the old apartment, the other, or what was left of the other, had been painstakingly sewn shut, as if to save others from witnessing the nightmarish gore underneath. "I didn't. I couldn't even speak."
"I guess that unnerved him, that I wasn't getting angry at him or anything of the kind, because he then started yelling these terrible things at me." She closed her eyes, the eerie ring of his hoarse voice echoing through her memories. It had broken so many times, its edges scratchy and weak, as if he hadn't used it in ages. Laurien flinched minutely at another thought that sprang to the forefront of her mind, that maybe it was because he'd been screaming himself to the point where his throat bled. "He begged for a death that I wouldn't grant him. I remember noticing that his eyes got wild, and he lunged at me." She murmured, a vision of Dan's tired bony hands reaching out to her menacing her heart rate as it sent it racing painfully. "It was then when I snapped his neck with my powers. It was by accident, I didn't mean to, but he forced my hand, and in the end, he finished my mission for me."
"It was self defense, no one can blame you for that." Erik said firmly.
"If you say so." She whispered faintly, not fully believing him, but she continued all the same. "I don't really remember what happened after, I only recall a sharp pain through the darkness and waking up in a dumpster on the West side with a hole in my shoulder." She said, pulling down the collar of her shirt to reveal the ragged pink scar that Erik had asked about months ago when they'd been back at the mansion. "I guess I got sloppy coming back over the wall and got shot." She added, wincing as she flexed her arm, the marred skin stretching uncomfortably. "Still hurts every now and then."
He continued to stare wordlessly at her as she felt a wave of something resembling pride and sorrow surge from him. "What?" Laurien asked, wondering if she'd missed something.
"Nothing, it's just-" He started, pushing a wavy strand of hair behind her ear before cupping the back of her neck with his warm hand. "You're even braver than I thought."
She allowed herself a small smile as she finally felt herself breathe easily, like someone had removed the elephant that had been sitting on her lungs for the past year. She leaned in and kissed him on the mouth, running her fingers carefully along his bruised jaw line, wondering if he knew how much his words meant to her.
"Though I still think that you should go back to the mansion." He mumbled against her lips as she groaned minutely in frustration and made to get up, but he grabbed her around the waist before she could get too far. "Wait, just hear me out." He pleaded, pulling her willingly back to the bed. "I'd never forgive myself if you were harmed when I knew that I could have done something to prevent it, if you're at the mansion I can know that you're safe."
"Oh no, you're getting all protective." She laughed, groaning comically as she rolled onto her back, his hands roaming down her stomach as he propped himself up next to her. "I hate that."
"Well, then you're just going to have to deal with it." He murmured, hooking his fingers around the belt loops of her jeans and pulling her flush against him.
"I'm pretty sure that I can guarantee you that if the CIA or anyone else ever comes after me, they're going to receive a nasty surprise."
He laughed. "I don't doubt that."
"Here, I have a compromise." She proposed; an anxious knot suddenly appearing in her stomach as the words spilled from her mouth. "I'll go back to the mansion after I've sold the house, but only if you come with me and talk to Charles."
His face fell drastically as he let go of her. "You know I can't do that."
"No, I don't."
"Laurien, I don't want to get into this." He stated tiredly, getting to his feet and walking toward the foggy window on the other side of the room.
"Fine, then I guess I'll just backpack aimlessly through Europe, and maybe, one day, the CIA will join me for tea and biscuits. Oh, that will be a grand old time!" She exclaimed, wildly throwing her hands up in exasperation.
"Laurien." He warned sternly, but she continued, dragging her fingers through her hair in frustration as she stood up as well.
"No, Erik. I've been facing my demons here, now it's time to face yours back at the mansion. I need you to be brave one more time, for your own sake and for Charles'."
Erik blinked at her wordlessly, his face somber and pained as he glanced out the window, simultaneously letting her know that she was right.
"Look, I'm not even sorry if I'm being difficult, but I don't want this to be something that you sorely regret in your old age, if you ever get there, which I severely doubt considering the path you're barreling head first down."
He turned back and they stared each other down, a battle being fought within him between his conflicting emotions as a muscle twitched in his jaw. A small sound from the other side of the partly closed door to the bedroom met Laurien's ears as Erik made to speak, but she suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth, effectively silencing him as she pushed him back against the wall with a small thump. He frowned beneath her hand and let out a muffled grunt of annoyance, making to grab her wrist to release himself, when he stopped abruptly as he heard what had startled her as well. From the creaking of a door opening and shutting, they realized that someone else was making their way through the house.
She gave him a quick look before slowly releasing him and creeping toward the bedroom door that was slightly ajar, holding her ear against the opening. She almost jumped out of her skin when a clear voice pierced through the house. "Hey, Laur? You here?"
"It's just Adela." Laurien smirked in relief before turning her head toward the straight-backed metal bender beside her, her face growing serious. "This conversation is by no means over."
"It never is with you." Erik murmured, but she barely heard him as she swung the door open and headed down the hallway, leaving him to scramble to put his shirt back on.
"Hey, you didn't burn the house down." Laurien greeted as she spotted the homemade cake in Franz's hands when he limped over from placing his coat on the hanger by the front door.
"Yeah, but just nearly." Franz said as Laurien took the heavy pan from him and placed it on the counter before running to get him a chair from the dining room. "Sorry, it's a day late, but I think we need to get a new stove, there were sparks flying everywhere."
"Oh, dear. Well, thank you so much. You really didn't have to."
"Are you kidding? It's our pleasure!" Adela exclaimed from where she was trying to grab plates from the cupboard, prompting Laurien to scramble over to help before she strained herself. "I've been dying to try out this new recipe that Franz's grandmother passed down for apple cake, I think that it will be a real…" She trailed off abruptly, causing Laurien to glance up to see what had stalled her, only to see that Adela's gaze was glued on where Erik had just appeared in the kitchen doorway.
"Oh, Adela, Franz, this is Erik, my-" She stopped, searching desperately for a word that was not so bland as 'friend' but not so extreme as 'former lover', but ultimately failing in the end. "My friend from America."
"Huh. A real American." Adela commented, leaning up against the counter with her eyes narrowed in thoughtful suspicion as Erik shook hands with Franz. "So, this isn't Bellamy Whatsit, is it?"
"No." Laurien answered, a small smirk creeping onto her face as she felt the need to tell her that Erik was actually Polish, but Adela didn't give her the chance before she grabbed her arm as she suddenly remembered something.
"Hey, I've got a surprise for you."
"Uh oh, what have you done now?" Laurien exclaimed, almost genuinely nervous as Adela dragged her out of the kitchen.
"Why do you always expect the worst of me?" She asked, throwing her arms up in the air as she waddled over to the living room. "Besides, I'm really excited about this one, so shut up." She said, revealing a small puppy from beneath the folds of the woolen blanket on one of the armchairs.
"Oh my God, he's gorgeous!" Laurien gasped as she knelt down and tentatively held her hand out for the reddish-brown puppy to smell, but instead he licked her fingers, his dark eyes shining charismatically as he stared curiously at her.
"She, actually." Adela corrected before passing the pup into Laurien's arms. "And she is yours."
Laurien's mouth dropped wide open. "What?"
"Yeah, Vimy had a litter of Retriever Husky puppies last month and Mom brought over a basket of them yesterday for us to choose from, I thought you'd like this one for your birthday."
"Oh my God, thank you so much." She gushed; hugging Adela the best she could, considering her stomach and the squirming pup, before moving over to Franz and giving him a quick peck on the cheek in thanks. "Erik, come here." She called to the kitchen, smiling brightly as she saw Erik's eyes light up when he noticed the dog in her arms. "Does she have a name?"
"Nope, that's up for you to decide. I let Franz name ours."
"Little Louis has already chewed up two of my shoes and a curtain." Franz commented from his seat, his tone stern, but his green eyes were brimming with pride.
Laurien glanced up at Erik as he gently stroked the pup's head, meeting his tender blue gaze before looking down at the little creature in her arms who was nibbling at her fingers with his tiny white teeth. "I'll have to think about it." She finally said, a plan being decided in her mind at the same time that she spoke, because some way or another, Erik was going to speak to Charles as soon as she could arrange it, whether he liked it or not.
Okay, so I've always wanted to put a puppy into this story, ever since the beginning. I'm hoping that it will be kind of like a therapy dog for Laurien and the others at the mansion, that is, if she ever goes back? Remains to be seen... Anyway, nothing really new this week, but the X Company season finale, where I cried and cried again. I honestly hate searching for new favorite character, it's just like Robb Stark from Game of Thrones. Well, anywho, please let me know what you thought about this chapter, it was obviously a difficult one for me to write, and one that made me blush more than I care to mention. Thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Please review!