19.
"He must be plotting something" growled Five through clenched teeth.
"Yes, love, you've been saying it nonstop for the last half an hour" soothed Marben, kissing a stripe of freshly-healed skin while struggling with a difficult folding of the bandage: Five hadn't been able to spacial jump from the Academy to the School, do to his still fresh injuries, so he had come all the way by foot and climbed the fire escape up to the right window. Marben had been livid with the fear of watching him pass out from exertion when he had peeked between the curtains, but it had passed very quickly, for in a second her boyfriend was all over her, kissing and hugging, caressing and saying he'd missed her. She'd been half drunk of love for a bit then, but soon the loosened and soiled gauzes around Five's hands and knees had forced her to regain her wits and to go into full nurse mode.
"Because my Father never does anything without a hidden agenda!".
"He is bizarre. Today he read throughout our rehearsal…that is, I don't know if he read, but he had with him what looked like a leather bound book and he didn't seem to pay attention to the music".
"It must have been that fucking journal on which he writes down every single barbarism he intends to subject us in order to teach us how to dominate our powers…". Marben demurely lowered her eyes, resuming to bandage.
"Maybe it's nothing…".
"You don't know him as well as I do. Trust me, that old bastard is hiding something…I just can't understand exactly what it could be!". Throwing his arms up in frustration, Five made the roll of gauze slip from Marben's fingers and so the freshly applied bandage went completely undone, flying across the room with a flutter; turning to look at his girlfriend with sheer terror in his eyes, he found her already looking crossly at him.
"I…I'm sorry. Please don't beat me up, I'm wounded and soft".
"You surely are mentally impaired" she rebuked in a stern tone. "On the other hand, at least you're handsome".
"Hey, are you…finally agreeing with me about my good looks?" asked Five with a little smug grin.
"I'm saying that if you don't stay still and let me finish your dressings, I'm gonna pinch your nipples very very hard and make you cry". Five caught himself ogling Marben's bum while she crawled in search of the flying gauze; once he realized what she'd just said, though, he whined covering his endangered nipples.
"Your burns look a lot better, anyway. I really am glad" said the girl when she came back, gently prying one of his boyfriend's hands from his chest to inspect the wounds on it. When she deemed them promising, she placed a kiss on the healing skin, making Five blush and feel all warm inside.
"Then why you keep dressing and undressing them?".
"Because they need to stay clean and uncontaminated during the day, and left uncovered at night".
"So what we're currently doing is useless, since it's night". Marben sighed heavily, letting her head hang from her shoulders and the retrieved gauze roll fall from her hand.
"Five, there's not a single chance in hell that I'm gonna let you walk back home with all those wounds undressed".
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that: I'll be staying here with my favorite nurse, tonight!". At the smug smirk on the boy's face, Marben's eyes went wide.
"WHAT? Five, it simply can't be done! You'll be needing sterile bedding and no contact with me whatsoever - which at least is feasible, I could aways sleep on the floor…".
"No, it would not be feasible AT. ALL!" forcefully complained Five. Marben immediately stopped blathering about medical strictness and looked at him, speechless.
"Look, Princess…I'm fine, ok?". The boy held up his arms displaying his naked torso and legs, all blemished here and there by fire and scratches, but looking well on their way to healing. "There's no need to get all flustered about me".
"But…I want you to be alright again. Like…yesterday" Marben said, in such an innocent voice that Five gave her one of his rare warm and tender smiles.
"I'll be. All I need, right now, is to huddle for an entire night with my love, because I've missed her so badly and being trapped in that blasted Academy for a week without her company has been a nightmare".
Marben's eyes became soft and a bit sad, hearing what the last week had been for Five; it had been nightmarish for her, too. So she resigned to fish her emergency set of clean bedsheets from a cupboard and start making the bed anew.
"At least we'll have the cleanest sheets possible" she mumbled, struggling with a hospital corner; Five huffed a laugh under his breath, sprung up from the floor and kissed her soundly on a cheek, before grabbing a side of the sheet too. As soon as the bed was made, Five jumped on it like a child. Marben retrieved his vest from the back of a chair and tossed it at his face.
"Put it on, you rascal, or all that new skin will get chafed during the night". Five begrudgingly complied, muttering something about not being a rascal.
Suddenly the lights went off. The boy looked instinctively around himself, but obviously saw nothing. Then, the soft swish of fabric sliding against skin to heap on the floor after a moment of silence told him everything he needed to know: Marben was undressing in the same room as him, probably naked and so near he could touch her warm skin, right now, and he COULDN'T. SEE. A DAMN. THING!
"Ok, I've got to tell you something" Five said abruptly, voice cracking for the emotion - FUCKING PUBERTY!
"I know, I know, you'll have a boner in the morning" chirped Marben, jovially. "I told you, Sweet Cheeks, it's fine…".
"I'll get one right now if you don't put on your fucking pajamas and come to bed this fucking moment!".
Marben bursted into a lovely, joyous fit of laughs and in barely a bunch of seconds was under the covers, plastering herself to Five's chest, enveloping him in her pajamas-clad arms and holding for dear life. He held her tightly back, finally able to reacquaint with her soft body and dear scent after so many days of distance.
"God, how I missed you…".
"You tell me. I didn't even get to know how you were faring! I've been so worried, Five…".
"Don't be. I'm indestructible, see?".
"Indestructible, yes…and already half hard. You really are in good, strong health!". Five sputtered, and Marben couldn't stop her giggles, not even when she leaned up to shut him with a kiss.
