Lorna woke a little while later, considerably sore, her eyelids still heavy. She shifted, nuzzling into Sebastian with a sigh.

He smiled, still half asleep, and his grip on her tightened just a little. "Morning..."

"Morning," she mumbled, curling up a little, closer to him. "M' sore..."

"Yeah, I'm not surprised," he said, chuckling softly. "You want painkillers?"

"Eh, that seems unnecessary," she yawned. "Maybe something to drink. Am I drinking right now? I can't remember," she frowned, then shrugged. "Whatever. Convince Jim to let us stay here longer and I'll be fine."

He smirked, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll see what I can do. He'll need to decide if giving Ines more time is a good or bad thing. And you're drinking in moderation. What do you want?"

"Something fruity," she hummed. "Maybe frozen, just to flaunt our luxury."

He grinned, shifting away and rolling out of bed. "I'll call room service and talk to Jim. Back in a few."

"Mmkay, thanks, I love you," she grinned, all wrapped up in blankets and content as could be.

"Only when I'm your cabana boy," he shot back, grinning and pulling on a pair of trousers, heading for the door.

He went to find Jim first, to see if he wanted anything from room service. He wasn't in the common space, so he knocked on the door to the man's suite.

"Come in," he called loud enough to be heard from down the hall. He was sitting on a chaise, a book about physics in his hands.

He entered, walking down the hall to the bedroom and stepping in. It was similar to their own in style and class, but the decor and general setup were different. "Hello, sir. Sleep well?"

"I slept, which I'm sure you're aware is an event itself," he replied, shutting the book and putting it on his lap.

He grinned, giving a nod of agreement. "I'm going to call up breakfast. Do you want anything?"

"French toast and a Bloody Mary," he said simply.

He nodded. "Sir, what would you think of staying here for a few days?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Why?"

He put his hands into his trouser pockets, and felt his shoulder twinge rudely at the movement. "First off, Ines will be at the peak of her security right now. A few more days of confusion will leave everyone tired and vulnerable. That's our butter zone. Secondly... It's fucking fantastic, here, Jim. And after almost two solid years of bullshit.. It's a nice break."

"Didn't the two of you take a vacation to India for a month before things went to hell again?" Jim snorted, but waved his hand. "But fine. I won't argue. I'm enjoying breathing normal air."

He didn't bother pointing out that Lorna had been recovering for most of their time in India, that he had died shortly afterward, and just nodded his thanks. "Alright. We'll keep an eye on Ines and move as soon as we need to. Anything else, sir?"

"No, there's nothing I need at the moment," he said, shaking his head. "I'll keep an eye on the situation."

He nodded, heading out of Jim's wing and closing the door behind him. He put in a call to room service for a breakfast feast of epic proportions, making sure that special attention was paid to Jim's order. He was pleased the boss wanted to eat, he didn't want him snubbing the food because it came up half-assed. Then he headed back to their room.

Lorna was standing by the floor to ceiling windows, her loosest blackouts on, for lack of anything else to wear, just looking out on the snowy mountain, peacefully. She wondered what it looked like in spring.

He admired her figure as he walked up behind her quietly, wrapping his arms around her. "Booze and breakfast on the way soon," he said quietly.

"Mmm, good," she hummed, leaning back against him a little. "What did Jim say?"

"We're staying here for a few days, for now, unless the situation changes drastically." He looked out at the mountain. "Just relaxing."

"Oh, thank god," she sighed happily. "I'm so pleased. I don't want to leave this damn place. It's so beautiful."

He nodded just a little, bending to kiss her ear and stepping back. "Come on, I ordered us a fucking buffet."

"Oooh, a buffet?" She grinned, turning around, "Sounds delightful. Ugh, I love being rich."

He smiled, reaching out to take her hand and heading for the main room. They entered just as there was a knock on the door, and he walked over to let the staff member in. Two entered, one with a folding brass table, which they quickly set up off to the side, and the other with a cart stacked with trays of food and drinks. They laid out a beautiful breakfast spread. Beans and toast, roasted tomatoes, eggs, prosciutto... the list went on. There was a platter of french toast for Jim, along with a bloody mary, and a fucking decanter of some slushy fruit drink for Lorna. He was choosing to remain sober for the time being, just in case. The servers left without a word, and he grinned, grabbing a plate.

"Jesus Christ, Sebastian, how in the hell are we going to eat all this?" She asked, eyebrows up near her hairline as she stepped forward and got herself a plate of toast, assorted fruits, eggs, and bacon. "Like, damn."

"We aren't," he said cheerfully, piling his own plate high with roasted tomatoes, beans, portobello, and various meats. "That's the whole point. It's excessive. I'm having fun." He walked over to knock on Jim's door. "Food, sir."

There was no answer from Jim, but a minute later the door opened and he appeared. "Hey Jim," Lorna waved, leaning against the wall as she ate. "How's tricks?"

Jim paused from where he was picking up a plate, turning to raise an eyebrow at Lorna. "I'm not certain that the occasional fuck is quite license to be so informal the rest of the time, kitten..." He smirked slightly. "But I'm sure you'll find the line quickly." He returned to dishing out food, and grabbed his bloody mary, heading back for his rooms.

She snorted as the door closed, looking over at Sebastian with one eyebrow raised. "Did he just call me kitten?"

"Yes," he said through a mouthful of tomato, unphased. He walked over to a couch and sat down. "He started that last night. You found it hilarious."

"What the hell..." she muttered, moving to sit next to him, looking very confused. "Where did that come from?"

He shrugged. "Who knows what goes on in that man's mind? Maybe a diminutive of 'tiger'? Or just the way you were acting. Sort of... kitten-ish, I don't know. Ask him." He shrugged again for lack of something else to do, and took a bite of beans on toast.

"Ask him - it's almost like you're not interested in seeing me live until our wedding date," she scoffed, biting into a strawberry. "You heard him. Can't be too familiar."

He rolled his eyes as he worked to swallow a mouthful of food. "There's a difference between 'Hey Jim, how's tricks,'- which I wouldn't even try on a great day, and 'Excuse me sir, could you tell me why I've suddenly been dubbed "kitten"?'"

She chuckled, shrugging. "I either do completely irreverent or not ask any questions at all. I'm not good at the in-between, most days."

He rolled his eyes. "How in Christ's name you've survived this long is beyond me," he snorted, reaching out to steal a piece of pineapple off her plate.

"Beats me," she shrugged, smirking at him. "Maybe it's because I'm just so pretty."

"There is that," he said with a smirk, returning to his own food. "We should go outside today. Enjoy being able to see more than twenty feet away."

"Get me all bundled up and I'd love to go outside," she grinned, devouring her toast eagerly. "Feel some wind, for once."

"Sounds like we need to go shopping, then," he said with a grin. "Drink your fruity monstrosity and we'll go."

She rolled her eyes a little but did as he asked, chugging her boozed up smoothie for a moment before sputtering and recoiling. "Brain freeze."

He laughed, leaning forward and kissing her firmly, tongue slipping past her lips into her freezing mouth to press against the roof of her mouth and ease the pain.

She made a surprised noise but leaned into the kiss, hand cupping his jaw. He couldn't just do that and think she wouldn't get distracted.

He grinned against her lips, setting his plate on the coffee table and doing the same for hers, without breaking the kiss.

She pulled him closer, smiling against his lips. It was so nice to just be able to enjoy each other like this, knowing they had no obligations hanging over their heads.

She was more dressed than him, which he considered unfair, but he didn't have much trouble circumventing her shirt, his hand sliding along the warm, bare skin of her waist. He nipped her bottom lip, teasing.

"Just a reminder that I'm kinda sore," she murmured, hands splayed on his side, thumbs brushing idly back and forth on his skin, kissing him softly, still smirking a little.

"This doesn't.. have to go anywhere," he retorted quietly between lazy kisses.

"Okay," she smiled, sliding her arms around his neck comfortably, leaning into him, lips soft on his. It still blew her mind that he was her fiancé.

He pulled her onto his lap gently, to make the angle a bit less awkward, and closed his eyes. It was so rare that they did this. Took the time to just relax and enjoy each other. He wondered vaguely when he'd started liking that sort of thing.

She didn't know how long they kissed, but eventually she drew back a little, smiling. "Weren't we going somewhere..?"

"Were we?" he asked, sighing. "Right. Clothes. Outside. We should see if Jim wants to go."

She chuckled, shrugging a little. "Yeah, I guess so. That's going to be a weird shopping trip."

He pushed her playfully off of his lap onto the couch, standing and offering her a hand up. "Let me go get dressed, and I'll ask him."

"Okay," she rolled her eyes, smiling a little as she took his hand and stood. "Don't take forever or I'll go without you."

"For Christ's sake, I'm putting on a shirt," he snorted, heading for their room. "Not doing my fucking makeup."

"Yeah, that would take you for fucking ever," she smirked, waving him away, and picked up her plate off the coffee table to finish up her breakfast while he was getting dressed.

He returned a few minutes later, clean-shaven and dressed, and walked over to the door to Jim's wing, knocking.

Jim opened the door, fully dressed and plate in hand from breakfast. "Moran. What do you need?"

"We were going to go shop for some clothes," he said, reaching out a hand to offer to take the plate. "And then take a walk outside for some real air and sunlight. Up for either?"

Jim handed it off to him and stepped out. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea. Vitamin D is important, apparently," he said dryly, casting a glance to the outdoors that said he would have liked to punch it in the face.

He didn't comment, just walked over to put the plate on the food table for the staff to clear away, before walking over to open the door and quickly examine the hallway. Then he motioned the other two through.

Jim followed with ease, used to having a diligent bodyguard, but Lorna fought not to roll her eyes, more used to Sebastian being a little more subtle about his protection of her.

Sebastian fell in step behind the other two, letting them follow the signs to the shops. He could have led them himself- he knew where they were- but he preferred to keep an eye on their surroundings.

Normally Lorna would have walked a few paces behind and to the side of Jim, letting him take the lead, but that would have looked a little bit weird here, so she walked next to him, eyes on their surroundings. "They have shops in this place? God, it's like a whole mall in here..."

Jim eventually turned to enter a store which had a wide selection of winter wear, and headed without much conversation for the coat rack.

Lorna peeled off and headed for the women's section, mostly ignoring Jim. Sebastian wouldn't care what she bought, either.

Sebastian found a white camouflage coat that was large enough to fit him, and headed for the women's section to find Lorna, picking up a hat and gloves along the way. He was almost certain they wouldn't have boots in his size. His own combat boots would be enough.

Lorna had amassed a small mountain of clothes in the women's section, which she had no intention of trying on; she'd learned a long time ago to judge clothes by eye. It saved time. She looked over as Sebastian appeared, and smirked. "You planning on wearing only the one outfit while we're here?"

"I have more clothes," he snorted. "I knew where we were going, remember? I just need a coat. And you? Planning on changing once an hour?" he asked, eyeing her pile of clothes.

"All I brought were blackouts, I need to make sure I have clothes for the next place we stay," she retorted, stubbornly. "It's not like I know where we're going."

"Ideally, home," he snorted, picking up a small green 'dress' that, had he crumpled it, he could have hidden it in one hand.

"Are we planning to move directly from here to home? I thought this was a staging area for another staging area," she snorted, raising her eyebrow at him picking up an article of her clothing.

"That's up to Jim. Ideally, though, if we're going to spend a few days here... I'd like to go straight home."

She nodded, gathering together her findings in her arms. "Do we need to do work from here?"

He shook his head. "I need to keep tabs on the network, but other than that we're fairly free. Once we take back the network, however, it's going to be a shitstorm, so be aware of that."

"Yeah, well, that's a given. I don't even want to think about the work it's going to take to put my department back together. No fucking way they've been filing everything properly. It's like they're illiterate," Lorna muttered bitterly, picking up the pile of clothes she had gathered and looking around for shoes.

He guided her through the stacks (higher than her head but well below his own) toward the shoe section, grabbing himself a pair of gloves along the way. "I expect the whole place is going to be a disorganized mess, personally."

She chuckled a little, shaking her head. "Yeah, I know, it'll be a mess. Still better than not having it. Hand me those boots, will you?"

He did as she asked, grabbing the box off the shelf and passing it down. "I'm not complaining. I cannot describe how pleased I'll be to be back. Everyone safe, alive and well, the network back under our control..."

She tore out the annoying packaging, silent for a moment as she yanked on the snow boots. "You know, it's honestly hard for me to imagine going back to that life. I haven't had it in so long. Not since I was in that labyrinth."

He nodded just a little, suddenly feeling very tired. "Agreed. How has that been, by the way? Before I was gone, you were struggling with nightmares, with life outside the labyrinth. Has that improved?"

She sighed, standing up straight and taking a few paces in her shoes, to see if they fit right. "I don't know. They morphed into nightmares about you. You were a background character at first, but then I had to start watching you die from the shit in there every night. I've been having less of the labyrinth dreams lately, though I think I'm still freaked out by big animals and pine trees make me feel like I need to worry about drowning."

He glanced out the window at the evergreen forests not far from the lodge. "Will you be alright out there?" he asked, returning his gaze to her.

She nodded, deciding the boots fit and unlacing them to put them back in the box. "One thing that place never was was cold. The snow makes everything different."

He nodded a little, accepting that for what it was, and picking up her pile of clothes, heading for the checkout.

She didn't speak again, waiting until they were walking away from the cashier to find Jim. "What about you? Dreams were never your problem, but shit was still fucked up enough..."

He shook his head. "I'm fine. Been through worse. You and Jim are my concern at this point." He saw the boss standing by the door to the shop, and headed that direction.

Jim looked over at them as they approached, having bought his own purchases a while earlier. He knew exactly what he ne eded, and he'd gotten it without any fussing about. His eyes landed on the bag in Lorna's hand and he snorted, raising his eyebrows at her. "You planning to outfit the Swiss army with that?"

"No," she rolled her eyes, adjusting the handle of the bag in her hand a little so it didn't dig into her palm quite so much. "Isn't Switzerland neutral, anyway?"

"Neutral, yes, but they still have an army. Well-equipped, well trained, and to my knowledge not exactly partial to slinky dresses, but I could be wrong." He nodded back toward their room. "Let's go change, we can go from there."

"Yeah, because I was planning on wearing blackouts outside," she sassed, though she followed him without hesitation, Jim taking the lead as usual, pulling out his phone and walking without looking. He was a pro at it.

"You know, Harrison, I once-again outrank you, so let's tone down the sass a touch, shall we?" he asked, hiding a smirk.

She stuck her tongue out at him, weaving around a child who had stopped abruptly in front of her, as children running around tended to do. "Make me, Moran."

He raised an eyebrow, smirking. "You should be very grateful we're trying to remain a touch covert here, or I would do just that, right here and now," he retorted.

She smirked right back at him, deciding which way to take it considering where they were at in their relationship - something she could rightfully call it, now that they'd both stopped pretending and gotten engaged. "Stop it, you flirt. I'm already walking funny," she snickered, and heard a very exasperated sigh from Jim ahead of her.

He reached out to pinch her arse, raising an eyebrow at Jim's sigh. "Halfway your fault, there, sir," he pointed out with a slight grin.

Jim bit back a 'she started it' and just said, "Why do you think I didn't say anything else?" while Lorna swatted at Seb's hand.

He just rolled his eyes, and remained silent until they got to their room. He keyed in and walked in ahead of them to check that the room was undisturbed. He motioned them in a moment later, and headed for his and Lorna's room to change.

She followed him, stripping out of her blackouts as she did and changing into thicker, more substantial clothes. She watched him undress, eyes focused on him. One of the few good things about being separated from him for so long was that it gave her a new appreciation for him.

He changed quickly into wool thermals and the new gear, before sitting on the bed to lace up his combat boots. He felt her eyes on him and glanced up, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

She leaned against the wall by the door, shrugging with one shoulder. "I catch you looking at me all the time. I'm not allowed to look back?"

He grinned. "You're actually fun to look at," he retorted, finishing tying his boot and standing, grabbing his jacket. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," she said, rolling her eyes and pushing off the wall. "And you're also fun to look at, so what's your point?"

He raised an eyebrow at that, but then shrugged a bit. "I guess I don't have one, then," he said, heading for the main room. The door to the porch was open and Jim was outside, leaning against the railing behind the jacuzzi and waiting.

Jim was dressed in gray, predictably, though he looked a little cold, if the flush of his cheeks was anything to judge by. She couldn't blame him. It was fucking freezing. But it was miles better than being stuck underground, breathing in recycled air. She couldn't really figure out why Jim was coming, though. She didn't think that being stuck without fresh air for long periods of time really bothered him. It wasn't like he left HQ every day.

Moran nodded to Jim, took a moment to survey the landscape, and then they headed down the non-slip steps to the cleared patio below their balcony. There were skis and snowshoes there, and Moran chose a set of the latter, stepping into them and strapping them on with practiced ease. Jim did the same.

Lorna took only a few moments longer than them to strap herself into snowshoes, glad for the time she'd spent two weeks stranded in upstate New York during the dead of winter. She hated how she walked in them, but she had to admit they were useful.

Of course, they made it about a hundred feet before her thighs started burning. "Jesus, Moran, could you slow down a little? Some of us have normal sized legs."

He glanced back at her with a grin. "Hop to, Harrison. I don't want to have to carry you back. Put a little effort into it!"

"I am putting effort into it! Sorry I haven't really had the chance to hit the gym while in a hospital bed," she shot back, immediately deciding to fight dirty.

He glanced back over his shoulder again, his gaze exasperated, and motioned to Jim. "Boss is doing fine. Quit whining."

"What he said," Jim said dryly, not looking back, and Lorna fought the urge to make a childish face at his back.

"Fine," she snorted, though not sounding particularly beaten. "I guess we'll just see if I let myself get sore like this again."

"I could just dare you," Moran retorted, though he paused until Lorna caught up, and lifted her up with a grin, slinging her playfully over his shoulder with ease.

She squeaked in surprise, gripping onto his thick winter coat to balance herself a little. "You would waste your one remaining dare on that? How frivolous of you."

"Frivolous of me to use a dare on excellent sex? I mean, I've had that thing sitting around for five years now, gathering dust. What else am I going to do with it?" he retorted, smiling at the squeak and walking a bit quicker to catch up with Jim. They were approaching the tree line.

Jim looked back over his shoulder at them, like a hound who had just caught wind of a fox. "What was that about a dare gathering dust?"

Moran raised an eyebrow. "You never heard about this?" He grinned. "This one-" he started, slapping Lorna's easily reachable arse playfully as he walked to emphasize who he meant- "Is fucking awful at poker. The Italy trip, back when we first went on a job together. We played on the plane over, and she ended up three... or four...? I think it was three. Anyway. Three dares indebted to me. Used the first two fairly quickly, but the third... just never had the occasion."

Lorna groaned against Sebastian's back, not pleased that Jim now knew of Sebastian's defacto get-out-of-jail-free card. Jim was silent for a minute as they made it to the trees, the only sound the crunch of snow under their feet. "Well, fucking hell, Moran, you've gone and wasted it now, haven't you?" Jim snorted after a bit, glancing over at them again. "You're bloody engaged now! What would she not do for you? Harrison, any input?"

"No?"

Moran shrugged. "It wasn't like I really had any reason to use it before, either. I mean, the sex was plentiful and fantastic, I have more money than I know what to do with, I'm in charge of her at work, and she mostly listens to me elsewhere. What the hell was I going to use it for?"

"Well be creative, Moran, I know you have it in you," Jim scoffed, only sounding like a teacher scolding a child just a little. "Dare her to do something you won't do yourself, for whatever reason. Reputation, humiliation, sheer ability. Something."

"Stop giving him ideas, Jim!" Lorna called indignantly down at Sebastian's bottom.

Moran grinned, pleased by Lorna's situation, and turned things over a bit as his hand gripped her arse through her snow-trousers, just because he could. "Alright, Jim... You want me to be creative? Let's make this interesting."

Jim's eyebrows rose, and he stopped, turning with a few crunchy steps to face them. "Oh? Tell me what you've come up with, then."

He stopped, too, and after a moment, set Lorna down in the snow. His eyes were narrowed, planning. "Let's you and I make a bet, Jim... I propose that Lorna can, within one year, convince you of the positive and rewarding nature of taking care of someone else."

"What?!" Lorna sputtered from the snow, eyes wide on Sebastian, disbelief the dominant emotion on her face. Jim ignored her, eyes calculating on Moran's. "How the fuck am I supposed to do that, Moran!?"

Sebastian held Jim's gaze for another moment, before turning his attention to Lorna. "You're to trust him. Implicitly. Put your care in his hands. Let him feel what that feels like. Not constantly, but in situations where he would gain from it." He turned back to Jim. "But this only works, sir, if you agree to cooperate."

She put her head between her hands, trying to process the insanity of this request, and Jim nodded, just enough to be noticeable. "What are the terms, Moran?"

He considered that for a long moment. "You're to abide by the spirit of the game. I'm not going to spend a month creating a contract without loopholes, only for you to slide out of ones I never imagined. You're to care for Lorna, to the best of your ability, for her mental and physical needs, when she presents you with an opportunity to do so. You are to act as her guardian, comforter, physician, whatever is required. Think about how I might act. Consider it an experiment. Lorna, in turn, will put her trust in you to care for you, and allow you to fail if you deserve to. I think that by the end of a year, you will have an understanding of the rewarding nature of providing care to someone. If I win, I'll ask nothing. That will be satisfaction enough. If I lose..." He considered that, and then grinned. "You may have one dare over me."

Both of them were silent for a moment, though for completely different reasons. "I- Jesus- What do you mean, trust him, Seb?" She asked helplessly, an arm sticking out to point at Jim. "What situation am I going to be in that he needs to take care of me?"

"We'll start simple," Moran said, eyes still on Jim. "Tie you up, or something."

Lorna huffed, waving her hand at nothing in particular and then crossing her arms over her chest, glaring at Jim. "You're on," he said, simply.

He nodded in satisfaction, and then turned to grin at Lorna. "Consider yourself dared."

She groaned, rubbing her eyes. "Jesus Christ, you both suck. We are at least waiting until tomorrow to tie me up. I am too sore for that nonsense tonight, got it?"

Moran smirked, but shrugged. "Fine. Tomorrow it is, then."

Aside from the implementation of what Lorna was now referring to as "The Dare," it was a fairly uneventful walk. Once Lorna was over the shock of it, she made Sebastian carry her around after a bird that she didn't know the name of, Jim rolling his eyes extremely hard behind them. That night, Lorna got into PJs and sank about a foot into the bed before she was stable, spread-eagled to try and maintain some balance. It didn't really help. "You're evil, Sebastian," she said, as he came in, brushing his teeth, "Evil! I mean, it's not asking me to play Russian Roulette or anything, but goddamn. Find Jim's soul? What happens to me if I can't do it?"

"No'ing," he said around the mouthful of toothpaste, before going to spit. He returned a moment later, pulling his shirt over his head. "Jim will have a bet over me. No pressure."

She sighed. A year from now, she would be free of that damn dare. It had been hanging over her head for half a decade. Not that she thought about it that often, but the memory of the first time she'd admitted to a sober and whole Sebastian that she loved him was a vaguely traumatic one, and she had never been keen to repeat it. She looked over at him. "You're not just signing over responsibility, right? I would rather Jim not be my sole caregiver. I also do want somebody keeping an eye on him, making sure he doesn't go too far. You know him."

"Of course not," he snorted. "Don't be ridiculous. This will not be a constant thing. And yes, I will be monitoring him when I deem it necessary." He sat down next to her, raising her up a few inches in the bed.

She made a noise of relief as she was regurgitated a little from the mattress. "Alright, good, just checking. This is just... an insane job. I've known him longer than I've ever known another mark, but I know the least about him. I think I'm just going to have to treat him like I treated you. Let me know if that makes you jealous, because I'd like to repeat it again, just to see the look on your face."

"Less jealous, more confused," he muttered as he reached out to pull her over, shifting her on top of him. "What do you mean? Treat him like you treated me?"

"You weren't exactly inclined to take care of me, if you remember," she pointed out, shrugging a little.

He raised an eyebrow. "As I recall, I was actually fairly inclined to take care of you from the beginning," he retorted. "I let you sleep in my bed when you had nightmares. I made sure you didn't die of alcohol poisoning..."

"That was only after we went through shit together," she pointed out, "before that, well. And after, you still weren't outwardly caring. You were pretending you were keeping an employee alive."

He waved off her explanation. "Sure. What do you mean about treating him like me, though?"

"Carefully, and... I don't know," she trailed off, frowning and shrugging a little. "Damsel-y? Very willing to please and very non-threatening while still maintaining my personality? It wasn't a calculated thing, just a survival tactic."

"And this is supposed to make me jealous because...?" he glanced down at where she was sprawled across his chest. He had pulled her there so absently, almost hadn't thought about it, and she hadn't either. But it was everything he'd been dying for, tormenting them both to win for the past year.

"It might start to resemble the early parts of our relationship," she said, looking back up at him, cheek on his chest. "Depending on how he reacts."

He shrugged, ignoring the funny feeling in his chest. "Like I said, it won't be constant. And I dared you."

"As long as you know," she said quietly, shrugging a little, the arm around his side giving him a light squeeze.

He squeezed back. "Do you think it will be a problem?"

"I don't know," she said truthfully. "But it's better to go into it with both eyes open."

He nodded a little, and shifted a blanket over her, reaching over to shut out the light. "Are you angry with me?"

She sighed, assessing that for herself. "No. Irritated, maybe. Certainly exasperated. And nervous."

He sighed, sliding a hand up her back. "Well. I could help you relax."

She snorted softly. "You got a bag of weed I don't know about?"

"No," he smirked, fingers starting to massage her back slowly, pressing into tense muscles. "You were sore, remember?"

"Am sore," she corrected, though she relaxed a little as he started undoing the knots in her shoulders. He had magical hands.

He smirked slightly, kissing her ear and working out a knot under her shoulder blades. "Well, let me help."

She chuckled a little. "Of course, you've decided to start while I'm on top of you and the lights are out."

He snorted. "I feel as though you're questioning my sincerity," he chuckled.

"That statement only made me question you more," she laughed, kissing his shoulder chastely.

"Rude," he snorted, letting his hands still. "Fine. I can leave you alone if you prefer."

"Noo," she pouted, though he couldn't see her. "Keep going, please?"

He rolled his eyes, but didn't argue, his hands returning to her back, working at the rock-solid mess of muscles that was the base of her spine.

She groaned, slowly melting under his ministrations. "God... Still can't figure out how you got so good at this."

He tilted his head, and shrugged a bit. "Mostly military training on hand-to-hand pressure points, and my own personal study of muscle and nerve clusters for torture."

"But most people could never turn that into massage," she protested, humming as he hit a spot that really needed addressing.

He smiled at the noise she made, his fingers circling the spot again carefully. "I have a talent for turning my work into my art."

She made a soft noise of agreement, putty in his hands. "And I thought I was the artist. Didn't you once ask if I could teach you how to draw?"

"I did at that," he agreed, working that particular knot out and moving on. "A request which you have never fulfilled by the way."

"Well we're getting fucked up all the time, it's hard to find the time," she smirked. "Remind me sometime. I'll do my best."

"Excuses, excuses," he chuckled, fingers relaxing when he found no more knots, hands sliding up her back slowly.

She fell silent, her eyes drifting shut of their own accord. A few minutes later, she was out like a light.

He felt her breathing slow as she drifted off, and smiled just a little. It was strange, these little moments of intimacy.

Married...

He closed his eyes and drifted off a few minutes later.