bahaha i can't believe I wrote this. (still cleaning out comp of 2 year old fics) Continuation of the... third? chapter? of juila456's "Goggles" (i'd put the link but u kno how this godawful website works)

hope you don't mind Julia ;)

Day 2

Just as she had the day prior, Deryn Sharp slid herself lithely through the window, giving Alek little more than a heartbeat to jump out of the way. A gust of frigid air came in with her. Alek shivered violently, having become comfortable with the steamy air from his bath.

"God's wounds, you must be freezing," he murmured as she shut the window behind her. Indeed her extremities were bright red and there was snow in her wind-whipped hair.

A dark smirk lifted her reddened cheeks. "Then warm me up."

Before Alek could even blink Deryn had closed the distance between them—every last millimeter of it—and rammed him against the sink. She shoved her icy hands up his shirt and made him yelp, though the sound was muffled. She had her mouth pressed so hungrily to his that he'd bent back under her feverish intensity and now had the sink tap tucked between his shoulder blades.

Alek blinked, uncomprehending. When at last he was able to make sense of how he'd ended up snapped backward at a ninety degree angle, he pushed back enough so that his spine wasn't arched so severely.

Deryn gasping for breath was what allowed his brain to start functioning again. With the shock worn off a bit he was able to better equate her enthusiasm, though he had to admit her cold hands were a bit of an irritation. In a restless mix of annoyance and arousal he planted his own hands firmly on her backside and ground her roughly against himself. The guttural moan she let out surprised him so much he almost let go.
She broke off, but never let her mouth get more than an inch from his skin. Her lips brushed against his ear as she spoke, running her hands languorously up and down his torso. "Your room," she murmured.

He swallowed audibly and let her lead him out into the hall.

Day 3

Deryn came in with much less ado the following day, slinking in with catlike grace. It even reminded Alek of a feline the way she approached him—much less violently than last night.

"Evening, love," she greeted him.

"Do you sleep at all?" he asked with a chuckle. He knew her presence was cutting severely into his own resting time, and that was without him having to make any trip back home. The girl couldn't be getting more than five hours a night.

"I'll sleep when I'm dead." Her hands headed for his waist and he flinched, but she'd only meant to take his own hands. She looked down at them as she ran her fingers over his knuckles. "And as long as I'm breathing and you're here, which I admit I still have trouble comprehending," she glanced up to meet his gaze with sincerity that knocked the breath out of him, "I'll spend my time… indulging." She smirked.

A pang of guilt seized him. Alek was always on the winning end of their late night encounters, going to bed satisfied and humming with pleasure while Deryn went home having been only kissed and caressed a little. But he could think of nothing else to do to her, with her, whatever, without putting their souls on the line. It was clear what she desired from him, but all he could do was hope that her ache was not as bad as his.

Alek leaned up to kiss her, and tried to put all his apology and love into it. It was slow, sweet, and he felt her sigh and melt into him. He gently freed a hand to touch her cheek, brush his fingers over her nape and bury them in her hair.

"Ich liebe dich," he said when he drew back from her. "That's why I'm here. I'm sorry I can't show you that any better than this."

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "Well, eventually we'll get married. Then things'll get a whole lot simpler, I reckon."

Day 4

Though if I'd taken a cab, I might've caught you in the bath, aye?

When she'd first said it, the thought had more or less terrified him. But now he'd deliberately shoved back his bath time (when trying to pay for a cab didn't work) so that when she appeared—

Plink!

Alek leaned out of the tub and cracked open the window, allowing Deryn into the room. He sunk lower in the bubbles to escape the chilly night air.

She looked startled when she saw him lounging there but was quick to shut the window. Her surprised expression bloomed into a—what would she call it?—clart-snarfling grin as she shucked her winter coat.

"Blimey," she murmured. It was nothing she hadn't seen before and he was mostly submerged beneath an opaque layer of suds, but she was blushing nonetheless.

"I ran us a bath," Alek said with a gesture. "You must be cold. Why don't you warm up?" His words were obviously rehearsed, but there'd really been no other options. Suavity did not come naturally to him.

Deryn chuckled at the mock formalities. "The door's locked?"

"Of course."

She removed her shirt with her usual brusqueness—one of the deeply-imbedded mannerisms of her pretense—followed by the bindings on her chest. Alek bit the inside of his cheek at the exposure. It was nothing he'd never seen before, but he doubted he'd ever get over the sight of her femininity. When Deryn Sharp stripped she shed an entire gender, not merely an outfit. It was thrilling and overwhelming all at once.

Full-on nudity would be new to him, however, though he'd tried not to dwell too much on the thought lest he lose his nerve. Deryn hardly paused as she untied her boots and undid her belt. Before he knew it she'd hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her trousers and slid them and her pants down her gorgeous long legs, leaving herself as naked as a beast.

Alek tried to steady his poor heart, but it seemed a moot point. What Deryn lacked in bust she made up for in a lower body tight and curved with muscles from climbing the ratlines back on the Leviathan, which something programmed deep within him seemed to find unbelievably attractive.

As she eased herself into the tub across from him he worried if this might be the worst possible idea ever. He'd thought he'd be able to control himself by now, but he was very obviously aroused. And to make matters worse, she must've caught him looking at her pert bum as she slid in because she was smirking devilishly at him and had it written all over her face.

He wanted to hang on to the image of her naked body infinitely, but considering the consequences such thoughts were bound to produce, that was probably a bad idea as well.

Deryn sank into the steaming water up to her lips, closing her eyes in contentment and moaning happily. "This is barking nice," she sighed.

Alek smiled, trying to ignore how their bare legs brushed. "I'm glad I could do something nice for you for a change."

She popped one blue eye open. "Hm?"

"Ah, well, you know…"

"Aye, right. That." She removed a hand from the water to brush the hair out of her face. "You make it sound like I don't enjoy it at all."

Alek felt his face redden. "Do you?"

Deryn shrugged nonchalantly. He was certain she was lying—he couldn't imagine being made to perform such ministrations himself; he felt like gagging just thinking about it—which only worsened his guilt at the one-sidedness of their physical relationship.

"Makes you feel better, aye? Plus," she bit her lip and lowered her voice, "I like the way you say my name."

Perhaps she'd been mistaken to divulge that little bit of information. Looking at him now it looked like he was about to bust a trinket. Poor daft boy.

Deryn realized her maddeningly long legs were in all of his personal space and casually retracted them, pulling them up to her chest. Maybe a little space would help him cool off.

They sat there soaking for another few minutes before saying anything. He seemed to have calmed his breathing, which was a plus. It was almost comical, how glaringly apparent his arousal was, especially compared to hers. He must've thought she was so restrained, but the simple truth was just that her desire didn't show.

For example, at the moment the simple stimulation of being naked in a tub with him and seeing him hot and bothered and covered in soap had her insides gyrating and tingling like a brewing storm. Her heart was thundering away and she could feel her pulse between her legs. But he couldn't see any of it, and she was such a practiced liar that her face betrayed nothing.

"How's work?" she asked nonchalantly.

He laughed at that. "Still a bit dull, at the moment. This is the best part of my day. And yourself?"

"Brilliant. Barlow's got me familiarizing myself with the more dangerous beasties now." She leaned forward conspirationally and grinned madly. "Today I stuck my head in a tigeresque's mouth."

"Deryn!" he gasped, then remembered to keep quiet. "That's so dangerous!"

"Dead exciting, actually!" She laughed. "But this is still the most exciting part of my day."

Alek smiled sheepishly and chuckled, after which they let silence descend again. It was much less tense this time. After a moment he said, "Turn around and come here."

"What for?"

"I'm going to give you a backrub."

"There's nothing wrong with my back," Deryn murmured, though did as she was told. She tucked herself between Alek's legs, though kept enough of a gap between them to keep from rubbing against him in any way.

"It still feels nice," Alek insisted. "And it's the least I can do."

She mumbled some sort of consent that turned into a sigh as his hands rubbed slowly up and down her neck. Blisters, he was right. Fingers roughened from work on the engines kneaded her soapy skin, working through knots that must've appeared somewhere between heavy lifting and forcefully brushing the coats of the zoo's many inhabitants. His hands were strong on her shoulders, down her back, leeching all the tension out of her and turning her to putty in his lap. She was practically purring.

"Oh, love," she breathed as he massaged a particularly sensitive spot. She moaned and let her head droop back. "Yes, love, that's it…"

He swallowed audibly and added more pressure. Somewhere along a string of happy sighs she murmured, "Oh, Alek…" abruptly followed by him tensing and cursing under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Deryn twisted around to ask, but in doing so answered her own question. The movement caused her lower back to bump against the stiffened indication that this had gone too far. Alek flushed bright red and groaned quietly.

"I'm sorry—"

"Blisters, Alek, don't be." With only a bit of difficulty she managed to rotate herself so that she could face him. She cupped his face and kissed him, then let her hands drop down his front to his waist. "Let me take care of that for you."

Aand that's as far as that got.