A/N: Smut warning on this one!
In the nighttime, Madge needs to be buzzed in before she can get up to Gale's condo. She tells the night guard his address and waits patiently for him to permit her to go up. For a second she wonders if he'll let her up at all, he might be genuinely angry at her for their argument they just had. Maybe he doesn't want to hear more, isn't it too little too late? But after her brain starts to delve into all the reasons she should turn back, the night guard gives her the okay. She paces into the elevator before she can think twice.
The elevator feels like it's taunting her as she taps her foot nervously and waits for it to ascend to Gale's floor. Madge has been here hundreds of time before, but never in circumstances quite like this before.
When she walks down the hall and turns the corner, Gale is already waiting outside his door. He hasn't changed yet out of the clothes he wore to Thom and Delly's.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asks, probably thinking there was some terrible emergency by the way she's striding towards him.
"Nothing," Madge laughs as she reaches his place. She pushes out any thoughts of doubt before she pushes him against the door.
"Then what are you-"
She kisses him softly, and even though it's unexpected and it cuts off Gale's words, the way their lips touch is still gentle and comfortably eager. The heels she's had on all day, uncomfortable as they are, make it easy for Madge to tilt her chin up and kiss him proper. Even though it's a surprise, Gale doesn't gasp. Instead he gives her a sharp inhale, one that urges her closer while his hand cradles her face.
Madge feels like her body is lit up; she's kissing Gale hard in the dimly lit hallway and she can hear his heart beating when she presses herself against his chest. She accused him for being too impulsive, but maybe she understands why he never hesitates to act upon the things he wants, because it feels good, the release and the reward for being certain and secure are cathartic in ways that Madge can only remember from the years she was dating him. He used to make her willing to take chances, and that's something she'll always give Gale credit for.
Gale's pressed against the door and groaning by the time she pulls away.
"I can't remember the last time you kissed me," he admits in a whisper, and it makes Madge scoff.
"We kissed three days ago."
"It's different when you do it," he replies with shyness. Madge knows what he's talking about, and she'd forgotten how much she missed his vulnerability when they were together. She rewards him with a kiss against the skin of his rough jaw and trails it up to his ear. It gets a moan out of him, and suddenly Gale opens his apartment door and nods her in.
"She's asleep. Just try to be quiet."
The idea of sneaking around their daughter almost makes her laugh. But instead she complies, quietly hanging her coat up at his front closet and following him to his bedroom.
"Did the babysitter just leave?"
"Yeah, I just sent her home," he nods, tugging at her hand and bringing her closer to the bed. Gale kisses her nape and he necks her playfully; it causes her to giggle and wrap her arms around his neck. He maneuvers her onto the bed so that she's underneath.
Madge can't help but moan. Gale is stiff on top of her and this entire room smells like his aftershave. She thinks about how far this whole thing could go and how far she's comfortable taking it and realizes that they're different things. "Gale… I can't have sex with you tonight. Well, I don't think I'm ready. You get that, right?"
"Of course, I… I don't think I could do it either. You mean so much to me, I couldn't just let it happen right now with no forethought. I don't think I'd do myself justice," Gale chuckles.
She laughs with him, and then props herself up so that she's sitting upright, back against his bedframe. Gale scoots to sit beside her and listen. "And I just came up here because I don't want you to think I was listening to what you said, or didn't feel the same way. I do, I just sometimes don't know how to do it, I need to think every possibility and liability before I act and I-"
"I know that about you, and that's okay. I understand."
"But I just feel horrible for it."
"Why? You didn't do anything wrong," he chuckles.
Madge laughs nervously and turns fully to him. "But maybe I did. I don't know."
"Don't beat yourself up for things you can't control, or don't really matter," Gale offers. "I don't care that you left me hanging, I don't blame you for any of this. You're here now, and that's the best outcome I could ask for. I hoped that you would give me a second chance, I'm glad you did, that's why I-"
"Don't say it yet," she insists, smiling with excitement. Even if she's heard it hundreds of times before, the anticipation of the words now have her heart racing again. Everything feels new, she wants the words to mean something the next time their whispered.
"What are we waiting for?" he asks back, teasing her.
"I don't know, I just feel like everything is happening so fast."
"Doesn't it always, with us?"
"I want to slow it down this time," Madge shrugs. She doesn't mean slow down the kissing, or slow down their relationship necessarily. It's just that she wants to savour these things, and it's hard to do so when they're all happening so fast.
Gale nods in silent agreement, and so she finalizes their consensus with another kiss. It's a gentle one, and Madge feels like she's on that bench again from sophomore year, kissing him until she runs out of air to breathe.
She doesn't think that she's spent four years missing him. That's simply untrue, everything was normal and manageable on her own, if anything Madge loved it for a while. It taught her to be on her own and mostly, happy, and Gale should make no mistake in thinking that he's filling some sort of emotional hole he's left empty for years and years.
But this is all so exciting and wonderful and new in the most nostalgic way. Madge couldn't bear it if she didn't at least try, to figure out what it all means.
"You can stay," Gale whispers against her mouth after a while, trailing his kissed around her mouth and down the nape of her neck.
"I have work tomorrow," Madge replies sadly, wishing she could stay the night and stay with him. Maybe he would cuddle with her, and she would hear the pace of his breathing when he slept. "I have to get home."
"Okay. I'll see you… on Friday though." He's going to drop Dakota off at her place. Even the thought of their weekly schedule seems foreign and distant from this bedroom, these kisses.
"Yeah. You could stay for a little bit at my place. On Friday, I mean, after you drop her off," she offers hopefully, and Gale smiles with surprise.
"Sure, I think that would be good."
"Okay, I- I think I have to go." She only notices now, how silent the apartment is. She's about to awkwardly crawl off of the bed and find her coat when Gale pulls her in for one last kiss, and then a tight hug.
"I missed you," he admits, and it warms Madge's heart. Things are changing and she wants to find out more.
"I missed you too."
Madge tries to continue to live like nothing is different. When she gets home that night she doesn't talk to Jo about any of it, because she seems tired too, Madge tries to tell herself. And the next morning, they're both in too much of a hurry. She's going to tell her friend about her and Gale, whatever they are, but the conversation can't just be a offhanded comment and then business as usual. It needs to be fully fleshed out, and God knows when they'll find that time in their busy lives.
At work she can maintain some level of normalcy, there hasn't been any news about the curator position - Madge doubts that Haymitch is that quick in reviewing applications - and everyone seems to mind their own business.
There's still a mental countdown in Madge's head; there's one more day until she can see Dakota, one day until she's not alone anymore. But now she also thinks that she'll see him tomorrow, and that acute feeling of solitude that she'd always get on boring work nights like these has dissipated quite a bit.
Especially when she hears her cell phone ring. She knows who it is immediately.
"Hello?"
"Hey Undersee."
"Gale," Madge sighs happily. She's just in her bedroom reading before she planned to go to sleep. The shower she just had along with a mixture of life changes have her feeling rather fresh.
"How was your day?"
"Could you ask me something less cliche?" she challenges, and she hears Gale chuckle into the phone.
"Okay, what's on your mind right now?"
"... the weather."
"Really? You're going to jibe me for resorting to cliches?"
"No, really. I'm thinking about the weather. It's getting really cold... I don't like it."
"Just think about the beach."
Madge groans, just thinking about a hot, sunny, tropical island. "Don't tease me."
"I'll try not to," he answers back, causing her to blush red. It's a blessing that he can't see her through the phone.
"Good," she replies justly. "Why'd you call me?"
"I just tucked Kota into bed, started thinking about you."
"How is she?"
"She misses you, all the time. I keep reminding her that one day is not that long of a time."
"That's cute."
"She's such a drama queen," Gale laughs adoringly. "KoKo loves to be melodramatic sometimes."
"I know, but she takes herself very seriously. Did you know she gets, like, stressed out by school? She gets stressed out by senior kindergarten," she brings up, amused by just thinking about her little girl eager to complete all of her colouring homework.
"I know, she always asks me to help her with her picture books but she uses the most urgent tone."
"Where do you think she gets it from?"
"You," he suggests, and Madge can't disagree. "Maybe your dad."
"You're right. His brain is like a pressure chamber sometimes." The thought crosses her mind that she should call her parents soon, catch up with them. It's hard these days, though. "How was your day?"
"Do you want an answer? Or a snarky comeback?"
"Shut up," she laughs, laying back slightly on the bed. "Really, how was it?"
"Busy, I don't know. A lot of new clients and projects. A lot of blueprints to review."
"That sounds tough."
"Sometimes I just wish I was on that beach I was talking about. It'd be warm and sunny, and I'd have no fucking blueprints to review."
"Am I on your beach?" Madge smiles flirtatiously.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think you are."
"Is Kota?"
"No, is that selfish? All I'm picturing is you and me, hot sand, a beach somewhere faraway and nice."
"That's not selfish," she shrugs, knowing that he can't see her body language. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. She's too busy listening to his nonsensical ramblings to notice. They're talking about nothing, but for some reason it has her skin feeling prickly and warm. "What else?"
"You're wearing a swimsuit."
Madge's breath catches, but she brushes it off. "A full bodysuit."
He snorts. "No not a bodysuit. A bikini."
"Do I look good in it?" she can't help but ask.
"Stunning. It's… green, I think."
"I don't really wear green," she points out.
"Okay, red then. I love you in red."
It's almost as if nothing's changed; they're back in college playing that stupid game, falling head over heels for each other. Madge can picture him sitting at home right now, tucked up in bed wrapped in sheets… she wonders if he's wearing a shirt. Sometimes when the room was warm, he'd sleep without wearing a shirt.
"Madge?" he says, snapping her out of the trance.
"Hmm?"
"What am I wearing?"
Nothing.
She gulps. "Shorts."
"Just shorts? Alright, I think I'm beginning to like this vacation a whole lot more now," Gale chuckles, but deeper this time. "What are we doing?"
"Kissing," Madge dares. Her heart speeds up and she starts to feel a blush, blooming from her chest. "You're kissing me."
"God, Madge," he curses under his breath, but she doesn't know if it's from their fantasy or their reality. "What else?"
"I'm touching you all over. Your chest and your abs, but my hands are trailing down."
"And your tongue?"
"My tongue is teasing your ear," she says quietly. Her body is on fire now, and when she rests her hand on her stomach it tickles her. "I'm whispering dirty things into your ear."
"Fuck, I wish you were here," Gale admits. Just thinking about the things he would do to her if they were together right now has Madge's hand travelling south. "I'd kiss your breasts. Suck on your nipples until they tightened up."
"I want that. I'd press myself into your face and tangle my fingers through your hair."
"I love when you'd do that."
"Gale?" Madge asks, with total certainty that this is what she wants. Besides, no sex doesn't mean no other things. She slides off her pyjama shorts and rubs her heat through her panties. "I- I'm going to touch myself." He groans at the other end of the line, but lets her continue. "Do you want to touch yourself too?"
"Fuck yes," he hisses back, clearly trying to restrain himself. "You make me so hard, and you're only using your words."
"I can do other things with my mouth, too," she imagines, letting her erotic imagination wander. "I'd suck you off. Start at the base and work my way up."
"Madge…"
"I'd swirl my tongue on your tip, sometimes when I used to do that you'd moan for me. It was so sexy. I'd suck on your balls while I jack you off with my hand. Would you like that?"
"Mhm," Gale breathes, Madge unravels when she pictures him right now, stroking his cock with closed eyes, thinking about her. "Madge, are you rubbing yourself over your panties?"
"Yes." It feels good, better than good.
"Take them off."
His demanding tone makes her whine, but she obediently complies. "I'm so wet, Gale," she admits. Her pussy lips are slick and she's practically quivering.
"I wish I could taste you again, I loved the way you tasted."
"You don't remember what I taste like," Madge accuses, playfully challenging his sincerity.
"Sure I do. When I'd nibble on your inner thighs you'd cry out for me, and every time I'd suck on your clit you'd go crazy, pressing my head further in between your legs until you came."
"Shit," she curses, rubbing her little clit harder. "I'm picturing you between my thighs now."
"How does my tongue feel?"
"So fucking good, babe. I missed you so, so much."
"What did you miss?"
"You. You're mouth and your hands. I missed the way your cock feels inside of me, so full and hot." Gale doesn't verbally respond, he only gasps and groans, so Madge takes it as a signal to continue. "Are you mastrubating thinking about having sex with me? Is it making your cock hard in your hand?"
"God, Madge. You're killing me," he groans, clearly he's letting his pleasure build up and Madge needs to hear him go first. She slips two fingers beyond her pussy lips and sighs at the fullness.
"I'm so hot for you, Gale. I'm fingering myself just thinking about you fucking me until I cum all over you. Would you like that?"
"Yes," he whispers, increasing volume as he chants the word. "Yes, yes Madge. I'm so close, so fucking close."
"Please, I need to hear you," Madge begs, increasing her own pace too.
"Oh fuck, Madge. I'm coming. Ah, fuck!" he hisses, so full of passion yet whispering into the phone. Every groan and moan that comes out of his mouth shoots straight to Madge's pussy, all she's thinking about is him, spilling onto his stomach unable to hold back.
She stops the dirty talk and just pants into the phone, moaning and mewling into it while she concentrates on finishing herself. It takes not long at all, and soon she's crying on his name and feeling a corporal explosion that goes all the way to her toes. It's release like no other, it feels like nothing else.
"Oh my god," Madge laughs, still coming down for air. "Fuck."
She hears Gale chuckle briefly while he also tries to stop panting. "You're incredible."
They whisper goodbyes, tired and satiated, and when she hangs up her eyelids fall closed. Madge is ready to call it a very, very successful day when she hears loud music on the other side of the apartment.
It's late, almost midnight, so she goes to investigate. Jo's door is closed, and when she opens it slowly the bass and the drums leak out of the room.
"Jo, could you just turn your music down? I think I'm going to sleep."
Johanna looks up from her book and uses her phone to pause the music. She nods. "Oh okay, so you're done having phone sex, then?"
It makes Madge blush bright red with embarrassment, but her friend isn't the type to get traumatized about it. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry, we're probably almost even at this point," she shrugs lightheartedly. "I guess hearing you scream his name is one way to find out that you guys are back together."
"I'm sorry," Madge repeats. "I was going to tell you sooner, I swear."
"You're an adult, Madge, you can do whatever you want."
"But we're not back together," she corrects. "I don't know… what we are. Just trying things again, I guess. Differently though. I don't know what to call it."
"Don't call it anything," Jo suggests. "Labels are bullshit anyway."
She's still embarrassed that her best friend overheard, but Madge is grateful that Jo is so open too. Johanna isn't the type to urge her to make a different decision that she doesn't like. She'll support her through it all, and for that, Madge is appreciative.
"Okay," she nods. "'Night Jo."
"Goodnight."
And for once, it really was a good night. Madge slept with ease.
A/N: Did I just write copious amounts of fluff and phone sex and call it a chapter? Yep!
Am I sorry? Hell no.
Reviews are cherished and loved. Thank you for reading.