Happy Saturday, my lovelies! This is the second chapter I had typed on my phone, and it was very time-consuming. Hopefully it's up to par with everything else. Oh, and this may be a bit of a shameless plug, but my friend drew art of Lorin for me (she said she's going to do Darcy next) and it's like really amazing. She doesn't really have any social media for me to plug, but I posted the picture on Tumblr (with her permission, of course) So if you search for sincerely-shaymie on Tumblr and scroll down on my blog a bit, you should see the picture. (And maybe follow me if you're interested, no stress if you don't, though). Anyway, enjoy the small bit of fluff, lovelies! ~Shaymie
Lorin's POV
"I can take a bath by myself, Alex. I'm not totally useless." I grabbed some clothes from my dresser and sighed. It was my first day back at home and before now, I didn't have to worry about how… big the house is. It took most of my energy just to get upstairs. I was planning on taking a shower, but I didn't think I would be able to stand for that long. So I have to resort to a bath. At the very least, it could probably relax my sore muscles. The doctors had said something about my muscles deteriorating while I was in my coma, which is why I still had to do physical therapy. I wasn't looking forward to having to do more of it. I don't think it's supposed to be painful, but I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. Besides, I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. My time with James and Maria taught me that much.
"But wouldn't it be nice to have someone that you actually know bathing you?" Alex wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back, planting a kiss on the nape of my neck. It sent chills down my spine. My face flushed as I remembered the nurses bathing me. Mandy had been one of them and some of her touches were… less than professional. Her hands tended to linger on my breasts or stomach a few seconds longer than necessary.
"That would be nice, I guess…" I breathed, setting my clothes on the bed and turning around to kiss him. I wrapped my arms around him and let out a surprised gasp when he lifted me up and set me down on the bed, his hands roaming all over my body. I shivered as Alex started kissing and nipping at my skin.
"I've missed you a lot, Lo," he murmured in my ear. He unbuttoned the front of my dress and started kissing my chest desperately, like it was the last time he'd ever get to touch me. I let out a breathless moan and felt guilty about thinking of Mandy earlier. Those touches had to have meant nothing. Her hands must have just slipped or something. Speaking of hands, Alex's was slipping underneath my dress, teasing me as it slowly made its way up my thigh. "Surely your bath can wait a bit, right?"
"I… suppose it could wait." That was all Alex needed to keep going. He undid the clasp on mg bra and started planting sloppy kisses all over my breasts, while his fingers lightly traced the waistband of my panties. I shivered at his gentle touch, which was a huge contrast from the way he was kissing me. It was like he couldn't decide what he wanted to do to me. I felt something drip onto my chest and looked at Alex. He was… crying?
"What's wrong, Al?" I helped him sit next to me on the bed and hugged him closely to me, pulling his head to my chest. He let out a deep breath and wiped at his eyes, a small grin spreading across his face.
"It's nothing… I just can't believe you're here. I mean, you're alive and awake and…" He sighed. "I had so many nightmares about losing you. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat… I was terrified, Lo. So many things could have gone wrong after that first night..."
"Did you know that you can have dreams when you're in a coma?" I squeezed Alex's hand and smiled at the perplexed expression on his face. "I can't remember most of them, but there was one that involved a… a land made out of candy. And for some reason, Lea Michele was there, narrating everything in song. But you know what would bring me back to earth every time?"
"What?"
"You. And Darcy and Gil… Everyone, really. I could still hear you guys talking to me. It reminded me that my home wasn't in Candyland with Lea Michele, no matter how amazing it would be. And… I wish I hadn't worried everyone like that. I don't know what got into me. Any sane person would have run away, not put themself in the path of an oncoming bullet. I'm just lucky James didn't have a more powerful gun."
Alex didn't respond, instead choosing to busy himself with tracing circles on my skin. I knew I should be getting in the bath, especially considering I had to talk to George about something really important (I was going to try and talk him out of this whole court thing), but I was far too comfortable here, snuggling up closely to my boyfriend. Alex started planting lazy kisses on my body, his hair tickling my skin. I ran my hand through it, surprised by how much effort it took. Maybe I did need help with my bath after all. I tugged his hair slightly when he started to kiss me again, more roughly this time. At this rate, I'd never get anything done.
"Al, I really do need to take that bath… But maybe you could help me with that," I murmured.
The bath took longer than either of us expected it to. There was less bathing and more flirtatious touches. I was a wrinkled mess by the time I got out of the tub, but I didn't mind much. I needed that soak. I felt much more relaxed now, like I could deal with anything. Well, anything but another bullet piercing through my body.
Alex helped me dry off and apply lotion to my body, his touch gentle. It was like he was scared of hurting me. His eyes lingered over the bullet wound on my stomach. Great. Now I just had another scar for people to gawk at. I don't think I'll ever be able to go to the beach again. If my weight won't draw attention to me (though I did lose a bit of weight during my stay in the hospital) then surely this scar would.
"You look beautiful, Lo," Alex said as he grabbed my clothes and started to help me get dressed. I closed my eyes as I leaned on him. I didn't care if I was capable of getting dressed on my own. I liked getting pampered a bit. "What I've said before is still true. I don't care if you're a little bit chubby or have scars. I still love you."
"I love you too." I smiled and ran my thumb over one of the moles on his face-though he preferred to call them beauty marks. He smiled back as he helped me pull on a dress Eliza had given me a few years ago. It was one of my favorites, but I didn't wear it nearly as often as I should. Alex's hands slithered up my back as he zipped it up. I turned to kiss him and grabbed his hand. We stared into each other's eyes, only for the moment to be broken by Darcy barging into the room. Alex coughed awkwardly and moved his hands from my back.
"Glad to see I'm still intimidating," Darcy laughed, smiling as Dumpling ran into the room and started licking my toes excitedly, her tail wagging a mile a minute. I hadn't seen her or Alexander since I had gotten home. I looked up at Darcy as she sat on the bed. She tucked some damp hair behind my ear and kissed my forehead. "It's nice to have you home, Lori."