Elizabeth laughed breathlessly as she and Henry raced for cover. Rain was beating down around them, falling against their skin and the ground under their feet. Henry clung to her hand, pulling her along just behind him. Henry's laughter rang through the air around them, mingling with the sound of the pouring rain.
"Come on," Henry laughed as he pulled her the last few feet, fumbling only briefly with the keys and the doorknob before they stumbled side-by-side into his apartment. Henry pushed Elizabeth up against the door, which shut behind her with a snap.
"Henry," she breathed. Henry leaned in, pressing his lips to the tender, rain-soaked flesh of her neck. He breathed in the sweet scent of Elizabeth, mingling with that of the rain that was still lashing against the windows and walls of the tiny apartment. She gasped at the feeling of his lips on her, and Henry smiled against her skin at the reaction.
"No, Henry," Elizabeth breathed on a laugh, trying to squirm out from under him.
"Baby," he whined, hands settling on her waist. He traced his finger along the strip of exposed skin on her hip and she shivered.
"Henry, I'm freezing," she giggled, leaning her head into his shoulder.
"Oh?" he hummed into her ear. "I can think of some ways to warm you up."
Elizabeth laughed openly in spite of the butterflies that had taken flight in her stomach at his words and gently pushed him back. They'd both gone into this weekend together with the expectation of what was coming; they'd gotten pretty intimate already during their makeout sessions that had become a little more, and they both felt ready to take the next step. It felt like a natural progression, and while neither of them had explicitly said it during the planning of their much-needed weekend away from writing papers, it had been heavily apparent in the subtext.
"No, Henry, I'm also starving," she said, and bit her lip as she ran a hand through his wet hair. She smiled a little wickedly at him and he found himself slightly breathless at the sight of her sparkling blue eyes and flushed cheeks.
"I promise," she whispered, leaning in close and trying not to think of how her heart was racing, "later you can warm me up...however you'd like."
With that, she was gone, having ducked out from under his arm. He breathed a laugh as she raced down the hall to the bedroom and shook his head; Elizabeth Adams never ceased to surprise him.
By the time Elizabeth emerged from the bathroom, Henry had changed into dry clothes and started making dinner. He looked up from the stove at the sound of her footsteps and felt his breath catch in his throat. Elizabeth's half-dry locks of honey-blonde hair brushed against her shoulders, one of which was exposed. Her long, lean legs peeked out from beneath the hem of what Henry instantly recognized as his own UVA tee-shirt. Seeing her in his clothing was doing things to him that he wasn't sure he had the words to describe. She smiled at him as she met his gaze, swinging her hips almost imperceptibly as she approached.
"Hi," Henry managed as Elizabeth easily lifted herself onto the countertop beside him. He couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of the golden-toned skin on her legs and exposed shoulder.
"Babe, you're gonna burn that," she remarked off-handedly, not even looking at the pan. Henry looked back at it quickly and swore softly as he made quick movements to stop just that from happening. Elizabeth smiled to herself as she reached over to pluck a berry from the bowl of mixed fruit that was on the counter. She popped it into her mouth and grinned at Henry as he looked back at her.
"You're a cruel woman, Elizabeth Adams," he said, and she laughed, taking another berry in her fingers. She offered it to Henry, who opened his mouth and leaned in so that she could feed it to him. As dinner got back on track, Henry handed Elizabeth the bowl she kept stealing fruit from and she smiled.
"Takes the fun out of it," she remarked, but when Henry reached for it to take it from her, she giggled and pulled it out of his grasp.
"Thought so," Henry said with a smile. Comfortable conversation flowed easily as Henry continued to prepare dinner, all the while stealing glances at Elizabeth, perched on the countertop.
"Alright," he announced a little while later as he moved to stand before her. His hands settled on her hips and he looked just slightly up at her. "Dinner's ready." His fingers toyed with the hem of the shirt she was wearing as he spoke.
"It looks good on you," he murmured, leaning in to capture her lips with his own. He could feel her smiling into the kiss as his fingers inched along her thigh until they came into contact with the lace of her underwear beneath the worn cotton. She caught his bottom lip between her teeth and he hummed appreciatively as she drew him in closer.
"Dinner," he mumbled against her. Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders, pulling back to look at him with her bright eyes sparkling mischievously.
"Screw dinner," she said, and Henry immediately scooped her off the counter and into his arms, not needing to be told twice. As much as he loved Elizabeth in his clothes, he couldn't wait to get her out of them.
As the two of them tore at each other's clothes with the frenzied eagerness of the young couple that they were, neither Henry nor Elizabeth could deny an underlying edge of nervousness beneath the passion. While they'd both been with other people before, it had never been like this. It had never been so intimate or felt so important, and neither had ever wanted it to go as well as they both did just then.
"Henry?" Elizabeth breathed as she backed herself up against the bed and broke their kiss to look up at him.
"Yeah?" he asked. She hesitated.
"Can we just agree to...I don't know, let this happen naturally?" she asked. "I don't want either of us to try to be someone that we're not."
Henry looked at her, love shining in his hazel eyes. Hearing her say something like that, taking the time to be sure that they were being authentic above all else, even if it meant awkwardness and fumbling and potential embarrassment, only made him love her more. He nodded his head, leaning in to kiss her more sweetly than he had been moments before.
"I'm always going to do my best to be authentic with you, Elizabeth," he promised softly. That, she decided, was all she needed to hear, and seconds later her lips were on his again.
Hours later, she lay next to him and smiled slightly- authentic, real, messy, and above all- everything she'd ever wanted.
On the morning after Henry and Elizabeth's first night together, they awoke at almost the exact same time.
Both of them were early risers most of the time anyway, and on this particular morning there was enough leftover eagerness and joy to more than sustain them through another day of their weekend, which was sure to prove all too short.
Sunlight streamed into Henry's bedroom at exactly the right angle at which to illuminate the blonde hair that was spread over one of the pillows in his double bed, which was just small enough that he had to be pressed against Elizabeth, but not so small that they were uncomfortable.
In his earliest moments of waking, he almost didn't believe what had happened the night before. It had been a long time since he spent the night with a girl, and he had certainly never spent the night with anyone of Elizabeth's caliber as a human being. She was magical, he had decided, making him feel alive with the slightest touch and generally being delightful in all parts of life. She was the kind of person who felt unreal, and he was never as convinced of that as he was now, after spending this night with her.
But there was a weight on the mattress beside him, warm and tangled in his sheets and blanket, and when he turned his head, he was met with the sight of Elizabeth Adams in his bed, unbelievably real and present next to him.
Her eyes fluttered open just as he turned to look at her, and he smiled reflexively, seeing it mirrored back at him on her face. In these early moments, Henry felt he was seeing a version of Elizabeth as yet unrevealed to him, a side of her that felt new and precious and he was acutely aware that he should treasure it.
"Hi," she said, her voice quiet but rough, with a warm quality that drew him in. He inched ever so slightly closer to her, unable to help himself.
"Hi," he answered. "Good morning."
Did he sound stupid? He thought he might, but Elizabeth just smiled, natural and sweet, like everything was normal, like he might wake up next to her every day.
That, Henry decided then and there, would be a kind of heaven that no philosopher or religious scholar had tapped the potential in yet.
"How did you sleep?" he asked quietly; now he was sure that he sounded stupid.
"Really well, actually," she said, and he thought there was a touch of surprise in her voice.
"Me, too," he said, grinning and unable to stop himself. Elizabeth laughed at the look on his face, without meaning to or thinking about it.
"Are you hungry?" Henry asked; he was smiling broadly enough to feel it in his cheeks at the sound of her laughter first thing in the morning.
"I'm always hungry," Elizabeth answered, and it was Henry's turn to laugh.
"I make a great omelette," he offered, tilting his head at her in question.
"I'm in for omelettes," she agreed, "but only if they come with coffee."
Henry, briefly, flashed back to their first meeting, the scattered papers and cups of coffee on the diner's formica topped table.
"There's always coffee," he said with a smile that Elizabeth flashed right back at him.
"Then let's go," she said decisively, and a moment later he watched her bare legs slip from between his sheets and thoight that he might have died and reached that quested afterlife already.
"You coming?" Elizabeth asked over her shoulder, and Henry scrambled to follow her, already heading for the kitchen as he grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from the chair in the corner of his room.
Much like the night before, Henry started in the kitchen while Elizabeth was in the bathroom, and in another mirror of their evening, she emerged in his UVA t-shirt. In the light of early morning, it looked sweeter, somehow, and he noticed that she was wearing a pair of gym shorts underneath. Despite the lingering winter outdoors, Henry kept it nice and warm inside, because he himself preferred shorts and t-shirts.
In this moment, it was particularly nice, he thought as he smiled at Elizabeth from his place in front of the coffee machine.
Henry had a long-standing habit of setting up the coffee grounds and water the night before, so that all he had to do in the morning was turn on his coffee pot and he would be ready. Consequently, there was nearly a full pot by the time Elizabeth emerged.
"That was quick," she remarked, and Henry grinned.
"I have my ways," he replied, and Elizabeth decided that he was just too cute to burst his bubble by reminding him that she had watched him set up the machine the evening before.
"I hope you have a way of getting that coffee into a cup for me, then," she quipped instead. A mere moment later, there was a steaming mug sitting before her.
She smiled up at him from where she was sitting at his small kitchen table.
"You are the best," she said with a sweet smile that made his heart skip.
Shortly thereafter, with easy banter and familiar conversation, Henry slipped an omelette onto a plate and set it in front of Elizabeth before settling into his own chair across from her.
He watched her carefully as she took a bite of her cheesy, steaming omelette, filled with tomatoes, ham, and peppers.
She let out a little noise of appreciation, and he smiled.
"Henry," she said after she swallowed, "If I had known your breakfast skills were this good, I would have spent the night with you a long time ago."
Henry laughed, feeling more full than he had in a long time, before he had taken even a single bite of his own breakfast.