Early June

Stolen glances

"I'm home!" Announced Aelita, walking through the front door.

"In here Aelita!" Jeremy called from the kitchen. The pink-haired woman removed her shoes and headed over to where her fiancé was cooking something that smelled delicious!

"Mmmm, that smells wonderful. Is that the chicken fricassee you've been talking about making?" The blond man nodded and backed away from the stove to let Aelita sniff at the delicious aroma of onions and other vegetables sautéing amongst chicken thighs. "You're the best, Jeremy!" She stood on her toes for a moment and kissed his cheek, making him smile. "I'll do clean-up today."

"Thanks, Aelita."

Deciding to get into more comfortable clothes, Aelita headed to the bedroom.

"You know that qubit predictability algorithm that we programmed based off the one from my father's computer?" She called out as she removed her socks.

"Yeah, did you try it out today?" He replied.

"Uh huh! It worked even better than our estimates predicted!"

"That's great Aelita!" Jeremy called from the kitchen.

"We've at least doubled the possible length of the entanglement arrays, so now we finally have enough processing power and storage capacity to run the virtualization tests we've been simulating for all this time!" Aelita exclaimed excitedly just before pulling the red blouse she wore to work over her head with her back to the door. When it was no longer obstructing her view, in the mirror she saw Jeremy walk up to the open doorway and freeze, his cheeks taking on a rosy hue. Instead of leaving, he smiled slightly and Aelita felt her heart start to race from his staring at her fully exposed back and shoulders. Jeremy happened to glance toward the mirror after a few seconds and their eyes locked. He'd been found out and knew it. His eyes shot wide open, his already pink face turned a furious shade of crimson, and he immediately hurried back to the kitchen.

When Aelita heard Jeremy working on dinner again she broke into a sheepish, but very wide grin. Due to a very traditional upbringing, Jeremy had expressed early on in their relationship that he wanted to save a certain measure of intimacy for marriage, and since it was important to him Aelita agreed to it. After they moved into their small apartment together though, she'd occasionally noticed him stealing glances at her in various states of... undress. It didn't seem like he ever put himself in that situation on purpose, but he'd always smile for a few seconds, then he'd blush horridly and leave quickly as if feeling guilty, just like he'd done moments before. While she was never really angry about it, the first couple of times it happened, Aelita felt extremely embarrassed. Lately though, his lingering gaze had been making her feel something completely different... excitement. This time was the first time Jeremy knew he'd been caught and Aelita decided to have some fun!

"I'm going to set the table," She announced nonchalantly when she made it back to the kitchen. Jeremy didn't look at her while he measured out the cream to put in their dinner. Aelita moved next to him in order to get a couple plates from the cupboard next to the stove, and noticed that from what she could see of his face that it was still red, and only got darker as she moved closer! It was all she could do to keep from breaking out into a fit of giggles!

Once in the dining room and out of Jeremy's view, her grin spanned from ear to ear while she put out place settings and sat down to wait for her fiancé with the food.

The first several minutes of the meal were spent in silence that seemed extremely awkward for Jeremy, but Aelita was barely managing to stifle her laughter!

"So how was Dr. Grumpy today?" The young woman managed to ask with a straight face. Jeremy glanced up and blushed yet again before looking down, mumbling a reply that she didn't quite understand. "What was that?" She asked.

"I didn't have to deal with him much today..." he muttered a little louder.

"That's good," Aelita replied. "That means you could work on your scanners for a bit, right?" Jeremy grunted an acknowledgment, and Aelita thought that trying to engage in further conversation might have just been a little too mean, so she let the table fall back into silence once more until they were done eating.

After dinner, Aelita cleaned up like she offered earlier while she could hear Jeremy on the couch, typing away at his laptop. Once finished with the dishes, she walked back out to the front room, and upon seeing the troubled look on her fiancé's face, she realized her joke had gone far enough, and it was time to come clean. When she plopped down next to him, the tapping on the computer stopped immediately, Jeremy's shoulders visibly tensed up, and there was only silence for the next several seconds. Aelita felt her face grow warm and her heart started to race from the conversation they were about to have.

"Jeremy, about earlier..."

"Aelita, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to..." he blurted out, but She cut him off.

"Jeremy, stop!" He kept staring straight forward and Aelita could have sworn that his face was nearly purple! "Please look at me." After a few seconds he reluctantly did as she asked. "I'm not mad at you," she reassured gently, though it didn't seem to have much effect. "But just make sure that you never, ever..." she paused for just one more teasing moment, "apologize for that again." The troubled, guilty look that was on his face faded away and was replaced with confusion.

"... What...? he asked. Aelita giggled at his bewilderment just before she pulled his face to hers and kissed him. Jeremy froze for a moment, but Aelita didn't break it off until until the tension melted from his shoulders and he was kissing her back! She figured that after making him squirm all evening, he deserved it. After the kiss, Aelita smiled warmly at her fiancé, though since he still looked pretty baffled she figured she was going to have to explain herself.

"Why should I be upset that the man I'm about to marry likes looking at me?" She asked. Her face started to heat up again, and the confusion in Jeremy's left as well.

"I guess when you put it that way, it doesn't make much sense."

"You're right, it doesn't. I adore you Jeremy, and you've always been a perfect gentleman." Aelita snaked her arms around his neck and pulled him into a close hug. "But go ahead and take your peeks," she said quietly into his ear, and she could feel Jeremy's heart start pounding. Her already warm cheeks started burning up even more as she continued. "Enjoy it... I know I do." Her own heart felt like it was about to beat right out of her chest, and and her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I know that we agreed to wait, and I still intent to... but maybe we could have a little teaser to tide us over until that wait is over..."

Jeremy's whole body tightened up, and the seconds ticked by as Aelita held her breath, wondering if she'd pushed it too far. After several tense moments though, Jeremy relaxed and Aelita let out her breath... and gasped when she felt his lips on her neck...

A/N: I got the whole idea for this chapter last weekend and got really excited to write it! After the slog that was last chapter, I kinda needed to write something easy and enjoyable! I know that it's a bit short, but it's also got a quick turnaround, so I don't feel bad about it. I hope you liked it.