ic Blades of Grass (IC)

[April]

Willow made a soft sound of agreement as she leaned against Jack, lightly kissing the metamagi on the neck. The quiet voice in the back of her mind, the one that always insisted she think things through instead of acting on impulses was blessedly silent. Willow had her arms wrapped around the fencer, fingers lightly tracing the the contours of the lean muscle under his bodysuit.

[Gizmo]

Forgoing words for once, Jack gently tilted Willow's chin upward to kiss her once again, consciously keeping his movements slow and almost exploratory despite his quickening pulse, brushing his hand across the slender woman's cheek and running his fingers into her white hair. Even after changing, the ancient plant controller smelled faintly of rich soil after a light rain, an earthy bouquet that filled his head. Keeping one arm slung tightly around he waist, he led her out of the kitchen and back toward the stairs upward.

[April]

The dryad kept her own arm tightly wrapped around Jack, snuggling up against his side as he guided her from the first floor to the second. She nibbled on her lower lip as she kept stealing a glance at the fencer's face. Willow's heart was pounding in her chest, and if she had to draw breath she would have been holding it as the pair climbed the stairs. "No matter what comes of this," she thought to herself, "I will always remember this night fondly."

[Gizmo]

It took a while to make it down the hallway as Jack paused every few steps to brush his lips over the backs of Willow's knuckles and wrist then rising to kiss her slim neck, the delicate point at the top of her ear, her flushed cheek and back to her mouth. Eventually he led them into one of the individual rooms looking out into the backyard. It didn't look particularly lived in - in truth, the swashbuckler relied largely on brief naps in the more spartan quarters deep below in the Interceptor's hidden base - but there were a few outfits worth of clothes in the closet and a handful of personal effects scattered here and there. The plain, light blue bedsheets that matched the open curtains were the work of his more decorative teammates, but as he nudged the door quietly closed behind them with his foot, he ignored the bed for a moment to simply look into the ancient guardian's amber eyes. "Qué guapa eres..." he murmured to no one in particular.

[April]

Willow smiled up at Jack, gazing into his dark blue eyes. She reached up lightly tracing a hand across the fencer's check, trailing down his neck and resting it on his chest over his heart. She stood that way for several heartbeats, eyes hooded as she noted the rise and fall of her hand on Jack's chest. Suddenly she looked up at Jack, a feral cast to her eyes as she pushed on his chest forcing his back against the door while she stepped forward, pinning her body against his. Rising up on her toes, the dryad kissed the swashbuckler fiercely on the lips.

[Gizmo]

Bouncing slightly against the wooden door, Jack hadn't been expecting the suddenly aggressive move, but if the low, appreciative growl he made in the back his throat as his lips parted invitingly or the strong fencer's fingers that slid through the dryad's long white hair to hold the back of her head were any indication, he certainly didn't object. His other hand moved slowly up Willow's back, the fabric of her borrowed bathrobe bunching between his fingers and sliding upward until he released it, finding just enough room pressed between the door and the slender woman's curves to pull the top of his black bodysuit over each shoulder in turn, letting it hang about his waist. The exposed sienna torso was etched with the lean musculature of a professional athlete, lithe and well defined but crisscrossed with scars of various lengths and thicknesses, most barely more than pale lines punctuated by the occasional distinctive circle of a bullet wound. All this Willow could observe only by touch as the swordsman responded hungrily to her kiss.

[April]

And through touch she did observe, hands tracing across his back feeling the curve of his muscle and the puckered flesh of his scars and occasionally raking her nails against his skin. All the while Willow remained pressed up against the swashbuckler, responding to his passion with equal intensity. Her lips broke contact for a brief moment and her eyelids fluttered open, and the feral gleam in her amber eyes was joined with something else.

The dryad, keeping her arms wrapped around Jack's torso pulled him away from the door and pulling him to the floor. As Willow settled on the ground she smiled and the belt to her borrowed bathrobe finally came undone, as they do.

[Gizmo]

Allowing himself to be pulled downward, Jack evidently agreed that the bed was entirely too far away for their immediate purposes. Against the window facing the backyard, the light tapping of rain slowed and then finally stopped.

Some time later, as the dappled sunlight of the next morning slipped through the same window, the door creaked slightly as Jack reappeared, having recovered a pair of boxers at some point and carrying a folding bed tray he'd found in one of the kitchen cupboards. Atop the tray was a plateful of freshly steaming quesadillas along with a glass of orange juice, one filled with water and a mug of black coffee. "Now, I know you wanted to try out dinner, florecita," he began with a lopsided grin, "but I thought we might put a pin in that and go with breakfast for now."

[April]

Willow was sitting up in the bed with the sheets pooled around her hips when Jack entered. At some point in the course of the evening the dryad and the metamagi had made it to the bed where Willow had the best night's sleep in her memory; wrapped in Jack's arms. When she woke to find the swordsman missing she was a little apprehensive though now she had a warm smile on her face.

She accepted the tray from Jack, her hand lingering on his for a brief moment. The amber-eyed Guardian inhaled the aroma of the quesadillas and murmured her approval. Though she didn't feel any hunger pangs Willow selected a slice and took a sampling bite. "Oh, Jack." the plant controller said, eyes widening, "this tastes wonderful!"

[Gizmo]

Jack gave the beautiful woman in his bed an appreciative grin as he lifted up her leg along with the sheets covering them and sat down on the side of the bed before setting the slender limbs back down across his lap. "Well, you said to tell you about myself through food," the swordsman recalled, reaching over to rub Willow's feet with strong, dexterous fingers. "So, quesadillas are crunchy on the outside with a softer inside, spicy enough to be an acquired taste, but that's why the people who like it like it. You serve it while it's still steaming, and with that much melted cheese it's a little undignified, but it's got everything a body needs."

[April]

The dryad finished the morsel she had, took a sip of orange juice and made another quiet hum of approval. "I normally have no need or desire to eat," Willow said quietly as she watched Jack with half-lidded eyes, her bare shoulders resting against the headboard and a contented smile on her face. "But this I wouldn't mind having on a consistent basis." The Guardian's smile turned impish a moment after her last comment but behind that faint smile Willow's heart was racing. She felt so alive this past night, more than she ever had and she loved it.

One thing Willow was never good at was hiding her thoughts and emotions, she was the type to wear them on her sleeve. As she watched Jack she felt her face flush and she knew that her expression was so open, so readable. But she also didn't care. Setting her tray aside, being careful that nothing would spill she reluctantly extracted her feet from Jack's wonderful ministration and crawled across the surface of the bed.

The ancient guardian lightly traced some of the more prominent scars on the swordsmans chest, twined her other questing hand in his dusty brown hair and pulled Jack in for a kiss.

[Gizmo]

Putting one arm on the bed to support them, Jack leaned back slightly and slid his other hand across coppery skin to the small of Willow's back as he met the kiss with a slow, savoring manner that drew the contact out as the dryad felt a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Mmh... stick around and that can probably be arranged," he murmured when he was finally free to speak again, craning his neck to brush his lips across the graceful point at the top of one of her ears, strands of long white hair tickling his face. The immortal's frank manner, so without pretense, would have made her difficult to resist even if he'd been trying.

[April]

"Why would I want to go anywhere else?" Willow asked with a low purr, lightly kissing Jack's neck. The nymph of the woods had altered her position slightly, body tilted and snuggled up against the fencer with her head resting on his shoulder. The arm Jack had at the small of her back was now being held by her own hand against her flat abdomen, her fingers interlaced with his.

The plant controller lifted her head from Jack's shoulder for a moment, taking a playful nip at his jaw before settling it back down and nuzzling against his neck. "Can I keep you?"

[Gizmo]

"Well, I don't know, young lady," Jack replied with mock sternness even as he tilted his neck to accommodate the slender woman's efforts, resting his unshaven chin atop her head. "Having a me is a big responsibility." The acrobat nimbly brought his legs back up on top of the bed, taking care not to disturb the cuddling dryad as he settled back down. "Full disclosure, most people expect the having dinner, getting to know each other stage to come before the fun stuff," he admitted with a crooked grin, sliding their entwined fingers slowly up and down Willow's stomach and enjoying the warmth of a body pressed against his own, "but I think we may be onto something here. Tell me something about yourself."

[April]

The dryad said nothing for several moments as she collected her thoughts, occasionally making a small sound of contentment. "I was once worshipped as a goddess," she said after a time, then nipped lightly Jack's neck before continuing. "My sisters and I, we sort of encouraged this behavior. It was fun, and I was happy." Willow squeezed Jack's hand a bit, and added with a whisper, "But that doesn't compare to this moment. I am happy, confused, content, and fulfilled. Your doing, I suspect."

[Gizmo]

"Worshiped, huh?" With his free hand, Jack lifted Willow's chin into a kiss in mock retaliation for the playful bites, losing himself for a moment in the dryad's sweet, winey taste. "I think I can see that," he laughed melodically as he broke away, tracing the shape of her face with his fingertips. "The confused part if probably my fault," he admitted with a smirk and raised eyebrows, "and contentedness is a common side effect of quesadillas. But you had to let yourself feel happy and fulfilled." His smile took on a softer shape as his hand brushed through her hair before cupping her coppery cheek. "Looks good on you. Very, very good."

[April]

"I'm glad you think so," the dryad quietly murmured as amber eyes gazed into blue. The swordsman could still see the feral gleam in that golden gaze but he noticed another thing; fondness. Willow brushed her nose against the metamagi's, a light and gentle gesture at odds with her earlier aggressive manner. "Come," the dryad breathed after a lingering kiss on Jack's lips and a wistful sigh as she extracted herself from the Interceptor's embrace, "I'm going to wash your back."

[Gizmo]

Jack blinked a few times as he allowed himself to be pulled off of the bed and led back down the hallway to the bathroom. He had to admit, as his smile broadened to expose pearly teeth, that wasn't an offer he'd had before. The swashbuckler was gradually growing accustomed to Willow's direct manner, but the immortal guardian was still managing to catch him off guard. He was beginning to decide he liked it. "Whatever you say, florecita," he laughed, following after the cascade of long white hair, "Whatever you say."