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[noburden]

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[noburden]

Has it? She wonders.

"You seem happier," she says carefully, nudging his nose back. "I suppose I needed time, too."

Time to realize that while it hurts to be without him, she can survive.

[rosarianoath]

“I don’t know if I’m happier,” he says. “But I’ve accepted what I’ve done, and the reality of the situation… and how foolish I’ve been.”

He brushes her hair back again, his gaze soft.

[noburden]

"All in that basement?" She teases, just gently. Her touch mirrors his, brushing his hair away from his face, for what little it actually does.

[rosarianoath]

He just smiles at her.

“It’s dull and quiet down there.”

[noburden]

"If it's helped, I'm glad for you, Clive."

She can't help but wonder what that means for them, but asking seems like a quick way to ruin the moment. She wants to stay in his arms, with these sweet touches and their noses bumping together.

[rosarianoath]

He’s glad, too. He doesn’t bother saying it. Just just kisses her, slow and sweet, one hand wandering down her back.

[noburden]

It's a perfect kiss. She closes her eyes and focuses on how right it feels. She's meant to be in his arms, and he's meant to kiss her. No one else she's kissed has felt this warm, this easy.

"I love you, Clive," she says when their lips part. "My treasure."

[rosarianoath]

His heart feels light. The earlier events of the evening had made him feel foul and jealous, but pressed against her body, he knows where he is supposed to be. She’s the sweetest, most patient, most enduring woman in the world, and if he could serve her forever, he gladly would. She loves him, despite what he’s done, and what he’s failed in.

“I love you too,” he says, and then he holds her tighter, like he could prove it with the proximity of his body, skin to skin.

[noburden]

"Will you stay the night in my bed?" She asks, hopeful. They haven't made a mess of it yet. She doesn't want to part from him anytime soon.

[rosarianoath]

He presses a kiss to the corner of her mouth and nods.

“Of course.”

[noburden]

"My bed is still nicer than yours. You'll recover quicker, to serve me better," she teases.

[rosarianoath]

He chuckles under his breath.

“In fairness,” he says, “I have never aspired to tempt you down to the basement.”

[noburden]

"All you need do is look at me."

She's weak for those blue eyes.

[rosarianoath]

“I look at you far more often than you even realize,” he says.

[noburden]

"Still?" She asks, clearly pleased to hear it with the way she smiles at him.

[rosarianoath]

“Of course,” he says. “Even months ago, I would live to glimpse you crossing the kitchen, or pass me on the porch.”

[noburden]

"And here I was, always hoping you'd have some reason to strike up conversation with me."

She runs her fingers through his hair.

"I'm so glad we talk more. I'm so glad we spend time together."

[rosarianoath]

"I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Truly.

He smiles. He feels disarmed.

"Do you want to rest longer?"

[noburden]

"Oh, I've been rested. I was only waiting for you." He's the one that begged mercy, after all.

[rosarianoath]

“Oh.”

Well, that’s fair enough. He presses another quick kiss to her lips and then lifts himself off her and onto his forearms so he can look down and ask, seriously:

“What would you ask of me?”

[noburden]

When he lifts himself off her, she seems to suddenly remember something.

"Wait a moment. What are you doing, surprising me when I said I had something for you." Trying to outdo her, Clive? She smiles and gives his shoulder a little shove, moving to attempt to get up.

[rosarianoath]

“Surely we can surprise each other,” he says, getting up and sitting back on his heels.

[noburden]

"My surprises tend to pale in comparison to yours," she says, heading to her closet. She has to go get the stool from her vanity to step on, grabbing a basket from the top shelf above the clothing.

She hops off to set that basket down on it and plucks out a little blue box no bigger than her hand, kept shut with white ribbon. She looks down at it for a long moment.

"Do you remember that winter market?"

[rosarianoath]

"I do," he says, sitting and watching her. The shame of wanting to eke out every second with her will likely still come to him a hundred years from now, when he's served his time and is supposed to be able to move on. His gaze drops to the box. "Even when you loathed to even look at me, you thought to...?"

[noburden]

"Of course," she says, a touch embarrassed. "I was hopeful, deep down, that you and I could at least be... close friends. Like we once were."

She keeps a hold of the box as she approaches him, sitting on the bed.

"It isn't entirely free. The price is one kiss."