Darkest Desires

Aftercare (Trial #1 Complete)

Connie yawned, stretched out fully over the bed with Steven on the couch for the night.

It was a necessity for him to have time to himself so he could move out of that headspace again into his own, and Connie was dozing before he even had made it to the room.

The sun drifted through the blinds lazily, urging her to open her eyes to their heat. She hurt nowhere, there were no indentations or cuts or bruises. She had been healed before she'd woken up, and she decided to go check on her boyfriend.

The kitchen and couch were empty, so she wrapped a robe around herself to poke her head outside.

Somehow in all of their years living near a beach, they had rarely ever swam together, and she'd never been able to see him swim by himself.

Water flowed over and through as he swam perpendicular to shore, close enough to get back if he felt himself becoming weary or cramped. The sun glinted off the water and back to her eyes as she stared completely smitten by such a mythical site. He slowed, coming a bit closer to shore so he could stand and wipe the water from his face and stinging eyes. A last swipe and they made eye contact. She felt shy and it showed through her wave and timid grin, but she knew he could see it from there when he returned it 10x as big.

"Come swim with me!" He called. "It's a beautiful day!"

The robe dropped as she ran across the sand and into the freezing water that zapped her. She ran closer to him, a night of separation was enough too much even. It was clumsy but he caught her when she jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist.

"How are you feeling?" A low, serious tone was met by a joyful kiss to his neck and then another and another. "Mmm... I love making you happy, but that's not an answer."

Reluctantly she pulled away. "You make me so happy. I'm spoiled, I don't deserve–," Lips crashed onto hers as the ocean began to become a bit more wild around them. They pulled apart when a wave took his feet off of the bottom momentarily and they fell back.

They sputtered and coughed through giggles before he murmured, "You deserve everything your heart desires."

Of course, he was Steven. He would give blood until there was nothing left. Honey dripped from his every pore. He wanted to please people his entire life, and then people became her. She could never take advantage of his sweetness, but this was the epitome of it: he'd give her anything she asked.

"I want to go on a walk, in nature. I want– need to be– outside."

And so done her first aftercare of rest and healing kisses, they went on a hike and watched Steven skip rocks over a perfect pond in their secret little area.