off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ one hundred and five

When Audrey and Taerae had gone to the art museum at her request, she'd ended up feeling a little bad. After all, it was something she liked, but that he wasn’t all that interested in. It felt almost like he was sacrificing himself for her sake (or maybe that was very normal for dates, not that she would know). When she'd expressed that sentiment, he'd reassured her, told her he liked to learn more about what she was into. Still, she'd made him promise that, next time, she would be learning about something he liked, instead.

Well, that hadn’t quite worked out. Instead of picking a date location she thought Taerae might like, she'd asked him to choose himself, to request anything he wanted. The demand had been quite surprising: he wanted to watch her sew. Once again, they would be doing something she liked. Of course, she'd protested, telling him it was his turn, but he'd insisted it made him happy, to watch her work and pour her all into her passion. She'd eventually relented, and now here they were, in her bedroom, huddled over her desk.

She'd pulled out her entire sewing machine, eager to show him her workflow. He'd been very silent, yet very focused, as she'd walked him through the process of sewing a simple shirt.

"Sleeves can look really tricky, but they're simple enough," she said, as she matched the top of the sleeve pieces to the round edges of her torso pieces. "It's important not to sew the sides of the torso together before that, though, or else it'll be downright impossible."

Taerae bent over, trying to take a closer look at her work. "Wait, so do you place the sleeve under or over the torso piece? Since it's inside out, where is the seam supposed to show?"

"Ah, well, you have to pin the correct faces together, that way the seam will be hidden inside the garment."

Unfortunately, even as she demonstrated with her pins, Taerae stared at her with furrowed eyebrows. She winced as she passed her pinned sleeve under the needle of her machine, racking her brain for an easier way to explain this. To her, it had been second nature, as her mother had taught her to sew when she was only a child. But she knew how confusing it could be — Ricky had refused to learn until he was a little older, and by then, it had become such ancient, undecipherable magic to him he'd given up in one session.

"I'm sorry," she breathed out, under the noise of the sewing machine. "I'm not really good at explaining, and I know fashion's not really your thing. You're indulging me, but I can't even make it fun for you..."

All of a sudden, Taerae's expression of confusion vanished, and he looked into her eyes with an intense, almost intimidating gaze. Her hands stilled around the sewn sleeve, and he crouched down in front of her chair. Instinctively, she turned to him, abandoning her garment, and he took one of her hands into his.

"You need to stop apologizing," he said, his voice firm, yet full of affection. "I may not understand everything, but I love hearing you talk about what you love. That's enough for me."

She nipped at her lower lip, feeling heat creep up to her cheeks. "Okay... So, you're having fun?"

"Of course I am."

He let out a chuckle, and Audrey thought he would let go of her hand and let her go back to sewing, since he'd said he was having fun. Instead, he pulled her hand towards him, and she felt herself leaning forward. Without a word, he dipped his head down, and planted a soft kiss against her knuckles. Audrey suppressed a flinch, but her eyes shot wide open, the sudden warmth like a burn on her cool skin. Her breath hitched in her throat as she clutched at her skirt with her free hand, her stomach churning. He lingered there for a second, and when he finally pulled away and lifted his face to look at her, there was the most beautiful smile resting on his lips.

Audrey felt her entire body go hot, and she fluttered her lashes, as if her eyes were photographing his face in that instant. She leaned towards him, until their foreheads nearly touched, and squeezed his hand in hers.