Reaper's Touch

Gus: Closer

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."
— Ingrid Bergman

Gus didn't have time to be nervous about his first kiss with Hex. It really just happened... out of no where. When she pulled away he started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Hex asked.

"I don't know," Gus replied, embarrassed. "Do you ever get really happy, so happy it makes you laugh for some reason?"

"What, like if something is funny?"

"No!" Gus laughed again. He couldn't stop.
"Nothing funny! Just so happy! Like it just comes out of you- like you can't not do it."

Hex started laughing then too. "You're so weird."

"I guess that's a no?"

"That's a no-idea-what-the-fuck-you're-talking-about," she said.

"So I'm the only one?"

"At least it'll help me figure out when you're really happy!" Hex said.

"I'm really happy right now," Gus replied.

"I can tell!"

He leaned in close to her mouth and whispered. "Yeah? How?"

Hex kissed him again. "Mm... 'cause if you were pissed about me kissing you, I don't think you'd be this close. And you laughed. But mostly because you're this close."

"This close?" Gus asked, brushing her cheek with his lips. "Or this close?" he said against her mouth. Gus felt her lips open in response, but he held back on kissing her. They breathed together like that, lips barely touching, barely moving except for when he felt her smile. He sensed it was driving her crazy in the best way. When he ran his hands up her arms he felt the goosebumps.

"Closer," Hex whispered, and she kissed him fully. She leaned back against the slanted concrete, pulling him with her, her hands on either side of his face, and he settled between her legs.

As they kissed Hex ran her fingertips just under the band of his jeans, and he ran his just under her t-shirt, walking them across her belly.

"I want to take things slow with you," she murmured.

"As slow as you want," Gus said.

"This is good for tonight."

"It's good for me too."

"Really? You're not just saying that?"

"I mean it. Kissing you is... more than I coulda hoped for," Gus said.

"It's just that I haven't been with anyone since Adam, and that was, well you know... years ago at this point. I was only seventeen. I think about sex really differently now," she said softly.

"I get that, and I know we've both grown up a lot," he responded.

"I just want to take things slow now, notice everything... notice you."

"Notice what about me?" Gus asked curiously.

He pulled away so he could see her eyes, and she was staring intently at him.

"I want to find out who you are, not who you had to be to survive."

Gus tucked a tendril of her red hair behind her ear. "Oh."