Exit Signs I Missed (A Dark Artifices Fanfiction) ✔️

Your Laugh Echoes Down The Highway

Maybe it was because he'd spent the last five years of his life burying his heart in secrets and lies, in whispers of conversations and events that never came to light except when he told Emma - but when Julian was with her, it felt as if he'd crawled out of himself and become a part of her, two souls in perfect intimacy, open and exposed to each other in every possible way.

She kissed him, shoving his shirt over his head, her mouth hard on his, almost bruising as she fit her body to his, shoving him down onto the mattress. Julian groaned, fisting her hair in his hand, relishing in the feel of it, of her skin against his, her hair soft and covering her like a cloak as it fell free from her braid. She was wearing almost nothing, only a camisole and shorts, and the sight of her, all bare skin and dark Marks and silvery scars, made him feel as though he had not touched her in decades, centuries, though it had only been weeks.

Julian drank her in.

Her hair was glowing against his dark blue sheets, absorbing the light of the setting sun that had slipped through his half-open curtains. The white fabric of her top was translucent, and she wore nothing beneath it. Emma made a small, pleased noise against his neck as he kissed his way down the soft skin of her throat, pressing his mouth along the lines of her collarbone, following the strap of her tank top before pushing it off of her shoulder. She was clutching at him, hands sliding down his bare back as he moved with her, bunching up the hem of her tank top, and easing it over her head.

He had never wanted to paint anything more than he wanted to paint this: Emma nude, splayed on his bed, the expression on her face one of love and trust, adoration and desire, strong enough to break him open, spill his secrets, tear out his heart. It wasn't only the beauty of her body, which was scarred and strong and responded to his touch like it was a live wire, but also that he knew all the stories behind her scars, knew what she had done to make herself so strong she bordered on unbreakable, knew her like he knew himself and wanted her so badly.

:::

Maybe it was because she was so used to pain, but Emma felt the pleasure of the kiss like a wave, drowning her, sweeping her under so that she felt nothing but desire, nothing but the sweetness of the moment, nothing but the fire that consumed her, the urge to get as close to him as she could ever be.

"I love you," she whispered, staring up at him, his eyes luminous in the darkened room. "We didn't say it last time, but I'm telling you now: I love you."

"I love you," he murmured, and she heard the echoes of it in every move, every moan, every sigh: the way he kissed her, slow and sensual, the way he touched her, somehow managing to grip hard enough to leave marks and yet imprint upon her that he thought there was nothing more precious than her body against his.

Emma heard it when he came: moments after her, pressing his face against her neck with his hands in her hair, saying her name, over and over, like it was a prayer, like it was a lifeline, like it could save them both. She wrapped herself around him, connected in every possible way, and pretended it could.

They disentangled themselves after a moment, their hands touching, Julian throwing the sheets over their cooling skins.

"We're going to be okay," she said, firm, trying to take his role for once: the calm one, the one who told people that things were going to be all right and then proceeded to make it so.

"I know, Emma." His voice was tired, his eyes bleary, and she wondered if they were lying to each other. "I know."

:::

"Are you shaving?" Tiberius Blackthorn stood at the bathroom door, dressed in ratty jeans, headphones around his neck.

Julian knew Ty's voice like the back of his hand, knew all the children's voices in that way, but he didn't think he'd ever heard Ty sound so... so confident, so authoritative, as though he were the elder. It simultaneously warmed and broke his heart, the way the question he asked was one he knew the answer to already, and was patiently expecting.

"Yes, I am," Julian answered, putting down the razor. He knew Ty didn't like it when he had stubble, and since Emma had marked him with both the energy and endurance runes this morning - with a warning from Magnus to take it easy while he worked to reverse Malcolm's curse and its complications - he felt ready to get out of bed and back to routine. "Was there another reason you wanted to speak with me?"

"It's Friday," Ty replied, for once looking Julian in the eye. He got the sense that this moment was terribly important to Ty, and would break if handled improperly. "You always make pancakes on Friday, but - if you're not feeling up to it, Livvy and I could do it."

"Thank you for offering, Ty, and I do believe you and Livvy are more than capable of making pancakes, but - " he swallowed, watching Ty's face, felt the tension in their shared gaze. "I'm good. I'll make them, like always."

Tiberius nodded solemnly, and left the bathroom. The moment the door closed, Emma poked her head out from behind the brightly-printed shower curtain.

"What did Ty want?" she asked, but then she stepped out onto the rubber bath mat in only a skimpy pink towel and Julian forgot how to speak, his concentration narrowing to a fine point. Her blond hair fell to her waist, darkened and frizzy from the water, and he wanted nothing more than to coil it around his fingers and squeeze the moisture from it.

"Um..." He picked up the razor again, just to keep his hands to himself. "To see if I was going to make pancakes."

"Did you say yes?" she queried, reaching past him for a bottle of lotion. The air, already thick with steam, became pineapple-scented as she opened it and began applying it to her skin.

"I told him I would, yeah." Jules dropped the razor again and began brushing his teeth, filling a cup with water and wetting his toothbrush in it. It was becoming increasingly harder to breathe, and when he looked over at Emma's blurry outline in the fogged-up mirror, he felt like someone who'd been trying all their life to get warm and had suddenly stumbled upon a furnace: overwhelmed by the intensity of it all, and finding it was even better than he'd dreamed.

"That's too bad," Emma said, interrupting his thoughts. "Because I was hoping you would be interested in helping me with something."

He spit out the toothpaste, rinsed his mouth, and looked over at her. She was sitting on the counter, towel riding up her bare legs, and holding the lotion towards him, wearing a flirtatious grin, a look that spoke of longing and want and playfulness.

Just as he was about to take the lotion from her and kiss her senseless, there was a knock at the door. "Can you hurry up in there, Jules?" Livia.

He fumbled his jeans on, doing his best not to watch Emma as she toweled her hair dry and threw on jeans and a tank top. The fact that it was last night's tank top did not help things. Finally, they opened the door, releasing humidity and a look of surprise on Livvy's face.

"Something I need to know?" she interrogating, raising a dark brow.

"Go find Ty" was all Julian said as he and Emma went down the hallway, off to see what Magnus had to say.