New Year, New You, New Me

Chapter Two

"Livvie, you don't have to -" he started to say. "I don't want you to ever feel that you need to earn me -"

"You don't understand, Fitz. I want to."

It was her turn to fall silent, but in that quiet Fitz saw through both her words and her silence. He saw how deep that wanting went, what she really wanted, what she really needed. He understood her sudden need to cram a lifetime of normalcy into these few days. It wasn't hard for him to be reminded that they'd never really had what other - normal - people had had, the first heady days and weeks and months of a new relationship.

Instead, everything between them had been crammed into the pressure cooker of lives lived in DC from the very start. But for a few days at least, they had time to live as though they were just like everyone else. Even if they weren't.

Besides, when had Fitz ever been able to tell her no?

They were still holding hands; it only took a simple tug to bring her out of her chaise to cross the tiny space between them and then to sink down to sit beside him even as he sat up to meet her face to face.

"I like it." Fitz said, looking deep into her eyes.

"You do?"

"Why are you so surprised?"

"I tracked you down, did my best to seduce you - now I'm suggesting that we back up a little - and you don't have a problem with any of this?"

Fitz grinned at her. "The seducing went both ways, if I recall things correctly - but feel free to seduce me any time you feel the need to over the next few days. I promise you that it won't bother me at all."

"You're terrible." She told him, even as her eyes told him the exact opposite.

"No I'm not." Fitz told her, just before he snatched a kiss from her lips.

"What I am is the man who loves you." Having kissed her once, Fitz found himself unable to resist kissing her over and over again, taking the time to capture first her upper lip and then her lower between his own, humming appreciatively as her mouth softened under his. Eventually he drew back reluctantly. "I'm the man who knows you. You need your space sometimes, so I'm going to give it to you - no questions asked."

"No questions asked?" Olivia sounded unsure. "Fitz, are you sure? I mean, you have the right to -"

"That may be true - but I don't feel a need to. I get it - I get you. Always have, always will. And this is different; this isn't you running from me, this is you running to us. You want some of what, in your mind, every other couple in the world has had - and what we never got a chance to."

Fitz leaned forward to cup her face in his hands. "I didn't think of it, but now that you've brought the idea up, I want this too, Liv."

"You do?" Her eyes fill with wonder.

His eyes darkened with emotion. "Of course I do. The chance to woo you the way you've always deserved to be wooed? If anything, I should be apologizing for not thinking of this myself."

Her gaze shifted, briefly unreadable and then they were suddenly shimmering with emotions of her own as her hands came up to cover his. "You don't think it's silly?"

"I don't think it's silly." Fitz kissed her again, all tender and loving, proving the truth in his words without speaking.

"Today's the 27th." Fitz began calculating out loud. "We'll work out something for your overnight apart from me - but I'm warning you now, I'm not going to make it easy for you."

"You're not?"

"Seducing, remember? With wooing, comes seduction." Fitz smiles at her again. "This is starting to sound like fun."

"Livvie, however we leave this island is how we're going to be - and I'm fine with it no matter what. It really is up to you. So do your thing, baby, because I'm definitely going to do mine."

And it turned out just the way he said it would be.

His thing - as it turned out - was to woo her, and Fitz pulled out all the stops to do it. He'd started his wholesale seduction that very same day, right after his stating his intentions, drawing her down into his arms and kissing her until the world was spinning off of its axis, until she was nothing more than a gasping, trembling mass of nerves from head to toe before scooping her up into his arms and carrying her off to bed.

And it only got better from there.

So they'd played Olivia's pretty little fantasy and Fitz had had to admit - if only to himself - that something had been satisfied deep within him, and best of all, it had satisfied them both.

First and foremost, it was fun, they were fun together, taking advantage of the amenities of this very private resort.

One of the unspoken rules of this private island was that whatever happened here, stayed here. With paparazzi and other news hounds basically forbidden access, that meant that they were free to walk along the beaches without being worried about long range photo lenses being aimed at them. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they just - were.

They also felt free to enjoy long casually leisurely brunches and a few elegant dinners in elegant dining rooms beneath crystal chandeliers which gave Olivia the excuse to don elegant dresses for Fitz's pleasure and delight. They both enjoyed a million of the little things that other couples do without a second thought, like Fitz holding out her chair as they were seated when they dined out in public, and how he allowed himself the luxury of running soft fingers along the soft curve of her shoulders before he took his own seat and there was a sharing of smiles at how it casually announced to the world how things were between them.

It was a ridiculously pleasing thing, this casual claiming of one another, to stand together in a room and not bother to hide that they were in the same space together, his hand around her waist as they stood at the piano bar during a jazz session with the other guests, her slipping her hand into his as they walked, or letting her head rest on his shoulder as they danced, closing their eyes as they slow-danced to a love song, Fitz holding her close.

It turned out that she only spent one night apart from him, it was all that she could stand being away from him - or he from her - and they had spent most of that night talking, and maybe in its own way that had been the most magical night of all, where they'd talked about everything that was and had been and everything they hoped would be.

Instinct had tempted them to avoid what they could of the most painful parts of their past when they were face to face, but even so,the need for a final honesty between them drove them to moments when she'd cried in his arms - or he in hers, as they released years of countless moments of hurt and pain and regrets and guilt and doubt.

Sometimes it was done in silence - with arms wrapped around one another, beneath breathtaking sunsets and quiet dawns. Other times it was woven in the language of love and laughter, letting go of those hurts in the minutiae of moments of everyday life, as they prepared meals together in Fitz's kitchen, with island music blasting that led to other moments of holding one another, losing themselves in dance and laughter and a new understanding of one another.

And then it was New Year's Eve.