Test the Waters (Cracker x Reader)

Ignorance Isn't Always Bliss

The rest of the day went better than any other with him had. He insisted on spending time with you so he could get to know you better. It had been months of living with the man and while you knew quite a bit about him, he had next to nothing on you. It was something neither of you had thought of until he started quick firing questions to figure out more about you.

It was both unexpected and, you couldn't deny it, nice. He was completely gung-ho about turning around his attitude and though he got a bit snarky here and there, he was doing great. The times he did get a little bit of a temper, you realized it was more from his lack of understanding where you were coming from. Long story short, anything he was ignorant about got a bit of a rise out of him and with you having such a different background, that wasn't difficult to do.

He was quick to catch when he was getting sour and correct his demeanor, switching from snappy comments and bared teeth to questions to better understand you. It was like night and day compared to just days ago. Now your biggest worry was of him deciding he was tired of trying and going back to dominating you. While this change was good, you were afraid it wouldn't last. For now though, you chose to enjoy this side of him while it still lasted, for however long that would be.

You got home later in the day and spent some time together readjusting your schedule for training and studying, making it so you'd only do one of each type per day and rotating so you wouldn't overexert yourself like before. He was dead set on taking up some of your free time to go check out the city on the island, convinced there were some places he knew you'd like.

All the while he kept his touchy habits to a minimum, only doing so when he thought he wouldn't bother you with it and in much more tolerable ways. At one point he had put his hand up your shirt to rub your back. It wasn't something you would have suggested him doing but it felt good enough that you relaxed into it, earning delighted chuckles from him. You couldn't help it, nothing beat a good back rub.

After all that, you had your first real meal with him. That was a little awkward for you, especially since you'd gotten so accustomed to not eating a whole lot and he was intent on being a food pusher. Peros had to have brought up the fact that you'd lost some weight with him and now he was insisting on fixing that.

And now you were in the middle of another first, helping Cracker take down his hair. You felt brave enough to ask him how he even got it that way and he decided the best way to tell you was for you to help him with it. You'd just gotten out of the shower and had on a short, thin nightgown. It was comfy for the warmer nights like this one. Cracker was sitting on the edge of the bed with you standing on it behind him, undoing the top part of his hair as he worked on putting out his firecracker ends.

From what you could gather, he went through more hair product in one day than you'd ever gone through in your life. When both of you had all of it undone, you ran a brush through it, making it soft to the touch. Surprisingly, whatever he used didn't make his hair oily. When it was done, his thick, lavender locks reached halfway down his back.

"You're all done." You dropped to your knees and tossed the brush onto the nightstand.

He got up, shrugging off his cape and pauldron as he kicked off his boots. "So we haven't done a lot of different stuff in the bedroom yet." He was jumping right into it and was talking about it like there wasn't a more normal conversation to have.

"Um, really? I thought we had." You flopped onto your belly, hiding your face in the pillows so he wouldn't see how red in the face the conversation was already making you.

"Nope. There's other things I've wanted to do but I wanted you to get a little more used to what we've been doing first." He finished stripping down to nothing, more comfortable than you with being naked when he was able to be.