Dawn Breaks (Nel + Murdoch)

[Murdoch]

21st Spring 510 AV

When mid-morning finally brought Syna's rays through the small window, Murdoch pried his eyes open and murmured something unintelligible. This was Doc, after all, and waking up didn't really agree with him.

But he found his arms full of pale skin and scales, an ocean's worth of foaming curls and seashells nestled against his cheek, and he smiled a little to find one hand splayed gently across Nel's collarbone. He ducked his head and nuzzled a kiss between her shoulderblades.

Soft memories floated through his mind, of white passion and lightning eyes in the dead of night. Forgotten were the repercussions of it, the cracks in his armor that she'd prised open with tender hands and cool kisses. He would forget that part for now, because he had to.

"If you're not leaving, I say we stay in bed all day," he rumbled, sighing as he gathered her a little closer against his chest.

[Nel Sayo]

The kiss his pressed to her back woke her. She let out a noise, half-resisting and half-asleep, long, pale limbs contracting even as he curled more tightly around her. And then in the burst of a yawn, she stretched. Like a cat in sunlight, just an abundance of white skin pulled taught across firm muscles, the shimmer of silver scales practically a road map of her flesh.

"But I'll get hungry," she mumbled, shifting a little so that she could tuck her cheek against his scarred shoulder, and huddle further down under the blanket. "I'm already hungry."

Well and she was always hungry, too, but she didn't seem in a big hurry to get going anywhere, towards food or leaving, or any place that wasn't curled up in that bed, underneath that blanket. She was willingly gathered close against him, her skin greedy for the heat of his.

[Murdoch]

"You're the one said you got breakfast already," he chuckled lowly as she curled closer, rubbing a perpetually-scratchy cheek against her temple. "I bet if you leaned far enough you could reach your pack without even having to get out of bed," he said slyly, a teasing grin pressing into her hair. Yes, yes, she should deal with breakfast, and he would keep the bed warm. Worked out perfectly.

[Nel Sayo]

"You're closer," she muttered, smiling into the skin of his shoulder.

A hand wound up from beneath the blanket, and she pushed his face away from her hair with a delicate snort. Just a deft, gentle shove, but playful, and her fingertips just naturally managed to turn his face instead toward the table, where two apples had been placed the night before.

He was totally closer.

She poked him lightly in the side.

"You woke me up," she murmured. "You have to feed me. You have to sate the monster. It'll take over if you don't."

[Murdoch]

He nipped at her fingertips, grinning and he chuckled and tightened his arms around her waist.

"Oh, I'm closest, am I?" he said in a mock-growl, and hefted her up as he rolled in the bed, landing her on his other side, legs still thrown over him and both of them now tangled in the blankets. "There, now the monster can see to the both of us," he laughed, deft fingers finding all the soft spots along her ribs to tickle.

[Nel Sayo]

She let out a squeak when he hefted her across the bed, but didn't struggle against him. There wasn't any resistance this morning, just the easy topple of her limbs and a rush of giggles that brightened the room, the sound something like sunlight, her voice a prayer to Syna all on its own. Even ragged with sleep and their efforts of the night previous, there was something more...open...about her, more easily grasped, like he could reach into the very heart of her and pull out what made her tick, just to look at it for awhile.

"Nonono," she half-shrieked, reaching down to snatch up his hands before he could start tickling. She held his fingers tightly between her own, and tipped her face to peer at him, bright eyes narrowed in warning. "None'a that. It's too early. And you're still closer 'cause now I'm stuck in the blankets."

Her mouth curved in a beatific grin, just for him. Like there wasn't anybody else in the world who could've gotten her that apple, or made her laugh as he was this morning. A twitch of her leg where it spilled across his abdomen, almost a mini-kick of delight.

"I mean, the monster's not, like...out, yet, you know, we could give it a little bit before the situation really became dangerous. And life-threatening. Presently, we're just in a for a maiming or something."

[Murdoch]

"Wily, this monster," he chuckled, relinquishing his hands to her. Her happy little kick, though, was rewarded with a stolen kiss - though as easy as they seemed with each other now, it could hardly be termed stolen. Warm, more like, and familiar after the previous night's wonders.

A sigh of contentment followed the kiss, and he burrowed down into the bed, snuggling his head onto her chest. "Ah, screw the apples," he moaned around a fierce yawn. "Too comfy. We'll eat later," he mumbled, eyes closing though a smile twitched at the corners of his mouth as he gave a little pat-pat to her tummy. As if to say Quiet, you.

[Nel Sayo]

She made a noise of surprised pleasure against his mouth when he kissed her, and her hands released his when he shifted further down against the mattress. Her fingers threaded comfortably into the dishevelment of his hair as he settled, her legs still slung across the slope of his hip.

Her belly grumbled as if in answer to this pat-patting, but the sound was superseded by quiet laughter that bubbled up from her chest.

"If you hadn't woken me up, we wouldn't be in this mess," she murmured, smoothing the upshot riot of his morning-hair. "I'd still be asleep, and so would the monster, but nooooo...someone had to make noise and be a nuisance. So here we are."

She tilted her head up to press a kiss to his hair.

"But it is comfy. Maybe the monster'll go back to sleep too."

[Murdoch]

An arm slunk around her hips, fingers curling along her thigh and tracing whirling patterns on scale and skin. He liked the look of that: his golden-skinned arm, covered in ugly scars, his dirt-colored hair, all spread out over the pristine whiteness of Nel's body. The contrast of it pleased him, kept his fingertips moving just to see what they looked like against each perfect scale.

"I didn't make noise," he murmured, lips whispering against her chest. "I kissed you. Are you suggesting I not do that anymore?" he chuckled, ducking his head a little to trail a series of kisses just beneath her breast. His laughter skittered across her stomach, bumping into his arm and bouncing back up to her.

[Nel Sayo]

She watched him, pale eyelashes lowered drowsily over bright blue eyes at a sultry half-mast. Her mouth twisted in something between a grimace and a grin, like what he was doing caused her a modicum of pain as well as pleasure -- delicious torture, waking her up, no matter how he'd done it.

The shining pathways of the scales that wound about her skin roped over either leg, up across each hip and the planes of her belly too, crawling along her sides to slope parallel across collarbone and then curve over shoulder. They lined across her back, as well, and the backs of each hand, and the tops of her feet, like someone had embedded molten armor in that white skin. She liked watching the darkness of him overcome the empty expanse of her.

"You'll do what you like, I bet," she murmured, one leg rising at the knee by his shoulder, when his laughter trailed across her skin, and she let out a breath. "But you did so make noise."