Oh, their survival was definitely a lot of dumb luck. Looking back, Jesse marvels at how they got through so many close calls unscathed. But he also can’t help but wonder what could have been. Had he stayed, would they have become an unstoppable force? Or would they have gotten more and more reckless, until their luck could no longer hold out?
So many questions and no answers to go with them. But the past is past either way, which is the whole point of this really; Reyes and Overwatch are gone. Their childhood is gone. Looking anywhere but forward at the future they can build together is a fool’s errand. He hopes she understands that’s what he wants to do. Look forward, with her.
Based on her reaction though, maybe he shouldn’t worry. Hearing the feeling reciprocated knocks the wind out of him in all the best ways, and then she’s kissing him and air is even harder to come by. He leans forward and returns the kiss without a moment’s hesitation, and finally, things feel right. He’s home again. His eyes, when they open, have a sheen of gold to them. Just the smallest spark against the honey-brown of his eyes.
“Now I was ready to spend a lot more time grovelin’,” he admits quietly, laughter in his voice as he leans back only just enough to give himself space to talk.
There weren't words to express how much she loved that little glint in his eyes. Cliche as it was, he had eyes that she could get lost in. There was something charming, even in the laugh lines that had left faint wrinkles on the sides of his eyes. She had her own crow's feet evolving, though she was sure it was more from frowning and glaring than laughing. She'd laughed more here in Deerington than in a long time.
She smoothed her thumb against his cheek. Over the last month she'd had to fight the urge for her habit of resentment that had threatened to take over her affection. It would have been easy to give up hope that they could work this out. So she'd known that he wouldn't have had to do any groveling, because she really did just want that apology and to hear he wanted her.
"You grovelin' is a real good image." She leans her forehead against him. "And I have...had many...fantasies about you grovelin'." Many of which had not been of the sexual kind. "But you don't gotta, because you said just the right thing the first time." She closes her eyes and sighs. Ashe had missed him like crazy and she wants nothing more than the reassurance that he's real and this is real. "Besides...I missed you. So damn much, and I think there are things I'd rather show you then say. You know I ain't so good with romantic words myself." She opens her eyes and stares into those warm honeyed eyes of his with her own deep blood red ones.
“Don’t sell yourself short. That sounded plenty good to me.” Even as she closes her eyes, Jesse’s remain open and fixed on her. Taking in every detail. Now that she’s finally back in his arms, it’s like he can’t get enough, and looking away now would be nothing short of a sin.
“But you know I’m the same. Actions speak louder than words, ain’t that the phrase?” He laughs, quiet and deep, the sound more a product of relief than humor. She forgave him. He said the right thing, for once, and she had it in her heart to take him back. He leans in again, hands slowly shifting from her hips, to her back, down her thighs... just like his eyes, his hands seem intent on making up for lost time.
“I missed you too, Liz.” He kisses her again, once. Lightly. “Let me show you how much.” The next kiss is deeper, no less heartfelt but much less interested in being part of any spoken conversation.
There was so much that they needed to talk about and iron out. With their break, they had not even discussed Reaper or what had transpired on that night between them. Presently all of it seemed to lack any real importance. The few weeks without him had been lonely and where they had been so close leading up to it, she'd missed that intimacy between them.
It was obvious that he had missed it too because she can feel the heat picking up between them. A shiver runs down her spine as his hands travel and it occurs to her that if he'd tried to kiss her during their brief break, she would have caved far sooner; information she doesn't want to divulge.
They gives a mumbled hum of approval against his lips as she meets the kiss with the same passion he gives her. Conversation would definitely need to wait, she'd missed him far too much and her hands say as much as she lets them wander over his back.
Jesse knows just as well as Ashe does that they have things to discuss, but all of it can wait. There’s no room between them for words right now. No room between them for anything at all, actually. Clothes included.
It ends with them in Ashe’s bed, after having made several detours along the way. It feels so right to be by her side again, he isn’t sure how he managed to go without this for so long. Even the territorial, possessive edge of his wolfish instincts have died down now, more than content with the proceedings of the night.
Speaking of which. Jesse rolls onto his side and props his head up on one hand, smiling at Ashe with an expression so loving that the sentiment is impossible to miss.
They'd held off on the sexual attention so long that the last thing she had wanted was to take a break again so soon. It felt nearly like their first time all over again and she had been as greedy as she had been giving. The difference was that she was more sure of her position was in his life and of his in hers, which left her free to enjoy the afterglow of the moment without trepidation or confusion. There was a comfort in that.
Her chest rose and fell in a steady succession as her heart rate began to slow, but her skin was still flushed and the satisfaction of it lingered, both physically and emotionally. It takes a moment for her mind to regain control enough so that she could roll over and meet his smile. She returns it in kind as she moves in closer to him and smooths her thumb over his scruff.
"Always is with you, can I just keep you here for the next month to make up for the last one?" Leaning over she places a soft, but lingering, kiss to his lips before touching her forehead against his. She felt drunk on the love she felt for him and with any desire to run from it gone, she wanted to savor every moment of it.
“Now that’s a mighty fine compliment,” he murmurs, leaning into her touch. He’s no more likely to pull away than she is, his smile lazy and contented as he looks into her eyes.
“I could move in for a month. Especially if it means more of this.” He nuzzles in close, just short of kissing her again as his fingers trace the curve of her waist, feather-light. Truth be told, the thought of going back to an empty house without her fills him with something not unlike dread after all this.
Staring into his eyes a blush creeps across her cheeks as a smile does the same at the corners of her lips. "Don't let it go to your head cowboy." He's so close that she thinks he'll kiss her as he nuzzles in and when he doesn't she does the work herself and leans her face in just enough to brush her lips softly against his own.
They'd spent two months living together back while Chloe's memories had been messed up. That had sent them straight down this more intimate path. If she were to be honest, she'd wanted him to keep living with her then and it hadn't taken her long to show up on his door saying as much. At the time two homes was reasonable as they tested the waters of a budding relationship, but now it seemed more like a wall. She'd said she was all in, but living separately wasn't the best show of that.
"Two. Three. Four. Five..." She pressed her lips to his with each count, before opening her eyes and looking into his more seriously. Her teeth worry at her bottom lip before she finally dares to just. "So just how attached are you to that little farmhouse of yours?"
It doesn’t take long for Ashe’s real question to become clear to him, and it’s clear when it does: Jesse’s eyes go wide for the span of a heartbeat or two. Then he grins so wide you’d think she’d just told him Christmas had come early this year.
“Well Ashe…”
He laughs, the sound part disbelief and part… well, happiness. Surprised happiness. This really wasn’t how he expected the night to go, and he half wonders if he's not hallucinating the whole thing.
She'd been so nervous to ask him that she's almost surprised by the joy on his face. It settles in quickly that she won't need to dig up the list of reasons that this is a good idea she had thought she would need to convince him. Sure they had lived together before, but they'd been young then and naive about the realities of everything. This was them making a decision to progress their relationship to that level. Some might say they were moving fast, but they'd been playing the slow game too long.
With a grin, she gives a little nod. This was a true testament to the walls that he had managed to break down because there would be little room for breathing if they hit a rough spot. It meant she was willing to deal with it on a committed level. "It makes a lot of sense, I think. Goin' back and forth is a hassle with the horses and I have got plenty of space and then some." She sat up, pulling the sheet with her to modestly cover her breasts as she glanced down at him with all the fondness in her eyes.
"Besides, I think we gotta stop...runnin' away from each other. We ain't always good at dealin' with our problems face to face, but we're worse when we are apart."
Perhaps this would all be moving too fast if their story had started just a year ago, here in Deerington. But that’s far from the truth. This has been a lifetime in the making, and the idea of it… it just feels right. He laughs, the sound a quick, quiet huff of air. Worse when they’re apart, huh?
“You’re not wrong about that. Or about any of it, as a matter of fact.”
He takes a few seconds to just gaze adoringly up at her in the cheesiest way possible (not on purpose, it’s really just that bad) before he sits up himself. He doesn’t make the effort to cover up though, the sheets falling down at his waist.
“The more we have to deal with our problems head-on, the better we’ll get at it. Like learnin’ to shoot.”
He reaches out to take one of her hands, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss the back of it chastely.
“Elizabeth Caldonia Ashe, it’d be my honor to live in sin with you.”
It's her luck that he doesn't cover up, she gets the enjoyment of drinking in his good looks again, and her eyes do rake down his chest, not shying away from glancing at his lap, before swallowing and looking back into his eyes.
At the mention of shooting, she laughs. "Perhaps another analogy, I don't think it's entirely out of the realm of possibility for us to regress to tryin' to solve our problems with bullets." She was joking really, she had a feeling that they were back to just her empty threats of pulling a gun on him as she had when they were young, and he was trying to goad her.
She swallows again when he takes her hand and lifts it to his lips. The softness of the kiss and the dedication in his words twists her heart and stomach in all the best ways, leaving her near speechless. Sin, the single word itself sent pleasurable shivers down her spine. "See I knew you still loved sinnin'."
Partners in crime. What they'd always called each other back when they were kids. A young Bonnie and Clyde, who hadn't known the implications of what that really meant. If she wasn't already swimming in feelings that alone would have done her in. She leans in to deeply kiss that smirk right off of his face, the sheet slipping as she wraps her free arm around him and pulls him back down to the pillows with her.
"We always did make the best team. Just got a little lost along the way," she says when she breaks the kiss to look up at him. There is more love in her eyes. "I'm real glad to have my partner back." For a woman who swore up and down she'd have nothing to do with any higher powers, she was praying really hard that she wouldn't lose this when they left this place.
"And I think we've managed to find a new way to put an end to our arguments that doesn't involve shootin' bullets." A dirty little smirk of her own brushed her lips as her mind went back towards the issue of sins. She gave him a wink as she let her hand trail up and down his back, nails digging in gently. "And I wouldn't mind helpin' you reload for another round." It would certainly be a far better reason to not be getting any sleep that night.
Jesse shifts readily to prop himself up over her, brown hair framing his face as he smiles down at her. Just that word—partner—sets his heart to aching, in the best possible way. It’s not a yearning though, more like... huh. This must be what they mean people say their heart feels full.
But he’s a simple man, and the scratch of her nails down his back have him going from sappy to thoroughly distracted in a matter of seconds. He closes his eyes and hums, the sound low and gravely. Almost a growl, which it very well may be because, well. Werewolf.
“I do like this a lot more than us shootin’ at each other. Best be careful,” he says, eyes opening as a lazy smirk overtakes his face. “I might start findin’ ways to start fights just so we can make up later, if this is what’ll happen every time.” He leans down, brushing his lips down the length of her neck. “Can already think of a dozen things I could do to get you real riled up…”
Ashe can't help herself, she just has to reach up and wind her fingers through his hair, tucking it as best she can behind his ears. Her own feelings are raw and right on the edge of everything that they are doing, and she wouldn't have been able to deny to anyone that she was madly in love with him even if she'd wanted to. She didn't though, she was done living in denial. From here on out, whatever happened they did it together.
That growl in his throat was another force that left her feeling wanton. With the addition of his lips along her throat, she was more of less lost to his administrations. "Oh don't worry, you don't gotta pick a fight with me to get this. I mean, I'd jump you if you were sitting in assless chaps on the sofa, as a suggestion."
Jesse laughs at the mental image, but he nevertheless files the idea away for later. Could be a fun little surprise for some night in the future.
“Real interested in hearin’ what you’d do to a fella you found like that in your living room.” His lips are curved into a smile as he keeps working his way down from her neck to her collarbone, eyes playful when he tilts his head up to glance at her.
The image is amusing really, but it isn't one she minds. His lips along her neck send a shiver down her spine and she considers just what she could do with him if she found him like that.
She has to keep her focus on the question as he distracts her, but at least she's got some restraint from having already been satisfied. It allows her to be a little more patient than she had been at the beginning of this make up session.
"Well, I guess that depends on whether he preferred to hogtie or be hog tied. But I know for sure I'd ask him if he was lookin' for a ride." If he was looking for notes, she just hoped he would make sure their girl was not around for the evening. That could get embarrassing real fast.
“Whichever he’d be in the mood for, that’s a good start—at least, that’s what I’d think if it were me.”
And it gives him a whole checklist of things to remember to bring along in this hypothetical-chaps-scenario.
“But fun as that sounds, I gotta say…” Another kiss, this one near the center of her chest. Right about where her heart would be. “I’m likin’ what we’ve got going in the here and now.” When he looks back up, his smile is softer. It’s that honest, earnest expression reserved for only those closest to him. For Ashe in particular. “It’s real good to be back.”
She likes what they have going on in the here and now as well. There was no doubt that he would surprise her, but she could offer him suggestions as well.
She sighs at the feeling of his lips against his chest and she smooths her fingers through his hair and meets that look with one of her own. The world felt so much better when they were on the same wavelength. "Well, I'm sure we can come up with some ideas together, right here and right now."
Leaning up, she kisses him, at first gentle, but then a bit rougher as she drags her teeth over his lip. "And since I have you back, I ain't letting you go tonight." Cheesy as it was, it was the truth. She had absolutely no intention of letting him go.
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So many questions and no answers to go with them. But the past is past either way, which is the whole point of this really; Reyes and Overwatch are gone. Their childhood is gone. Looking anywhere but forward at the future they can build together is a fool’s errand. He hopes she understands that’s what he wants to do. Look forward, with her.
Based on her reaction though, maybe he shouldn’t worry. Hearing the feeling reciprocated knocks the wind out of him in all the best ways, and then she’s kissing him and air is even harder to come by. He leans forward and returns the kiss without a moment’s hesitation, and finally, things feel right. He’s home again. His eyes, when they open, have a sheen of gold to them. Just the smallest spark against the honey-brown of his eyes.
“Now I was ready to spend a lot more time grovelin’,” he admits quietly, laughter in his voice as he leans back only just enough to give himself space to talk.
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She smoothed her thumb against his cheek. Over the last month she'd had to fight the urge for her habit of resentment that had threatened to take over her affection. It would have been easy to give up hope that they could work this out. So she'd known that he wouldn't have had to do any groveling, because she really did just want that apology and to hear he wanted her.
"You grovelin' is a real good image." She leans her forehead against him. "And I have...had many...fantasies about you grovelin'." Many of which had not been of the sexual kind. "But you don't gotta, because you said just the right thing the first time." She closes her eyes and sighs. Ashe had missed him like crazy and she wants nothing more than the reassurance that he's real and this is real. "Besides...I missed you. So damn much, and I think there are things I'd rather show you then say. You know I ain't so good with romantic words myself." She opens her eyes and stares into those warm honeyed eyes of his with her own deep blood red ones.
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“But you know I’m the same. Actions speak louder than words, ain’t that the phrase?” He laughs, quiet and deep, the sound more a product of relief than humor. She forgave him. He said the right thing, for once, and she had it in her heart to take him back. He leans in again, hands slowly shifting from her hips, to her back, down her thighs... just like his eyes, his hands seem intent on making up for lost time.
“I missed you too, Liz.” He kisses her again, once. Lightly. “Let me show you how much.” The next kiss is deeper, no less heartfelt but much less interested in being part of any spoken conversation.
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It was obvious that he had missed it too because she can feel the heat picking up between them. A shiver runs down her spine as his hands travel and it occurs to her that if he'd tried to kiss her during their brief break, she would have caved far sooner; information she doesn't want to divulge.
They gives a mumbled hum of approval against his lips as she meets the kiss with the same passion he gives her. Conversation would definitely need to wait, she'd missed him far too much and her hands say as much as she lets them wander over his back.
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It ends with them in Ashe’s bed, after having made several detours along the way. It feels so right to be by her side again, he isn’t sure how he managed to go without this for so long. Even the territorial, possessive edge of his wolfish instincts have died down now, more than content with the proceedings of the night.
Speaking of which. Jesse rolls onto his side and props his head up on one hand, smiling at Ashe with an expression so loving that the sentiment is impossible to miss.
“Now that… that was somethin’.”
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Her chest rose and fell in a steady succession as her heart rate began to slow, but her skin was still flushed and the satisfaction of it lingered, both physically and emotionally. It takes a moment for her mind to regain control enough so that she could roll over and meet his smile. She returns it in kind as she moves in closer to him and smooths her thumb over his scruff.
"Always is with you, can I just keep you here for the next month to make up for the last one?" Leaning over she places a soft, but lingering, kiss to his lips before touching her forehead against his. She felt drunk on the love she felt for him and with any desire to run from it gone, she wanted to savor every moment of it.
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“I could move in for a month. Especially if it means more of this.” He nuzzles in close, just short of kissing her again as his fingers trace the curve of her waist, feather-light. Truth be told, the thought of going back to an empty house without her fills him with something not unlike dread after all this.
“Or, hell… make it two.”
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They'd spent two months living together back while Chloe's memories had been messed up. That had sent them straight down this more intimate path. If she were to be honest, she'd wanted him to keep living with her then and it hadn't taken her long to show up on his door saying as much. At the time two homes was reasonable as they tested the waters of a budding relationship, but now it seemed more like a wall. She'd said she was all in, but living separately wasn't the best show of that.
"Two. Three. Four. Five..." She pressed her lips to his with each count, before opening her eyes and looking into his more seriously. Her teeth worry at her bottom lip before she finally dares to just. "So just how attached are you to that little farmhouse of yours?"
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“Well Ashe…”
He laughs, the sound part disbelief and part… well, happiness. Surprised happiness. This really wasn’t how he expected the night to go, and he half wonders if he's not hallucinating the whole thing.
“… You askin’ me to move in?"
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With a grin, she gives a little nod. This was a true testament to the walls that he had managed to break down because there would be little room for breathing if they hit a rough spot. It meant she was willing to deal with it on a committed level. "It makes a lot of sense, I think. Goin' back and forth is a hassle with the horses and I have got plenty of space and then some." She sat up, pulling the sheet with her to modestly cover her breasts as she glanced down at him with all the fondness in her eyes.
"Besides, I think we gotta stop...runnin' away from each other. We ain't always good at dealin' with our problems face to face, but we're worse when we are apart."
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“You’re not wrong about that. Or about any of it, as a matter of fact.”
He takes a few seconds to just gaze adoringly up at her in the cheesiest way possible (not on purpose, it’s really just that bad) before he sits up himself. He doesn’t make the effort to cover up though, the sheets falling down at his waist.
“The more we have to deal with our problems head-on, the better we’ll get at it. Like learnin’ to shoot.”
He reaches out to take one of her hands, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss the back of it chastely.
“Elizabeth Caldonia Ashe, it’d be my honor to live in sin with you.”
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At the mention of shooting, she laughs. "Perhaps another analogy, I don't think it's entirely out of the realm of possibility for us to regress to tryin' to solve our problems with bullets." She was joking really, she had a feeling that they were back to just her empty threats of pulling a gun on him as she had when they were young, and he was trying to goad her.
She swallows again when he takes her hand and lifts it to his lips. The softness of the kiss and the dedication in his words twists her heart and stomach in all the best ways, leaving her near speechless. Sin, the single word itself sent pleasurable shivers down her spine. "See I knew you still loved sinnin'."
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"Only in all the right kind of ways. And it helps to have the right partner in crime."
He lowers her hand but keeps it in his own still, smirk evening out to a playful smile.
"And I promise I won't use any bullets in the house if you won't."
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"We always did make the best team. Just got a little lost along the way," she says when she breaks the kiss to look up at him. There is more love in her eyes. "I'm real glad to have my partner back." For a woman who swore up and down she'd have nothing to do with any higher powers, she was praying really hard that she wouldn't lose this when they left this place.
"And I think we've managed to find a new way to put an end to our arguments that doesn't involve shootin' bullets." A dirty little smirk of her own brushed her lips as her mind went back towards the issue of sins. She gave him a wink as she let her hand trail up and down his back, nails digging in gently. "And I wouldn't mind helpin' you reload for another round." It would certainly be a far better reason to not be getting any sleep that night.
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But he’s a simple man, and the scratch of her nails down his back have him going from sappy to thoroughly distracted in a matter of seconds. He closes his eyes and hums, the sound low and gravely. Almost a growl, which it very well may be because, well. Werewolf.
“I do like this a lot more than us shootin’ at each other. Best be careful,” he says, eyes opening as a lazy smirk overtakes his face. “I might start findin’ ways to start fights just so we can make up later, if this is what’ll happen every time.” He leans down, brushing his lips down the length of her neck. “Can already think of a dozen things I could do to get you real riled up…”
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That growl in his throat was another force that left her feeling wanton. With the addition of his lips along her throat, she was more of less lost to his administrations. "Oh don't worry, you don't gotta pick a fight with me to get this. I mean, I'd jump you if you were sitting in assless chaps on the sofa, as a suggestion."
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Jesse laughs at the mental image, but he nevertheless files the idea away for later. Could be a fun little surprise for some night in the future.
“Real interested in hearin’ what you’d do to a fella you found like that in your living room.” His lips are curved into a smile as he keeps working his way down from her neck to her collarbone, eyes playful when he tilts his head up to glance at her.
“Y’know. Hypothetically.”
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She has to keep her focus on the question as he distracts her, but at least she's got some restraint from having already been satisfied. It allows her to be a little more patient than she had been at the beginning of this make up session.
"Well, I guess that depends on whether he preferred to hogtie or be hog tied. But I know for sure I'd ask him if he was lookin' for a ride." If he was looking for notes, she just hoped he would make sure their girl was not around for the evening. That could get embarrassing real fast.
we about ready to wrap this one up?
And it gives him a whole checklist of things to remember to bring along in this hypothetical-chaps-scenario.
“But fun as that sounds, I gotta say…” Another kiss, this one near the center of her chest. Right about where her heart would be. “I’m likin’ what we’ve got going in the here and now.” When he looks back up, his smile is softer. It’s that honest, earnest expression reserved for only those closest to him. For Ashe in particular. “It’s real good to be back.”
Yup!
She likes what they have going on in the here and now as well. There was no doubt that he would surprise her, but she could offer him suggestions as well.
She sighs at the feeling of his lips against his chest and she smooths her fingers through his hair and meets that look with one of her own. The world felt so much better when they were on the same wavelength. "Well, I'm sure we can come up with some ideas together, right here and right now."
Leaning up, she kisses him, at first gentle, but then a bit rougher as she drags her teeth over his lip. "And since I have you back, I ain't letting you go tonight." Cheesy as it was, it was the truth. She had absolutely no intention of letting him go.
Sounds good!
“And I don’t plan on going anywhere.”
And he means it in every respect.