2020-02-24 - Nothing In Between

(TXT to Easton) Bennie : I'm done. Can I come over?

(TXT to Bennie) Easton : YES

(TXT to Bennie) Easton : Er, I mean, sure of course babe.

(TXT to Easton) Bennie : Uber says ETA 18 min until I'm at your door.

(TXT to Bennie) Easton : I'm unreasonably annoyed at those 18 minutes

Bennie must've promised to tip the driver extra because it's only thirteen until Bennie's knocking on his door. She might as well have come from a professional rehab the way she's dressed, in a nondescript pair of gray sweats that are far too big for her frame, even as tall and curvy as she is. Her hair is pulled up into a loose ponytail and she's devoid of any make up or jewelry. Her knock is light, or some may say weak, and she has shadows under her eyes and weight loss is evident in her cheeks.

Easton is on the couch, playing some first person shooter on the TV over the fireplace, but as soon as he hears the knock the game is forgotten and he's standing. "Come in!" he calls, because he's willing to take the risk that it's not Bennie but someone sent to murder him at this point. He is dressed casually as well, a pair of black joggers and a gray v-neck tee-shirt. He grins when he sees her, apparently not noticing the clothing, the lack of make-up or weightloss, or at least doing a damn fine job of ignoring all those things. He throws his arms open wide and pulls her into a nearly crushing hug.

"God I missed you."

Bennie opens the door a bit more hesitantly than she might, if only because she looks like a scared rabbit ready to bolt at the first loud noise. As soon as she spies Easton though, that trepidation seems to completely dissipate and she nearly runs the last few steps into his arms and throws herself bodily into that fierce hug. "Longest weeks of my life." Which is saying a lot seeming how they've been through some doozies. She buries her face in his neck, just soaking up everything Easton about this moment. From the way he smells to the scene of his laundry detergent to the feel of his steel cabled arms wrapped around her. She takes a deep breath and draws back, eyes dancing over his face for a moment before she crashes her lips against his in a needy tangle to add his taste to the mix.

Getting to this moment has been a focal point for him over the last few weeks. Just having her in his arms again after the forced separation is enough that at least a little of the constant internal pressure releases ever so slightly, like when you realize you are clenching your teeth and you finally relax your jaw. He agrees, "Seriously." He is content to just hold her, and soak it up but when she pulls back to study him his grin brightens, dimples creasing deeply into his cheek. The kiss is met hungrily, and the door is swung shut behind her, for the express purpose of pressing her up against. He nearly loses himself to the press and heat of their bodies, it's been a long time for them. But he manages to relent enough to pull back and say, "I missed you." As if that weren't clear from the greeting, Or the texts. It still feels important to say it.

Bennie's smile is wobbly, but it's there as the kiss breaks away. There's barely a breath between their bodies, but she manages loop a hand to stroke his cheek into the soft bristles of his beard. "I missed you like incredi-woah." Her nose wrinkles slightly. "I know it sounds stupid but will you...cuddle with me? That's all I could think about. You holding me again." Besides one cuddle fest with Isabella, no doubt she's been pretty much devoid of contact under Alexander's well-meaning care and she's practically starved for it. "Then we can talk if you want. Or you can play your game. I just. I just need to be a Bennie koala for a while."

"It's not stupid." Easton is quick to reassure her. "This is me." He tries to give her a look, but she's stroking his beard and he gets distracted by pushing his face against her hand. His eyes spark with a bit more light than their usual cool, even, gray when he asks, "On the couch with the fire?" Yes, it's new, but he's not going to mention that per say. "In the bath?" That would likely not stay as cuddling for very long. "In bed?" Ditto. He shakes his head and says, "I don't care if we talk, or have sex, and I certainly don't give a shit about the game right now." He hasn't backed up an inch, so they are still pressed tightly together, apparently he left out the option of just cuddling at the door? Which is by far the worst option, but also the current situation.

"I don't want to stop touching you for an instant."

Yes, he sounds needy. No, he doesn't care.

"All of those options sound amaze-balls." But she's not torn for a minute. "The bed." Because even though it might lead to things beyond cuddling, there is far more room to be comfortable when your intent is to smoosh two bodies until it's impossible to distinguish between them. "Think fast, Marine." At least she gives a little verbal warning along with the tension in her frame before she launches up into his arms and wraps her legs around his waist. She was serious about that whole koala bear thing. "Think they'll deliver Thai later straight to the bedroom if we promise we're clothed and will tip extra? Cuz answering the door like this is going to be a little awkward."

Easton nods in agreement that all of the options are sounding might tempting, but then again there are very few places he wouldn't take right about now. He says in his best waiter-voice "A fine choice" when she makes her selection. The think fast gets a brief flash of worry before he catches her. He laughs and says, "Get your pizza boy to deliver and I'm pretty sure he'll do it. He's already seen you naked once, might have to just tip a little extra to ignore me when he drops off the pizza." He laughs at the thought of him popping up from behind a naked Bennie to surprise poor Tor. "And I'm sure we wouldn't be the first wierdos a delivery person has walked in on." He carries her to the bedroom, still grinning like the smile is stuck on there and never coming off.

And how she loves that smile, evidenced by the fact Bennie can't stop stroking the edges of it, touching the divot of his dimple as if in reverence. "You never know, he might be into it." She grins her own beam of a smile, that does well to banish the shadows in her face. Only taking her eyes off him for a second to crane around and judge the distance to the mattress and gauging whether or not he can stick the tricky landing. "We're going to sleep soooo good tonight." You know, whenever that may be. Even if it ends up being the wee hours of the morning.

Laughing Easton says, "Eeeasy. I'm not ready to share you anytime soon." He kisses her again, in more of a flirty way now than the urgent press at the door. He doesn't try to launch her onto the bed, instead spins and falls back so that he hits the mattress first. He closes his eyes and agrees with a low rumble in his throat at how good they are going to sleep. I mean yes, there will be considerable amounts of exercise before then, but that will only make the sleep even sweeter. He considers telling her that he did manage one night of actual full sleep thanks to Rosencratz, but that brings up thoughts of Ruiz and then Isabella and Alexander and it all just starts to snowball and infringe on their reunion. So for now, he just buries his face in her neck to kiss, and nibble and ignore those things. There's plenty of time to talk and catchup later, but that's not what either of them needs right now.

Easton's gotten quite adept at taking off pants with his abilities, and he makes good use of it again. He takes it a step further to take off his prosthetic leg. A firm declaration that he has no plans to leave this bed for a very, very long time.

Bennie gives a whoooop! as Easton tumbles backwards and a light laugh escapes her as she settles down on top of him. Even though she keeps most her weight on her knees and elbows, ponytail flopping dripping down the side of her face, she still keeps as much contact between them as possible while craning to look down into his face. "Oh, I said nothing about actually sharing you. Just saying he wouldn't be put off by the sight of your white hiney." She leans back down into his ample administration of his lips and mouth, cooing encouraging noises that sound partially relieved, as if he's dousing some insecurities along the path of his kisses. It erupts into another laugh when she feels the cloth come off their legs, hers tugging out straight with the jerk, and the sound of his prosthetic clunking down somewhere behind them. "And here I thought we were going to cuddle for a while." Not to say she has any objection with doing so skin to skin.

She doesn't let him get all the satisfaction of merely glimmering away her clothes, leaning up on her haunches to sit and pull the sweatshirt over her head. Braless - most clothes irritating her skin lately - she crosses her arms over her chest in faux modesty. You can almost count her ribs through her skin now that the bulky clothes have been removed. "Tell me you missed me again?"

Easton laughs as they both fall back onto the bed and lets his hands rub over her skin as her top comes up. He can't keep the flicker of concern off his face at the weight loss. It's a fixable issue though. So long as it doesn't bely another problem starting up. He was going to force a smile to cover, but the sight of her draping her arm across her chest gives him plenty to actually smile about. He says, "We are cuddling. It might just include a little more vigorous moving back and forth than other types of cuddling."

Tell me you missed me again

"I missed you. I missed you more than I thought possible."

Considering how he misses Tom, that's saying something.

Less a problem and more just a lack of appetite during detox. Certainly nothing that can't be fixed with an ample application of cheesecake. You know. When ever they happen to come up for air to eat.

Easton's been battling his own demons the past few weeks, but it's clear part of Bennie's own when squirreled away in that room was that she'd simply wasn't going to come back to the same world she was apart of as her old self. A butterfly hesitant to emerge from the cocoon. His words are needed, are craved, and do wonders to the plains of her face. She topples back over him, "I think we can do better than back and forth." She grins against his mouth as she claims it again, sneaking her hands up underneath his t-shirt until they spread against his ribs.

Cheesecake will happen, but it might be a while before either of them are really thinking about anything other than being together. Call it schmoopy, call it a bit codependent, either way it's a fact.

Easton presses his hands against her back, seeking to touch every inch of her skin as he falls in against him again. He laughs and says, "Yea? You might need to remind me. I feel a bit rusty." That might be the longest he's gone without sleeping with someone since he was even semi-recovered from the accident. Well, without having sex. He did sleep with someone. Heh.

The hands under his shirt get a low rumbling groan of approval as they kiss.

"Dont' stop."

The words come out rushed, as if fearful this reunion might get derailed by something more serious. And he can't really take more serious right now. Not when he's been trying so hard to avoid his usual coping patterns. His hands slide lower, pulling her roughly against him, not wanting to let go even for a moment.

"Never." Comes Bennie's muffled response as her kiss smudges from his mouth to along his jaw and her fingernails lightly rake down the side of his stomach. She's in no hurry to connect their union fully even as her thighs slip to the outside of his, rather just enjoying very act of being with Easton again. Truly, just being. "Never going to give you up." She murmurs just below his ear before there is a tease of her teeth against the lobe. "Or let you down." She trails down to his collarbone, "Or turn around and desert you..." Did she just Rick Roll him in bed? Yes. Yes she did.

After the rick rolling, and some other types of rolling, Easton lays on the bed, his arms tucked around Bennie. He has managed to find some scraps of clothes, a tank top that is worn to nearly translucent and a pair of boxer briefs. But his leg is still off, as are nearly all the blankets from the bed. He tucks his chin so that his forehead meets hers and says softly, for once his voice not raising above conversational level, "You did it." The mix of pride and praise evident as he looks at her.

The meaningful moment is a little spoiled when he can't help but break into a grin and clarify, "I mean the quitting pills if that wasn't clear. Not the sex. Though you also did a hell of a job with that too."

Bennie's wiggled back into her underwear and chosen to take up Easton's discarded t-shirt instead of crawling back into her now all too hot borrowed sweatshirt. She lays twined with him, trailing lazy fingers over his bicep in nonsensical lines and swirls and light scratches. "I hope so. Haven't had a headache in days, the fuzziness is better. There's still that...feeling that I could focus just a little bit better, a little bit sharper if I just popped one. So the detox is over. But I'll be fighting the addiction forever." It's easier to talk about these things with someone who actually knows that pain, which is why Alexander could help her then and why Easton can understand now. "You still doing okay? Hopefully it'll be a bit easier now that I'm back with you and have no interest in leaving despite my rule about not moving back in together." Her head cants up to look at his face from the prop her cheek has taken on his shoulder. "Sorry, not sorry."

The sight of her in his tee-shirt will always make his eyes crinkle. He nods and says, "That's good." To the fact that she's gotten through the headaches he means. He nods and says, "I know. I mean it's usually the opposite for me. Everything feels so tight, so sharp, I just want something to take that down." He winces a little at the confession. She probably knows by now how tightly he's wound and how hard he tries to not show it, and how much easier a few drinks make that. But saying it outloud is different. But hearing her tell the truth helps.

"I'm alright. I've had a few slips. I.. you know De La Vega is out of his skull right now? I actually called him him. Hoped he'd knock the bottle out of my hands or something.. it ... I'm lucky he didn't try and kill me?" He shakes his head and says, "Itz ended up here the other night. Just to have someone to be with him. He's all twisted up." There's a lot more to those stories, but the highlights are a good place to start at least.

Bennie's first instinct is to sit up, as questions. Get details about how she can help. But she quells all those and just tightens a leg around one of his thighs tighter. "I didn't know." About Ruiz being off. "Alexander did his best to shield me from everything in case the outside world became too overwhelming. I even stayed away from my phone except the few times I just needed to reach out. It was lonely, but necessary." Her hand resumes its petting, this time through the thin tank, up and down his sternum. "We'll figure out a way to take that edge off. Even if it's just a lot of sex for the time being. Invest in fidget spinners or something." And in case there is any doubt, she presses a kiss into his shoulder, "I'm glad you and Itz have each other to turn to." Maybe she presumes they ended up doing the dirty, but she doesn't press.

There's something in Easton's upturned eyebrows that silently asks her not to sit up. To not start digging into this but to just stay like this. They are very expressive eyebrows. He nods and says, "Someone got in his head and fucked with him." He explains of Ruiz. "I'm glad Alexander didn't tell you, it's why I didn't mention it either. You needed to focus on what you were doing, and not use this as an excuse to bounce." He winces at the talk of how lonely it was. He laughs at the ideas, "Yea well I'm not going to say no to the sex, but now I'm imagining balancing one of those on your tit or something." The talk of Itz gets him clarify, "We didn't fool around." Not even so much as a make out session. "I mean I think we both thought about it.. well, at least I did. But," He kisses her, "I meant it." And then he kisses her again. "You. Just you."

Bennie gives a little smile after that kiss, "Still. It's important to have friends." All this talk about Ruiz seems to prompt. "I'm glad Sutton left Gray Harbor when she did, but I still miss her like crazy." Her face screws up to one side and then the other, as if banishing the urge to tear up. "Isabella and I had a cuddle sesh while Alexander was in the hospital. My precise instruction from him was to sit on her so she didn't work but rest instead, but snuggles and chick flicks worked just as well."

"Yea, and by the way, you ever get the opportunity to be Itzel's li'l spoon? You shove the other bitch out the way and take it." Easton grins at the idea of Bennie literally shoving someone out of the way to cuddle Rosencratz. He winces a bit about Sutton. "Yea.. on the one hand? Good for her." He doesn't finish what's on the other hand but he knows how close the pair were. The news about Isabella though causes his eyebrows to raise. "Oh? I'm going to go ahead and imagine you both in tiiiny nighties in this scenario if you don't mind." He reaches up to brush some of her hair back behind her ear.

"After Ruiz left me, I fell into a dream... or I passed out." He embarrassingly isn't sure which. "I dreamt about Tom." He is again quieter than usual, feeling his way through how to explain or describe this versus his usual blithe and loud banter. "I don't know if it was just a dream. But, he was chained up, like he'd been tortured." He backs up and realizes he hasn't mentioned, "I think something happened with Gohl."

"I think I fucked him over Benz."

Yes, he knows Tom is dead. That's true. But so is Gohl. And he still managed to be quite active so who knows what that even means. It's obvious that this has been weighing on him and he's forcing himself to say it outloud and not immediately clam up.

"Definitely teeny tiny nighties with lots of dainty lace and frills and cute bows. There was even a pillow fight with boobies bouncing in sheer fabric everywhere in a shower of feathers." Bennie helps round out that little fantasy for Easton, helpful girlfriend that she is. As he goes on to talk about Tom, she lifts her head just to rest her face up on her chin, "Like you traded your freedom for the things you all gave up?"

The talk of teeny, tiny nighties causes Easton to close his eyes and sigh with pleasure at the thought. It's a nice distraction from the heavier topic.

"I don't know." He feels like he's lost ground in some ways. For a while he was figuring things out, finding out how ghosts interacted with the world, and more about the things that would try to torture and hurt them. But now he's not sure of anything with regards to Tom and that dream and the whole situation. "He said that I left him with Gohl. Like I somehow delivered him up to be that sadistic bastards plaything." He shakes his head and says, "Maybe it was just a bad dream. I wasn't hurt or anything in there so I can't tell."

And then suddenly, there's a change in subject. It's not entirely unrelated but it is still a big switch.

"Do you think your brother would have liked me? If we ever met?"

Bennie's expression turns contemplative about the Tom and Gohl situation, but thankfully Easton doesn't leave her long to stew about trying to draw connections in her brain that she still isn't convinced is working as sharply as it once was. "Judd? Oh you two would have hated each other. But not beyond the standard Army versus Marine bit. Beyond that, I think he would have liked you. Very, very much. I want to believe that part of our Dream was real. That breakfast would have been just like that. Warm, joking." You know, before things turned ugly. Her face cants downward, buried in his shoulder for a moment. A little sniffle.

The comment about them hating one another gets a slight narrowing of his eyes as for a moment he doesn't get that she's teasing. He smiles at the mention of the dream. Of how, just for those few brief minutes he got to experience some of the joy of knowing her family. He hasn't talked much about his other Dream of Judd. The one that was far, far less pleasant. He pulls her close and says, "Shit, sorry. I just.." He sighs and says, "I'm glad you met Tom. Or at least something like Tom." Whatever the ghost was. Or is?

"He would have loved you."

The real Tom. And for just a brief moment Easton gets a sense of what could have been. Tom and Jenny, Him and Bennie, Judd, all alive and happy and it catches him off guard.

"I wish I found you sooner."

There is a little shake of her head before she lifts it again, smiling even as she wipes a little bit of moisture away from her eyes. "No no, it's okay. They're happy thoughts." She assures, a similar kiss given when he said it was only her for him. "I liked him a lot. Whatever piece of him I got to see." She says of Tom. "Still a little sad I didn't get to meet his family at Christmas but there's always next year." Her hand comes up to stroke his cheek, "You know. I think we met each other when we needed each other the most. I'm not saying I wish the same, but, I think now. The me I am now. The You you are now. Is why we can appreciate each other the most. We met each other when we did for a reason. Otherwise I might have been another Katherine and you could have been another Jeremiah."

The talk of Tom and his family produces an altogether different kind of smile. Not the big broad grin but a smaller, quietly pleased smile. "Well good because they're family and while at some point you will have to meet the joyless void that is my actual parents, I'm actually excited for you to meet Jenny and Doug." He rarely if ever mentions his parents, and one could be forgiven for thinking them also dead. But he adds, "At some point Thorne and I have an investment that might happen here. I have a feeling they might just pop in to see that play out." Because of course they will mistake it for Easton wanting to be like them. "So, we have that to look forward to." He says in a way that is clear he is in no way looking forward to it.

When she admonishes him that they met at the right time he thinks about it some more. He relents, "That's fair. I might have just been of the hundreds of ridiculously hot guys chasing you and getting shut down otherwise." Because he still can't imagine that Bennie didn't have a legion of male suitors from the age of at least sixteen onward.

Bennie gives a wry grin at the thought of meeting his parents. "I'm sure they'll loooooove Trailer Trash Barbie. But with a bit of advance warning, maybe I can take some elocution lessons and learn to talk like a proper lady. Or I'll just conveniently ignore all proper etiquette and use my salad fork to scratch my back and see if I can get your mother to huff 'why I never!'" Because these are the images of his parents Bennie has in her head. As to suitors? "Dunno, you're by far the hottest I've ever locked down. They don't grow abs like these in Gray Harbor." Poke, poke at his stomach.

"Yea well they've nearly resigned themselves to having a drunken cripple of a son, so I think I've gotten them all primed and ready for trailer trash Barbie." Easton grins and tries to imagine his mother huffing off like a character out of a 90s sitcom. He shakes his head and says, "No, I rather expect they will just do their best impression of approving parents and move on."

"Yes well that's because they are military grade abs built in a lab that are actually sent to destroy people." He pulls the tanktop up enough to reveal her Kryptonite and flex them at her. "I've vowed though to only use their powers for good. Like seducing hot blond paramedics who show up to stop me from bleeding out."

Comically theatrical, Bennie flop backwards, the back of her hand to her forehead. "No, god, NO! Not the abs...not the abs! I can't...I can't...resist! It's ...it's.." She squirms and writhes like the Wicked Witch melting after being splashed with water. "Too MUCH!" She flops back over the top of him, flinging herself over his midsection and blowing a powerful set raspberries against his divine flexing, laughing as if her heart is light for the first time in weeks even with all that is happening. Some where between all those zerberts and giggles, it melts into kisses and softer touches that lead into...