MHA #6, Valentine's Day Evening

[arboreal_priestess]

It was Valentine's Day and while it wasn't their first Valentine's Day together, the last one had still been early enough on that neither of them had really known what they were doing. As a couple. This time, however, 'I love you's' had been exchanged and so had keys, he'd met her family, he hadn't run screaming from her family, and he'd even rescued her from a snake cult. Those were a lot of relationship milestones right there, even if some were Price-exclusive.

So tonight she'd sent the mice off to gorge on cake and cheese in their closet in the spare room, turned the lights to dim, turned some slow music on, and started cooking dinner. The one flaw in her holiday plans so far was that she'd naively assumed that 'an ability to cook basic food' meant that she was fully qualified to cook elaborate romantic meals.

She was vastly learning that this was in error.

"What? Emulsify? I've got a spatula and a slotted spoon, how the hell am I supposed to do that?!"

[For the boyfriend!]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

"Yes," Liam murmured against her lips. "As long as you had fun too."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh, I had fun," Verity assured him. "Watching your every reaction was gold. You're very responsive, you know." She nipped his bottom lip. "I like that."

[firstofitskind]

"You make me feel things I never knew I could," Liam replied honestly. And he wasn't just talking about their sex life, now. "I like that."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity knew that he was talking about the grander scheme - hell, she felt the same way - but she couldn't resist waggling her eyebrows at him anyway. "Damn right I did," she declared.

[firstofitskind]

"Yeah," Liam said, with a deeply satisfied sigh. His expression then turned thoughtful. "You know, if there's ever anything else you'd want to try, I'm game." A pause, and then he amended: "Well. Almost anything."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Almost anything?" Verity asked. "Where's the line for you?"

Seemed important to know.

[firstofitskind]

"Not crazy about anything that involves being held down," he admitted.

Pinned up against the wall? Totally fine, and actually pretty damn hot. But being pinned down was another matter entirely.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity nodded. "What if I wanted to be?" she asked, head tilted.

Not that that was really her thing, but it seemed prudent to ask.

[firstofitskind]

"If it's something you wanted..." Liam started, fingers of one hand idly tracing random patterns across her skin. "Yeah?" Making your answer sound like a question was hardly definitive, Liam.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You don't sound very sure," Verity said softly, bringing her hand up to cup his cheek.

[firstofitskind]

"I don't see the appeal," he admitted, leaning in to that touch. The very idea made his stomach churn, honestly. He remembered the way he'd reacted the time Street had tackled him, just as a joke, and it was not an experience he wanted to repeat. "But I'm not oblivious to the fact that it's a turn-on for others." Despite a relative lack of personal sexual experience. He'd done research, you see.

[arboreal_priestess]

You could just call it 'watching porn,' Liam. It was okay.

"Doesn't matter how much of a turn-on it is if it makes you look like that," Verity noted.

[firstofitskind]

There had been watching porn, yes. Also reading porn. And asking extremely blunt questions. Though that last had tapered off once he'd figured out the concept of a brain-to-mouth filter.

"Yeah, but," he frowned, unsure of how to articulate it. "I don't want you to feel like you're... missing out? On anything? Because of me."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Would you make me do something that obviously made me uncomfortable?" Verity asked softly. "Just cause you liked it?"

[firstofitskind]

"No!" Liam said firmly. "Of course not."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity just looked at him and waited for all the pieces to fall together.

[firstofitskind]

Which they did, after a few moments. For all that Liam was physically, emotionally, mentally an adult, there were still some areas in which he lacked relative life experience. ‘Negotiating personal boundaries’ was one such area, apparently.

“Oh,” he said softly.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Yeah," Verity said, reaching for his hand. "Exactly."

[firstofitskind]

“Suppose that makes sense,” Liam admitted, a little sheepishly, lacing his fingers together with hers. "Dunno what I was thinking."

[arboreal_priestess]

"That my happiness comes above your comfort," she said, because she understood. "But it doesn't. Not for anything."

[firstofitskind]

"You know, no one's ever said anything like that to me before," Liam admitted. To the Taelons, the Resistance, he'd always just been a means to an end. His own desires had rarely come in to play.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity leaned in for a kiss. "No one's ever seen you the way I do," she said.

[firstofitskind]

Liam tilted his head down to meet her for that kiss.

"I know," he murmured against her lips. "Most days, I still can't believe how lucky I am that we found each other."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Considering how hard I fought coming out here, I have to agree," Verity murmured. "And yet it's changed my whole life."

[firstofitskind]

"You wouldn't be you if you didn't put up a fight," Liam grinned. "But I'm glad Fandom won out."