"mmmph."

"What?"

"mmmph. MMMPH." He says again, pointing to my hands. Then he swallows. "Fuck me, that’s good ice cream."

I laugh, and kick him under the blanket. Spoon in one hand, a pint of Ben and Jerry’s "Raspberry Gone Coconuts" in the other, I correct him, not for the first time. "Technically, Elijah, it’s frozen yogurt."

He leans over and shoves the spoon in the container. Then he hands me the spoon with the scoop on it, and takes the container to himself, complete with my unused spoon. "Thanks," he says, and I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Explain to me again how come you’re here?" I ask, and sigh, knowing that trying to get that pint back would be a vain effort. I put the spoon I was left with in my mouth, and savour what I realize will be my last taste of the fro-yo.

He looks up at me through those long, beautiful eyelashes of his. We’re sitting at opposite ends of my couch and sharing one of my blankets, a pint of frozen yogurt, and a stack of movies that he had picked out at the video store. Every single one of them featured something blowing up. My only say in the entire evening was the Ben and Jerry’s, which he had now confiscated for himself. "I’m here," he says sweetly, "Because you’re much more fun than an empty hotel room."

He sleeps in my living room every time he’s in town, and I know full well the real reason: Elijah is still a little scared of the dark. Besides, as he insists on the same routine every time, it gives me a chance to see the entire collection of action movies from the video store down the block. I also secretly love to see him in public. In my presence, the young girl at the video store has yet to give him a straight answer, stuttering through her words as she stares at him. Of course, his baby blues are lethal to anyone who is not immune, and I’ll be the first one to admit that every now and again when he catches me off my guard, I catch myself gasping at his beauty. If only the rest of the world knew his odd fascination with cheesy films.

"Surely you have other friends?" I ask, and absentmindedly breathe on the curve of my now-empty spoon, balancing it on the tip of my nose. "Other friends who are as amusing. Other friends who can do this, for instance." His face comes out of the pint once more, and a raised eyebrow in my direction becomes a piercing giggle. His entire body contracts into a little ball of Elijah, and his laughter is heightened by my indignant "What? WHAT?".

Rising from the couch, I take the spoon off of my nose, and bow lowly for the man on the other end, who has contracted a fierce case of the hiccups. Then I sit down in front of the television set, and eye the selection of movies. "Which one of these do you want to watch first?"

"Armageddon," he manages to get out through his hiccups. "Or Evil Dead." I sigh, but with a devilish grin pop in "Armageddon". My Liv Tyler impression is sure to be a winner tonight.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soft footsteps pad into the room, and I roll over to look at the clock. 3:18am. Elijah is standing over my bed, rubbing his eyes with one fist, looking every bit like he should have pastel blue footie pyjamas on. "What’s the matter, Lij?" I say in a half-whisper.

With a puppy dog look, he mumbles, "This is going to sound ridiculous to you."

Immediately I understand. "A nightmare, huh? That’ll teach you to watch Liv movies before bed." The remark earns me a half-smile and a grateful look. Sitting up and scootching over, I pat the bed beside me. "Come on, there’s lots of room in here for you too. Just keep your cold feet to yourself." He leaps onto the bed, and we get comfortable in the blankets, fighting over pillows and sheets until we’re both satisfied and giggling like two kids at a sleepover.

Time passes, and though I figure he must have fallen asleep, he turns and looks at me, drowsily. "The worst part of it is that you would think I’d be old enough to not have these kinds of dreams." Instinctively my arm goes out, and wraps around him, hugging him close to me. His body presses against mine, and his head rests on my chest, arms around my middle. I feel like I should be saying something profound, doing something to take away the shame in his voice. But I’m speechless. I made the gesture of comfort in reaction to maternal instincts, but the feeling of his warm body against mine is stirring all those things I had buried deep inside the first night he slept on my couch. His rough cheek and his smooth arms feel as though they’re burning though my very unsexy men’s pyjamas. I know I won’t be getting anymore sleep tonight, and I sigh at the ceiling.

Fully asleep now, his body becomes a dead weight, holding me in place, pressing me into the mattress. One leg has crept up around mine and I can feel the ball of his foot on my ankle, his heel pushing up the bottoms of my pants. His arm is curled up and tucked under his chin, and his fingertips have managed to wrap themselves around a button on my shirt. If he undoes that in his sleep... I gently wrap my hand around his fingers and pry them, one at a time, off the button, curling my fingers in between his, and resting both our hands on my stomach again.

Sometime after this, I manage to nod off again. When I wake up, disoriented and a little confused, the sky is turning from cool grey to the warm blue colour of Elijah’s eyes. We are in the same position we were in when I fell asleep, and I am definitely warm. The body holding me in the bed is generating an incredible amount of heat.

Then I realize that’s not the only reason I feel warm. Something else feels really good. It takes my mind a moment to wake up a little more, and then... Oh my word, Lij. In his sleep he has moved his hand again, and is moving one very soft fingertip over a rigid nipple under my shirt. Inhaling sharply, my body is torn between moving the finger and letting it continue its delicate ministrations. Swallowing, I steel myself, and reach up to move the hand to a safer location.

"Good morning," Elijah says softly into my chest, and grazes his thumb up and over the swell of my breast.

My hand freezes in mid-motion, and I can feel my heart literally stop. He’s awake, which means he’s doing this consciously, which means... oh, fuck. Yes, I think, that’s exactly what it means. I want to say four hundred things all at once, but all I manage is a "Wha...?" Very articulate of me.

"Very articulate of you," he says with a smile, and lifts his body off of mine, hand trailing across my stomach. His face reaches mine, first kissing my forehead, the end of my nose, both cheeks and finally, my lips. His kiss is exactly the way I had imagined it would be, strong but very soft and loving. My hand tangles itself in his rumpled hair, and with a mind of its own, traces a line behind his ear and under his chin to his clavicle, playing in the hollow.

Breaking away and looking at me with pinked cheeks and flashing eyes, he sits up and straddles my hips, trapping me once more in my own bed. Tucking his toes under the backs of my thighs, he reaches down and begins to unbutton my top from the bottom. "Haven’t you got anything else to say?"

By this time I’m completely awake, fully comprehensive of the situation, and the little part of me that I had been repressing is itching to be let out. "Yes, I have more to say," I say in a very small whisper. I bite my bottom lip as his fingers graze ever so lightly along my stomach as they continue to unbutton, and close my eyes when he reaches my ribcage. This can’t be happening, I think, and then I beat that thought down with a sledgehammer. Yes, it can happen, it will happen, because I want it to happen. The urge to feel him on me, in me, takes over completely. "But now’s not the time."

All my words are abandoned on my pillow, as, when I sit up on my elbows, his lips connect to the top of my breast. His warm tongue, flat and soft, bathes the skin underneath it gently, working ever downwards. When it reaches the nipple, it flicks once, twice, and then continues down my body. His chin is rough with three-day-old growth, enough to add to the incredible feeling pulsing through my veins. His fingers dance down my legs, stripping off my pants quickly, efficiently, and his shorts follow suit. Caressing me again with his tongue, he stops at my inner thigh to plant feather kisses, shiver-inducing kisses. Then he flicks his tongue again, once, twice, this time searching for a more violent reaction from me.

And he gets it. My whole body convulses, hitting the edge of somewhere I knew I shouldn’t be yet. Reaching out one hand, I grab an earlobe, and quickly pull him back up to me, wrapping one leg around him. I can feel his erection between our bodies, and all my reservations finally disintegrate. I tightly wrap my other leg around him, very possessive. "Mmmm..." I purr into his ear, nipping it playfully. My hands roam his perfect pale skin, the same places visited over and over but different every time.

Putting his lips to my ear, nuzzling his nose in my hair, he breathes into it, uttering faintly, "Wanna see me make my Ring Face?". I gasp again, this time in complete surprise. His wonderful eyes meet mine, a crooked grin plastered on his face. Laughter bubbles up over the shock, and I throw my head back as it peals out, echoing off of every surface in the room.

I can feel his body, stiff somehow against my shaking limbs, and then I can feel him, inside me, all at once. The laughter turns into small noises in the back of my throat as my hips begin to move seamlessly against his, fingers suddenly forgetting what they were doing. We’ve begun grasping at each other like two people on the edge of existence. The pulsing in my veins, once a steady throb, has turned into tidal waves rolling over me. Breathing into each other urgently, we both can’t get to that edge fast enough.

I hit the wall first, eyes unblinking, staring into his, my lips forming his name but without sound. Seconds later he follows me over, coming in a strangled gasp. I kiss him as he comes down, firmly, as if I could tell him with my lips how much he means to me. He’s hugging me tightly, the two of us not wanting to let it be over. We lie together for a very long time, still, except for our hearts, which are racing to catch up.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The sun has nearly hit its apex when we wake for the second time, and this time, before he can object, I slip out of the sheets and to the washroom. I don’t even bother looking in the mirror, as I know that my reflection will only fill my mind with doubts about the sincerity of what happened this morning. Running the water just a little too hot, I shower quickly, and in my robe wander out to make breakfast.

He’s waiting in the bedroom doorway when I step out of the bathroom, still naked and just as beautiful as ever. "Hello," he says, running a hand through his hair.

"Good morning," I say, walking up to him and kissing his chin.

He tilts his head and looks me up and down. "It appears you missed a spot," he says as he reaches down to undo the knot in my belt.

"And where would that be?" I ask coyly.

He grabs both ends of the belt in his hands, and drags me back into the bathroom. Licking his lips, he flashes me a great big smile and his baby blues."Come in here, and I’ll show you."

End Part 1...