An Entirely Normal Date (tag Killian) on At Home

Ema Skies

February 07, 2021 6:36 AM

An Entirely Normal Date (tag Killian) by Ema Skies

It felt strange, in the midst of ongoing tragedy, to be putting on lipstick and a nice frock. Two days in, there wasn't much change in her uncle's condition, but a note had arrived from Killian to let her know that a certain letter had arrived, and that he would be coming by after work. And so, she had picked a place for them to go, and was getting dressed up. She hardly got to spend time with him, and she was going to do something other than drag him into gloomy family situations. Krissy, whom she was staying with, hadn't seemed inclined to argue that point or to judge her for it, and so Ema sat on the pop up bed in the spare room/nursery, cosmetics and clothes spread around her, winging her eyeliner and picking a plum lipstick that nicely matched her chosen dress. It was another nineteen-fifties style cut, one that did the thing when you twirled (she hoped she might be in for some twirling) and featured silver constellations against a dark purple background. She made two attempts at getting her hair to do one of those cool puffy things at the front before giving up and just sweeping it into a high ponytail. Hair had never really been her forte.

When Killian stepped out of the fireplace, Ema rushed over, offering him an enthuasiastic hug, and holding out her palm for him to kiss (she was determined to make that A Thing, and it seemed to be working). She allowed Krissy, bump, and Franklin to make pleasant small talk with him (Araminta was luckily asleep already) for just as long as it took to make sure he was alright, give him some water if he needed it, and for her to slip her fishnet-clad feet into a pair of starry, knock-off Doc Marten style boots.

"Come here then," she stated, holding out a hand, "I know where we're going. Ready?" she checked. Once she had Killian safely in her arms, she turned them both on the spot, disappearing from Krissy's living room and reappearing (very smoothly, even if she did say so herself) at the head of a small beachside shopping street. She did not immediately let go of Killian. It was a nice benefit of side-alonging him that she got to have her arms all wrapped around him.

She grasped for something to say, not lacking ideas per se, but unsure which to latch onto. It was tempting to ask Killian if she ever had to put him down again, or to be silly about the fact that this was their first actual date, and a very horrible, needy part of her that she was desperately trying to push down wanted to ask if he was pleased to have her there... But none of that was the right thing to say. She let her hands trace their way down him, and actually pulled him a little closer when she got to his waist, nuzzling him and giving him a quick peck on the lips, and then a not so quick peck before finally letting go of everything except his arm.

"Okay!" she said, far too cheerfully. She had pictured this whole evening, she had pictured all the ways to make it lovely, and pictured herself playing it cool and that was quite clearly not going to happen. She could feel her grin sticking uncomfortably to her face, knowing that it was getting tight as it became fuelled more by nerves than happiness. She could feel her fingers digging just a little too tightly into Killian's arm, like she was scared of letting go.

"Can we walk?" she asked, tugging him away from the strip of cafes, tarot readers, and trinket shops and onto the sand. She knew there was a creperie, and they could sit and have pancakes for dinner. But she couldn't bear sitting down and thinking everything was going to be fine and then having it not be. Having to extract herself from amongst all those people... It was stupid to think like that, and part of her still just wanted to skip and frolic and laugh on the sand and be happy. But but but...

It wasn't like the beach was deserted but it felt less claustrophobic. She could tug Killian down towards the shore, looking behind them as they crossed onto the damp sand and left trails of footprints side by side. At least, until the tide came in. Then it would wash them away.

"Open it," she told him. And that involved disentangling herself from him, and waiting and hugging her herself whilst he read.

Dear Killian,

Hi. I am going to reply to your letter out of order. If you want my thoughts on avocados first, skip to the P.S.

I think I am okay. I think I might actually sort of be really good? I did not get the job here, and that just feels like a huge wave of relief because it makes me feel much less torn in two. I think I also kinda just wrote two resignation letters, only I have yet to fill in the dates and sign them. Part of me just wants to put the nearest date possible and hand them in tomorrow, and that feels wild because I am not an impulsive person. It doesn't feel impulsive because you said you want me to come back, and I believe you, but at the same time I am the kind of person who likes to double check and talk through. I am going to talk to you next week, maybe before you've even got this letter, and definitely before I will have gotten your reply. I guess a week extra isn't too long to add, in the grand scheme of things, but at the same time I want to be able to call you and tell you I'm a week closer to coming home.

The rest of your letter doesn't give me much more to say other than longing to be with you. And I suppose if I'm asking whether you still want me, I seem to have an answer. I'm still pretty sure I'm going to be a nervous wreck until I hear from you again. Sorry, I look over your words and I know I shouldn't doubt you but... well, you know why. And sometimes you seem far too good to be true.

Yours (very much, if you'll still have me?)
Ema

P.S. You don't like avocado?! I can understand wanting to add bacon (I don't debate that bacon is delicious, I just choose not to have it) but why not have avocado too?

1) this way you have more foods
2) it's like being allowed guacamole for breakfast.
Are you telling me you prefer dry tortilla chips to ones dipped in guac? I beg you to reconsider your utterly insane position. And now I want Mexican food.

13 Ema Skies An Entirely Normal Date (tag Killian) 0 Ema Skies 1 5

Killian Row

February 07, 2021 12:46 PM

Just trying to hook you in. by Killian Row

Killian accepted both Ema's hug and the opportunity to kiss her hand like a proper gentleman with a grin. He had dressed up for the night with a button-up shirt under his leather jacket, and a pair of neatly pressed dress trousers and shoes for the evening. He'd considered shaving but he was pretty sure he looked like he was selling Bibles when he was clean-shaven, so he'd settled for his usual scruffy face beneath unusually neat hair. He'd come without flowers purely because it seemed risky to bring them through the floo but he greeted Ema's family with a smile and handshakes where appropriate instead. When Ema finished dressing - and looked super hot - and took his hand, Killian nodded.

"Ready," he said, his eyes unable to take her all in for all that he was unable to stop adoring her face instead. "You're gorgeous," he added.

Then they were twisted and squeezed until they arrived on a beachy street and Killian blinked to clear his spinning head as he looked around them. Since Ema was still holding on to him, he returned that gesture with a soft squeeze and turned his head to smile at her. "You're much better at that than me," he acknowledged with a lopsided grin.

Then they were twisting and squeezing again but it was because kisses were happening and Killian let himself melt into Ema's affection. Too soon, she was moving away and moving along and Killian was following with the happy grin of someone who was pretty sure he had no idea what was happening and was completely sure he didn't mind. He couldn't quite make it to dopey though because there was something nagging in his mind that Ema didn't look just happy, she looked like she was feeling a few things. That was fair, given her current family circumstances, but the letter he hadn't read yet was burning an anxious hole in his jacket pocket too and he couldn't help worrying about what was in there now. Of course, it didn't seem like she had written to tell him to leave her alone, so that was good. There was a time when he would've been a lot more anxious about that, but he felt pretty secure as of now, at least in knowing that his girlfriend for sure did like him.

"We can walk," he agreed, thinking only briefly that he was glad his dress shoes were still basically sneakers made to look like dress shoes and that he wouldn't get all filled up with sand for walking on the beach. It was a beautiful scene and would have been a beautiful moment if not for Ema's increasing anxiety practically dripping off of her. He nodded when she gave him instructions, resisting the urge to just stop and hold her and make her feel better as she curled in on herself. Instead, he retrieved the letter and did as he was told, only glancing up at Ema once, just before starting.

He read it once and then twice, more quickly the second time as his mind raced. Then he looked up at Ema. "You're staying?" he asked, trying not to sound too excited in case that's not what she meant and she was going to feel bad for him misunderstanding. Still, his chest was swelling with a growing urge to sweep her up in a hug, and his mouth was turning itself into a grin without his permission. "And you recognize the virtues of bacon, but that's really secondary to me right now," he added, glancing at the post scripts he'd read and didn't want to just ignore.

He had a lot of questions but it was hard to focus on the questions when all he could think about was the increasing sense of tentative joy in his chest. "You're staying here?" he asked again. "With me?"

22 Killian Row Just trying to hook you in. 1450 0 5

Ema Skies

February 08, 2021 6:18 AM

You got me by Ema Skies

“So are you,” Ema smiled up at him when he called her goregous, looking him over appreciatively enough that he could be sure she wasn’t just saying it back because she was supposed to.

“Thank you,” she smiled, pleased that he had noticed her apparating skills.

The time it took to get to the beach, and for him to read her letter, felt like forever. However stupid she was telling herself that she was being, she just needed to hear him say that it was alright, that she’d made the right decisions. She needed them to be on the same page before she could let herself feel anything but anxious.

You’re staying?

Ema had only a fraction of a second to wonder what tone that was before Killian’s face was breaking into a grin. And he was asking her – well, asking her about bacon, which made her laugh, and asking if she was staying again, and she didn’t even need to confirm whether that would qualify as a good thing because he looked so happy.

“Yes,” she confirmed, loosing her arms from where they’d been clinging to her own middle so that she could throw them around him instead. There were details, things to explain about how she’d handed in her notices, and about the timing with her Uncle, and the incredibly big stack of data analysis that was sitting in her bedroom at Krissy’s but that she was technically free… She had had so many things left on her list that she wanted to see in the world. But, even before the situation with her uncle arose, she’d been thinking how it would make more sense to come back, pick up her travel buddy and take advantage of his long summer holidays. Those were plans they could lay out over pancakes, or days or weeks ahead. They had all of those at their disposal. Right now, only one thing was important. “Yes, yes to all of those,” she confirmed. “Please tell me you’ll at least consider avocados?” she grinned.

13 Ema Skies You got me 0 Ema Skies 0 5

Killian Row

February 08, 2021 10:53 AM

I'll keep you as long as you let me. by Killian Row

Ema's arms were around him. She was there and she was real and she was going to keep being there and real. Killian knew logically that they would still spend time apart of course because he had a job and she would probably have a life and things like that, but they'd be able to see each other more. Like actually see each other, not head-in-a-fireplace see each other. He'd be able to hold her and hug her just like he was doing now, and as he planted kiss after kiss on her cheek and forehead and wherever he could reach without interrupting her, he knew he'd be able to do that too.

He laughed at her attempt to make him eat avocados and paused his kisses to pull back and see her face instead. "I'll eat a whole damn salad bar if it makes you happy, love," he told her, beaming.

Jean-Loup would be so proud, or grossed out, and he gave a happy little wiggle as he thought about all the things that he and Ema would be able to do now, including maybe go visit Jean-Loup. Maybe go to a concert. Maybe stay up all night and watch the stars turn into sunrise every single week. They had time now and could decide in advance or exactly last minute.

"You're staying," he said with a happy, wistful sigh.

22 Killian Row I'll keep you as long as you let me. 1450 0 5

Ema Skies

February 10, 2021 8:01 AM

I'll let you by Ema Skies

“Careful,” she told him, when swore to take on a whole salad bar, “I’ve told you before I expect you to be a man of your word.”

He had kissed her quite a few times, and she leant in, returning the favour by kissing her way up his neck, suspecting that might forestall any more sassy comments even before she got to his mouth, because he liked this, and she knew he liked it.

“I’m staying,” she confirmed again. It felt better every time she said it, the anxiety washing out with the tide. All the smiles and the giddiness that it wouldn’t have been appropriate to let loose in a hospital cafe had space to breathe out here. She pulled him closer, punctuating visions of the future with very firm, real impressions of the present, in the form of her lips against his.

“I can wake up beside you,” she said. And she could keep him up past his bedtime, even if she wasn’t quite bold enough to put that idea into words right now… “Starting tomorrow, if possible, please?” Perhaps starting that night…

And she had found a place where they could have pancakes for dinner, but that was still somewhere in the future because she thought she could stand here until the waves crept up on them (and she had no idea whether the tide was going in or out and whether that was a matter of minutes or hours) just alternating between kissing him and pulling back to see his gorgeous face, and feeling fuzzy at the fact that she was the reason it looked like that right now. And there was a fuel powering that loop, the endless need to give into kissing him and staring at him. She was trying to make her actions express something, and finding each one of them addictive and enjoyable but they still left her wanting because all the actions in the world couldn’t make up the same magnitude as three little words that were swimming round her head, desperate to come up for air.

She pulled away just enough to look at him, to breathe. And it was every bit as natural and essential as drawing oxygen in to let it out.

“I love you.”

13 Ema Skies I'll let you 0 Ema Skies 0 5

Killian Row

February 10, 2021 2:41 PM

Then I'm yours to the end of the earth. by Killian Row

Killian raised his eyes, smiling a dare at Ema as she threatened to make him a man of his word with the salad bar. "I think you underestimate the painful things I'll do out of sheer stubbornness," he told her. "By the time I'm done, you won't even want to look at a salad," he laughed.

Neck kisses were basically the best thing ever. Well one of the best things ever. They were definitely one of the most distracting things ever too and it was nice, even if unfamiliar, to not mind. To not need to be undistracted. To just close his eyes and enjoy the moment together with someone that wasn't going to leave.

"Yes!" he agreed wholeheartedly when she asked about waking up together the next morning. "Uh . . . does your sister mind? I'm happy to get us a place to stay for the night." He tried very hard to keep any suggestive tone out of his voice as it was a matter of convenience he was asking about, not any other sorts of reasons that it might be nice not to worry about who was close enough to hear what they got up to overnight, but he didn't quite succeed. He thought of his own quarters at Sonora and wondered how interested Ema might be in changing up the living arrangements come the new school year.

And it was wild to be able to think that. To be able to wonder if this incredible, intelligent, beautiful woman he'd had the good pleasure of meeting over tofu at a staff barbeque wanted for their future plans together. He'd been contemplating for awhile how kidding he'd been about running away and getting married when he'd mentioned it over winter break, but the part he knew he was serious about was that whatever tomorrow looked like, he wanted Ema to be there in it. He wanted her with all that that entailed. And it was the first time in his life that he'd ever been able to think of such things whilst kissing someone, because kissing her wasn't just a question of where they'd go to scratch an itch but where they'd go to live a life. Maybe that was too big. He tried to pull his mind back some before he started thinking of all the tomorrows he had hopes about, but he couldn't quite help it when being in Ema's arms just felt right and when this felt like the first day of a lot more days.

When she pulled back too - physically, rather than the sort he was trying to do - Killian almost braced himself for something bad to happen. It was hard to let go of that tendency, he supposed, but looking at her face and the way she looked at him made it easier. Part of it was a thought that he'd done so good at holding back for so many years that of course it had to surface now. Of course he had to wonder if she'd still want him if she knew everything about him, even if some of that information meant taking her back twenty years to who he'd been one time long ago. As much as he hated the idea of having to have that conversation, it didn't scare him the way it might have if he'd ever found someone else he would've been willing to try with. So far, that had never happened.

When she spoke, he couldn't help smiling. There was a lot of fear in the pit of his stomach but it felt a bit like maybe it was old fear. Ema didn't have to know everything about him to know she loved him and he knew that because he felt the same way; wherever her winding, wandering life had taken her didn't matter because it had brought her right here and this was the right place.

"I love you too," he said, his eyes on hers as the words came out of his mouth about someone who wasn't family for the first time in his life. "Even more than bacon and kisses and color-coding," he added with a more playful grin as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her and picked her up to spin her around.

22 Killian Row Then I'm yours to the end of the earth. 1450 0 5