Strawberrys and...

[Ever Goodman]

Ever
Ever did as he was told, inhaling deeply and pressing his lips together tight as she went on with her palmy exploration. It was quickly become very hard to keep his body still beneath her and his mind on other things, but he did it. God only knew how she felt so good up there. When her fingertips murmured across his neck where the first tattoo lived he tilted his head the other way to give her digits better access. "There." He said huskily, too huskily and cleared his throat before adding more calmly, "The crown is there. Right there." He swallowed when the velvet pads danced over his Adams apple and across his collar bone, letting a quiet moan slip from him before pressing the lips together again. His hand tightened at her hip and he pressed his lower half deeper into the mattress, wishing his mind would shut the fuck up-- it was yelling so loud at him to return her fingertip embraces with those of his own. But he was patient. Waiting. When Rumours hands found his bare hips Ever's breath shuddered out of its own accord and he pressed up into her, only just slightly, catching himself before he'd gone too far. He was so far deep into the mattress to begin with the thrust upwards could have been the springs protesting the assault against them. Ever chest rose and fell as he panted slowly through his nose. He was breathless with the need to touch her. Feel her. "The pentagram is there." He said in a low, sigh when her fingertips found the ink, and he pressed his mouth closed again as if the words had been some kind of interruption; his eyes pinched so tight he swore he would have to pry them open. She worked her way up his arms until her palms found his, and he shuddered again at the sensation of her hand gripping his as if to hold it there in challenge. Shifting slightly underneath her Ever pried his eyes open at her request, meeting her darkened, but wide stare with his own. What the fuck was she doing to him? She was the devil. But still he couldn't say no. The hand caught within hers squeezed as his other lifted to her damp chocolate locks. He had done this before, that second time she had given him a lesson on kissing, and it was soft as it was that day. His fingertips wrote quiet words as they moved from her hair to the delicate place behind her ear. Ever imagined he could just feel the raised places where her butterflies flew, etched in her skin for always. His hands continued their path across her closed lids and he smiled a little, dropping to her perfect upturned little nose and down the divot between there and her mouth. He whispered his fingers over her slightly parted mouth and unbidden a sigh escaped him. He could still taste those lips. That kiss. Working his hands down her neck and across her shoulder Ever held his body still, too intent on the skin beneath his hand to notice the pressure against his lower half anymore. The exploration went on as it found the gentle swell of her breast and he paused there, loosing a breathless murmur. "Rumour?" Asking if he'd gone too far...but he grasped her gently as if answering for himself, letting the palm move from her breast and down the curve of her side and lower back, tickling the tailbone with the barest of touches. Finally it found the curve of her rear and here is where his palm remained, applying gentle pressure as he wrapped his hand around it and grinned. "You weren't lying. It’s amazing." He said quietly, and then chuckled a little, and grinned.

Rumour
what had started out as a little bit of fun, a way to get him hot and bothered had gone too far. The pang of something she had felt earlier was back with a vengeance as she shut her eyes and felt his hands trace her skin. What had she been thinking, telling him to do the same for her? Giving him permission to touch her skin? She was guarded and she was sarcastic, and she was these things for a very real, and very tangible reason. So that no one could make her feel vulnerable. So that she kept the control. And yet, here she was, letting his hands roam her body - it felt so wrong to the voice inside her head as Rumour bit her tongue and tried in vain to distract herself by playing with the bar in her mouth. But the hormones that were taking over had other ideas, and despite herself her breath hitched in her throat when his palm crossed over her breast. She wanted to grab his hand and roll from his waist, to lay back in her bed and go to sleep, kick him out as soon as she knew her father had left for work and return to the way they were and had been. But she was unable to so much move her lips let alone any other part of her body, silenced into stillness by Ever's light touch on her skin. Jumping instead into defence mode, Rumour opened her eyes when his hand stopped, and loosed her own from his other. "Amazing? Ever Goodman, if i didn't know better, i might guess you were actually enjoying this." She whispered, quieter than she had been before. The blood rushing in her ears was drowning out sound, and the last thing she wanted was to be unexpectedly loud and wake her father. "Maybe you’re the one who’s in love with me." She teased.

Ever
Ever shifted underneath her a little, seating himself more comfortably within her curves. He smiled nice and slow when she accused him of liking it, giving her rear one more good squeeze. When she ripped her hand out of his Ever gasped, surprised, though he really should have expected it. He loosed the hand on her ass and lifted it to her hip, letting the other mirror its partner just at her opposite waist. "You're the one that brought up the 'L' word." He teased, but an unexpected tenseness came to his chest. He shrugged it off and wouldn't let those thoughts go any further. He was lucky to have had these few stolen moments of trust. Of her exposed raw soul. He knew times like this were rare, if they ever happened at all. Raising one hand underneath her shirt at the back, he let his fingers draw a trail against her backbone and lower back. He wasn't done touching her by any means, and until Rumour forced him to stop he was going doing it. "Maybe you love me." God knows why he kept pushing her buttons. Maybe because he needed her to stop fucking his head so bad. Yeah, they nearly bare to each other in body, but she was fucking his head instead. The hand on Rumour's hip fell to her thigh and he snaked his tongue across his bottom lip. His mouth was bone dry. Absently trailing a path up and down her upper thigh he whispered just as quiet as she. "Did you really see me, Rumour?"

[rumour]

Rumour
For a moment, Rumour ignored his accusation and instead focused on his other words, pulling to the front of her mind the mental representation her fingertips had drawn in her head. She liked to think the somewhat good looking, crooked nosed, stubbled and scarred face she held within her head was at least close to the reality of the man whose hips she was straddling, but at the same time, she doubted if she would truly care even if she was wrong. It wasn't like she could see him, and she sure as hell wasn't shallow. She had no way of being. Still, Rumour had no idea what he wanted to hear, and instead said the first thing that popped into her dark haired head, as always. "Your face is older than you are." she murmured quietly. "You have a scar on your nose and laugh lines in the corner of your eyes and mouth from all the smirking you do. I don't think many people could see them, but i can feel them. I can see you Ever Goodman." Rumour smiled a little, letting his fingers play on her skin as she turned her inward attention to this damn love thing he kept bringing up. Yes, she had started it this time, but it wasn't the first time he had mentioned it... and Rumour was starting to get the impression that he, at least subconsciously, wanted it. If not from her, then from someone. It was time to put that straight when it came to the both of them, once and for all. Tucking some hair behind her ear, Rumours fingers passed over the scars that littered her eye and cheek bone in the motion - a reminder that she was damaged property, but property none the less. Shifting, Rumour leaned over him, placing a hand gently at the side of his head; she brought her face slowly down to meet his. Using the mental image she had in her mind and his breath as a guide Rumour closed her eyes and pressed her lips gently against his for a long and lingering moment, moving her mouth against his in an embrace that was very different to the two they had shared previously. She wasn't sure why she kissed him, given the words she knew were about to leave her mouth, but she did. Such gestures meant very little to the girl - perhaps it was to prove this fact to herself again, to ignore the stirrings in her chest. Breaking away, Rumour moved so that she could whisper in his ear. "Love is overrated, damaging and a lie, Ever. I don't love anyone; don't you dare love me." Leaving a fleeting impression of her lips against the corner of his mouth, Rumour sat back up and pulled herself away from his hips and his hands. For the girl who didn't let anyone in, those few words had been perhaps the biggest, and she was determined, the last insight into the woman beneath the sarcastic exterior he would ever get.

Ever
Ever really wasn't all that 'deep' a person. He didn't lie. Didn't steal. He did what he thought was right and good and worked hard when he needed to. Perhaps subconsciously he was trying to make up for the person he -might- have been. Just in case, like Rumy had asked before, what if he was a serial killer or worse and didn’t remember it? No, he wasn't a deep person, but the question he had asked of Rumour had been about more than just physically seeing him. He wanted to know if she could see through the exterior to the core of him; the part that moved his fingers like a song against her skin. The one that watched her with soft eyes. The man that cared for a woman. She was his best friend. His only friend. And he loved her. Perhaps not in the way that was conventional between a man and a woman--but it was there-- deep down and growing like a weed inside of him. How sick was that? Ever's kept an absent smile when Rumour explained his face, and closed his eyes for a moment to recall the way her velvet fingertips felt against the lines she spoke of. His name on Rumour's lips made his body tense and he let his gaze come open to see the wistful smile on her face widen. It was quiet for a minute as his fingertips grazed over skin and her skin drank in his touch; and Ever was content to spy the quiet expression's on her face illuminated by a slant of silver from the moon. When she bent down over him Ever inhaled sharply, his arm instinctually snaking around her. He wasn't expecting what came next. When her lips came down over his she stole the breath from him, and he sighed in something like relief, as if this was the air he'd needed to take instead. He lifted a hand to her hair and clutched firmly, holding her so that she couldn't take it back and end the mouthy embrace too soon. He breathed her in, dragging his tongue across her lower lip before using it to part her mouth a little more. His self control in the fleeting moment was nonexistent; Ever worked his hips against hers and inwardly hoped for some kind of stimulation in return. But it didn’t come. The kiss was ended just as he hoped it wouldn't; too soon. He was panting and she was breathing against his ear; yet another action that drove him crazy. If her kiss was a song that moved him, those harsh words that escaped the girl next was a poison straight into the vein. Black eyes shot open and his chest paused in its chaotic rise and fall. He blinked as she injected him with one last drop of poison with a kiss against the side of his mouth, and then left him cold and stunned as she pulled the blanket of her form from his body. The serum seemed to do its job as the man was immobile for what seemed like and eternity. He merely stared at the twinkling ceiling and found a steady intake and exhale of air, and let the chill in the room warm him.

Rumour
Did she feel bad for the words that had escaped her lips? Of course she did. Despite her words and the apparent intent behind them, she was not being malicious. She was telling him from the straight on that anything other than the relationship they had now, their twisted and complicated relationship was not going to work. The words she had spoken were not spite filled, hate filled; nor meant to be venomous or anything other than the simple truth. It was what she truly believed on the subject of the hearts desires, and she had little reason to believe anything else. The mother she had loved had cursed her and left her. The father she had loved had stolen her sight and reminded her every day as a child that she was little more than a monster, a freak of nature set upon this earth to do little more than hurt those around her. If that was love, she neither longed for nor wanted it. The girl found it hard enough maintaining this relationship as it was - but secretly, in a part of Rumours soul that she could not deny, Ever Goodman made her happy, made her feel somewhat normal, and she was too selfish to do what would be the right thing and push him away altogether. With the taste of him still lingering on her lips, his touch on her skin like a ghost, Rumour rolled from him and laid on her side, looking at him, her arm snaking under her pillow whilst she pulled her knees up to her chest. "I'm sorry, Ever." she said,
the words whispered into the darkness.

[Ever Goodman]

Ever
Ever finally pulled the covers half way up him. He was numb enough to breath normally again, and the poison was starting to move through his veins as an intoxicant or an aesthetic. He felt deadened inside. It was better this way, wasn't it? Why linger on what he couldn't have instead of focusing on what he could. His partner in crime. His reprieve from the seriousness of their situations. he should feel amazing right now. Hadn't he passed her test? His body was still reeling from the near ascent into rapture (not really but tell the male body that), and he would probably hate her in the morning when he was throbbing and in pain, but he hadn't let himself fall too far into her. Or maybe she hadn't let him fall that far-- but here they were, the same place they had started. Ever lifted his arm behind his head again and the other rested against his lower belly. He closed his eyes and wished that they'd gone to sleep about a half hour ago and wondered at how long it would be til sunrise. The pack of smokes on the roof was calling his name but he was in no position to get up at the moment. "Don’t be." He murmured, turning his head towards hers but forcing his eyes to stay closed. "Nothings changed." It was a lie but one the man hoped to make good on soon. There had always been line between them. It had been inevitable that that line would have to be crossed at some point in order for him to understand the invisible boundaries. Ever didn't know why he had an ache in his chest but it wasn't something he wouldn't be able to get past. He had his cancer sticks and cold beer and it wasn't like she was the only woman in the world. It was a harsh reality but he was only a man. A man that hardly knew himself. What did he know about love any way. He didn't want to know. If it was all those things Rumour said he could live with out it.

Rumour
Shifting, Rumour mirrored his movement and slipped her legs beneath the covers. The sheets were cool against her burning skin and she savoured the feeling, knowing all too well how it would soon disappear when the heat transferred itself. laid in the darkness, the covers balled in her fist and pulled up her chest, Rumour felt like she should say something. Tell him that one day he would find someone - hell who knew? Maybe he had a wife out there scouring the world looking for him. Neither of them knew. But it was better this way, without the emotions. Well hell. if he could promise her that she was being silly, that he didn't love her and never would, but wondered perhaps as to the occasional fumble under the sheets, wanted to maintain the deal they had already that he could kiss her in return for not asking any 'personal' questions, lord knew Rumour would agree. The fiery pit that remained in her stomach from the way he had pushed his fingers into her hair, the way his hips had pushed into hers wouldn't let her do anything other than agree. That wasn't love, that was Lust, and that she knew all about. Leaning forward, Rumour kissed the very tip of his nose. "Good."

Ever
The silence between them was deafening. He wondered how pissed she would be if he decided to make a break for it now; climbing back out that window and hopping down off the roof to freedom. Ah...she wouldn't care. This was Rumour we were talking about. Good. and a kiss on the nose. Why in the hell did Ever feel like the word was a curse. Not as bad as fuck but way worse than damn or hell. Good was just as bad as...'he's cute' or 'it’s not the size it’s the way you use it'...not that he'd ever heard the latter. XD The kiss on the tip of his nose may as well have been a bite. It was just as condescending as the word she had spoken. If she really believed what he'd said she didn't know his as well as he thought she did. "Great." He added quietly, like and after thought, and lifted his hand from his belly in order to rub his chest where a dull pang still clung. It was the cigarettes. Yeah, that was it. He was smoking too much and it was making it hard to breath. Seemed like a viable excuse to use from now on so that they could put this little awkwardness behind them. Ever cleared his throat and shifted a little, settling back until the only sounds exchanged between them was breathing. He waited, listening until the tight exhales became more relaxed and then turned to a quiet snore. It seemed like it had been hours, but finally he found his own breathy rhythm and his heart wasn't pounding so hard anymore and he closed his eyes, letting nothing consume him. It was what he would become accustomed to from now on in order to dull the pang. Easier than dealing with what if. Or what the fuck. Or...who the hell knows.

[rumour]

Rumour
She wasn't sure when she fell asleep - just that it was late, and that the damned fox was plaguing her dreams again, only this time rather than trying to drag her with it was running away - flashes of white in a dark world. Dreams were still somewhat of a novelty to Rumour, for in them she could see. She could see as clear as day, and it was always disappointing, heartbreaking when she opened her eyes in the morning and saw nothing but smears of colour in a world that would never again be clear. It was light that woke her in the morning now, peeling in through the window; through the curtains she had forgotten to close. Rolling onto her back, Rumour rubbed her eyes and took a moment to remember that she wasn't alone in her bed. She patted the mattress with her casted arm, and couldn't help the small smile that crept onto her lips when her fingertips brushed lightly across his skin. Well. There was a first for you. Climbing from the bed, Rumour washed the day old make up from her face, revealing the red scars that lay around her eyes in all their glory, spent a moment longer in there finishing what she had too, before heading back out into her room, and over to the window. She climbed out onto the roof and sat and listened. It was still early, she could smell the damp on the air and the birds were only just waking up, the breeze bringing with it the smell of the ocean. As she sat, she heard her father’s car start. 6am.

Ever
Ever didn't dream. Or more accurately he didn't have the function to hold onto those hazy reveries past sunrise. Perhaps he was lucky he couldn't remember those nightly visions; that he was spared those chaotic glimpses of his past and the present. The unreachable things he wanted from life. The young man tossed and turned during slumber, and one would be able to tell from the sleeping activity that the dreams he'd had this night weren't good or comforting. Black eyed things and family and blood and even Rumour, yes Rumour. He woke just after the feel of her departing the bed but pretended to still sleep; laid on his stomach and hiding what plagued him every morning. When she disappeared into the bath room Ever turned his face away from the streaming sun and rolled onto his back. He smacked his lips and palmed himself and rubbed at his weary eyes; they were still pretty blurry when the lithe form of the woman he'd spent the night with drifted past and out onto the windowsill. He felt only a whisper of the pang he'd had last night and that was good. Meant whatever wound she had inflicted in there was beginning to heal already. He'd known it would. Still a frown plagued the corners of his lips. He recalled bits and pieces of his dream for once and it left a lasting gloom overhead. There was a voice inside his head that reminded him it wasn't his family. They were faces he had seen in passing and he shouldn't think otherwise. He had no family. And if he did...he had been such a horrible person they hadn't cared to be there when he'd woken up in the hospice. Had cared to come looking for him even now. He supposed this was why Rumour wouldn't ever love him. Why no one probably would. Well, maybe it was half the reason. Ever cleared his throat and dragged his ass out of bed. Loping into the bathroom and taking care of business as fast as he could. It was difficult given his current circumstance but that went away soon enough and he was able to splash some cold water on his face, get his jeans on and climb out onto the rood semi-refreshed. He needed a shower in the worst way and was hungry as shit. He needed a coffin nail more. "Got a smoke?"

Rumour
Rumour sat with her left arm around her knees and her right holding her smoke, lifting it to her lips periodically to draw in the cancer inducing source of her addiction and allowing it to curl from her lips as she took the cigarette away again. yeh - if her father didn't get her one of his rages, she was pretty sure the unassuming white stick held between her fingers would. She had little way of knowing that giving into a desire she had denied for so long she no longer knew it existed would fix not only her sight and grant her vision, but would restore any damage done to her lungs also. Go figure. She didn't bother to turn her head when she heard him climb out onto the ledge, but she did pick up the little silver packet resting at her side and hold it out to him. "Mornin'. How'd yah sleep? You were tossing like a mother" Rumour asked, her sarcasm dampened only by the early hours, and the simple fact that she'd only gotten about four hours sleep. Taking the packet back once he'd replaced the lighter inside, she dropped it into her plant pot and tugged his shirt down over her bare knees.

[Ever Goodman]

Ever
He had his russet eyes narrowed as he gazed into the bright glow of sunrise, and took the pack with a sideways half smile without looking over. He lit the cancer stick with the tiny orange flame and inhaled deep, closing his eyes and letting out on an exhaled sigh of pleasure. It really was better than sex. Ever shrugged in response to her question, and then realized it was no sort of answer to a blind woman, and took another pull, letting it out at the same time as his morning husky words. "I can sleep when I'm dead." He smirked and tapped and ash out over into the yard and rubbed his brow with the two fingers holding the smoke. "You slept good. It was the snoring that kept me up." It was a lie, but at least they had their sarcastic banter to replace the awkwardness of the earlier hours. He watched her for a minute then, blinking after his stare found the faint raised marks at her eye. He dragged his tongue across his lip and tore his gaze away, looking out into the distance. "You can see the water from here."

Rumour
"I wouldn't say good. Damn fox had me chasing it around all night. I feel like i ran a marathon in my sleep" Rumour grumbled, rubbing her calf absently. But seriously. her muscles felt all tight. It wasn't good. Flicking ash into the air, Rumour took a final drag of her own cigarette before outing it on the slate tiles and putting the end with its brothers. reaching back with her hand, she drew her hair over her shoulder and twisted it, tying it into a loose knot at the side and partially revealing her tattooed neck. a somewhat wistful smile etched itself on her lips when he mentioned the water, and for a second she felt all nostalgic. "It’s perfect isn't it? if i shut my eyes i can still see it sometimes, its easier when i can smell it on the breeze like now. It mad, i can see that clearly, but i can't picture my moms face." frowning, having realised what she had said, rumour leant forward and rested her chin on her knees. "You stink, by the way."

Ever
Ever kept his gaze trained on those waters, as hypnotized by the twinkling glint on it as he was the therapeutic inhale and exhale off the cigarette. Rumour brought up her fox again and it drew a smile across his tired face; he looked over to find her wincing and rubbing at her lean leg. He lofted a brow at it and wondered if she had a Charlie horse. He would have asked if she needed him to rub it but that could have made things weird. Instead he finished his smoke and flicked it out into the grass instead of properly butting it in the pot. Like a moth to that proverbial flame his dark stare was once again drawn to Rumour's movements, and he gaze on her ink like he always did, wondering if they would ever fly. He hoped to God they did. One day. If not with him then somewhere away from -him- where she could be safe and her broken parts could heal. And there she went again being vulnerable, and it pained Ever not to wrap an arm around he shoulders as she slouched, obviously lost in her memories. It was too much to ask of him. That he had to hold back from doing what he would have so easily done before... He snorted quietly at her latter comment and swiped a hand across the top of his bed messy hair a few times. It was sticking up in places, of course. Ever glanced backwards through the window and wondered if he should get his shirt but now in the day time people might mistake the red stains for something else and call the law on him. "Yeah...I'm headed for a shower right now." He told her just as he decided, gripping the roof with his fingertips and making ready to land on his ass on the grass below. "What do you think about doing that later? What we talked about? The boardwalk...and the ink? "

[rumour]

Rumour
See. She didn't want him to stop what he had been doing before. She just didn't want it to start getting complicated - didn't want emotion getting in the way of a good thing. Still, she had no way of knowing what he was thinking did she? That wasn't part of her freakishness, the evil she possessed. Turning her head to look at him, Rumour smiled. "What the hell. Sure. I haven't been down for a while... and i really want this new tattoo now. so yeah. Then, I’m taking you for sushi. Finally." Standing, Rumour brushed the dust and dirt from her behind with her hand, before wiping that on her shirt. "I'll... meet you at three?


Ever
He smiled. A real, careless smile. Maybe the morning had washed away whatever lingered between them, and today was just as the same as it had been yesterday before...well...just before. Ever's brow lofted at how easy she agreed to get marked, telling him without really telling him that despite the...whatever...he wouldn't let her get screwed over. It was going to be fun. Just what they needed. "Raw fish, huh?" He wrinkled his nose dramatically but still smiled, leaning back and forth over the edge and peering up at her with squinted eyes as she stood. "At my room. At three. Yeah." He confirmed and smirked. "Dont forget to wash that shirt and bring it over too. I might want to wear it tonight." And with that he shoved off the ledge, landing with a thud and a grunt on the dew damp ground. If Rumour would have seen the way he had to roll back and forth until the pain in his tailbone subsided she would have been laughing her ass off. This was something he would keep to himself. Of course.