The summer had been a trial. For some reason, Raynor had him do a ton of interviews for new trainees. Then he had pulled a lot of night shifts in the office, then his love life was about as confusing as jumping through the darkest and farthest corners of the Universe. Sometimes he didn't know whether he was floating or falling, sometimes he didn't know what was coming or going, and now the world was dark and suffocating...

But being buried in the cushions and pillows of a sofa tended to have that effect on people.

Years of auror training, being stealthy, being alert, and being vigilant, thrown out the window when Nathan had gotten home, stripped himself down to a pair of pajama pants, and lodged himself into Myrni's sofa. Was he invited? No. But her sofa did smell rather nice, even if he laid in it like a mangled body messily encased in pillows.

And as the door opened and the owner of the furniture had walked through the door, Nathan made no effort to budge, and remained tired and ignorant. Maybe if he didn't move, she wouldn't question why he was acting like he lived there--or how he got into her apartment.

The Egypt trip was over and Myrni was looking forward to some time at home doing absolutely nothing. At some point she anticipated her days would be filled with scholarly research projects, for even though she had abandoned the notion of not returning to Hogwarts in the fall, she still had her own academic pursuits outside of teaching.

But she still wanted to just veg for a bit before getting into that mind frame. Right now, curling up on her couch with a book was sounding awfully nice.

With her arms laden down with her travel bags, Myrni apparated home, ending up just outside of her front door. Though she could have easily dropped herself inside her home, there was something to be said for unlocking one's door and stepping through the threshold to take in the familiarity of one's living space. After getting inside, Myrni promptly dropped everything to the floor and released a deep breath. Her eyes slowly roved around the inside and a small smile came over her lips as she started to think to herself one very cliched phrase:

Home Sweet---
 
Her eyes widened as they stopped mid scan of her living room and closely examined her couch. At first she was a little alarmed by what -- or rather who -- was there. On the one hand, Nathan was the last person she expected to be there in her apartment. But on the other hand, given how often he had been there before she had called off their engagement -- often in this very manner -- it seemed only natural that he should be there.

He looked like he belonged there on her couch.

And something inside of her intrinsically felt that she belonged there with him.

A mischievous grin fell across her lips as an idea came to her. Before she had time to doubt herself, Myrni ran across the space of the living room and hurled herself at the couch, landing squarely atop his lounging frame.

It was childish and impulsive and silly. But as soon as she landed, Myrni could not help erupting into a fit of giggles.
, and remained tired and ignorant. Mae--or how he got into her apartment

The world suddenly jerked and twisted him as a body and scramble of bare limbs landed on top of Nathan Whitman, and then he plunged deeper into the sofa with a pitiful groan. And then giggles. Myrni sure had a way of making entrances.

But even though the love of his life was currently on top of him, Nathan made no effort to twist himself around to face her, he was feeling particularly vengeful. Of course all the wizard managed to do was reach his arms around his back and began to bother the giggling witch, writhing against his bare back, with pokes and prods, before giving up momentarily.

Then finally, the man's brain started to work well enough to take one of the pillows he was laying on out from under his face, to swing it around to his back, and then proudly fluffed it on top of Myrni's head with a triumphant growl.

"Hah!"

This was why she loved him.

Nathan Whitman had a way of making her love life nearly every moment she was in his company. His carefree and fresh view of the world around him was almost child-like, but it suited him. And better yet, it suited someone like Myrni who had so many serious facets of her life that having him around kept her grounded. Kept life in perspective.

Her giggles slowly subsided as her slim frame lay sprawled haphazardly on top of his. That was, until he started poking her in his efforts to retaliate. The determined Gryffindor in her was not about to let him get away with it and she quickly tried to shield herself from his attack.

He seemed to give up, but knowing him as she did, she expected further action. And it came in the form of a pillow to the head.

"Ahh!" She half-laughed, half-shrieked. "You don't play fair when you hide all the weapons like that!" It was a silly protest since she was quite capable of finding other means to match him in a duel...even the ones without any wands.

Laughing, Myrni shifted her whole body so that she was sitting more normally upright, but essentially on his lap with her legs dangling to the floor. She looked over at him and after she released a happy sigh, she asked lazily, "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding?!" Nathan elegantly blurted out with a laugh. He pushed himself on the couch, knocking off a few pillows as he twisted around as Myrni adjusted herself. Finally he got on his back as he admired the witch with a ragamuffin expression, "You ambushed me, I hardly call that fair." Then she positioned herself right on top of his lap. Nathan's head fell to the side as his eyes dropped from Myrni's face to her rear, as he roughly mumbled, "...or that."

Then he was posed a question and he casually returned his gaze to meet Myrni's hazel eyes, then pulled and fluffed another pillow behind his head, "I was enjoying a calm quiet evening to myself, waiting for frazzled professor to get back from a trip to Egypt  to comfort and cuddle." The wizard then cleared his voice with an accusatory glare and smiled.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ambushed you?" Myrni scoffed, her face full of amusement. "Wait a minute, here. Aren't you the hotshot Auror who is trained to be be prepared for anything?" She laughed lightly and added, "And that includes assault with a deadly bum."

It was one of the silliest things she had ever uttered -- in fact, she couldn't believe she did say it -- and it forced her to duck her head so that her long, dark hair covered her embarassed expression.

But it only took a moment to recover and she darted her eyes to his face again. "Comfort and cuddle, huh? That's all?" she questioned, a hint of doubt in her voice. Then she told him, "I'm hardly a frazzled professor....or, at least, there are professors who are considerably more frazzled than I am. Still, I thought I could use a bit of relaxing after the trip..."

Myrni shifted again so that her slim frame lay alongside Nathan's more masculine one. Her head rested on his chest, not far from the crook of his neck. Sighing, she quietly said, "I suppose cuddling doesn't sound all that bad..."

"Of course not," Nathan agreed as Myrni laid herself down on him. The couch was a mangled mess of pillows now, with Myrni and Nathan happily set in the middle of the whole abomination, with messy and wayward hair. He let one arm fall back over the arm of a couch and loosely wrapped the other one around Myrni's back, drumming his fingers on the crick of her back as he hummed in thought.

Then he chuckled as he backtracked through their conversation, "Hah others more frazzled?" he said as he closed his eyes, as if lost in deep meditation.

"Wait, I see it already..." he began in a dreamy voice as he held his hand out in the air in front of him, "blond, strict, Slytherin Alumn--Aileen!" it was mostly a shot in the dark, but he didn't know of any other professor, that Aileen would take along the trip, who would suffer from the inability to subtract house points from a student.

He hugged an arm around Myrni again, as he began drumming his fingers down her back, and happily continued, "Who else was there?"

Myrni wriggled a little in his embrace as she felt his fingers drumming on her back. It tickled or, if one wished to view it in the magical sense, it tingled. But maybe that was just an indication that his touch had a magic-like effect on her.

Her skin felt warm where he drummed and Myrni closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall into rhythm of his breathing. She herself breathed in deeply and smiled contentedly.  But then he joked about being frazzled and she playfully jabbed him in the ribs until she realized he was no longer making fun of her, per se.

She chuckled along with him as he mentioned Aileen, but she was also quick to say, "Aileen is not so bad, actually." To herself, Myrni again thought about how unfortunate it must have been for Aileen to have been married to Nathan's insufferable brother. Surely Oz could be blamed for any idiosyncracies the Runes professor had that were deemed unbecoming.

Myrni settled back into Nathan's relaxed hold, even going so far as to nuzzle the crook of his neck as she murmured, "You don't really care who else was there, do you?"

"Doh!" Nathan winced and leaned away from the jab, but just managing to squirm beneath Myrni, before he fastened a gentle grip back around her, and continued his drumming. His chest shook as he gave a gentle chuckle at Myrni's defense, "Well I never said that," he admitted rather simply, "She survived a marriage with Oz--I have the utmost respect for the woman." Which was quite honestly the truth. He almost wished that Oz and Aileen would just get over themselves and get back together, but somehow that seemed as likely to happen as a snowstorm in the Sahara. But that then he lost a complete mental grasp on his thoughts, and he was nearly overcome by raw instinct.

He gave a throaty hum as his couch-mate nestled into his neck, with her thick strands of her hair brushing against his cheek, and the warm breath of her question beating against his neck.  "Well, I mean..." he began in a deep and distracted mumble, while his other hand came down to rest on Myrni's back, and then he slid his hands down her side, letting the thin fabric of her blouse slip between his fingers before he began to massage her bare waist between his fingers.

"Why not?" he bent his head to the side and towards Myrni's hair, breathing in her scent as he continued rubbing her waist, "Romantic yeah? Can't have you jumping over sand dunes for someone else can I?"

His breathing slowed as he lay there with Myrni, as he savored her embrace in that moment of vulnerability in the form of a jest, that made him feel like he opened himself up to the obvious issue that had been hanging between them for so long. He wasn't sure where they were going with this, but he definitely  wanted to hold onto her this time.

Talk of Aileen and Oz's failed marriage nudged forth thoughts in her mind about her own less-than-perfect attempt at getting to the altar with the man whose arms she now rested in. Her impassioned heart and mind had felt justified in calling the engagement off back when the encounter with Oz was still fresh. But now all of her worries and protestations just seemed silly.

Could she really go on denying her feelings for him as a means of preserving herself from his family's baseless attacks? Could she, in good conscience, continue to walk in and out of his life knowing that they both would always want something more? Or just really meant to be something more?

Because in moments like these, Myrni simply could not deny that fact.

There was no way to deny that the way she felt laying in his arms was unlike anything she had ever known. Or wanted to know.

The electric feel of his hands on her bare skin and their overall closeness was making her heady. But she knew that she needed to say something.

"Nathan....." Her lips brushed along his jawline and then she pulled back just enough to gaze at the whole of his handsome Whitman face, one that depicted the very essence of strength and courage most of the time. But she knew, perhaps better than anyone, that even Nathan had his vulnerabilities. She had been with him during moments where he actually let go of the bravado that made him such an amazing fit as an Auror. When a case had gone poorly or he had lost a coworker, she had always been the one he came home to for comfort. He had let her see that broken side of him. But now his vulnerability was because of her. And she could not bare the thought of causing him to hurt or maybe feel a different kind of broken.

"I was....wrong," she finally whispered, feeling ashamed of herself for not having the courage to make that admission sooner. Though she was tempted to duck her eyes and seek refuge in the crook of his neck again, she kept them steadily locked with his. Finally, more words came tumbling out, only with less hesitance and uncertainty. "I want to be with you, no matter what."

Once Myrni's lips grazed Nathan's he felt a surge of excitement flood his senses, but when she pulled away from him he felt the excitement fizzle away. Her face hovered above his own, her forlorn gaze, her expression--Nathan tried his best not to show it by only donning a concerned look, but he braced himself for the worst.

What she said next maid him feel like like a bird caught in the headlights of Hogwarts Express. His eyebrows rose and his lips fell apart, but nothing coherent came out, "Uh..." then she followed up with another answer. An answer that left him as equally speechless, but much more relaxed--relieved. But his mind was reeling, he couldn't put his thoughts into words, and he squeezed his eyes together  to recover from the moment.

Finally, he answered with a weighty and gentle tone, "Well, I can't add much to the 'I'm Right You're Wrong' game, love," he gave her a dash of his white smile, "You haven't been particularly talkative about all this, but you know," he raised a hand to her face and caressed her soft cheek, brushing any stray messy hair away from her face as he held her gaze, "I'm not letting you get away so easily now, right? If you're going to be with me."