It was a picture perfect English spring morning. Overcast, slightly drizzly and cool, the polar opposite of the warm, sunny Brazilian mornings that Kia had been subjected to for the last month. Kale would have loved Brazil, all the sun and warmth and gorgeous woman on the beach, but Kia preferred the chilly, damp and fully clothed atmosphere of London. Resting her forehead against the window, she stared through the raindrops at the grey sky, sipping on her tea absent-mindedly. Somewhere in the other room, Thoth yawned and whimpered in his sleep.

This peace only lasted for a few minutes before Kia's mind wandered from the clouds to be replaced by a flash of Rashid's shredded throat and empty eyes. Wincing, Kia quickly shook herself back to reality before the vision could replay in all of it gory glory. No matter how many times she replayed that night in her mind, she still found herself sickened by the brutality and even more so with how helpless she had been to stop it. The faces of her dead comrades haunted her dreams, their gaping mouths and lolling eyes questioning why this was happening to them. Why she hadn't moved quicker to save them. It kept her up most nights and while the sabbatical with her father was nice, it hadn't done much to quell the nightmares. For the last couple of months, she spent most of her free time cooking, sewing, reading, and exercising, really anything that could keep her mind from wandering. It helped most of the time.

Of course, there was Eamonn. He had certainly proven his worth as a boyfriend over the last several months. With the exception of the month she was gone to Brazil, he had spent nearly every night in her bed, pressed against her with his arms encompassing her and their legs entangled. She felt a safeness with him that she hadn't felt since she was a little girl climbing into her parents bed after a bad dream. Yet even the feel of his breath on her neck or the warmth of his chest against her back could not cure her of her insomnia. Which was why he was in the bedroom, still sound asleep, and she was in a kitchen lit only by the dim grey glow of dusk, clutching a mug of tea with white knuckle intensity to keep her hands from shaking.

The silence, which had been a welcome respite before, now seemed suffocating. If she didn't break it, she'd be left to her thoughts and that would end badly. So she flipped on the radio, deftly catching the volume knob just in time to turn it low enough to hear but to not wake Eamonn in the other room. The dulcet tones of Sinatra poured out and she allowed herself a small sigh of relief before she begin to putter about the kitchen. She hadn't had a chance to shop since she returned, but as always, there was at least a couple fairly fresh strawberries. The smell that arose as she sliced them brought another small sigh. It was the little things that helped sooth a fractured soul.

Several minutes later, Kia slipped into her bed room with a tray laden with two mugs of tea, a small pitcher of milk and two bowl of hearty oatmeal laced with slices of strawberries and bananas. Thoth looked up from his spot at the end of the bed, his ears perking up with interest, only to huff and pout when Kia hissed that there was no oatmeal for him. Setting the tray on the nightstand, Kia quickly slipped into the bathroom and freshened up, brushing her teeth and running her fingers through her hair, before she slid into bed next to Eamonn. Tucking his dark curls behind his ear, Kia took a moment to admire the lines of his profile before brushing her lips against his ear with a murmur, "Eamon... wake up... I have something tasty for you..."

It was another morning of drifting through dream materials with faint curiosity as they slipped one by one past him.  He was almost aware of the fact that he was dreaming, being on the verge of awareness that the day had started, that is, that the sun had risen on the horizon....  Left to his own devices, Eamonn Mullen would have been awake by this hour.  He would have risen before the sun and sat in meditation until it was time for tea.  But for the last four moons, his life had been different from what he was accustomed to; he had Kiana now and given the recent events in her life he had taken to caring for her.  Suddenly his ascetic lifestyle had shifted to a near daily allowance for such things as this - this lackadaisical relishing of the last moments of sleep and the creature comforts of a lovers' bed.  Suddenly being in love and showing affections had become important pass-times in themselves, now he had another to care for.

As she roused him, Eamonn blinked and as soon smiled when he was greeted with her image; her instant presence on waking was a wonderful luxury.  He'd realized that especially when she had been gone for one of those moons, and now that she was back he didn't want to leave her side.  Mewing out the last dregs of sleep in a sensuous stretch, he felt very cat-like and fortunate.  To be afforded the privilege of silkily wrapping her up in his arms now on a Saturday morning was very surreal.

"Good morning," he said with his embrace.  "You are soo beautiful."  His voice was languid and warm with sleep.  He was drawn toward the subtle aroma of steaming tea, then to the clean sweetness of freshly sliced fruit undercut by the heartiness of the oats, he half rolled over his shoulder to glimpse the sweet breakfast tray that was set beside him.  "Ohh my goodness," he cooed, returning to look into her eyes and cover her in kisses, drawing himself up on the bed the better to do so.

Being naturally sensitive to the subtleties of environment, Eamonn held an awareness of Kia's tossing and turning in the night, her stealing out of bed early in the morning; when he looked on her lately there was always a faint worry hidden in his eyes.  "You're the sweetest, Kia," he said, giving her this look - one of loving and wondering.  "How'd you sleep, love?" he raised a brow, but distracted from the directness of his inquiry by turning again, this time to bring the breakfast tray carefully to rest on a spot between them.

Being held by Eamonn was an entirely new sensation for Kia. For most of her life, she had been the one holding others. She held her father when he cried at her mothers funeral, she held her brother when he was haunted by nightmares, and she even held Thoth when it thundered out and turned the wolf-hybrid from a stoic warrior into a whimpering baby. It had been so long since she had had to box up her own feelings and bury them deep inside, forgoing any comforting so that she could support those she loved, that she still had a hard time not stiffening when Eamonn wrapped his arms around her.

However, this feeling was short lived. It now took only a couple of seconds of being encompassed by his warm embrace before Kia's icy exterior begin to soften. When his lips found her skin, leaving little trails of fire and goosebumps in their wake, Kia melted into his embrace with a sigh. Her eyes fluttered shut and she sucked in her bottom lip, nursing it between her lips with a moan as his kisses found the sensitive spot in the hollow at the base of her neck. If he kept that up, she might just have to forget about breakfast and ravish him instead.

Naturally, this meant that he chose that exact moment of bliss to stop and focus on the oatmeal. Kia let out a barely audible grunt of disappointment and settled in next to him, retrieving her own bowl. It had extra strawberries.

"You're the sweetest, Kia"

"It's... It's just oatmeal" She murmured, though her comment was offset by the flush of pink his compliment brought to her cheeks. If anyone else had said something like "You're the sweetest", they would have been met with a glare or worse, a pointed eye roll. However, even the smallest, most innocuous gestures, when made by Eamonn, left her feeling extremely and sincerely pleased. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear bashfully, Kia tried to hold back a smile as she took a bite, savoring the way the plain, earthy grains mixed with the understated sweetness of the strawberries and creaminess of the bananas. It was pretty delicious, if she did say so herself.

"How'd you sleep, love?"

Kia was glad she was currently chewing a spoonful when he asked this, since it gave her a moment to think about how to answer. She wanted to be honest with Eamonn. He was truly the best thing to happen to her in years, if not ever, and she wanted their relationship to be built on honesty (even if it didn't necessarily start that way). However, Kia didn't want to tell him that she had only managed to get about three hours of fitful sleep before sitting in a dark room, reliving her nightmares with increasing dread for the rest. It wasn't just the fact that she was an intensely private person who disliked the idea of being seen as weak or needy; or the fact that talking about it meant facing the facts that not only were people dead but she was to blame because of lacking skills; it was the fact that she and Eamonn hadn't been dating for more than a few months and she didn't know if she completely trusted him yet.

Even though she was pretty sure his feelings were real and that he was generally honest with her, she couldn't escape the suspicion that he was hiding certain things from her. After nearly 5 months together, she still didn't know where he worked, who his boss was or what his home looked like. Perhaps it seemed trivial to others, but to Kia it was very important. She had just been so caught up in this whole 'grieving' mess that she hadn't had a chance to ask him and at this point, she had no idea how to bring it up. Kale warned her that being one of those crazy, possessive girlfriends that quizzed their boyfriends on every aspect of their lives could be disastrous, so Kia tried not to be too intrusive, but she couldn't shake the feeling that these were things she ought to know by now.

"Not... Great, I guess..." She said finally, opting to worry less about his possible secrets and more about the current situation. Staring down at her oatmeal, she poked at it listlessly with her spoon. "Just a couple bad dreams... you know, the usual..." Maybe he could translate the dreams for her. It was the perk of dating someone skilled in divination after all. Though, to be honest, she wasn't sure if she wanted to relive the dream that finally forced her awake at two in the morning.

His eye twinkled as he glanced at her, smiling.  Nothing was ever just oatmeal and her level of cute confirmed it.

It was becoming a familiar sensation his body held memory of, Kia's way of thawing under his touch as she did a few moments ago, when he held her in his arms long enough and felt the whole of her relax.  It warmed Eamonn's heart, making him feel closer to her each time she lowered her defense in this subtle but palpable way.  It was as ever hard to pull away from her.  Almost as soon as he had the tray in order he had his hand to her shoulder, very lightly kneading on the tendons connecting to her neck as she settled in.

Eamonn was fond of the spoon she'd given him; he used it to scoop up a bite with banana balanced  on top, and relished the sensation of morning's first eats.  He sounded his approval with a quiet hum and enjoyed a few more before he eased back against a pillow and took up his tea.  Eating upon waking was another novelty, one he was surprised to enjoy so much, but Kia had fine taste for simple and energizing breakfasts, the kind that fed the soul.  He could never get accustomed to the rich foods that Kronos Malvivicus always wanted to feed him.  He had to insist on plain foods and scraps from the kitchen, and only when he truly needed food would he eat.  Here at Kia's side was a different world though.  If he wasn't careful he would completely overwhelm his delicate senses... but that was an acceptable risk for something - or rather someone - so wonderful and enriching.

It scared Eamonn that he was approaching domesticity in certain ways, living the human life he'd tried to distance himself from in the last several years, breaking ties with his family and retreating into a hermetic existence in service to another's vision.  He'd been running away from the world, and from the burden  of shouldering his own philosophies and opinions on average, day to day affairs.  It was so much simpler for him to operate as a channel or conduit, devoid of egoistic concerns.  In a strange way her bad dreams comforted him.  He wasn't sure the whole of this made sense, but he thought it had to do with his feeling that the process of living necessarily resulted in becoming overwhelmed by the unimaginable circumstances that life presented.  He couldn't imagine the pain that she had been through, but he relaxed somewhat in realizing that Kia was just as sensitive as himself.

He was quiet a moment and wrapped his arm back around her shoulder.  "If it's ever something you'd like to talk about," he offered.  "Or perhaps I could help you sometime, in blocking out the dream images.  There are several forms of meditation that could be helpful."  He paused a beat to drink his tea, though his eyes were busy being held on her as he took the time to take in cues from her facial expressions and posture.  When he put his tea down he smiled. 

"I'd love to meditate with you," he said.  Sensing her reluctance to delve into the topic of her nightmares, however, he eased into another topic.  "What are your plans for the day?"

Eamonn wasn't the only one worried by the sudden, intense changes their relationship had brought to their lives. She had spent the years since her mothers death building up walls of ice around her in a desperate attempt to keep from being abandoned one again. This included pushing away potential suitors, friends and even her own family in the pursuit of safe lonliness. After all, you couldn't be abandoned if you had no one to leave you. Or so she had told herself all these lonely years.

So when Eamonn quite suddenly popped into her life and just as quickly became a fixture, she couldn't help but be wary how easily he broke down her barriers. Normally she might have flinched when someone put their arm around her but with Eamonn, she felt that rush of fear fade so quickly it was as though it was never there and she snuggled against him happily. However, deep inside, a tiny little voice cried out "Beware, Beware! You know nothing about him! What if he is only melting the ice in order to crush your heart again??". She tried her best to squash the little pessimist, but she couldn't help but feel it made a good point. He had managed to bypass her barriers so quickly that she was left defenseless. At this point, it would probably only take the smallest of betrayals to break her.

"If it's ever something you'd like to talk about, Or perhaps I could help you sometime, in blocking out the dream images.  There are several forms of meditation that could be helpful." 

His expression was earnest and so openly compassionate that Kia couldn't help but feel that he wouldn't betray her like that. In fact, he probably couldn't. This thought managed to blot out the voice long enough for her to begin to feel more at ease.

"I'd love to meditate with you, What are your plans for the day?"

With her fear of betrayal temporarily soothed, Kia felt a part of her that she had kept hidden with her other more intense feelings start to surface. Specifically, the part of her that wanted intimacy and passion. The dreams could wait. In fact, she would prefer NOT to talk about something so depressing while laying half naked in bed with the man she could, quite honestly, say she loved.

"I don't know... I have the day off..." She said softly as she pressed closer to him, wrapping a bare leg around his thigh. Reaching up, she ran her fingers through the dark curls of his chest hair. It was probably amusing to her father and brother, who were both relatively muscular and hairless, that she found this slender, surprisingly hairy Irish man so attractive. She wasn't sure how it happened either, since all the men she had harbored crushes on before were the beefy ranch hands her father hired, but she supposed that love changed how you viewed things. Right now, a shirtless Eamonn, with his scruffy chin, tousled curls and hairy chest, was the sexiest thing she could imagine.

Trailing her fingers down his chest, around his belly button and to the band of his boxers, where she slid just the tip of her fingers inside the elastic, Kia stared up at him with unabashed longing. Pouting her lips just so slightly, she mused "... What do you want to do?"



((Don't worry guys, we are gonna keep this PG 13! Probably a fade to black in the very near future hehe))