Who: Izzy and Tommy Where: Izzy’s apartment What: The morning after the Halloween party When: Backdated like whoa to November, 1st, morning Rating: High for nudity and mentions of sex, otherwise low Status: closed, complete
Tom blinked against the sunlight. It was a brightness that was reaching uncomfortable levels. A brightness that fueled the throbbing in Tom’s head. The young PhD groaned as he slowly regained consciousness again. A rather painful consciousness. In one word, he felt hungover. The last time he had felt like this was when his friends had dragged him out after a row with Jake.
Before he could properly see the room around him, he noticed the warmth on his chest. It was a heavy warmth. Heavy and - breathing? Now Tom let the blinking go and jumped to the fully ripped open eyes. What he saw made him smile. Izzy! The first thing he noticed was how peaceful she looked. He couldn’t see much except her hair and a part of her face and he did not dare disturb her. His fingers carefully brushed a strand of hair out of her face before he let his head sink into his pillow again. This was going fairly well. He didn’t know how it had went that way - at least, not exactly but the knowledge that it did left him with a warm and fuzzy feeling. He stole another glance of her sleeping figure, drank in the feeling of her breasts moving against his chest and her arm draped around his body. His head slightly protested as he moved it too quickly so he decided to let it rest and occupy it with the task of reconstructing the last night.
oooOOOooo
Izzy gradually crossed the threshold from sleep to wakefulness, first realizing that she was in bed and it was warm and comfortable. That seemed fine so the more primitive side of her brain didn’t see any need to send signals to the rest of her that she needed to wake up. Then she became aware of the dull ache in her skull, the type that spoke of too much booze the night before. After that came the sensation of soreness in certain spots that indicated she’d had a very pleasant night indeed. Judging from the feeling of the warm, comfortable bed, whomever she’d had the pleasant night with was still there with her, underneath her actually.
None of that sounded like a problem to her inner cave woman, so it just let her sleep off the booze for as long as possible.
What finally roused her to semi-alertness was the daylight streaming in from her bedroom window and the shifting of her comfortable bed warmer below her. She opened her eyes to find Tom’s staring back at her.
oooOOOooo
“Morning,” Tom mumbled, a lot less suavely as he would have wished. He had aimed for a charming tone, what he had gotten was a hoarse one. “It’s nice to wake up with you again.” He smiled down at her. The smile was dulled by his headache but he meant every word. He felt the need to try harder in proving her that this meant something, that they could be what the future had promised them to be. They were good together.
oooOOOooo
“Um.” Izzy’s eyes widened in confusion as her brain tried to process the events of the previous evening. She and Tom had gone to the Halloween party, and she’d had more to drink than normal, especially when she let Mitchell take her over to enjoy a few shots of tequila. So she’d been pretty tipsy, but she could dimly recall Tom not being among the most sober individuals either. They’d danced, laughed, and had a good time, and one thing had led to another.
She closed her eyes tightly shut for a few heartbeats as she tried to get herself together without offending or hurting Tom. This was too soon. Way, way too soon. But it had been good sex. Really good sex. Her eyes opened again and she smiled awkwardly. “Good morning. Sleep well?”
oooOOOooo
The reaction - though not the one he had wanted - was expected. He had wanted her to say something more than ‘sleep well’. But there was still tension. She did not trust him. He wasn’t even sure if she believed him. If she would, wouldn’t they have gone back to being what they were by now?
“Yeah, I - uh - think so,” Tom mumbled. At least, she hadn’t moved away from him yet. That was a good sign. Maybe she just needed time. “You?”
oooOOOooo
Izzy contemplated getting up, but in all honesty her head throbbed from the hangover and the rest of her was warm and comfortable lying there in his arms. She didn't have the energy or desire to move just yet.
"I guess that depends on the time." Though judging from the sunlight it had to be at least mid morning. She wasn't sure exactly when they'd actually drifted off, from the (admittedly a bit hazy) memories of their lovemaking she'd been very enthusiastic and energetic, and a slight blush came to her features. "We must have worn each other out."
oooOOOooo
Tom replied with a low and comfortable chuckle. “Yeah, guess we did. That was pretty good.” At least, from what he remembered it was. His memories consisted of blurry pictures, sensations, thoughts. The connections were missing. Just snippets - moments that were frozen in his mind, everything between that was a haze. But from what his memories told him it had been like it had been before whatever it was had come between them. The alcohol had taken away every restraint they might have felt. It had been raw passion. Jesus, it had been good.
oooOOOooo
“Yeah.” Izzy echoed, but she really didn’t know what else to say, and the awkwardness was coming up between them again. She hated it, but she hadn’t been ready to get back to this stage with Tom yet. Maybe it was all her, and she should just get over herself, but she’d wanted to ease back into things, re-establish trust. He hadn’t even been back a week and she’d gotten herself liquored up and back into bed with him!
Had she done it because she’d missed him, or because she’d been horny? What was the phrase? ‘Bitch in heat’? She’d certainly acted that way last night!
How did she get herself into these messes? And how did she get out without setting them back even further?
oooOOOooo
Tom smiled at her agreeing. She didn’t stay silent or declined it. It was good in his books. The silence was a comfortable one. Just like before. His fingers followed the line of her hair, slowly trailing down her back.
oooOOOooo
Izzy extracted herself from his arms before things could go any further. “Have to use the little girl’s room.” She apologized, not entirely untruthfully. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
It didn’t take long for her to retreat to the bathroom and close the door behind her. “What is wrong with you?” She hissed quietly to herself. It hadn’t been Tom’s fault what had happened. Her logical mind understood that, really, but the emotional side of her wasn’t ready to let things go right back to where they’d been before.
oooOOOooo
Tom nodded, propped himself up on his and watched her naked form as she got up and slipped into some clothes. There was only one conclusion to be drawn from this: he was a very lucky man. He wasn’t quite sure how he had gotten this lucky. Her proportions matched his ideal and her face differed from the normal in ways that was astonishing. She needed to close the door behind her for him to be able to take his eyes off of her.
Then he mimicked her in his quest for clothes. Once he was dressed, he went into the kitchen. He wanted to do something nice, something that would bring them closer together and let her see that he was a worthy boyfriend. Tom decided that something was making breakfast and padded over to the kitchen area to make coffee.
oooOOOooo
(OOC: I’m assuming this happened? - We’ll say she at least put her undies on. I think she was still in costume when they came back to her place for wild monkey sex. Works!)
A breath she hadn’t realized she was holding was let go when Izzy heard Tom get up. What was wrong with her? She loved this man, or she thought she did, why was she acting so crazy? If she kept going this way they wouldn’t be anything because she’d push him away.
They were going to have to talk about it, something she wasn’t a huge fan of doing. In many ways she was much better with machines than with men. Machines did what you told them to do, even if that wasn’t necessarily what you meant them to do. Men on the other hand...she squashed the thought and scrubbed her face before stepping out of the bathroom and throwing on a pair of jeans and a top.
After that, she marched toward the kitchen to face the music.
oooOOOooo
“Hey,” Tom said softly as he heard the bathroom door close. He glanced at her as she came closer. “What do you want for breakfast? You know my - uh - limited skills.” An excuse was woven into a smile as he fetched two mugs from the cupboards. She looked a bit tense but maybe that was just the hangover.
oooOOOooo
“Toast is fine for right now.” Izzy took hold of his hand and took a deep breath. “Come sit down first though, I need to talk to you about something.”
oooOOOooo
Now it was Tom’s turn to tense. That was never a good start to a conversation. Reluctantly, Tom sat down and nodded. At least, there was a ‘first’ in the sentence.
oooOOOooo
Izzy took a deep breath and stared into his eyes and kept tight hold of his hands. “Tom, last night was wonderful, but it’s too soon for me. This whole memory business, I know what happened wasn’t your fault in here.” She let go of one hand and tapped her head. “But in here,” she tapped her heart “I’m still struggling to get used to the idea. I’m so happy you’re alive, but at the same time I’m on my guard and I hate that I feel that way. I have to get past that if we’re going to work again.”
She kept her eyes trained on his. “I need you to help me, by letting me take things slow and ease back into it again.”
oooOOOooo
Tom stayed silent for a moment before he started to nod. Izzy’s happiness was important. It was hard for him to accept that currently, he seemed to bring as much pain to her life as he brought happiness. He wanted this to work. But it shouldn’t come with the sacrifice of being uncomfortable. “Okay, yeah. You call the shots from here on.”
***
Izzy relaxed at those words and sagged back in relief before leaning forward and kissing him lightly on the lips. “Thank you.” She’d been afraid he wouldn’t understand and would try and argue about it. They would get through this, together, and come out the other side better than before.