. three rings

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There's a static electricity between them now. Where once he had been tense over fear of saying the wrong thing, he was now tense with anticipation, his whole body alert to the moment though he was trying to keep his cool on the outside. His heart thumped against his chest and his palms got ever so slightly sweaty, it wasn't completely different from how he felt in the initial stages of coming up the night before though he was more aware of everything now. The room felt still around them, he could feel her breathing, he could sense her choosing her words. It takes a second for them to sink in. He feels the rush of adrenaline that comes from hearing another echo your feelings, nervousness mixed with elation mixed with manic excitement. "I can do that," he said, effortlessly sweeping up her tiny frame and pulling her into his lap. He forced himself to slow down, to bask in the moment. He held her face in his hand, feeling the smoothness of her cheek against his palm, feeling the satisfying, tantalising weight of her in his lap. His free hand on her thigh, he took her in for a minute, hardly daring to believe what was happening. Unable to hold off any longer, he pulled her in for a deep, slow kiss. "I'll keep things moving, you keep me from moving them too fast, ok? We got this."

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The room is given a boost of adrenaline and the awkwardness that lays with them seems to vanish in it's arrival. Freya tips her head to look at Nick, who seems much less of a mess than he was even a minute ago. The facial hair that he shaved the other day was coming back in an even shadow and it makes the pit of her stomach feel heavy with hunger. Their mutual feelings have turned something on, a thing that she had thought had been forgotten minutes ago. She allows her weight to be manipulated by him, her face lighting up and the stress off the day fading from her eyes. Her thighs grip his hips and she pushes her hands to his chest, breathing deeply and living within this moment. She rests her face into the cup of his hand and smiles gently, her lips meeting his like they're water and she's in a drought.  "Okay," she would agree with mostly anything right here. Her lips dab a few more kisses on his lips, her hand deep in the thick hair of the back of his head. "What should we tell Naila?" She presses the brakes on her urges, her hands dropping back to his chest.

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Compared to the tension from mere moments ago, this feels like the most natural thing in the world. The closeness is familiar but the new level of intimacy is a head rush, Nick feels like his comedown has converted back into a mild high with all the surge of hormones she brought out in him. She was the perfect weight in his lap and she responded to him with wordless precision, her body meeting his and making him crave her more than he ever has before. His fingers brush against the edge of her shorts, his hand falling from her face to her waist. He's moving to lose himself in her, or at least he was, until she mentioned Naila. Leaning back, Nick groaned. She was right. Not unlike her uncle, Naila was not a great sleeper (he refused to admit that he had influenced this, though he inevitably had) and often woke up in the night, allowing herself into the bed of her nearest guardian. How would they explain it if she wandered in tonight? What if, god forbid, she heard them? Running a hand over his face yet again, he forced himself to get it together. "You're gonna have to get off me if I'm gonna think clearly," he said, though his hands were back on her thighs and he was reluctant to let her go. "Can't we just load her up with my sleeping pills and worry about that later?"

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The Naila question was a touchy one, because in Freya's head the Naila question focused on the potential demise of their relationship. All Naila wanted was for all three of them to be a family. Freya as mommy, Nick as daddy, and her. She'd even brought up the idea of a little brother to Freya a couple of months back. 'When are you and Nick going to have a baby?' was a line that had made Freya spit out her coffee. Naila was completely for the idea of their partnership, she wanted Nick as permanent fixture more than anything. Which was worrying. The Naila question was more about what would happen to Naila if they broke up. Nick flops back and Freya is tempted to smirk but is also trying hard to be serious. She makes no attempt to move when asked, her body feels warm with his and she really doesn't want to give it up. She laughs at the suggestion of sleeping pills and leans down to kiss at his jawline softly, unable to keep herself off him. "I think she's been through enough trauma today," she jokes, landing her lips on his and leaning back to sit on his lap. "We should talk to her in the morning. Carefully and seriously. She'll get too excited and we have to prevent her imagination running."

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The idea of Nick's perfect little nuclear family was painfully close to becoming a reality. Even as a high school jock, Nick had never been much of a douche, despite looking like one. He didn't jump from girl to girl, he didn't pride himself on his ability to break hearts. Though it took him a few years to admit to it, all he really wanted in life was a wife he loved and who loved him, and a slew of kids. This desire had quadrupled when Naila was born, visions of a future where he and his future wife would have good ol' American BBQs with Rafi and Freya, Naila playing with her cousins in the yard. It was a vision he'd adapted rather than abandoned, writing Rafi out and swapping out cousins for siblings. Well, half cousins? He was getting ahead of himself. He's sure his enthusiasm had fed into Naila's and vice versa. Despite his attempts to remain neutral on the subject, he indulged the little girl's vision because it so closely resembled his own. "It's too soon to joke about that," he said, giving her a stern look that was ruined by a smile. She flagrantly ignores his request that she get off him and he's glad, running his hands up her thighs and to her waist, snaking round it and holding her tight to him as he kissed her back. "Ok. You take the lead and I'll back you up. If you leave it to me, my imagination will run wild too and before you know it we'll be promising her a hoard of siblings."

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Weeks of loneliness and then this. The day was turning itself around. No more paperwork or worrying over her lost daughter, just this. She can't keep her hands off him. Her fingers brush against his wirey facial hair and down to his clothed chest, she'd really like to rip off that shirt. She nods into a kiss, her teeth nipping playfully as she backs away. "Too fast," she says to the mention of siblings, her hands stroll over his face and she looks into his muddy brown eyes. "How do you bring that up to a five year old?" She thinks outloud, willing him to share his thoughts with her. "I mean being someone and having a kid is easy. It's this is mommy and this is daddy. But you're Nick but you're also daddy.. and I mean, yea, you're daddy," she can't help but laugh and kiss him again. "But how do you explain dating to her? How do you explain that we really like kissing each other and being in the same room?"

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It's surreal, having Freya on top of him as he lay in her bed, a bed he'd hardly even seen before. As they kiss and her teeth graze his lip, he kisses her back more forcefully, pulling away only to pull her sweater up over her head and chuck it across the room. "You sure? I think we could handle another one," he says with a grin, his hands now on her bare waist. He laughs as she calls him daddy, nodding along appreciatively. Still, it's a tricky question. Leaning against the headboard, he tried to force himself to think rationally, knowing that the sooner he answered the question the sooner things could progress. "Just tell her we're like Anna and Kristoff from Frozen, she'll get it."

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The air feels cold against her bare torso, hairs rise and goosebumps fleck her arms. She grins down at him and shakes her head, her dark hair rolling off her shoulders. "I'm not feeding your fatherhood fetish." She less gracefully tugs his shirt off, dropping it in a black heap next to the bed. Her brow furrows thoughtfully as she considers his answer, and she eventually nods. Her hands hold the sides of his face, "you are a genius." Lips kiss his and she pauses again, "what if she walks in?" Quickly answering her own question, she swings her legs off him and goes to lock the door. "Anything else?"

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Nick pouts dramatically, though the idea of actual fatherhood of an actual baby scares the life out of him. Naila is fragile enough, but he had visions of himself with a baby that resembled Lennie Small with a bunny. "Alright. Shall we just practice trying?" he says with a sly look, though it's obscured as the t-shirt is raised over his head. He grins as she kisses her approval, pleased to have solved one of his first big challenges as a parent. As Freya bolts the door he's left cold, missing the skin on skin contact though it's been barely a second. "Just remember to keep the noise down this time," he said, grin returning as he reached out and took her arm, pulling her back onto the bed, "or she'll think I'm murdering you."

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She grins into a kiss. If she wasn't so high on adrenaline, the talk of babies would freak her out. With Rafi she had thought she would have a handful of children. But single parenthood had made having more children seem daunting. She's pulled back to bed and resumes her previous position, with both legs at the side of him. She leans in and kisses his jaw, the sweet musty smell of a night well had clings to his skin. "I really thought you hated me," she pouts again, he clearly did not hate her. "You kept running away. Do I smell?"

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Despite the blip with the school, this has been a good day for Nick. He's still basking in the afterglow of August expressing affection for him, and now he's got the one thing he's been craving since California, this sort of intimacy with the one girl he can't imagine ever getting tired of. He buries a hand in her mass of dark hair as she starts kissing his jawline, grateful that he hadn't shaved this morning, knowing Freya's preferences. "I could never hate you," he says, pulling her in closer, slightly roughly with his hand in her hair, trailing kisses down her neck. He laughs against her skin, breathing in the sweet, floral notes she seemed to naturally exude. "No, far from. I couldn't stand being around you without being able to touch you."

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She smiles lovingly. She knows Nick could never hate her because he couldn't hate anyone. He didn't have a hateful bone in his body and could often see the best in the worst people... He was, after all, friends with August. "That's sweet," she laughs a little, she becomes breathless as he kisses her neck. Shivers run up her spine. "August came by yesterday," she wraps her arms around his torso and makes him sit up so she can press herself against him to shower him further with kisses. "Told me I should run for the hills and not let you fall in love."

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Burying himself into the nape of her neck, Nick's more preoccupied with taking her in than talking. Though his exhaustion was barely tempered by his nap, adrenaline is keeping him going now, raw desire overtaking his base need for sleep. Kissing her across her jawline and neck, his hands spread across her back, just slipping into the waistband of her shorts. Then he freezes. Leaning back, he looks at her with a raised brow, concern written all over his face. "What?" What she's saying sinks in, and any affection he felt for his friend was dampened by a surge of anger. What was August playing at? "What did he say, exactly?"

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Her whole body envelopes him and she feels so warm, she wishes that she could live in this moment forever. But then at her own fault, she mentions August and the moment freezes.. or it ends. His hands freeze against her flesh and she grips his elbows, willing him to not let her hips go cold. "Mhm," she murmurs, tipping her plump lips to his neck and clinging onto the moment. "Well," she starts, leaning a little back to look at him. "He came in and said exactly that. Then he said he should just quarantine me to prevent your disease. Then he raided my fridge, made a comparison between you and a dog in heat and left."

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He can tell she regrets bringing it up, her body leaning into his and her lips still pressing against his neck. He wants to get back to it too, he can't bring himself to let go of her, but he also has to know exactly what's been said. As she tells him his heart sinks. He doesn't even have the energy to be mad, he's so hurt by it, especially since August hadn't mentioned it and then went on to spend the night swapping stories with him. Deflated, he leans back against the headboard again, running a hand through his hair for the hundredth time. He's not sure what to say. "What did you say?"