Comforting times - student lounge (closed)

Taibhse grumbled and traced the tip of his nose along her temple.  "Well, I'm not fragile now.  But I can hardly remember how I looked back before the whole vampirism thing.  I must have been a scrawny little thing by the time Ma bought me, because I can't actually recall eating anything while I was with the other fae.  I was just... washing clothes.  And telling people how they would die."

He could vividly remember the colors.  Red water foretold a violent death.  Dark water meant a death by illness.  Gold for a noble death.  And if the water turned muddy...

Taibhse shivered and sighed hard though his nose, as if trying to clear bad air from his lungs.  He hugged Mollie firmly and rested his chin atop her head, taking a long moment to just close his eyes and listen to the music from the television.

"I've got weird habits, too.  D'you know what my favorite thing in the world is?"  He started a sway a bit, gently rocking Mollie side to side as he held her.  "I like to listen to heartbeats.  Doesn't matter what mood I'm in or what kind of day I'm having, just closing my eyes and listening to someone's pulse calms me right down."

When he got quite, in thought Mollie turned towards him and gently touched his jaw. "Taibhse? Are you okay? I-I'm sure telling people about death . . ." she grumbled a bit. "That must have been terrible."

She cooed at the hug and giggled softly as he rocked her softly. "That's your most favorite thing?" She smiled and her cheeks flushed slightly. "I really enjoy being read to. I also like touching people's faces and hair." She wrinkled her nose a bit. "That last one probably founds a bit weird. Would you like to listen to my heart beat? I wouldn't mind." She beamed up at him.

"I'm fine. I just forget every so often-- not so much that it happened at all, just that it feels like a dream sometimes. The fae that took me didn't even give me a name. People called her the Hag, so I guess that was her title, but I didn't have a name until ma gave me mine."

"It doesn't sound as strange as you think it does. When you can't really see facial expressions, it helps to be able to feel them." He hummed again and tipped his head so that he could rest his forehead against her shoulder, nuzzling the side of his head to her neck to listen to her pulse.

She smiled at the nuzzles and shifted slightly so her fingertips gently traced along his brow and cheek bones. She made a soft coo and nuzzled his hair. "There is a lot in a name. It gives you a feeling of belonging. Since they did not know what my mother's name was and no one came to get me... The head doctor just gave me a name. I'm sure they did not intend it to have a negative connotation. But having a last name meaning Ghost can get you picked on as a kid."

Her hand found its way into his hair and she began playing and massaging his scalp. She sighed contently, listening to the music from the tv.

"I think it's a cool name," Taibhse mumbled. "The Ghost and the Boogeyman. We sound like a Halloween buddy cop movie." He chuckled into her shoulder and started to sway with her again.

She giggled softly. "I do really like the sound of that too. It sounds like something Roo would draw. Like a small story." She hummed softly at the swaying and trailed her fingers along his neck and shoulders.

"Are you trying to make me comfy and go to sleep? Because I think it's working."

"Naps are never a bad idea." He gave a grumbly little sigh and looked up at the tv. "Maybe we should talk to Roo about drawing that. My ma knows how to do those etchings on metal plates. We could have Roo draw up a page of comic panels and braille it."

She smiled. "Really? Put it in Braille for me?" She blushed and nuzzles into his hair with a happy coo. "What if I wanted you to read it to me?"

She wrapped both of her arms around him, hugging him back. Her hands idly played with his hair and petted along his neck and shoulders. "So are you wanting to take a nap for a bit? I'm okay with being your pillow." She shyly kissed his head and cooed, "Does my heart beat sound nice to you?"

"Hm?" Taibhse lifted his head slowly and gave a sleepy smile. "I would like to read it to you. But since it's a comic book, we'd want to raise the lines so you could feel the pictures. Or I could describe them to you."

He rubbed his chin with his sleeve and nodded. "Wouldn't you get bored if I was sleeping? I'm not meaning to doze off on you, I'm sorry. I'm just really comfortable right now."

Grumble. "It sounds like... Like... did you ever have a mobile as a child? Like those little things they hang above baby cribs? Some of them played music, and they were soft and chimey. It sounds like that."

"Raising the lines would be nice. But I would also like you to describe it to me." She pretended to grumble and nuzzled him. "Can I have both?"

She yawned softly and gave him an affectionate squeeze. "I would probably fall asleep with you if that's okay." She shook her head when asked about the mobile. "No, I've never had one of those. There was a music box one of the other kids had. It was a small dancer that would spin to a classical song. But that sounds nice. I'm glad you like it."

Taibhse shifted his weight to pick Mollie up, and flopped to stretch himself out on the couch so that Mollie was beside him. He rested his head on her chest and curled his arms around her protectively. "You can have both. We'll curl up like this and I'll talk you through the Ghost and Boogeyman comic."

He hummed and relaxed. "It's really soothing."

She made a soft gasp of surprise at being picked up and moved. She quickly relaxed into the cuddles and giggled softly. She had not seen this side of Taibhse before and she liked it. One of her hands twirled fingers through his hair and she cooed, "I would really enjoy that. I think that might make me the happiest person ever." She sighed as she leaned her head back and relaxed.

Her mind went back to being held by Miss Zimmermann at the orphanage and how she would sometimes sing lullabies. Mollie's face flushed a little bit but she took in a deeper breath. She softly began to hum a slow deep lullaby.

Taibhse's breathing slowed to an easy, deep rhythm and his lips curled up at the corners as Mollie started to hum. He felt... happy. The knot in his chest seemed to have eased, and the tension in his shoulders melted away. He knew his crush on Roo wasn't entirely real-- a trick his mind played on him, making him think he was much closer to someone than he actually was. It didn't make it hurt any less to know that she liked another boy, but knowing that Mollie was here, and that she cared, and that he could be so at ease with her without first tasting her blood made him feel like he could get over Roo without too much heartache.

Things were better here, he thought, each syllable forming in his mind in time with Mollie's pulse. The idea crossed his mind to lift his head and thank her, but before he could begin to muster the willpower to follow through, he had fallen asleep.