Room 223, Monday Morning

[life_inshadow]

Tara never thought she'd regret putting all of her classes in the second half of the week, but today, she did. She would have welcomed an hour or so of something normal to get her back to thinking about something other than alternate dimensions and rips in the fabric of reality.

Their magic had worked; that was something. She just wished she could have done more, even if she didn't know what more would have been.

At least it was over. Sighing, she settled onto the floor cross-legged and held out a cat toy shaped like a fishing rod. Mr. Moxy was in for an extra-intense play session today. She needed to spoil something.

[OOC: Open door, yep!]

Comments

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Kennedy had a Monday class, but after the weekend the subject matter wasn't exactly something she wanted to dwell on, so she'd been grateful Reno had gone easy on them. She still had a lot of her things in the cabins, too, but she was still tired, still freaked out by some of the things she'd seen, and now was so not a moving-things kind of time. Now was really not much of a moving-at-all kind of time, for that matter.

"Hey," she said softly, leaning in the doorway and just watching for a few moments; this was a nice, normal sight, and wow, she needed that.

[life_inshadow]

Moxy went over to attack Kennedy's shoes. Apparently, she still smelled like hedgehog to him -- so that was another normal thing.

"Hey," Tara said, with a tired smile as she went after the cat. "C'mon in. You doing okay?"

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"I think I just want to sleep for the rest of the day," Kennedy admitted, twitching one foot for Moxy's amusement. She hardly felt threatened by the cat when she was her normal human size, but she'd take the familiarity anyway. "Or not, but I'm putting a temporary ban on strenuous physical activity until at least tomorrow morning."

She paused. "The kind that involves going outside, anyway."

[life_inshadow]

Tara gave her a slightly befuddled look for a long moment before it clicked and she went pink.

"... okay, if you're trying to make me blush, you're doing better, sweetie," she laughed. "I could go to bed too. A-and I didn't even go with you yesterday."

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"So it's up there on my list of favorite pastimes. Is that so wrong?" Kennedy glanced upward, feigning an innocence no one who'd met her for more than five minutes would believe, and chuckled. "And I didn't go with you the other night, either. It was, um. An adventure, let's just say, but you'd know too, huh?"

[life_inshadow]

"I would have gone with totally terrifying," Tara said earnestly. "But -- it's over. And we both did good things, right?"

She reached to put an arm around Kennedy. "Y-you didn't get hurt or anything, did you?"

If' she'd be skeptical if Kennedy said no ... well, Kennedy had earned it.

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"The island's back," Kennedy answered, leaning into her, and for such a simple, almost silly statement there was a world of relief behind it. "We did amazing."

She took a moment to kick her shoes off and wiggle her toes at Moxy. "Some cuts and scrapes," she answered, because she figured Tara would find out one way or another soon so there wasn't much point in saying otherwise. "And I think my hands are kind of blistered, and I kind of ache all over, but... no major injuries? And you're okay too, right?"

Which she was already trying to check for herself, yes.

[life_inshadow]

Evil toes! Moxy would get them!

"Nothing," Tara said. "Raven did a lot to keep everybody safe. I barely got a scratch."

"And," she added, leaning into the being-checked-over, "the island's back and we're all here."

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"There is nothing here that goes in the bad column," Kennedy declared, mentally resolving to do something really awesome for Raven. She tilted her head, as if she was inspecting the side of Tara's neck for any injuries, then moved closer to kiss it lightly. "So damn proud of you, y'know? All of you, I mean, but I'm allowed to give you preferential treatment there."

[life_inshadow]

"I hope you'd give me preferential treatment," Tara answered. "It'd kinda suck if you were doing this w-with all the magic types."

And then she pressed forward for a deeper kiss.

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Kennedy had been about to say something about how she didn't go around kissing just any witch, but there were more fun ways to illustrate the point, weren't there? Like reaching up to cup Tara's face in both hands and pull her closer? Because there had been a couple dozen points yesterday alone where she'd thought she might not be getting the chance to do this again, so it was still kind of amazing, and she kind of wanted to hang on to Tara forever, and...

"We made it," she breathed at the first opportunity to speak. "Oh my god, we made it."

[life_inshadow]

Tara was clinging to Kennedy like she was drawing oxygen or life itself from her, out of relief and giddiness and sheer pleasure. She'd never quite believed the whole island would make it back from the brink ait had hovered at the last few days. Now, in Kennedy's arms, she finally knew it was true.

"We saved the world," she said, almost laughing, and reached over to nudge the door shut. "We can do anything."

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"We are awesome," Kennedy agreed, maybe shaking just a tiny bit with relief now that she'd finally let herself unwind a little from the constant state of wariness. Being here definitely helped with that, as did the cat attacking her toes, and the sun shining outside on an island that no longer had gaping holes in it. She had, if she was perfectly honest, been terrified.

"And everything is gonna be okay, and I feel like I could just kiss you forever right now. You okay with that?"

[life_inshadow]

"I think I wouldn't be okay with it if you didn't," Tara said, in a low voice right against Kennedy's ear. "But I might kiss you back a lot."

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

The warmth of Tara's breath against her ear drew an entirely different kind of shiver, and Kennedy let her hands drop to Tara's waist. "I think I might be fine with that," she murmured, leaning back against the wall. "Hell of a lot more fun that way."

[life_inshadow]

"Mmmm," Tara agreed, moving her own hands around to meet in the small of Kennedy's back. She never realized how petite Kennedy was until they were standing like this, and there was a familiar, gentle surprise in her answering shiver. "Other way's kind of like m-making out with a doll, right?"

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"Pretty much." The look in Kennedy's eyes was less relieved and more purposeful now, and she just might have been trying to pull Tara closer against her. "Which is pretty boring, 'cause I love getting a reaction out of you."

It could be noted that Tara was getting a reaction out of her, too, the way her breath caught.

[life_inshadow]

"N-not" -- Tara had to swallow, here, and pull back a tiny bit so she could breathe -- "not like that's ever hard for you."

Her hands traced up along Kennedy's ribs.

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"No," Kennedy drawled, eyes drifting shut momentarily and one hand trailing down the length of Tara's spine. "But it's definitely rewarding."

And making her a little lightheaded, but that was never a bad thing.

[life_inshadow]

Tara was also going lightheaded, and decided to fix that by edging them slightly toward the bed. (All right, it'd probably add to the lightheadedness -- but she'd have a nice big soft thing to stay on.)

"And, see," she said, not really caring if she was making sense, "that's why I'm going to let you kiss me a lot."

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Sense? Who needed sense? It was tricky, moving across the room with her eyes half shut and her hands tracing erratic patterns along Tara's back, but Kennedy was not one to turn down that idea.

"Think you deserve a reward as much as I do," she answered between kisses. Wait, whose reward was it exactly? She'd lost track, but she could hardly be expected to keep track at all, not when there was a bed to stretch out on and pull Tara down beside her.

[life_inshadow]

"It's like a mutual reward," Tara said giddily as she stretched alongside Kennedy, tipping her mouth to meet the other girl's. "Perfect."

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

"Got that right, babe," Kennedy murmured huskily, and trailed her fingertips lightly across Tara's stomach as she closed the distance to kiss her. "Hope you don't have anywhere to be for a while..."

[life_inshadow]

"No place except here," Tara said, losing herself in the kiss. "Promise."

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Kennedy nipped lightly at her lip as if to say she'd take her word for it, then pulled back just long enough to half-whisper, "Love you, baby."

And maybe neither of them was in any danger of being unexpectedly pulled away by an unstable island any more, but the way Kennedy was holding onto her, she definitely wasn't taking any chances.