FIXATION

TWENTY-ONE

Steve laughs lightly, smile across his face. "That is more than okay, Rose." And he doesn't seem to mind, seeing as though his smile stretches from her place all the way to his. When they finally get to his place she's surprised to see the light on in the kitchen as well as the living room. While she takes off her shoes she watches as he goes to the table the bowl and empty beer bottle that we're out,yhat into the kitchen. "You were up when I called?"

She follows him into the kitchen, socks keeping her feet warm on the carpeted floor. When he turns to face her, tossing his bowl in the sink and downing what was left of his beer she sees the dark circles under his eyes. In this light, she sees how utterly exhausted he looked. Now he throws the bottle away, "yeah, I was up." When she doesn't say anything to follow he clears his throat, "if you must know, Rosalie, sleeping has been difficult since.. the night you- since the other night."

The night you almost died, she could just imagine him finishing his first thought. But he couldn't say it aloud and she didn't want to touch him to hear those chilling words so she leaned her arms against the granite counter, deep eyes holding him. "You could have called me."

"Unlike you, I'm not using you as a distraction," she couldn't tell if that was meant as a joke but it made the back of her throat taste sour. Her eyes lowered, shrinking at his tone. When he saw her wince at the words he shook his head, "not that I mind when you call, I don't.. I mean I love it." Now he's standing in front of her, hoping to clean up his mess of an explanation. She looks into his eyes and sees them searching for the right structure, "I just meant that I didn't want you to feel pressured, or make you think I value our friendship any less by calling for you to come over all the time."

Rosalie sighs. "You can always call me, Steve. And I can come over to listen. We have had sleepovers before where we didn't have sex," she reminds him.

"Yeah but those were never really any fun."

This earns him a playful punch to the shoulder and the scrunch of her face so she can keep from laughing. Which fails the moment she hear his familiar chuckle. In the silence, Rosalie realizes how lonely this whole thing must be for him, no siblings, absent parents. It's enough to make her reach up and offer him a support squeeze ti the shoulder, "I'll always be there for you, whatever you need."

She won't stay forever, Steve's depressive thoughts fill her head and part of her heart breaks. Now she pulls her arm around his shoulder like she did before in the car, a little more urgent in hopes of showing him she didn't plan on going anywhere. The murky area of their relationship began to gray. She wasn't sure to what extent she was capable of giving to Steve; or more accurately what extent she wanted to give to Steve. Yes, their friendship had saved her in more ways than one. And yes, she'd be lying to herself if she said the way he was looking at her right now - like he wanted to devour her - didn't make her knees go weak. But could she honestly say that their friendship would be enough for him? Would he believe her if she told him she wasn't leaving and didn't commit to more than being friends?

"I can see the wheels spinning in your head," he comments, laughing lightly almost with what sounded like admiration. She makes sure to slide her hand off of his shoulder so she wouldn't have to know what was behind that look. His arms press into the counter behind her, closing her in and consuming her piece by piece. Foreheads inches apart, eyes locked in, he tilted his head ever so slightly, "what're you thinking so hard about?"

Her hands go behind her, warm palms finding the counter so she could hoist herself up. His hands go to her hips lifting her up and placing her close to his. She sighs when her arms go to his shoulders his eyes now on her hips, she too can see the wheels spinning in his head, but his thoughts more lustful. "I was thinking of ways to do this," she whispers moments before their lips skim one another then fall into their pattern of kissing.