Tim knew something was slightly off when he came to Luthor Mansion and was told that Irina had not yet returned from work. As far as he knew, she was going to take an off that day. But Lena had asked him to stay for a while so he complied and kept her company.
Irina's aunt was a very sweet and friendly woman who Tim respected a lot. But while talking to her he figured out that even Lena had no idea what her niece was up to.
Since he had come to know Irina closely, he knew very well that she was still bothered about Lex and was definitely going to probe into the matter further. He retreated to Irina's room to wait for her when Lena had to leave and attend a call.
"Hi, Tim," not long had passed in him waiting as Irina entered the room, dropping her bag at the table. She seemed tired and her voice was also dimmer than usual. She collapsed on the couch, kicking off her heels and leaned back exhausted.
Tim looked at her, concern flickering on his features as he sat down beside her, "hey. Everything okay?"
"Sort of," she had interlocked her hands together and her knuckles seemed even redder and bruised than usual.
"Ah, so who did you pick up a fight with this time?"
"No one," she replied vaguely, her eyes fluttering shut from exhaustion.
"Irina..."
She tilted her head to look at him, "nothing you should worry about."
"But this is something I should worry about, right? Your knuckles are this close to bleeding," he held her hands in his, thumbs gently rubbing her bruised knuckles.
"Nothing to worry about," she insisted, snuggling closer to him and her eyes dropped shut again, "I did not have a good day and I'm definitely not in the mood for interrogation at this moment. I hope you understand."
"That's all okay by me but... Why don't you get these treated, Ren?"
"Too much hassle," she dismissed with a shrug but he didn't let her retrieve her hands from his.
Instead he searched in his bag for petroleum jelly and once he found it, he opened the lid taking some of it at his fingertips, "sit still please and let me do what you should have done earlier if only you cared slightly about your own self."
He had sat down on the bed across from her, taking her hands in his as he gently rubbed the reddened skin on her knuckles.
She let out a soft chuckle, "oh come on..."
"You think I'm joking here?" Tim looked up, concern evident in his blue eyes, "I'm damn serious, Irina. I thought no one could beat me in lack of self preservation. But here you are, an even worse case than mine."
"I don't have enough time."
"Time is just a factor and quite honestly, the lamest excuse you could give me. The truth is that you don't consider it important enough to do it."
She let him tenderly massage her knuckles, "you know what, you're good at manicures too."
"Glad to be of service, my lady."
A smile flickered on her features, "no really though... Is there any one thing you aren't good at, Timbers?"
"A lot of things apparently. The foremost is that I'm really bad at behaving well when I'm on caffeine withdrawal."
He had interlaced their fingers together, still massaging her knuckles that were covered with his fingertips.
"I've never seen you on caffeine withdrawal so I can't really imagine you being anything other than adorable."
"If spiraling out of control and getting extremely angry is adorable to you, then maybe you'd have a different take on that."
"You're always so fucking adorable. It's hard to think of you otherwise."
He smiled, placing a kiss at the back of her palm, "trust me you're the only one who thinks that."
Her hands were still entwined in his as she leaned forward from the couch, closer towards him, capturing his lips with hers in a kiss. But even then his fingertips soothed her bruised skin, applying gentle pressure.
Soon afterwards he was lying flat on the bed, with Irina on top of him. His hands were pinned down on either side and a shiver ran down his spine as her lips trailed down to his jawline, sucking on his soft skin long enough to leave a rather prominent lovebite.
"And do you know what's that one thing you're really good at? Like really really good at..."
She lifted her head up, green irises piercing down in his blue ones, "pray do tell."
"Leaving me absolutely breathless every single second you're around me. No matter what you do, you always make my heart race."
She raised an eyebrow playfully as she bent down to kiss his nose then his cheekbones, noticing the reddish tinge that had spread across his face , "and then you start blushing so adorably that you look like the most precious person to ever walk the earth. Oh look, there you go again with this lovely splatter of color on your cheeks."
The tinge on his cheeks darkened to a very noticeable scarlet shade, sending a smile up on her face as she kissed him sweetly on the lips, letting go of his hands and cupping his face instead.
His arms wrapped around her pulling her down on the bed as well. When they broke the kiss rather reluctantly, her heartbeat was racing as well, eyes glittering in exhilaration.
"When are you going to schedule your next manicure, ma'am?" He asked, voice lilting with an amused edge to it.
"Really soon I think," she answered, fingers playing with his messy hair, "like tomorrow? Oh no that's too late. Maybe whenever you feel like it and definitely once before going to bed."
"You sure? I thought you didn't have enough time," he teased.
She disentangled her hands from his hair, fingers trailing down to his face. She caressed his cheek gently before tracing the curve of his lips with her index finger as he placed a kiss at the fingertip. "I have all the time in the world for you, Timbelina."
"Oh, I'm so honored."
***