Licking Old Wounds [Lilith]

[Drew Schultz]

Drew's nose twitched as he heard a tap at the door, but he didn't turn around. Instead, he continued the song as the wolf in him slowly got used to the idea of Lilith entering the room. With his eyes closed, he could still hear her small breaths, and her scent was a mixture of its usual sweetness and the sour odor of rain that clung to her skin and her hair. Without looking, he still trained the rest of his senses on her as his fingers moved over the strats and strings of the instrument. He had been certain that she would leave him there, just him and his insanity. She was the first person who'd gone with him this far, seeing past the first level of his neuroses, his paranoia. How far was she willing to go?

The song soon came to a close, and he heard a tremor in her voice as she spoke to him. Had he frightened her? The thought made him feel sick inside. He never wanted to frighten her. It was never her fault that he acted the way that he did. He put the guitar down slowly, and turned to her as she moved closer. The wolf had finally receded from his eyes, leaving them their usual dark brown, almost black. In this dim light, they might as well have been black.

It seemed that he spent half of his time apologizing to her, but what else could he do? It was his fault that she was nervous, because he was acting like the lunatic he didn't want to be.

"It... it's not your fault," he said, looking down at the floor again. "It's the rain. I normally wait until it stops before I head out, but I didn't. A stupid mistake. I knew better."

Running his hand back and forth through his hair, he rid it of any remaining moisture, making it stand on end. Not that it made much of a difference if you looked at it. His hair was permanently standing on end, sticking in every direction. Even if it had been longer, he was pretty sure it would never have laid flat. It didn't help that he had goose bumps lined down his neck, which only emphasized the effect.

"Cold water is..." he paused, trying to think of how to word it. "It hurts to touch it. It's like... it's how I imagine touching boiling water might feel like for anyone else. And when I'm hurting, my wolf gets harder to control. I didn't want to accidentally hurt you."

[Lilith Prescott]

Looking into his eyes, her eyes bright blue like a day without clouds, his eyes dark brown, nearly black in the light. She listened to his explanation, and after he was done, she made sure to keep some space, seeing as she was still in her drenched clothes. Frowning, Lilith chewed the inside of her cheek a little. "Drew, I'm so sorry. I wish I would have known. We could have waited.." It was silly, seeing as the rain was still pouring down outside, that they could have waited, but Lilith, in her own sense, was a bit on the sillier side.

She moved her hand back through his drier hair. So cold water was bad. She had to remember that. Lilith pondered this. She thought it was water, and it was, but it was cold water. She gave him a smile. "I'll just have to remember not to drag you out if their is rain in the forecast then!" She folded her arms, the cold finally starting to get to her again and blushed a little. 

"So.." Lilith didn't expect really for any of this to happen the first time she would have come over to Drew's apartment. She shrugged, a smile touching her face. It was funny really, she hadn't really expected to see Drew at all and here she was, still possibly staying the night here, in dripping, wet, cold clothes. The part she didn't expect was she was going to have to take a shower. 

See, Lilith was slightly conscious about her appearance and so, even though her makeup was already slightly gone, it would be the first time Drew would see her without her make up. And if he saw her without clothes, which she wasn't sure if he would or not...she shook her head a little, clearing the thoughts that were moving through her mind. She had to just get out of that line of thinking. She just didn't want him to ask about the scar on her back, not nearly as bad as his scars, not even close, and she didn't remember how she got it. Like the headaches though when she tried to think about her past, she felt a burning, crippling pain when she concentrated on remembering how she got the scar. The last time she tried, she hadn't had the energy to move for a few hours, and it took an hour alone for the pain to go away. So it was always carefully hidden, so people wouldn't ask. Even though she wore tank tops, she wore shawls or cute little short sleeve jackets, or the like over it. 

It was pretty much the one thing she hated, and her eyes darkened thinking about it before she closed them, letting out a breath and looking back at Drew, feeling a tiny blush touch her cheeks. "So...can I use your shower?" She looked down at her clothes, giving him a smile. "I can't exactly be around you in my cold, wet clothes...ya know?" This was good though, smiling or laughing or something like that. She pulled her mind out of the dark paths it wanted to go down and clasped her hands in front of her.

[Drew Schultz]

He looked up at her, amused against his will at the way she always seemed to bounce back to her previous level of enthusiasm. How was she so resilient? He admired it, and envied it in a way. Perhaps that was why he enjoyed her company so much. Her exuberance was its own kind of high, and he found himself taken up by it when she was around. At her question, he blinked and nodded. He didn't have any clothes her size, for obvious reasons, but he had t-shirts that would fit her like a cartoonishly large dress until her own outfit dried.

"Feel free," he said, glancing at the bathroom door. "You can borrow one of my shirts, if you still want to stay."

There was hesitation in his tone as he said that, not sure if she'd still want to, given what she had seen and learned about him. Still, the certainty that she would up and leave at the first wrong said thing... the longer that she was around, the less likely it seemed. She was braver than she thought she was, he was sure. And far braver than he'd given her credit for being. He'd have to remember that in the future. As she went off to use his shower, he pulled his shirt off and lay back in his bed, waiting. It took him only a couple of minutes to drift off to sleep, given how exhausted he felt. He awoke again once he heard the bathroom door open, and he blinked blearily at her before he began to drift off again.

It had been a few days since he'd slept, and he slept deeply, mercifully without dreams, hardly realizing that Lilith was sleeping in his bed. Luckily for her, when he slept deeply, he didn't roll around much. She probably wouldn't have appreciated him rolling over on top of her when she was trying to sleep. His face was peaceful in sleep, much more peaceful than he ever was in his waking hours, when he always had an unspoken wariness about the set of his features. No, he felt safe with Lilith, which was far more than he ever could have expected.

[Lilith Prescott]

Giving him a soft smile, Lilith nodded. "I'd love to stay, Drew." She leaned forward, careful to keep her wet clothes and hair from touching him, giving him a brief kiss and smiling as she grabbed one of his t-shirts, heading for the bathroom. Starting the shower, the hot water felt good on her skin, chasing away the cold and the dark thoughts she had.

In truth, Lilith had heard the hesitation in Drew's voice. She didn't know if it was because he wanted her to stay, or was unsure that she would stay, or was just being hesitant in general. She let the water run over her face. What if it was because he thought they were gonna...and he had never...she laughed. No way, that can't be it! She soaked, her skin turning a pink color from the heat. By the time she was done washing up, the bathroom was covered in steam. She thoroughly enjoyed hot showers and she took a towel, making sure to completely dry herself off.

Twisting her hair up in the towel, Lilith put on Drews shirt, smiling as it reached to her mid thigh. It was basically a dress on her and she looked in the mirror, drying her hair. She didn't have a brush but she did have a pony tail holder on her, and since her hair was wild anyways, pulling it up would be fine. Lilith made sure to hang her clothes up so they would dry and she hoped that Drew wouldn't get embarrassed about her bra and panties being hung up. After briskly towel drying her hair, she pulled it up while walking into the bedroom.

Her face softened, looking at Drew asleep. He glanced at her before falling back asleep and she smiled, crawling into the bed next to him. His face was not troubled at all while he slept and Lilith couldn't help but watch him for a few minutes. She curled up next to him, pressing her body against his warmth. He was so warm and that was how she fell asleep, clinging to him, and thinking of nothing but how he was like her moon, dark and cold at times, but also bright and inviting and beautiful at others. She had a pleasant smile on her face...maybe he was more like the sun, warm and caring. Those were the last thoughts before she too drifted off to sleep.

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next morning...

Lilith woke up, stretching. The sun was barely peeking out over the horizon and she smiled as the man next to her dozed. She smiled, kissing his nose before quietly getting up and moving to grab her phone. She turned it on in the living room, not wanting to wake Drew. She blinked as the number of missed calls flashed on her screen. No way. She clicked on her voicemail, there were 18 new voice mails. What in the world... Scrolling through her visual voicemail box, she recognized every number and immediately turned her phone off. What kind of guy leaves 18 voicemail messages. She put her phone away, she would deal with it later. Right now she had some warm cuddling to do.

With that, Lilith returned to the room, entering the bed with Drew and cuddling back up to him, trying to push the thoughts of the man who had left her so many voicemail messages and missed calls from her mind.