Our tiniest steps

[processions]

little steps No matter how much they care for the other person and want to be with them, some people simply can't dive head first into relationships. Little things that form intimacy and romance, little acts we take for granted - being close, holding hands, kissing, showing affection in public - they won't or can't do...at least not right off the bat. Something in their past, their experiences, their trauma, or even their personality holds them back. For both them and the person they're "dating," as it were, this can lead to a frustrating experience. Still, steps can be taken towards letting the walls fall down. Little, tiny steps, but those can mean the world all the same. The People One With the help of a partner, one person warms up. Two Both sides of this couple are learning how to be in a relationship and to be open. The Actions Talking → A relationship can't exist if there's not some communication, so either learn to use your words or become so close you can speak without them. Spending Time → Even such mundane occurrences as watching TV or cooking together is new ground. Touching → You might just find you enjoy reaching out and touching them. Kissing → Another kind of touch, when you think about it. Cuddling → ...at least they're warm and, hopefully, soft. Sleeping → You're at your absolute weakest when you're asleep. It shows trust to doze off around this person. Public Display → It's one thing to be in love in private, but showing you care in public is a different story. Kind Words → Three little words (more or less) are all it takes. Why, then, are they so hard to get out? Sex The ultimate stumbling block to some. To be laid blissfully bare is to truly let your guard down.

Comments

[gbpp]

"Leave your card at the bar, and I'll see what I can do."

He already really rather thinks that Karen might be paying off any debt she could possibly owe him. This is the part he'd been afraid of. Even on the island they'd found other things to busy themselves with after sex, but this was personal in a different way.

Karen was covering up, so why couldn't he? His eyebrow arches at the query, until he realises what it's in reference to. A grin lifts both corners of his mouth and he reaches for her, pulling her down across his chest.

"Not you."

[aheroliveshere]

She goes without resistance, nuzzling under his chin, kissing his shoulder. Okay, maybe there's some wriggling as she undoes the robe again, but she likes the feel of his bare skin against hers.

"Can you tell me what, then? Or should I just -- drop it?"

[gbpp]

"There's nothing wrong." He whispers back to her, unable to help but slide a hand under his robe as it comes undone, pressing his fingers against the bottom of her rib cage. Touching her happens to be one of his favourite things.

"I thought you put this on for a reason?"

[aheroliveshere]

Her hands return to caress over his head again, running her fingertips through his hair. "I did." She murmurs in the hollow beneath his ear. "I'll be damned if I can remember what it was."

She rocks her hips into him in silent inquiry.

[gbpp]

Another chuckle leaves him, short and sharp and maybe a little breathless because there's so much promise in those words. Things heating up all over again only seems to mean more of the same from their vacation. Not being able to keep their hands off each other is one thing - sex being the only thing that makes them in another entirely.

His hands are on the move again, stilling around her waist - holding. He doesn't want to deny her, or the fact that he wants her. Maybe he's just too desperate for this to work.

"Chess."

[aheroliveshere]

"Oh right," she says, a little breathless herself. His hands move around her, and she listens, going still herself. She pulls back a bit to give him a soft look, one that says, Later loud and clear. "Chess."

Still, he needs kissing again, her touch slow and sweet, intent in a way that it could never be on the island. Intimate. Full of promise for more than just sex.

[gbpp]

Later. Absolutely, but as far as Tony was concerned - the night was still very young. Rolling around in bed together for the duration of it wasn't exactly undesirable, but he really felt the need to break away from something that felt insincere.

His lips quirk as she bends for another kiss, and his hands sweep up her back gently - keeping her there, but not to ease Karen closer. There's an entire room set up across the other side of the bar and living room dedication to games - they'll have to venture out, but he doesn't think it won't be without merit.

"Maybe get a drink, too?"

[aheroliveshere]

"A drink sounds lovely," she whispers. She leans back, catching his other hand in hers and drawing him up to sitting. The robe falls open, but she doesn't seem to care. He is all she has eyes for.

"There's one small problem. You have to lead the way 'cause I don't know my way around yet."

[gbpp]

"Thought you might agree." He shoots back, happy to sit up with her coaxing. It's tempting to let his hands shift and move around her waist all over again. Hell, it's tempting to say fuck chess and fuck Karen instead - but that would just be too easy.

"Might be fun to watch you search."

[aheroliveshere]

"Oh it might be, but then we'd never get to the chess board. Don't worry, I'll be rummaging through your stuff soon enough."

She pulls him close, still holding his hands down by her hips. "And I still want to see your workshop." She bites her lip for a moment, blue eyes bright. "Y'know, the suit?"

[gbpp]

"Oh, right - you will, huh?" He questions, arched eyebrow and everything - he'd move, but her hands are pretty firmly wrapped in his and he doesn't think he wants to anyway.

Talk of the suit is enough to make the gears start to turn more frantically in his mind. The look in her eyes, that expression - the awareness of her excitement.

"Conundrum." He questions, shifting his hands enough to try and push back against her hold. "Suit, Sex, or Chess?"

[aheroliveshere]

She rocks into him, her heels floating off the ground. "God, when you put it like that -- hmm. Suit, first. Then probably more sex, because I don't know if I can keep my hands off you that long. And then chess. I do want to get to chess eventually."

She takes a few steps backwards towards the door, having no clue where she's going, but distinctly leading him away from the bed. "Mostly I just want to explore where you live."

[gbpp]

He has to suck in a breath as soon as she rocks her hips - hopeful that despite how he feels about throwing themselves into it head first, she chooses a different option.

"Mhm?"

A sigh leaves him as soon as Karen moves away - but silently he moves away from the bed to follow after her. Unlike Karen, he fetches a pair of boxers pulling them on before giving slow chase.

"Don't think you'll be short of opportunity."

[aheroliveshere]

She wanders out into the hallway, her gaze touching everything before returning to him. The devil is in the details, she's always found, and there's been more than one time as a reporter where she's had to learn about someone by going through their trash.

This prospect sounded far more appealing.

"And don't think I'm going to let you sleep tonight, either," she says. "I wasn't kidding when I said I missed you."

She hasn't smiled this much in a very long time.

[gbpp]

It's pretty fascinating to see her looking so intently at everything, following behind her like a puppy, but without any of the desperate need to be around her.

His eyebrow arches slightly as she suggests that he wouldn't be getting any sleep - and that feels too much like his queue to reach out and touch the middle of her back, chasing it until he's stood at her side.

"Need to sleep some time." It's ironic though, of course. He could spend days in the workshop without so much as a nap.

[aheroliveshere]

"True," she says, easily looping a hand around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder. "But I also have to go back to work at some point, and I'd really rather not think about that right now. Right now, I'd like the nickel tour. And if there's top secret Avenger stuff I really shouldn't be messing about in," she wrinkles her nose, "now's probably the time to tell me."

[gbpp]

His back straightens as her hand slides along it, whether it's an involuntary reaction due to the simple touch - or to try and make his body more taught and... appealing.

"No, this is the find out for yourself tour." He mutters softly, reaching his hand up and over her shoulder to guide her away toward the workshop - pausing long enough to tap in the code that will open it up for him.

"Dirty secrets and everything."

[aheroliveshere]

"Everything has a keypad around here. Do I need a code for the bathroom?"

Her hand flies up to cover her mouth and her eyes go wide. The space alone is awe-inspiring, but the contents. She points, first at one half-assembled version of the suit. Then another. And another.

She might be trying to keep from making dolphin noises at this point.

[gbpp]

"Just the places with things to hide."

He can't help but watch Karen. Her response is fascinating. He knows she's taking everything in, drinking it in. There are questions written all over her face and he's not sure he wants to know what they are.

Tony breaks away from her moving to a wall to flick on various switches and buttons - the cabinet against the wall lights up, three suits of armour shiny and looking very new despite how well used they are displayed there behind the glass. The show he makes of turning on the spot to look at her is less effective in bare feet.

"You get two questions."

[aheroliveshere]

She follows him, taking his hand in both of hers, drawing him along as she peers through the glass at each of the Mark series. She's strangely silent, clearly biting her lip until she figures out which two questions she's going to ask.

One hand loops through his arm, and she lets out a sigh of almost overwhelmed disbelief. "Yes, Mom, I'm dating Iron Man," she murmurs. "No, actually he doesn't call me Lois Lane. Because he knows better, that's why. Jesus fuck, Tony. Which one is your favorite?"

The timing is terrible I just checked this before I went to sleep!!

[gbpp]

His laughter is real, despite it being loftier than usual. Her parents weren't really something he'd factored into dating her, and it's a genuine surprise to him that he isn't spooked by the notion.

That, and the idea that she would tell her mother like that is pretty amusing.

He takes her hand, keeps it as she walks him along - happy with this level of closeness. The touching, the proximity, the unspoken promises. This is for keeps, and this is his attempt to give her some part of him.

"Hard to say. The one that kept me alive despite being in space, or the one that got me out of a cave in the desert." Despite how openly he says it, there's a tinge of darkness. These things happened to him. He made it through. To stop himself delving into those memories, Yinsen. Vanko. Loki. He looks instead at her, offering a quiet smile.

"Latest model has improved sealing. You know, in case NASA calls for some space program."

no worries! Xoxoxo

[aheroliveshere]

She mirrors that soft smile back to him, hearing in that darkness an echo to her own. Her hand rises to touch his chest, his cheek. Brief touches, a quiet expression of the wellspring of affection bubbling up in her chest.

For the first time, she realizes, she has to tell him. Something she's never shared with Matt or Foggy, something that still haunts her.

She draws a breath, eyes brightening at that little detail. "NASA huh?" Her lips quirk up at the corner.

"Those are both ones to definitely be grateful for, but like -- same question -- do you have one that's broken in perfectly, like an old pair of jeans?"

[gbpp]

"You're right. NASA's a reach isn't it?" He offers, turning his attention away from the suits to Karen. She'd already stolen his thoughts effectively enough with her touches.

"Mark 2's got a lot going for it. Had to be-- reconstructed a few times." He nods, as if to confirm his choice, moving his grip on her now she'd turned to face him, pulling her in by the robe until she's almost flush against him.

"One more."

[aheroliveshere]

She rests her hands on his chest, studying him as she carefully weighs her options. Karen gets a very particular face when she's intently turning a thought over and over in her head. He's seen it before, and he'll see it many times again. She's no where near as brilliant as he is, but she can work her way through a problem with a certain bulldog diligence that'll get her the answers eventually.

Her thumb brushes over the Arc Reactor and it seems to spark a connection.

"What's the most important thing in this room that you think I should know about? Like, is there a back up for this," she glances down at his chest, "or like -- a spare set of keys to a suit you'd need in a pinch?"

[gbpp]

Watching Karen think is fast becoming one of his favourite things. Just spending time together is a pleasure, but seeing her really give thought to things like this just gives him the impression that this really is something important - for the both of them.

His gaze drops as her attention moves and he sucks in a deep breath. "The old one was killing me." He admits quietly. It's the first time he's admitted it out loud like this, Pepper had found out by accident, after all.

"I was working on a suit that-- comes on command, actually."