His question came out of the blue one night, as they lay together.
"So what's this make us?"
"Exclusive, I would hope." She said, archly, and raised an eyebrow at him. Her words carried a bit more weight and implication than she had meant for them to, but she couldn't help it. She wanted to be clear.
"Funny." He snorted, rolling over to face her with a deadpan expression. When he spoke next, he spoke with a touch of firmness that some might mistake for disapproval. She knew better. He'd just been unable to keep the jealousy from clouding his voice even at the very thought of her seeing anyone else. "And here I thought that was a given."
"It is." She smiled, having the grace to look a little apologetic. Her hand stole out to spread across his chest, placatingly stroking upwards to rest on his shoulder, then his jaw. "Why the question then?"
His own hand reached up to grasp her wrist. "... 'Suppose I just wanted an answer for Half-Pint, next time she asks me the same question."
She laughed. "Wasn't it you who said, and I quote, 'Fuck what they think,' when we spoke of what the students thought about us?"
He grinned at her imitation of him. "Hey! No cussin' darlin'. That's my schtick." He nibbled on her fingers as punishment, drawing out a humming moan from her. She pulled her hand back after a few moments, resting it on his shoulder for leverage while she leaned forward to replace her fingers with her lips. He turned his head to deepen the connection, rumbling with satisfaction when she opened to him without pause. They kissed for long, languorous moments, shifting and rolling languidly until she lay astride him.
"I'm jus' sayin'," he said, when she drew back to rest her head on his chest, making herself comfortable. He stroked her bare shoulder idly. "They're harpin' on an' on about us being... together-together," he paused and she chuckled quietly at, he knew, him using that term. He tickled her side. "an' while I do want us together, I can't say I'm too happy 'bout callin' you my girlfriend."
"No?" She squirmed away from his touch, breathless and grinning, hair falling in her eyes at the effort. "And why is that? Do you not want to be my boyfriend?"
Pleased that he detected no offense in her voice, only playful teasing, he smirked. "Yeah, I do. But..." The expression on his face was perhaps the closest thing to sheepish and unsure that she'd ever seen on him, "To be honest, girlfriend seems kinda... well... too small a word for you."
She'd been vaguely sure of where their conversation was going. But the honesty in his words and the implication that lay behind them surprised her a little, and made her heart warm.
She let her next kiss speak for them both, and it was meaningful and sweet. He let her take the lead, hands slipping down to guide her when what she wanted became clear to him in her scent and the way she moved against him. She slipped him inside with a gentle exhale, and soon they were moving together, slowly and unhurriedly. Their breaths mingled in the quiet of the night, both of them going beyond words.
"... Lovers," she murmured, later, when they were both spent and sated and she was again laying beside him. Her hand traced patterns across his chest, stopping only to rest upon his heart. "I suppose you could call us lovers."
He was breathing deeply, only just catching his breath after the workout she'd given him. "... Yeah?"
"Mmm." she hummed, cuddling closer to his warmth. He was like a furnace, in these moments after, and she could only describe it as comforting. "... Exclusive lovers, of course." she added, after a beat.
He grinned, eyes still shut, and pinched her bottom. She gave a soft yelp of surprise (he always counted surprising her as a victory,) jolting against him, and then sat up to glare at him. He ignored her. "We damn well better be exclusive..."
She swatted his wandering hand away with some amusement, rolling her eyes at his casual possessiveness. Honestly, the man was insatiable sometimes... "Yes. Did you not hear me the first time I said so?"
"Sure did, darlin'," he chuckled, still keeping his eyes closed in an effort to check the strong emotion that word had evoked in him. Lovers. Yeah, that sounded about right, when he thought about what he felt, when she surrounded him like she did now. Still, the thought of using that word the next time one of the rugrats asked what she and him were to each other made him think again. "Ain't sure that'd fly so well with the kids, though. It's kinda..."
"... Archaic?" She prompted with a shake of her head, laying back to tuck herself beside him once more.
He grinned. "That's one way t'put it."
She was silent a moment more, basking in the glow they'd created, before speaking up again, simply. "... Then, what about partners?"
"We were already that," he pointed out, shifting against her so they could lay against her pillows more comfortably. And it was true. After so many years of fighting together, bickering with each other, rescuing and mourning and simply being together - following where one led until they found themselves in-step and beside the other... it was hard not to think of her as anything else.
"Yes. And?" She didn't have to give him a pointed look. He could hear it in her voice.
She said nothing more, content to let him draw his own conclusions. And when he let her curl into side like she'd always belonged there - and she had, he realized - she knew that he'd come to the same one she had, a long time ago.
