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[ He's unaware of all that, but he'd be sort of pleased that she feels safe enough to share things with him now, casually as she just did.
He lets her position his head as she wants to, stays where he is when she lets go of him to get started on her work, and he's calm and quiet and still as she starts to run the razor over the skin of his cheek. It's between strokes, when the razor must be wiped on a towel - which he's conveniently tossed over his bare shoulder sometime during the lathering - that he pipes back up again. ] Very steady hands.
He lets her position his head as she wants to, stays where he is when she lets go of him to get started on her work, and he's calm and quiet and still as she starts to run the razor over the skin of his cheek. It's between strokes, when the razor must be wiped on a towel - which he's conveniently tossed over his bare shoulder sometime during the lathering - that he pipes back up again. ] Very steady hands.
[ Her focus is split fairly evenly between his hand's motions and seeing if she can split his focus a little by providing him some pressure down lower, a little roll as her hand shifts positions to slide up his spine. ] I don't know, would that be more accurate? It seems like it could be more accurate. [ Murmured against his neck, her voice a little rough. ]
[ Sometime maybe she'll let him know out loud, instead of just by answering when things come up, casually dropping things in conversation that she would never have let slide before.
There's a quirk to her smile at that and she glances up at him, lets the razor rest for a moment as she glances up at him before lifting it again. ] I've always had excellent aim. [ That takes steady hands. And he's staying much stiller and calmer than targets tend to, which makes this a lot easier. ] Thank you.
There's a quirk to her smile at that and she glances up at him, lets the razor rest for a moment as she glances up at him before lifting it again. ] I've always had excellent aim. [ That takes steady hands. And he's staying much stiller and calmer than targets tend to, which makes this a lot easier. ] Thank you.
[ He likes that, the feeling of her sort of... crawling over him, with the one hand lower and the other running up his back. He likes the way she rolls towards him, and yes, she does disrupt his concentration by adding some pressure in the right places. He tilts his head a little for her, in case she wants more of his neck to peruse, runs a thumb over a nipple before she's rolled too much and it's out of reach. After that, the head tilt is down, sort of, his hand shifting to indicate she should come up a little higher so he can make good on his implication. ] And we strive for the utmost in accuracy.
[ He will probably not know what to do with that day.
He's quiet again until she's pausing to wipe the edge of the razor. ] Did you really want to do this or was it just an opportunity that looked like fun? [ Not accusingly, he's honestly just curious. He had a - well, there was a girl once, the next day, she'd wanted to hang out in the bathroom while they both got ready. She'd watched him shave and they'd had a shower and it was a little different than this, clearly, but. ]
He's quiet again until she's pausing to wipe the edge of the razor. ] Did you really want to do this or was it just an opportunity that looked like fun? [ Not accusingly, he's honestly just curious. He had a - well, there was a girl once, the next day, she'd wanted to hang out in the bathroom while they both got ready. She'd watched him shave and they'd had a shower and it was a little different than this, clearly, but. ]
[ She totally wants more of his neck to peruse, it's a nice opportunity there, and she only has a little bit to do so because she's not about to argue with that further tilt of his head down. Instead she's going to slide herself a little higher along the bed so the alignment is right even if that means it disrupts her ability to reach his neck or the position of her hands, start tugging her shirt up and off. ] It's definitely always worth pursuing.
I wanted to. [ That part of the answer is immediate, without pause or hesitation. It's the why part that takes a little bit of thinking to phrase right, because it sounds kind of corny and silly any way she can think to put it, and she takes advantage of concentrating on the next stroke to try to come up with a way that doesn't. ] I like helping you. [ And being close to him, and taking care of him, and it just feels right, and nice, and she likes sitting here with him. ]
[ He lets his hands hover over her as she moves under them, adjusts her positioning and then shifts to pull her shirt off - and he can help with that, a little bit. He doesn't want to rush or anything, but then there they are, and he's pleased, he's a little harder, and that's the one he had in his hand because that nipple is a little perkier and this is just a great way to wake up, he thinks. ] The pursuit of certainty and knowledge is always worth it. [ The last part may or may not have been a little mumbled, craning his neck forward to brush his lips over the skin just above one of them, the one he'd been neglecting, slide down over the swell of it and start to do what actually could be described as thorough examination. Just, with his mouth and tongue, with a little bit of suction here and there, even if he is thus far avoiding the most sensitive area. ]
[ Well, that answers that. He did want to ask the 'why' though, yes, and he's pleased that after a little while she goes ahead and... sort of gives it to him. Helping him is sort of vague, but he supposes the initial answer was similarly so. He'll accept both or either, and respond simply in turn. ] That's kind of a new thing. For me.
[ This is absolutely a great way to wake up. This is her new favorite way to wake up, and she tosses her shirt aside and slides one hand into his hair. She was laughing a little bit at that mumble, but it turns into a sound of a totally different caliber at his lips on her, low and deep in her chest because she really wasn't kidding when she said her breasts were sensitive right now. ] You weren't kidding about medical expertise. [ Sort of. This is totally medical. He's managing to do a great job with just his mouth, really, and her grip tightens a little and relaxes. ] Such a professional.
[ If he wants clarification he's going to have to ask for it, and even then she might not be that good at giving it to him because it just kind of is. She likes him, so she likes being able to do things for him. It's a whole thing. ] I wish it wasn't. [ A little soft, because personally she thinks anyone who doesn't think he's great is really dumb. ]
[ He hums his initial agreement with his lips open and soft against her breast, exploring the area for the more sensitive spots, working his way closer and closer to the areola before pausing. It seems like he might move to the other breast instead of actually getting to the point first here. ] I am completely professional one hundred percent of the time. [ Before she has a chance to protest that - with words, anyway, there's time to laugh at him - he's moved, oh, look, to the areola on the first one still. A light graze of his teeth across it entirely, tongue to sooth it back, and he's employing basically everything he knows since he has no reason not to. His hands, in the meantime, have finally remembered that they're hovering, and they instead move to rest on her hips, one occasionally over her backside as she lies next to him. ]
[ It's not as much a problem of not seeing him as great as it is rather the precise opposite: seeing him as great, and therefore not requiring assistance. He just shrugs a little, tries to tilt his head to keep the skin taut, help her out a bit. ] It's fine.
[ Oh, well, if he's going to hum against her skin that's just not really fair, she's pretty sure that's definitely not fair, and it's going to get him a hitch in her breath. It's a little hard to pay him back right now, but once it's reasonable she is so going to find a way to make him - well, regret is probably the opposite of what he'll be feeling. ] I'm sure [ but that end of the sentence switches directly into a whimper instead because goddamn, okay, he's really good at this and she's getting goosebumps chasing across all of her skin. The hand not in his hair rests on his arm, grip tight for a moment before she trails her fingers upwards, her attempt at regulating her breathing no longer working quite so well. ] Yes you are.
[ It's not really that she's hurting him in as much as she's simply forcing him to do things he really doesn't want to do. It's become easier to accept this idea of himself, and it's one that he's had since he was basically a child, so it's difficult to suddenly, all at once - from his skewed perspective anyway - flip that on its head and insist that the reality is in fact, the precise opposite. Tony Stark is mercurial, loves progress, defines the future, and hates change. He can only deal with it in the superficial sense, almost craves it in the superficial sense, but on any level that carries meaning? It takes quite a lot to turn his powerhouse of a mind around.
But these are even more, even deeper things about her former life that he almost can't reconcile with the Max he knows. He constantly keeps shifting, back and forth, back and forth, between what she's showing him and what he knows of her already, more recent memories and feelings. It's almost enough to produce an odd sort of whiplash, and if his eyes get a little more watery he's going to blame it entirely on how purely... bleak, how detached she feels from everything in these memories. She shouldn't feel like that, and immediately after each flare of negativity there is a surge of anger, because this shouldn't have been what she had to live through. He disagrees.
And then suddenly that's too much. (As predicted.) Too much emotion, too much sharing, and he abruptly tries to pull himself back into his own mind where at least he's comfortable and things make sense, things are familiar. He's got the idea, he got it, and he tries to say something like that, whether it's more physical or through the link - in actuality it's both, but slightly more the link if only because he still has a gag in his mouth and isn't actually that interested in talking anyway - he doesn't know. Just that he got what she was trying to show him, and that it's something he now - also - doesn't know what to do with. It's a great deal of confusion now, down to the core, that he's having to wade through on his way back to calming down. ]
But these are even more, even deeper things about her former life that he almost can't reconcile with the Max he knows. He constantly keeps shifting, back and forth, back and forth, between what she's showing him and what he knows of her already, more recent memories and feelings. It's almost enough to produce an odd sort of whiplash, and if his eyes get a little more watery he's going to blame it entirely on how purely... bleak, how detached she feels from everything in these memories. She shouldn't feel like that, and immediately after each flare of negativity there is a surge of anger, because this shouldn't have been what she had to live through. He disagrees.
And then suddenly that's too much. (As predicted.) Too much emotion, too much sharing, and he abruptly tries to pull himself back into his own mind where at least he's comfortable and things make sense, things are familiar. He's got the idea, he got it, and he tries to say something like that, whether it's more physical or through the link - in actuality it's both, but slightly more the link if only because he still has a gag in his mouth and isn't actually that interested in talking anyway - he doesn't know. Just that he got what she was trying to show him, and that it's something he now - also - doesn't know what to do with. It's a great deal of confusion now, down to the core, that he's having to wade through on his way back to calming down. ]
[ She thinks they should have taken the trouble of getting to know him a little better. Or maybe not, she's okay with them leaving him to her too, she just wishes that he'd had people a little closer when he was younger. It seems like a thing that would have been good. ] Sure. [ Light and easy despite her surprisingly strong feelings on the matter, and she keeps moving, onto the precision strokes that ensure his beard is just right. ] You're good at things.
[ I'm sure he will totally not regret his actions here and perhaps actually be very pleased with both her and himself. More than he is on any given day already, anyway. But for right now he just teases her nipple, goes back to the skin around it with a grin - not before running his teeth and tongue over the area one more time and giving it just enough of a short puff of air to make it harder still. He moves to the skin between them, appreciates it in turn as he knows the scratchiness of his stubble and facial hair add to the sensations, and then starts over with the other. ]
[ He appreciates her allowing him to skirt the issue. It's the morning - theoretically, anyway. It is for them. - and he's got a meeting to be at in slightly less than an hour now and he really doesn't want to get into anything too heavy at the moment. At least, nothing too heavy like that. And honestly, he isn't ever really in a mood to chat about things like that in the first place. ] I'm very good at things. I'm glad you noticed. [ Sort of mumbled, to not mess up her strokes here. ]
I'm fantastic at it. I'd demonstrate, but demonstrations tend to be intrusive and something I avoid doing to people I like. [ Not taking the bait, okay. ]
[ There are things people believe about themselves that become so ingrained believing anything else is hard. That what he believes about himself is that he isn't worth it, isn't worth people putting anything into him, is something that she refuses to accept. And she doesn't want to push too hard, but the thing is that as he's proven magnificently over and over tonight, there might not be any other way to make him accept that that's a flawed view of the world, and it is vitally important that he stop believing that about himself because it's just so patently false.
She shakes her head a little with each surge of anger, makes soothing noises as much as she can because it's okay, see, she's fine now, everything's better, she's with him. Him being angry on her behalf, she doesn't know how to deal with that, especially not right now.
He retreats into his mind and she severs all connection between him and her memories, leaves only what was there before, the reassurance and simple presence, as much calm as she can muster. It's not a lot, but whatever it is is impressed threadbare into his mind, anything she can do to help him be okay right now. ] It's okay, it's okay. [ Soft and quiet, pressing her lips to his forehead, hands smoothing across his shoulders, calming. ]
She shakes her head a little with each surge of anger, makes soothing noises as much as she can because it's okay, see, she's fine now, everything's better, she's with him. Him being angry on her behalf, she doesn't know how to deal with that, especially not right now.
He retreats into his mind and she severs all connection between him and her memories, leaves only what was there before, the reassurance and simple presence, as much calm as she can muster. It's not a lot, but whatever it is is impressed threadbare into his mind, anything she can do to help him be okay right now. ] It's okay, it's okay. [ Soft and quiet, pressing her lips to his forehead, hands smoothing across his shoulders, calming. ]
[ That sounds like a good plan, being pleased with them both, because she's already pleased with them. Pleased with this clearly great planning, the way it's easy and warm and his lips are soft on her breast even as it hardens underneath them, the unexpected sensation of air catching her breath between her teeth. Her back arches just a little, and she doesn't try to restrain the groan at the feeling as he moves onwards. ] This is a - really unexpected upside. [ To pregnancy, she means, but her voice is already catching more than a little and the need to clarify gives way to the desire to make a noise low in the back of her throat in appreciation of what he's doing. ]
[ It's totally the morning, this counts as morning. If it doesn't count as morning she's been wrong about what morning is all her life, and she can't have that. She grins, doesn't answer for a moment because she wants her hand to definitely be absolutely steady for this. ] Kind of hard to miss, you know. [ Leaning in closer and biting her lip again in concentration as she carefully finishes up his face. ] What with all the many things you're good at. Head up? [ She nudges his chin up a little with one thumb, but it's a casual and easy to disregard gesture, letting him do the baring of his throat for himself. ]
Please don't. [ Not that he thinks she would - she did after all just say that she wouldn't, and she never has - but he's backtracking and calming and still a little agitated. It's gonna be time to sit back up again in a little bit, but for right now he just reaches both arms back and around her, lacing his fingers at the small of her back. ] You are fantastic.
[ Yes, well, he's also fine now and everything's better and he's with her and she still gets angry about things on his behalf, so. He's well acquainted with 'everything's fine now'; he understands precisely how little the statement can be. He doesn't know how to deal with what she's just given him, it only seems fair that he'd return the favor, if even in a potentially smaller scale.
It's not really so much that he's agitated, it's just- Overwhelming. He's very overwhelmed right now, and he doesn't do very well with that. Being overwhelmed tends to trip his breakers and provoke a system shutdown, just long enough to reboot and regain his bearings. But, right now, that's such a deep-seated sense of overwhelming that restarting isn't fixing the problem, but simply reintroducing it. It all sounds very drastic - and on one level it probably is - but he's quiet and letting her try to help and trying to sort it out on his own. His breathing had gone a little erratic for a second, a little too deep for a while - maybe he is agitated. It feels like anxiety - but it's calming back down and smoothing back out and if that's because he feels a little lightheaded now then at least there's a reason for it. ]
It's not really so much that he's agitated, it's just- Overwhelming. He's very overwhelmed right now, and he doesn't do very well with that. Being overwhelmed tends to trip his breakers and provoke a system shutdown, just long enough to reboot and regain his bearings. But, right now, that's such a deep-seated sense of overwhelming that restarting isn't fixing the problem, but simply reintroducing it. It all sounds very drastic - and on one level it probably is - but he's quiet and letting her try to help and trying to sort it out on his own. His breathing had gone a little erratic for a second, a little too deep for a while - maybe he is agitated. It feels like anxiety - but it's calming back down and smoothing back out and if that's because he feels a little lightheaded now then at least there's a reason for it. ]
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