we knew it would come to this

please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere

For someone who had wanted slow, Tobi finds herself in Finn's lap far faster than she might have expected. But then, given the pace set by some of his clients, this might still be glacial given his experiences. With her shins on either side of his legs that she might remain teasingly aloft, Tobi nevertheless arches her back and twists in his large hands to try and cover herself in his hands, the way a dog might shift about to encourage more fuss.

Once his fingers have helped unfasten the buttons, Tobi guides his hands back to her hips where the bulk of her cable-knit sweater has pooled. Pulling up on his fingers with the expectation that he'll tug her sweater along, Tobi stretches her fingers above her head to make it easier to remove. Beneath, her coffee-coloured skin is interrupted only by the white of her bra, a smattering of freckles that haphazardly appear in clusters, and a few stretch lines on her belly that snarl like old wounds.

Leaning against Finn as her fingers open his shirt, she presses her body forward and against his, shivering to feel heat that hasn't come just from within. Perched as she is, she's able to look down on him as her hands push his shirt from his shoulders. Having felt and seen the criss-cross of scars on his back, Tobi's fingers ghost over them, neither ignoring nor drawing attention to their existence.

October