One Lazy Afternoon || Richard & Lily
Richard had felt incredibly tired over the past couple of days. But he had always been lazy. And perhaps it was that this particular vast period of unemployment had been needed, and had hit him hard. So he should be allowed this small luxury of sleep. That’s what he told himself anyway each morning when he woke and pulled the covers back over his heavy limbs for just an hour or so longer. He told himself it had absolutely nothing to do with his now empty pill bottle that sat in the bathroom cabinet after its contents had been dumped down the toilet.
A slight shift in the weight on the bed and a rush of cold alerted Richard’s senses. Cracking his eyes open he realised that it was because Lily had elected to take off her dress. Not that he could blame her because one, he would never be mad about her taking her clothes off in front of him, and two, because it was stifling hot in the room. He glanced over at the window and saw that it was open, but the lack of wind, which was so typical of LA, meant it was fruitless.
“Yeah,” he said softly still coming around, savouring the pleasant feeling of her hand on the back of his head. A thought occurred to him, a whim even, and as he often did with Lily, he let it fall straight from his head to his mouth without much thought, “We should go away you know, just the two of us. Somewhere sunny, and warm, and that serves cocktails with a high enough alcohol content to knock out an elephant.”
His voice was always much deeper after he woke up from a nap or in the morning and it was one of Lily’s favourite sounds. Smiling to herself, she snuggled down into his protective arms, letting him hold her, allowing herself to feel vulnerable. He held her so strongly but not necessarily tightly. It was a loving embrace, one that told her that he had no intentions of ever letting her go and that made her feel better instantly.
She opened her eyes and looked up into his when he spoke about them going anyway. “Yeah,” she agreed, “that’d be lovely.” She giggled when he mentioned the drinks, because it was no secret that both of them liked to get absolutely wasted once in a while. “Where should we go?” She asked him, taking his hand in hers and holding it up to the light. She played with their hands together, locking and unlocking their fingers, studying every joint on his hand, every finger and every knuckle, every fingertip and every wrinkle. She wanted to know him inside out - she wanted to know every detail about him off by heart, because he was the person out of the seven billion that the Earth held that she loved most.
She sat up, propping up her elbow on the pillows, resting her head in the palm of her hand. Repeatedly, she brushed his hair back, stroking it and running her fingers through his soft curls. “You alright, sweetheart?” She asked, because there was something not quite right about him - she knew him far too well for her own good and she knew right now that he wasn’t being himself. He was distant, staring off at some far point that she couldn’t see. It was like he was outside himself. “Rich, you can talk to me. You know that, don’t you? Whatever it is, no matter how silly, I’ll listen. It’s what I’m here to do.” Leaning down, she pressed a tender kiss to his forehead, his skin warm and clammy from the LA heat although she didn’t mind at all.
