kissing their knuckles one by one . @ strange !
FOREWORD INCOMING !!
again i think i deleted it !! written by @primegrim
her fingers find his hand carefully, not like it’s fragile, but like it deserves the same kind of attention she gives to anything important. strange doesn’t pull away, though he could. he could make a comment, shift the moment, turn it clinical. but he doesn’t.
instead, she lifts his hand, and he lets her. the scarring is familiar to him now—hard, uneven, stretched over once-steady hands that no longer belong to the man who held a scalpel with precision. he feels the roughness of his own skin under her touch and expects her to hesitate. flinch, maybe. people do.
she holds his hand like it’s still capable of something holy.
no build-up. no drama. her lips just press gently into the skin of his first knuckle.
she doesn’t stop there. her lips move with the same care she started with, deliberate and unhurried. another kiss, then another, pressed softly against each knuckle, one at a time. her mouth brushes the rough skin without hesitation, touching every uneven line, every mark that memory and magic couldn’t erase. each scar gets its moment. each one acknowledged.
he watches her, breath stalled in his chest, heart quiet but no longer still. he can feel the way she treats each part of him like it matters. like the damage isn’t something to look past, but something to understand. she doesn’t skip any of it. doesn’t rush.
she doesn’t pretend the scars aren't there.
no, they’re there. and she sees them all.
and he knows—this isn’t pity. it never was. she’s not here to soften anything. just to be present. steady. real.
so he says nothing. lets the moment hold itself together, lets it stretch out in the quiet, lets it do what words never could.
only once she finishes does he move. slow, deliberate. he leans into her, head tilting down until his lips find her forehead. the kiss is silent, lingering. not a thank you, not a promise. just presence.