Chapter Text
She could feel every breath he took.
Not just the rise and fall of his chest beneath her palms, though that was there too—steady and grounding—but the way each one shuddered on its way out, each exhale slightly longer than the last as she moved above him in slow, almost lazy, rolls. His hands were at her hips, helping guide her movements as his thumbs stroked little circles against her skin, and every now and then his grip would tighten—just barely—as his breath caught gently in the back of his throat and his hips shifted up to meet hers.
He looked so relaxed as he laid there beneath her, and she allowed herself to take a second to just look at him. To make note of the way that his lips were just slightly parted. The way his jaw was free from tension. The way his hair was scattered across the pillow beneath his head, curling slightly at his temples where sweat had dampened it. He was just so beautiful.
She shifted above him a few minutes later, a slow and deliberate grind of her hips that drew him deeper, and the corner of her mouth curled into a smirk when he let out a sudden gasp. His hold of her hips tightened once again, his fingers digging into her skin in a way that was just shy of painful, and he didn’t even try to hold back the guttural sound that tore itself out from somewhere deep in his chest. Once they had settled back into their rhythm once more, his eyes fluttered open slightly and he looked up into her eyes as one hand started to move.
It traced the dip of her waist before venturing higher so that his fingers could graze her ribs, a place he’d learned was particularly sensitive for her, and he chuckled quietly when a shiver ran the length of her body and her rhythm faltered for a second as she threw her head back.
“Shiz…” She panted, finding her rhythm again as her head returned to its usual position.
He gazed up at her for a little while longer before the hand at her ribs moved to the side of her neck and his thumb traced her jaw, his other hand leaving her hip and finding the meat of her thigh as he rolled his hips up slowly to meet hers. “Come here,” He told her, a rough quality to his voice as he spoke those words and his hand moved around to the back of her head so he could pull her down into a kiss. It was wet and it was clumsy and the change in position made them both groan into the other’s mouth as he buried his fingers in her hair.
She pulled back a little when the urge to breathe became too strong, touching her forehead to his and feeling his hot, trembling breath against her face as he brought one of his hands to the small of her back. She could already feel it beginning to build up within her. It was a warmth that gathered low in her stomach before slowly spreading to her limbs, making her whimper in the back of her throat as she shifted on top of him to bury her face in his neck.
“I know…” He breathed in her ear as he could feel himself reaching that same point.
The next thing she knew, she was coming apart quietly in his embrace, a long, drawn-out unravelling that began somewhere deep in her chest before rolling through her in waves, and she felt his lips find her temple and his arms come to wrap around her properly as she trembled through it. Oz, every single time—even though they had done this multiple times since he’d arrived yesterday—it took her by surprise. The state that he could render her in.
It didn’t take long for him to follow behind her. She felt it in the way his body suddenly went taut beneath her. In his sharp intake of breath. In the way his hips shifted to meet hers once more and then stilled. The sound that he let out was soft and rough, a sound she assumed was an attempt at her name, and she felt his nails dig into her back before, barely a second later, the tension left him and his forehead fell against her shoulder with a trembling breath.
For a while—a long while—neither one of them moved.
She remained exactly where she was, her head still tucked into his neck and her thighs still bracketing his hips as she listened to the sound of his heartbeat gradually settling beneath her ear. She could feel his hand moving up and down her back, subconscious little strokes that only helped to settle her further as he feathered soft kisses across her naked shoulder.
“You okay?” He asked her eventually, still trying to regain control of his breathing.
She tilted her head back weakly against his shoulder, looking up at him through half-lidded eyes as her fingers traced her collarbone. “I think I might have to get back to you on that…”
He chuckled, angling his head to capture her lips with his in a kiss that was soft and tender. It lingered for a time as her hand found his cheek, her thumb running back and forth across the skin there, but eventually it broke again and he watched as she sucked at her bottom lip.
“I already don’t want to go back there, and we still have two more days.” He sighed.
Shifting in place, she finally lifted herself from him and moved so that she could curl into his side, letting her leg tangle with his beneath the blanket when he reached for it and pulled it up over them both. “I know,” She replied, anchoring herself to him with the arm draped over his stomach. “Honestly, times like this make part of me want to just give up on the plan and tell you to stay out here with me, but I…I can’t do that. This is all just too important to me.”
“I get it,” He played with the end of one of her braids while staring up at the ceiling, feeling her foot running lazily up and down his calf as they laid there together and listened to the sounds of the morning outside the hideout. “This has gone on too long for you to back out now. I just hate leaving you. I hate going back there. I hate all of the grinning and all of the pretending. I hate having to act as though I’m in love with her when I’m not. It’s killing me.”
After lying there in silence for a time, she reached up and cupped his cheek in her hand so that she could turn his head back in her direction and kiss him gently. It was a brief, chaste kiss, but it had him smiling again by the time she pulled away from him and grazed the tip of her nose against his. “It’s not forever,” She reminded him. “At some point, all of this will be over and we won’t have to sneak around anymore. I know that this will hurt Glinda when she finds out, and I…I know she’ll hate me for it, but I’m not giving you up. I can’t do that.”
“I wouldn’t let you anyway,” He chuckled, placing a kiss on her temple before settling deeper beneath the blanket with her. “You know, she was never the one I wanted. Not really. I never wanted anything…long-term…with her. I wanted you. I knew that from the beginning, but—I don’t know—things were different then. We were different. But if I knew then what I do now, I would have done things differently. I would have chosen you. I wouldn’t have even involved myself with her in the first place, and things would be so different now. They’d be simpler.”
She nodded. “Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. There still would have been issues.”
“Maybe, but not as many as there are,” He huffed. “Oz, I can’t wait for all of this to be over.”
“Me neither,” She replied, stroking his cheek with her fingers. “You’ll never have to leave.”
He couldn’t help but smile at that, reaching up to stroke a braid back behind her ear before resting a hand on the side of her neck and pressing his lips to hers once again. He felt more than heard her little giggle as he rolled her onto her back and moved to cover her body with his, his hand running down one of her arms when she slipped them loosely around his neck. “Once this is behind us, I’m never leaving you again,” He murmured into her mouth. “Never.”
“You promise me that?”
“I promise you that…”
Making her way slowly out of the hideout later that morning, clad in nothing but the shirt of his uniform, she felt her heart skip a beat as she walked down the little incline to see him in the middle of the lake. He’d left her a little while ago, letting her know that he was going to go and take a bath—both the long ride out to her hideout and their strenuous…activities… had left him in need of one—and, for a time, she had succeeded in maintaining some self-control. She’d neatened the place up a little, she’d put some tea on to boil, she’d finished crafting the chair she’d been working on for days…and then she had completely given up.
The thought of walking down there and seeing him in the lake, all wet and naked, had just been too tempting to ignore and—watching him now as he cupped water in his hands and let it run down the front of his chest—she knew she’d made the right decision in doing so.
She made her way over to one of the large rocks near the lake when she got closer and sat down on the edge, crossing her ankles and leaning back on her hands as she watched him. He still hadn’t noticed her. She watched as he dipped beneath the water for just a moment to soak himself properly, and she laughed when he re-emerged and shook his head wildly, sending thousands of tiny droplets of water from his hair flying around him in all directions.
It was then that he finally looked her way, that cocky little smirk of his tugging at the corner of his mouth as he started to wade through the water in her direction. He stopped when he reached the edge, reaching out to rest his hands on the grass, and all he did for a moment was stare at her before he began to speak. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you, Fae?”
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Don’t flatter yourself, Tigelaar.”
“I mean, I don’t blame you,” He continued, holding his arms out at either side of him as he took a small step back from the edge. “I do look good. Though, I hate to admit, not half as good as you do right now in that. Oz, I think you look better in that thing than I ever have.”
“I’m glad you think so, because you’re not getting it back now until you leave.” She teased.
“Is that right?”
“Afraid so, yeah.”
“Shame.”
She chuckled at their banter, shifting to make herself a little more comfortable on the rock, before turning her attention back to him once more and realizing he hadn’t moved an inch.
“Get in here with me.” He told her before she could open her mouth to speak.
She scoffed. “No.”
“Come on,” He pressed. “It’ll be more fun that way.”
“Yero, that water looks freezing.” Her nose wrinkled a little.
He shook his head. “Maybe a little at first, but it doesn’t last long. Besides, I happen to know a sure-fire way of helping you to warm up if needed. Guaranteed to work every single time.”
“You’re actually insatiable, aren’t you?” She sighed.
“Can you blame me? When I have an emerald goddess sitting right in front of me?”
“Emerald goddess…that’s a new one.”
He groaned. “Would you just come and get in here with me?”
She looked at him in silence for a while before deciding, at last, to give him what he wanted and standing from the rock. She made quick work of the buttons running down the front of the shirt and slipped it from her shoulders, leaving herself completely naked in front of him as she set the shirt down on the rock and began making her way in the direction of the lake.
Before she could even dip a toe into the water herself, his hands reached out and caught her around the waist, bringing her into the lake with him with one little tug. Just as she’d known it would be, the water was freezing cold and she let out a soft gasp when it hit her, her arms wrapping around his neck on instinct as he pulled her flush against his chest with a chuckle.
“I hate you.” The words trembled from the cold as they left her.
“Mmm, no, I think you love me.” He corrected her, wading deeper into the lake with her.
She shook her head. “No, right now, I really think I hate you. I told you it would be freezing.”
“And I told you that I know of a way to warm you up, didn’t I?” He reminded her, smirking.
She was just about to open her mouth with some kind of sarcastic retort, but before she was able to he leaned in and caught her in a kiss that deepened on impact. She moaned into his mouth when he wrapped his arms tight around her and all but crushed her to him, her legs working their way around his waist as she cupped his face in her hands and let her tongue tangle lazily with his. She couldn’t get enough of him. Even when he irritated her to no end.
She only became aware that he’d begun moving them toward the rock on the other side of the lake when her back met with the face of it. She broke the kiss briefly at the contact, her chest heaving against his as her breath came in quick, uneven little pants against his face.
“Warming up yet?” He asked, leaving a kiss that was far more teeth than lips to her neck.
“Shut up,” She breathed as she took his face in her hands and pulled him back up to her, his hands running lazily along her thighs beneath the water as she took control of the kiss and her tongue started to explore his mouth with increasing intensity. “Oz, I love you so much.”
It was taking all the self-control he had in him not to carry her out of the lake, lie her down on the grass, and take her. Seriously, it was, and she and her words were doing little to help with that. Groaning softly into her mouth, he pulled away from her again and started trailing his kisses down the side of her neck, the feeling of her nails scraping against his scalp when she fisted a hand in his wet hair only spurring him on. “I need you, Fae,” He rumbled. “Here.”
She almost whimpered at his words as her head fell back against the rock with a quiet thud and her legs tightened around his waist. She was more than willing to let him have his way with her right there in the lake—not even caring that some Animals might be around—and she was just about to make the first move when, suddenly, she remembered something.
“Damn it…” She groaned, her forehead falling forward against his shoulder.
“You left the water boiling again, didn’t you?” He asked her as he pulled back from her neck.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Only you.” He tutted, though there was no malice in it.
Without a word, she allowed her legs to fall from around his waist and he made some space between them so that she could slip from between him and the rock-face. They waded back through the water to the edge then and climbed out together, but before she could return to the rock she’d left his shirt on, he caught her about the waist with one arm and dragged her back against his chest with a kiss to the dip of her shoulder. “Mmm, no. I still have plans…”
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly at his words as he began to direct her back up the little incline to the hideout, the hand on her belly holding her in place against him as he left soft kisses up and down the side of her neck. It didn’t take them long to get back there, and he let go of her just long enough for her to sort their tea for them once they had. The moment she’d poured the tea into the two wooden cups, he was reaching for her again, drawing her back to sit between his legs with her back to his chest as they drank in silence for a while.
“I’m beginning to see why you love this place so much,” He admitted eventually, the thumb of the hand on her stomach tracing slow circles onto her skin while he held his cup of tea in the other hand. “There’s just something about it, isn’t there? It’s quieter than most places.”
“Mmm,” She hummed, sipping at her tea as she let her gaze move around the home she had built for herself over the months. “That’s why I like it. Everything in my life has always been so loud and chaotic. This is the complete opposite. Part of me wants to stay living here even after things have sorted themselves out. I don’t think the city life is really for me. Not in the way I once thought it would be. This place just feels more…right…for me, I think. More me.”
“I agree,” He told her as he brought his chin to rest on her shoulder. “And, hey, if you really want to stay living out here once everything has been put to rights then we can do that. I’m not against it. I don’t care where we live, honestly, the location doesn’t matter to me. If you wanted to, I’d leave Oz just to be with you. The only thing I care about is us being together.”
She tilted her head back against his shoulder to look at him once she’d finished her tea, the love she had for him deepening tenfold. “You really mean that, don’t you?” She asked softly.
“Yeah,” He murmured, his gaze moving between hers and her mouth. “Yeah, I mean that…”
She let him kiss her then—a slow, drugging kiss that had her pressing back against him and her toes curling into the undergrowth beneath them—and the next thing she knew, he was easing her cup from her hand and setting it down on the floor as he moved from behind her.
“Still have plans?” She echoed his words from earlier when he held a hand out in offer to her.
“Still have plans,” He nodded as she slid her own hand into it and got to her feet, the two of them chuckling together as they made their way over to the bed and tumbled down onto the blanket together. “And, trust me, none of them involve you leaving this bed any time soon.”
He pressed his lips to hers then, intent on showing her just how seriously he meant that.
She could feel him running his fingers lazily up and down her back as she laid on top of him that night—could feel his breath puffing against her hair as she had her head tucked under his chin—and she smiled to herself at the steady rise and fall of his chest beneath her. They had been lying there together in comfortable silence for some time now, content to just be in the presence of one another without the need for talking, and she could tell he was close to falling asleep. His breathing was starting to slow and his touch had begun to get lighter.
Before he could succumb completely, she shifted slightly on top of him and laid her head on his shoulder so that she could look up into his face. His eyes were closed and his expression was one of total peace, so much so that she almost thought twice about disturbing him. But there was something she wanted to know the answer to before she could sleep herself, and so she reached up and stroked the backs of her fingers against his cheek in a tender caress.
“Hey.” Her voice was barely higher than a whisper.
“Hmm?” Came his sleepy little hum as he stirred, his arm slipping more securely around her.
She was quiet for a moment before finding her voice again. “Can I ask you something?”
“Guess so.”
“Once all of this is behind us, what’s next?”
He opened one eye then and turned his head so that he could look at her, his hand stilling at the small of her back through her nightdress. “You mean what’s next for the two of us?”
“Yeah,” She shrugged. “I mean, what does the future look like? In your mind?”
“Oz, Fae, that’s a loaded question for this time of night,” He scoffed, bringing his free hand up to run over his face before taking the time to think. “Okay, well, uhm…there’s probably going to be a lot that needs to be sorted once the Wizard and Morrible have been exposed. It’ll take time to fix the damage the two of them—him especially—have done over the years, so we’ll probably be busy with that for a while. I will say though, I…I’ve always wanted kids.”
The corner of her mouth twitched as she echoed: “Kids…?”
“Yeah. You know, they’re like tiny humans.” He teased, unable to help himself.
She gave his chest a half-hearted little slap before snuggling closer to him and running her foot along his leg beneath the blanket. “Kids aren’t something I’ve really thought that much about before,” She admitted quietly. “Not because I don’t want them, but because I just told myself that it wouldn’t happen. I mean, growing up, you can probably imagine that I wasn’t the kind of girl boys went mad about. I didn’t think that anything like this would happen for me, so I stopped thinking about it, but now that it has? I…I want them as well. I want kids.”
“You were surrounded by the wrong kind of boys growing up,” Was the first thing he said to her, brushing his lips against her temple in the tenderest kiss before pulling back again and thinking more about the last thing she’d said to him. “I think we should give it a little time. Wait for things to normalize and settle down slightly before we start thinking more seriously about it. Oz, though, Fae, the thought of miniature versions of you racing around the place.”
She laughed aloud at that, reaching up to palm her hair out of her face before settling in his arms again. “Knowing my luck, they’d end up taking more after you. You know, eating grass and being adorable menaces that end up giving the two of us grey hair before we’re thirty.”
“You got the adorable part right,” He told her. “But menaces? I was not a menace as a child.”
“No? What were you then?”
“Uh…spirited. I was a spirited child.”
She nodded. “Right. Then we’ll have green, spirited, grass-eating children.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” He replied right before the two of them burst into laughter. Once it had died down slightly, he turned his head to look her in the eye again and he couldn’t help but sigh gently. “Joking aside, I’d love those kids no matter what they ended up being like.”
She smiled at that, stretching up to kiss him on the cheek. “Me too. They’d be ours.”
“Yeah,” He agreed. “Ours…”