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"There," Veronica says, blowing out the match between her fingers just before the flame nips against her skin. "Do you think we have enough candles?"
"Babe," Toni says from where she's kneeling in front of the fireplace, stirring the neatly stacked logs with a long-handled poker, "I'm pretty sure that having this many candles lit at once might be a legitimate fire hazard."
She might have a point; Veronica hadn't bothered putting any in any of the other rooms, but there's no less than two dozen candles of varying sizes and scents scattered around the expansive living room, all of them flickering softly, shadows dancing against the wall. When combined with the light from the fireplace, it's quite beautiful, and there's enough light that she doesn't actually miss the absence of the various lamps dotted around the room.
"We'll just have to keep a close eye on them," Veronica shrugs, leaving the match on the coffee table and sinking to the floor beside Toni. "And I'll blow them out before we go to sleep." Faintly, even above the crackling of the fire, she can hear the freezing rain, which had caused the power outage that necessitated so many candles, lashing against the windows. According to the forecast, it isn't supposed to stop anytime soon, and Veronica feels incredibly sorry for anyone who has to try and navigate the frozen, slippery roads in the dark.
Thankfully, they have the apartment to themselves for the night, plenty of blankets, and enough non-perishable food to feed a small army.
"I think this should be good for now," Toni says, carefully resting the poker in the holder beside the fireplace and shuffling backwards.
"I'd say," Veronica agrees, fanning herself. This close to the fire, the heat is a little overwhelming, and she starts working at the buttons of the long-sleeved sleep shirt she threw on just after the power went out. "Are you sure this isn't just a ploy to get me out of my clothes?"
Toni just laughs as she lies back in the nest of blankets they've created. When she tucks her arms underneath her head, her crop top slides up nearly to the top of her ribs, exposing inches of skin that Veronica wants to smooth her palms and lips over.
"Do I really need a ploy to get you out of your clothes?" she asks, raising an eyebrow and smirking. Veronica pretends to consider it for a moment, pauses with her fingers toying on the last button holding the shirt closed and looks up at the ceiling, trying to look as deep in thought as possible. When she's waited for what she thinks is an appropriately long time, she shakes her head and pops the last button open.
"You don't." Shrugging the shirt off to the side, she slides over to the nest of blankets and lowers herself to straddle Toni's narrow hips. "Would you like to get me out of the rest of them?"
"You know," Toni murmurs, sliding her arms out from underneath her head and curling her slim fingers around Veronica's waist, "I think I would like that a lot."
By the time they finish, two of the candles have sputtered out, and a third is well on the way.
Veronica lights three more in their place.