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“… but only for the purposes of keeping me warm.”
She slid her hand from his cheek to rest the tip of her thumb in the cleft of his chin. She would never admit it, but the little notch had filled a ridiculous proportion of her thoughts and she seized the opportunity now to touch and answer some of the many questions she'd had about it.
“I will keep you warm, ” he answered.
Nina smiled, she pushed all the nagging thoughts of where they could go aside, and tried to focus on the here and now. She dropped her gaze from Matthias’ eyes to his slightly parted lips and leaned in, she closed her eyes, and felt… nothing.
Her eyes flickered open to find a bewildered-looking Matthias gawping at her, his hands on her shoulders holding her back.
“Uh sorry, Nina”, he stuttered, “I- I meant 'keep you warm', you know, in general, build fires, find pelts and such- as friends. I didn’t-”
“Oh Saints! Sorry Matthias, I-.” Nina pulled away and buried her face in her hands in uncharacteristic mortification. “I'm sorry, I thought, I just-,” she looked back up at him, ready to apologise again and beg him to forget about the whole thing.
Curiously, Matthias was now attempting to stifle a giggle. He was desperately trying to school his features back into a wall of seriousness. But seeing Nina, who was always so sure of herself squirming with embarrassment, was equal parts adorable and absurd. He instantly felt bad for unravelling her with his poorly-timed trick.
She had always been so quick with her banter and even though it usually took him a moment to catch up to her wit, he relished her lightheartedness. Even when he had pretended not to, especially when he had pretended not to. She could always make him at least smile, despite his best efforts. He had wanted to make her laugh in turn and had been looking for the right moment to do so; but now, judging by the many non-happy emotions he could see on her face, this had decidedly not been it.
Nina stared at him in confusion tinged with the tiniest bit of amusement she couldn’t help but feel at the sight of him laughing- or trying not to, badly.
“What- why are you- ?”
He took her hands as they lay in her lap. “I’m sorry Nina, I just wanted to make a joke, you are so worried about everything, I just wanted to make you laugh. Maybe torment you a little with my Fjerdan wiles?” he smiled, shrugged and then scrunched up his face in apology. Nina’s confusion morphed into amused surprise and she punched him in the arm. “Matthias!” she laughed and shook her head, returning her hand to the three others entwined in her lap, not wanting to lose this new familiarity in his touch.
“I am sorry,” he lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them, then leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her cheek, “I may be not so good at jokes. I will leave them to you.”
“No, I like that you tried,” she implored suddenly shy again, “And I like you… too. I never actually said.”
“Djel, you are so obsessed with me!” he said in mock exasperation but couldn't keep the grin from overtaking his face.
Nina threw her head back in a loud cackle and Matthias, pleased that he had righted his earlier misstep and also achieved his goal, gently snaked his hands around her waist.
She looked back at him, “So you do want- ?”
“For you to ravish me? Definitely!” he stated deadpan and then beamed at her again.
Nina shook her head, amused at this new silly side of him. “Saints, I’ve created a monster!” she said as she leaned in again.
This time they found each other effortlessly, Nina’s hand reached again for his chin and he pulled her closer.