Work Text:
Lucy wakes up to a warm body pressed to her back, a chin resting on her shoulder and fingers carding a path on her side. The featherlike touch makes her shiver, and she presses incredibly closer to the body next to her, sighing in contentment. With the new proximity, she's able to smell his aftershave, the aroma of sandalwood and vanilla filling her nostrils; one that's familiar after so many hours in the shop.
Her eyes open at that thought and she prepares for disappointment. But there's still someone in her bed. There's also Tim's pants lying on the floor next to his shoes. Her bra is hanging from the lamp on her bedside table, but the rest of her outfit is not within sight. More importantly, her legs feel like jelly and her body is spent, her insides tingling with remembered sensations from the previous night. So, not another dream but the real deal, she realizes with a jolt.
"I can hear you thinking," Tim murmurs next to her ear, his breath tickling the delicate skin there, making her whimper.
"I'm sorry," Lucy slurs, voice still laced with sleep.
"Not about last night, I hope," Tim says without missing a beat. "Because that was…"
"Incredible," she finishes for him. And much better than even her wildest dreams, but she keeps that to herself.
Lucy feels Tim nod against her back and finally turns around to look at him. His gaze is already on her, and he has the softest smile she's ever seen on his face. But as it travels down to her bare chest it leaves its innocence behind, making her recall his sly grin from a few hours ago. A slight pink hue rises in her cheeks, and she tries to hide against his chest, but he outright giggles and quickly kisses the embarrassment off her face.
When Tim pulls back, Lucy kisses him again, just because she can, and burrows deeper into his arms. They stay like that as night gives way to dawn and sunlight starts filtering through the window. They don't talk but do whisper words of adoration against each other's skin.
"Now you're the one thinking too loud," Lucy says eventually, propping herself up with an elbow on Tim's stomach.
Tim rolls his eyes but doesn't look surprised. She's always been able to read him too well. "Can I ask you a question?"
"You already asked me out on a date," Lucy says, and does her best to sound serious, but in the end, laughs her way onto the kiss that she presses over his lips. "And you're currently in my bed, not that I'm complaining."
She shows him how much she isn't complaining by shoving her thigh in between his legs and gently trailing her fingers across the bare skin of his chest and stomach, stopping at the threshold of the blanket covering his legs. "So, what more could you possibly want?" Her hand deviates southward, making it clear how much more she wants.
Tim's eyes darken but he shakes his head and grabs both of her hands in his to stop her. "I like where your mind is going but first, I have a question."
It takes a lot for Lucy not to outwardly groan but she catches his serious expression and nods, pulling back to sit cross-legged on the bed.
Tim mirrors her posture and reaches for her hand, taking a moment to steel himself. "It's just… Your Lucy Lesson got me thinking back to your last day as my rookie." Her eyes widen, first in recognition, then horror, and finally on something Tim can't name, but it only spurs him on. "Was it true what you said? Was it true back then?" It's a question he often asks himself in the quiet of the night, but this is the first time he lets himself speak the words out loud.
Lucy closes her eyes and thinks back to that day, to her checklist and her prank, and the powder bomb that closed that stage of their relationship. Eyes still closed, she murmurs, "Weren't you the one that didn't want to talk about our feelings that day?"
"What can I say? You have rubbed off on me," he says sincerely, his gaze solely on her face. "But that's not an answer and you're not getting out of this conversation so easily."
Lucy hums in mock disappointment. "I honestly don't know. I felt something but I wasn't trying to label it."
"Because it was too complicated?" Tim wonders.
"Yes, you were my training officer." She pauses, searching for the right words, ultimately going for the truth. "It's also bad enough pining after your superior, but even worse when the feelings are unrequited."
Tim makes a sound at the back of his throat but doesn't actually contradict her. "How could you be so sure?"
"I mean, I wasn't before. Not after Caleb took me." Lucy hesitates when Tim sucks in a breath, his expression pained, but eventually continues. "When I got home from the hospital Jackson told me what you did when I got taken and how it was you, not Nolan, who found me. And I know you stayed all night at the hospital. So it made me wonder."
Lucy stops and turns to look out the window, flipping Tim's hand in hers and beginning to play with his fingers. She reminds herself that she's here and safe and not in that barrel. "But then you didn't show up at my apartment. I know you were checking with Jackson and Nolan every day, but I didn't actually see you until I returned to work."
"I'm sorry," Tim apologizes, voice soft and uncharacteristically vulnerable. He squeezes her fingers and closes the distance between them to plant a kiss on her forehead.
"Don't be. It doesn't matter what didn't happen at the time." Lucy braces her hands on his chest as though to physically get her point across. "When I was in that barrel, I knew everyone would be trying to find me, but I was sure you were the one that wouldn't stop looking. Then I woke up and you were there. That's what matters." They both know her ring played a part in it, but it wouldn't have mattered if Tim hadn't always been paying attention to her and looking hard enough.
Tim nods and his eyes inadvertently go to her side. He had seen it last night, when he finally, thankfully, got her out of her clothes but he didn't want to ruin their moment by calling attention to it then. "Is that why you kept it?" His hand goes to the tattoo, but he never quite touches it. He knows his hands had roamed over it already, but this feels deliberate in a way he isn't sure she's comfortable with.
Lucy grabs his hand and together they trace the numbers etched onto her skin. And Tim can't help but smile at the knowledge she trusts him with this too. "As someone once said, it was the first day of the rest of my life and I happen to really like my life."
Their eyes never stray from one another as she speaks, and as Tim dips his head to kiss her, he knows it was the first day of the rest of his life too.
"I've always felt strong feelings for you, Tim. Namely, irritation in the beginning," she stops to giggle as he gives her an affronted look, "but by the time my last day as a Rookie came around things were finally back to normal, and I didn't want to wonder anymore. I said what I said, and maybe I was really only trying to make a point, but now I think maybe I just managed to fool myself alongside you."
That draws a breath out of him. "Lucy." And at a loss for more coherent words, he captures her lips in his once more.
"I also felt something before," he confesses after they parted for breath, this kiss having led to a second, and a second to three more.
Lucy draws in a deep breath, letting it slowly, and waits. She knows Tim usually needs time to put his thoughts in order before he can verbalize them but when his silence stretches too long, she nudges his knee with her foot. "I'm going to need you to say more than that. And can I get it in writing too?"
Tim smiles and pokes her ribs. But it's still a few minutes before he speaks again. "I've seen other rookies get hurt, but what I felt that day was different. Everything I feel for you is different." His voice is not higher than a whisper and Lucy realizes this is probably the first time he allows himself to admit these things. "Before Caleb, and really since I met you, I'd only crossed lines like that for Isabel, and what scared me the most was knowing I would cross a thousand more for you."
"It doesn't scare you anymore?" Her expression remains neutral, but there is a flash of uncertainty in her eyes, mixed with silent optimism.
"It does. But some things matter more," he admits, plainly, uninterested in continuing to hide himself any longer. "My feelings for you have been there for longer than I wanted to admit. I knew I was in trouble when I saw you at Angela's wedding, but it took you kissing me for me to see the risk had been worth it all along."
Lucy nods and cracks a faint grin. "So… I was right?" She lifts a brow teasingly and watches his expression go from serious to irritated.
"That's your takeaway from everything I just said?" Tim asks indignantly, then mumbles something about having created a monster and how further Lucy Lessons are forbidden but she barely hears him in her laughter.
It's a few minutes before she gets herself under control, and Lucy kisses him then, pulling Tim back down onto the mattress with her.
"It really doesn't matter what we felt before or when things changed, or what happened or didn't happen, or when it happened," she rambles against his lips and he hangs onto her every breath. "What's important is that we're together now, and without all that we wouldn't be here to feel like this."
Lucy doesn't say what this is, but they both know it's love. It has been for a while.
"And Tim?
"Yeah?"
"If I knew how much you would like the green dress, I would have worn it before."
Tim closes the distance between them and steals the rest of her breath away. "It's okay, I like you better out of it anyway."