Christmas Eve (for Henri)

[adifferentlife]

For a short while Sybil had wondered if she'd even be able to leave her apartment on the Christmas Eve, the snow coming in droves the day before. But it had tapered off through the night, and on the 24th the roads and footpaths were all clear of it. She'd bundled up to meet Henri at the Soup Kitchen, their time there passing quickly. A few hours of ladeling soup, serving up rolls, and handing over baskets of canned goods and gifts for the children, and she honestly felt as if she'd done something to help those who needed it. It wasn't enough, the simple giving of food only a bandage on the wound. But it was what they could manage today, though she finds herself more determined to contribute more to Darrow in the coming year.

It's perhaps an appropriate mood for going to mass. She's never been to a Catholic Church before, and it seems rather disappointing in the end. In English just as any service she was used to, but with a dreadful number of candles it seems to her. Overall she finds lttle different, refusing communion as the entire idea of transubstantiation seems suspect, but enjoyable nontheless. It's nicer to have Henri to share it with, even if he seems somber at some points of the night.

When they leave it's nearly one in the morning, truly Christmas day. It's snowing again and as she slips her arm through his offered one, Sybil looks up to him contentedly. "Happy Christmas."

Comments

[adifferentlife]

"As are you." He's beautiful and handsome, his chest and arms strong and his touch gentle. Sybil curls a finger against his cheek before carefully removing his glasses. She has to stretch to set them atop the bedside table, turning back to look into his eyes, clear and pale.

[jaimemieux]

Henri chuckled softly as she pulled his spectacles off, his smile still playful when she returned to his arms. Brushing her hair back from her face, he kissed her - first gently, but soon with renewed passion, pulling her close once again.

[adifferentlife]

Each time they shift it changes things, and lying in his arms, her body curled to his has only made their kisses more intense. She explores his skin, a hand working her way slowly down his chest, trembling when it touches his stomach and moves across to his hip.

[jaimemieux]

Henri exhaled softly through his teeth, eyes slipping shut. “Sybil…” He breathed her name as a shiver passed through him. As much as he wanted her, he hesitated now, less certain as they crept close to a point of no return. He swallowed. “Sybil, I don’t want you to regret…"

[adifferentlife]

Yet as his certainty faded her own grew, it seemed. His sense of honour was only one of the things that attracted her to him, and having him say something now was sweet and wonderful. He, she thinks, is right. Being carried away by passion is a dangerous thing, and she's already said that she wasn't yet ready to have sex with him, and as much as she wishes to continue she knows that truth still holds. She kisses his cheek, and then his lips, both light and brief as she tries to find words.

"You are the most handsome and noble man I have known," she says with no prevarication and great affection. "Still, you will stay? I should like to fall asleep with you."

[jaimemieux]

Henri laughed softly, ducking his head. “I have difficulty believing that, though I suppose I have no choice.” He had made the right decision, then, stopping matters where they were. Her reaction solidified that. Still, he could not help but wish that were not the case.

Honor could be a terribly frustrating thing, from time to time.

He kissed her forehead. “I would like nothing better than to stay, if you will have me."

[adifferentlife]

"I would have you always, if you were willing," she says, her heart racing at what's both a serious and a provocative admission. Sybil would she realises, she would have him by her side and with her whenever she might, for as long as thing place would allow them.

[jaimemieux]

Henri’s smile was still breathless. “Dieu, ma chere.” He exhaled and blinked a few times. For a moment, he considered taking back his earlier hesitation. He could tell her just how much he wanted her, and ask if he might take her at her word - and she would say yes, he was almost sure of it.

But it was that very certainty that convinced him to keep his thoughts to himself. Just being here with him, Sybil had tossed away the conventions of her world, and though she had done so freely and happily, he knew that regret could creep up easily on a person. What was easy to ignore in a moment of passion could haunt someone come morning.

Instead, he cupped her cheek and kissed her softly. The pendant he had given her rested between her breasts, and seemed to give out a warm glow of its own. Henri was sure he had never seen anything so beautiful. “Happy Christmas,” he whispered.

[adifferentlife]

"Happy Christmas, my darling," she whispers back, her smile warm and filled with love. She knows that she will have to move, to slip on a chemise and likely offer him her scrubs so he has something to sleep in that isn't his trousers. But for now she's content to lay in his arms a while longer, marveling in what they have, and how happy she is.