#and then an avalanche would happen just as they got thisclose

[careless-with-your-heart]

Lay You in the Ground Crazyposting Part Deux.

I promise this is only an interruption in the angst-and-traumafest. Your honor, they deserve love, but what they've got is me to write them.

He helps her to shaky legs. Kitty’s vision is pleasantly blurred at the edges as Blaine’s hands work in alarmingly expert reverse, redressing her as she sways on her bare feet—underthings, shoes, the heavy fall of her dress slipping back down her body. Endorphin-drunk, she reaches back and ruffles his hair as he stands behind her, untwisting a shoulder strap that has tangled in the process.

“I thought you were only good at undressing women,” she says, raking her nails lightly across his scalp.

Blaine makes a sound low in his throat that is half gasp and half growl. “I’m a man of many talents. Keep doing that, and you’ll get a demonstration of several more of them.”

And then, he’s gone from her personal bubble, reaching for her hand, tugging her toward the bar.

“Coat?” he asks, reaching behind the bar for her purse and handing it over.

Kitty purses her lips. “I didn’t bring one.”

“Of course you didn’t.” He grins. “That’s a thing with you, for some reason. You probably don’t remember the first night you walked into The Post, but you weren’t wearing a coat then, either.” He steps close, pushes her hair back from her face. She’s sure she looks a mess—makeup smeared, clothes rumpled. But Blaine’s looking at her as though she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

And she remembers everything about the first night she walked into The Post. Scared, alone, running from the dark.

“I travel light,” she explains, shrugging. “And this is weird pillow talk.”

God, she loves the way he smiles. When things take him off-guard, amuse him, the flash of teeth and the light that reaches his eyes changes him into someone else. Someone lighter.

Kitty’s eyes flick upward. So much is better in the light.

“It’s part of my charm. No, I—it just stuck with me. The coat thing. It was one of the things that made me want to help you.” He reaches for her hand, pulls her into him. She goes without resistance; his arms around her waist, her arms around his neck.

“One of?” she teases.

“Oh, yeah, well, you’re also ridiculously attractive and seemed to be some kind of fugitive from law enforcement, so that really did it for me.”

“See? You can be wrong, sometimes.”

Blaine kisses the tip of her nose. “Splitting hairs, but I’ll concede. It wasn’t law enforcement. Now, I’ll go get my coat…” Blaine steps back, and Kitty feels a flutter of anxiousness rise in her throat.

What now?

She’d never navigated the after with anyone she…didn’t despise.

“And you will wear it. And we are going back to my place to do that”—Blaine points back over his shoulder at the piano as he reaches the mouth of the hallway that leads to the back office—“again.”

And then, he disappears down the hall. And under the bright, blazing lights of the chandeliers above, Kitty suddenly struggles to recall what it ever felt like to be in the dark without him.