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veeples · 3 months

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ockiss24 - valinter

Well hi there. I'm really just doing OC shipping these days, so <3. Happy ockiss24 to everyone! For @ockissweek! No theme used. title: bright, aching longing pairing: faustus valentine/winter collins (@narrativefoiltrope) rating: gen word count: ~1.2k ao3 link!

When Faustus opens his eyes, his bedroom is that surreal shade of blue before the sun can gild it gold. It must be very early. Winter’s alarm hasn’t even gone off yet. Her back is facing him, half bare with her summer pajamas. If he focuses he can make out the freckles on her shoulders, freshly vibrant from the weekend gardening.

Looking at her fills him with a bright, aching longing. They haven’t had a morning to themselves in weeks . Months, maybe. Between the kids and both their jobs, they can only manage to find their privacy at night. Faustus recognizes that familiar longing as loneliness.

He misses her.

The distance between them becomes suddenly, acutely intolerable. He wants her in his arms, like, right fucking now.

“Winter,” he says, voice low and rough with sleepiness.

After a moment, she hums so low he almost misses it. She’s probably tired. The weekend had been as hectically busy as they tend to be now with kid’s birthday parties and local events. He almost hesitates. It would be kinder to let her sleep, but he’s always been a selfish bastard.

Reaching out to stroke her spine with his knuckles, he says, more insistent, “Mm, no, don’t go back to sleep. We have to enjoy this while it lasts.”

Sleepily, Winter mumbles, “Enjoy what?”

“The joy of the kids not being up.” She shifts a bit in interest, head turning towards him. Faustus smirks, scenting blood in the water, and continues. “Nice, isn’t it? We could have a little morning snuggle.”

“Hm…”

“Come on ,” Faustus whines impatiently. “Honeybee, I’m cold. I’m freezing. Come warm me up.”

“Freezing in summer?” Winter laughs quietly. Faustus grins, smug with victory. He can tell she’s ready to give in. “Alright.”

Then, with a little sigh of effort, Winter rolls around until they’re face to face. Their eyes meet across the sheets and Faustus is too shameless to regret bothering her.

Gripped with excitement, Faustus does a stupid little shuffle towards her. Winter giggles, but she’s shuffling too, sheets rustling noisily in their otherwise silent room. Then: Faustus sighs happily as soon as he gets an arm draped across Winter’s waist and she’s got hers curled around his back. She smiles at him, drowsy and imperfect. Her hair is an ugly flattened mess on one side. Creases line her cheek on the side she slept on.

I love her, Faustus thinks, overwhelmed with the force of it.

“Hey,” he says in a whisper, like any louder and he’ll break the moment.

“Hi,” Winter whispers back.

Settling into the cuddle is as natural as breathing for Faustus. That bruised, aching thing in his chest quiets with Winter’s solid warmth in his arms. He has always been so hungry for affection. It’s insane to him that even now that he’s married, that hunger still hasn’t left him.

Maybe he would always be like this. Maybe it was a simple consequence of their constraints: his touring, her job, the kids now. Even holding her, he finds himself wanting for more. Wishing they had endless time to indulge.

“I miss this.” Faustus says, stroking his thumb along the curve of her hip. “Mornings like this.”

Winter’s mouth goes soft and sweet with understanding, sad with a little longing. “I do too.”

Her hand draws a line up the worn cotton of his shirt to the overgrown fringe of hair at his nape. Faustus closes his eyes as she scratches there lightly. He could sink into this shared warmth for hours and hours. He really, really would like to. He’d love for everything – her job, his music, even the kids – to fall away for a while so they could enjoy each other without worry.

Not for the first time, Faustus feels that nasty twinge of guilt. He loves his kids. He loves that parenthood fills him with a huge love, bigger than he knows how to really hold, and he even loves that it scares him shitless. But there’s also that nagging desire to monopolize Winter’s time. Bad habit of his, really. He’s an insatiable beast.

Ah, whatever. This really isn’t the time for that conversation. Later, he thinks, he’ll have to admit they need to figure out how they can get more time together or he might, like, keel over from wanting. It’s kinda funny that, even married, he finds himself wanting for her.

Kinda funny. Mostly unfair.

For now, all he wants to do is fully enjoy the luxury of having his wife in his arms, her fingers in his hair, before the day pulls them apart again.

Soon – too fucking soon – Winter’s alarm interrupts their happy cuddle time. The look she gives him is one of strained regret. Faustus groans, lifts his arm, and watches her roll over to silence her phone on the nightstand with a pout. He waits until Winter’s out of bed, feet stuck into her pink plaid slippers and standing at their closet, to decide to poke her a bit.

Faustus sighs loudly, dramatic and jilted. “Is it worth it to convince you to come back to bed?”

“You can always try,” Winter says lightly as she examines her wardrobe. There’s a note of teasing in her voice, the bully she is.

“Five minutes, Winter.”

Winter pulls out two sweaters, one blue, one tan, both equally grandma like in style. She considers them both before putting away the blue one. “Skylar will need to get ready soon though.”

“Three minutes?”

“Oh Faustus, what could we do in three minutes?”

“Cuddle some more?” Only now does Winter turn to him, eyebrows slightly raised in the mild astonishment of someone who knows Faustus hardly ever stops at cuddling. Faustus raises his hand in mock salute. “Scouts honor! Just a cuddle.”

Unmoved, Winter smiles at him like she really wants to give in, but knows she can’t. Instead she crosses back to the bed and cups his face between her palms and kisses him in way of an apology. It’s very tender, very loving, and again he wants more . Faustus tries to chase after it when she pulls away, but she stills him with a gentle squeeze to his jaw.

Faustus looks at her, helpless. For the second time that morning, he aches to have her in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” Winter whispers against his skin. “How about we get a babysitter for the end of the week for a little date night?”

That stirs some definite interest in him. Almost enough to make him drop his primadonna act, but not quite. “You’ll make me wait all week?”

“I’ll give you extra cuddles tonight.”

“And the rest of the week.”

“You’ll get spoiled like that.” Winter grins wide enough he can see her little tooth gap, all sweetness and affection. “Alright, all week.”

The rest of the morning goes exactly as all of them have since they added Clover to their little family. Check the baby, wrangle Skylar into his clothes, get breakfast on the table. Put on the kettle for Winter’s tea, start his coffee. Winter kisses him goodbye and he steals two more before he lets her go.

Faustus spends the rest of the day, after the kids are dropped off at daycare and he’s plopped his tired ass in the recording studio, looking forward to their nightly cuddle.

#veep writing #oc: faustus valentine #ship: valinter #ockiss24 #touching upon faustus's feelings about being a dad </3

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