Warren's Room at the Arms, Pre-Dawn, Monday Morning

[glacial_queen]

This time it was Karla who woke up first, as Fandom returned those gifts it had taken away. Most nights, being woken up by a wing-buffet to the face would have ended with sulking and poking at Warren until he was awake enough to apologize and make it up to her, but this morning it just made Karla squeal and grin. Especially when, a moment later, she realized that she could sense Warren again, the familiar pulse of emotions there waiting to be acknowledged.

"Warren! Warren! Wake up!" She was like a little kid at Christmas. Or, okay, like herself at Christmas. "Warren!"

Sure, he had to be up early to catch his portal back to Sunnydale and would probably appreciate sleep. But Karla was positive that he'd appreciate knowing he had his wings back even more.

"Oh no the stock market crashed!"

That'd get him up.

Comments

[wwiii]

Did Karla like that first wing-buffet? Because the resulting flail at that particular announcement had Warren scrambling into a sitting position, wings flared and feathers, no doubt, flying straight into Karla's face. His eyes were wide as he made a grab at his Blackberry.

And then froze, and blinked, and took a moment to kind of take stock of the situation, here.

...

And then he pulled his wings close to his back and blushed. Furiously.

"Oh, god. I'm so sorry."

[glacial_queen]

Karla was giggling at him, which probably meant he was off the hook. She'd been able to feel the sleep shift into panic (and then to chagrin) and that had felt wonderful, as odd as that was to say about those particular emotions.

"You wouldn't wake up when I poked you," she said by way of explanation. "It was that or say the coffee was all gone."

And since he hadn't tried to murder her over the stock market, she'd gone with that one.

[wwiii]

"The coffee thing would have led to absolute disaster," Warren noted, still a little wide-eyed, even as he gave his arms a stretch, and then ruffled his feathers. His chagrin hadn't lasted long, either. He was too busy grinning, now, thankful that he was whole and didn't feel like his bones had been cast out of cement, to be apologetic for long.

"This is real, then? We're both actually awake, and I'm not just dreaming?"

He glanced across the room briefly. Even in the dark, he could make out about a half dozen scarves that he'd thrown himself into knitting yesterday in order to keep his mind off of being all... normal-shaped. And a pair of socks. And a cardigan.

Hooboy.

[glacial_queen]

*It's real,* she sent, her grin all but shining in the dim light. *We're awake and it's real and we're back to normal!*

Laughing now, she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close and burying her hands in his feathers. "Thank the Darkness," she murmured. "You're right here."

[wwiii]

"Right here," Warren agreed, wrapping her up in arms and wings and pulling her close with all of the squeezy hugginess that he could muster without hurting her. "In one piece and everything."

They both were! This was excellent.

"We're really going to have to find a place to both go that isn't here or Sunnydale, when we want to just spend time together without having to worry about messes like this, aren't we?" A beat. "We haven't been to Hawaii in a while, have we?"

[glacial_queen]

"We have not," Karla said, pretending to pout at him, even while she was snuggling into his arms. "I don't think we've been back since last Christmas! It's been almost a whole year."

And that was terrible. Just terrible. Karla blamed you, Warren. You.

"A vacation where we can just relax? And not have to worry about fear demons or becoming a little kid or losing wings or politics--that'd be nice."

[wwiii]

"I think I'm going to have to give our friend Captain Chiba a call sometime soon, then, and see if he's got any open nights coming up. This is the busy season, everyone's flying south for the winter," a little avian humor there, "but I'm sure he'll do his best to fit us in, too."

Nothing weird had happened to them in Hawaii so far. If the track record held, Warren was going to have to seriously consider buying property there with a little getaway cabin on it for them to run to and hide from the insanity.

[glacial_queen]

Karla's thoughts were trending along the same way. "Maybe we can rent somewhere to stay, rather than a hotel or resort or something. Just...somewhere that's for us. And then whenever we want to go somewhere else, we can charter the yacht and go somewhere."

More snuggling now, yes. Her hands were running over the struts of his wings, trailing her nails over them lightly. "Somewhere it's just you and me. Where we don't have to hide, either. I'm glad I'm not going back to Sunnydale with you. I don't think I could handle looking at you and not seeing your wings again after this weekend."

[wwiii]

"It's going to be difficult, bringing myself to hide them again," Warren admitted, closing his eyes and nuzzling his face into her hair. She needed to keep doing that thing with her nails. Until the end of time. They needed to just stay like this forever, and that would be okay. "But at least I'll be able to feel them."

He'd heard people mention phantom limbs before, when they lost an arm or a leg. Hell, he had a vague idea of what that sensation was like, himself. After all, he'd re-grown his wings after trying to cut them off as a kid, and his hand after being caught in those explosions in Panem. There hadn't even been that, this weekend. His body wasn't adapted for wings. His brain hadn't been, either.

"We need to go flying before I go," he murmured. "I'll be late for class today, but I don't care. I can say my alarm clock died. Something stupid."

[glacial_queen]

"I'll come flying with you," Karla decided, her nails continuing to do That Thing. "I only have one class today anyway. And it's been forever since we've flown together."

"Though," she added with a naughty smile he could probably hear, if I do that, you'll be even later for class."

And that was with the three hour time difference, yes.

[wwiii]

Warren smiled as he lingered on that tone in her voice, breathing her in again and lightly trailing his claws over the skin of her arms.

"You know, I think today is going to have to be a write-off. Feeling under the weather, you know? Couldn't get to my portal in time, stranded out of state with some sort of condition that's left me hot and high all at the same time."

He was getting early practice in for playing hookie.

[glacial_queen]

"Some swelling, too," Karla breathed in his ear, shivering as his claws raised goosebumps on her skin. "It sounds pretty serious. You should probably minimize your exposure to others."

She kissed him then. "Of course, odds are that I already have what you do, so I might as well stay with you anyway."

[wwiii]

"Oh, would you?" Warren chuckled, something low and pleased, a purr that he was all-too-conscious of. "There's no sense in us suffering apart when we can spend the day together getting one another more comfortable, after all."

Yes. Comfortable.

[glacial_queen]

Karla would make a crack about slipping into something a little more comfortable, but she was already naked.

"Though we still will have to go flying for a bit of it. Fresh air is important, you know. Your Healer said so."

[wwiii]

"And I would hate to ignore my Healer on such an important topic. After all, I wouldn't want to get more sick or something."

... Because that would totally happen.

[glacial_queen]

"I am already going to have to spend a lot of time giving you some tender, loving care," Karla said, punctuating each work with a kiss. "Surely you're not going to demand that I do that for days. Just the two of us? In this hotel room?"

...Probably still naked...?

[wwiii]

"What you pose to me leaves me in a bit of a dilemma," Warren noted, biting the inside of his cheek to hold back a laugh. "Because what you're proposing there does actually have me tempted. I wouldn't want to leave without being given a completely clean bill of health from my Healer, after all."

[glacial_queen]

"You shouldn't tempt me like this," Karla scolded. "Because it's already hard enough to think of reasons to let you leave on a regular Monday. Today, after the weekend we just had, with Thanksgiving on the way, and already successfully keeping you for today with a possible in for tomorrow, too? You're just begging me to come up with reasons to keep you for a full week."

She would, Warren. Don't think she wouldn't. And happily so.

[wwiii]

"I suppose that really would just leave Wednesday to coerce me into, wouldn't it?"

You had him tempted, now. Damn it, Karla.

"But just watch, the second I choose to stick around, that'll be whe the island gets invaded by... preschool cartoon characters carrying bazookas or something."

The horror.

[glacial_queen]

"Which we can cheerfully ignore, snuggled in our hotel room," Karla said, leaning over his shoulder to whisper in his ear. "Or, should we decide to go out, we can fly and drop things on them from above."

She trailed her nails down his bicep. "If you stay here for Wednesday, too, I'll wear something strappy and disposable..."

[wwiii]

"Where did you learn how to be so persuasive?"

Really, Warren was powerless to resist.

"Wednesday, hm? I think I can manage staying through Wednesday, too..."

Really, why would he ever want to go back?

[glacial_queen]

Well, for now at least, he wouldn't have to return to campus till Monday.

...She was going to have to work very hard to let him go on Monday, and not continue to convince him to stay with her for longer still.

"Learned it from watching you," she teased. "You're irresistible, you know."

[wwiii]

"Irresistible, huh?" It would be very difficult to talk himself into leaving on Monday. Even with the island as cruel as it sometimes was, it was still more home than anywhere else he'd known. "I think I can live with 'irresistible.' You're not actively trying to resist, are you?"

[glacial_queen]

"I should try, just to see if I actually can," she decided. "But then you'd counter with something terribly unfair and my secret weakness would be out."

Because Warren was dreadfully afraid that Karla was capable of resisting him. Dreadfully.

"You are going to have to make a decision soon, you know" she added. "Sex or flying first. That'll be up to you."

[wwiii]

Why separate the two? Warren laughed, pulling her into his arms and pulling himself to his feet, giving his wings a stretch as he contemplated the window and their current state of undress.

"Foreplay," he informed her. "Let's get some clothes on so that I can rip them off of you after we've had a good fly around the island."

[glacial_queen]

"Too bad it's a little chilly to put on a skirt," Karla said, with a sigh. "Make you work all the harder to catch me."

But, flirtatious as she was feeling, Karla decided that she wouldn't want to freeze her fun bits off, and reached for a pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt. Today, he was going to have to settle for comfy Karla, not sexy Karla.

[wwiii]

Warren was perfectly fine with comfy Karla. He was pulling on a pair of jeans, himself, and wondering just how much he cared about getting cold out there. With his wings back, pulling on a shirt seemed too restricting, really.

He settled for his blue jeans and the tailored jacket, designed to properly fit around his wings, that Karla had given him as a gift, once upon a time. If the world wanted more effort out of him than that, it was going to find itself sorely disappointed.

"That'll be something for Hawaii, perhaps."

[glacial_queen]

"You make it sound like I was planning on wearing anything in Hawaii," Karla said, quirking a grin his way while she pulled her hair back in a messy ponytail. "I was going to be your naked little air nymph."

[wwiii]

"Lucky Hawaii," Warren laughed. "And you're not afraid of getting windburn in the most awkward places possble?"

She was braver than he!

[glacial_queen]

"...You make excellent points," Karla decided. "Thank you for talking me out of what would have been a bad idea."

You now had only yourself to blame for losing out on a naked Karla air nymph, Warren.

[wwiii]

Well, he would have had to share his air nymph. Who wanted to share? Really?

"You can be my naked yacht nymph instead," Warren chuckled. "I'll make certain Captain Chiba has a room free for us..."

[glacial_queen]

"Naked water nymph?" Karla suggested. "We could rent a cottage by a private cove or something...Just spend the day lounging in the sun and swimming in the ocean."

She was also ignoring the fact that cavorting naked all day was only going to end sunburns for one of them. And it wasn't the one with a Healing factor.

[wwiii]

All the more reason for Warren to insist on being very thorough while applying her sunblock.

"You know... that sounds like an excellent idea, actually."

[glacial_queen]

"Well, I do have you for the rest of the week..." Karla teased. Though she wouldn't be able to leave the island until Wednesday evening at the earliest, which would be sad.

She called in her wings and pulled them on, before opening the balcony doors more fully and perching on the railing. No falling for her this time.

"Almost ready to go?"

[wwiii]

"Almost?"

That look in Warren's eyes was pure mischief, yes. It went hand-in-hand with the way he didn't say another word before making a run at her, and then leaping up and wrapping his arms around her middle as he threw himself over the balcony in an easy leap, determined to drag her over with him.

[glacial_queen]

Karla squealed as they pitched forward into the air, the ground rushing up to meet them. *Is that a yes?* she gleed at him over a psychic thread, so the words wouldn't get torn away by the wind.

[wwiii]

Warren's answer was a laugh as he twisted in the air, keeping a firm hold on her as his wings unfurled and the wind that had been rushing past them now lifted them both back up again into the morning sky.

"Might be a yes," he agreed, shooting her a grin.

[glacial_queen]

"Look at you," she said, eyes softening. "In your natural element."

She leaned forward to kiss him briefly. "Now am I going to be able to fly on my own? Or are you going to hold me tight the entire time?"

[wwiii]

"Don't think I'm not tempted," Warren chuckled, giving her another squeeze in his arms just because he could. "Are you ready, then?"

Never mind that she had been when he'd plowed her over the railing, and all.

[glacial_queen]

"Maaaaybe not," Karla decided. "I might need another kiss or two before I'm ready to fly off on my own."