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The murky scenery outside the Subaru’s tinted windows blurred by at what seemed like the speed of light as Tora raced through the city towards Poppy’s apartment.
It was late—later than Tora would have preferred to stay up, but he’d been having a hell of a time trying to fall asleep. Whenever he found his body refusing to rest, he would busy his mind in an effort to pass the time and hopefully, tire his brain out.
Tora had been in the middle of playing some mindless video game when he’d noticed a text message lighting up his phone.
He’d instantly recognized the name attached to the text and Tora had immediately begun to wonder what Poppy was doing up at such an hour; sometimes she got lost in her books and didn’t fall asleep until only a few hours before she was due to go into work, but this…this was different.
The tiny words simply read ‘can you come over?’
There was a very distinct way that Poppy texted Tora: none of her texts were ever void of a cute emoji, even a simple ‘okay’ had a tiny flower or animal attached at the end.
To see the plain text had made Tora’s blood immediately run cold and he’d promptly slipped his boots on, already halfway out the door before realizing he’d probably needed to text Poppy back. His thumbs had simply managed to type out a brief ‘omw’ and then he was shoving his phone into his back pocket and booking it towards his car.
The fluorescent digital clock on his dashboard flashed 12:29am at him with bright white numbers as the Subaru’s speedometer beside it inched closer to triple digits. The GPS showed that he was a minute away from her apartment and he pressed the gas pedal just a little closer to the floor.
It’d only been a month since the two had come to terms with their…relationship. Tora had opened up to her—told her how he truly felt about the two of them. He loved her, but he was afraid to love her. Poppy had been more than happy to prove to him that he had nothing to be afraid of; having him in her life was what truly kept her safe.
She made him feel safe, almost as if she were the anchor grounding him despite all the chaos he’d endured throughout his life. He’d never felt anything like this with someone before, and even if the feelings were mutual, he was still terrified—terrified that Poppy would be consumed by this lifestyle. She was still naïve; she had no idea the atrocities that Tora had seen, and Tora knew that he could never let her know about them.
He finally reached Poppy’s apartment building and his tires squealed as he slammed his car to a crooked stop in the middle of the parking lot. He nearly ripped the entire ignition out as he flung himself out of the car and sprinted to the front door of the building. Of all the nights for Ronzo to not be working…
Tora took the stairs three at a time and nearly kicked her door open when he realized that he needed to calm down or else he’d scare the hell out of her. There wasn’t any crime scene tape hanging over her door, and the entire building sat calm and quiet, as if Tora had been the only disturbance there tonight.
With almost perfect timing, the apartment door softly swung open, and an unharmed Poppy stood in the doorway, dawned in a rumpled sweater and slightly scrunched up pajama shorts. She was lucky that she’d opened the door quick enough as Tora was still only seconds away from kicking the damned thing off its hinges.
“Yer okay…?” he asked almost breathlessly, “Yer not in any danger?” Tora felt a little dumbfounded—he shouldn’t have assumed the worst-case scenario, but that’s just the way he’d found his brain was wired.
“In danger…? No! Oh gosh, no! I just…wasn’t sure if you were awake and…” Tora stared down at the tiny woman and the vibrant, rosy blush that was already spreading across her cheeks, matching her bright pink shorts almost perfectly. He rubbed a large palm over his face—they were both embarrassed, “I watched this really awful horror movie earlier and I haven’t been able to sleep since!”
“I ain’t gonna leave, sweetheart,” Tora immediately responded, and Poppy’s lips pressed together tightly as if he’d smacked the words right out of her mouth, “Just thought…somethin’ bad had happened…”
Tora immediately decided that he didn’t want to stand outside in the hall any longer and reached over her to open the door wider so he could step inside. Poppy stumbled back a little and let the front door swing shut behind Tora with a heavy thud. He reached over and slid all of the locks into place before turning back towards Poppy and the dark apartment surrounding them.
Tora nearly recoiled as the scent of peppermint and pine ripped through his nostrils—of course she was burning Christmas candles; Tora almost forgot it was that god forsaken holiday in less than a few weeks. He glanced down at the timid woman and cocked an eyebrow at her.
His eyes didn’t hesitate to trail over her very much exposed legs, all the way from her slender ankles up to her shapely thighs which were barely covered by the bottom of her tiny shorts. Poppy must have caught his obvious staring and cleared her throat.
“I don’t know why I decided to watch it by myself so late, but Erdene recommended it and…” she trailed off as she peered up at the large man in front of her with wide eyes and a slightly guilty frown, “I hope you’re not upset.”
“I said I ain’t leavin’ ya tonight,” Tora reassured her as he reached out to push a strand of hair away from her flushed face, “S’ been a while since we had a sleepover.” Her gloomy face lit up and she nodded, grabbing Tora’s hand lingering by her face before tugging him further into the apartment, towards her bed.
Tora haphazardly kicked his shoes off beside the door, his gaze momentarily flickering to her pert bottom as the thin fabric of her shorts shifted with each step she took. He had half a mind to crane his neck and make sure the balcony door was closed all the way—just a precaution, one that he practiced every time he visited Poppy.
He then paused and glanced around the dark apartment, trying to remember the last time he’d actually been here. The past few times they’d been together, it had been out in public, at Quincy’s, or even in the ‘comfort’ of his own apartment. He missed this warm, little bedroom—it was much homier than his own by a longshot.
Actually, whenever he thought about ‘home,’ Tora couldn’t help but picture Poppy’s little studio apartment. The thought made his heart hesitate for a beat, unsure of the emotions that he was only now allowing to surface. Poppy was a lot of things to him, but home…she was definitely his home.
Tora’s gaze drifted over to the tiny lamp beside her bed, which illuminated only a little more than the dim home screen of the television upon her dresser did. Tora couldn't stop his heartbeat from skipping over itself as Poppy paused beside the bed and turned toward him. She looked so vulnerable, especially when she self-consciously crossed her arms under her plump chest and shifted upon her bare feet. Her sweater had some sort of pop culture character on it, and he could tell it had been through the wash quite a few times—it fell thinly over her frame just enough to allow the depraved man to really take in her well-proportioned frame.
Tora definitely didn’t feel very cold, especially in the tiny apartment, but he could tell Poppy was as his eyes ran over the significant swell of her breasts constrained beneath the loose sweater. His gaze moved from her breasts to the gentle curve of her soft waist and down to the swell of her thick hips without hesitation. Tora couldn’t remember any women he’d ever been having such a soft figure; Poppy looked like she would feel like a silky, supple pillow in his arms, and she absolutely did when he properly held her. He’d always found himself glancing at the way certain dresses and skirts hugged her slightly squishy belly and shapely hips—an image Tora had thought back to many times when he was trying to fall asleep at night.
“Tora, I didn’t ask you to come here to just stand there,” Poppy suddenly grumbled and her gentle yet teasing voice brought him right back to reality with a harsh smack of embarrassment right across the face.
“Sorry…yer just cute as hell,” Tora had half a mind to bite back at her with a small, haughty grin. He made a mental note of how the blush upon her cheeks darkened just a bit more after his comment.
“Maybe we could watch something else! To just kind of put my mind at ease…?” Poppy promptly suggested and Tora watched as she crawled atop her bed, immediately slipping beneath the thick comforter, and pulling her knees to her chest as she began to scroll through Netflix.
“Whatever ya wanna do, sweetheart,” Tora grumbled as he joined Poppy atop the bed. She was flipping through movies too fast for him to recognize any. He really didn’t care which one she was going to pick—as long as he was sitting beside her, he was a happy man.
Tora shifted slightly, settling himself back against some pillows while keeping himself on top of the comforter. He really didn’t need the added heat of a blanket right now—the barrier between their two already close bodies would also help Tora keep his brain in check…for the time being at least.
After a moment, Tora found himself reaching over Poppy without a second thought to flick off the pitiful lamp beside her bed. The room was temporarily thrown into darkness before the movie’s opening scene lit up the room. He hadn’t caught whatever movie Poppy had settled on, but he would watch it regardless—even if it turned out to be one of those dreadful romantic comedies.
Poppy instinctively leaned her head back against his bicep with a hesitant glance up at his face. He couldn’t help but softly smile down at her before turning his attention to the movie. His gaze had lingered on her for just a moment as he watched Poppy’s chest rise and fall with each small breath she took; it was relaxing, hypnotizing almost.
Tora would never have admitted to it, but he most definitely found himself drifting in and out of sleep as he watched Poppy enjoy the movie. He could hear some strange, indie pop music playing in the background and the way the main characters were talking as if directly reading from their scripts told Tora that Poppy had indeed chosen a romantic comedy for them to watch.
He almost felt bad that he’d missed most of it, but by the time he found himself appropriately conscious again, he knew the movie was at least more than halfway over. He didn’t think Poppy would ask him about the plot later on, but if she did…
He barely even noticed when Poppy murmured something to him in a gentle whisper.
“What’d ya say, Bobby?” Tora questioned, attention now fully focused on Poppy and her warm gaze aimed up at him. He watched as she began to shift under the comforter, her hand nudging his leg through the blanket.
“I said, do you want to get under the covers…?” Tora still wasn’t cold by any means, but from the way her gaze flickered between his eyes and mouth, he didn’t need to think twice before pushing the comforter back and crawling under it.
It was a lot warmer beneath the comforter—Poppy was a lot warmer beneath the comforter. He could feel the heat from her bare legs through his jeans. She shifted slightly so that she was facing him, her back now turned toward the television. Tora watched the tiny woman expectantly, following the movement of her hand as she placed one against his broad chest. He reached up to cover it with his own much larger hand while his opposite arm curled itself around her soft waist.
There was something swimming in those big, chocolate brown doe eyes of hers; something curious—something needy.
Without any hesitation, he tugged Poppy up onto his lap and she squeaked with surprise as she found herself being manhandled. Both of her hands pressed firmly against his chest to steady herself, and he found both of his own hands were now settled upon her supple hips—a common position the two seemed to find themselves in when alone. He knew she was comfortable with this; maybe this was even one of her favorite spots—it sure was one of his.
Tora reveled at the feeling of her feather soft skin, which was now almost completely revealed to him upon her thighs. Her tiny shorts had been hiked up a bit from the sudden movements, and Tora felt like a dog as his brain zeroed in on the absolute divine plushness of her thighs.
His now very obviously clammy palms firmly gripped the area between those decadent thighs and Poppy’s ample hips. His head was spinning at this point; the only thing he was able to focus on was Poppy. Was there still a movie playing in the background? Tora didn’t have a fucking clue at this point. The smoothness of Poppy’s bare skin, the hefty swell of her chest beneath her sweater, the faint scent of strawberry shampoo wafting from her fluffy hair…
All Tora could focus on was the thick air between the two of them and the way her lips were moving, as if she were trying to form her thoughts into words, but her body refused. Tora knew he wouldn’t have been able to do a much better job at speaking as it was times like this that reminded him exactly what Poppy did to him, and exactly how he felt about Poppy.
How much he absolutely fucking loved Poppylan Wilkes.
Honestly, Tora didn’t want either of them to speak; he didn’t want to hear a single word come from her mouth. He was absolutely sick and tired of talking to everyone nowadays, trying to explain his chaotic thoughts and regrettable actions. The silence that had settled around the dark room was exactly what he had been needing—what he had absolutely and utterly craved. The intensity of the silence caused each and every one of his other senses to light on fire and Poppy’s warm skin beneath his fingers was only kindling said flames.
Tora wasted not a second more as swiftly ducked his head to capture her parted lips in a heated caress. He could hear her breaths growing unsteady as their lips moved softly yet fervently against each other. Her hands upon his chest shifted, grasping at his t-shirt as if it was the only thing Poppy could use to steady herself. Tora knew that his own hands were holding her hips in an almost vice-like grip, but she didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
This kiss wasn’t desperate or frantic like many of their other kisses had been. At this moment, it was okay to take a second to just feel and enjoy Poppy’s presence. She knew how he felt, and he knew how she felt. Right now, it was simply alright to exist.
Tora wasn’t afraid to admit that he was lost in Poppy—captivated by every hitched breath and soft noise that escaped her welcoming, familiar lips. He needed this more than he needed air. The intimacy that he had been without for so long bloomed and thrived between them every single time that Poppy was near him. And every moment they shared, every breath—every inch closer that they got, Tora yearned for Poppy that much more. It was as if he couldn’t get close enough to her; he was drowning in her and for once in his god damn life, he wasn’t afraid to feel.
His tongue gently ran along Poppy’s lower lip, and she instinctively parted her lips more for him, their tongues meeting in a slow yet impassioned dance. Tora knew she was taking in the moment as much as he was. Neither was in a rush, and this time, Tora didn’t feel as if this were going to be the last time that he would ever see her.
He could take his time now.
Poppy seemed to feel the same sentiment, because suddenly, her hands were moving away from his chest. They disappeared for a moment before settling upon his own. He could feel her damp palms trying to encircle the backs of his huge hands just as he could also feel her slight fingers trembling with anxiety. Tora instinctively clenched his jaw, pausing his lips against her own to judge what exactly Poppy’s next action was going to be.
A million different possibilities ran through Tora’s mind at that moment, but he never expected Poppy to begin guiding his hands upward. He knew how nervous she was, how unsure she probably was to be trying something new with him, so Tora gently dropped his forehead to press it against her shoulder. He knew that making eye contact would disrupt her entire flow, so he waited.
He waited for Poppy to move his hands exactly where she wanted them.
Tora inhaled sharply through his nose as Poppy placed his hands upon her breasts. His fingers instinctively twitched before spreading out over the pronounced swell of her chest. Tora couldn’t believe how perfectly they filled out his wide palms, and he gave her large breasts a gentle squeeze before allowing his thumbs to brush over the hardened nubs in the center of them. The breathy moan that escaped Poppy’s lips was hands down the hottest fucking noise Tora had ever heard.
He needed to hear her make that noise again.
Tora turned his head to the side just enough so that he could press his lips against the warm, sensitive skin of Poppy’s throat. Another soft noise escaped her wanton lips, urging Tora to place wet, open-mouthed kisses along the length of her throat. Her unsteady fingers gave his hands a soft squeeze of reassurance and he couldn’t help the chuckle that resonated throughout his chest.
His blunt teeth barely dragged along the delicate skin at the same moment that he gave her breasts a firm squeeze and the tiny woman in his lap squirmed as a high-pitched whine escaped her lips.
She must not have realized a noise like that could come out of herself, because Poppy instantly recoiled, her fingers grabbing at his shoulders and her body stiffening. She didn’t move to push Tora away, though, so he continued mouthing at her throat, suckling affectionate kisses into the flushed skin as his hands rubbed and squeezed at her breasts. Even through the thin fabric of her shirt, Poppy breathily keened each time Tora’s thumbs rolled over her pert nipples.
Tora had never considered himself the possessive type, but he was losing himself in Poppy and before he knew it, there were more than just a few light bruises scattered across her porcelain neck. He smirked to himself, sucking in a sharp breath when Poppy squirmed just enough to rub their groins together.
Both parties jumped at the newfound sensation and Tora leaned back, his hands still cupping her breasts as he gave her a questioning look. To say she looked wild was an understatement: her face was flushed darker than Tora had ever seen before, her breaths were coming in short gasps, and her those big doe eyes were as wide as saucers.
Yet she still had such a gentle look to her; the classic Poppy expression, as if nothing in the world could shake her. She held her head high, her neatly angled brows lax above her wide eyes and the corners of her kiss-swollen lips curled just slightly.
She was happy.
Poppy was looking at Tora as if he had just made her the happiest woman in the world. He wanted to doubt it, to tell her to stop looking at him like that, to tell her that she looked like a weirdo…
But he wasn’t going to do that tonight.
“Y’alright, Bobby?” he heard himself ask, a gruff edge to his voice as he realized just how uncomfortably tight his pants were at this exact moment. Her wide gaze softened slightly as Poppy tilted her head, recognizing his slight discomfort.
“Yeah—yeah, I’m good,” she murmured back, her gaze curiously flickering across his face.
Tora’s own gaze trailed down her throat, counting the number of hickeys he’d very obviously left on her pale skin. He smirked at the thought of her going to work the next day and having Erdene or Jacob teasing her. They didn’t need to know what he and Poppy did in their free time. Even the mere thought of them badgering Poppy a little bit had his blood boiling.
“Ya got a turtleneck or somethin’?” Tora suddenly blurted out and Poppy’s brows shot up in realization. She craned her neck and looked down towards her shoulder as if she could suddenly see her neck.
Shocker, she couldn’t.
Tora rolled his eyes at her, grabbing her chin and pulling her body against his own once again with his other hand upon the small of her back.
“You know what, I think I might actually have a Christmas one somewhere…” she began to murmur, her eyelids fluttering as Tora pressed a soft kiss to her cheek and then upon her still moving lips, “If not, I have this really cute scarf with snowflakes on it,” she continued to speak despite Tora’s mouth against her own.
The hand on Poppy’s chin promptly slid to cup the back of her head and Tora grunted under his breath when she suddenly grew quiet, her lips once again melting against his own.
“Wait, Tora,” she was suddenly speaking again, and Tora gawked at her with a bewildered expression as he leaned back against her headboard, “What are you doing on Christmas Eve? I forgot how close it was, and I’m just now realizing we haven’t even talked about it—”
“Ya wanna do somethin’? Let’s do somethin’ then. Name a time and a place and I’ll be there, alright?” he grumbled back, happy to indulge Poppy with whatever she wanted, because the look that she gave him back was worth everything in the whole fucking world to him. Nothing made him feel happier inside than when those big doe eyes lit up just so.
“Thank you, Tora,” she whispered back, her eyes now turning slightly glassy as her own emotions overwhelmed her, “Thank you for making me so happy.”
Tora couldn’t help but just stare at her for a moment, watching her tear up because he said he’d spend Christmas Eve with her. His heart ached a bit, wondering why it meant so much to her to spend a silly holiday together, but then Tora hesitated.
When had he ever really spent a holiday with someone? Quincy didn’t fucking count, but if he didn’t count Quincy…
Then he was alone.
Wordlessly, Tora reached up and cupped Poppy’s damp check, meeting her gaze and giving her a small, reassuring smile.
With Poppy in his life, he would never be alone again.