faelans_folly | [Closed - Levi and Bella]

"I'm just wondering," he said, twisting and tilting his head down so that his lips were just barely brushing against her ear.

"If you can feel it when I do this," he murmured, voice low as his lips barely touched her ear. He knew she could hear him no problem, he just wasn't sure if she could feel it.

"Y-yes, I can feel it. Your breath and y-your lips on my ear." Vampires didn't stutter but the reaction of her body to even that soft brush of lips was making everything else in her body short-circuit, might as well be her speech, too.

"What about this?" he asked, lips moving lower along her neck. He would have grazed her with his teeth but he was pretty sure that would have not been a good idea. Levi kind of liked how her skin felt on his lips thought.

She could have told him to try his teeth all he wanted, he wouldn't be able to break the skin. "Y-yes. Y-es, I can feel that." Bella couldn't help but to tilt her head to give him better access. "And you can do it as often as you like."

"Good to know," he said, kissing at the base of her neck and nuzzling there just a bit before he sat back up again and turned his attention back to the movie. He didn't want to get too distracted from things. Well, he did, but he was afraid to spook her.

"Here, this is a good part," he said.

She'd been paying full attention to the movie even while he was at her throat. It was the way her mind worked, processing so many different things at once. It was one of the reasons she could run as fast as she did and never run into anything. But since the movie was important to him, she gave it her full attention. At the same time, she slipped her hand into his.

Levi had intended to stay up through several movies with Bella. He knew she didn't sleep and he wanted to spend as much time as possible with her but by the time Casablanca was over, he was struggling to keep his eyes open. It had been a rough, exhausting day and he was fighting sleep.

"So what did you think?" he asked with a yawn, squeezing the hand that he still held in his.

"I think I remember how it felt to cry when I was human," Bella said, her eyes still on the screen, "and I'm pretty sure I'd be sobbing right now if I still could." She turned her attention to him. "And I think I should let you get some sleep."

"I still almost tear up sometimes and I've seen it a lot," he said, yawning and stretching as he said it. She probably should let him get to sleep, but he felt like it was way too early for her to leave just yet.

"Soon. Sleep soon. Not yet though. I'd like to talk."

Bella turned onto her side, her eyes cataloging his face and almost burning it into her mind for recall later. "Anything specific or just throwing random trivia at each other?"

"Doesn't matter," he said, reaching out to brush his fingertips against her cheek as he tucked away a stray strand of hair.

"Anything you want to say. Or anything you want to ask. I just like talking with you."

A few thousand questions went through her mind like a flash of lightning, all of them variations on the same theme. She gave none of them voice, however. It wasn't the time for anything deep. He needed to sleep, and the best she could do to thank him for tonight was to help him fall into sleep he really needed . "Do you want to hear about Goldilocks?"

"Absolutely," he said, laughing as he shifted so that he was laying on his side, head on his pillow while looking up at her. Not what he expected, but he'd take it. Levi hadn't had a bedtime story in... forever.

"But if I fall asleep during... don't go right away?"

"I won't," she said with a smile, "I promise."

Bella indulged a little and reached over to brush the hair off of his forehead. "Goldilocks is a grizzly bear that lives near my cabin. She's probably five hundred pounds and mean as hell, but there are patches of her brown fur that look almost bleached gold by the sun. That's how I came up with her name." Bella's voice was low, not quite a whisper, but still the bell tone he liked so much. "We tangled a few times when I went to live at the cabin. She knew there was something different about me, but I looked human and that was enough. Used to piss her off when she couldn't take me down. At first it was cute, but then she wouldn't let it alone. Every time we stumbled on each other, it was another battle and more ruined clothes for me. It got on my nerves enough I decided to just take her down for good. When I got her pinned though, I heard something I hadn't expected. Three heartbeats. She was pregnant with two cubs."

Bella stopped and smiled at the memory, and the understanding that passed from one predator to another in that memory.

"Mmmmmm, she was protecting her cubs from a predator," he said, smiling more as she leaned into her touch. That was good, that she was okay touching him like that.

The idea of Bella wrestling a bear was amusing. He had no doubt she could do it and win easily, but it still would have been amusing to watch since Bella wouldn't get hurt. He tried to picture the whole thing and just chuckled.

The bed shook as Bella laughed a little, her fingers still moving over his face, his shoulder. As if she was trying to memorize it. "You should have seen the look on her face the first time I faced her down head on. Huge grizzly went from full on roar to...well, it almost looked like a dog cocking its head at an unexpected noise. And now, I've kind of adopted her, and her babies. She brought them to me the other day, and they're so adorable."

He loved her laugh, even when it was a small one like that. This had been a fantastic idea. Maybe it was something they could make into a regular thing, although with their respective schedules (what kind of schedule did she have?) it might be difficult.

"So while some people have teddy bears, you have an actual grizzly bear you just play around with. She shows her cubs to you. You cub-sit, don't you?"

"No," Bella answered, but she dipped her head and rested her forehead against his chest. "Okay, maybe sometimes. Just when Goldie is looking for food for them and I happen to be around. It's not like she knocks on the door and drops them off with a diaper bag or anything."

She raised her head and found his eyes. "You're supposed to be going to sleep, not poking fun at me."

"You. Cub-sit," he said with a tired laugh, grinning at her. She felt cool against him, but in a refreshing way. Or at least that's how he was going to choose to see it. It was probably dangerous, but he was choosing to look at differences with Bella in a positive light.

"I like that about you. I like a lot of things about you, but that's one of the things I like."

"Why?" The word was out before she could stop it.

"Why wouldn't I like that you care about things? That you want to take care of them?" he asked.

Maybe in her world that sort of thing was looked down on or seen as weakness. He'd seen that a lot as a cop, people thinking that caring for others made you vulnerable. It didn't, it made you strong by giving you something worth fighting for.

"No," Bella said, giving her head a little shake which made her face look almost like it blurred out. "I meant, why do you like me at all? I'm not fishing or anything, Levi. I'm genuinely curious. You're the only complete human in this who hasn't completely written me off to the shadows."

"Because you care about people. You care about and protect people regardless of how they feel about you."

That was something that Levi understood all too well. He couldn't even say that he understood why he did it other than people deserved to be safe, even if they weren't the best people in the world.

"And you're funny, you make me laugh and feel completely comfortable. You're also really gorgeous."

Most of what he said had her making the blush face again, a sheepish smile on her lips as she focused on a spot just over his shoulder. "I'm glad I make you feel comfortable, and that I make you laugh. It's a beautiful sound and you should make it more often, same with your smile. You make me...I don't know. It's like I'm remembering what it was like to be human."

"Well, if you want to hear it more you should spend more time around me," he suggested, an open invitation to stop by to see him whenever she wanted, wherever he was.

"The key to this place I put in your front pocket after you took your clothes off should make it easier."

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