#thecroods2

The night had been wonderful, hot like fire and glowing bright as the sun. It made little sense, darkness had no place in the dwelling of light but Eep had seen enough impossible, wonderful things to call it baloney.

Speaking of which… she stretched out leisurely at full height, arms above her head and toes curling as her legs splayed about. It was a good thing their pallet was roomy, she cast her green eyes around the bed. Shame about the bed frame though, hopefully Hope wouldn't be too upset it'd been broken.

Despite a mild ache in her muscles, she felt amazing. Her blood hummed softly through her veins as she reflected on the night, curious touches turning into more. Eep glanced at the slumbering mass beside her, unceremoniously splayed out in a heap with the torn sheets tangling his legs.

Oh, she'd ruined those too. Maybe Hope would be a little mad. She leaned over him to look at his sleeping face, exhausted with bruises peppering most of his neck and shoulders. One spot in particular was very red and blistered with the distinct shape of teeth marks. Eep wondered if she'd been too rough, he hadn't seemed to mind it but now…

She shrugged the thought off and flopped back down, not wanting to wake her sleeping lover just yet. He would wake when he was ready but in the meantime Eep saw no harm in shimmying herself under his lightly muscled arm. The feeling of his body pressed against hers made her smile, familiar and comforting and home. Instinctively almost she felt Guy suddenly roll over with a pitiful whine, clutching her close so he could properly hold her.

Eep resisted the urge to purr in delight, content with this new arrangement as she took in the moment of the lazy morning. Just him, her and the light filtering in through the window.

"Hey…" Guy suddenly muffled against her ear, husky and raspy as he tried shaking off the sleep. Eep wasn't sure if he was dreaming or actually awake, it was hard sometimes to decipher.

"Hey what?" She greeted back anyway, fondly stroking one of his stripes that streaked his slender shoulders.

" Hey you made me hurt in places I didn't even know existed," he groaned pitifully though didn't sound regretful. He was obviously very stiff and the multiple bruising probably didn't help. "I'm not prey, you know.'

"Yeah but it was good savoring you though," she teased with something of a predatory smile.

"Too soon," he told her with a tired grin, aching all over as he unfurled himself from her warm body. Parts of him protested especially when last night they'd been closer in a way he never could imagine with her. "I need a few days to recover from that."

He sat up, swinging his long legs off to the side of the bed. She gazed at him shamelessly with loving eyes, elbow propping her head up as she rested her palm on her cheek. He was beautiful, unique in his appearance and despite it all she adored every aspect of him to the point she ached in new ways. She felt like she was on a cloud, floating.

It was a new and jarring change, something that made her flustered as well despite all that happened. It was hardly planned to couple, merely comforting Guy after a bad dream that plagued him. Night terrors were common for him at times, last night had been a night with no moon. The darkness triggered memories and scars he never delved deep into with her, he wasn't ready. Those specific phases of the moon seemed to trigger these dreams for him, of what she didn't know.

He'd jerked awake, disoriented and Eep had immediately noted the shift even though she had been asleep. The scent of fear was heavy and so strong it'd been enough for her to scope the room for an actual threat, groggy as she was. She quickly found her senses, sharp as a cat and turned to her bedmate. After seeing Guy curled up with his head on his knees shaking, it was easy enough to put two and two together. Her heart ached for him.

"Guy, it's okay. You're safe, I'm here. It was just a nightmare," she soothed and reached to take him in her arms. His tear stained face touched her neck and his long arms embraced her tightly. She shushed him through his quiet cries, holding him close and he could hear her heartbeat, reminding him she was warm and alive.

One thing suddenly led to another, Guy drawing her closer to him needy and desperate to know this was real. His hands clutched her hips so tight it reminded her he actually had strength under that nimble build of his. She'd touched him tentatively, rubbing the tension from his shoulders and kissing his forehead.

She murmured reassurances until suddenly he'd caught her lips against his with a hunger she never felt before in him. The dream had been awful, was all he had said against her lips, and part of her had a feeling it'd involved her somehow. So she just hugged him tightly and let the tension go. Between a whimper and a groan that sounded like “Don’t leave me” inbetween a nip to her throat, it was a kiss so unlike their other ones. It was something different and soon their only witness had been the sleeping suns once he rolled her over. The sky was good at keeping secrets to themselves.

Things had gotten out of hand and after the rush of passion, they'd tried again more softly the next. Taking the time and patience to love one another without the rush as if The End returned; Eep found gentle touches inspired a different kind of fire that burned under her skin, blazing her heart. It had made her cry and he'd kissed every tear off her face, gentle as he always was. Even if before she had nearly bitten him raw the first, growling like an animal and ravaging him like prey. She was always the forward one in their relationship and Guy never minded that. For once she liked being the vulnerable one, letting him lead.

They had been joined in a way that made her shiver just thinking about it, bonded and the way she loved him felt even fiercer somehow. She hadn't known he could be so possessive, maybe it wasn't the right word, primal and passionate seemed unable to describe the shift she'd felt in him either. She didn't have the talent of words like her husband, he was all poetry and dreams. The moment felt so real again, caged in his arms. His eyes bore into hers, reminding her of the fire that had brought them together. Her name had been like a prayer on his tongue, over and over again until…

"Eep?" That didn't sound like the one in her memory, it lacked the breathlessness, the longing and how he'd held her through it all. Eep jolted, uncharacteristically sheepish despite how bold she'd been moments ago. "Are you alright?"

"I'm good, I was just... reflecting, I guess," Eep confessed as she sat up.

Guy had gazed at her for a long moment with brazen before turning to give her privacy as he fetched her the discarded dress. "Well, I hope it's good thoughts," he told her with a modest little look, back to that awkward young man she was used to.

"Oh, they definitely were," she reassured him, donning her tiger striped dress and stretching once again.

Guy had found his trousers that somehow found themselves draped over the light fixtures. He hopped up and grabbed them, bemused how'd they gotten up there. It made Eep laugh.

"Guess we were too eager and I got a good arm," she joked. "Sorry about um…" She approached him to tenderly touch a bruise.

"You bite worse than Sandy does," he teased back with a pained little groan. Guy approached a mirror in their bedroom on the banister to tend to his unruly hair. "I can't believe I'm even walking."

"I thought it was the woman who had the tougher time," she mused with mirth tinged words, approaching to wrap her arms around his lanky frame. Her chin rested on his shoulder. "I could run laps right now."

"I think you ravished me," he exclaimed, looking at her face in the reflection. It was twisted in suppressed laughter, Eep lightly brushing her nose against a spot that lacked a hickey. Guy leaned away with a little look, pouting. "Hey, I need some skin still you know."

"You look good like that," she grinned and Guy scoffed at her, finally finishing his top knot. "I have a thing for battle scars."

"A battle indeed," he huffed, unable to resist the dumb smile on his face. "I don't know how we'll explain the broken bed frame to Mrs. Betterman, she worked hard on that."

"We can make something up," she quipped, gently kissing his shoulder on a spot she hadn't practically chewed the skin right off. "The sheets we could probably sew back up, you're good at that, you have the hands for it."

His ears burned at the implications she unknowingly put there, or perhaps she did and was just being the sly little minx she was. "Yeah…" He cleared his throat, flustered.

Eep scoffed when she noticed the flush crawling up his neck, "I didn't mean that." Then her reflection smiled back at her from the mirror, unable to resist a good razzing. "But if you're that desperate for an ego stroke, well…"

"No, no, uh… this is good enough." Needing a distraction, he turned to look at her unruly mane of red hair. "You need a good brushing."

"I like it like this though," she teased, blinking up at him under her eyelashes.

He knew where this was going and shrugging her away, he shook his head in amusement. “Enough of that,” he told her playfully, making his way towards the patio after comically hopping along on one foot each as he put each furry boot on. “C’mon, it's early enough still to catch the sunrise.”

Eep always relished their mornings together, even if most of the time she was not at all one to wake early. Her body just couldn’t do it and when she would, she’d grouch and complain until Guy got her some bitter bean juice or ushered her into the showers. This morning though was a different one, Eep smiling softly as she looked out the window. She never felt so restful and satisfied, blissful even. She followed Guy out the door now that she was fully dressed, idly combing her fingers through her hair.

She found Guy standing there under the rays of the sunlight, tinging his caramel skin into an almost golden color. It outlined him and even though she knew every indentation of his body, the sun only highlighted it for her. Feeling her eyes on him, Guy turned to face her with a fond expression on his face. Her body felt warm from the rising sun, perhaps though it was just the raw, unadulterated love on his face that did it. Eep almost shyly plodded to stand beside him.

“It's beautiful this morning,” she remarked, gently leaning her head on his shoulder. Guy mimicked the movement, cushioned by her thick hair.

“Yeah,” he agreed, drawing away a bit just to peer down at her, a sweet little smile making him look charming. “Beautiful.”

Eep flushed, linking her arms through his as she hugged his bicep, muffling her face into his shoulder.

It just made Guy press a gentle kiss on her hairline, chuckling. “Since when do you get flustered, love?”

“When you say sweet things like that,” she quipped, looking up at his happily beaming face. Eep pouted like when Douglas didn’t get the scraps from dinnertime. “It’s not fair.” “What isn’t?”

“You have such a gift with words,” Eep huffed at him, turning to look towards the sun. “I see the sun, but you see sun light. ” She extended her hands out after letting him go, mimicking how Guy would get so animated when telling his stories.

Guy was bemused. “Isn’t that the same thing, Eep? We’re both looking at the sunrise,” he told her affectionately, turning to gaze at the sun as it climbed its way into the sky. It went from a deep orange like embers on a fire into a lazy blue tinged yellow at its belly.

“It’s different than that,” she said with a shake of her head, admiring him with soft eyes.

“I don’t really think so,” Guy insisted, brows furrowed as he let the thought stew in his head. “You see a lot of wonderful things too.” An idea came to him and gently he grabbed her hand in his, tangling his long fingers with hers so they were pressed palm to palm. “I wanna show you something.”

Without another word, he raised their arms up above his head, letting go after so both reached for the sun. Light cascaded down her fingers and down her arm, the faint rays of morning warming her skin like soft butterfly kisses. Guy pressed his shoulder against hers, not looking at her but Eep could easily feel the love with just the contact itself.

She looked at both their hands, nostalgia taking her back to a time that felt like forever ago. Eep dared to finally glance at him, meeting his eyes with a little smile of her own. “I’m glad you got to cross my sky, Guy.”

The words made him grin wider as he nuzzled his head against hers, finally lowering his arm to wrap it around her waist. “And you say you can’t be poetic,” he murmured. "I'm glad you are my Tomorrow too"