hold me really tight (until the stars look big) - I

Tate looks at the plate, then shrugs and takes a bite. It's good. 'It's cold out!' he says, mouth full.

Jael takes a pair of sweatpants and a sportsshirt with long sleeves. It's been a while since she has ran—naturally not since she's living with Tate—and she missed it.
She comes back with a slight smile. "I figured, yeah. It's been snowing forever."

Tate raises an eyebrow. 'It might be slippery.' He puts his credit card in his pocket, writes a quick note for Mica and runs his fingers through his hair again. Putting the plate in the dishwasher he looks at her.

Jael doesn't notice. She's standing in front of the window and stares at the falling snowflakes. "I should take Polar too. He needs to get out." She pushes her hands against her hips to stretch herself and then bends over to reach to her toes.

Tate shrugs. He's not really a dog person, but he doesn't mind the dog. It's not really up in his face, and it's kinda cute. He stares at Jael's back, thinks about his mothers words. Sometimes he wonders how much she knows. When he was about to leave, when he kissed Vicki and hugged his dad, she walked him to the front door, kissed his cheek and said, 'Thank you.'
He had nodded, had explained that he liked coming by. And she had smiled, but shaken her head.
'For the other thing, too.' She hadn't looked at him.
He looks at Jael, thinks about the dead corpse next to her on the backseat and asks himself if she could ever overcome that, if she felt it next to her in bed, if she could still see it in her dreams.

Jael feels his stare and turns to him. Her cheeks fluster a little as she notices that he's indeed looking at her. "Shall we go...?" She's clasping her hands now, fingers clenched.

Tate opens the door and walks down the stairs quickly. He'd stretched inside, but he had to stretch outside some more, to accommodate to the cold. Not looking if Jael is following him, walks outside and does some basic stretches.

Jael takes Polar and follows Tate at a steadier pace. Once outside, she shivers with cold. "Ah, it's freezing," she says, putting her arms around herself. Polar happily runs around in the snow, trying to catch the snowflakes.

Tate snickers. 'Yes. It's cold. Just like I told you ten minutes ago.' He does a few lunges, clenches and unclenches his fists to keep his fingers warm. The gloves feel weird against his skin.

Jael does a few stretching excersises and throws a ball for Polar. "He loves the snow." The dog is racing around like an idiot, happily barking. She smiles a little. "You should have seen him the first time he went out in the snow. He was just a puppy, two months old."

Tate nods respectively, smiles at the dog and then at Jael. Once he's done stretching, he cocks his head to the side. 'You ready?'

Jael nods. "Yeah. I'm on." She gives him a cocky smile and starts running at a steady pace. She misses her music, though, but together with Tate might run better.

Tate shrugs, keeps pace with her easily. He's been running for as long as he can remember, joined the track team on his local high school and even participated in a couple of races. He remembers the NYC Marathon in 2010, the way Macy had hugged him and all the praise she'd given him when he ran it. The regret, the grief tugs at his heart, but his feet keep running steady next to Jael.

Unfortunately Jael has a hard time keeping up with him, since it's so long ago since she ran for the last time. It doesn't take long for her to fall behind and eventually she stops running, letting Tate go.
Polar runs with Tate enthusiastically, not even stopping to look back for Jael. She grins, bends over and takes a hand full of snow, makes a steady snowball and throws it at Tate.

Tate, strangely, hears the sound of the snowball before he actually feels it against his back and turns around upon impact. Having a younger sister that absolutely adored the snowfights, he immediately makes one for himself and throws, hard.

Jael doesn't see this quick response coming and flinces, the snowball hitting her in her neck. The snow slides down her cleavage and she shivers. "Hey!" She throws one back quickly and starts running away from him.

Tate dodges the snowball thrown at him and runs after her, grabbing snow from a nearby fence and sprinting, Polar hot on his heels. He throws.

denny

Jael screams as the snow is thrown against her head. She slips, falls into the snow. She takes a hand full of snow and doesn't even bother to make a snow ball out of it, she just throws it at him in defense. Her face is one huge laugh as she tries to get up again.

The flying snow hits Tate straight in the face, but it just feels like a lot of snowflakes rather than something hard and solid. He laughs, shakes his head, snowflakes getting stuck in his hair. His eyes are scrunched up from laughing, and Jael's legs seem to be everywhere. He falls.

Jael shoves a load of snow into his neck as soon as he hits the ground. "I win," she breathes, though she's too soon.

Tate rolls over with a hand full of snow, on top of her, dangles the hand above her tauntingly. 'You sure about that?'

Jael squeezes her eyes shut and tries to push him away, her hands on his chest. "I was," she admits with a laugh in her voice.

Tate shivers. 'Past tense already?' A bit of snow falls on her face.

Jael opens her eyes again, the snow landing on her nose and cheeks. "Yeah. I surrender." He's too heavy and too strong and no matter how hard she tries to push him away, he just stays in place. On top of her.

Tate shrugs, 'good enough for me' and rolls off of her in one fluid motion, laying on his back in the snow, breathing heavily.

Jael isn't giving up just yet. She grabs a hand full of snow and throws it in his face, then scrambles to her feet and runs, Polar racing after her.

Tate is up and running in a heartbeat, having grabbed snow on his way up.

Jael grabs snow off a fence on her run, laughing like crazy. Tate is right behind her—she can hear him running.

Tate leaps, throws, falls onto the snow with little grace.

Jael just turns as he throws, getting the load of snow against her shoulder. She runs towards him and drops next to him, dangling her hand above his head. "Do I win?" she asks with a big smile.

Tate smirks, looks at her cockily, head resting on his hand, elbow on the ground. 'Depends...'

"On...?" Jael's eyes have this genuine sparkle, she feels utterly alive for the first time in days.

He doesnt say anything, just smiles charminly and looks at her. She looks happy.

Jael smiles a little and then in an impulsive movement she bends over him and presses her lips against his.

Tate is surprised, but not reluctant. Jael kisses like she laughs: all vibrant light and enthusiasm.

Jael loses herself for a slight moment. Her hair is falling over Tate's face, her one hand is on his cheek and the other on his chest.
And then there's Polar's wet nose and she lets go, realizing what she's doing.

Tate is confused for a moment, the loss of Jael's warmth weirdly foreign on his lips. He stares at her with bright eyes and a shy smile, head still on the ground.

Jael's cheeks turn bright red. She stays silent, looks away nervously. Why in the hell did she do that…?! He's Tate for god's sake, she's not supposed to feel like this.
And yet her heart is racing, her mind spinning. She wants nothing more than to do it again, to kiss him again because it felt so, so good.

Tate coughs, happy that his dick cannot make a sudden guest appearance in this cold, and raises his eyebrows. 'Um... If you want to make this less uncomfortable, you should probably get off of me.'

Jael smiles awkwardly. 'Oh... Yeah. Right.' She holds her breath and is on her feet in no time. She turns her back to him, tries to cool herself down a little. When she puts her hands against her cheeks, she can feel them burning. 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that.' Her voice is quiet, unstable.

Tate stands up with a single jump, tries to wipe the sticking snow off his back. 'Don't worry about it.'

Jael turns to him. 'But I do, Tate… I'm--You did that thing to Tina and I saw it and I should be deadly afraid and I should hate you, I shouldn't feel like kissing you or whatever it is I want.' There are tears. She ignores them for once. 'I don't know what I'm doing.'

Tate reaches out to touch her, to soothe, but decides against it. He doesn't know what to say.

Jael grabs his hand, clamps it as if her life depends on it. She looks at Tate, meets his eyes. It only takes two seconds for her to get close and kiss him again. This time, she's more passionate than she just was.

Of course Tate kisses back. He's been locked up with this girl for nine days, has slept with her in the same bed for two. Of course Tate kisses back.

Jael throws her arms around his neck, pushes her body against his. For days and days she wanted to do this. Tate drove her crazy, is still driving her crazy. She feels like she's on fire.

Jael kisses like she's leaving, like Tate treated her like the last oxygen in a gas chamber, like she's thankful. He feels hot to the touch, Jael's hands burning at the nape of his neck.

Jael kisses softer, her touches becoming sweeter. She feels his heartbeat, his breathing. His touches are burning in her skin and as hars as she tries not to make any sound, a quiet moan escapes.

Tate pulls back the second he hears her moan and looks. Her blonde locks are tousled, lips red. She looks as wrecked as Tate feels. She looks [i]good[/b].

Jael smiles a little, a warm blush creeping up her cheeks. She doesn't say anything, just reaches out her hand to brush his cheek with her fingertops. In her eyes is a strange, absentminded look, a foreign twinkle as she stares at his face with a certain fascination.