Fix You Up, Buttercup {Connor}

[Amelia Pace]

Planting her hand down on the floor beside Connor’s other hip, she gave herself a base so she didn’t stumble in her actions and hurt him more. She’d surveyed his injuries multiple times since she’d found him covered in his own blood. She knew exactly where they were: bruises to his chest and abdomen; broken collarbone; bite to his neck; broken (now fixed) nose; and a split lip. She was shocked by his answer. In the days she had known him he seemed to struggle with any sort of language based reaction. He was monosyllabic at best. She wasn’t about to deny him the one thing he had asked her for. Not after he had been beaten to a pulp to stop a vampire from following her.

She smirked. She could do that. She ran her eyes over all the injuries he’d suffered, finally settling on the bruises that littered his skin. She traced her fingertips over the scattering of purple and green bruises with a feather light touch. Amelia sucked in her bottom lip, a weird sense of nervousness coming over her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t randomly thrown herself at people before. An argument with James had ended in such – though she still said he started it. And Connery, well the less said about that the better.

Tucking her hair behind her ears and throwing the loose hanging hair over her shoulder she shifted her body so she could stoop over him more easily. She leant over him and kissed the largest of the bruises softly. Tracing her eyes over his chest up to his collar bone. She didn’t touch it, she knew it was probably the most painful of his injuries. Amelia gently pushed her lips to the angry looking bruise, fearing that much pressure would do more harm than good. Righting herself and smiled, looking him in the eyes for less than a second, a slight embarrassment taking over her and causing her to look away again. She shuffled slightly. She tilted her head and looked at the dressing on his neck, budging to press a kiss to the plaster.

Amelia then moved to sit upright, moving her non-prop hand to gently hold his stubbled jaw, before she leant forwards and pressed a soft kiss to his unbroken nose. Not moving back she looked him in the eyes again before she carefully pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth so to miss the cut. Unnecessary bleeding was something she’d rather like to avoid, and she didn’t want to taste it either. She could smell it still from the night before, she didn’t need a reminder under her nose let alone on her lips.

[Connor Pine]

Connor held stock still as Amelia's eyes flicked over his injuries again at his request, his muscles practically quivering with nervous tension in his effort to remain frozen in place. He wasn't used to being scrutinised, he'd spent most of his life on the fringes of society making sure he wasn't noticed, and he definitely wasn't used to people invading his personal space. Kissing counted as an invasion of personal space, even if the intentions were entirely innocent and suddenly it didn't seem to matter that he'd asked her to do it, he felt trapped on a course of action that couldn't be avoided.

His breath hitched as her fingers traced lightly over the dark purple bruises covering his chest and stomach and somehow he forgot to start again, all his concentration focused on the way Amelia was leaning in towards him and not something as inconsequential as breathing. As soon as her lips touched his skin Connor found he could breathe again, air rushing from his lungs in a rush of relief that was followed by a brief, sheepish smile. The touch had been as light as her fingertips beforehand, but it felt entirely different, softer with the slightest tickle of warmth from her own breath. And really now that they were over the first hurdle he wasn't sure what he'd been so nervous about, it had been... nice.

Unlike the build up to the first kiss Connor wasn't held in place like a deer caught in the headlights, instead he kept still for convenience and the slightest niggling instinct that Amelia wasn't quite as at ease as he now seemed to be. He wasn't an expert at reading body language, having spent very little time interacting with other people in the last decade, but he had his instincts and he almost always listened to those. Connor tilted his chin up a fraction of an inch as she pressed her mouth to the plaster covering the wound on his neck, her touch again so gentle that he felt little more than the slightest pressure.

His nose received the same treatment, her hand reaching up to hold his jaw so he couldn't move his head as she gently pressed her lips across the bridge. And finally Amelia moved on to his split lip and if she hadn't been so close that he could feel her breath across his skin as she shifted so that her mouth was level with his he might have let his tongue dart out to lick across his lips. The kiss was nothing more than a quick peck to the corner of his mouth and Connor felt a pang of disappointment as he realised it meant she would move away from him.

He didn't want the closeness between them to end and in a display of confidence that he only seemed to get when Amelia was concerned he reached up, sliding his fingers through her blonde hair until his hand came to rest on the back of her neck. ”You missed.” Connor told her, his usually gruff voice softened by the slightest hesitation and then he tilted his head until their lips were properly aligned and pressed his mouth against hers. The kiss only lasted a couple of seconds, the twinge of pain in his split lip reminding him to be careful, but when it broke he didn't lean away and there was a genuine smile on his face.

[Amelia Pace]

The thing with Connor was that he wasn’t your usual guy that you would find in the school. They tended to be pig headed or not likely to understand that just because she was a werewolf that she wasn’t evil. Research she had done after she’d been attacked coughed up the same old thing. They were not trusted; they were avoided; people who had been friends with them before they found out left them. All in all it wasn’t a risk she could take. She liked her life as it was – though one of two changes wouldn’t go amiss.

Like this, now. Somebody who would understand; somebody who wouldn’t run scared from her without giving her a fair chance. Connor was it, he was her fair chance at having a normal life. Well, ignoring the fact that she was contemplating spending a night a month in the middle of a forest changing into a werewolf an pretending the next day that is was perfectly normal – well it was normal for them. As much as being a werewolf could be normal anyway, and being the middle of a forest had a slight more normalcy than being in a cage in your teacher’s office.

Amelia could feel her heart thumping, so hard that it felt like it was lodged in her throat. It was all she could hear as well. She couldn’t concentrate on much else. The only thing her overdriven senses were picking up was Connor’s usual musky scent that she was so used to smelling on her clothes these last few days. She thought she’d sussed him out over the last few days, but he shocked her when his fingers threaded through her hair and his monosyllabic ways had never been more articulate. She barely had the chance to smile before he’d kissed her.

A brief moment of shock stopped her from reciprocating before her brain was shouting at her to do something. Closing her eyes she kissed back. It was only the briefest of kisses, but she could already smell and taste his blood from the healing cut. A mirrored smile on her face, she didn’t move. In truth she didn’t know what to do. She knew she would have to leave soon for mornings classes and she had some breakfast for him in her bag, but nothing right now would lead to either of those things, ”Was that better?” she just about managed, she could feel his breath on her skin as she rested her forehead again his.

How important was Arithmancy anyway? Would Professor Grey even notice? Probably not – which made the prospect of staying put even more favourable. She could just fob her friends off with illness, especially since they hadn’t seen her the night before or that morning. She could easily say that she’d been to the nurse and still felt ill that morning so went back. Right now, she was all for not moving from the changing rooms again.

[Connor Pine]

Amelia leant in as their lips touched and didn’t move away when they parted and Connor felt a tension drain out of him that he hadn’t even realised had built up. He was no expert at people, in face his social skills were sorely lacking, but he knew he wanted to be close to her and as far as he could tell it seemed like she wanted to be close to him too. The realisation put him at ease in a way he didn’t think he’d ever been before. Something that he didn’t even know had been missing from his life had just fallen into place and now that he had it within his reach he wasn’t going to let go. His gaze settled on her mouth as she rested her forehead against his, wanting to watch her, but unable to meet her eyes with his because sheer proximity made his vision blur.

”Much better,” He confirmed and to his surprise he found that it was the truth. Sure his shoulder was still aching with a constant throb that made it kind of hard to think and his bruises twinged every time he moved even a fraction of an inch, but just being near Amelia reminded Connor that it had all been worth it. He had to protect her, especially from people like Dom, whose threats were somehow worse than that of a normal vampire who was only out for blood. This was simple. This he could understand. The burning desire to protect her, the soft feel of the hair at the nape of her neck beneath his fingertips and the comfortable silence that seemed to have settled between them.

And then Connor’s stomach rumbled, reminding him that the food she brought him was never enough to tide him over for long and he was sure he’d smelt toast when she’d entered the room. ”Breakfast?” He asked hopefully, letting his hand drop from her neck as she shifted to root through her bag and handed him the toast and a couple of boiled eggs with the shells still on. Connor grinned, shoving a slice of toast in his mouth and letting it hang there as his fingers began to make short work of shelling the eggs. Usually Amelia didn’t have long in the mornings, dropping by only for long enough to give him some food and then disappear away for the rest of the day. But this time she sat back down beside him and Connor found he had no complaints as he tucked into his food and interjected with the occasional nod as she began to fill the companionable silence with a brief explanation of Arithmancy, whatever the hell that was.