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Cigarettes and Joy Division (Your Favourite Lung)
This might just be Jinx's favourite way to wake up.
Consciousness comes to her slowly, one sense at a time, a faint idea of being alive while floating in the dark.
She nuzzles closer in the crook of Ekko's neck, breathing in his scent of hazelnut and soap. He smells like the cologne she gifted him in May, that he will use until even the last drop in the bottle has been used or dried up.
If she keeps her eyes closed, she can pretend nothing exists outside of the toasty bundle of blankets they’re wrapped in, nestled in a warm, deep indent in the couch from their combined weight on the pillows. Actually, it’s so warm and toasty it’s almost too much. The heavy, still air around them would be suffocating if it wasn’t him breathing softly so close to her, with the steady, low drum of his heartbeat under her ears. Jinx can feel all the noises in his tummy, the rumbles and whistles of a living human body.
One hand comes to stroke the side of his face, rubbing on the short, almost imperceptible stubble on his cheek, while her other is trapped, squished in between their bodies with almost no sensation in the arm, yet still claws at his jumper, damp with sweat after hours with their bodies flush against one another.
She can barely move like this: her back is pressed to the couch’s backrest, Ekko’s full weight trapping her there.
The faint hum of New Dawn Fades fills the air, the CD still on loop inside the stereo. Outside, the wind throws raindrops on the windows with the strength of thousands of bullets, every gust of wind bringing another wave of water washing on the glass. From time to time, air sneaks in from vents and drafts, playing the house like a musical instrument that whistles and shivers.
Jinx huffs.
The song fades out and she doesn’t break this stillness, not even when the next track begins, with that anxious syndrum that usually anticipates the discomfort Jinx feels at the lyrics and overlapping voices.
But when she feels the a barely-there twitch coming from Ekko, his limbs barely stirring under her, she jumps with a surge of her head that gives him no time to properly wake up before she climbs on top of him, knocking air out of his lungs and getting right in his face. Her hands are perfectly folded under her chin, their noses so close the tips brush slightly when Ekko tucks his chin in his chest, and Jinx is tempted to steal his first words with a kiss.
She blinks, and the first thing she sees in the dark living room is him.
"Well, good evening, my good sir." she chuckles instead, cocking her head to the side and waiting for his reaction.
"Hm… good evening indeed, my little lady." he mumbles, covering his eyes with his forearm and holding her steady atop of him as he shifts down and stretches into a more comfortable position.
While he’s still “blindfolded”, like this, Jinx raises herself on her arms and inches forward, pressing her lips on his into a chaste kiss that makes even more heat bloom across her face, while the parts of her body that are outside the blankets or aren’t touching Ekko shiver from the cold.
She sighs, her chest suddenly lighter. "I'm so happy to see you."
“Me too, bunny… I missed you when I was asleep.” His voice is low and raspy, dry from sleep, coming out in a sluggish whisper to take shape in that line that has become one of their loving, most used affectionate catchphrases.
“That’s so corny.” Jinx grins.
“You're one to talk, you told me you’re happy to see me like you weren’t taking a nap right here for hours.” he's so smug. Too smug to have just woken up. He's insufferable.
He's all hers.
“Hmm, cause I am-“ she wines, rolling from side to side until she's cosied up with her legs tangled in his, and her arms around his torso.
Ekko's heart keeps beating under her cheek, and Jinx lets her eyelids flutter lazily before she closes them again, lulled by the sound and the way Ekko's fingers are sneaking under all those layers of heavy fabric to trace abstract patterns on her skin. His head lolls forward, just until his face is squished between the backrest and Jinx's own head below.
A violent thunder swallows the song in its belly, each rumble shaking the entire house. Jinx barely registers it, so focused on the warm, sticky air that blows back on her face with every breath, or exactly how each and every part of her and Ekko sinks back into their soft nest.
“I want roasted chestnuts.” she blurts out against the skin of Ekko's collarbone, tickling him.
“There’s a storm that’s uprooting trees and tearing off branches.” Ekko says, stopping to let her hear said storm drilling holes into any surface it hits and slapping the trees. "Besides, we're too young and broke for a mortgage-"
“Later… when it’s over. And I’ll treat you, baby.” Jinx lowers her tone, tries to sound all stern and brooding, but it's over the moment her face crumples in a loud yawn.
He laughs and Jinx huffs again, twisting in his grasps to hide her face when Ekko goes to pinch her cheek — she's just so sleepy —, trying a new way to arrange her limbs, like the yawn dissolved the spell of perfect cosy-ness than enveloped.
"How are you even able to move in these-" he's referring to her… well, his fleece pajamas, that she's wearing. He's wearing the same material, and the blanket it's fleece too, and yet the friction is not enough to keep her still.
"Take them off for me, then." Jinx's eyes shot wide open. She stares up at him like a cat, and Ekko swears they're almost glowing, her irises catching every twinkle and reflection around and shooting them right back at him.
He cups her cheek and surges forward, clashing on her mouth when she does the same, scratching her fingernails on his clothed chest and craning her neck to grant him access.
Ekko licks her lips and she opens up for him, her soft gasps melting in the music, growing sharper as the tune picks up.
To the centre of the city where all roads meet, waiting for you
To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank, searching for you
I was moving through the silence without motion, waiting for you
In a room with a window in the corner, I found truth
"Keep me still for a while, or I can make you move with me-" she speaks in the breaths between each kiss, and when she grasps the side of his face with both hands, Ekko flips them so that he's towering above her. Lightning strikes, and Jinx can steal a glance at his face, shuddering with desire at the way the bright white light traces his sculpted face for less than a second. Too little time. She could get lost in those eyes, darker than the world around them as winter sets, and yet so full of light, even as they take her in.
Ekko moves and they hiss at the loss of contact, wincing at the drafts of cold air that hit their sweaty bodies.
All discomfort is soon forgotten when, just as Jinx traces the contour of his lips with her fingertip, Ekko dips his hand below her waistband, stroking past the curly hair between her thighs and slipping his finger into her scalding, dripping core.