trashchildren | For Joan

She stretches a little, then smiles as he strokes her hair. "Really well," she says. Her expression shifted to mild concern, and she reaches out to affectionately rub his thigh. "Are you okay? How's your stomach?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he answers, and he certainly looks better than last night. "My back feels a bit better too." The pillows helped. He's sure he still needs to take it a little easy to make sure it doesn't get worse.

"I'm glad to hear that," she says. She reaches over to take his free hand and thread their fingers together. Ted might notice that her hand isn't shaking.

"How's Sherlock?" she asks, her soft smile indicating that there's no worry behind the question.

He doesn't consciously notice it first, but he does notice that she looks a lot better, and he's so relieved for it. He lifts her hand to give it a soft kiss.

"On the couch. Went to sleep a few hours ago," he answers, nodding to the door. "Reluctantly," he adds with a smile.

She glances toward the door. "That sounds about right," she says, looking back at Ted with a smile. "Did you sleep okay? Aside from your stomach bothering you?"

"Yeah, it calmed down," Ted answers. Which isn't a lie, just... a tiny fib. His stomach did hurt, it just wasn't the root cause.

"You hungry?" he asks, glancing over at the tray on the chair. "Got a banana if you want breakfast in bed without either of us getting up," he says with a smile.

"I'd love a banana," Joan says, working herself up to sitting. It's a little easier this morning. She looks over at the tray and knows that Ted wouldn't have brought it in himself. Sherlock must have prepared it for him. The thought of it makes Joan smile.

Ted doesn't help her this time, letting her try it for herself, though ready to support her if she needs it.

He grabs the banana and opens it up for her though, since that's both fiddly and requires a little strength.

"Thanks," Joan says as she takes the banana. She takes a small bite, chews it carefully, then swallows. She waits for a moment, seeing if her stomach revolts. It does not, so she smiles and takes a bigger bite.

Ted smiles, just watching her for a moment. He puts away his laptop, then shifts a bit closer, putting an arm around her, leaning down to give her shoulder a soft kiss. Just quietly snuggling with her while she eats. He's just glad to see her getting better.

She leans against him with a happy sigh, taking another bite of the banana. She can tell she's getting better, and that Ted recognizes it too. It's a huge relief on a number of levels.

When she swallows this mouthful she turns her head to kiss him.

He kisses her back happily. "Mmmm, banana flavored," he jokes playfully, giving her a gentle squeeze. And then just to be silly, he leans down and steals a small bite of her banana.

She giggles at the quip, then laughs as he steals a bite. "Excuse you!" she scolds playfully, still laughing. "Get your own banana!"

"Don't forget who gave you that banana," he says. "...Actually Sherlock brought it, so never mind," he adds with a bright grin.

"I can reheat some of the leftovers from last night, and we can get some proper breakfast," he suggests. He doesn't want to run the blender while Sherlock is asleep. Though he makes no move to get up yet, instead just nuzzling at her neck. He's very cuddly right now apparently.

Joan is happy to be cuddly right now, turning a little so that she can kiss him softly and nuzzle his nose.

"I don't think we need to rush into breakfast," she murmurs, smiling. "The banana should tide me over for now."

"I've got half a cup of cold coffee if you get desperate," he offers, waggling his eyebrows as if it's an enticing offer. He's perfectly happy to just stay here for a little while. Just the two of them, no thinking about the outside world.

She laughs at that. "Very generous of you," she says between kisses. "I'll keep it in mind."

Cuddling and nuzzling and kissing and just enjoying each other sounds absolutely perfect right now.

It's so good to see her laughing. It just fills his soul with joy.

Ted grabs a few pillows to put behind Joan, so they can comfortably lounge together here, just relax together.

He continues kissing her, her mouth and occasionally her neck, nuzzling behind her ear, cuddling up close. Not with any purpose or urgency, just enjoying showering her with affection.

And Joan is absolutely loving it, drinking in that affection and giving back in kind, kissing and nuzzling and cuddling, touching his hair, his neck, his shoulders, rubbing his back, brushing her fingertips down his side.

"You know..." he says, pulling back a little to look at her, a little bit of pink in his cheeks. "The kids are asleep," he says, nodding towards the door. "If you still wanted to..." He trails off, but the meaning should be obvious.

Joan's smile widens in amusement at Ted referring to Sherlock as "the kids." God knows it's not far off the mark at times. His meaning is obvious, plain as the pink in Joan's cheeks and the dilation of her pupils. She smiles and nods.

"I would like that," she says softly.

Ted's smile widens, and he gives her another kiss, a bit briefer, before pulling back and getting to his feet. He carefully hops over to the door, and hangs a sock on the outside door handle, just in case Sherlock ends up waking up, before closing it.

He crawls back into bed, settling down next to her and pulling her closer, and resumes what they were doing.

He's still not rushing it, but there might be more of a purpose in mind now. Hands wandering a bit more than they would otherwise. Kisses on her neck and behind her ear meant to be exciting rather than just affectionate.

Joan can't help but laugh a little at the sock. She hasn't used that particular signal since she was in college, and it amuses her to think of her and Ted as two college kids having sex in the dorm and warning the roommate not to enter.

When he comes back, she sinks right back into their cuddling and nuzzling and kissing. She isn't rushing either, but there is definitely an extra sense of tension, the feel that they are slowly building up to something, kissing and touching each other not only to show affection but also to arouse. She gives a soft moan as his lips find a sensitive spot behind her ear, and she slips her hand under his shirt to caress his bare skin.

The sock is silly, but it's also effective. Well, for Sherlock, not for actual children. Besides, the options otherwise is that Sherlock knows what they're doing either because he sees them, or because he hears them. Neither is remotely appealing to Ted, who would rather not do it while anyone is in the house at all, but is being lenient out of necessity.

In the grand scheme of thing, it hasn't been that long since they've done this. About two weeks. But when you consider what's happened in that time, it might as well be an eternity, and it feels so nice to be touching each other like this again. Ted absolutely savors it.

He takes the soft moan as a cue to spend some extra time there, smiling against her skin. His hand slides down her side and her leg, then up the inside of her thigh. Not moving all the way up just yet, but just close enough to be suggestive.

It hasn't been long at all while at the same time being absolutely forever. Touching each other like this is a little bit of normalcy, a little bit of life in what has been a dark time for them both.

The feeling of his hand sliding up the inside of her thigh makes Joan shiver with delight. It stops short, and Joan can't help but whimper softly, the teasing further intensifying the tingling heat between her legs. She answers by sliding her hand lightly down his back, then slipping it underneath the waistband of his sweatpants and his boxers, to lightly caress the bare skin of his ass.

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