Southern Comfort (8/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Spoilers- none

Distribution- FF.net, AOH anyone else just ask :)

Pairing- Lilah/Lindsey

Rating- R

Summary- Lindsey and Lilah make decisions about their relationship…

Disclaimer- not mine… yadda, yadda

"Hey," Lindsey said as he walked into the room he was currently sharing with Lilah at the Hyperion, carrying a china bowl filled with lukewarm water and a black washcloth.

"Look at you… actually dressed," he said to her, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her.

"Not completely," she pointed out "I have no make up on… it's in one of these boxes… somewhere…"

She cast her eyes over to the fifteen cardboard boxes stacked up precariously against the east-facing wall of the tiny third floor room.

Cordelia had told them three days ago that is was one of the only rooms in the hotel that didn't contain 'actual mildew.'

Then Cordelia had awkwardly asked them if they wanted to share a room. They'd both half nodded and Cordelia had aired an ancient mattress on a piece of low-lying tin roof for Lindsey to sleep on at nights.

The room only held a wooden-slatted single bed, a tiny stand-alone wardrobe with a small hanging space for clothes and three shelves.

An eight-inch screen TV stood on an apple crate next to the wardrobe. Lilah had since discovered it only picked up mainstream terrestial channels and the aerial reception was snowy at best.

Lindsey had since noticed Lilah looking around at the browning wallpaper peeling from the walls and the small grimy window that let in the sporadic ray of Californian sunlight.

"We'll decorate," Lindsey told her, "When you feel better. We'll paint it or something… any colour you want."

Lilah sighed and shrugged her body language plainly telling Lindsey to leave that train of thoughts.

"I take it by the actual getting dressed you're at least thinking about coming downstairs today."

"Thinking about it would be right…"

"Come on Li… you've got to come downstairs sometime. You have to come downstairs and face everybody."

"I don't exactly see them queuing up at the door to say 'hey…' they'll probably lynch me or something."

Lindsey sighed.

"Well OK at least let me look at that cut."

"Can you not?"

"Why? I promise not to hurt you…"

She nodded slightly, after contemplating the idea for a few seconds and a little unsurely turned her head so Lindsey could look at the cut on her right temple.

He gently ran his fingers over the red, raised gash on the angriest part of the purple bruise yellowing slightly at the edges.

"Will it scar?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he told her, "It's the first time you've let me get a real clear look at it… and I'm no doctor. You should let Wesley take a look… he knows more than a little basic first aid."

"No…"

"Well at least let me just clean it up a bit for you…"

"Lindsey… I can do it…"

"Please let me. It'll make me feel less useless."

She paused for a moment before nodding.

Wordlessly he dipped the washcloth into the water.

"This might sting," he told her gently, hesitating.

She closed her eyes indecisively and braced herself for the pain.

She recoiled slightly as the hot water came into contact with her bruised skin making it sting slightly.

"Sorry," he said moving the cloth away.

"No, it's OK," she said quickly.

He steadied her face carefully with his other hand against her cheek as he cautiously and silently cleaned off the wound.

He placed the cloth back into the washbasin but his hand still remained on her cheek, gently tracing tiny circles there.

Slowly he moved in towards her, gradually brushing his lips gently against hers for a few seconds before moving back quickly.

"Lindsey," Lilah said, pressing her lips together, her eyes still closed.

"Yeah," he said self-consciously, "Was that OK?"

She nodded and opened her eyes.

"Can we kiss again?" she asked him, "Because that time I was too worried about what our first kiss would be like that I didn't really enjoy it…"

*****

"It shouldn't scar…" Wesley reassured Lilah, sensitively touching the cut, "But it'll heal faster if you keep the make up off it and douse it with antiseptic about four times a day."

She sat in a chair in Wesley's office, Wesley kneeling by her side and Lindsey looking on concerned from his position of sitting on the desk.

"It hurts enough to touch it with water," Lilah told Wesley weakly.

"Any other symptoms?" he asked her, moving to sit beside Lindsey on the desk.

Lilah felt as if she was in a police interrogation and that Wesley felt safer away from her.

"Apart from the horrible tiredness, dizzy spells and occasional bouts of sickness I'm fine," she half joked.

"And when was the last time you actually ate anything?" Wesley pointed out.

"A bagel… yesterday…" she half lied, "OK then… half a bagel."

"Lilah…" Lindsey said exasperatedly.

"I'm just not really hungry," she snapped at him.

"You really should eat properly," Wesley cut in.

"OK… OK don't all lecture me…" Lilah said angrily.

"Sorry… I just care that's all," Lindsey told her.

"*We* just care," Wesley added.

"I'll go out and pick you up something." Lindsey said.

"Can it be pizza?" Wesley asked Lilah.

She nodded.

"There's a pizza hut right down the street that do great take outs," Wesley told Lindsey.

"Margharita?" Lindsey asked Lilah.

She nodded again.

"OK I'll be back in ten minutes," he told her standing up and then to Wesley, "Look after her for me."

"Of course," Wesley told him.

Lindsey walked over to Lilah and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Just ten minutes I promise," he told her, kissing her on the cheek.

An awkward silence fell over the office once Lindsey had left.

"You pretty much hate me don't you?" Lilah asked Wesley directly.

"I pretty much think you're evil," he told her coldly, "And I don't trust you."

"Get in line," she quipped before saying quietly and with honesty, "I'm trying."

"So try harder… actually bother to help us out sometime… filing or something. If you know the alphabet you're useful around here… I'm being harsh… but,"

"No it's OK," Lilah cut in, "It's not like I'm not used to it…"

*****

"Are you OK?" Lindsey asked Lilah, as he pulled out his mattress from under her bed, later than night.

She nodded.

"I'm fine," she reassured him, "I feel better than I did anyway."

He sat down on the bed, wrapping his arms around her waist, solicitously resting his chin gently on her shoulder.

"This is OK right?" he asked her unsurely.

"Better than OK…" she told him, feeling safe enveloped in his arms.

She twisted in his grip so she faced him, gently pulling his face towards hers, smiling as his lips met hers in an amiable yet passionate kiss.

When she broke the kiss so they could both breathe properly she leaned her head against his chest.

"I wanted this…" she found herself confessing, "All the time we worked together… all I ever wanted was you… you were the only reason…"

"Ssshhh…" he whispered quietly, raising her chin slightly with his fingers to plant a gently kiss on her forehead.

She pulled him back with her so they lay on the bed, kissing him passionately.

He began to return her kisses but when he realised where they were heading he broke the kiss and moved off her.

"What?" she asked him with confusion, "Don't you want to?"

Lindsey sighed.

"It's not that I don't want to… It's just it doesn't feel right. Less than twelve hours ago we'd barely touched each other."

He moved closer to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I want our first time to be completely perfect," he explained to her, "The perfect place, the perfect moment… something… safe and at least meaningful… when it happens I just want to be able to look into your eyes and for it to mean *something. * If we have sex now, tonight, even though… It wouldn't really mean a thing… all it would be about would be getting each other off…"

"I know, she said, letting him draw her into his embrace, "Put it like that then I want to wait too…"

"I don't want you to think I don't want to… because I do… It's just I've been with girls who haven't meant a thing in the morning… I don't want it to be like that with us…"

"I understand," she told him, pausing before saying, "At least share the bed."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure… just hold me,"

"And I'm sure I just need you to hold…"