early

Bong Soon wakes up before Min Hyuk does, consciousness having returned to her beats ago though she was wary about opening her eyes until now. Her arm is strewn over him, she discovers blearily, the nice length of his solid chest, one of her legs tangled between both of his. It's good that she woke up before he did: she can't possibly be this beautiful to look at and she's feeling somewhat shy (she actually kissed the scar on his side earlier, her blood thrilling when he pulled her up into a hot, desperate sort of mouth to mouth in reaction.) Besides, it's nice that she'll have time by herself before having to go about the task of talking, the task of reacting.

Turning a fraction, Bong Soon lets herself press her lips against his smooth, faintly golden skin, her mind fleetingly coming up with the word "subtle" because she distractedly went over its meaning some mornings ago on that dictionary Min Hyuk has insisted she should familiarize herself with (she thinks about how to use the word in a sentence so that it sounds natural, arriving at: I am not a subtle sort of person, but I enjoy my subtle moments.) It makes her grin so that she's feeling like a bubble of soda giddily popping up to the surface. Again. She keeps coming back to super-extra-happy since her strength came back to her and she was able to get rid of Kim Jang Hyun's bomb. Maybe common sense dictates that she should start exercising caution because, if yesterday was the happiest day of her life, this morning has shattered even the bravest of her sunnier fantasies, — but she's had more than her fair share of darkest, brutal storms lately, so she dares be hopeful that her lucky streak will keep stretching, dares believe that it's okay to soak up every drop of love and comfort and laughter that happens to pour down on her.

Slowly pulling back, she looks at his face. Min Hyuk is … so. He is so. So. So brave and decent and sincere and warm and loyal and gentle and good (he's so good.) She supposes there must be a word for what she means other than "so", but it's not one of those times she feels particularly bothered about not being more sophisticated, smarter, more complicated than she is. Her mind goes back to that dictionary, though, and she remembers looking up the word "strong" out of curiosity, how she understood the more straightforward definitions on every level, and, also, how disoriented she felt at the amount of times the word "strong" was linked to the word "power".

She didn't use to associate her strength with what she acknowledged as power before, but now it's after the moment her strength was taken from her so she's been made to think again. She realizes now that she did feel sort of powerful, even then. She felt certain walking down dark alleys. Her mind got clear when she was faced with a situation in which her strength could be of help, where it could prove necessary. It was just… — she had to keep her ability a secret so it seemed more like hassle than her version of what it means to actually hold whatever amount of power. But she knows better by this point. Knows enough to be certain. She's powerful. Strong, Powerful Do Bong Soon with all of what that implies. Her understanding of power has been connected with being accountable to others for as long as she can remember, so she's aware that she must react with responsibility as often as she reasonably and humanly can now that she knows (she's not entirely clear as to what her future holds but she sees no cool masks and/or swishing capes in it; she believes that her strength won't become her absolute ruling center because she does want a measure of normalcy.)

She carefully returns to laying her head over Min Hyuk's chest, her somewhat looping train of thought progressing from words and concepts and that dictionary to the one problem crowding like the grayest, heaviest, thickest, most foreboding cloud over her otherwise perfect horizon: Kim Jang Hyun and how she will help catch him. Min Hyuk and Gook Doo will need to help her come up with a good plan. She gets derailed here for a beat, however, remembering how Min Hyuk is amazing at coming up with smart, creative plans, which leaves her helpless from letting her mouth curl around the hugest smile. (He is so, so.)

Before she can shy away from the impulse, before she can start her path back to wrestling with working on the beginnings of a way to catch that bastard, she runs her fingers over Min Hyuk's torso, presses a feather-light kiss close to his nipple. Her whole body goes sharply focused, so very alive when, pulling back, she looks up and discovers that what she was hoping would happen did and he's gazing back at her.

His right hand finds her shoulder, and then he's pulling her in, running his fingers over her reverently again and again. "You keep driving me crazy." He sounds raspier, more playful, more dangerously honest and different than the last time he said that; (Bong Soon immediately decides she loves his voice when he wakes up following sex.)

I know, — Bong Soon comes close to saying. But she goes back to her previous musings on strength and power and being responsible, and the words suddenly don't hold the right ring anymore (she'll have time for teasing back, later, but he's a lonely prince who's bared his heart to her once again and she keeps wanting to become amazing at being careful with wonderful, treasurable things.) So instead she moves back, gives him a long, consciously open look, grinning before reaching out and threading her fingers along his hair. Min Hyuk catches her mouth slow and certain and knowing, and she's back to feeling like a bubble surging up to the top as she sucks down on his bottom lip — except she's not only a bubble now, she's also soft and heated and melting at her edges.

~0~