The next morning Dominika blushed furiously when she awoke to find she had fallen asleep in Gerard’s bed, her form curled into the crook of his arm. He was soundly asleep next to her, snoring lightly with his good arm stretched over her chest. Her face burned further when she realized his limb grazed her breast, barely covered by the silky camisole she wore without a bra. She wiggled beside him gently, trying to break the intimate contact a little without waking him. She moved back on the bed and looked up at him, the rising sun outside the window highlighting his profile with a glowing edge. Dominika loved how he looked when he slept, so at peace with the world and tranquil. In that moment in the bed alone in the hotel room it was just the two of them, and she couldn’t have loved him more.

She settled back against him so their arms touched, watching the sun as it began to rise over the buildings of the crowded skyline. The noise of early morning traffic soon bustled to life beneath them and with the odd blare of a car horn, Gerard began to stir beside her.

“Morning, pretty” he purred, moving his lips to her neck and kissing the skin there softly.

“Mmm” she sighed, her fingers knitting into his hair. With the next shy moan that passed her lips, Gerard silenced them with his own, his mouth moving against hers with bridled lust.

Dominika fumbled to find a place on his body to rest her hand and he grasped it gently, guiding it to his narrow hips. His tongue touched her lips suddenly and she took his cue, opening her mouth a little to grant him access. They kissed fervently till Gerard flinched in pain and she blanched, shifting her body back from his in the bed.

“I’m fine” he reassured “just a little sore, apparently. Where are you going? We don’t have to be up yet”

Dominika glanced at the digital clock by the bed and saw they had another hour before they were due to leave for their flight back to Washington.

“Okay, but no kissing, I don’t want to be responsible for you getting a blood clot”

Gerard smirked at her across the space in the bed between them and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“You’re supposed to be recovering”

“And you’re supposed to be at ballet school. I guess we’re both playing hooky. So get back here”

---

The flight back to D.C was as uneventful as any of them could have hoped. Gerard grumbled at being loaded onto the aircraft in the wheelchair, the tediousness of being fussed over by every official they encountered, who truly only wanted to make him more comfortable but perhaps overdid it a little, had begun to grind on him, but his mood instantly improved once they were in the air. The peace and quiet of the cabin was obviously soothing to him.

John was waiting for them in the private arrivals lounge when they disembarked the plane, smiling broadly. Dominika was surprised at how happy she was to see John, although it made sense, he had become a central figure in her life in America, even more so than Gerard’s own Father at times, who was often away long hours for work. She hugged him tightly and he laughed, surprised by the sudden display of affection but happy to see her all the same.

“How was the big smoke, Domi?” he asked.

“Great!” she said happily “but it’s nice to be home”

He greeted Donald and Donna before he turned to Gerard, softness in his eyes as he addressed him.

“Look at you, old boy. Been in the wars, eh?”

“You could say that” Gerard replied, smirking.

“You scared us all with that little incident. Especially this one” John said, nodding to Dominika “she was practically beside herself”

“Hey!” she protested, slapping his arm “I wasn’t that bad”

“Sure, sure, kid” Gerard snickered.

Dominika had never been so glad to be home than she was when they pulled up in front of the Way mansion, the sun now high over their heads in the sky. It was much windier than their time in New York, and the trees of the property swayed about violently in the wind. Dried leaves scattered across the lawn and swirled at their feet as John hauled their bags from the trunk of his car to the base of the porch steps.

As the house keeper appeared at the front door and began to drag their cases inside, Dominika witnessed John lean down to Gerard’s level and whisper in his ear. A sly smile stretched over Gerard’s face as he listened, and the two of them laughed loudly on the front lawn. Dominika narrowed her eyes at the exchange, suspicious, and approached Gerard to curl her hands around the handles of his wheelchair.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, looking back and forth between them.

“Nothing, kid” Gerard replied, still smirking at the other man “John here was just saying I better be good to you or he’s coming after me, apparently I’m punching way above my weight”

Dominika smiled then, too.

“He’s right, you should listen to him”

As soon as they were all inside the house, the first task to be undertaken was to get Gerard settled in his room. She’d assumed he’d be put in his old room, the same one he’d had as a child, but Donna quickly decided the bed was too small and too far from Dominika’s room to be practical for his recovery. Instead she decided he’d be much better in the room adjacent to hers.

The space that was to be Gerard’s shared Dominika’s bathroom, their rooms adjoined with a wooden sliding door between. She’d never even seen the room before, but it was decorated similarly to hers with a large white bed and matching furniture. An almost identical set of windows looked out at the grounds beyond, providing a pretty backdrop even though the trees were almost bare of their leaves.

Dominika was glad to have him close by even if the sensation was odd. They’d always lived in close proximity to each other, but even as friends and neighbors had still led separate lives. It was a strange feeling being in the same house as Gerard, the house that she supposed was technically both their home, for now at least. The dynamics of the house being that of Gerard’s parents also made things a little awkward. They hadn’t officially announced their relationship yet, mainly because neither of them were really sure what that status was. The core fact was that they were indeed a couple now, but whether or not they’d be married any time soon Dominika had no clue. Gerard had broached the topic of marriage several times now, but no official question had been asked, and therefore Dominika wasn’t exactly sure how to label whatever had blossomed between them in the last months.

It was late in the evening as Gerard stared absently at the television brought up to his room and perched on the dresser opposite his bed so he’d at least have some form of entertainment during his recovery. Every now and then, his eyes flicked to the white sliding door that led into the bathroom separating his and Dominika’s rooms and he wondered what she was doing, if she was sleeping, or if she was thinking of him just as he was thinking of her. It was moments like these that he became frustrated with his injured body for being so helpless. Getting out of bed by himself was hard at this stage, and after the long day he’d had in and out of the wheelchair, he was just too tired to try.

His attention snapped back to the door as soon as he heard it slide open quietly and Dominika appeared in the doorway, her form a shadowed silhouette against the frosted light of the bathroom. She stepped into the light of his room and his breath caught in his throat as he realized she was wearing nothing but a little pink tank top that was so tight it exposed her navel and a matching pair of tiny cotton shorts with lace trim in the same color. Her nightclothes, he guessed. The room must have been cold as her nipples were clearly visible through the fabric of her top, small and round. He darted his eyes away quickly, trying to focus on her face as she stood only feet away from him.

“Hey” she said softly, a tiny smile playing on her lips. Maybe she’d come to spend the night with him after all. Even though his healing back injuries prevented him from being able to hold her like before, he still slept better knowing she was right beside him, in arms reach.

“Hey, baby. Can’t sleep?”

She shook her head and produced a tiny blue glass bottle from behind her back. He stared at it for a moment and then looked to her quizzically.

“This is a special oil my Mother used to use on me when I got injured in dancing. It warms your muscles and promotes blood flow, and it will help to minimize scarring”

Dominika said nothing else as she approached the bed and guided him into sitting upright, gently. The mattress dipped slightly next to him and she slid behind his back on the bed. Even though the room was warm, goose bumps raised along his shoulders as she traced her long delicate finger down his back carefully, avoiding the places patched with gauze and bandages.

“Are you trying to kill me, kid?” he said suddenly, breaking the silence in the room. She pulled her hand away.

“What?”

“You come in here in that little ensemble” he said, glancing back at her tank top “to give me an oil massage? I’ll have a heart attack”

She was silent again, trying to work out if he was joking or not. He reached behind him to tickle her thigh and she giggled, batting his hand away.

“Should I go put something else on?” she asked warily.

“Hey I never said it wouldn’t be a pleasant death. In fact, you’re more than welcome to take those clothes off, that’d be even better”

“Yeah right!” she said “then you really would have a heart attack”

“I have no doubt, kid” he murmured quietly.

Dominika opened the blue bottle and emptied a little into her hands, rubbing them together. She touched his back gently, cautiously at first, rubbing the oil into the exposed areas of his skin. He leaned into her touch, eyes closed as her fingers worked their magic over the bare patches of almost-perfect skin, blemished with a few bruises and grazing but nothing that required bandages.. To her, it probably seemed innocent, a simple act of caring towards the man she loved, but Gerard was on fire, wanting nothing more than to be able to scoop her up in arms right there and then and throw her onto his bed. He cursed his injuries again silently.

Suddenly Dominika was in front of him, kneeling on the bed. She leant forward and kissed him sweetly. His hands were either side of her face then, and he pulled her forward slightly as he leant back on the bed so some of Dominika’s weight was shifted on top of his body. She turned crimson almost immediately as she registered their closeness, her body pressed against his eagerly. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes.

“I should go…” she whispered “you need to rest, I’m getting you way too excited here”

“Hmm” he mused, stroking her cheek with the tips of his fingers “I think you should stay, this bed’s plenty big enough for the two of us.

Dominika froze in her tracks for a moment, deciding, before she slid off him and onto the empty side of the bed, pulling a few pillows from the mass at their heads.

“I’ll stay”

Notes

Fun Fact about this chapter: I wrote the massage scene about 6 weeks ago and have been tweaking it ever since haha! Thanks for reading :)