[The turning of Gideon's thoughts back to Harrowhark, her insistence on her prurient materials being called by their crude name, the bubbling up of her ever-insistent will even in her uncharacteristic timidity - these things Ortus takes as vouchsafes of her well-being. They have a new, precious quality from their absence, his budding familiarity with her manner and person highlighted starkly by her departure.
The depth of his breath moves them both, his capacious rib cage expanding in all directions before he heaves a wide, slow, and weighted sigh. When it has passed, she is settled a degree more securely in his arms.]
Your pornography [he pronounces, with an air of long-suffering relief] has been preserved.
[If it pleases her to hear him say it, he will say it. He would utter any crude inanity she wished in this moment, though he does hope she will not prevail on him to do so.]
They are safe. As are you. [He thinks his paint may be smearing into her hair when he turns his chin slightly; he thinks she will not mind overmuch.] All is well.
no subject
The depth of his breath moves them both, his capacious rib cage expanding in all directions before he heaves a wide, slow, and weighted sigh. When it has passed, she is settled a degree more securely in his arms.]
Your pornography [he pronounces, with an air of long-suffering relief] has been preserved.
[If it pleases her to hear him say it, he will say it. He would utter any crude inanity she wished in this moment, though he does hope she will not prevail on him to do so.]
They are safe. As are you. [He thinks his paint may be smearing into her hair when he turns his chin slightly; he thinks she will not mind overmuch.] All is well.