Summary: A little reimagining of the clock tower scene. In this, Kenji was at the clock tower when Sutton showed up.
Kenji takes her home from the clock tower. She tries to tell him she can take a cab, but he insists, and really, after the day she’s had, Sutton’s not going to complain.
“You good?” Kenji asks as she settles behind him.
“Mm-hmm.” She wraps her arms around his waist, resting her head against his back, inhaling his familiar scent.
He takes off, zipping through the city, lights and traffic flashing by, until they pull up outside her building. Kenji helps her off the motorcycle, holding on to her hand until they get inside.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Sutton finally asks him.
Kenji looks startled as they step inside the elevator. “Like what? I’m not looking at you in any certain way. I’m just…looking at you normally.”
Sutton punches the button to her floor and raises her eyebrows. “Uh-huh. You babble when you’re nervous, did you know that?”
“I’m not nervous. And I don’t babble,” he insists, leaning against the back of the elevator.
“Right,” Sutton says slowly.
When they’re inside her apartment, she heads into the bathroom to strip out of her suit, sighing in relief as she pulls on her favorite sweatpants and tank top. She sinks onto the couch next to Kenji, and he turns to looks at her, frowning slightly.
“You’re looking at me weird again,” Sutton says.
He huffs in annoyance. “You were missing for hours today. I’m allowed to look at you weird.”
“Ha! So you admit you’re looking at me weird,” she declares.
Kenji rolls his eyes, a smile briefly crossing his face. “Fine. I admit it.”
She grins triumphantly, then scoots down on the couch, resting her head on his shoulder and nuzzling against his side.
“Are you…cuddling with me?” Kenji asks teasingly.
“Shut up. Silas Prescott locked me up in some freaky reinforced superhero jail. I can cuddle if I want to,” she snarks back.
“In that case…”
She almost shrieks in surprise as Kenji yanks her over his lap, settling her legs on either side of his.
“This isn’t exactly what I would call cuddling,” Sutton says pointedly, leaning forward until her nose brushes against his and pressing her hips forward.
Kenji groans quietly, then rests his hands loosely around her back. “Sure it is. Cuddling is holding someone close in your arms.”
He yanks her in tight, grinning when she lets out of a noise of surprise.
“I’m holding you in my arms, so-“
“Kenji, stop talking,” Sutton sighs, then presses her lips to his.
She can tell that things are going to be different between them going forward the second her lips touch his. Sure, she’s liked him almost since the minute she met him, but their relationship, or whatever this is, has been mostly lighthearted and fun until recently. They’ve never had a serious, personal conversation about how Caleb almost killed him, or the very real possibility of one or both of them dying on a daily basis, or what, exactly they are to each other.
Until he’d shown up and taken her out to high tea, she hadn’t known for sure what, exactly, he felt for her. Then he’d gone and told her that he’d keep fighting so she didn’t have to, and she started suspecting he liked her as more than just someone to have fun and flirt with. And, in a moment of clarity, watching him walk back up to the restaurant, she admitted to herself that she liked him as more than that too.
Kenji’s lips are soft, almost tender against hers, and this kiss is so full of emotion that she’s not sure she can handle it right now. Sutton sucks in a breath and leans back. Kenji’s hands tangle in her hair, his gaze locked on hers.
“I really thought you might have died today,” he says.
His face tightens, and she can almost feel the frustration radiating off of him. “And I wasn’t there to help you.”
“Hey,” she says, taking his face in her hands. “None of this is your fault. I went after Silas alone. We didn’t know he’d inject himself with all that serum, or that he knew who I was.”
“I still should have been there,” he says stubbornly.
“Kenji…”
“Just let me be mad I wasn’t there,” he grumbles.
Shaking her head, Sutton smiles and says, “Fine”, then rests her head on his shoulder.
Kenji shifts underneath her. “Your couch is uncomfortable.”
“It really is,” she agrees.
He stands suddenly, lifting her easily and depositing her on the bed. She takes her sweatpants off, and she can’t help but notice the way he sucks in a breath. Hesitating, he looks down at her, and Sutton grins, scooting over and patting the blanket next to her. “Don’t be shy, Kenji.”
Kenji chuckles as he shamelessly strips down to his underwear. “‘Kenji’ and ‘shy’ don’t belong together in the same sentence.”
He climbs in next to her and flips the light off, plunging the room into near darkness. He sighs, flopping over on his stomach and sprawling out, his arm smacking into her side.
“Hey!” she protests.
“Sorry,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m kind of a bed hog.”
She can hear him shuffle around, and then he’s tugging on her hip, rolling her on her side and dragging her against him until they’re laying chest to chest. His arm is warm and pleasantly heavy around her waist, his fingers lightly tracing the band on her underwear.
“Now who’s cuddling?” she teases him, even as she shivers at the feel of his hand low on her back.
He taps her on the nose. “I like to cuddle when I sleep.”
“Hmm.”
Sutton can feel his eyes on her as she slips a hand between them and glides it up his stomach and over his chest, then around his neck, running through his dark hair. She sees his eyes close briefly, then open again to tilt her chin up and press his lips to hers.
Kenji kisses her again and again, his fingers tangling in her hair. He gently bites her lower lip, then soothes it with his tongue, tightening his grip around her waist when she whimpers, a near silent noise.
“Do me a favor, hero?” he says when they finally pull apart.
“What’s that?”
“Don’t die on me, okay?”
“Worried about having to work only with Eva?” she says jokingly, but her breath catches a little at the sincerity in his voice.
Kenji brushes his lips over hers again. “Whatever you want to tell yourself, darling.”
She gently pushes him onto his back, resting her head on his chest. Sutton can hear his heart racing, and leans up to kiss him again, a reassurance.
“I’ll try not to die,” she promises. “As long as you promise to try not to die too.”
He smiles against her lips. “I promise.”
“Good. I kind of like you.”
“Only kind of? You wound me,” he gasps dramatically, and she swats his chest.
“Fine. I…like you a lot,” she admits.
“I like you a lot too,” he murmurs, and she’d be lying if she didn’t say the words made her supremely happy.
She rests her head back over his chest, their fingers tangling together. Gradually, his racing heart slows and his breathing evens out as he drifts off to sleep. It’s soothing, having him next to her, and she finds herself drifting off into a peaceful slumber for the first time in a long time.