Summary: After a disagreement and a rough patch, Drake and Mika work to fix things between them. This has a fluffy ending. 🙂
Drake doesn’t grumble about putting a wreath on the door. He willingly strings lights up outside the house. He sits through Christmas movie after Christmas movie with barely a sarcastic comment about cliché romances or cheesy, over-the-top cheer. He agrees to go out and cut down a Christmas tree.
“Drake?” Mika asks as they crunch through the snow, searching for the perfect tree.
She fidgets with a loose string on her scarf, wondering if she should even say anything.
“Yeah?”
“You’re being weird again,” she finally says after a long pause. “You’re not even giving me a hard time about being super picky about the tree.”
Drake comes to a stop, then sighs loudly. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
Mika sidles up next to him, slipping her gloved hand into his and squeezing reassuringly. She’s relieved when he squeezes back and then tilts his head down to brush his lips over hers.
She understands why he’s being this way, and she also knows moving into their new normal will take time, no matter how much she wishes she could speed it up. They’re both still a little hesitant, a little tentative with each other, though it’s gotten better the past few days.
~~~~~~~~~~
It started a few weeks after Savannah moved back to Cordonia with Bartie, and Drake had offered to let them move in. Mika hadn’t said anything, because it was Drake’s sister, and she knew how worried he’d been about her. But she and Drake had just moved in together too, were still learning each other’s quirks and habits, and it frustrated her, just a little bit, to have unexpected roommates.
It had been mostly okay, until Savannah started relying on her to watch Bartie after she got a job and repeatedly failed to line up a sitter, since Mika could work from home. Savannah was always so flustered and frantic and grateful, but eventually, when she nearly missed an important work deadline because she was babysitting, Mika realized she couldn’t do it anymore.
Drake had been apologetic, but, he told her in a slightly defensive tone, he couldn’t just kick them out.
“I’m not asking you to,” Mika assured him, but her voice was quivering with what she was about to say. “But I almost lost my job today. This isn’t working. I found a place in town that will let me rent a week at a time.”
He stared at her, disbelief and frustration and a little anger flashing across his face.
“So that’s it?” he finally asked, his voice harsher than normal.
“No,” she said emphatically, and she meant it.
Tears brimmed in her eyes as she continued. “But I need a job, Drake. I can’t work when Savannah expects me to drop everything at the last second to watch Bartie. I-we-can’t do anything when she expects that. We’ve been arguing about this for weeks. I’m tired of fighting about it. So for now, this is what I’m doing.”
It wasn’t the solution she really wanted. She missed Drake horribly. They talked, and he came by her apartment, but it was so awkward and stiff that she almost cried every time after he left. Two weeks after she moved out, Drake was standing outside her door when she got home from work. Savannah had found her own place, he told her. He apologized and hugged her and asked her to come home.
That was what had done her in.
“Home?” she hiccupped, looking up at him through watery eyes as he cupped her face in his hands.
“Home,” Drake repeated gruffly. “My place, or here, or somewhere we find together. I don’t care. I just want you with me.”
They talked and he spent the night, holding her while they slept, and she moved back in with him soon after.
~~~~~~~~~~
Just as it begins to get dark, Mika finally finds the perfect tree. Drake cuts it down and lifts it into the bed of his truck so effortlessly that Mika gets distracted watching him when she’s supposed to be helping. He teases her gently about staring at him, and she smiles at how normal it feels. Once they get home and the tree inside, Mika laughs as Drake struggles to get the lights untangled.
“It’s not funny, Kelemen,” he grouses, but he’s smiling.
They drink his favorite whiskey and she blasts Christmas music on her phone as they hang ornaments. Mika declares the tree a success when they manage to get everything hung without breaking any of them. She’s pleasantly warm when they’re done, the whiskey bottle noticeably less full. Mika flips the lights off, admiring the tree, and reclines on the couch next to Drake.
He smells like pine and his body wash that she loves, his cheeks faintly pink from the alcohol. His lips taste of the whiskey they shared when she leans in and kisses him, one of her hands slipping into his hair. Drake cups her hips and slides her on to his lap, her legs on either side of his. His hands brush up and down her sides as he presses his mouth to hers in slow, deep kisses.
“Mika?”
“Mmm?” she sighs, nuzzling her lips against his neck.
He sucks in a breath at the sensation, fingers tightening in her shirt momentarily.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
Mika frowns as she sits back. “You don’t have to keep apologizing, Drake.”
He kisses her, hard, and she groans as he nips at her lower lip.
“I know. But I’m still sorry. Just let me apologize.”
“If you insist,” she replies, then smiles at him suggestively, kissing him with slow deliberation.
Drake raises his eyebrows at her. “What?”
Mika leans forward, sucking at the sensitive spot just below his ear.
“Kelemen,” she hears him say pleadingly.
“You could always show me how sorry you are,” she whispers.
She can see his pupils dilate, the lights on the tree reflected in his eyes. They haven’t been together like this since she moved back in, and her heart races, wondering if he’ll hesitate or tell her not yet. A familiar ache builds in her, remembering how it feels being with him, and she hopes he won’t tell her no. Drake hoarsely whispers her name, his hands running through her hair, and then suddenly he’s pulling her in tight against him.
His fingers run under the back of her shirt, hot on her skin, his lips seeking hers again in hungry, insistent kisses. Mika fumbles for her phone to shut the music off as Drake stands, her legs wrapping around him as he lifts her. She expects him to head toward their bedroom, but instead he lays her out on the rug in front of the tree. He props himself up over her, their kisses sloppy and unrestrained, both from the whiskey and from need, his hands everywhere and impatient.
“Off,” Mika whispers when they pause momentarily, sucking in shallow breaths.
She pulls insistently at the hem of his shirt until he sits up, pulling it over his head and tossing it aside. Before he can lay back down over her, Mika kneels before him, roving her hands over his chest and stomach, through the smattering of coarse dark hair, and down below his navel. She giggles when she runs her fingertips over his sides and he jumps a little.
“No tickling,” Drake admonishes her, pulling her shirt off and nudging her to lay back down.
His lips burn a path down her neck, then over her collarbones, sucking and biting. She’s gone so long without feeling him that she can’t help but sigh in relief at his touch. Drake glances up at her.
“Don’t stop,” she pleads, arching against him emphatically.
Drake dips his head back down, nipping and kissing at her skin. She rolls slightly to the side when he slips his hand under her so he can unhook her bra and take it off.
“Jesus, Mika,” he groans, staring down at her with such reverence that it makes her flush.
He runs his hands over her breasts before bending down, taking one of her nipples into his warm mouth, teasing her with his teeth and lips. Her fingers dig into his shoulders, her breathing picking up as he moves lower, his lips trailing along her waistband. Drake undoes her jeans and she stands to take them off, biting her lip when he kneels and slowly drags her underwear down and over her feet. His mouth brushes over her stomach and across her hips before she tugs him up, fumbling with his belt, and she sees him trying not to smile when she can’t get it undone.
“It’s not funny, Walker,” Mika says sternly, throwing his words back at him with a wink.
She finally manages to get the buckle undone and he kicks his jeans and boxer-briefs off.
“Lay down, baby,” he murmurs, and oh, she’s missed him calling her that.
He doesn’t do it often, but when he’s uninhibited and aroused like this, the word sometimes slips out. Mika eases back down to the carpet, watching Drake settle between her legs. He glides his fingers over her warmth, dipping two fingers into her, and it makes her suck in a breath.
“Oh,” she moans, her hips rocking in time with his motions.
He slips a third finger in and she arches against him, gasping his name as he pumps them in and out of her.
“God, I missed hearing that,” Drake groans.
“I missed you,” she manages to say shakily.
“Fuck, I missed you too. So much,” he says, his voice strangled.
He curls his fingers, hitting a sensitive spot that makes her cry out, her hands digging into the rug as she comes. She’s panting and flushed, sucking in shallow breaths as Drake hovers over her, kissing her slowly as she comes down. She can feel him, hard and throbbing against her thigh, and he lets out a groan when she runs her hand over him.
“I want you,” she whispers, then presses against his chest until he sits back.
Mika pushes herself upright, then nudges Drake until he lays back on the rug, an intense, aroused look on his face as she kneels over him. She’s glad now they stopped drinking before they were too drunk, doesn’t want their first time back together to be a distant, hazy memory come morning. Drake groans as she slowly sinks on to him, his hands gripping her hips, hers braced against his chest. Mika can tell he’s stopping himself from slamming into her as she adjusts to the feel of him again, to the way he fills and stretches her.
She rolls her hips against his, slowly at first, watching the way his lips part, his gaze locked on hers as she moves.
“Yes,” she moans when he thrusts up against her and grinds her down on to him.
Her head drops forward, Drake’s eyes dark and locked on hers as they start moving faster. His hands glide up her sides, then down over her thighs, then back up, like he’s committing her every curve to memory all over again. Mika digs her fingers into his skin, sucking in a breath when he slips a hand between them. He rubs his thumb over her clit, light and almost teasing as she rises above him, until she all but sobs, “Please, Drake,” and he presses harder and tilts his hips.
The angle has her coming undone, her orgasm rushing through her as he grips her hips again, holding her against him. It has her eyes slamming closed as her muscles tighten around him and she sucks in shaky breaths. When she opens her eyes, Drake pulls her down to his chest, kissing her desperately.
She hears him hoarsely say, “You feel so damn good, Mika,” as he thrusts up into her, his movements rapid and unrestrained, until he groans her name and reaches his release.
Mika slumps against him, can feel his chest rise and fall rapidly with his ragged breathing, his skin warm against hers. Drake strokes his fingers through her hair, gradually slowing his gentle motions as they catch their breath. He presses his lips against her forehead, her fingers running idly over his chest as they lay together. She slips to his side after a few minutes, snuggling up against him.
“I love you,” Drake says, tucking his thumb under her chin and tilting her head up, his lips seeking hers.
“I love you, too,” she murmurs.
His eyes search her face when he pulls back, full of emotion.
“I’m glad you’re home,” he says, and that brings a brilliant smile to her face.
“So am I.”
Mika thinks she could fall asleep right there, but eventually she has to admit she’s cold, and the rug isn’t that comfortable on her bare skin, and Drake confesses his back will be killing him in the morning if they stay there. She teases him about being older than her, and giggles when he suddenly swoops her up bridal-style and carries her to their room.
Even though she’s been back here for a few weeks now, this night feels the most like them that they’ve been since she came home, and that makes it easy to fall asleep, Drake wrapped warmly around her.