Summary: Laurel and Grayson settle into a routine when she comes back from the Prism World, and have a conversation about Soteria. Set after Home, though this can be read as a stand-alone.
Settling into a routine with Grayson is so easy that Laurel feels like they’ve been doing it for years. It feels so natural, so normal, and it makes all the chaos of dealing with the Prism World and the fallout from Silas and everything she’s been handling the past few months less stressful than she would have expected.
For the first few days, they just lounge around his apartment, being together. Poppy teases her about making up for lost time, and Laurel just laughs and rolls her eyes.
She’s not wrong though. The first few times they’re together, it’s a little frantic and with desperate relief that they’re here, together, a physical reassurance that this is real and she’s okay. When the worry starts to subside, it’s slower, and she relishes learning him and the way he learns her. She can feel, in the way he touches her and makes love to her and holds her when they sleep, just how much he wants her and cares about her.
As good as he feels, and as strong as the physical need and want for him is, Laurel has to admit she also loves the domestic bliss they seem to settle into. Grayson’s an early riser, usually going to the gym or for a run even before she’s awake. When she figures out what time he gets back, she starts waking up with enough time to have coffee ready.
He prefers the physical copy of newspapers, and they curl up on his couch to drink coffee and catch up on the news when he returns. Late in the morning, he responds to work emails and phone calls, and she insists on helping him with what she can, mainly because she thinks she’ll go crazy if she doesn’t do anything productive. If he gets too engrossed in his work and doesn’t take a break, she takes to distracting him by lifting his furniture or floating from room to room, until he looks up and starts laughing.
Grayson is a surprisingly good cook, and likes to make her dinner. He indulges her love of cheesy rom-coms at night before they go to bed, though she sometimes gets distracted halfway through by the scent of his cologne and the feel of his solid warmth as he wraps his arms around her.
Laurel tells him she loves him a week after she’s started staying with him. They’re lying in bed, and she’s curled up against his chest, his fingers stroking through her hair, and it just feels right. And, if she’s being honest, it’s partly because he’s going back into the office tomorrow, and as irrational as she knows it is, she’s not quite ready to let go of this little bubble they’re in yet. She doesn’t want to say anything, but Grayson pries it out of her.
“I know it’s silly,” she says. “It’s just been…nice, being here with you.”
“It’s not silly,” he reassures her. “I understand. It has been nice, being here, just the two of us.”
He rolls her to her back, propping himself up over her. “But you can still be here with me,” he murmurs.
Grayson teases her gently about the smile that spreads across her face, even though it’s mirrored on his own. Laurel giggles as he leans down to kiss her, the noise dying on her lips when his kisses grow hungrier and she tugs him over her with a quiet whimper.
Later, when they’re curled up together again, their breathing a little ragged, he brushes his lips over the top of her head. “I love you, too, Laurel,” he murmurs, and that makes her smile all over again.
Laurel goes a little stir-crazy the first day he’s gone. She’s bored and antsy, until Poppy texts her and tells her she needs to get out. They get lunch and wander around the local stores.
“You need that,” Poppy says, coming to a sudden stop.
“What?”
“That.”
She’s pointing at a very short, nearly see-through, lacy black negligee.
Laurel laughs. “I don’t need that. I have underwear and lingerie.”
Poppy makes a face. “That hideous pink monstrosity that you insisted on buying because it was on sale? No. You need that.”
Before Laurel can open her mouth to argue, Poppy is pulling her into the store and convincing her to buy it. She does like it, she has to admit.
“Grayson will love it,” Poppy proclaims.
“That’s not the point,” Laurel says with a half-smile.
But he will, she knows.
There’s only so much sitting around and wandering around Grayson’s neighborhood she can do while everyone else is working, and the boredom almost makes her want to scream before long. She’s itching to get back to work, and back to being Soteria. She feels fine and her powers are functioning normally whenever she tests them. Eva and Kenji back her up, insisting that if she feels up to it, she should be able to come back out on calls.
They both look a little worse for the wear when she sees them, and she starts feeling a little guilty about not helping. Dax and Poppy both seem hesitant to have her back out, and though Grayson doesn’t directly say it, she can tell the thought of her being back in the line of fire, so to speak, bothers him.
“I have to,” she explains to him one night when they lay in bed.
She’s wearing the lacy black negligee, and Grayson playfully accuses her of trying to distract him during the conversation they have about her returning to her role as Soteria. He likes it though. Laurel can tell the second he sees her in it, his eyes darkening, mouth slightly parted, his hands roaming over her sides and bunching the silky fabric between his fingers.
“I have these powers that can help, that can do some good, and I just…I feel like I have to use them,” she explains.
Grayson sighs. “I know.”
He smiles at her sweetly, leaning in to press his lips to hers. “I love how much you care about protecting people, Laurel, I do. I know you can take care of yourself. But…” he trails off, then says, “I’ll probably always worry. A little bit.”
She understands. Prescott Industries has gotten a few threats in the wake of everything with Silas, and she worries about Grayson too. Laurel cups his face in her hand, brushing her lips over his. The way he says he’ll worry is so genuinely caring and loving, a hint of protectiveness behind it, that it makes her throat swell with emotion. He won’t stop her, she knows, and he knows how capable she is, but she likes knowing how much he cares about her.
A word replays in her mind as Laurel scoots closer, sliding her leg between his and kissing him slowly.
“Always?” she asks.
She can barely see the flush that spreads across his face. “I mean, for as long as we’re together. I didn’t mean to-“
Grayson stops and smiles down at her when he hears her try and fail to cover up a laugh. “You like making me flustered, don’t you?”
“Sometimes,” she admits, letting herself laugh out loud now that he’s heard her.
Chuckling quietly, he brings their lips together in a deep kiss.
“Just try and be careful?” he murmurs.
“I’ll try,” she promises, running her hands into his hair.
She tilts her chin up as Grayson kisses down her neck, nudging her to lay on her back and pulling the strap of the negligee aside to kiss her shoulder. “I already almost lost you once. I’d prefer not to do that again.”
“I know,” she whispers, her breath hitching as his hand wanders under the lacy fabric and over her stomach, then down to trace along the band of her matching underwear.
Grayson tilts his head up, staring at her for a moment before kissing her again. “I love you,” he murmurs.
“I love you, too.”
He’s a little more frantic and desperate that night, his fingers digging into her hips, his lips insistent over her bare skin. She sleeps restlessly, but when she gets a call from Dax early the next afternoon about a bank robbery, she’s ready. Laurel kisses Grayson briefly as she walks out of his office, smiling at him reassuringly.
Everything goes off without a hitch, she and Talos and Minuet working together seamlessly. It’s good to be out with them, the adrenaline flowing through her, and she grins as Talos claps his hand over her shoulder and tells her it’s good to have her back.
She likes feeling like she’s helping again, and doing something for her city, but she has to admit, she likes the way Grayson wraps his arms around her and kisses her when she walks back into his office a little bit more.