When the warm afterglow finally oozed away, Thalia and Maktov were left with awkward alarms chiming in their head. Fumbling, the two managed to disentangle from each other and, after locating her pants and her phone, Thalia retreated to the bathroom to clean up. All the while, a keen of 'what do you think you're doing' echoed in her thoughts.
Maktov's inner musings didn't dally far from hers. He sat back down on his bed, staring into the dark distance. Fuck. He sighed, heaving himself into a standing position as he made circuits around his room. It was an aimless movement to keep his thoughts from overwhelming him. He didn't want to focus too long, lest curious considerations and desires overtook his mind.
In the bathroom, Thalia fared about as well as Maktov. Shit. What had she been thinking? This was going to make everything so much more awkward. Especially sharing her bed tonight. Gods, her bed! She pressed her hands to her face, stifling a groan in her throat.
Focus on cleaning up and getting dressed, she told herself. Everything else would be dealt with in time.
When the bathroom door opened, Maktov glanced down the hall, unable to keep from watching her return. Heat squirmed, lower in his stomach, as he watched her. His fingers twitched, recalling her softness beneath his hands, his shadows.
"Sorry," Thalia laughed, a little awkwardly, and shaking him from seedy thoughts. She paused in his bedroom doorway, as if there were a barrier there. Her eyes flickered around the room, before finally spotting him. Or, perhaps, just his eyes. "Did you have to change again?"
A new confusion bubbled up in his muck of thoughts. "Why?"
"Oh, I thought you..." Thalia made a motion with her hand, imitating a jerking motion before her fingers splayed wide.
Maktov watched her hand, before glancing back to Thalia's face. "I did."
"Oh. Is that comfortable?" She wrinkled her nose, glancing down at his pants.
Oh, she thought his pants were full of... Embarrassed heat climbed over his shoulders and the back of his neck. He could understand why shadow demons stuck with others of their kind, as far as sex was concerned. It avoided awkward situations like this. Still, he cleared his throat and mumbled, "My shadows cover me down there, too. So, I just... uh... kind of transport it elsewhere."
Thalia blinked, wide-eyed and stunned. "Seriously?"
She considered him, with her eyebrow raised as if she was about to call him out for teasing her. Instead, she fought a smirk as she said, "You must save a lot on condoms."
"I still have some," he grunted, returning to his bag to needlessly shift his packing job around. He tried to ignore the new concerns dog-piling his thoughts. "In case my partners would prefer them."
As their conversation dwindled, awkwardness blanketed them like snow. Neither knew how or if they should breach the conversation hanging over their heads. After a few quiet moments, with questions whirling about her head but no courage to ask them, Thalia finally said, "I'm going to take care of the food while you finish up here."
Maktov glanced up, catching the shortest glimpses of her as she swiped up the plastic tote and turned the corner. His jaw clenched against the swarm of confounding, and varied, worries. Forcing himself to focus on his packing job, Maktov busied himself by locating any obscure items he might need while at Thalia's home.
—
After gathering up his bag of clothes and the tote of miscellaneous food, Maktov reconsidered the temporary living situation with Thalia. He was home. He should stay here, instead of wearing on her. Again, his brain bristled, reminding him of the pain and fright of getting jumped. He shook the thoughts from his head, before finally locking his apartment's door and following Thalia to her car. Besides, he would still have to return to her home for his equipment. It just made more sense to stay, at least one more night.
When the two got back to her home, their focus shifted toward work. Which was easy enough, since neither wanted to talk about what had happened. The hours passed by with slight conversation as their work ethics settled into place; Thalia, working in her office space in the corner of the living room and Maktov set up in the dining room.
The distance did them both good.
Though he had to take frequent breaks, applying the salve Mag had made, he just managed to finish his work projects for the day when Taryn burst through the front door. Without Maktov noticing, Thalia had emerged from her computer after hearing the front door open. It was her greeting Taryn that drew his eye from his own laptop.
"Hope you two didn't do anything too naughty while at work," the teenager crowed, waggling their eyebrows.
Maktov's lips thinned, glad for his shadows to hide the creeping heat that would have otherwise given him away.
Thalia was not so lucky. Red instantly stained her cheeks as an unamused furrow pinched between eyebrows. Taryn's eyes took on a curious glint at their mother's expression, a curl of amusement to their lips. Whether they suspected hanky-panky or not made little difference as three more teenagers barreled in.
Cherie and two others, Maktov noted. The two newcomers bumbled to a halt, eyes wide and on him. He inclined his head to them, glasses perched on his nose and screen exhaustion tugging at his eyes.
One of the kids sidled up behind Taryn. They seemed relatively human, Maktov thought, until he noticed their pointed ears and the yellow eyes. Though the lycan teen tried to whisper, their voice carried to Maktov anyway. "I thought you two were pulling our legs!"
Cherie snorted, "Why would I joke about something like that?"
"Well, you and Tare are always trying to bullshit us."
"Oh yeah, great joke. Hey, my mom's classmate crush totally got jumped and is staying with us becaus-"
Maktov didn't hear the rest of Taryn's sarcastic play. The last member of the quatro, a dryad with orange blossoms in their hair, leaned over to Thalia. They flashed a thumbs up and muttered a suggestive, "Niiice, Ms. Harper."
Almost immediately, something flared through the atmosphere of the apartment. A prickle of the energy shift crawled across Maktov's shoulders.
"Alright, that's enough! If you all are staying, go to Taryn's room." Stern mom mode took over Thalia's voice, her words becoming commands as she stabbed a finger at Taryn's bedroom. The jovial attitude around the teenagers wilted, just a little. "Maktov and I have work to do and we're already behind! So scoot!"
After some dragging feet under Thalia's glare, the four teenagers eventually piled into Taryn's room. Though continued conversations could be heard through the walls, it was now muffled and undecipherable.
When Taryn's door had shut firmly behind the kids, Maktov cast Thalia a sidelong look.
The blush soaked further into her face. She could feel his attention on her. The heat on her skin worsened as, yet again, the imp of recollection posited their earlier lasciviousness. Agitation prickled across her thoughts as she turned to face him, her hands on her hips, "What?"
"Niiiice, Ms. Harper." Maktov repeated the words, face stoic and tone flat. The corner of his lips twitched, but didn't quite manage to curl into a smile.
If possible, Thalia flushed further. Before he could teasingly question what they had meant - though he full well knew - she spun around on her heel. "I have some more work before I'm done."
Maktov watched her retreat, caught between amusement and uncertainty. Her reactions certainly delighted him, but her quick retreat left something cold in his gut. Perhaps, teasing her just then hadn't been a good move. Something had seemed slightly off, since his apartment. Since what happened.
Lips pressed together, he decided it was best to wait to ask if something was wrong. At least until the others went home and Taryn was in bed.
Though, part of him felt, perhaps, he was better off leaving it unspoken.
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