DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the following characters and no infringement on any copyrighting is intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Captive Hearts
By Aurora
Prologue
Maca could feel those hands ghosting along her sides, unusually clumsy and tentative in their movements. She never remembered a touch feeling like this. But they were real, solid hands that grew more secure by the second, cradling her and welcoming her into an embrace. Their movements never stilled, first up her sides, her back and over her shoulders, moving her and twisting her body and she followed them without question. It had been so long since she'd been touched that even as uncertain as these touches were, it relieved an ache Maca hadn't even known she was enduring till now.
Though her vision was blurry, her limbs heavy and her mind a little dizzy, Maca leant into the slightly shaky hand that cradled her face with instinctive trust. "I've missed you." She whispered thickly, trying to speak past the knot in her throat.
"Shh, Maca…" She replied, tracing the outline of Maca's features with a thumb and absently marvelling at how soft her skin was.
But Maca persisted, needing to talk, to say the things that had been left buried for far too long. "I was hurting and I… I made a mistake, you know?"
"I know, honey…" Came the soft assurance. Now really wasn't the time for this discussion.
Maca was trying to keep a level head but she was coming undone under these hands that were still touching her, holding her in her weakness. She moved into a tremulous hand as it curved around her hip, drawing her close, holding her to that warmth she'd spent so many lonely nights without. God, how she'd missed this touch…
She was about to surrender completely to that voice and touch, allow herself to be ushered into a new state of being where she was whole once more and without heartache. But there was something that Maca needed to know before she lost that last edge of self-control, before she fell forward into a helpless state of dependence.
Maca gasped, muscles trembling as deft fingers tore open her doctor's coat, pushed up her scrubs up and began exploring the skin underneath. "Do you… Do you love me?" She ground out with difficulty, biting her lip against the feel of those fingers as they pushed higher.
The movements suddenly stilled and Maca was terrified she'd said the wrong thing, or that maybe this wasn't love after all anymore. The silence seemed to stretch into eternity and she began shifting under those hands again, horribly nervous. But just as she was about to move away, recoil back into her own darkened shell, she heard the words she'd been longing to hear for so long.
"I love you… God, I love you more than you'll ever know, Maca…"
Maca actually smiled, a delirious smile that lit up her weakened features. "Then kiss me." She said, and it wasn't a request, her own unsteady hands reaching up to latch onto soft clothes. She was feeling so weak right now that she desperately needed to feel as though the world was not about to slip out from underneath her, that this moment would endure past the here and now.
"Maca, I-" She was hesitating, she knew, but Maca's eyes still managed to express exactly what she needed and upon seeing that look there was no denying her. Right now, Maca needed to be loved like this, to feel skin on skin, to be kissed again after her lips had so long been naked to harsh air. Words weren't enough, no matter how much she'd hoped they might be.
So with reverent care, half terrified that she wouldn't be up to standards and half needing to just soothe Maca no matter the cost, Claudia lowered her lips and gently grazed them over Maca's, managing a small smile as she responded, sighing audibly and finally finding home.