Tale as Old as Time

I apologize for any typos in this one.  It ended up being longer than I thought it would, and I read through it once but don't really want to read through again.  Stay tuned for at least one more post this week still!  Hopefully two :)
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"Yeah," I replied.  "About that...can we talk about that?"
"Talk about what?" Brody asked, sounding confused.
I took a deep breath.  "Talk about moving in together."

Brody's hand, which had been drifting lazily up and down my arm, paused for about a half second, then continued.  "Absolutely.  What about it do you want to talk about?"

"Ummm..." I stopped.  What about it did I want to talk about?  "I...I don't know, I guess.  Did you still want to?  Someday?  Because I was thinking that maybe I was a little weird about it before and we didn't even get to talk about it because I threw a tantrum and maybe we should talk about it and just...talk about it."  I stopped and took a breath.  Brody chuckled softly and I glared at him.

"I'm sorry," he said.  "But you know I love when you ramble.  Don't be nervous, let's just talk about it."  I nodded.  "I do still want to," he continued.  "What are you worried about?"

I took a second to collect my thoughts so I didn't ramble, then said "I'm worried about not having my own space.  And if I move in here, I'm worried that it won't ever feel like home to me.  That it will always be your house, and I'll just live here in it.  And what if I hate the way you fold your towels?"  

"If you hate the way I fold towels, I'd be happy to let you fold the towels forever," he declared.

"Well in that case, when can I move in?" I asked sarcastically.

"Tomorrow! I hate folding towels," Brody responded, laughing.  "But seriously, I think I can answer your questions.  So, if you wanted to move in here, I hardly use the lower level.  There are two empty rooms down there, and there's a full bathroom.  That can be your space if you want.  You can have an office down there, we could put your bed down there.  It can be an extra guest room if we ever needed it, or if I piss you off and you want to sleep down there, it's all yours.  But I can also understand feeling weird about moving into my house, so what if we found a new house?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, dumbly.  "A new house?  But...you love your house."

"I do love my house," he replied.  "But you're far more important than a house.  I want something that will be ours.  If that means we buy a new house, then we'll buy a new house."

I sat up and looked at him, blinking in surprise as I tried to make sense of his words.  "Would you sell this one?"

"I don't know," he said, shrugging.  "It's close to paid for.  I could rent it out.  Otherwise, my mom keeps talking about moving closer to the city.  I don't think she'll leave her house, but if she wanted to, she could live here."  I nodded as if this conversation made any bit of sense to me.   "You look a little freaked out," Brody said nervously.

"No," I said slowly.  "No...not freaked out.  I guess I'm just surprised that you'd move out of this house.  And for me.  Or us.  Or...I don't know, that's kind of a big deal.  And I'm tired, so I'm having a hard time processing it.  But I'm not freaked out, I promise."

He smiled at me and pulled me against him.  "It's late, and you have to work tomorrow and I've had a long day.  What if we sleep on this conversation and talk about it a little more later this weekend?"

"Okay," I agreed.  I sat up and stretched, not looking forward to getting up in 6 hours for work.

When we were both settled in bed, Brody wrapped his arm around me, pulling my back tightly against his chest.  "I love you, Liv," he said softly.  "Thank you for everything this week."

"I love you too," I replied.  "Thanks for only laughing at me a little tonight."

"That conversation is far from over.  Don't worry, there will be plenty more opportunities for me to laugh at you."

"Oh good."  I shifted a little to get more comfortable, then fell asleep quickly.

I'm pretty sure neither of us had moved when we were startled awake by my alarm.  I had to push Brody's arm off of me to reach my phone on the nightstand so I could turn it off.  My shoulder was sore from being laid on all night, and I'm sure Brody's arm was asleep.  I groaned as I rolled over onto my back and tried to wake up a little.  I definitely hadn't gotten enough sleep.  Brody's arm snaked back across my body and pulled me towards him as he snuggled back in next to me.  "No," I protested weakly.  "If I get comfortable again I won't get up."

"That's the goal," he said, his voice hoarse from sleep.

"You know," I replied, rolling away and sitting up, "for someone that values hard work the way you do, you sure do try to get me play hooky a lot."

"Mmmhmm," he agreed, rolling onto his stomach.  "But if you're not going to stay here, go away so I can go back to sleep."

I rolled my eyes and made my way into the bathroom, where I quickly showered, threw on a bare minimum of makeup, and pulled my hair back. By the time I emerged, Brody was fast asleep again.  Good, I hoped he slept in.  I knew he'd probably head into work today, but I hoped it wasn't until later.

As I was tiptoeing out of the room, he stirred and said, "Leaving without saying goodbye?"

"You told me to go away so you could go back to sleep," I protested with a laugh, walking back over to the bed.  I leaned down and kissed him goodbye, then escaped without further incident.  I grabbed one of the bananas I picked up yesterday and went out the door.  On my way to work, I grabbed coffee and a muffin (drive-thru coffee places are the best things in the entire world).

Despite not getting quite enough sleep, I woke up quickly enough and had a pretty good day at work.  After, I called Brody.  He answered right away.  "Are you at work?" I asked.

"No, I stayed home today.  I just couldn't motivate myself enough to drive into town and go to the office.  Will you be mad if I make you drive back out here?  I'll make dinner."

"I can come back out, especially if you're making dinner.  I just need to run home and grab some stuff first.  Do you need me to pick anything up before I come out?"

"No, I don't think so," he replied.  We said goodbye and I went home to get some clothes for the rest of the weekend.  I stopped for a few minutes to chat with Lauren, who was getting ready to go out with Alex. 

By the time I got back out to Brody's house, I was starving.  Luckily he had dinner almost done and I didn't have to wait long to eat.  I tried to take care of the dishes when we were done eating, but he wouldn't let me.  I hopped up on the counter and talked to him while he finished cleaning up.

When he was done, he dried his hands off and walked over to me.  He pushed my knees apart far enough so that he could stand between them.  "Hey!" I exclaimed.  "Your hands are still wet!" 

"Are they?" he asked.  "Huh."  Then he slipped his hands under my skirt, trailing his damp fingers up my bare legs. 

I squealed and tried to wriggle away from him but he slid his hands all the way up to my hips and pulled me tightly against him.  "I don't appreciate your wet fingers," I said.

"You don't?  How about now?"  One hand slid over my hip and thigh and stroked me gently through my underwear. 

"Mmmm, maybe," I replied. 

"Now?" He pushed my underwear to the side and his fingers slipped across my skin.  I bit my lip and moaned softly.  "I'll take that as a yes, then."  Brody knelt in front of me and pulled me forward so my hips were closer to the edge of the counter.  "But if you don't like my fingers..." 

I gasped when his tongue touched me and shuddered, realizing that one of his neighbors would have an excellent view through the window, if they happened to look out at the right moment.  "The window," I said breathlessly. 

"So?" he replied, and I was disappointed that he had stopped to talk.  "You're fully clothed."  And I was, minus my skirt being pushed up to a questionable height on my legs.  I groaned as he returned to his task and realized that maybe I didn't care that his neighbor might get a bit of a show.  Anyway, I very quickly forgot about just about everything besides what his tongue was doing to me.

He stopped just short of my orgasm and I huffed in disappointment.  He cocked an eyebrow at me and lifted me off the counter.  "I think we'll be far more comfortable elsewhere, don't you?"

"Yeah, like right here," I replied.  I tugged his sweatpants down and nudged him backwards until he sat at one of the dining table chairs. 

"The window?" he asked, smirking at me. 

"Fuck the window," I replied, straddling him and lowering myself onto him.  We both groaned and quickly forgot about the window. 

We eventually made it up to his bed, and laid there tangled together in the growing darkness.   "So," he said casually, breaking the comfortable silence.  "Any more worries about moving in?" 

"No," I answered honestly.  "I feel a lot better about it now.  Did you have a timeline in mind?"

"The timeline is yours, sweetheart," he said, smoothing my hair away from my face and pulling me even closer to him.  "I would have done it a month ago.  So whenever you're ready, I'm ready."

"It might take awhile to find a place, right?  I mean, we don't necessary have to find something new, but maybe we can at least look, and see what's out there?"

"We can," he agreed. 

"So maybe I'll talk to Lauren, and see if she's interested in taking over my lease.  And if she is, then we can start looking and if we find something we'll move.  And if she's not, we have a little more time, since my lease doesn't end until June." 

Brody chuckled softly.  "That's really only two months away," he pointed out.

"That's true.  So we should start looking either way, I guess."

"Is that okay?  Because it was only a couple weeks ago that you were flying out of here over this."

I was glad he couldn't see my face get red.  "It's okay," I assured him.  "I just...have realized that this is what I want and there's not really a good reason to wait at this point."

"Yeah?" he asked.  "Because I really only want to do this if you're completely ready.  I'm not pushing this, I promise.  If you want to wait, I understand."

"No, I'm ready," I replied.  "I hate that it took everything with your dad to make me realize it, but I want to wake up next to you every day.  And come home to you every night.  And all that other stupid sappy stuff that people sing about and say in the movies."

Brody laughed and kissed my forehead--the only part of my face he could reach right now.  "I really thought you were going for the stupid sappy stuff there for a minute, and I was worried that you were sick or not in your right mind.  But since you ruined it, I feel so much better about believing that this is what you want." 

I laughed too.  "It is," I promised.

"Well then, I guess we should talk to a realtor and decide what we're looking for.  Budget, must-haves, location, all that."

"A library," I declared.

"Umm...what?"

"A library.  You know, a room with books and sliding ladders and a dusty old desk?  It's not a must-have, obviously, but someday.  In my dream, it looks just like the one from Beauty and the Beast, except less animated."

"Well, I've never seen Beauty and the Beast, but I'll be sure to put a library on the list," he said, chuckling.

"You've never seen Beauty and the Beast?  That is not okay."

"I wasn't much of a Disney movie kid," he replied.

"Well, I know what we're doing tomorrow!" I exclaimed.

"Hmmm, I might have to go to the office tomorrow...." he teased. 

"I don't think so," I said indignantly.  "After all the war movies, and action movies, and stupid comedies that you've made me watch, you can spend 90 minutes watching a classic love story."

"I'll watch it if you admit that calling it a 'classic love story' is a liiiiiiittle bit of a stretch," he negotiated.

"You'll watch it because you love me and it'll make me happy," I countered.

"Pulling out the big guns, huh?  Okay, you win.  I'll watch it because I love you and it'll make you happy." 

I grinned in the dark.  He shifted and we rolled onto our sides.  I settled against him, wrapping my arm around his arm, which was holding me tightly against him.  Soon I could fall asleep like this every night.