Fic: All We Need (Rachel/Ivy, The Hollows 2/?)

[fembuck]

Title: All We Need
Author: Janine
Fandom: The Hollows
Pairing: Rachel/Ivy
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own them.
Summary: Rachel and Ivy spend a quiet, but not uneventful evening together.

Part One 

PART TWO

Later That Night

Rachel sighed softly as she flipped a page of the book she was reading. Her vision was beginning to blur and she was barely managing to retain the information she had read in her brain for more than a few seconds. She’d been at it for hours already and she needed a break. Her brain was rebelling against her. She needed a distraction.

“I…” Rachel started to call out, her body jerking back further into the couch cushions a second later when she looked up and saw a figure standing in the doorway. “Jesus, Ivy!” she exclaimed as she focused on Ivy hovering in the doorway of the living room. Ivy moved fast, but she didn’t move that fast and Rachel momentarily wondered how long the living vampire had been standing there watching her. “I hate it when you do that,” Rachel muttered, removing her hand from her chest as her heartbeat slowly settled into a regular pattern once more.

“Sorry,” Ivy murmured before her head tipped to the side to rest against the door frame.

Rachel didn’t like that Ivy was still creeping by the doorway, but the living-vampire looked pretty settled where she was and Rachel didn’t feel like getting into an argument just because her senses weren’t developed enough to always register Ivy’s movements.

“Are you heading out?”

There was a touch of disappointment in Rachel’s voice. She was hoping that she and Ivy could’ve hung out again. Granted, she had monopolized the majority of the living-vampires afternoon, but she would have liked to monopolize her evening too. When Ivy was in a good mood, it really wasn’t possible to spend too much time around her, and Ivy had been in a good mood all day. In fact, she’d been in a pretty good mood for the last month or so. Rachel wasn’t sure why exactly, as far as she could tell nothing much had changed, but she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth and she was content to just bask in her best friends contentment.

“No,” Ivy said softly, her eyes wandering around the room.

“You’re not seeing Glenn?” Rachel closed the book on her lap and turned her full attention to Ivy.

Ivy shook her head, her eyes still scanning the room restlessly.

Rachel’s eyebrow knitted together, and she focused on Ivy, studying her keenly for a moment. The set of Ivy’s shoulders was tenser than usual. It wasn’t that wire-tight intensity that she usually had when she was fighting off some vampiric instinct, but Ivy certainly wasn’t at ease. Something was bothering her, something was making her uncomfortable and distracted, but Rachel wasn’t sure what it was.

“You haven’t seen him much lately,” Rachel said carefully, watching Ivy closely.

She hadn’t really thought about it before, but it was true. When Ivy had first started dating Glenn, Rachel had almost felt like she was living alone after the sun went down. Ivy was often around when she woke up in the afternoon, but she’d been keeping very late hours, and Rachel had felt her absence much more strongly than she would have thought.

Ivy had been around a lot more in the evenings over the past month, however, which Rachel was selfishly glad for. Things were good between them presently, things were relaxed in a way that they never really had been before and Rachel loved it, and she knew that Ivy did too. It was nice for them not to be constantly on edge around each. It was nice to be able to enjoy each others company.

“No, I haven’t,” Ivy agreed softly. Her tone was mostly undecipherable, but the quality of it, the slight huskiness of it sent a little shiver through Rachel. It was a tone that Rachel had come to think of as “Ivy after Dark”. She knew that Ivy didn’t do it on purpose, but once the sun went down the living-vampire almost immediately became sultry. Usually it wasn’t anything jarringly obvious, but that little extra sway in her hips when she walked, combined with the slight huskiness that came into her voice and the minor increase in pheromones she released, all came together to produce a rather intoxicating effect.

“Are you two fighting?” Rachel’s eyes narrowed a little at the thought.

If Glenn had done anything to upset Ivy she was going to have a serious chat with him. That was, a serious chat that would likely involve her throwing tomatoes at him and possibly even tapping a line or having Jenks pix him. She’d had her doubts about the two of them, but Ivy’s spirits had been better after they got together so Rachel decided to keep her mouth shut, and just hope for the best. If they were fighting however, Rachel would come down on Ivy’s side every time and Glenn was going to have to prepare himself to have two women pissed at him.

“Fighting?” Ivy asked, her eyebrow rising up on her forehead as she finally turned to look at Rachel. “No,” she said, smiling a little in a way that made Rachel’s stomach do little flip flops. “We broke up, last week,” she revealed. “And we didn’t fight about it,” she added, holding Rachel’s gaze for a moment longer before she looked away again.

Rachel blinked in surprise a few times, and her lips parted as she stared at Ivy.

“Oh,” she murmured, wincing a little after the word came out of her mouth.

She hadn’t known that they’d broken up. She probably should have known that. Then again, she hadn’t really known when they started dating either, but she’d been trying to keep better track of things like that. Ivy hadn’t mentioned it though, she was sure of that. If Ivy had mentioned it she would have remembered.

“What happened?”

Ivy shrugged lazily, her eyes still looking everywhere but at Rachel. “You’re not really surprised, are you?”

Rachel dropped her gaze down to the book resting on her lap, and started to trace the cover of it with her thumb.

She really wasn’t surprised, but she thought that it might make her seem like an asshole to agree with Ivy’s statement out loud. Glenn was a nice guy, but he wasn’t strong enough for Ivy, emotionally or physically. He was very cool for a human, but Interlander life was still mostly a mystery to him – a scary and unsettling mystery – which would have made a long relationship with an Interlander difficult for him. There was also the fact that there was enough of an Alpha male in Glenn, that Rachel suspected that having a girlfriend who could bench press him was probably beginning to take a toll on his male ego. Add into that the differences in their sleeping patterns, Ivy disappearing for a few hours every week to keep her bloodlust in check, and the unstable hours attached to both of their jobs, and it didn’t surprise Rachel that things had become … complicated.

“Do you want to talk about …”

“No,” Ivy interjected cutting her off before she could finish her awkward offer for a heart to heart. “It’s fine. We’re fine. Glenn and I,” she continued, glancing over at Rachel briefly before looking away again. “There’s really nothing to talk about.”

“Okay,” Rachel said, relieved not to have to talk about Ivy’s romantic woes. Ivy didn’t seem particularly broken up by their parting, and in fact had seemed to be in a pretty good mood all week, so there was probably nothing to really worry about. Besides, she really didn’t want to hear about any sex stuff between them, and she was sure that part of the break up probably had to do with sex stuff. “So,” Rachel continued, drawing the word out as she looked back over at Ivy. “Are you coming in, or are you going to stand in the doorway all night?”

Ivy’s body tensed minutely, and then she went completely still. Rachel was pretty sure she had even stopped breathing. And then, when Ivy had been still and silent for so long that Rachel was about to speak again, Ivy jerked into motion.

Rachel watched her, captivated by Ivy’s uncharacteristically rough motions. She expected the living-vampire to head towards her chair. That was usually how they existed together in the living room, on opposite sides, talking loudly to each other. But Ivy didn’t head towards her chair. Instead, she moved towards the couch, and then she sat down so that her thighs were resting just centimeters away from Rachel’s bare, painted toes.

Ivy sat down, but she didn’t relax. Once seated her back remained ramrod straight, and she folded her hands neatly in her lap as if she was being evaluated on her carriage for an etiquette class. She looked so awkward that Rachel wanted to smile, but she didn’t. Ivy was so clearly uncomfortable and worried about something that concern won out of Rachel’s amusement.

“Ivy,” Rachel began gently, becoming truly worried by her roommate’s behavior.

“Do you want to watch a movie or something?” Ivy suddenly asked startling Rachel.

“Is that a good idea?” Rachel asked a little wearily as she stared at Ivy’s stiff posture.

There was a reason they had stopped sharing a couch together while hanging out in the living room, and while she sometimes desperately wished that things didn’t have to be that way, she didn’t want to push their luck. She’d rather watch a movie with Ivy on her chair and the two of them cracking jokes from across the room, then trigger Ivy’s instincts and have Ivy run away into the night loathing herself.

“You look … tense,” Rachel continued as diplomatically as she could.

Ivy remained still as stone for a few seconds after Rachel spoke, and then she looked over at the redhead. Ivy’s rich cinnamon eyes then drifted down to Rachel’s hand, which was still resting on the cover of her book. Ivy’s gaze lingered on Rachel’s hand for a moment and then she looked away again, focusing her attention on the blank television set once more as her posture became even more rigid.

“I could sit over there,” Rachel offered pointing to Ivy’s chair. She had seen Ivy look at her and the fact that her proximity made Ivy tense even more did not go unnoticed. It didn’t make much sense to her that Ivy would come over and sit on the couch only to then tell her to move, but she wasn’t sure what else to do, or what else to offer to ease Ivy’s distress.

“I don’t want you to move,” Ivy breathed out.

“Then what do you want?” Rachel asked in an equally soft tone, her voice curious but not demanding.

Ivy turned her face in Rachel direction, and when their eyes met there was a look of such longing and sadness in Ivy’s eyes that Rachel almost gasped. She didn’t gasp, but something in her breathing or her scent must have changed because Ivy looked at her hands again and then grimaced and turned away from her.

Rachel wasn’t quite sure what triggered her understanding, but she suddenly understood – or at least she thought she understood – what it was that Ivy wanted. She also understood that Ivy wouldn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, ask for what it was that she needed, which left it up to Rachel to give it to her.

Slowly, Rachel shifted on the couch, drawing her legs up into her and then throwing them over the edge of the couch so that she was sitting down on it like Ivy instead of lying down on it. As she moved, she could see Ivy turn to watch her out of the corner of her eye, but Ivy remained silent.

Rachel shifted again, moving minutely closer to Ivy until she was finally close enough to the living-vampire to take Ivy’s hand in hers. The redhead paused then, waiting to see if her touch would be rejected, but Ivy remained silent and left her hand peaceably in Rachel’s own, so the witch scooted even closer to the vampire’s body until she was resting against Ivy’s side. Still, Ivy did not protest and so Rachel shifted one last time so that she could rest her head on Ivy’s shoulder.

By this point, Rachel’s heart was pounding madly in her chest, but she ignored it as she settled down against Ivy. Ivy needed this, they both did, and she wasn’t going to let an erratic heart beat stop her from giving both of them this contact.

“You’re scared,” Ivy said a few seconds later, her voice light as air as her fingers squeezed at Rachel’s unconsciously.

“I’m not,” Rachel responded firmly, no hint of doubt her in voice. She knew that her heart was still beating rapidly and that Ivy had picked up on it, but she really wasn’t scared.

“I can hear your heart,” Ivy said in response. “It’s beating quickly.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m afraid,” Rachel said slowly, cautiously. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t afraid at all. She was content. She was comfortable. Fear didn’t come into it at all.

“What does it mean?” Ivy asked, her voice low, and soft even though she remained tense against Rachel’s side.

“That I like being close to you,” Rachel responded, her eyes drifting down to their joined hands. It was true. She found a powerful, yet very simple joy in simply being near Ivy. She took comfort in the sight and feel of Ivy’s form. “It’s pleasure that’s making it beat like that. I’m happy.”

Ivy breathed in deeply, and because they were so close to each other, Rachel could feel the rise and fall of her chest. She knew that Ivy was scenting the air, trying to taste her emotions, but she wasn’t worried. She wasn’t quite sure exactly what she was feeling, but she knew that it wasn’t fear. She knew she wasn’t afraid and so she didn’t have to worry about what Ivy would pick up.

“You aren’t afraid,” Ivy breathed out with a touch of wonder as she realized that Rachel was telling the truth.

“No,” Rachel confirmed simply. “Why should I be?

“You’re … close to me,” Ivy replied breathed out, resolutely staring forward at the blank television screen. “You’re usually scared when we’re this close.”

“I’m not now though.”

Rachel couldn’t deny what Ivy said. It was true. A few months ago it would have been inconceivable to her that they would sitting the way they presently were. In the past as much as she had longed for contact with Ivy, the prospect of it had terrified her as well. But over the last month, after discovering the identity of Kisten’s killer had allowed for some peace to return their lives, things had been changing between them. The touches were small at first, and brief, but they were nourishing, and eased the tension that usually existed between them. Rachel had become used to Ivy standing closer to her. She had become used to Ivy touching her back gently as she walked by her, and she had become used to reaching out and touching Ivy’s hand if she wanted to get her attention.

The contact between them at the moment was more than they had ever made before, and it was more than Rachel had hoped for, but she had reached a point where she could hope and that was a big change from before.

“No, you’re not,” Ivy murmured as her brows knitted together.

Rachel’s calm confused her, but her own calm confused her even more. Rachel’s scent was all over her and the redhead’s heart was still beating madly, but Ivy felt relatively fine. Her senses had heightened, and she knew that her pupils had dilated, but she didn’t feel like she was losing herself.

“I feel calm,” Ivy breathed out a few seconds later.

Her voice was a charming mix of happiness and confusion and Rachel found herself stroking the back of Ivy’s hand to let her know that she wasn’t the only one.

“Me too,” Rachel admitted, stroking Ivy’s hand again because she could. “I think it’s our auras.”

“They’re merging?” Ivy asked surprised looking down at their joined hands as if she could see the transfer.

Rachel nodded absently, a small smile touching her lips as Ivy continued to stare at their joined hands as if she could will herself into having second-sight.

“They merged earlier today when you touched my arm.” Ivy looked up at her questioningly. “It made me feel calm then too.”

“I wasn’t calm,” Ivy murmured, looking away from Rachel as she remembered the wave of longing and desire that had started to pulse inside of her that afternoon. For a while, at the beginning, she had been fine. But soon Ivy hadn’t been able to ignore the hunger that Rachel’s scent and the warmth of her body were creating. She had tried so hard to find some calm, but she’d been fighting a losing battle when Rachel had pulled away and given her some space.

“You were,” Rachel said softly, looking over at Ivy though the living-vampire still avoided her gaze. “Calmer than usual anyway,” she added, knowing that Ivy hadn’t exactly been a picture of control earlier on. “Only our hands were touching then though,” she continued, giving voice to a theory that had been swirling around in her brain for the past couple minutes. “I think it’s easier now because there’s more contact between our bodies.”

“More contact,” Ivy breathed out thoughtfully, looking down and over at Rachel. “Definitely more contact,” she murmured as she took in the sight of Rachel plastered against her side.

“Definitely,” Rachel agreed with a little smile.

Ivy breathed in and out deeply, then bit down on her bottom lip and began to worry it for a few seconds.

“It’s amazing,” Ivy breathed out. “I can smell you. Our scents are mixing, and I can still hear your heart beating, so fast, but I feel content. There’s no hunger,” Ivy said looking over at Rachel. “There’s no hunger,” she repeated awestruck. “I should be,” her eyes drifted to Rachel’s neck, “but I’m not,” Ivy said, her voice cracking a little bit as she looked down at their joined hands. “I feel fine.”

Ivy was shaking faintly by the time she finished speaking, and she seemed to be close to tears. Rachel understood why, she knew how much it killed Ivy that they hadn’t been able to sit like this in the past. Ivy hated to be powerless, she hated to be out of control, and the fact that she couldn’t control her own body filled her with self-loathing. They had been denied the simplest of contact for so long, that now that it was possible it didn’t surprise Rachel at all that Ivy was somewhat overwhelmed. Quite frankly, Rachel was feeling more than a little misty-eyed herself.

Rachel squeezed Ivy’s hand, holding it tightly in her own. It was a small thing, but it was a small thing that they had wanted to share together for over a year, and so the clenching of her fingers around Ivy’s became a very big deal.

“We should hold hands more often,” Rachel said long moments later. “I mean it,” she added a second later when Ivy glanced over at her doubtfully.

“Do you?” Ivy whispered.

“Yes,” Rachel said softly, the word nothing more than a rush of air. “This helps me too,” she continued brushing the back of Ivy’s hand with her thumb. “I need you too,” she whispered angling her head down as she spoke. A tight feeling appeared in her stomach, and she knew that her heart had started to beat even more quickly.

Ivy breathed in audibly, but she didn’t say anything in response to Rachel’s statement, and so they sat together in silence for quite a few minutes. With anyone else, Rachel probably would have felt awkward, but it was comfortable with Ivy. The silence didn’t come from having nothing to say to each other. It came from being able to say everything they needed to simply by holding each other. They were enthralled by the closeness of each other, captivated and completely entertained by the mere presence of each other.

“I should have put the DVD on first,” Rachel said sometime later, her eyes focused on the blank screen of their television.

Beside her she felt Ivy’s body begin to shake, and then the sound of laughter filled the room. It was a free, light, airy sound that Rachel hadn’t heard often from Ivy, and it brought a large smile to her own face.

“I’ll put it on,” Ivy said pleasantly, shifting to get up. “It’ll just take a second,” she continued when Rachel wouldn’t release her.

“No. Stay,” Rachel said, holding onto Ivy’s arm. “It’s fine. I like this show,” she went on looking at the blank screen. “It’s easy to follow and there are no bright lights to over-stimulate my brain.”

Ivy smirked at that but tried to stand again. “We can’t stare a blank screen forever.”

“Not forever. We could probably do it for the rest of the night though, possibly even well into the morning if we really put our minds to it,” Rachel replied still holding steadfastly onto Ivy.

“It’ll just take a second,” Ivy said again, but she was smiling, and Rachel could tell that she was happy to have Rachel holding onto her so persistently. It pleased Ivy that Rachel was really as loath to break contact with her as she was to lose contact with Rachel.

“Okay fine,” Rachel relented. She didn’t really want to stare at a blank screen all night. “But I’m coming with you.”

Ivy shot her an amused but questioning look.

“If it is our auras that are causing this calm, I don’t want the connection to break,” Rachel explained standing up as Ivy did so that their hands remained joined and their bodies remained pressed up against each other. “I call you for the rest of the night,” Rachel said smacking the palm of her free hand against Ivy’s other arm, tagging her like they were seven year olds playing in the park. “I’m not going to let a DVD come between us.”

“You’re ridiculous. You know that right?” Ivy asked with a big smile as they made their way towards the entertainment center.

“Yes,” Rachel replied not at all perturbed by Ivy’s statement. “Although I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that you’re the one who laced our fingers together.”

Ivy glanced down, a look of surprise crossing her features as she realized that their fingers were in fact laced together. A touch of pink touched Ivy’s cheeks and she turned from Rachel to focus on the shelves that held their DVD collection.

“Indeed I did,” Ivy murmured, still looked at the plastic spines of the DVDs instead of at Rachel. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m a little ridiculous though,” she continued, finally glancing over at Rachel once more. The pink was still on her cheeks, and Rachel thought that it might have been one of the most adorable things she had ever seen. Ivy was stunning when she was dark, dangerous and vampy, but she was heartbreakingly beautiful when she allowed the gentleness instead of her to show through. Ivy the vampire was impressive, but Ivy the woman was magnificent. “If one of us were too sensible we wouldn’t be able to stand each other.”

“To stupidity,” Rachel said, holding up an imaginary glass in toast.

“Lovely,” Ivy muttered, shaking her head at Rachel though she was smirking. “Can you toast crouching now?” the living-vampire continued, a happy smile still spread across her lips. “I can’t reach the DVDs from up here.”

Rachel tried to glare at Ivy for that, but the vampire’s good mood was too infectious and soon Rachel found herself smiling.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, Tamwood,” Rachel responded as they both crouched down so that Ivy could begin rifling through their DVDs.

“Yeah,” Ivy sighed dreamily, “It’s pretty awesome,” she continued making Rachel laugh. “So, what do you think … comedy, drama or action?”

“Um,” Rachel hummed, a thoughtful look coming over her face. “Comedy, I think. I want something to laugh at … besides your face.”

Ivy’s face lit up with amusement, and she muttered, “What a zinger,” before she started to paw through the DVDs to find something funny. “Rachel?” Ivy questioned a few moment later.

She sounded serious, concerned and Rachel tensed slightly.

“What?” Rachel asked, her good mood dampening a little in the face of Ivy’s new solemnity.

“Rachel, I think we may be very serious people,” Ivy pronounced gravely. “We only have two comedy movies.”

Rachel’s body sagged in relief and she angled to face Ivy so that she could glare at her. Ivy seemed unperturbed by this ocular attack however, so Rachel decided that words were going to be needed.

“Ivy,” Rachel said very somberly, following the living-vampires lead.

“Yes,” Ivy responded still very somber.

“I’m going to stop holding your hand if you continue with these shenanigans.”

Ivy smiled again, brightly, and reached for one of the two comedy DVDs they owned. Once it was securely in her hand, she began to unfurl her long form, helping Rachel up as well until they were both standing.

If Rachel wanted her to stop with the shenanigans, she would stop with the shenanigans.

She wanted Rachel to keep holding her hand.



To be continued ...

Comments

[su-bones.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Lovely, I'm feeling all fluffy-headed right now...:)


I really really love how their relationship is evolving slowly but surely, and my God, how cute are they both? ^^