[ It's not something he should be doing — wearing his heart on his sleeve, leaving it out where she can see, offering it so that she can touch. Peek's not sure if, in the long run, it'll just make her hurt more; what he wants to give her isn't encouragement, but validation — acknowledgment of her feelings and acknowledgment of his own, reciprocated but withheld. Despite his age, he hasn't had a lot of romance to tuck under his belt and with Grace around all of that inexperience shows, a quiet sort of panic settling into his eyes on occasions when she reaches for him. A grown woman's reaction, he thinks he could predict better, but Grace—
In the end, he has no real reassurance beyond his profound belief in her, in the fact that she would understand him one day (and in understanding him, forgive him for not closing that painful gap).
Gently, he takes her hand in his, covering the ridge of her knuckles with one palm, pressing the pad of his other thumb against the delicate skin of her wrist. Her pulse skips in response, that particular arhythm tapping itself out for him to decipher like the dashes and dots of Morse code. This is the moment where he would kiss her if circumstances where different, if this were a few years later and if Peek's bimonthly checks weren't signed by her Grace's parents. For a long silent moment he does nothing but look at her.
(You're t'e prettiest girl I've ever seen. Sometimes he murmurs it to her when she sleeps so that at least her heart knows.)
He's still holding her hand, cradling it, when he asks: ] Want that I should be runnin' that bath for y'now, sweetheart?
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In the end, he has no real reassurance beyond his profound belief in her, in the fact that she would understand him one day (and in understanding him, forgive him for not closing that painful gap).
Gently, he takes her hand in his, covering the ridge of her knuckles with one palm, pressing the pad of his other thumb against the delicate skin of her wrist. Her pulse skips in response, that particular arhythm tapping itself out for him to decipher like the dashes and dots of Morse code. This is the moment where he would kiss her if circumstances where different, if this were a few years later and if Peek's bimonthly checks weren't signed by her Grace's parents. For a long silent moment he does nothing but look at her.
(You're t'e prettiest girl I've ever seen. Sometimes he murmurs it to her when she sleeps so that at least her heart knows.)
He's still holding her hand, cradling it, when he asks: ] Want that I should be runnin' that bath for y'now, sweetheart?