- Pixies, Head On -

https://open.spotify.com/track/0YwBf6d85gNsWgIkqq4kml

(A/N:

This continues the previous chapter.
Kinda like a part two...
And it's cute... ish...
If you think of the last chapter as emotional, this one as physical and the next as spiritual, you will get the direction.)

- June 27th - (continued)
Once we got to my place after the gig at the Academy, my mum hardly raised an eyebrow at seeing Ethan come in with me. The boys had come back to mine after gigs on a regular basis and had become a permanent drain on foodstores.

"What did you do to the other two?" she asked.

"It's kinda just Ethan today," I said trying not to smile too much.

"I know that look. Elizabeth Marie. What's up?" she asked studying us carefully.

She waved me closer with an index finger.

"You stay right there, lover boy," she said to Ethan, making him go instantly bright red.

"Izzy?" she asked.

"He sang Iris. The guys had practiced it in secret," I said.

My mum considered my happy face for a minute.

"Iris huh?" she said finally with a smile.

I nodded. She looked at Ethan with a warning look.

"Okay kiddo. Just behave yourselves," she said.

I took Ethan's hand and practically dragged him to my room.

Once inside the door he stopped suddenly. I looked around at my normal chaos of art projects.

"Oh... Sorry about the mess," I cringed.

I was kicking myself for not tidying up. What if he changed his mind over my mess.

"It's not that bad. You should see my room.. or not," he said with a laugh.

He moved towards my three easels where I had three portraits lined up. One for each of my band boys done to look like single frame pop-art. They weren't finished but I had been working on them as summer gifts to celebrate the contract.

"You did these?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah. They are kinda only half done," I said feeling strangely out of place in my own room.

"They are amazing!" he said.

He stepped back and studied them carefully.

"The one of me is different," he commented.

Simon was shown in half figure with his bass and a crooked smile looking straight out of the canvas.

Oddballs was also half figure of him with his hair flying around his head, mid drumming, and with a happy smile.

Ethan's portrait was a close up of him in half profile, hair hanging in front of a deeply focused half smile, no instruments, just his face.

"Why is my portrait different?" he asked.

I wondered if he was a bit slow on the uptake when he turned to me. It suddenly dawned on him and a wide smile spread across his face.

"You know all that kissing and stuff?" I teased.

"Yeah?" he said with a smile that had my heart stopping.

"I had kinda hoped that would happen," I said.

"Good job it did then," he smirked.

He walked over to his portrait and lifted it to reveal another one behind it. It was a half figure of him similar to the other two, but it showed him with a grouchy frown. I had worked on that up until the contract was signed, but abandoned it.

"I tried to not feel that way about you, so I did that one first," I said

"I look sort of patronising in that one," he said quietly, looking at the decidedly sour looking portrait.

"Yeah... I tried to get you out of my head by focusing on your bad moods," I admitted.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I thought I had fucked everything up. And you were grumpy," I shrugged.

He placed the painting on the floor, up against the desk facing away from us.

"Let's put ugly-Ethan over there," he said.

"Yep. I have got my pretty-Ethan right here," I said going up to him and putting my arms around his waist.

He looked surprised for a moment.

"I can't believe you had to paint a negative me," he laughed.

"Well, I did," I whispered.

Suddenly I caught a whiff of a smell coming from myself. I took a step from him.

"Uck... I stink! You mind if I shower and change into sweats?" I asked.

"It's what you normally do after a gig," he shrugged.

"Thanks. Just make yourself comfortable," I said digging through my wardrobe for clean clothes before heading to the bathroom.

"Maybe I need to shower too?" he said suddenly right up close on my back.

I gave him a soft push.

"Easy there cowboy. A few hours ago I was still a hopeless single mess. You don't have any privileges quite yet," I smiled.

"A man can hope," he murmured into the nape of my neck making my whole body tingle.

I turned to face him.

"You keep doing that and you'll have to scrape me off the floor," I giggled.

"What if I do this instead?" he said and moved his mouth to that sensitive spot behind my ear.

His hands were on my back and felt like the only thing holding me standing up.

"Ethan," I whispered suddenly feeling a bit overwhelmed.

He heard the edge in my voice and stopped to look at me again.

"I'm sure you are fairly used to knickers falling at your command, but I can't be that impulsive. Not with you. This is too important," I whispered.

He nodded.

"Yeah. You're right," he said running a hand through his hair.

My inner fangirl was kicking my shin, hinting heavily at taking advantage of every opportunity to be with him in any way possible.
I chose to ignore her.
He was looking so cute and innocent, but honestly I just wanted us to be comfortable with everything before making the next move.

"I'm right? So knickers do fall?" I teased trying to diffuse the sudden tension between us.

He gave me an exasperated look.

"How many girls have I been with since you have known me?" he asked.

"I don't know," I shrugged.

Honestly, I hadn't wanted to think about it.

"None!" he said firmly.

With a lifted eyebrow I signalled that I wasn't sure if I believed him.

"Wanna know why?" he asked.

I nodded.

"It's not been worth it," he said.

"But... you have fangirls falling over themselves for you at every gig!" I stated.

"And?" he shrugged looking uncomfortable.

"And nothing! You could have any girl you wanted!" I said.

"And now I do. I have the one girl I really want. Right here," he grinned, looking straight at me.

I looked at him with suspicion.

"Look... I want it to mean something. Is that so hard to get?" he asked.

"No... not really," I said quietly.

"Izzy. I'm not expecting anything to happen. It's our first evening together. I've not even taken you on a date yet," he said.

"Coz dating won't be weird as we already know each other..." I laughed.

"We'll make it work, Izzy," he whispered softly as his lips found mine again.

"I still stink" I muttered once the kiss ended.

"You really don't. You just smell like you," Ethan smiled and inhaled deeply from the crook of my neck.

"I do need a shower tho," I replied and gently, reluctantly pushed him from me.

"Okay. I'll be here," he mumbled into my hair.

When I returned from the bathroom, he had taken up position on my bed, comfortably resting on my pillow leafing through a small notebook I recognised as the one I normally had laying on my night stand to jot down sudden ideas in. Horrified I remembered that he last thing written in it was an idea for a song lyric I had impulsively named "Ode to Ethan".

With the even more cringe worthy lines:

"Thunder rolling through your mind,
Clouds the colour of your eyes,
let me be the sun and wind,
to chase your darkness
if you just let me in."

With dread I saw he had also read the bits before that, where I had written down snippets and ideas, mostly somehow about him.

I walked over to try to snatch the book from his grip before my own words could embarrass me even more.
He held the notebook out of my reach with a big grin on his face.

"You've been keeping secrets Izzy," he said.

"Give me that," I said trying to grab the book.

"Not until you tell me how much of this is about me," he said waving the notebook just out of my reach.

I stood up and rubbed the bit between my eyebrows. I had to close my eyes before answering with an embarrassed cringe.

"All of it... Well... Most of it," I said, recalling a stupid little poem about a flower. And one idea I'd had for Ellen.

I opened my eyes expecting to see a self satisfied smirk.
There was humor in his eyes, but no smirk as he stood up and came towards me.

"So I'm who you want to... hang on, let me quote this correctly: touch all the wrong ways, in all the right places?" he said leafing through the book to find the page he wanted before he turned to look at me with the teasing smirk I had waited for.

I cringed again and scrunched my face in embarrassment at that eloquent piece of prose.

"You are so cute," he whispered, tossing the notebook back on my night stand.

I looked up at him to see a serious expression on his face and only a small trace of teasing in his eyes.

"We have wasted so much time," he said as he lowered his face towards mine.

I let my embarrassment go and put my arms around him.

"Yeah... Let's not do that any more," I whispered up into his kiss, feeling him respond with a smile and a small lick of my lower lip that made me open up to him without hesitation.

A few minutes later I found myself lying on my bed without entirely remembering how we got there, still kissing Ethan, but slowly moving from full on kissing to smaller nibbles and less intense lip-locking. My hands had somehow travelled up into his shirt and were stroking the amazing torso he usually hid under baggy hoodies and t-shirts. He was positioned halfway over me with one hand playing with my hair. His other hand was wrapped around me stroking the skin on my back and sides. I was tingling in places I hardly knew existed and was too busy feeling blissful to even care what would happen next.
Even the fact that he was still sweaty and smelly from the gig didn't bother me.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered that there was a piece of him pushing on the material of his jeans and bumping up on me, proving that he was as into this as I was. I realised that I had to end the kissing before it went further than I should let it. With a herculean effort I ended the kiss without actually breaking skin contact. Our lips stayed connected as we were both breathing ourselves back down to reality. He lay down next to me looking at me with a happy look in his eyes, reflecting how I felt.

"I want you so much right now, Izzy," he whispered before embarrassment washed across his face and he suddenly blushed.

I giggled, unable to find an appropriate answer.

"Fuck. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to actually say that out loud," he said looking horrified.

I laughed softly at his discomfort.

"Sure you did," I teased and nudged the bulge in his jeans gently with my leg.

Something between pain and pleasure flickered across his face.

"Izzy!" he warned.

"Ethan," I replied and gave his jeans another soft bump.

He groaned before rolling on top of me, pinning me down.

"You keep doing that and I won't be able to stop myself," he whispered into my ear, his breath hitting just the soft spot, making me squirm.

"I know," I whispered back, my breath heavy and uneven.

My entire being was fully aware of the fact that I was threading a very fine line between my mind and my heart. Although other body parts were throwing arguments in just for the hell of it.

He pulled himself up and hovered above me studying me very carefully. His gunmetal grey eyes with the golden pulsating flecks told me he was struggling with the exact same dilemma as I was.

"Izzy," he murmured.

His eyes were brim full with something primal and his breathing heavy. I knew I probably gave off the same vibe. One single kiss at that moment would have dissolved all of our resistance. For both of us. The question was really who would make the first move one way or another.

Suddenly he closed his eyes before he took a deep breath and sat up. I felt extremely disappointed but at the same time relieved. I wanted to hold back, but something about him had just broken down all my defences. I had been living with him on my mind for so long, and finally having him so close was messing with my sense of reality.

He ran his hand through his hair staring at me with a mix of tenderness and regret.

I sat up with him.

"I really don't wanna rush this," He muttered looking shy.

I knelt behind him, a knee either side of his hips, resting my face into his shoulder while my hands wrapped around him.

Softly I kissed the back of his neck.

He took hold of my hand and kissed my fingertips. I felt the callouses of his fingertips as he gently brushed my hand.

"I can't believe I just kissed you," I whispered into the top of his spine, deliberately underplaying the insane make out session we had just had.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You have no idea how many times I've wondered what it would feel like," I said, again kissing his neck.

"And? Do I live up to your expectations?" He asked.

"Hell yeah!" I laughed.

"Good. Cos I plan to be kissing you. A lot," He said and shifted around to face me with a smile that had my pulse racing.

He took hold of my chin and kissed me again, very gently this time.

"Thank god for interfering band-buddies," he whispered as he drew away.

"How so?" I asked.

"Because I didn't think you wanted me," he said looking fragile.

I reached up and moved a lock of hair from his eyes.

"And I didn't think you even liked me any more," I smiled.

His eyes met mine with a happy look.

"We'll figure it out," I whispered and kissed him again until we both fell back into the bed, but without that urgent hunger we had earlier.

Once we broke that kiss he got up on his elbow and looked at me.

I yawned involuntarily.

A look over at my bedside clock revealed it was well into the night.

"If you are content cuddling, you can stay. If not, it's late and I'm kinda tired after a rocking gig and being serenaded before apparently landing a boyfriend, so I wanna sleep," I said.

"Ugh.. I hate that word," he muttered.

"Sleep?" I smirked.

"No... The boyfriend title. It doesn't even begin to describe anything," he huffed.

"Well, I can't call you my lover... Yet... And we've not been on a date, so we're not dating... Yet," I replied.

"How about... Man of your dreams? or Mr. Wonderful? Or the man in love with you?" he said playfully making my insides go for another roller-coaster ride.

"If you keep saying that I might actually start believing it," I whispered before getting another toe-curling kiss.

"Okay. I'll cuddle," he said as he lay down looking rather peaceful, still fully dressed in what I realised were the same sweaty clothes as he had at the gig.

"Right. I'm going to brush my teeth, and then you can get a shower," I said getting up.

He looked down himself.

"Right..." he muttered as if suddenly discovering his clothes.

I got back from the bathroom after brushing my teeth and stepped out of my sweatpants. A lusty grin flashed across his face.

"What? You don't expect me to sleep in my sweats do you?" I laughed as he tried to not be too obvious about checking out my ass.

I managed to herd him into the bathroom and slipped under the covers while trying not to think too much about the naked man in the shower a closed door away. A few minutes later he came back in with his clothes in a bundle and the towel wrapped around his waist. I caught myself studying the planes and muscles of him. He looked up at me and spotted my dirty grin.

"Like what you see huh?" he grinned.

"Yeah!" I breathed.

Teasingly he lowered the towel a tiny bit.

I took a calming couple of breaths, my dirty mind going into overdrive. With an exaggerated theatrical flourish, I dramatically fell back on my pillow with a hand over my eyes while hearing that melodic laugh.

When I looked at him again, he was in boxers, making my temptation a bit less... tempting. But his grin was firmly in place.

"You've seen me shirtless before, Izzy," he chuckled.

"This is different," I replied.

"So me taking my shirt off after jogging was pretty pointless?" He taunted.

"You did that on purpose?" I smirked.

"Yeah..." he mumbled with a very cute crooked smile and a faint blush.

"Silly boy!" I replied, holding back a laugh.

He walked over to where I was, and lay down next to me on my slightly wider than single bed. I studied his beautiful face with the expressive grey eyes and stupidly kissable lips for a moment.

"What?" he asked turning to me.

"I'm a very lucky girl," I murmured.

"And I'm a very lucky boy," he whispered back.

I stretched to turn off the light, leaving us in darkness.

As I settled back down, he lay his arm around me, cuddling me close.
It felt right. Like coming home. Without any fidgeting, we instinctively moulded to each other just like we had with the first hug.

"Goodnight, Ethan," I whispered.

"Goodnight, Izzy," He replied.

Just as I felt the fog of sleep setting over my brain I felt a calloused fingertip brush along my arm and a soft voice whispering something that sounded a lot like 'I love you'.