I got you something (Mat, of course) - Mat & Ren's Haven

He pinched her nose, covered her mouth with his, and blew. Hard. Balloon animal Ren!

She had to struggle not to laugh as her arms and legs began to move as if she were being inflated.

He smiled. "I missed that sound." as he gave her a moment between inflations. "Too bad I can't make your butt bigger like that."

She laughed harder. "I thought you liked that my ass fit in the palm of your hand. Okay...it wasn't quite that small...though he could easily lift her with one arm.

He flexed his hands out. "I have large hands, Duckie. You have room to grow." he smirked.

"Well, I haven't popped it yet thankfully. I have enough issues popping things as it is." he harrumphed.

She burst out laughing. "I think the butt would grow back too."

"Now that would be awkward. And painful." thankfully she liked pain.

"It kinda would be." She laughed.

Now that she was 'living' again, he gazed down at her - calloused fingers tracing her face, as if reminding himself she was actually there. She was real. "There are a few other superstitions about women on boats." the other ride they took together wandered through his mind.

"Are you superstitious?" She leaned slightly into the touch.

"Obviously. I follow a Heathen God, whom never everyone has forgotten. I believe Technology is demon-infested, and that Dreams can come true." with her leaning into it, the touching continued. It was the calm, the solace some found within the Sea - it took him over. He was part of the Water, after all.

Maybe he really just couldn't communicate. "No. I was attempting to be coy and going to suggest the proper way to dispel the bad luck would be to christen the ship. But not with champagne." and this was why he didn't try to flirt - he was just very bad at it.

"Oh." She said softly.

His lips tightened into something like a smile, but a faint one. He did not push further, physically. "As blunt as I can be, I still fail at this."

"Well, I figured it would be more polite to try speaking, rather than just rip off your clothes first." manners? Mat?

"Perhaps. Perhaps I wanted things to work better. I enjoy the fact we can spend months together without words. That you will help with my projects. But there was something forced - because of the blood. Because of the bond. Perhaps I am attempting to make amends for taking you for granted. Perhaps I am merely trying to understand the human condition. I do not know for certain. I simply go on instinct." he propped himself up on his right elbow, removing his left hand from her. His left pointer finger was extended, though rather than his typical sickle like talons, the two foot long claws he had earned from his Pa, he grew a typical sized one. Peered at it. Then placed it against the collar of her shirt.

"Instinct."

"I missed you." She whispered.

She had changed too. So much. The nail was dragged down, enough pressure to rend clothing, but not pierce the innocent flesh underneath. His answer was to kiss her again, apparently savoring the moment, as Roux certainly looked on - until Zydeco dragged him out.

He was kissing her. For once it wasn't the other way around. It was so unusual it made her tremble.

More than that - he was appreciating her form. Remembering it. Peeling away cloth, carving it away while leaving thing red trails from his sharpened nail. He even pulled off his hat, and set it aside, breaking away from her lips. "I'd promise to be gentle... but we both know that I would by lying then." the large hand finished draw and quartering her outfit, leaving it in tatters, then headed further south. There was one more cut he had to make with his claw - he wanted to enter her as far as possible. So his eternal, ephemeral virgin whom had learned to be as tough as he was, had to be 'popped'. Violently. As his finger entered her, his fangs extended, piercing her throat at the same moment he sliced the tissue that so often attempted to bar his progress into her.